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Alter last years's militant May Day protests in London, Berlin and other places,
the protests have this year turned even mare widespread. A decade back the
bourgeoisie declared "communism is dead" and the "end of history”;
today we see a worldwide resurgence of not only May Day celebrations but also
anti-imperialist protests. The imperialists cannot hold even a single meeting,
except under heavy police protection against anti-globalisation protestors. The
great mass actions at Nice, Cincinatti and Quebec are accompanied by the
continuing sit-in at Harward. Here, the most elite students of the USA continue
their two-week agitation demanding a "living -wage" for the employees
running their campus.
This year, May Day, brought millions onto the streets. Working class festivals
were coupled with pitched battles against the riot police in places like London,
Berlin, Zurich and a number of cities of Australia. People demonstrated around
concrete demands, like unemployment and other impacts of globalisation and
targeted symbols of imperialism - the stock exchanges, TNC companies, McDonald,
etc. With slogans like “people before profit" they highlighted various
causes like environment, disarmament, Third World poverty, anti-globalisation
and anti-capitalism.
London
After last year's violent protests, a massive force of roughly 10,000 police,
equipped with sophisticated riot gear, was pitted against the thousands of
demonstrators. Central London looked like a garrison town. Every protestor was
thoroughly checked and frisked at the very start.
In London, the march by 10,000 lab6ur activists and die huge cycle rally, began
peacefully, but later turned violent. The cyclists disrupted normal life and
brought city traffic to a standstill. By mid-afternoon, the march erupted into
violence when the huge police presence stilled the crowd's attempts to link up.
Bottles, stones and sticks were freely used. A group of protestors tore down the
McDonald signboard and pelted stones at the prime minister’s residence. The
protestors smashed shop fronts and overturned cars; they picked up litter bins
and hurled them repeatedly at the windows of Barclays Bank; near Oxford streets
(which has shops and offices of the main TNC consumer products) scuffles broke
out as protestors tried to break the police lines - 42 were arrested and 10
injured; and as darkness fell groups of protestors escaped the attention of the
riot police and ran down the shopping street smashing property.
Rest of Europe
Hundreds of thousands of workers, trade unionists and anti-capitalist activists
took to the streets throughout Europe to mark May Day, by protesting against the
effects of the global free-market.
The most militant action was yet again in Berlin. Some 9,000 police, from around
the country, were ordered to the streets of Berlin to prevent street violence
that has marred May Day celebrations for over a decade. But the people’s anger
peaked, due to the attitude of the rulers. First the government banned the
rally, under the pretext of also banning that of the fascists. The courts then
lifted the ban on the fascists, while continuing that on the workers.
The trouble in Berlin began in the early hours of the morning in two separate
locations in former East Berlin — one at the site of the Berlin wall itself.
Under cover of darkness roads were blocked and barricades erected — some were
set alight. Police were pelted with rocks and bottles and fires illuminated the
night sky for miles around. In running battles with the demonstrators, the riot
police used water canons, rubber bullets and armoured cars. Over 40
demonstrators were arrested and several police injured.
Clashes also occurred in other parts of Germany which witnessed May Day rallies
throughout the country. In Frankfurt 100 people were arrested when over a
thousand protestors battled the police. Barricades were also erected at Hamburg
leading to clashes and a few arrests.
In France, hundreds of thousands of trade unionists marched into towns across
the country. with the demonstrations focussing on the recent job-cuts by the
TNCs.
In Zunch (Switzerland) several dozen people were arrested alter extreme-left
groups clashed with police, at the end of the city's traditional May Day march.
Police used water canons, rubber bullets and tear gas as several hundred people,
dressed in black and wearing hoods, began hurling rocks and bags of paint at the
police. The rise of the fascist party to power in Austria has galvanised the
left-wing parties resulting in a huge 1 lakh May Day demonstration in Vienna,
calling for greater job security. Large rallies also took place in various
cities of Italy and Greece. In Greece this was an immediate followup to the
general strike on April26 which witnessed 2 lakh workers rally in the streets of
Athens.
Australia
There were numerous clashes between police and activists as stock exchange
offices around the country were blockaded in several cities. There were scores
of arrests as police clashed with demonstrators in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.
