After a long
period when the workers' day was either assumed to be nearly
dead, or institutionalised and no longer a threat to authority,
it is back. Recent years have seen growing protests on 1 May,
and the anti-capitalist movement in many countries has made the
day its own. The spirit of rebellion to be found in such
protests is now being brought together to form a new and
powerful movement. So the London May Day march in 2002 is
organised not only by the rather low key Greater London
Association of Trades Councils (I should know, I am a
longstanding delegate and friendly critic of what form the May
Day march should take) but also by, it is admitted on all sides,
the somewhat more youthful and energetic forces of Globalise
Resistance.
Hobsbawm sees May Day as a 'labour ritual', a characteristic
form of organised labour, but actually the early May Days were a
lot more exciting than that. The first International May Day was
proclaimed by the socialist Second International in 1889.
However, the origins go back decades before this. The link
between May Day and the use of the red flag as a symbol for
socialist workers is close, perhaps above all in France. The
British angle is that not just of a demonstration, but of a
workers' festival based on miners' galas. So that first May Day
already inherited some complex traditions--a demonstration of
working class power which had to be respected, and was
respectable, but, again as Hobsbawm notes, combined with beer
and skittles. It was both a tremendous celebration of working
class culture and a display of working class organisation. There
were political speeches, and there was also eating, drinking and
games. This is what the social historian Peter Bailey has termed
'thinking and drinking', and to this day the London May Day
events comprise not just a march and political rally, but a
football tournament and an evening of culture as well.
The first British May Day demonstrations were actually held on
Sundays. So it was on Sunday 4 May 1890 that Engels commented
that 'the English working class joined up in the great
international army...the grandchildren of the old Chartists are
entering the line of battle'. Engels clearly saw the rise of the
May Day demonstration as the rebirth of the international labour
movement. At first getting united May Day demonstrations
including both trade unionists and socialists was difficult, and
unity had to be fought for over a number of years. A report of
the 1898 Manchester May Day demonstration notes that '26 trade
unions, the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic
Federation and the Manchester Labour Church took part in the
demonstration which was acknowledged to be the largest in point
of numbers and the most successful May Day labour demonstration
yet held'. The first May Day was planned as a one-off
demonstration. The fact that it became an annual event was due
not to the leaders of the Second International but pressure from
the grassroots.
Some socialist leaders at the time felt that the May Day march
should be an entirely serious, perhaps even glum affair. This
view of life may be familiar to those who have experienced some
British May Day activities in recent decades. However, by 1893
Engels was referring to May Day as a 'Maifeier' or celebration,
and in the same year the workers' leader Costa argued that
'Catholics have Easter--henceforth workers will have their own
Easter'. The Italian May Day perhaps led the way in the aspect
of celebration.
The original May Day demand was for a legal eight-hour day on an
international basis. However as the years rolled on May Day came to
assume the form of a wider demonstration of workers' power. It was here
that arguably the most potent aspect of May Day arose, the festival
becoming a one-day strike in many countries. For many others it was also
a commemoration of the US 'Chicago Martyrs'--anarchists framed and
executed by the state. May Day, as Hobsbawm notes, became such a huge
festival and demonstration that it also spawned a massive range of
badges, flags, papers and cartoons. Much of this is still familiar
today. However, an aspect which is less well known is the association of
the May Day events with spring, youth and rebirth. Here the symbol was a
flower. Almost always, whether a carnation in Austria or Italy, a paper
rose in Germany or a poppy in France, the flower was red. May Day became
an international socialist symbol of what the artist and designer Walter
Crane called the 'dawn of labour'. A Crane cartoon for May Day 1896, for
example, shows an English worker offering the hand of international
socialist cooperation to Italian, German, French and other workers with
the slogan 'International solidarity of labour--the true answer to
jingoism'. Crane dedicated the cartoon to 'the workers of the world'.
Eric Hobsbawm has unearthed a marvellous quote from an Italian worker
recalling what early May Days meant. The worker, Pietro Comollo, noted,
'Everybody used to say, "It's our festival--it's the workers' festival."
