Happy May Day

That we never forget. On May 1, 1886, Lucy Parsons helped launch the world’s first May Day and the demand for the eight-hour work day. Along with her husband, anarchist and activist Albert Parsons, and their two children, they led 80,000 working people down the Chicago streets, while more than 100,000 marched in other U.S. cities. A new international holiday was born. Parsons went on to help found the Industrial Workers of the World, continued to give speeches, and worked tirelessly for equality throughout the rest of her life until her death in 1942. Read more about Lucy Parsons in this profile by William Loren Katz at the Zinn Education Project website: http://bit.ly/1cSoMvm and at the Lucy Parsons Center website: http://bit.ly/1fTZ3Tb Here are free role plays and writing activities on labor history from the book The Power In Our Hands (download for free on the Zinn Education Projectwebsite): http://bit.ly/RU5oFp Learn about the history of May Day and the Haymarket affair from an interview with James Green on Democracy Now!: http://bit.ly/1ububmN