May Day Of Yester Year.

 

May Day 1962.

        With May Day on the horizon, I was flicking through some old papers and cuttings, and came across this one. I can't pinpoint the date, but the speakers should give us the era.

 A sea of bunnits, May Day Glasgow 1913.

GLASGOW:

                    On Sunday, April 27, the Glasgow Anarchist Communist Group held a meeting at the bottom of Buchanan street; comrades Angus McKay and Porter spoke to a large audience. On May 4, we joined the Labour Day demonstration. It was one of the worst of days from the weather standpoint. The procession started amidst a heavy downpour of rain, with thunder and lightening. Ten thousand marched to Glasgow Green, drenched; there would have been thirty thousand had it been a fine day. Glasgow has taken its May Day seriously; it was a day out for the Reds. No less than 135 Labour and Socialist organisations were represented. It was inspiring, and showed the people are awakening. We had nearly a thousand round our platform; our comrades Angus McKay, Leckie, Porter, Howie, and others were speakers. There was a good sale of literature. This summer we intend to have a vigorous campaign in and around Glasgow.

A. B. Howie, Secretary.

Who were these comrades, and how do we tell and record their story, after all, it's our history?

Something a wee bit more modern.

  

Glasgow's May Day Photos.

        Sunday, May 4th, saw Glasgow's  (sanctioned) May Day parade march off from George Square, though there was a constant drizzle, the spirits were high. It was as usual, colourful and good humoured, with lots of great banners. Though it could be said it was a good turnout, it was a sad reflection of past May Day parades, not so long ago, that ended up in Glasgow Green with tents, stalls, things for the kids, a really family affair. It now seems that the powers that be want it over as quickly as possible, with a quick march through the centre of town, into a hall, get them off the streets and out of sight, have some bigwigs make a few speeches, then go home and forget about it all. That's not what it is really all about, perhaps next year we will get back to it being a celebration for all the family, re-newing old friendships, a remembering our struggles of the past, honouring our working class heroes, and furthering our cause of a better world for all. It should also be a mark of our resistance to this continued exploitation of the ordinary people. Well that's my personal May Day rant. Enjoy: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow May Day 2013 And Photos.

 

      Glasgow's May Day parade set off from George Square today Sunday 5th. May, and marched through the centre of the city and across the river. It was a well attended affair with a myriad of groups displaying their colourful banners. 

     Though well attended, not well enough, this is our day, traditionally a workers celebration day, as well as celebrating our victories, it is an opportunity to show our strength and solidarity. Now more than ever that solidarity is going to be a necessary weapon in the coming struggle. We need to come together as one body of all the people, we are not fighting a multitude of individual struggles, it is one big battle, corporate capitalism against the people. At the moment their attack is relentless, while our response seems, at times, somewhat haphazard. That is a recipe for our defeat and a continual worsening of our living conditions. 

       The marchers got a reasonably dry day, if a bit windy. Some had difficulty in managing the banners as they marched into a strong wind. One group had to do some repairs at the side of the road as their banner suffered some minor damage from the strong wind.

      All in all, a reasonable show, if not noisy enough, not boisterous enough, and certainly not large enough.

ann arky's home.

Glasgow May Day.

 May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.

        Today, May 1st., May Day, has been celebrated across the planet, and rightly so. It is probably the most important day in the calendar of the ordinary people.  In some cities it was a massive display of workers solidarity, in others it was a more quiet affair, but there would be few cities that didn't have some sort of show. Though it should be held on May 1st. and is in lots of cities and towns, in others, Glasgow for example, it will be on the first weekend after May 1st.. That said, Glasgow had a small but colourful stall in Buchanan Street, put on by the Clydeside IWW and the Glasgow Anarchist Federation. The stalls attracted considerable interest from passers-by, and a lot of literature was handed out. There was of course, lots of old faces reappeared, just to be there and show solidarity, even if it was just for a few minutes and a few words with old comrades.

May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.

This report from Labour Start:

 

 

As I write these words, it's still morning in London -- and already LabourStart's front page is full of coverage of May Day 2013, the international workers' holiday.

• In Istanbul, police have used tear gas to try to block trade unionists from gathering in the city's central Taksim square, scene of an infamous massacre in 1977.

• In Jakarta, a massive workers' rally with more than 135,000 participants has shut down the Indonesian capital.

• In Greece, a general strike by workers protesting against the highest unemployment levels in Europe has shut down much of the country's transport system.

Your local newspaper or television station may be reporting all these stories -- but I doubt it. That's why we created LabourStart 15 years ago -- precisely for moments like this when we need to know what is happening in the labour movement all over the world.

Please make sure to visit LabourStart today and spread the word to your friends, family, co-workers and fellow union members.

Thank you -- and happy May Day!

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

 

A REMINDER.

Just a wee reminder that tomorrow ios MAY DAY, family fun day, workers day, our day.See HERE.

This from The Freedom Socialists.

May Day 2011:

A tribute to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines.

