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London/UK: Mayday?

 
  

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Bill Posters
17:21 / 04.04.02
Anyone in or nr London up for Mayday this year?

There's a slim chance this link may work, but whatever, details here:http://diy.spc.org/ourmayday/

C'mon, it's been a whole year since some of us were unlawfully held for peaceful protest!
 
 
Baz Auckland
19:54 / 04.04.02
Count me in... even though I risk deportation!
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
06:12 / 05.04.02
Couldn't get the link to work, but that's on my week off and I'm definitely up for it. What's been organised so far?
 
 
lentil
06:40 / 05.04.02
i'm in. may day's a bank holiday anyway, isn't it? i'll get a day off if not. couldn't get the link to work either.
 
 
angel
07:01 / 05.04.02
Hmmmmm! I'll really have to think about this one. I've got an application in at the Home Office applying for indefinite leave to remain in this lovely country. If I was to be arrested it could really screw up my application.

Gosh, I really do want to support the cause though. Hmmmm! I guess I'll keep an eye on this thread and see what I can join in on that doesn't have the risk of arrest. Coz I'm not ready to go back to Australia yet, especially not with a police record.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Arrrgh!
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
08:00 / 05.04.02
I could be up for doing something, though 1st of may is the wednesday, what day is the bank holiday on?
 
 
gozer the destructor
09:01 / 05.04.02
Just send good vibes out angel, I was gonna go anyway so if there's a meet beforehand, even better...
 
 
Bear
10:26 / 05.04.02
I saw an add for this at the bus stop this morning, about dressing up as clowns - I've got mixed feelings about this, I mean should I be allowed to protest even though I work for a pretty big company? seems a bit cheeky to be honest....
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
13:11 / 05.04.02
angel, I may be clutching at straws but how about if you don't do anything illegal.

Exercising your right to protest is not reasonable grounds for them to deny you residence.
 
 
angel
13:47 / 05.04.02
It's just me being unversed in what is considered illegal and what's not and the fact that I'm nervous that they might flippantly change their mind about what is/not on the spur of the moment ....

Or it could just be that I'm being paranoid ... something that I am quite happy to admit. I have only just put the application in so I'm still a bit nervy/twitchy about the whole thing.

But just say I got caught up, as did so many people last year, in the whole detention for your own good thingy (can't remember - is it Section 60?). Could that affect my application? I'm so not sure what is OK and what is not, so am swinging way to the conservative side (not politically might I note) to avoid any problems. If anyone can tell me different I'm more than happy to listen and learn.

But enough of that for now ... what have people heard about proposed activities/locations this year, or has last year made the organisation of the event more low key??
 
 
Bill Posters
14:58 / 05.04.02
Lentil - I don't think it is a bank holiday, if it is its not in my diary.

Angel, yeeeesh, I understand your concern. No one here would do illegal stuff, but there's always wrong place, wrong time, and anyway the law, as I understand it, is whatever they want it to be at any given moment. So yeah, caution is perhaps advisable.

If you check Indymedia out (do a search for Mayday) there's a few articles of interest. The site it's detailed on is:

ourmayday.org

and I just got there by entering that.
 
 
Bill Posters
15:42 / 05.04.02
Oh and all the details are on that site so I won't summarize here. Check it out and see what you think.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
19:38 / 05.04.02
might well be up for this, will check out the links...
 
 
Baz Auckland
19:54 / 05.04.02
From what I've heard so far, the Powers of Organisation are trying to spread out the gathering this year to avoid being surrounded by police and contained... so it should be easy to find a place to be that's far from the 'red zone' or whatnot to be and not get beaten and deported.
 
 
Bill Posters
14:32 / 06.04.02
Ah, now it's looking complicateder. There's this lot:

http://www.resist.org.uk/diary/mayday.html

and they'll be:

> UNITED FOR MAYDAY
>
> For the first time in British History, trade unionists and anti
capitalists
> will march together on Mayday from Clarkenwell to Trafalgar Sq.
>
> United for Mayday
> No to privatisation!
> No to the war!

However, according to 'other sources', the 'anti-capitalists' referred to "are Globalise Resistence, (often called) a front organisation for the SWP". For details see

http://www.schnews.org.uk/mr.htm

The real anticapitalists are supposedly organising this lot:

http://www.ourmayday.org.uk

So aleady the left seems to be falling out with itself and getting paranoid about which People's Front of Judea is really a front for the Judean People's Front. Marvellous. Bloody marvellous.

Oh and on Barry's point, yes, that seems indeed to be the plan, but I'm not sure I see how Mayfair is any less cordonable than, say, Oxford Circus.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
20:51 / 06.04.02
Bill, that's been the problem with Mayday for the last couple of years- although as far as I can tell, Globalise Resistance (while subsuming much of the SWP) is much more of an umbrella organisation. Just ignore the SWs, and there's a bunch of other people involved too. (Although there was that scary quote a couple of years ago from- I think- the SWP's Julie Waterson, about how it would be great to use the anti-globalisation movement as "Trotskyist shock troops" or something equally ill-informed yet cynical).
Anyway, this is getting a bit off the point now. I'm there, for good or for ill. Who's in? (And in case anyone's worried, I think I'm getting a bit old to be involved in too much trouble these days. Although I'm still good for shouting.)
 
 
Tryphena Absent
01:03 / 07.04.02
I am definetly (I really can't spell that word- sorry) going to be in London on Mayday this year. Naomi Klein's done it for me and I'm giving in to the temptation of a political street party at last... hahahahahahahahahahaha
 
 
Baz Auckland
07:20 / 07.04.02
Thanks to an economics exam last year I missed Quebec City, so goddamn it, I can't miss this!
 
 
rizla mission
11:23 / 07.04.02
As usual, I ree-ally want to go to this, but if, as I suspect, it's on Monday April 29th ... actually, er, no, checked the calender, it's May 6th, right?

