Super Fairy Rules the Pixies

LONDON: 3 May 2000

In the final analysis, it was all just so British.
First the genteel horticultural festivities, then the rituals of MacTrashing and CopFronting to allow the local ploughboys to let off steam, and then the timely appearance of Super Fairy, the decorated handmaiden of the ritual Spring riot, who resolves all feuds and brings peace and accomodation to the community.
That was Mayday 2000. Less a global Anarchist uprising than a rural village fete circa 1887. As in all ritual festivals, the powers of stability were reinvoked, and all parties came away with their prejudices intact.
This was a depressing day, except perhaps for one person: the superheroine in the pink tutu, who completely fulfilled her destiny on a grand scale. Whenever the 360 degree standoff in Trafalgar Square became too rumbunctious, her sequinned pink attenae would twitch to the message "This looks like a job for SuperFairy" and in a flash she would appear between the lines of blue and black. Then, with a swivel of her bellybutton and a whisk of her pink feather duster, all was peace and love.
The sinister hooded pixie hordes could no more bring themselves to roughouse A Lady than could Wilfred Hyde White. Very laudable, very British.
The lesson of Trafalgar Square 2000 was that 3000 fearless anarchists were kept in check by one scantily clad show-off. Without her they might well have broken the thin cordon which kept them illegally imprisoned for a bladder-straining four hours. This was a total humiliation and everyone knew it, especially the police.
If the battle against global corporatism is to succeed, it has to be driven by a commitment to ideals which can be shared, and which cannot be deflected by a single mother in fancy dress. Anarchism, if this was what we saw on May Day, obviously does not match up to the challenge.