Pokemon: creating perfect little Capitalists Monday, May 1, 2000 www.reclaimthestreets.net . page 26 Ken pulls out
BY LUCY PARSONS society where goods were produced not to make some time we have been monitoring a hardcore profits but simply because people needed them. group of troublemakers intent on advocating a WTO INTRODUCES KEN LIVINGSTONE sent shockwaves Reaction from business has been mixed with the society based on freedom and community where 8 HOUR WEEK through the political establishment today CBI commenting: ‘We’ve tried to stop people people control their own lives. But it appears when he withdrew his candidacy for coming together at work by imposing short-term that anyone can have such subversive ideas - In a radical new proposal, the WT O will today mayor just days before the election. contracts and job insecurity. But when they just even a police officer. This morning I realised announce a shift to an eight-hour working week come together on the streets, they soon realise that without poverty or inequality there would In a short statement he said: ‘There’s no point - across the world. As a move designed to solve their own strength. We are powerless when they hardly be any crime. Excuse me, I think I need being a candidate if no one votes for you. I’d both over-employment and under-e m p l o y m e n t , act collectively.’ A smiling City worker said: to lie down for a bit.’ rather spend time with my newts.’ the proposed changes to the working week will ‘T h e r e ’ s been a lot of talk here about how we An unnamed military source said yesterday: redistribute both money and, crucially, time. Livingstone’s decision has been expected in could use our skills to reorganise food distribution ‘Only the army can save the rule of law now. But some quarters ever since his closest allies, the The announcement is being greeted with and end hunger worldwide. It’s a lot more exciting there’s so much insubordination in the ranks. If Green Party, withdrew from the London delight by social justice campaigners and than making money for someone else!’ people don’t return to work after the May Day Assembly elections. He appears to be echoing environmentalists around the world. Funai A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: ‘For holiday, I don’t know what we’ll do.’ their sentiment that: ‘We just couldn’t persuade Terranostra, the spokes person for indigenous people that electing a few politicians might stop pe o p l e s ’ rights worldwide said: ‘We welcome the wholesale corporate destruction of the TERRORISTS PLOT TO PLANT RHUBARB this announcement. Its effects will be glorious. environment. To be honest, even we found it hard It will massively reduce the exploitation of to believe.’ indigenous people from Shell in Ogoniland to Tony Blair warned that Ken Livingstone’s Oxy in U’wa territory.’ Belle Taine, a spokes withdrawal would be ‘disastrous’ for London person for the French environmentalist group saying: ‘If politicians just give up there will be to ‘A La Recherche de la Terre Perdu’ (R e c l a i m run capitalism and where will that leave all my the Earth) said: ‘It’s too little, but it’s not quite friends in the City? What would the bankers and too late. Most environmental destruction is corporate bosses do all day if they couldn’t caused by big businesses working day and exploit people or destroy eco-systems?’ night to make money out of the earth’s natural Another Labour source said: ‘Some of us have resources. If this proposal is taken up, it will been arguing for ages that we need to make some curtail four-fifths of the current environmental token improvements in people’s lives or they will damage. Then we will have bought ourselves - want to get rid of the whole system. But Ton y and our planet - time.’ wo u l d n ’ t listen.’ The proposal has provoked the first ideological Meanwhile the Conservatives are desperate to split between the Labour party and the Tories in relate to the new anti-capitalist mood sweeping the years. Tony Blair said ‘The WT Owould be world. Steven Norris claimed that: ‘Of course, I’ve acting in contravention of its own guidelines by always been against foreign multi-nationals and not promoting the interests of big businesses.’ globalisation. British workers deserve to be The Labour Party Central Office commented: exploited by British bosses.’But his support in the ‘This is a dangerous ploy to persuade people that opinion polls has remained rock-bottom indicating there is more to life than work.’ his failure to capture the public mood. The Shadow Education Secretary had been Polls have shown a collapse in support for all considering a parallel proposal for school political parties ever since people began walking children. ‘If children are roughly half the size out of their workplaces to hold mass meetings in of grown-ups, it makes sense that they should the street. I recently infiltrated one of these put in half the hours.’ The Education minister, meetings where the idea of a world without retorted: ‘If grown-ups won’t work, children tedious, overtiring jobs was openly advocated. Tooled up: a self-proclaimed guerrilla gardener prepares for the May Day action must. Who’ll clean the chimneys? Who will Some even proposed a stateless, moneyless go down the mines? It stands to reason.’ NEWS SPORT WIN Mu r d o c h Or g a n i c British Gas Met chief Ga r d e n May pole A mop and a bu y s ca r r o t s in fart de n i e s gn o m e s dancing an bucket of shares in ‘co u l d ’ pr i v a t i s a t i GM ‘co p can’t pee Ol y m p i c luke warm Blair Baby ma i m on scam tr i a l s ’ - official sp o r t wa t e r
page 4 page 5 page 8 page 11 page 16 page 24 page 15 ACTIVISTS 1 - CITY 0 Maybe everyone will wake up one day and realise that life is worth more than money?
Maybe 'Ya Basta' will be the first words of a common language. ‘Enough is enough’.
Maybe capitalism’s days are numbered.
Maybe everyone will refuse to go into work and then refuse to pay their Land-Lords.
Maybe there will be a resurgence of a spirit which prefers co-operation to competition and celebrates nature in place of profit.
Maybe people will see the artifice of global money markets as a twisted puppet show, a cheap theatrical illusion, a bogus and plastic god. Maybe buried rivers will be unearthed and rivers will swim where rivers will.
Maybe the play ethic will come to seem more ethical than the work ethic.
Maybe we will re-ignite the insatiable desire to live life to the full in teeming myriads of carnival ways.
Maybe life will be so worth living that we can't get enough of it and will want to double the length of days.
Maybe then the sheer liquid vividness of life will laugh out loud. AND THEN WHAT?
03 ...then perhaps we would have a revolution on our h a n d s . . .
4 ...So what is this
As you maybe, by now, aware this is not in fact the London Metro newspaper at all but a spoof edition special reporting on the actions, ideas and motivations behind this weekends' Mayday 'Guerrilla Gardening' action. Perhaps you've heard that, following on from last years 'Carnival against Capitalism' in the City and the anti-WTO events in Seattle and around the world , the police are mounting their biggest operation for thirty years to stop 'anarchist troublemakers from attacking them with shovels'. Well, behind the corporate media headlines there is a multifaceted reality trying to break free. This paper hopes to be a fuse to an explosion in your understanding of that reality.
"Maybe" has been put together by an organic group of 'guerrilla gardeners' hellbent on informing you about the reasoning behind the event. No-one involved with the paper was paid - nor did anyone have to do as they were told: it's simply the result of a voluntary, cooperative effort by a network of inspired activists, writers, doley's, designers and other (extra) ordinary people.
Thematically the paper breaks down (or should we say composts...) into five broad areas: Mayday, its origins and history; Carnival and its Revolutionary potential; Guerrilla Gardening, practical and philosophy; the City, social and ecological perspectives; and Movements: both forced movements of people and emerging networks of global resistance. While this is not a comprehensive account of the ideas of even the (dis)organisers of London's Mayday, its maybe a beginning. There are resource and contacts pages at the end for further exploration of the increasingly irresistible anti-capitalist direct action movement.
The most recent actions of this global anti-capitalist movement have focused on institutions like the G8, the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, or the International Monetary Fund. The Mayday 2000 event, in contrast, seeks to focus on growing alternatives. On the ideas and aspirations that are usually lost in the 'stop this, that or the other' focus. Guerrilla Gardening, creating communal gardens through shared effort is one such aspiration; pointing to a growing desire to understand and change how we relate to the natural world and each other.
And although Mayday is just one day, it seeks to incite continuous creativity and action towards a radical remaking of everyday life. Steeped in a history of daily struggle, of "day in day out" organising for social change, but pulsating with the celebration of renewal and fresh hope that returns with the coming of summer. Mayday will June 18 1999 City of London: Carnival against capitalism always be a pivotal moment.
So, here's to Mayday and to a world of cooperation, solidarity, sharing, and carnival. Maybe, just maybe...
Haymarket Chicago 1886 Anti-Capitalists demonstrators November 30th 1999 Seattle: anti-WTO protests
5 May Day - May Day ! May, when all of nature is at it... Mayday, the calendar’s most permissive day - yes, you may - May, its robust energy humming with erotic intensity, root to shoot, is pure sex.
n its pagan beginnings, Mayday (Beltane) was a be suppressed by two of the most pleasure-hating of people across the world. The celebration of common festival of fertility, an earthy sexual carnival; the all British inventions: the Industrial Revolution and rights to common lands, before the enclosures, is IMaypole, one stonking erection plunged into the Victorian morality. The rising middle classes of represented today by reclaiming public spaces. round wet hole of mother earth, was the key symbol Victorian Britain picked up where Puritanism left off; Beltane honours nature and the green environment: of this erotic day. Mayday was the one festival which they were fundamentally opposed to the vigorously today, May Day resists the corporations and the Christian church and other authorities could convivial off-licence times, drunken, licentious and businesses which destroy that natural environment. never quite control. Traditionally, young men and rude. Just as land was literally enclosed so the spirit The month of May is named after the goddess Maia, women went to the woods the night before Mayday, of carnival time was metaphorically enclosed; no the root of which is thought to involve ideas of to fetch flowers, to ‘bring in the may’ and to find a drinking, no bawdiness, no sex. Nothing ‘vulgar,’ ‘growth’ and ‘increase’, and is represented today in suitable maypole. And, grooving the dark earthy nothing ‘common.’ Both the acts and the spirit of the fertility of seeds of resistance – a global growth, groves, vicarless and knickerless, ‘of a hundred enclosure tried to suppress the broad, unenclosed, increasing month by month; resistance is fertile. maides going to the wood over night, there have unfettered, unbounded exuberance of the vulgar at If Robin Hood were alive today, he’d be scarcely the third part of them returned home again large. For carnival was vulgar in two senses; it was campaigning against Capitalism. His motto of undefiled’ a tight-lipped Puritan disapprovingly rude, for sure, and it was also vulgar in a class ‘robbing the rich to give to the poor’ is directly records. May sex led to June weddings – which was context as it was of the common people. Nothing opposed to the Capitalist philosophy of ‘robbing the why the full moon of June, called the ‘mead moon’ or irritated the rising middle-classes more than seeing poor to give to the rich.’ If Robin Hood were alive ‘honey moon’ became associated with those the common people having a jovial pie-eating, today, he’d be an environmentalist. The mythical folk weddings. procreating piss-up in public. hero was often identified with the traditional May Day was also a day of merriment and of The Industrial Revolution was partly a revolution springtime personification of nature; ‘Jack in the flowers. One sixteenth century event, just outside in terms of time and ‘time rights.’ In the twelfth Green’ or ‘The Green Man.’ Living in the London, a company of men ‘clothed all in greene, century, commoners had enjoyed some eight weeks Greenwood, his merry men were famous for the with greene hoods,’ their leader taking the of festivals and ‘holy days’ (holidays) per year. For ‘wearing of the green.’ And, if Robin Hood were emblematic name of Robin Hood, (by then the factories and mills of the Industrial Revolution, alive today, he’d be doing some Guerrilla Gardening representative of ‘Merrie England’) met Henry the this ‘time off’ was disastrous, so holidays and for Mayday. Eighth and his retinue. Appropriately enough for festivals were reduced massively and the working If the spirit of Robin Hood is alive and well, so May day, the start of the ‘Merry Month of May’, the hours of the common people dramatically increased, too is the spirit of May; ever old, ever new, ever merry men put on a feast of venison and wine in the beginning the compulsive overworking system we different and ever the same, ever-fertile, anarchic and ‘greene wood, in arbours of flowers.’ still have today. (It was given a spurious legitimacy pleasure-seeking, from merrie England to every anti- It was a day of reversal, the topsy-turvy whirligig by Benjamin Franklin’s nasty little lie ‘Time Is Money’ Puritan bacchanalia. For May Day is irrepressible, of carnival time turning work time to play time, which, now as then, never bothered to answer the coming up like shoots from the earth itself, overturning the status quo, crowning a Queen of the question ‘Whose money is made from whose time?’) irrepressible as sex; the maypole’s dirty dancing is May from the common people, while the festivities During the nineteenth century, May Day became a still danced today, the spirit of May Day irrepressibly were led by the Lord of Misrule, the King of focus for campaigns to reduce working hours. A letting rip, irrepressible in its vulgar, laughing, Unreason and the Abbot of Disobedience. And the general strike was held across USA and Canada on streamer-fluttering, transformative character, its May Day 1886. After a rally on May 4th, eight tootling, rude, mercurial raucous gusto. anarchists were arrested and three were hanged for The modern Mayday is sometimes calling for an eight-hour working day – they came to be known as the ‘Chicago Martyrs’. In 1889, May presented as being entirely separate Day was declared International Workers’ Day in their memory. The phenomenon of taking May Day as a from the traditional one. Not so. workers’ day was shaped by working people deciding on masse not to work; to flout the moral, political and economic compulsion to labour. Victor Adler Green Man gave the green light to revelry and wrote in 1893 ‘this is the sense of the May holiday, of mischief, his ‘horn’ as vulgar as you like. It was also the rest from work, which our adversaries fear. This a day for commonality – in several senses – a day for is what they feel to be revolutionary.’ the common people to celebrate common time on But a gain to Industry is a loss to Idleness, and common land. They celebrated their rites on the land some have long considered idleness a cherishable and also celebrated their rights to that land. virtue. Aristotle wrote: ‘Nature requires us not only But with the enclosures, hundreds of folk to be able to work well but also to idle well.’ festivals and carnivals disappeared with these acts, Bertrand Russell, writing ‘In Praise of Idleness’ which robbed people of their rights, and their sites, (1935), argued that people should work no more than of carnival. With no place to celebrate common four hours a day; there would then be neither over- customs, the customs died away. May Day was also employment nor under-employment. ‘There is far virtually stamped out by the Puritans. Hating the too much work done in the world and immense social reversal of carnival and sniffing the rank harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous.’ sexuality of the day (they decried the Maypole as ‘this Leisure, by contrast, ‘is essential to civilisation.’ The stinking idol,’) in 1644, Puritans banned Mayday, (as play ethic is far more, well, ethical than the work well as Christmas and theatres, for plays ‘sucked out ethic; the Protestant Work Ethic is answered by a of the Devil’s teates.’) 1644 was a bad year for May Protesters Play Ethic. Day and for merriment. The banned May Day sports The modern May Day is sometimes presented as came to be called the Robin Hood Games, and – like being entirely separate from the traditional one. Not Robin Hood – the ancient characters of the May – so. The ideas of May Day 2000 have long cultural the Green Man, the Fool and the Queen of the May – and political roots, back through the nineteenth were transformed into outlaws. century and as far back as folk history can go. The Maypoles were allowed again with the 1660 centuries-old tradition of bringing in the May and the Restoration, London’s most famous Maypole garlands of flowers was continued in the universal rapturously erected in the Strand, but in the coming use of flowers by socialist Maydayers in the centuries May Day and the spirit of carnival were to nineteenth century, and expresses itself in today’s Guerrilla Gardening. (What looks like avant gardening is very traditional. Not an avant garde but a post garde from the (same) hedge.) May Day has always had a quality of universality; from the commoners celebrating common time on common land to the internationalism of May Day in labour terms. Today, that translates as People’s Global Action and the prevalent anti-WTO sentiment, the same WTO that traduces the rights of common
