01/05/2026
May 1st is the historic May Day. On May 1, 1886, workers took to the streets in Haymarket in the United States to demand an eight-hour day of work and an improvement in the living standards of the workers. The police opened fire on the procession. Four workers were martyred. Since then, this day is known as the most important date in the struggle for workers' rights. May Day is celebrated in almost every continent of the world. May Day is celebrated with processions, meetings, and various events.
The first May Day was celebrated in India on May 1, 1923. The workers gathered in Madras (now Chennai). The first May Day in India was organised by the Hindustan Labour Kisan Party. At present, almost all the central trade unions and other organizations in India celebrate May Day.
In 1989, on the occasion of the centenary of the French Revolution, the Second International, held a conference in Paris. Socialist revolutionary Raymond Lavigne proposed that May Day should be celebrated in the country to strengthen the struggle for workers' rights. In 1890, another Congress of the International adopted this resolution. In 1904, the Socialist Conference in Amsterdam decided that May Day would be celebrated in the country to demand 8 hours of work a day and to establish world peace. Since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, May Day has been celebrated with great pomp.
However, May Day is not celebrated in the United States and Canada where the Haymarket incident took place. The two countries celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September, but May Day is a public holiday in at least 80 countries. In other countries, the initiative of private labor unions
