27 April 2001
The anarchists are coming! The modern face of civil protest
By Mark Steel
 http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=69012

As I'm sure you are aware, anarchists are planning to destroy the capital on Tuesday. The London Evening Standard has been sharpest with the details, telling us on its front page that "MAY DAY RIOTERS TRAIN AT U.S. CAMPS". The Standard article continues by revealing that "the camps are run by a group which includes Body Shop founder Anita Roddick" ­ though at this point it sounds as if the journalist may have confused the story with one of his weird dreams. (Maybe there'll be a follow-up, in which he tells us he was trying to run away from the anarchists but couldn't move, and one of them was Des Lynam, who kept shouting "You join us here live where all property is theft." )

A few lines later, we read how the aforementioned group "boasts it has trained hundreds of activists in non-violent civil disobedience". So, it turns out the sinister "training" is not exactly for rioting, but for non-violence ­ or to put it another way, the thing diametrically opposite to rioting. Unless, of course, it's possible to have a non-violent riot, in which rioters overturn objects like cushions and envelopes, and loot things that are free anyway, like those cubes of cheese on the deli counter in Sainsbury's.

In a similar vein, the Metropolitan Police recently raided an empty factory in Brixton, which was supposedly a training camp for a group calling itself The Wombles. This group poses more of a threat than Anita Roddick's mob, for two reasons. First, they really exist, and second, they are, by their own admission, taking disruptive tools along to next Tuesday's May Day protest. As one Womble described: "We will be taking water pistols, inflatable hammers and a 50ft Great Uncle Bulgaria." The vicious bastards.

If all this constitutes training for a riot, worthy of police raids, then it's a good job the current leaders of the Met weren't around in the days when It's a Knockout was on the telly. No sooner would the giant trifle be catapulted at the woman carrying the beach balls than the riot squad would storm in and have Stuart Hall in the back of a van ­ even before Mansfield had time to play their joker. Besides, if these Wombles remain true to their characters, then even if they do riot, at least they'll sweep up the mess afterwards.

Several articles reported how, following the Wombles raid, police found graffiti on the wall saying, "Smash police skulls" ­ which would certainly be violent if it was in a manifesto. But it was on a wall. If the aim of the Wombles group really was to smash police skulls, would they need to write it on a wall as a reminder, in case they turned up for training and all thought, "Oh sod, we've gone and forgotten whose skulls we're supposed to be smashing"? The Young Conservatives used to put up posters around universities saying "Hang Nelson Mandela", but no one ever raided them.

Then, on Tuesday, the Standard ran another front page, about a "masked man" intent on reaping evil on the protest. (Give it a couple more days and they'll be claiming the Riddler and the Penguin are in on it, too.) But inside were two pages of photos, of people who, said Detective Chief Inspector Jim Dickie, "We strongly suspect were involved in the criminal offences committed in central London last year." So, a few days after a high-profile court case was abandoned because of a prejudicial tabloid article, photos of 24 people who haven't even been arrested, let alone convicted, are displayed under a heading: "Met steps up hunt for rioters".

Twenty years ago, no one would have imagined that May Day could be the focus of such controversy. At that time, most May Day marches were led by the local trades council secretary, one lapel of his jacket decorated in sturdy enamel trade union badges. With him might have been an official from the Communist Party, in Croydon on the return leg of an exchange visit that began when the trades council finance committee were invited to a tractor factory in Bratislava, and treated as guests of honour at a function that included free vodka and the Slovakian equivalent of chicken in a basket. Behind them on the march would be a huge banner depicting a man with a moustache studiously making barrels, or involved in some other craft that died out in 1932. Then the brass band, followed by a couple of hundred local trade unionists, the left flogging papers, and finally, gloriously upsetting the solemnity of the occasion, a crowd of Turks who would chant whatever slogan was appropriate to the latest twist of Turkish Stalinism. From the determination with which they belted it out, it sounded as if they must have been yelling "Death to the imperialist dogs of Western capital" but for all I knew they were saying "Isn't it chilly for the time of year." Then everyone would set off through the shopping centre to end up in a recreation ground for a speech near the swings.

For many people involved in keeping the May Day flame flickering, these events represented a crucial link with labour movement history. May Day began in Chicago in 1886, as part of the campaign for an eight-hour day in a city in which the average working day was 16 hours. The Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after May 1 1886". It was recommended that unions should strike against companies that didn't abide to this.