6 The re v o l u ti o n a ries who inspired the first wo rk e rs’ May Days Mayday - patterns of a celebration Mayday is the only secular festival in the official envisaged a wo rld without alienated wo rk or govern m e n ts. Yet, in national calendars. Many stories about its origins are told by folklore, anarchists and socialists. Just like the the 20th centu ry, ‘Communist’, Fascist and Labour govern m e n ts Reclaim the streets flag, the green, black and red converge on Mayday. The stories have one thing in s tifled the spirit of May Day by incorp o ra ting it as an off i c i a lcommon: Mayday has always been situated between celebration and control, between popular pleasure holiday. Today these ideologies have been discre d i ted and we have and organised politics, between the commemoration for tragic defeats and the optimistic belief in a better an unpre c e d e n ted chance to re v ive the re v o l u ti o n a ry vision of th e fu t u r e . f i rst May Day demonstra tions. But to do this effe ctively it is Black – the Haymarket martyrs. In response to a violent police action against strikers for the 8 hour u s e ful to explore want went wrong in the 20th centu ry . day in Chicago on May 3, 1886, anarchists called for a mass meeting in Haymarket Square. It ended with a massive confrontation with the police, during which a bomb was thrown. Consequently, many suspected radicals faced repression, and eight of Chicago's most active anarchists were sentenced to The incomplete, inspiring and tragic history die, although there was no evidence. Three were hanged,and one committed suicide in prison. of May Day in the 20th Century Hundreds of thousands lined the route taken by the funeral cortege. 1917 – May Day demonstration in Petrograd. This is encourage some to discover that Marx's insights By that time, Mayday had already gained so part of a huge movement throughout Russia that have nothing to do with the Soviet nightmare and much momentum that the US government tried to creates 900 elected workers' councils or soviets and everything to do with replacing work with free change its symbolic meaning by declaring it as "Law 2,000 factory committees, successfully controlling creativity and building a world with infinite Day". An official Labour Day was randomly production. This movement appears to take power in possibilities. introduced in September. Until now, the US does not October led by Lenin’s Bolsheviks. 1978 – May Day becomes a bank holiday in the UK. officially recognise May Day. However, the war and starvation that provoked This is one part of the Labour government's Green – folklore and paganism In the rural societies the revolution in the first place leaves workers with attempts to pacify workers. They also introduce of early modern Europe, the beginning of spring was little strength to prevent the Bolsheviks from welfare cuts and mass unemployment to prevent celebrated by popular rituals relating to fertility, becoming increasingly dictatorial. By 1918 many strikes. After 1979 Thatcher continues similar sexuality and disobedience. Carnival games turned workers are demoralised and stay away from the policies. the local world upside down, if only temporarily. The official May Day celebrations. A devastating war with 1981 – In May Labour win the GLC elections. This church, threatened, was unable to eliminate them. the Western-backed White armies further brutalises encourages people to look to Labour to protect them So they transformed them into Saint days, until they the regime - eventually leading to Stalin's take-over from Thatcher rather than take action themselves. were banned by an act of Parliament in 1644. In and ten million deaths. Ken Livingstone dissuades tubeworkers from striking Victorian times, Mayday turned into a tamed 1937 – The Stalinist Communist Party bans May Day to prevent tube fares rising and he imposes all the commemoration of Merrie England. But its wilder, celebrations in Barcelona. This is part of the process 'Tory' cutbacks. unruly and disobedient meanings remained in of repressing the Spanish revolution. Since 1936 It is only when the Labour left declines that popular memory, merging with the labour movement workers' collectives and militias led by anarchists people resort to the direct action of the anti-poll tax and causing headaches not only to 20th century have successfully run industry and fought off movement. This movement removes both the poll governments, but also to socialist parties striving for Franco's fascists. tax and Thatcher - showing what can be achieved recognition as orderly citizens. On 3 May 1937 the workers of Barcelona rise up when electoral politics is rejected for self- Red – the socialist story The First International called to defend their revolution. But the 'anarchists' in the organisation. for an international demonstration to demand a government order them to return to work - while 1999 – In May hundreds of soldiers desert Kosovo to Legal Eight-Hour Day on May 1st 1890, an ordinary British warships wait in the harbour ready to shell join anti-Milosevic protests in Serbia. A peace deal is working Thursday. Absentism from work resonated the city if the workers are successful. soon signed but the deaths of over 500 civilians by with the unruly pleasures of the Green May Day. The Stalinists then suppress all opposition in the NATO bombing have strengthened Milosevic’s Avoiding this the British labour movement held their name of the war effort against Franco. However position as ‘defender of the nation’. Left-wing demonstration on a Sunday with 300 000 workers in Franco still wins and the Spanish experience supporters of the war, like Livingstone, effectively Hyde Park. Austrian socialists opted for Thursday, becomes a precursor of the mobilisation for World dissuade people from opposing the bombing. the state banned processions. Faced with the War Two. The war ends after 50 million workers have commitment of the workers, employers preferred to died and the British Labour government has 20th century history is a tragic lesson in the dangers give in and closed the factories for the day. In authorised the American bombing of Hiroshima and of trusting ‘anti-capitalist’ politicians or of just being Germany, despite the Social Democrats preferring Nagasaki. against one aspect of capitalism, like ‘globalisation’, the Sunday the workers decided for themselves to go 1950s – The Soviets parade nuclear missiles on May rather than for a complete transformation of society. for the more radical option and celebrated on Day. The whole spirit of May Day, - of freedom, This is only the beginning, but it has never been so Thursday. Eventually, the International acknowledged community and revolution - has been obliterated by possible and so necessary for humanity to replace that May Day was to be not only a political activity ‘socialist’ governments, but this is only temporary… capitalism completely in the coming decades. but also a celebration and a festival. 1968 – In May ten million workers go on strike in France. This inspires a decade of strikes and counter- cultural rebellions across the globe. Such revolts East End Memories of May Day Harold talks about May Day in the East End May Day holiday, no matter what day it fell of them. Alexandra Day, Armistice Day, before the war, describing a community that on." The cartload of children, like the Empire Day. And we've got our day, just was at the same time working-class, Jewish adults, were absentees since May day was a one, but it's ours. All theirs are for wars, for (but not religious) and Communist. school-day. c h a r i t y, for showing off with soldiers. As an 8 years old boy, he and many "The cart moved off and we wore our They've stuck up their monuments all over other kids were packed into the nicely arms out waving at the folk lining the the place. Generals and conquerors with decorated municipal dust-cart, pulled by Whitechapel Road. We sang that we were soldiers dying like flies all round them and equally decorated cart-horses, surrounded going to hang somebody or other on the lists of all those poor young men, nebbich, by masses of adults with banners, placards sour apple tree when the revolution comes killed in their wars. And they always trot out and bands. He remembers the festive and hurrah for the Bolshie Boys who didn't a priest or parson or rabbi to show how holy atmosphere: care a little bit. Then we entered the hostile it all is. We've got our day, our festival, the "This was not yet another bitter taking silence of the City where gents stood staring workers' holiday. It's all ours and nothing to to the streets calling for the release of stonily. Occasionally one or them raged and do with them’" somebody or hands off something or the shook an umbrella like a man in a cartoon" end of cuts. This was a street festival, a non- "I knew all about May Day. How could I stop party. I was just old enough to know not know? My mother had instructed me that the tradition then was that you took the over the years.'They've got their days, plenty
7 The smell of carnival & revolution is in the air
"This is not a protest. Repeat. This is not a protest. This is some kind of artistic expression. Over." A call that went out on police radios in Toronto, Canada on May 16th, 1998, the first Global Street Party.Over the past 5 years Reclaim the Streets (RTS) has helped reintroduce pleasure and play into politics with its visionary Street Parties, which have taken over major roads and transformed them into ephemeral festivals of resistance. Fusing carnival with revolution, RTS found a potent recipe for re-energising the possibility of radical change, and it’s a recipe which has inspired actions all over the world.
hot summer’s day, Friday June 18th 1999. It ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation, share and build a common experience. The insidious should have been a ‘normal’ day’s work in the hitting the planet’s front pages, with actions once individualism of capitalism melts away, yet creative ACity: wake at 6am - uncomfortable commute - again taking place across the world. Never again diversity remains - as everyone does their own thing sit in front of a screen watching numbers for eight would the economists and technocrats be able to while feeling part of a greater whole. Common goals hours - nonstop phones ringing - attempt to decide the fate of the world in anonymous and ideals, symbols and visions unite in a moment maximise profits for faceless clients - market closes - tranquillity. The smell of carnival and revolution has of intense participation. Goethe commented that "it out to the bar - go home - crash out in front of the appeared, and as it mixes with the tear gas, there is a is not really a festival given for the people but one TV - crawl into bed, ready for the same thing the next renewed scent of possibility, there is a feeling that the people give themselves". Carnival abolishes day, and the next and the next... But how easy it is for this is only the beginning of something very very big. hierarchy as the fool becomes king. There is no everything to be changed, for the world to be turned These movements against capitalism erupting all central point, no pyramidal hierarchy; everything is upside down. over the world are not only outright rejections of the fluid, moving, changing, not unlike the internet, the That hot summer’s day, commerce was turned present system, but are also rejecting older forms of tool that has become so useful in the co-ordination upside down and inside out as over 10,000 people political action. Gone are the staples of the old left: of contemporary global resistance. filled the Square Mile in a ‘Carnival Against Capital’. sacrifice, anger, frustration and guilt; gone are the The monoculture of capitalism could only For a few hours the worlds prime profit zone became linear marches from ‘a’ to ‘b’ followed by monolithic become truly global with the fall of the Berlin wall a revolutionary pleasure zone. The grey drudgery of rallies; gone are the central committees, the leaders, and the break up of the Eastern Bloc. This opened up work was banished by the subversive spirit of play as the fixed ideologies, the dogma; gone are the the space for capital to be unrestrained; but also the streets became filled with masked revellers demands for reform, for a new government, for fixes; gave a new lease of life to radical movements. For dancing wildly to the deafening rhythm of the samba gone maybe is the long wait for the day of revolution. more than 70 years, Soviet ‘state socialism’ was seen band. The crowds’ spirits soared as space was Direct action is the order of the day. as the main model of revolutionary society, and it reclaimed and transformed. A stand pipe was Whether it's the Brazilian landless peasants was a total social and ecological disaster. However, ‘liberated’ allowing water to spurt three stories high (MST) squatting huge tracts of empty land and its shadow lingered over most radical movements. into a hot blue sky quenching the parched building co-operative farms and communities, Those who wished to discredit any forms of participants. Reclaim the Streets taking over a motorway for a revolutionary thinking simply pointed to the Soviet In a typically carnivalesque act of mockery, one of street party or Indian peasants tying a politician to a model to prove the inevitable failures of any the entrances to the London International Financial tree (for a day only !) if they try to enter their ‘utopian’ project. Futures (and Options) Exchange (LIFFE) was collectively-run villages - direct action is about Now that the Soviet Union has ceased to exist, it symbolically walled up with breeze blocks. Then in changing things through our own self-organisation has become a lot easier to work in radical passionate spontaneous abandon the other entrance and ultimately taking control of our own lives and movements and conceive different societies - no to the building was stormed and revellers liberated communities, without the mediation of politicians longer referring to a failed monolithic model. by the intoxicating spirit of carnival attempted to and bureaucrats. Direct action is founded on the Visions of a better world can return unhindered. The occupy the trading floor. For a few moments the old principle of direct and immediate participation, and space has been cleared and the power of radical world had collapsed and a new world, a dramatic it threatens the core of capitalist society, of its need imagination is back at the centre of revolutionary fusion of spontaneity, pleasure and freedom, had for spectacle, hierarchy and separation. struggle. Not only has the imagination been freed, it been glimpsed. We are forced to spectate by capitalism - a role of has also become more diverse and fluid. There is no longer any need for universal rules, there is not just one way, one utopia to apply globally; that is exactly "Revolutions will be festivals or nothing, for festivity is the very what the ‘free marketeers’ are trying to do. The radical social movements that are increasingly keynote of the life they announce. Play is the ultimate principle coming together don't want to seize power but to dissolve it. They are not vanguards but catalysts in of this festival, and the only rules it can recognise are to live the revolutionary process. They are dreaming up without dead time and to enjoy without restraints." many autonomous alternative forms of social organisation, forms that are directly linked to the specific needs of locality. What might be an passivity, of apathy. We watch TV, movies, news, alternative to capitalism for people currently in a Global reach celebrities - the ‘other’ in the ‘other's world’ in which housing estate in Croydon is completely different to Other carnivals were taking place simultaneously in we do not feel threatened or truly involved. We are what might be suitable for the inhabitants of the over 75 cities, on every continent. In Nigeria 50,000 encouraged to vote, be it for governments, councils slums of Delhi. During carnival we begin to glimpse people from different tribes converged on Port or mayors, to ask them to represent us, to decide for the possibility of other worlds, worlds that celebrate Harcourt, the oil capital, in what was dubbed the us. We have no connection with the production of diversity and autonomy, worlds which thrive on co- ‘Carnival of the Oppressed’; in Sydney a mocking our daily needs, of our food, clothes. We have operation and participation. "Scum bags tour" snaked through the banking zone; become so accustomed to assuming the position of With the eruption of carnivalesque resistance in Montevideo (Uruguay) a spoof trade fair took the spectator in our own lives, that active there is a return to the creative tactics of the 60's, place and the stock exchange was occupied; in participation in events has become like a muscle but this time the urgent ecological issues that inform Dhaka, Toronto, Buenos Aries, Harare, New York, atrophied through lack of use. much of the movement have lent an immediacy to Madrid, Eugene, Edinburgh, Valencia, Zurich, its actions. The whole basis of the present system - Prague and more, the spirit of carnival infiltrated No spectators progress defined by economic growth - is profoundly financial districts. The global reach of June 18th was Carnival, on the other hand, insists on participation. anti-ecological, and we can’t wait nor wish to wait completely ignored by the majority of the corporate There are no spectators in a carnival, no side-lines, for a ‘right historical condition’ for revolution. media. Then five months later, Seattle happened. An no passive viewers. Carnival is dynamic direct Radically creative and subversive change must enormous ‘Festival of Resistance’ shut down the democracy in action, bringing people together, to happen now. The planet is running out of time.
