Thousands of workers marched in New York; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; Toledo, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; and other cities. They raised demands to defend immigrant rights, for a general amnesty to gain the right to legal residence for all immigrants in the United States, for an eight-hour day, and to be treated with respect on the job and in society at large. Giant May Day marches were held this year in Cuba, Brazil, and South Africa, among other countries.

May Day has its origins in a mass mobilization of workers on May 1, 1886, demanding the working day be limited to eight hours. The center of the actions was Chicago, where the movement was led by immigrant workers from Europe. In Revolutionary Continuity: The Early Years, Farrell Dobbs writes that on that day "the deadline set for inauguration of the eight-hour day, a gigantic strike wave developed. From coast to coast workers downed their tools, established picket lines, and held mass demonstrations. Then, in Chicago, Illinois--where outstanding labor solidarity was manifested--the capitalists launched a savage counteroffensive."

On May 4 the police used the excuse of a small bomb explosion to shoot at a massive rally, killing many. The capitalists launched a witch-hunt against strike leaders, especially anarchist workers. In a frame-up trial, eight were convicted for the bombing and five sentenced to be hanged. The others were given long prison terms.

In 1889, at the founding of the Second International, delegates decided "to organize, for 1 May, a great international demonstration, organized in such a way that on the same day the workers in all lands and cities will simultaneously demand from the powers-that-be a limitation of the working day to eight hours," declared a resolution." Trade unions in the United States had called for mass demonstrations a year earlier to be held on May 1, an action also discussed by the French and Belgium trade union movement.

The success was beyond the delegates' expectations. In subsequent years, the U.S. labor officialdom, anxious to distance itself from any class-struggle course, dropped May Day as a celebration and instituted Labor Day in September as a tamer "American" substitute that it hoped the employers would find less objectionable.

The Militant welcomes the return to the United States of the combative tradition of May Day. The day provides an opportunity for workers to join in a framework of proletarian internationalism, breaking the narrow political bounds usually imposed by the bosses and the trade union officialdom.

May Day was founded in struggle and in the blood of workers in the streets at the hands of the state's repressive forces. In 1886 workers were united across union jurisdictions and political tendencies for common action. It is a tradition that has remained, keeping actions and demonstrations open to all.

As the capitalist economic crisis deepens, May Day will more and more become a day of common action by workers and farmers across national boundaries in our own interests. It is a good sign that workers in the United States now have a chance--thanks to the initiatives of brothers and sisters who hail from Latin America and other countries--to retake that day and an internationalist consciousness needed to effectively battle the employing class.  
 
 
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