May Day Events

Various May Day related things coming up over the next few days:

Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance

Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance will be celebrating May Day on Sunday May 1st at Social Centre Plus (the old Job Centre) in Deptford High Street with 'Mayday! Mayday! This is an emergency! We are all under attack!... An evening of discussion, dinner and debate on how trade unionists, activists and local residents can defeat the cuts'. The programme is

5pm - 6pm – dinner (bring a dish if you can).
6pm - 8pm – discussions
8pm - 9.30pm – film about the Wobblies
9.30pm - 12am – music

You are welcome to attend all or part of the event. I will be giving a short illustrated talk based on my May Day in South London history pamphlet at some point between 7 pm and 8 pm.

Jack in the Green in Greenwich

This May Day Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green will be in Greenwich, processing through the streets and pubs with the Jack itself (a kind of green man pyramind of foliage) accompanied by folk dancers and musicians. It all starts at The Ashburnham Arms on Royal Hill Greenwich around noon - full details of the route and venues here.

Latin American Workers Association

Latin American Workers Association is running a number of activities this weekend at the temporary space in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. On Saturday 30th April, there will be a workshop on making banners using batik, for use on Sunday’s Mayday March and other demos. This will be followed by bilingual singing workshop: A las Barricadas, Solidarity Forever, Solo Pido a Dios etc! The banner workshop is scheduled for 11:00 - 16:00, singing 16:30 - 19:00. Both take place at the Studio at the Elephant, unit 207/208 at Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, SE1 6TE.

On Sunday 1st May, LAWA will be celebrating and joining the Mayday march, starting from 11:30 at Clerkenwell Green. The day's events will close with a celebration from 19:00 at the Studio Elephant, and will have music and special guests.

Mass for Migrant Workers

Over 2,000 Catholic migrants living and working in London are expected to attend a special Mass for Migrants, which will be celebrated at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, SE1 on Monday, 2 May 2011 (the Feast of St Joseph the Worker) at 11am. This event has been held at Westminster Cathedral for the past few years and has featured calls for rights and better conditions for migrants workers.

Brixton Windmill opening

May Day costumes will feature in the official re-opening of Brixton Windmill on Monday 2nd May, with a carnivalesque procession heading from Windrush Square at 2 pm, up Brixton Hill to the site of the Windmill for the opening ceremony at 3 pm. The organisers say: 'To enter the spirit of the parade, we'd love you to dress as a miller or a May Day Queen or King, or wear a hat dress with with flowers. We are also holding a fancy dress competition, for the children, who will head the parade led by the Brixton Windmill Theatre Company' (see facebook event for further details).

Later in the month there will be a May Fair in Burgess Park on May 14th organised by the Friends of Burgess Park and maypole dancing on Camberwell Green on May 21st at the end of the Cool Tan arts walk from Tate Modern to Camberwell - I will be taking part in that too, so more details to come.