Reasons to be MayDay - part 2

....The main event of the holiday period is the March and Rally today (3 May). From 11.00 people will gather in George Square and then march to the O2 Academy in Bridge Street. The March is being lead by young people and will rally in the O2. A range of speakers is headed by Seumas Milne, the Guardian correspondent. Also speaking will be Rosa Salih of the Glasgow Girls, a representative of the U.S. Fast Food Forward campaign for TU rights. Entertaining the masses while they wander round the stalls, will be Glasgow's own The Wakes.

A variety of political groupings will have their own events following the rally, but the evening delivers the second performance of From the Calton to Catalonia. Martin McCardie's successful and packed revival in the Calton last night is followed by this performance in Glasgow's Oran Mor. Maureen Carr leads an ensemble cast in Willy and John Maley's story of their dad's experiences in the International Brigade. Tickets £12, from the bar in Oran Mor, or via TicketWeb (including a booking fee).

Arthur Johnstone

On the Monday holiday, the now well-known Great MayDay Cabaret fills the venue at Oran Mor. Tommy Sands, the Irish singer and activist leads a star-studded cast that includes performance poet, Elvis McGonagall, actress Juliet Cadzow comedians Bruce Morton and Susie McCabe, and singer Siobhan Miller. They are joined by regulars Arthur Johnstone, Fraser Speirs and Stephen Wright, in what promises to be a cracking night. Again tickets available over the bar and via the online supplier This time at £14.

Then there is a gap during the week (is something happening next week?) although you can get another chance to see From the Calton to Catalonia if you're prepared to travel to Bo'ness on the 8 May (Barony Theatre), or Greenock on the 10 (Beacon Arts Centre). If you're staying in Glasgow next week, another great way to wind up the MayDay celebrations would be to see the Love Music, Hate Racism screening of Clash:Westway to the World on May 10 in the CCA (at 8.00pm). Free but ticketed from the CCA website.

All in all, Glasgow’s significant contribution to the International Workers' Day's festivities!

Rent strikers' centenary marks MayDay celebrations

100 years after the success of the Glasgow Rent strikers' in changing the law, their struggles are taking centre stage amongst the range of events announced around this year's MayDay celebrations. 

The First World War women's fight against the exploitative attempts by private landlords to hike up rents came to an end after court cases against 18 rent strikers were abandoned in 1915 and the law was changed by the enactment of the Rent Restriction Act. Glasgow Film Theatre is marking the centenary by showing the 1984 film on the struggle - Red Skirts on Clydeside - on Saturday 2 May. The film will be introduced by Maria Fyfe, former MP for Maryhill and chair of the Remember Mary Barbour Association. Maria said. "As we look forward to a tangible memorial for the rent strikers with a statue of Mary Barbour, it is good to be able to say how much we have managed to move the recognition fight on since the film was made."

In addition, a walk organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), will

Rent Strike demo

visit the old court were the case was due to be heard, the prison in which many women were held and sites of many of the demonstrations and rallies. 'Women, the War and the Rent strikes' will take place on Saturday 25 April. Chris Bartter, Chair of GFoMD said "The women involved in the rent strikes were often also involved in the peace campaigns and before that in the struggles for women's suffrage. Their lives are an example to today's activists, and it makes a good walk!"

The two events are just part of the programme launched to mark the International Workers' Festival in Glasgow and around. Other events include a Clarion Cycle Club ride out and a Love Music, Hate Racism Gig - both on May 1 - afternoon and evening respectively. The now-famous Great MayDay Cabaret will again be in Oran Mor on the 4 May - this year it stars Tommy Sands - and a short tour of John and Willy Maley's play - From The Calton to Catalonia - starts on the 1 May in the Calton starring, well-known Scottish actor, Gary Lewis. The full programme is available from the Friends of MayDay website - may1st.org.uk.

Tickets for the GFT film go on sale on 23 April at £5 from http://www.glasgowfilm.org/ Signing up for the walk costs £7.50, contact Chris Bartter on 07715 583 729.

 

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret and the May 3 performance of From the Calton to Catalonia are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee). Tickets for other performances of From the Calton to Catalonia see the FairPley website at http://www.fairpley.com/

Gary Lewis and Tommy Sands lead Glasgow's MayDay festivities.

--> MayDay festivals have been celebrated since pre-Christian times. Earliest celebrations marked the beginning of summer and linked to many pagan festivals including the Gaelic Beltane. In 1891 MayDay was formally adopted as International Workers Day – primarily to mark the anniversary of the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Massacre, when four strikers were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration after a bomb was thrown. 

Despite the gravity of this event, and maybe because of earlier festival links, the celebratory side of International Workers’ Day is longstanding and international, especially in Glasgow. The story of labour in the west of Scotland is peppered with cultural input – choirs from the Orpheus to the Eurydice, theatre from the Glasgow Workers’ Theatre to 7:84 and Wildcat, Glasgow Trades Council even once ran a film society! This is the background to the increasing range of activities now being organised in the city by a range of TU, campaigning and labour organisations.

