Mayday! May 1st 2000 - Global Action Against Capitalism!

Reasons for the Protest

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A-Infos News Service - Many if not most of the reports on this page are from this news service.

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UK - London : With exclusive photographs and interesting conspiracy theory!
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This year marked the first MayDay march in Victoria in many years. Approximately 100 Socialists, Anarchists, Trade Unionists, and Wobblies gathered in Centennial square where the Victoria Labour council, the Western Canada Wilderness committee, and the Victoria IWW spoke. The theme of of March was the call for a six hour work day (with no reduction in pay). This theme was actually fairly well received by media, both local and national. We felt pretty good to be in the position to be articulating for something, as many similar events in Victoria are reactions to something. We set out on a march, making stops at points of interest (ie. Ministry of Forests, Chamber of Commerce) to discuss their historical and political significance. At one point in the march it looked like the police were going to arrest a marcher for writing "6 Hour Day! " in chalk on the side of a brick wall, but as they had no cars  within eyesight  (only two mounted and two motorcycle cops), only the chalk got nicked. One of the highlights of the March was a banner hanging off the Marquee of a Cineplex Odeon theatre highlighting their union busting, scab hiring practices during the BC Projectionists' struggle. The hangers apparently did their business and were on their way just as the marchers came around the corner to the sound of Queen's "We Will Rock You." It was good to see that there are those who don't forget. The march wound up where it started. The next day our banner  " Capitalism can not be reformed" along side the Victoria Labour Council's made the front page of the Times Colonist, with a great by-line -" Meanwhile, the capitalists fared well with stock markets rising in North America".
 

Victoria IWW

 Presse Release
 Montreal, May 1st, 2000

 This year in Montreal, radical activists answered the international appeal of "May Day", May 1st. They organised a colourful and voluntarily "calm" demonstration in Westmount, the richest neighbourhood not only inMontreal, but in all of Canada. The plan was to simply go look for our enemies where they are, to pick out the true exploiters of the workers in order toreally denounce poverty.

 It was a first in Montreal. Radical activists decided to no longer try to march with the ass-kissing unions' debilitating demonstration, choosing instead to organize together to make the rich tremble in their boots.

 A few hours earlier there was a carival-like demonstration that also took place. It was organized by activist students within the context of " Reclaim the Streets ".

 After having met up at a metro station in Montreal's west end, the 200 or so demonstrators boarded busses to go to Westmount. This neighbourhood isa real fortress, with narrow winding streets, very little public transportation and a special police force. The demonstrators had not even arrived when they were intercepted and escorted to their destination by a convoy of motorcycle cops. Upon leaving the bus the protesters barely hada chance to begin marching when the anti-riot cops came out in full force - more than a hundred cops in riot gear. They had already prepared mselvesby forming a quadrilateral (square formation). Feeling that they were being encircled the demonstrators tried to avoid the police line, but the neighbourhood is built on a hill and the homes are so bourgeois that one has little choice as to where to go if trying to escape. One has to pass through private property. In other words, it's a real trap! Very few comrades were able to escape. So MayDay ended with another mass arrest,157 activists, three quarters of the demonstration. They are accused of Mischief and Unlawful Assembly. The arrests were brutal, cries of the arrestees could be heard from afar. Also, some of the demonstrators who escaped were injured. At least one activist is presently hospitalized with a broken leg and is under arrest. Other activists following at a distance by car were stopped and asked to identify themselves and their vehicles were searched.

 This repression joins the recent wave of systematic criminalization of all anti-establishment movements : in September 1999, 270 high school students were arrested after having demonstrated against cutbacks in after-school programs ; on November 24, 1999 around 70 students were arrested during a demonstration against advertisements in the universities ; on March 15th, 2000, the International Day Against Police Brutality, 112 demonstrators were arrested.

 It is obvious that freedom of expression and the resulting right to demonstrate are held in contempt by this so-called democracy, which is
 terrified of people organizing themselves autonomously and which crushes all anti-establisment movements with impunity.

 These arrests show the weakness of the powers that be and feed the rage of those who denounce their power!

 There are more of us than them!

POLICE USE BATONS AGAINST ANARCHISTS ON STRELECKY ISLAND

On one side of the cordon stood a unit of riot police armed with shields and batons and making a number of forceful arrests; on the other side a group of anarchists chanting slogans such as “fascists”, “Gestapo”, “police state”, throwing a few plastic bottles and here and there wielding sticks or plastic pipes.

This was how Strelecky Island looked on Monday between one and two in the afternoon when two hundred left wing radicals gathered to commemorate Labour Day. Police action against the unauthorised demonstration resulted in 15 people being detained, including Jan Roubicek, one of the organisers of the event. The demonstrators, on the other hand, carried away at least one trophy - the hat of one of the leaders of the police operation, who afterwards drove away without wearing the regulation headgear.

The Minister of the Interior, Stanislav Gross, described the police measures as adequate. “According to the information which I have, and which I have verified myself, the whole operation took place in accordance with the law”, he told CTK. According to the Minister, the police used coercive measures – pushing and shoving and in some cases handcuffs. “At this time I have no information on whether police used batons.

However, a Pravo reporter personally witnessed at least one occasion in which a police officer struck a fleeing demonstrator across the back.

According to Gross, police had warned the demonstrators before they intervened that the meeting had not been authorised, and had called upon them to disperse. “In all cases, the criteria were met which allowed police to use coercive measures.”

However, the government’s human rights commissioner, Petr Uhl, who was present when the police took action against the demonstration, described the intervention as unreasonable, unnecessary, unconstitutional and in places even brutal.

Demonstrators ignored police calls for them to disperse

Shortly after one o’clock, a representative from the district authorities for Prague 1 informed Roubicek of the decision to ban the demonstration. According to the representative, the authorities had not been given sufficient notice of the demonstration. At the same time, a police leader informed organisers of the gathering of the decision to break up the unauthorised demonstration as well as the planned march to namesti Miru in Prague 2. They were given 10 minutes grace.

However, the radicals used the time to make short speeches protesting against social injustice and globalisation, while appealing for a fight for a just order and a thirty-hour working week. There was also an echo of last year’s mass demonstration against the meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Seattle. During the speeches, police leaders called upon the speaker to finish immediately - a call which was of course ignored by the roughly two hundred strong crowd - and approximately 30 riot police set about dragging 15 demonstrators, with the help of batons, into waiting police vans.

Around two hundred of their colleagues with shields and in helmets closed most Legii (Bridge of Legions). In the following 30 minutes, the demonstrators were allowed through the police cordon towards Mala Strana at one-minute intervals and in groups of three. On the opposite bank of the Vltava, several dozen skinheads were waiting close to the National Theatre in anticipation of a shouting procession of anarchists - in the same place where, during last year’s unauthorised demonstration, the two groups confronted each other, an occurrence which resulted in flying paving stones.

Small groups of left-wing demonstrators from Strelecky Island gradually drifted to Kampa, where they again assembled before heading off in the direction of Malostranska metro station. For security reasons, tram services to Malostranske Namesti were diverted. Riot police stepped in once more in U Luzickeho seminare street, detaining 11 people; and again in Malostranske Namesti, (detaining a further 27) where by three o’clock the remnants of the demonstration had gathered.

Organisers protest

“The police unnecessarily attacked the participants, whose reactions were legitimate but unfortunately inadequate as a defence”, said Pavel Pecka, from the Federation of Social Anarchists (?), which together with Anti-fascist Action, Solidarity and the Czechoslovakian Anarchist Federation organised the demonstration.

“We came to commemorate the fight of the working class against the ruling class and the victims of this fight while at the same time drawing attention to the negative social consequences of capitalism for the people of the Czech Republic”, he added.

According to Jan Holub from the press department of the Prague police force, the organisers of the event did not take note of the decision to break up the meeting, did not heed police instructions and continued to make speeches and to proceed with the unauthorised march.

“They were therefore subsequently taken into custody under suspicion of committing the offence of disobeying public orders (?) and the offence of illegal assembly. They will receive a fine or a summons (?) to the district authorities,” said Holub, adding that none of the demonstrators nor any police officers were injured.

“We are of the opinion that, for our part, the intervention was reasonable, and even essential”, he added.

The police had 500 uniformed and plainclothes officers on standby, dispersed under Petrin, around the National Theatre, on Mala Strana on most Legii and even on Letna. There was also a water cannon standing by, the use of which was not required. Units of dog-handlers and transport police were also at the ready.

In 1997 we attended the Labour Day demonstrations in Prague at the same location (Strelecky Island). Our experience was somewhat different from what seems to have occurred this year, though as far as I can remember, it was also an illegal demonstration.  (A student group had, I think, “booked” the island for a spring festival of some sort and were charging a fee for entrance; that is until we pushed our way in and held the demonstration anyway).

Though prevented from crossing the Legii bridge because police blocked the bridge for students coming the other way, the demonstration was allowed to take another route, and, after a cat and mouse game with the police “escort”, even went through the main tourist areas. All this with little visible police presence until the end, when we guess that they had had enough of keeping up with us. We left shortly after this, so we are not sure whether they got physical with people later.

