May Day: Difference between revisions

May Day refers to any of several holidays celebrated on May 1 or in the beginning of May. Today, May Day is best known as an international workers' holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago. May Day is now a larger celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. May Day is a primary holiday for large-scale socialist, communist, and anarchist street demonstrations around the world, and is a particularly important official national holiday in officially Communist countries such as the People's Republic of China and Cuba. In most places of the world, International Workers' Day is referred to simply as Labour Day.

Separately, May Day was also a traditional pagan holiday in many parts of pre-Christian Europe, including the celebrations of Beltane in Celtic countries and Walpurgis Night in Germanic countries. These were seasonal religious celebrations and not related to labor. Traditional celebration of these holidays faded as Europe became Christianized, but some local traditions, such as the Maypole, remain common to this day, though now usually divested of any explicit references to paganry. Many neopagans today celebrate May 1st as a holiday.

International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is the commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, and a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. The 1 May date is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by labor's 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in a general strike and the riot in Chicago of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday.

In 1889, the first congress of the Second International called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago riot. These were so successful that May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891. The May Day Riots of 1894 and May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently.

May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot usually right as the first day of May begins. [1] In the 20th century, May Day received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union; celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government. Meanwhile, in countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes fought hard to make May Day an official holiday, efforts which eventually largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions and various socialist and communist parties.

The Red Scare periods ended May Day as a mass holiday in the United States (somewhat ironic given that May Day originated in Chicago).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4961554.stm - Asia's May Day

Berlin, Germany traditionally has yearly leftist demonstrations on May Day. There is little political or religious connection to the Walpurgisnacht celebrations that are traditional on the night before May Day in the Brocken mountains. The Berlin demonstrations became yearly riots during the 1980s. While left wing socialist groups still demonstrate on May Day, it has also become a focal point for the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands), an extreme right wing nationalist party, and for Neo-Nazis. Some Burschenschaft (university fraternities) are also connected to the NPD. The NPDs most likely choose May 1st to demonstrate to antagonize the left wing socialists by appropriating their holiday. Streetfighting frequently occurs between the right wing Neo-Nazis and NPD and the strongly anti-Nazi and anti-nationalist left wing demonstrators, often associated with the punk rock subculture.

As the years went on, the Berlin May Day rioting has become less overtly political and more oriented towards generally destructive behavior by individuals with little interest in politics, though political demonstrators are still a factor.

Berlin rioters have been dealt with severely by police, though in recent years an official nonescalation policy was implemented, which seems to have reduced the overall level of May Day violence in Berlin.

In the People's Republic of China, International Workers' Day marks the start of one of the country's three so-called "seven-day holidays". Three days holiday are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese companies always have seven continuous days of holiday starting on the first and ending on the seventh. This holiday, known as "Wu Yi" (五一, literally "5.1") also includes Youth Day on May the 4th, and is the peak period for Chinese citizens to travel around China and abroad.

The United States has its own special Labor Day celebrated on the first Monday in September instead of on May Day and most Americans are not even aware that May 1 is when Labour Day is celebrated throughout the rest of the world. However, in 2006, May 1st was chosen by immigrant groups in the United States as the day for the Great American Boycott, an attempted general strike of immigrant workers to protest H.R. 4437. In various news media, the strike actions were publicly said to have been timed to coincide with International Workers' Day — one of the few known modern instances where this day was mentioned by this name in the U.S. press. Other news media somewhat erroneously used the term "Mexican Labor Day".^{[citation needed]}

On the whole in the United States, various efforts to switch to the international date have largely failed because of fierce anti-communism propagated during the U.S.'s two Red Scare periods. September's Labor Day constitutes a heavily patriotic yearly national tribute to the contributions United States workers have made to the country and to the social and economic achievements of these workers.

May 1 is also Law Day in the United States.

When socialist delegates in Paris in 1889 appointed May 1 as the official International Labour Day, the Government of Canada — fearing that allowing the proclamation to take hold in Canada might strengthen the socialist movement — quickly moved in 1887 to support the position of the Knights of Labor and their date for Labour Day. The date was adopted in Canada in 1894 by the government of Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson. Another major reason for keeping the current September date is economic: the United States celebrates its Labor Day on the same day, reducing possible inconvenience for businesses with major operations on both sides of the border.

The origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to a printer's revolt in 1872 in Toronto, where labourers tried to establish a 54-hour work week. At that time, any union activity was considered illegal and the organizers were jailed, at the behest of George Brown. Protest marches of over 10,000 workers were formed in response, which eventually led to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald repealing the anti-union laws and arranging the release of the organizers as well.

In the Great britain in recent years the anti-capitalist movement has organised a number of large protests in London, Glasgow, edinburgh and Doncaster. In London these have resulted in clashes with the police. (see footage [2]) In 2000 the clashes ended with a branch of McDonalds being smashed and a statue of Winston Churchill being given a grass mohawk as a protest at his alleged crimes, the Cenotaph was also defaced with graffiti (See [3])

The last few years, however, have seen little trouble, with protests consisting of peaceful marches and gatherings, particularly in central London. (See [4]) This downturn in civil disorder is usually attributed to either popular distaste at the events of 2000 or a tougher stance by the British government on violent protest, or a combination thereof. This process has been satirised by the Space Hijackers who in 2006 organised a Mayday Police victory party

In New Zealand Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October — but the traditions of this October day are borne of International Workers' Day and are not the situation of Canada or the United States.

The origins of this day in New Zealand are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesman to also only work for eight hours a day and in October 1840 a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900 onward. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port and then another in their next port. In 1910 the government "Mondayised" the holiday so that it would be observed on the same day throughout the nation. See: Labour Day: A History - from NZHistory.net.nz

In Australia, the Labour Day public holiday is fixed by the various states and territories' governments. Depending on the territory in question, the celebrations involved may or may not be connected to International Workers' Day. The day is on the first Monday in October in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia, while in Western Australia, Labour Day is the first Monday in March, and in both Victoria and Tasmania, it is the second Monday in March (Tasmania calls it Eight Hours Day). In both Queensland and the Northern Territory, Labor Day is the first Monday in May (though the Northern Territory calls it May Day}.

In Jamaica Labour Day is a public holiday held on 23 May, which is the anniversary of a speech made in 1938 in Kingston by Alexander Bustamante regarding workers rights and the strikes that were occurring throughout Jamaica. The strikes began at Frome Sugar Estate in Westmoreland and the Kingston docks three days earlier. The events surrounding this speech played a pivotal role in the rise of trade unionism in Jamaica. See: Equal Rights and Pay: The Founding of the BITU and the JLP - from www.jamaica-gleaner.com.

It was the Nazis, not the social democratic parties of the Weimar Republic, who made May Day a holiday in Germany, calling it the "day of work", which is its official name in the country. Through this proclamation, the Nazis tried to take up the connotations of International Workers' Day, but did not permit socialist demonstrations on this day. Instead, they adapted it to fascist purposes. Then, on May 2, 1933, the Nazis outlawed all free labour unions and other independent workers' organizations in Germany, which subsequently formed their own secret amalgamation.

In the United States, Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September instead of on May 1st. This Labor Day was a creation of the 1880's Knights of Labor and was adopted officially in 1887 in the U.S. in an attempt to disassociate labor activism from the radical left. In 1958, as part of an effort to remove any remaining Socialist/Communist connotations from May Day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st both as Loyalty Day and as Law Day. Each year the sitting president is instructed to proclaim these observances for May 1st.

Canada follows a similar course. While Labour Day parades and picnics are organized by unions, many Canadians simply regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Non-union celebrations include picnics, fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school.

In a separate May Day-related proclamation, the Roman Catholic Church added another Saint Joseph's Day in 1955 that Christianized 1 May as the day of "Saint Joseph, the Worker".

In Poland, May 1 was renamed "State Holiday" in 1990; see: Holidays in Poland.

