HISTORY
What is May Day? For the most part,
the opposite of capitalism
Updated May 1, 202310:26 AM ET
Emma Bowman
May Day, celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor Day, falls on May 1.
But you'd be forgiven if that's news to you. While the day traces its origins to an American laborers' fight for a shorter work day, the U.S. does not officially recognize International Labor Day.
U.S. resistance to celebrate International Labor Day — also called International Workers' Day — in May stems from a resistance to emboldening worldwide working-class unity, historians say.
"The ruling class did not want to have a very active labor force connected internationally," said Peter Linebaugh, author of Ypsilanti Vampire May Day.
"The principle of national patriotism was used against the principle of working-class unity or trade union unity."
That hasn't stopped American workers from commemorating the day, which in recent years has ranged from marching for labor rights to reading literature about Marxism.
“Casting the struggle as mirth vs. gloom, grizzly saints vs. gay sinners, green vs. iron, it was the Puritans who won, and the fate of America was determined in favor of psalm-singing Indian-scalpers whose notion of the Maypole was a whipping post.”
“Ypsilanti Vampire May Day,” was something of an intellectual touchstone for the Occupy movement. Parallel strands of socialist activism animate Linebaugh’s lively entreaties:
“Green is a relationship to the earth and what grows therefrom. Red is a relationship to other people and the blood spilt there among,” he writes. “May Day is both.”
