Uncommon People
Birth of a Holiday: The First of May
Eric Hobsbawm

".. the only unquestionable dent made by a secular movement in the Christian or any other official calendar, a holiday established in not one or two countries, but in 1990 officially in 107 states
What is more it is an occasion established not by the power of governments or conquerors, but by and entirely unofficial movement of poor men and women. I am speaking of May Day, or more precisely of the First of May, the international festival of the working-class movement, whose centenary ought to have been celbrated in 1990, for it was inaugurated in 1890...."

Let us note three facts about the original proposal. First, the call was simply for a single, one-off, international manifestation.
Second, there was no suggestion that it should be a particularly festive or ritual occasion.. Third, there is no sign that this
resolution was considerd particularly important at the time...."

"... the extent to which workers took part in these meetings amazed the people who had called upon them to do so, notably the
300,000 who filled Hyde Park in London, which thus, for the first and last time, provided the largest demonstration of the day..."

"... Unlike politics, which was in those days 'mens business', holidays included women and children. Both the visual and the
literary sources demonstrate the presence of women in May Day from the start.
What made it a genuine class display ... was precisely
that it was not confined to men but belonged to families .... If a working life of wage-labour belonged chiefly to men, refusing to
work for a day united age and sex in the working class."

"... it came from below. It was shaped anonymous working people themselves who, through it, recognised themselves, across lines of
occupation, language, eevn nationality as a single class by deciding, once a year, deliberately not to work: to flout the moral,
political and economic compulsion to labour."