Mayday
Up to 200,000 civil and public servants in mayday strike
UK civil and public servants across 200 government departments, agencies and non-departmental bodies will be taking part in a second one day national strike today (1 May) in an escalation in a dispute over job cuts, pay and privatisation.
The second one day strike called by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will hit a range of services including courts, passports, tax, Jobcentres, galleries and driving tests. The May Day stoppage comes as the government continues to axe more than 100,000 civil and public servants, insist on below inflation pay rises and plough on with privatisation.
Zimbabwean unions call-off mayday celebrations after death threats
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says it was forced to cancel May Day celebrations in four provinces after militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party allegedly threatened to murder union officials if the celebrations went ahead.
ZimOnline reported: Relations between Mugabe and the ZCTU are hostile with the workers’ federation blaming wrong government polices for plunging the economy and workers into misery.
In turn, Mugabe accuses the ZCTU of conspiring with his Western enemies and of using genuine worker grievances as pretext to instigate Zimbabweans to revolt and overthrow his government.
A history of Mayday
An article looking at the ancient pagan roots of Mayday, through the Haymarket martyrs to International Workers Day and the UK anti-capitalists in the late 1990s.
1886: The Haymarket Martyrs and Mayday
The history of the world holiday on the 1st May - Mayday, held in commemoration of four anarchists executed for struggling for an 8-hour day.
Originally a pagan holiday, the roots of the modern Mayday bank holiday are in the fight for the eight-hour working day in Chicago in 1886, and the subsequent execution of innocent anarchist trade unionists.
Iran: Prison sentences against labour activists repealed
On Saturday, May 1st, 2004, hundreds of workers and their families in the City of Saqez, Kurdistan province, staged a rally and march to commemorate the International Workers’ Day.
The event was organized by “the First of May Council”, which was a committee consists of the city’s labour activists that acted independently from the government-sponsored Workers’ House.
Mayday - call for US general strike in defence of immigrants
The organisers of one of the largest national demonstrations the US has ever seen have called for a Mayday general strike.
The Los Angeles-based No hr4437 network said: “We are calling No Work, No School, No Sales, and No Buying, and also to have rallies around symbols of economic trade in your areas (stock exchanges, anti-immigrant corporations, etc.) to protest the anti-immigrant movements across the country.
Parsons, Lucy, 1853-1942
A biography of anarchist labour organiser and wife of Haymarket Martyr Albert Parsons, Lucy Parsons.
Little is known about the early life of Lucy Parsons. She claimed to have been born the daughter of a Mexican women, Marie del Gather and John Waller, a Creek Indian, and orphaned at age three. From there she said she was raised on a ranch in Texas by her maternal uncle. However, later research has pointed to the possibility that she was a slave in Texas.
Mayday 1999 - On the tube
An article and critical accoung about May Day - International Workers Day 1999 in London, which took the form of a demonstration on the Underground and concentrated on public transport issues.
Mayday 2000 - Guerrilla Gardening
Information about the Mayday demonstrations in London in 2000.
1950: The Times on London Mayday
"Police break up procession: 69 arrested in West End"
An article on the events of Mayday in Trafalgar Square, London in 1950.
