LLabor Day is celebrated on May 1 all over the world. This date was born in the struggle for workers’ rights during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Here, to Chicago, Illinois, In the 1866 thanks to lobbying by the Association of the Order of American Knights of Labor, i Knights of Labor, the first eight-hour working day law was approvedwhich went into effect the following year just May 1st.
May 1st around the world
On May 1, 1886then, 19 years after the Chicago milestone, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions established that the 8-hour work was to be extended to all American territoryotherwise there would have been an all-out general strike across the country. During the demonstrations that day in Chicago, some workers were killed by the police. As Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States of Americaestablished that on May 1st those bloody episodes would always be commemorated in memory of the missing workers.
The news spread and slowly, and many states decided to use the same date to remember the events in Chicago and workers’ rights. First was the Canada in 1894. Then, al Paris International Congress of 1889, May 1 was officially declared as the International Workers’ Dayand then adopted by many other countries in the world.
In the end, on May 1, 1955, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker for the entire Catholic Churchso that the feast could be fully celebrated also by Catholic workers.
Concert on May 1st
In Italy, the trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL, in collaboration with the municipality of Rome, since 1990 they have given way to a musical event to celebrate May 1st: since then in Rome, in Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, many singers have performed from the afternoon to the evening to remember the importance of workers’ rights.
Institutional phrases for May 1st
«Italy is a democratic republic, founded on work. Sovereignty belongs to the people, who exercise it in the forms and within the limits of the Constitution”. (Article 1 of the Italian Constitution)
“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and satisfactory conditions of work and to protection against unemployment”. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)
Phrases for May 1 of poets and writers
“Work ennobles man.” (Charles Darwin)
“Work takes three great evils away from us: boredom, vice and need”. (Voltaire)
“The best antidote to pain is work.” (Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” (Confucius)
“If one spent a whole year on vacation, having fun would be as stressful as working.” (William Shakespeare)
«You have to work and dare if you really want to live». (Vincent van Gogh)
“It is impossible to fully enjoy idleness if one does not have a lot of work to do” (Jerome Klapka Jerome)
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you will feed him for life.” (Chinese proverb)
“The fruit of labor is the sweetest of pleasures.” (Luc De Clapiers De Vauvenargues)
Successful people quotes
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman” (Margaret Thatcher)
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter. What matters to him is going to bed at night knowing he’s done something great.” (Steve Jobs)
“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will only be leaders.” (Sheryl Sandberg)
“Big deals are missed by most people because they’re dressed in overalls and look like work.” (Thomas Edison)
“Make sure you never do less than your best.” (Walt Disney)
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” (Vince Lombardi)
Phrases for May 1st of institutional figures
«How I would like to see everyone with a decent job! It is essential for human dignity.” (Pope francesco)
«I believe in the Italian people. They are a generous, industrious people, they ask only for work, a home and to be able to take care of the health of their loved ones. He does not therefore «ask for heaven on earth. He asks for what every people should have.” (Sandro Pertini)
«It is neither wealth nor fame that gives happiness, but work and tranquility». (Thomas Jefferson)
“You hold your work, or he will hold you.” (Benjamin Franklin)
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