To
see any event that goes any way to capture the spirit of May Day you
have to leave the UK. Try Spain, France, Greece, Italy, for starters.
Why, in this country, has the establishment managed to turn a major
event in working class history into a mishmash of a handful of
individuals? Where is the mass event? I can remember "official"
May Day in Glasgow being a massive family affair on the Glasgow
Green, and a real good show would be put on by anarchist and other
activists on the actual day, May 1st. Now the "official"
May Day event is a slow march of the dead a short distance to a hall
to listen to a bunch of power seekers stroke their ego, while their
adoring followers try to sell the party paper and get people to sign
something. I don't know what that has to do with the spirit of May
Day. Only in the UK could this transformation take place.
We live in
a country where society has been totally and utterly fragmented and
the idea of a mass movement has been removed from our consciousness.
Working class history is buried, air brushed out of existence, our
culture and heritage is the stuff of phony TV sitcoms, the
established media is allowed to shape “our culture” and what they
peddle is an illusion. After a rather quiet May Day on May 1st.
by a small group of anarchists, wobblies and communists, tomorrow is
Glasgow's “official” May Day event, I sincerely hope that the
people of Glasgow prove me wrong, in which case I will gladly eat my
words.
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