We knew vaguely that it was in memory of those who'd fought for the
eight hours, the Chicago Martyrs. So that was a symbolic fact. And then,
well...it was just a holiday--there were the red carnations. It was a
fighting demonstration...because we were all there together and united.
Even the anarchists turned up'. In some cases May Day demonstrations and
strikes continued during the First World War. Following the arrest of
the Scottish socialist leader John Maclean on 15 April 1918 and a charge
of sedition against him, the Glasgow May Day Committee called a one-day
strike for peace on 1 May 1919. Maclean's daughter Nan Milton has
recalled that 'when the great day dawned, the most sanguine hopes were
justified. One hundred thousand Glasgow workers took the day off to
march in procession, and thousands more lined the streets to cheer the
demonstrators as they passed by. Glasgow was on fire with red banners,
red ribbons and red rosettes. The air was alive with the sound of
revolutionary songs and with the blare of bands. Socialist literature
was showered everywhere and eagerly purchased on all sides. On Glasgow
Green orators spoke from 22 different platforms...sectarian bitterness
was forgotten. There was plenty of friendly criticism, but the common
struggle united all in bonds of real solidarity... This great
celebration finished up with a huge crowd marching to Duke Street
prison. Three times a tremendous shout arose from thousands of lusty
throats: "John Maclean! John Maclean! John Maclean!"'.
Celebration in the United Kingdom : Traditional English May Day rites
and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen,
celebrating Green Man day and dancing around a Maypole. Much of this
tradition derives from the pagan festival of Beltane. In Oxford on May
Morning, many pubs are open from sunrise, and some of the college bars
are open all night. Madrigals are still sung from the roof of the tower
of Magdalen College, with thousands gathering on Magdalen Bridge to
listen. Traditionally, revellers have jumped from the bridge into the
River Cherwell below as part of the celebrations. About one hundred
people did this in 2005. The river, however, was then only three feet
deep in places and more than half of those who jumped needed medical
treatment. St. Andrews has a similar student tradition — the majority of
the students gather on the beach late on April 30th and run into the
North Sea at sunrise on the 1st, often naked. This is accompanied by
torchlit processions and much celebration.
In recent years, the political events have split into two camps. The
mainstream workers' movement celebrates May Day on the first Monday
after May the first (which may or may not actually occur on 1 May). This
day is the national Spring Bank Holiday, and on it small scale rallies
are held by political parties (generally including, but not limited to,
the Labour Party, the Socialist Workers' Party, the Scottish Socialist
Party, the Communist Party of Britain and other left-wing groups). These
occasions are typified by the selling of propaganda materials, and beer
tents in parks. The actual date of 1 May generally features rallies and
marches organised by anarchist groups, although in recent years these
have also involved communist groups (particularly those of the
Trotskyist branch).
May Day marks springtime celebrations too such as :
* Walpurgis Night in Northern Europe, including the Finnish Vappu
celebrations
* Beltane in Ireland and Scotland
* Roodmas
* Calendimaggio in Northern and Central Italy, related to the return of
the sun and spring
* May Morning in Oxford
* Hamilton College hosts an annual music outdoor music festival known as
"May Day." However the name has no political connotations or association
with other May Day holidays. Rather the name simply refers to the fact
that the festival is staged in late April or early May.
These holidays were also respected by some early European settlers of
the American continent. In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and
is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general
and native Hawaiian culture in particular.
Celebration in Germany :
Berlin, Germany, particularly in the districts of Kreuzberg and
Prenzlauer Berg, traditionally has yearly demonstrations on May Day. In
1929, the social democratic SPD government prohibited the annual May Day
workers' demonstrations in Berlin. The communist party KPD, which was
the strongest party in Berlin, called demonstrations nonetheless. By the
end of the day, 32 demonstrators, workers and bystanders had been killed
by the police, at least 80 were seriously injured. The Berlin police,
under control of the supposedly pro-labor social democratic government,
had fired a total of 11,000 rounds of live ammunition. This incident,
remembered as Blutmai (ger.) (blood May) deepened the split between the
workers' parties KPD and SPD. This gave an advantage to the Nazis, who
became Germany's governing party in 1933, partly due to the fact that
the KPD and SPD had been unable to form an anti-Nazi coalition. The
Nazis adapted May Day to their purposes, calling it the "day of work",
which is still the official name for this public holiday. Ironically,
just after May Day - to be more precise, on May 2, 1933 - the Nazis
outlawed and all free labor unions and other independent workers'
organizations in Germany. The Reichsarbeitsdienst (or RAD, Reich Labour
Service) was formed in July 1934 as an amalgamation of the outlawed
unions.
