Labour Day

This article is about annual labour observances internationally. For the holiday observed in the United States, see Labor Day.

Labour Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the world that resulted from efforts of the labour union movement, to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers.

Labour Day Parade in Toronto in the early 1900s

The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and by May Day.

In New Zealand, groups of workers had achieved the 8 hour working day since the beginning of organised British settlement in 1840.

Labour Day around the world

Main article: May Day

1st May 2007 celebrations in Rome. There were about 700,000 people at the concert

Most countries celebrate Labour Day on May 1, known as May Day. In Europe the day has older significance as a rural festival which is predominantly more important than that of the Labour Day movement. The holiday has become internationalised and several countries hold multi-day celebrations including parades, shows and other patriotic and labour-oriented events.

• In Germany, Labour Day was established as an official holiday in 1933 after the Nazi Party, or NSDAP, rose to power. It was supposed to symbolise the new-found unity between the state and the German people. However, just one day later, on May 2 1933, all free unions were outlawed and destroyed. But since the holiday had been celebrated by German workers for many decades before the official state endorsement, the NSDAP's attempt to appropriate it left no long-term resentment.
• In India, Labour day is a national holiday. Maharashtra (State in India), Labour Day May 1 was renamed Maharashtra Diwas.
• In Poland, Labour Day May 1 was renamed "State Holiday" in 1990.
• In Sweden, Finland and Norway, May 1 is a national holiday celebrated through widespread demonstrations by the entire workers' movement.
• In Italy, May 1 is national holiday, demonstrations of the trade unions are widespread. Since the '90s, the trade unions organise a massive free concert in Rome, with attendances topping a million people.
• In Denmark May 1 is celebrated through widespread demonstrations by the entire workers' movement throughout the country. There are also out-door activities celebrating the day in many major cities.
• In Israel May 1 is not officially celebrated, but each year the socialist and marxist youth movements arrange a parade in Tel aviv.
• In Korea, Labour Day is a national holiday for labourers.
• In Iceland, 1 May. Although it is a national holiday, few people consider this day special because the rise in the Icelandic economy that has brought prosperity for most Icelanders.
• In Ireland, Labour Day (also called May Day) is celebrated on the first Monday in May, and is a public holiday.

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Canada

Labour Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880s. The September date has remained unchanged, even though the government was encouraged to adopt May 1 as Labour Day, the date celebrated by the majority of the world. Moving the holiday, in addition to breaking with tradition, could have been viewed as aligning the Canadian labour movements with internationalist sympathies. Another major reason for keeping the current September date is that the United States celebrates its Labor Day on the same day. Synchronizing the holiday reduces possible inconvenience for businesses with major operations on both sides of the border. The origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to a printer's revolt in 1872 in Toronto, where labourers tried to establish a 54-hour work week. At that time, any union activity was considered illegal and the organizers were jailed, at the behest of George Brown. Protest marches of over 10,000 workers were formed in response, which eventually led to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald repealing the anti-union laws and arranging the release of the organizers as well.

The fight of the Toronto printers had a second, lasting legacy. The parades held in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers' strike led to an annual celebration. In 1882 American labour leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labour festivals in Toronto. Returning to the United States, Peter McGuire along with the Knights of Labor organized a similar parade on September 5 1882 in New York City. In 1884 another parade was held, and the Knights passed resolutions to make this an annual event. Other labour organizations (and there were many), but notably the affiliates of the International Workingmen's Association, many of whom were socialists or anarchists, favoured a May 1 holiday. With the event of Chicago's Haymarket riots in early May of 1886, president Grover Cleveland believed that a May 1 holiday could become an opportunity to commemorate the riots. Thus, fearing that it might strengthen the socialist movement, he quickly moved in 1887 to support the position of the Knights of Labor and their date for Labour Day. The date was adopted in Canada in 1894 by the government of Prime Minister John Thompson. Socialist delegates in Paris in 1889 appointed May 1 as the official International Labour Day. (See May Day).

While Labour Day parades and picnics are organized by unions, many Canadians today simply regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Non-union celebrations include picnics, fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Since the new school year generally starts right after Labour Day, families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school, which traditionally begin their new year the day after.

An old custom prohibits the wearing of white after Labour Day. The explanations for this tradition range from the fact that white clothes are worse protection against cold weather in the winter to the fact that the rule was intended as a status symbol for new members of the middle class in the late 19th woocentury and early 20th century.

A Labour Day tradition in Canada is the Labour Day Classic, a Canadian Football League event where rivals like Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts, and Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers play on Labour Day weekend. Before the demise of the Ottawa Renegades after the 2005 season, that team played the nearby Montreal Alouettes on Labour Day weekend. Since then, the Alouettes have played the remaining team in the league, the BC Lions.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October. Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen to also only work for eight hours a day and in October 1840 a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910 the government "Mondayised" the holiday so that it would be observed on the same day throughout the nation. Nowadays for the majority of New Zealanders it's "just another holiday".

The United States

Main article: Labor Day

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that takes place on the first Monday of September.

China

Labour Day is celebrated on May 1, and is a public holiday.

Since the 1990s, the Labour Day holiday has been extended from 1 day to 3 days. Furthermore, the Chinese government makes it a 7 day holiday by moving the prior and upcoming weekends together with these 3 days. Now the Labour Day holiday is one of the three Golden Weeks in China. The extended length of the holiday allows millions of Chinese people to travel during this period.

Starting January 1st, 2008, the People's Republic of China has reduced this holiday period down to 1 day, while simultaneously reviving three traditional Chinese holidays: Dragon Boat Festival (端午节）, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节）.

The Bahamas

Labour Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June, and is a public holiday.

References

• http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/facshts/stats_08-11.htm

See also

• May Day
• 1886 Haymarket Riot

External links

• Canadian Holidays, Government of Canada
• Labour Day in Bulgaria
• The Canadian Roots of Labour Day
• An anarchist celebration of May Day
• How Labour Day was Celebrated in the 13th Century
• New Zealand Encyclopaedia history of the 8 hour movement

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