There is much confusion over why the United States of America and Canada commemorate Labor Day on the first Monday in September and not as many other nations do, on the first of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some workers unaware of the history, Labor Day is perceived as a tactic to counteract the militant international working-class spirit of May Day and\u00a0becoming\u00a0a symbol of workers\u2019\u00a0docility, of collaboration with the bosses, of everything that weakens. It is\u00a0a day associated with BBQs, picnics and shopping\u00a0at the mall.\u00a0However, Labor Day is a celebration of America\u2019s and Canada\u2019s labor movement. That\u2019s easy to forget these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Labor Day\u00a0took its inspiration from a strike for the 8 hour day held in\u00a0Toronto in the 1870s\u00a0<\/strong>and was adopted by American workers, four years before the momentous events of 1886 that initiated May Day. So both Labor Day and May Day share common origins in the campaign for\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u201c8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest and 8 hours for what we will\u201d\u00a0as the song went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0So both Mayday and Labor Day should be reminders of the need for working people to try and capture the good things in life\u00a0and advance working peoples\u2019 well-being. Labor Day also came about because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days on the job. In the 1830s, manufacturing workers were putting in 70-hour weeks on average. Sixty years later, in 1890, hours of work had dropped, although the average manufacturing worker still toiled in a factory 60 hours a week. These long working hours caused many union organizers to focus on winning a shorter eight-hour workday. They also focused on getting workers more days off, such as the Labor Day holiday, and reducing the working week to just six days. Labor unions are still finding ways to wield their organizing influence and help fellow workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0World Socialist Movement tries to explain\u00a0the lessons of the first Mayday and Labor Day\u00a0is that the capitalists need us, we do not need them.\u00a0\u201cLabor creates all wealth, All wealth belongs to labor\u201d. Our fellow workers need to learn and understand the\u00a0truth\u00a0of that statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In capitalism, the\u00a0rich always grow richer\u00a0and all\u00a0workers can do within capitalism\u00a0is slow that process down.\u00a0What is needed is the entire edifice, the whole system – wages, profits, markets requires abolishing\u00a0and only then can we make decisions to free ourselves and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Canadians will, of course, be fully aware that their Labor Day origins can be traced back to an 1872 printers strike in Toronto when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union’s strike for a 58-hour work-week. Police arrested 24 leaders of the Typographical Union. Labour leaders decided to call for a demonstration on September 3 to protest the arrests. The Toronto Trades and Labour Council began to hold similar celebrations every spring. American Peter J. McGuire, the co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was asked to speak at a labour festival in Toronto, Canada on July 22, 1882. Returning to the United States, McGuire and the Knights of Labor organised a similar parade based on the Canadian event on September 5, 1882.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1800s, unions covered only a small fraction of workers and were relatively weak. The goal of organizations like the Central Labor Union and more modern-day counterparts was to bring many small unions together to become more powerful. The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought different types of workers together to meet each other and recognize their common interests. Unions increase the bargaining power of workers, which translates into higher earnings and a stronger voice for employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But like so many workers\u2019 initiatives, Labor Day was co-opted by the government and by the employers.\u00a0It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the murder of workers during the Pullman Strike, in an attempt to appease the nation’s workers, President Grover Cleveland fearing further conflict, rushed legislation through Congress to designate the first Monday in September Labor Day. The Cleveland Administration believed it would act as a counterweight to May Day, the international day of labor solidarity adopted by the First Congress of the Second Socialist International in 1889 to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886 so from its outset Labor Day symbolized the official American labor movement\u2019s commitment to a more moderate form of politics! May Day emphasized the fact that the working class had to fight for its right to organize and for all the gains it had won in wages, hours and conditions of work. It was to counteract the militant working-class spirit of its marching legions on May Day that the government set aside the first Monday in September as a labor holiday. The American Labor Day holiday came as a \u201cgift\u201d that the workers received from their masters, through their servile politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labor Day must not become a symbol of workers\u2019 docility, of collaboration with the bosses, of everything that weakens and hurts the working class. It cannot be a day when politicians and employers advertise and promote