ABSTRACT
May Day, the first of May, might be the quintessential day of celebration of the commons (Linebaugh 2016). The deep history of commoning in Europe, such as in the United Kingdom, where struggles over enclosure and the preservation or reopening of public footpaths symbolized collective rights to land—helps frame May Day as both a rural and ecological festival: a “green” holiday celebrating nature, shared space, and popular festivity. From the end of the nineteenth century, May Day was also a “red” holiday celebrating labor. It was designated as an International Day of Labor in commemoration of the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, May 1886, when a protest commemorating the union vote for the eight-hour day led to the deaths of police officers as well as civilians. Eight protest leaders, labeled anarchists by the government, were accused of setting off a bomb, and four were executed in Chicago. Peter Linebaugh (2016), an American historian of Britain and Ireland, who worked with E. P. Thompson (1963) and others, has conceptualized May Day today as representing the green and the red or the commons and the history of labor as they converge in celebration (see Figure 13.1). Ironically, May Day is rarely celebrated by labor in the United States today (see Kasmir 2024). Union banner for May Day in Paris: “Tous Ensemble” (All together), with lilies as a symbol of May Day in France. A union banner for May Day in Paris stretches across a sidewalk, with text announcing a labor demonstration and people walking behind it. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="black-white" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003534518/f5e410ed-e47f-408f-94db-d372f5f70bb7/content/fig13_1_B.jpg"/>
