May Day, a day for the renewed effort of workers, as a class, to combat the repressive capitalist system. A day to rejoice in their passing valiant struggle against the capitalist class and a resolve to carry it forth in the new year. It was a special day that belonged to the working class and was chosen by the working class.

So what happened to May Day? Here in the US no longer are there mass gatherings with rallying cries to forge on in the workers' struggle against the capitalist class. Nothing but stone silence. Is it because the working class had finally stormed the breastworks of the anti-working class capitalist system and annihilated it for all time. None whatsoever.

Suddenly, the air became still and the sails of the ship of worker's class struggle went limp. The siren song of the politician's fanfare, and the doling out of palliative reforms, lured the working class into a false sense of peace with the capitalist class. And, of course, to fortify this, the "fearless" leaders representing the workers in their unions chimed in with the fraudulent claim that now, "Capital and labor are brothers." Henceforth we have the exuberant and giddy with contentment celebration, "Labor Day." All with the blessing of capitalist politicians and union labor leaders.

Class struggle; What do you mean? Doesn't the capitalist class give us a three day weekend for enjoyment every year and a "smudge pot" of political and union leader malarkey to go with it?

Don't you know, the capitalist class has become so generous the working class doesn't need unions anymore!!! Enough of such talk, I can't wait to enjoy the benevolence of the capitalist class, their generous offering of a "three day weekend" this fall. Ah, such blissful ecstasy.

The forgotten May Day. The portent the working class faced then is still with it today.--RUSS

"We have obviously reached that point where, in the words of the May Day Conference, large national masses of labor will be hurled against each other in the international struggles of mighty capitalists, and where, therefore, International Socialism must fully emerge from national trade unionism." --Excerpted from a Daniel De Deleon Editorial in The People, May 5, 1895

"In New York, the May Day demonstrations of the Socialist Labor Party where "suppressed" by Mc Cuulagh [Chief of the New York Police]; neither parade nor open air mass meetings was allowed to take place. What was here the occasion for such summary action? Is the May Day demonstration an immoral one? Does it announce some unheard of social doctrine? No; no; no! The May Day demonstration is the demonstration of a principle and a method. The principle that the solidarity of the working class of all nations is a prerequisite for the realization of that aspiration of civilization--PEACE; and that the working class, the class that alone has to suffer by war, is also the class that has the MIGHT, that necessary thing to sustain RIGHT. The noble aim of PEACE and the practical means of MIGHT are both interwoven in our national history; rocked the cradle of the Nation's independence, the other affirmed it; in prose and poetry they have been extolled throughout the land; from the syndicated President, now our Chief Magistrate, to the lowest liveryed lackey upholding capitalism, not one is there who would venture to dispute either the aim or the method that the May Day demonstration enunciates. They must accept both." --Excerpted from a Daniel De Deleon editorial in The People, May 15, 1898

1936 May Day: "Whosoever may attempt to steal the day or turn it from its purpose....May Day will stand as the day designated by the workers of the world for fraternal interchange of greetings, for celebration, demonstration and reaffirmation of loyalty to the movement." Sadly, May Day has been stolen or more accurately the working class has forfeited it. The labor movement, what there is of it, is stone silent on May Day in the US.

First of May belongs to the International Socialist movement. Whosoever may attempt to steal the day or turn it from its purpose--patriotic societies, the American Legion, school boards or what not--May Day will stand as the day designated by the workers of the world for fraternal interchange of greetings, for celebration, demonstration and reaffirmation of loyalty to the movement.

May Day has immemorially been the day of "the folk," the day when the downtrodden, who lived close to the soil, with floral wreaths, songs and dances greeted the return of summer with its abundant yield of their "Mother Earth." With the advent of capitalism, the masses, the workers, were separated from the old mother, the world of labor turned into city slums and the change of the seasons meant only a change of misery.

However, with the advent of the labor movement, as new hope arrived, a new light appeared on the social horizon--of this light and hope May Day became the symbol. But even as the Earth Mother had not rendered to the folk of her abundance without labor, so a new social order of peace and justice could never come to the workers without a severe struggle, a class struggle to the bitter end, with their oppressors. The labor movement from its inception manifested itself in clashes between capital and labor. Strikes and strife grew incessantly. The workers had awakened to the realization that they too were humans, not mere beasts of burden, and that they had a right to a decent share of the good things of this earth. Then came the science of Socialism which showed that they were actually entitled to all, since all social wealth is the fruit of labor.

The labor and Socialist movement--particularly in Europe--was then in the stage which we may well designate "The Great March." The giant was awakening and demanding. From the slavery of the ages, from the filth, slum conditions and incessant toil of the early status of capitalism, the worker was steeping forth with slogans and programs that implied his recognition of himself as a human being. Wage demands were put forth and enforced by tremendous and bitterly fought strikes. The slogan, "the eight-hours day," resounded through the capitalist world. Sometimes it was amplified to read: eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for education and recreation. In short, the demand for the eight-hour day was a declaration that the laborer no longer looked upon himself as a beast of burden that could be driven at the owner's will ofttimes sixteen and eighteen hours a day. There were numerous other demands--sanitary working conditions, abolition of night work, of women's work in unhealthy and heavy labor, of child labor, etc. The worker, by a severe and often very costly struggle, was lifting himself, figuratively, by his own bootstraps to a higher level in the social scale. This uplifting by its own efforts, by a portion, at least, of the world proletariat was during the as yet undeveloped stage of capitalism, an important historic requirement as a preparation for its final struggle for emancipation. The vermin-infested, cringing slum dwellers, with the souls of serfs of the earliest status of capitalism, were not a class fit to "inherit the earth," govern and regulate a Cooperative Commonwealth. A new spirit, a feeling of solidarity, infused by its own efforts, had to take possession of labor.

