May Day protests

[Tommy-K]

Apparently becoming less and less common. hardly any this year.

why do you think this is?

[Jude]

Government suppression? :huh:

[Rawthentic]

In my city, there was about 2,000 people, nearly all Mexican immigrants and farm laborers. I talked to them, asked them what they felt their problems were, and talked about the Communist League's stance, and what our solution was. I passed out about 250 of our May Day leaflets titled "Ningun Trabajador es Ilegal!", or "No Worker is Illegal!" I held a sign that said the same in spanish with the League symbol, but some farm worker decided he wanted to hold it up, so he did. People were quite receptive to communism, and agreed of my analysis against capitalism. But most of the people who I gave leaflets to simply took a quick look, some read a little, and out them in their pockets or folded them - hopefully to read them later, as I imagine they would. I also got into an argument with an old farm worker organizer about communism, and he had the usual lies and all about Stalin and Cuba and Castro, so I presented my points quite well.

What happened with y'all?

[KC]

http://i16.tinypic.com/4yfm4hv.jpg

[Organic Revolution]

Very positive march here in Chicago. The corporate news estimates are 150,000 people, but my estimates were nearer to 500,000 people. The anarchist and wobblie contingent (numbering about 400) met at haymarket square at around ten o' clock and the festivities kicked off. music, food, chanting and good conversation was the rally. At around 12:30 maybe 1:00 our anarchist/radical labor contingent met up with the immigration rally and started to march, chanting in Spanish ( i had no idea what we were saying) but it was very, very lively. A woman came up to me some time during the march, and asked me what my black flag meant, to which I replied "It means to me that without borders and nations we wouldn't have this large issue over 'immigration' as all people would be connected through comradeship. it means the end of capitalism, the end of the state, the end of exploitation, authority, hierarchy, environmental destruction, imperialism, and war." To which she replied, "then call me an anarchist" and asked me for a reading list, so i handed her one, we talked for a while, and i moved on. at the end of the march, we met in grant park, and the anarchists talked about the march, the successes, failures, and enjoyed some food, courtesy of Evanston FnB. All in all, a very good march.

here is an image to show you the shear size of the march, this is a small small section of the march.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q174/bakunin1/mayday068.jpg

[Organic Revolution]

are you crazy? the smallest estimate of the protesters in chicago were 250,000!

[RNK]

Those are mainly pro-immigration rallies; not International Workers' Day rallies. Although obviously pro-immigration is good, I think his point is is that the workers' movement is no longer capable of mobilizing itself independantly anymore..

Except here! About 3000+ workers, unionists, socialists, communists etc, rallied.

[RNK]

No immigrant rallies here. About 3000 workers, unionists, socialists, communists and anarchists gathered under the afternoon sun. March itself lasted about 2-3 hours. Lots of different people showed up. Communist Party of Quebec, New Democratic Party, Communist Party of Quebec II, some big student group (I bet CyM was with them!), some anarchists, and, lastly, the group I went to support, the Revolutionary Commie Party (of Canuckistan). Funny thing is, we outnumbered all of the other "communist" and "socialist" parties combined.. which was great. Because during the march we were kind of dogging on them by calling their parties "stagnant", and they dogged back, calling us radicals and sectarianists. Which was okay. Because we had a McGuyver soundsystem and they didn't! Well, if you can call two loudphones attached to a broomstick a "sound system". Anyway march went on for what seemed like forever, then ended and people started going home. So someone in the RCP/Anarchist group started yelling to branch off and continue the march "spontaneously", which we all did. Brushed by a couple of cops who tried to stop us (ahahah 2 cops on bicycles vs. 150 or so riled up Commies), marched some more, down some streets, people came out of their houses to watch (as it was a residential street), then we stopped infront of an Army barracks, some speaches were made and singing of the Internationale and some anarchists vandalized the barracks (well, they vandalized a sign out front of it, atleast...). Overall, fun... but I was half disappointed that no riot cops showed up.

Pics can be found HERE (http://www.pcr-rcp.ca/fr/photo?id=64&all).

