Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Lancashire Reclaim Mayday Pictures

Steve Lancashire SolFed | 08.05.2004 12:02

Some picture of the Lancashire Reclaim Mayday

Bands kick it off in Preston
Bands kick it off in Preston

Laying a wreath in Preston at the 1842 memorial
Laying a wreath in Preston at the 1842 memorial

Sunday afternoon stalls and food and fun
Sunday afternoon stalls and food and fun

Mayday posters from around the world
Mayday posters from around the world

More Mayday posters
More Mayday posters


Besides being a day of recognising the continuing struggle between capitalism and the working class, Mayday has always been about having fun and sticking two fingers up at authority. This year in that spirit Lancashire Solidarity Federation and Lancaster Anarchist Group decided to reclaim it and put on the Lancashire Reclaim Mayday Roadshow.

The first event of the weekend kicked off on Friday night in Preston. Here two bands, The Sanity Clause and Confrontation along with Jessi from the band Eastfield played. There was a stall of freebies, Mayday Mayhem t-shirts an exhibition of IWA posters and a good atmosphere.

Next day being the May 1st various events took place. A wreath was laid in Preston at the memorial of the strikers of 1842 who were shot by the militia. This has been done for the past three years by Lancashire SolFed to mark the continuation of the struggle for freedom and justice. The usual Mayday stalls that used to be organised by the Radical Preston Alliance were nowhere to be seen, much to the annoyance of the local animal rights group who had turned up. The main reason for this is that the organising group had been usurped by RESPECT who managed to put everybody off by doubling the cost of a stall. The Solidarity Federation had not received an invite anyway, obviously not being submissive enough to their plans.

Meanwhile in Lancaster the annual Trades Council Mayday march took place. A fascist BNP member turned up demanding to take part and take photos. This put eh various left groups in a bit of disarray. The TUC officials didn’t know what to do, the SWP/ANL were too busy with their stall, the Greens wanted to debate with the guy and the Marxist Party members decide that everyone should ignore him. Only when the anarchist turned up was the situation resolved and the fascist kicked off.

At the end of the march the speeches began and there was a spontaneous exodus to the Roadshow picnic. Music and games were played in preparation for the evening festivities.

That evening at the Gregson Centre the performers from the night before plus a young band called Dead Generation played again. Videos were projected on the wall showing events like the miners strike, the poll tax riot and even Durruti’s funeral! There was even an exhibition of anarchist bellydancing with audience participation.

On Sunday stalls and exhibitions were put up in the Gregson again featuring the IWA posters for around the world. There were videos for all ages upstairs while kids were shown how to screen print their own Mayhem t-shirts, the adults relaxed and some nice food was provided.

Finally it was on to Burnley where The Sanity Clause and Jessi were joined by Burn All Flags for a final Mayday Mayhem gig. This went down well with those who attended who seemed to appreciate an alternative to the BNP and the pious ranting of the SWP/ANL, no wait Socialist Alliance, oh, sorry RESPECT cadre.

All in all everything the weekend went better than we could have hoped. Everyone involved pitched in and worked to make the whole thing a success. We are already talking about next year and how we can make it bigger and better. If there is one message we would like to convey though it is to encourage others to try something in your own locality next Mayday. You may be pleasantly surprised at the result.

Steve Lancashire SolFed
- e-mail: lancashiresolfed@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://mysite.freeserve.com/LancashireSF/page1.html

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. symbolism — victor ace
  2. great — huw
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech