মহান মে দিবস জিন্দাবাদ 

মে দিবস কি? কেন মে দিবস উদযাপন? আজ শ্রমিক শ্রেনীর কাছে মে দিবসের তাত্পর্জই বা কি? এই বিষয়ে রোসা লুক্সেমবার্গ, এলিয়ানোর  মার্ক্সের বিভিন্ন লেখা এবং ২ রা মে'১৮৮৬ নিউওর্ক টাইম পত্রিকাতে "মে দিবসের" ঘটনার প্রকাশিত রিপোর্ট নিচে প্রকাশ করা হ'ল I

Rosa Luxemburg

What Are the Origins of May Day?

(1894)

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Written: 1894. First published in Polish in Sprawa Robotnicza.
Published: From Selected Political Writings of Rosa Luxemburg, tr. Dick Howard, Monthly Review Press, 1971, pp. 315-16.
Online Version: marxists.org April, 2002.
Transcribed: http://www.ultrared.org/lm_mayday.html.
Proofed: by Matthew Grant.

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The happy idea of using a proletarian holiday celebration as a means to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided in 1856 to organize a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day. The day of this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for the year 1856. But this first celebration had such a strong effect on the proletarian masses of Australia, enlivening them and leading to new agitation, that it was decided to repeat the celebration every year.

In fact, what could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? Thus, the idea of a proletarian celebration was quickly accepted and, from Australia, began to spread to other countries until finally it had conquered the whole proletarian world.

The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886 they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day 200,000 of them left their work and demanded the eight-hour day. Later, police and legal harassment prevented the workers for many years from repeating this [size] demonstration. However in 1888 they renewed their decision and decided that the next celebration would be May 1, 1890.

In the meanwhile, the workers’ movement in Europe had grown strong and animated. The most powerful expression of this movement occurred at the International Workers’ Congress in 1889. At this Congress, attended by four hundred delegates, it was decided that the eight-hour day must be the first demand. Whereupon the delegate of the French unions, the worker Lavigne from Bordeaux, moved that this demand be expressed in all countries through a universal work stoppage. The delegate of the American workers called attention to the decision of his comrades to strike on May 1, 1890, and the Congress decided on this date for the universal proletarian celebration.

In this case, as thirty years before in Australia, the workers really thought only of a one-time demonstration. The Congress decided that the workers of all lands would demonstrate together for the eight-hour day on May 1, 1890. No one spoke of a repetition of the holiday for the next years. Naturally no one could predict the lightning-like way in which this idea would succeed and how quickly it would be adopted by the working classes. However, it was enough to celebrate the May Day simply one time in order that everyone understand and feel that May Day must be a yearly and continuing institution [...].

The first of May demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day. But even after this goal was reached, May Day was not given up. As long as the struggle of the workers against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class continues, as long as all demands are not met, May Day will be the yearly expression of these demands. And, when better days dawn, when the working class of the world has won its deliverance then too humanity will probably celebrate May Day in honor of the bitter struggles and the many sufferings of the past.

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Rosa Luxemburg

The Idea of May Day on the March

(1913)

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Written: First published in Liepziger Volkszeitung, April 30, 1913.
Published: From Selected Political Writings of Rosa Luxemburg, tr. Dick Howard (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1971).
Online Version: marxists.org April 2002.

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In the middle of the wildest orgies of imperialism, the world holiday of the proletariat is repeating itself for the twenty-fourth time. What has taken place in the quarter of a century since the epoch-making decision to celebrate May Day is an immense part of the historical path. When the May demonstration made its debut, the vanguard of the International, the German working class, was breaking the chains of a shameful law of exception and setting out on the path of a free, legal development. The period of the long depression on the world market since the crash of the 1870s had been overcome, and the capitalist economy had just begun a phase of splendid growth which would last nearly a decade. At the same time, after twenty years of unbroken peace, the world breathed a sigh of relief, remembering the period of war in which the modern European state system had received its bloody baptism. The path seemed free for a peaceful cultural development; illusions, hopes of a reasonable, pacific discussion between labor and capital grew abundantly like green corn in the ranks of socialism. Propositions like “to hold out the open hand to the good will” marked the beginning of the 1890s; promises of an imperceptible “gradual move into socialism” marked its end. Crises, wars, and revolution were supposed to have been things of the past, the baby shoes of modern society; parliamentarism and unions, democracy in the state and democracy in the factory were supposed to open the doors of a new, better order.

The course of events has submitted all of these illusions to a fearful test. At the end of the 1890s, in place of the promised, smooth, social-reforming cultural development, began a period of the most violent and acute sharpening of the capitalistic contradictions – a storm and stress, a crashing and colliding, a wavering and quaking in the foundations of the society. In the following decade, the ten-year period of economic prosperity was paid for by two violent world crises. After two decades of world peace, in the last decade of the past century followed six bloody wars, and in the first decade of the new century four bloody revolutions. Instead of the social reforms – conspiracy laws, penal laws, and penal praxis; instead of industrial democracy – the powerful concentration of capital in cartels and business associations, and the international practice of gigantic lock-outs. And instead of the new growth of democracy in the state – a miserable breakdown of the last remnants of bourgeois liberalism and bourgeois democracy. Specifically in the case of Germany the fate of the bourgeois parties since the 1890s has brought: the rise and immediate, hopeless dissolution of the National Socialists; the split of the “radical” opposition and the reunification of its splinters in the morass of the reaction; and finally the transformation of the “center” from a radical peoples’ party to a conservative governmental party. The shifting in the development of the parties was similar in other capitalist countries. In general, the revolutionary working class sees itself today standing alone, opposed to a closed, hostile reaction of the ruling classes and their malicious tricks.

The sign under which this whole development, both economic and political, has been consummated, the formula back to which its results point, is imperialism. This is no new element, no unexpected turn in the general historical path of the capitalist society. Armaments and wars, international contradictions and colonial politics accompany the history of capitalism from its cradle. It is the most extreme intensification of these elements, a drawing together, a gigantic storming of these contradictions which has produced a new epoch in the course of modern society. In a dialectical interaction, both cause and effect of the immense accumulation of capital and the heightening and sharpening of the contradictions which go with it internally, between capital and labor; externally, between the capitalist states – imperialism has opened the final phase, the division of the world by the assault of capital. A chain of unending, exorbitant armaments on land and on sea in all capitalist countries because of rivalries; a chain of bloody wars which have spread from Africa to Europe and which at any moment could light the spark which would become a world fire; moreover, for years the uncheckable specter of inflation, of mass hunger in the whole capitalist world – all of these are the signs under which the world holiday of labor, after nearly a quarter of a century, approaches. And each of these signs is a flaming testimony of the living truth and the power of the idea of May Day.

The brilliant basic idea of May Day is the autonomous, immediate stepping forward of the proletarian masses, the political mass action of the millions of workers who otherwise are atomized by the barriers of the state in the day-to-day parliamentary affairs, who mostly can give expression to their own will only through the ballot, through the election of their representatives. The excellent proposal of the Frenchman Lavigne at the Paris Congress of the International added to this parliamentary, indirect manifestation of the will of the proletariat a direct, international mass manifestation: the strike as a demonstration and means of struggle for the eight-hour day, world peace, and socialism.

And in effect what an upswing this idea, this new form of struggle has taken on in the last decade! The mass strike has become an internationally recognized, indispensable weapon of the political struggle. As a demonstration, as a weapon in the struggle, it returns again in innumerable forms and gradations in all countries for nearly fifteen years. As a sign of the revolutionary reanimation of the proletariat in Russia, as a tenacious means of struggle in the hands of the Belgian proletariat, it has just now proved its living power. And the next, most burning question in Germany – the Prussian voting rights – obviously, because of its previous slipshod treatment, points to a rising mass action of the Prussian proletariat up to the mass strike as the only possible solution.

