http://diy.spc.org/ourmayday/

Festival of Alternatives: Timetable

provisional dates:

Saturday 13th April - Benefit gig for Mayday 2002

Chu Nah Mi ("7 piece ska ‘n’ roll, funkin’ dynamite") Headjam, Free State Prophets + Megabitch DJs.
8pm till 2am at Arsenal Tavern, 175 Blackstock Road, N4 (Arsenal, Finsbury Park tubes).
Entry 5 quid/3 quid concs.



Friday 26th April

Daytime:
Picket for Paul Robinson - 2pm, University College of London, Gower St, WC1.
Paul Robinson was imprisoned in Sweden for 8 months following the EU protests in Gothenberg, in June 2001. His job as a library attendant at UCL was kept open for him during his absence. 2 days after returning to the UK, he was sacked following a disciplinary hearing, for 'gross misconduct'. This decision is thought to be entirely political. Paul's appeal takes place at 2pm - please come along and support him.

Evening:
London-wide Critical Mass bike ride, themed around No Borders, meeting at Waterloo at 6pm.

After: Balkan/Roma gig featuring Tragic Roundabout, ROMANI RAD, Empty Hat Orchestra & Tarot Magik DJs. The starting extravaganza of the Mayday Festival of Alternatives with food, visuals and dancers. Speakers and stalls by refugee support groups welcome (contact  nlmaydayfestival@lycos.co.uk).
From 7.30pm till 1pm at Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby's Walk, Homerton, E8. Nearest train station: Homerton on Silverlink line (change at Highbury Islington)
Entry: 5 quid/3.50 quid cons (3 quid for Critical Mass peeps)



Saturday 27th April

Daytime:
Day of workshops and discussions on the theme of social centres, squats & how to set them up. The aim of the day is to transform a disused building into a vibrant social centre, and to learn & share new skills.
Workshops on plumbing, electricity, finding a good building & legal advice. Speakers from London Social Centres Network & Advisory Service for Squatters. There will also be talks from collectives who have set up both permanent & reclaimed social centres. Cleaning & decorating will go on all day, so please come down and lend a hand.

Squat electronics - 10.30am
Get the electricity connected without frying yourself.

Practical Plumbing - 12pm
Hands-on session covering elementary fix-it skills relating to whatever needs doing in the particular reclaimed space we'll be working in.

Lock-changing, securing a building & fire escapes - 1.30pm
Venue for all of the above: Temporary social centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details.

Venue for all of the above social centre workshops: Temporary social centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details.

Workshop: Anarchy, Anarchism and the Anarchists - 2pm
An informal talk on history, anthropology, psychology and ideology with special reference to the movements of the working class and disinherited, plus reflections on the anti-capitalist movement and the future. (Followed by open ended discussion, if so desired).
Venue: Temporary social centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details.

Stalls in Wood Green/leafletting for 'Vote Nobody' anti-election campaign (Haringey Solidarity Group).

radicalyoga - free yoga classes with opportunities for discussion, practice and meditation. You will be very welcome to participate…wearing loose clothing, bring a happy heart, an empty stomach and an open mind. 3pm-6pm – Diorama One (Movement Room 1st floor), 34 Osnaburgh Street, NW1

Evening:
Queer/mixed cabaret night at Chats Palace, 5 Brooksby's Walk, Homerton, E8. Nearest train station: Homerton on Silverlink line.
Contact: Flaming Queers,  festivalofalternatives@yahoo.com



Sunday 28th April

Daytime:
Haringey Critical Mass Bike Ride - Meeting 12 Noon at Manor House.
A festive ride reclaiming the streets of Haringey from traffic and pollution, showing how much safer and pleasanter our streets can be. We will be highlighting local road safety campaigns and protesting in support of cycle lanes, bus lanes, free public transport and eco-friendly transport solutions. The ride ends in Chestnuts Park (Black Boy Lane, N15) at 3pm with a picnic and party.


All welcome - bikes, wheelchairs, pedestrians, skateboards, rollerskates; and anything with wheels and no engine.
Bring music, food, drink, costumes, games, balloons and come and enjoy the ride...

Women's Football Skills workshop - meet 12pm Clissold Park, Stoke Newington. (bottom side of park, near lake, behind tennis courts. A chance to brush up on tackling, headers etc for the Looney Left footie tournament on Sunday 5th May.

