"Both the formalizing and federalizing of the holiday happened in direct response to such radical elements. The May 1886 Haymarket riots and bombing, and the fears of international radicalism that followed, led to President Grover Cleveland’s 1887 recognition of a September Labor Day celebration, the first such formal national acknowledgment of the holiday. (Ironically, it was to commemorate the Haymarket affair that the 1889 Paris Second International officially designated May 1 as International Workers’ Day, a holiday still celebrated around the world.) And the 1894 Pullman Strike, one of the broadest and most prominent national strikes of the period, led Congress and Cleveland (serving in his second, non-consecutive term as president) to go one step further—just six days after the strike ended, Cleveland signed the hastily drafted and passed legislation that made Labor Day a federal holiday, to be celebrated on the first Monday of September.
Like the American labor movement itself, these histories are messy, conflicted, include both triumphs and tragedies, aren’t easily boiled down into a straightforward narrative. But one clear takeaway is this: As with every victory achieved by the labor movement (including eight-hour workdays, the weekend, health protections, child labor laws, and numerous other successes), Labor Day would not exist without the movement’s more radical and activist elements and efforts. Remembering the holiday’s origins can thus help us not only celebrate all that the labor movement has achieved, but also recognize the continued need for radical activism."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/radical-origins-of-labor-day
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