Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-may-day-labor-day-international.html
“International Labour Day 2024: Date, history, significance and all that you need to know.” ByTapatrisha Das, Delhi. Hindustan Times. Apr 30, 2024 .
International Labour Day 2024: From date to significance, here’s all that you need to know about the special day.
International Labour Day 2024: The workers and the working class are the driving force of a country. They are the ones who do most of the work to initiate development. The nation and the state are built by its infrastructure, development and the economy. The workers get down to the roots of things and start work at the basic level to initiate positive changes to the country and the world. Workers and the working class are extremely important as they are the backbone of a society. We should ensure that we take care of their wellbeing regularly and listen to their issues. Every year, International Labour Day is observed to raise awareness about the struggles and the contributions of the workers and the working class to society. As we gear up to observe the special day, here are a few things that must be kept in mind.
Every year, May 1 is observed as International Labour Day.(Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)
ALSO READ: International Labour Day 2020: Why we celebrate May Day
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Date:
Every year, May 1 is observed as International Labour Day. This year, International Labour Day falls on Wednesday.
History:
In 1886, a large demonstration happened in America where the labourers demanded eight hours of work on a daily basis. However, soon the demonstration went out of hand and lot of people got hurt. This incident came to be known as The Haymarket Affair. This incident marked the start of the International Labour Day. In 1889, a lot of socialist parties in Europe came together and decided to celebrate May 1 as International Labour Day. Since then, the special day has been observed every year on the same day.
Significance:
International Labour Day helps us to recognise the contributions of the labourers and the working class in development of the society and the country. It also urges the labourers to learn about their rights. Labourers are often exploited, and it is important that they know their rights to protect themselves. It also urges people to come together to develop the working and living conditions of the workers.
Tapatrisha is Content Producer with Hindustan Times. She covers stories related to health, relationships, and fashion.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the traditional spring holiday, see May Day. For other labour-related holidays, see Labour Day (disambiguation).
International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries[1] and often referred to as May Day,[2][3] is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May,[4][5] or the first Monday in May.
In 1889, the Marxist International Socialist Congress met in Paris and established the Second International as a successor to the earlier International Workingmen’s Association. They adopted a resolution for a “great international demonstration” in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour day. The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event.[5] The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on “all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace“.[6]
The 1st of May, or first Monday in May, is a national public holiday in many countries, in most cases as “International Workers’ Day” or a similar name. Some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States and Canada, which celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September.[7] In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated 1 May to “Saint Joseph the Worker”. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of workers and craftsmen, among others.[8][9]
Origin[edit]
On 21 April 1856, Australian stonemasons in Victoria undertook a mass stoppage as part of the eight-hour workday movement.[10] It became a yearly commemoration, inspiring American workers to have their first stoppage.[11] 1 May was chosen to be International Workers’ Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago.[12] In that year beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. On 4 May, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event led to the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; sixty police officers were injured, as were one hundred and fifteen civilians.[13][14] Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice.[15][nb 1] The following day on 5 May, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard.[17]
In 1889, the first meeting of the Second International was held in Paris, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne [fr] that called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests.[5] On 1 May 1890, the call encouraged May Day demonstrations took place in the United States and most countries in Europe.[18] Demonstrations were also held in Chile and Peru.[18] May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891.[19][20] Subsequently, the May Day riots of 1894 occurred. The International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 called on “all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.”[6] The congress made it “mandatory upon the proletarian organisations of all countries to stop work on 1 May, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers.”[6]
In the United States and Canada, a September holiday, called Labor or Labour Day, was first proposed in the 1880s. In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed a Labor Day holiday on the first Monday of September[nb 2] while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York.[21] Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882,[22] after witnessing the annual labour festival held in Toronto, Canada.[23] In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty US states officially celebrated Labor Day.[22] Thus by 1887 in North America, Labour Day was an established, official holiday but in September,[24] not on 1 May.
Today, the majority of countries around the world celebrate a workers’ day on 1 May.
“All out for Palestine on May Day!”
AROC <info@araborganizing.org> April 29, 2024.
