May day hirstory.The anarchist thread.

[mattd]

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.