The now hugely successful Great MayDay Cabaret, organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), celebrates its third anniversary at Oran Mor on the Mayday Monday (4) evening. This year’s headliner is celebrated Irish singer and peace activist , Tommy Sands. Also performing are poet Elvis McGonagall, actress Juliet Cadzow, comedians Bruce Morton and Susie McCabe, and singers Arthur Johnstone and Siobhan Miller. Dave Anderson comperes.


In addition, Glasgow-based film actor Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York) stars in a specially commissioned rehearsed reading of John and Willy Maley’s play – From the Calton to Catalonia – republished last year by Calton Books. This play about their father’s experiences in the International Brigades launches, appropriately enough, in the Calton, then goes on a small tour during the period including Irvine’s Harbour Arts centre (2) and Oran Mor (3).

Chris Bartter, Chair of Glasgow Friends of Mayday said “This year’s celebrations have moved up a gear. Many more organisations and people are planning events and we are delighted that we’re able to add a theatre performance to the already successful Cabaret.”

Trade Union Councils throughout Scotland continue to organise MayDay marches and rallies on the Mayday Weekend (Sat and Sun 2/3 May). Plans and speakers are still being finalised.

An interesting project run by Glasgow Museums and Glasgow University plans to get trade union and campaign banners out of museum storage and into local communities, where people with a connection to the struggle will tell their story. One is scheduled in Glasgow’s Castlemilk on the afternoon of May 1 with banners from the local Anti-Poll Tax Union, and the Tailors’ and Garment Workers’ Union. Similar events are planned in Barmulloch and Govan later.

Love Music, Hate Racism have organised a gig in Glasgow’s Stereo on the evening of May 1 and are also showing the film, The Clash: Westway to the World on Sunday 10 May at the CCA.

Other film showings, include the third in a series of film showings at the CCA organised by a local GMB Branch. Linking International Workers’ Memorial Day (28 April) with MayDay, they are showing Ken Loach’s The Navigators on April 30.

A new MayDay tradition of walks through Glasgow’s heritage continues, with the Friends of MayDay organising a Women, War and Rent Strike walk on Saturday April 25. And the Glasgow Women’s Library has one of its Women of the Merchant City walks two weeks later (9 May).

Of course established venues often have relevant events – most obviously The Tron’s Mayfesto festival – an important part of which will be Rites, a powerful NToS and Scottish Refugee Council-backed piece by Cora Bissett on female genital mutilation. David MacLennan’s legacy– A Play, a Pie and a Pint- also serves up The War hasn’t Started Yet – a view from modern Russia from May 4–9.

Amongst a number of talks and discussions, the ever-interesting Morning Star Our Class, Our Culture series has an intriguing presentation by John Quinn of Glasgow School of Art – Portraying the Heroes of Red Clydeside in the STUC on 5 May. 

The festival events in Glasgow take place in the weeks before and after the MayDay weekend (this year Sat 2 – Mon 4) and are organised by a wide variety of trade union, cultural and campaigning bodies.

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret (4 May) and From the Calton to Catalonia on the 3 May are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee).

(Currently the OM website is being revamped, so tickets for the cabaret on line are available from ticketweb here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/great-may-day-cabaret-tickets/163277. And the OM performance of From the Calton to Catalonia, here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/from-the-calton-to-catalonia-tickets/167595).

The full 2015 programme is due to be published early in April. It will be available on http://may1st.org.uk as well as Oran Mor, the STUC, trade unions and other outlets.

Joyous Johnstone Jamboree!

I've just realised that I promised to put my review of Arthur Johnstone and Friends at The Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow up once it had been published in the Morning Star, and I've forgotten to do this! (although I did tweet a link to it). Here it is -

THIS turned out to be a memorable night of song and celebration with and for Arthur Johnstone at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival.

Celebrating 50 years of song and protest by the veteran, the packed hall lapped up a great bill in an evening ably compered by singer and actor Dave Anderson.

Luminaries abounded. Tommy Sands delivered a beautiful There Were Roses, matched by Rab Noakes’s Jackson Greyhound and 16 Tons, while Danny Couper and Martin McDonald joined rising talents Siobhan Miller and Paul Sheridan, actor David Hayman and Gaelic singer Maeve McKinnon to pay tribute to Johnstone’s talent and commitment to the labour movement.

The emotive heart of the concert was the return of the Patton brothers to reform The Laggan for the night. The band’s John McDermott, who had died since the group disbanded, was represented by his banjo, played by Billy Patton.

The Laggan reunite! l-r Tony and Billy Patton (with John McDermott's banjo), Arthur Johnstone, ably assisted by Brian Miller.

Awards and tributes showered down. From the STUC’s lifetime achievement award — invented, said deputy general secretary Dave Moxham specifically for Johnstone because “he is in a group of one” — and Brian Filling, consul for South Africa. And there was a tribute from the Morning Star’s Scottish Campaign Committee because, as its secretary Keith Stoddart said: “This concert is a sell-out but Arthur has never sold out!”

Johnstone, performing solo or with old or new band mates, took centre stage. Songs not heard for some time, such as Four Green Fields and Doomsday in the Afternoon, were interspersed with old favourites It’s My Union and The John Maclean March and the concert wound up all too soon with Hamish Henderson’s rousing Freedom Come All Ye.

Top talent, top evening.