Mayday 2026: Join the Ottawa Tempest Collective’s Mayday historical walking tour – Saturday May 2, 1-4 PM Popular Rebellions throughout Ottawa’s History: Glimpses of Revolutionary System Change

On May 1st, 1911, the Socialist Party of Canada organized Ottawa’s first public celebration of Mayday with a rally and speakers in Major’s Hill Park.

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of that event, the Ottawa branch of the Tempest Collective – an American/Canadian socialist group – is offering a free historical walking tour, starting from Major’s Hill Park. Join us to learn about seven of the most dramatic protests and strikes in Ottawa’s history, moments when the struggle intensified into serious rebellions.

Led by Brian McDougall, from Peoples’ History Walking Tours, the tour will visit the sites of those seven episodes of mass struggle. Each of those moments surpassed the limitations of ‘normal’ strikes and protests to reveal the possibility of system change. In doing so, they raised political questions that remain critical today.
• How can we overcome the racial divisions in the working class?
• How much capacity do the unorganized have to strike?
• How do you build a general strike?
• How does the ruling class co-opt protest movements?
• What can rank and file workers do to overcome the conservatism of their union leaders?
• How can single issue movements and campaigns attract support from other groups?

The tour will last about three hours, and will end with a visit to a nearby pub. For more details and information about the time and meeting place, send an email to brian.phwt@gmail.com. Make sure to include your phone number in case of last minute changes to the plan.

For more information about the Tempest Collective in Ottawa, email us at socialisminthecapital@gmail.com

Make sure to read our webzine at Tempest Collective: https://tempestmag.org/