The origin of May Day Labor Day-originated from Chicago1886,200,000 workers went on strike and demanded an eight-hour working day.
The significance of Labor Day-let workers win their legitimate rights and interests.
1889 In July, the Second International led by Engels held a congress in Paris. The meeting passed a resolution stipulating that international workers should hold a March on May 1 890, and decided to designate May 1 as the International Labor Day. The Central People's Government of the State Council 1949 1 year made a decision in February, and determined May 1 day as Labor Day. After 1989, the State Council basically commended the national model workers and advanced workers every five years, and commended about 3,000 people each time.
The origin of may day labor day
source and course
/kloc-At the end of 0/8th century, many countries such as the United States and Europe gradually developed from capitalism to imperialism. In order to stimulate the rapid economic development and extract more surplus value, and to maintain this high-speed capitalist machine, capitalists constantly exploit workers by increasing labor time and labor intensity.
In the United States, workers have to work 14 to 16 hours a day, and some even as long as 18 hours, but their wages are very low. The supervisor of a shoe factory in Massachusetts once said, "Let a strong and healthy boy 18 years old work next to any machine here, and I can make his hair turn white at the age of 22!" The heavy class oppression aroused the great anger of the proletarians. They know that the only way to survive is to unite and fight against capitalists through strike movement. The slogan put forward by the workers is to demand an eight-hour working day.
1877, the first national strike in American history began. The working class took to the streets to demonstrate and proposed to the government to improve working and living conditions, demanding that working hours be shortened and an eight-hour working day be implemented. Shortly after the strike, the ranks were expanding day by day, the number of trade union members surged, and workers from all over the country also took part in the strike movement.
Under the strong pressure of the workers' movement, the US Congress was forced to enact laws on the eight-hour working day. However, the vicious capitalists simply ignored it. This law is just a dead letter, and the workers are still living in dire straits and suffering from capitalists. The workers who can't bear it decided to push this struggle for the right to life to a new climax and prepare to hold a larger strike movement.
May 1 day
Big strike
1884 in June, eight international and national workers' groups in the United States and Canada held a rally in Chicago, USA, and decided to hold a general strike on May 1886, forcing capitalists to implement an eight-hour working system. This day has finally arrived. On May 1 day, 350,000 workers from more than 20,000 enterprises in the United States stopped working and took to the streets to hold a large-scale demonstration. Workers of all colors and jobs went on a general strike together. In Chicago alone, 45,000 workers poured into the streets. In this case, all major industrial departments in the United States are paralyzed, trains are frozen snakes, shops are silent, and all warehouses are closed and sealed. At that time, an "eight-hour song" was popular among striking workers. Sang Song: "We want to change the world. We are tired of working in vain, only getting paid for living, and never have time to think. We want to smell the flowers, we want to bask in the sun, and we believe that God only allows eight-hour working days. We gathered our teams from docks, workshops and factories to strive for eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours for ourselves! "
Passionate songs sang the voices of workers and the common aspirations of proletarians all over the world, infected the broad masses, and supported the workers' strike movement in succession, pushing the strike movement to a new climax. The great power of the strike movement made the government authorities and capitalists extremely panic. They are not willing to agree to the workers' conditions, showing their ferocity. On May 3, the Chicago authorities finally tore off the mask of "democracy" and suppressed the workers with violence. They organized strikers to sneak into the workers' strike team under the protection of the police, deliberately creating chaos and using this as an excuse to shoot and kill six workers on the spot. This atrocity aroused the great indignation of the workers in the city, and they were determined to avenge the dead workers' brothers!
This activity is organized by the NGO International Workers' Federation and centered on Chicago. Businessmen and the government are afraid that this activity is becoming more and more revolutionary, and local business leaders demand an increase in the number of police and troops. The Chicago Commercial Club bought $2,000 guns in case of a strike. On May 65, 438+0, the parade was strongly supported by Chicago textile workers, shoemakers and house decoration workers. On May 3rd, the police started shooting at the strikers, killing and injuring four people. Some folk people called for a rally in the square the next day to seriously protest the government's violent suppression.
Nothing happened during the rally, but it began to rain when the last speaker got on the platform. There are only a few hundred people left in the square. 180 police entered the square to evacuate the crowd. Just then, a bomb flew among the police, killing one and injuring seven policemen. The police immediately shot at the crowd, killing one person and injuring many others.
Unable to determine who threw the bomb, the incident became a handle for attacking the Labor Day parade. The police raided the suspect's home and office, and hundreds of people were arrested without charge, especially the leaders of those activities were attacked. Eight active advocates of Chicago activities were accused of being suspected of bombing in the square and attempted rebellion. The court held a hearing in the case of insufficient evidence and sentenced four of them 1887 165438+. One committed suicide in prison, and the other three were not released until 1893.
Holiday decision
In order to commemorate this great workers' movement, 1889, in July, at the Second International Founding Congress organized by Engels, it was announced that May 1 day every year would be designated as International Labor Day, referred to as "May Day" for short.
This decision immediately received a positive response from workers all over the world.
On May 1890 and 1 Sunday, the European and American working classes took the lead in taking to the streets, holding grand demonstrations and assemblies to fight for their legitimate rights and interests. From then on, on this day, the working people all over the world will gather to March and celebrate.