We don’t know much about last year’s trouble. Was this year’s crackdown to do with that? Are they just flexing their muscles in readiness for September and giving us all a warning?

As part of the global day of action against capitalism, 1,000 activists in Copenhagen demonstrated against the neo-liberal exploitation of the majority of the world's population. The original plan was to march past symbols of the social war being waged by the ruling powers, in order to expose them by means of various happenings and attacks. But this was not possible, due to the excessive deployment of police forces.

The demonstration was organized by various anti-capitalist groups (anarchists, anti-fascists, autonomists, feminists, libertarian communists, etc.) and took place on a spring-like May Day in central Copenhagen. This demo was the first time in many years - since the defeat of the autonomist movement in Denmark in the early 1990s - that a joint demonstration was carried out by various groups and networks from the non-reformist left. Many individual comrades from years past also came and participated in the demo. As a prolog to the march, a police car was overturned to protest against the massive deployment of riot police. The police concept was to prevent our march by means of massive pressure. Because we were not in a position  to enter into a confrontation with the cops - among other things,  because many children were participating, and there was a summer-like  atmosphere among many of the demonstrators - we were forced to accept  the cops' demo route. During the demo, the cops tried many times to  use force to break up the march. Undercover cops also tried to  infiltrate the demo, but they were exposed and beaten back. Speeches  were held (among other things, about anarchists in Austria, about  various workers initiatives, about women/lesbians against violence  against women, etc.) and anarchists played punk and rap music from  the loudspeaker car. At the end of the demo, there was a short  confrontation with the aggressive riot cops and 6 comrades were  arrested. The demo ended with an anti-fascist open air concert in  Faelledparken (a big park in eastern Copenhagen) which 10,000 people  attended. The reformist left, various ML groups, and the neo-liberal  social democrats all held their May Day activities in Faelledparken,  but they did not have demonstration marches.

 Against The Dictatorship Of Global Market Capital!  For A Global Resistance From Below!  No Pasaran!

 some autonomist activists from Copenhagen

 (Source: autonomikollektivet@hotmail.com; Translated by Arm The Spirit)

The day started with a demonstration "For Humanity, Against Capitalism". Over 500 people marched through Helsinki city centre, stopping at a market place, where the social-democrats, politicians from left-wing parties and big trade union bosses brainwashed their listeners in their traditional May 1st "party". One of the activists gave a speech to them.

Then the demo carried on walking, shouting slogans and dancing to the music coming out of the van in front of the march. The demonstration was very loud and colourful with lots of flags and banners. Main themes for the day were: work and income, freedom of movement and intermational solidarity, and resisting biocapitalism and genetic engineering.

Outside the railway station the march stopped for a bit to witness a bannerdrop by some environmentalists from the top of a clock tower. The huge banner read "Consumerism kills".

After two hours the march finally stopped outside the poshest hotel and restaurant in Helsinki, where only upper-class people stay and eat. Right next to the hotel there was an EU-comission representative's office. The street was only two blocks away from the President's castle. The street was blocked and the Street party started, with banging techno coming out of the big speakers.

The owners of the hotel weren't too happy about the party kicking off outside their precious hotel with about 2000 anarchists, environmentalists, antifascists, punks, ravers etc. enjoying themselves. They tried to get the police to do something about it, but after having a little discussion with some of the organisers the police decided they didn't want to do anything to stop the street party.

Lots of ordinary people joined the carnival and got introduced to literature and material about anti-capitalism, radical environmentalism and animal / human rights issues. Two EU-flags got taken down from outside the EU-Commission's office, one was burned and the other was torn to pieces.

At one point the chairman of National Coalition (big conservative party) Ben Zyskovicz appeared to the blocked street. One activist stole his white hat (a traditional hat that many secondary school graduates wear on May 1st ), but he had to drop it in the end. So our friend Ben started shouting abuse, and kicked an activist and hit him with his blue candystick (!), but the activist took hold of it and it snapped. Finally the police said: "Don't you think that's enough Ben, we think it's time you left" and escorted him out of the area. Police tried to arrest one of the protesters, but he was successfully de-arrested.

The party went on until 8pm. Throughout the day there was juggling, fire breathing and a breakdance group performed, too. Everyone felt really positive after the successful day, which gave people strenght to carry on fighting against capitalism and other forms of oppression.

For more information: http://go.to/mayday2000

Clash between right-wing conservative MP  Ben Zyskowicz and anarchists during M1 party of Helsinki made headlines in Finnish tabloids. Finnish Murdoch-equivalent Ilta-Sanomat made it as main news in it's internet-edition. The frame with 2nd of may news of Ilta-Sanomat has been copied to http://www.kolumbus.fi/antra/conbash.htm it is all in Finnish but includes a picture of con MP while anarchists give him a lesson...

From: @-collectif Maloka <maloka@chez.com>

Following the call for an other global day of action against capitalism on Mayday, some radical left activists organized an anticapitalist demonstration in the center of Dijon, France, on April 28th. The following collectives called people to join the demonstration : Maloka (anarchist collective), Collectif pour des villes sans voitures (RTS-like anti-car group), Les Tanneries (huge squatted counter-cultural center), Groupe Libertaire (anarchist federation), CNT (International Workers Association), Groupe Feministe non-mixte (radical feminist group), Acer Sativa (alternative music and politics), Anarchist Black Cross, as well as a large number of individuals involved in squatting, anarchism, anticapitalist campaigning. At 3 pm, about 300 persons gathered for a colorful protest march against globalisation and its effects, to promote civil disobedience and partying against capitalism and domination. A lot of people were costumed and turned the streets into a nice carnival. Some actions were carried during the demonstration : some feminists renamed streets with women characters to highlight the non-representation and non-promotion of women, glued some posters around the city, and subvertized advertisement boards. During the whole demonstration, walls were decorated with anticapitalist, anti-car and feminist posters, and some slogans were spray-painted. A stock-exchange was covered with large stickers and anticapitalist messages, as well as a working agency. The anti-car collective drew some DIY bike lanes on the ground, facing the decision of the city not to take cyclists into account. Squatters stopped in front of a recently evicted squatted house, which used to be the home of 10  people, as well as an alternative library and tea-room. Some demonstrators were giving away free vegan food, and distributed flyers about genetically modified food and the danger it represents. The demonstration continued by an occupation of the train-station, to protest against the eviction of foreigners from France and the racist laws that allow such evictions. After approx. 20 minutes of occupation, the demonstration moved back to the streets. A demonstrator then was caught by the cops, who wanted to arrest someone because of the agitation, but everybody in the demo reacted and ran in direction of the cops who immediately released the demonstrator and threw CS-gas to calm down the demo. "Police is everywhere, justice is nowhere". The demo then moved to a big plazza ofthe city center, where it blocked the traffic, with banners and a sound-system. A street-party began, with music, street theatre, fruit juice and graffiti performances. An activist climbed up to a spy camera, and hanged a banner to it, denouncing social control and video  surveillance. Fake blood and bank notes, symbolising the suffering of  the victims of capitalism, was spread on the ground. The aims of the  demonstration were to gather some people to promote active resistance to  corporate rule and global capitalism, using civil disobedience, creative  counter-culture and  partying as political means, and to participate in the global day of  action (even if the demo was organised 2 days before Mayday) to stress  the fact that an international movement against capitalism is growing.  The demonstration was followed by a non profit gig with alternative  music bands at the "Tanneries", a huge squat in Dijon.

Left/Liberal newspaper TAZ writes that among the 400 arrested at the "Revolutionary May 1st Demonstration" in Berlin, is a policeman from Leipzig.

He was not on duty, but on a holliday when by coincidence he saw the demontration pass by. Police attacked the demonstration and as usual didn't hesitate to rough up innocent bystanders. Our tourist from Leipzig got so angry when riot-cops hit him, that he joined the demonstrators who defended themselves throwing stones, bottles and other portable stuff. According to the police the policeman had thrown a bottle at a water-canon when he was arrested.

This year's revolutionairy 1st of may demo was 10.000 persons strong (there was also a separate Marxist-Lenininist-Maoist demonstration of some 2000 people. Fascists mobilised 1000 demonstraters earlyer that day in Hellersdorf outskirt and were intensely protected by cops against antifascist).

The autonomist/anarchist movement has been demonstrating on this day (again) since 1987. The demonstration that day ended in a major riot in which the police was defeated and thrown out of the leftwing neighborhood Kreuzberg. Biggest warehouse Bolle (a.o.) was fully looted and then burned down. Three days later Reagan was to visit the town...

Somehow since then the demonstration always end in a big riot with the police. Newspaper TAZ writes that the troubles started this year because the police made the big misstake to attack the demonstration to arrest people at the end at Oranien-Platz (park). They lost. Spartacus-type scenes (the film) were seen. The chief of police described it as follows "The sky looked grey so many stones flew". And the newspaper describes classical events such as flowerpots being trown out of windows on the cops, and neigbours putting ladders against the walls leading to gardens, so activists could get away more easy. 279 police-men/women were reported woonded and teargas filled the streets...

