- International Workers’ Day occurs every year on 1st It is also known as Labour Day in most countries and often referred to as May Day.
- It is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and May Day.
- International Labour Day is an official public holiday all over the world in various countries. It is observed every year to pay tribute to the contribution of workers across the world.
- On 1 May, 1886, labour unions in the US decided to go on a strike demanding that workers should not be made to work for more than 8 hours a day. Just three days after the strike began, a blast occurred in Chicago’s Haymarket Square leaving many dead.
- In 1889, the Second International, an organisation created by socialist and labour parties, declared that 1st May would be commemorated as International Workers’ Day from then on.
- On 1st May 1904, the International Socialist Congress at Amsterdam, the Netherlands called for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day for the class demands of the proletariat and made it mandatory upon the proletarian organisations of all countries to stop work on this day.
- The Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc nations started celebrating the Labor day after the Russian Revolution, 1917.
- The impact of Russian Revolution was that the new ideologies such as Marxism and Socialism inspired many socialist and communist groups and they attracted peasants and workers and made them an integral part of national movement.It became a national holiday during the Cold War.
- In India, the first May Day was celebrated in Madras (now known as Chennai) by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan on May 1, 1923.
- It was also the first time when the Red Flag which symbolisesLabour Day was used in India for the first time.Prominent communist leader MalayapuramSingaraveluChettiar raised the flag and arranged meetings to celebrate the occasion.
- The day is linked to labour movements for communist and socialist political parties.
- Chettiar passed a resolution stating that the government should announce a national holiday on Labour Day in India and since then the country has continued to celebrate May Day.
- In Hindi, Labour Day is also known as Kamgar Din or AntarrashtriyaShramikDiwas,Kamgar Divas in Marathi and UzhaipalarNaal in Tamil.
