OR Ongoing day morning It is a world day dedicated to the struggles and rights of workers.
Labor May honors the historical course of labor movements, the claims for better working conditions and social justice.
The day -milestone for the working class has its roots in Chicago, USA in the late 19th century, but it remains timely to this day.
May Day (May 1st) in our country has been established as a day of strike, gatherings and events.
The uprising of workers in Chicago
In May 1886, the trade unions in Chicago rose and took to the streets, demanding eight hours of work and better working conditions.
The mobilizations culminated in Heimarket Square, however, the demonstrations resulted in violent clashes with the police, deaths, and the death penalty of arrested demonstrators.
The bloody clash inspired labor movements worldwide and, during the founding conference of the Second International (Socialist International) in Paris on July 20, 1889, May 1st was established internationally as a working party.
The first celebration in Greece took place on May 2
In Greece, the first celebration of May Day took place on Sunday, May 2, 1893 at the Panathenaic Stadium (the event did not happen Mayor because it was a Saturday that was a working day, so it was decided Sunday to be more massive). About 2,000 workers, at the initiative of the Socialist Association of Stavros Kallergis, demonstrated peacefully demanding the establishment of Sunday as a holiday, eight -hour and state care for victims of accidents at work.
In 1894 there is a large concentration, with the same requests, ending with 10 arrests. In August, the arrest of socialist Stavros Kallergis follows.
The claims of demands continued in the following decades, with the struggle for the great strike and demonstration of the smokers in May 1936 in Thessaloniki (12 workers killed by a gendarmerie fire and another 280 were injured).
One of the bloodthirsty pages in the history of Greece, however, is the execution of 200 Communists (political prisoners in the Haidari camp) at the Kaisarian shooting range by the German forces in May 1944, in retaliation for the action of the resistance.
May Day in Greece, as well as internationally, is at the same time a day of remembrance and struggle. Employees and unions honor the historical struggles of the past and, at the same time, place the modern problems of work on the table: unemployment, elastic forms of employment, and the indispensable need to protect the rights of workers in a world that is changing rapidly, especially after the artifact.
Finally, Labor Day recalls that labor rights were conquered by struggles and sacrifices and that their defense remains demanded. That is why May 1 is a lighthouse for both the present and the future of all employees. May Day by Law 4468/2017 was established as a mandatory holiday.