May Day constitutes a celebration for the world proletariat. In Cuba, this date is well received because the workers' parade takes place in a happy atmosphere. The participation of the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, always characterized these people's mobilizations.
On May 1, 1952, 51 days after the coup d'état led by Fulgencio Batista, despite the fact that public acts and demonstrations for Workers' Day were prohibited, men and women met in the Cemetery of Colón to remember the fall of the worker Carlos Rodríguez, summoned by the Orthodox Party. That day, the first meeting between Fidel Castro and Abel Santamaría took place, a crucial moment for the preparation of the events of July 26 in the following year. In those times, it was not allowed to commemorate the date, in which for the first time since 1940, workers could not parade with their demands and slogans.
With the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, the leading role of the workers with their massive mobilizations, unprecedented in the history of the country, augured what would be the first May Day in freedom. Therefore, the celebration of this day, was the first mass activity that took place at the Plaza Civica, today José Martí Square of the Revolution.
On that occasion Fidel, Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government, was on an official trip to several countries of the continent. Commander Raúl Castro presided over the parade that began at ten in the morning and concluded beyond midnight on May 2. On May 8, 1959, Fidel returned, and was received by the workers in the same place, where a week before the largest parade in national history had taken place.
During the sixties of the twentieth century, May Day, in Havana, had two moments: first the workers' parade and then a rally where the leader of the Cuban Revolution would speak until 1966. In 1960, in addition to the workers, the militias, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the National Revolutionary Police and other organizations such as the Youth Patrols marched.
That year, Fidel's speech addressed vital issues for the formation of the revolutionary conscience of the people on the basis of Martí's thought and with the recently proclaimed slogan of Patria o Muerte. The following year, the first Socialist May Day was dedicated to the victory against the mercenary invasion that had taken place days before. Fidel's speech, dedicated to those who died in those combats, came out for the first time to the world through Radio Havana Cuba, thus beginning its transmissions.
