The idea of International May Day was conceived in the United States in 1884 at a conference of the Federated Trades and Labour Unions of the United States and Canada. The conference launched an intensive 8 hour day campaign, which was to culminate in wide-spread struggles on the 1st May 1886. The anarchist labour agitators in Chicago in 1886 who came out in support of the workers, who were killed at Mc Cormacks as a result of this campaign, were arrested and five were hung on trumped up murder charges. All were pardoned a decade after their executions. The International Labour Congress, which was held in Paris on the 14th of July 1889, decided to make the 1st of May 1890, "a day of international demonstration". The Melbourne Anarchist Club - Australia's first anarchist organisation, was formed on the 1st of May 1886. Members of the Melbourne Anarchist Club held May Day observations in 1887 and 1888, the only people in Australia to do so. Victoria held its first official May Day celebration on the 1st of May 1890 at an indoor meeting. The first public celebration of May Day in Melbourne was held at the Yarra Bank on the 1st of May 1892 and the meeting was chaired by the Melbourne Anarchist Chummy Fleming. While the Melbourne May Day Committee continues to celebrate May Day in Melbourne with a demonstration on the 1st Sunday after May Day, Melbourne's Anarchists have continued to celebrate May Day on the 1st of May. In 2001, many trade unions based in Melbourne, also celebrated May Day on the 1st of May.Your humble corespondent is under a bond to be of good behavior, for nearly one year, for offences against property of Mc Donalds and BHP Billiton done on that day. It was worth it.Long live Anarchy.