May 01, 2024

Celebrating workers and labor on May Day

Cesar Chavez looks on as Hightower speaks at the 1984 United Farm Workers conference in San Juan, CA

While we here in the US celebrate Labor Day in September, the rest of the world is celebrating its workers today, May 1st. From the Wikipedia summary, here’s a good overview:

Traditionally, 1 May is the date of the European spring festival of May Day. In 1889, the Marxist International Socialist Congress met in Paris and established the Second International as a successor to the earlier International Workingmen's Association. They adopted a resolution for a "great international demonstration" in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour day. The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event.

We asked Hightower for his thoughts about May Day, and here’s what he had to say:

“On May Day, I think of champions of the struggle for the democratic rights of working people, like Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta. Also of spiritual activists who confront a materialistic, elitist culture with barbs about the absurdity of inequality in our land of unparalleled wealth. Agitators like Dorothy Day and Hélder Câmara, who noted: ‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.’”

Voice of America explains why Americans moved their Labor Day to September:

Following the Haymarket affair, a strong anti-union movement arose in the United States. Over the years, May Day became more associated with the political far left, while Labor Day, held in September, was recognized by a growing number of municipalities and states. When the United States began to seriously consider creating a national holiday for workers, U.S. President Grover Cleveland did not want to choose the May date because of its association with the [Haymarket] bombing, so instead picked the alternative day in September.

Back in 2015, Hightower shared more of this history in a (U.S.) Labor Day article about the state of workers organizing—enjoy!