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May Day

at lunchtime today
they unfurled the Red Flag
the real thing not the song
out at the band rotunda in Albert Park
there were speeches by Jim Knox ex-head
of the F.O.L. and another old timer
who'd been in the lockout of 1951
a lot of people were listening
to the stories of parents shaking
in despair
unemployed workers who had much pain
to bear
there was a lot of swearing and even
a mention of the P.M. crawling up a trouser leg
to wipe the arse of Washington
Ruth spending nine hundred bucks a week
on an apartment
then a cut back to the dole cut
yesterday thirty thousand people
marched up Queen Street
like old times the speaker said
and he got stuck into the Labour Party
to be fair
as I said a lot of people listened
he had a lot to say
I was eating a steak pie and a carton of chips
which I finished in good time

 


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