No wonder! The whole development, the whole tendency of imperialism in the last decade leads the international working class to see more clearly and more tangibly that only the personal stepping forward of the broadest masses, their personal political action, mass demonstrations, and mass strikes which must sooner or later open into a period of revolutionary struggles for the power in the state, can give the correct answer of the proletariat to the immense oppression of imperialistic policy. In this moment of armament lunacy and war orgies, only the resolute will to struggle of the working masses, their capacity and readiness for powerful mass actions, can maintain world peace and push away the menacing world conflagration. And the more the idea of May Day, the idea of resolute mass actions as a manifestation of international unity, and as a means of struggle for peace and for socialism, takes root in the strongest troops of the International, the German working class, the greater is our guarantee that out of the world war which, sooner or later, is unavoidable, will come forth a definite and victorious struggle between the world of labor and that of capital.

Eleanor Marx

Speech on the First May Day
Hyde park, 4 May 1890

abridged

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Source: Eleanor Marx, Vol. 2, Yvonne Kapp, Pantheon, 1976;
HTML: for marxists.org in April, 2002.

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We have not come to do the work of political parties, but we have come here in the cause of labour, in its own defence, to demand its own rights. I can remember when we came in handfuls of a few dozen to Hyde Park to demand an Eight Hours' Bill, but the dozens have grown to hundreds, and the hundreds to thousands, until we have this magnificent demonstration that fills the park today. We are standing face to face with another demonstration, but I am glad to see that the great masses of the people are on our side. Those of us who have gone through all the worry of the Dock Strike, and especially the Gasworkers' Strike, and have seen the men, women and children stand round us, have had enough of strikes, and we are determined to secure an eight hours' day by legal enactment; unless we do so, it will be taken from us at the first opportunity. We will only have ourselves to blame if we do not achieve the victory which this great day could so easily give us. There is in the park this afternoon a man whom Mr. Gladstone once imprisoned– Michael Davitt; but Mr. Gladstone is now on the best of terms with him. What do you suppose is the reason for the change? Why has the Liberal Party been so suddenly converted to Home Rule? Simply because the Irish people sent 80 members to the House of Commons to support the Conservatives; in the same way we must kick these Liberal and Radical members out if they refuse to support our programme. I am speaking this afternoon not only as a Trade Unionist, but as a Socialist. Socialists believe that the eight hours' day is the first and most immediate step to be taken, and we aim at a time when there will no longer be one class supporting two others, but the unemployed both at the top and at the bottom of society will be got rid of. This is not the end but only the beginning of the struggle; it is not enough to come here to demonstrate in favour of an eight hours' day. We must not be like some Christians who sin for six days and go to church on the seventh, but we must speak for the cause daily, and make the men, and especially the women that we meet, come into the ranks to help us.

"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you–
Ye are many–they are few."

Mayday

Western Labor Parades

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First Published: New York Times, May 2 1886, p. 2;
Source: http://womhist.binghamton.edu/iwd/doc2.htm;
HTML: for marxists.org in April, 2002;
Proofed and Corrected: by Dawn Gaitis, 2007.

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Introduction

On May 1, 1886, working men mobilized in support of the eight-hour workday in cities across the United States. In this document the New York Times reported on the diverse ways that the event unfolded across the United States, with some employers insisting that they would not pay a full day's wages for eight hours' work. One consistent theme, however, was the overwhelmingly male composition of the demonstrators.

WESTERN LABOR PARADES
THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT IN CHICAGO.
STRIKERS MARCH THROUGH THE STREETS AND LISTEN TO HARANGUES, BUT NO VIOLENCE ATTEMPTED.

