May Day 1918

Glasgow has a proud tradition of radical politics, one that is particularly important to remember when the government is promoting jingoistic celebrations of World War I centenaries. During the four years of that devastating conflict, the Glasgow working class engaged in a series of mass actions to protest the war and the profiteering that accompanied it.

One event that deserves special mention took place on May 1, 1918. By then, the war had been grinding on

for nearly four years, with casualties already in the millions. Glasgow’s workers, who built the ships and many of the munitions deployed by the British military, were ready to act. Although many workers were eager to pressure the government to bring the war to an immediate end, the War Cabinet, a coalition of Tories, Liberals and the Labour Party, suppressed any open opposition.

Through his determined and courageous opposition to the war, John Maclean had become a folk hero among the Glasgow working class. Maclean had consistently urged

the anti-war Left to move beyond merely passing anti-war resolutions to organising political strikes that would shut down the war industries. In early 1918, Maclean began pushing for a one-day general strike to commemorate May Day.

May Day had been marked by massive demonstrations in Glasgow for several years before World War I began in August 1914. Tens of thousands would march from different tenement neighborhoods to converge on Glasgow Green.

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STRIKE BACK!May Day on the Green 2016

IWW Scotland Newsletteriwwscotland.wordpress.com

Strike Back May Day 2016 Page 1

On Sunday May 1st, from 1:30 pm until 4:30 pm,

join us in bringing May Day back to Glasgow Green. Make it what it was meant to be: a family day, a fun day, a day to celebrate the solidarity of

the working class. Plans include a family get-together with a little bit of the history of May Day, face-painting, music, singing and performance poetry, banners, chalk art, and a picnic. So bring what you’d expect to find. We welcome anybody who can, sing, dance, juggle, play an instrument, read a poem, or share any other wee skill that might entertain the people. Just hanging out is fine, too!

If you will be taking part in the May Day march, come back to the Green to meet up with friends and comrades and have a friendly afternoon. May Day belongs to the people and belongs on the Green. Let’s bring it back. Contact us at: annarky@radicalglasgow.me.uk or at clydeside@iww.org.uk

Meeting Point: Glasgow Green - East of People’s Palace, past the washing lines close to Free Wheel North.

Strike Back May Day 2016 Page 2

May Day Greetings!

Back in 1990, the Workers City group and others made an effort to reclaim May Day from bureaucratic trade unionism and neoliberal silencing.

FROM CHICAGO TO GLASGOW: A HUNDRED YEARS OF MAYDAY read the banner at the front of the first weekday 1st of May demonstration for generations.

Led by The Marauders - the most gallus pipe hand in Scotland - 200 people marched from Glasgow Green into the Calton. The police could only stand bemused at this latest, completely unofficial show of people power.

This was followed by a rally of speeches, song and drama that ‘recaptured the true spirit of a Glasgow Mayday, an event that has been in danger of becoming another yuppie sideshow’.

This year, for a change, the official May Day weekend event actually falls on May 1st! But it’s down to the Spirit of Revolt collective, supported by Wobblies and anarchists, to bring things back to Glasgow Green, our own commons steeped in working class history. After the usual march and stalls, the picnic on the Green will celebrate International

Workers Day with music, poetry and good food.

It will be 130 years since May 1st in Chicago 1886. Then, thousands of workers marched for the eight-hour day. Strikers were violently attacked in the following days, and the ruling class used an unexplained bombing to crush the movement. Eight anarchists prominent in the struggle were framed. Four of them were hanged.

May Day spread around the world, linking workers in struggle. The ‘Chicago Idea’ that the martyrs represented – a brilliant mix of anarchism, Marx and self-organising – left its mark, and was one of the influences on the Industrial Workers of the World.

We shouldn’t celebrate May Day because we’re proud of being workers. Work is exploitation. It’s tiring and alienating even when it has a useful purpose. From Chicago to Glasgow, we want less work and more time for creativity and fulfilment. We celebrate our humanity.

This is a day to remember those women and men who died and lived their life for class solidarity: like the Calton weavers buried not far from the Green.

It’s time to take stock as a class. The Action Against Austerity network had a successful conference this month with much more planned. We’ve seen a victory for museum workers in

Edinburgh after a three year-long fight. And primary school jannies are on strike in Glasgow. What do we need to do to further organising from below?

Of all the days of the year, this one – like International Women’s Day – is about internationalism. Refugees continue to be detained and deported across Europe. One clear way of expressing our fight for a world without borders is to support groups like the Unity Centre and attend the protest against detention at Dungavel on May 7th.

From the original May Day we get the principle that our immediate demands need to be won through our own means and part of a movement against capital and the state. This is something the IWW as a revolutionary union tries to embody. All workers can join, including the unwaged, carers and students. Even if you can’t attend meetings, there are many ways to contribute and help build the One Big Union.

Make every day a May Day!

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A dozen or more platforms were set up around the Green so that marchers could decide which speakers to listen to. Thus, no one organisation dominated, while everyone got the chance to present their point of view.

Still, as exciting as these marches were, they were planned for the first Sunday of May, which did not usually coincide with May Day. Work was therefore only minimally disrupted. Maclean sought to break this practice and proposed, instead, that the march be scheduled for May 1st, with the explicit intention of making this a dramatic protest against the war.

For the first years of the war, Maclean and his small group of supporters within the Scottish division of the British Socialist Party had been isolated within the wider anti-war Left. Only in early 1918, as grass-roots support for a policy of active resistance rapidly grew, was there a widespread acceptance of Maclean’s strategy. A broad coalition of left-wing organisations called for a march to the Green to take place on May Day itself. Unfortunately, by the time the march took place, Maclean was again in prison for speaking out against the war.

On Wednesday, May 1st 1918, factories and shipyards throughout Glasgow and along the Clyde were closed as tens of thousands of workers quit work

to join the neighborhood marches heading for the Green. The marchers held placards demanding a rapid end to the war and the immediate release of Maclean from prison, themes echoed by those who spoke to the crowd. It was a stirring day and one that should be remembered.

Nearly a hundred years later, May Day in Glasgow is celebrated by a lackluster march sponsored by the Scottish TUC. Once again, the march is held on a weekend and not on May Day itself. (By chance, the coming May Day falls on a Sunday.) The radical Left needs to revive the spirit of the true May Day, so that in the coming years we can renew the events of May 1st, 1918.