It's not the first time police fight their own kind in Germany, by the way. One of the historical annecdotes in the early eighties is the courtcase a plain-cloth cop started against his employers. He had to infiltrate in leftwing activist circles during antimilitarist demonstrations, but his colleagues got him (not nowing who he was) and beat him up so severly that he was partly paralysed and had to quit his 'work'.

Dear friends,

Moviment Graffitti's protest in front of a McDonalds outlet, coinciding with  a visit of Ronald McDonald (the emblem of exploitative globalisation) was  very successful. [MSC Note: we believe this was on May 1st]. The protest was against the Millennium Dreamers  Competition which was organised by McDonalds and the local Education  Department for school children. This was a blatant case of exploitative  advertisement targeted at young children. The theme of the protest was  McJunk.

The protest was well reported on the National Television in Malta and the  main Sunday newspaper.

On a more positive side, the drama unit of the education department has  produced a very good play called junkfood high for all local secondary  school children.  The director of the play, Mario Azzopardi declared that   this play was directed against the McDonaldisation of society. You can  contact him on email marpardi@maltanet.net.

The struggle against McDonalds in Malta is gaining momentum and we are  already making plans for anti McDonalds day. [Annual protests/mass leafletting on October 16th].

Long live the globalisation of solidarity against the globalisation of  capital!

yours truly,

James Debono
International Secretary

 May Day went off in Wellington! A successful and unique Carnival against Capitalism organised by local anarchist group the Committee for the Establishment of Civilisation was held on May Day in Wellington. Overall, probably over 500+ people attended the combined events of the day, a huge and inspiring turnout. The carnival consisted of several parties, demos and marches throughout the day, with each event flowing into the next. Events ranged from a party outside the Freedom Shop (local anarchist bookstore, celebrating its fifth birthday), to a protest outside influential local capitalist lobby group, the Business Roundtable, to protests outside local chains of multinational capitalist exploiters McDonalds and Nike (Rebel Sport, a Nike retailer, was targeted) to a ÒReclaim the CityÓ march down Lambton Quay, the financial and bureaucratic centre of Wellington which houses the various ministries of the government.

 May Day is not a public holiday in Aotearoa, and this year May Day fell on a working day (Monday). As well, Wellington is a conservative city (itÕs gotthe highest proportion of bureaucrats and various functionaries of the state in Aotearoa) that traditionally has extremely boring and small May Day protests of about 20 people. Last year at May Day apparently someTrotskyists got up and spoke about such nonsense as the deformed workers state of North Korea. A big demonstration in Wellington is anything over about 50 people, and normally demos organised by a radical group with radical themes such as the abolition of capitalism are virtually unheard of. In fact, has anybody heard of a demo held in Aotearoa specifically against capitalism? So, normally one would expect a tiny turnout for an event like this which specifically aimed for the abolition of capitalism. Thus the big turnout was really great.

 CAPITALISM SUCKS ASS

  The turnout was definitely helped by a fluoro orange sticker campaign, which advertised the event all over Wellington with stickers like Eric Cartman from South Park saying Capitalism Sucks Ass-- the stickers were everywhere, and it seemed like everybody noticed them. Other forms of advertising were used, like video evenings, a carnival against capitalism gig, posters (one suggesting we should evict the rich) and banners urging people to take the day off work (which were hung up on the motorway and outside the railway station). In the end, quite a few people took the day off. Protesters ranged from anarchists, to environmentalists (a good number of people from Native Forest Action attended), to Maori radicals, to Rastafarians, to university and high school students. Even a few Trotskyists attended in two groups of five with placards like Expropriatethe banks and industries (yes, but that doesn't have to mean the state should run and own industries; workers can do it themselves, OK?) The protest looked really colourful, with good banners and heaps of black flags and black and red flags, a couple of tino rangatiratanga flags, and even a few red flags were spotted.

 The Carnival against Capitalism was supposed to be just that: a carnival, not a boring, staid procession that most protest marches turn out to be. For the most part, the event was reasonably fun, with several spontaneous acts lightening up proceedings (such as breakdancing in Manners Mall). Most people on the carnival enjoyed the day out. Having a portable PA system attached to a bicycle definitely helped, as did the giving away of hundreds of lollipops with slogans on them such as 'capitalism sucks', 'work sucks', 'school sucks', 'anarchy is sweet'. Several people got dressed up for the occasion, including the grim reaper (capitalism as death, maybe?) and one dressed as Monty Burns (the evil tycoon from the Simpsons). Mr. Burns wandered around with a placard 'Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie!' and often got beaten up by protesters. As well,3000 fake $20 bills were distributed to passers by in an attempt to undermine the capitalist economy by giving money away for free. On the back of the notes there were different anti-capitalist rants, ranging from a rant against the World Bank, to statistical information about the effects of capitalism, to a situationist rant against mechanisation and boredom at work under capitalism. These fake notes were hugely popular -- instead of the usual indifference people have to receiving leaflets, people actually came up to leaflet distributors and asked for more of the notes! On the whole, press coverage of the carnival was very poor. TV news ignored it. Newspaper coverage was widespread but very limited. It seems like the press would only cover such a radical demo if some form of arrests or a trashing of McDonalds had taken place. As there were no arrests, there was no coverage.Police took a low key approach to the day, but took the event seriously, as can be shown by how they protected the entrance to the Reserve Bank at the end of the day, just in case protesters decided to take an unplanned trip there.

 FLOUR POWER

 To kick off the day, a party was held outside the Freedom Shop. Free food and drink were served, and about 100 people attended. After a march down Cuba St, the carnival arrived at Manners Mall McDonalds. This was the largest attended event of the day (300+ people - numbers were hard to estimate as heaps of people just stayed for a wee while). About 100 free veggie burgers were distributed out McShit and there was a huge queue (distributing things for free can be quite subversive in a capitalist society which reduces everything into a commodity object to be bought and sold). Heaps of what's wrong with McDonalds leaflets were distributed. A protester dressed as Ronald McDonald offered himself as a target outside the front doors of the multinational exploiter. People threw water and flour bombs at Ronald; surprise, surprise, most bombs missed Ronald and instead hit the front doors of McShit, creating a gooey mess that hopefully was difficult to clean off. One flour bomb hit a policemen who became extremely angry but did not pursue his assailant.

 From there, the carnival proceeded to the other end of Manners Mall, to protest against Nike retailer Rebel Sport. A noisy, intense protest of about 200+ people inside James Smith Market ensued. Nike were targeted because they are a good example of a capitalist multinational who use third world slave labour in the production of their shoes. About 6 cops protected Rebel Sport, though one protester got behind police lines andinto the shop holding a placard 'I'm Angry' to a huge cheer from the crowd.

 DISABLE THE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE

From Manners Mall, the 'Reclaim the City' march went down Lambton Quay, into the dark, foreboding high rise end of town where the buildings are designed to make you feel small. The march ended up in Midland Park in theheart of suitsville. The PA system was turned up really loud and about 200+ people enjoyed a sit down in the park, which is normally a favourite haunt for office workers at lunchtime. Chalk was provided and heaps of anti-capitalist slogans appeared on the concrete. By Midland Park, the carnival had been going for about 4 hours and some people drifted off.

 From Midland Park, the carnival proceeded to the courtyard outside the seventh floor office of the Business Roundtable on the Terrace, their offices appropriately situated in a dark, black, ugly, menacing tower. The Business Roundtable are an influential capitalist lobby group made up of some of the wealthiest capitalists in Aotearoa who try and push the government into more and more extreme free-market policies. The Business Roundtable have become a sort of symbol of the selfishness and brutality of local capitalists in recent times (who have increased their profits and wealth very nicely indeed under successive New Right regimes in Aotearoa, whilst the rest of us have become much worse off), and so it was appropriate that the carnival ended outside their HQ. About 150+ attended the protest, which was highlighted by the burning of piles of fake money on the courtyard, and a good, sharp, short speech against the capitalist parasites of the Business Roundtable.

 Author: GroenFront!|Dutch EarthFirst!, groenfr@dds.nl

 The following MAYDAY events took place in The Netherlands. [Summary: we've had some good fun, let's do it again in a bit!]

 Apr 27, Utrecht Some 250 people demonstrated against repression and criminalisation of activism in the Netherlands. They threw sponges at the police bureau and soaked a military command centre in a pool of fake blood. Info: groenfr@dds.nl / beakomt@squat.net

 Apr 28, Leiden/Utrecht A socialist party senator was pied in Leiden because of his nationalism. Coincidentally, a railway-spokesperson was also pied because of the Betuwe freightrailway line project. Info: beakomt@squat.net / groenfr@dds.nl

 Apr 29, Leiden Some 350 people held a colourful demonstration to be called the first 'March on the oranges' (vs. the Dutch royal family). A People's Tribunal convicted queen Beamix, resembling Beatrix, of inciting nationalist conflicts and being a symbol of capitalist opression, amongst other things. Her punishment was, well, a pie. Info: beakomt@squat.net

 May 1-2, near Dordrecht A building site of the Betuweline-freightrailproject, connecting Rotterdam and the Ruhr for cargo, was occupied for almost two days, delaying the railway company from launching a huge tunnel drill. Info:groenfr@dds.nl

 May 1, Utrecht Anticapitalists targeted several temp-agencies, making a claim for the hours 'flexworkers' work while agencies keep the cash. Info: utrecht@dwars.org

May 1, Amersfoort In a nightly escapade the locks of the doors of shops in a brand new shopping centre in Amersfoort were glued tight. Economic growth? Piss off!

