Happy Labour Day
As many of us enjoy a day off on this special day, not many of us know about the origins of Labour Day.
Superficially, it is a day to recognise the efforts of the working people. Hence, it is special day for working people like you and me. Sometime back in history, workers were being exploited by forcing them to work long hours. Imagine if you are born in the time of the Industrial revolution in Europe some 200 years ago, you would probably be working 10 to 16 hours every day for 6 days a week in the poor working conditions of factories that were noisy, crowded and polluted. Today, we have come a long way to institute an 8-hour day. The " Eight Hour Day" movement was started in Britain in 1817 with its slogan advocating "Eight hours of labour, Eight hours of recreation and Eight hours of rest". Since then, labour movements were started all over the world to campaign for better working hours. Australia and New Zealand were the first countries to institute an 8-hour workday. I understand that even today, shops close as early as 5 pm in some parts of Aussieland.
As with their counterparts in the rest of the world, the Americans fought for an 8-hour day. But this turned out to be a tragedy in May 1886. The place was Chicago where a demonstration grew to about 350,000 workers from over 1200 factories. Subsequently, there was a clamp down by the police in which 4 were killed on 3 May. On 4 May, a bomb exploded at a rally that killed at least 50 and wounded many more. This is known as the Haymarket Affair, a black mark in American history.
In response to that event, labour movements all over the world decided that from 1890, 1 May will be an international rally day to be known as International Worker's Day worldwide. It is also known as May Day in some countries where traditionally celebrations are already held to welcome the first day of summer. Christians do not really like the idea of May Day celebrations because it is linked to paganistic practices but that's another story.
Because Labour Day has a socialistic slant to it and it is associated with the controversial Haymarket Affair, the US did not institute it as a public holiday even though it eventually aligned itself with the 8-hour workday as practiced internationally. Interestingly, 1 May in US is known as Loyalty Day - a day whereby Americans declare their loyalty to the country (a remnant of the Cold War period when US and Soviet Union were at loggerheads).
Labour Day in socialist Peoples' Republic of China has always been a big event. In fact, it was designated as one of the three important "Golden" weeks along with Chinese New Year and National Day. That was until this year in 2008 when the three-day holiday is reduced to only one day to make way for two new public holidays - the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid Autumn Festival. A return to traditions or an excuse to diminish the importance of workers as China now emphasizes economic development? You decide.
In many western countries, International Worker's Day is also a day of demonstrations as workers and labour movements fight for more rights and better treatment. However in Singapore, this does not happen. In fact, Singaporeans are oblivious to the government organised May Day rallies dismissing them as propanganda. Only in Singapore is our NTUC run by the government.
I guess a big majority of Singaporeans will just treat labour day as a holiday rest day and nothing more. But the next time you hum the song "Nine to Five", remember you are lucky to have an 8-hour workday and a Labour Day holiday every year. Ok, ok... I reckon it is not really 8 hours considering that many of us work overtime. But anyway, have a happy Labour Day!