History of May Day

Written by Alexander Trachtenberg in 1935, The History of May Day is an invaluable asset for any Marxist-Leninist student. In this classic pamphlet Alexander Trachtenberg delivers a concise history of the origins of May Day. The origin of May Day is indissolubly bound up with the struggle for the shorter workday—a demand of major political significance for the working class. This struggle is manifest almost from the beginning of the factory system in the United States. Although the demand for higher wages appears to be the most prevalent cause for the early strikes in this country, the question of shorter hours and the right to organize were always kept in the foreground when workers formulated their demands against the bosses and the government. As exploitation was becoming intensified and workers were feeling more and more the strain of inhumanly long working hours, the demand for an appreciable reduction of hours became more pronounced.