Seven people, including three police officers, were hospitalised in London after fighting broke out at a May Day anti-capitalist rally in front of the Houses of Parliament. Demonstrators split from a mainstream protest in Parliament Square and smashed their way into a McDonald's restaurant and hurled bricks and bottles at police. The restaurant was destroyed. There were further violent confrontations as protesters tried to storm St Martin's in the Field Church just off Trafalgar Square. Demonstrators hurled bottles, cans, traffic bollards and any rubbish they could find at police wearing riot gear. One officer said that there were an estimated 4,000 protesters in the square itself.
All police leave was cancelled and there remains a heavy security presence in the city. Scotland Yard feared that some demonstrators were intent on causing violence similar to that experienced last year in London and more recently in Washington. Condemning the violence the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, described the rioters as idiots and beneath contempt. He called for those responsible to be brought to justice. The British Home Secretary said that he had discussed preparations for the protests with the Metropolitan and City of London police. Jack Straw said that everybody had a right to demonstrate. However, he added that nobody had a right to demonstrate violently or to attack people or property. Scotland Yard said that 42 people were arrested for drunkeness, public order offences or carrying weapons.
It had all started peacefully this morning as thousands of demonstrators banging drums and blowing whistles converged on Parliament Square in Westminster. They said they were going to reclaim the streets by planting seeds and saplings. They were ringed by hundreds of police who feared a repeat of the riots, which took place in London last June and November. There was minor traffic congestion and police just looked on. The Reclaim the Streets group, which organised the guerrilla gardening event, denied that a repeat of last year's June 18 London riots was inevitable. A spokesman for the group, John Jordan, said that the event was a celebration of the anti-capitalism movement, rather than a protest.
But at about 2pm the mood changed. About two dozen protestors stormed into the Whitehall branch of McDonalds and within minutes they had smashed every window and had torn down the sign outside. Riot police who tried to break it up were pelted with bottles and cans. TV camera crews were also attacked. There was a sit-down demonstration in the road outside. It was the sort of violence that police had predicted. Protestors were later forced by police to remain in Trafalgar Square. It is believed that police gradually filtered people out through the square.
Some of the demonstrators were masked to conceal their identities from the dozens of CCTV cameras which police are monitoring from a central control room in nearby Scotland Yard. Police said that there are known trouble-makers who attempted to incite violent behaviour by posting messages on the internet. However, protestors in Parliament Square insisted that they were not there for violence. Their protest passed off with only minor incidents.
Eight people were arrested at a similar anti-capitalist rally in Manchester. 250 people had demonstrated peacefully in Piccadilly Gardens, but smaller groups then targeted fast food outlets and the city's tram system. A massive police operation was in place and protestors were contained and eventually led from the city centre.
