[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Owen Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 3:03 PM Subject: [UK_Left_Network] May Day in Manchester Alrighty! I sent this to another list but was asked to forward it, on May Day in the epicentre of the world revolution that is Manchester city centre. - Owen ---- Comrades, Happy May Day, the international day of the working class! Today I went with a few mates from college to the demo in Manchester, which was attended by a couple of hundred (as opposed to the thousands in London). We converged in the centre, and it was very disorganised. There was a massive police presence, with lots of cops on the street, on horseback and in vans, on bikes and in cars. After a while of milling about, there was some talk of staging an occupation - with potential targets ranging from the Town Hall or BBC to Starbucks or Gap. The Town Hall itself was guarded by several cops on horseback, so a sudden charge was not recommended. Another target that was considered was a Balfour Beatty construction site; this company being involved in the oppression of Turkey's Kurds, for instance in organising the building of a dam which will displace thousands. In the end the march began, accompanied with our friends the cops, who surrounded us on horseback, attempting as best they could to intimidate us. At one point we took control of a road until we were forced off. Largely there was a carnival atmosphere; someone gave me a drum which filled me with pride though I have no rhythm, and there were various chants and people with interesting clothes on. We managed to lose the horses at one stage by cleverly going through the Gay Village. However, as we approached Piccadilly again, they tried to show their authority by charging at the protestors on horseback, which caused people to run. Some were roughly treated by the cops, pushed about and the like (though nowhere nearly as bad as London). However, what they then did is round up as many protestors as possible and surrounded us with a wall of policemen on horseback. Then a copper with a loudspeaker announced they "wanted to speak to us for a minute or two". Yeah, right. He demanded to know who our leader was, which caused a certain amount of laughter and several insults to be yelled at the police. A chant started for a while, going like this: "Whose streets? Our Streets! Whose world? Our world!" After some conferring amongst the police, he returned to inform us that having failed to choose a representative, our march was thereby declared illegal under the 1996 Public Order Act and that no routes had been negotiated. We were to be dispersed, in other words. Twenty minutes later and we were still standing there, trapped. I had my camera with me, so was sure to take a couple of pics of this. One cop was glaring at us with complete contempt, so I shouted at him and asked him to keep the expression just like that because it was beautiful and I took a photo of him; people began to mock him and call him a natural and the like, thus completely undermining his precious authority. Some of us began to insult the police, being a lippy little cocky bastard I quite enjoyed this part and by god did they hate me. Anyway, after a while I managed to escape with a friend and we crossed the road. She then got a phone call from a protestor telling us useful info such as that we didn't have to give our name or address by law unless in a police station, a number for a solicitor, and suchlike. Anyway, we wanted to see what was going on and tried to cross the road, but a policeman shoved us back and told us we were to stay where we were and began to glare at us, which I thought was so comical and I couldn't help but laugh hysterically and ask if such sinister looks were part of the police training package. Of course he was trying to show his authority so we did our best to undermine it by commenting on his small feet and wondering what this might imply and when he shoved us back again I laughed and said, "Defenders of the people, ay?" We managed to escape from him eventually and cross the road at another point, but this guy wanted revenge. He walky talkied his colleagues who suddenly approached me and demanded to know if I was part of the protest, which I said I was, and they declared that were to immediately search me. I had a quick laugh about my huge stash of Molotov cocktails and demanded to know the reason for this search, and they stated that I had broken away from the main body of protesters and could therefore be carrying anything (the logic there being...?) They did their best to intimidate me, pinning me against a wall whilst glaring at me and asking me bizarre questions (did I have tattoos? did I live alone or with a family? did I love my family?) and searching through my pockets and bag with the vain hope of finding something incriminating. I made a point to laugh and joke whilst they were doing this and point out that they were doing the very reverse of intimidating me and thanking them for giving me something to boast about at the pub, and how I had forgotten quite how ugly policemen were these days. One cop began to fill in details about me, and demanded my name and address. I pointed out that it was my right not give them that and they said, yeah, we know, you trying to tell us the law? and then I pointed out that they had tried to sneakily squeeze the information off me so they could put me into some database of known subversives. I was given a copy of this sheet - described as "medium build, short spiky hair, grey jacket, beige trousers" though I had an argument about my height, which they claimed was 5 foot 7 but I argued was actually nearer to 5 foot 8. Anyway, they dispersed the protest four-by-four and managed to quite effectively silence us. A few dozen diehards stayed, but I decided that it was no longer worth it and returned to Stockport. In London it was a lot worse - they detained the bulk of protestors for EIGHT HOURS in the cold and rain, and anyone who tried to escape was savagely beaten with batons, the idea being, as a BBC reported pointed out, was to "sap their morale". Even the BBC described the police operation as effectively trampling over the fundamental right to the freedom of speech; they wanted revenge for last year, and they certainly got it, for they managed they trashed that lovely bourgeois-democratic ideal of the freedom to demonstrate and the freedom of speech. Anyway, no-one was killed, although someone was given the kiss of life in London apparently. This looks like it could backfire spectacularly on the police, who were responsible for nearly all the violence and who trampled over the supposed basic freedoms of this state. in solidarity with all May Day protesters the world over Owen To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
