May First, by Lucy E. Parsons (1906)
Article from ‘The Liberator’, January 28, 1906, Chicago, edited by Lucy E. Parsons
In No. 21 of The Liberator, A. Klemencic suggested that a general movement be set on foot now to inaugurate the movement looking to an observance of the 1st of May as an International Labor Day.
This suggestion is timely. What more fitting time than the first of the beautiful month of May, when all nature has aroused from its long winter sleep, when birds are singing, flowers bursting and fields and forests are taking on their beautiful verdure, for the sons and daughters of all lands to quit the abominable slave pens, the factory with its hideous din and smoke and dirt, the black, foreboding mines, and the red-hot forging mills, and come together for one day to feel the warmth of a common interest, of solidarity and fraternity?
By making this day an International holiday, there are so many pledges that the working class can make to each other, for instance: they can declare against war, or if the “powers that be” wish war, they can do their own fighting; they can decide how many hours they propose to work; they can declare in favor of the General Strike and prepare to enforce it.
Let us hear from the readers of The Liberator regarding the first of May as an International Labor Day.
L. E. P.