The numbers were up from last year, and probably about matched the turnout for the anti-VSU rally in Melbourne last Thursday, say four thousand plus. The march was led by a Highland pipe band, playing mostly ‘Scotland the Brave’; a bit more variety might have been welcome. But there was a sombreness about the march, and not many smiling faces … though at the end the children were obviously enjoying playing in an enormous ‘giraffe’ in the Treasury Gardens. Well done whoever thought of arranging that.

The march began at Trades Hall according to custom, setting off down Russell Street led by a pipe band; Indigenous and Eureka flags had pride of place:

A contingent of Melbourne’s anarcho-syndicalists

And the MUA

A small contingent of refugee activists calling attention to the plight of Iranian union activist Daryoush Nejad, held in detention in Australia since October 2000:

There were several reminders that May Day is an international event, including this banner:

And this:

Not to mention these tireless campaigners, one of whom told me they would be marching ‘until their legs dropped off’:

A grim-faced union leader:

The giraffe was popular with the kids: