Here's why you won't be working today, May 1st!

A national demand

During the fourth congress of the American Federation of Labor, in 1884, the main labor unions in the ÉUnited States gave themselves étwo years to impose on the bosses a limitation of the working day éeight hours. They had chosen to launch their action on May 1st, as many American companies were beginning their accounting year on that day.

Then came May 1, 1886. Many workers received immediate satisfaction from their employers. But others, less fortunate, numbering around 340,000, have to grève to force their employer à céder.

On May 3, a demonstration leaves three grévists dead at McCormick Harvester, à Chicago. A protest march takes place the next day, and by evening, as the demonstration disperses à Haymarket Square, only 200 demonstrators remain to face à as many police. It was then that a bomb exploded in front of the police. Some fifteen police officers were killed.

Three anarchist syndicalists are triedés and sentencedés à to prison à perpétuité. Five others were hanged on November 11, 1886 despite é uncertain evidence.

Demonstrate for 8-hour day

Three years after the Chicago tragedy, the Second Socialist International is uniting à Paris for its second congrès. It was held at 42, rue Rochechouart, salle des Fantaisies parisiennes, during the Exposition Universelle, which marked the centenary of the French Révolution.

The congress delegates were invited to take part in a round-table discussion on the theme of the "Socialist International".

The congressmen set themselves the goal of an eight-hour day (i.e. 48 hours a week, with Sunday alone étant chômé). Until then, it was customary to work ten or twelve hours a day (in 1848, in France, a décret réduisant à 10 heures la journée de travail n'a pas résisté plus de quelques mois à la pression patronale).

At the end of 1889, the French government passed a new law, the "décret réduisant à 10 heures la journée de travail".

On June 20, 1889, on a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, they decided to «organizeé a large demonstration à on a fixed date so that in all countries and cities à At the same time, on the same day, the workers demand that the public authorities reduce the working day to éeight hours éand apply the other rules of the congressès. Whereas a similar demonstration has été déjà décidée for May 1, 1890 by the AFL, in its congrès of décembre 1888 held à Saint Louis, this date is adoptedée for the demonstration.»

On May 1, 1891, à Fourmies, a small town in northern France, the ritual demonstration turns dramatic. Troops éequipped with the new Lebel and Chassepot rifles fire à point-blank into the peaceful crowd of workers. Ten people were killed, including 8 under the age of 21. One of the victims, the worker Marie Blondeau, dressed in white and with her arms covered in flowers, became the symbol of the day.

With this tragedy, the workers are able to express their gratitude to the French government.

With the Fourmies tragedy, May 1st took root in the tradition of European workerséens struggle.

A few months later, à in Brussels, the Socialist International renewed the May 1stès demanding and international character.

The horizon seemed to be éclearing up after the firstèworld war. The peace treaty signedé à Versailles on June 28, 1919 sets in its article 247«the adoption of the eight-hour day or the forty-eight-hour week as the goal à to be achieved everywhere where it had not yet été obtained»!!

The ritualistic manifestations of the war were not the only ones to be observed.

The ritual May 1st demonstrations are no longer confined to ès at the time à the demand for the 8-hour day. They became the occasion for more diverse demands. In 1920, Soviet Russia, under the authority of Lénine, decided to make May 1st a day of celebration. This initiative was little imitated by other countries... Nazi Germany goes even further! To win over the workers, Hitler made May 1st a paid day from 1933. France followed suit during the Occupation, in... 1941.