EuroMayDay is a recent attempt to "update" May Day for pan-european purposes. Since 2001, EuroMayDay has become part of the celebration of the First of May, but its point of reference is not the working class; rather, it is those Europeans who feel anxious about their social position or "precarity." EuroMayDay claims to create visible opposition against this precarization of labour and life. EuroMayDay originated in Milan, Italy, from where it first spread to Barcelona in 2004 and then to over a dozen cities all over Europe in 2005. In 2005, approximately 200,000 people took part in the Europe-wide EuroMayDay. In 2005, the EuroMayDay network used the slogan Precarious people of the world let's unite and strike 4 a free open radical Europe. An estimated 200,000 partcicpants were involved in a number of cities restricted to Western Europe. By 2006 many people earlier enthusiatic about the concept no longer wished to be involved.

May Day is a cross-quarter day, associated with the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.

As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either morphed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were given new Christian interpretations while retaining many traditional pagan features, as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. Beginning in the 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival once more.

Traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen, celebrating Green Man day and dancing around a Maypole. Much of this tradition derives from the pagan festival of Beltane. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with fetes and community gatherings. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the May Pole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons. The May Day Bank Holiday was traditionally the only one to affect the state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of school terms mean that the Good Friday and Easter Monday Bank Holidays, which vary from year to year, may also fall during term time.

In Oxford on May Morning, many pubs are open from sunrise, and some of the college bars are open all night. Madrigals are still sung from the roof of the tower of Magdalen College, with thousands gathering on Magdalen Bridge to listen. Traditionally, revellers have jumped from the bridge into the River Cherwell below as part of the celebrations. About one hundred people did this in 2005. The river, however, was then only three feet deep in places and more than half of those who jumped needed medical treatment. In 2005, people suffered injuries ranging from broken ankles and legs, back injuries, and large gashes on the bottom of feet.

Also, the 1st May 1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

St Andrews has a similar student tradition — some of the students gather on the beach late on April 30th and run into the North Sea at sunrise on the 1st, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much celebration.

Padstow in Cornwall holds its annual 'Obby-Oss' day of festivities. This is believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the country; revellers dance with the Oss through the streets of the town and even through the private gardens of the citizens, accompanied by accordian players and followers dressed in white with red or blue sashes who sing the traditional 'May Day' song. The whole town is decorated with springtime greenery, and every year thousands of onlookers attend.

Roodmas was an explicitly Christian mass celebrated in Britain at midnight on May 1st, presumably to diminish the popularity of traditional Walpurgis Night celebrations.

In rural regions of Germany, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of maypoles, and young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air, wurst and beer. Motto: "Tanz in den Mai!" ("Dance into May!").

May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States (and possibly Holland), May Day baskets are made. These baskets are small and usually filled with treats are left at someone's doorstep. When you ring the bell, you are supposed to run away. If you are caught then the other person gets to kiss you.

In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920's, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and has taken on a sense of general spring celebration there. The first Lei Day was proposed in 1927 in Honolulu. Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai‘i," the traditional holiday song. Originally it was a contemporary fox trot, later rearranged as the Hawaiian hula song performed today.

Modern May Day ceremonies in the U.S. vary greatly from region to region and many unite both the holiday's Green Root (pagan) and Red Root (labor) traditions. Among the larget is the May Day Parade and Pageant created by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, an event that has happened every year since 1974 in Minneapolis and attracts some 35,000 people.

• Industrial Workers of the World

• Some photographs about the french May Day in Paris 2006
• The Birth of May Day, by Farrell Dobbs
• May Day: a workers’ tradition reborn on the 2006 May Day protests in the US. The Militant.

• May Day in Oxford 2006 - Oxford City Guide
• May Day Protest Footage on NowPublic
• May Day and related topics on the Marxists Internet Archive
• May Day in the West and the East, by Leon Trotsky
• The Idea of May Day on the March, by Rosa Luxemburg
• May Day Celebration Committee New Haven Connecticut
• May Day Celebration in Troy New York
• Magdalen College description of May Morning in Oxford
• May Day 2005 New York City Celebrations and Protests – Pictures
• May Day: Festival for the Workers, Keith Flett, Socialist Review, May 2002
• The Mayday Film Contest by Psychic Bunny
• Euromayday 2006
• Maydaysur 06
• Urban75's MayDay Archive
• Our MayDay - London MayDay Actions
• Anarchist perspective of MayDay
• EuroMayDay website