Crowds at last year’s May Day Kill the Bill protest. Photo: Socialist Appeal/CC by 2.0

MAY Day is an extraordinary tradition of international protest in recognition of workers’ rights and culture. It evolved out of mass international protests being called in 1889 for the eight-hour working day to help prevent exploitation of workers. Half a million people attended the first May Day protest in London in 1890.

Protests have taken place ever since across the world, particularly at times of struggle. For one of many May Day protests during the 1984 miners’ strike, 10,000 people marched in Chesterfield, considered the largest in its history. In the noughties with the advent of globalisation protests marked a dissent “against capitalism”.

While May Day is associated with recognition of workers for the Metropolitan Police and May Day protesters of London 2001, it is an anniversary of a different kind. That year the Met deployed a new public order tactic on a large scale for the first time: “kettling” where people were penned in by officers and not allowed to leave.

Morag Livingstone

The 2001 May Day protest was based on the game Monopoly, which allowed for groups of protesters to decide what statement they wanted to make at the different famous locations. The nature of each protest was not declared to the police in advance. Blair’s New Labour, who by then had become the “party of business” (and were to enact 3,000 new criminal offences – one for every day they were in office) condemned the protests. The prime minister said these protests against capitalism represented a “spurious cause” and he gave “absolute and total backing” for the police.

Two months before May Day 2001, Met Commissioner Stevens dined with newspaper executives and briefed against the protesters.

Newspaper headlines helped create a climate of fear and expectation of violence around the demonstrations. Less than half of the expected 10,000 people turned up to protest.

On the day protesters demonstrating against the World Bank moved from Regent Street into Oxford Circus, dishing out Monopoly money as they went. The Guardian reported the demon­stration was peaceful. Then suddenly at 2.45pm, the police blocked all exits from Oxford Circus. No one understood what was going on except the police, whose officers had been fully briefed. Police surrounded protesters on all sides. They then moved to pen the protesters in. The media suggested the protesters “showed little inclination to leave”.

However, they were not allowed to leave. Nothing on this scale had been tried by the police before. They were “kettled”.

Matt Foot

The commissioner had said: “We are praying that nothing untoward will happen. If there is any trouble… we have the resources.” But it turned out that they were instead ready to deal with protesters even if nothing untoward had happened.

After being corralled for some time protesters in the kettle understandably tried to break free. They met a number of police officers striking unarmed protesters around the head. Police on horseback were used and there were repeated baton charges, 50 protesters and three police officers were injured.

Around 3,000 protesters were tightly corralled for seven hours. They were denied food, water and toilets. Nothing on this scale had been seen before.

Such a tactic would help deter future demonstrators. Similar tactics have been repeated in the years since, including the kettling of children for up to nine hours at the tuition fee protests of 2010. At the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 protesters were kettled late into the night, many only released after names and addresses were taken. Clearly kettling has the effect of putting people off attending protest.

At the 2020 virtual Conservative Party Conference, the current home secretary said “the government will always defend the right to protest” just before introducing the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which hands even more powers to the police against protesters.
Priti Patel and her predecessors have professed to protect our right to protest while behind the scenes they support tactics that try and suppress protest – the May Day kettle is a prime example.

The idea that outnumbering protesters with vast police numbers who could resort to violence to keep protesters penned in is an anathema to freedom of expression – we need to protect it by continuing to protest.

• Charged: How the Police Try to Suppress Protest, by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone, is out May 24, published by Verso Books