8 Desire and delight passion and ignites our imaginations, our belief and been worthwhile in human history - the great Yet ecological and social survival is not the only hope that everything can change and will change achievements of physics and astronomy, of aim. On the streets of the City or Port Harcourt last permanently. geographical discovery and of human healing, of year, changing the world was not a chore; it was not Unlike carnival and revolution, carnival and philosophy and of art - has been the work of just about struggle but about delight. The demands capitalism have never made good bedfellows. extremists - of those who believed in the absurd, are no longer simply about needs - the necessity for Carnival’s mockery, chaos and transgression have dared the impossible..." land, food, control of the means of production: but always threatened the sobriety and seriousness of You can’t predict the outcome of a carnival and about desire. The desire for a better life, a the state. What carnivals remain have themselves neither can you predict history. The history of the marvellous life, the total re-enchantment of the become spectacles, specialist performances watched 20th century, was one of utter unpredictability - who world. After all, what would you rather spend a day by spectators, with police lines and barriers placed could have predicted the Russian revolution, the fall doing: working a dead end job or running through between the ‘parade’ and audience. Thus the of the Berlin wall, the end of apartheid, the internet? the city streets with thousands of others engaged in vortexed, whirling uncontrollable state of creative Who could have predicted that anti-capitalism a huge collective insurrectionary game? Play is the chaos is shoehorned into neat straight lines and would be back on the agenda at the end of a century immediacy of revolution. rectangles. A visit to London's New Year’s Day which has seen capitalism touch, subsume and On the streets of Seattle one of the activists was carnival, or the corporate-sponsored Notting Hill subjugate everywhere and everything on the planet? heard, between the rounds of rubber bullets, saying carnival, is enough to illustrate how carnival under Who could have predicted that at the beginning of "Even if we are getting our arse kicked always capitalism has lost its vitality. the 21st Century carnival and revolution would come remember - and this is important - we're having more fun than they are". ‘Resistance is the secret of joy’, wrote Alice Walker, and changing the world has never been so much fun. "Puppets and songs don't kill children, bullets and poverty do." It seems that just as the twentieth century managed to purge the radical spirit of carnival, Nigerian activist Oronto Douglas commenting on media repor ts turning it into another commodified leisure spectacle, it has risen again in a revolutionary guise which returns it to its roots. Carnival and revolution about "violence" during the actions against the April 2000 have identical goals: to invert the social order with joyous abandon and to celebrate our indestructible lust for life, a lust that capitalism tries so hard to IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington. destroy with its monotonous merry go round of work and consumerism. Many of the great moments of revolutionary But the frenzied delirium and sensuality of together in an explosive, unstoppable combination, history were carnivalesque, revelatory and sensuous carnival have been with us since time immemorial seeking out justice as it snaked its way through grey explosion outside the accepted pattern of politics: and it has always refused to die. Popping up like a corridors of profit? the Rebecca rioters performing street theatre in front weed forcing its way through tarmac, it returns again The revolutionary carnivals that are taking place of the hated toll gates before destroying them, the and again. This time round, the state will again try to all over the world again on Mayday are injecting Luddites dressing as women when they dismantled co-opt the revolutionary carnival. It is already clear hope and possibility into the bland, blank world of the looms, the uprisings all over Europe in the 19th that they want to invite the ‘participants around the politics. They are reminding us that we can century - the incredible ‘permanent festival’ of an table’, to ‘hear our concerns’, to ‘negotiate’. But this understand and affect our own history; that we can autonomous liberated city during the Paris is a strategy that has gone on for centuries, a envision and create other worlds and that we can Commune, and just about everywhere in 1968 . strategy that has divided radical movements and have a really good laugh doing it. Overnight the world would be turned upside weakened them, thus enabling the system to The liberated society that these carnivals envision down...a topsy turvy universe free of toil, suffering continue on its destructive path. The liberal wings of is one based on diversity, joy, passion, spontaneity and inequality would rule. But we are not waiting the movement will be seduced into dialogue, while and generosity. The rigid rules, the hateful for these moments of carnivalesque revolution, we the more radical wings who refuse will be denounced hierarchies and the monotonous uniformity of are trying to merge them into every moment of as extremists. capitalism all melt in its intense heat. everyday life. We cannot live on one-off days, a We don't want to sit around their table, we want letting off of steam, safety valves for society enabling to dance on top of it, to turn it over, to laugh at their life to return to normal the next day or for vain attempts to gloss the system, to set up hierarchical domination to return, as did in so many appearances of freedom and democracy. They may historical revolutions. Revolution is not an act but a well call us extremists or ‘flat earthers’ or dreamers process and carnival can prepare us for this process. or utopians. But as Herbert Read - the only anarchist It changes our minds and behaviours, it inspires our to receive a Knighthood! - wrote in 1963, "What has Mayday 2000 - where it’s happening globally
MayDay 2000 is another festival of Vancouver: [email protected] Hamburg: [email protected] Hamilton: [email protected] Detroit: [email protected] global action against capitalism. It Victoria BC: [email protected] Mannheim Eugene, Oregon: [email protected] is a celebration of international http://www.tao.ca/~resist [email protected] NIGERIA http://fruitiondesign.com/eae/ solidarity in which actions, events, Oberhausen: email: [email protected] [email protected] Nebraska: www.aao.net carnivals, demonstrations, ENGLAND Los Angeles [email protected] conferences and gatherings are Liverpool: [email protected] GREECE PAKISTAN - Multan Minneapolis taking place all over the world. So London: [email protected] http://www.geocities.com/j18hellas Fax: 92-61-586764 [email protected] far these include: www.freespeech.org/mayday2k/ Email: [email protected] New Orleans, Louisiana Manchester May Day 2000 coalition ITALY [email protected] AUSTRALIA: [email protected] [email protected] SWITZERLAND - Geneva New York: [email protected] Melbourne, Victoria http://www.mayday2000.fsnet.co.uk http://www.go.to/mayday2000it [email protected] Northwest USA: Email: [email protected] [email protected] italy.int.fortunecity.com/centro/dem http://www.attac.org [email protected] Perth, Carnival against Capitalism, http://www.sheffieldmayday.ukf.net ocrazia/2/ [email protected] Olympia, Washington: Port Augusta Southampton Mayday 2000 group Lugano: email: [email protected] http://www.multimania.com/neuf/ [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.ecn.org/molino www.mayday2k.org/oly Earthdream 2000, Sydney Bristol and Exeter www.ecn.org/agp TURKEY Philadelphia / New York City / [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Washington DC MD2k Sydney http://www.maydaysw.fsnet.co.uk MEXICO - Jorhenaaka http://www.antimai.org [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Portland, Oregon: [email protected] FINLAND www.geocities.com/aprendere USA San Francisco, California: AUSTRIA: Graz [email protected] Mexico City: [email protected] Arcat - California [email protected] Email:[email protected] http://go.to/mayday2000 www.humboldt.edu/~progress Seattle, Washington: http//www.blubb.at/mayday NETHERLANDS Ashland, Oregon students.washington.edu/nowto/ FRANCE - Montréal Telephone: 0031 30 2870711 [email protected] Seattle I.W.W. [email protected] BRAZIL - Contra a corrente [email protected] [email protected] Baltimore: [email protected] Shelton, Connecticut: [email protected] www.multimania.com/neuf/ Berkshire County, Massachus [email protected] Paris: www.multimania.com/neuf/ NEW ZEALAND [email protected] Washington: [email protected] CANADA, Ottawa: [email protected] www.angelfire.com/wv/nzmayday2k Boston, Massachusetts www.infoshop.org/mayday2000.htm Toronto: Tel: 416-778-1319 GERMANY /NZMayDay2000.html [email protected] Email: [email protected] Berlin: [email protected] Auckland: [email protected] Chicago: www.chicagomayday.org Wales: email: [email protected] 9 Guerrilla Gardening On Mayday in London and cities all over the UK and across the planet, ‘Avant gardeners’ will be liberating city spaces by transforming them into guerrilla gardens. Compost not commerce! What it is to me? rowing your own food and being self-sufficient is incompatible with Guerrilla gardening is not just planting veg in cities and towns, and is more than capitalism. The mass production of monocultural ‘food commodities’, one-off stunts, useful as they are. It is the day-by-day use of plants and other Gfactory farmed ‘products’ where all things edible - including living visible events to surprise people and make them re-evaluate their position within creatures - are doused in chemicals and covered in plastic, the transportation by the natural world. Detached from nature, cynical and closed off from the dulling air or long road journeys to ‘supermarkets’... all this is happening not as some bombardment of everyday life, we have lost a connection to the whole and sort of altruistic public service, but to commodify food and thereby manufacture ultimately to ourselves. profit for the few. Putting plants where they are not expected - something common in an The act of producing our own food is both essential if we are to take control uncommon place, or an unusual plant in an everyday situation - lifts them out of of our own lives and is implicitly a threat to capitalism as it begins to break free the ordinary and allows them to be seen again for what they really are: beautiful, of the cycle of ‘supply and demand’, liberating us from the role of passive incredible, alive. consumers. We shatter the illusion of choice advertised through the corporate media: Coke/Pepsi, Tory/Labour etc. when we see that empowered communities and localised sustainable food production are real and achievable ways of life. To many people, the terms ‘ecology’ and ‘environment’ evoke images of rural landscapes and wilderness, of lands untouched by human hand. But why are city spaces seen as all but lost to ecology? In the streets, revolutionary In the UK most people live in towns, cities and suburbs, estranged from the land and its potential. The percentage of a community's food that can be visions are making the surprisingly produced within its boundaries varies naturally, but each town, city or suburb has acre upon acre of derelict land, rooftops, gardens and parklands, ready to be turned into productive gardens with the potential to provide ample food, as well short leap from woolly dream to as some of other basic needs. A wide variety of food can be grown with a minimum of external energy inputs. By disposing of the artificial division between production and distribution required by profit-making food production, we can tangible reality. A revolutionary achieve the nutrient cycling essential for sustained productivity, making full use of the natural system that we are part of. Recycling for example all weed and crop infrastructure is emerging: the residues for return to the soil, wastes become a resource to be valued rather than a burden to be disposed of. Guerrilla Garden. Sorted, self-empowered communities How far does your food travel The total miles travelled by road freight increased 42% between 1984 and 1994. are producing the things they need Food transport is responsible for a third of this increase. Food transported over long distances often needs to be refrigerated and sprayed with harmful chemicals. When food is grown locally and organically there is less or no air pollution, and and achieving sustainability in a no polluting chemicals on food. Capitalism is responsible for food travelling across the world, causing ozone destruction, greenhouse gas emissions and literal, living embodiment of climate change. grassroots action...We have to Rubbish your lawnmower reclaim the imagery of growth and Lawns: How nice, how neat, the sterile freshly-mown lawn - how dare anyone question their existence! A symbol of wealthy, white ‘civilisation’. Pampered chemical-ridden rectangles of monoculture. Undead absences of bio-diversity. ‘the green shoots of recovery’ from Why don’t we do ourselves a favour: sell our lawnmowers and spend the proceeds on a guide to wildflowers, edible and medicinal plants and allow the laws of nature to take over again? the politicians and the economists.
Of course the first prerequisite for growing food is ‘Therefore we are resolved to be cheated no longer, nor be held under the land, the acquisition of which is financially beyond slavish fear of you no longer, seeing the Earth was made for us, as well as the means of most of us, something the Ruling Class have had sewn up for centuries. This was long for you: And if the common land belongs to us who are the poor oppressed, before even the Enclosures Acts of the 1600’s, which surely the woods that grow upon the commons belong to us likewise: was when over three million acres of common land therefore we are resolved to try the uttermost in the light of reason, to know which had previously been used by village or town as whether we shall be free men and free women, or slaves. If we lie a whole were fenced in under the acts of enclosure still, and let you steale away our birthrights, we perish; and if we petition we for the benefit of the gentry, the state and its cronies. Paddocks manured for centuries by countless perish also, though we have paid taxes, given free quarter, and ventured our generations of villagers cattle were literally stolen by lives to preserve the nations freedom as much as you, and therefore by the legal trickery and state violence to fund and support law of contract with you, freedom in the land is our portion as well as yours, the antics and exploits of the government at equal with you: Therefore we strive for freedom, despite your murdering, Westminster. In protest at the Enclosures, Gerrard governing laws: and we require, and we resolve to take common land and Winstanley, a 17th Century early exponent of communalism, dug up waste land with his fellow common woods to be a livelihood for us, and look upon you as equal with us, Diggers who began planting crops for themselves not above us, knowing very well that the earth is to be a common treasury until they were viciously evicted. of livelihood for all.’ Gerrard Winstanley 1649
10 Resistance is fertile
There are always holes, cracks in the corporate pavement where we can move and flourish... Apply a little vision to the land around you: railway embankments, derelict back gardens, golf courses, car parks, overgrown bits of land at work-places and so on. Then give a little thought to clandestine cultivation. The only limits are those of your imagination: herbs that thrive on poor soils can be grown amongst the thistles, courgettes and carrots in neglected flower beds. Fruit bushes on brownfield sites. If squatting empty property in your area is not an option maybe the back garden can still be put to use with a bit of cunning and stealth, or maybe seldom visited corners of local parks and gardens or even churchyards. How about the flower beds that adorn your town centre if they’re not too well looked after? Guerrilla Gardening You could be growing your crops right in the heart of the consumer landscape of the burger bars, chain stores and supermarkets, and they could be appearing on local dinner tables by the end of summer. Such secret gardens can be maintained with the minimum of effort; small amounts of compost can be carried in bags, and weeds can largely be left alone, except where they threaten to engulf your crop. A morning’s cycle tour of a few favourite spots could supply you with a week’s supplies, especially if you take advantage of all the free food that grows wild: nettles, dandelions, chickweed, nuts, berries as well as some varieties of mushrooms and fungi. Clandestine farmers are out there now. Why not join them in digging for revolution? Grow your own world 11 ‘‘shouldshould I pplaylay iitt ggoo ooutut iintonto tthh The street is a critical symbol because your whole conditioning is geared to keeping you indoors. So, when you come to challenge the powers that be, inevitably you find yourself standing on the kerbstone of indifference, wo n d e r i n g : ssafeafe oorr sshouldhould II hhee sstreet?’treet?’...... It may seem absurd to talk about revolution: but all the alternatives assume the continuation of the present system, which is even more absurd.
