May Day report

[luzula]

I had a pretty great May Day! I started by helping to put up the stage for the speeches and such at the end of the march. Then I took the tram to the starting point, found that they hadn't thought of finding someone to carry the red-and-black front flag, and offered to do it if there really was nobody else who wanted to. Which of course meant I ended up doing it, even though I did it three years ago. It's heavy and there's a harness to help you carry it.

Four nazis tried to attack the march, which was very stupid of them since there were 1400 of us. One of them ended up going to the hospital I think--they attacked the wrong part of the march, the one where the antifa people were. Or was that intentional? We speculated that maybe they do this kind of thing as a hazing ritual for newbies or something.

Anyway. The speeches at the end of the march were fine (I was a fan of the rule that limited speeches to three minutes) and also there was good music. Then we went to another rally, which stood and shouted slogans about the right to strike at the Social Democrats when they marched past (they're suggesting limiting the right to strike). Then went to the Social Democrat rally to give out flyers about same. Wow, they have super-long boring speeches.

And then I went to get something to eat with some of the others, and ended up at the May Day after-party and drank beer and came home at 2 am. I never go to parties! Also I drink very little. Well, I didn't drink much here either, I had like two beers. But I'm glad I went, I had fun.

Comments

[lilysea]

I started by helping to put up the stage for the speeches and such at the end of the march. Then I took the tram to the starting point, found that they hadn't thought of finding someone to carry the red-and-black front flag, and offered to do it if there really was nobody else who wanted to. Which of course meant I ended up doing it, even though I did it three years ago. It's heavy and there's a harness to help you carry it.

Anyway. The speeches at the end of the march were fine (I was a fan of the rule that limited speeches to three minutes) and also there was good music. Then we went to another rally, which stood and shouted slogans about the right to strike at the Social Democrats when they marched past (they're suggesting limiting the right to strike). Then went to the Social Democrat rally to give out flyers about same. Wow, they have super-long boring speeches.

Thank you for doing all of this! ^_^

[luzula]

It is its own reward! But thank you for the appreciation. : )

[isis]

What faction/party are you?

Weird about the nazis.

[luzula]

I am in the syndicalist union (we're like the Swedish version of the IWW). Our march is often the second biggest one in my city, after the Left Party's march (which is the party to the left of the Social Democrats). And slightly smaller are the Social Democrat Party and the Communist Party marches.

But various other groups also march with us, like the syndicalist youth organization, the local Kurdish left and their Swedish solidarity group, the refugee solidarity group No Human Is Illegal, etc.

[mergatrude]

*raises fist in solidarity*

Our local march made the paper: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/casual-workers-call-for-job-security-at-union-rally-20180501-p4zcp7.html

(We're the NTEU (National Tertiary Education Union), the one with the purple flags.)

[luzula]

Go you! : )

[jesse_the_k]

(I was a fan of the rule that limited speeches to three minutes)

This is an excellent rule. Does the past tense mean it's no longer in force?

What kind of music? (A long time ago I was in the band that played at all the rallies, which was WONDERFUL.)

[luzula]

Ah, no, I just meant that I liked it in the moment. I hope we'll keep it next year.

There was a feminist choir singing traditional spring songs rewritten to have political lyrics, and then a band singing a 70's political prog rock song. And of course we ended with the International.

I've translated Billy Bragg's "Power in a Union" to Swedish recently though, so maybe I'll sing that next year.

Lovely.

[jesse_the_k]

There is something about Billy Bragg that opens the floodgates for me. Is it the crack in his voice? The constant syncopation-or-is-it-a-stumble? The rawness of his guitar playing?

Do you have an electric guitarist to back you up?

Re: Lovely.

[luzula]

Well, no, but an acoustic guitarist who's active in the union? We talked about performing it together next year.