Andrew Pfannkuche
Doctoral researcher at the C²DH
Andrew works on the project ‘MAKING GLOBAL MAY DAY: A HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY FROM 1886 TO TOMORROW‘ under the supervision of Frédéric Clavert
What could one possibly add to the history of May Day? There is a world to add.
Making Global May Day tells the story of International Workers’ Day – the first of May – as a global event. Even before Marx and Engels appealed to the workers of the world to unite, socialism and the workers’ movements had always been transnational. This was still the case when May Day was declared a holiday, not by any national government, but by the first congress of the Second International.
But as the European workers’ movement became nationally focused, so too did May Day. The holiday not only lost its international character but ceased to be an explicitly socialist event as national governments embraced the holiday for national purposes. For many, May Day became just another day off work.
But that is not the case. The history is rich. By tracking the global growth and spread of May Day and by reproducing the banners, slogans, and hallowed phrases that have been used across the history of the holiday, we see how May Day has changed over time and space and unifies us – from 1890’s Hamburg to Hanoi 1990 – in our shared experience of labour.