Context:
- International Workers’ Day, also known as Workers’ Day or Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement which occurs every year on May Day (1 May), an ancient European spring festival
On the horizon:
- The date was chosen by a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886.
- The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on “all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.
This day in India:
- In India, the first formal celebration of Labour Day was initiated by the ‘Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan’ in Chennai (then known as Madras) on 1 May 1923.
- It is observed as a holiday all over India as a mark of respect to India’s workforce.
- In Maharashtra and Gujarat, it is officially called Maharashtra Day and Gujarat Day respectively, since it was on this day in 1960 that they attained statehood on linguistic-lines through the bifurcation of the then-Bombay state.
- At diverse corners of the country, the holiday is also celebrated as ‘Antarrashtriya Shramik Diwas’, ‘Uzhaipalar Dinam’ (Tamil) or ‘Kamgar Din’.
The theme of Labour Day 2019: ‘Uniting Workers for Social and Economic Advancement.’
Future Officers 