I believe there are a host of possibilities on Mayday, local and national. This Rally is I guess another walk from A to B with stewards doing the police work for them. Culminating in a crescendo of standing around listening to speakers tell us things we are aware of already.

Once arriving at Trafalger Square we will no doubt disperse into our own lives having acquired next to no media attention.

First time Cabinet in session and so we will be nicely corraled like sheep unable to get our message across. Brilliant.

This is the traditional trade union march and rally, co-ordinated by the Greater London TUC. More details on next posting or the GL TUC website:

The traditional trade union march?
Well we know where the shit wipers will be then don't we.

Bit of a bloody cheek - 'united for mayday', what it represents is unity between the SWP through the GR front and the trade union beuracrats and REd Ken (or should that be 'a very very very light shade of pastel pink Ken).

No doubt the SWP have sold the GR involvement to the trade unionists on the basis that it is a mass youth movement rather than a mass placarding operation.

THe united for mayday event is designed to allow the SWP the respectability they crave. It shows that they are not interested in unity with anti-capitalists who do not want to join their blessed party

At least it makes it clear which side of the barricades the SWP will be on.

Stuff em, lets all get down to Mayfair and have some real mayday revelry

You know the old saying. If the barricades go up, and you find the SWP are on our side of them, make sure you fit wing mirrors to them so as you can catch the bastards sneaking up on you, knife in hand!

The last 3 years, anti-capitalists and anarchists have hijacked OUR day. Mayday isn't about taking on the capitalist system, it's about marching under an SWP banner for an hour, listening to Tony Benn and then fucking off home. Reclaim Mayday from these dangerous revolutionary types who don't even vote for Labour!

United for our Mayday! Down with anti-capitalism! Ours is the only true path! There is no God but Trotsky! Cliff is his messenger!

If people want to go to a legal trade union march and rally that's fine and after the last couple of mayday police actions i wouldn't blame them really!

So there's diversity on mayday, that's a GOOD THING giving people CHOICES, and of course POSSIBILITIES.

SWP will go union unity of course, if GR want to do that as well it's no surprise really. The question for me is whether they give any weblinks on their site or spread information about the other stuff going on as well.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

This is the text published a couple of days after May Day 2000 by the trade union may day organising committee. The fact of the matter was the cops were determined to stop the two crowds meeting up. This should still be online on a few union sites, I got it off indymedia:

THE FACTS ON THE STOPPING OF THE MAY DAY RALLY IN LONDON

The London May Day March, which had long been agreed and negotiated with the police (who had referred to us as a good example of how to ensure maximum co-operation in the lead up to May Day), had reached within 50 yards of Trafalgar Square before being stopped by the police. They claimed it was unsafe to continue to our planned rally in Trafalgar Square. However, our stewards were in the Square at the time having secured the speaking area and PA system, and there were no problems in the Square at that time. The 'anti-capitalist' demonstrators were still down at the Parliament Square end of Whitehall and all was quiet in and around Trafalgar Square.

The police held the March for a long time and then allowed the 'anti-capitalist' demonstrators to come up Whitehall to the junction with the Square. (They could easily have prevented this if they felt it was a potential problem, as they showed later in the day particularly by using the police and vans to prevent us from entering the Square). However, we had received clear indications that the bulk of these demonstrators wished to support our rally and the car workers - as they had the RMT anti-tube privatisation campaign. Preventing them coming to our rally led to confrontation that could be exploited by those set on conflict.

The police held up the May Day March for over 40 minutes during which time we could have easily held our rally as nothing was happening in the Square. The blunt blockage of our March was itself the sort of thing that can lead to friction and it was to the credit of our organisations and stewards that this did not happen. The police 'suggested' we could go to another venue for our rally but it would mean we would not have our PA system or arranged platform and many organisations saw no reason why we could not go to Trafalgar Square. We maintained a process of continuous consultation with the organisations on the March to decide on courses of action and after the long impasse the bulk of organisations agreed that the best response was to disperse under protest. We wished to maintain the unity of the March and avoid any possibilities for provocations. After the bulk of the March had dispersed, the March head with the Longbridge car workers decided to leave as a group and go to Temple for a short rally before dispersing there.

There has been widespread concern that the police did not ensure our rally could go ahead and our long co-operation seemed to count for nothing. We need to stress that no problems occurred in the Square until we had left and only then because police forced some of the anti-capitalists into the Square. Some key questions need to be answered about the circumstances and should be pursued with MPs and the new London police authority for future arrangements.

The London May Day March has been organised for over 100 years and is the united march for international workers day. It brings together trade unions, organisations from the international communities in London, campaigns, pensioners, socialists and others. It takes place every year on May 1st.

Roger Sutton
Organiser
London May Day Organising Committee
2-5-00

. . . tell the cops that a bunch of "hardcore Trotkyists" is meeting on Trafalgar Square - then the riot squads can baton-charge them, trample them with horses and generally duff them up a bit.

Oops, but then of course there aren´t any revolutionaries in the SWP. Naturally, it´s the anarchists who will receive all the police attention again. Remind me Noel, were the Haymarket Martyrs in the SWP? Or did I sleep my way through a history degree? Jesus.

Don´t these fuckers realise that every activist they take away from the real struggle is another activist lost to bourgeois reformist claptrap? Karl Marx had a term for these guys - he called them "bourgeois socialists" - the folks who want "a bourgeoisie without a proletariat". Go figure.

