AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (1881)

Location: Sixth St, Pittsburgh, PA 15234

Organized labor grew rapidly in the 1880s. The Knights of Labor attracted widespread support for a vision of political reform and a cooperative commonwealth. Skilled craft workers met in Pittsburgh in 1881 to form what became known as the American Federation of Labor. The organization called for a limit on corporations’ power: “A struggle is going on in the nations of all the civilized world between the oppressors and oppressed of all countries, a struggle between capital and labor, which must grow in intensity from year to year and work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations if not combined for mutual protection and benefit.”

Founding of the American Federation of Labor (1881) marker, site of former Turner Hall, Northeast corner, Mellon Park, 6th Street

Peter J. McGuire, AFL carpenter leader, was at the origins of both Labor Day and Mayday. He organized the first Labor Day Parade calling for a September holiday honoring labor in 1882. Pittsburgh endorsed both the cause and the parade.

In 1894, Labor Day was made a legal holiday in part to counter the idea behind Mayday. In 1886, McGuire proposed that since legislatures were so dominated by money, workers campaigning by the millions for the eight-hour day, should simply go to work on May 1, but pack up their tools and leave after eight hours.

This call to direct action to impose a shorter workday from below and the subsequent eruption of violence and repression in Chicago inspired socialist, communist and anarchist movements around the world to name May 1, International Workers Day.