May Day was born out of the 8-hour work-day movement in 19th-century Chicago, a demand of major political significance for the working class. In the 19th century, as the capitalist system gained a foothold, working-class conditions worsened. A 16 to 18 hour shift was not unusual for workers at the time. The 8-hour day movement was initiated in the United States in 1866 and in September 1866, in the Geneva Congress of the First International, the Congress proposed 8 hours as the legal limit of the working day. In the chapter on “The Working Day” in the first volume of Capital, published in 1867, Marx wrote, “ The first fruit of the (American) Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California”. On May 1, 1886, 400,000 workers in many parts of the USA went on strike, demanding an eight-hour working day. The strike started peacefully, but on the third day of protests in Chicago, the police shot at unarmed workers, killing several of them. The next day, on May 4, there were more protests and someone threw a bomb. Seven police officers and four workers were killed by the bomb and police shooting just after the bomb. The person who threw the bomb was never identified, but eight workers were arrested. Seven of them were sentenced to death, and one of them was sent to prison for 15 years. The executed Chicago trade unionists became known as the Haymarket Martyrs. Outrage at the killing of workers spread around the world. The trial was criticised for being unfair. The Haymarket Affair became an international symbol of the struggle for workers’ rights, and May 1 was chosen to be International Workers’ Day. In 1889, the Second International decided to commemorate the Haymarket Martyrs by organising mass demonstrations throughout Europe and America. From 1890 onwards workers throughout the world adopted May Day as a day of International Workers Solidarity, fighting for the right to celebrate their past and to build a future free from oppression and exploitation. The campaign for an eight-hour working day was at the heart of the early May Day protests. In almost every country around the world, May Day is the day of strikes, rallies and demonstrations, demanding for shorter working hours and upholding other rights of workers.
