The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe: Past, Present and Future

307 Pages·2016·15.995 MB·English

by  Abby Peterson, Herbert Reiter

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The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe

Eric Hobsbawm claimed that the international May Day, which dates back
to a proclamation in 1889 by the Second International, ‘is perhaps the most
ambitious of labour rituals’. The first international May Day demonstrations
in 1890 were widely celebrated across Europe and became the one day each
year when organized labour could present its goals to the public, an eight-
hour workday was the first concrete demand, shortly followed by those for
improved working conditions, universal suffrage, peace among nations, and
international solidarity. The May Day ritual celebration was the self-assertion
and self-definition of the new labour class through class organization. Thus,
it was trade unions and social democratic and socialist parties throughout
Europe which took the initiative and have sustained May Day as a labour
ritual to this day. Part I of this theoretically-informed volume explores how
May Day demonstrations have evolved and taken different trajectories in
different political contexts. Part II focuses on May Day rituals today. By
comparing demonstration level data of over 2000 questionnaires from six
countries, including Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK,
the reader is able to gain a thorough understanding of how participants are
bestowing meaning on May Day rituals. By concluding with reflections on the
future of the May Day ritual in Western Europe, this ground-breaking book
provides a detailed analysis of its evolution as a protest event.
Abby Peterson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Herbert Reiter, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
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The Mobilization Series on Social Movements,

Protest, and Culture
Edited by Hank Johnston
San Diego State University, USA
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iiiiii
The Ritual of May Day in

Western Europe
Past, Present and Future
Edited by
Abby Peterson
Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg
Herbert Reiter
European University Institute, Florence
iivv
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Abby Peterson and Herbert Reiter;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Abby Peterson and Herbert Reiter to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Peterson, Abby, author. | Reiter, Herbert, author.
Title: The ritual of May Day in Western Europe : past, present and future /
by Abby Peterson and Herbert Reiter. Description: [2016] |
Series: The mobilization series on social movements, protest, and culture |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043215 (print) | LCCN 2015047182 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781472415271 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315553344 (ebook) |
Subjects: LCSH: May Day (Labor holiday)–Europe, Western. |
Labor–Europe, Western–History.
Classification: LCC HD7791.P459 2016 (print) | LCC HD7791 (ebook) |
DDC 394.2627094–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043215
ISBN: 9781472415271 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315553344 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Out of House Publishing
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Contents

List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Notes on Contributors x
Foreword: The Myth of May Day xii
RICK FANTASIA
Acknowledgements xvii
List of Abbreviations xviii
1 Introduction
Western European May Day Rituals: Past,
Present and Future 1
ABBY PETERSON AND HERBERT REITER
2 The Origins of May Day: History and Memory 14
HERBERT REITER
3 The First of May in Germany and Italy 31
HERBERT REITER
4 The May Day Tradition in Finland and Sweden 75
CHRISTER THÖRNQVIST, TAPIO BERGHOLM AND
MARGARETHA MELLBERG
5 May Day in Spain: Socialist and Anarchist Traditions 106
EDUARDO ROMANOS AND JOSÉ LUIS LEDESMA
6 May Day in Britain 133
CHRIS WRIGLEY
7 The Context of Contemporary May Day Demonstrations
in Six European Countries 160
ABBY PETERSON
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vi Contents
8 Who Takes Part in May Day Marches? 187
MAGNUS WENNERHAG
9 Why Do People Demonstrate on May Day? 217
MATTIAS WAHLSTRÖM
10 The Future of May Day 245
ABBY PETERSON AND HERBERT REITER
Appendix
Methods for Studying May Day Demonstrators: Sampling,
Estimating Non-Response Bias and Pooling Data with
General Population Surveys
MATTIAS WAHLSTRÖM AND MAGNUS WENNERHAG 262
Index 279
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List of Figures

5.1 May Day contention, Spain, 1900–1930 116
9.1 Percentage of participants citing broader motive types 234
9.2 Demonstration residuals for external influence
(controlling for country clustering) 237
A.1 Example of how an ideal-typical demonstration
can be sampled 268
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List of Tables

8.1 Oesch class scheme, 9-class version 192
8.2 Socio-demographic characteristics for participants in May
Day demonstrations surveyed within the CCC project 194
8.3 Socio-demographics: participants in May Day and other
CCC-surveyed demonstrations and general population
(ESS5 data) 197
8.4 Class composition (Oesch-9) in May Day demonstrations
surveyed within the CCC project 200
8.5 Class composition (Oesch-9): participants in May Day and
other CCC-surveyed demonstrations and general population
(ESS5 data) 202
8.6 Class identification among participants in May Day
demonstrations surveyed within the CCC project 204
8.7 Class identification: participants in May Day and other
CCC-surveyed demonstrations 206
8.8 Binary logistic regression for determinants of working-class
and middle-class identification (CCC data) 207
8.9 Binary logistic regression: factors contributing to May Day
participation (CCC and SOM institute data), part 1 210
8.10 Binary logistic regression: factors contributing to May Day
participation (CCC and SOM institute data), part 2 211
9.1 Types of motives 231
9.2 Percentage within each category of demonstrations citing
different types of motives, weighted according to relative
demonstration size in country 232
9.3 Binary logistic regressions with external motives as dependent
variable 238
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List of Tables ix
9.4 Binary logistic regressions with external motives as
dependent variable 240
A.1 Overview of surveyed demonstrations 264
A.2 Surveyed demonstrations, distributed questionnaires and
response rates 266
A.3 Cases of significant non-response bias in the dataset 270
A.4 Survey question wordings and response alternatives 274