All over the World 1st of May is celebrated as Labour’s Day. Almost every government and many private institution remains closed on the day. Many of us see it was any other normal day where we get a day’s holiday. But there is a big and a great history behind celebrating the day. It is the history of the struggle of thousand of factory workers who came down on the streets to fight for their rights, to fight against the exploitation of the bourgeoisie. Workers have always been the object of exploitation. If we turn the pages of history we can find the situation, condition of the workers were very pathetic. There was no fixed time of their work. They had to work under pressure till they got exhausted. The working environment was neither good. After a long series of exploitation of the workers by the owners the workers of various factories in Chicago went out on the streets to fight for their rights. The major incident happened in 1886 in Haymarket in Chicago. The workers stopped their day’s work on MAY 1st and called for a general strike. Their demand was eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation and eight hours of rest. On May 4th when a public assembly was happening in support of the strike, an unidentified person threw a bomb upon the crowd. The police responded by firing on the workers. Undetermined numbers of workers were injured and wounded. It was later founded out that 8 workers became martyr in the police firing. The peaceful demonstration turned to be violent. After that the workers held the blood smeared cloth of the martyrs and addressed the crowd that the red color of the blood will be the symbol of their struggle. And this is how the history of red flag came into existence. After this struggle, the workers emerged victorious and their demand for 8 hours of work was fulfilled.
It is because of their struggle we got the provision of working for 8 hours in any institution even today. To commemorate their struggle May Day is celebrated every year all over the world. But still the struggle of the workers has not ended. Each and every day is a struggle for them. Even today the workers organize protest rallies, meetings to remember the Martyrs and to achieve what has remained pending.
