The May 1st it is in many countries around the world Workers Day (or Labor Day). An official anniversary celebrated on the same day in Italy (since 1891), Cuba, Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey and in various states of the European Union. Not in the United States, where Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. But it is precisely in the United States of America, on May 1, 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, that in the second half of the nineteenth century the events at the origin of the symbolic date of this occasion.
However, the date of “Workers’ Day”, May 1st, has been officially established in Paris on 20 July 1889. It was ratified by the representatives of the European socialist and labor parties who gathered in the French capital for the congress of Second Socialist International and it was a very specific episode that led the members of the congress to choose May 1st as the symbolic date for the celebration of the rights and demands of all workers.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a day’s work lasted from 12 to 16 hours, safety was not considered and deaths at work were not even counted. “8 hours of work, 8 of leisure, 8 of sleep” was the slogan coined in Australia in 1855 and shared by much of the trade union movement of the early twentieth century. These were the slogans that opened the way to general demands and the search for a day in which all workers could meet to exercise a form of struggle and affirm their autonomy and independence. The protest called by the unions, which called for the reduction of the working day to eight hours, lasted four days and culminated in a real tragedy.
Three years before Labor Day was ratified, on May 1, 1886 in Chicago the unions organized a general strike to demand better and more humane working conditions for workers.
May 1, 1886 fell on a Saturday, then a working day. That day twelve thousand factories of the United States and 400 thousand workers they crossed their arms. In Chicago alone they went on strike and participated in the great march in 80 thousand.
At first everything went peacefully, but in the following days the tension escalated. The May 3 the Chicago workers met in front of the reaper factory McCormick to protest against the layoffs. Here they were attacked without warning by the police.
The attack provoked four dead and several injured and the news spread quickly among the city’s workers. In protest the following day a new demonstration was called in Haymarket Square. The demonstration in the square began peacefully under a light rain on the afternoon of May 4th.
The anarchist August Spies he spoke to the crowd on top of a cart positioned at the side of the road. There were many policemen on duty that day to monitor the garrison, but everything seemed to take place in full compliance with the rules. Suddenly, however, the police ordered the crowd to disperse and began to march towards the speakers’ wagon.
At that point a small bomb whistled over the heads of passers-by, landing near the front line of police and killing a policeman, Mathias J. Degan. In response, the police opened fire on the crowd.
Eleven people in all, including seven officers hit by friendly fire, lost their lives, while dozens of people were injured in what went down in history as the Haymarket massacre. Seven people connected with the protests were arrested that same day.
There was no evidence that the person who had thrown the bomb was among those arrested, however the jury returned guilty verdicts for all the defendants. Death by hanging was the sentence for all. Subsequently, however, the sentences for two of them were commuted to life imprisonment.
The evolution of the story, and in particular the phases of the trial that followed the events that occurred during the demonstrations, triggered great indignation even across the border. And they brought to the world’s attention the need to intervene on workers’ rights and protection.
Dying, August Spies said: “the day will come when our silence will be louder than the voices you strangle today.” The outcome of the trial outraged workers all over the world and the condemned became the Martyrs of Chicago.
Three years after the Haymarket massacre, with the ratification of Paris in 1889, May Day officially became Workers’ Day in Europe. The choice fell on May 1st to commemorate the memory of the Martyrs of Chicago.
The first Labor Day celebrations took place on May 1, 1890. Despite the repressive response of many governments, the demonstrations recorded very high participation in many countries. In Italy the Labor Day was ratified in 1891.
Already the previous year the trade union organizations began their work to raise awareness of the meaning of May Day, but the first real mobilization on a national scale, connected to the international initiative, began to be talked about in 1891.
Among the celebrations that have gone down in history, that of May 1, 1898 coincided with the most acute phase of the “bread riots”, with the tragic epilogue in Milan, in the days from 6 to 9 May, when the army of Bava Beccaris he threw himself against the defenseless population, leaving 81 dead and 450 injured on the pavement.
And again, the 1 May 1919when metalworkers and other categories of workers were able to celebrate the achievement of the original objective of the anniversary: eight hours of work.
And then, in 1922the year in which the Prime Minister Luigi Facta recognized May 1st as a public holiday. While year after year the objectives increased and new political and social demands were imposed by the workers’ movement, within two years the situation changed radically.
When Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister with a decree-law approved by Mussolini’s Council of Ministers April 19, 1923 merged the “Workers Day” at the primary celebration of fascism: the “Christmas in Rome”, dated 21 April. with the name “Christmas in Rome – Labor Day“.
<< Christmas in Rome – Labor Day. By working you love your family, you serve your country, you honor God. The Duce, dedicating April 21st to Labor Day, recalled the noble origins of our lineage of heroes and peasants: from the square furrow, traced by Rome. >> http://www.adamoli.org/benito-mussolini/pag0552-.htm
Throughout the twenty years of fascism, celebrating May 1st took on a “subversive” connotation, becoming an opportunity to express opposition to the regime in different forms – from the red carnation in the buttonhole to the writings on the walls, from the distribution of flyers to drinking in the tavern. It therefore became a harshly punished crime.
Only in [1945with the fall of Mussolini and the government, the effects of the 1923 decree also fell and the anniversary of May 1st once again represented, also in Italy, the symbolic date of Labor Day.
Today, I believe there will be marches and demonstrations, but I don’t think the unions and their representatives will remember article 1 of the Constitution and even less so in Italy, in this Italy of 2024 there are around 6 million poor people and 10 million unemployed. CGIL, CISL and UIL, together, the famous “Triple union” are organizing a rock concert to bring together young people and adults in a unique moment of celebration and sharing rather than mourning, as this 1st May 2024 should be. It could be a day of celebration again:
-When there are no more deaths at work (three per day),
-When workers’ rights are respected,
-When the social plague of illegal work will no longer exist,
-When workers are no longer blackmailed,
-When the unions return to the side of the workers again,
When in Italy there is truly respect towards the working class, then we will be able to celebrate May 1st. Workers deserve respect and consideration, every day, without flags and without demonstrations. Not just May 1st.
At their side, but with the facts.
“Long live the workers! Down with unemployment, deaths at work and poverty”.
Marco Affatigato
