size of international anti cap demonstrations

[WP member]

Hi all

I am working on a project to try and chart the history of the ACM and AW movements particularly the size of the demonstrations.
I would appreciate any numbers that people could give me, obviously I have demos like Genoa (300,000) but does anyone know the size of the UK Mayday demos from 2000-2004?

Also any sizeable demos in the third world that happened between after 1999.
You can PM me if you have any particularly thorough histories
I can email the finished product to anyone as well when it is done, I will be doing it as an excel document.

Thanks

 

[Raw SslaC]

LONDON Mayday anti-capitalist/anarchist actions:

Mayday 2000: 6,000 - 7,000 people (Guerilla Gardening, Parliament Sq)
Mayday 2001: 5,000 people (Mayday Monopoly)
Mayday 2002: 3,000 people (Mayday in Mayfair)
Mayday 2003: 1,500 people (Weapons of Mass Construction)
Mayday 2004: 150-200 people (Mayday Cancelled!! Picnic St James Park)
Mayday 2005: 200-250 Secret action at Tescos (Part of EuroMayday)

from someone involved

Raw

p.s. A more interesting thing will be attaching the amount of damage/loss of earnings/cost to the police of each of those actions. My personal fav is the £20 million loss of trade for Mayday 2001...hehe

p.s. AS for other demos try researching new internationalist back issues from around 2001-2002 as one issue was on the anti-globalisation movement and had a running text at the bottom of the article with places, demos and numbers in attendance from 1998-2001/2 I think it was the article written by John Jordan.

cheers

 

[DrRingDing]

I have demos like Genoa (300,000)

Genoa was a series of protests over several days the 300,000 figure was just for the main march on the saterday.

 

[DrRingDing]

Genoa was a series of protests over several days the 300,000 figure was just for the main march on the saterday.

...and you will encounter the same problem for most other summit protests over europe.

 

[DrRingDing]

Mayday 2000: 6,000 - 7,000 people (Guerilla Gardening, Parliament Sq)
Mayday 2001: 5,000 people (Mayday Monopoly)
Mayday 2002: 3,000 people (Mayday in Mayfair)
Mayday 2003: 1,500 people (Weapons of Mass Construction)
Mayday 2004: 150-200 people (Mayday Cancelled!! Picnic St James Park)
Mayday 2005: 200-250 Secret action at Tescos (Part of EuroMayday)

Very sad and slightly suspicious figures.

 

[Raw SslaC]

Why suspicious?

 

[DrRingDing]

Are people really less anti-capitalist now than what they were 6 years ago?

 

[Top Dog]

Mayday 2000: 100,000 people (trade union march, Parliament Sq (disrupted by anarchists)
Mayday 2001: 20,000 GR outside World Bank London HQ, Piccadilly (Mayday Monopoly)
Mayday 2002: er,... (Mayday in Mayfair)
Mayday 2003: 15,000 people (StWC)
Mayday 2004: 100,000 people (trade union march, Parliament Sq (not disrupted by anarchists - see above)
Mayday 2005: what was that again?

.

 

[Top Dog]

Are people really less anti-capitalist now than what they were 6 years ago?

its called 'balance of forces' DUAF

 

[Groucho]

Very sad and slightly suspicious figures.

Well, it is only part of the picture.

 

[Chuck Wilson]

Well, it is only part of the picture.

Exactly, economism of the worst order.

 

[Random]

Very sad and slightly suspicious figures.

Sad, maybe, but they're accurate.

 

[cockneyrebel]

Mayday 2005: 200-250 Secret action at Tescos (Part of EuroMayday)

Absolute classic , looks like the revolution is round the corner then

Hmmmm I thought we (workers power) released a pamphlet on the anti-capitalist movement fairly recently. Is this to update it

The last anti-war demo in the UK was about 15-20,000. I think the SWP claimed 40,000 and the police 7,000.

 

[free spirit]

out of interest why are you starting in 1999?

surely you'd be better off starting in 1998 with the first major global anti-cap protest (from this generation) with the 'global street party' anti G7 RTS in Birmingham when there were about 2-3000 people took over the centre of birmingham for several hours, while there were simultaneous protests / street parties in shed loads of cities world wide - i think this was the first major PGA called global day of action.

J18 in 1999 must have had 8-10,000+ if my memories of liverpool street station at the start are anywhere near correct

G8 protests in Scotland 2005 somewhere between 2,500-3,500 different people on site in stirling (Dissent site) over the 3 days (though not all at once), + however many headed to gleneagles seperately / and the g8 alternatives had a few thousand there too, and a fair few people protesting in edinburgh on the same day, then you've got 150,000 at make pov history if you count that, and geldofs concert thing... ah i dunno

 

[Top Dog]

out of interest why are you starting in 1999?

because thats when the trots took notice of the emergence of an anti-cap milieu... and then spent the next 2 years chasing after it... they couldnt quite get to grips with the fact that it emerged in spite of the left > tho WP were at least present on J18, having one of their number sent down

 

[Top Dog]

Hmmmm I thought we (workers power) released a pamphlet on the anti-capitalist movement fairly recently.

is this available for free online anywhere CR?

 

[cockneyrebel]

I'm afraid it costs £3 as it's 64 pages.....

http://shop.fifthinternational.org/product_info.php?products_id=28

I'm not sure why it's not available as a PDF though

 

[Chuck Wilson]

I'm afraid it costs £3 as it's 64 pages.....

http://shop.fifthinternational.org/product_info.php?products_id=28

I'm not sure why it's not available as a PDF though

Couldn't you photocopy your copy and send it to him?