themselves. Every shrewd politician will pose as a \u201cfriend of labor\u201d, shaking hands and jovially slapping the labor union leaders on the back (later to stab them in the back), seeking to secure their endorsement and election donations with a lot of empty promises and false hopes before setting off the legislatures on the labor vote, promptly forgetting the pledges until next election rolls around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reformists have kept socialist politics out of the trade union movement, while capitalist politics have run amok undoing the strength of the unions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many working people now vote against their economic interests. Unions have donated more than millions to pro-business politicians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Unions fail partly from the injudicious use of their powers,<\/em>”\u00a0wrote\u00a0Marx. The World Socialist Movement does not shy away from warning our\u00a0fellow\u00a0workers\u00a0what pitfalls are in store for them if they\u00a0persist in\u00a0giving\u00a0their time, money and votes to\u00a0parties\u00a0that can only work in the interests of their masters. It is time that cash was directed at more worthwhile causes such as organizing\u00a0the non-unionized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Labor Day we must expose that great falsehood the slogan of \u201ca fair day\u2019s wage for a fair day\u2019s work.\u201d Since wages imply exploitation and represent but a minor fraction of the total product of labor, it is self-evident that wages can never be fair. Wages grow out of a system of unfairness, of robbery. Accordingly, for labor to acknowledge that there is such a thing as a \u201cfair wage\u201d is to kowtow to the principle of exploitation, to kiss the hand that robs it and impresses on the mind of labor the \u201cduty\u201d to deliver its goods\u2014its ability to produce\u2014to the master joyfully and to the fullest capacity. It puts on the worker, by his own consent, the brand of the slave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The history of the\u00a0North\u00a0American movement is rich in the tradition of the importance of unions to workers. The struggles waged and the gains won by workers demonstrate what can be achieved through organizing on the economic field. We have the unions to thank for a lot of things we take for granted: the eight-hour workday, child labor laws, health and safety standards and the weekend. And studies show that a large union presence in an industry or region can raise wages even for non-union workers. But as weak and ineffectual\u00a0as the labor movement is today, it is still a potential threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The history of the labor movement proves the Marxian contention that wages are not regulated by any “iron law” but can be modified by organized militant action on the part of the workers. The necessity of native-born and foreign workers; black, hispanic and white, to march together on picket lines, to work together in strike committees and hold out together until their demands are won – all this constitutes an object lesson in class solidarity that American and Canadian workers must learn and practice. We are all one\u2014all workers of all lands and climes. We know not color, nor creed, nor gender in the workers’ movement. We know only that that with the solidarity of labor, we will vanquish wage-slavery and humanize the World. But when all is said and done, the workers won\u2019t get much from this annual love-fest of Labor Day messages and speeches.\u00a0Government is dismissive at all levels\u00a0to the interests of the working class. The monied alone are served. The only solution is a revolutionary change.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you enjoy this holiday do well to remember that it was paid for by union sweat and on occasions in union blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0Socialist Party of Canada<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0World Socialist Party\u00a0of the United States<\/a>\u00a0on this Labor Day sounds\u00a0forth the historic battle-cry of the Marx and the World Socialist Movement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWorkers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! You have a world to gain!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is much confusion over why the United States of America and Canada commemorate Labor Day on the first Monday in September and not as many other nations do, on the first of May. 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It is time that Labor Day 2021\u00a0brings home the point: There is a need for a change in our society. Socialism is a necessity. It would destroy the capitalist system wherein one class is enriched by exploiting the majority. We need socialism because the means of life, the factories, mines, transport, communications and land should belong to the people! We need socialism because the production of the necessities of life would be for the use of the people instead of the profit of a few.\u00a0The capitalist world heaps misery upon misery upon the backs of the toilers. Capitalism remains what it has been from birth: a system of exploitation of the many for the enrichment of the few. Labor Day should remind us of the urgency to move towards socialism.\u00a0The capitalist world heaps misery upon misery upon the backs of the toilers. Capitalism remains what it has been from birth: a system of exploitation of the many for the enrichment of the few. Labor Day should remind us of the urgency to move towards socialism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n