The Quaker Society on the May Day march

FROM trade unionists to Quakers, socialists and republicans, key workers and climate campaigners, thousands of people gathered on Monday in Clerkenwell to celebrate May Day.

The annual march from the steps of the Marx Memorial Library (MML) down to Trafalgar Square dates from 1890.

And this year’s event, marking International Workers’ Day, was the busiest in years – a reflection of the political environment, according to the march’s organising committee.

Roger Sutton of the May Day organising committee told the Tribune the turnout illustrated the hopes and fears of so many.

Whittington Unison members

He said: “We had the widest representation of different groups we have ever had. There were people from London, of course, but also groups from across the UK and the world.

“And it reflects the political atmosphere of today. Everybody except the super-rich have been hit by the so-called cost of living crisis, and those on the lowest earnings have been hit hardest.”

Speakers included Rail Maritime and Transport Union general secretary Mick Lynch, the GMB’s Helen O’Connor and the PCS’s Angela Grant.

The gathering in Clerkenwell Green – currently undergoing a renovation project – saw hundreds take the opportunity to tour the Marx Memorial Library, which celebrates its 90th birthday this year.

MML chair and RMT president Alex Gordon spoke from the library steps of how May Day celebrated the past and gave hope for the future.

He added that workers’ rights to strike and protest were increasingly under threat at a period when people faced a range of pressures.

Groups on parade included the Whittington Hospital’s Unison branch, members of Islington’s Momentum branch, members of the RMT union, based in King’s Cross, and nurses who work at University College Hospital.

And the march brought together campaigns from around the world. Activists from Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Kurdistan, Mexico, The Philippines, Venezuela, Ecuador and many others joined the traditional workers celebration.

As well as calls for better pay and conditions, the good-natured crowd of thousands made clear their opposition to a billionaire unelected head of state, with the impending coronation of King Charles III prompting a raft banners and chants.

Other popular slogans related to protecting the NHS and making sure everyone who had come to the UK as a refugee was treated with compassion and fairness.

Mr Lynch told the rally in Trafalgar Square that while the super-rich had seen their wealth rocket, much of the UK was destitute due the government’s “austerity measures”, which were economically illiterate.

He said: “There are people all over the world being exploited by the one system that oppresses us all, which is the capitalist system.”

And he attacked plans to beef up union laws, weakening hard-won rights for collective action and peaceful protest. He told the crowd: “We will not be bound by anti-trade union laws … We will continue to fight no matter what they do to us, no matter what laws they bring in, no matter what public opinion they try to pervert.”

Paul Fleming, the general secretary of actors’ union Equity, spoke about how culture was vital for everyone and should not be seen as the preserve of the rich.

He said: “We believe as certainly as any other union here that every single working person have the rights to be an artist, they have the right to go to theatre, cinema, and the right to have their stories told.”