International Workers' Day celebrates the struggle of the working class for its labor rights

Published at: 01/05/2024 08:30 AM

International Workers' Day is the biggest celebration of the world labor movement, it is a day of vindictive struggle and a tribute to the Chicago Martyrs.

The Chicago Martyrs were a group of trade unionists killed in 1886 for demanding an 8-hour workday, at that time it was normal to work 12 to 16 hours.

On May 1, 1886, 200,000 workers began a strike simultaneously in several cities in the United States (USA) while another 200,000 threatened to stop.
The initial strike that began on May 1 would reach its peak three days later, on May 4, in what was known as the Haymarket Revolt.

That great strike began on May 1, 1886 and had 5 thousand simultaneous strikes. However, the Mc. Cormik from Chicago didn't stop, and at its doors, while there were workers who were demonstrating, the police opened fire.

This massacre ended in a trial, which years later was described as illegitimate and malicious, against eight workers, where five of them were sentenced to death by hanging and three were imprisoned and sentenced to 15 years of forced labor, although their guilt could never be proven.

These workers were the so-called Chicago Martyrs and in homage to them, the commemoration of May Day, International Workers' Day, was commemorated, with only two exceptions worldwide: the United States and Canada, which do not adhere to this date but celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September, as well as New Zealand, which does so on the fourth Monday of October.

Mazo News Team