    On this day, amid spiraling resistance around the world, we pay respects to struggles that gave birth to May Day as an international workingclass holiday 125 years ago in Chicago, Illinois. The fight for the eight-hour day, led by anarchists and socialists, was gaining steam. In an attempt to destroy the movement, police provocateurs threw a bomb at a peaceful labor rally in Haymarket Square. Eight radical leaders were charged with murder, and four were hung. A defiant August Spies exclaimed before his execution:

    If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement...the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery expect salvation--if that is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers its gratitude to the Haymarket Martyrs and those who tried to save them, such as Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, the widow of Albert Parsons. She spent the rest of her life building
international recognition for her fallen comrades, while also speaking out as an ardent Chicana feminist and antiracist agitator. These early radicals were principled internationalists. Albert Parsons dismissed bigots who derided his Haymarket brothers for being "foreigners":

     My patriotism covers more than the boundary lines of a single state; the world is my country, all mankind my countrymen. That is what the emblem of the red flag signifies; it is the symbol of the free, of emancipated labor.

       Today, the Haymarket rebels' vision of international class solidarity is alive and growing. This was dramatically clear when democracy protesters in Egypt and labor activists in Wisconsin carried signs supporting each other's struggles. Both movements have wakened ever-widening revolts. Rebels across North Africa and the Mideast, from Tunisia to Yemen, are exchanging strategies and tactics to foment change. Many workers and students are realizing they need to move beyond replacing corrupt officials at the top. Protests globally are opposing imperialist intervention in Libya. Solidarity with Palestine is rising. Iraqis are demanding that the U.S. get out of their country. The U.S. and its allies are doing everything possible to contain these insurgencies and prevent them from concluding that socialism is the solution. But is this possible in a world where rebellion is reaching the boiling point?

      In the Ukraine this March, female electronics workers who had not been paid for 14 months stormed the bosses' offices and overwhelmed top officials and the police who tried to save them. Throughout March, teachers in Honduras held massive demonstrations against privatization of schools that sparked a general strike against austerity measures. For several weeks in April, thousands of Bolivian workers, farmers and students protested neoliberal economic policies. Miners expressed their discontent by throwing dynamite and battling police in the capitol of La Paz.

In the U.S., outrage is mounting over the criminal slashing of needed social services and jobs by both Democrats and Republicans. Radical voices are calling for a new political party, one that will represent workers' interests and make the bosses pay for their crisis.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers solidarity to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines across the globe. This is a crucial time for those on the left to work together in united front efforts to challenge capitalist rulers and create revolutionary change. Together, we will prevail!      May 1, 2011

ann arky's home.

MAY DAY -- WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Glasgow's Glorious May Day celebrations, this Sunday.

Now more than ever we have to show solidarity, we have to come together to defend our standard of living. May Day this year is an ideal opportunity to show your solidarity with  all the ordinary people of this country and across the world, to lay down a marker, as the pampered parasite class make a savage grasp to capitalise everything in sight to save their spiv friends, the bond merchants, from carrying their own gambling debts. We are expected to pay the gamblers for their greed and stand by while they privatise everything they can lay their sweaty palms on that can make them money. It is their world -- or it is our world, you can decide.

        MAY DAY, WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

       May Day, Labour Day, Workers Day, our day, a day when we the ordinary people of the world can celebrate the heroes from our ranks. Paying homage to the men and women who dedicated their lives to the cause of working class emancipation. People who sought nothing for themselves, many dying for their beliefs, individuals that sometimes stood like a colossus astride the political scene, others that worked tirelessly in the shadows, all for the greater good of all peoples, not more for themselves. Their statues, their plaques are no where to be seen, the establishment has them airbrushed out of history. Instead, the powers that be litter our public squares and parks with grandiose statues of arrogant warmongers, empire builders, kings of industry, rich merchants, all who made a fortune on the back of slave and/or cheap labour or the bloodshed of ordinary people. The establishment wants us to forget our heroes, no statues, no plaques, we mustn’t be allowed to think that fighting for the betterment of ordinary people is a worth while cause, much better to try to convince us that it is more honourable to be a self-centred arrogant pursuer of power and wealth at the expense of others. We mustn’t let this happen, we have to keep alive the names and deeds of that legion of men and women who dedicated their lives to our future well being and that of our kids.

The Haymarket Martyrs

        MAY 1st. Must always be a festive day, a day of celebration and pride, a day when we can all come together and wave our banners, party, and remember those names and deeds. A day to revive that spirit of co-operation in struggle and hopefully push our cause to a higher plain. Always on May 1st. not some conveniently arranged employer/union date, the nearest Monday, so as not to upset their production. It is our day, always claim it as a day of family fun, festivities and remembrance, a day of hope for the future of all the ordinary peoples of the world. Glasgow, like most cities, is fortunate in having its own legion of working class fighters, a legion that stretches back through the industrial age and beyond. To pick a few at random, names like George Barrett, Tom Anderson, John MacLean, Helen Crawfurd, Guy Aldred, Ethel MacDonald, Jenny Patrick, William McDougal --- and the names go on and on and on, events such as, The Cotton Spinners strike, the rent strikes, the first world war peace movement, the 1919, 40 hour week strike, etc, etc, etc. All names and events to be justly proud of but difficult to find recorded, all the more need to celebrate MAY DAY and keep alive that part of our history, our culture.

          Take to the streets this MAY DAY, bring the family, bring colour, bring music, bring what you expect to find, bring the spirit of the working class, have fun, remember why we are there, be proud and strengthen your resolve to do more to push the cause of co-operation in struggle with all our people. Keep alive the names and deeds of our past, not those of a corrupt, brutal, exploitative system. Keep alive the dream of a society of free association, voluntary co-operation, and mutual aid, a system of seeing to needs and not to the greed of the few bloated pampered parasites.

 

               ann arky's home.