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#InternationalWorkersDay honors the immigrant organizers unfairly convicted of conspiracy for participating in a wave of worker protests known as the Great Upheaval throughout the 1800s.
But #MayDay& #39;s history reaches back farther, and its demands are yet to be fully met.
1/13
But #MayDay& #39;s history reaches back farther, and its demands are yet to be fully met.
1/13
Agricultural workers throughout Europe (pagan peasants) have celebrated #MayDay as a day too holy to work since at least the 4th century; which is when #Beltane, as some called it, was first mentioned in Irish literature.
2/13
2/13
#MayDay was a time workers put away their tools & gathered flowers, danced, feasted, held ceremony, built fires, shared libations, and celebrated community.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌻" title="Sonnenblume" aria-label="Emoji: Sonnenblume">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💃" title="Tanzende Frau" aria-label="Emoji: Tanzende Frau">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">
Because workers weren& #39;t grinding away making profits for a boss, many May Day celebrations were criminalized.
3/13
Because workers weren& #39;t grinding away making profits for a boss, many May Day celebrations were criminalized.
3/13
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💃" title="Tanzende Frau" aria-label="Emoji: Tanzende Frau">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">Because workers weren& #39;t grinding away making profits for a boss, many May Day celebrations were criminalized.3/13" title=" #MayDay was a time workers put away their tools & gathered flowers, danced, feasted, held ceremony, built fires, shared libations, and celebrated community.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌻" title="Sonnenblume" aria-label="Emoji: Sonnenblume">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💃" title="Tanzende Frau" aria-label="Emoji: Tanzende Frau">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">Because workers weren& #39;t grinding away making profits for a boss, many May Day celebrations were criminalized.3/13" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
Fast forward to #May1st, 1886.
Half a million workers across the U.S. — who had been subjected to 100+ hour work weeks — walked off the job, united in their demand for an 8-hour work day with NO cut in pay.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📢" title="Lautsprecheranlage" aria-label="Emoji: Lautsprecheranlage"> Half. A. Million.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">
Bosses were shook.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎩" title="Zylinder" aria-label="Emoji: Zylinder">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">
4/13
Half a million workers across the U.S. — who had been subjected to 100+ hour work weeks — walked off the job, united in their demand for an 8-hour work day with NO cut in pay.
Bosses were shook.
4/13
Drawing on the long-history of communal resistance associated with #MayDay, workers chose May 1st for this massive protest.
Here& #39;s what went down:
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💥" title="Symbol für eine Kollision" aria-label="Emoji: Symbol für eine Kollision">As early as 1791, carpenters in Philly struck for a shorter day.
Similar actions spread across the country like wildfire.
5/13
Here& #39;s what went down:
Similar actions spread across the country like wildfire.
5/13
An international sense of #solidarity was in the air, inspired in part by the French Revolution where workers toppled monarchy rule, won expanded suffrage and a shorter work day.
U.S. workers decided it was their turn to win a battle in the #ClassWar.
6/13
U.S. workers decided it was their turn to win a battle in the #ClassWar.
6/13
1835: Irish coal workers in Philly organized a general strike. Their banners read: From 6 to 6, ten hours work and two hours for meals.
Workers& #39; publications called for an 8-hour day as early as 1836.
As folks kept organizing, workers started to WIN their demands.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📢" title="Lautsprecheranlage" aria-label="Emoji: Lautsprecheranlage">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💪" title="Angespannter Bizeps" aria-label="Emoji: Angespannter Bizeps">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎉" title="Partyknaller" aria-label="Emoji: Partyknaller">
7/13
Workers& #39; publications called for an 8-hour day as early as 1836.
As folks kept organizing, workers started to WIN their demands.
7/13
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💪" title="Angespannter Bizeps" aria-label="Emoji: Angespannter Bizeps">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎉" title="Partyknaller" aria-label="Emoji: Partyknaller">7/13" title="1835: Irish coal workers in Philly organized a general strike. Their banners read: From 6 to 6, ten hours work and two hours for meals.Workers& #39; publications called for an 8-hour day as early as 1836.As folks kept organizing, workers started to WIN their demands.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📢" title="Lautsprecheranlage" aria-label="Emoji: Lautsprecheranlage">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💪" title="Angespannter Bizeps" aria-label="Emoji: Angespannter Bizeps">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎉" title="Partyknaller" aria-label="Emoji: Partyknaller">7/13" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
1884 https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="➡️" title="Pfeil nach rechts" aria-label="Emoji: Pfeil nach rechts"> The Federation of Organized Trades & Labour Unions — a forerunner of the @AFLCIO — holds a convention where workers resolve to take militant collective action for the 8-hour day.
They choose #MayDay, 1886 for the strike and organize like hell for 2 years.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📰" title="Zeitung" aria-label="Emoji: Zeitung">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📢" title="Lautsprecheranlage" aria-label="Emoji: Lautsprecheranlage">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🗣️" title="Silhouette eines sprechenden Kopfes" aria-label="Emoji: Silhouette eines sprechenden Kopfes">
8/13
They choose #MayDay, 1886 for the strike and organize like hell for 2 years.
8/13
#MayDay was a smashing success across the U.S., and many struck for multiple days.
Chicago was the epicenter, where McCormick company ironworkers led the way. In retribution, company-sponsored police shot & killed four of them.
( #PoliceViolence IS a labor issue.)
9/13
Chicago was the epicenter, where McCormick company ironworkers led the way. In retribution, company-sponsored police shot & killed four of them.
( #PoliceViolence IS a labor issue.)
9/13
To protest the murders at the hands of police, #labor leaders called a mass meeting in #Haymarket Square for May 4.
Thousands attended, and as the meeting wound down, an unknown person threw a stick of dynamite into the crowd. More lives were lost.
10/13
Thousands attended, and as the meeting wound down, an unknown person threw a stick of dynamite into the crowd. More lives were lost.
10/13
State repression didn& #39;t end there.
Bosses made sure the trade union movement in city after city was targeted with raids, interrogations, arrests, deportations, & more.
11/13
But repression from the 1% couldn& #39;t stamp out workers& #39; fire for justice.
Labor rebels, including #LucyParsons, a fierce working-class organizer & widow of #HaymarketMartyr Albert Parsons, rallied people across the U.S. & around the world to keep rising up each #MayDay.
12/13
Labor rebels, including #LucyParsons, a fierce working-class organizer & widow of #HaymarketMartyr Albert Parsons, rallied people across the U.S. & around the world to keep rising up each #MayDay.
12/13
As #nurses celebrate this ancient & enduring peoples& #39; holiday, we continue to fight to protect workers& #39; right to organize; to advance the unfinished struggle for freedom, safety & justice for all.
Shout out to ALL workers organizing to win! #1u
13/13 https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/maine-medical-nurses-vote-to-form-first-union">https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/mai...
Shout out to ALL workers organizing to win! #1u
13/13 https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/maine-medical-nurses-vote-to-form-first-union">https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/mai...
