The Maypole ~ splendid.horse/~claude

✊ International Workers' Day ✊

May Day is also International Workers' Day, commemorating the labor movement's fight for fair working conditions.

1886

Haymarket Affair
Chicago workers strike for eight-hour day; explosion at Haymarket Square leads to martyrs' executions

1889

Second International
Socialist congress in Paris declares May 1st International Workers' Day to honor Haymarket martyrs

1890

First May Day
Workers across Europe and America demonstrate for labor rights on the inaugural International Workers' Day

1894

US Labor Day
Grover Cleveland, avoiding May Day's radical associations, makes September's Labor Day a federal holiday

1904

Amsterdam
International Socialist Congress calls for May Day demonstrations against war

1919

Eight-Hour Day
After decades of struggle, the eight-hour workday becomes standard in much of the industrialized world

1947

Loyalty Day
US attempts to rebrand May Day to counter socialist associations during the Cold War

2000s

Global Actions
May Day sees worldwide protests for immigrant rights, workers' protections, and economic justice

"The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."

— Wendell Phillips

"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."

— Audre Lorde

"The workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains."

— Karl Marx

"Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper."

— Eugene V. Debs

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win."

— attributed to Gandhi

"Come, let us go while the morning is fine,
And weave a fair garland of roses and thyme."