Black workers in South Africa had participated in May Day demonstrations since 1928, when their march dwarfed the whites-only demonstration organized by the racist Labor Party. In 1950, the Communist Party of South Africa called for a May Day strike to protest against the Suppression of Communism Act. South African police retaliated with brutal violence, killing 18 people across Soweto. The young Nelson Mandela sought refuge in a nurses’ dormitory overnight to escape from the gunfire.

Following months of conflict between students and authorities at the Paris University at Nanterre, the administration shut down the university on May 2, 1968. Students at the Sorbonne University in Paris met on May 3 to protest in solidarity with students at Nanterre. On May 6, more than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne to confront the police who were attempting to seal it off. Massive clashes ensue, precipitating a month of strikes and occupations that nearly toppled the French government.

On May 1, 1971, over 50,000 people attended an anti-war concert in Washington, DC organized in coordination with the May Day Tribe, a radical left formation including Yippie, gay, and feminist contingents. The government rescinded the permit and evicted the park in which the concert was taking place.

Nevertheless, at dawn on May 3, well over 15,000 anti-war protesters organized into affinity groups attempted to shut down the entire city of Washington DC by means of coordinated civil disobedience. An equal number of police, soldiers, and marines responded with tear gas and violent attacks, seizing and destroying property at random including two marked ambulances. Over 7000 people were arrested by 8 am, and the number approaches 13,000 by the end of the week—only 79 of whom were ultimately convicted. A federal court later awarded a total of $12 million to arrestees.

In Berlin, a street party in the Kreuzberg area on May Day 1987 unexpectedly became a major conflict drawing in many sectors of the population, forcing police to abandon the district for hours.

From that night of freedom sprang a yearly tradition of rioting in downtown Berlin.

In 2006, in the United States tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters went on strike on May Day to demonstrate against repressive policies against migrants and those without documents.

In this photo, demonstrators clamber over a fence during a school walkout on May Day, 2006.

The FBI arrested the Cleveland 4 ten years ago today, immediately before May Day. It was one of a series of cases in which they intentionally entrapped unwary activists and prosecuted them as “terrorists” in order to discredit the powerful social movements of the Occupy Wall Street era.

Learn about the cases and entrapment tactics:

https://crimethinc.com/2012/05/29/inside-the-fbi-entrapment-strategy

Learn more about the Cleveland 4 case:

https://cleveland4solidarity.org

Every May Day, to our great pleasure, longtime anarchist surrealist Ron Sakolsky and his comrades release an issue of The Oystercatcher.

This one includes a conversation with Ben Morea (of Up Against the Wall Motherfucker), reflections on the centenary of surrealism, thoughts from fellow longtime anarchist surrealist Penelope Rosemont on the legacy of Charles Fourier on the 250-year anniversary of his birth, and more.

If you are a person who might ever need an abortion—or if you care about a person who might—or if you believe that people deserve self-determination over their bodies, the state is your enemy.

Let's talk about how to prevent them from wielding power over us.

One of the reasons abortion became legal in the first place was that underground networks like the Jane collective of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union were already making it widely available in defiance of the law.

Keep fighting.

A zine about Jane:

https://azinelibrary.org/approved/jane-1.pdf