[Tekun]

Turned ugly in LA.....
There was about 25,000 to 30,000 of us combined who showed up to the two marches during the day, one in the morning and one in the early evening
The morning march which was held in and throughout downtown LA went as planned, peaceful and positive
Several groups/orgs were represented throughout the crowd: Chicano groups, local students from the schools, religious nutjobs, student orgs., workers orgs, anarchist and communist groups, yours truly with a couple of ppl, plus many others
According to the "organizers" many more were expected
But to me, it was a great testament to these ppl's will and determination

The march in the evening however, showed the pigs in all their glory
The march was initially organized to begin near downtown and then proceed to McArthur Park (a park within a heavily immigrant community)
According to some ppl who stayed for both marches (I couldn't), a group of ppl began to throw things at the 5-O a couple of blocks from the park
These ppl were soon arrested and/or chased away
Then shit went bad....
For some fuckin reason, the pigs decided to sweep McArthur Park of all protestors
At around 7pm, as many ppl were gathered inside the park (I'd say around 500), the media all too present as well, the pigs began to sweep through in formation with their clubs drawn
As ppl were running away, some stood up to the pigs, and then were shot with rubber bullets
Others walked away too slow and were pushed down and clubbed
Some who stayed and watched the events were shot at and clubbed
According to a friend of mine, the pigs were shooting at anything that got in their way
Men, women, and children were clubbed-kicked-pushed-and cursed at
Many members of the media were also clubbed and shot at
In fact, therez footage of the cops kicking and clubbing the shit out of several cameramen and reporters
Once again, another event demonstrated to the world the savagery of the LAPD
The latest is that around 10 media members are in the hospital recovering from their beatings
About 25-30 ppl were arrested, and many more were beaten up
The chief of police has called for an "investigation" of the events
Although it was a good turnout, it was a fucked up day here in LA

LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-05/29474354.jpg
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-05/29469558.jpg
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-05/29479095.jpg
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-05/29479097.jpg

If anyone is interested, there is a video of police brutality against the marchers at abc7 (http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5261285)
and also at latimes (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-march2may02,0,3947088.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines)
or also at Fox LA (http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=3086223&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1)

Its a fucking joke how most national media outlets haven't covered or exposed what happened in LA to the rest of the country

[Forward Union]

Went on the autonomous workers bloc, on the TUC march. As marches go, that was quite good.

Went to this Canary Warf take-over party thing.

Got classed as a 'potential terrorist' by met police, stoped and searched twice, had loads of stuff confiscated - my bag emptied out. Then watched a load of stupid hippys dance about like pricks, and then went to a pub to watch the liverpool vs chelsea game.

It essentially confirmed what I arleady knew, the state is becoming increasingly authorotarian, and draconian, able to run circles around us. And as a movement we're almsot completely morribund.

[farleft]

I got seperated from you and couldnt meet up again, I missed watching you get searched by the bastards.

[RebelDog]

And as a movement we're almsot completely morribund.

I'm not sure how you gauge that from a midweek march but I understand fully how you feel. Look at the other marches though, 500,000 at one!

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by The [email protected] 02, 2007 01:04 pm

And as a movement we're almsot completely morribund.

I'm not sure how you gauge that from a midweek march but I understand fully how you feel. Look at the other marches though, 500,000 at one!
Well, our mayday march had hundreds of thousands to. Including a large anarchist bloc.

But firstly, it served no practical purpose and secondly, vastly made up of Liberal-fluffy unionists, from the TUC

[An archist]

http://indymedia.be/nl/node/9241
:D

[Djehuti]

Revolutionary First May in Sweden (anarcho-syndicalists and various organisations of the radical left):

http://motkraft.net/ (click "35 bilder: Första maj 2007")


----

So the autonomous left:

Stockholm: 3000
Gothenburg: 1500
Malmö: 700

And 50-300 in various minor cities.


I've got no numbers on the marxist-leninists and the socialist left party.

