The background to the increasing scale and anger of May Day street demonstrations is the neo-colonialisation of the world by large corporate groupings and compliant governments - and the protest against that. Weirdly even the protest movement is suffering from `Globalisation'. Smaller and local protest groups are complaining that large-scale global anti-capitalism protests are putting them .. out of business. There were calls on May Day for multinational pro-anarchy pressure groups to be investigated for monopolistic practices after the NW3 branch of the London Radical Left Movement For Socialist Revolution was disbanded due to lack of interest. The group's spokesperson, leader, treasurer, secretary and only member, Nigel Wilkinson, believes that global anarchy movements such as the ones responsible for the G7 riots in Seattle and the disturbances expected in London on May Day are to blame for forcing out smaller, independent operations like his. "These large American anti-capitalist movements have effectively taken over the militant scene in this country," he said from his bedsit in Highgate. "There used to be lots of small, independent groups all with their own unique character. Now it's the same old anarchy all over the world." Wilkinson has seen his group's membership dwindle by almost 70 percent over the last year from a peak of three members to just one - himself. "We used to stand outside shopping centres and try to sell Socialist Worker to students. Now its all balaclavas and spray paint and massive crowds of people. I dunno.

The character of these protests has totally changed." However, Kyle Redmond, spokesperson for WorldProtest, which has thousands of members in 20 countries and co-ordinates protests all over the world, defended his organisation's approach: "We give anarchists what they want. It's a supply and demand situation. We offer a basic menu of building defacement, vandalism of a McDonalds outlet and general looting, ending with a confrontation with the local police. All our research shows that this is what the average anarchist on the street wants." Meanwhile, back in Wellington New Zealand, the day began at midday with the sixth birthday party of The Freedom Shop, an Anarchist bookstore, and lunch from Food not Bombs. Students marched from the University to join the demonstration in Cuba Mall. The Radical Society organised an anti-sweatshop fashion parade, featuring big names such as Nike, Reebok and Adidas, as well as others such as the hip-hop from dj Stress and local MCs Iman Star and Mana. With numbers growing to at least 300, the crowd moved down the mall to the local landmark "bucket-fountain", which was sold in a mock auction by student group EcoAction in protest against Wellington City Council's plans to put water assets into a trust, a step towards privatisation. >From there the protest moved around to Manners Mall where Wellington Animal Action lead a vocal protest outside KFC. A member of the group spoke against the slaughter of animals for food, and pointed out the unhealthiness of KFC products. KFC was shut down for the 15 minutes they were there, and Police moved in to protect the restaurant when protestors began banging on the windows.

Next, Star Mart, which is a chain of 'convenience stores' owned by Caltex which are flooding the local market in a Starbucks type strategy to eliminate the opposition. This is a new thing in Aotearoa, convenience stores are called Dairies and are usually owned by local families who run the shop themselves and make a living from it. Now a multinational oil company is driving them out of business. In anticipation of the demo, this StarMart was `closed for Stock-taking'. >From there the march went through the Central Business Distrcit with at least 3-400 people. The anarchists needless to say decided not to apply for a march permit, preferring to assert a democratic right to march on a public road, which, in democratic New Zealand is a realistic expectation. The march was enthusiastic, loud, and one of the biggest in recent years. On the way it stopped to harangue StarBucks, who despite their promises have not yet introduced Fair Trade coffee, and anyway are a multinational driving local cafes out of business. A McDonalds, a Burger King, and another Star Mart were also shut down briefly, the usual targets, as the protest made stops along the way. After a break to listen to music, speakers, and have a lolly scramble in Midland park, the protest moved on to our final destination, the ministry of foreign affairs and trade, to protest against the Free Trade agreement the NZ government is signing with Hong Kong, which will see workers in Aotearoa forced to compete on wages and conditions not just with workers in Hong Kong, but in the export processing zones that Hong Kong controls in China. At the end of the protest a giant puppet of Mike Moore, who was briefly prime minister of New Zealand before becoming head of the WTO, was pied in the face and then beheaded, to cheers from the crowd. One Woman was arrested after the protest and charged with disorderly behaviour, but in general there was little confrontation with Police. Anti-Capitalist protests in Wellington have been steadily growing in size from MayDay last year, and a carnival against capitalism on S26.