MayDay Address: Night for Gaza – Newtongrange Miners Club 1 May 2009

National Mining Museum Newtongrange

From medieval times, Mayday was a big celebration in Britain – not for the unions at the time, mind you – more a pagan festival, that got more and more rowdy. http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/news/2009/0105.html  

So rowdy that the Government stopped celebrations in 1708 after writer Ned Ward wrote that he was shocked to find comedy booths and prostitutes doing ‘good business’.

Perhaps then, it was no coincidence that the 2002 London Mayday rally fell apart in disarray after a surprise demo by 300 sex workers.