by Sue Ann Martinson, WAMM

It is no accident that protests involving thousands of people took place worldwide on May Day 2000 (also known as International Workers' Day). People around the world understand that their rights as workers are being taken away (if they even had them in the first place), and their environment is being destroyed. They also understand, having tried legal means through the courts, that there is no way left but to take to the streets.

In London, the windows of a McDonalds were broken. In Berlin, counter-demonstrators added to the fray. But in Minneapolis, the "protest" and "protesters"--the people celebrating May Day with a parade, a union rally, and a party in their city--were nonviolent (except for a few expletives).

May Day participants were a coalition of all ages, from high-school-aged activists, to women with babies, to "gray hairs." Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre lent its inimitable pageantry to the parade with a dove puppet and one of the "Wild Horses of Peace" puppets created for the annual May Day Festival held on May 7. The Chicks on Sticks strode high above us on stilts as we walked down Marquette--a suitable choice since Marquette is the "Wall Street" of Minneapolis. Activists representing many issues joined hotel workers of HERE #17 in a union rally at the Hilton Hotel.

We went downtown to present our social justice concerns and found that the police are protecting the corporate state not the people. What does "corporate state" mean? It means that CEO's are now making up to and more than 400 times the wages of the average worker. It means that corporations are exploiting the people who are the heart and soul of America. It means that while the economy supposedly soared in the 1990s, the rich have become richer and the poor poorer.

The corporations threaten to destroy our food supply with seeds that create plants that cannot produce more seeds, with carcinogen-producing irradiation of meat, and with genetically modified foods that include genes from non-plant species. "Agri-Culture, not Agri-Business" was one of many signs in downtown Minneapolis on May Day.

Having our presence in downtown Minneapolis was so very important, not just for us, but for the many people/workers who observed. Such comments were heard as "This is great! How did you find out about this?" Others felt good about the information on affordable housing passed along to some women "suits." Some observed how some men "suits" watched the May Day action from a safe distance.

Some of the young people decided to set up their band to have a party at Hennepin and 6th Street. The arrests of young people started then, and continued to the next corner where they linked arms to hold the street. Throughout the day, the arrests appeared to be random--picking people out of the crowd for no apparent reason, except for a few well-known targets, such as Bear of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Bob Greenberg of pie-throwing fame.

The arrests were not only random, but far more violent than necessary, with reports of police standing on people's heads, using their crowd-control batons to hit people, using pepper spray, and putting plastic handcuffs on so tightly they cut off circulation. Finally, they arrested people who were providing support for those already in jail, people who were not blocking any streets--a clear infringement of First Amendment rights.

If the police were "just doing their job," as Minneapolis Chief of Police Robert Olson told sister of St. Joseph of Corondelet, Jane McDonald, they were not serving the people, but rather one small segment of the people: corporate America.

What is the role of the police? To unnecessarily beat up nonviolent protesters? "To protect and serve" used to be their motto. No longer. Many of us who took to the streets of downtown Minneapolis on May Day feel that our rights to free speech and assembly were violated that day.

Jane McDonald said, "I feel rage-full, grief-stricken. We did not want a [police action like those in] Seattle or Washington D.C. in Minneapolis . . . The police force has been militarized beyond recognition, whether the Minneapolis Police or the Highway Patrol, who were also present on the streets that day. They have become a military force, not a police force. Now we have the professionalization of police violence, protecting the status quo."

It is very clear that disruption of business as usual is not acceptable, nor is getting our message out to people who work downtown. The police serve the corporate interests only. They are the military arm of the corporations in Minneapolis, just as NATO is the military arm of U.S. corporate interests in Europe.

The Minneapolis Police and State Highway Patrol were acting as if the City of Minneapolis had declared a military state. And the young people understood this as they walked to Loring Park chanting, "This is what a police state looks like."

Sue Ann Martinson wrote this article with the assistance of Jane McDonald, Susu Jeffrey, and others attending the Alliant Techsystem Vigil on Wednesday, May 3, 2000.