[Djehuti]

Some pics and a movie:
http://ungdomar.se/forum.php?thread_id=160466&page=4#5703850

[More Fire for the People]

Nothing happened here. Nothing within in a few hundred miles of me except for a candlelight vigil.

[BuyOurEverything]

No immigrant rallies here. About 3000 workers, unionists, socialists, communists and anarchists gathered under the afternoon sun. March itself lasted about 2-3 hours. Lots of different people showed up. Communist Party of Quebec, New Democratic Party, Communist Party of Quebec II, some big student group (I bet CyM was with them!), some anarchists, and, lastly, the group I went to support, the Revolutionary Commie Party (of Canuckistan). Funny thing is, we outnumbered all of the other "communist" and "socialist" parties combined.. which was great. Because during the march we were kind of dogging on them by calling their parties "stagnant", and they dogged back, calling us radicals and sectarianists. Which was okay. Because we had a McGuyver soundsystem and they didn't! Well, if you can call two loudphones attached to a broomstick a "sound system". Anyway march went on for what seemed like forever, then ended and people started going home. So someone in the RCP/Anarchist group started yelling to branch off and continue the march "spontaneously", which we all did. Brushed by a couple of cops who tried to stop us (ahahah 2 cops on bicycles vs. 150 or so riled up Commies), marched some more, down some streets, people came out of their houses to watch (as it was a residential street), then we stopped infront of an Army barracks, some speaches were made and singing of the Internationale and some anarchists vandalized the barracks (well, they vandalized a sign out front of it, atleast...). Overall, fun... but I was half disappointed that no riot cops showed up.

I have to say, I was definately impressed with the size of the RCP contigent. Although, I think the anarchists had a better sound system...

[Rawthentic]

Zampano, it makes me so happy to see so many people in my Milwaukee! Man, I hope some of my family was there supporting and all.

Tell me, did you pass out the League pamphlet and all? What receptions did you get?

[OneBrickOneVoice]

Ours was pretty good. I think that although the bourgeois media claims that the protests were all smaller this year due to "immigration not being a hot-button issue", I think here it was nearly the same. There were lots of communists, a few scattered anarchists and wobblies. The Worker's World handed out alot of papers, the PLP had a big red flag contingent, several trotskyists groups were there too yelling at the other non-trotskyist groups and trying to take away the WWP papers handed out.

I was with the RCP, we had a fairly large red flag contingent considering that we made the flags in literally 2 hours at the last moment and no one was alerted until we got there on the plan. This was kinda frustrating because we could've been alot more coordinated. We also got out a broadsheet in bundles and bundles to the masses at this protest on May Day, the shittiness of capitalism, and the socialist and communist liberation alternative.

Midway through the march, the NYPD decided to arrest a few people for wearing bandanas and were going to arrest me to when I showed up with my comrades at the scene because I was wearing a red bandana, but the law states that you have to be 2 or more and all the other people in our contingent wearing red bandanas were farther ahead. Nothing like what happened in LA occured though

[Rawthentic]

liverpool vs chelsea game
Ha, great game! I was hoping Chelsea would win though. Did you see Milan vs. Manchester today? Milan won 3-0, so its Liverpool vs. Milan, just like 2 years ago. I'm rooting for Milan to take revenge.

And damn, RPAS, thats some outright pig brutality.

Hopscotch, I'm sorry comrade. Where do you live?

[Djehuti]

I went with the syndicalists and the autonomous left. We gathered 3000 in Stockholm (approx 1000 more than last year, 1500 in Gothenburg (approx 500 less than last year) and 700 in Malmö (a few more than last year). Also 50-300 in various minor cities.

I've collected various pics (and a video) from our demonstrations at an external site.
Link (http://ungdomar.se/forum.php?thread_id=160466&page=4#5703850)

I had fun, even though I was tired as hell. Went home and slept when the demonstrations were over.



The socialist left party gathered quite a lot more people this year than last (8500 in Stockholm now, 6500 last year), I am not yet sure how the marxists-leninist faired this year.

