World Labour Day is Coming on 1st May 2016 and every year.
May Day also known as Labour Day or International Workers' Day celebrated every year on 1st May. This day is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and also celebrated unofficially in many other countries. It is many countries including India, May
Day is also celebrated as Labour Daeld on 1st May every year. The day originates with the US
labour movement in the late 19th century. The history of the movement
dates back to May 1, 1886.
On this day several labour
unions across the US went on strike, demanding a standard workday of
eight hours. On May 4th there was bloodshed in Chicago's Haymarket
Square – A bomb thrown by a revolutionist led to the deaths of a dozen
people (including several police officers) and the injury of over 100
people.
The protests did not get an
immediate outcome, but they proved effective subsequently, as eight-hour
work days became the norm in many countries across the globe. This day
was hence chosen as a day for demonstrations, parades, and speeches. It
is a major state holiday in US, Russia and other communist countries. In
India, May Day has also been declared a public holiday.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the
first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first
proposed
the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J.
McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in
suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and
carved all the grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in
Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew
Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent
research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the
secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists
in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as
secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that
the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a
committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
A Nationwide Holiday
The form that the observance and
celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first
proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the
strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of
the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement
of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the
celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were
introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and
civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the
American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding
Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and
educational aspects of the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day
celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large
industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a
problem.
This change, however, is more a
shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by
leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and
government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and
television.
The vital force of labor added
materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production
the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization
of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is
appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the
creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership —
the American worke.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was
celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor
Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September
5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in
September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the
Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to
follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on
that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and
in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the
country.
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