Mayday for capitalism
Guardian

Monday April 16, 2001

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4170884,00.html

John Vidal and Nick Hopkins show what happens when journalists allow the Metropolitan police to set the news agenda (Mayday Mayhem?, April 14).

In the absence of actual information about the May Day demonstrations they echo the self-fulfilling prophecy of the police - violent thugs have taken over and peaceful protesters are staying away, with the result that "ordinary people" and "families" will be too frightened to attend. A relentless media campaign over the past few weeks, coupled with increasingly aggressive police announcements, is plainly intended to divide anti-capitalist activists and criminalise protest. But "ordinary people" and "families" are the anti-capitalist movement. We are part of society, not apart from it. We are your neighbours, the people you sit next to on the bus, in the park, in the housing office.

The whole point of the May Day demonstrations is their diversity - that there will be many different types of protest happening. There is room for all sections of the anti-capitalist movement to choose their own direction on the day.

No doubt there will be some demonstrators, embittered by the pollution, violence and exploitation of global capitalism, who will break windows in revenge. There will also be many more demonstrators who will be organising positive activities, parties and music that celebrate our worldwide resistance. The "call to action" asks everyone to choose their own way. Its not a secret society, but a very open one.

The police have demonised May Day since the very first demonstrations were called in the 1880s, and if the police want a fight they're sure to get one, but that's not the point of the protest. The anti-capitalist movement is a broad coalition, and the wider the police's net is cast, the more "ordinary" people are caught in it. We have something to say and we're not frightened to make our voices heard.
Jim Bradley
Red Star Research

• Special branch briefings concerning May Day have two purposes. First to discredit the anti-capitalist movement and deter demonstrators; and second, to prepare public opinion for a violent police crackdown.

The police will no doubt be delighted at the May Day features in the Guardian, which seemed designed to aid their cause. Whatever the opinions of Guardian readers on violence at demonstrations, it is the right to demonstrate at all that is under attack.
Phil Blake
Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan

• Contrary to Edmond Warner's belief (Capitalism takes a hit in the media, April 14), it's not "anti-capitalist" schadenfreude that has pushed Marks & Spencer and other companies into the media spotlight but market demand, fuelled by two important social trends.

First, companies affect our lives far more than ever before, especially as more services are transferred from the public to the private sector. The public increasingly feels it has a right to know how businesses function.

Second, people realise that they can now influence how businesses behave. The balance of power is shifting from shareholders to customers, partly due to the web and other technologies that enable people to mobilise public opinion far more easily, quickly and effectively.

This shift contributed to the downfall of Monsanto in Europe and to Shell's Brent Spar volte-face and forced Pepsi and Ericcson out of Burma, among a growing number of examples. These developments might not conform to tidy business school models of economic rationality - but life is a messy business.
Keith Conlon
London