This week’s blog asks you to explore contemporary May Day traditions worldwide and requires you to evaluate the role of the labor movement in the modern world.
Introduction:
May Day, also known as International Worker’s Day, is an international day of activism for working people and their families. The origins of May Day can be traced to the national strike movement for an 8 hour work day which gained momentum in the industrial American cities in 1886. In particular, the Chicago strike received national attention as a movement of nearly 35,000 strikers from April 25- May 3 escalated into a riot, resulting in the deaths of three workers. Seeking revenge for what many workers believed to be police brutality (blaming riot police for the escalation of the violence at the Haymarket Square demonstration), strikers continued demonstrating- one angered radical threw a bomb at the police, killing a uniformed officer. While no individual was ever directly linked through evidence to that death, five union organizers were tired, convicted of and received capital (death) sentences for the officer’s murder. Public uproar over the (mis) trial continued and American workers have conducted annual protests on May 1st ever since. In1893, Governor John Peter Altgeld granted the three imprisoned Haymarket defendants (one of them committed suicide in prison) absolute pardon, citing the lack of evidence against them and the unfairness of the trial.
While the immediate result of the Haymarket Affair can be viewed as a mixed result for the labor movement, the protestors work was not in vain. Unions in the mining, railroad worker’s and building trades industries successfully negotiated an eight hour work day by 1890. The Fair Labor Standards Act established the eight hour workday as a federal labor regulation in 1938 as part of FDR’s New Deal reforms.
Inspired by the success of the American labor movements as publicized by the London and New York Times, Mexico and France honored Mayday in 1890 and the movement spread on a global scale ever since. National Labour Day, as it is called in the UK, Austrialia New Zeland, have become particularly popular among workers rights activists since the anti-globalization movement emerged in 1999. While many of the protests have been peaceful demonstrations, there have also been multiple incidents of escalation on both the activists’ and police/ governments’ behalf.
Directions:
1. Actively view the photo essay “May Day” in the TIME Magazine Europe archive: http://www.time.com/time/europe/photoessays/mayday/
And ONE of the following articles on how May Day is honored abroad:
South Korea:
http://mayday.nodong.net/2000/laborday/khistorye.htm
Cuba:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7377662.stm/
Germany:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090429/business/finance_economy_germany_demo_mayday
Mexico: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33059
Australia: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/labour-day
Response:
While the immediate result of the Haymarket Affair can be viewed as a mixed result for the labor movement, the protestors work was not in vain. Unions in the mining, railroad worker’s and building trades industries successfully negotiated an eight hour work day by 1890. The Fair Labor Standards Act established the eight hour workday as a federal labor regulation in 1938 as part of FDR’s New Deal reforms.
Inspired by the success of the American labor movements as publicized by the London and New York Times, Mexico and France honored Mayday in 1890 and the movement spread on a global scale ever since. National Labour Day, as it is called in the UK, Austrialia New Zeland, have become particularly popular among workers rights activists since the anti-globalization movement emerged in 1999. While many of the protests have been peaceful demonstrations, there have also been multiple incidents of escalation on both the activists’ and police/ governments’ behalf.
Directions:
1. Actively view the photo essay “May Day” in the TIME Magazine Europe archive: http://www.time.com/time/europe/photoessays/mayday/
And ONE of the following articles on how May Day is honored abroad:
South Korea:
http://mayday.nodong.net/2000/laborday/khistorye.htm
Cuba:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7377662.stm/
Germany:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090429/business/finance_economy_germany_demo_mayday
Mexico: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33059
Australia: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/labour-day
Response:
- Summarize what you learned about May Day/ International Worker’s Day from the sources. How do the issues you read about relate to what we are learning in class about globalization and/ or trade regulations and the WTO? Provide at least two examples of specific topics we have covered in class or that may have come up in your project.
- In your view, should the US adopt May Day/ International Worker’s Day as a federal holiday as it is in Spain and Australia? Explain.
your post should be a minimum of 250 words. Due Friday, May 1 - MAYDAY!
