NYC Mayday Draft 2

Second draft. Not to be released...yet.

content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

POLICE BLAMED FOR INCITING MAYDAY RIOT IN NYC.

POLICE BLAMED
FOR

INCITING
MAYDAY RIOT IN NYC.

AGAIN.

src="http://nyc.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/mayday01-0223…">

Super Barrio Man fighting
the INS, minutes before the Police stormed in to arrest a man in
violation of the NYC Anti-Mask Law.

(IMC PHOTO: Workhorse)

In a repeat of last year's
Mayday incident in New York City, witnesses are once again
blaming NYPD officers for causing a melee outside 5th avenue and
13th street immediately after a street theater skit by Super
Barrio Man and others in the middle of a Mayday march which
resulted in 5 people being placed under arrest with charges which
include trespassing, loitering, assault, obstruction of justice
and disorderly conduct. At a rally later in the afternoon in
front of the IMF offices near the United Nations, more activists
were arrested on similar charges.

src="http://www.nyc.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/mayday01-0…">

Police deny media access
as they arrest demonstrators outside the union-busting East
Natural Deli.

(IMC PHOTO: WORKHORSE) face="Helvetica">

ORGINS
OF MAYDAY

Mayday began as a pagan holiday in
early Europe to celebrate the first spring planting. It was
outlawed by the Catholic Church by the 1700s, yet it remained
incredibly popular withartisans and villagers. Mischief and
satire would rule on Mayday, with jesters and fools making fun of
local authorities.

It became a working class holiday on
Mayday 1886 when the Knights of Labor called for a general strike
across the US and Canada to demand an eight-hour workday. Police
attacked strikers in Chicago, killing six. The next day, a

demonstration was held at Haymarket Square to protest the police
brutality. A bomb exploded around a crowd of police, killing
eight. Police then arrested eight anarchist trade unionists,
accusing them of throwing the bombs.

Much controversy surrounded the
Haymarket Massacre; Some said that it was the workers who threw
the bombs at the police, others say a government provocateur
dropped the bomb while trying to retreat from charging workers.

src="http://chicago.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/kid_crop.j…">

A boy holds sign that says
"Haymarket will Not Be Forgetten" during Mayday
Protests in Chicago

(IMC PHOTO: Patrick Chee)

Trade unionists Albert Parsons, August
Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and
executed by the State of Illinois.

MAYDAY
2001 NYC

The day's festivities,
organized by the face="Helvetica">Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants face="Helvetica">, along with other organizations like href="http://www.uniteunion.org">UNITE!
Local 169, began at noon in an
area of Manhattan often-used by workers and political activists
as a gathering place and where the first Labor Parade took place
in 1882. Union Square. The crowd that gathered represented a
kaleidoscope of the left. Present were anarchists, communists,
greens, socialists and working-class immigrants.

The workers listened to
musicians like Fred Ho and the local band Black 47. Superbarrio
Man, hero to the working class, held a wrestling match against
the union-busting Greengrocers, as well as the INS. Witnesses
reported seeing Billionaires bribe the Referee, Mr. Phil. T. Rich
of Billionaires for Bush, however, in the end, Superbarrio Man
saved the day and won.

Interestlingly, a colorful
truck which belonged to a Coca-Cola subsidiary, Planet Java, was
in the process of distributing sample drinks to passerby yards
away from the stage and sound system. They told Indymedia they
were not aware of the Mayday event and were there purely
coincidentally.

At around 3:30, the
marchers began to leave Union Square, surrounded on all sides by
police officers, some with plastic cuffs, while other officers
sported gas masks in bags and pouches. Also present were members
of the NYPD Technical and Research Unit ( href="http://www.apbonline.com/cjprofessionals/behindthebadge/1999/11/15/poli…"> face="Helvetica">TARU), who
often videotape and photograph activists at major protests and
rallies.

The marchers, who carried signs,
puppets and musical instruments began chanting their way towards
5th avenue and 17th street, and walked all the way down to 13th
street where Super Barrioman once again fought the
"Greengrocers", "Robert Knight" of the Nike
Corporation who sported spandex and a sharp "swoosh"
symbol in front of the East Natural Deli, notorius for it's use
of non-unionized workers.

"LET
THEM GO!"

After the round was over, the Radical
Cheerleaders were invited into the makeshift wrestling ring to
deliver a cheer in favor of Super Barrioman but was immediately
interrupted by an unidentified woman who told everyone to be
silent and pay attention to the fact that two members of the
Superbarrio Man street theater team were being arrested for
violating the Anti-mask law.