Lancastrians will be celebrating International Workers Day with our traditional May Day Parade and Rally tomorrow, Saturday 2 May 2015.
Organised by Lancaster and Morecambe TUC this annual event is inclusive and attracts participants from all walks of life, across political parties and campaigns, to walk side by side in solidarity.
(Even the police are usually well represented, often bringing a superbly mounted escort on horses decked out in bright, daffodil-yellow livery.)
This year the TUC’s themes are:
- No to Austerity
- Defend the Fire Service
- Restore NHS Budgets
- Stop Benefits Sanctions
Groups and individuals are also very welcome to march in solidarity under their own banners.
The Parade will assemble from 11.30am in Dalton Square, Lancaster and will set off at 12 noon to march with music around and through Lancaster City Centre. At 1pm it will return to Dalton Square to Rally. The assembly will be addressed by speakers from a range of parties and local, national and international campaigns.
International Workers’ Day, also known as Labor Day in the US, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on May Day, 1 May, which also coincides with the Celtic spring festival. In Lancaster we celebrate it with a Parade on the closest Saturday.
This Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. The fact that working people in the UK now have the right to rest, and to have time for recreation and their families, is thanks to the trades union movement.