14 have turned out to be vehicles for social Java, in Indonesia, which has a greater cropping up all over the place in residential New York Stories organising, cultural renaissance, ecological concentration of forest gardens than areas on empty lots, terraces and the narrow recovery and spiritual regeneration. anywhere else, is one of the most densely bits of land surrounding buildings, in yards, In this megalopolis, which for many In 1997, New York’s infamous Mayor populated rural areas in the world. Yet the and even in barrels or other containers. Their ecologists represents everything planet Earth Rudolph Giuliani set out to put an end to all landscape does not present an urbanised are now 7000 urban gardens nationwide while shouldn't be, thousands of citizens have community gardens. Giuliani and his political appearance, as most of the villages are built in Havana there are 840, the number taken the initiative of rescuing empty lots and allies, the developers, the landlords and the of local materials and concealed behind the doubling in just two years. Many projects use turning them into community gardens. There speculators, have a vision of New York's dense screens of greenery that make up the sustainable, green-friendly farming are about 11,000 vacant lots in the city's future in which there is no room for the poor forest gardens. techniques. There are also plans to produce possession. Groups of people undertook the and even less for their bothersome little From tiny seedlings... just think what could organic fertiliser from compost piles. In 1999, task of rescuing some of this land to gardens that interfere with ‘progress’. grow from some May Day digging. 2.5 million quintals (100 kgs) of grains and transform it into green zones. New York now In recent months dozens of people have been fruit were produced ,as well as 1.5 million has about 700 community gardens arrested defending community gardens Havana, Cuba from garden to table... quintals of vegetables. comprising 200 acres. against police raids. One of the gardens Urban farming is gaining ground in Cuban World urban population increases by up to 60 The creation and maintenance of these destroyed was El Jardain de la Esperanza cities as a major source of fresh produce, in million people a year. Most of the inhabitants gardens has unleashed an extremely positive (Garden of Hope). It was started 22 years ago response to food shortages arising from the of Latin America, like the UK, live in urban or social dynamic. Neighbours get to know each by the Torres family when they began clearing vicious American blockade that has had this semi-urban areas. Urban farming addresses other; Puerto Ricans, Anglo-Saxons, rubbish and rubble from the lot. Local Caribbean island nation in its grip since the the basic need of food security. Dominicans, Colombians, Poles and community resistance to the destruction start of the 1990’s. Activities in Havana - a city immigrants of other nationalities work continues in the face of increased police of 2.2 million - now involve around 30,000 together planting trees and edible vegetables, brutality. people, and tens of thousands of city residents painting impressive murals, organising poetry More info: http://shadow.autono.net/ prefer to buy the mainly organic produce they recitals and jazz concerts - everything in order www.greenguerillas.org see growing near their homes. to maintain and care for these gardens which www.cityfarmer.org/nydestroy.html#nydestroy In the past few years, gardens have been
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Permaculture Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that th i s Many Guerrilla Gardeners use a technique called Permaculture (permanent a g r i c u l t u r e) which uses guidelines drawn from natural systems, and from is the Hour. And th e re are things to be considere d . . . experience with stable, long-term, human communities, to grow food, build homes and create sustainable communities. It is easily learnt but is capable of This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now application to complex situations. Permaculture is based on the philosophy of co- operating with nature and caring for the earth and its people. Its ethics, principles v e ry fast. It is so great and swift that th e re are th o s e and practice can be used by anyone, anywhere. Empowering individuals to be resourceful and self-reliant, and to become a conscious part of the solution to the who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore . many problems which face us, both locally and globally. Forest gardening is an important element of Permaculture. Robert Hart set They will feel they are to rn apart and will suffer gre a t l y . out with determination to transform wasteland. Many years ago Robert had a vision of mini-forests in millions of urban back gardens all around the UK. To Know the river has it's desti n a tion. The elders say we must demonstrate what he had in mind he converted the garden of his home into a forest garden. That forest garden is now the most established forest garden in the let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the riv e r , UK and leads the way for inventing forest farming systems suitable for temperate climatic conditions. It has already been an inspiration to many others. keep our eyes open, and our heads above wa te r . A forest garden is a food-producing garden, based on the model of a natural woodland or forest. It is made up of fruit and nut trees, fruit bushes, perennial And I say, see who is in th e re with you and celebra te. At vegetables and herbs. It can be tailored to fit any space, from a tiny urban back yard to a large rural garden. this time in histo ry, we are to take nothing pers o n a l l y . A close copy of a natural eco-system, it is perhaps the most ecologically friendly way of gardening open to us. It is also a low maintenance way of Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our gardening. Once established there is none of the digging, sowing and planting out and hoeing of the conventional garden. The main task is picking the produce! s p i ri tual gro w th and journey comes to a halt. The time fo r A forest garden is a celebration of the myriad interactions of life; for it is based on profound observations, both intuitive and scientific, of how different life forms the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word interact, stimulate and support one another. struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that w e Contact the Permaculture Association For info on Forest Gardening and Permaculture courses Tel. 07041 390 170 do now must be done in a sacred manner and in http://www.permaculture.co.uk London Permaculture Projects Green Adventure: Brockwell Park, Brixton. SW2 celebration. We are the ones we've been wa i ting fo r . Naturewise: Crouch Hill Rec Centre, Hill Rise, N19 3PT London. Tel. 0207 281 3765 O raibi Arizona Elder - Hopi Na ti o n www.oneworld.org
Seeds of Resistance... Bank holyday - good for business A handful of multinational companies now own the vast majority While these pages will hopefully encourage insecticides, fertilisers, ecologically unsound This is just the of seed companies, plant breeding stations, access to seed banks more people to discover the joys and rewards composts such as those which are peat-based, beginning... and bio-diversity generally, all over the world. of gardening, do not be misled. There are Two artificially heated greenhouses etc. before To continue and develop Transnational trade agreements, patent laws, genetically Worlds of gardening each very different from arriving in your garden. the ideas behind the May engineered crops and plans for ‘terminator technology’ (that is, the other. One is the world of commercially How often do they encourage people to 1st Guerrilla Gardening plants which produce barren seeds) have intensified the driven gardening promoted by garden centres, follow closed cycle gardening such as those action, come along to devastating impact industrial agri-business has on the health and magazines, TV programmes etc. What they described on this page as Permaculture. The one of the four meetings ecology of the planet. promote is commercial gardening where other world where gardeners recycle everything to be held later in the We can take direct action and break the power of the seed people spend, spend, spend. possible and save their own seeds. A model month in North, South, companies and at the same time protect bio-diversity by growing They demand that people go out and also for a possible and completely different East and West London, our own food and saving our own seeds. devour the world’s precious resources, way of living. The reason they don’t is to stop and meet others who Excellent seed saving info-sheets are available from the Henry wreaking ecological havoc to keep up with the people discovering the fact that it is not at all want to ensure that this Doubleday Research Association (HDRA). HDRA also house the latest fashions of: decking, water features necessary to spend endless amounts of money is not simply a one-off Heritage Seed library where you can get hold of unusual and demanding pebbles (which have often been to create a beautiful and highly productive action: Telephone for outlawed seeds. HDRA also run a campaign to get people to grow taken from beaches with devastating effect), garden. Under Capitalism, gardens are details nearer the time: food in cities. They have a free info pack, including excellent tips and exotic plants – that have already corrupted into another reckless business. 020 8374 9885. on growing food on a budget and other advice to get you started. demanded in their short lives large inputs Tel: 024 7630 3517. www.hdra.org.uk such as pesticides, fungicides, herbicides,
15 Ecology and the Social City The dominance of city life reached a decisive stage recently, almost uncommented upon:for the first time in human history the proportion of people living in cities worldwide exceeded 50%; less then 100 years ago the number was just 15%. With the impact of contemporary city life increasingly evident in pollution, destruction, poverty, stress and crime, a critical and reconstructive look at the city and its' relation with the natural world seems not only timely - but urgent.
From the earliest human settlement through to the our common needs. But in a capitalist system to drive through them and any sense of community modern metropolis the city has depended on the human relations are based on private ownership, translates starkly as similar consumer habits. land. Though such is their separation today, you inequality and work. The city becomes a factory and Occasionally though, a sense of the social could be forgiven for not realising. Major urban community becomes a product to be bought and freedom possible in the city breaks through the centres emerged in various parts of the world in sold. Decisions about the shape and use of cities are public order. In spontaneous encounters and history, but it was in Europe, which saw the clearance moulded not by human need but by the needs of the celebrations - in revelry and rebellion; in coming and settlement of vast forested areas and during the market system and its' growth - hence the sprawling together face to face to discuss, to organise, and in 16th century the development of capitalism, that the urban conurbation's growing across the planet and attempting to directly meet our collective needs, an city's domination of the country really began to take the devastation wreaked on human and natural other city life presents itself as possible: a city life of hold. There feudal and other traditional relations ecology. creativity, solidarity, and diversity. A city expressed were increasingly replaced with exchange relations Transport, pollution, poverty and crime today top not as an efficient market machine but as a living and satisfaction of need with production for profit; the list of concerns for Londoners and the peoples of ensemble of human relations in balance with its' while the enclosure of land left thousands desolate, cities world-wide and while politicians of all stripes natural surroundings. It is this social side of the with no choice but to go to the cities; to work in the endlessly promise solutions, the daily reality just ecological city that is left out of the dominant new factories or to die on the streets. keeps getting worse. Green spaces are disappearing, resource management or environmental planning In 1800, London - Europe's largest city - was public services are deteriorating and inequalities are approach; it is this social side of the ecological city around 10km in diameter, had a population of under widening. Those who can afford to, retreat behind that for present society is revolutionary. a million and could be crossed on foot in less than gated areas bunker-like, fearful; or through A free city - one based on an equal sharing of an hour. A century later it had quadrupled in gentrification, redevelop the social effects of poverty political, economic and social power - could, and population and size; today there are over 10 million out sight - and thus out of mind. This 'social would be more likely to seek similarly not to people living in London and it would take days to amnesia' is matched by an increasing withdrawal dominant its' natural surroundings, allowing the walk across. In 1850 there were only four cities in the into private life generally and a profound alienation diversity of life to freely develop where possible. It's world with more than a million people, in 2000 there from our human commonality as market values of inhabitants could seek to transcend the distinctions are over a thousand and rising. rivalry and competition seep into every part of and divisions between city and countryside, going The consequences of such massive society. Paradoxically, in cities where so many people beyond simple green and grey dualities, to promote concentrations of people combined with an live side-by-side, we feel isolated, separated and the well being of both human and natural economic system based on competition, alone. environments. privatisation and growth for growth's sake are only For despite the often fawning words with which A city where social arrangements stress our too apparent. In a very real sense the future health of the corporate media talk of the 'vibrant', 'successful' mutual reliance as against individualistic and the earth now depends on the city, and its' remaking: capitals and metropolis of the world, most people competitive relations could seek to share the world's not just physically but socially. For a city is not only who live in them - or who attempt to walk through natural and social wealth with each other and with buildings and roads, the corporal shape or their streets - persist in experiencing them as other human communities. A city that, instead of technologies used; it is also, potentially at least, a increasingly noisy, dirty and dangerous. Freedom in identifying with the nation-state - a structure that human community where we join together to meet such cities, it seems, equates mainly with being able developed to impose the market system and
1850 1914 1939 1958 2013?
spring mornings.Their minds where fuzzy, tormented and new sense of reality, their spells were broken; these illusions of Round-about occupied with the excuses they would offer for their late arrival choice no longer concerned him. All his life he had been offered at work, juggling the bills and direct debits as the radio bleated choices. His choice to work or starve, to drink coke or pepsi, big It was cold and the moon shone clear in the sky, dulled only by out a never ending supply of 'hits' and adverts. macs or burger kings, none of them seemed real anymore. He the glow of the street lights. She looked left and right before The summer arrived and almost at once the round-about picked up a watering can and gazed out over the sea of scaling the steel barrier and carefully lowered herself into the amongst the billboards and grey streets exploded in a riot of abandoned vehicles as others came to join him. ro a d . N ot a soul was in sight, she briskly crossed the open productive beauty. The heat was stifling in the car, so he wound The press were quick to denounce the garden, their orders tarmac artery towards her destination. In the darkness it down the window and looked. How real that garden seemed, trickled down from their masters- discredit this now before the resembled an island, as the moonbeams beat down on the how right, how needed. He turned of the engine and clambered virus spreads. But it was too late. Gardens sprang up the length asphalt they created a silver ocean while the mist lapped at its free of his cage into the early morning sunshine.He wasn’t and breadth of the country, day after day reports filtered back to edges like breakwash. going anywhere anyway. the boardrooms and governmental offices. Work attendance She scrambled up the raised earth circle of her target, He walked up the raised edge , passed the signs that had dropped to a minimum, bills where left unpaid, the well walked to the centre before dropping her shoulder bag. The adorned the fruit trees.'Free garden' they read. Further in he oiled machine was beginning to rust. shovel it concealed dug easily into its soil, its years of passed the watering cans and rang his fingers across the trowels The Overlords sat in their guarded towers, their surveillance unproductivity reflected in its quality - the earth here was good and forks suspended from string on the branches overhead , cameras watching as the green encroached toward them. and rich. She busied herself digging the grass monoculture before sitting down at the centre of a herb circle at the islands Attempts where made to re-establish their order, bribes where deep into the ground. She removed the seed from her pocket, centre. He was amazed by the song of the birds , the bustle of offered,none where taken, troops defected unable to resist the (they had been easy to liberate from the garden centre) and the bees and the elaborate dance of the butterflies hiding carnival atmosphere surrounding them. Parks sprang up from scattered them across the well dug soil. Every night she amongst the wild flowers and vegetable patch. What a the ruins, allotments decorated the rail and road verges, the returned to tend the garden, to sow seed and plant saplings,her wonderful gift he thought, a creation offering hope and rebirth roads seized up and orchards ran the length of towns in their work for the moment unnoticed by the commuters who sat and asking nothing in return. His mind cleared , he pondered place. Children’s laughter replaced the hum of the machines, unmoving in the early morning 'dash' to the office. Their eyes his role in the scheme of things- his job, his day to day struggle murals painted on the billboards decorated the streets. where closed to the seedlings edging into life on those fresh to survive. The billboards around the garden compounded his The acts of enclosure where reversing...