 ----------------------- APRIL 27th CAPITALISM MEANS REPRESSION

 Yesterdayevening (April 27th) some 250 activists gathered in Utrecht for the first anti-capitalist action around MayDay, a demonstration against repression and criminilisaton of anti-capitalist activists, so-called illegal immigrants etc. The activists held a noise-support demo in advance at the Utrecht main policestation. There were no activists in that bureau yet, but the demonstrators didn't see that as a problem, as they were also responding to new repressive bills soon to be passed, including exciting new possibilities for holding people in jail preventively. The activists also threw sponge-bricks at the police, trying to get arrested for another new bill, which would basically make everybody who could by any meager means associated with an act of 'public violence in a group' a criminal. Public violence includes almost everything, someones even been convicted for it because of chalking on the street.

 After that the demo fired fake blood at the provincial military command post with waterguns and coloured its pond, making the building the literal center of a bloodbath. Finally, the Beatrix building of the Trade Mart Utrecht was pied. Beatrix is the queen of Holland, and celebrates her birthday, tomorrow (April 29th), against which big anti-nationalist celebrations are prepared. The Trade Mart is also a main player in plans to turn the city center in one large office block, including incredible demolition plans.

  ----------------------- APRIL 28th PIE AWAY!

  This morning two pie-ings took place at the same time but actually completely not-coordinated!

  Dutch EarthFirst! (GroenFront!) activists pied M. Hart-Nibbrich, the chief  spokesperson of the Betuweline Project. The 'Betuwelijn' is a planned cargo-railwayroute between Rotterdam (World's largest port) and the Ruhr Area (Europe's largest industrial area). It's the fifth project in Trans European Network System (TENS). Originally budgeted at about five billion euros, it's calculated to now cost up to ten billion. The Betuwe is the region/valley of the Maas and Rijn rivers. The Betuwelijn is a symbol for useless projects forced onto the people by the  capitalist upper class and lobby of 'Netherlands Distribution country'. A lot of nature  will have to disappear and already rare animals are being threatened. Of course an  increase of transport will also increase pollution. Direct incentive for the pie-ing was  the courtcase against ten Betuweline activists. Eight were fined 300 euros (for tresspassing), two 450 (for public violence). The district attorney isn't satisfied and is appealing, set on imprisonment (although three had been imprisoned for eight days allready).

 A second pie-ing took place by the Leiden anarchist collective Eurodusnie. The  victim was Driek van Vught, 20 year old member of the Dutch senate for the Socialist Party. He was dealing out 'red cards', of which he gave one to Eurodusnie because they were, according to him, responsible for emergency police measures in Leiden to 'protect' Queen Beatrix, who is coming to Leiden tomorrow. Media have speculated Eurodusnie's participation in Comite March on the Oranges (royal family), organising an anti-nationalist party tomorrow, linked to the anti-capitalist MayDay global day of action. One of these measures is a complex card-entry-system for the inhabitants of Leiden's inner city (which is quite pretty by the way, the inner city I mean). Driek really misses all insight in the matter though -  the Queen is the motor on neat new repressive bills and measures, such as equipping police with pepper spray besides cs gas. Dutch police have bought some very nice new large cs gas grenade launcher machines by the way, also very suitable for indoor use! But of course, these will only be used on fire-dangerous criminals. Well, don't give the anarchist his cigarette!

  -------------------- APRIL 29th MARCH ON THE ORANGES SEES DEMISE OF DUTCH QUEEN!

 Yesterday April the 29th the long expected March on the Oranges, the Dutch royal  family, took place in Leiden. A parade of anti-capitalism and antinationalism, including a tank, a guillotine, a sound system and a tribunal toured the city centre of Leiden on the same day Queen Beatrix had chosen to celebrate her birthday there. To the surprise of everyone, queen Beamix (showing a remarkable similarity to the Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands) was captured by daring Amsterdam anarchists. They had dragged her to the mobile people's tribunal in Leiden and dressed her in a smart black and white striped suit and attached something resembling a black bowling ball to her feet. Some 350 people had shown up to judge her case.

 The public's prosecutor accused her and the House of Orange in general of upholding a nationalist identity, causing conflict and seclusion, being part of the capitalist upper class and thus maintaining and increasing social injustice and ecological destruction, having a reactionary influence behind-the-scenes in politics, promoting pepper spray, centuries years of tax evasion and hunting and mistreatment of animals. Beamix' sollicitor's main defence was that the people liked her - well, not this public!, that the prosecutor was a cryptocommunist and that her demise was a a leftwing autonom's conspiracy in general, what nonsense!

  The tribunal was adjurned three times. The first session took place in front of the 'give away shop', an itiative of the anarchist collective Eurodusnie, where everything is actually for free. The second session was held right in front of the main police station, the third in front of ABN AMRO and Rabobank office, two of the main financial powers in Holland (and the first an important financial world-player and sponsor of Ajax football club), the third in front of the tax office.

 The verdict was spoken when the March returned. Although the most ingeniously cruel plans had been proposed by some of the people and a mighty orange and  red-white-blue guillotine was on standby, the tribunal chose for an ideological  punishment instead of a physical one. Thus Beamix was pied. Of course, the verdict also included distribution of her possessions among the people, abolishment of the monarchy and the state and the declaration that the holiday formally called queen's day would now be a day to celebrate anti-nationalism. Finally, free food was passed around amongst everyone!

Somewhat surpisingly to some, nothing nasty happened. Media had been speculating  riots, violence and pieings of the queen, although the Comittee March on the  Oranges COMODO hadn't done or said anything that would indicate as such. But  the guillotine on the website http://squat.net/beakomt (Bea is coming...) and the sleezy articles of journalists and insinuating tv-bulletins underlined with doomsday melodies and such seemed to be enough for the local government to make an emergency act to seal off a part of the inner city and so on and for intelligence services to be hunting the Comittee regularly.On 29A itself, policemen from nearby The Hague were in charge, because of their so called experience with demonstrations and such would show them an advantage. Our initial fear of police-agression linked to their experience (in brutality, that is) diminished quickly when it became clear that these policemen had no idea of Leiden's topography and all went very easy.

Although a bit more people were expected (the weather wasn't with us this time and some illegal evictions* were happening around), this has been one of the most motivating, politically charismatic and plain fun demonstrations we've had for some time.

The March on the Oranges was organised due to the MAYDAY global day of action against capitalism. On the 27th, a demonstration against repression had taken place as a first action linked to mayday. On the 28th, a spokesperson of the railwaycompany (for her defending the Betuweline, a destructive freightrailwayproject) had been pied as well as a senator of the socialist party (for his nationalism). Monday will show an action against a temp-agency and surely more  actions will take place these days!In any case, this will not be the last march of this Comittee! This year queensday has seen the demise of Beamix, next year Beatrix?!

 No monarchy, state or capital, but a world for us all!

http://squat.net/beakomt

Footnote: * Some squats in Nijmegen were illegally evicted by order of the mayor; squatted status had allready been approved and these squats weren't even city  property, but, said the mayor, the increase of 'squatting situations' in Nijmegen may pose a threat to public order because of the 'magnetism towards the nationwide squatter's movemen

There are many problems in Novorossysk, the city near Black Sea: corruption, poverty, really strong fascist movement, terribly anti-ecologist construction of oil-transporting station near Black sea... Guys from FAK (Kuban's anarchist federation) decided to make REALLY PEACEFUL antifascist and antiglobalist First May action and gig. But authorities prohibited them to make the gig, 2 anarchist and ecologist activists were interrogationed by FSB (Former KGB).

In the First May's eve, when activists from Krasnodar, Sochi, Belorechensk and Kropotkin (town near Black sea) came to support First May demonstration, policemen forced them to seat in the cars and they were deportationed from Novorossysk on April'30 night! And the coolest event: one guy from Moscow also wanted to support this First May demonstration and when he came to Novorossysk railway station (he didn't know anything about police repressions), he was arrested and beaten by policemen as they were trying to find a bomb he had to have! Total bullshit! Now some Novorossysk human rights organisations are trying to focus mass-media's attention on these events.

"Dikobraz", Moscow anarchist group.

Subj:    mayday barcelona - guts, glue, graffiti & scampering pigs
Date:   5/4/00 2:02:42 GMT Daylight Time

Hi peeps, just in case you don´t have news of BCN mayday.

