The first May Day, in 1886, was a call for eight-hour workdays by the workers in many American cities; it is now mostly associated with the Haymarket Martyrs. A bomb thrown by an unknown person at a labor rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square killed one policeman; authorities rounded up whom they considered to be the leaders of the local labor movement and put them on trial. Mother Jones said of the incident: "The workers asked only for bread and a shortening of the long hours of toil. The agitators gave them visions. The police gave them clubs." -- from May Day: what happened to the radical workers' holiday by Michelle Cobban.
May Day 2004 is in the process of being reclaimed in the face of the harshly anti-immigrant "War on Terrorism", and the de-factio 50 hour work week and the Wal-Martization of the world. And, it's globalized in LA, with three major events.
Updated From the Newswire 5/8/04
