//:/ m ■ / 9 I S T NEWS AND VIEWS

m www.freedompress.org.uk 19 MAY 2007 A look at our rulers Oil and the Nigerian crisis Special report on Oaxaca Springing ‘The Trap’ INSIDE ►► page 3 page 4 page 5 page 7 J 7 m M m THE COST OF CORRUPTION n the latest twist to the ongoing The OECD’s Anti-Bribery BAE systems scandal, Saudi chiefs Convention states specifically that Ihave put their upcoming multi­ economic or diplomatic concerns are billion pound armaments deal with not to be taken into consideration BAE systems on hold while waiting to when investigating corruption. Nor is see if the arms giant will survive a the identity or alleged identity of those series of corruption allegations. involved to be considered when Over the last couple of years, the deciding whether to close such an Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been investigation. running a major inquiry into BAE It has emerged that pressure on the Systems’ dealings with such countries supposedly ‘independent’ head of the as varied as Chile, Romania, the Czech SFO to drop the Saudi inquiry came Republic, South Africa, Tanzania and from the very highest level. Tony Blair Saudi Arabia. is reported to have intervened on no At least it was probing Saudi less than three occasions, Des Browne, Arabia, until the inquiry into that Margaret Beckett and the CEO of * * country’s dealings with BAE Systems Rolls Royce, Sir John Rose, are also was mysteriously shut down. reported to have put pressure on the The official reason for this is that to Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, to proceed against Saudi Arabia is “not close the inquiry before it could in the national interest”. This bears proceed further. In fact, the head of ACTION DIRECTE CONTRE LE CAPprA? little examination in the light of press the SFO is reported to have been U L o J i c U s r reports and may well be in contra­ urged on no less than seven occasions vention of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery to drop the case against the Saudis, DIRECT ACTION AGAINST CAPITAL Convention of 1997. Possible unoffical which he eventually did. A COON D1RECTA CONTRA Et CA >\TAf reasons for closing down the inquiry The focus of the inquiry will now are that the Saudis had threatened to shift to the other countries implicated in the case, including Chile, Romania, pull out of a major deal to buy BAE’s INTERNATIONAL: The Mayday march following the i07 anarcho-syndicalist conference saw around 2,000 ) new Eurofighter and to suspend the Czech republic, South Africa and diplomatic relations and co-operation Tanzania. Followers of the arms trade people attend from around the world, dominating the Paris worker's day. Some confusion reigned early on, in matters of national security. will remember that Tanzania was the as a Stalinist group attempted to muscle in front of the syndicalists, who were under the banner of i07 The timing of the closure is suspicious, country that bought a state-of-the-art organisers CNT Vignoles. Traditionally, unions march first in Paris, followed by political groups - the to put it mildly. According to a one military air traffic control system while Stalinists at first refused to recognise Vignoles' union status. report, investigators were about to gain having difficulty feeding its own people, access to secret papers implicating the and it is this deal made again with Saudi royal family in a bribery scandal. BAE Systems, that is apparently under interest have been trying to stifle action as highly confidential information on Campaign Against the Arms Trade Then, by a curious coincidence, the investigation. on this case. According to a report in the case was finding its way into the (CAAT) on no less than two separate inquiry into the Saudi arms deals was But official pressure is not the only the Independent, detectives have hands of ‘outside parties’. BAE Systems occasions. Paul Mercer a friend of closed down. means by which those with a vested alleged that they were being bugged, have also bee caught spying on the page 8, column 3 CLIMATE CHANGE HEALTH SECRETARIAT BEGINS

irst the good news - global warming the millennium,” says Howard Frumkin perhaps the most significant environ­ he new secretariat of international easy accessibility to all documents of means in the future we won’t be director of the US-based Disease Control mental problem which mankind will anarcho-syndicalist union the IWA the International.” Fgetting so many colds. Now for the and Prevention Unit. While Diarmid face in the coming century”. The UK has officially begun its tenure While the secretariat has now caught T up on a backlog of communications to bad news - while we won’t be sneezing Campbell of the WHO says “health is government predicts that temperatures following months of delay. quite so much, the health risks associated moving to the centre of the climate could increase by 2.5-3°C, although others Based in Serbia, the ASI-MUR group send out, a request has been made to with climate change are almost biblical change debate”. have argued that these are conservative took over from the Oslo secretariat in members of the IWA asking for English/ in proportion. In the near future there Research by the Australian National predictions. Even to ‘achieve’ a 3° increase January this year but was slowed Spanish translators for its internal will be increasing deaths during heat University estimates that since 1970 will require a 60% reduction in carbon initially by its active involvement in documentation. waves, sudden downpours will cause global warming has already caused some emissions according to the UN Inter­ mass student protests across the country, Among early issues the new secretariat flash flooding, there will be more food- 5.5 million deaths worldwide through governmental Panel on Climate Change where it helped instigate university has faced has seen a planned trip to borne diseases and greater incidents of heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and and then, as the New Scientist magazine occupations against tuition fees, along observe the All Pakistan Federation of skin cancer. There is even the possibility droughts. Europe’s heatwave two years has pointed out, we will still “condemn with delays in transfer of the IWA Trade Unions in March cancelled as of malaria appearing in the UK. ago alone resulted in some 35,000 deaths. hundreds of millions of people to water archives. new legislation was brought in banning These alarming predictions do not come Britain is not immune from this. The shortages ... vulnerable to coastal flood­ The new secretariat has announced their attendance. from green groups but from a report DH report, called The Health Effects ing and put about 30% of our species a series of goals for its term in office, Revelations around the Oaxaca uprising published in May by the Department of, o f Climate Change in the, predictsUK at risk”. including improving access to informa­ in January, in which allegations surfaced Health (DH). “Climate change probably that by 2012 it is possible that the south­ Like all the problems capitalism causes, tion and communication technology that a front group, CIPO RFM, was represents the largest health threat of east will experience a severe heatwave the health risks associated with climate across all sections of the international, attempting to act as an IWA friend in causing over 6,000 deaths. General change will not be faced equally. The and the creation of an online database the region to solicit money also raised ISSN 0016-0504 health problems resulting from rising poorest countries will suffer far more so members can work more closely its head as the new secretariat was temperatures range from respiratory than the richest, though they contribute together. finding its feet. diseases caused by increased ozone to little to carbon emissions (Britain, with In a circular to all IWA sections, the The secretariat has now established the spread of infectious diseases. Every 1 % of the world population, emits 2% Secretariat said: “Strengthening of relations with various other anarchist 1 % rise in temperature increases causes of emissions). Climate change is not just communicational and administrative internationals, including the IWW and Vol 68 of salmonella by between 5% and 10%, an environmental issue and as ever it is infrastructure is what we see as one of the IAF, and with all IWA sections. No 10 increasing pressure on the NHS. the poorest who will suffer the most. the most important tasks of this Secre­ Contact: General Secretary # Ratibor Trivunac 770016 050009 The DH state that “climate change is Richard Griffin tariat. That, among other things, means email: [email protected] Freedom 19th May 2007 2 Home and away

Jailed for leak A civil servant has been jailed for six months after leaking a secret memo allegedly detailing a conversation between George W. Bush and Tony Around the world Blair over whether to bomb the A1 Jazeera media group. ARGENTINA: Municipal workers in Rio Michelle Bachelet is already stained Another of his electoral promises was One commentator on indymedia said: The trial, much of which was held Gallegos, capital city of Santa Cruz with workers’ blood, exposing itself as to “liquidate the legacy of May 1968” “The fact that no-one was detained in secret under the Official Secrets Act province and home of Argentine president nothing but the continuity of the - the mass movement of students, work­ illustrates perfectly that this was nothing and was censored from the public, saw Nestor Kirchner, were attacked by state repressive legacy of the previous ers and libertarians. Sarkozy (referred more than an long planned attempt to David Keogh, a Cabinet Office police while marching to demand pay­ governments of her coalition to by many French as, ‘the American hinder the preparation of the protests communications officer, and Leo ment of a promised wage increase (Concertacion).” President’) wants to improve relations against the G8 summit and to scare the O’Connor, a researcher for anti-war The march on 9th May was entirely with the US, and has criticised Chirac public in order to discredit the protests.” Labour MP Anthony Clarke. non-violent and was attempting to go EGYPT: The longest and strongest wave for his ‘arrogance’ in opposing Bush Imprisoned earlier this month. to the provincial centre of government of worker protest since the end of the and Blair’s push to invade Iraq. VENEZUELA: President Chavez of Trial Judge Mr Justice Aikens said to register their demands when they Second World War is rolling through Aiming to bring in a raft of Thatcher- Venezuela gave international oil Keogh’s “reckless and irresponsible” were attacked with tear gas, rubber Egypt. In March, the liberal dailyal- esque style reforms, he plans to end the companies an unpleasant May Day actions could have cost British lives. bullets and according to some reports Masri al-Yawm estimated that no fewer 35-hour working week and cut benefits. surprise by stripping them of operational lead shot. Twelve people were injured, than 222 sit-in strikes, work stoppages, The last time an incoming French control over four big oil projects worth Hiding ID including Pedro Biott, secretary of the hunger strikes and demonstrations had president promised something similar $30 billion (£15bn). Under cover of Tony Blair’s resignation municipal workers union. Union and occurred during 2006. In the first five was when Chirac was first elected back Four oil refinery sites in the heavily speech, the Home Office have released social movement spokespersons blame months of 2007, the paper has reported in 1995. The result? A wave of strikes polluted Orinoco Basin, believed to be new figures showing a £640million President Kirchner, former Governor a new labour action nearly every day. ripped through the country that forced the site of the world’s largest single crude rise in the projected cost of ID cards of Santa Cruz and a ‘left’ Peronist for The citizen group Egyptian Workers the government to back down. Plus Ca oil deposit, reverted to state control at over the last six months. both the economic policies and the and Trade Union Watch documented Change! In response to his victory, and midnight local time. State oil company The Home Office, soon to split into violence. 56 incidents during the month of April, the riots, the riots, Sarkozy decided to PDVSA now controls at least 60% of two departments, have been accused Subsequently Kirchner has forced and another 15 during the first week go on a short holiday on a luxury yacht. the projects, which corporate criminals of attempting to bury bad news as it regional governor Carlos Sancho to of May alone. like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP and admitted the cost of an individual ID resign. From their centre of gravity in the GERMANY: Police raided about 40 Total have been forced to give up. card would now equate to £105 per textile sector, the strikes have spread to buildings in Germany on the morning On the surface newly proposed person. CHILE: A conflict between timber mobilise makers of building materials, of 9th May, including social centres and democratic reforms look pretty good. The public will have no option but workers and the Horcones processing Cairo subway workers, food processing several private homes in Berlin and Chavez is instigating the creation of to pay the fee once the cards are issued group saw police rounds kill Rodrigo workers, bakers, rubbish collectors Hamburg, as well as the alternative web thousands of ‘neighbourhood councils’, alongside passports. Cisterna, aged 26, during a road and many others. provider so36.net. Police forces searched comprising 200 to 400 families, designed Ministers had a legal duty to update blockade in the Arauco province, the Rote Flora in Hamburg as well as to devolve power to local level. The idea Parliament on the price of the scheme at Southern Chile. FRANCE: France celebrated the victory parts of the Bethanien in Berlin. Both is that these councils will also influence the end of March. Instead, they waited Dozens more were arrested and of its new right wing president Nicholas social centres are planning to be national policies. While this sounds more than a month to slip out the wounded during the blockade, who Sarkozy with two days of solid rioting convergence spaces for the G8 protests promising, and an interesting experiment details at the same time as the Prime were demonstrating over starvation that left several hundred cars burned, in early June. Several people were for anarcho types tokeep an eye on, Minister - the project’s chief supporter wages in the industry. 600 arrested and 30 police injured. arrested but released later in the day. Chavez has also suggested this is best — was announcing when he would The Organization Comuriista Sarkozy, who as interior minister Solidarity demonstrations and actions done through the creation ot One muUIRW® leave office. Libertaria OCL said: “We express our inflamed an already tense situation in have taken place in several cities around party - the United Socialist Party of The report, placed on the Home deep regret and sympathy towards the France’s ghettos during recent rioting by the world, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Venezuela. That’s right, one national Office website, increases the ten-year family, and our scorn towards the saying that he would clean the ‘scum’ Hamburg, Cologne, Goettingen, party, headed by Hugo Chavez, seemingly cost of the scheme from £4.91 billion henchmen. The government of from the suburbs. Managua and Vienna. angling to become President for life. to £5.55 billion. Officials blamed the rise on staffing costs and inflation.

No gains for BNP After a much headlined one seat gain Prison news for the BNP at the May district elections, despite the fielding of over twice as many candidates as ever before, the Hands off John Bowden! Belgian anarchist sentenced in his tion unit of Foston Hall on the 18th Reyes fears for his life number has now dropped back down to Long-term prison resister John Bowden absence April, while on ‘suicide watch’. Imprisoned Oaxaca APPO activist David 49 after the defection of a councillor is being victimised for his contact with On 24th of April, at the court of Protesters, including a representative Venegas Reyes is fearing for his life in Stoke-on-Trent. the Anarchist Black Cross, who the Dendermonde in Belgium, Geert from the ‘No More Prison’ campaign following alleged death-threats from Mark Leat is now listed as an Scottish prison authorities are trying to Waegemans, a member of the Anarchist group, travelled from Yorkshire, the government. Reyes, a councillor of independent candidate in the city smear as a ‘terrorist’ and ‘paramilitary’ Black Cross and a former animal rights Shropshire and Cheshire, to attend the the APPO in Oaxaca, Mexico, has been having seemingly disassociated himself organisation. As part of the campaign prisoner^ was sentenced to one year in demonstration - the 22nd to be held under arrest since 13th April. Members from the party. of harassment John has been moved prison on charges of assaulting police since protests began in 2004. of Global Women’s Strike have requested Antifascist campaigners have welcomed from an open prison, where he had officers and resisting arrest. The charges international support for the prisoner, the failure of the BNP to translate far regular ‘home-leaves’, to a maximum- originate from a demonstration in Solidarity with Gabriel Pombo Da who said in an interview to Narconews: greater expenditure into seat-winning security jail. 2005 in solidarity with two comrades on Silva “On the day of 1st May, in the morning, votes, but have warned a high number Throughout his 25 years in prison, trial for breaking the windows of a fur Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, one of the I received a surprise visit by an unknown of second and third places in districts John has been a tireless campaigner for shop. As a well-known Belgian activist, two remaining ‘Aachen 4’ prisoners, is person. Instead of giving me his name around the country mean pressure prisoners’ rights, a leading prison militant, Geert was targeted by the cops, who currently facing the hard edge of he said, call me ‘Tacho Canastal’, and should be kept up. and an articulate and vociferous writer. used massive numbers against the repression at the hands of the German said that he had been sent by Ulises He has been a beacon of solidarity over demonstration, with 17 demonstrators prison authorities. Since Gabriel’s arrest Ruiz Ortiz and Sergio Segreste Rios, Hunger strike the years and needs our support himself being arrested. Most of those arrested in 2004 he has been held in virtual who, in a supposed meeting with them On Tuesday 8th May 2007, barely five now. The campaign by the Scottish were released after 12 hours, having isolation, and has to spend at least 23 the day before, had ordered him to talk days after a hunger strike by the women Prison Service is not just an attempt to been threatened and roughed-up, while hours a day locked in his cell, with to me. The message was clear: they at Yari’s Wood gaol, in Bedfordshire, silence a prison militant, it has ramifica­ Geert and two other comrades were only limited visits. Now the prison invited me to accept that someone from another hunger strike began at about tions far beyond that, being an attempt held for 16 days before being charged authorities are trying to increase his my family enter in a dialogue with the 11am. According to detainees held to deny all prisoners the right to hold and released on bail. Having been isolation by stealing his mail, and with­ government for my liberty. The threats: inside the prison, over a hundred political views, and an attack on the targeted as an anarchist militant, and holding books, CDs and postage stamps that they know someone in my family people, including children, are refusing ABC and on anarchism in general. then fitted-up in what the Belgian ABC sent to him. According to a statement was participating in what he called the food. The detainees are refusing to • Write to John at John Bowden, 6729, HMP describe as a ‘circus’ of a trial, Geert issued by ABC-Gent: “The attempts to ‘desmadre’ [chaos], asked for that enter their rooms and are staying out Glenochil, King O’ Muir Road, Tullibody, did not appear before the Dendermonde isolate Gabriel more and more aim clearly person to calm down, and said that if in the gardens. Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Scotland. court to be sentenced. The judge ordered at the destruction of his personality and that person refuses to negotiate they Their protest is against the conditions • Please send postcards (as many as possible) his immediate arrest. We wish him ‘Good political identity. They must be stopped. would transfer me to the ‘Penal de of the detention: “we are not criminals, reading ‘Hands Off John Bowden!' to Scottish Luck’ and hope he remains at liberty. We ask you all to send letters, faxes, Altiplano* or [the federal prison at] we have not killed anybody, yet we are Prison Service Headquarters, Communications emails to the prison of Aachen.” ‘Almoloya’ and that the government being held here ... this place is a prison Branch, Room 338, Calton House, 5 Redheughs May Day demo at Foston Hall • Letters to JVA Aachen, Dr Hans-Joachim Gries, had all the reason to kill me.” really ... the kids are scared of the Rigg, Edinburgh, EH 12 9HW. Scotland. On May Day a small group of Krefelder Str. 251, 52070, Aachen, Germany, • Letters of protest can be sent to Francisco police when they come in ... no one • Find out more about John's situation at protestors held a three and a half hour email [email protected] fax Javier Ramirez Acuna, government secretary, can sleep, we are all stressed...” said www.myspace.com/friendsofjohnbowden demonstration outside Foston Hall 0241 9173-273. tel (55) 50933400, email secretario@ one of the detainees. • On 25th May there will be a demonstration Prison to protest against the death of • You can write to Gabriel at Gabriel Pombo segob.gob.mx Only last December there was in support of John Bowden outside the mother-of-two Kerry Devereux, aged da Silva, JVA Aachen, Krefelder Str. 251, • Signatures of support and proposals of help another hunger strike at Yari’s Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, starting 32, the third woman to die in an English 52070 Aachen, Germany. can be sent directly to [email protected] Wood. at 2.00pm. More info: [email protected] jail this year. Kerry died in the seereea- • Mnrp info at oeoaru»m*Ar»k«iii«» !- r- Ian Bone's latest work exposes the lie of working class representation in government - Freedom investigates further

blog set up by Class War founder ground to the last decade of New Ian Bone has recently focused on Labour, being instrumental in its A practice. _ I looking at the backgrounds of John Reid’s New Labour credentials both existing and aspiring leaders of are impeccable, with strong support the country. voiced for the Iraq war, ID cards, In a series of exposes, Bone has anti-terrorism laws, and coming down pointed to aristocratic or Oxbridge- hard on dissenters. Peter Hain is educated backgrounds across the married to an ex-director of the Welsh entire spectrum of representative Confederation of Business interests, politics. and another stalwart of New Labour Starting with the Tories, Bone notes policy. that three of Cameron’s key backroom In other parties, the story is much staff were with him at Eton, and others the same. Oxford-educated Green at Cambridge. Four of Cameron’s Party spokesperson and copyright cabinet would be joining him direct expert Sian Berry’s class credentials from the notorious Bullingdon club. include campaigning against urban Labour’s own image as party of the 4x4s, while ‘eco-socialist pagan Zen working class is largely finished, but Buddhist’ Dr Derek Wall came to nevertheless the level of infiltration by the green party while studying in the the ‘Oxbridge set’ is revealing, with a US - having left Oxford “despairing majority of Blair’s final cabinet far at the seeming impregnability of from being horny-handed sons and Thatcher” after a spell as president daughters of toil. of the university’s Social Democratic Nine members of the cabinet went Club. to one of the two universities, and a The Liberal Party are led by Menzies further four of its 23 members have Campbell, whose background includes elite connections through schooling at a personal recruitment attempt by exclusive institutions or family ties. John Smith when he was at university, NUKE ROUTE: Allegedly this vehicle in the early hours of Thursday 10th May was part of a convoy carrying Tessa Jowell spent her early life at and his second in command, Cambridge- nuclear warheads secretly passed through the Stapleford and Chilwell area of Nottingham. The vehicles the £10k-a-year St Margaret’s educated Vince Cable, who is a former were spotted driving into the Chetwynd Barracks in Chilwell at 6.30am for a rest stop. The convoy passed boarding school, while Hilary Benn is chief economist at Shell. through dense populated areas in Stapleford and Chilwell. According to campaigners each lorry weighs the son of the second Viscount The SWP’s leading organiser, Alex approx 44 tonnes and can carry up to two ready-assembled nuclear warheads. Stansgate (Tony Benn, to the rest of Callinicos, is grandson to the second the world). Hilary Armstrong is Baron Acton and an ex-Oxford daughter of a Labour MP, and Alistair student, while Chris Bambery, editor himself as a ‘class traitor’. symptomatic of his political theory: masters and Oxford profs.” Darling went to Scotland’s oldest of the Socialist Worker, shares his “People of Foot’s class background those in the know - the party — would And of course the BNP is led by boarding school, Loretto. Loretto’s background with Darling. will rise to the top of any and every right the wrongs for the working class Nick ‘voice of the working class’ Of the remaining members, most Ian Bone, in his blog, further points organisation. Foot pursued the interest as a whole. Griffin, son of a wealthy landowner have denounced any previous out: “Paul Foot was, exceptionally for of the class he was silver spooned “Like Benn, like Ali, like Callinicos and proud owner of a 3:3 degree ... connections to left-wing politics they the SWP, honest about his class back­ into as vigorously as any captain of - the Trot toffs are the totems of fake from Cambridge. might have had. Brown, now due to ground. At meetings across the country industry. His righting of the wrongs opposition based on the hierarchical become party leader, helped develop he would disarmingly characterise of individual victims of injustice was values they learned from their form Ian Bone’s blog is at ianbone.wordpress.com. the ideological and economic back­ Burnout but no turn-outs Workers’ day

n mixed news for the social centre temporary setback.” “Net result: A new court date will W arches and demonstrations took attendees. The Hijackers said: network, the Camberwell Squatted Many meetings, workshops and events, be set after 29th May. So we have I place across the country on “Unfortunately our sound system was II Centre in London has been given a including the Mutant Media Festival, another month or two at least.” MW Mayday alongside a strong strike quickly shut down by the police and stay of execution for a month but The have had to be rescheduled or moved The collective have occupied the site launched on the same day by civil Canary Wharf security. The entire area Basement in Manchester has been to The Yard Theatre and Friends since 10th March, acting both as servants in the PCS union. being private land there were a lot of heavily damaged after a fire. Meeting House. housing for members and hosting a In the largest march, around 1,000 legal powers in the police’s belt. The Basement, in Lever Street, was The Basement group is hoping to variety of events including cafe nights, people took to the streets in London, However, as always undeterred, we not directly set alight during the reopen by the end of the month. film showings and meetings since it with a bloc of around 200 anarchists simply brought out our song sheets Manchester blaze, which began in a Meanwhile, the Camberwell Squatted was opened to the public. present. An organiser for the event said: and carried on the party.” next door building, but the sprinkler Centre have been offered a reprieve “The turnout for a workday was great. After the arrest of a partygoer who system was set off and smoke and from eviction after they were taken to The Basement Social Centre, 24 Lever Street, We were the biggest bloc on the march! refused to move when asked, the event water damage has shut the centre. court on 1st May. Manchester Ml 1DZ, tel 0161 237 1832, It also represents the emergence of an was moved to public land on the edge It is thought embers from the larger A member of the collective wrote: email [email protected], or see active younger lot in the south.” of the river. Dale Street fire set the building in “The judge accepted all our arguments http://thebasement.clearerchannel.org/drupal After the demonstration a violent • In Liverpool, about eight hundred Lever Street alight. about the failures in the paperwork, arrest took place in Parliament Square people marched through the city Although water protected the under­ questioning John Desmond (acting the Camberwell Squatted Centre, 192 Wareham when six police officers approached a centre in a demonstration organised ground area a large amount of front man) about his role in Silverside Street (off Camberwell New Road), London lone protestor holding a ‘Bollocks To by Merseyside TUC. equipment and stock was destroyed, Ltd. Who was he? Did he have the SE5, email [email protected], Blair’ placard. • In Glasgow a street party took place which it is thought will far exceed their power to act in court? or see www.56a.org.uk/warham.html At the same time, around fifty people in Buchanan Street, which passed buildings and contents insurance. “John Boy replied he would be the shared food, drink and music in a peacefully despite a strong police In a statement, the collective said: project manager, when building work picnic in Kennington Park organised presence. “We have had many kind offers of help started. Not good enough, said the judge. by the Camberwell Squatted Centre • In Wolverhampton and Ipswich and support as people from all over To bring a claim for possession, you under the slogan ‘Workers of The workers and activists from across the city and beyond move to celebrate need a Director of the Company, or a World, Relax!’. the regions headed to Mayday the space and the unique place it is. properly appointed legal representative. The Space Hijackers, who put on a festivals. Many thanks to all the individuals and Clearly the case would have to be Mayday Party at Canary Wharf, were • In Chesterfield there was a Mayday groups who are going to hold benefits adjourned until they sorted themselves heavily outnumbered by a 500-strong march and rally on Bank holiday for us, and help us get through this I out. police presence compared to the 150 Monday. Matt B looks into rising discontent which is closing the oil spigots across Nigeria

