Backgrounder: International Workers' Day

Friday marks the 126th International Workers' Day. The following is a brief introduction to the big holiday for global laborers and workers.

International Workers' Day, also known as Labor Day, is a public holiday of laborers and the working class in about 90 countries all over the world, which is promoted by the international labor movement and celebrated every year on May 1.

The date was chosen by the Second International in July 1889 to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago, the United States, on May 4, 1886.

As a traditional spring celebration, May 1 or May Day is a national public holiday in many European countries, but only in some of them is celebrated specifically as "Labor Day" or "International Workers' Day."

Some other countries mark Labor Day on other dates, such as in the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.

Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew worldwide, a variety of days were chosen by trade unions as a day to celebrate labor.

In the United States and Canada, a September holiday, called Labor or Labor Day, was first proposed in the 1880s. It became an official federal holiday in 1894, when 30 U.S. states officially celebrated the Labor Day. By 1887 in North America, Labor Day was an established, official holiday in September instead of on May 1.

The Second International led by Friedrich Engels set May 1 as International Workers' Day in order to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

In 1889, the first congress of the Second International held in Paris called for international demonstrations across the world on the anniversary of the Chicago protests starting from the next year. Since 1890, May 1 has been formally recognized as an annual celebration date for global proletariat and workers.

International Workers' Day has been an important official holiday in many countries such as China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cuba, the former Soviet Union and a lot of other socialist countries, while in the United States efforts to switch Labor Day from September to May 1 have been unsuccessful.

On May 1, 2012, members of "Occupy Wall Street" and labor unions held protests together in a number of cities in the United States and Canada to commemorate May Day and to protest the economic recession and inequality.

International Workers' Day has been a statutory holiday in China since 1950. It is now usually supplemented by two other days to give the appearance of a three-day holiday.

Since 1992, May 1 has been officially called "The Day of Spring and Labor" in Russia and remained a major holiday.

Today in Germany, the capital city of Berlin witnesses yearly demonstrations on May 1, the largest organized by labor unions, political parties and others.

In France, May 1 is a public holiday, when trade unions can organize parades in major cities to defend workers' rights.

In Britain, May Day activities are held on the first Monday of May. In recent years, the anti-capitalist movement has staged a number of large protests in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Doncaster on the day. Endi