Photo archives: London Mayday 2K protest, Parliament Square, 1st May 2000 -

Twenty years ago, Parliament Square in London was filled with anti-capitalist protesters, green campaigners and activists for a celebration of Mayday.

Here’s some photos from the day:

What was it about?

This statement from London Mayday describes what the action was about:

Mayday has been a celebration of life, renewal & pleasure since ancient times.

More recently it was declared International Workers’ Day to commemorate the execution of 4 anarchists in Chicago for their part in the struggle for an eight-hour working day.

Both these aspects of Mayday were intertwined – a festival against work, want and denial, and a vision of freedom and plenty throughout the world.

Mayday also celebrates everyday acts of social disobedience.

We all disobey orders every day: orders to give up our time and energy to (re)produce market dictated objects and information, the capitalist system which orders us into accepting grinding landlord enforced rents, multiple lay-offs and safety cuts, crap transport, government coerced dole-for-slave-labour, and sterile consumption saturated culture.

Every day people defy what is demanded of them, from refusing to pay for bad transport, council cuts and privatisation of services to creating their own grassroots culture, sharing skills and information for free, ‘subvertising’ adverts and transforming derelict spaces into homes for themselves and the kind of autonomous culture they want to evolve.

This Mayday we are celebrating and commemorating our collective struggles and resistance, past and present, with a huge and vibrant carnivalesque action which will be in sync with those happening worldwide: from the Argentinian barrios creating a State-less future to posties in this country striking for better lives, from Afghani refugees hungerstriking in Woomera, Australia and Yarl’s Wood, UK, to Turkish prisoners surviving daily torture in solitary confinement, from peasant farmers resisting enclosures, patenting and dam-propelled land evictions in Spain, India, Mozambique and China, to those fighting against health cuts, privatisation, ever-increasing state repression and xenaphobia.

In every town, city, nation, workplace, classroom and field, our struggle continues, as it has done for centuries. On Wednesday May 1st we will accelerate our resistance, openly and defiantly, in ways small and large, quiet and loud, visible and invisible, our goal is a new world.

Walk out on strike, throw a sickie, bunk off school, do what ever it takes to join us on the streets of central London on Wednesday May 1st.

Read about the ancient history of Mayday here

The original article on urban75 has captions for every photo, but I thought I’d better reproduce this one:

The famous lion dung!

There had been rumours – and a few articles in the newpapers – that activists had somehow managed to get their hands on some lion dung prior to the event.

Now you may think, ‘what on earth do they want that stuff for?’, but here’s the scoop: apparently horses flee at the slightest whiff of a lion’s botty droppings.

So know you know.