MAY DAY- the Real Labor Day

May 1st, International Workers’ Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working
people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United
States, Canada, and South Africa. This despite the fact that the holiday began
in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution
stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day’s work from and after May
1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since
legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten,
twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement
grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By
April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist
International Working People’s Association. Businesses and the state were terrified
by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly.
The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons
financed by local business leaders. Chicago’s Commercial Club purchased a $2000
machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless,
by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters,
shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into
a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding
many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to
protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was
on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few
hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and
ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform,
a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded
by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as
an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the
homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge.
Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago’s most active were
charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A
kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting
any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and
he was on the speakers’ platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons,
August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887.
Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned
in 1893.

It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials,
and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as
a holiday celebrated only in Moscow’s Red Square. In its attempt to erase the
history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May
1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day - a holiday devoid of any
historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and
sit in traffic jams.

Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events
of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations
of radicals. Emma Goldman, a young immigrant at the time, later pointed to the
Haymarket affair as her political birth. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons,
called upon the poor to direct their anger toward those responsible - the rich.
Instead of disappearing, the anarchist movement only grew in the wake of Haymarket,
spawning other radical movements and organizations, including the Industrial
Workers of the World.

By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business, mainstream unions
and the media have covered up an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They
are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish
today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever
they can. As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for
it’s historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of
vital importance to working-class people today.

30.04.2004
Collective Bellaciao