Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 14:16:14 +0100 (BST)
From: Joel Kuang Jong Ng <Joel.Ng-AT-uea.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Fwd: May Day





On Tue, 1 May 2001, Iain McKay wrote:

> hello all
> 
> Chuck0 wrote:
> 
> > Iain McKay wrote:
> > 
> >> this guy has been writting nonsense for the
> >> last couple of weeks. He attacked anarchism
> >> last week (I wrote a reply, if anyone is
> >> interested).

Saw him on Channel 4 two days ago spouting his reformist agenda.  Didn't
strike me as particularly revolutionary, although when asked about
violence he did try to differentiate violence against property and
violence against people.

> >> 
> >> the media over here has been beside itself
> >> over mayday.
> > 

Yep.  On Radio 1 last night they talked about the violence, but the only
one they interviewed was a protestor who said people were only getting
violent because they'd been holed up and unable to take a piss.  On
Channel 4, some reporter said about going to the toilet, men could go in
the tube stations, while women needed people to gather in a circle round
them so that they could squat.

> > No kidding. I get a chuckle from reading the coverage in the British
> > papers.
> 
> It is strange, but the TV news has been
> pretty positive in terms of coverage. The
> protests have been a success in the sense
> that it has shown up the police and the
> media as idiots. It is also a success in
> tying up the centre of London for hours.
> 
The long run up stories in the Guardian were sure as hell pissing me off
though.  I liked the stories that ran on Channel 4 the same day, in
Philippines, the president was threatening to "crush to pulp" any protest
and in Australia, they were interviewing these pleasant old women about
the evils of capitalism (nice gentle old ladies at a protest brightened up
my otherwise miserable day).

> The tv coverage basically showed violence as
> the cops hitting people with battons. It was
> hard to take the police seriously talking
> about protestor violence with that footage
> (plus the fact 8 protestors were injured
> vrs 2 cops).
> 
> It is a bit annoying that the protestors seemed
> to be trapped, although the wombles may have
> broken through somewhere. But it seems to be
> more a stand-off than a police victory. The
> cops cannot break up the crowd.