What is commemorated on 1 May?
On 1 May is celebrated as International Labor Day. Many countries make large parades or demonstrations and labor organizations employed. In some countries the official celebration of May 1 serves as a "thermometer" to measure the relationship between labor organizations and the government, as the convening power available to the State. But did you know that this celebration has its origins in an episode of American labor history?.
The eight-hour Day
The story of the "martyrs of Chicago " begins at a workers convention in 1884. At that convention, the federation called on workers to fight for the 8-hour workday (that had been calling for since the early 1860), to replace a 10-day, 12 to 16 hours that prevailed. The Federation said the eight-hour day come into effect on 1 May 1886. In the months prior to that date thousands of workers, organized and independent, were put on alert. Repressive police forces and National Guard are prepared to counter workers, equipment and new weapons were funded by powerful business leaders, who opposed the demands of work. Chicago at the head of the agitation.
The first of May 1886
On May 1886, Albert Parsons, leader of the labor organization "Knights of Labor Chicago, directed a demonstration of 80 000 workers through the streets of Chicago , requesting the reduction of working hours to eight hours. In the following days, joined this lawsuit 350 000 workers across the U.S., who began a strike that affected more than one thousand factories. The union of workers caused great alarm among industry and the press, because the demonstrations were the beginning of a "revolution."
Anarchists and other political radicals believed that the reduction in working hours was a moderate extent and they would not get involved, but the level of commotion and managed Albert Parsons convinced anarchists integrated. On May 3 August Spies, editor of a newspaper Labor, spoke to 6000 workers. The strikers group then went to a nearby factory, the plant McCormick to demonstrate. Soon the police arrived, opened fire and killed at least one striker , wounding many more.
The slaughter of Haymarket
Anarchists called for a mass meeting on the evening of May 4, 1886 in Haymarket market, in order to protest the brutal police action the previous day. Spies, Parsons and Samuel Fielden were the speakers at Haymarket , to 2500 staff. When the demonstration was ending, came to place about 200 police. While the police called the meeting to disperse, someone threw a bomb that killed a policeman. It kicked up the fuss and the police opened fire, killing seven policemen and four workers, and many wounded. No one ever knew who threw the bomb, but this was taken as a pretext for pursuing anarchists and organizations work throughout the country. Police raided homes and arrested workers many of them.
The martyrs of Chicago
The June 21, 1886, eight labor leaders ( Parsons, Spies , Fielden, Schwab , Fischer, Lingg , Engle and Nebe ) were charged with conspiracy to murder for the bombing that killed the policeman. The trial, seven of them sentenced to death by hanging and one to 15 years in prison, was full of lies and even the prosecutor was asking the jury: "Punish these men, make an example of them, hang and save our institutions." On November 11, 1886 were hanged Parsons, Spies , Fischer and Engel . Louise Lingg, anarchist, committed suicide in prison and Fielden, Nebe and managed Schwab commute the sentences of life imprisonment. Over 200 thousand people attended the funeral procession of dead leaders.
The case of Haymarket was an international scandal. Governor Oglesby received hundreds of thousands of letters asking for clemency for the condemned, but to no avail: the condemned were executed. The real cause of his death was not the explosion of the bomb, but their ability to organize the working class to demand better work conditions, thus threatening the interests of industrialists and conservatives within the government.
The bar Chicago lawyers condemned the trial and seven years after Illinois Gov. , declared the innocence of the eight defendants and released the three survivors. We built a monument to deposit the remains of the men tried and honor his memory. Later the remains of other labor leaders, as Emma Goldman, Bill Hayward and Joe Hill, were deposited in the Haymarket Monument in Chicago .
On 1 May, declaring Labor Day
In 1889, during the First Congress of the Second Socialist International, held in Paris, it was decided that on 1 May commemorated on, the Labour Solidarity. Since then most countries, especially those of past or present socialist held that day to their workers. Paradoxical
and significantly, on 1 May not held in the U.S. or Canada as Labor Day, but as Day of the Law (Law Day). In these countries, workers are granted the first Monday in September, a day without historical significance, to celebrate their day (Labor Day ).
The eight-hour workday in the United States had to wait until 1935 for approval, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt .
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