IMAGE SOURCE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:May_Day_Immigration_March_LA01.jpg

Today, May 1st, International Workers’ Day is celebrated, in honor of the labor movement. The date was established at the Socialist Workers Congress of the Second International, in Paris, 1889.

This commemoration has its origins in the strike carried out on May 1^st, 1886, by unionists in the city of Chicago, United States, in a struggle for an 8-hour work day, and witch culminated in tragedy on May 4^th, in what is considered the Chicago massacre, or the Chicago riot, during one of the many demonstrations held, specifically in Haymarket Square, in Chicago.

A group of policemen approached the stage of the demonstration. A bomb exploded in the ranks of the policemen, killing and wounding several officers, who, in turn, opened fire on the crowd, killing several people and wounding others.

It is thought that in those days thousands of workers and union leaders lost their lives, were fired, arrested, tried, shot or tortured.

Despite not knowing who dropped the bomb, 8 trade unionists were indicted and tried on charges of conspiracy. It is considered that they were accused due to their political beliefs, all being militants of the  anarchist movement. Seven of them: Samuel Fielden, Albert Parsons, Louis Lingg, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel, received  a death sentence, and the eighth: Oscar Neebe, sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Despite being celebrated in many countries, this date has been the subject of great controversy in the United States, at the governmental level. In the midst of the anti-communist fervor at the beginning of the Cold War, in July 1958, President Eisenhower signed a resolution called “1^st May: Loyalty Day”, trying to avoid any hint of solidarity with the “workers of the World” during that day.

That resolution declared May Day a special day to “reaffirm allegiance to the United States of America, and to recognize the heritage of American Liberty” (TIME magazine: https://time.com/3836834/may-day-labor –history/  )

In the United States, Canada and other places, this celebration is held on the first Monday of September, under the name “Labor Day”. It is considered that US President Grover Cleveland supported the celebration in September, and not in May, so as not to reinforce the socialist movement in the United States.

The sacrifice of so many activists was not in vain, since in the midst of multiple subsequent struggles, with advances and setbacks, today workers can enjoy more dignified conditions of employment, although there is still a long way to go in terms of labor dignity.