Saturday 5 May 2012

MORE ON MAY DAY.


           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.



ann arky's home.

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