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May Day traditions – not just marches and rallies
The Chartists marked May Day long before it became a labour movement occasion. KEITH FLETT explains
IDEALISM: A map showing plans for a Chartist land settlement in Hertfordshire, named O’Connorville after the Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor
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MAY DAY is, worldwide, a labour and socialist festival. It has been marked in Britain since the first London May Day demonstrations in the 1890s.
As Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger wrote, traditions are invented. In Britain at the moment there is an official May Day public holiday held on the first Monday after the actual date, which often sees marches and rallies.
We have Michael Foot and the 1974-79 Labour government to thank for that, although Margaret Thatcher recorded in her papers that she also enjoyed a day off, despite disapproving of its stated purpose.
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