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May Day |
World Labor Day |
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BC: First Roman Floralia1886: First nationwide General Strike for 8-hour day 340,000 U.S. workers in Chicago, Milwaukee & other cities strike. Four demonstrators are killed & over 200 wounded when police attack the Chicago rally. 1889: First International Labor Day 1890: May Day labor demonstrations spread to 13 other countries; 30,000 march in Chicago as the newly prominent American Federation of Labor throws its weight behind the 8-hour day campaign. 1891: Army machine guns women & children carrying flowers & palms, killing 14 & wounding 40 at a peaceful May Day rally at Fourmies, France. 1906: Twelve hundred members of the Iron Molders Union in Milwaukee strike for shorter hours & a pay increase. 1933: Christian anarchist Catholic Worker founded, NYC. 1977: State-sponsored paramilitary groups open fire on tens of thousands of May Day demonstrators in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 37 1986: 1.5 million take part in South African general strike 1996: Germany: Riots with Berlin police erupt after two separate May Day marches of 30,000 people. 1996: 3 killed & 69 injured when Turkish police attack banned leftist demonstrators in a 100,000 person May Day rally in Istanbul, Turkey. 1998: 500,000 workers attend May Day rally in Copenhagen Denmark marking day 5 of all-out strike by 500,000 workers demanding holidays & 35 hour week amongst other demands. |
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Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep,
eight hours of recreation! Hundreds of thousands
of American workers were joining a new labor organization, the Knights
of Labor, and on May 1, 1886, took to the streets to demand universal
adoption of the 8-hour day. Chicago was the center of Rewritten and condensed from The Daily Bleed |
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Floralia
Beltane
May
is named after the goddess Maia, the wife of Mars. 
Floralia
and Beltane
Ancient
Roman Floralia (Florales Ludi) was a festival from April 28 - May 2 which
began in Rome in 238 B.C. Floralia was originally a Spring Festival which
honors Roman goddess of flowers, Flora (Chloris) another manifestation
of the earth-goddess which includes Fauna, Maia and Ops. The temple of
this goddess was founded on this day on the Aventine. Offerings of milk
and honey were made on this day and the surrounding five days, which comprise
the Florifertum. The city would have been decorated in flowers, and the
people would wear floral wreaths or flowers in their hair. Games would
be celebrated on this day. The celebration of this day survives in many
cultures where it is known as May Day.
The
maypole was later added from the Celts' Druidic tree worship. The maypole
with its flower crown representing sexual organs channels the Earth's
energy through the circlet around its top, bringing fertility to all who
dance around it. The ribbons were traditionally red and white, the colors
of marriage and consummation. The dancers would go under the first person
and over the next weaving the ribbons about the tree.
the movement and workers had been calling for an 8-hour day for months.
By May 2, 80,000 were on strike, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing
to a standstill. On Monday, May 3, a fight involving hundreds broke out
at McCormick Reaper between locked-out unionists & scabs McCormick had
hired. The Chicago police moved in with clubs & guns to restore order,
killing four unionists & wounding many others. Angered by the deadly force
of the police, a group of anarchists, led by August Spies & Albert Parsons,
called on workers to arm themselves & participate in a massive protest
demonstration in Haymarket Square on Tuesday evening, May 4. Only 3,000
attended,
but near the end of the evening, an individual, whose identity is still
in dispute (possibly a police agent provocateur), threw a bomb that killed
seven police & injured 67 others. Hysterical city & state government officials
rounded up 
