may day

By Harry E. Berndt

 

For many of us, May Day conjures up many pleasant memories: the May Pole, around which young women danced as we all celebrated the coming of spring, the May queen, crowned with a garland of flowers helping to make the celebration festive, May flowers, a sure sign that spring had finally blossomed. The beginning of May somehow makes us feel better about ourselves and the world. In the spring, a young man's fancy supposedly turns to love - not a bad thing.

 

Yet, for me and millions of people around the world, there's another important May Day symbol, one which is somehow forgotten by many Americans, The International Day of Labor. I think of it often as I read about the unemployed, whom we always seem to neglect, and the condition of workers in favor of the stock market and corporate profits. I can't help thinking about it when I read that more working families are turning to food pantries to survive.    .

    

Labor around the world is under attack by what we euphemistically refer to as THE GLOBAL MARKET. The global market pits workers around the world against one another for available jobs. The global market demands that corporations exploit labor in Dickensian ways in order to compete, or so we are told. In addition to shipping jobs abroad, corporations are using more and more temporary and part time employees. Full time employees are working longer hours and often not being paid for overtime. Ten and twelve hour shifts are not uncommon. Many nurses, for example, work twelve hour shifts three days a week, often plus an eight hour shift and perhaps an on-call shift.

    

What does all of this have to do with May Day? Well, May Day originated in the United States on May 1, 1886, when Chicago workers went on strike demanding an eight hour day. On May 3, police fired into the strikers, killing four and wounding many. On May 4, Anarchists held a meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest the killing of workers by the police. When the police ordered the meeting to disband a bomb was tossed at the police, killing one policeman and wounding as many as 70 others. The police retaliated by firing once again into the strikers, killing one and wounding many others. A pattern of police harassment began and hundreds of workers were arrested without being charged and four, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engles were hanged on September 11, 1887, although it was never determined who threw the bomb.

    

There were demonstrations in several European Capitals protesting the Haymarket case, and in 1888 the American Federation of Labor announced that May 1, 1890 would be a day of strikes and demonstrations in support of the eight hour day. In 1889, the Paris congress of the Second International declared May 1 a day of annual demonstrations in memory of the Haymarket protests against police harassment. In 1890, the first international May Day Holiday was celebrated.

    

Although May Day originated in the United States, it is celebrated in every country accept the United States and Canada. In 1894, the United States initiated Labor Day, to be celebrated on the first Monday of September. There are those who think that the creation of Labor Day was an attempt to keep American workers separated from workers from around the world. Indeed, workers in the United States have been made to believe that they are "Middle Class", and that their interests are the same as the interests of corporations. The working classes in Europe recognize that their interests are different from those of corporations, and they form political parties to put forth their interests. As a result, workers in the United States work longer hours, have fewer benefits, are less secure, and endure more part time and temporary work than do workers in Europe. Workers who think of themselves as middle class suffer from the American malady of false consciousness.