Activism
If you still think May Day is about balloons, barbecues, and nostalgia for trade unions with a human face, you’re probably stuck somewhere between 1975 and old TV commercials. Today, May 1st is when the city trembles from shouts that no one intends to coordinate. It’s not about “workers’ rights”; it’s about a direct strike against the system. Anarchists, delivery drivers, feminists, kids in keffiyehs, and tired cops in body armor—everything mixed together in one warning march. Not a request, but an ultimatum. Not a holiday, but a test volley. Read this perspective on the May Day demonstration in Berlin from a member of the Äppelwoi Komitee—straight from the streets, where slogans ring louder than laws.
— Hi! May 1st is, well, you know—one of those demonstrations where even the laziest drag their posters out of the closet. Based on your feelings, how many people gathered in 2025?
— This is my third May Day demonstration. Usually, people don’t come out to smile for the camera. The mood has typically been angry, focused, and stubborn. To many, it seems that May 1st has once again become the day the street speaks. Or maybe it’s just an old ritual. About 4,000 people took part in the Berlin demonstration, with the anarchist block making up about 400 of them.
— Who actually goes there? What political movements show up—who is traditionally the majority, and who isn’t invited anymore?
— The ones who go are those the system spat out. Anarchists, Antifa, radical leftists, queers, feminists, students without a future, former workers and current ones, migrants with nothing left to lose, ecologists who no longer believe in the “Green Deal,” kids in keffiyehs, Stalinists, Kurds, punks, idealistic obscurantists, and old trade union dinosaurs. No one is “invited”—everyone just shows up. Those who cling to the center and write protest notes in Excel style simply aren’t seen there. They say this isn’t about reforms—it’s about a redistribution of power. Who knows?
— What were the slogans and demands this year—was it the same old “liberty, equality, fraternity,” or was there something new? What are the leftists, anarchists, and those who join the demo actually striving for?
— This isn’t a political masquerade anymore—it’s a scream from within, the demonstrators claim. They aren’t demanding; they are warning. Though there are doubts about whether the threats are real.
Photo – Äppelwoi Komitee
— It’s known that on May 1st, the leftist spirit lingers with a particular venom. How do the poor “bones” (skinheads) and cops feel in this atmosphere—do they relax or start remembering their self-defense and riot suppression courses?
— The cops are in body armor, like in a video game. Muscles tensed, eyes scanning 360 degrees. They aren’t “poor”—they know whose side the baton is on. But fear seeps through. Especially toward evening, when the air smells of burning trash cans and the column with red-and-black flags isn’t singing, but silent. That’s when they really get nervous. Especially those who remember how it used to be in Kreuzberg.
— May 1st used to be about workers’ rights—but now, when factories are replaced by algorithms, is there any chance for workers’ movements? Or are they just pretending they still decide things? How alive is all this in Germany, or is it just nostalgia for Karl Marx?
— The “working class” is now a migrant on a delivery bike, a nanny without papers, a courier in the rain, a freelance programmer—everyone who won’t live to see a pension. And yes, there is a chance. As long as there is a body that can be taken out to the street, a chance remains. But the class is no longer the same, and its language is different. This isn’t about contracts—it’s about sabotage, collective refusal, and life outside the algorithm. It’s all alive, but not in offices or union headquarters. It’s alive in squats, on the streets, in DIY kitchens, and on the barricades. Or maybe even in the demonstrations of those who follow “Alternative for Germany,” because they don’t understand where we are heading.
— And your personal opinion—how was this May Day demonstration for you? What would you keep, and what is it time to cross out of the script?
— I’d keep the anger. You can’t do without it. It’s honest. I’d keep the nighttime graffiti that screams louder than any speaker. But I’d cross out the illusion that power can be convinced. No. It can only be stripped of power. It’s time to speak plainly: revolution is not a metaphor. It’s a route.
Members of the Äppelwoi Komitee also participated in demonstrations in Warsaw, Erfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, and Mannheim.
If you are unfamiliar with the Äppelwoi Komitee and don’t know what they do, we recommend starting with an interview with them — “Isolation leads to atomization and the gradual fading of once-active people”.
It is also worth paying attention to the conversation with the Czech Anarchist Federation (Afed) — “The more the world seems to suck, the more we need each other”, timed to the May Day demonstration in Czechia in 2024.