may day

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1. It is an ancient northern hemispherespringfestival. It is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes.

In the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers’ Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers’ Day may also be referred to as “May Day”, but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27 during the Roman Republic era, and with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the GaelicBeltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.^{[citation needed]}

As Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of several days on which St. Walburga, credited with bringing Christianity to Germany, is celebrated. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America,

may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets,” small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours’ doorsteps.

Since the 18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May – and May Day – with various May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary In works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary’s head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day.

In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival.

interesting reads from diff countries follow..

i just remember the may pole.. and mayday baskets for a chase and a kiss..

adding page because of this

MandyMooreHas9Albums (@ptrmsk) tweeted at 7:42 AM – 1 May 2017 :

Happy May Day. Here’s to hoping capitalism crumbles extremely soon 🥂 https://t.co/QsBt7duCrD(http://twitter.com/ptrmsk/status/859040403923881985?s=17)

A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Fielden) pointed out in the anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that “whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave..

et al

fitting day for ab

thinking.. this is this year’s flower ness..

short bp.. a nother way..[science of people]..short bit

so we can all be free..

_________

more from breaking the chains:

13

The Fight for the 8 Hour Day

In 1886, there was a big movement among the workers to fight for an 8 hour day. Workers across the United States were calling for a general strike on May 1, 1886.

The IWPA and the Central Labour Union helped organise this strike. They did not just talk about revolution. They were with the masses in the daily struggle against Mr Fat cat, against the bosses.

Across the country, at least 340,000 workers, both Black and White, came out on strike on May 1.

In Chicago, 50,000 workers were on strike. 80,000 people attended the march organised by the IWPA and the Central Labour Union.

These demonstrations of workers militancy terrified the bosses and rulers. Like all ruling classes, they were afraid that masses would rise up against their oppressors.

The bosses decided on a plan. They decided to smash the workers’ movement through dirty tricks.

Dirty Tricks

On Monday, May 3, there was a fight between strikers and scabs at the McCormick Machine Company. At this company, unionised workers had been locked out for several months. Everyday they arrived at the factory to keep up the fight.

On May 3, the workers tried to stop scabs from taking their jobs. The cops then opened fire on the workers. Many strikers were killed or injured.

This massacre outraged the IWPA and the workers movement. Why were workers being murdered? Just because they were fighting for their jobs?

The anarchist workers newspapers called on workers to arm themselves for self-defence.

On May 4, the IWPA called a mass protest meeting in the Haymarket Square in Chicago. The notice said “Workingmen, Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force” and “Revenge! Workingmen to arms”.

The meeting was peaceful. But the speeches were militant. Speakers from the IWPA condemned the oppressive capitalist system and its hired thugs, the police.

As the meeting dispersed, 200 police suddenly attacked the crowd.

At this point an enemy agent threw a bomb towards the police. Some cops were hurt, and one died.

The police then opened fire. The commander, Lieutenant James Bowler, said “Fire and kill as many as you can!”. An unknown number of workers were killed and wounded.

The Frame Up

The cops were clearly in the wrong. The meeting was already dispersing when they attacked. The workers did not throw the bomb.

But it seems like workers lives mean nothing.

The blood-crazed cops killed many workers that day.

But it was the workers and their organisations who were blamed for the violence!

There were mass arrests and raids on anarchists and other radicals across the country. Many militants were banned.

The cops arrested 8 leading activists from the IWPA and the Central Labour Union. They said that these comrades were to blame for the bomb at the Haymarket Square.

There was no evidence that the comrades were linked to the bomb. Some were not even in Chicago at the time.

But after a blatantly biased and unfair trial, these comrades were sentenced to death for murder. Isn’t this what the capitalist courts are about? Bosses’ law and rich man’s justice?

This is what the comrade August Spies said as the death sentence was handed out:

If you think you that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement – the movement from which the down-trodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery, the wage slaves, expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us!

Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, the flames of [of workers struggle] will blaze up … The ground is on fire upon which you stand.

The Hangings

There were world-wide protests by the workers movement.

But in 1887, four of the comrades were hanged: Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel. A fifth militant, Louis Lingg, committed suicide the night before the hanging.

The masses showed their anger and sadness.

200,000 people lined the funeral procession in Chicago.

20,000 crowded into the cemetery.

Years later, the government admitted that the trial was false and the remaining three comrades got amnesty.

Behind the deaths of the Chicago comrades lay the evil will of bosses aiming to disorganise the workers movement.

In Memory of our fallen Fighters

In 1889, the American delegation to an International Socialist Congress in Paris proposed that May 1st be adopted as a workers’ holiday.

This was to commemorate working class struggle and the “Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight”. This would symbolise the international struggle of the workers for a better life.

Since then Mayday has became a day for international solidarity.

Sadly, though, many socialists do not know that these martyrs of the working people were anarchists.