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Over 150 avatars joined in virutally for May Day in Second Life, making several visits to different sessions, coming from Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mongolia, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and USA, surely more, as organisers didn't get a chance to meet everyone.

The international flavour of the event was very inspiring, as it brought together people who never normally meet each other face to face, and there was no shortage of topics people wanted to discuss. One such discussion in the bar resulted in the decision to agree a statement from everyone attending about the situation for our colleagues in Zimbabwe.

This practical solidarity action was quickly co-ordinated with colleagues from South African and France, and put to a vote using Second Life’s proposal tools. Read the final statement agreed here.

In fact the bar, ably tended by New Unionism Network’s Wotcher Tenk, was a bit of a haunt for the whole event, though the usual “party in the kitchen” did take place as well, down in reception, where the couches must be just too comfortable for some people to make it up the hill.

Other sessions involved introductions to Union Island for French and Italian speaking users. Around a third of residents attending were under 3 months old - with more than a few freshly rezzed - so introductory sessions like this, and a crash course in SL building went well.

Prometheus Hawker ran a very well attended and successful course on building union web sites with the open source system Drupal with the help of Hus Bing, Carlo Bernini and Engels Kas of the TUC-UK Organising Team.

Forelle Broek presented the history and meaning of May Day with Second Life Left Unity. There were a good number of people there, and a very positive mood still in evidence. The presentation can be found on the SLLU site.

And ending things off was a great DJ set from Fracture DJ Beta Bates, who played two hours, with an eclectic set that nevertheless held together really well, and had something to get everyone wooing and yaying throughout. In their best glad-rags and wings or sporting union tees, people were pulling brilliant dance moves.



For photos of the event click here: http://www.slunionisland.org/2008/05/may-day-report/

Spanish IP TV covers events in a film: http://www.internautas.tv/programa/329.html

Party with DJ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o99WNgbr9oE