BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — It rained hard on May 6, the day scheduled for the traditional May Day rally and march. But, determined not to let the weather deter them, hundreds of activists nevertheless turned up to the assembly point in Hyde Park at 11am — only to find that the May Day Committee had decided an hour earlier to cancel the event and was advising people to go home.
Some did leave but many were reluctant to let May Day 2001 pass without the traditional march, especially after the inspiring events just five days earlier, when 5000 people had braved rain to join the M1 all-day protest in Sydney's central business district.
Eventually, the May Day Committee's Sean Chaffer was persuaded to chair an impromptu speaking platform, which included Layla Mohammed from the Worker Communist Party of Iraq, the National Union of Students' Kate Davison and Vlaudin Vega, who spoke of the US government's offensive against the people's struggle for justice in Colombia.
At the end of the speakers, Michael Thomson from Socialist Alliance and the International Socialists took the megaphone and called for a vote on whether to march. The result was overwhelming and so began a noisy, militant procession through the city streets.
Carrying dozens of Socialist Alliance placards and chanting "Whose streets? Our streets! Whose world? Our world", "The workers united will never be defeated" and "Hands off workers comp", the marchers had covered just one block before a lone police officer stopped the march, saying that he'd been informed by the May Day Committee that the action had been cancelled.
When the crowd made it clear that they were going to let neither the May Day officials nor the police prevent them from marching, the police officer quickly summoned a couple of police cars to escort the march along its spontaneously chosen route to Town Hall. People's power had prevailed.
From Town Hall, around 100 marchers joined the Socialist Alliance for drinks at Trades Hall Inn, where new members were signed up, marchers gave generously to a collection to help alliance campaigning and, in the true spirit of International Workers' Day, many plans were made over many beers for building the working-class movement.