![]() ![]() There is a prominent exception to this general lack of red flags in the US labor movement: the flag of the United Farm Workers. The very fact that the US celebrates Labor Day in September, rather than International Workers’ Day on the first of May, points to a desire to distance the American version from the Socialist holiday, and to head off any perceptions of un-Americanism with copious displays of the Stars and Stripes. Labor unions and their locals sometimes march with flags, but more often with banners held from cross-poles (or signs on poles) - see above. ![]() Judging from photographs online, flag flying on Labor Day in the US has from the beginning pretty much been limited to the US flag. ![]() Amidst many US flags, a banner (presumably of representing a labor union) on a frame. Lithograph: “New York City - Grand Demonstration of Workingmen, September 5th - The Procession Passing the Reviewing-Stand at Union Square - From a Sketch by Staff Artist”. The first Labor Day parade in the US, before it was an official holiday. In the United States, however, you won’t see many red flags on Labor Day. Blood or Bread, the demands of rioters of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 1831. The Red Flag is, among other things, a traditional symbol of workers’ power, dating back at least to the Merthyr Rising of 1831 when Welsh rioters used calf’s blood to stain their flag red. ![]()
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