The real protest, with no press coverage started at 7.00 p.m. from The portal DeÁngel at "Telefonica" (spanish telecom). The building was banner dropped and the march started behind a banner "CONTRA EL DOMINI DE LES MULTINACIONALS, RESISTENCIA ANTI-CAPITALISTA".   The march (about 1500 activists) moved up Passage De Gracia - the economic centre of Barcelona -. Hardcore, hooded, scarfed-up graffiti and superglue artists hit every building, including the Stock exchange, Deutshe Bank and Macdonalds, while blue-boiler-suited, white masked, flyposter teams re-invented advertising.  At one point the police got too close and were stormed by the graffiti teams...the cars were completely sprayed and speeded away and those on foot legged it. After that they stayed well away.  The march ended with the symbolic burning of a shopping trolley at the end of Passage De Gracia.

During the day a variety of "family" trade union, feminist, immigrant, anarchist marches.General theme of "Contra capital,Against Capital, fight for a free Earth "I was on the CGT (anarchist) , mujeres libres and young anarchist freedom (FIJL) rally and march. Hardcore speeches on capitalism and exploitation of all workers. Then march (1500 people) from Arch de Troimph to Colon. I had some activists guests staying who´d been in Spain 2 days only and learnt their first Spanish their. "Vive Anarchia" and "Guerra Social".  At the same time (minister Of Interior had apparently fixed it so the marches couldn´t meet up) a march of 15,000 for the C.C.O.O AND U.G.T., included a large number of immigrant marchers.  There have been huge anti-racist marches in BCN recently.  We had been to a three day camp set up outside the Internment Centre last Friday...prisioners are kept in small spaces, without natural light, allowed 3-5 minute visits with no physical contact, physically intimidated into signing extradition papers stating they will not return to any European country for 5 yrs.  They don´t have access to translators and don´t understand what they´re signing.

Police presence was very low key, the marchers well behaved.p.s. I wore a bomb on my back all day with "Dinero" in blood red script.   A series of protests are commencing here every friday outside a military base.

loads of love, spanish mel xxx

from : someone else at Sheffield Mayday.

After spending the day at Londons May Day events, talking to other people I know who were there and careful and thoughtful reflection Im now convinced of one thing. The damage to property on Whitehall was planned, not by Reclaim the Streets, anarchists or some other anti-capitalist group, but by a group involved in the policing of the days events maybe MI5, the government, the Masons or someone else. It was done deliberately to discredit direct action and Reclaim the Streets and bring in new laws. A secondary effect would discredit Ken Livingstone also who I understand has given some support to direct action and anti-capitalism. It achieved these aims very well. Just a paranoid conspiracy theory? Well maybe, but first consider the following.

The first thing I found strange was at the trashing of the McDonalds on Whitehall which I witnessed from the very start. This was the very first incident of serious property damage of the day. I was in the middle of the crowd well behind the band and at that point there was no trouble at McDonalds except for some predictable jeering. What was odd was the appearance of the first two blokes to smash through the thick glass windows of McDonalds. They didnt look like any of the other types of people on the march in terms of dress or general appearance. They were big and burly and immediately reminded me more of the police that had lined the route than anything else. But what really got me was the fact that they werent masked up or disguised in anyway and there was a great big CCTV camera directly above the McDonalds windows they were taking flying kicks at. Had they not read any of the main press after June 18th where many of those arrested for property damage had been caught through video footage? How stupid could one be after all the media hype about video and camera footage used to catch people on J18? Yes this struck me as really odd though I didnt think any more of till much later.

Next there were no police officers or security in the building or anywhere near that I could see. I read in the press the next day that there had been 13 officers outside McDonalds but theyd be chased away by protesters. I must have arrived at McDonalds sometime after this happened. Ive been on quite a few demos and street parties and have never seen that number of police officers chased off by protesters before. Im not saying it couldnt or didnt happen just that its unusual. But when I got to McDonalds there were no police officers around at all but also there had been no criminal damage done or attempted either. There must have been a good pause between chasing off of the police and the time the two burly guys began kicking in McDonalds windows.

Once these two had broken through the windows another person got involved this time masked up and looking more like a genuine protester. Several other people began to join in and the first two disappeared. I watched from a distance for what seemed like about 15 minutes and kept imagining that the police were going to come storming in any minute. The scale of the police operation was known to be huge and although out of sight they were obviously all around the area, in side streets etc.

More people got involved, burgers were thrown out into the crowd an over ambitious photographer went inside which I thought was incredibly stupid. Eventually I got bored with this male dominated spectacle and started wandering back down to Parliament Square.

The first rows of riot police were beginning to get into lines halfway down Whitehall somewhere opposite Downing Street and it was not until sometime later that I saw them start moving towards the trouble.

The initial move up Whitehall (where the McDonalds was) by perhaps 50% or more of the crowd seemed like a massive cock up. An RTS/Mayday leaflet handed out in the morning had said to first follow red flags to go to the location. It seemed like the location was meant to be Parliament Square (it was) but then red flags started getting everyone down Whitehall. But later I found out that the red flags we all followed werent RTS flags at all but belonged to some communist group Id never heard of who were going up to Trafalgar Square for some rally.
 

Looking at the day raises a number of questions:

1.Why was there such a massive police operation?

2.Where had the press got hold of the story leading up to the event that it was a planned riot (untrue) and what purpose did it serve?

3.Why did the police soak Parliament Square with water the night before to stop people sitting down if they wanted to avoid trouble?

4.Who were the first two men to break through the McDonalds windows and why did they have the confidence to do it front of a large video camera unmasked?

5.Why was such an obvious target for anti-capitalists left with so little police, and who chased them away? This particular restaurant has already been trashed twice before on demonstrations.

6.Why was the police response so incredibly slow for something that had been planned by
the Met for months before?

7.Why did no police escort the crowd up Whitehall like the police had earlier on the march from Hyde Park Corner to Parliament Square?

8.Why did the police LET IT HAPPEN when they probably outnumbered the largely non-violent crowd by up to two to one?

There are two possible explanations for what happened at Londons May Day. One is that the police are utterly incompetent morons. That despite months of planning, and thousands of riot police outnumbering the crowd, (the biggest policing operation for 30 years) they couldnt protect a restaurant, damaged twice before on demos, a mere half mile away from the meeting place of the May Day action.

The other is that they wanted this to happen in order to justify new laws, discredit a growing popular movement that is difficult to infiltrate and thus control: a movement that is sweeping not just the UK but all over the world and is fast becoming a serious political threat.

I believe the latter. My experience of the police is that though lower ranking officers might sometimes seem stupid those in more senior positions are usually bright people. Ive probably never spoken to those at the level responsible for masterminding May Days operation but Im sure they know exactly what theyre doing and are far from incompetent morons.

The latter theory makes far more sense though neither will ever be provable. Such a plan has to fool not just the public, but journalists, police, and politicians.

Below are some possible answers that make sense to the above questions:

1.The size of the policing operation makes sense. High up police planners took the decision to start in motion the beginnings of a riot. Once started such things, like a fire, have the potential to quickly spread out of control. It had to be under absolute control and the only way to guarantee it was to have a huge police presence.

2.The story that there was to be an organised riot originated from the same police planners. Because theyd planned it they were able to leak the story to the press.

3.Parliament Square was soaked with water to discourage people from staying there if Id wanted to prevent trouble in London on Mayday getting people sat down on the grass would be just the right thing to encourage.

4.The first 2 men who smashed McDonalds windows were agent provocateurs. They came in because even though police had been chased away the crowd was still hesitant about trashing it.

5.Theres no evidence of organisation in what happened at McDonalds as described in the papers. It was either a spontaneous happening or it was organised by the state.

6.The police response was deliberately slow to allow time for property damage to occur.

7.The police didnt escort the crowd up Whitehall so that thered be little protection for McDonalds. This is very unusual even at the small n30 action at Leeds, where there were only about 100 people, the police escorted the crowd all day surrounding every potential target before people got there.

8.Allowing McDonalds to be trashed served several purposes.It allowed a disproportionate, probably pre-planned, media spectacle to create a story that wouldnt normally be of interest to the corporate media.

2.It discredited RtS, - there is now talk of banning RtS events (more UK fascism)

3.It justifies bringing in new laws like the terrorism bill.

4.It discredits Ken Livingstone because hes supported anti-capitalism and direct action this has already been made use of in the media.

5.It justifies the mammoth policing of the day. If the only thing going on had been a bit of turf dug up on Parliament Square, and people reading poetry and talking with each other on the grass theyd have looked pretty stupid.

These answers cant be guaranteed to all be correct but I think they fit the facts much better than the media portrayal of the day. One thing is certain: the police could easily have prevented McDonalds being trashed had they chosen to.

Overall I think Londons Mayday was a victory for the state. But on a more positive note it shows the success of this movement that theyve had to resort to subterfuge and huge numbers of police to do anything about it.

Someone told me that in a radio interview a Police Officer was asked about the huge policing for the day. He said it was nothing to do with protecting windows from being smashed. It was because Reclaim the Streets was a "political threat".

RESPONSE:

In response to the Sheffield Mayday person's most recent e-mail - there were NO police visible outside the McDonalds for some time before the attack. Though there were two - in yellow - outside the pub near it.

Only after McDonalds had been attacked did some non-riot ones try to get to it, but were chased out of the top end of Whitehall. Someone told me that some people threw the glass from the already broken windows at them, but I can't now verify this.