In today's Germany May Day is still of political importance, with labor
unions and parties using this day for political campaigns and
activities, but since 1987 it has also become known for heavy rioting by
radical leftists, including the punk rock scene, Autonome and others,
but also "regular" youths not fond of the police. However, violence from
the political left has been on the decline in recent years, with May Day
2005 in Berlin being the most peaceful in nearly 23 years. In recent
years, neo-nazis and other groups on the far right like the NPD have
also used the day to schedule public demonstrations, often leading to
clashes with left-wing protesters, which turned especially violent in
the historical city of Leipzig in 1998 and 2005. In rural regions of
Germany, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of pagan origin are traditionally
held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of
May Poles, and young people use this opportunity to party, while the day
itself is used by many families to get some fresh air, wurst and beer.
Motto: "Tanz in den Mai!" ("Dance in May!").
Celebration in Australia :
In Australia, workers in some industries had claimed the eight hour day
in the 1850s. The new international Eight Hour day was welcomed by
Australian workers. On May 1st 1890, the Brisbane Workers editorial said
"May Day, this is our May Day, the by-gone jubilation of our forefathers
for the reconquering of by the bright sunshine of the bitter northern
winter, the new-born celebration of the passing of the workers' winter
of discontent. In Germany, in Austria, in Belgium, in France, all
through Europe, in the United Kingdom and in the great English speaking
republic across the Pacific, millions of workers are gathering at this
hour to voice the demands of Labor for fair conditions of laboring.
Never in all history was there such a meeting..." A large May Day
meeting was held in Melbourne in 1890, chaired by Dr Maloney,a highly
respected person who later became a federal Labor MP. The group of
radicals who called this metting had an inaugural meeting on May Day
1886, to coincide with the US movement protests. Anarchist activists
were prominent then, including J Andrews, Chummy Fleming, David Andrade
and Monty Miller.
Going Underground :
Such was the strength and power of those early May Day protests that,
those in authority tried to take it over. The Bolsheviks of course made
it a genuine workers' day, but Hitler also made May Day a national
holiday of labour, with very different imagery and meaning to that of
1889. After the First World War the nature of May Day demonstrations
began to change. For a start such huge expressions of working class
organisation were only possible where the labour movement was legal.
First in Italy, then in Germany and in numbers of other countries this
was not the case. The tradition continued underground, but this was a
very different matter to public displays. In general, certainly since
1945, two things can be said about the celebration of May Day. Firstly,
it has ebbed and flowed depending on the general level of class
confidence. Difficult though it may be to recall now, there were
actually huge May Day marches in Britain involving strike action in the
1970s. Edmund and Ruth Frow have recalled how 'many factories' in
Salford were closed as workers joined the protest. The continuing
tradition of strike action on May Day was one reason why a Labour
government acted to make it a public holiday. Even in the difficult
years of the 1980s the tradition continued. In his diary for Monday 7
May 1984 Tony Benn recalls May Day celebrations in Chesterfield at the
height of the 1984-85 miners' strike. He noted that it was the 'biggest
ever, with 10,000 people marching through the town. There were one or
two hiccups during the speeches. No woman speaker had been included, and
the women demanded the right to speak'.
The second thing that has endured about May Day is the iconography. The
colour red is still associated with 1 May, as are certain songs such as
the Internationale and Bandiera Rossa. It is important to remember both
the history and traditions of May Day, not only because those in
authority would like us to forget them, but also because in making May
Day again a huge international celebration of working class politics and
culture we can reappropriate this history and symbolism, and start to
make some of our own.
