The History of May Day

In 1889, socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as, "May Day," to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket Affair.

On May 3, 1886, police brutally confronted Chicago strikers who were participating in a national general strike to secure eight-hour workdays. The next day, workers and labor activists held a peaceful rally in Haymarket Square in response to police killing at least one person and injuring several others at the prior day’s strike.

Though Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, who was in attendance, had pronounced the rally to be peaceful, after Harrison left, police arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse. Amid the police’s strikebreaking efforts, an unidentified person threw a dynamite bomb. In response, the police fired randomly into the crowd. In total, historians estimate that at least 11 people died and at least 90 were injured.

Media and political portrayal of the Haymarket Affair manufactured widespread hysteria against immigrants, labor unions, and anarchists. The rhetoric particularly targeted the Knights of Labor (KOL), the largest labor organization at the time. The messaging was so pervasive, that locals of KOL left the organization, in favor of the newer American Federation of Labor.

Police arrested hundreds of workers at Haymarket, and ultimately charged eight men, despite little evidence of their involvement with the bombing. Most of the men had not attended the rally, yet the jury found them guilty, sentencing seven to the death penalty. Four died by hanging, while the state governor commuted the sentences for two, and the eighth died by suicide in his jail cell.

May Day became a bastion for people fighting for better conditions across the globe. Famous May Day rallies were recorded in Moscow in 1928, England in 1936, Cuba in 1961, China in 1967, Paris in 1970, and recently in London, Russia, and the Philippines.

Five years after activists began celebrating May Day, U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed legislation to make the first Monday of September "Labor Day," to separate May Day from its activist and socialist roots.

In spite of Cleveland’s efforts, workers around the world still celebrate May Day in honor of the historic struggles and gains made by workers in the labor movement.

Back then, you had to bleed for a union card. Now, you just have to stick together.

In Solidarity,

James Anderson