1889 On July 4th, the socialist congress convened by Marxists from all over the world was grandly opened in Paris, France. At this congress, French representative Lavin proposed that May 1 886, the day when American workers fought for the eight-hour working day, be designated as the International Proletarian Day. The delegates unanimously agreed to adopt this historic resolution. Since then, "May 1" International Labor Day was born.
Why should this day be designated as International Labor Day? This has to start with the 19 American workers' movement in the 1980s.
At that time, many countries in the United States and Europe gradually developed from capitalism to imperialism. In order to stimulate the rapid economic development and extract more surplus value 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 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.
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 the striking workers, which sang:
"We want to change the world. We are tired of futile toil, we only earn a living, so we 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 gather our team from docks, workshops and workshops, and 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 government 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!
In order to commemorate the strike movement of American workers on May 1886+0 1 and promote the struggle enthusiasm of the working class all over the world, this day was designated as the International Proletarian Day. Every May 1 day, the working class of all countries hold large-scale demonstrations to fight for their rights.