Days Until International Workers' Day (May Day)

About International Workers' Day (May Day)

May 1, widely known as May Day in this context, commemorates the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago, a labor demonstration and subsequent violent confrontation connected to the movement for an eight-hour workday, which became a foundational reference point for the international labor movement.

It's a public holiday in a large number of countries worldwide, notably including most of Europe and much of Latin America, and is distinct in date from the United States' own Labor Day, observed instead on the first Monday in September specifically to distance the American holiday from the more radical political associations May Day had acquired.

The eight-hour workday the Haymarket-era labor movement fought for eventually became US federal law for many workers only decades later, through the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

The eight-hour workday slogan associated with the day — "eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will" — originated with 19th-century labor organizer Robert Owen well before the Haymarket affair itself.