THE HISTORY OF MAY DAY

New York: International Pamphlets, 1935. Paper Wrappers. Owner's Signiture, Very Good Condition; Pamphlet. Seventh Seidman T91: "A communist view of May Day as a day of struggle for the immediate political demands of workers, bound up with the struggle for the shorter workday. Hailing the revolutionary history of the American labor movement, the author asserts that the Communist International now carries on the traditions of May Day. He attacks AFL leaders who, thougth they initiated this day, now advocate and practice class collaboration."
Alexander "Alex" Trachtenberg "was an American publisher of radical political books and pamphlets, founder and manager of International Publishers of New York. He was a longtime activist in the Socialist Party of America and later in the Communist Party USA" (Wikipedia).
"Alexander Trachtenberg delivers a concise history of the origins of May Day. The origin of May Day is indissolubly bound up with the struggle for the shorter workday-a demand of major political significance for the working class. This struggle is manifest almost from the beginning of the factory system in the United States....
Although the demand for higher wages appears to be the most prevalent cause for the early strikes in this country, the question of shorter hours and the right to organize were always kept in the foreground when workers formulated their demands against the bosses and the government. As exploitation was becoming intensified and workers were feeling more and more the strain of inhumanly long working hours, the demand for an appreciable reduction of hours became more pronounced" (New Outlook Publishers).(P-6-4).