New Cross & Deptford Radical History Walk — from the peasants revolt to punk rock!
Meet New Cross Gate tube 3.00pm.
This corner of south-east London has a rich revolutionary history. Home turf of pioneering punk band Alternative TV, its past spans the peasants revolt, anti-fascist riots and the New Cross fire campaign that signalled the uprisings of 1981. And "The Red Flag" - originally written to honour the Haymarket martyrs - was written in New Cross Gate!

Film showings, 2-5pm, Rio cinema, Kingsland Rd, Dalston.
3 films: 'Globalisation and the Media', IMC film about Genoa, documentary on the Argentinian uprisings.


Protest on 'Safety at work' - details tba

Workshops - A series of workshops with a focus on useful skills for mass actions:
Legal workshop on 'dealing with public order situations', including 'Section 60'. Essential if you're going to Mayday. (2 1-hour workshops from 2-3pm and 5-6pm).
Medical workshop: 2-5pm 'First Aid on demonstrations'. (3 one-hour basic first aid sessions from 2-3pm, 3-4pm, 4-5pm).
Banner-making workshop - 12pm onwards

Circus skills workshops - come along & join the 'Anarchist Travelling Circus'
Juggling & juggling-ball making - 11am - make your own juggling balls & learn to use them.
Poi Spinning & poi-making - 1pm
Marching band - 3pm - bring a drum, tambourine, rice shaker or other portable instrument.

'Gender & women-only spaces' - all genders are welcome. 4pm.
Venue for all of the above workshops: Social Centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.

Evening:
Café in Social Centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.



Monday 29th April

Daytime:
Beginning of week-long WOMBLES Trial, Horseferry Road - demo outside with 'We are all Wombles' theme. Wear a white overall.


Margaret Jones completes her sponsored walk for peace at 10 Downing Street, 11am, where she arrives with 'a letter addressed to Blair, Bradshaw, Straw, and all the other Blur Blah Blah bullshit quisling sellouts'.

On April 21, Margaret Jones begins a sponsored walk from Bristol to london to raise money for two Palestinian clinics - Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza, and the Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, in Ramallah.

The 120-mile walk concludes on April 29th at 10 Downing Street, to mark the vote of the British War Cabinet in 1917 that supported Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour in his colonialist move to give away Arab lands in Palestine to Jewish settlers, without the consent of the people already living there. 'Successive British governments, in their support for US policies uncritical of Israel's human rights violations, are directly responsible for the horrors currently endured by the Palestinian people.' she says.

Banner-making workshop - 12pm onwards.
Self-defense - 2pm
Costume-making - 3pm onwards. Make a carnival costume for Mayday - bring material, sequins, ribbons, glitter etc.
Venue: Social Centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.

Evening:
Choke On It! Action organised by M'AM (movement Against the Monarchy), against dinner by the 5 living Prime Ministers and the Queen. Downing Street - 6pm.

Palestine - a talk from women who have been to Palestine as part of a 'human shield' international peace mission. - 7pm
Venue: Social Centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.



Tuesday 30th April

Daytime:
Free Shop at London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 (corner of Fieldgate St & Parfett St). Nearest tube: Aldgate East or Whitechapel. Bring books, records, clothes & other stuff to give away. (tbc)

Workshop: Pirate Women - 1pm
Venue: Social Centre - phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.

Evening:
Protest against Channel Four's censorship of 'Injustice' - 9.00pm
Injustice is a radical feature length film about the struggles for justice by the families of people that have died in police custody. On its release a year ago the police tried to censor the film by threatening cinemas. Months of fighting, by the film makers & families in the film, ended in victory with the police backing off and the film on release in cinemas across the UK & internationally. But Channel Four still refuse to broadcast the film because they won't take on the Police Federation. C4 are not only banning the film they are telling the police 'It's ok to kill, we won't turn our cameras on you'. Protest against the ban - since C4 won't screen Injustice then we are going to screen it on C4!