sacks on oil company property are sponsoring the action". and staff in Nigeria's Niger Delta General Jomo Gbono, of MEND in A region hare risen sharply after last Baydsa state, in an email communique, month's rigged and violent national denies involvement in party politics: election. Oil output is dedining in “The fight for justice in die delta has response. nothing to do with who rules delta state. Four oil production facilities were We are fighting for resource control for shut down in early May and around the millions of poverty stricken villagers thirty foreign workers kidnapped. The unseen by the world. Those are the Ijaw Movement for the Emancipation people; the struggle in the delta is of the Niger Deha (MEND) claimed about." He also distances MEND from responsibility for kidnappings and the new Vice President, Jonathan Adua, bombing of three major pipelines earlier describing die 1st May attack on the this month, forcing the closure of a Chevron export te rm in a l as a ‘disclaimer 150.000 barrds-per-day (bpd) export to indicate that “Jonathan's selection terminal. Chevron and NNPC have as vice president of Nigeria is of no also dosed production facilities due to consequence to us". attacks. Royal Dutch Shell stated that Neglect of the region by Yoruba and output was down by 288.000bpd Hausa dominated governments is long­ (about 40%) in the first quarter of standing. Villages with no electricity or 2007. and the company has declared running water face damage to their force maieure at the Focados export health and livelihoods due to pollution terminal. O utput for "Nigerian oil ascaused a by oil spills and gas flaring. whole last rear was down by around MEND are demanding compensation 25%. Militants saythey aim to stop by Shell to communities affected by oil the industry completely. spills and ‘resource control* for the A spokesman for PENGASSAN, a Niger Delta. The group is linked to the Nigerian management oil union, spoke Niger Delta Volunteer Force which to Freedom about the problems in the declared war on the government in region, striking an upbeat note: “It 2004. Unlike the centralised NDVF, does seem to be getting worse. We they appear to enjoy broad support and we do not want our children to be and Bayelsa states accounts for 80% launched a Niger Delta Development believe -these problems are politically across the region. deprived as we have been deprived so of its GDP, grossing the oil companies Plan and is reported to be attempting motivated... but now the Vice President General Godswi 11 Tamuno, of Delta other people can get rich from what is and Nigerian government $100 billion to start a peace process in the region, is from die Niger Deha-we can see an State MEND, in conversation with a under our feet. The oil companies and a day. Meanwhile, 70% of the Delta's possibly due to American concern over opportunity for change." He acknow­ journalist at a MEND base, described government have had many years to ten million population live on less than their fifth largest source of oil. After ledged that “disenchantment with the situation: “This is our territory. treat us right. They have never done it. a dollar a day. MEND operations are fifty years of neglect it may be too political parries is creating the tension", The soldiers dare not come here now. Now we are making them think.” causing the government to lose around little, too late. although be also suggested, referring They came and we defeated them. We Nigeria is the second richest country $1,000 million a month. You can find MEND communiques at to party politics, that "some people are civilised people, educated people, in Africa, and oil produced in Delta The federal government has recently unitedijawstates.com/mond.htm i07 wonders of the world US notes: Blackwater

he last weekend of April saw a | provided by the CNT-F and this world. This debate has split the hen the war in Iraq began in worth $750m plus whatever they earn gathering (i07)take place Parisio | enabled many useful discussionsto syndicalist movement in the Spanish March 2003, it was estimated from work for the DoD and US To f militant and daw struggle take place. State with the smaller CNT-Spain W that as many as 10% of the US intelligence. Blackwater protects the US syndicalists from across the world. A discussion on anarcho-syndicalism refusing to participate in company forces were private mercenaries. That ambassador and senior officials and This conference was a follow op to I and revolutionary syndicalism saw elections. figure of private combatants in Iraq regional occupation offices in Iraq; it's i99 which took-place an San Francisco a range of opinions presented by A meeting of education workers has now risen to what’s thought to be responsible for training forces in and i02 which took place in Essen. I comrades from the CGT (Spain) shared experiences from Africa, 50% or even higher. Afghanistan and has been deployed in It was hosted by the CNT-France i aboutthe benefits and problems of Europe and the Americas. Delegates Chief amongst these private armies the Caspian Sea - next door to Iran. which is a revolutionary syndicalist parodparing in workplace elections tofrom Africa stressed the need for is Blackwater, a quickly growing force Blackwater is based at Moyock in die union that has been growing in size company councils. Benefits mentioned solidarity and horizontal communica­ of violent and greedy mercenaries. Great Dismal Swamp area of North andinfluence over the last 10-15 by the International Secretary of the tion to take place between workers They describe themschres as “the most Carolina, where they have the largest years. CGT included the cash that this gave in the global north and south. A comprehensive professional military, taw private military base (5,000 acres) any­ Around 300 individuals and the union. common theme in this meeting was enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and where in the world. Their facilities are delegates took part in the conference An education worker from the CGT the need to struggle for the right to stability operations company in the typically several thousand acres and which ran over three days. They stated that the participation in these organise and take strike action and world”. have an artificial lake for amphibious represented unions and groups at elections demobilised the activity of for decent living conditions for Ten years ago, Blackwater didn't landing ‘exercises', airstrips and a fleet diverse as the SAC (Sweden), workers who instead relied upon the education workers and students. It really exist. Erik Prince, its president, of two-dozen aircraft. UNJCOBAS (Italy), SNAPAP(Algeria) union to represent them. Thus was decided to organise a global day has been a major contribution to Bush's Jeremy ScahilU author of the New and Lotte Ouvriere (Congo). One of discussion » important because it of action to take place- in approximately election campaigns and is also a right York Times bestseller, Blackwater: The the strengths of the conference was the has formed a fault line in syndicahstn eighteen months tune to unite wing Christian fundamentalist with Rise o f the "World's Most Powerful participation of a large number of with many unions in Europe struggling education workers, students and their relationships with such fanatics as Mercenary Army, comments “we have milirsnr unions from Africa. This was to find the right balance between organisations in fighting for a set of Janies Dobson. Gary Bauer and Chuck a company that is essentially declaring made possible by the internationalism fighting for workers control and the common demands. This is initially Olson. Prince was an intern in Bush itself above any effective laws,, its o f the CNT-Franoe who paid for the fight for reforms under our current being coordinated by Comrades form senior1* White House but left because forces are capable of overthrowing Sights and visas for most drlrgates bosses. The experience of the CGT the education section of the CNT-F. it wasn't sufficiently conservative on governments." coming from the global south. is important because with roughly Dave gay issues and the environment. You certainly haven't heard the last Translation into three languages 60.000 members k is the largest (a Solidarity Federation member whoNow Blackwater has contracts with of Blackwatet (French. Spanish and English) was anarcho-syndicalist union in the attended KJ7 ta a personal capacity) the State Department alone tha* *•» Fr©©Pt»m i.9in iviay i 5 Feature Rebels without a pause Correspondent Nancy Davies reports from Oaxaca one year after the Mexican rebellion began, and finds dissent alive and well

n May 2006, the Oaxaca Popular However; reports of the death of the indigenous deaths to be internal, land I Movement coalesced striking APPO have proven premature. The boundary disputes. In reality, they are teachers, dominated by 60,000 idea of popular participation in instigated by the PRI to keep control. from Section 22 of the National governing and control of Oaxaca had When the new community declared Union of Education Workers survived. Civil society, perhaps a autonomy it too affiliated with the I (SNTE) who covered fifty blocks hundred organisations affiliated with APPO. About 15,000 indigenous J with tents and sleeping bags, the APPO, maintains consciousness in people are involved. The total Triqui cookware and laundry, kids’ drawingsthe city of Oaxaca and statewide. population is about 24,000. andI soda cases. On 10th January the teachers, The APPO encourages every town, They demanded the usual - this was reconstructing their damaged union, neighborhood, region, union - whatever a strike which went on every year - met and decided to march. Thirty affiliation you can imagine - to create with requests for salary increases, aid thousand people turned out for the its own asamblea. During the first six to poor students, free breakfasts, better ninth megamarch. The zocalo defence months I counted forty towns in conflict, school facilities (with bathrooms), and included razor-wire barriers, attack seeking to oust PRI caciques. Assemblies re-zonincarion for the minimum wage dogs, billy-clubs wrapped with barbed sprang up taking over their municipal of government employees. wire and the presence of 4,000 riot government and throwing out unwanted On 14th June, the government sent police, many mounted on horses. presidents. That continues. in state police to evict the strikers. On 8th March, Women’s Day, was The First Regional Assembly of the The teachers and their families beat rhe tenth megamarch. The zocalo once peoples of the Isthmus took place in back the police and re-rook the zocalo. again was blockaded behind metal Ixtepec the 27th and 28th of January Tear gas floated over the streets; children blockades and razor wire. The water 2007. The topics discussed were were injured; buses were burned; thetanks reappeared along with the Economy, Education, Culture and teachers’ FM radio station was smashed, firemen, while the marchers, shoulder Communication, Health and the and their broadcasters arrested. to shoulder; shouted ‘We are all the environment; Women and diversity. Two days later a popular movement APPO!