Moreover, the demands of the rising hosts of labor were not always merely economic. As the worker's consciousness was awakened to his worth as a member of society, he made his demands for his place as a citizen. Tremendous universal suffrage demonstrations in various countries, sometimes followed by nationwide strikes, were instrumental in wringing the right to vote from frightened governments.

This era of "uplift" closed with the World War and the collapse of the "Second" Socialist International.--Excerpted from May Day vs. Labor Day, 1936 by Olive M. Johnson

The S.L.P. May Day Spells Education.

The spirit of May Day gives the lie to the servile spirit of brotherhood of capital and labor proclaimed on Labor Day. May Day stands for the solidarity of the working class of the world, in its struggle to overthrow capitalism and the wage system and the inauguration of internationally spirited Socialist Republics. In the United States this spirit of May Day is clearly and staunchly upheld by the Socialist Labor Party alone.

The Socialist party, the Communists and other groups who pretend to pay homage to the great day of labor, actually turn their celebration into caricatures by their pleas for reforms, doles and other governmental charities. The day for reform has passed. The working class is passing through a second great degradation, from which there is no uplift except when the workers themselves take, hold and operate the means of production and make secure for the producers the products of labor.

In opposition to the American Federation of Labor, to the Socialist party and the Communist party and all other reform groups the S.L.P. says:

The history of mankind has been a struggle for progress, taking the form of struggles for power between contending classes. Whenever a ruling class had fulfilled it mission, and its interests ceased to be in harmony with social interests, it was supplanted by the class before, which, by increasing economic and political powers, attained its revolutionary goal. This class, in turn, became a carrier of social progress until it had outlived its usefulness and, becoming reactionary and a stumbling block in the path of humanity, had to give way before the combined forces of social progress and a new revolutionary class.

With capitalism there remain in society just two contending classes, the capitalist class and the working class--the capitalist class, the owner of the means of production, which ownership today is wholly destructive of the life, liberty and happiness of the mass of the people; and the working class whose interests demand the abolition of private ownership in the means of life.

The interests of the working class demand the institution of collective ownership and control, guaranteeing to all the right to work, and by securing to all the full fruits of their labor ending for all time the destructive class wars which have up to now torn humanity asunder.

Where a social revolution is pending and, for whatever reason, is not accomplished, reaction is the alternative. Every reform granted by capitalism is a concealed measure of reaction. He who says reform says preservation, and he who says that reforms under capitalism are possible and worth while thereby declares that a continuation of capitalism is possible and worth while. But capitalism has grown into an all-destroying monster hat must be destroyed if humanity is to live.

To end this condition the Socialist Labor Party calls upon the working class and all other intelligent citizens to place the land and all the means of production, transportation and distribution in the hands of the useful producers as an organized industrial body, under a national industrial administration to take the place of the present outworn political or territorial government. And we further call upon the workers to hasten this work of social and human regeneration to the end that a speedy termination may be put to the present state of planless production, industrial war and social disorder, substituting for it the Socialist or Industrial Commonwealth of Emancipated Labor--a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all the factors of modern civilization.

It is to this end that the Socialist Labor Party celebrates May Day as a day of agitation and education to awaken the workers of American to an understanding of their interests as a class. The Socialist Labor Party also utilizes May Day to impress on the workers the necessity of classconscious revolutionary organization on the political field as represented by the Socialist Labor Party, to take possession of the Political State, in order to abolish forever this outworn instrument of class rule; and to organize on the economic field into Socialist Revolutionary Industrial Unions, with the clearly defined purpose of taking, holding and operating the means of production and the reconstruction of society into a Socialist Industrial Union Government.

This May Day is made to serve the purpose for which it was originally designated as a labor holiday, namely, to act as a harbinger of a future of freedom, peace and justice for all men. Thus Man Day continues to echo the inspiring battle-cry of the international proletariat:

All too few U.S. workers today understand or appreciate that May Day, as observed by Socialists, has a meaning directly related to their welfare and, indeed, to their survival. Its significance is more than that of the old Maypole festivities, which had their roots in primitive societies that each spring hailed a new season’s promise and the reunion of humanity with Mother Earth.

As Daniel De Leon once said, “The idea of May Day arose, not from the fragrancy of the fields, but from the sooty, dusty and suffocating atmosphere of the shop, the mine, the yard.”

The First of May was set aside as an international workers’ holiday by the International Socialist Congress, attended by the Socialist Labor Party, that met in Paris in 1889. The Congress called for the organization of huge demonstrations in many countries on May 1, 1890, in support of a general demand for an eight-hour workday. Demonstrations for the eight-hour day were repeated for several years. They had the beneficial effect of generating a sense of international class solidarity among the workers who participated in them the world over.

Capitalism helped compartmentalize the world into “nations.” “Patriotism” and other mystifications of nationalism were deliberately fostered by capitalists to keep their respective working classes blinded and enthralled.

Socialists utilized May Day to expose the “patriotism” of the capitalists as a fraud and a sham. They showed that capitalists needed the whole world for their plundering and that capitalists didn’t give a hang about the skin color or the nationality of the workers they exploited for profit. May Day demonstrations illumined the class struggle. They showed workers that the capitalists of all countries were their class enemies and the workers of all countries their class brothers and sisters.

As the eight-hour day was won in more and more countries, the character of May Day demonstrations changed. May Day became the occasion for proclaiming the international solidarity of workers of all races and all nationalities, and their eventual emancipation from wage slavery-sharing with primitive Maypole activities the heralding of a season of hope, when the darkness of winter is cast off and the bright summer’s sun is in the offing.

The SLP continues to commemorate May Day in that spirit, recognizing that our very survival requires that the working class unite to take affairs out of the hands of the capitalists and reconstruct society from top to bottom along socialist lines. --The People, May 2000