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May 1 is accompanied by several paradoxes. First of all, it may seem unusual for people not to work on Labor Day. Also, it is an even older tradition to celebrate the beginning of spring rather than employee achievements in early May. This is also the case in Lithuania the date of accession to the European Union.
As if on purpose this year, May 1 is a perfect illustration of these paradoxes. On Saturday in the capital of the Trade Union Confederation of Lithuania we have picnics It is regretted that workers in our country continue to be reluctant to form unions and fight for their rights. Its participants were not spoiled by the attention of the neighbors or by the weather, the freshness reminds more of the first weeks of spring than of next summer.
Shots against protesting workers
The origins of this international festival date back to the 19th century. in the middle, it is not festive at all. One day in late April 1856, exactly 165 years ago, Australian stonemasons stopped working in Victoria, thus contributing to the 8 hours of movement in working hours. Such is still the sixteenth century. was inserted In Spain, but it has not spread to other countries for many years.
Scanpix Photo / Mention from Lebanon
After this passage of the stonemasons that day I started celebrating every year and it inspired Americans to behave in a similar way. Thirty years later, the Haymarket Riots, also known as the Haymarket Massacre, took place in Chicago. It was decided to declare International Labor Day in May to commemorate this event.
In 1886, starting on May 1, it took place in Chicago. Strike, whose participants demanded to reduce the working day to 8 hours. On May 3, one person was killed and several more injured at McCormick’s farm machinery company after police intervened to protect the strikers and intimidate the strikers.
In protest against police violence, anarchist labor leaders summoned people to a mass demonstration in Haymarket Square the next day. Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, who went to see the event, described it as peaceful.
Later, after the mayor and many protesters had already left, a platoon of policemen appeared and demanded that the crowd disband. At that moment, someone dropped the explosive (it was not identified who did it) and the officers responded with a burst of gunfire. According to various figures, between 4 and 8 protesters were killed and another 30-40 were injured. There were also victims among the police: 7 dead and 60 injured.
News of the Chicago bloodshed events spread widely. Participants at the Second International Congress in Paris in 1889, a union of European and American socialists, social democrats, and labor movements, invited workers to hold international demonstrations the next year during the annual protests in Chicago.
Scanpix / AP Photo / International Labor Day in Turkey
They took place not only in the United States, but also in some European countries, Chile, Peru. At the next congress, held in 1891, May 1 was formally declared an annual celebration.
By the way, in the United States and Canada themselves, Labor Day is not celebrated on May 1, but on the first Monday in September. To commemorate it, thus honoring the contribution of workers to the well-being of society, the United States was proposed as early as the 19th century. In the nineties.
In the same year, 1891, the then President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, anxiously recalling the origins of Labor Day, signed a permit to declare Labor Day, already mentioned in some states, as a celebration, thus expressing respect for workers.
The predecessor is the Spring Festival.
1904 The 6th Second International Conference in Amsterdam called on “all Social Democrats and trade unions in all countries to hold vigorous demonstrations on May 1 to push for an 8-hour day everywhere, calling for demands from the working class and peace. world”.
Furthermore, it was announced that “workers’ organizations in all countries on May 1. must stop working if this can be achieved without harming workers.”
Workers’ rights activists around the world have started working to make May 1 a holiday dedicated to workers. This has happened in many countries.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / International Labor Day is celebrated with a picket
1955 The Catholic Church proclaimed May 1 as “Saint Joseph’s Labor Day.” S t. José is the patron saint of workers and artisans.
Although the date of the celebration was chosen for political reasons, to commemorate the tragic events in Chicago, it is reminiscent of much earlier times. In some European countries, a pagan celebration of the return of spring (called Help – May Day). Eventually, the two holidays merged and Labor Day even overshadowed the pagan legacy.
In Lithuania, the status was changed several times.
Since the Second International, May 1 has been very actively mentioned by socialist, communist and anarchist groups. It was or still is one of the most important festivals of the then Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba.
1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany, Labor Day also became a holiday. Ironically, the day after its enactment have been repealed free associations, thus effectively overshadowing workers’ movements.
In the interwar period in Lithuania, May 1 was celebrated in 1919-1929. as “Festival of Solidarity between Workers and Nations”. During this period, you had the condition of a non-working day. Later, it was no longer officially celebrated, it was marked only as “Tree Planting Day”.
In the Soviet Union, the celebration was greeted with high hopes that it would help European and American workers unite against capitalism. It became a very important day in the countries of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc. Many can still remember not only the parades in Moscow’s Red Square, which were attended by senior Communist Party officials, but also the mandatory mass demonstrations in Soviet Lithuania, in which labor groups marched.
Scanpix / SIPA Photo / May 1 Memorial
For this reason, International Labor Day is for many a mere relic of the Soviet past that does not evoke associations. After the restoration of Independence, it lost the celebratory status, but then its fate changed more than once, depending on the ruling party in power. In 2001, when the Social Democrats returned to power, International Labor Day was once again a public holiday.
It is true that many, despite their image, enjoy this day as an extra day off. Has been again in recent years not a single offer change your status: stop letting people rest, declare just one day of remembrance. However, none received sufficient support.
In many countries, International Labor Day is also a day off. Usually during it going various demonstrations, solemn acts, thus expressing support for employees.
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