May Day Welcomes Summer, Celebrates Workers

Welcome back to The Sunstone Way. 

Today, Thursday, is May 1. May Day. That means a lot of different things to a lot of people. 

What does it mean to you? 

Summer Time 

In the really old days in Europe, May Day was celebrated as the beginning of summer. May 1 is halfway between the Spring Equinox (March) and the Summer Solstice (late June). Planting is done and things are beginning to grow. 

That’s something to celebrate. 

Those May traditions, like so many in ancient days, centered around nature. An early harvest of flowers, given anonymously, was a successful May Day treat. Crowning a May Day Queen with a wreath of flowers remains stylish to this day. 

I must admit I’m not clear what dancing around the Maypole is supposed to mean. But every celebration should include dancing, in my humble opinion. 

All About Workers 

These days, most people associate May Day with workers and, sadly, military parades by countries under Communist rule. 

I focus on the celebration of the workforce. Did you know that another name for May Day is International Workers’ Day? And the movement started right here in the United States. 

In the 19^th Century, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and working conditions weren’t regulated at all. Women and children worked for 12 hours or more a day, causing illness and sometimes death.  

In an attempt to end these inhumane conditions, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which would later become the American Federation of Labor, or AFL) came together in 1884 in Chicago, launching the movement for the 8-hour workday. It took some time, some protests and lots of politicking, but the 8-hour day became the norm for factory work. 

The American Way 

While American politicians gradually got behind workers’ rights – workers vote, you know – the connection with the Communist movement became a problem before the turn of the century. After the Pullman Strike in 1894, then-President Grover Cleveland officially created Labor Day to be celebrated on the first Monday in September as a solution. 

That action did separate U.S. workers from International Workers’ Day on the first of May. But much of the industrialized world stuck with that date for International Workers’ Day. In 1889 (five years before creation of the U.S. Labor Day), the Marxist, socialist and labor parties in Europe held an International Workers Conference in Paris to call for the same 8-hour workday. 

That call was heeded over the next years around the world with work stoppages and demonstrations. May 1 didn’t become a day for military parades in Communist and Socialist countries until the Cold War, after World War II. 

Workers Equal Communities 

In my time as Economic Development Director for the city of Long Beach, the number one priority was to create jobs. The workers who filled those jobs were and remain the engine that keeps the city’s economy running. 

It’s what I like best about our work here at Sunstone, and particularly at Sunstone Cities. We can make lives better by economic development plans that create new, better jobs. We can make communities better by adding residents employed in good-paying jobs, stimulating the economy. 

Supporting entrepreneurs like the Sunstone Community Fund does is a job creator as well. New businesses mean new jobs, and that’s a plus for the communities where those entrepreneurs live. 

So enjoy May Day as the beginning of summer – heck, wear a flower in your hair! But remember the workers too, and all they do to make our communities better. Because that’s The Sunstone Way. 

Remember, always be a Sunstone!