Happy May Day!
Today is May 1st, recognized in many places around the world as International Workers Day. It traces its roots back to May 1st, 1886, when workers demanding an 8-hour work day walked out en-masse. The police crackdown at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago two days later led to the Haymarket affair in where eight anarchists were eventually convicted of murder in a show trial. Four of them were hung to death.
In Montreal, there is a long history of protest and artistic activism on May Day. Sadly, there is also a history of police repression. In 2008, for example, police cracked down on a mostly peaceful anti-capitalist march moments after it began.
This year’s march happens in the shadow of that event and also just a few months after the anti-police brutality march which ended, unfortunately, in police brutality and rioting. Nonetheless, the march will begin today at 5:30pm in Cabot Square, leaving at 6:30pm for the Caisse des depots et placements in Old Montreal.
May Day also kicks off the Festival of Anarchy which now includes a theatre festival, arts exhibits, workshops, a squat (more on this in a few week) and of course the Anarchist Bookfair. The festival lasts until May 31st.
Stella, the sex workers advocacy group, is hoping that workers’ rights will someday be extended to sex workers as well and in hopes of making this happen, they will be launching the latest edition of their ConStellation magazine tonight at Academy, 4445 St-Laurent, as part of a party thrown by Cirque de Boudoir. The event starts at 9pm, costs $15 at the door (free for sex workers) and features DJ Frigid, Plastik Patrik and the Dead Doll dancers.
Over the past few years, the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Cote-des-Neiges has hosted MayWorks an artistic celebration of workers’ rights. This year is no different, except that the event will happen a week later on Saturday, May 9th starting at 5:30pm.