 

[cockneyrebel]

Couldn't you photocopy your copy and send it to him?

Firstly I haven't got a copy....tut tut.....secondly for the amount of hassle that would be, I think he can dish out the £3!

 

[Buds and Spawn]

Of course, the global days of action in 98 and 99 should probably be counted on how many peeps took to the streets worldwide... (e.g. see the old J18 site and this one. ).

In the UK though, Birmingham in 98 was probably only a few thousand (if you don't count the Jubilee Drop the Debt folks), and J18 was certainly c. ten thousand minimum in London...

 

[Top Dog]

Firstly I haven't got a copy....tut tut.....secondly for the amount of hassle that would be, I think he can dish out the £3!

you're alright. Im really not that interested

 

[123bpm]

Are people really less anti-capitalist now than what they were 6 years ago?

Only if you measure it by the numbers of crusties who go on pointless demos.

123

 

[sparticus]

Try contacting

http://www.weareeverywhere.org/
http://www.whiteband.org/
http://www.focusweb.org/

for info.

Obviously depends how anti-capitalism is defined

 

[levien]

Absolute classic , looks like the revolution is round the corner then

Hmmmm I thought we (workers power) released a pamphlet on the anti-capitalist movement fairly recently. Is this to update it

The last anti-war demo in the UK was about 15-20,000. I think the SWP claimed 40,000 and the police 7,000.

I actually have that was given it on a anti-deportation demo and felt that I should pay for it in the pub latter. Even read some of it, can't understand why it would need updating as was specifically for the build up to the G8.

 

[butchersapron]

Only if you measure it by the numbers of crusties who go on pointless demos.

123

More than that in London.

 

[free spirit]

Quote:
Originally Posted by free spirit
out of interest why are you starting in 1999?
because thats when the trots took notice of the emergence of an anti-cap milieu... and then spent the next 2 years chasing after it... they couldnt quite get to grips with the fact that it emerged in spite of the left > tho WP were at least present on J18, having one of their number sent down

fuck revisionist bollocks, the 'days of dissent' thing dissent published prior to the g8 missed the 98 global protests out too, basically because the people who wrote it weren't there, therefore it can't have been important / happened (or they forgot).

website listing global reports here (RTS)

the report on RTS from the time estimates 8000 in birmingham, which i suppose could be true, though i think this might have been a bit of an overestimate, maybe 6000. Actually thinking about it 8k could be right there were a fair few and we spread over a pretty big area.

Globally street party / protests took place in the following cities either on Saturday 16th of May 1998, or in the build up to it. i make that protests in around 40 cities worldwide against the G8 and WTO meetings happening in Birmingham and Geneva, as originally called for by PGA IIRC. Reckon this has to count as a significant international anticapitalist protest event even if workers power weren't there.

Ankara, Turkey .
Athens
Arcata, WA (USA)
Barcelona, Catalunya .
Berlin, Germany
Berkeley, California
Birmingham, England 6-8000 people
Bogota, Columbia
Brisbane, Australia
Darwin, Australia
Derry, Northern Ireland
Dresden, Germany
Dublin, Ireland
Geneva, Switzerland 4,500 people
Gothenberg, Sweden
Hamburg, Germany
Ljubljana, Slovenia 40 people
Lyon, France 200 people
Madrid, Spain .
Melbourne, Australia 80 people
Nantes, France .
Nuremberg, Germany .
Olympia, WA (USA)
Prague, Czech Republic 3000 people
Seattle, WA (USA)
Stockholm, Sweden
Sydney, Australia 2000 to 4000
Tallinin, Estonia 50
Tel Aviv, Israel Over 500 people
Thüringen region, Germany .
Toronto, Canada Hundreds of people
Tucson, Arizona (USA) .
Turin, Italy .
Turku, Finland 2000 people
Utrecht, Netherlands 800+
Valencia, Spain 300
Vancouver, Canada 200 people
York, England 250 people
Zagreb, Croatia
Zurich, Switzerland

<numbers taken from reports still up on the site>

that's something like 21-25,000 worldwide just from those cities who's reports are still up

 

[Top Dog]

fuck revisionist bollocks, the 'days of dissent' thing dissent published prior to the g8 missed the 98 global protests out too, basically because the people who wrote it weren't there, therefore it can't have been important / happened (or they forgot) [...]

thats not actually true. Some of the contributers i know were present (not that i can see this makes a blind bit of difference one way or the other)

Reckon this has to count as a significant international anticapitalist protest event even if workers power weren't there.

but... but... but what about the fifth international?

 

[Chuck Wilson]

you're alright. Im really not that interested

Bloody hell cockers no wonder there are piles of unsold copies of workers power piled verywhere at your flat. You need to develop a more customer friendly attitude.Always promote the product not yourself, then get them to talk about themselves,empower them to sell you themsleves as if you were the buyer. Then when you have matched buyer with product clinch the deal quickly and seal. Workers power could be as big as , ooh I don't know but lets say Friends of No6 Society,if you used that technique imo.

 

[IMHO]

My personal fav is the £20 million loss of trade for Mayday 2001...hehe

Fucking marvellous. Luckily it only affects the "fatcats", not the workers

Pity it wasn't a £2000,000,000,000,000 loss, then we'd ALL benefit

 

[butchersapron]

Roll your eyes some more. That's a good technique.