There was a group of police on the other side of the road, videoing the crowd, beforehand. I think this could be the "13" that have been misleadingly mentioned as being stationed outside it. Not sure when this lot evaporated away. Maybe it was this surveillance group which did try to save McDonalds after it had been attacked and was shown running away on the news?

*** Will somebody please correct me if any of these recollections are wrong!! ***

I also wonder if anyone has any suggestions on how we might obtain evidence that the police had planned for the McDonalds entrapment (ie to encourage a riot to develop)? There's no point being fatalistic and saying we were set up, but there's nothing we can do about it and no steps are possible to look for stronger evidence of entrapment. Especially in the light of the exposure of police tactics over Tibet protests in London.

The main striking new element in the Sheffield Mayday 'It was that state that did it' e-mail was mention of two burly non-masked men who were apparently first to smash the McDonalds windows.

You speculated that they were provocateurs.

I also heard this from a friend who thought some of the people attacking McDonalds looked more like Army types than your average protesters. As I didn't see them myself I did not mention this speculation in my "Softly, softly policing: was it a euphemism for police entrapment?" e-mail that outlined the possible entrapment as I see it.

But I do certainly think it is important to know whether these two potential provocateurs were amongst those who ended up in court. If these unmasked men did manage to melt into the crowd without any further police attention after starting the attack, that might - potentially - be very suspicious indeed.

Perhaps someone in Sheffield could get a comprehensive list of all the arrestees and cross off those that are female or too young or old to be the potential provocateurs. Then scan the press for pix of those men that are left and see if they look like the burly 'provocateurs' that they saw. I've not seen any burlies so far, but I've not been looking particularly. Could you do this? You could even pretend to the press that you want to 'name and shame' a 'rioter' in order to get to see any pix that haven't appeared that the press may have.

Where is the CCTV footage from above the store, that you mentioned, I wonder? I've not seen any of this on TV. Only from a camera high up opposite the branch (good for the backs of heads I guess). Has the possible CCTV footage been mentioned anywhere? Have the Met put up on the Web the faces of these two guys as the City of London police did after j18?

As I never saw these people there's not to much point me looking at any of these pix, though it would be worth letting us all know what names are left which might be these two blokes - though obviously we don't want to bring any personal/political information into the public domain (ie to police attention), we just want to see if the 'provocateurs' did get arrested and locked up. In which case they weren't provocateurs, they were just protesters who maybe need to slim down a bit.

Undercover police outside the McDonalds definitely would - under normal circumstances - have likely been able to pick out these two for arrest later.

Is anyone in touch with whoever organised the (RTS?) legal observers? They should have some ideas about whether police tactics point to entrapment or incompetence over McDonalds. They ought to have been keeping an eye on things.

No idea if there's any significance in this: a friend was in a pub just off Traf Sq, during Mayday. At one point quite a number of people's mobiles went off just about at once and a whole bunch of people all left. If this was 'our side' being told about the aggro it sounds like the kind of well-organised nonsense you read in the press, except that this time it's true. I think Traf Square was blocked off, so I'm not sure where these people would have gone, if the simultaneous calls were about things kicking off outside McDonalds, and they were from the protesters and therefore not allowed through police lines. Some of the people looked like demonstrators, some rather more burly, again. Ooh...

I think I'd better stop before I get carried away on the (unprovable?) burly provocateurs issue.

Matthew Kalman

(07957 787847)

ALSO LETTER TO AND FROM THE MET REGARDING SOME OF THESE ALLEGATIONS

See also: http://www.urban75.com/mayday/index.html

(First-person report)

Author: Random Dave, random_dave@angelfire.com

May Day in Manchester was an exciting and thoroughly enjoyable day of grassroots activism, protest, carnival and party - everything we hoped for and more. As yet we have only sketchy reports of events we were not directly involved with, but from our viewpoint, despite a massive and intimidating police presence, the whole event was peaceful and non-violent - in contrast to it's portrayal in the mainstream media. It was successful from a campaigning point of view, with hundreds, if not thousands of demonstrators distributing leaflets on issues ranging from GM foods, anti-McDonalds, anti-consumerism and the Terrorism Bill to boycotting Stagecoach buses and the asylum bill etc. Main roads such as Princess Street and Oxford road were blockaded for up to an hour at a time despite police attempts to disperse the crowds. During these periods public transport was allowed through by the protestors, but cars were prevented from reaching the city centre. The Mancunian Way was also stopped for a few minutes!

 Twenty arrests were reported in the press, but it is likely that this figure does not include those who were involuntarily detained and released without charge.

 After a long day of tramping round town bringing capitalism to it's knees, it was time to party. At 11pm, despite police attempts to foil the plan (they were properly foxed!) hundreds of people went to a party in the former Hacienda nightclub. There was music, dancing, food and drink, and much fun was had. This large warehouse-style building was once the best venue in Manchester and it was only fitting that it should reopen on May Day. Only this time there was no charge on the door, and the dress code was informal. At about 12:30am the police arrived, having figured out that they had actually failed miserably in preventing the party from happening, and surrounded the building. They arrested a few individuals who left on their own, but when a large group of around 100 people decided to leave together at 5am they could do little more than watch. At the moment the Hac is still occupied and under police siege.

For more information: http://www.mayday2000.fsnet.co.uk

****** Sheffield's Mayday was a Great Success ******

Greetings to all Mayday groups everywhere. Sheffield's Mayday was on Saturday 29th April and was summed up  by one participant as a "Perfect Day". Estimates of numbers range from 800 to 1500 people.

In the morning 3 actions took place against GM Food, NatWest Bank for funding HLS animal torturers and an action for free public transport/ and against the public transport company Stagecoach for using profits to campaign for homophobic laws.

Around 1pm a very colourful critical mass took place with soundsystems in bikes and doing a few laps on Sheffield's busiest Roundabouts.

In the afternoon was the carnival which began with some excellent drumming outside the city hall.  The war memorial flagpost was temporarily turned into a very colorful Maypole and a traditional may dance was had around the pole.

Then the carnival took to the streets ending up on one of the busiest intersections. This was held for around 15 minutes before it was decided to head for the pre-arranged chill out space on Devonshire Green.  A loud soundsystem was unleashed here and people danced till dark.  Then there were two after parties, one in the adjacent squatted community centre "Wiser Monkeys" and one out in the Peak district.

There were no arrests and no police/protester clashes of any significance.  This was probably in part due to the fact the protest was advertised as a non-violent event but also in part due to the slightly more intelligent policing than other areas seem to get.

The police were given a card at the end made out of an old piece of cardboard.  Whilst slightly taking the piss it was wholly so.

There are lots of interesting stories to tell. More reports and photos should appear on our web site http://www.sheffieldmayday.ukf.net over the next week.

Best wishes to all mayday groups on the planet for your plans for the day.

As part of the Mayday 2000 Global Day of Action, over 200 anarchists, environmentalists, workers, students, and assorted radical left activists descended on Boston's Financial District in a spirited and disruptive celebration against capitalism. Taking to the streets and bringing downtown traffic to a standstill, protesters made their way through the city, making stops at some of Boston's largest capitalist financial institutions, including the Boston Stock Exchange, and the headquarters of Fidelity Investments and Fleet Bank. Despite a fairly heavy police presence, protesters were successful in keeping control of the streets throughout the demonstration, with minimal confrontation or arrests.

At Fidelity Investments, protesters pushed past police lines and brought the "festival of resistance" inside the building, touching off minor skirmishes with police and brief panic on the part of security (who were forced to lock the doors and bring down the security gates after protesters were ejected). Continuing on through the financial district, a handful of anarchists managed to enter Boston Safe Deposit & Trust before police managed to seal off the entrance and the group was forced to leave. At about this time, someone involved with the Critical Mass bicycle ride was arrested for supposedly obstructing the police, and taken into custody. Angry protesters surrounded the police van demanding his release. Things started to heat up when a black bloc anarchist slashed the van's tire, leaving it entirely immobile. Out of nowhere an undercover cop grabbed another anarchist (who was accused of slashing the tire) and proceeded to arrest him. In response, a number of protesters attempted to make an unarrest, shoving the undercover into some newspaper dispensers. About eight uniformed police moved in and grabbed the same individual, pushing back the rest of the protesters. As tensions began to rise and a riotous situation looked likely, a member of the National Lawyers Guild negotiated with the police for the release of both individuals. In surprising move, the police agreed to release the two on the condition that we continued on with our march in relative peace. After this small victory, we finished off the demonstration in Government Center and listened to some anti-capitalist speakers.

As one of the world's largest centers of capital, Boston's financial institutions are responsible for managing more than $7 trillion. More mutual funds are traded here than in any other city in the world. The Boston Stock Exchange alone is the third largest in the U.S., and the fastest growing in the world. With this in mind, we made it our intention to have our anti-capitalist Mayday celebrations in the heart of Boston's financial district, bringing our resistance right to the very front doors of this city's financial ruling elite. Of course, this was only the beginning...

