Much appreciated by the French, the day of May 1 will be celebrated this year in somewhat special circumstances, without its traditional manifestations, due to the confinement still in progress. Unlike other public holidays on the calendar, Labor Day does not have its origins in French historical events, or in the religious history of the country, but in the struggle of American workers.
American origins
Labor Day has its origins across the Atlantic. In 1884, American unions decided, to claim the eight-hour day, to carry out a day of action every May 1. A symbolic choice, the date of May 1 corresponding to the first day of the accounting year of companies. On May 1, 1886, a strike led by nearly 350,000 people paralyzed American factories.
In the end, the eight-hour day will be obtained, but the social clashes will have claimed many victims. For example, on May 3 in Chicago, the police charged the crowd in front of factories and several workers were killed.
Spread in France in 1889
The idea of a May Day action day arrives in France three years later, in 1889, when the Socialist International adopts this date as "international workers' day". Again, the idea is to claim an eight-hour day. May 1 is the annual protest day, and the first social May 1 is held a year later.
The demonstrators then wear a red triangle in their buttonholes, the three sides of which symbolize the division of time between work, leisure and sleep. Over the years, the red triangle will gradually give way to thrush.
As in the United States, demonstrations sometimes end dramatically due to police repression, as in Fourmies, in 1891, when the army fired on strikers, leaving 9 dead and 33 wounded
The instrumentalization by the Vichy regime
In 1941, during the occupation, Marshal Pétain decreed that May 1, declared "labor day and social harmony", will henceforth be a non-working day without reduction in wages. Behind this social decision hides the will to rally the French to the Vichy regime, with great propaganda reinforcement.
The measure was taken up in 1947 by the government of the Liberation. Since that date, May 1 is unemployed and paid for all employees, and becomes a holiday in 1948.