👀 May Day, May Day

#221 | Workers of the world, unite

Hey,

It's May Day - International Worker's Day.

So today's thing is this video from the Trades Union Congress that outlines the history of this day.

In the nineteenth century, workers across the U.S. began to protest against long work hours in unhealthy environments, demanding fixed eight-hour workdays instead. 

In Chicago, these protests evoked violent responses from the authorities, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. This incident came to be known as the Haymarket affair. To commemorate this, the International Socialist Conference declared that May 1 would be an international holiday for labour beginning in 1889. 

More than 120 years later, labourers around the globe are still compelled to fight for basic rights and freedoms. 

And yet, everything we do, everything we GET to do, is the result of labour. 

Our homes are built with bricks laid by masons in all weather. Our gadgets run on resources extracted by miners walking a thin line between life and death. Our houses are cleaned, and food is cooked by domestic workers who don't get a seat at the table. 

We climb on their backs to get to the higher floors but pretend our own wings flew us here. 

But hey, the raised fist looks really cool on a t-shirt. 

Proiti