On Mayday 2014 Anarchist Action Network is calling for anarchists to unite
in One Common Struggle. We are calling on you to join fellow anarchists
and remember the victims of the system’s oppression, take action against
the symbols of the state and capitalism and hold events highlighting the
need to struggle for a better world.
May Day was first celebrated as a day of international workers’ solidarity
in 1890. It was called to commemorate the murder of four anarchist workers
in Chicago by the US government.
On this May day in 2014 let us unite our struggles in looking back to the
Anarchist origins of May Day and take action in memory of all who are
dying every day at the hands of the capitalist system. Let us also remember
those who have died or been imprisoned fighting it. From the Mayday
Anarchists in Chicago to Carlo, the young man executed by police at the
2001 Genoa summit against the G8. Right now in the UK there is an all out assault on activists involved in the animal rights movement, one of whom was sentenced today to a 6 year prison sentence for ‘conspiring to blackmail’ Huntingdon Life Sciences. Dozens more AR activists are facing political trials in the UK as the law continues to be used to protect corporate power against public anger. For more details see http://www.stopukrepression.org/. Mayday is a time to show our solidarity against a system that kills and imprisons in order to keep us in chains.
Last year the Anarchist Action Network (under its former name, Stop G8)
called for a day of action on May Day. The result was that many anarchists
took action, from a demonstration in London protesting against the conditions that killed Bangladeshi workers to a weeklong squat in Lewes that welcomed local people for tea, cake and to talk about the state of the world and radical alternatives, sharing skills and much more.
This year the NATO summit will be held in Newport, South Wales. As the long
arm of western capitalism, NATO aims to use violence and force to further
capitalist interests and Western imperialism. To continue exploiting the
poor for the benefit of the rich. Promoting wars over oil and resources that destroy the environment, they displace, kill and foster a racist system. Austerity cuts increase as more and more money is spent on weapons each year. This year on Mayday, in 2014 when the NATO summit comes to this Island for the first time in more than twenty years, we call out for anarchists everywhere to take action.
For those in London, check out the map of possible targets for action from the G8 summit day of action last year.
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade also have a useful map, showing where arms companies are all over the UK, including rural areas. Banks, oil companies, the army and the police are all part of the web of institutions propping up capitalism and the state through violence and are legitimate targets for protest.
If leaflets are needed for your action we recommend this one on the
Anarchist Origins of May Day for example, and also this leaflet (front / back) on the anti-NATO mobilisation – if you happen to choose to link your action to this year’s NATO summit.
In Wales, anarchist anti-militarists will be joining Cardiff’s annual march, taking action against the military-industrial complex and drawing attention to the link between NATO’s war machine and workers’ struggles worldwide. In London a ‘You Greedy Bastard March’ is planned against the Duke of Westminster, the richest property developer in the UK. Later in the day a demonstration is planned at Senate House. The callout reads: “This is a Carnival for everyone: the precarious, the low paid, the zero-houred, the part-time, the temporary, the interned, the unemployed, the workfared, the sacked, the redundant, the indebted. Bring yourselves and your sound systems to ULU – Malet St – for 6PM, the parade will depart at 7.30. Workers, students, unemployed of the world – ENJOY! Sick pay, holidays, pensions now! End union busting! No more vice-chancellors! Cops off campus!
If you are holding an action and would like us to advertise it at www.anarchistaction.net please email anarchistactionnetwork [at] riseup.net
See you on the streets…