[BreadBros]

The past two May Days have been the biggest in over 70 years here in the US. Pro-immigration rallies ARE workers rallies...the vast majority of people marching are workers and the date of May 1st was purposefully chosen to emphasize the fact that this is ultimately a labor struggle. The fact that it was organized around an actual issue instead of just ritualizing protests on May Day is a plus, not a negative.

[BreadBros]

I was at the NYC march. Apparently this happened during our march: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RstfALrC1s although I did not see/experience this myself since I was further back in the march.

[OneBrickOneVoice]

wtf breadbros!!!

I was literally just about to post that video. I had it copied and everything. I was there the second I saw a cop running in that direction with his gun out

[Taboo Tongue]

Not nearly as exciting as those, but I live in some redneck Southern US town of like 33,000. We distributed leaflets around the school posted some up, and one comrade went to the community college and reported back that they loved it. Principal ended up trying to figure out who was doing it and caught me with one in my hand [I simply denied it] and by the end of the day questioned me (briefly) twice.

[RNK]

Originally posted by [email protected] 02, 2007 11:10 pm
I have to say, I was definately impressed with the size of the RCP contigent. Although, I think the anarchists had a better sound system...
You mean the van that was right behind us? Those weren't anarchists (or were they?). I thought it was just a student group. But anyway, yeah, they had much better sound, and looked like about twice as many people. I thought there might be trouble with that but both our groups ended up saying a lot of the same things.

Anyway if you were impressed with that, you should've seen 2006's May Day... last year all of the unions and stuff decided to have their rally on a day other than May 1st. The RCP went ahead and did it on the 1st anyway, and something like 200-300 people marched through Parc X. There's pics floating around of it somewhere.

[Tower of Bebel]

In Belgium most of the marches were fucked up. The socialist party (left liberals in practice) dominated the marches and there was almost no militancy. The socialist party made it a campagne for the elections on june 10th.

At the end of each march the SP spoke to the crowd but there was no ambiance. Their words were full of hypocricy and lies. In Brussels some alternative groups weren't allowed to protest against the hipocricy of the SP. Like in Nigeria some alternative soicialists (real socialists if you ask me) were arrested.

[Forward Union]

'eres a few pics.

Autonomous Workers Bloc takes the no-go area in trafalgar;

http://a51.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/27/l_7dfb183143c5d009be728d0e97cc2002.jpg

The flag of the Anarchist Federation (part of the IAF-IFA)

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7650/afkk2.png

Police Photographer.

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/7440/autonomous3ri8.png

Front of the AWB

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5521/autonomous4bn4.png

[chebol]

My impression is actualy that May Day rallies have been growing globally in the past few years. The fact that this is not reported doesn't surprise me, but the solid facts speak against all power and privelege...

[BuyOurEverything]

You mean the van that was right behind us? Those weren't anarchists (or were they?). I thought it was just a student group. But anyway, yeah, they had much better sound, and looked like about twice as many people. I thought there might be trouble with that but both our groups ended up saying a lot of the same things.

Ya, that was l'ASSE, the Workers Solidarity Network, and NEFAC (I'm not sure if it was officially a NEFAC contingent, but all the NEFAC people I know were marching in it).

[Prairie Fire]

Me and my Comrades were disapointed that in our city, there wasn't a public Mayday event. So, we started one.

Me and my Comrades of Victoria Marxist Leninist Organization organized a public demonstration in front of city hall, where we gave speeches and attracted a small following.

The point was to bee seen, and be active. We did this on the 28th of April. On Mayday proper, me and my comrades went to a shindig of communists/anarcho syndicalists at a Union hall.

[Tommy-K]

Originally posted by Organic [email protected] 02, 2007 05:07 am
are you crazy? the smallest estimate of the protesters in chicago were 250,000!
sorry, i forgot to mention the news report i saw on it referred to britain alone.

my bad.

