Workers in Ghana are today joining their counterparts throughout the world to celebrate May Day, a day set aside to take stock of the contribution of labour to the socio-politico-economic development of the world.
This year's May Day celebration in Ghana has been dedicated to the centenary of the birth of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First
President, under the theme: "Consolidating Workers' Solidarity, and the Legacy of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah."
May Day or Labour Day has its origins in America when the Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions in 1884 passed a resolution at their meeting that all legal ways for their demand to reduce the working hours from 16 hours to eight hours had failed and, therefore, decided to go on strike.
The movement gained momentum and on 1st May 1886, a strike call was given. The centre of this movement was Chicago.
To foil the strike additional Police were hired, money for which was given by Industrialists. For two days the strike remained peaceful. On 3rd May, near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. factory, Police resorted to unprovoked firing upon unarmed and peaceful demonstrators during which four labourers died and many others were injured.
The next day on May 4th the organisers announced a big rally against the criminal action of the Police at the local market square. The gathering was peaceful. When the last leader was delivering his speech, the Police started firing on labourers and many labourers died and hundreds were injured.
The Police made an excuse that someone from the gathering hurled a grenade, which resulted in the death of one Policeman. A fake case was registered against the Labour Leaders and eight of them were sentenced to death.
Albert Parson; August Spize; Adolf Fischer and George Angel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louise Ling committed suicide in jail. The
remaining three were pardoned in 1893.
In 1889 it was decided to declare May 1 as Labour Day. On the first of May 1890, the first May Day was observed in the memory of the innocent martyrs of the Labour Movement.
In the course of time the day became the most important day of Labour Movements and is now celebrated throughout the world.