By Hyman Lumer

M*® Day, as is well known, originated in the United

States. Its roots lie in the movement for the eight-
hour day which developed after the Civil War. Of this
movement Karl Marx wrote:

“In the United States of North America, every inde-
pendent movement of the workers was paralyzed so long
as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labor can-
not emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black
it is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new life at
once arose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight
hours’ agitation, that ran with the seven-leagued boots
of the locomotive from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from
New England to California. The General Congress of La-
bor at Baltimore (August 16, 1866). declared: ‘The first
and great necessity of the present, to free the labor of
this country from capitalistic slavery, is the passing of
a law by which eight hours shall be the normal working
day in all states of the American Union. We are resolved
to put forth all our strength until this glorious result is
attained.’ At the same time, the Congress of the Interna-
tional Working Men’s Association at Geneva, on the pro-

position of the London General Council, resolved that —

-‘the limitation of the working day is a preliminary con-
dition without which all further efforts at improvement
and emancipation must prove abortive... the Congress
proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working
day.’”’ (Capital, Vol. I, International Publishers, New
York, 1939, p. 287. )

The Baltimore congress of-which Marx spoke was
the first convention of the National Labor Union, formed
under the leadership of William H. Sylvis, head of the
Moulders’ Union. :

Twenty-two years later the American Federation of
Labor, at its fourth convention in 1884, adopted a resolu-
tion stating: “‘Resolved.. that eight hours shall constitute
a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886...”’ (Philip
S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement of the United
States, International Publishers, New York, Vol. 2, p. 98.)
The convention projected the idea of a general strike for
the eight-hour day on that date, and this was repeated by
the next convention in 1885.

The strike took place, involving, it is estimated,
more than half a million workers. Of these about half
were successful in winning the eight-hour day or some

tASPORT WORKERS Uy
IZ6
SURFACE TR p

A New York parade. ©

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1974—PAGE 6

appreciable reduction in hours.

The most militant center of the strike was Chicago.
Here there took place a few days later the infamous
Haymarket Affair. On May 4 a large demonstration was
held in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality
against strikers at the McCormick works. At the last mo-
ment a surrounding cordon of police attacked the meet-
ing. A bomb was thrown into the crowd in the direction
of the police. A police sergeant was killed and a number
of police were wounded, some fatally. A battle ensued in
which a number of workers and police were killed. Hun-
dreds of workers were arrested and eight were finally
brought to trial; of these, after a travesty of a trial, four
were hanged (Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel), while
the other four served prison terms.

In 1888 the AFL voted to rejuvenate the eight-hour
movement. Its president, Samuel Gompers, approached
the International Workingmen’s Congress held in July
1889, which founded the Second International, for support
to a strike planned for May 1, 1890. The Congress voted to
organize an international demonstration for the eight-
hour day on that date. .

This was the beginning of May Day, which has since
become a world holiday of labor) a day of demonstration
and struggle for the workers’ interests. Ultimately- the
eight-hour day was won for most workers in this coun-
try with the passage in 1938 of the Wages and Hours Act,
which set 40 hours as the standard work week, with time-

and-a-half-pay for all added hours. But the battle to short-
en the hours of labor continues.

First of all, the federal wages and hours legislation
does not apply to all categories of workers; for example,
it excludes some 2 million farm workers as well as many
others. Thus there are substantial groups of workers
who have yet to win the 40-hour week.

Secondly, with the continuing rise in productivity
and especially with the advance of the new scientific-
technological revolution, the displacement of workers
from their jobs has become a growing problem. Added
to this is the enormous intensification of speedup in U.S.
industry, wearing workers out physically and mentally
at an increasingly early age.

This has given rise to the demand for a further re-
duction in the standard work week from 40 hours to 30

On : ‘
St, a

Ns:

. of demand the big corporations are least re@

The above article by Hyman Lumer appeared in the May
Day edition of the U.S. Daily World on April 28, 1973. It
appears here in slightly abridged form.

oe

Haymarket martyrs hanged November 11, 1887.

i ee

;ood
hours with no cut in total weekly pay. For a 6°

years now, “‘thirty for forty” has been a fighl!™ od

: : e
in labor’s ranks, and many unions have at ore

another gone on record for the 30-hour wee wor in
some advances in this direction have beet ©. ji
number ef industries, workers have for some. nets: ful
a 35-hour week. Among them are the coal MN sia
workers, garment workers, longshore wor ey not
of the building trades workers, New York brew’ oneis ,
ers and others. Still others have work weeks !? 4
borhood of 37 hours. ers: poe
For the overwhelming majority of the WO" a he |
ever, the work week remains 40 hours or moré- or ent
have been retreats. For example, the rubber Wey ane |
Akron, who for many years worked a 6-hour rom “er
36-hour week, have under prolonged pressure? ji ‘|
companies joined by the top union leadershiP - ino |
an 8-hour day and 40-hour week. Furtherm? ‘reall
nowhere is the 30-hour week with 40-hours’ Pay ty a
Clearly the big battles in this arena, espeCi#™” — :
basic industries, still lie ahead. ight 10 Ml |
What is more, it will take an all-out fig 2 k |
general shortening of the work week, for this to grt

(
t
!
\

As this author has previously written: ost see! iy
“For the capitalist the simplest and ™ gin of ‘
way to enlarge his profits is to increase the tenes
work day. This requires no technological imP or
and no big investments in new equipment. se Ue |
since they do not entail a proportionate incres shel ia
head costs, the added hours of labor yield 2 hi e pee 2
of profit than do the initial hours. And not only ie !
profits less costly; they are also more secure © esti :
obtained through the introduction of new mac : cap é |

they are not subject to reduction because othe ge?
ists follow suit and thus eliminate his adv2™ wt |
them. For these reasons, if it were not reste 1 fs
doing so, the capitalist class would extend the of yo ,
the work day out to and’even beyond the limits ew ce
endurace.” (Is Full Employment Possible’; ih
tury Publishers, New York, 1962, p. 92.) ‘ons ef |
So much is this so that the big corporal able
when the work load increases, find it more PF?
3 9°
Continued at A

14
1