THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY

 
THE DARK DAYS of winter are behind us and nature is awakening. Hawthorn bushes and whin is in flower all over the place. The hawthorn is also known as The May Tree or 'The May'. The expression my old granny always came out with at this time of year, “Cast not a clout 'till May is out" doesn’t mean  keep your woollies on until the end of the month of May but until the May tree or hawthorn comes 'out' in flower.  Good news.  It’s out, so let’s enjoy a bit of decent weather.

  May Day has been celebrated in our country for thousands of years. This is no foreign imposition but a firm part of our cultural heritage. Towns and villages all over these islands still have their Maypoles and still elect their Kings and Queens of the May. The large Maypole in Holywood, Co Down is the only one I know about at first hand.  These celebrations originate in our ancient pagan past. The celebrants depended on the land for survival and needed it to be fertile. May Day was about fertility for land and people; so some of the celebrations were a little too bawdy for those churchmen who sought to ban the more boisterous festivities. Here in Ireland and in Scotland, this time of year was known as Beltane or Bealtaine. A very popular revived modern Beltane ceremony takes place at Calton Hill in Edinburgh on April 30th each year.

  How come, then that May Day has become associated with trade unions and the wider labour movement?  From the industrial revolution of the early nineteenth century, tens of thousands of countryfolk moved from their villages and rural towns to the large cities where they found work in the mills. This work was long, hard and exhausting. It was common to work anything from twelve to sixteen hours a day. Workers began to realise that they were enslaved to the machines of their 'masters'. These exploited workers began to combine to seek better wages and conditions. The most notable demand was for an eight-hour working day; summed up in the slogan “8 hours labour. 8 hours recreation. 8 hours rest”. This demand was first put forward in the British colony of Victoria, Australia in May 1856.  A parade of 1200 building workers was led by a band carrying a large Union Jack with a golden figure of eight on the top of the pole.

  American workers passed a resolution in 1884 which asserted that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886 and that we recommend to labor organizations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution.” The reaction from the authorities was heavy-handed and violent. This violent reaction galvanised the American labour unions and encouraged workers in Britain and Ireland to continue the struggle for the eight-hour day and better working conditions.

  Some unscrupulous employers are still all too willing and able to cheat workers of the fruit of their labours. The 'long hours culture' pressurises many workers into putting in many hours of unpaid overtime. In the interests of bigger profit margins, these greedy employers are willing to employ cheap non-unionised migrant or close down factories and plants in this country and set up shop abroad in the Far East

  May Day should still be important to British workers in 2008 even though the battle for a better work-life balance as epitomised in the 8-8-8 slogan was won over a century ago. However, new battle lines are forming as workers find their pay and working conditions eroded under renewed, relentless pressure. .