March on May Day 2025

If history is a dream from which we are trying to awake, then now is not the time to arise from our slumber. We live in a time of monsters. –  Anon.

On May 1, 1886, Albert Parsons, head of the Chicago Knights of Labor, with his wife Lucy Parsons and two children, led 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue, Chicago, in what is regarded as the first-ever modern May Day Parade, in support of the eight-hour day. – Lachlan Hurse, ‘Hoinanese Chicken Club’ 2007.

May 1st is the traditional day of celebration around the world for all working class and opposition groups. It began about the time of the International Labour Congress in Paris in 1889, where a call was made for international demonstrations on May 1st, 1890 to organise around a strike for the 8-hour working day and other demands.

This followed attempts by unions in the USA and Canada to organise a campaign around this issue in 1884. Six workers were shot and killed by police on the first day of protest. A demonstration held two days later was hammered by government repression and two more workers were killed.

Once again, workers need to assert our right to march and to assemble. This time, in the annual May Day procession in Brisbane on the 5th May.

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For those not familiar with the May Day march in Brisbane Magandjin, the march starts at 10am at Wharf and Turbot Streets and the end of the march arrives at gate number three of the Brisbane Showgrounds a little before 12 noon. Union contingents form up along Wharf St and are backed up along Leichardt all the way back to Upper Edward.

The Red Contingent carrying ‘Workers of all countries Unite’ join near the 7 Eleven shop on the corner of Leichardt and Wharf St. All are welcome to march behind this banner on May Day. We form up at 9.30 am Monday 5th May 2025, the march begins about 10 am at the corner of Leichardt and Wharf Streets Spring Hill near the back of the union contingents.

All are welcome to march behind this banner on May Day, 9.30 am Monday 5th May 2025, the march begins at the corner of  Leichardt and Wharf Streets Spring Hill near the back of the union contingents. 

We march down Wharf St left into Turbot Street past the Independent Education Union, behind the unions that march past Centenary Park (formerly the Domain) along Wickham Street, past Common House (RAFFWU and SALT join near here).

We march along Wickham to Brunswick Street, turn left and proceed up to St Pauls Terrace and turn right marching along St Pauls Terrace to Alexandria Street and march through Alexandria Park up to Gregory Terrace to Gate No 3 of the Brisbane Exhibition Showgrounds.

Just Peace, Labor Friends of Palestine, Palestine Fair Trade and Vintage Reds wait at that entrance just inside the grounds with their banners. Here is a map of the march route:

We march in solidarity with Palestine and Cuba suffering torment at the hands of US imperialism and genocide. We march against their hangers-on in Australia, the ass-licking politicians, the billionaires, their cronies, and pals.

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Some local history of May Day

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1966 May Day

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1978 May Day

The Red Contingent was revived during the Democratic rights struggle in Queensland from 1977 to 1979. The 1978 red contingent was larger than the union contingent, numbering 12,000 marchers behind 8,000 unionists. One of the largest groups was the Campaign Against Nuclear Power CANP. Bob Phelps, one of the leaders of that campaign, wrote this in 1978:

“The May Day Procession, 1978, was a highlight of the year. Over 3000 members and supporters of the campaign joined our contingent, which was the largest (sic). The participants were organised around civil liberties as well as uranium, and four floats, which linked the two issues, were built for the occasion.“

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The right-to-march contingent was organised by the Civil Liberties Coordinating Committee (CLCC). By this time, street marchers had been subjected to severe repression with over a thousand arrests. The group included a number of solidarity organizations, including those supporting struggles in Latin America by workers from Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. A Chilean trade unionist tried to speak about the Pinochet dictatorship only to be rebuffed by the Trades and Labour Council.

The leader of the Labor Party and Federal member for Ipswich, Bill Hayden, called us all a bunch of ‘johnny-come-latelys‘ from the main platform. Then Tom Burns, the leader of the opposition in Queensland, provoked the women’s movement by saying ‘the problem with labour women is they do not come forward.’

Women surged forward onto the stage and Meghan Martin spoke about the struggle of women in the workplaces and on the streets. The women had been savagely attacked on International Women’s Day IWD with many arrested.

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1979 May Day

In 1979, the Civil Liberties Coordinating Committee CLCC organized an alternative platform on May Day. Prominent unionists spoke on the platform in defence of the right to organise in trade unions, which had been severely under attack by state and federal government. Speakers included Senator George Georges from the Socialist Left of the ALP and Joe Harris from the Building Workers Industrial Union BWIU and Pat McNair from the CLCC.

