We Celebrate Labor Day Incorrectly
If you’re like me, you’ve always been confused by Labor Day. It’s another summer holiday generally celebrated with a cookout, pool, and parade. That last one has always been particularly tricky for me because I marched in a lot of parades as a kid and could never keep them straight. To this day, I struggle to remember if Memorial Day or Labor Day comes first. As I got older it got even worse when I found out that most parts of the world celebrate Labor Day on May 1st.
Almost everywhere besides the U.S. and Canada, Labor Day is International Workers’ Day. As the name suggests, it is a holiday in honor of the struggles of the worker both present and past. It’s generally celebrated on May 1st for 2 reasons.
1. May 1st was already May Day, a celebration of the beginning of spring, so everyone already had it marked on their calendar.
2. May 1st marks the Haymarket Riot, (which was actually May 4th,) in which labor activists in Chicago and police came to violence when someone introduced a bomb. Note, the labor activists were protesting for many of the working conditions we enjoy now, such as an 8-hour workday.
So, if the entire world celebrates it on May 1st and it even commemorates an event that happened in the U.S., why did the U.S. and Canada change the name and move the holiday to September?
Blame President Grover Cleveland. (Yes, the one who served two nonsequential terms and had a tumor removed from his head, in secret, at night, on a boat, as president, without even telling his V.P.) Cleveland didn’t care for the organizations that started International Workers’ Day in 1889, so five years later he officially moved and renamed it to rebrand it in a way. Canada did the same a few years later because, peer pressure, I guess.
Who were theses shadowy groups that frightened Cleveland so much that he concealed and relocated a holiday made in honor of Americans? Cleveland, who, remember, had nighttime brain surgery relying on the stability of a boat and technology of the 1880s. The same boogeymen that terrorize the dreams of half of our political system today. Cleveland was rebelling against socialist groups and trade unions.
Those two collections of people are the ones that started the ball rolling on International Workers’ Day because at their core, they are both about protecting the working many against the powerful few. In the late 19th century, both groups had members who fought and died for worker protections, a 40-hour work week, and a host of other features that are now standard. International Workers’ Day was meant to remember how hard the fight had been and continued to be against the elitist business owners of the day. I can’t imagine why the U.S. would seek to obfuscate that sentiment.
I’m not the son of a socialist, but I am the son of a union worker. Most of the people I’ve worked with have been part of a union. I’ve never been high enough on the food chain to be a union member, but I’ve heard plenty of tales, pro and con, from those in the thick of it. Unions get it wrong sometimes, but on balance, they’ve been improving working conditions for all workers, not just union, for over 100 years.
So, as Labor Day fades from our memories, let’s keep in mind whose labor we are talking about. It’s not just our labor. It’s the labor of those who fought for our right to labor in safe and livable conditions.
