May Day on Sunday 3 May – the march and family day May 4, 2009

Banner outside Trades Hall before the march

The Melbourne May Day Committee held its annual march, concert and family festivities at Trades Hall on Sunday 3 May. Attendance seemed smaller than last year, to begin with at least, but still amounted to a respectable showing on the march through the city. Children were especially well catered for this year, with not only the usual rides and slides, but also a splendid miniature train to ride on the march. Most prominent was a large contingent of the Tamil community, but many others will be seen in the following images, and in this slideshow on YouTube:

History on the wall of Trades Hall

This slide was tempting for grown-ups as well ...

Also for the children ...

Solidarity with workers of El Salvador

This banner speaks for itself

One of the stalls - http://www.iww.org.au/

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group - http://melbourneanarchistcommunistgroup.org/

The march sets off

Some rode on a truck ...

... others on a train.

Another reading of A(ustralian) B(uilding)& C(onstruction) C(ommission)

See http://www.anarkismo.net/article/6817

Obstructing police?

Passing the State Library

MACG in the Bourke Street Mall

Remembering the Sureka Stockade

This is Aboriginal land ...

Back at Trades Hall, the choir

and time to relax a bit

“Protect Your Kid’s Future” – Unions rally against WorkChoices and the Howard Government, 26 September 07 September 28, 2007

Ignoring threats of fines for taking part, thousands of workers, many with their children – it being school holidays – rallied at Trades Hall in Melbourne on Wednesday 26 September, before marching through the CBD to Flinders Street, under the banner “Don’t give Howard another shot! – Protect your Kid’s Future.” Estimates of numbers varied, as always, from the ‘official’ 15,000 to a perhaps rather optimistic 40,000. As an indication of the size – the march down Swanston Street took more than 15 minutes to pass my vantage point.
Not all unions supported the callout, whether from fear of sanctions or anxiety about rocking the ALP boat before the upcoming elections, and once again it was construction and manufacturing workers who demonstrated why they are the Government’s prime target – though they were strongly backed by the health and education sectors, and a contingent on Young Unionists, not to mention Union Solidarity. The ALP itself was invisible, if present, the Greens easily putting them to shame, along with the Socialist Party and the ubiquitous Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance. According to the Government, the whole thing was only a stunt, with Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey saying the march had been ‘orchestrated by the Labor Party’…
Speakers at the start included Brian Boyd, Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, Jeff Lawrence, newly appointed Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Father Peter Norden SJ, Associate Director of Jesuit Social Services and Parish Priest of St Ignatius Church in Richmond, with Ann Taylor, President of the VTHC, acting as MC. Both here and after the march there was also a chance to hear from workers – mostly young – who had been victims of the new climate created by the Howard Government’s anti-worker laws, and the whole event was framed by music – the Trades Hall choir and “Union Maid” at the start, Cathie O’Brien at the end.
Links -
Media reports:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rally-workers-risk-fines/2007/09/25/1190486310040.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/workplace-rally-draws-15000/2007/09/26/1190486359143.html
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070925/2/14igi.html

Other:
http://www.vthc.org.au/
http://www.vthc.org.au/index.cfm?section=5&category=101 (Young Unionists Network)
http://www.unionsolidarity.org/
http://www.catherineobrien.com/
http://www.unionmaid.com.au

There is some rough-cut video footage of this event on EngageMedia:

http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/26sept-engage.avi/view