Dear Comrades,
International Workers' Day is a celebration of labour and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs on May 1 every year. That day, May 1, is also the traditional European Spring holiday of May Day. Therefore, May 1 is a national public holiday in more than 80 countries, but in only some of those countries is the public holiday officially known as Labor Day or some similar variant. In the other countries, the public holiday marks the Spring festival of May Day.
Further, still other countries celebrate a Labour Day unrelated to International Workers' Day and on other dates significant to the labour movement in that country, such as the Labour Day in the United States which is on the first Monday of September.
May 1 was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago that occurred on May 4, 1886.
India
The first May Day celebration in India was organised in Madras (now Chennai) by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan on 1 May 1923. This was also the first time the red flag was used in India. The party leader Singaravelu Chettiar made arrangements to celebrate May Day in two places in 1923. One meeting was held at the beach opposite to the Madras High Court; the other meeting was held at the Triplicane beach. The Hindu newspaper, published from Madras reported,
The Labour Kisan party has introduced May Day celebrations in Madras. Comrade Singaravelar presided over the meeting. A resolution was passed stating that the government should declare May Day as a holiday. The president of the party explained the non-violent principles of the party. There was a request for financial aid. It was emphasized that workers of the world must unite to achieve independence.
May Day is a nationwide bank and public holiday in India. The holiday is tied to labour movements for communist and socialist political parties. Labour Day is known as "Kamgar Din" in Hindi, "Kamgar Divas" in Marathi and "Uzhaipalar Dinam" in Tamil. On this day, banks and other public organisations in Assam, Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal and Orissa observe a holiday. In North India, Labour Day is mostly not given its previous importance as a holiday now.
May 1 is also celebrated as "Maharashtra Day" & "Gujarat Day" to mark the date in 1960, when the two western states attained statehood after the erstwhile Bombay State was divided on linguistic lines. Maharashtra Day is held at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai.
The Governor of the state takes the salute at the ceremonial parade,
comprising members of the state reserve police force, Brihanmumbai
Commando Force, home guards, civil defence, fire brigade and city
police. Schools and offices in Maharashtra remain closed on May 1. A similar parade is held to celebrate Gujarat Day in Gandhinagar.
History
International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the May 4, 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. The police were trying to disperse a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday,
when an unidentified person threw a bomb at the police. The police
responded by firing on the workers, killing four demonstrators.
"Reliable witnesses testified that all the pistol flashes came from the
center of the street, where the police were standing, and none from the
crowd. Moreover, initial newspaper reports made no mention of firing by
civilians. A telegraph pole at the scene was filled with bullet holes,
all coming from the direction of the police."
In 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle,
following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international
demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891.
Subsequently, the May Day Riots of 1894 occurred. In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on "all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions
of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the
legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the
proletariat, and for universal peace." The congress made it "mandatory
upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May
1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."
In many countries, the working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday, and their efforts largely succeeded. May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups. In Germany, May Day coincides with Walpurgisnacht. May Day has been an important official holiday in countries such as the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In the United States and Canada, the official holiday for workers is Labor Day
in September. A September holiday was first proposed for the United
States in the 1880s, before the Haymarket affair. Groups in Canada were
already celebrating a Labour Day. In 1887, Oregon
was the first state to make it a public holiday. By the time it became a
federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day. After the Haymarket affair, US President Grover Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the affair. Thus, in 1887, it was established as an official holiday in September to support the Labor Day that the Knights favored.
In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated May 1 to "Saint Joseph The Worker". Saint Joseph is for the Church the patron saint of workers and craftsmen (among others).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day#India