Respectable society was outraged. In now-familiar language, the Indianapolis Journal described the street parades that marked the first day of the strike: "Fiery harangues by scoundrels and demagogues, as threatened violence marked the inauguration of the movement." Maybe they'd been trained in camps in Britain. A cartoon in Harper's Weekly, over a caption "Anarchist tactics" showed a maniac with wild spiky hair and eyes like those of Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining wielding a cutlass as innocent citizens dived under their beds. The police were implored to mobilise, and on 3 May they obliged, making it clear violence wouldn't be tolerated by shooting dead four demonstrators.

Many more died over the course of the campaign, and to honour their memory May Day was designated as Labour Day. And so it was celebrated, across the world, to varying effect, until, in Britain at least, it fizzled out under the twin onslaughts of the rise of New Labour and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now, groups such as the Wombles, which stands for White Overall Movement for Building Liberation through Effective Struggle, wish to revive May Day as a day of protest. The idea of wearing white overalls to protest is inspired by an Italian anarchist group called Ya Basta, who originated during the peak of Italian anarchism in the 1970s. They were prominent at the demonstration against the World Bank in Prague, wearing thick white padding as protection against the truncheons of the Czech riot police.

So at one level, the Wombles add another chapter to the long line of weedy English attempts to copy the Italians. When we first made pasta, it was in the form of spaghetti hoops. They had the Mafia, we responded with the Krays. Now they have a group dressed like Michelin men marching Gandhi-style through flailing batons and tear gas, and our anarchists copy them by dressing like painters and decorators.

The white overalls, protest-ers are advised, can be purchased from any DIY store, which is sure to cause confusion on the board of B&Q when they realise the sudden unexplained boost in sales of this particular line. And the type of protest arranged for those wearing the overalls has been mapped out in a well-produced leaflet called the May Day Monopoly guide, set out like the board game. Under "Piccadilly", protesters are advised next week to "Bring musical instruments, masks, costumes, love and inspiration. There will be spontaneous street theatre to invoke the spirit of EROS. Greenery to symbolise BELTANE will be used to sprinkle sacred water to initiate everyone into the mysteries of love." The vicious bastards.

As the Monopoly board turns more upmarket, you may expect more confrontation. And you'd be right, because at Mayfair there are plans to build a cardboard castle, to "Draw attention to the amount of people who are sleeping rough." At King's Cross Station, meanwhile, there will be a "Giant Veggie Burger Giveaway" to "Show people that there is an alternative to McDeath."

Along with the guide comes a pamphlet, with mini-histories of each Monopoly square. For example, did you know that, in the 19th-century, Pentonville Road was patrolled at night to protect theatregoers travelling home from Sadler's Wells? Or that Pall Mall comes from the French paille maille, meaning ball and mallet, a croquet-type game played by aristocrats in the 17th century?

So the mayhem must clearly have been plotted behind the scenes. But the main organising meeting for the event was an open meeting, held last weekend, and publicised in leaflets and on the internet. I decided to go along ­ if only to sight the modern face of civil protest. Things started alarmingly on time, with a speaker giving a history of the diverse groups coming together to organise the May Day Monopoly day that could almost have sounded like an executive reading out a company report to a meeting of shareholders, except that she had purple dreadlocks and sat cross-legged on the floor with no shoes or socks on.

This speech was followed by the sort of haphazard discussion almost inevitable in any meeting to organise anything. One woman demanded to know why there were so few people there, although the room was packed and no one else could have fitted in. There was a long debate about whether the police could legally make you remove face paint. And there must have been more discussion in that room than in any other room in Britain on that day about avoiding violence. A pensioner related his experiences of non-violent action during the CND marches of the 1960s. Non-violent workshops were arranged, and a debate took place about how much, if any, physical contact was legitimate in order to defend someone who was being attacked.

So it's not surprising that in general the protesters hold a deep mistrust for the press. They must feel the same way as the RSPCA would, if they were to become the subject of headlines like: "Cruelty-to-animal thugs train at US hamster-squashing camp."

Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this means next Tuesday will pass by without incident. The press, as we have seen, are drooling for it; the police are clearly geared up for it; and many people who would have attended peacefully will now be frightened to go. Indeed, the run-up to the event has made it all the more likely to attract a handful of people who really are up for a ruck.

Yet one glance at this movement shows that the majority are entirely genuine. As one speaker at last week's meeting said: "Why are we condemned as violent, when there are pharmaceutical companies prepared to deny medication to Aids sufferers throughout Africa, because of a row about who owns the patent?"

