[U.S. resistance to celebrate International Labor Day — also
called International Workers Day — in May stems from a resistance to
emboldening worldwide working-class unity, historians say. ]
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WHAT IS MAY DAY? FOR THE MOST PART, THE OPPOSITE OF CAPITALISM  
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Emma Bowman
May 1, 2023
NPR
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_ U.S. resistance to celebrate International Labor Day — also
called International Workers' Day — in May stems from a resistance
to emboldening worldwide working-class unity, historians say. _

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May Day, celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor
Day, falls on May 1.

But you'd be forgiven if that's news to you. While the day traces its
origins to an American laborers' fight for a shorter work day, the
U.S. does not officially recognize International Labor Day.

Like other countries that mark Labor Days on different dates, the U.S.
and Canada celebrate their Labor Day in September.

U.S. resistance to celebrate International Labor Day — also called
International Workers' Day — in May stems from a resistance to
emboldening worldwide working-class unity, historians say.

"The ruling class did not want to have a very active labor force
connected internationally," said Peter Linebaugh, author of _The
Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day_. "The
principle of national patriotism was used against the principle of
working-class unity or trade union unity."

That hasn't stopped American workers from commemorating the day, which
in recent years has ranged from marching for labor rights
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literature about Marxism
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"The meaning of that day keeps changing," Linebaugh said.

Before we consider how May Day has evolved in the U.S., let's dive
into how it all began.

The traditional May Day is an ancient European export

If you instead associate May Day with baskets of flowers, dancing
around maypoles, or simply, the start of summer, those May Day
celebrations recall the holiday's much earlier origins. Before May Day
was adopted as a day to champion workers, its roots belonged to pagan
tradition.

The springtime tradition
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inherited from pagan tribes in Ireland and Scandinavia, said
Linebaugh, borrowing ancient Roman practices celebrating the Earth's
flowering season. When the first Europeans came to North America and
erected a maypole in Quincy, Mass., they imbibed copious amounts of
beer and danced with the Indigenous people, he said.

"The Puritans of Boston put an end to it by military force," Linebaugh
said. "And yet this tradition of May Day as a time of dancing and play
and pleasure persisted right into many parts of the U.S. today."

At the end of the day, no matter your version of May Day, it remains a
time meant to celebrate togetherness. Inevitably, history shows, that
May Day comradery has been met with suppression.

May Day in America has bloody origins 

May Day in America was born out of the 8-hour workday movement in
19th-century Chicago. At the time, as the capitalist system gained a
foothold in industrial-era America, working-class conditions had
worsened. A 16-hour shift wasn't unusual 
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workers at the time.

Decades before the 8-hour work-day became the country's norm, the
organization now known as the American Federation of Labor set May 1,
1886, as the date that workers nationwide should go on strike to
demand the 8-hour workday.

"The reason was that the decade before there had been terrible
unemployment ... and yet new technology had made the employer richer,"
Bill Edelman, a professor of labor studies, previously recounted 
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Nation_.

The workers followed through. On that May date, anarchists and labor
activists in Chicago began a multi-day strike in what became known as
the Haymarket affair of 1886
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By May 3, the protests turned violent when police — "which were
basically the armed force of the capitalist masters," according to
historian Linebaugh — attacked workers demonstrating near the
McCormick Reaper plant. The following day, a meeting held in the
city's Haymarket Square turned even bloodier. Again, the police
intervened, said Linebaugh, triggering clashes that killed both
officers and civilians.

A bomb exploded among police ranks in the melee, but historians say
it's unclear whether it was intended for the police or the crowd of
civilians. 

"There was a trial of eight men who were found guilty of conspiracy to
murder," Linebaugh said. "Even though no evidence was ever produced
that any of them had any relationship to this bomb, and four of them
were eventually hanged despite a worldwide campaign in England,
Europe, Mexico to save their lives."

Linebaugh points to the influential words of August Spies, one of the
convicted men, who just before his execution cried out the famous
words: "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful
than the voices you strangle today."

His words "swept the globe," Linebaugh said. "Throughout Latin
America, throughout Europe and in North America, to many, the day
became this holiday to celebrate working people."

To honor the Chicago workers, the International Socialist Conference
in 1889 named [[link removed]] May
Day a labor holiday, birthing what many nations now call International
Workers' Day.

But in the U.S., anti-communist attitudes during the Cold War, as well
as opposition to working-class unity, led authorities to suppress May
Day's association with labor movements. 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower instead declared May 1 "Law Day
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— dedicated to the principles of government under law — and Labor
Day is now celebrated in September.

It's not just a "communist" holiday 

Despite International Labor Day's U.S. origins, said Linebaugh, many
Americans, still view May Day as strictly a holiday enjoyed by
"communist countries."

In the former Soviet Union, May Day was an occasion to honor workers'
contributions with giant parades in Red Square, a tradition that has
dwindled
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the decades since — a fading remnant of the Bolshevik Revolution
that's lost its meaning in modern Russia.

"Some of the workers of Czarist Russia also celebrated May Day, but
quickly within 10 years, say by the 1930s, it becomes [for] the Soviet
Union a day to display military hardware, military weapons," Linebaugh
said.

As for Americans this year, he mused, "How it will be celebrated this
day?"

"I'm not sure. I think it'll be exciting to pay attention to see the
ways in which its history is remembered."

For a day that celebrates reform and revolution, political discussions
and petitions, said Linebaugh, there's something in it for everyone.
Well, maybe not.

"There's nothing in it for the capitalist class," he said.

* May Day
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