> 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.
>
> As IWW songwriter Joe Hill wrote in one of his most powerful songs:
>
> Workers of the world, awaken!
> Rise in all your splendid might
> Take the wealth that you are making,
> It belongs to you by right.
> No one will for bread be crying
> We'll have freedom, love and health,
> When the grand red flag is flying
> In the Workers' Commonwealth.