On Saturday, May 6 about 75 revelers celebrated a bright summer -like day by "reclaiming" the streets of downtown Huntington, Long Island, rousing shoppers out of their usual consumer slumber. Gathering at the Huntington Rail Road Station about 2PM  a colorful band of marchers, skate boarders, and bike riders began a mile and a half trek that would culminate in the main shopping district of town. Along the route people tossed beach balls back and forth while others carried giant paper mache masks. Still others were festooned in vibrant flower head dresses and costumes. One partyer even walked the whole route in a bright red lobster costume. L.I.P.S. (The Long Island Percussion Squad) kept the energy high with their great drumming. As the marchers neared their destination , they were further elated to see a 25 foot tripod standing in the street with a sitter perched serenely on top. The tripod went up to the utter shock and amazement of the cops who were lazily following the march. The crowd roared its approval as it stepped off the curb, chanting "WHOSE STREETS, OUR STREETS"!!  as the drums kept up the tempo. A giant banner was unfurled from the top of the tripod reading: "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"

The party went on for almost an hour and a half and completely shut down a usually very busy commercial area which includes a GAP and a STARBUCKS as well as other overpriced yuppie venues. Actually the tripod crew was forced to set up at a site slightly off the main thourougfare, but with all the police activity the main drag was effectively shut down anyway. The cops eventually moved in and arrested 15 people, charging them with disorderly conduct--all have been released on bail thanks to great support at the precinct house. One innocent bystander was among the arrestees- taken in for merely questioning the cops as to what they were doing. She was very cool and totally supportive of us. Props also to FNB who supplied a great meal after the party at a local park. Folks were amazed that something like this could happen on sleepy Long Island and they seemed for the most part genuinely supportive. The media coverage was great, ranging from local cable TV coverage to interviews with the NY Times and Long Island Newsday (a large circulation daily) as well as talks with reporters from local town papers.

This action was the culmination of the MAYDAY 2000 campaign put together by the Modern Times Collective. Other elements of the campaign included a series of teach-ins and panel discussions on global capitalism and the revolutionary alternatives to a society based on consumerism and exploitation. This helped lay the ground work for the MTC's parti- cipation in the civil disobedience actions around A16. We had over three dozen activists on the streets of  D.C. as an affinity group attached to DAN- NYC. From A16, we moved into high gear for M6, holding planning meetings, making props and banners and doing outreach. Thanks to all the dedicated activists and supporters who made this campaign possible!

         --peace, Frank Richards

This is a short and brief account.  Oly. the state capital has a population of around 70,000.  Our Mayday Action Committee prepared for weeks for the street party/reclaim the streets.  Around 750 people led by Critical Mass bicyclists led the way to the secret location.  Police presence was the heaviest I have ever seen here.  THey had special operation command and control stations, national guard on standby etc.  Eventually we blocked off the busiest intersection in town at Black Lake.  There it is surrounded 100% by corporate strip malls.  Once blocked the police closed off traffic on the four roads leading to the intersection.  That area always stinks of car exhaust so it was wonderful to have it cleared.  There were many games, music and children there.  To me one of the great things was the presence of so many youth in addition youth of color.  Usually the traditional march and picket protests in the past are led by professional activists or intellectuals. On this day the youth were free and the people spontaneously led themselves.  THe police and riot squadas were watching closely that we didn't destroy property.  THe young ones did build a barricade of old tv's after smashing them and tearing apart piece by piece an american flag.  The property situation didn't present itself in this encounter but there will be other times ahead....

Tsivya Lubetkin

--- Forwarded Message from Portland Copwatch <copwatch@teleport.com> ---

Anyone who saw the evening news tonight is aware that violence broke out at the May Day march through downtown Portland. Unfortunately, the source of that violence was the Portland Police. May Day organizers obtained the proper permits for the gathering in the park blocks and had worked out the details of the march with the police. The marchers, furthermore, worked very hard to comply with the groundrules that had been worked out. While there was one arrest outside the county courthouse and a few brief scuffles between the police and the demonstrators, the march was peaceful and well within the boundaries of lawful dissent. Nearly 800 demonstrators turned out. There were, according to news reports, around 150 police officers on the scene.

When the marchers reached the World Trade Center - home to the offices of Senator Smith - an observable change occured in police behavior. Officers seized a handwagon pulled by one marcher and roughed up the owner.  A long-time Jobs with Justice activist tried to mediate with the officers and was pushed aside several times in response. There was some pushing and shoving - all initiated by the police.

The marchers had been chanting and drumming in front of the trade center for about ten minutes when the officer in charge at the scene declared a state of emergency and ordered people to move to Waterfront Park. The police line almost immediately began herding people away from the trade center. March organizers, thinking that they could regroup at the park, called on people to move towards the river. There were catcalls and people yelling about constitutional rights, but people did attempt to comply with the police order in spite of their anger over what was happening to their rights.

Even then, the police struck out at a number of people. A young woman carrying a flag on a long bamboo pole accidently let the end of the pole touch an officer's face mask. She was unaware of what was happening - her back was turned towards the officer and she was heading to the park. The officer, nearly twice her size and weight rushed up behind her and grabbed her partly by the hair and party by the hood of her parka and began dragging her backwards. Suddenly being pulled backwards and off balance, the woman struggled to regain her footing. The officer responded by twisting her head and pulling her back even harder. Finally, other marchers locked arms with the women and several others, facing the officers, told him she hadn't done anything wrong. It was only the presence of several cameras and videorecorders that seemed to convince the officer to let her go.

Meanwhile, people reaching waterfront park were beginning to realize they had made a mistake. Moving in around the fountain, demonstrators found the northern end of the space blocked by chain link fence. The southern end of the space was largely blocked by McCall's restaurant. To the East the River and to the west, a line of police officers were forming on the sidewalk, sealing off 800 people in a space not much larger than your average residential lot.

The police turned back people who attempted to leave the area. Meanwhile, the officer in charge began telling people again that a state of emergency existed, this was an illegal assembly and that people were to disperse immediately.  When some protestors pointed out the lack of exits, the police pointed to a narrow area along the river where people could move down to Jefferson St. and then "go home."

There wasn't much further discussion. The police line began moving forward. The mounted officers rode into the crowd attempting to herd people like so many cattle, but doing little more than frightening their own horses and placing people in risk of being trampled. People not moving quickly enough were struck in the back with police batons. One man, I'd estimate he was in his early 60s and not in the best of health, was attempting to keep ahead of the police. Each time he lagged behind an officer butted him in the back. I was walking at a much faster pace and still I received two sharp blows in the kidneys from the butt end of a police baton because I wasn't dispersing quickly enough.

As to be expected in the environment the police had created, some people turned and shouted at the police for the brutality they had resorted to. No bricks, no bombs or bullets. Just well-deserved epithets and calls for the police to obey their own general orders (two officers were aiming shotguns loaded with what is euphemistically called beanbags at people only a few feet away - the bureau guidelines state that weapon cannot be used at a distance closer than 25'). A large group of people - 100 or more - were encircled by the police. To avoid being struck, they sat down in the grass. Others began fleeing across Front Avenue, chased by police officers who were now swinging clubs at anything that moved.

As some of us moved southward along Front Ave. a line of police moved forward to cut us off. One officer wielding a shotgun presumably loaded with beanbags moved out ahead of the line, gun aimed from the hip, and began screaming for people to "surrender."  A second later buckshot "beans" smashed against the wall above our heads. Behind us, some people were being sprayed with pepper spray - you could smell it as well as see several people run away with tears streaming down their faces. Several more rounds of beanbags were fired into the group moving south on Front. One young man broke into a run, crying "they're after me!" He passed me, followed by at least six officers. A few feet ahead, one officer tripped the man, sending him crashing to the ground, three other officer piled onto him. Although the man was face down in the street and his hands were clearly bound now with plastic cuffs, three officers remained on top of him and were kneeing him in the sides.

At this point the whole thing dissolved. Looking back up front I could see police cornering small groups of marchers - mostly young people dressed in black or in ragged clothing - those most easily dismissed as "anarchists" or dangerous street elements. Looking up the side streets I could see groups of police following close behind marchers trying to make it back to the park blocks. In Waterfront Park the police continued the cordon around the protesters sitting in on the grass, while ahead, small groups of police continued to pursue individuals and groups of 2-3 protestors. Sirens could be heard everywhere.

There were no broken windows. There were no burning newspaper stands or dumpsters. No one threw rocks at the police. People tried to stay within the lines, play by the agreed upon rules. In response, the police taunted and provoked demonstrators. When that didn't bring about the desired response they simply attacked and continued to attack.

At least 12 people were arrested. For what remains unclear.

Other people will be sharing their stories, I'm sure. I don't claim this is an exhaustive account - only what I saw and that filtered through exhaustion and a great deal of anger.

If ever there was a question about whether we needed stronger civilian oversight of our police bureau, today answered that question in full. I hope and urge people to get on the phone tomorrow to Mayor Katz and express outrage over the behavior of the Portland Police today.  I also hope people will get involved in the Police Accountability Campaign for a stronger review board.

Portland's not Seattle I heard one cop say. He's right. What the people in Seattle seem to have considered a gross mistake on the part of their police department seems to be standard operating procedure for our own police force.

