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ARSON, bombings and deaths, Labour Day (or May Day) has a rather dramatic and bloody origins. Labour Day can also be traced back to pagan traditions.The first was the ancient festival Floralia in honour of Flora, the Roman goddess of springtime and flowers. 

The celts had a similar festival Beltane which was dedicated to the sun goddess Áine. 

Walpurgis Night, also known as Walpurgisnacht, is a traditional European celebration held on the night of April 30th was celebrated in regions such as Germany, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. 

The Scotland Calvinist and the Puritans were opposed to these earlier forms of Labour Day celebrations as they deemed it pagan. 

During the Interregnum period from 1649, Labour Day was banned as it was considered to be another frivolous and blasphemous celebration. Labour Day was later reinstated during the Restoration period under King Charles II.

Labour Movements: Violence & Sacrifices

In modern times, Labour Day was inspired by the Labour Movement in the United States in the 19th century.

As the world welcomed the Second Industrial Revolution and “new” era of prosperity for capitalism, it was far from prosperous for the workers, men, women and children (as young as 5 years old) who toiled 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for meagre wages in unsanitary and unsafe working conditions. 

Unhappiness over wages and working conditions led to some major incidents involving Labour movements. 

The most infamous was Haymarket Affair, on 4 of May 1886. A Day earlier, a campaign was organised by the workers of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago who went on strike to secure an 8-hour work day. 

Police were sent in to break up the strike. The following day on 4th May, union leaders called on a mass gathering at the Haymarket Square, Chicago. 

The gathering was peaceful at the beginning but later became violent when police came in to disperse the crowd which led to a bomb going off with scores of police and protestors dead and injured in the aftermath.

The “Eight Anarchists” or “Chicago 8” was held responsible for the alleged involvement in murder or for abetting an unknown assailant even though most of them were not present at the location on May 4th. Seven of them were condemned to death and one to a long prison term.

After exhausting all appeals, four were hanged and one committed suicide on the eve of his execution and the other two had to do life in prison. 

Governor John Peter Altgeld in 1892 pardoned the remaining three incarcerated men as there was suspicion that the eight men had been victims of a government witch-hunt.

In 1894, the Pullman Strike crippled major portions of railway lines in the United States. Hundreds of train coaches were destroyed or set on fire and riots spread. 

This strike was a result of dissatisfaction with George Pullman, the owner of Pullman Palace Car Works (a manufacturer of railroad coaches) reducing workers’ salaries by 25% while still keeping the rent high on the worker’s quarters. 

These workers were housed in 4000 acres of The Pullman Town owned by George Pullman who charged them exorbitant rents.

George Pullman owned basically everything in the town including shops, a hotel and the church, where the rents for this facilities went into profit. 

The Pullman Strike started on May 11,1894 and ended on July 20 the same year. 

While still in crisis, US President Grover Cleveland signed a legislative bill declaring Labour Day a national holiday on June 28, 1894 in an attempt to make a conciliatory gesture to the labour movement.

Same Day, Different Dates

The first Labour Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. 

While most of the world celebrate Labour Day in May, in USA and Canada, Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday of September to shy from its leftist and socialist origins.

The global tradition began in Paris in 1889, when the Marxist International Socialist Congress designated May Day as International Workers’ Day.

This was a deliberate, poignant tribute to the 1886 Haymarket affair (see above) in Chicago, a violent clash that left protesters and police dead, and saw four labour leaders sent to the gallows. 

The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc embraced May Day with fervour. 

They transformed it into a grand spectacle of ideology, where the Red Square hosted high-profile military parades that celebrated the proletariat while pointedly showcasing Soviet firepower to the West. 

Across the Atlantic, however, the approach was far more cautious. 

New York City had celebrated its first Labour Day on Tuesday, 5 September 1882 and when the time came to officialise a national holiday, U.S. President Grover Cleveland faced a choice. 

Fearing the “leftist” and socialist connotations of May Day (or Labour Day) and wanting to distance the American workforce from the memory of the Haymarket riots, he shunned the May date. 

Both the United States and Canada opted for the first Monday of September, effectively decoupling the holiday from its more radical revolutionary roots.

Labour Day in Malaysia: One Man’s Struggle

Every year, Labour Day in Malaysia is marked by grand celebrations and feel good announcements, yet the man whose tireless efforts secured this day remains largely overlooked. 

While we enjoy the holiday, the legacy of the late Dr. V. David, a formidable trade unionist and Member of Parliament (MP) is often taken for granted. 

Dr V. David’s impact was monumental in getting Labour Day recognised and advocating workers’ rights. 

He was the driving force behind the Selangor Mill Workers Union in 1953, which eventually evolved into the National Union of Factory and General Workers. 

Dr. V. David also served as the Secretary-General Transport Workers Union for 37 years and held senior leadership roles within the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC). 

Dr. V. David made an incessant appeal (Hansard, Dewan Rakyat, 24 February 1960) to the then government on February 1960 for Labour Day to be recognised. Dr. V. David explained the significance:

“…May Day is significant and important, because the work of man and even man himself is the creation of labour. Labour is the foundation on which human society exists and develops.

The working class should command the highest respect in the world, and this memorable day should become a day most worthy of celebration in our country. This momentous day is a day of solidarity among the workers and a festival of international solidarity.

With regards to the fear of Labour Day being associated with communism (and socialism), Dr. V. David, implored the government to support the motion to recognise Labour Day as evidences of Government’s devotion to the working classes.

He anticipated the likely rebuttal that Labour Day is tainted Communism and met it with a rather pointed analogy.  

If Labour Day was simply shunned because it is observed by the Russians and Chinese Republic, he suggested, then one might as well remove rice from the national diet, as the Chinese surely eat rice too. 

He also pointed out that the day’s origin was not Russian but European, originating as a traditional “festival of labour” (as pointed out in the pagan origins above).

It was only through Dr. V. David relentless and persistent advocacy that the Government through the then Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman finally declared Labour Day an official public holiday in 1972. 

We owe this day of rest to a man whose struggle which has been forgotten and not given due recognition.