International Labour Day: Google Doodle salutes workers on May Day

Rated among the world’s best employers, search giant Google saluted the spirit of workers by dedicating a Doodle on its homepage to mark International Workers’ Day. The Doodle features the Google logo in the shape of a building with several workers on their job. From an an IT professional on her computer, a gardener watering a tree, a painter painting the letter ‘O’, a pilot on a helicopter to a plumber fixing a leak around the letter ‘E’–workers and professionals from different field are featured on the Labour Day Doodle. [caption id=“attachment_743317” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Labour day 2013 Google Doodle.[/caption] India is among the many countries that celebrate Labour Day annually on 1 May, also known as May Day. The day is observed by workers’ unions and their members to mark the ’eight-hour day’, which called for eight hours each for work, recreation and rest in a day. Internationally, over 80 countries celebrate Labour Day, while many others observe it unofficially. The day has an interesting history to it. In 1886, there began a tussle between the police and some workers in what later came to be known as the Haymarket Affair of Chicago. Workers were protesting for an 8-hour workday when the police began dispersing them. In a fit of anger, one of the protestors threw a bomb at the police and the police retaliated by opening fire. Four demonstrators succumbed to the injuries sustained in the firing. Three years later, in 1889, workers around the world recognised May Day as an annual event and called for international demonstrations of the 1886 tragedy. In many countries, the working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday, and their efforts have largely succeeded. May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups. In India, the first Labour Day was organised by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan in Madras on 1 May, 1923. On the same day, Maharashtra and Gujarat also celebrate a holiday as well as the two attained statehood in 1960.