ALL OUT FOR PALESTINE ON MAY DAY
Wednesday, May 1st, 2024
This International Workers Day, as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians unfolds in Gaza, we rise to the call by Palestinian workers and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to demand an end to US complicity in Israel’s war against our homelands. We honor and uphold the radical legacy of labor and an internationalist struggle for human dignity, solidarity, racial justice, social justice, and an end to war and exploitation across the world.
Join us for three actions across the Bay Area this May Day!
San Francisco for a May Day March and Rally
May 1st, 10am
24th Street BART Plaza
Fight for a San Francisco for its working-class residents! Collective power and resources for our working-class communities, not to big businesses, war, or the police! Solidarity with the people of Palestine, end the state-sponsored violence of Israel and the US! Click here to endorse or volunteer.
Join Oakland Sin Fronteras for a May Day March and Rally
May 1st, 2pm
Oakland Federal Building
For the first time since 2019 Oakland Sin Fronteras is back!
International Workers’ Day has been a time to uplift the struggles, honor the sacrifices, and celebrate the triumphs of working people across the world. As we stand on Ohlone Indigenous land this May 1st, we march in celebration and in resistance with our families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers in our communities, and in solidarity with working people across all borders, to continue the historic struggle against economic and social inequity.
As the working class in Oakland, we march for a #FreePalestine
Oakland Port Shutdown
May 1st, 4pm Meet at West Oakland BART
For updates: text “Gaza” to (833) 6330604
Click here to endorse
This May Day, we rise to the call to action by workers of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. Palestinian workers urge us “to stand in solidarity with our struggle and take decisive action to honour the countless martyrs lost and the families torn apart, and build pressure for a free Palestine.”
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Move to Amend on May Day 2023
Move to Amend 2023 Apr 29, 2023 Happy International Workers Day (AKA May Day)! We stand in solidarity from the imperial core of the United States with the exploited nations (sometimes referred to as “third world” or “developing nations”) and workers around the world. We know that wealth is stolen from workers and given to the elites, as well as from the exploited world to the imperial core. We are working from within this system on minimizing the ability for corporate greed to exploit our system. And how do we do that? With people power, of course!
The #WeThePeopleAmendment is more important than ever to workers and the labor movement. Join Move to Amend with your fellow workers today to pass the #WeThePeopleAmendment to end corporate constitutional rights once and for all!
You can also join our Labor Caucus, where we discuss how the intersections of the labor movement and corporate rule.
We stand in solidarity with those on strike including Coca Cola workers, frontline of COVID workers, including educators and healthcare workers, and congratulate Rutger’s University staff for their recent strike!
Together, the workers of the world will win!
· Artist credit: Antonio Berni
Thank you for helping us make the connections that will grow and strengthen the movement against corporate rule!
PS: Did you miss our May Day commemoration video about East Palestine? You can watch it here. Solidarity forever!
Move to Amend
http://www.movetoamend.org/
“Amazon shows us the many faces of worker alienation and resistance today.” Editor. Mronline.org (4-19-23).
Originally published: Marxist Sociology Blog on April 5, 2023 by Sarrah Kassem (more by Marxist Sociology Blog) | (Posted Apr 18, 2023)
Human Rights, Imperialism, Inequality, LaborUnited StatesNewswire, ReviewAmazon, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Google, Meta, Uber
Once again we find ourselves in moments of economic crisis. As we battle through inflation and rounds of devaluation, thousands of workers around the world have lost their livelihoods. Yet amidst this all, we have seen workers across the globe go on strike and protest. A manifestation of these inequalities of our world today can be seen in the platform economy with transnational players like Amazon, Google and Meta. This also includes platforms which have become a contemporary embodiment of precarity: gig platforms like Uber and its Uber Eats or Amazon Mechanical Turk.
In my book, I take a closer look at the workers who power the platform economy behind the interfaces to investigate more closely the different ways by which platforms alienate workers and how workers claim their agency and collectively organize. MORE click on title. See: Sarrah Kassem. Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organization. Bristol UP, 2023.
Sarrah Kassem is Lecturer and Research Associate in Political Economy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen. Her work focuses on workers in the platform economy and their different forms of labor organization.