CHICAGO, May 1. – One good-sized procession, one small one, two small meetings, some gatherings too feeble to be called meetings, and less than 30,000 laboring men taking a holiday, either willingly or unwillingly, represent the first day of the era in which, it has been declared, eight hours shall constitute a day's work and 10 hours' pay shall be gotten for eight hours' work. The red flag has bobbed up here and there, some incendiary speeches have been made, and on one occasion the police have had to expel a crowd of 1,000 men in which the tramp outnumbered the workman from railroad property. No blood has been spilled, and the 1st of May has been more of a holiday than it usually is in a land where people get up and move upon that date. Opinion is divided to-night as to whether this is all there is to be of the eight-hour movement or whether it is a parade prior to an actual engagement. By far the most interested part of to-day's features has been furnished by the freight handlers, for they were the men who came into mild conflict with the police. The men held a meeting on the Harrison-street Viaduct early this morning. The speeches were good natured, but firm, and there was nothing to show that the men had changed their minds about not going to work till they were given eight hours' work and ten hours' pay. After the meeting adjourned the strikers made a tour of the railroad freight depots. Wherever men were found at work they were induced, either by arguments or threats, to quit. At the Lake Shore station the doors and windows were closed, but a striker with a sharp eye discovered that freight handlers were at work inside. The doors were broken down and a crowd 1,000 strong forced its way into the building. A couple of policemen tried to drive the intruders out, but, of course, could not. Capt. Buckley and a squad of men had better luck, and the crowd tumbled out into the street.

At the Wabash station a notice to the effect that the road was in the hands of a Receiver and therefore could not be safely interfered with [h]ad no terrors for the crowd. The Illinois Central and Northwestern (Galena Division) freight handlers were visited but not molested because they have made their demands and given the railroad companies until Monday to answer. The freight handlers on every road running into Chicago, except the two last named, are, therefore, on a strike, and declare that they will not return to work till their demands are granted. The railroad companies say they can not and will not grant the demands, and that the place of every freight handler who does not report for work Monday morning will be filled by a new man as soon as a man can be found. The companies say they will have no trouble in engaging new men.

The Mayor says he will furnish the new hands with protection. Many of the roads expect that the old men will return to work Monday morning.

About 10,000 Bohemians, Poles, and Germans employed in and about the lumber yards marched through the streets to-day with music and flags. There were two red flags carried at the head of the procession. At one point the procession and a funeral party came together at right angles, and there was a heated discussion as to which should have the right of way. The funeral lost. The procession rolled through the streets like a wave following a tugboat up a narrow stream. Both margins of the rush lapped into the fringing saloon, lapped them dry, and rushed out again, running a little slower for the detention. Some incendiary speeches advising that the torch be applied to the lumber yards were made. The other procession included 1,200 furniture men and wood workers, who were quiet and orderly. The freight handlers held a second meeting in the afternoon and listened to more speeches.

As nearly as can be estimated the men not at work to-day were divided as follows: Laboring men taking a holiday of their own accord (including the 10,000 lumbermen), 15,000; freight handlers who have struck, 2,500; carpenters, woodworkers, and other workmen who have struck, 5,000; men who are practically locked out, their employers having closed their shops indefinitely because of the existing troubles, 5,000; total, 27,500. This estimate is probably an outside one.

The temper of the crowds who watched the processions marching through the streets to-day was that of curious interest only. Here and there a bit of sullenness was apparent, and this in the eyes of some indicated probable trouble as soon as another working week begins. An amusing feature of the strike for a shorter day came out to-day in connection with the demands of the men employed in the breweries, who demanded 10 hours' work, 10 per cent. advance in wages, and free beer when they felt disposed to drink. The employers replied, granting an hour's less work per day without reduction of pay, and beer at 6, 9, 11, 12, and 4 o'clock, not more than three glasses to be drank, however, at one time.