Songs related to Labor Day
192 1 On the eve of May Day, the workers learned to sing "May Day Commemorative Song" in Changxindian labor tutorial school founded by Deng Zhongxia, a member of Beijing * * * production team. Its lyrics are: "beautiful freedom, star of the world, fight for my blood, sacrifice for him, sweep away all power systems, and remember the good day of May Day. The red flag is flying, we take the bright road, do what we can, take what we need, regardless of the rich or the poor, and only help each other. I hope everyone will work hard. " This magnificent and powerful song was written by the teachers of Changxindian Labor Practice School and the progressive students of Peking University.
Labor day activities in various countries
Europe:
Europe still celebrates May Day with parades. In Britain and Germany, the authorities are worried that anarchists will make trouble during demonstrations. In Berlin, Germany, police clashed with anarchists late at night and many people were arrested. However, thousands of trade union activists marched peacefully in the city. In France and Austria, opponents of pension reform also took to the streets to participate in demonstrations. As can be seen from the news footage of Turkish national television, the police beat the demonstrators with batons and pulled one of them away by the hair.
Britain, France and other European countries have designated May Day as Labor Day. Many countries have a day off, while other countries place public holidays on the first Monday in May according to the situation. However, unlike most countries in the world, Italy generally does not hold special celebrations, nor does it have a national May Day holiday. Although it recognizes May Day International Labor Day, the government also shows respect to workers.
Russia: There are many parades, rallies and entertainment activities.
Since the establishment of Labor Day internationally, Russia has always attached importance to this special festival. On May 1 day, there was a national holiday in Russia, and various celebrations and mass demonstrations were held. In the past, the above activities were mainly organized by the government, and the procession included representatives from various enterprises and institutions. Now, in addition to the government's overall celebration, non-governmental organizations and labor groups with different political views will spontaneously hold various celebrations on this day, which can not only take this opportunity to fully explain their political views, but also expand the influence of the organizations. Generally speaking, the "May Day" parade first passes through the main streets and squares of the city, and finally holds a large-scale rally and celebration in the old or wide central square. At the same time, various clubs all over Russia will hold colorful entertainment activities, and people's holiday mood is very high.
America: The birthplace of Labor Day happens to be May Day.
Labor Day originated in America. In the 1980s, the American bourgeoisie brutally exploited and oppressed the working class in order to accumulate capital. They use various means to force workers to work as long as 12 to 16 hours or more every day. American workers gradually realize that they must fight to protect their rights.
Starting from 1884, the advanced workers' organizations in the United States passed a resolution to fight for the realization of the "eight-hour working system" and put forward the "eight-hour working system; 8 hours rest; 8 hours of entertainment! Workers create all wealth! " Wait for the slogan.
May 1886, 1, Chicago workers went on strike. On that day, about 350,000 workers across the United States took part in a strike demonstration centered on Chicago, demanding that working conditions be improved and an eight-hour working system be implemented. The struggle shook the whole United States. The powerful force of the joint struggle of the working class forced the capitalists to make concessions, and the American workers' general strike won.
1889 In July, the Second International led by Engels held a congress in Paris. In order to commemorate the May Day strike of American workers, the meeting passed a resolution to designate May 1 day as International Labor Day every year. Since then, workers' groups all over the world have held grand celebrations on this day, and many countries have a day off.
However, what is more special is that when the American government later set up Labor Day, the first week of September must be Labor Day, so Labor Day in the United States is not in May, but in September.
On Labor Day in September every year, Americans can have a day off. People all over the United States generally hold parades, rallies and other celebrations to show their respect for workers. In some states, people have a picnic after the parade, eating, drinking, singing and dancing. At night, fireworks will be set off in some places.
Asia
Japan: Labor Day coincides with the "Golden Week"
Japan is a country with many festivals. There are many festivals around May 1, such as Arbor Day on April 29th, Constitution Day on May 3rd, National Day on April 4th and Children's Day on May 5th. These holidays are linked together. Generally, Japanese people have at least one week's holiday, and the longest even reaches 1 1 day.
For the working class, the meaning of this long holiday is really unusual. Therefore, in Japan, the special celebration of Labor Day is gradually replaced by the "May Day Golden Week". And from April 29th, Japan entered the "Golden Week".
Many hotels, hot springs and other entertainment facilities in Japan put out various advertisements to attract tourists before May Day, and the price of ordinary hotels has more than doubled.
Thailand:
1932 promulgated the labor regulations for the first time, and then May 1 day every year was designated as National Labor Day to reward hard-working workers. On this day, Thailand will have a unified national holiday, and the capital and some big cities will also have related celebrations, but the scale will generally not be too large.
Africa
Egypt:
May 1, known as Labor Day, is regarded as a paid holiday. Traditionally, the Egyptian President presided over the official May Day celebrations in Cairo; However, due to the president's situation, according to the revolution in 20 1 1 and the corruption allegations faced by state-controlled leaders, the celebration of the National Trade Union Center (Egyptian Trade Union Federation) in 201/was organized by independent trade unions (Egypt is an independent trade union Federation under the Unification Ministry) for 1938.
South Africa:
In South Africa, from 1994, there is a public holiday every May 1 day.
In a word, Labor Day is a festival shared by working people all over the world. It originated from a general strike, and it is for workers to forge ahead in unity and strive for their legitimate rights and interests.