16 continues, along with new international structures, But it is how we relate to each other as social to secure its' reproduction - recognised a individuals which sets the framework for how we Freedom In The City geographical definition of community and control relate to the natural world. And the logic of the “The city thrives on the belief in free choice. LIke could create networks of autonomous regions present domineering and hierarchical social system - some vast department store, it offers us a new continentally and globally. revolving around economic power - is to meet the partner, a new identity, a new life. But in promoting It is only by approaching the problems of the city requirements of competitive growth, minimise costs happiness as a series of limitless futures, the city also in this way that we can seriously attempt to cope and intensify production. Both the social and the conceals the actual cost. For free choice lies behind equitably with the looming environmental crisis and ecological consequences are staggering. the anxiety of modern love in cities. The its social repercussions. Ideas and plans to physically To act for the ecology of a city then, is to go characteristic Angst of the advertising age is not the decentralise, cut energy use, or adopt beyond simply recycling papers and bottles or unavailability of the beloved, but the sense that by 'environmentally friendly' methods may seem a more cutting car-use, to exploring and transforming the selecting one partner you are missing out on all the immediate and practical possibility but, useful as ongoing relationships and interactions between rest. How can any individual romance live up to its such suggestions are, unless they are set in a social individuals, the social and the natural worlds; our endless images? With so many possibilities vaunted context of challenging and going beyond capitalism hopes for community and the wider economic, everywhere, how can you ever make a choice? and other institutional hierarchies, they are doomed political and institutional context. This sense of Free choice: the notion, in the new consumer to irrelevance. interconnection is intrinsic to a radical ecological theology, has been extended to so many aspects of the In fact, the history of the city is littered with approach. It suggests that dealing with the self, society and politics that it has become the attempts to add social justice and environmental environmental crisis generally, and the effects of modern equivalent of the scholastic justification of protection elements to market and state structures. cities in particular, requires not only personal lifestyle free will. But free will implies that you have the Like the plans of early socialists such as Robert changes but a radical remaking of social life itself. capacity to do what you want, not have what you Owen who in the early part of the last century set up want. Choice is not free if it depends on what you the first co-operatives; or Ebenezer Howard, who in have in your pocket. Even then the freedom to choose the 1920's after writing the book 'Garden Cities of is impeded by what is on offer. In America most Tomorrow' went on to found new towns like Welwyn homes have at least two televisions, each able to tune Garden City; to more recent proposals for 'green' into dozens of stations, all of which show basically government, 'sustainable development' or new city the same thing. About the only real freedom you have authorities. These and other proposals share a is not to choose at all. Besides, the notion itself is a prevalence for planning over people in the context of contradiction in terms, a trick, for every choice has its continuing market and hierarchical structures. cost, implies a loss, and thereby a constraint of freedom. The ‘free’ in free choice is as deceptive as the ‘free’ in free market: it means not that people are free to enter and leave the market, but that it is free Those who pro fess to favour freedom and to enter and leave them.” yet depre c a te agita tion, are people who want crops without ploughing the gro u n d : they want rain without thunder and l i g h tning; they want the ocean w i thout the roar of its many wa te rs. The struggle may be a m o ral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both . But it must be a struggle. Po we r concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will.
Beneath the city... the water flows The Thames valley in London follows a and The Fleet. From the South East - The Pec k , mentioned above, it is a river in its own right, sumps for pollution from private industrial pattern of almost perfect symmetry. The 500 The Effra and The Falcon. pouring directly into The Thames, earning its concerns, enclosed as building land for private square miles of city, from Enfield to Sutton, The borders of the Thames are fringed by own name - The Walbrook. On either side of property speculation. Now we have no choice from Edgware to Bromley, are stretched like a low flatlands at the edge of The Thames. Once this river the Romans chose to found the city but to buy from corporations what was once skin over two opposing massifs, from each of tidal marshes, each had its own main drainage of Londinium - they knew the Walbrook to be our birth right - fresh water- and all but 4 of which drain five rivers. Through the centre of channel large enough to gain a name and sacred. the 17 rivers named above lie buried under the valley snakes the golden Thames. record. From the West; Hammersmith and For the better part of 2,000 years all of concrete and tarmac, brick and stone. The To the North are the hills of Ham p s t e a d , Fulham Marshes with Stamford Brook and these rivers and streams, except the Walbrook, Walbrook waits in a tomb beneath the Bank of Highgate and Barnet. To the South, those of Counters Creek, Lambeth and Rotherhithe have been common land - the Co m m o n England. Streatham, Norwood and Crystal Palace. Fou r Marshes with Neckinger and Earl`s Sluice; Stream. A place where citizens could drink, On J18 the Walbrook flowed in the great rivers curl around these highlands Wapping and Poplar Marshes with Bl a c k swim, wash clothes and fish. With the arrival sunlight for first time in perhaps 500 years as draining their back slopes and reaching out to Ditch and Parr`s Ditch. of early Industrial Capitalism the waters of water erupted into the streets by the Liffe hills beyond. These four are The Brent (Nor t h One river stands out from this pattern; London became polluted by sewage and building. Maybe when the metropolis of West), The Lea (North East), The Wandle (Sou t h though it does not drain a massif, it is not a factory effluent, and were eventually buried London turns its back on Industrial West) and The Ravensbourne (South East). Off mere channel in a marsh, it has its own hills under roads and buildings. Capitalism, the moment will be marked by the the front slopes drain three rivers apiece. Fro m and headwaters. Though it is short enough to The Common Streams were effectively rising of the rivers, the return of the Common the North West - The Westbourne, The Tyb u r n , be a small tributary to any one of the rivers enclosed by private wealth - enclosed as Streams ?
17 Policing the borders - why should we care? Through this global day of action on the traditional workers day, the direct action movement engages with issues of the international labour movement. Regulation of labour is at the core of capitalism. National states are policing their borders with ever increasing violence. How does the border regime affect us? How does our criticism of capitalism relate to the xenophobic campaign against Roma asylum-seekers?
Global capitalism relies on the global division of to remain outside the needs of capitalism. the same today for Kurds, s/he becomes a human labour. This means dirty work in newly industrialising The Schengen Convention on migration provides trafficker and can, under the new British Carrier’s countries and high-profit industry in developed powerful tools to police the borders around fortress Liability Act, expect up to ten years imprisonment. countries. Transnational corporations are moving Europe. Databases like the Schengen Information The discourse on external security extends to internal their assembly lines to underdeveloped countries, System (SIS) and Eurodac (fingerprinting system) security and legitimises a culture of control within importing foreign, western, experts ignorant of local enable the authorities to check if an immigrant has the country. We are already used to CCTV cameras needs. From a third world perspective, this is already applied for asylum in another country. If s/he installed in the City, in many tube-stations and economically devastating, oppressive and infuriating. has, s/he’ll eventually be shipped back to where she commercial centres, for our security. But it also affects people in western countries. It came from, no matter how endangered her life would Government plans to watch the internet (RIP) is us who are encouraged to be this highly skilled be in that place. will force any internet provider to secretly disclose mobile work force with intercultural, technological Airports are becoming border-areas right in the private e-mails to the police, allegedly to prevent and language skills and the will to surrender their centre of the country. Detention centres are set up to pornography, but also useful to stop people from own desires to corporate needs. And if we stay in the compulsory house immigrants while they are waiting reclaiming the streets. The Police and Criminal West, we are asked to continuously improve our skills according to the needs of, ‘The Market', be more flexible than ever before, be forever young, energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic. Working hours The earth is but one great ball. The are flexible - but not on our terms. Even those who are well paid have to accept the schedules of their bosses - or the market. b o rd e rs, the barri e rs, the cages, th e Institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are keeping the system of global division of labour in cells, the prisons of our lives, all place, demanding governments to cut down on social expenses like the health service. Often, these states are repressive. Migration is a consequence of o ri g i n a te in the false imagination of global capitalism as people flee from Mumia Abu-Jamal Alive From Death Ro w repressive governments the minds of men. and from economic poverty, following the flows of capital. This is for approval, often under inhuman conditions. Evidence (PACE) Act will allow police to stop people where border-control Freedom of movement? Under the new Immigration in the streets and take fingerprints or DNA samples enters the arena. and Asylum Bill, refugees are denied social security without consent and log them in a massive database. Border Control payments and will instead be given vouchers to buy The Prevention of terrorism Bill will enable Regime does not mean food and other necessities, which will identify and authorities to declare organisations and dis- open borders for further stigmatise them. Freedom of consumption? organisations as terrorist. It will be enough to have everybody, nor does it an incriminating leaflet on your coffee-table to be mean closed borders for Myth of Security and Culture of Control prosecuted as a member. Some of us might feel everybody. It means the How does the tough border regime relate to the more threatened by the state’s obsession with control of borders. happy-go-lucky promises of globalisation (free access control than by a woman begging in the tube! With Western nation states are claiming and exercising the to commodities, markets and holiday-resorts all over the welfare state declining, we are promised,security' right to define who is an unwanted alien and who is the world)? Easy! The border regime, so the story as a substitute for the good life. welcome. European tourists, students and skilled goes, makes Europe a safer place, protected against The construction of external enemies, people professionals are welcome, asylum- or work-seekers organised crime, drug dealers and,bogus asylum from poor countries - is matched by the construction from poor countries are not. Yet even for them, the seekers’. Good things like order, safety and honesty of internal enemies, the homeless, black people, gay borders are not completely closed: Some are needed are,inside’, bad things like crime and drugs come people, recently, violent anarchists’, aggressive to provide cheap, flexible labour for the dirty jobs in from,outside’. Within this logic, the borders clearly beggars' to name only a few. The culture of control factories and in the service sector. They are hired need to be protected. Definitions of good and bad may be most obvious at the borders, airports and temporarily and can be chucked out whenever they change over time. People who helped emigrants detention centres, yet it is also firmly inscribed in our are no longer needed. Maybe the recent furious from Nazism to illegally enter the UK in the thirties daily lives. media assaults against Roma are due to their ability would today be considered heroes. If somebody does Borders are there to be crossed Last Summer, a ‘border camp’ co-ordinated by the anti-racist police rather confused. Some hoaxes and actions led to thoughtful campaign ‘Kein Mensch ist illegal’ (no-one is illegal) took place at discussions, others to scorn and aggression. Zittau, a German town near the Polish and the Czech borders. Yet it wasn’t all fun and fakes: Inhabitants of the detention Around 1400 people participated, plus 2 donkeys of unspecified camp invited activists to visit. Demands included an extension of descent and a few dogs. the monthly loo-paper rations. Talks with local authorities took The idea was to create a temporary zone of resistance in a place, contacts with political parties and groups were made. Actions historically and contested area where many immigrants are and information where reported through the camp’s own crossing the borders between East and West. Taxi-drivers are webjournal ‘hacking the borderline’. publicly discouraged to give lifts to immigrants and can be http://www.contrast.org/borders/camp prosecuted, if they do. How they are meant to identify immigrants remains a secret of the local police. The youth culture is Those who feel this kind of activism strikes a chord within them predominantly Neo-nazi. One of their preferred objects of attack is might be interested that for this summer, the noborder network the asylum seekers hostel nearby. envisions four camps: One is in Italy, one is being organised by a During the border camp, the cultural hegemony slightly shifted. Polish anarchist group at the Ukrainian/ Slovakian border, a third A monument for the illegal ‘Fluchthelfer’ (person who helps is being planned in Brandenburg/ Germany near the Polish border refugees and migrants to escape) was unveiled in the market place. and there may be another one at the Californian/Mexican border. The barracks of the border police nearby were temporarily occupied. Swimming competitions in the river between the Czech Republic and Germany and all night raves at the border left the
18 Two means with one aim The new Immigration and Asylum Act, better known as the Immigration and Asylum Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill Immigration and Apartheid Act There are incredibly strong parallels between the and stigmatised by these laws, such as activists, newly introduced Immigration and Asylum Act and travellers and refugees, only marginally contribute to Forced dispersal to cluster areas away from the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (PTB), which is the national income which is the only measure of community networks and professional support (such currently going through Parliament. Both were first value in our society. Activists focus on 'living rather as translators), community facilities (such as cultural introduced by a Conservative Government and re- than working'; refugees just want a safe haven for and religious centres or doctors that speak the same introduced by a Labour Government. They also both themselves and their families. The first group want to language). show how our society is becoming less open and be outside the system, the second are forced to be. liberal and more like a police state. Ca p i t a l i s m’s claim that it promotes freedom is House and area curfew and confinement. Permission At a national level those who resist the destructive ridiculed by its increasing recourse to police powers to leave is given for no more than seven days. nature of capitalism, such as anti-road and anti GM- to control people and enforce the free market. crop protesters, are strongly opposed by the Both bills have been widely condemned for going Detention centres where many asylum seekers are establishment. At an international level thousands against the most basic ‘human rights’ of the sent if the immigration authorities find the slightest are fleeing civil wars and economic disruption. For individual. Opponents of the PTB believe that it could reason to doubt their claim. Private detention centre those in power both groups have little to offer. Both result in a situation similar to that when 98% of managers will be allowed to give formal punishment. those who choose to reject the social order and those those arrested under the Northern Ireland Act of 1973 fleeing persecution are outside the system. Whether were found to be innocent. The legislation ignores Immigration police are given 'police powers' to strip through choice or misfortune they are not playing the the European Convention on Human Rights and is and search, arrest and search premises without a game according to the set rules. still awaiting a legal test at the European and United warrant. Explanations can be given only if items are Both new laws are aimed, not only at excluding Nation's Commission on Human Rights. seized as a result. and stigmatising, but at criminalising specific groups The end of the cold war has seen widespread as either 'terrorists' or 'bogus refugees'. These scare-mongering about the new ‘terrorism’. First it Benefits amounting to 70% of the DSS’s minimum groups are deemed 'guilty until proven innocent' or was Muslim fundamentalists, then eco- and cyber- living allowance in vouchers plus £10 cash per week. 'bogus until proven legitimate'. terrorists. This creates a culture of fear in which it is Vouchers cannot be exchanged for cash or change In the PTB politically and morally motivated easier to control a docile populace. For those in given (i.e. extra profits for the shops). protests can be regarded as terrorism. Moreover, the power the main aim of society is simply to produce police will have increased 'stop and search' powers. more profits with the least disruption even if it Local communities are mostly not consulted about The perpetrators could face arrest without legal means criminalising and oppressing those that get in the creation of cluster areas, which tends to generate representation for up to 48 hours. Me a n w h i l e the way. tensions and clashes. Rarely is any scheme set in detention centres await those escaping persecution place for the integration of refugees into the wider until their case is determined. Immigration police society. Some local authorities receive £ 140 per week are being given new powers of arrest and strip search for each refugee from central government; only as well as the ability to search premises without a around half is handed out. warrant. It is not a coincidence that those most targeted Refugee children will be removed from the provisions of the Children Act and become the responsibility of the Home Secretary. This might result in further discrimination and marginalisation with denial of social support and education and the exacerbation of racist attitudes. Many are not attending schools, and the schools are only concerned about their performance in league tables.
" Washing our hands of th e Repatriation dangers for many failed asylum seekers, especially from countries where there are strict emigration rules. The dangers are dismissed by the s t ruggle between the powe r fu l immigration authorities but confirmed by many human right organisations. The UN Hi g h Commission for Refugees has no effective and the powe rless means to side monitoring in place for returned or failed refugees. w i th the powe r fu l "
Tactics of Resistance Another sense of community A year ago, Aamir Ageeb from Sudan died on a Like the labour and anarchist movements in the struggle for shorter working Lufthansa flight to Cairo. Officials from the border hours before us, we are internationalising and synchronising our local struggles. police had put a helmet on his head, tied his hands Social movements all over the world are beginning to intensify their links. and feet and abused him until he suffocated. This is Whether it‘s a demo at the Campsfield detention centre, or the closing down just one case out of many. of detention camps in Italy due to massive protests, a campaign against airlines The anti-deportation alliance is campaigning collaborating in expulsions (see overleaf), or activist camps in border regions - against the involvement of airlines in deportations. In the local actions accumulate significance beyond their local meanings. Germany, the campaign targets the Lufthansa, in At the same time, the global movement gains strength from the specificity of Holland KLM. In front of the Lufthansa stall, five the local actions, from local knowledge, local anger and place-bound pleasure. flight attendants and two pilots demonstrated the ‘Noborder’, a European network of activists and artists, tries to link anti-racist current practice of deportation. A deportee is tied to campaigns with a focus on coordinating actions. It points to the arbitrariness, a wheelchair and gets a motorbike-helmet over his absurdity and cruelty of border regimes. head. Leaflets and a spoof of the "Lufthansa-Zeitung" During activist camps at border regions, artists and activists are using visual, provide further information. theatrical and social skills to intervene locally in well-chosen public spaces, After 4 weeks of actions involving passengers, writers transform actions into stories, techies make sure that the stories are pilots and flight-attendants, the company is getting reported to wider communities of resistance. increasingly worried about their image and even deny If you are interested in the struggles against racism and border control, why not that they are participating in forceful deportations. contact one of the many groups? Some suggestions are in the contact box. http://www.deportation-alliance.com
19 How to get involved...
How to get involved:It's easy to get involved in Reclaim the Streets. Just send us your annual membership and you will receive a monthly bulletin which you can read from the comfort of your own home. Once you have become member you can log onto our web site and download pro-forma letters and petitions to send to your pet hate corporations and politicians. Best of all, once a year you can participate in a mass action organised for you by a team of specialists working from central RTS headquarters in London.
If you come only to help me, you can go back home. But if you consider my s t ruggle as part of your s t ruggle for surv ival, th e n we can wo rk to g e th e r .
Well actually no: Reclaim the streets is non-hierarchical, spontaneous and back-gardens to public spaces. It is there when people shift the meanings self-organised. We have no leaders, no committee, no board of directors, of a place and show that everything could be completely different. And no spokes people. There is no centralised unit for decision-making, before it can be recuperated, it disappears - only to spring up again in strategic planning and production of ideology. There is no membership another place at another time. and no formalised commitment. There is no master-plan, and no pre- Public meetings are held, where groups and individuals exchange defined agenda. ideas, invite each other to parties and events, get to know each others The direct action movement is an organic network of people taking dreams and practice, where party-freaks merge with existing local groups responsibility of their own lifes, expressed through local interventions, and communities, where connections between issues as different as chaotic global connections and friendships. Reclaim the Streets ecology and anti-racism, feminism and anti-capitalism, art and politics spontaneously and temporarily emerges from a shared dissatisfaction are being made. with the way our lives are run for us, with the rat-race and a society based But just as important are autonomous ideas and practices - on exclusion and enclosure, profit and control. As a dis-organisation, RTS individuals who plant the seeds of hope in the devastated urban is mobile and furtive. It is there when people decide to intervene in landscape, people who gather to develop their own culture of pleasure, public spaces, evoking the utopia of a better society. people who unite to make their ideas work. What RTS is becoming, It is there when people take the pleasures of sound and dancing from where it will go from now, relies on your ideas, your dreams and desires. the allocated space of the entertainment industry to the public space Anyone who feels attracted by the actions, idea and critical perspective of designated for business or symbolising the establishment. It is there RTS is invited to turn up at the open meetings every Tuesday in the Cock when people move the creativity of gardening from their window-sills or Tavern, Phoenix Rd, near King's Cross - or set up your own group...
20 Independent Media / WebZines Black Flag Legendary anarchist mag International £1.50 issue/subscriptions £6 from Act Locally! RadiX IndyMedia UK is an evolving network of media workers, artists, and DIY media BM Hurricane London WC1N 3XX activists committed to using technology to promote social and economic justice. c/o TAPP PO Box 1TA, Newcastle Email: [email protected] Europe wide DAvideo lending library Upon Tyne NE1 1TA Email: c/o Projektwerkstatt, Gostenhefer http://flag.blackened.net/blackflag/ It is our goal to further the self-determination of people under-represented in [email protected] Hauptstr. 50, D-90443, Nurernberg, media production and to empower people by seeking to encourage self publishing Germany.Tel.: +49 (0) 911 2875880 Cassandra feminist-anarchist web Allsorts, a direct action news and Email: [email protected] in all formats. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/ information list: subscribe to 2777/ We seek to generate alternatives to the biases inherent in the corporate media [email protected] Live Wild or Die space controlled by profit, and to identify and create positive models for a Counter Information POB 204 2425B Channing Way, A - Infos Berkley, CA94704, USA sustainable DIY media network in the UK and beyond. Free anarchist news-sheet reporting A multi-lingual news service by, for, Our first project is the reporting of Mayday2000, with an emphasis on inclusion. from struggles around the world and about anarchists. ‘We have set Transmission 28 King St., Glasgow Earth First! Journal While many people will be reporting for IndyMedia UK, we seek to open out the ourselves a task. To be the people's POB 1415 Eugene OR 97440, USA G1 5QP Scotland reporting structures to allow Mayday participants themselves to contribute directly scribe. On the other side of history, Email: [email protected] Tel: + 541 741 9191, email: hirstory has begun. And it will have [email protected] to the website. Bypassing the corporate media machine, removing agenda filters, http://wkweb4.cableinet.co.uk/muirhse new authors. It kicks. And so do we.’ /counterinfo/ creating our own media, for the people, by the people. http://www.tao.ca/ainfos/ Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed IndyMedia UK is also part of a growing international alliance and takes it's name C.A.LPress, POB 1313, Lawrence, Direct Action: Revolutionary from, and in solidarity with, the American DIY networks which were formed AK PRESS unionism - paper of the Solidarity KS 66044, USA Anarchist publishers and distributors Federation (Anarcho-Syndicalists) around the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle 1999. PO Box 12766, Edinburgh, EH8 9YE Adbusters £1.50 an issue/subscriptions £5 from For live reports on May Day http://www.indymedia.org.uk/ 0131 555 5165 / e-mail: PO Box 29 SW PDO M15 5HW. Culture jammers par excellence. [email protected] The Media Foundation, 1243 0161 232 7889 / 01603 611072 http://www.akuk.com W.Seventh Ave, Vancouver, BC V6H http://www.directa.force9.co.uk/ Terrorism Bill: Standing Committee Faslane Peace Camp ARCNEWS PO Box 339 Development): working especially 1B7 Canada, Tel: 001 604 736 9401, "Prevention of terrorism" bill & Shandon, Helensburgh, Wolverhampton WV10 7BZ on European government issues. Anarchy Archives Email: [email protected] Do or Die: Huge Anarcho-green mag standing comittee membership, by Dunbartonshire, Scotland, G84 8HT Tel: 01902 711935 / Email: Postbus 92066, 1090 AB, Amsterdam Extensive archive of anarchist texts www.adbusters.org from Earth First!ers, £5 the real terrorists 01436 820 901 [email protected] Netherlands http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_ Recent issue includes articles on www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c http://www.enviroweb.org/arc/ Tel: + 31-20-668-2236 / Fax: + 31- archives/archivehome.html Fifth Estate June 18, Globalisation, pirates, m199900/cmstand/d/cmter.htm Gorse Wood: anti-A170 bypass 20-468-2275 4632 Second Ave Detroit, MI, 48201, feminism, Kosovo, international, Tel: 07957 915 977 No Compromise email: [email protected] Anarchist theft page USA reviews etc... Liberty: ‘Liberty is an independent California-based, militant Direct www.antenna.nl/aseed/ Why shoplifting is fun (allegedly)! c/o Prior House 6 Tilbury Place, human rights organisation which Hockley Housing near Southend Action Magazine of grassroots http://www.theft.demon.co.uk/ Corporate Watch: Another Brighton BN2 2GY works to defend and extend rights Tel: 01702 206181 0831 687635 animal liberationists ASS - Advisory Service for ‘Corporate Watch’ based on the email: [email protected] and freedoms in England and Wales.’ http://www.enviroweb.org/nocomprom Squatters Anarcho-Syndicalist Ring Transnational Research and Action www.eco-action.org/dod/ 21 Tabard Street, London SE1 4LA Park Nook Camp ise/menu.html 2 St Pauls Road London N1 2QN http://nav.webring.org/cgi- Center in San Francisco Tel: 020 7403 3888/ Fax: 020 7407 Liverpool Tel: 0403176279 P.O. Box 1440, Santa Cruz, CA Tel: 020 7359 8814 bin/navcgi?ring=asyndicalism;list http://www.corpwatch.org/ I-Contact (video network) 5354 95060 http://www.squat.freeserve.co.uk/ [email protected] P.O. Box 76 Mina Road, Bristol BS2 9TX Email: info@liberty-human- Pressmennan Woods Camp (831) 425-3007, E-mail: Aufheben magazine: 29344, San Francisco, Tel: 0117 914 0188 / email: i- rights.org.uk c/o 7 Pitcox, Dunbar, EH42 1RQ. [email protected] Latest issue on Kosovo, Left CA94129 USA. Tel: 415-561-6568 B [email protected] http://www.liberty-human- 01368 850630 Communists and situationists. Fax: 415-561-6493 Baby Milk Action rights.org.uk/ HSA- The Hunt Saboteurs Brighton & Hove Unemployed Campaigns for safe baby-feeding; Organise! for revolutionary See also: damn.tao.ca/ Sellafield Women's Peace Camp Association Workers' Centre, 4 Crestway Parade, especially challenges Nestle. anarchism- Theory magazine of the messmedia.rootmedia.org/ c/o Cornerstone Resource Center PO Box 2786, Brighton BN2 2AX Hollingdean, Brighton BN1 7BL, Noborder Network 23 St.Andrew's Street, Cambridge Anarchist Federation www.enviroweb.org/ALFIS/index2.htm Box Z (bi-monthly), 16 Sholebrock Telephone 01273 622827. Email: [email protected] Statewatch: Monitoring the state and CB2 3AX £1 an issue/subscriptions £5 www.indymedia.org/ Ave Leeds LS7 3HB [email protected] http://jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU/~s civil liberties in the UK and Europe Tel: (01223) 464420 / Email: 84B Whitechapel High St, London E1 www.zmag.org/ Tel: 0113 262 1534 http://www.huntsabs.org.uk/ [email protected] poons/aut_html/auf1edit.htm 7QX PO Box 1516 London N16 0EW Tel: 020 8802 1882 / email: www.gn.apc.org/babymilk Tel. / Pager: 01523 786692 / email: London Animal Action Cobalt magazine Radical Bookshops [email protected]. Autonomous Zones [email protected] BM Box 2248, London WC1N 3XX www.cobaltmagazine.demon.co.uk/ http://www.statewatch.org 1 in 12 Club Banana Link: Solidarity with banana http://www.afed.org.uk Centreprise Books Tel/Fax: 0171 278 3068 UK-based magazine concerned or contact the noborder network 21-23 Albion St Bradford BD1 2LY workers worldwide 136-8 Kingsland High St. London N8 Email: [email protected] mainly with the free party scene [email protected] Tel: 01274 734160 Tel: 01603-765670 Peace News http://www.londonaa.demon.co.uk/ 38-40 Exchange Street, Norwich 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DY Compendium Books IndyMedia UK is an evolving network Contact addresses for anti- 56a Infoshop NR2 1AX Tel.: 020 7278 3344 234 Camden High St., London NW1 Tactical Internet Response of artists, and DIYmedia activists deportation campaigns: 56 Crampton St, London SE17 3AE Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Network giving independent reporting of