Harry Maloney reports: After a day of peaceful rampaging through Manchester to celebrate Mayday, reclaiming streets and doing direct action, Manchester people had a surprise party in that old favourite party venue the Hacienda. The Okasional Cafe group had been in the building for 2 days, undetected by the Manchester constabulary, but the main issue was how to get the people in later on May Day before the police cordon went up. The intention was to avoid another "public order situation" like the last time it was squatted last year, and subsequent arrests of lots of people, which looked difficult with heavy police presence all around town, the venue itself and the whole of Hulme throughout the day. A party flier was duly made and distributed and the police were very keen and punctual, arriving at the meeting point (Spider Park, Hulme) half an hour early. While 15 police stood, allegedly quite literally in the bouncy climbing frame rope web, in the children's playground, around 300 people who were invited were lead away in small groups by discrete and strategic means via different routes to the plan B meeting point. Defying the laws of space and gravity, 300 party-seekers stood in someone-who-asked-to-remain-anonymous' garden, no. 23 on an avenue near you. They waited about 23 silent minutes, while the last stragglers were collected up. The police meanwhile, congregated in the Spider Park round the corner joined now by 3 police vans, obediently remaining in the meeting point. Presumably they thought the day's frolics were over and considered their reflective coated presence to be enough to dissuade the eco-scum would-be revellers from having a party. Perhaps they thought they must have been tired after their peaceful protest against capitalism earlier that day, having given them a good run with their horses and vans and hopefully demoralised others by arresting 20 people some of whom they charged with the dubious crime of being in possession of counterfeit money (since when have shops accepted "�20 note-fliers" with "capitalism sucks" written on the back of them?). Tensions were running high as the people bound for the Hacienda slipped out of the Redbricks estate the back route through Hulme Park, completely unobserved by the police in the web. The journey had been mapped out in advance via a route unfriendly to vans, going under subways, across dark car parks, up stairs, across tram tracks, down ramps and through the back streets of Castlefield, in a roundabout route to the Havin' it venue. Apart from one near-miss encounter with an enemy patrol vehicle (imagine 100's of people trying to make themselves look invisible: think of a 101 Dalmatians x 3) the adventurers got down on to the canal towpath for a last mad dash up and in through the back doors of the Hacienda : Hooray. The operation was so successful that a group of people came in 20 minutes later: they hadn't noticed a thing. Unfortunately, police don't take too kindly to being outwitted on such a scale in the same building re-claimed last year, despite massive police presence, and the first 30 or so people to leave were arrested by the riot cops who laid siege to the building till morning. At 5:00am they did, however, let 100's leave, even wishing them sweet dreams as they filmed them departing, but not arresting any others. The building was held for 5 more days and then returned to its rightful owners who are going to turn it into a block of flats. At least it had a farewell party. Respect to the krew, don't forget stay konnected and it will be alright on the night. It has to be said that Manchester has one of the fluffyest (and most active) crews of direct actioners in the country there is never a spikey posse at Manchester demo's. If your a copper reading this think about that before you send in the meatheads again! This story should be a lesson learned, the following weekend a party was stopped twice by telling everyone where it was going to happen before getting there with the rig. doh!