Seven Oaks Magazine.

In a few short weeks, the dawn of another May Day will signal 118 years of organised resistance to capitalism on May 1. This year, for the first year in a long while, the B.C. Federation of Labour and its parent organisation, the Canadian Labour Congress, will be joining the festivities officially all over Canada. In honour of the workers' holiday, Seven Oaks will publish a three-part discussion of May Day. The first instalment will address the historical roots of May Day, and discuss its significance as the true workers' day of celebration and protest. The second instalment, appearing next week, will focus on the international significance of May Day. Celebrated all over the world, May Day has been more important in Europe and the colonised world in recent history than here in Canada, and its international appeal is a powerful tool for labour activists today. Finally, the third instalment will address the recent support offered by the B.C. Fed and the CLC for the celebrations on the May 1, and address the reasons for these changes and their potential significance for the labour movement here in B.C.

May Day's historic origins can be found in one of the great times of labour unrest in America's history - the events of 1886 that surrounded the "Haymarket Massacre." A few historical currents coalesced around the events of 1886, among which were some of the most radical currents of the American labour movement at the time. The primary current, driving the strike wave of 1886 and the coalescence of these political currents, was the struggle for the eight-hour day. The events of the period would ultimately fail to achieve serious gains for the movement at the time (and would lead to the death of five leading agitators). That said, the issues surrounding the beginning of May Day, especially the issue of the eight-hour day has considerable resonance today, as industrialised economies are declining and workers face both the state and capital lined up against them.

In the early 1880's, labour radicalised at as rapid a pace as America was industrialising. In 1877, in the first "great upheaval," American workers working in railroad unions struck against their robber baron employers, who were driving down wages and working to destroy the small craft and trade unions that the workers had organised within their companies. The strike ended with the intervention of the National Guard, paid for by the robber barons, who put down the strike at gunpoint.

Similar conditions as created the 1877 rebellion arose again in 1886. The early 1880's were characterised by a difficult depression, and workers wages were ground down lower than they had been before the strike wave of 1877. It was the hated Jay Gould's Southwest Railway system that led the way, piling a five per cent pay cut on a ten per cent cut earlier that year. By March of 1886, a strike of railway shop workers had shut down 10,000 miles of track in the southwestern United States.

The workers who led this strike were organised in a union that had no real precedent, and would become the basis for much of the radical union activity of the next century. The Knights of Labour were dedicated to organising workers in all industries into one union, in order to more easily resist the power of capitalists and bankers. Modelled on historic fraternal organisations, like the Oddfellows and the Freemasons, workers of all races and both sexes were organised into locals with secret handshakes, meeting places and special rituals.

Despite its apparently occult nature, the union's analysis was radical, if not always sound. The unions locals were independent, and pursued vigorous strike actions on a regular basis. They became a powerful alternative to the more conservative American Federation of Labour. Successful railway strikes in 1884 and 1885 meant that in 1886, with strikes looming or beginning against railways for higher wages and shorter hours, the Knights were especially popular with workers. Their membership was only 71,326 on July 1, 1884, but by the same date in 1886, they had reached 729,677.

The organisational approach of the Knights meant that they struck together, in a nation-wide general strike that frightened both the American government and the robber barons. The strike soon expanded to include the hub of railway travel in America, Chicago. When it arrived in Chicago, the strike found fertile ground for radical organisation and resistance. Along with the Knights, a radical challenge to capital had begun in Chicago with a group of anarchists, affiliated internationally but stronger in Chicago than anywhere else in North America.

The anarchist tradition in Chicago was strong by 1886. In 1883, Chicagoans had been present at the foundation of an International Working People's Association (the First International). By April 1886, the anarchist voice had established itself as the radical force in the city, and as the strike nation-wide escalated they argued for more radical action, and hinted darkly that workers should prepare themselves for a violent clash with the powers of the state.

The combined power of the spreading strike wave and the increase in radical organisation of workers soon led the slow-moving American Federation of Labour into the protest. They and the Knights supported a resolution adopted in 1884, declaring May 1, 1886 as the day that would mark the beginning of the eight-hour workday era. Samuel Gompers, the president of the AFL, declared that workers should strike in any workplaces that would not honour the resolution. When employers refused across the country 350,000 more workers joined the strike, shutting down more than 11,000 additional businesses. The K of L's assemblies and the AFL unions were working together, fighting for one of the essential demands of workers everywhere: the right to a humane working day.

Although these events themselves were noteworthy, it was events afterwards that enshrined the first of May as a date of radical significance. After the strikers gained the May 1 reinforcements, pressure to force them back to work increased. A battle between scabs and strikers on the third led to the police killing four strikers. The next day, with anarchist pamphlets calling for the workers to arm themselves flooding the streets, a rally in Haymarket Square burst into violence when a bomb exploded among police officers trying to break up the crowd. Seven cops were killed, and another 66 injured. The police responded by opening fire, wounding 200 of the protestors. Although no one could be linked with evidence to the bombing, the city responded by arresting eight of the city's most prominent anarchists, and trying them using their writings as evidence (only one had even been present at the event, and he was speaking when the bomb went off). A year later, four were hanged, even as evidence emerged revealing that the bomb may have been thrown by an agent provocateur in the employ of the police.

Ultimately, the struggle both on the railway lines and nation-wide for the eight-hour day would fail. Soon after the imposition of state power in Chicago, workers on Gould's Southwest line returned to work, although scabs had replaced many. Similarly, Chicago soon returned to work generally. The actions would have enormous effect on the next generation, though, as activists across the political spectrum called on the Haymarket events as a major influence. Indeed, the events were clearly on the table when, on July 14, 1889 an American speaking at a rally celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the fall of the Bastille told his French audience that May 1 should be accepted as an international day of action against capitalism.

Rallies in Canada in the 1890's brought May Day here, and preserved its power as a radical day of action. The mainstream labour movement worked to distance itself from its radical message, fearing its ties to an international coalition of Marxists, anarchists and, in later years, Communists. Although the Canadian and American labour movements would choose Labour Day, in the first weekend of September, as their holiday, workers and radical groups continued to celebrate May Day. Today many unions still demand May Day as a worker's holiday, and structure this ritual into their contracts. It retains its link to the First International, and working class resistance all over the world. Next week, our second instalment will address this international scope and continued popularity of May Day.