FEWER HOURS DEMANDED

ST. LOUIS, MO., May 1. – The furniture manufacturers of this city formed an association last night and unanimously resolved to operate their factories on the eight hours per day system after to-day, on a basis of eight hours' wages. They also resolved that they would tolerate no interference as to whom they shall employ or how their business shall be managed. An Executive Committee of seven was appointed, to which will be submitted for settlement all differences which may arise. In case of failure to settle any serious trouble, a general shut-down of the factories may at any time be ordered.

All the plumbers in the city, 200 in number, quit work this morning. They made a demand yesterday of the bosses that they adopt the eight-hour system without decreasing their wages, beginning to-day. The employers considered it too short a notice and asked for further time to consider the matter, requesting the men to remain at work until they should have arrived at a decision. This the men refused to do and stopped work.

Several hundred carpenters attended a meeting of the Carpenters' Union last night to consider the eight-hour movement. It was decided that beginning to-day they should go to work at 8 o'clock in the morning, take an hour for dinner, and quit at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, thus being in service eight hours. No strike is expected to grow out of this action, as the bosses have agreed to the proposition and the men demand pay for but eight hours' work.

Two hundred men employed on the water works in East St. Louis struck to-day for eight hours' work per day and ten hours' wages. The city refused to grant their demand and will endeavor to procure new men to fill the strikers' places.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., May 1. – May Day has brought no general strike here among the workingmen, yet there is much unrest, and it cannot be definitely determined what will be done next week. Inquiry among the employers of the Sarven Wheel Works, which yesterday shut down until Wednesday, notifying their employes that they would give eight hours' pay for eight hours' work, and that all who wished to comply with those terms could return to work on Wednesday, discloses a general feeling of hope that nothing precipitating trouble or protracted idleness will result out of the present condition of things. In some of the departments requests for an increase in wages have been made and a few employers have evinced a desire to bring about a general demand for an increase in wages to the amount of from 10 to 15 per cent. and the inauguration of the eight-hour rule. This does not seem to be generally supported. "Men can't step out on the street now and find bosses asking them to take jobs," said one of the Sarven wheel employes to-day. "We get from $1.25 to $1.50 per day as day men, spoke turners make $8 and $10 a week. These are not high wages, but they are as high as can be paid, probably, in the present condition of things." It seems likely that quite 90 per cent. of the men will return to work next Monday unless the situation changes materially in the meantime. Employes say that a majority of the men would vote for 10 hours' work per day, as the firm had announced that wages would be regulated by the number of hours of work. Among the requests preferred by the men of the company was one for a 10 per cent. advance asked by the spoke assorters. These hope to meet with a favorable reply, but make no threats in case of refusal.

All of the employes of the Central Chair Company, 80 in number, went out on a strike this morning soon after the whistle blew. Last night a committee waited on the officers and asked for Saturday half holidays without decrease of wages. The firm was unable to grant the request and the men returned to work this morning apparently satisfied, but at a given moment retired in a body from the factory. They asked 57 hours' work for a week with 60 hours' pay, a concession granted in another chair shop. The men say they were not ordered out by the Knights of Labor, but came out on their own hook. The officers say the demand cannot be granted, which is in effect an increase of 5 per cent. in pay. After paying all obligations last year the company had a surplus of 4 1/2 per cent. To grant an increase of 5 per cent. in wages would virtually lead to bankruptcy. If the price of chairs should be advanced wages could be increased, but otherwise a general advance is impossible.

DETROIT, May 1. – The threatened strike at Grand Rapids is finally averted, and to-day is given up to a holiday there. The employers accept eight hours as a day's work with a corresponding reduction in wages on all workmen above $1 per day. On this basis an advance of 5 per cent is made, with the promise of as much more in two months. No question is raised over the employers' announcement that they will run their factories in their own way, employing and discharging whom they please. These matters are expected to adjust themselves.

