Why May Day Is Significant?
1st May or May Day is an international holiday of working people. This day is very significant for workers.1st May is also the International Workers Day. There is a large history behind this day. The history is related with the workers.
May Day commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world and is recognized in all the countries of the world. Today workers enjoy all the privileges. It is the result of the sacrifice of the martyred workers in 1886. The condition of the workers was not like this before the movement. They were in a critical condition and had to work for a long hour without any break. Sometimes they were forced to work for ten, twelve and fourteen hours in a day.
The history of May Day is given below.
The heart of the movement was in Chicago and it was organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People’s Association. Business and the state were terrified because of this movement. In order to control this situation, 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. They purchased the machine gun so that they can use that against the strikers. But on May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoe makers and packing house workers. The movement had established some rights for these people. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McComik Harvest Machine Company, Chicago. They killed four workers and many workers were seriously injured. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the violence. They wanted to solve the problem.
The meeting proceeded without incident. When the last speaker was on the platform, 180 cops marched into the square and ordered to finish the meeting at that time. The meeting was finished according to their order. When the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police fired into the crowd and killed one worker. Many workers were injured at that moment.
The incident was used as an excuse to attack the labor movement. It was never determinded who threw the bomb. 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. These steps were taken after the Haymarket bombing.
The state, business leaders, mainstream union officials and the media wanted to hide the true history of May Day. In order to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May Day as “Law Day” and did not mention any historical significance of the day. They did not want that people could know about the labor movement. They declared the day as a holiday but did not mentioned about the incident happened on 1st May.
People who wanted to hide or erase the history of May Day were not successful in their attempts. 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. 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. For these reasons, it was not possible to hide the history of May Day.
Today, May Day is recognized in every country of the world. As a result of labor movement, today workers enjoy all the privileges. Today they get a minimum wage. They have job security, safety laws and eight hour working time. May Day has been a symbol for the workers all over the world. It is the day which inspires the workers to be united to realize their demands. This day also reminds the workers to stand up against exploitation and to gain better working conditions, better pay and better lives. May Day is an international holiday of working people.
