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Mayday2k - update for Mayday action Updated 02.05.00: 
Latest reports indicate that there have been over 95 arrests in the London Mayday protest and 20 arrests in the Manchester demo.
It was biggest police operation in Central London for 30 years, with a total of 30,000 officers on duty or held in strategic reserve. In London over ten thousand protesters filled Parliament Square and took over the entire area. Roads were grassed over, and plants, herbs and trees planted on the Square in mini allotments - there was even a 'village pond' constructed! The police had swamped the one acre field with water the previous night in an attempt to discourage people from sitting around, but this only made the turf easier for the guerrilla gardeners to 'relocate' on to the road. Activists planted an assortment of herbs, apple trees, runner beans and daisies and liberally scattered the area with hemp seeds (there should be a good crop this year) while huge banners strewn from lamp posts announced 'resistance is fertile' and 'capitalism is pants'. The area around Parliament Square remained peaceful for most of the day, but trouble kicked off up Whitehall where a McDonalds got well and truly trashed, signalling the entrance of the riot squad. In Trafalgar Square, skirmishes continued between police and campaigners, with bottles being thrown by the usual minority of fuckwits, precipitating several police charges. Meanwhile by 4pm, hundreds of riot squad officers were surrounding the area around Parliament Square, blocking off all entrances and exits, despite the crowd being entirely peaceful at this point. After an hour, increasing frustration in the crowd resulted in a rush towards police lines at the Millbank corner of the Square. After several pushes and shoves against the quickly reinforced line of riot officers, several campaigners broke through. This resulted in the police losing the plot completely and letting the crowd rush through the lines and heading off down Millbank and across Lambeth Bridge. Skirmishes continued as the crowd headed off to a rumoured sound system in Kennington, while Trafalgar Square saw more smaller attacks between police and protesters. By 7pm Parliament Square was more or less emptied out. There were further reports of trouble by the Strand and Aldwych, with some saying that was spurred on by over-aggressive policing after police tried to contain a breakaway group of 1,000 protesters. Disclaimer: this information is reproduced for information purposes only. Urban75 has no connection whatsoever with any of the groups |
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