Once, such people may have been attracted to the force that seemed best able to express this opposition, the labour movement. If the Labour Party were to march to the offices of a hated multinational now, it would most likely be to offer them a stall at the party conference. Even Ken Livingstone has joined in with the condemnations, using the type of language once employed against him. Surely, it's only a matter of time before he declares the protesters are "The most odious Wombles in Britain".

The result of all this is that, as one teenage woman said at the meeting, addressing the older people, "You have no idea how much people of my age feel disenfranchised."

Or you could dismiss the whole thing as simply a handful of thugs, bent on wanton destruction and trained by Anita Roddick. At least you can be relieved that the petrol bombs haven't been tested on rabbits.

I have made several attempts to post this to the Evening Standard URL - none of my permutations have worked, so I can only assume the moderator does not like my conclusions ;-)

---

What saddens me most about the attitude to civil protest in this country and in the majority of comments on this board [ http://pages.thisislondon.co.uk/cgi/WebX? london-128@96.shqAYEaH^0@.ee748fb]is the appalling level of ignorance shown by those who feel it is 'just getting in the way' of day-to-day existence.

What this bamboozled majority does not seem to realise is that day-to-day existence is rapidly being compromised by those very forces that are causing civil protest!

The hype about violence emanating from police sources and dear Ken, whilst containing a grain of truth (there will always be a few militarily-trained misfits with a grievance in any sick society) has more to do with an avoidance of embarrassment on MayDay than anything else. The beauty of the 'Wombles' movement (originally Ya Basta! - meaning 'Enough is enough' - seem to remember our PM using the same phrase for different reasons), apart from their highly moral aims (if anyone could be bothered to go and read their philosophy!), is that they make violence and repression look truly stupid and the police cannot tolerate being made to look foolish. Simple as that.

It is a democratic duty to attend these protests - peacefully and accurately demonstrating why there is a desperate need to inform people of the removal of all their civil liberties and their very future as free individuals. Why there is a need to stand up to corporate gobbleisation. Try reading Susan George's 'Lugano Report' to get some idea where the elite want to take us all.

I would advise anyone who is unsure why people are demonstrating to start studying in more depth - leave the national media to their hype and start learning the real reasons why the world is the way it is. For a quick teach in try this article from the highly respected Dr.Hertz :-
 http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,470283,00.html

Maybe also try some of the links on  http://www.environment.org/activist/ for background. Above all - learn the truth. Don't be lazy! Don't be gulled! Don't remain ignorant and parochial! Think for yourself!

The post I was trying to add never appeared - couldn't work out why. Now I know, because I had included some URLs of some articles about mayday. It seems they don't allow posts with URLs in them even of they are their own urls... like the one i copied from indymedia:

Prepare for May Day madness
 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/lifestyle/londonlife/top_review.html?in_review_id=383315&in_review_text_id=329259
by Matt Munday

- anyway your post got through without the urls:

Ignorance is bliss?

Mango Le Rain Fri, 27 Apr, 19:42

What saddens me most about the attitude to civil protest in this country is the appalling level of ignorance shown by those who feel it is 'just getting in the way' of day-to-day existence.
What this bamboozled majority does not seem to realise is that day-to-day existence is rapidly being compromised by those very forces that are causing civil protest!

The hype about violence, whilst containing a grain of truth (there will always be a few militarily-trained misfits with a grievance in any sick society) emanating from police sources and dear Ken has more to do with an avoidance of embarrassment on MayDay than anything else. The beauty of the 'Wombles' movement, apart from their highly moral aims (if anyone could be bothered to go and read their philosophy!), is that they make violence look truly stupid and the police cannot tolerate being made to look foolish. Simple as that.

It is a democratic duty to attend these protests - peacefully and accurately demonstrating why there is a desperate need to inform people of the removal of all their civil liberties and their very future as free individuals. Why there is a need to stand up to corporate gobbleisation. Try reading Susan George's 'Lugano Report' to get some idea where the elite want to take us all.

I would advise anyone who is unsure why people are demonstrating to start studying in more depth - leave the national media to their hype and start learning the real reasons why the world is the way it is.

---------------------------------------

maybe we could try something like "double you double you double you dot... etc" :-)

Truly bizarre - a web page that doesn't accept URLs? Thanks for yer efforts anyway - although it loses a lot without the follow up.

Don't know why I bothered, anyway. Seems those ES guys are set on trashing any idea that gobbleisation has problems attached to it ;-)

Did you read some of that mindless stuff? Phoooeee!