America's Forgotten Holiday: May Day and Nationalism, 1867-1960

1. Out of America’s Urban, Industrial Cauldron: The Origins of May Day as Event and Icon, 1867–1890

15 1 Out of America’s Urban, Industrial Cauldron The Origins of May Day as Event and Icon, 1867–1890 On May 1, 1867, workers paraded in Chicago in celebration of a new state law that had established the eight-hour workday.1 Several dozen trade associations marched to demonstrate their approval of the legislation , which went into effect that day. That morning, “thousands of local workers set out to the accompaniment of bands” carrying banners that announced: “Eight Hours and No Concession,” “To the Advantage of the Coming Generation,” and “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”2 Cited by some historians as the first modern May Day demonstration, this event was really an important social, political, and cultural precursor to what would become an annual holiday later in the century.3 The parade, “more than a mile long,” formed on Lake Street, “set out at ten [o’clock],” and made its way to the lakeshore. According to a newspaper account, “all along the procession route, the stairways and doorways, even roofs, were jammed with curious spectators.”4 In addition to the many banners proclaiming the importance of the eight-hour day, these spectators would have seen the city’s workers organized according to their particular craft and wearing the uniforms of their trade. Many workers also demonstrated their skills and displayed the results of their work as they rode on floats through the streets. The “tanners. . . . had a wagon on which two men were working intently on a beam,” and “ship carpenters and caulkers had erected a completely rigged ship on which the caulkers were working” for the duration of the parade.5 In its most basic manifestation, then, this was a celebration of labor by workers proud of their skills and the contributions they made to the 16 Out of America’s Urban, Industrial Cauldron development of their city. As they marched, they ritually defined and reinforced their identity as hard-working and productive members of their community. Demonstrations like these were not new to the 1867 celebration. Workers had long taken part in civic processions organized along the lines of their trade. In those parades they proudly displayed the badges, tools, processes, and products of their trade to celebrate publicly their identity as craftsmen and show support for particular political causes.6 What was new in this parade was the assertion of that identity in support of the eight-hour day, a uniquely working-class concern. Chicago’s laborers manifested their working-class consciousness again in the days following this celebration of the eight-hour law, when they went on strike to enforce the shorter day against their employers’ opposition. In 1867, however , the workers’ efforts were unsuccessful: under the mayor’s orders, the local police and the militia had broken the laborers’ militant stand for shorter hours.7 Although the movement for the eight-hour day would be sidetracked for much of the 1870s, a revived trade unionist movement in Chicago and in New York took up the cause again in the 1880s. These cities’ nascent socialist and anarchist communities joined it in a massive demonstration on May 1, 1886. By then, craft unions, like those of the tanners, no longer dominated the ceremonial expressions of this public debate. Instead, they became part of a broader, if tenuous and short-lived, coalition that reflected the economic, social, and political changes of the intervening two decades. The 1886 event was marked not only by traditional laborite rituals, but also by demonstrations of politically radical sensibilities, echoing the agenda of anarchists and socialists who joined the line of march. These different constituencies, coming to the May 1 demonstrations with their overlapping yet distinct concerns, forged a precarious alliance that year. That alliance, however, quickly fell apart, too weak to sustain the weight of its differences. In turn, as trade unionists, anarchists, and socialists forged separate paths for their economic and political activities, they vied for control of May Day as both an event and an icon. This annual holiday, particularly once it became an international workers’ day, became a focal point in the contestation among these groups. The debate among trade unionists and radicals over the meaning and use of May Day was more than just a reflection of their different political positions. That argument contributed to their public self-definition; the way these groups observed May Day Out of America’s Urban, Industrial Cauldron 17...