Our Heritage

May Day ( May 1) is also known as Labour Day. Universally accepted as International Workers Day, the first time May Day became a holiday in Sri Lanka was in 1956. One of the first acts of the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike government, after coming to power in April that year was to declare May Day as a Public, Bank and Mercantile holiday. Ever since, May 1 has been a holiday.

In the early years Left parties organized colourful processions and held rallies on May Day. Colombo was a sea of red with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party procession taking pride of place. In latter years all political parties began to celebrate May Day. A mix of red, blue, green and other colours are seen now.

The Minister of Labour at the time May Day was declared a holiday was

T. B. Ilangaratne who contested the general election from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and won the Galaha seat. He was himself a public servant earlier. An active trade unionist, he was President of the General Clerical Service Union (GCSU). In 1947, one of the biggest strikes among government clerks took place and he was dismissed from service immediately after the strike.

Throughout the world various socialist and labour movements celebrate May Day to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist social movement generally. It is a commemoration of the execution of the men who were arrested after the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, which occurred on May 4 but was the culmination of labour unrest that had begun on May 1. Consequently May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labour movement.

May Day thus commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada and South Africa.

Let's see how this all began. In 1884, at a time when workers were forced to work 10, 12 and 14 hours a day, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions in the United States passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. The rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders.

Nevertheless, by May 1, 1886, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, only a few hundred people remained due to rain. Police then marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labour movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge.

Eight of Chicago's most active leaders were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die.

our were hanged, one committed suicide in prison and the remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.