Whatever happened to the May Day Riots?

[Jet Set Willy]

Okay, I'm being lazy and I know it, but I think this subject will also lead to interesting and enlightening debate.

Every year there's been all these big riots, and their prominence has been seen to grow. But this year? Not as McSausage, at a time when many more people than usual will be feeling unhappy at the way in which they are represented and catered for by the world's 'great powers'.

[ccab]

That's a good point. I must admit I was seriously disappointed at Churchill missing his hair appointment this year.

I think it's probably a combination of planning complications caused by the new terroism legislation, the european enlargement junket over in Dublin which drew many protestors away from London, and perhaps also a sense of weariness among protestors after so many recent marches & rallies - or (who knows?) possibly even the popular hostility to iraq, the US & the Blair government keeping the anarchists on their best behaviour (to avoid tarnishing the cause - although that's much more far-fetched).

Hopefully it'll be back in force next year.

[Chadwick]

I was actually all set to go down to London for the May Day "festivities" this year as it always looks such good fun on the telly. However there was an announcement from the main groups involved saying that there weren't going to be any protests this year, partly due to the way the event was policed last year. I ended up spending the first of May driving around the Scottish Borders visiting the locations used for the film The Wicker Man.

[fanny splendid]

I ended up spending the first of May driving around the Scottish Borders visiting the locations used for the film The Wicker Man.

Heh, that sounds like fun. Did you stay in a small Pub cum B&B, and lie awake all night waiting for Britt Ekland to bang on your wall?

[Chadwick]

I ended up spending the first of May driving around the Scottish Borders visiting the locations used for the film The Wicker Man.

Heh, that sounds like fun. Did you stay in a small Pub cum B&B, and lie awake all night waiting for Britt Ekland to bang on your wall?

No, but I did have a drink in the Green Man pub (actually the Ellengowan hotel, which, apart from a pool table and a coat of paint, is almost exactly as it appears in the film).

[butnut]

You're a lucky fellow. One of the aims of my life is to do what you did. Did you find the cliff where they burnt him?

[fanny splendid]

Now I'm jealous. :-)

[dan dirty ape]

It's as it is in the film?!  That must be pretty eerie!  

Every time anyone mentions 'The Wicker Man' I want to watch it again.

[Timmay]

BBC article about it here.

They claim it's not apathy, even though their website said, "The decision to postpone London Mayday 2004 was taken only after several disappointing and poorly attended meetings that had produced little."

So, people couldn't be arsed basically. I call that apathy. Sounds like they're losing support, and are clutching at straws for excuses to me.

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

I just assumed that it didn't happen this year because May Day fell on a Saturday. Even anarchists have got to have their days off.

[Purple Tentacle]

Perhaps they are REAL anarchists and don't believe in organising or co-ordinating things.


I missed my annual transformation into Major Misunderstanding this year too, waving my stick at the TV and calling them "bloody hooligans and teddy boys".

[hencole]

I would have gone, but I have decided that the only type of protest that draws any kind of attention is a violent one. Newspapers won't report peaceful protests. If I go in the future it will only be to cause violence as otherwise there is no point.

[Sherringford Hovis]

Some people DID turn out in London on Mayday - photos:
http://www.urban75.org/photos/protest/mayday04.html

Though Mayday originated as a pagan festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting that was still celebrated by peasants until the late 1700s; do you know what started the tradition of Mayday protests in the era of industrialisation and urban living?

In 1886, exploited workers in Chicago demonstrated to demand the universal adoption of the 8-hour day, with four of the eight demonstration organisers ending up being hanged on trumped-up charges and a fifth committing suicide before the US judiciary gave in to popular pressure and pardoned the three remaining protesters. Those who make a point of wearing a poppy in Remembrance week would do well to remember that these men probably had more of an influence on the quality of our everyday lives today than any of those unfortunate dupes of the ruling classes - on all sides- who have got themselves killed 'fighting for peace and freedom' in armed conflicts and wars since.
More history:
http://www.urban75.org/mayday02/history.html

UK activism in general has learnt a bitter lesson from the anti-war campaign, the fuel protests and countryside alliance march - free speech as a concept is all very well, but it's pretty pointless if it doesn't actually change anything. No matter how much campaigners might influence the general public's perception about whatever political flavour of issue that they care to demonstrate about, it's only on relatively minor single issues in places like Lee-on-Solent where moneyed and influentially connected protesters have the unequivocal backing of local press and council where government will change policy or decisions. (And in Lee's case, the government maintains that an asylum centre wasn't opened for 'technical reasons', despite actually being the best-suited site in the country according to independent studies.)

In the present climate, where just about any sort of dissent gets protesters treated like terrorists by the police, the government and the media, it's not surprising that those of us who feel motivated to actually act upon our social consciences once in a while are mostly hiding behind the sofa, quietly shitting ourselves - my sample may be unrepresentative, but this fear was reflected by everyone I spoke to when I was out on Mayday. In reaction to this, as you'll see from the list of events in the following link, rather than the somewhat self-indulgent nature of successively futile protests, much European activism is increasingly more often taking the form of education, benefit gigs, film shows, discussion groups etc rather than overt placard-waving.

http://www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm
Get involved with something - anything - or just meekly accept whatever statistical fate the military-industrial complex decides for you. That's the beauty of living in a 'free' society - it's YOUR choice to be apathetic or dismissive, but you also have to accept the consequences of your inaction without complaint.

[king mob]

I ended up spending the first of May driving around the Scottish Borders visiting the locations used for the film The Wicker Man.

Heh, that sounds like fun. Did you stay in a small Pub cum B&B, and lie awake all night waiting for Britt Ekland to bang on your wall?

No, but I did have a drink in the Green Man pub (actually the Ellengowan hotel, which, apart from a pool table and a coat of paint, is almost exactly as it appears in the film).

You should check out Connor McLeod's tower house thingy from Highlander, thats around there as well apparently.

[fanny splendid]

...och Connor, you can do that to me anytime...