Fuckin' A - I can be there this time!
 
 
Bill Posters
16:27 / 07.04.02
Riz, it's May 1st.
 
 
No star here laces
16:02 / 08.04.02
Well I thought last year was an utterly shoddy spectacle.

A bunch of goons who didn't even know why they were there mixed in with a bunch of crusty fuckwits looking for a fight wander aimlessly to Oxford Circus in an entirely predictable manner and then proceed to waste 8 hours of their lives being detained by the police.

No political point whatsoever was made. Nobody was satisfied by the experience. No fucking way am I doing that again.

Last year a few of us sat down and came up with some really interesting ways of actually saying something via a mayday protest. And then didn't do them.

How about we try again this year? If the thing's going to be spread out over the whole of London anyway, we may as well organise our own little event (not demo. event.) someplace and actually say something worth saying. Whaddayasay?
 
 
rizla mission
17:10 / 08.04.02
sure.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
18:12 / 08.04.02
No political point whatsoever was made.

I have to disagree with this. Political points were made, they just happened to be made by the police/authorities... ie, freedom of assembly will not be tolerated, dissent must be met with the promise of extreme physical force, harmless if hapless hippy kids in fairy wings must be met with battons and shields...
 
 
sleazenation
18:58 / 08.04.02
originally posted by Janina

I am definetly (I really can't spell that word- sorry) going to be in London on Mayday this year. Naomi Klein's done it for me and I'm giving in to the temptation of a political street party at last... hahahahahahahahahahaha

last year i asked naomi klein what she had planned for may 1st... shhe was planning on sorting out bail for a friend of hers that had been arrested at protests a few days earlier...
 
 
lentil
08:19 / 09.04.02
A recently made acquaintance of mine called round my flat yesterday on his way home from a Reclaim the Streets meeting, and gave me and my flatmates what might be called an 'insider's view' of what the activist community is planning for this year. And yes, there did seem to be a lot of infighting between the Judean Peoples' Front and the Peoples' Front of Judea.

Anyway, Globalise Resistance are marching from (I think) Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square with the Unions. This is an annual, officially approved demonstration. The Mayfair (Mayfair being defined as the area bordered by Oxford St to the north, Piccadilly to the south, Regent Street to the east and Park Lane to the west)protests/actions or whatever you call'em are basically being left to individuals and groups to organise whatever happenings they may decide on. There are four main suggested activities; carnival-type stuff, a Critical Mass blocking-the-roads-with-bikes thing, a resurrection of an historical English game in which the inhabitants of a town carried a ball from one end to the other (basically turn up with a large spherical object), and the 'wake for capitalism', which involves dressing in funeral/day of the dead type costumes.

The last of these is the one that interests me most; I really like the idea of running around in a big cape and a skeleton mask. Anyway, the fact that there's no specific meeting place means that the day would lend itself very well to the kind of thing Lyra's talking about (completely agree with you about last year, btw). It also strikes me that a meet would be needed beforehand, the board not being the best place to discuss specifics.
 
 
gozer the destructor
08:38 / 09.04.02
This sounds constructive, but are we having a pre-meet to discuss what to base the event on? or are we discussing it on a seperate thread or what? I reckon the turn out should be pretty good this year, however the police presence will also be strong i feel, we are living in a time of hieghtened security and paranoia...so even a worthy gesture presented in a non-violent way could be construed as of dubious sentiment. was that subtle enough?
 
 
lentil
08:54 / 09.04.02
that's a good point, particularly as there is an officially sanctioned protest going on at the same time. It would be quite easy for the press and police to draw a false distinction between the nice respectable anarchists who dissent within approved boundaries, and the horrible anarcho-terrorists who just run around causing trouble.

i suggested a pre-meet so that we coould decide where to meet, what to do when we get there, without leaving traceable information. Also, Tom has stated in the past that he'd rather not have potentially illegal activities directly organised on the board. However, maybe I'm just being paranoid.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:46 / 09.04.02
I like the idea of organising something "fluffy"... I think the general idea is that people DO organise their own actions all over the place (and yes, last year was a total clusterfuck) which don't have to be illegal.
 
 
No star here laces
10:31 / 09.04.02
Well, those of us involved in the club night on saturday are meeting up around 4.30 in the Islington Bar, Caledonian road. Why don't people who're interested in doing something for Mayday come down around 5-ish and we can chat about what stuff we'd like to do, who wants to get involved etc.
 
 
rizla mission
12:49 / 09.04.02
won't be able to be there on saturday, but do email me if anything's decided upon.
 
 
Baz Auckland
21:00 / 09.04.02
Moi aussi. I'm working until 9, but want in on the Mayday fun and games!
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:01 / 10.04.02
Working Saturday. But DEFINITELY want to do something Mayday, preferably NOT involving not being allowed to go to the toilet for several hours during which I run out of cigarettes.
 
 
lentil
07:18 / 12.04.02
*bump*

so what's the plan? Islington Bar tomorrow at 5? Or rearrange so that more people are able to come?
 
 
No star here laces
07:45 / 12.04.02
Well, personally I have to be there anyhow, so am still up for meeting peeps. I think it's better to meet as soon as possible even if it's not with absolutely everyone who wants to get involved. It's also easier to come to decisions with a smaller group. So whoever wants to show up - I'm game. PM me for a mobile number if necessary.
 
 
gozer the destructor
07:53 / 12.04.02
Im in, i'll be there at 5
 
  

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