EPTThe short story:
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On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turned on the building's lights. Hoover's gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.
At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 storeys and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world's tallest skyscraper.
This can be confirmed by going through various sites which have a "what happened on this date" sort of feature:
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/may1st.html
http://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/May-01.html
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory?month=may&day=1&submit=Go!
But what really happened:
+ Show Spoiler +
May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.
The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.
The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.
Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.
It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in Moscow's Red Square. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day - a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and sit in traffic jams.
http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html
So what they got was a very bad story to tell their would-become capitalist children. Something needed to be done. they couldnt have 1st of may to stand alone without being suppressed somehow. So various companies throughout history came up with things that would erase past events from their american minds. First came the americanization day also known as the loyalty day (1921) and last came the lawday (1958). All on 1st of may to suppress people being reminded of what happened in 1886. And lawday to make people celebrate laws and thus the state.
The implementation of those american days instead of the international day was
.. that it blunts the class consciousness of the working class. Politicians and the media insist that we do not have classes in America,
...
We are all citizens of "the greatest country on earth." We stand united, one nation indivisible. We are committed to our "American way of life," which equates with the American system of free enterprise. Preventing workers' class consciousness by promoting patriotism is a very important part of corporate strategy.
http://www.deleonism.org/text/nu020101.htm
That same page also says:
Obviously, patriotism must help the ruling corporations and their wealthy owners for them to put so much effort into promoting it.
In the 1920s the National Association of Manufacturers, the Bankers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce distributed a flood of anti-labor literature to the press, churches, schools and others, with the message that unionism was un-American and that the open shop was the "American Plan."
A study financed by the top ten corporations in 1945 advised them not to sell capitalism primarily on its merits but to identify their desired policies with Americanism. Opposing policies, such as the New Deal, should be identified as un-American. Over the years the message has been that free enterprise equals Americanism, and that critics and labor unions are not 100% American.
We are now in 2011, and in Europe like everyone knows 1st of may is a date belonging to the workers. Maybe they dont know that it comes from Chicago. But i fear in the US a thick layer of fog made up of corporate propaganda has made people forget what its really all about.
And yeah, Abraham Lincoln or whatever his name was said that
The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.
- Abraham Lincoln
But ofcourse this was before "unamerican" was a concept of wide use.
And the debate?
What are you going to do on 1st of may, do you have any plans?