*. Women have been leaders The invitation was signed by the grew from the scene with what came from the outset and proved their organising groups and individuals such to be known as the Asamblea Popular importance when the cocerolos captured as APPO-Istmo, Otra Campana-Istmo, de Ids Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) and the public television station. Along with Radio Totopo (a community radio *el movimicncto magistcrio popular* the women the APPO, teachers, civil station), Grupo Solidario de la Venta (the popular teachers movement). society organisations, and campesinos (opposed to the wind-farms taking For the next six months the APPO joined the Coordination of the Women land in the municipality of La Venta), met, forums met, the teachers met, and of Oaxaca (COMO), and other and others. The added note: bring the government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, indigenous women’s organisations. The your blanker and bring something put (URO) with PR! thugs and plain-clothes international Women in Resistance on the common table to make the police picked off its supporters one by movement marched on 29th April. food sufficient for all (cheese, totopo, one, with murders (the count varies Behind the in-your-face marches, the beans, rice, sugar...) irom IS to 26), torture, disappearances, APPO and civil society organise and The APPO of the Sierra Sur formed imprisonment, and infiltration. educate. The APPO social revolution is in April, strongly anti-neoliberal and Among the APPO convocations, two characterised by horizontal leadership, in refutation of elected politics and called for designing a new government, the Zapatista idea chac the leader obeys politicians who have sold out. for state and nation, based on face -to- the popular will, revocability of all The struggle of any one political face participative democracy, economic offices, referenda, plebiscites, and party to gain power within the APPO equity, and social and gender equity. autonomy. The meet monthly. is checked, but not easily. In 2007 Documents were written up and The indigenous population has openly those who wanted to use the APPO as “We don’t forget, and we don’t forgive benefits. The Mayday march of state published. joined the movement. a political party clashed unsuccessfully the assassinations, torture, persecution, and federal unions and the APPO In a state of more than three million An indigenous forum took place on with those who wish to remain a public disappearances and arbitrary arrests entered the zocalo, unhindered, and people,more ovan half a million marched 28th and 29th November last year; voice. The upcoming 'punishment vote* committed against the people of Oaxaca, staged a rally. The news was broadcast against the repressive government, ago * warn former bishop Samuel Ruiz of in August of 2007 and again in and in particular against the demo­ by student activists who took over liberal policies and social neglect. ] Chiapas present. U allied with the October; for state and municipal cratic teachers, in complicity with the Radio Universidad, and broadcast for The majority of poorcampc*mo> APPO* The federal military occupies candidates respectively, offers the Federal Government.” They also several hours before being shut off. and the indigenous population back several indigenous communities, possibility or a state legislature affirmed, *We helped build the APPO The 2nd May was the day of a national the movement. The m*ddk j because of that perceived threat to (he outside rhe control of Uliscs Ruiz and we will keep on participating.” work stoppage. All the unions demonstra­ participates as 'civil society*, mounting government, ever alert to uprisings and the PRI, including indictment of The education workers stand against ted against the ISSSTE law change. This forums and discussions, calling | and guerrillas, real or imagined. Ruiz himself, neolibcral policies, privatisations, government radicalises people. attention to the struggle and what it A Txiqui indigenous community Meanwhile, civil society keeps the salary adjustments, reduction in social There are now at least eleven states means. publicly declared the autonomous APPOb goals up front with international spending, and the concentration of - maybe as many as twenty, of the Teachers, taxi drivers, and medical municipality of $an Juan G6paia on as well as national discussions on wealth among a few* saying **wc have thirty-three Mexican states - that have workers took roles on the blockades, the 21st January 2007. T h a telection designing a participative democracy. A not surrendered and we won't surrender; formed their own popular assemblies. Supported by their neighborhoods. of municipal authorities required two national forum discussed rhe media, and on the basis of a mature policy, How can the APPO link thousands Among those who don’t supporr the months for consultations, the traditional and emphasised community radio* wc go on united and organised until of local asambleas which must achieve APPO, neither do they support the 'customs and mores*, with open which proposed ways to make radio we achieve our objectives and those of common goals to make national changes? governor. de&si’Gris of the majority in assemblies. available in the face of the PRI refusal the people of Oaxaca.” And how link to other states? To Latin Calderon’s predecessor, President ■ The three authorities meet with the to grant radio licenses. Public forums By the end of April blockades of major America? Unanswered questions in the Vicente Fox, mandated the November leaders of the twenty participant considered the human rights catastrophe. roads were occurring again. An entirely framework of horizontal decision repression. The crackdown on 25th communities. They convicted URO of a broad range separate union, of administrative and making abound, while the local ^November included hundreds of arrests One day before the new authorities of crimes. Human rights organisations office workers, astonished us on 25th struggle continues. With torture and the closure of APPO assumed office, paramilitary groups also fund aid to the families of the April by marching into the forbidden But given the national consciousness media. Many people went into hiding. burst into San Juan and shot up the imprisoned. They sponsor psychology zticaio, shoving aside the barricades and of failed electoral polities, failed state The total number of imprisoned during plqqe. Roberto Garcia Fiores, a supporter clinics to deal with the after-effects of the police. They raised their banners and national gp^ennnenc^&fled theLscruggle exceeded 500, people were of autonomy, was ambushed on route torture. protesting the new social security changes neoliberal economics and failed social tortured or disappeared. Ac present, to San Juan to participate in the new The unions have stood strong. The (Ley ISSSTE), and marched around. No policy; the population is re-educating sixteen teachers remain in jail. Arrests municipality, and murdered. teachers, at the time of the Ninth one stopped them. They reflect union itself about the manage of power and confirm# __ - .-vulHttgi __ State authorities alwavi declare Mena march, declared in their a^iembly; fage against privatising social security who holds it. rreouum x»m >>“-*/ *-wi Commentary

witnessed and experienced. As a for a self-proclaimed anarchist website represent to a prison system ever From Glenochil consequence, my name had become called Brighton ABC and he says he fearful of a politically awakened and synonymous in the minds of prison supports many of their ideas and militant prisoner movement. FREEDOM prison officials with sedition and defiance, actions. A review of this website brings John Bowden Volume 68 Number 10 On the 18th April 2007, nine months and the spectre of something that has into question the nature of the group. HMP Glenochil, May 2007 after my transfer to Castle Huntly always frightened, enraged and driven The members of this group appear to For more on Bowden's case, see page 2. Open Prison, and less than a month them to use every method and means be primarily eco-terrorists or para­ Anarchism before a critically important parole to eradicate and destroy it: prisoner military members involved in what Anarchists work towards a society of hearing to decide my suitability for power. they see as battles against political No changes mutual aid and voluntary co-operation. release after 25 years in prison, I was In January this year as I approached systems and principles.” He then adds: After all the singing and dancing, the We reject government, and all forms placed into solitary confinement and the end of a 25 year recommendation “Whilst at Edinburgh prison it was marching and campaigning, hard work of exploitation and domination. the following day transferred back to life sentence, the administration at reported that Bowden had received a and hard-won concessions - triumphant Freedom Press is an independent a maximum security jail. Castle Huntly Open Prison were visit from terrorists.” This refers to I announcements and bold proclamations anarchist publisher, founded in 1886. Incredibly, I was accused of involve­ obliged to prepare reports on me for two members of Brighton ABC who - why should anything about the last Besides this newspaper, which comes ment with a ‘terrorist organisation’ on what should have been a final parole had visited me at Edinburgh jail, neither two years of scandalous, furtive volte- out every two weeks, we produce books the outside, a claim emblazoned across tribunal to decide my release. As part of whom had a criminal conviction faces be a cause