Organised by 'Friends of Injustice' as part of the Mayday Festival of Alternatives.
Venue: Channel Four Television, 124 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P. Tube:
St. James Park.
For full details see:  http://www.injusticefilm.org.uk



Wednesday 1st May - Mayday

Daytime:
7.30am - Critical Mass - 2 meeting points, south and north.
9am - B.A.R.F. (Breakfast Against Routine Fit-ups). Start the day with vegan breakfast outside WOMBLES showtrial at Horseferry Road
1pm - Mass Action: "Mayday in Mayfair" - find out more>>>
5pm - "Nobody is illegal" Sexual Freedom Coalition event in Soho, with sex workers union & samba band - meet Cambridge Circus.

Evening:
Comedy gig with Rob Newman, Tony Allen & Ian Cognito. Film screenings upstairs. At Chats Palace, 42 Brooksby's Walk, Homerton, E8. Nearest train station: Homerton on Silverlink line.
Contact for gig:  nlmaydayfestival@lycos.co.uk



Thursday 2nd May

Daytime:
Council Elections - 'Vote For Nobody' campaign.


'Health & healing' day at London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1.
A day of Shiatsu, Thai massage, herbal treatments and Yoga (see above for yoga). A chance to relax and unwind after the stresses and strains of Mayday, and try out alternative health treatments for free.
Details tba.

Sports massage - 5pm

radicalyoga - free yoga classes with opportunities for discussion, practice and meditation. You will be very welcome to participate…wearing loose clothing, bring a happy heart, an empty stomach and an open mind. 4:30pm-7pm – London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1

Evening:
Showing of a documentary film (Spanish, no subtitles) of the SINTRAEMCALI trade union occupation of the Emcali tower in Cali, Columbia. On Christmas Day last year, 800 workers occupied the nerve-centre of the state-owned municapal company which runs water, electricity and telecoms, for over three weeks,and won their fight to stop essential resources being privatised. A talk by former SINTRAEMCALI President Alexander Lopez plus a member of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, follows. Colombian food possibly available.
Venue: The Union Tavern, Camberwell New Rd, nearest tube Oval or BR Vauxhall, in the luvly back room called The Latin Palace.



Friday 3rd May

Daytime:
Workshop/discussion: Feminism 101 - an introduction to feminist arguments for men. time & venue tbc.

Evening:
West London Anarchist & Radical History Walk in Hammersmith
William Morris's connections with Hammersmith are well known, but but there is much more to our radical history than just Morris. Join us for a tour through the past finishing with a drink at one (or more) of Hammersmith's finest pubs. Children welcome.
Meet at Hammersmith Tube, Hammersmith & City Line, 6.15pm.

Late Night at the Rio Cinema - 11-11.30ish - double feature.
Films: Asurot (Detained) - Dir Anat Even and Ada Ushpiz - 2001.
Documentary film depicting life under Israeli occupation through the eyes of three Palestinian widows and their 11 children. They live in Hebron in a house house directly on the Palestinian/Israeli border. Thier rooftop is an army observation point controlling the city; their front door an Israeli Military station. The Palestinian Authority controls the back of the house. Surrounded by Israeli soldiers, they continue their difficult life in an almost perverse situation: the occupation becomes routine.

Black Box BRD (Black Box Germany) Dir Andres Veiel - 2001
Documentary film exploring the struggle between the German state and the Red Army Faction - a Maoist armed urban guerilla group - during the 70s and 80s. The film charts the lives (and violent deaths)of two
ideological enemies - Head of Deutsche Bank Alfred Herrhausen, one of the most powerful men in the
Federal Republic, blown up by an alleged Red Army Faction carbomb, 1989, and Wolfgang Grams - a Red Army faction commando, shot dead by police after five years on the run, in 1993. The film attracted widespread acclaim when shown on general release in Germany last summer.



Saturday 4th May

Daytime:
"Jayday" Legalise Cannabis day in Brockwell Park - visit the Schnews marquee, Indymedia marquee, and Mayday area for infostalls, vegan food, music & movie projections.

Evening:
Punk gig with Seein Red and Shaikari + two other bands;
at Chat's Palace, 5 Brooksby's Walk, Homerton, E8. Nearest train station: Homerton on Silverlink line.
Space available for film showings.
Contact for gig:  nlmaydayfestival@lycos.co.uk




Sunday 5th May

Daytime:
Looney Left Mayday Footie Tournament & 'Hackney Not 4 Sale' Picnic 2002
Calling all footie Loons. Great footballing events do not rely on great footballers, this is the Looney Left ethos. In fact the Loonier you are the more we reclaim the game from the corporations who dominate what has now become a multi-million pound industry. We want to make this event a class act where we organise our own games, which are inclusive and fun, on a day of historical significance. We want to create an autonomous football space where we are uncontainable, uncheckable and uncontrollable. So if you agree with most of the above put in a team, or just turn up for a game, also kids game and if you’d rather try a non-competitive version of the game dreamt up by some other Looney, then join in the 3 sided footie event and put it to the test. With enough people a mass game is planned, so bring your own football. There will be other festivities at the venue including music and picnic, but bring along your own contributions, food, music, games etc.

