I am involved in several anarchist groups but what is written below is purely my personal opinion and not representative of any particular organisation. The ideology section is immediately below, with tactics near the bottom of the article

If you turn up in Mayfair on May 1st this year, it means that all the peaceful ways with which capitalism maintains its ideological hegemony over you have not been enough. Despite a State education teaching obedience and conformity, mass-media lies and distortions, the lure of consumer goods and even the prevailing attitude in society that anyone who challenges the system is an insane hooligan - or at best a naïve utopian - you will be on the streets telling the world, even if it is a very small way, that you still believe that there is another way for humankind: a way which doesn’t involve enslaving or starving most of the world’s population and destroying the planet.

This means the only thing the State has left on the streets is its monopoly of violence. Anyone who has ever been on a large demonstration or strike will testify that when non-violent coercion fails ultimately the only way the State can stop the spread of revolutionary ideas is by beating the shit out of people. During the miners’ strike, the print workers’ strike, the struggles against the Poll tax and the Criminal Justice Act, the State lost the ideological battle and thus resorted to violence.

TACTICS

The insanity of the dictatorship of the “free” market directly contradicts people’s desire to *live*: a desire which no amount of advertising, TV programs or monotonous labour can completely dull. As such, governments all over the world are resorting to extreme physical repression of resistance movements, not least in “liberal” Europe and the UK.

This Mayday will be no exception. Last year police illegally detained thousands of people for up to nine hours – people who had committed no crime. Anyone who tried to get out of the pens was beaten by the police, and many people were injured. There is not a doubt in my mind that they will attempt to do the same again. I believe that every person has the right to resist without being seriously hurt and as such I would advise everyone who attends this year’s Mayday celebrations (and indeed, any demonstration) to bring some rudimentary body protection such as a cycle helmet and shin pads. I believe that in this country wearing padding is the most effective way of defending the integrity of your body – regardless of ideology or morals I think that throwing objects at the police or hitting them is tactically useless, and both are totally ineffective ways of protecting yourself or a demonstration as a whole. Ideally form an affinity group of about four or five friends who all have such protection and look out for one another – one person could carry lots of water, for example, and another could carry basic first aid equipment.

Even (for example) members of the SWP recognise that when it comes down to it, on demonstrations, the job of the police is to hurt us and I believe that wearing padding is a highly practical act of defiance of authority – it shows that you recognise that the State is a violent body and you’re saying “fuck you” and coming prepared for it. Why does the SWP/GR not encourage people to do this? I personally do not buy the Trotskyist argument that getting demonstrators beaten up by the cops “radicalises” them. In themselves, demonstrations achieve very little other than empower the participants, and from experience I have concluded that getting twatted by thugs with big sticks is not particularly empowering. Submitting and being stuck in a police pen all day is extremely boring! Freedom of movement of people is a key demand of the anticapitalist movement and demonstrations should be no exception and I believe that protecting your body is the only way to be able to ensure this freedom.

A brief legal point – police can declare a “section 60” order over a wide area, and are likely to do so this Mayday, but this only gives them the right to search you for weapons. S60 does not give police the right to pen innocent people in and hold them without charge. As such you are entitled to use reasonable force to facilitate your free movement – so I believe pushing through police lines is technically legal. It is also unlikely to result in arrest (unlike throwing objects – one previous Mayday demonstrator was jailed for 3 months for throwing a ball of paper at a police line). As an example, last Mayday, none of the 12-or-so Wombles were arrested and none have charges related to breaking through police lines.

For more detailed information on padding and self-defence on demonstrations, you can download the very comprehensive booklet, Bodyhammer (1.1Mb)
 http://www.devo.com/sarin/shieldbook.pdf

Or check out the Wombles website (resources section in particular)