Police in London have launched one of the biggest security operations ever seen in the British capital, in anticipation of the arrival of 10,000 Mayday protesters. The authorities have warned there will be no repetition of last year's mayhem, which saw Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square defaced. British Prime Minister, Tony Blair promised his full support for police, who were criticised last year for doing "too little, too late".
This year, barricades have been erected around Parliament Square, and the statues of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln have been boarded up. Many Britons were outraged last year when Churchill's statue was daubed with graffiti and a piece of green turf was slapped on his head in a Mohican-style haircut. All police leave has been cancelled and more than 6,000 officers are being deployed across London, which could also be hit by a series of threatened hoax bomb calls, designed to stretch their resources to the limit.
Senior police force figures and British government leaders have reinforced the "zero tolerance" stance to be taken by the police this year. Chairman of London's Metropolitan Police Authority, Lord Harris, warned police might use rubber bullets for the first time on the British mainland if the protests turned violent. Although this was firmly denied by London Police Chief, John Stevens, it signals a definite wish to deter the more aggressive elements among the protesters from causing trouble. Tony Blair, roundly condemning any protesters planning a repeat performance, said: "It is not idealism, It is idiocy. It is not protest, it is crime pure and simple."
Anarchists have accused the police of over-reacting. Organisers, drawing on the experience of anti-capitalist protesters in Prague, Seattle and Quebec, have recommended that protesters wear military-style protective gear and scrawl their lawyers' telephone number on their arms. A spokesman for Reclaim the Streets said that the only antagonism was likely to come from riot police.
Elsewhere around the world, trade unions have called on workers to embrace the more traditional idea behind Mayday. Public transport in Greece is expected to grind to a halt following calls from Greek union leaders for a strong turnout against government plans for pension changes. A series of high-profile job losses at profitable international firms has sparked fury among French workers, and the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, risks seeing his coalition outflanked on the left by rejuvenated radical groups. Official Cuban media has called on the people to gather for a massive demonstration in Havana's Revolution Square. The gathering will kick off with the communist anthem "The Internationale" and will include an anti-US protest.
A controversial move by the Berlin City authorities promises to spark worse violence than usual. They have banned both leftist and far-right marches in an attempt to prevent the annual round of street battles between the groups and the police, but a court last week overruled the city and said that the far-right march could proceed. Police warned that the move could inflame the situation tomorrow, saying that left-wingers would probably try to "cause trouble" at other Mayday gatherings.
