The Labor Day is a holiday celebrated on May 1 of each year that will highlight the ' commitment of the union movement and the achievements in the economic and social workers. The Labor Day is recognized in many countries of the world but not all.
More precisely, it is meant to recall the workers' battles aimed at capturing a very specific right: the daily working time shall be eight hours. These battles led to the promulgation of a law that was passed in 1866 in Illinois (USA). The First International then requested that similar legislation were approved in Europe.
The origin of the festival dates back to an event organized in the United States the Knights of Labour (Knights of Labor, an association founded in 1869) in New York September 5, 1882. Two years later, in 1884, in a 'similar event, the Knights of Labor passed a resolution so that the event had an annual basis. Other trade unions affiliated to 'International Labor - close to the anarchist and socialist movements - suggested as the date of the holiday May 1.
But dropping the final choice on this date were the serious incidents that occurred in early May 1886 in Chicago (USA) and known as the Haymarket riot. These facts had their climax on May 4 when police fired on protesters causing numerous casualties.
The then president Grover Cleveland believed that the celebration of May 1 could be an opportunity to commemorate this event. Then, fearing that the commemoration pot they be too nascent socialism in favor of, the subject of the transfer feast on the ancient organization of the Knights of work.
The date of May 1 was adopted in Canada in 1894 although the concept of Labor Day is here referred to earlier workers held rallies in Toronto and Ottawa in 1872.
In Europe, the May Day holiday was made official by the delegates of the Second Socialist International meeting in Paris in 1889 and ratified in Italy two years later.
In Italy holiday was suppressed during the Fascist period - who preferred to celebrate a self-governing Labour Italian April 21 to coincide with the Christmas in Rome - but was restored shortly after the end of the war in 1945.
In 1947, the occasion was marred at Portella della Ginestra (PA) when the gang of Salvatore Giuliano fired on a procession of about two thousand workers in celebration, killing eleven and wounding fifty.
Italian trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL annually organize a concert in Rome to celebrate May 1 since 1991 (see May Day concert in Rome in which they participate every year hundreds of thousands of people).
source: wikipedia.org
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