Freedom Books open 2-8pm Thurs and Fri Web site: [email protected] http://www.laslett.com/bananas/ Global and local actions. The Porkbolter Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High St. Cambridgeshire Against Refugee http://www.indymedia.org.uk/ Detention (CARD) A-Spire PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 London E1 7QX Vegan Society c\o Bryony Cobain, 1 Macaulay Hse (see Leeds EF!) British Coalition for East Timor Donald Watson House, 7 Battle Rd SchNEWS: A well weekly direct 16 Newton Rd. Cambridge CB2 2AL Email: [email protected] PO Box 2349, London E13 HX Primal Seeds Housmans Bookshop St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. action news-sheet. Send stamps to: Tel: 01223 462187 / www.primalseeds.org 5 Caledonian Rd.,London N1 TN37 7AA PO Box 2600, Brighton BN2 2DX or [email protected] Anarchist Teapot Tel.: 01424 427393 / Fax: 01424 C email: [email protected] Box B, Public House Bookshop, 21 Action South West Frontline Books 717064 CAGE: CAGE is a network that http://www.schnews.org.uk/ Campaign to Close Campsfield Little Preston Street c/o PO Box 426, Bath BA1 2ZD 255 Wilmslow Rd. Rusholme, for detailed local contacts see supports and creates resistance to Phone/Fax: 01273 685913 111 Magdalen Rd Oxford OX1 1RQ Brighton BN1 2HQ. Email: [email protected] Manchester M14 ww w. v e g a n s o c i e t y. c o m / l c / l c h o m e . h t m l the growing prison industry. We will Tel: 01865 558145/ 557282/ 726804 [email protected] celebrate Bastille Day (July 14th) in Squall: A well-maintained UK-based Green Line New Beacon [email protected] the traditional manner: come alternative media site with the Other contacts and resources PO Box 5 Lostwithiel, Cornwall 76 Stroud Green Rd. London N4 3ON [email protected] Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh prepared for anything you can think additional pleasure of a regular hard- PL22 0YT http://users.ox.ac.uk/~asylum 17 West Montgomery Place, A of. Meeting point tba.’ copy printout known as Squall 0870 733 4970 Blackcurrent Books Edinburgh EH7 5HA Action Against Injustice 180-8 Mansfield Rd,. Download, whose April edition is out 4 Allen Rd., Abington, Northampton Close Down Harmondsworth Tel: 0131 557 6242 PO Box 858 London E9 5HU Nottingham NG1 3HW now. Send 80p worth of stamps to FINs: for a full list of Free Information NN1 4NE (Open Fri. 1.30-4pm and Campaign Tel: 07931 401962 PO Box 8959, London, N11 5HW Networks (& more) send SAE to Sat. 3-5.30pm) Tel: 020 8571 5019 Kebele Community Centre Anarchist Black Cross Emails: [email protected] / www.squall.org London FIN c/o 99 Torriano Avenue, 14 Robertson Road Eastville, Bristol Prisoner support and prison abolition [email protected]. Tel.: 020 7561 1204 / Fax: 020 7272 London NW5 2RX Greenleaf Books National Coalition of Anti- BS5 6JY c/o 4 Crestway Parade, Hollingdean, www.veggies.org.uk/cage 9243 82 Colston St., Bristol, BS1 5BB Deportation Campaigns Tel: 0117 939 9469. Email: Brighton BN1 7BL Email: [email protected] NottsFIN/Ned Ludds News National coordinator: John O [email protected] Campaign Against Arms Trade Nottingham EF! Littlethorn Books 110 Hampstead Rd , Anarchist-Primitivist Network (CAAT) Undercurrents: Direct video c/o The Rainbow Centre, 182 73 Humberstone Gate, Birmingham B20 2QS OKasional cafe c/o Manchester EF! PO Box 252 Rickmansworth, 11 Goodwin St, London N4 3HQ 16b Cherwell Street, Oxford OX4 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham NG1 3HW. Leicester Le1 1WB Tel: 0121 554 6947 255 Wilmslow road Rusholme, Hertfordshire WD3 3AY T: 020 7281 0297 F: 020 7281 4369 1BG Tel: 0115 9585666 Fax: 0870 055 4570 Manchester M145LW Email: [email protected] Tel: 01865 203661 / Fax: 01865 Mushroom Books [email protected] Tel: 0161 2266814. Email: Anarchist Federation www.gn.apc.org/caat 243562 / Email: [email protected] Y Ddeilen Werdd/The Green Leaf 12 Heathcote St., www.ncadc.demon.co.uk [email protected] 84B Whitechapel High St http://www.undercurrents.org/ c/o G&M EF! Nottingham, NG1 3AA London E1 7QX Campaign Against Tube Email: [email protected] CARF - Campaign against Racism Platform6 Cafe Tel. / Pager: 01523 78669 / Email: Privatisation Urban75: ‘is one of the UK's busiest News from Nowhere & Fascism c/o 6 Kent House, Kent Street [email protected] 248 Carey Gardens independent websites featuring direct Collective Action Notes 96 Bold St., Liverpool, L1 4HY BM Box 8784 London WC1N 3XX Southampton http://burn.ucsd.edu/~acf/ London SW8 4HW action, rave, drug info, unpublished Ultra-left publication from Baltimore Tel: 020 7837 1450 / Email: [email protected] stories, photos, rants and more. We http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/L October Books [email protected] Anarchist Trade Union Network Catalyst Collective (Brighton) are entirely non-profit making - no obby/2379/ 4 Onslow Rd., Southampton SO2 0JB http://www.carf.demon.co.uk Rainbow Centre for anarchists who are members of Help and advice in setting up banners, no tie-ins, no ads. 180-182, Mansfield Rd., Nottingham reformist trade unions. cooperatives. http://www.urban75.com/ Kate Sharpley Library Word Power Camps and Sites NG1 3HW Coordination by email: Email: [email protected] 43 West Nicholson St., 0115 958 5666 Long-running archiver and publisher 9 Ladies Anti-Quarry Camp [email protected] Corner House of anarchist materials Edinburgh, EH8 http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/P Centre for Alternative Technology Research and analysis on Lees Cross, Lees Rd., Stanton Lees, Worthing Anarchist Teapot, c/o BM Hurricane, London WC1N 3XX Matlock, Derbyshire arliament/2522/ Machynlleth, Powys SY20 9AZ globalisation-related issues. (Also check autonomous centres Worthing Eco-Action, Email: [email protected] http://pages.zoom.co.uk/~nineladies/ Tel: 01654 702400 / email: PO Box 3137, Station House, http://members.aol.com/wellslake/Sha as most stock various PO Box 4144, Worthing, West Anti-Fascist Action [email protected] Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT10 publications) Sussex BN14 7NZ rpley.htm Aldermaston Womens Peace Camp Contact below for list of regional http://www.cat.org.uk/ 1YJ. Tel: 01258 473795. Email: [email protected] groups: [email protected] alternative weekends action.org Freedom Press: Publishers of Terror Bill 33 Heron Road Bristol, BS5 0LT BM Box 1734, London WC1N 3XX Class War PO Box 467 London E8 3QZ literature on anarchism since 1886 Campaigns opposing the 0117 939 3746 01703 554434 07000 569569 The Ecologist 01582 750601 84B Whitechapel High St. proposed Prevention of Terrorism Green / Vegan / Animal Lib Unit 18, Chelsea Wharf, 15 Lots Contact above for details of regional London E1 7RQ Bill: For an in-depth campaign Avon Ring Road Protest Camp Animal Rights Resource Site A SEED (Action for Solidarity, Road, London SW10 0QJ Tel: 020 7247 9249 Equality, Environment and groups in Bristol, East Anglia, Essex, Tel: 0171 351 3578 / Email: against the new Terrorism Bill, go to 84 Colston Street Bristol, BS1 5BB http://www.animalconcerns.org/ Email: [email protected] http://www.blagged.freeserve.co.uk/te Tel: 0797 999 0389 [email protected] rrorbill/index.htm ALF -Animal Liberation Front http://www.tao.ca/~freedom/ The Agitator Birmingham Northern Relief Road ALF Supporters Group UK Pe o p l e s ’ Global Ac t i o n (www.agp.org) Is an The A30 Event on-line version of Campaign BCM Box 1160 London WC1N 3XX international network of grassroots resistance to Comprehensive lists of non- Smash Capitalism! webring hierarchical, radical groups in Britain the BIG event against the Bill. The Spinney Turf Pits Lane, Near E: [email protected] http://www.webring.org/cgibin/webring global capitalism. For a free copy of PGA bu l l e t i n and worldwide. Recently updated. http://drink.to/dissent Sutton Coldfield http://www.enviroweb.org/ALFIS/index ?ring=smashcapitalism&index number 5 UK contact:London Reclaim the Streets. Send £1 to HSG PO Box 2474 West Midlands, B75 5T? Tel: 07931 2.shtml London N8 Are You a Terrorist?: 161 761 Send SAE to PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY http://www.new-labour.com/ ARC - Animal Rights Coalition
21 http://www.leedsef.ukf.net Tel: 01603 611953 BM McSpotlight; London; WC1N 3XX MAYDAY 2000 Anti-Capitalist conference Liverpool EF! Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Dealing with the Police - LEGALADVICE Saturday-Sunday 29-30 April. For directions to the venue come to 96 Bold Street Liverpool L1 4HY www.fanweb.org/uk www.mcspotlight.org If you are arrested, remember you do not have to answer any Holloway Rd. tube 10am-6pm. LuneAC (Lancaster) questions beyond giving your name and address. Tel: 01524 593878 Free Satpal Ram Merton Claimants Action Group Topics include: Seattle protests, globalisation, GMcrops, internet We recommend you say: “NOCOMMENT” at ALLtimes and Email: [email protected] c/o 101 Villa Rd., Handsworth, c/o 88 High St., Colliers Wood, contact one of the following solicitors: activism, workplace organising and 80 other workshops. Manchester EF! BirminghamB19 1NH London SW19 2BT Blavo Sharp 07979 911 082 Speakers include: McLibel Two, Rob Newman, ex Black Panther 255 Wilmslow road, Rusholme 0121 414 7003 020 8401 1895 Moss & Co. 020 8533 0615 Lorenzo Ervin, Reclaim the Streets and Bertell Ollman. Manchester M145LW www.muwc.demon.co.uk/ TaylorNichol 0850 385 309 For the conference program and links to numerous articles on Tel: 0161 2266814 G There will be a defendants meeting for anyone arrested on everything from prehistory to globalisation, war to the situationists, [email protected] Genetic Engineering Network Minewatch Tuesday May 2 at 6pm Conway Hall, Red Lion Sq., WC1 Holborn Mid-Somerset EF! Supporting communities in the South check: www.freespeech.org/mayday2k (GEN) Invaluable PO Box 23, 5 High St, Glastonbury PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY impacted by large-scale mining. APPEALFOR WITNESSES ANDVOLUNTEERS Somerset BA6 9PU Email: [email protected] Methodist Clubland, 54 Camberwell Several defendants after June 18th and November 30 have been Norwich Direct Action Forum www.dmac.co.uk/gen.html Road, London SE5 0ON.Tel: 020 convicted and imprisoned because they had no other witnesses of REFLECTIONS ON MAY DAY 2000 PO Box 487, Norwich NR2 3AL 7277 4852 / Email: police behaviour. If you witness any events, such as police Request for articles on the lessons of this weekend’s events and Tel: 07931 308091 GenetiX Snowball [email protected] violence, whose reporting might be of benefit to defendants then it the way forward for the anti-capitalist movement. We hope to be [email protected] Open crop removal is vital that you contact us at: ‘Witnesses’c/o BM Mayday, London able to publish most of the contributions at some point. The shorter Nottingham EF! 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS Movement Against The Monarchy WC1N 3XX. Please also contact us if you witnessed events at they are the easier this will be for us. Comradely but critical articles c/o The Rainbow Centre , 182 0161-834 0295 / Email: PO Box 14672 London E9 5UQ June 18 1999 or November 30 and think your reports might be of are especially welcome! Send contributions, before August, to: Mansfield Road [email protected] Email: use to defendants from thoseprotests. Remember, someone’s [email protected]. Nottingham NG1 3HW.Tel: 0115 [email protected] freedom might depend on you! ALSO: Volunteers are desperately 9585666 Green Anarchist Network http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/L needed for legal monitoring and other help - no previous Glasgow, Kent, London,Manchester, Printed version by post - Oldham EF! BCM 1715 London WC1N 3XX obby/1793/Index.html experience necessary. Please contact the above address. Preston, Surrey, South Yorkshire. subscriptions cost a minimum PO Box 127 Oldham OL4 3FE Tel: 01457 871609 Mumia Must Live! contribution of £5 (£6 International H human rights. Email: [email protected] Middlesex UB2 4DW Oxford EF! / Community Action For Mumia Abu-Jamal www.oneworld.org/twf Tel: 0181 574 6781 / Communities Against Toxics subscriptions) for the next 12 issues. Hackney Solidarity Group Local PO Box 29, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire Send more if you can afford it to keep Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford, BM Haven London WCN 3XX [email protected] broad-based campaigning group. OX4 1RQ Email: [email protected] Permaculture Association CH66 3TX the Action Update going and to 136-8 Kingsland High St., Tel: 0151 339 5473 enable us to reply to enquiries and Reclaim the Valleys PO Box 1, Buckfastleigh, Devon Strike Support Group London E8 2NS Email: [email protected] or give free subscriptions to prisoners, c/o Swansea Environment Center, N TQ11 0LH c/o 31 Lydford Road Pier Street, Swansea, SA1 1RY Tel: 01654 711655 / Email: Tottenham, London N15 5PX [email protected] libraries, community groups etc. Haringey Solidarity Group Nasa: Nottingham Association of Make cheques and postal orders Reading Roadbusters [email protected] Local broad-based campaigning Subversive Activists Reading International Solidarity Ctre www.sysmag.com/permaweb/groups/ Subvertise An archive of 100s of Conscious Cinema payable to Earth First! Remember group. Next meet: Monday, 8th May, 2000, PO BOX 2679, Brighton BN2 2EF security, false names and a collect or 35-39 London Street, Reading, Berks pcbritain/index.html subverts, political art, cartoons and Box 2474 London N8 / 020 8374 7.30pm at The Newcastle Arms, Tel: 0118 986 6362 / Email: articles. c/o PO Box 68, Headington, 01273 278018 