Produced by students of the North East Media Training Centre for the Association of Cinematograph Television and allied Technicians (ACTT) Northern Group and Trade Films, a film to mark the centenary of the annual May Day March by Tyneside's working-class organisations from Gateshead into Newcastle. Taking place on Saturday, 5th May, 1990 the film not only features the procession of banners and musicians, but also speeches being made from a platform inside Exhibition Park by...

Produced by students of the North East Media Training Centre for the Association of Cinematograph Television and allied Technicians (ACTT) Northern Group and Trade Films, a film to mark the centenary of the annual May Day March by Tyneside's working-class organisations from Gateshead into Newcastle. Taking place on Saturday, 5th May, 1990 the film not only features the procession of banners and musicians, but also speeches being made from a platform inside Exhibition Park by representatives of both the African National Congress and the Scottish Anti-Poll Tax Campaign as well as veteran Labour politician Tony Benn. From the Gateshead Quayside the Tyne Bridge crossing the river Tyne. Title: MAYDAY. Tyneside Centenary 1990 Two men lifting a banner for the Association of Cinematograph Television and allied Technicians (ACTT) trade union. Around them other union and protest banners are unfurled and made ready to be marched including one for the Newcastle Northern Region Anti-Poll Tax Federation and one featuring an image of the then jailed anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. A group of children are filmed standing beside their banners one of which reads ‘Children Against the Poll Tax’. A band performs music from the back of lorry, children and families stand or sit listening and watching. The procession begins from outside Gateshead Civic Centre featuring a banner for the Gateshead District Trade Council being marched past. A banner for NALGO (National and Local Government Officers’ Association) forms part of the procession of crowds and banners making their way down Gateshead High Street towards and the Tyne Bridge. A film crew stands atop a lorry as it is driving slowly the Tyne Bridge into Newcastle. On a stage inside Newcastle’s Exhibition Park an interpreter translates a greeting from a representative from the African National Congress (ANC) into British Sign Language (BSL). Back on the Tyne Bridge the demonstration of banners and musicians continues their slow march into Newcastle coming out of Westgate Road into Neville Street heading towards Newcastle Central Station and then down Marlborough Crescent passing the Cattle Market. Some of the banners featured include one for the Pensions Rights Campaign and many relating to various anti poll-tax campaign groups including a musical group all dressed in ‘No Poll Tax’ white overalls with black strips. Back on the stage a speech being made by a man from the Scottish Anti-Poll Tax Campaign wearing a ‘Poll Tax Buster’ t-shirt. He asks for solidarity from the people of Tyneside and solidarity from the people of England and Wales against Mrs Thatcher’s Poll Tax. Smoking his pipe British Labour politician and campaigner Tony Benn forms part of the procession making its way through Newcastle. Inside Exhibition Park several banners lean against the fencing of the parks tennis courts while nearby Tony Benn explains why he is looking forward to the 1990s and next century with optimism. Tony is followed by the Scottish Anti-Poll Tax campaigner seen previously who talks about the unjust and unfair new tax which has been the spark to bring together working-class people. As the protest march continues through Newcastle featuring banners include that of the Tyneside Anti-Apartheid Movement and the ACTT seen previously, footage is intercut with black and white archive of another May Day march taking place in the 1930s featuring a banner for the Independent Labour Party. In voice-over Tony Benn making a speech about the importance of know the history of protest and struggle. A crowd sitting in front of the stage listen to the representative of the ANC makes a speech about the apartheid system and that fascism is ‘alive and kicking’ in South Africa. He asks the audience to take their placards and move to ‘smash fascism and smash apartheid in South Africa’. As he continues to talk the procession of banners and musicians continuing to make their way through Newcastle. On stage Tony Benn makes a speech in which he states that wen working-class people make up their mind nothing can stop a change from taking place. He talks about Rupert Murdoch and the Wapping dispute and how Murdoch is working with Mrs Thatcher to ‘divide us’. Musicians from many of the groups featured in the parade now perform together for the crowds featuring a variety of string, wind and percussion instruments. Back on stage an older man makes an announcement asking the audience not to drop their litter but use the bins in the marquees. The film changes to a choir on stage singing an anti-apartheid protest song, in front of them three people dancing and a large crowd behind them listening. Tony Benn returns to the stage and speaks about the history the rally and of the Tyneside Socialist and Labour Movement. He goes onto talk about how working people on Tyneside have always been ‘internationally minded’. As the procession of banners make their way through a pedestrian underpass towards Exhibition Park, in voice-over Tony provides examples of Tyneside internationalist such as supporting Ireland for independent and unity and Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War to end slavery. At the front of the procession a banner reads ‘Tyneside May Day Heath Jobs Pease Homes’ with a second banner just behind it that reads ‘People Not Profit’. Other banners pass including one for the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trade Union Council, another for the Iranian Refugee Workers Association and another for the Newcastle Graphic Society. Two women attempt to control a horse that is pulling a wagon through the underpass. The Scottish Anti-Poll Tax campaigner talks about the turn out today that shows 100 years on working class people still have the willingness to stand-up against injustice and unfairness all over the world. Two women dance beside a large model of a glass bottle with a label on it that reads ‘Poll Tax. Do Not Swallow’. Nearby two police officers watching over the event while on stage a band performs a jazzy song. The official seen previous making announcements about a lost boy who is being held in the air. He asks for the child’s parents to make themselves known. Back on stage the representative of the ANC talks positively about the audience around him which gives him hope for the future. As he speaks children enjoying various rides at a nearby fairground. Tony Benn explaining that if the Labour party were re-founded that it would include other organisations such the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and others from around the world. He goes onto say that he would like to see it re-founded around the great variety of people today including the women’s and peace movements. Still images of the march through Newcastle changes to the ANC representative on stage talking about the common struggles and victories between themselves and the people of Tyneside and the need to dismantle the apartheid system. The crowd begin to applaud when he raises his fist in her air wishes good luck for the working classes of Britain. The film ends on Tony Benn who tells a story about the importance of people working together to make things better for everyone. As he finishes and leaves the stage some of the audience get to their feet in applause. Credit: This tape was made by Julie Ballands, Jane Barnett, Helen Bingham, Anne Carruthers, Jim Hallworth, Alison McCabe, Stephen McKenna, John Morris, Carolyn Reid, Karen Revell, Jacqui Rutherford, Joe Smyth, Martin Spence, Joanna Unwin Title: Thanks to A19 Film and Video, Brian McEvoy, Eric Woodward, Fine-Cut Facilities, Ken Slater, National Film Archive, Newland Electronics, North East Media, Trade Films, Wildcat Films End title: © ACTT Northern Regional Group 1990