MayDay Masquerade Mayhem
A-IMC reporters diary of the first half of Wellington festivities.
12 midday: Excited crowds gather outside the Freedom Shop. Small numbers compared to last year's apocolyptic occupation 'the Battle of Stagecraft'. A makeshift stage has been created on the footpath outside 274 Cuba St, still empty despite various offers from the local community to lease it. Food Not Bombs arrive with soup, bread, salad, vege sausages and the Anarchist Teapot - tea, coffee and cake for the cause. This is easily the most organised group in today's events other than the cops and there is enough for an anarchist army.
12:30pm: The first band, Dead Viscious, kicks off and inevitably the bumboys in blue arrive and start nudging everyone off the street and onto the footpath. There are 12 of them but with only a hundred or so masqueraders, I feel outnumbered and edgy.
The first arrest of the day is of a local resident, sadly ironic considering the recent history of the area - bypasses, evictions and occupations. He is loaded into the paddy wagon with chants of "shame". Cops tell us to "get on with your protest" to which I reply "this is our protest!" With so few people and no preparation there is nothing we can do and we drift back to the band.
1pm: Dead Viscious finish with their usual finale, lead singer Ken smashing a tv with an axe. Thus begins the second arrest. As soon as the axe comes clear of its plastic bag the cops start moving towards Ken. It's not exactly a de-arrest situation as Ken is swinging an axe and about to loose a spray of glass. As soon as the tube shatters the cops are all over him like a cheap suit. I leap in and grab his leg, splattering myself with hot soup but no one else is even close and I get easily shaken off.
Ken is dragged off to the paddywagon to join the angry local. Again everyone charges down Arthur St and a tense standoff ensues with us demanding Ken's release and the cops forming a line and moving down the street shoving people back if they're not moving fast enough. People are more rarced up this time but the cops are obviously prepared to be as rough as necessary and the group falls back to the pavement.
At first the cops won't even let us cross the street but before long a lone Streetwise man looking like an over-ripe banana in his fluro anorak arrives and starts directing traffic as if anybody gives a shit. The police start to relax a bit and we start edging into the street again as the Carny's start their set.
2pm After a bit of milling about and some announcements, the march begins, following the mobile sound system with its trolley and generator. At first the cops attempt to confine us to the footpath but a brave sit-down by some of the older marchers convinces them to let us march down the left side of the street, forming a very thin blue line along the centreline as the crowd has swelled somewhat to around 200.
Spirits start to lift and the carnival atmosphere starts to take hold with drummers, party hooters, shrieks of celebration and chants of "No war but the class war - people not profit" and "Food Not Bombs, Homes not Prisons, People not Cars, Freedom not Cops". We wind our way up Cuba St, through Cuba Mall and Manners Mall for a quick yell, stopping at McDonalds which is quickly blocked off by the cops.
Finally we arrive at Civic Square, a quick rally to pick up the stragglers and we're off to yell at oil comanies.
Comments
what I want to know is
was it 'fair trade' coffee?
good on ya!!!
Nice work Strypey!
Good to see the Wgtn crowd (metaphorically...hehe) celebrating the workers. Shame that again numnbers are low.
What does that say about the pathetic union response? How hard would it be for the Criminal Traitors United (CTU) to actually put up some dosh - say $4,000 - each year to ensure that at least in the 4 main cities (Akld, Wgtn, Chch, Dunedin) there is some cash to make a decent event.
And when will they use their well-established union newspapers and e-mail loops to informa and encourage people to come to the events? Shit, in the long run, it may even be possible to get MayDay as a public holiday if enough unions carried out progressive strikes. i.e start with getting good numbers along at 5:30pm, then start earlier and earlier as workers down tools ahead of normal quitting time. Eventually you take the whole day off!!!
Still - good on ya Wellington. Now all you need to do is to dump the Beehive in the harbour....
just think a little bit
what do you think it was? fascist coffee?
where were the workers?
the unions in wellington have actually organised their "official workers'day" for this saturday. they are having a rally in civic square, not sure what time..
probably catering for all the workers who are lucky enough to still have monday to friday jobs (unlike the rest of us..)
arrests..
btw, does anyone know what the charges are on the arrests?
why was the last person arrested after leaving the police station? is there a support team at the station for those who haven't been released yet, or are the filth not letting anyone in?
arrests
Kne has been charged with criminal nuisance (sees to be the cops favourite charge these days) for smashing his own TV set
one guy was charged with assualt after an argument with a stupid counterdemonstrator turned into a fist fight (take note Brain Smaller!)
at least a few of the others were for disorderly and/or wilful damage I think
Wow - I agree! Twice, no thrice!
