May Day has been celebrated as International Workers’ Day since the late 19th century, when workers in many countries around the world began organizing to demand better working conditions and more rights. In the United States, workers were particularly vocal in their demands for an eight-hour workday, which they believed would improve their quality of life and give them more time to spend with their families and pursue other interests.
One of the most significant events in the history of International Workers’ Day was the Haymarket affair of 1886 in Chicago, which is often associated with the origins of May Day as a workers’ holiday. On May 1st of that year, workers around the city went on strike to demand an eight-hour workday. The strike quickly turned violent, and on May 4th, a bomb exploded at a rally in Haymarket Square, killing several people.
The Haymarket affair had a profound impact on the labor movement in the United States and around the world. It became a symbol of workers’ struggle for better working conditions and more rights, and it helped to galvanize the labor movement in the United States and other countries.
Since then, May Day has been celebrated in many countries around the world as a public holiday. May Day is an important reminder of the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights and the need for continued progress towards greater equality and social justice in the workplace.