for surprise? on all aspects of anarchist theory and the front page of the local Dundee of my preparation for release, I had between them. For the G8, the IMF and the World practice - see our website for a full list. Courier (‘Castle Huntly killer has spent two years working unsupervised As Stillman was well aware, Bank this is entirely business as usual In our building in East London we run terror links’) on the day I was locked in the outside community as a volunteer particularly as an American with firm - the shirking of responsibilities and Britain’s biggest anarchist bookshop into solitary. In the current political on projects for the mentally ill and right-wing opinions* levelling the obligations, laid upon them by and host the Autonomy Club meeting climate such a claim was obviously socially vulnerable, and had qualified accusation of ‘terrorist’ sympathies massive public pressure and opinion, room and the Freedom Hacklab open- made with the deliberate intention of as a literacy tutor for people with and associations against me in the which they nevertheless had not the access IT space. keeping me imprisoned indefinitely. learning difficulties. current political climate would slightest intention of honouring or Our aim is to explain anarchism In fact, the claim was a lie and reveals For almost a year I had been allowed effectively terminate any possibility of abiding by in the first place. It’s there more widely and to show that people the extent of the prison system’s deter­ frequent home leaves. The two funda­ the parole board agreeing to my release. in Italy’s balance of aid backslide and can work together and use direct mination to deny me freedom even mental criteria determining a life And of course those who invited Germany’s cynical sleight of hand, with action to practically improve our lives after a quarter of a century behind sentence prisoner’s suitability for release, Stillman to write his report on me knew developed world aid contributions and build a better world. bars. That such a ludicrous and easily the expiry of the recommended period only too well that the opinions of an actually decreasing for the first time Freedom’s editors wish to present a refuted lie should have resulted in my of time served in the interests of retri­ apparently unbiased and neutral in ten years. It’s there also in the thick broad range of anarchist thought, and return to conditions of maximum bution, and the absence of any risk to professional would be given infinitely layer cake of meaningless double-speak as such the views expressed in the paper security and the almost certain denial the public, were both sufficiently more weight by the parole board than emanating from the World Bank and are those of the individual contributors of parole also reveals the Kafkaesque established in my case. those offered by conceivably prejudiced IMF themselves, which barely serves and not necessarily those of the nature of power within the police state Of all the reports compiled on life prison staff. The social work unit to disguise the cynical twisting of the editorial collective. world of the prison system. There is, sentence prisoners approaching final manager at Castle Huntly, Christina intentions of the original accord made however, a certain vicious rationale parole hearings and potential release, Brown, despite having also reviewed by the G8 at Gleneagles in 2005. motivating the absurd claim made few are more important and influential the ABC website, submitted a report The language of the World Bank and Angel Alley against me. than those written by social workers. endorsing Stillman’s views and attesting IMF belies their fidgety, urgent pre­ It has been a bit of a turnup for the The persecution and victimisation It is the opinions and views of these to his impartiality and professionalism. occupation with maintaining the status books at Freedom this issue, as the of prisoner activists by the prison supposedly impartial professionals The entire administration at Castle quo: balancing aid against relief, debt apparently the police have found the authorities is as intrinsic to the role that exert a critical influence on the Huntly deliberately colluded in support­ maintenance of debt ratios, completion paper’s finishers in possession o f aand function the of prison system as deliberations of the paroleboard .In ing Stillman’s ludicrous report, and points in the Heavily Indebted Poor '" substantial amount of dodgy cashthe andinjustice and abuse of power that my case, the prison authorities chose to reacted viciously when I contacted the Countries (HIPC) programme cycle some kilos of ever-so-slightly illegal characterises its treatment of all dispense with the services of ordinary ABC and suggested they pursue legal and the downright ominous “easing drugs, which may explain why they’ve prisoners. In the eyes of the prison prison social workers at Castle Huntly action over Stillman’s definition and countries into new borrowing”. Reading been running late recently. While we system and those who enforce it, following an allegation that I had accusation of them as ‘terrorist’. On between the lines, this is the neurotic of course wish them all the best, this however^ the most feared and hated formed an ‘inappropriately close friend­ the 18th April, during the afternoon, language of the junkie in danger of means we’ll have to move to a prisoners of all are those identified as ship’ with a member of the social work all prisoners at Castle Huntly were losing their fix, and the question then different company. Call us stick-in- ‘ringleaders’ and ‘subversives’, prisoners team there, and instead commissioned locked down in their cells as I was becomes, who is dependent on whom, the-muds if you like... who attempt to collectively organise an outside social worker to prepare my escorted to the office of the prison’s really? This is, at the end of the day, In less weird and wonderful news, and mobilise their fellow prisoners parole report. They chose Matt Stillman, deputy governor James McKay. He the real point. We cannot expect to thank you to everyone who has renewed into resistance and protest. a right-wing American entrenched in informed me that I had “compromised have any sort of discourse with the their subscription recently. It always For these ‘troublemakers’ the system punitive ideas about the role of the the corporate reputation of the prison” elites of our world so long as we are makes a huge difference to the paper, reserves its most vicious and vindictive parole and probation system. by highlighting Stillman’s remarks (my speaking different languages, which and the building, to have a bit of treatment, and an appetite for revenge During two brief interviews he intention exactly!), and that my are grounded in mutually exclusive money coming in and extra donations that blights the lives of such prisoners attempted to interrogate me about my “continuing contact with a paramilitary and antagonistic paradigms. in particular are massively appreciated. throughout their entire sentences. If the political views and philosophy, and organisation on the outside rendered Those paradigms, ours and theirs, are We are also asking the various people targeted ‘subversive’ happens to be focused his questions almost entirely my continuing presence in an open worlds apart: we speak the language who take bundles and who haven’t serving a life sentence then every means on my contact and relationship with jail unacceptable”. I was then placed of liberation and equality, of mutual been invoiced properly for some time, will be employed, including the collusion prisoner support groups on the outside. into solitary confinement and the respect. They speak only of enslave­ to tot up roughly what they owe us. of prison employed social workers and He seemed particularly interested in following day moved to a maximum ment to a self-perpetuating cycle of After a brief hiatus, Matt will be probation officers, to try and keep the my contact with the Anarchist Black security prison. addiction, couched in the language of back for issue 6811 as editor giving prisoner inside until they die. There Cross movement and claimed to have I had committed no offence against economics and bureaucracy in which me a useful break. Anyone wanting to are no civilised limits to the vindictive­ researched their website and read prison discipline at Castle Huntly, their own twin addictions of power write, help with mailout, organise a ness of the prison system when it comes articles of mine featured on it. In breached no prison rules and had and greed are expressed, and from bit of marketing, or generally assist in to punishing those who have challenged Stillman’s limited right-wing imagination fulfilled every bona fide criterion which all other addictions flow forth. any way, is, as always, welcome. Contact and threatened its power. he associated anarchism with violence determining life sentence prisoners In the words of Robert Anton Wilson, us at the usual address below. For more than two decades in prison and terrorism, and despite what he had suitability for release, and yet on the paraphrasing Dr Timothy Leary and I had pursued and fought for the cause actually seen and read to the contrary basis of an obviously ludicrous others, this is nothing more than the of prisoners’ rights and tried with every on the ABC website, he decided to allegation made by an idiotic, redneck politics of domesticated primates. A Contact details means at my disposal to highlight and write the following critically damning social worker, I was swiftly entombed new approach is necessary and the Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High expose the frequent and often remarks in his report on me to the back in high security conditions and tools are thankfully coming to hand... Street, London El 7QX horrendous abuses of power that I had parole board: “Bowden has written denied any possibility of release for Anon Tel/fax: 020 7247 9249 the foreseeable future. www.freedompress.org.uk The truth is that my treatment is Enquiries: [email protected]. uk politically motivated and inspired by a Quiz answers Copy/Letters: [email protected] determination to continuously punish 1. The authorities put a tax on beer. Thjjpre Subscriptions: [email protected] The Anarchist me for having fought the system in followed four days of rioting, with tie Bookshop: [email protected] the past and encouraging others to