At the 1889 Congress Second International it was agreed, almost by accident Tol select a time for demonstrations of solidarity, simultaneously in all countries on a given day' That day was May Day: a turning point in the history of socialism. All over Europe, workers came out to press for an Eight Hour Day. Work stopped completely in 138 French Northern ground a halt; 100,000 came out in Barcelona alone; 120,000 workers responded in Stockholm, and the paper Social-Demokraten was printed in red ink.
Victor Adler was enthusiastic, and pointed to the revolutionising effect which these demonstrations could have. "In Austria the idea of May Day has taken root in the hearts of the workers whom we never could have reached with our programmes and speeches, and the impression will never be lost. Writing of a mass meeting Hyde Park, Frederick Engels proclaimed:
On May 4 1890,- the English working class joined up in the great international army. its long winter sleep is broken at last. ..and after 40 years it has rejoined the movement of its class. The grandchildren of the old Chartists are entering the line of battle.
In 1890, there existed trade unions both old and new. The old unions, which the skilled workers formed, had degenerated into mere sick funds and burial clubs. The new unions, particularly that of the gasworkers, were essentially strike unions concerned with building up strike funds. The universal radical demand at that time was for a working day eight hours long; the old unions also expressed an interest in this, but, gathered together in the London Trades Council (LTC), they saw it as something to be won not by law, Dur b agreements locally and 'freely' negotiated, and then only as a basis for extracting overtime pay.
The difference between the old and the new affected the way in which the first English May Day was run. The Central Committee (CC) of Addressing ACTT's Annual Conference, held the week-end before last, Sid Cole, the Union's Chairman, spoke about In Place of Strife, ying They the Donovan Commission on 'U's felt that to restrict the right to official or unofficial strikes by the use of that blunt instrument the law, could produce chaos. Yet this is precisely the instrument the Government intends to use. •ITS White Paper, ironically entitled In Place of Strife, presents the Trade Union Movement with three of the most odious proposals with which has ever confronted'.
As a body, ACTT has been fast to react to In Place of Strife, faster still to act against the government. An Emergency Motion was passed overwhelmingly by the Conference, rejecting the restrictive purpose of the White Paper and reminding the government that the Labour Party was created and is sustained by the TU London workers to stone, invited the Let to Second International, trying join in. The latter, however, was determined to channel the demonstration into no more than a pressure for their kind of eight-hour day; and entered an unholy alliance with the Social-Democratic Federation, a body as rigidly doctrinaire, its leader, Hyndman, as rigidly autocratic, as are any groups on the left in England today.
Only one meeting at a time could be held in Hyde Park and agreement had to be made with the Board of Works over the number of wagons to be used. The LTC and Hyndman at once secured the use of the park behind the backs of the CC. Then they announced that only Trade Unions, and not Socialist Unions and political clubs, could take part and carry banners. Finally, at the last meeting, the CC delegate: liscovered that the resolution had already beer edited and the demand for a legalised Eight Hour Day had been deleted!
But the CC against all expectations managed to get seven wagons of its own for the rally. Came the day and the vast crowds rallying round their wagons and banners even many members of the old Trade Unions - testified to their growing support compared with the pathetic numbers which the LTC - Hyndman clique was able to muster.
Subsequent years revealed how deeply the plant of socialism might take root in harsh, arid soil. Between 1889 and 1914 there stretched twenty-five years of unprecedented mass action, not only in Britain but in Germany, France, Italy and Russia too. The workers must choose. The parallel is almost complete and Engels description of that rally, now so many years ago, may hopefully be applied today:
'On the one side was stagnation, represented ov the Trades Unions that have not yet quit freed themselves from the guild spirit, and by narrow-minded sect backed by the meanest allies; on the other, the living free movement of the re-awakening British Proletariat.' John Weal