The 1st of May, better known as International Workers Day, celebrates the achievements of the international Labour movements around the world. This goes all the way back to 1884 when the American Trades and Labour Unions set a 2 year deadline for the introduction of a standardized 8-hour working day. On that deadline, 1st May 1886, there was a general strike across America of which the most remembered incident was the throwing of a bomb at police in Haymarket Square in Chicago, resulting in the term “Bomb-throwing anarchists”.
Europe followed suit 20 years later. In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called for May 1st demonstrations throughout the world to get an 8 hour working day limit established in law. Since the proletariat’s most effective weapon is the strike, the congress made it:
"Mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1st wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."
Here in the UK, the upshot is that we get the first Monday in May as a Bank Holiday.
Even though we are over 120 years on from that 1884 suggestion, many people still work much more than 8 hours a day. That‘s capitalism for you.
In the picture above (click to make bigger), Dan and Shep are both pleading for an 8 hour working day.
Cheers, Tom.
01/05/08 @ 11:49