Notes on anarchy and May Day and more

In Russia, anarchists and/or gays are unpopular with authorities: about 50 anarchists were prevented from participating in May Day festivities in St. Petersburg, and in Moscow teh gheys had to battle cops as well as Communists. (Fascists were allowed to assemble unmolested.) Elsewhere “[a]round Europe, the May Day activities were generally more subdued than in years past” according to Deutsche Welle. In E E England, “John Catt attended a May Day protest in Brighton and sketched the demonstration”; the “86-year-old artist from Brighton” is also “taking the police to the High Court to try to get records of his political activities removed from their database”. More on the Brighton May Day here.

In London, several days prior to May Day, Paola Totaro–“the only Australian journalist covering the wedding from inside Westminster Abbey”–done a big fat report on the sumptuous wedding of two massively wealthy scroungers named Bill and Kath. A few years ago, Totaro light-heartedly recounted the supposed fact that at the G20 protests in London, “[t]he great majority of the police, seemingly ever-patient and self-controlled, stood for hours as kids baited and yelled, shoved and provoked. A handful of officers used well-placed elbows while batons were raised only in response to the vandalism.” In reality, one man, Ian Tomlinson, was actually killed by police. Yesterday (May 3), London IndyMedia reported that:

Simon Harwood, the police officer who attacked Ian Tomlinson at the G20 summit in London in 2009 could be prosecuted for manslaughter. The inquest jury ruled today that the Tomlinson has been unlawfully killed. In 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service” announced that the police officer who was caught on video striking Ian Tomlinson year who later died will not face criminal charges, sparking a series of protests.

Tomlinson died of internal bleeding in the abdomen minutes after being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground.

See also : BIT OF STICK (April 8, 2009) | Coroner’s Inquest into the Death of Ian Tomlinson. BONUS! link: First of May Anarchist Alliance (US).

Otherwise, there appears to have been some increase (not surprising, given recent events) in police repression of anarchist dissent in E E England. As it stands, if I was in London and not under arrest, I’d probably rock along to the launch of Soccer Vs. The State by Gabriel Kuhn on May 8.

In Melbourne, I witnessed Collingwood get out of jail, and earlier in the day I even managed to pick up a copy of the Autumn 2011 edition (No.212) of Australasian Spartacist and the April 15, 2011 edition (No.978) of Workers Vanguard. I also gotta copy of a new publication called Black Kite Quarterly (the zine formerly known as Wai Quarterly). The theme of its first edition is “making the world safer for wimmin”. This Saturday @ LaTrobe University’s City campus, the Observatario Internacional Contra las Políticas de las Multinacionales / International Co-ordination Against Multinational Policies will be holding a seminar. For more infos, see the International Multinational Monitor blog.

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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2 Responses to Notes on anarchy and May Day and more

  1. Lumpen says:

    I can go you one better: I got a fucking subscription to the Worker’s Vanguard and that Sparts’ theoretical magazine. I’m still not sure if they meant that, in theory, I should get a magazine. Also, the one they offered me was from 1999.

    May Day is the lefty trainspotter’s Easter.

  2. anon says:

    You don’t know how lucky you were Lumpen! I subscribed to the Sparts once and ended up with massive piles of their propaganda (including all the stuff I didn’t subscribe to) appearing at my doorstep almost every day. It only ended after I moved house and didn’t give them a forwarding address. I’ve even heard reports of home visits to subscribers.

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