A Very Scary Mayday.

Today, May 1st (1/5/12) is International Workers Day a day long associated with left-wing and anti-capitalist protests. In London, UK the event has been marked with the traditional trade unions march from Clarkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square. Also some idiots from the Occupylsx group have staged a small protest on London's Underground Rail Network (the Tube) which will play a key role in London's transport infrastructure during the Olympic games. Even without the added pressure of the Olympics the Tube normally operates at or over-capacity so the disruption caused by the Occupylsx protest was barely distinguishable from the everyday disruption on the network.

In Paris, France though Mayday celebrations have taken a far more sinister turn having been hijacked by Marine Le Pen - leader of the fascist National Front Party. Having just missed out Sunday's (6/5/12) run-off vote by finishing third in the first round Le Pen has used Mayday to address a mass rally of supporters and tell them who to support in the run-off. With the far-left supporters of the Workers Struggle Party and the Left Front coalition expected to transfer their support to the Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande it was assumed that National Front supporters would transfer their support to the centre-right UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. However Le Pen has told her supporters to abstain. This is in order to secure their longer term objective getting Hollande elected in order to destroy the UMP and then unite the Nationalist and Socialist vote behind the National Front in order to sweep them to victory in June's Parliamentary election. So if this plan succeeds we may well be witnessing the death of the political middle ground in France. Le Pen might be right about one thing though describing herself as the political centre of gravity in France - as in the thing that will drag the whole nation down.