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Across the road from the Exhibition grounds in Victoria Park, anarchists organised another alternative to May Day which they called the Mayfair that featured bands, theatre, dancing, games, poetry, reading, speakers corner and a memorable knock-em-down’s featuring Joh Bjelke-Peterson as the target.

During the speakers’ corner, a leading anarchist, Brian Laver, stereotyped the Left as being some of “the most ruthless Marxist-Leninists in the world.” His wild claims were rebutted by an activist suffering from a medical condition in his dressing gown pointing out that the Democratic Rights Movement had organised thousands of peaceful rallies and marches against the government determined to ban the right to organize in unions, only to be attacked violently by police resulting in thousands being arrested.

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In 1986, the Trade Union Support Group marched in support of the sacked SEQEB workers. There was a confrontation between one of the mothers of a sacked worker, Pat Spence, and the leader of the opposition, Neville Warburton. Workers from the Builders Labourers Federation supported ETU rank-and-file in defending Pat Spence from a brutal attack by the assistant secretary of the TLC, Tom Barton, and the TLC’s media spokesperson and later Brisbane City Council Alderman for Spring Hill.

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2007

While Kevin Rudd was on the main stage we conducted an alternative platform in the arena down near the main Pavilion. Meanwhile on the alternative platform Sam Watson received a call from the police commissioner saying that there had been another death in custody. Sam had to leave and could not speak.

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2013

Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke at May Day in 2013. This was her last hurrah as the Labor government was defeated by the LNP at the election that followed. Members of the Socialist Alternative shouted “shame Gillard shame” and waved placards, but were stopped by Labor supporters.

This was the ABCs report of the day: “Ms Gillard told the crowd that workers should not have to put up with Queensland Premier’s job cuts. ‘You’ve seen 14,000 public servants lose their jobs and you know how hurtful that has been,” she said. “Nurses, midwives thrown out of hospitals onto the streets. “You’ve seen firefighters sent in to fight fires without foam. “You’ve seen Breast Screen Queensland smashed up by the Campbell Newman Government.”
There was no talk in the report of how the Prime Minister had attacked the CFMEU in the ACTU conference held in Brisbane at that time.

In 2024, police attacked the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin contingent inside the exhibition grounds under direct orders from the Queensland Council of Unions. There was one arrest on the day and two subsequent arrests as a result of people carrying Palestinian flags and calling out the genocide. The Albanese Labor government once again attacked the CFMEU this time putting it into administration thus ending the long relationship between the ALP and the union movement. Both the CFMEU and the ETU disaffiliated from the QCU because it sided with the government in dismantling he union.

So we walk among the undead the people that introduce neoliberalism that not even Malcolm Fraser could entertain. It was left Hawke and Keating to privatize the Commonwealth Bank now making record profits and shooting high in the stock market the people’s bank become the finance year of the rich. They introduced the prices and incomes accord with big business and called it economic rationalism. Keating deregulated the economy doing the bidding of transnational companies. This is the nightmare the working class has inherited. Will we awake and break off our chains but we have freedom to win win.

Free Free Palestine!
Demand the right to organise

Workers of all countries unite!

Ian Curr, 23 April 2025.

Route of May Day March

Union contingents form up along Wharf St and are backed up along Leichardt all the way back to Upper Edward. The Red Contingent carrying ‘Workers of all countries Unite’ join near the 7 Eleven on the corner of Leichardt and Wharf St and march down Wharf St left into Turbot Street past the Independent Education Union, behind the unions that march past Centenary Park (formerly the Domain) along Wickham Street, past Common House (RAFFWU and SALT join near here), we march along Wickham to Brunswick Street, turn left and proceed up to St Pauls Terrace and turn right marching along St Pauls Terrace to Alexandria Street and march through Alexandria Park up to Gregory Terrace to Gate No 3 of the Brisbane Exhibition Showgrounds. Just Peace, Labor Friends of Palestine, Palestine Fair Trade and Vintage Reds wait at that entrance just inside the grounds with their banners.

The march starts at 10am at Wharf and Turbot Streets and the end of the march arrives at gate number three a little before 12 noon.

Ian Curr
30 April 2025