“May Day” stems from the labor movement that blossomed in the late 1800s, with workers trying to reduce their work hours from up to 20 hours a day to eight hours a day.
Those demands, along with demands for better wages and working conditions, continued into the 1880s when a powerful union established May 1, 1886 as a day for a general strike to push for the eight-hour work day.
Four years later, May Day, or “International Worker’s Day,” was observed around the world for the first time.
These are some photographs I made of a May Day protest at Washington Square Park on Friday, May 1, 2026.
New York City's Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a speech under its Arch, but I was too late to attended it.
I was given this flyer by one of the marchers:
