The May Day Protests

History
May 1st is International Workers Day, this has taken many different forms over the centuries and is currently both a workers day celebrated by trades unions and a day of protest for anarchist, anti-globalisation, anti-war groups etc. etc. - all of which are clearly linked to the day's origins as I will explain throughout this article. I will be exploring the history of May Day and discovering how it will be marked this year, locally and nationally.

May Day, like so many of our modern day bank holidays and religious festivals, started as a Pagan festive holy day to mark the first Spring planting, originally (and indeed still) known as Beltane. Like so many Pagan celebrations it was outlawed by the church, who then hijacked it for themselves in an attempt to win converts. However, outlawing it was not effective and the day was still celebrated widely, it was one of the most popular festivals in medieval times - a day of fun and frivolity for rural folk who also took the opportunity to laugh at priests, lords and those in authority. One of the major groups celebrating may day were the craft guilds, which eventually became the trades unions, who are central to some of the May Day celebrations today. The theme of laughing at or attacking those in authority continues with the anti-globalisation and anarchist movements involved in May Day actions, protests and demonstrations throughout the world.

International Workers Day
In the late 1880s, My Day was revived as an International Workers Day after events in Chicago, USA. By May 2nd 1886, action which had started several months earlier culminated in 80 000 striking workers bringing most of the city's manufacturing to a standstill. The workers took to the streets demanding an 8-hour day (reasonably enough), in a move worryingly reminiscent of such protests ever since, the police opened fire on the crowds, killing four and injuring many more. Later, as a peaceful demonstration led by a group of Chicago anarchists in a public square was breaking up, police marched in, a bomb was thrown at them and they again opened fire. There were several deaths and the media and church went berserk. Again this reads like so many situations we see now, mass hysteria was whipped up, 'socialists and anarchists' (and many who didn't even know the meaning of the words) were rounded up and eight of the most active anarchists were charged as accessories to murder in show trial which the governor of the city later admitted was a sham. Four of the men were hung, one committed suicide in prison and the rest were released seven years later, declared innocent.

The events in Chicago became a symbol of the struggle for a new world by workers and revolutionaries throughout the world.

Modern May Day (1990's)
After a period of May Day inaction, everything changed again in the late 1990s when a massive conference in Bradford brought together numerous groups, who put aside their differences and started to cooperate and organize. The following year the 'Carnival Against Capital' and takeover of the tube by 1000 people in London resurrected May Day as a day of protest against the capitalist world order, creating a new world, and disrupting the current order of 'repeating the same patterns - paying our fares and bills, going to work, watching the world unfold on TV' (leaflet distributed by organizers of the tube party). Again, the medieval idea of poking fun at those in authority - there's not much they can do when 1000 people storm the tube and start ea party. Also the historical theme of the worker was still strong (the tube takeover was in solidarity with tube workers), reiterating that 'one of the most powerful forms of direct action remains the withdrawal by workers of their labour'.

As the movement grew stronger, this theme continued in 2001 when Central London was closed down by demonstrations, protests, office invasions, pickets and parties - the cost in lost business was estimated at £20 million. Even before the day itself the media were hysterical, Ken Livingston warned people to stay away and the police threatened to use rubber bullets (which was very polite of the considering the amount of times they've used various weapons against protesters without any warning at all so many times). It seemed nothing much had changed on this front since the Chicago protests either, the general public were fed tales of 'crazed anarchists' and smashed buildings rather than any of the reasons and thinking behind the protests." - Emlyn Hagan

Links:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?theme=mayday

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

There will also be various actions, protests etc. (mostly in London as far as I can tell) under the theme of 'weapons of mass construction' - a 'pre-emptive strike' of our own against a capitalist future and the real Weapons of Mass Destruction, ie oil companies, arms manufacturers, multinational corporations, banks and government departments such as the MoD and Home Office. Some of the planned actions so far are:

• Critical Mass bike ride, Southbank, 11am - ride up Quenn Anne's gate to a picnic at 1pm, reassemble Home Office (Birdcage Walk, SW1) 2pm and join other demonstrators.

• Protest at Lockhead Martin, the world's largest arms company, 2pm (Berkshire House, corner of High Holborn and Endell Street WC1)

• Protestors converge 4pm, Shell UK (The Strand WC2)

• London school students have called for a strike, following the incredible and highly successful walkouts at the start of the war (see indymedia for stories - link below)

Links:

http://www.riseup.net/ourmayday/mayday/index03.html (details of events, and how to get hold of a list of suggested targets for actions of your own)

http://uk.indymedia.org:8081 (list of events down the right hand side)

http://www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm

http://cmlondon.enrager.net (Critical Mass London)