On The Green.

      More celebrating May Day, a photo from our May Day "Picnic on the Green" 2019, organised by the May Day Organising Committee, each year we have organised this event it has got bigger, this year was to be better and bigger but Covid19 screwed that up somewhat. 

     We have tended to organise other events around the May Day event, history walks, very popular, film show, march and rally, discussion group, etc. Let's hope that next year we will be back with a bigger and better celebration, celebrating the forced changes we have made to the way this society is run since the pandemic. 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow's May Day Week.

 

        The people's version of Glasgow May Day 2018, as opposed to the sanitised TUC version, with the political ballerinas telling us how they can lead us to the promised land, starts with Tuesday May 1st. a gathering at Donald Dewar statue 12 noon with performers and stalls, Wednesday May 2nd. A history walk through our city, limited places available, so get your name down now. The week culminates with a picnic on the Green, Sunday May 6th. again performers, stalls and food to share, its a picnic. If you fancy doing a wee slot at either the May 1st. or the picnic on the Green May 6th. a song, a dance, or play an instrument, read a poem, juggle or what ever takes your fancy, get in touch. Whatever you do, come along, bring the family, bring what you expect to find, bring your street. See you there.

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

May 4th. Glasgow's (Sanctioned) May Day.

 Glasgow May 1st. 2012.

First posted on Glasgow Anarchist Federation:

Radical Workers Bloc of Mayday March
Sunday, May 4 at 11:30am
South West corner of George Square (opposite Greggs) Clydeside IWW will be assembling to take part in the STUC post-mayday march, and welcome any radical workers to join them on the march itself, and then for an informal social after the march in Mono (10-12 King’s Court, King Street, G1 5RB).

Information on the origins of Mayday: http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday

 ***ALSO***

Queer-Trans-Feminist-Sex Worker- LGB and more… Bloc
Sunday, May 4 at 11:30am
George Square

Lets walk with our colleagues, co-workers, community members in solidarity for ALL workers’ rights and against austerity. Against transphobia, sexism, homophobia and all discriminations; for sex workers’ rights! – join us!

**********

Mono Baby Disco
Sunday, May 4 at 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Mono Cafe Bar 10-12 King’s Court, King Street, G1 5RB

This Sunday MONO BABY DISCO!

A fun-time wiggle for babies, toddlers and early schoolers with resident DJ Sci-fi Steven (Bis). Come along!

Recommended donation £1 if you can.

MONO BABY DISCO is on the first Sunday of every month.

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

MAY DAY, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

         Glasgow's “Official” May Day march was a well attended and colourful affair, if a rather short journey from George Square to the Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street. As the party faithful filed into the hall to listen to their “leaders” spout their usual party line, the Anarchists and Wobblies reformed and set off on a colourful parade through the city centre to the pedestrian precinct in Argyle Street. The parade was lead by a wonderful contraption made from two bikes joined side-by-side with a sound system in the middle and festooned with lots of red and black balloons. Lots of literature was handed out on route and at the stall set up in Argyle Street where there was free vegan cakes on offer.

         It is sad that so few celebrate this marking of all that is wonderful in working class hopes and dreams. I suppose even fewer know where it all started.

This from UFCW Voice for Working America:

       The fight for the eight-hour workday began in earnest in the United States, over a century ago, when the American Federation of Labor adopted an historic resolution asserting that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1st, 1886." Up until that time, working people were routinely required to work 10 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week! In the months prior to May 1st, 1886, American workers in the hundreds of thousands were drawn into the struggle for the shorter day. Skilled and unskilled, black and white, men and women, native-born and immigrant - all became involved.

       In Chicago alone 400,000 were out on strike for the shorter workday. A newspaper of that city reported that "…no smoke curled up from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills, and things had assumed a Sabbath-like appearance." On May 3, 1886, peaceful public demonstrations by the strikers precipitated violent police retaliation, resulting in the death of at least one striker, and serious injury to many more.

The next day in Haymarket Square a public meeting was held to protest the brutal assaults on the demonstrating strikers. The crowd was orderly, and Chicago mayor Carter Harrison advised the police captain to send home the large contingent of police reservists who were waiting at the stationhouse in case they were needed for crowd control.

         By ten o'clock that rainy evening the meeting was winding down and only about 200 of the demonstrators remained in the Square. Suddenly, a police column of 180 men, led by the police captain, moved in and ordered the people to disperse immediately. At that moment, the peaceful assembly became violent - a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, killing one policeman outright, fatally wounding six more, and seriously injuring about seventy. The police opened fire into the crowd; the number of wounded and killed has never been ascertained.

         A reign of terror swept over Chicago. The press and the pulpit called for revenge, insisting the bomb was the work of socialists and anarchists. Meeting halls, union offices, printing works, and private homes were raided, and known socialists and anarchists were rounded up. Even many individuals who had no connections at all to the socialists or anarchists were arrested and tortured. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards," was the public statement of Julius Grinnell, the state's attorney.

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MAY DAY GLASGOW.

  

         It's time to recapture our history, our culture, the spirit of working class solidarity. May Day is a symbol  of the history, a celebration of all those working class heroes that the establishment wants you to forget. Come to Argyle Street, bring what you want to find, but most of all, bring your desires and hopes.

ann arky's home.