do police being driven out of their stations Freedom Press Distribution: so, and also by a determination to and soldiers keeping order, until the [email protected] Quiz BOOK render me intellectually and politically King rescinded the tax. Who sa id *7 shit on all the revolutionary vanguards of this planer? compliant and submissive. As far as 2. The German Anarchist Movement in Find out In the new Anarchist Quiz Book from Freedom Press, compiled the prison system is concerned, the New York City, 1880-1914. It looks at by Martin Howard and Illustrated by Paul Petard. Next issue imperative now is not about negating the many uses they made of the beer The next issue will be dated 2nd June Some say that It should not be the highest priority of a revolutionary any genuine risk that I might pose to halls they set up, including discussion, movement to ask Itself obscure questions, but Its good fun and If It 2007 and the last day to get copy to the community, that stopped being an debates, meetings and theatre. encourages an enquiring mind to find out more, than all the better. us for that issue will be Thursday issue many years ago, but primarily 3. Diego Abad de Santillan (1897-1983), So agitate, educate and organise, all In this very handy question 24th May. Send articles to us by email and answer format! about eradicating my political identity theorist and writer for the FORA and to [email protected] or by and spirit. From this point on, the CNT. Get your copy now for £5 (post free) by mall order from Freedom Press, post addressed to The Editors, therefore, my continuing imprison­ 4. He reconfigured it as three-sided, to 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E l 7QX (cheque/PO made out to Freedom, 84b Whitechapel High ment is nakedly political and centres illustrate his concept of triolectics (as Freedom Press) or from www.freedompress.org.uk Street, London El 7QX. wholly on what I continue to opposed to dialectics). Freedom 19th May 2007 7

BBC2’s ‘The Trap’ documentaries can’t see beyond the false dreams of freedom they expose, argues Tom Jennings 1 itched to unsettle received Wrong-headedness of bureaucracies and wisdom about democracy traditional organisations. The hugely and liberty, The Trap: What profitable model of society as a collection m Happened to Our Dream ofof isolated paranoid narcissists has since Freedom screened in March become political common sense as the to complete Adam Curtis’ better managerialism of capitalism. % documentary trilogy The Trap’s audacious thematic sweep ' exploring the modern history and is matched by its visual style - with a contemporary significance of rhetorical collage mirroring the way conceptions of the individual self. First ideology jumbles theoretical principles, The Century o f the Self (2002) excavated via real-world practical techniques the deployment of psychoanalytic derived from them, into more or less theory in the development of seductive rigid systems of belief and action. The advertising and public relations dizzying montage of archive news techniques for manipulating unconscious footage, cult cinema and sixties TV, desires, enticing citizens into govemable overlain with equally eclectic and thralldom to consumerism. The Tower dissonant soundtrack and voiceover, of Nightmares (reviewed in Freedom, stitches together a progression of 13th November 2004) then interpreted concepts and assertions with both the subsequent moral and social emotional and (arguably) rational logic bankruptcy of Westerm liberalism as U entirely appropriate to contemporary facilitating the complementary political society where so much information is backlashes of neo-conservatism and taken on board with simultaneous' Muslim fundamentalism. Both series multimediating glitter and subliminal charted specific professional elites gloss. Uniquely in mainstream media, persuading wider sectors of society of Curtis explicitly demonstrates how . the ‘truth’ of their discourses by politics disciplines us in the age of pandering to their sundry agendas fp||| Spectacle. Instead of brute force : (held whereas, more ambitiously, The Trap discreetly in reserve), a far more subtle, purports to uncover the underlying multilayered cunning of reason persuades philosophical paradoxes of the pursuit us that its complex, sophisticated - but ^ o f individual freedom now: apparently ^jxtremely p ard q tsj^ ^ ^ f^ g ^ ^ ctn si-: ending in utter subjugation. ‘Freedom of choice’ these days is, to no argument ok alternative^® Paradisiefmislaid autonomy and 'grass-roots control required for practical application, and Curtis, scra'ngely vacuous compared to The predictably tiresome criticisms of Curtis certainly "captures the irony that, increasingly out of reach and out of likely ramifications of and potential the claims of state and capitalist the programme’s intellectual accuracy in ‘properly’ implementing Thatcher and sight. The question, then, is who will be recovery from these collapsing or failing institutions. Voting for Tweedledum or - that it misunderstands, and misrepre­ John- Major’s hamfisted market reforms, 'capable of seeing through the fantasies (not to mention the types and distribu­ Tweedledee or buying this, or that sents game theory. sociobiology, anti­ New Labour’s farcical systems of targets, of a better life as the regulated perform­ tion of possible benefits accruing or brand scarcely justifies global poverty,.> psychiatry, liberal philosophy, neoliberal incentives and sanctions are compre- . ances of programmable robots - their precluded), only receive adequate environmental destruction and wag yet economics, etc. - thus miss the point, hensively wrecking public services- and architects, planners, functionaries and attention when powerful interests are the scientific measurement of such as do charges of pessimism, paranoia or intensifying inequality, just as the shareholders; or. Us billions of post­ threatened — otherwise being trampled superficial and ephemeral details of conspiracy-mongeringv.The influence , crusades for democracy in Iraq and modern rats eternally terrified, tempted over in the haste to cash in. Hence the behaviour and attitudes supposedly of ideas in general practice may often Afghanistan conclusively pre-empt its and tortured round their mazes? lunacy of CM and nanotechnology, reveals pur essence - therefore being be achieved deliberately and cynically,, possibility. What is missed, in neglecting The Trap’s narrow focus further pathetic mass sedation of misery and the best guide to what policy should but by no means necessarily so - though the central organising role of economic; ignores earlier crossovers of science and frustration with Prozac and Viagra, tackle. Such truncated empirical visions certainly irrespective of their ‘purify’ or power in the disposition of resources, - statecraft, nourishing waves of colonial­ manic production of novelty ,to pollute -pf human nature, and the liberties ‘correct’ usage. Then, when crystallising is that appealing to the: disinterested isms and technological revolutions with existential voids, and towering heights appropriate to it, date from the 1950s into powerful discourses of management selfishness of individuals and then similarly ridiculous and limited notions of belief in and commitment to human when the mathematical predictability and control, they acquire',Si implacable punishing them for their collective of humanity and civilisation to validate endeavour manifested in transient public of poker players was generalised to the material force o'f their own - both inability to comply is a' tremendously the forms of suffering imperial domina­ opinion surveys and reality television. nuclear standoff. The robustness of US from the effort that powerful'groUps, - productive (if schizophrenic) mode of : tion favoured at the time. Retrospective This is no trap of misguided pragmatism C^M 'War strategy then ensured the exert in moulding them to maximally social engineering. Apparently also appreciation of the appalling damage versus: exhausted idealism, as Curtis currency of assumptions that people are serve their interests, and in dealing with justifying privatised intiarives to meet the done by the transparently fallacious fits seems to conclude, but of the constitu­ purely rationally self-seeking sociopaths. widespread and energetic resistance to shortfall, it legitimises the mobilisation and starts of the history of ideas - long tional insanity of hierarchical order Congenial maverick theories in evolution­ resulting powerplay? on the part of those of ever-more penetrating, microscopic, before being nailed and superseded by based on the superior knowledge wielded ary genetics, anthropology, psychologymade subject. So, in order for political authoritarian methods of monitoring later generations of research -r. proves the by leaders and experts. Acknowledging and economics suddenly echoed the opposition to exploit the inherent and regimentation - thereby tnore deeply continuing rational necessity to distrust this, of course, would be a fundamental Zeitgeist once attention turned to the weaknesses of ruling ideas (rather than entrenching newly-ascendanr sectors of scientific certainty just as much as the paradigm-shift too far - for him, the Beeb costs of welfare, exploiting popular reacting blindly against them),it is capital (e.g. information and media miracle cures spun in party politics. The and for liberal democratic capitalism disillusionment with the unaccountability, sensible first to grasp their mechanisms technology and management), and conceptual frameworks within which in general. Corruption, malevolence, or plain of operation. rendering genuine solutions around local truth claims are made, assumptions www.tomjennings.