The years 1789 - 1889 - 1989: the French Revolution, May Day becomes international and Eastern Europe's return to Europe. The focus is that mid-way year, when socialist delegates from all over Europe converged on Paris at the same time as bourgeois France was celebrating the centenary of the Revolution, its rulers and the bourgeoisie, as the true and self-proclaimed heirs of the revolution saw them, hijacking an event that belonged to what was to become known as the working class. France, these argued, may well have been paying homage to liberty, equality and fraternity but the centenary was focused mainly on the country's success in trade and the new technology. And, indeed, there was the creation of Gustave Eiffel to prove it.
In his book One Hundred Years Of Socialism, the historian Donald Sassoon cites the newspaper Le Temps proudly trumpeting the declaration: "France, proud of herself, head held high, celebrates the economic as well as the political centenary of 1789".
The tone and rationale of the celebrations were not lost on the Marxist and socialist delegates, who met and declared, among other things, that "Our aim is the emancipation of the workers, the abolition of wage labour and the creation of a society in which all women and men" (in that order) "irrespective of sex or nationality will enjoy the wealth produced by the work of all workers".
On that occasion, too, it was decided that May 1 would be Workers' Day and predicted, altogether wrongly, that war would disappear from the face of the earth when "the capitalist order itself has disappeared, the workers have been emancipated and socialism (is) triumphant throughout the world". As things have turned out, capitalism has not disappeared but communism has and socialism has had to re-accommodate itself to an environment where emancipation in the developed world, certainly, is all but complete as a political and economic process. The revolution that was supposed to bring this about has itself spluttered out.
What then is the relevance of May 1 in the contemporary world? The characteristic of governance in the developed world has changed dramatically, not least, it needs to be added, because the struggle to improve the lot of the working class has been waged and, for the most part, won.
Ironically, it was in countries where May 1 was most celebrated with pomp and circumstance that the rights of workers were most abused, where conditions of work were at their most desperate, where unions were least effective because they had handed over their independence to the state.
Today, at a global level, it would be the wearer of rose-tinted spectacles who did not acknowledge the existence, in many countries, of child labour, forced labour, wages that offend human dignity, gross inequalities and little or no access to medicine, education and meaningful employment. Man's inhumanity to man away from war is there for all to see.
But what relevance does May 1 retain in Malta? We can rejoice in the fact that our society is well-ordered and just towards those who work. There are enough jobs and the quality of work is constantly improving. For the most part, trade unions get on with their job maturely and responsibly.
This year, a consequence of the post-election situation and a still leaderless Labour Party, the day's celebrations are bound to be strained and strange. Union and political leaders may, for all that, ponder what the day is all about and work out how it could be made more meaningful.