The police were vicious in their attacks on the demonstrators. As the day wore
on, protestors shifted their focus to parliaments, big corporations and the
prime minister's Sydney offices. Protests in Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide
were mostly peaceful. In Sydney hundreds of anti-globalisation protestors fought
running battles with the police on horseback. Two policemen were hospitalised
and 28 others injured. In Brisbane demonstrators tried to storm the stock
exchange. In Melbourne 2000 demonstrators gathered, sprayed slogans on a
McDonald restaurant and burnt an effigy of the prime minister,
May Day Around the World
Throughout Russia large demonstrations took place demanding jobs, better wages
and price controls. There were a number of rallies in Moscow itself, each over
15,000. In Ukraine there were large rallies in a number of cities, where the
protests were a continuation of the recent popular anger against the rule of the
deposed president. Similar workers' rallies took place in Hungary, Bulgaria,
Romania, Serbia and Poland.
In Central and South America, May Day demonstrators took to the streets, to
protest tax increases, government policies on unions and unemployment. Tens of
thousands of workers protested against tax hikes in Mexico city. In Argentina
protestors in masks called for economic measures to remove unemployment.
Vigorous protests also took place in Asian countries as well as the African
country of Zimbabwe.
In Japan an estimated 13 lakh people joined trade union rallies around the
country, mostly directed against the government's economic policies that was
resulting in increased unemployment. About 20,000 workers faced 15,000 riot
police in Seoul, South Korea, to protest against the government-initiated
economic restructuring and against the police crackdown on Daewoo Motor workers
in April. Even in Taiwan thousands of unemployed workers and union activists
marched through Taipei, demanding jobs and the resignation of top government
officials.
From Anti-Imperialism to Communism
It is only a matter of time before the mass of oppressed people realise that the
only alternative to capitalism is communism. The discredit to communism by the
revisionists have apalled large sections of the people. The revisionist
take-over in Russia, China, Vietnam, East Europe etc., and their degenerate
existence, in the name of communism; the corruption and bureaucracy of the
revisionist run trade-unions and the dictatorial and autocratic methods of
revisionists in power ... have all acted to discredit communism. The people have
not realised as yet that revisionists are not communists, but nothing but the
bourgeoisie (as Lenin said) within the working class movement. When the
bourgeoisie finds it cannot destroy communism by its frantic attacks from
outside, it sends its agents into the working class movement to take on the garb
of communists - as revisionists. Till today, many of these May Day rallies are
run by these traitors who continue to dupe the working class.
But the growing militancy arises only after breaking the chains of the
revisionists. The environmentalists, anarchists and other petti-bourgeois
revolutionaries, who participate in thousands, hate the imperialist system. But
as they have no concrete alternative to it. the genuine amongst them are bound
to turn to communism. This, of course, becomes easier, when clear lines of
demarcation are drawn between the real communists (i.e. Maoists) and the various
hues of revisionists, as the people will see for themselves the difference
between the genuine communists and the fake ones.
Activists Besiege Summit of Americas
The Quebec City Summit of Americas, in which participated 34 leaders of
the North and South American countries to sign FTAA pact, to create by the end
of 2005 a free trade area, came under siege by tens of thousands of
demonstrators determined to disrupt it.
On 20 April, while the summit was beginning, the demonstrators breached the
3-metre-high chain link fence embedded in concrete, forcing hours of delay to
the opening ceremonies. Defying thousands of riot police who repeatedly fired
rubber bullets and tear gas shells in addition to water-cannons from armoured
vehicles, the anti-globalisation protestors drawn from different countries of
the Americas, created a seige like atmosphere massing at several points of the
perimeter fence erected to protect the rulers including US imperialist chieftain
Bush. Eye-stinging tear gas floated through the sealed-off zone which even
entered the venue building vents reminding the assembled presidents and prime
ministers that their conspiracy against the masses is being opposed by tens of
thousands of fighters outside.
The Quebec protest action was much bigger than the Seattle protest in 1999.
Masked militants dressed in black fought into the early hours of Saturday with
helmeted police carrying shields. They threw paper tire-balls inside the fence.
Battles continued to flare up all through the duration of the summit, outside
the venue and just 800 metres away from the places where the leaders were
staying.
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