[More Fire for the People]

Originally posted by [email protected] 02, 2007 05:30 pm
Hopscotch, I'm sorry comrade. Where do you live?
The American rural South. Confederate flags, rednecks, racists, & all that jazz. My sly counter-hegemonic efforts have been less then succesful . When I stick up for gay rights I am slandered as 'gay', 'queer', or 'homo'. I'm straight. When I stick up for Black rights and Black history I'm told I'm 'whitey cracker' by other white people. I'm a mestizo [as a sidenote: the actualy term for someone who is part White American and part Native American is 'half-breed' :(] . I stand up for Latino rights and well that's just a bunch of weird looks from the racists. When I talk of working class rights, action, and history I'm told that I have confusing ideas on what constitutes a class and everyone immediately says they're middle class. The majority of students & their families live in poverty.

[propertyistheft]

well I live in a small suburban town, so we just got all the sympathizers together and had a beerbq, at 2 dollars a head we made about 56 dollars, we gave this to a traveling folk musician. I wish we could have done a march or something, but we didnt get our shit together fast enough. Anyway I got into a fight with a person advocating primitivism.

[Rawthentic]

Well I'm glad that we were out there, thats the most important thing. ;)

[Chicano Shamrock]

Originally posted by [email protected] 02, 2007 12:22 am
Turned ugly in LA.....

I wish I was there. I was confused about where it was being held. I was kind of upset that the port didn't shutdown all the way. I know some truckers from the IWW didn't go to work but there were people working the docks. It was generally a slow day though at the ports.

I had a class early on in the day where some guy made a comment about my shirt with a red star. He told me he didn't like communism or communists. He assumed the star was for communism. Anyways I played devils advocate and asked him what he knew about communism since he brought it up. He said it is a big government that decides how much you make at work. He said a doctor would make the same as a janitor. I tried to tell him that under communism there is no money. He wouldn't listen and he stayed stubborn so I left him alone. At the end of class I told him later and called him comrade. It kind of pissed him off but he knew I was messing with him.

Again today he brought communism up. He used the USSR and China as examples that communism doesn't work. I said the USSR was supposedly socialist not communist. I explained that communist state is an oxymoron. I even spelled out the USSR acronym. He still didn't understand. We left class today in an argument. I might print him out a pamphlet.... or I might not waste my time. Either way at least he agreed that the cops went too far on May Day. He said he usually agrees with the cops but this was too extreme.

But other than a discussion in class and spending time with my family I didn't do much. I wish I went to a march but I am the only radical I know and I couldn't find much information on where to meet or where to be.

[YSR]

I marched with the relatively small Wobbly contingent in the Minneapolis/St. Paul march. Immigrant groups really had their shit together and organized a lot of people to come out. Didn't see any other leftist groups except for a few newspaper salespeople at the rally afterwards. Only other white group in the crowd (TC IWW mostly draws from the local punk scene and university) was a leftist Jewish action group. So much for solidarity, whitey. Someone told me that they didn't have a permit to march down the street we did, a rather main thoroughfare which runs through the main Latino neighborhood in Mnpls. So that showed some spunk.

I vaguely know one of the main organizers and he called up a Wobbly comrade of mine while the union had a little picnic before hand to ask for some Wobbly chants. We couldn't think of any (because we're idiots). But it was really interesting anyhow. The young organizers of the immigrants rights movement here are really radical and anti-capitalist, with a strong Zapatismo influence. I hope to see the white radical scene and the Latino community work together on anti-capitalist work a lot more in the future. What with RNC-08 coming up, I think we will.

[BreadBros]

To give people some context and hopefully tie people into worldwide struggles more, here is a summary of some May Day actions that happened around the world, thanks to Indymedia:

May Day March in Jakarta, Indonesia (http://jakarta.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=1394):
http://jakarta.indymedia.org/attachments/may2007/mayday01a.jpg
http://jakarta.indymedia.org/attachments/may2007/mayday10.jpg

May Day march and rally against youth wages in Auckland, New Zeland (http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/72975/index.php):
http://indymedia.org.nz/usermedia/image/13/dscf7336edit.jpg
http://indymedia.org.nz/usermedia/image/6/dscf7396edit.jpg

Riots in Zurich, Switzerland (http://ch.indymedia.org/de/2007/04/48384.shtml):
http://ch.indymedia.org/images/2007/04/48385.jpg

And in Oaxaca, Mexico: a 100,000 person march on May Day and a strike on May 2nd, no pictures though (yet).

