History and origins of Labor Day, from Chicago to Paris
May 1 was born in July
It was very hot on July 20, 1889, in the small room of the operetta theater “Les Fantaisies Parisiennes” of the slopes of Montmartre, in Paris. However, the four hundred serious men who gathered there in congress did not take care of the festivities which take place in the capital during the Universal Exhibition.
They want to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution in another way: by building a workers’ movement without borders, the 2nd Socialist International, the first objective of which will be to campaign for the eight -hour working day. The idea of a large strike-management for the following year is proposed, in order to support this claim. The unions delegate, Bordeaux Raymond Lavigne, even proposes that it is simultaneous in all countries. A hand -up vote approves the motion.
An American date
But which symbolic date to choose? The delegates hesitate, on July 14, seeming them “too bourgeois” … An American representative-helped by an English translator-then proposed on May 1, 1890. He explained that in 1886, the American workers had chosen on May 1 to demonstrate, because in many states of the United States, the accounting year begins on this date. It is therefore the day when workers’ contracts are renewed, when the rental leases are expired, etc.
An expression says even “May 1, pay day, make your baluchon and will see elsewhere”. However, in Chicago that day, in 1886, the events had turned in the tragic and marked the American worker memory as a bloody scandal: for four days, clashes had taken place with the police, a bomb had exploded. Very well known activists were too quickly designated guilty and sentenced to death without much evidence. The American unions therefore planned a commemorative parade for May 1, 1890. In Paris, the Assembly approved the idea of simultaneous demonstrations in Europe, and disperses without imagining that it has just established a ritual that will last. At that time, going down to the street was very frowned upon in power, in France too, underlines Miguel Rodriguez in his book 1st May 1 (Ed. Folio History, 368 p .; € 9.80) .
“On May 1 being one working day, the work stoppage is therefore illegal and, therefore, liable to sanctions. But in addition, it gives rise to demonstrations on the public highway. However, in France, in 1890, everything happens without too much clashes: very solemnly, the workers’ delegates, in each city, come to deposit their petition demanding the eight -hour day from the authorities. This simultaneous widespread strike in many countries is a success. Socialists want to renew the experience.
Fourmies drama
But the following year, on May 1, 1891, in Fourmies (North), the soldiers pulled at close range on the peaceful crowd of the workers. We deplore ten dead including the worker Marie Blondeau, who paraded dressed in white and arms covered with hawthorn flowers. The 18 -year -old girl becomes the martyrdom of this tragic day which shocks public opinion as a whole.
Lily of the valley comes into play
Like Marie Blondeau, at the time, flower adornments are glad. Besides, the medieval customs of processions of “young girls carrying May”, that is to say flowery branches to celebrate spring or “Mary’s month”, according to Catholic tradition, have not yet completely disappeared and are sometimes integrated into the processions of May 1. The hawthorn, spring symbol, free and abundant in the hedges of the gardens, are often used. The men also carry a red ribbon triangle to the buttonhole which symbolizes the ideal day of the worker, divided into three parts: eight hours of work which would provide eight hours of sleep and eight hours of leisure. In 1895, the socialist Paul Brousse launched a competition in his newspaper La Petite République française to ask workers, who must be “the flower of May” that the demonstrators will display as a sign of unit.
Big success: myosotis, thought, poppy … The answers are varied but ultimately, after a few years, the Red Eglantine won until the end of the 1920s, in memory of the Revolution and its poet, Fabre d’Eglantine, which had already established a “work feast” in the revolutionary calendar. From 1907, the city of Paris authorizing the free sale of the valley picked by individuals that day, the strand of lily of the valley began to become, at least in Île-de-France, the flower of May 1.
From strike day to unemployed party
In 1919, the Senate ratified a clause of the Versailles Peace Treaty which established the eight -hour day. The claims are transformed and May 1 becomes more broadly a day of celebration of the working world whose festive dimension is reinforced. But it was not until … 1941 and Marshal Pétain for this unemployed day, officially became “Labor Day and Social Concord” and is a holiday and paid.
Indeed, Philippe Pétain wants to imitate Hitler who already formalized in 1933, on May 1 in Germany to attract the good graces of the workers … even though he prohibits unions! In addition, work is a value put forward by the Vichy regime and its leader wants this day to be an opportunity to bring families and corporations together.
From Saint-Philippe to Saint-Joseph
Chance of the calendar, May 1 is to be the day of Saint-Philippe! All the children of France are therefore encouraged to wish Happy birthday to Marshal … But, in 1955, Pope Pius XII, anxious to bring the church closer to the workers’ world, decides that we celebrate that day the feast of Saint Joseph Artisan. Saint-Philippe is then postponed to May 3. It is a question of sanctifying the Labor Day by celebrating the husband of the Virgin in her profession: carpenter.
Joseph is the model of the Father who nourishes and cherishes his family: “Thanks to his workshop where he exercised his profession at the same time as Jesus, Joseph returned human work close to the mystery of redemption. In the human growth of Jesus “in wisdom, in size and in grace”, a virtue had an important part: professional conscience, work being “a good of man” which “transforms nature” and makes man “into a certain sense more man” “explained in 1989, John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation redmptoris custos (The Redeemer’s Guardian, editor’s note).