Smoe snips from bb's post
>>What does that say about the pathetic union response?
I was surprised as well. I guess three guys with a red banner don't count.
>>it may even be possible to get MayDay as a public holiday if enough unions carried out progressive strikes. i.e start with getting good numbers along at 5:30pm, then start earlier and earlier as workers down tools ahead of normal quitting time. Eventually you take the whole day off!!!
Now this is an excellent idea. Except in central wellington it is "down mice" rather than "down tools".
>>Now all you need to do is to dump the Beehive in the harbour....
I'm willing to help. Can we do it when it is full of politicians at a state banquet?
Frank the Grumpy..
I have got through all my life to this point without being in a fist-fight - so what am I taking note of? That if I have a different opinion to yours you might hit me? Very peaceful of you.
I was at the civic square on my way to the parking building (I contributed to global warming today and drove to work instead of biking) - I had a few croaky discussions with people there that were quite pleasant - free and fair exchanges of views. I had a hurricane's scarf on, a beanie and a box of tissues (the flu got the better of me). If I had any voice left I would have shouted something but couldn't raise the energy or enthusiasm.
The costumes were quite cool though - I liked Zorro.
paci-fists
Hi Brian Smaller,
what I meant was that if some silly counter demonstrator turns up to a demo to abuse and ridicule people they shouldnt be surprised if they get a fist in the face. I am not a pacifist, and you shouldnt assume all anti war people are. if you turn up to an anti war demo and argue that the mass murder of civilians by the worlds only superpower is OK, then you shouldnt complain if someone smacks you in the mouth. After all, you support unprovoked violence right??
Frank the Grumpy
Fists of Fury?
Well, actually I would complain if someone hit me for expressing a viewpoint. I imagine that you would complain if someone hit you for merely expressing your opinion - which you have every right to express and that I encourage you to do as frequently as you can.
That is called free speech. I thought it was something that this site promoted. Am I wrong?
Practical Guide for dealing with peaceniks.
I thought I'd inject this little gem seeing as the conversaion is starting to gravitate toward violence.
Just for "interests" sake, of course.
------------------------------------------------
"On How to Deal to Peaceniks"
Here is an e-mail from a retired US Department of Defence planner, advising
how to deal with peaceniks.
"With all of this talk of impending war, many of us will encounter "Peace
Activists" who will try and convince us that we must refrain from
retaliating against the ones who terrorised us all on September 11, 2001.
These activists may be alone or in a gathering. Most of us don't know how
to react to them. When you come upon one of these people, or one of their
rallies, here are the proper rules of etiquette:
1. Listen politely while the person explains his views. Strike up a
conversation and look very interested in his ideas. He will tell you how by
attacking the people who did this to us, we will only bring on more
violence. He will probably use many arguments, ranging from political to
religious to humanitarian.
2. In the middle of his remarks, without any warning, punch him in
the nose.
3. Be careful. When the person gets up off of the ground, he will
be very angry and may try to hit you.
4. Very quickly and calmly remind the person that violence only
brings about more violence and remind him of his stand on this matter. Tell
him if he is really committed to a non-violent approach to undeserved
attacks, he will negotiate a solution. Tell him he must lead by example if
he really believe what he is saying.
5. Most of them will think for a moment and then agree that you are
correct.
6. As soon as he does that, hit him again. Only this time hit him
much harder. Square in the nose.
7. Repeat steps 2-5 until the desired results are obtained and
the idiot realises how stupid an argument he is making.
There is no difference in an individual attacking an unsuspecting victim or
a group of terrorists attacking a nation of people. It is unacceptable and
must be dealt with, perhaps at a high cost. We either strike back, VERY
HARD, or we will keep getting hit in the nose."
Elliot"
------------------------------------------------
Hey Briann
"Well, actually I would complain if someone hit me for expressing a viewpoint."
Try your faggoty complaining here in fuckerville if the cops bash you for using the NZ version of "free speech" ,
"which you have every right to express and that I encourage you to do as frequently as you can."
Again, there must be 2 NZ's.
Hey Jeffo
Same tactic works with Warnicks, in fact better because they never want thier own nose bleeds on thier faggoty suits
I personally have found a really good and proper broken jaw and smashed cheek bone with a bloody eye topping really prevents garbage/suits/cops from getting back up at all ,, saving energy of course.
Warnik Warning
Ah, yes but the warniks are prepared for it. And have their counter-attack all ready to go. Where as the peacenik is totally taken back by the nose-bleed and total destruction of their argument.
what if the person ,,
is not a Peacenik but a hypocrisynik?
Mandela? Iron Curtain?