Mayday Marchers

Members from Manchester and Sheffield Communist Students attended the May Day march and rally in Manchester. It was a small affair attracting between 400 and 500 people. We distributed copies of Communist Student, the Weekly Worker and HOPI ‘Smash the Sanctions’ leaflets.

Below is a report from the blog Infantile and Disorderly, which is run by a member of the Permanent Revolution Group.

Mayday Marchers

‘Yesterday’s May Day march in Manchester was marred by wind, rain and more rain*.The turnout was around 500, although this rapidly dwindled during a sedate rally in Castlefields arena at the end of the march (partly due to a dire sound system that prevented most of the speakers actually being audible above the wind when standing more than twenty yards away- somewhat mercifully when it came to the likes of union bureaucrat Billy Hayes, UAF’s Weyman Bennett and another speaker whose main complaint about Nick Griffin appeared to be “he’s an evil person”.) The largest contingents on the demonstration were the Congolese Action Group, doing good work helping prevent deportations, and the Workers Communist Party of Iran. The presence of the British far left was undeniably small, and union banners were relatively few and far between.

There is a short video of Manchester May Day here on Channel M (if you know who I am, you’ll get the pleasure of seeing me twice!)

Mayday Marchers

The day was also marred by some less welcome filming. At the assembly point, a fascist from the British Freedom Fighters walked amongst the marchers, filming uninterrupted for several minutes before finally being spotted by a SWP member. The footage is circulating fascist websites. During the march itself, numerous fascists could also be seen lining the route and photographing the May Day demonstrators. One was confronted by a member of Permanent Revolution.

*Just to give you an idea of how crap the weather was, the stalls belonging to the SWP and Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) actually blew away.