International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day, also known as Workers' Day or Labour Day or May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes across the world. It is promoted by the International Labour Movement, every year on May 1.

Beginning in the late 19th century, as trade union and labour movements grew, a variety of days were chosen by trade unionists to celebrate Labour Day. 1 May was chosen to be International Workers' Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the 8hours 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 7 police officers and at least 4 civilians; sixty police officers were injured, as were an unknown number of civilians. Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and 4 were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice. The following day on 5 May in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing 7, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard. In 1889, a meeting in Paris was held by the first congress of the Second International, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne that called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891.