Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 18
The Generation Desk: The historic May Day will be observed in the country as elsewhere across the globe today (Wednesday) with due respect, reports UNB. May Day, also known as the International Workers’ Solidarity Day, commemorates the historic uprising of working people in Chicago, USA at the height of a prolonged fight for an eight-hour workday.
The day is a public holiday
On May 1, 1886, 10 workers were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration in the US city of Chicago near Hay Market demanding an eight-hour working day instead of a 12-hour shift.
On the height of agitation, the authorities had to accept the workers’ demand and the eight-hour day has been introduced universally.
On July 14, 1889, an international workers’ rally in Paris declared May 1 as the International Workers’ Solidarity Day in recognition of the Chicago workers’ sacrifice and achievement and since 1890, the day has been observed globally as the International Workers’ Solidarity Day.
Which countries celebrate International Labor Day on May 1st?
International Workers’ Day is celebrated in over 160 countries. However, while most of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have a holiday on 1 May, the United States is one of the few countries that doesn’t celebrate this holiday to recognize the workers.
The first such celebration was held on 5 September 1882 in New York City. Within seven years it became an international holiday, but an international federation of socialists and trade unions in Europe chose 1 May.
The United States celebrates Labor Day in September, not May
While there were efforts in the past to have the US holiday coincide with International Workers’ Day, it has remained an outlier along with Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zeland. In the case of the US, the date for Labor Day was set as the first Monday of September in 1894 by lawmakers in an attempt to appease workers after troops were sent to quash a strike by Pullman workers in Chicago which shut down rail traffic from across the nation. During this federal intervention, more than seventy people were killed, and thousands were injured.
Moving the holiday to 1 May to coincide with the international celebration became a toxic idea during the Cold War and the holiday’s association with Communism. So thus, the United States has continued celebrating its holiday at what has also become the unofficial end of summer.
