Happy May Day

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Happy May Day one and All. What better way to celebrate this bastion day of the triumph of Labour than with a poem. Also there's a March later this evening from Parnell Square to Liberty Hall this evening. Meet at the Garden of Remembrance at 7.30pm. The theme of this year's march is 'Defend and Extend Trade Union Rights'. (Some of you may be interested in a post from a couple of weeks ago on declining Union Membership to give this some context.)

"Into the Streets May First"
by Alfred Hayes
(May, 1934)

Into the streets May First!
Into the roaring Square!
Shake the midtown towers!
Shatter the downtown air!
Come with a storm of banners,
Come with an earthquake tread,
Bells, hurl out of your belfries,
Red flag, unfurl your red!

Out of the shops and factories,
Up with the sickle and hammer,
Comrades, these are our tools,
A song and a banner!
Roll song, from the sea of hearts,
Banner, leap and be free;
Song and banner together,
Down with the bourgeoisie!

Pour forth like a second flood!
Thunder the Alps of the air!
Subways are roaring our milllons --
"Comrades, into the square !!!"