The first of May is Labour Day, which commemorates the workers' struggles for labour rights. Today some fundamental social achievements risk being called into question once again.
The celebration of the first of May has its roots in the demands for an eight-hour working day that began in the mid-nineteenth century. From Australia to America, the slogan "eight hours of work, eight of leisure, eight for sleep" began to spread.
It was above all the organisations of American workers that developed a major movement of struggle on the question of the eight-hour day. Illinois, in 1866, passed a law introducing the eight-hour working day, the application of which was, however, hampered and obstructed. The law had been set to come into force on 1 May 1867. That day, a large demonstration was organised in Chicago and ten thousand workers staged the largest march ever seen on the streets of the American city.
In October 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions set 1 May 1886 as the deadline from which American workers would refuse to work more than eight hours a day. It fell on a Saturday, which was then a working day, and in twelve thousand factories across the United States 400,000 workers downed tools. Disorder followed for several days, culminating in what, on 4 May 1886, was called the Haymarket Square massacre. The explosion of a bomb in Chicago during a large workers' demonstration caused the death of seven police officers and at least four civilians. The anarchists were blamed for the bombing, three of whom were sentenced to death. Edgar Lee Masters discusses it in a poem from Spoon River, 'Carl Hamblin' (a poem which, in the translation by Fernanda Pivano, is engraved on the gravestone of Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist).
Thus, the date of 1 May began to take on a powerful symbolic significance.
The anniversary as we know it today, created to commemorate the rights of workers throughout the world, was conceived on 20 July 1889 in Paris. The founding congress of the Second International decided upon "a great demonstration organised for a set date, so that simultaneously in all countries and in all cities, workers would call on the public authorities to reduce the working day to eight hours by law". The proposed date was 1 May, Labour Day.
The workers' movement prepared for this occasion with ever less improvisation and ever greater awareness. The original objective of the eight-hour day was set aside, giving way to other political and social demands considered more pressing. Protest against the conditions of poverty endured by the working masses animated the demonstrations of the late nineteenth century.
The success of 1 May 1890 in Italy too came as a surprise to many socialists and marked a qualitative leap for the workers' movement, which for the first time brought about a mobilisation on a national scale, moreover linked to an initiative of international scope. In numerous municipalities, large and small, demonstrations took place that recorded good turnout among workers almost everywhere. A significant episode occurred in Voghera, where workers who were compelled to go to work turned up dressed in their Sunday best.
"The demonstration of 1 May," commented Antonio Labriola in an immediate reaction, "has in any case far exceeded all the hopes placed in it by socialists and progressive workers. Even a few days before, the view of many socialists, who work through speech and writing, was rather pessimistic."
By contrast, 1 May 1898 coincided with the most acute phase of the "bread riots", which swept across the whole of Italy and had a tragic epilogue in Milan. In the early years of the twentieth century, 1 May was also characterised by the demand for universal suffrage, then by protests against the Libyan campaign and against Italy's participation in the world war.
In our country fascism decided to abolish 1 May, which during the twenty-year regime was absorbed into the celebration of 21 April, the so-called Birthday of Rome. The labour holiday thus took on a subversive connotation and became an occasion to express opposition to the regime in various forms (from a red carnation in the buttonhole to writing on walls, from distributing leaflets to gatherings in taverns).
1 May officially became a national holiday in 1947, another tragic date for workers, linked to the Portella della Ginestra massacre in Sicily. On 1 May 1947, near the Piana degli Albanesi, close to Palermo, during the Labour Day celebrations, the Giuliano gang opened fire on a crowd of peasants who were celebrating the end of the dictatorship and the restoration of freedoms, killing twelve people and wounding more than thirty. The political motive behind the attack seemed obvious, despite the fact that the then interior minister Mario Scelba naturally denied any connection.
This right, born of the demand that arose in Australia in 1856 for "eight hours of work, eight of leisure, eight for sleep", was recognised for Italian workers on 20 February 1919, the date on which the pilot agreement between the Federation of Metal Industry Employers and the Fiom was signed. The decree was subsequently extended to all categories in 1923.
While in Italy and most other countries Labour Day is invariably celebrated on the first of May, in England workers enjoy a variable day off that falls on the first Monday of the month, known as May Day. In the United Kingdom the celebration of May Day is very ancient and derives from Celtic and Anglo-Saxon pagan traditions. It was once a celebration of the arrival of spring, and English farmers would traditionally gather on their farms to celebrate the fertility of the land with carousels and maypole dances with coloured ribbons.
In Italy, since 1990 a concert has been organised in Rome, in Piazza di Porta San Giovanni, promoted by the three main Italian trade unions: Cgil, Cisl and Uil. The event, conceived by Maurizio Illuminato, draws a large number of spectators from across Italy and beyond every year, featuring both Italian and international artists. The presenter of the first event was Carlo Massarini, in front of an audience of 190,000 people.
Yet workers have had little reason to celebrate for