Workers Unite: May Day Events May 1, 2010
Posted by Garibaldy in The Left.trackback
I’ve bumped this to today for obvious reasons… – wbs
Just a reminder of May Day on Saturday. I’ve doubtless missed some events if people want to add them in the comments.
Dublin: 2pm at Parnell Square
Belfast: Assemble Donegall Street 11.30. March leaves at 12.00. Main Speaker: Bob Crow (RMT) Details of this and other events from NIC ICTU.
Cork: Events in Douglas Street from 12 to 5. March leaves Connolly Hall at 7pm.
Derry: Guildhall 1pm (First march for 8 years)
Athy: May Day Festival
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Dublin’s May Day is an annual humiliation. It basically consists of a few hundred left activists in the crowd, talking amongst themselves as a few bureaucrats on the stage pretend that they are Jim Larkin for the day.
No doubt there will be some on the stage this year who are pushing the sell out deal. They won’t mention it though.
LikeLike
Attended a genuinely inspiring May Day event in the Community Arts Centre in Athy, sponsored by local branches of SIPTU. It was well-organised, well-attended, and well … interesting! Four historians of the locality, Terry Dunne, Frank Taaffe, Noel Kavanagh, and John McKenna, gave accounts of struggles by rural workers in South Kildare which took place in the 1830s, the 1890s, the 1920s, and the 1940s to an audience which included relatives of those involved. Jack O’Connor turned up to make a presentation to the widow and sons of Christy Supple a militant leader of Athy farm labourers in the 1919-23 period (and, rather anomalously, to suggest that Christy would have supported the Croke Park deal). Things finished up with a multimedia performance by the remarkable Will Kaufman, musician and academic, on the life and music of Woody Guthrie. It all reflected well on SIPTU official, Adrian Kane, and the other members of the organising group.
LikeLike
Excellent report John, many thanks. Might try to put together an overall post with the good as in your experience and the bad…
LikeLike
Arthur Scargill is the guest speaker listed by the DCTU at the Dublin event.
LikeLike
Belfast’s May Day is similarly awful, just with greater numbers! No discussion of cuts, job losses, political development or International Workers Day for that matter! Nope, its a good old apolitical and virtually meaningless family festival of diversity! Yes, gay rights and anti-racism (Not that they’re not bad things) is the sum total of the Irish labour movement in the worst recession since 1930!
Comrades, come rally….
LikeLike
*(Not that they’re bad things) Rather! >.<
LikeLike
Jim Connell (he wrote “the Red Flag”) commemoration in Crossakeil outside Kells co. meath, Sunday 2pm.
Main speaker is Arthur Scargill.
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~sheehanh/connell.htm
http://jimconnellfestival2009.weebly.com
LikeLike
The Londonderry Trades Council? Not complete workers unity, even on the day.
LikeLike
Poets and Pints on Saturday May 1st at 4.30 in the Lower Falls Social and Recreational Club, Grosvenor Road.
LikeLike
is that a comedy session garibaldy. the wp hq where everyone is on the dole. you should have called yourselves the unemployed party(might have got more votes).
LikeLike
Full moon tonight.
LikeLike
Happy May Day to all CLR folks
LikeLike
Cheers YC. And to you.
LikeLike
I was interested to see a range of material by harpal brar’s cpgb (ml) at the socialist democracy stall after the march in belfast. are they related? i’d always thought the sd people were friends of leon while he cpgb (ml) are quite the most stalinist people you’re likely to read.
LikeLike
One question. I got a leaflet today at the Cork May Day march from a group styling itself the ‘future initiative’. Leaflet was mainly left-republican in nature though very, very historical with nothing much re NAMA, Croke Park etc. Does anyone know who this group are? (Their website is http://www.thefuture.ie but it doesn’t say anything about who they are on it)
LikeLike
No idea, but it’s interesting. Anyone know?
LikeLike
I have to agree with Mark – Dublin May Day is a downer. The TU movement don’t even attempt to make the slightest effort. As for the lefties, a poor showing from all. The SP only had a handfull and there were even fewer SWP members. In my opinion, Dublin Trades Council should establish a May Day committee and invite any group interested to send a rep. Plan the event to be more than just a march and make it a day of celebration and socialist unity.
LikeLike
Good idea. I think there’d be a lot of interest in something good.
LikeLike
I agree John.
A few years back, after a particularly dismal May day, the Socialist Party put out an article suggesting that if the unions won’t do it properly that the left groups should get together and run their own joint event. There wasn’t much interest in the suggestion at the time and the idea fell away.
A few years of ever smaller events later, it really is time that something would be done – and your notion of keeping it under the DCTU but widening it out is a good idea.
LikeLike
“I was interested to see a range of material by harpal brar’s cpgb (ml) at the socialist democracy stall after the march in belfast. are they related? i’d always thought the sd people were friends of leon while he cpgb (ml) are quite the most stalinist people you’re likely to read.”
Wasn’t socialist democracy, described as ‘no-one’. Haha.
LikeLike
Wasn’t socialist democracy, described as ‘no-one’. Haha.
How ya mean?
the CPGBML stuff was on the stall alongside Leon’s stuff by the sound of it. sounds like the stall holders cannot be accused of political sectarianism!
LikeLike