Many people in Europe will observe it. But rather like the European church, the European labour movement is getting older and less relevant by the year.
The average age of those on Mayday marches across Europe continues to rise, even if the financial crisis has boosted the numbers in the last few years.
One reason is the previous successes of the Labour movement. Organised Labour has made it more difficult to get rid of workers. And it has increased the rewards and benefits they get for the same amount of work. That has made employing people more expensive, and the taking on of young employees much more risky.
So there is now massive youth unemployment in Europe. and the average age of people on workers marches goes on rising.
Another reason is the loss of confidence of workers in their own importance. Globalisation has entered the popular imagination. European workers genuinely do see themselves to be in competition with Chinese and Indian workers.
There is a great deal of mythology about the strength of this competition. For example, take a look at this presentation:- http://www.slideshare.net/
So the Labour movement, founded to represent the oppressed, finds itself defending vested interests of privileged workers. They have become more like the guilds of the middle ages.
That is what has gone wrong with the Labour movement. The only way to fix it is to unionise people on zero hours contracts. Cleaners. Pizza deliverers. People like that.
I won't be holding my breath.
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