There has been no difficulty in this city except in the breweries. Nearly all the workmen in these establishments are out for a reduction of hours, an increase of wages, and the enforcement of strict union rules. The builders and carpenters have compromised their difficulties by agreeing for a year on a basis of nine hours' work for the present ten hours' pay, and six months' notice thereafter of any change.

MILWAUKEE, Wis., May 1. – All brewers and maltsters in the city struck to-day. Not less than 3,000 men are affected.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 1. – In response to a demand for the adoption of the eight-hour system the Furniture Exchange to-day decided to shut down works unless employes would accept pay for eight hours' work.

WASHINGTON, May 1. – The eight-hour rule adopted by the various building trades unions will go into effect in this city Monday morning, and as most of the master builders and contractors are determined to resist the demand for shorter hours, building operations will be practically suspended until some compromise can be effected.

PITTSBURG[sic], Penn., May 1 – The furniture manufacturers having refused to grant their employes their demands for a reduction from ten to eight hours' labor per day, a general strike was inaugurated to-day. Nearly every furniture factory in Pittsburg[sic] and Allegheny City is closed and over 600 men are idle. Both sides are firm and there is no immediate prospect of a settlement.

The stonecutters in the two cities are also out for nine hours a day, but will return to work on Monday, the employers generally having conceded to the demands.

The carpenters will strike on Monday.

PHILADELPHIA, May 1. – The cabinetmakers refuse to compromise with the manufacturers, and a general strike will probably result. They demand that on and after May 8 eight hours shall constitute a day's work. The employes of the Hae & Kilburn Manufacturing Company were notified to-day that the demands would not be granted, and accordingly 30 of the 50 cabinetmakers employed by the company laid down their tools and ceased work. The rest refused to join in the strike. The company employs about 200 men, Mr. C. Kilburn, the President of the company, said to-day that he will fill the places of the strikers next week.

TROY, N.Y., May 1. – This morning about 300 Italians, employed by the Delaware and Hudson Company in building a double track between Coon's Crossing and Ballston, struck for an increase of wages. They have been receiving $1.10 per day, demanded $1.25, and were offered $1.15, which they refused to accept. After stopping work they tied red handkerchiefs to their pickaxes and shovels and marched down the track in a body to another place where a second gang was at work and induced them to join the strikers. A large number of Italians arrived from New York by boat this morning and proceeded to Round Lake to work on the railroad.

HARTFORD, Conn., May 1. – At noon to-day two of the striking gasmen returned to work for $12 a week, including Sundays. They struck for $14 and the keeping open of a door to the retort room, so that they could enjoy a draught of air. This opening cooled the retort, and Superintendent Harbison ordered the door closed, which order not being obeyed was enforced, first by the nailing up of the door and afterward by the bricking up of the aperture. The men, who had been getting $11 a week, then struck, but the Knights of Labor did not indorse[sic] them, and they had a hard time of it. All but the two named are still out, but it is expected that they will return by Monday. A meeting of all the labor organizations is called for next Thursday night to arrange for the employment of the unemployed persons in the building trades. It is supposed that the movement will be in the nature of a co-operative enterprise to put up small homes. Carpenters have been warned not to go to Bridgeport, as there is to be a labor movement there soon.

NEW-HAVEN, Conn., May 1. – Some of the dock laborers employed by the New-Haven and Northampton Railroad Company struck to-day for an increase from $1.35 to $1.50 a day.

BOSTON, Mass., May 1. – In this city the Trades Union of Carpenters, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, and the Plumbers' Union – 5,000 men in all – have resolved to demand eight hours on Monday and will strike if the demand is refused. The Master Builders' Association, 200 strong, unanimously adopted a manifesto yesterday afternoon bitterly condemning the action of the workmen, laying the whole blame on the labor unions, and declaring that the demands cannot be complied with without disaster to the business and working men both, and that they will close up business rather than submit to any interference.

PORTLAND, Me., May 1. – All cigarmakers belonging to the union here are out, the manufacturers having refused to grant their demand for an advance in wages.