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk FILM Freedom Writers and economics and cultures". Choosing uplifted into diligent scholars believing regeneration plan, for example),?? - oppression and .exploitation - being by Richard LaGravenese Wilson High School, Long Beach they can be "anything they want to Gruwell merely equates gangs with either sources^ empathy ps targets of E ^ a p p y |& Ss^pih: on the long and (California, post-Rodney King) - be”. I Naisq^w exonerating the authorities critique. dishpnpnrable Hollywood tradition which “included every ethnicity under for the warzone mentality despite : Such conventional liberal.agents.:: SSachuting privileged super-pedagogues the sun, with kids who could be Blackboard whitewash colluding in the ghetto floods of guns thus absolye' prevailing power uacp^gr-city Educational warehouses, headed off to Harvard or to jail” - her Breathtakingly ignorant or dismissive and drugs, withdrawing welfare and structures from blame while honouring1, patronising cluelessness' strikes lucky ruining public education. Choosing, their most ‘enlightened’ fractions as exemplifies the dishonesty both of the wjqein The Distjy pf-Anne Frank B ^ k Liter attire, literary expressions from the distant uniquely capable ?p£. dispensingstop- genre and the underlying philosophy.' jtfisonafes at just the right stage of local history (black Panther European persecutions of Jews p rm ' > down salvation. Comparably massive Hilary Swank plays.Erin-j$EUWel.J,;a' Bosnia likewise prevents the USritaitidsf demri* °f;hiririS§^>iP0hri'faE-and ‘ "young teacher who ^really ^yante.d a Classroom 203’s ‘unteachables’ realise development; the- Crips/Biood? irufi.?:,- domestic genocides and global social reality then; purge complexity school that had diversity, that had inthgir. after the LA uprisipS and its joint adventures, (so salient to Black, fro.mtbeyoun^x^lliv^swith been affected by the riots and could be segregated communities and, via working group prodtteing a Hispanic andtArian Americans) riie t. dramatised diary snippets mapping O_ i ftliiMi T It climate change is more important A Sideways Look than any other issue, you’d think that the reason college massacres O The (Anstitootionguarantees the Kou do yoo iellw hichh o&ich ?? Most people assume that crisis it would be worth upsetting the happen is that professors don’t have right of sood guys to bear arms situations demand firm government lifestyles of the well off. And if guns to shoot potential killers. and badguys toget euthenisated. NoprdHem.V/erediesDO(Js^s. action. Many people in this country governments are of such little use in a talk about it in times of war, and talk real long-term crisis like this, what do about the sacrifices made under we really need them for? Churchill’s leadership during the Svartfrosk Second World War. Of course, as anarchists we wouldn’t share the aims of Churchill and his government, but it is a popularly held view that Imagine if... government is the best solution to Michael Meacher and John McDonnell, crisis. the two left wing candidates for Of course, we only have to look at power, squared up to each other. Hurricane Katrina and the pathetic “So, how left wing are you? Are you response from the world’s biggest the right man to replace Blair?” superpower to see that governments Meacher asked. often don’t work well in a crisis. “Well, as an Oxford-educated You can read about the potential supporter of the war, I’m a well-known health affects of climate change rebel against the government.” elsewhere in this issue of Freedom. It “Ah so you’ve opposed them on the is clear that there is growing big issues?” recognition of the problem, but little “Yes I complained a bit about public recognition by governments. Trident, and opposed a couple of Blair has said that there is “no bigger elements of the Terrorism bill.” long-term question facing the global McDonnell looked unimpressed. “Is community” than the threat of climate that it?” change. Bush is known to privately Meacher sniffed “Well what about regard it as important. If you read you?” through any of the literature, the “Anti-terrorism laws, anti-ID cards, consequences of a more than two- foundation hospitals, student top-up BAE Systems Listings degree rise in are catastrophic. There fees and voted against the Iraq war.” ta* page 1 24th May Guantanamo Bay: close it and climate change, an all-day will be crop failures, droughts and McDonnell said smugly. “And I’ve got senior Tory Julian Lewis, has been down, talk with speakers Moazzam conference aiming to take a positive environmentally-driven migration. Yet, ‘another world is possible’ as my named in court as a man who obtained Begg and Sadat Sayeed from 6.30pm approach to some of the grave global not only are most government’s targets campaign slogan, you know like the confidential legal information on at London South Bank University problems that concern us all, and for reduction of carbon dioxide and World Social Forum?” CAAT’s legal challenge to closing the Keyworth Centre. which underlie many of the issues other greenhouse gases too little, they Meacher sniffed again. “So as a left­ inquiry and passed it on the BAE 26th May Radical Book and Zine Fair discussed in the cafe diplo talks, at are rarely met. winger who has never had a chance of Systems’ security department. from 10am-5pm at the Cowley Club, Imperial College, London, for info see Not all governments have the same getting into a Blair cabinet, you voted The fact that the SFO inquiry was London Road, Brighton, for details see mondediplofriends.org.uk/ motivation for not acting, but they all for a couple of crowd pleasers and dropped against the Saudis but cowleyclub.org.uk 30th June World Development Move­ seem to be doing too little, too late. took on the slogan of a massively continues elsewhere raises questions. 28th May to 2nd June Tent State ment annual conference:activism past, Developing countries like China and underachieving anti-globalisation What do the Saudi’s have on the UK University UK: 'education not war' present and future with speakers India claim that they must build more group. Big whoop, have you stood up government, apart from business and protest, Noam Chomsky will speak via including Ngugi wa Thiong’o and power stations and sell cars to all their for your principles against the state security links? Exactly how much video link and dozens of academics George Monbiot, plus sessions on citizens, as otherwise they are denying itself? Direct action?” influence does the arms trade have and activists will lead discussions at an apartheid, slavery, climate justice, the benefits of such development to McDonnell looked uncomfortable. within government? And who else, ‘alternative university’, organised by a privatisation struggles, music and their citizens. The US and their close “Well... I spoke out to say how great apart from the Saudi’s and possibly group of Sussex staff and students as protest, women’s rights, corporate allies are in almost total denial about the IRA are a few years ago...” senior UK government figures, is being part of a protest against the invasion globalisation, from 1pm to 6pm at it. They reject Kyoto and other Meacher laughed. “What, supporting protected? and occupation of Iraq, at University University ofLeeds, for more call 020 international attempts to regulate itall as kinds of demands and actions in of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, for info 7820 4900, email [email protected] a threat to US business, particularly the name of freedom followed by a email [email protected] or visit www.wdm.org.uk those they have close links to. In general forgetting of socialist principle 2nd June Strawberry Fair, free festival 6th to 8th July Antiworld Outdoor Britain there is a recognition that at the top as soon as power was Film review at Midsummer Common, Cambridge, Festival Experience at a secret location ‘something must be done’ but achieved? How apposite!” ta* page 7 see strawberry-fair.org.uk near London, see antiworld070707.com mainstream opinion clings to the idea Real change has never looked so their alienation as the price paid for 6th to 8th June G8 Summit at 8th July Phillip K Dick day - this is part that this can be achieved without close. individual aspiration. Nothing wrong Heiligendamm on the north coast of of a film being made about the science changes to the lifestyle of the average with broader horizons, of course, and Germany near Rostock, for more see fiction writer; in Hyde Park, London comfortable citizen. Some take a writer-director LaGravenese does wombles.org.uk/article200609109.php, (the director/writer is looking for actors fatalistic view, that there’s no point in implicitly posit their escape as dissent.org.uk or vision07.net/drupal and others interested in working as part doing anything when China is opening libcom .org exception rather than rule (marginally 16th June It’s broke - let’s fix it! of a film crew) all afternoon, email a new coal-fired power station every redeeming the cliches) - only finding solutions to poverty, conflict [email protected] two weeks. Gruwell’s two extra part-time jobs Why is the government committed pay for the teaching resources Bh w t f l u rnmmiinfty If nrp ih rtn g rr~~“ ~ - **—' ** l*, *w to building more airports, more roads withheld by school managers; and STEAL THIS FILM and shifting more production outside (we learn), she promptly abandoned the front line for university the country? It’s not just about profits Wednesday 23rd May - there are profits to be made from The quiz educational evangelism. Yet in doing other activities instead of those. 1. What brought about the Bavarian intimately detailing her trials and Camberwell Squat Centre I suspect that the government don’t beer riots that Engels wrote about tribulations, but merely schematically 192 W ar ham Street, SE5 want to tell middle England that their in May 1844? sketching the desperate depths of her charges, Freedom Writers renders the Steal This Film is the first part of a free holiday homes and cheap flights are 2. What is subject of the book Beer documentary series about file-sharing, not environmentally sustainable. The and Revolution by Tom Goyens? latter essentially passive, malleable focusing on The Pirate Bay. (p2p torrent site)- budget airlines go on about how their 3. By what name is Sinesio Garcia objects of its heroic missionary. raided last year by Swedish police with pressure prices allow poorer people to fly and Hernandez better known? Progressive humanistic transforma­ from the US government - and copyfighters Piratbyran. - Download, Watch and Copy. are more egalitarian. Of course, most 4. What adaptation did Danish tive trappings notwithstanding, the of their passengers are actually from situationist Asger Jorn make to the mission is still unmistakably ‘business starting around 7.30 the better-paid social classes, but they ‘beautiful game’ of football? as usual’. pay nothing to get in never mention that. Answers on page 6 www.tomjennings.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

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