May Day Poetry

Diego Rivera. May Day, Moscow. 1928

The Worker’s Maypole
Walter Crane

World Workers, whatever may bind ye,
This day let your work be undone:
Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
And come forth and be glad in the sun.

Now again while the green earth rejoices
In the bud and the blossom of May
Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,
And keep merry the World’s Labour Day.

Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
With a message of strife and of hope:
Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands
That gathers your cause in its scope.

It is writ on each ribbon that flies
That flutters from fair Freedom’s heart:
If still far be the crown and the prize
In its winning may each take a part.

Your cause is the hope of the world,
In your strife is the life of the race,
The workers’ flag Freedom unfurled
Is the veil of the bright future’s face.

Be ye many or few drawn together,
Let your message be clear on this day;
Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
In this–that ye sing on May-Day.

Of the new life that still lieth hidden,
Though its shadow is cast before;
The new birth of hope that unbidden
Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.

Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
Together pull, strong and united:
Link your hands like a chain the world round,
If you will that your hopes be requited.

When the World’s Workers, sisters and brothers,
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life–not for others,
For the earth and its fulness is theirs.

March Comrades
Louis Zukofsky

Workers and farmers unite
You have nothing,to lose
But your chains
The world is to win
This is May Day! May!
Your armies are veining the earth!

Railways and highways have tied
Blood of farmland and town
And the chains
Speed wheat to machine
This is May Day! May!
The poor’s armies veining the earth!

Hirers once fed by the harried
Cannot feed them their hire
Nor can chains
Hold the hungry in
This is May Day! May!
The poor are veining the earth!

Light lights in air blossoms red
Like nothing on earth
Now the chains
Drag graves to lie in
This is May Day! May!
The poor’s armies are veining the earth!

March comrades in revolution
From hirer unchained
Till your gain
Be the freedom of all
The World’s May Day! May!
May of the Freed of All the Earth!

Into the Streets May First
Alfred Hayes

Into the streets May First!
Into the roaring Square!
Shake the midtown towers!
Shatter the downtown air!
Come with a storm of banners,
Come with an earthquake tread,
Bells, hurl out of your belfries,
Red flag, leap out your red!
Out of the shops and factories,
Up with the sickle and hammer,
Comrades, these are our tools,
A song and a banner!
Roll song, from the sea of our hearts,
Banner, leap and be free;
Song and banner together,
Down with the bourgeoisie!
Sweep the big city, march forward,
The day is a barricade;
We hurl the bright bomb of the sun,
The moon like a hand grenade.
Pour forth like a second flood!
Thunder the alps of the air!
Subways are roaring our milllons–
Comrades, into the square!

What are the Origins of May Day?

by Rosa Luxemburg (1894)

The happy idea of using a proletarian holiday celebration as a means to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided in 1856 to organize a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day. The day of this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for the year 1856. But this first celebration had such a strong effect on the proletarian masses of Australia, enlivening them and leading to new agitation, that it was decided to repeat the celebration every year.

In fact, what could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? Thus, the idea of a proletarian celebration was quickly accepted and, from Australia, began to spread to other countries until finally it had conquered the whole proletarian world.

The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886 they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day 200,000 of them left their work and demanded the eight-hour day. Later, police and legal harassment prevented the workers for many years from repeating this [size] demonstration. However in 1888 they renewed their decision and decided that the next celebration would be May 1, 1890.

In the meanwhile, the workers’ movement in Europe had grown strong and animated. The most powerful expression of this movement occurred at the International Workers’ Congress in 1889. At this Congress, attended by four hundred delegates, it was decided that the eight-hour day must be the first demand. Whereupon the delegate of the French unions, the worker Lavigne from Bordeaux, moved that this demand be expressed in all countries through a universal work stoppage. The delegate of the American workers called attention to the decision of his comrades to strike on May 1, 1890, and the Congress decided on this date for the universal proletarian celebration.

In this case, as thirty years before in Australia, the workers really thought only of a one-time demonstration. The Congress decided that the workers of all lands would demonstrate together for the eight-hour day on May 1, 1890. No one spoke of a repetition of the holiday for the next years. Naturally no one could predict the lightning-like way in which this idea would succeed and how quickly it would be adopted by the working classes. However, it was enough to celebrate the May Day simply one time in order that everyone understand and feel that May Day must be a yearly and continuing institution [...].

The first of May demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day. But even after this goal was reached, May Day was not given up. As long as the struggle of the workers against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class continues, as long as all demands are not met, May Day will be the yearly expression of these demands. And, when better days dawn, when the working class of the world has won its deliverance then too humanity will probably celebrate May Day in honor of the bitter struggles and the many sufferings of the past.

Cuba’s May Day Celebration: 1,000 Paricipants, 62 Countries

Granma Internacional

As of the final week in April, more than 1,000 representatives from 162 trade unions, social organizations and Cuba solidarity groups from 62 countries on all continents, have confirmed their plans to participate in the national May Day march culminating in Havana’s José Martí Plaza de la Revolución, May 1.

Of this group, 453, to date, are trade union leaders from about 50 countries, with the largest portion from Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica, who have chosen to celebrate the day with the Cuban people, representing 27 solidarity organizations such as the May 1 Brigade, which for years has participated to express its support of the Cuban Revolution and, in particular, opposition to the blockade and the unjust incarceration of the Cuban Five in the United States.

Additionally 102 delegates from 37 countries have confirmed their participation in the 2nd International Conference of Young Workers, called by the World Federation of Trade Unions, April 29-30 at the Federation of Cuban Workers (CTC) headquarters, where they will be joined by young Cuban workers as well. (Susana Lee)

Activities begin for May Day International Brigade

“We came to Cuba to celebrate May Day as it should be celebrated, to re-energize and return to our countries committed to fighting for a different kind of nation, with more solidarity,” said Odette López, one of the Chilean members of the May 1 International Brigade, which every year brings together activists from many countries to celebrate the workers’ holiday in Cuba.

López recounted that when she first participated in the Brigade six years ago, she was so moved that she convinced several of her compatriots to make the trip with her and, this year, there are 23 activists from the Chilean city of Iquique participating in the Brigade.

Arriving along with this group at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp, located in Caimito outside of Havana in the western province of Artemisa, were 215 Brigade participants from more than 20 countries, who will join the march and, over a two week period, engage in agricultural work, hear reports on Cuba’s current economic and political situation and learn about Cuba first hand.

“In my country, May Day is not what it is here. Celebrating the day among Cubans and participating in the march is a great event for me,” said Ariat Shmanov, from Kazakistan.

“I grew up during the Soviet era and always heard news about Cuba,” Shmanov recalled, “but with the disappearance of the socialist camp, many of us lost our ties to the country. So this trip will allow me to see how the Cuban Revolution has managed to defend its values.”

Many young people on the Brigade are seeing Cuba for the first time. The majority live a very different reality in their countries of origin and say that their stay in Cuba will help them see the world from a fresh point of view.

The Julio Antonio Mella International Camp was inaugurated by Fidel and several international brigades and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.