On May 1st, 2024, a May Day festival took place on Barnimplatz in Marzahn-Nord. Participants from our DIALOG Café were there and asked: Why is May Day celebrated? They reminded us that everything was fought for hard for decades: The eight-hour day and the 40-hour week. In front of the small stage, they acted out a scene from the 1929 Bloody May, when workers and communists took to the streets and opened their mouths for an improvement in their living and working conditions, despite the ban on assemblies by the SPD police president, Karl Zörgiebel. The police’s response was brutal: 33 mostly uninvolved people paid for this with their lives. Around 250 people were injured, including around 50 police officers.
A look at other countries shows how the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week are faring there. In France, both have been in force without interruption since 1936 – an achievement of the Popular Front government of the time under Léon Blum. Unpaid leave was also introduced under his aegis. According to participants in cosmopolitan projects, a 40-hour week also applies in Syria. Work is from Sunday to Thursday, weekends are on Friday and Saturday. In the UK, on the other hand, the right to an eight-hour working day is still not enshrined in law. And what is the situation in Germany? The eight-hour day and the 40-hour week have been in force “with restrictions” since 1994. Among other things, the law continues to be based on a working week from Monday to Saturday, i.e. a 48-hour week…
What would you fight for today? What would you go on strike for? We asked interested parties these questions at our information stand. In the second round of our contributions, they were announced from the stage. They included: “For peace + security around the world”, “higher wages”, “everyone is equal”, “higher pensions”, “renovate schools” and very often: “lower rents!” .
