Belfast Celebrates MAY DAY 1886-2026

The Industrial Workers of the World took part in this years annual May Day March and Rally in Belfast, which was organised by the Belfast & District Trades Union Council.

Thought to be one of the largest May Day celebrations held in the city for a number of years, an estimated 5000 trade union and community activists took to the streets to commemorate the 140th anniversary of International Worker's Day and the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886.

Speaking as the event got underway, an IWW spokesperson spoke on the historical background of May Day and its radical roots, saying, "In the spring of 1886, following Haymarket bombing. An act, even today, strongly suggests a deliberate act of desperation by agent's of the state and local bosses, eight unionists, anarchists, mostly immigrants had been targeted and rounded up by the authorities.

"The very name of targeted had been known radical labour activists such as August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolf Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe. Some of those who couldn't even be placed at the time of the explosion. The evidence extremely weak, the jury was contaminated, the judge himself doesn't even try conceal these facts, so the sentence was already written long before hearing the defence's first word.

"From those events the international labour movement in 1889, the Second International designated May 1 as a labour day. To remember those Haymarket martyrs but more importantly to acknowledge past battles, past victories, and to recommitted ourselves as a class to the battles yet to come.

"That is why it's important for all of us, as a class as organised labour, to be mobilised and to be on the streets at this time. We need to be vocal and actively encouraging workers to unionise wherever you work or live. To highlight our demands that every worker needs a union. This is why we are on the streets today celebrating International Worker's Day."