London May Day March & Rally: New Union is born

There was an air of cheerful, colourful, confusion, when I arrived, which pretty much continued for the whole march. Lots of bright red banners, flags, music playing and “interesting” placards and numerous leaflets. I would say that a majority of marchers (I think there was only several hundred) were not British trade unionists, but supporting either home grown Marxist organisations or foreign Marxist groups. Particularly well organised, were the various Turkish and Kurdish groups. It was interesting to see a number of banners with pictures of Stalin and Mao on them ! The anarchists were there with their red and black flags, wearing their scarves around their face. They did however look very, very young (probably a sign of my age) and were very polite and well spoken, if you accidentally bumped into them.

Today was also the birthday of the brand new trade union “Unite” (T&G have merged with Amicus).

The setting off point is at Clarkenwell Green, London EC1 (which of course is nowadays not “green”, it’s completely paved over). Apparently I have got a bit of a tan after today! The sun was certainly shining. But it also could have been wind burn. Our UNISON banner nearly snapped a couple of times during the March.

I could only see Tower Hamlets Local Government (my branch) and Walthamstow Local Government UNISON branches and no Labour Party banners. This is a shame. Next year I will see if we can have a West Ham CLP delegation. However, there where a number of UNISON members milling about.

I couldn’t stay for the rally. So perhaps someone else will report on it. I must admit I enjoyed the experience but was not really surprised at the relative low turnout of British trade unionists and Labour Party branches/organisations. I think this is linked.