[Janus]

Unfortunately, there was no demonstration/march in my city :( since the group which was supposed to have organized it didn't come through. However, there was a rally and show in downtown which was exciting.

[NaxalbariZindabad]

The red MayDay in Montreal was pretty cool. I won't make a report here since comrade RNK already did.

I witnessed a funny thing though... The communist contingent decided to march behind the reformist unions this year (I think it was because the RCP wasn't sure to get enough people to start another demo).

Then, at the beginning of the march, some dude came towards me to complain (I was not involved in the demo's organization, but since I had a red flag, I guess he thought I was an organizer). Basically the guy (I don't think he was an activist, I never saw him in other events before) was yelling and complaining that the unions were ruining the true internationalist meaning of MayDay, and he was pissed off that the communists "weren't brave enough" to go in front of the demo and lead the march... :blink: he probably didn't notice the 150-strong unions private police!

Later after the march, I got the same complaint from 3 different people... I guess that next year the RCP will organize its own demo; you gotta listen to the masses! :D

--> Montreal Mayday pics: http://pcr-rcp.ca/en

[RNK]

That would be a cool way for the RCP Canada to gauge its support, hold a demo on the same day but in a different location.

If anything we should've atleast been infront of the two Communist Party of Quebecs and the NDP. We were much larger than the three of them combined -- shitty QS.

[aty]

Originally posted by [email protected] 04, 2007 10:58 am

Riots in Zurich, Switzerland
http://ch.indymedia.org/images/2007/04/48385.jpg


Hmm that picture is from Stockholm, Sweden. It is the Syndicalist/Anarchist march.

A movie from sweden also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foImzNgDNcI

[NaxalbariZindabad]

you're right aty

here's the Zurich Mayday riot:

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r2358565619.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r1360247063.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r2343073292.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r3166250791.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r2974516068.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r1376628368.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r116211035.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r1255493451.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r2304498208.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070501/i/r110657089.jpg

[Hiero]

Me and my Comrades of Victoria Marxist Leninist Organization organized a public demonstration in front of city hall, where we gave speeches and attracted a small following.

Nice work.

I attended a rally and march. I think it is getting smaller every year here, but our party is going to send a letter to the May Day commitee about changing the route so we march down more popular street. There were only two red flags, I had one a CPA flag, and a man was carrying a plan red flag, I think he was with the Meat Workers Union, or MUA, their colours are similar, which is blue and white writing.

I was meant to go to a dinner, but sleep prevailed and I missed it.

[The Grey Blur]

Good to see all these actions comrades, I'll hope to get some pics up of our rally soon. That's a class banner from the Candian RCP, the French one.

[Rawthentic]

What banner?

You're in Scotland right?

[antifasist]

This year May Day in Istanbul (Turkey) was very eventful. Turkish revolutionarists
wanted to remember 36 people who were killed in 1977 May Day in Taksim (center of Istanbul) but altough governmnet let football, police day etc. celebrations they don't let revolutionarists to celebrate May Day in Taksim for years.
As 30 years before police attacked revolutionarists. Press was obstructed. In every corner of Istanbul there were clashes. Police attacked everyone on the streets even if they were not protesters. Although about 1000 custodies taken, hundreds of gas bombs throwen (even they were thrown from police helicopters), many plastic bullets used, more than 100 buses hadn't taken in the city and many harsh clashes existed more than 3000 revolutionist entered the Taksim Square after years. Governments estimate for the number of protesters ,who tried to enter Taksim, is 60-70 thousand. (There were more many celebrations in Turkey even in Istanbul)

(you can watch celebrations(!) from youtube. You can use "1 Mayıs" as keyword.)