Venue: Clissold Park, Stoke Newington.
Kick off for main tournament: 12pm
3 sided event: whenever we feel like it!
Kids game: before tounament final

Very few women have participated in the tournament in recent years, this year we are trying to put in a women's team, it doesn’t matter if you don’t play regularly, get involved and experience playing with other women!

There will also be the Looney Left World Cup / Jubilee Tournament in early June. Date yet to be confirmed.
Mayday Tournament teams need to send £20 to Looney Left Collective c/o PO Box 32, 136 Kingsland High St., Dalston, E8. Cheques payable to ‘Between the Lines’, or send £30 to enter both the May and June tournaments. Money goes to covering costs, goals, printing etc. You should also send in team names, shirt colours and team contact no.
For queries & futher info. Email:  looneyleftcollective@hotmail.com or ring 07786 720 146

Evening:
Bass-heavy punky reggae bash with the Restarts, Nomadix Roots, One Style + DJ Dave (Zion Train). The return of the local punk & roots warriors.
8pm till 2am at Arsenal Tavern, 175 Blackstock Road, N4 (Arsenal, Finsbury Park tubes.)
Entry: 5 quid/3.50 quid
Contact for gig:  nlmaydayfestival@lycos.co.uk



Monday 6th May

Daytime:
Radical Bookfair - 11am - 5pm
Venue: The Exchange Community Centre, Sebbon Street, Islington, N1. (off Upper Street, behind Islington Town Hall). Nearest tube: Highbury & Islington.
If you would like a stall at the bookfair please email:  festivalofalternatives@yahoo.com

Workshop: Food Autonomy - 4pm.
A one to one-and-a-half hour talk plus gorgeous slide show featuring images of diverse agriculture and grass roots resistance to corporate control of the food chain. Workshop also includes updates from the Resistance is Fertile (www.resistanceisfertile.com/english/) actions in Den Haag April 8 - 19 against the Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (phew! - aka Cop6) which looks at the commodification and privatisation of 'genetic resources'- plants, ecosystems, land, agriculture, and knowledge.
Venue: London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 (corner of Fieldgate St & Parfett St). Nearest tube: Aldgate East or Whitechapel.

Haringay: Mayday at the Markfield: A celebration of independence and interdependence of our communities, (Speak outs, festive stuff, discussions, videos, displays) at the Markfield Project, Tottenham.


Evening:
Film: Incitement to riot , followed by a talk from Class War - 6.30pm
"Incitement To Riot" is an hour long video that does just what it says on the box! Packed with footage from all the best riots of the past, and a hard hitting soundtrack, from Gil Scott Heron to Conflict!
Venue: London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 (corner of Fieldgate St & Parfett St). Nearest tube: Aldgate East or Whitechapel.

Simon Jones Campaign: talk & film - 8pm. venue & details tba.



Throughout the Week

Vote For Nobody Campaign
Leafleting and campaigning using the Vote For Nobody idea, against the Council Elections on Thursday 2nd May.


WOMBLES on trial - the Womble 7 are on trial from Monday 29th April - Friday 3rd May, at Horseferry Rd Magistrates Court, SW1. There will be demos outside the court all week. Please come down and show your support for their fight against political repression.


A temporary week-long Social Centre, with Infoshop, workshops, discussions, vegan cafe, art exhibition, film showings. Phone: 07786 716 335 on Friday 26th April for details of venue.


Mayweek in Haringey
People associated with Haringey Solidarity Group are organising local events around the time of Mayday - from Friday April 26th to Tuesday May 7th - to communicate the fact that there is a radical and realistic anti-capitalist/anti-authoritarian alternative to the current system.


More workshops and events are planned for the Mayday Festival of Alternatives. Keep checking this timetable for updates.

It won't stay down:

 http://www.ourmayday.org