[lbo-talk] May Day!

[Mike Ballard]

Happy May Day LOBsters!

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of
Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation
of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor
from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many
Knights of Labor locals, reiterated their proclamation stating that it would be
supported by strikes and demonstrations. At first, most radicals and anarchists
regarded this demand as too reformist, failing to strike "at the root of the
evil." A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden pointed out in the
anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that "whether a man works eight hours a day or
ten hours a day, he is still a slave."

Despite the misgivings of many of the anarchists, an estimated quarter million
workers in the Chicago area became directly involved in the crusade to
implement the eight hour work day, including the Trades and Labor Assembly, the
Socialistic Labor Party and local Knights of Labor. 
http://www.iww.org/en/projects/mayday/origins.shtml

Regards from Oz,
Mike B)

An injury to one is an injury to all
http://www.iww.org.au/

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