Green Party of Pennsylvania embraces workers' rights on May Day Do you like this post? By Beth Scroggin, chair of the Green Party of Chester County and co-chair of the Green Party of PA. PHILADELPHIA – Happy May Day! Celebrated in various ways throughout hundreds of years, May Day joyfully welcomes the change of season. My inner child looks forward to the May Day celebration at my daughter’s Waldorf School, which includes maypole dancing and a wooden boat race. My activist side, however, observes the significance and necessity of the coinciding International Workers’ Day. Green Party of Pennsylvania Started during the Industrial Revolution in response to deplorable (and at times, deadly) working conditions and long hours, International Workers’ Day continues to serve as an opportunity for workers to organize and protect and fight for their rights. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (now called the American Federation of Labor) held a convention and declared that eight hours shall constitute a legal work day. The Knights of Labor supported this declaration and encouraged workers to demonstrate and strike as necessary to fight for this right. May Day demonstrations have led to notable events such as the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886, during which demonstrators and police officers clashed and a bomb of unidentified origin was thrown.