Workers Day – Where does it come from?

Known as International Workers Day or May Day, the holiday is widely celebrated, with as many as 80 countries honouring the date and what it stands for.

In South Africa

In South Africa, Workers Day (or May Day) celebrates the role played by Trade Unions, the Communist Party and other labour movements in the struggle against Apartheid.

Following the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, 1 May was inaugurated as an official national public holiday.

Origins of May Day

May Day was born from the industrial struggle for an eight-hour work day.

For centuries men, women and children were forced to work long hours (more than twelve hours per day) in miserable conditions just to eke out a living. These conditions gave rise to demands for limitations on a working day. English Utopian socialist, Robert Owen, had raised the demand for a ten-hour day as early as 1810.

Women and children in England were only granted a ten-hour day in 1847. French workers’ demand for a 12-hour day was granted after the February revolution of 1848.

The Haymarket massacre

In Chicago, business reacted to the rapidly growing militant labour movement in America, by purchasing a $2 000 machine gun to use against strikers.

On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of striking workers, killing four and wounding many. The following day, on May 4, a protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police.

At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. The Haymarket Riot was viewed as a setback for the organized labour movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday.

1 May 1890

By May 1, 1890, May Day demonstrations took place in the United States and most countries in Europe. Demonstrations were also held in Chile and Peru. In Havana, Cuba, workers marched demanding an eight-hour working day, equal rights for all and working-class unity.

No May Day in USA

Ironically, while May Day gained momentum across the world it lost steam in the United States where the celebration originated.

Today May Day is celebrated as a public holiday throughout most countries with the exception of the United States, because of the holiday’s association with Communism.