At last a proper slanging match! Come on folks, let's stop wasting our time organising stupid May Day events and concentrate on the real struggle, against each other.

As to whoever said people might want a choice of events; choice? are you mad? They might choose the wrong one!

That´s actually quite amusing - a Trot insinuating that anarchists are into *thought control*. That´s a bit like Stalin telling your mum that he thinks she was a little too strict with you when you were a kid.

The Trafalgar square farce only shows how deeply enmeshed in their own propaganda the SWP have become. Their definition of "unity" is to organise a big rally on the same day as the Direct Action, in the hope of creaming off some press coverage and generally taking the credit for being "revolutionary". Remind me, just how many SWP activists are doing time for their political beliefs?

So instead of actually doing anything to defeat capitalism, they will stand around like a bunch of lemons, listening to Red Ken and pretending to be radical. "Oooh, I would go on the Direct Action but then I might get expelled from Eton. ALL POWER TO THE WORKING CLASSES . . . THEN BACK TO DADDY´S CASTLE FOR TEA!"

By the way, if you want to stick your head up your own arse, it´s best to wear a shower-cap and use plenty of lube.

Here´s a rhetorical question for you: What´s the difference between a riot cop and the SWP?

Answer: Riot cops get paid nearly thirty grand a year for the defence of global capitalism. The SWP do it for free. What a joke you are.

If you think that the anti-Capitalist MayDay events are "actually doing anything to defeat capitalism" you're a fool. The Anarchist events are just the same kind of spectacular gesture as the TUC march: it makes you feel good but its NOT going to bring down Capitalism either.

You can't destroy Capitalism with a single day of protest, even if it comes with a glorious history - you can draw attention to yourselves and the issues, you can feel empowered, you can make links with other anti-Capitalists to forge something bigger in the future, you can make some rich people frightened, but if you think thats any more radical than the TUC you've got a lot to learn.

Waiting around for centuries for the mythical Red Paradise to appear. Don´t you get it?

SOCIALISM FAILED. Why did all those East German folks kill themselves trying to escape over the Wall? Have you ever been to Romania? Or Bulgaria? Or Russia? Do you actually know anything about socialism, and what it does to people´s minds? Stalin killed fifty million people. Or doesn´t that fit with your illusory pseudo-Hegelian notions of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" etc etc?

I know your kind only too well. You are the people who will put me up against a wall if your revolution ever occurs. I´d sooner be a "fool" than an assassin.

You don't know me at all mate, you're making assumptions from a joke name. Ineffectual protests are ineffectual whether they are non-hierarchic or not. Its obvious the TUC is not going to destroy Capitalism. All I'm saying is that MayDay protests aren't going to either and anyone who thinks it will is going to have a bit of a shock on 2/5/02. No-one can stop you being a fool but yourself.

OK, so you´re not the Anti-christ after all. Anarchist Direct Action really does make a difference though. My point is this:

Socialism assumes a political revolution based on workers´ seizure of the means of production. This can and will happen . . . however, the historical experience clearly demonstrates that all socialist states are police states. The socialist revolutionary is a revolutionary who has forgetten how to rebel. He is therefore condemned to be either a bureaucrat or a policeman. There are only two possible outcomes to SWP activism - backsliding into social democracy, and hence conformism, or a full-scale revolution leading to Stalinism. (Remember that Lenin said "theory should subordinate spontaneity".)

Anarchism, on the other hand, posits an immediate rebellion. Note that I say rebellion, and not revolution. (Read "the rebel" by Albert Camus if you want to know the difference - he can explain it better than I can.) By experiencing a Direct Action, Anarchists destroy capitalism by negating its totality. OK, this is a fancy way of saying that by denying that capitalism has complete control over our lives (even if just for a few hours), then we implicitly deny the existence of capitalism. It doesn´t stop the wars and the suffering, true - but it is at least an authentic experience. This is the real point of Mayday, not some boring political rally that only recycles dead history. And as I said, I´d sooner be a (romantic) fool than an apologist for cynicism and crime.

The right must be laughing their heads off reading this.

Do what you will on MayDay, but for goodness sake show some solidarity.

Direct action is vital if we want to make a positive change, but so far I've not heard much that is proposed on MayDay that is any more useful than the TUC's march and rally. Direct action needs to achieve something in itself (even if it is just circulation of ideas) if it is to be useful in struggle, not just act as a publicity stunt for revolutionary ideas.

Doing ineffectual stuff down a sidestreet in Mayfair might make you feel better, that's true, but if Capitalism can be destroyed by a small number of Anarchists ignoring it for a while, then it would have been destroyed years ago. Its no good ignoring Capitalism, it's still there when you open your eyes! Denying that Capital has complete control over our lives is a fundamental of resistance - but what you think inside your head doesn't affect Capital, it affects YOU! You have to take those thoughts and put them into action if you want to make change. MayDay is a way to show that we also have power and will not be intimidated, that we can fight back: but we will not threaten anything by re-enacting a tired Anarchist routine or through a pointless fancy dress party in the streets of London.

PS. This may suprise you, but I've been involved in Anarchist politics for 25 years, and I don't require a lecture about Camus. My point is not that the TUC and the SWP are doing something particularly useful, but that the MayDay spectaculars aren't much better.