From Punch Up Collective This year Punch Up Collective hosted our seventh contribution to recognizing May Day in Ottawa: a kid-centred picnic and short march. We wanted to share something about why this was so fun and to reflect a little on including kids and families in these kinds of celebrations, and the difference between including them and focusing events on kids and families. We’ve done a mix of things Read More …
From Montreal Counter-Info The anti-capitalist MayDay 2022 blatantly showed the limits of our offensive demonstrations. It’s a good thing that comrades were able to hit certain symbolic targets, but it’s a real problem that these attacks signaled the end of the demonstration instead of rekindling its momentum. We must therefore reflect on our means, our tactical choices, and our collective capacities. To start off, lets be clear that it is Read More …
In “Toronto” on the morning of May 1st, we attacked an RBC branch in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders. We left a spray-painted message, a damaged lock, and a mess of red paint.
As we walked away into a beautiful May Day sunrise, we left a trail of messages through the city.
We were left wanting more, but we know that there are many more days ahead.
The time is now, the task is simple! Attack! Read More …
For May Day this year, despite the current limitations on some of our traditional activities, we wanted to safely take to the streets. It was a perfect opportunity to do a demonstration we’d been thinking about at Toronto South Detention Centre. Toronto South, nicknamed “Guantanamo South”, is a horrific place, and an especially dangerous place to be during a pandemic. Read More …
In response to the call for decentralized May Day actions, some Toronto anarchists went for a delightful ride on a clear night in late April to let banks know that we are watching and that we are ready and willing to act. Despite most branches being closed due to Covid-19, we managed to find a few branches that were continuing to open for customers. We visited several banks, gluing the locks, and spray painting messages on the concrete or exterior facade as appropriate. Our messages centred around their abysmal failure to show even a modicum of compassion amid widespread income loss among its clients. Read More …
However you tell the tale of May Day, one thing is consistent: it is a time people gather together, to march in the streets or to celebrate a new spring. Although most of us are enjoying the warmer weather blowing in, we are mostly stuck in our homes. Reading the news, trying to figure out the right thing to do, watching May 1st creep closer and wondering what it will look like this year if we can’t take over downtown and revel in May Day as we have come to know it: a celebration of anticapitalism. Read More …
May Day in Toronto this year was marked by a couple of rallies, plenty of rain, and one bloody guillotine. It was my first May Day in Toronto, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but was excited for the opportunity to be explicitly and confrontationally anti-capitalist in the streets. May Day to me is about celebrating labour victories of years past and fighting for a world free from all forms of oppression. I’d heard that the main feature of Toronto May Day is the evening march, organized by a coalition of organizations, and that most people came with their union or political group. Read More …
May Day in Kingston this year was rainy but fun. The rain held off long enough for about 100 people to mill around in Skeleton Park, eat some burgers and veggie dogs, grab some zines, and chat with each other. I saw a lot of folks who I’ve been seeing at May Day for years now, and several new faces as well. Read More …
Anti-Authoritarian & Anti-Capitalist Mayday 2019 Reportback
Anyone who lives in Hamilton knows that JSquare is truly a temple of precarious jobs. Maybe you’ve put in your hours sweeping yellow skittles off the theatre floor or selling cigar boxes at one of the telemarketing firms; maybe you have a friend who pushed data plans at one of the cell booths or slung Mooseheads at the Honest Lawyer. Whatever your experience of Jackson Square, you can perhaps imagine how satisfying it might be to march with a crew of 40 radicals through the mall, spreading May Day cheer and working class solidarity to all those stuck working on this International Worker’s Day.
This year’s May Day began two months prior with an attempt at coalition organizing. It was a real possibility, but for the presence of a small yet committed group of authoritarian communists (working under different banners of the Revolutionary Communist Party) whose behavior during the meetings rendered the word “solidarity” meaningless. Thus proving once again that there can be no solidarity with those who seek power over us, those who worship the murderous dictators of history, those who follow party lines instead of their own ethics. And so anarchists went our own way, calling for an anti-authoritarian & anti-capitalist march on our own terms. Read More …
There are a number of May Day events happening across the region on Wednesday May 1 2019, marking International Workers’ Day by taking the streets, celebrating in parks, and remembering the ways that capitalism underpins so many of the problems people face every day. From east to west, here are the events we’ve received details about from their organizers and a short excerpt from each callout. Got a May Day Read More …
