The Brief Origins of May Day

Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers’ Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don’t realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as “American” as baseball and apple pie.

Eric Chase has written an excellent history of the origins of May Day as a labor holiday on the IWW website. I suggest you read it to get an idea of the radical roots of the holiday, as it relates to Labor Day.

While the radical origins of May Day are not contested, as labor historian David Montgomery notes:

Labor Day is more a complicated affair.

Only the United States celebrates Labor Day in September. Elsewhere around the globe, nations honor workers on May 1—May Day.

And that historical quirk is no accident.

Ironically, “May Day” was founded by U.S. workers—and taken away from them as a day to celebrate by a federal government fearful of the wave of large demonstrations for the eight-hour day and massive strikes for justice on the railroads, in the mines and factories that had begun in 1877.

Then US President Cleveland feared that the the anniversary of the MayDay events would help strengthen the growing socialist movement and opted to make the first Monday of September the Labour Day holiday instead. This followed the tradition of the Knights of Labour who agitated for this. Many workers groups opposed this, partly because the date had no significance to the workers movement, but also because the Knights of Labour were affiliated at that time with the Ku Klux Klan.

Historian Peter Linebaugh wrote an excellent article some years ago on the deeper history of May Day, going back to ancient times and dealing with both the green (environmental) and red (workers´ struggles) sides of May Day. His “The Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of MAY DAY” is highly recommended.