The first British labour movement May Day demonstrations took place in 1890 (there were two). It remains unclear who the rank and file activists were who built those occasions for the first time and perhaps in some ways why they did so.
There is more to the hidden tradition of May Day.
Long before the Second International proclaimed 1st May as workers day the Chartists were marking the occasions with a tweak on customary May Day celebrations.
The Chartist Land Plan was a strategy, which worked but in a limited way, of allowing industrial workers fed up with early capitalism to opt out and return to the land.
Several Land Settlements were built and worked but ultimately the plan was declared illegal. The idea of opting out of early capitalism was not encouraged.
The first settlement was at Heronsgate, renamed after the Chartist leader, O’Connorville. Its actually in Rickmansworth (and can be reached at a reasonable walk from the station). The Chartist houses remain although these days they are desirable dwellings.
On May Day 1847 a festival was held at O’Connorville.
A report noted:
A ballot was held to select the first thirty-five settlers, and they arrived on 1st May 1847. It was, according to O’Connor, ‘England’s “May Day” ‘, and a band struck up the tune ‘See the conquering heroes come’. At the official opening on 17th August 1847 O’Connor stood on a platform jubilantly waving a giant cabbage.
May Day was celebrated with dinner, tea and a concert and a ball at the schoolhouse. The local schoolmaster painted a mural facing the entrance to the hall depicting O’Connor’s presentation of the third petition to the House of Commons and farm labourers doing their work above the motto ‘speed the spade’
The settlement was and remains opposite a pub, these days called the Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty. O’Connor warned against visiting in his speech on May Day 1847
There is a beer shop adjoining your land avoid it I beseech you as a pestilence
The CAMRA Award winning pub remains open, an ideal place perhaps to recall the pre-1890 traditions of May Day, although you’ll need to do it retrospectively in 2020
Leave a Reply