UK May Day 2002 Feature Archive
Mayday 2002: Festival of Alternatives
02-05-2002 09:40
Taking the atmosphere of a traditional 'Mayfayre' celebration, up to 15.000 people celebrated a sunny Mayday 2002 all over downtown London. From Mayfair's exclusive avenues to Soho's red-hot backstreets, crowds thronged the streets and enjoyed themselves in what was described by most as a successful and beautiful day. Carnival, movement and music were the themes of the day.
Critical Mass bike rides started Mayday simultaneously in north and south London, bringing much of the capital's traffic to a halt. Many paused for an impromptu breakfast at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court in solidarity with the Wombles Seven, who are currently subject to a show trial. While the trade union march departed from Clerkenwell at midday, several groups of up to 1,000 Mayday revellers started to move about Mayfair, Oxford Street and Picadilly, many dressed in carnivalesque costumes. By moving continuously people thwarted several attempts by police to cordon them in. Scuffles broke out in the afternoon when police tried to stop several thousand Mayday celebrators from joining the 10,000 strong trade union march at Trafalgar Square, using heavy-handed tactics, but the situation soon calmed down. Meanwhile 2-3000 people played football and others conga-ed down Oxford Street.
Carnival took Soho by storm as the street party called for by the Sex Workers Union began at 5pm. For several hours up to two thousand people danced to the rhythms of a Samba band, moving around in the small backstreets of the downtown neighbourhood. Despite the festive and peaceful atmosphere, riot police started to mass in the area and finally surrounded the samba crowd at 7.30pm, in what was the only Section 60 detention imposed that day. Inside the Section 60 people were baton-charged, had their photos forcibly taken and were only let out individually after several hours. According to the Legal defense and Monitoring Group, 50 people were arrested on the day. LDMG report
Read the full timeline with all London reports.
More Mayday events took place in Glasgow, where everything was 'relaxed and chill', in Leicester, where free cake was given out, in Bristol, 300 cyclists brought the centre to a halt with a lively critical mass - see the report and video on the Bristol.indymedia.org site, and also a small but traditional event in Greenwich.
Police Harassment as Mayday Approaches
09-04-2002 06:42
A recent press release details how police have been intimidating several web hosts from hosting a Mayday website. The police threatened them with raids and having their servers seized if they hosted the website ourmayday.org.uk The website contains details of the "Mayday Festival of Alternatives" running from 26th April to May 6th which includes film screenings, workshops and benefits. Police have also been photographing and filming people attending public meetings and social events at places like the Radical Dairy.
Also recently the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) revealed secret documents telling judges to come down hard on people arrested in connection with Mayday protests. The document titled "Mayhem" first came to the attention of LDMG in June 2001 when a defence barrister was refused access to it on the grounds that it was secret! Sentencing in England is supposedly based on individual circumstances and the seriousness of the offence, but clearly this doesn't apply to Mayday protesters.
The first corporate media articles about Mayday have appeared recently, with the Observer claiming that anarchist groups were planning "running battles with police" and the Independent predicting this year's Mayday "could be the most violent for a decade". By this time last year the corporate media was in a Mayday frenzy egged on by Police and Government statements with almost 50 articles printed claiming protestors were set to use samuri swords against police, tube ventilation shafts to travel, and children as human sheilds. This year the police have changed tactic and have yet to make any public announcements about the protests, after many media commentators last year criticised them and the mainstream media for a propaganda campaign hyping the issue of violence.
On Mayday itself (wed 1st May) protests in London include a critical mass bicycle protest starting at 7.30am from north and south London and meeting at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square; a breakfast solidarity protest outside Horseferry Magistrates Court to show support for the 7 'Wombles' who were arrested on Halloween last year; a mass action in the area of Mayfair in the afternoon at around 1pm with different themes; and a Soho Carnival Parade called by Sexworkers Pride which starts at 5pm. The normal TUC trade union event will start at Clerkenwell Green and march to Trafalger Square for a rally at 3pm and this year will be joined by the groups Globalise Resistance and the Stop The War Coalition. While most events are based in london, other cities are planning mayday events as well.
As usual Indymedia will be providing coverage of the events from participants themselves, and an Internet radio webstream is planned - details coming soon.
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