Dave Mazza

AFTER EVENT:

Mark Kroeker tries but fails to soothe public anger over his officers handling of protesters

Wednesday, May 10, 2000

By Robin Franzen of The Oregonian staff

A community forum intended to encourage friendlier relations between citizens and police after last week's controversial May Day protest turned into another ugly face-off Tuesday evening in which Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker seemed unable to satisfy the protesters' demands for answers regarding his officers' use of force.

Saying a review of the incident was still in progress, Kroeker told a largely hostile crowd that he was not prepared to address many of the specific claims of police brutality raised by May Day protesters. But he and Mayor Vera Katz said answers would be forthcoming in an "after-incident" review and that any citizen who wanted to could, in the meantime, view five hours of police videotape.

"If a lot of people have concerns, we need to look at what we are doing," Kroeker said, noting that although city ordinances allowed the police to disperse the protesters, an internal critique of police riot-control tactics would review tactical decisions as well as why and how police arrested certain individuals.

"That takes quite a bit of time," he said. "If there are individual situations of misconduct, we'll take a look at that."

Protesters, inflamed rather than soothed by the official line, countered that the chronology of events and segments of videotape presented by police Tuesday night were full of holes and did not include any of the alleged abuses of power. To make their point, throughout the evening they hissed loudly in unison and held up little cards accusing police officials of "lies."

Maranatha Church of God in Northeast Portland, which holds up to 700 people, was nearly filled. Citizens turned out to comment on police response to the May 1 workers' rights rally downtown that turned into a showdown between 300 demonstrators marching illegally without a parade permit and more than 150 officers in riot gear who arrested 19 people.

Few of the critics identified themselves at Tuesday's forum, however, and some avoided a speaker sign-up sheet altogether out of fear that police would use the information to retaliate against them.

One woman described being knocked to the ground by officers as she was crossing a street at a light. Her face was bloodied, and not a single officer stopped to help her, she said. Another woman said officers grabbed her by the sweatshirt and dragged her backward, bruising her collarbone, when the bamboo decoration she was holding brushed an officer's face. She said the officer swore at her and told her he'd break the thing. Yet another woman testified that police followed her home after the rally in what she called "tactics of police terror."

"The only way we can protect ourselves is to talk to each other," she said. "Keep organizing and keep in the streets."

"We do not want to be trampled by horses or ATVs," one unidentified man said to thunderous applause, referring to police all-terrain vehicles. "We, the citizens of Portland, are paying the police to oppress us." To the police, he added: "The solution is don't bring your guns if you want to do crowd control. We don't have any weapons."

Another citizen wanted to know why the police chronology included more than one reference to actions taken by demonstrators wearing black, saying it appeared that police were targeting people based on their dress. Previously, police officials had expressed concern that the protest crowd included "anarchist types."

Kroeker denied any policy targeting suspects based on appearance, adding, "It is the policy of the police to keep the people safe."

In almost all instances, Kroeker and Mayor Katz, the hosts of the forum, who both praised police officers' restraint last week, simply listened to the charges of brutality, without specifically responding to them.

However, when one citizen showed video in which an officer appears to shoot a protester in the back with a nonlethal round, unprovoked, Kroeker did offer an explanation. In that case, he said, the officer was responding to an illegal act allegedly committed by the individual earlier in the protest, and that the action would be individually reviewed for its appropriateness.

After the meeting -- which wrapped up at 8:45 p.m., more than an hour after its scheduled end -- the mayor's office indicated the police agency's internal review would be presented to the Portland City Council when it is completed in four to six weeks.

Tuesday's forum didn't start well. Protesters didn't like the format and argued over the ground rules, insisting that police officials be given no more floor time than the two minutes allotted to each citizen.

When Linda Hunter, the independent moderator, tried to open the meeting by asking Kroeker to respond to the four most frequently asked questions submitted by citizens to the mayor's office, audience members insisted that part be skipped to give them more time to air their own complaints.

A moderator's suggestion that city officials wanted to know what citizens thought went well during the May Day rally was met with laughter, and loud grumbling arose when one participant suggested that a minister be allowed to say a blessing before the meeting.

"It's easy to affix blame," concluded Assistant Chief Bruce Prunk, "and much more difficult to fix the problem."

Reporter Robin Franzen can be reached at 503-221-8133 or at robinfranzen@news.oregonian.com.

Source:http://www.oregonlive.com:80/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/05/lc_43forum10.frame

Here is a rough first hand report from Seattle for May Day;

The event consisted of DJ's, a few bands, under a tent with a banner in the back that read, "Capitalism cannot be Reformed", the much accredited banner seen during WTO, so there was no confusion as to what we were about. At the same time, we weren't there boring folks with speakers after speaker, but at the same time the politics were there. We got the tent set up at about 4ish (it rains a lot here) to be sure that the equipment donated by neighborhood folk would be protected by the rain. About three dozen people were present at any one time during the warm up, where the DJs played music and we handed out red "Fill this out when you need a union" postcards. The weather held out fortunately. At about 6:15, about 100 bicyclists came through (including folks from the sort of informal bike messenger association) with about 6 cop cars following them. At that point, the first band was setting up, and we kicked things off. I gave an introduction, and then Arthur Miller gave a pretty hard-core speech about what needed to be done (and he pulled no punches as the pigs grew in numbers in the parking lot across third street). Then the first band went on, and folks were having a pretty good time dancing around the basketball court. Locals came out of their apartments across the alley and were enjoying the show, and the kitchen workers from Mama's Mexican Kitchen took turns watching from that back all night, tapping their toes.

At our peak there was probably 200 or so people in attendance, and with the comings and goings, probably up to 300.

During the first band, Omari Tahir from the African American museum came through, and agreed to speak impromptu (I was going to go a head and spreak, then gave up my time, since he's better at it then I am and we were pretty tight for time as it was). Whenever I have seen someone speak on Black politics, I always notice a pattern in the crowd; about half pay no attention, and a little less then half are paying attention somewhat, and then a handful at the front that are listening intently to the words. Omari's speech was no exception, and it was good to see faces that I didn't recognize hearing his message. He also addressed directly the politics of crack cocaine, which was the reason we had decided to help Belltown take back the park, as it is a haven for crack and heroine addicts (and the pigs who rough them up); Omari hit just about every point, from an anti- capitalist perspective, and even was able to recover the crowd with WTO references when there was a distraction near third street.. In the meantime, the second band was setting up, and then the organizer for the bicyclist contingent announced the winner of the contest they were hiding amongst their group (best bike butt, featuring gift certificates for Left Bank, Vain (a local hair salon, and also a record store in Belltown).

At about this time we were trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that our permit was going to expire in 20 minutes, and we still had one more band to go, and the cops were waiting in the wings. We had applied for a permit until 10pm, and it was verbally confirmed that we would have the park until 10. When the permit was issued (48 hours notice) they shaved it down to 8pm, which fucked us big time. We decided to keep going to see what would happen.

At about 8:05, the pigs walked up and began to hassle the sound man. He pointed to a wob and said to talk to him. the pig asked him if he would take care of getting people to disperse, and he said of course (since the pigs didn't say do it now). We kept in communication with the sound man (most of the equipment was his), and he agreed to keep going. Five minute later 3 different cops went up to the outlet to try to pull the plug. About 4 wobs went to investigate, and the pigs insisted we had to leave because they knew our permit expired at 8. He was told that we applied until 10, and the pig retorted that it was too late and were disturbing the community. Another wob asked if anyone was complaining and they didn't answer. I then informed them that wasn't possible, since it was the community that organized the event! Another FW said "I want to see your copy of the permit", and that delayed them another few minutes, and they left the area where the plug was. The band kept going, people knew something was up, but stuck around. At that point we still had about 150 in attendance.

A FW came back and reported that the pigs said the would begin arresting and citing unless we dispersed immediately (by then we were *20 minutes* past our permit). I asked around to see if people were willing to challenge the pigs, and in particular, the sound guy.  He wanted to continue, and I went to talk to the pigs. People weren't into fighting the pigs, which was pretty smart, as we were not prepared to do so, and we didn't want to bring the shit into Belltown, and undermine our legitimacy as not being scary wobblies bringing riots into the neighborhood (the Seattle pigs are well prepared these days, as they averted a squat at the "shoe" building where the artists are getting tossed out for ".com" office space, in cooperation with the Washington Stae Patrol)  The pigs told me that they "had talked to the permit holder"  and I told them it was impossible, since it was *my name* on the permit.  More cops were coming around, and I managed to negotiate that the band could at least finish their song, as they simply were not hearing anything from the person whose name was on the permit, claiming they had already been "cool with us". I talked to the sound guy, and he figured now was the time to bail. The band finished up and I made an announcement, making it clear as to why things were getting shut down (everybody at this point already knew). No one was arrested, the only people that had to deal with the pigs were the organizers, and we were successful in avoiding a confrontation that we would have lost. Once again, the pigs spoiled everybody's fun, to their own future demise.

In all, the event was a success. Locals are talking about future events in the newly reclaimed public space, and in spite of the pigs we had a fucking awesome and festive mayday.