care address are best. Electronic 5027 North Sherwood Street [email protected] Project Underground Oxford OX3 7YS. Email: version (text only) by e-mail - home.clara.net/hsg/hhome.html Email:[email protected] Corporate Europe Observatory. subscription is free, just send your e- Sheffield EF! http://members.tripod.co.uk/NASA13/ Campaigning for an end to mining [email protected] c/o Brambles Resource Centre and oil abuses in the global South. www.subvertise.org Exposing and understanding mail address. Haven Distribution / Books to corporate power in Europe and 82 Andover St, Sheffield, S3 9EH [email protected] Prisoners Newham and District Claimants Tel: 0114 2797164 / Email: www.moles.org Survival International worldwide. EF! groups in Britain: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London Union Durning Hall, Earlham Grove, [email protected] For tribal peoples. Paulus Potterstraat 20 • 1071 DA Arun Valley EF! c/o 1 York Rd WC1N 3XX Forest Gate, London E7 Amsterdam • Netherlands Littlehampton W. Sussex South Devon EF! R Email: [email protected] PO Box 77 Totnes, Devon TQ9 52J www.survival.org.uk Tel/fax: +31-20-6127023 / Email: Tel: 01903 721615 / Hillingdon Strikers: Newham Monitoring Project Radical Routes [email protected] [email protected] Tel: 01626 363844 PO Box 273, London E7 8NS S Wales Activism Network (SWAN) The UK’s longest-running industrial Network of cooperatives. www.xs4all.nl/~ceo Avon Gorge EF! c/o Bristol EF! 020 8555 8151 c/o Cornerstone Resource Centre, T PO Box 70, Newport, NP1 0YD dispute and an inspiration to us all. Bath EF! c/o PO Box 426 16 Sholebroke Ave, Leeds LS7 3HB The Land is Ours Email: [email protected] c/o 27 Townsend Way, Northwood, Corporate Watch (Oxford, UK) Bath, Somerset BA1 2ZD No Opencast Tel: 0113 262 9365 Land rights campaign network. Swansea People EF! Middlesex HA6 1TG Research, analysis magazine. Tel: 01249 713742 Tel: 0956 135311 190 Sheperds Bush Road, London Email: [email protected] Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford 16b Cherwell St. Oxford OX41BG Blatant Incitement Project c/o Green Action Swansea Uni SU W6 7NL Swansea, Wales www.home.clara.net/carrot/radical/rrw OX4 1RQ Tel: 01865 791 391 / Email: outreach and small group support 020 7603 1831 elcome.htm Tel: 01865 722 016 / Email: Warwick EF! I [email protected] c/o Manchester EF! [email protected] c/o Green Society SU Uni of Warwick Incapacity Action www.corporatewatch.org [email protected] No War but the Class War Rainforest Action Network www.oneworld.org/tlio Coventry CV4 7AL Disability benefits campaign Bristol EF! discussion meetings originated during Email: [email protected] Tel: 01926 435137 / Email: 104 Cornwallis Circle, Whistable, Crossroads Womens Centre c/o Box 51 Greenleaf Bookshop the Kosovo war. For more details of www.ran.org Trident Ploughshares 2000 [email protected] Kent CT5 1AT 230AKentish Town Rd., London NW5 82 Colston St Bristol BS1 5BB monthly London meetings contact: Anti-nuke direct disarmament Wildfire Collective 0122 276159 020 7482 2496 Tel: 0117 939 3093 Escape c/o PO Box 2472, London N8 Reclaim The Streets (London) Address as Norfolk EF! PO Box 3249, BrightonBN1 4SN D Cambridge EF! 0HW Building alternatives to capitalism via Tel: 01603 611953 Wolves Eco Action Industrial Workers of the World Box E 12 Mill Rd Cambridge CB1 email: [email protected] direct action. [email protected] c/o Wolves Hunt Sabs, Box H, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 Delta: Newsletter an d info network 2AD PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY. Wolves University Student Union 1WB EF! South Central Email: [email protected] focusing on Shell and Big Oil in the Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton O U www.mindstar.freeuk.co/ef www.reclaimthestreets.net Niger Delta. WV1 1LY International Rivers Network Oilwatch Europe Uncaged Campaigns Box Z, 13 Biddulph Street, Leicester [email protected] York EF! Halting destructive river development Solidarity with global southern Anti-vivisection. Exeter Environmental Network RTS Samba drumming LE2 1BH c/o York LEAF PO Box 323 York projects 1847 Berkeley Way, communities resisting the oil industry [email protected] Tel/fax: 0116 2109652 Email: PO Box 185, Exeter EX4 4EW Have fun learning to drum for events Tel: 01904 410185 Berkeley, CA94703 USA C/o A SEED Europe / Email: www.uncaged.co.uk Fife EF! and actions! Rehearsals for complete [email protected] Tel: (510) 848-1155, Fax: (510) 848- [email protected] c/o 91 South Street, St. Andrews, beginners on Sunday evenings 7pm www.oneworld.org/delta Ecotrip 1008 antenna.nl/aseed/oilwatch/index.htm URGENT Network of campaigns Fife KY16 9Q Waterloo Action Centre, 14 Baylis Tel: 01334 477411 PO Box 22019, London SW2 2WF. Email: [email protected] www.irn.org against unwanted housing Disabled Action Network (DAN) OTDOGS – Opposition to Road, SE1 Guildford EF! developments. Box HN, 16b Cherwell 3 Crowley Road London N22 6AN Eco-Village Network Destruction of Green Spaces Thursday Evenings: 5.00pm-8.00pm, Street, Oxford OX4 1BG PO Box217 Guildford, Surrey, GU1 L Room N001, University of East Tel: 020 88891 361 CREATE Centre, Smeaton Road, 6 Everthorpe Rd, London SE15 4DA. Tel: 01865 794800, Email: 1WS Legal Defence & Monitoring Group London, Longbridge Road, Bristol BS1 6XN Tel: 080 2693 9412 [email protected] org Fax: 01483 203212 BM Haven London, WC1N 3XX Dagenham, Essex, RM8 2AS Down to Earth: campaign for Email: [email protected] www.urgent.org.uk Gwynned & Mon EF! Email: [email protected] or ecological justice in Indonesia. www.ecovillages.org/uk/network/index P 59 Athenlay Road, Lon don SE15 The Greenhouse, 1 Trevelyan Terrace LetsLink UK [email protected] .htm PARTiZANS - Against corporate W 3ON. Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 1AX Support for local currencies. Tel: 01248 355821 / Email: extractive criminals Rio Tinto. West London Anarchists and Tel: 01508 471413 / Email: 2 Kent St, Portsmouth, Hants PO1 S [email protected] Enough 3BS 41a Thornhill Road, London N1 1BE. Radicals (WAR) [email protected] Soil Association Hull On Earth Campaigns against consumerism Tel: 01705 730639 Tel: 020 7700 6189 / Email: Local broad-based campaigning 86 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5BB. c/o PO Box 33 Hull HU1 1AA C/o One World Centre, 6 Mount St, www.letslinkuk.demon.co.uk [email protected] group. E Tel: 01482 218377 Manchester M2 5NS. Tel: 0117 929 0661 / Email: c/o BM Makhno London WC1N 3XX [email protected] EF! (Earth First!) Across UK Irwell Valley EF! Tel: 0161 226 6668 / Email: Liverpool Dockers Peoples’Global Action: A network [email protected] www.earthfoods.co.uk Earth First! Action Update c/o Dept 29 255 Wilmslow Rd [email protected] c/o 9 Scorton Street, Liverpool L6 of grassroots resistance to global PO Box 1TA, Newcastle, NE 99 1TA Manchester M14 5LW Tel: 0151 207 3388 capitalism Women’s Environmental Network Enclose a SAE for replies. [email protected] Exodus Collective (Luton) UK contact: London Reclaim the Solidarity Federation 87 Worship St, London EC2A2BE Telephone: 0797 4791841 / E-mail: E-Mail: [email protected] PO VBox 29 SW PDO LEAF Box Z 13, London Greenpeace Streets. Send SAE to PO Box 9656, Tel: 020 7 481 9004 / Email: Manchester M15 5HW [email protected] Biddulph St Leicester LE2 1BH http://www.exodus.sos.freeuk.com/ 020 7713 1269 London N4 4JYfor a free copy of [email protected] Tel: 0161 232 7889 www.eco-action.org/efau/ Tel/Fax : 0116 255 3223 5 Caledonian Rd London N1 9DX PGAbulletin number 5. www.gn.apc.org/wen Earth First! website: Leeds EF! F www.mcspotlight.org/ www.agp.org http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns c/o Cornerstone Resource Centre Forest Action Network UK Southall Black Sisters Workers Solidarity Movement /ef/earthfirst.html People & Planet Campaigning for Zoora Shah as well 16 Sholebroke Ave Leeds LS7 3HB Reforest the Earth M PO Box 1528, Dublin 8 Ireland Tel: 0113 262 9365/ Email: Students campaigning for as all black and Asian women. http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm.ht 42-46 Bethel St, Norwich, McLibel Support Campaign. Action update subcription [email protected] Norfolk NR2 1NR. development, environment and 52 Norwood Road, Southall, ml Upcoming / ongoing 'events': www.destroyimf.org [email protected] Hannover EXPO2000 - from June 1st www.expo2000.de COP6: international climate change stitch-up in the Hague, November 2000. Global capitalism and global struggles conference Bastille Day Thursday 14th July: CAGE network national action Topics include: globalisation, changing the world, migrant workers, against the prison industry. For more information contact: 07931 London Underground the new anti-capitalism, alternatives etc... 401962 or visit: www.veggies.org./uk/cage Saturday - Sunday 1-2 July, University of London Union, Malet St., Regular networking meeting of radical and direct actiongroups and London WC1. For more details see the ‘Capital & Class’ website at individuals in and around the capital. All welcome. Also threatening Earth First Summer Gathering - 7th-11th June www.gn.apc.org/cse/ to produce a newsletter. Temp. contact: PO Box 9656, London N4 Snowdonia, North Wales. For more information contact: EF! Summer 4JY. Tel: 020 7281 4621 Gathering, c/o Norfolk EF!, PO. Box 487, Norwich NR2 3AL. Or Anarchist Bookfair Conway Hall, Red LIon Sq., Holborn tube, London. For more details email: [email protected] Women Speak Out - Thursday 4th May see http://freespace.virgin.net/anarchist.bookfair/ Campaign Against Arms Trade day of action against BAe Systems IM F / W orld Bank meeting in Prague 26th-28th September 2000 North American PGA - Windsor Canada - June 1st - 4th 2000 (once British Aerospace) Global day of action to coincide with the Annual general meeting. As part of Organisation of American States Call 020 7281 0297 for more information. Contact RTS London for details. [email protected] [email protected]
22 Who can gauge the CARNIVAL AGAINST ANARCHISM Supported by the Corporation of London, J.P. Morgan, Nestle, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ericsson and the UK's leading manufacturers of crowd control barriers, tear gas and rubber bullets . striking-power of Meet 8am London Wall 2/5/00
There will be a mass photoshoot in open defiance of the growing global anti-capitalism movement. Come dressed for direct destruction: wear your an impassioned finest business suit. Free Ericsson carnival cellphones will be handed out on the day. The samba band led by the McDonald’s Lord Mayor Clive Martin himself, will snake out of the City in a grand grey carnival procession over the river to the foot of Canary Wharf, where he will light London’s largest ever bonfire, topped by the stuffed figure of a daydream, of dreadlocked anarchist. The day will end with a huge fireworks spectacular courtesy of the Corporation of London and BP Amoco, after which the chief executives of the top FTSE Top 100 companies will lead us all in a rousing version of the old school song, ‘Greed is Good and God is Blessed’. pleasure taken in For Further Details Ring: 020 7606 3030 ww w . g r e e d . c o m love, of a ... and finally nascent desire, U’wa indians capitulate after heartfelt plea by of a rush of ‘noble shareholder’
by Barry Bateman on a Spanish golfing holiday in which he will receive professional coaching in a sympathy? After an epic three-day journey from his relaxed, informal setting. home deep in the heart of Epping Forest, Said one U'wa delegate "His a lone, indigenous Briton arrived in culture's sacred beliefs had a charming, Columbia yesterday and called upon the naive simplicity. He told us about the U'wa to end their resistance to financial market's "invisible hand", Everyone seeks Occidental Petroleum Corporation's whose mysterious workings have to be plans for oil-drilling. Ron Ellis, 65, kept free from any external intervention. spoke to U'wa delegates, many of whom I wanted to hear more, but unfortunately looked shame-faced during the some US-trained soldiers started shareholder's emotional appeal in shooting at us due to an earlier spontaneously to defence of his people's "traditional way fluctuation in Nasdaq oil prices." of increasing dividends". At the end of silver-haired Mr Ellis's Mr Ellis first presented the U'wa moving appeal, a U'wa spokeswoman assembly with crude but cheerful issued the following statement. "This artwork humble retired investor has shown us depicting a pyramid in the eye of the sun that our actions here have far-reaching extend such brief (said to symbolize Fidelity Investments, consequences on the other side of the biggest shareholders in the oil-drilling world. We have been blinded to these company). implications by our single-minded A dignified figure in traditional dress obsession with not being shot, poisoned of shorts and brightly-coloured polo- and homeless. It is time for our blinkered moments of real shirt, Mr Ellis began by saying: "Yes, I short-termism to stop. We therefore call understand that you have threatened to upon our brothers and sisters in other commit mass suicide if the drill-sites go races and cultures not to bother, say, ahead, and yes it's your land. But," he Fidelity Investments, 25 Lovat Lane proclaimed, "what you fail to EC3, 020 7283 9911 and definitely not life; everyone understand is I'm hoping to buy one of to mess with those garage-doors that open h t t p : / / w w w 1 0 0 . f i d e l i t y. c o m / a b o u t / c o n t c automatically as you drive towards t/inter.html them." He then called upon the U'wa For more details: http://www.ran.org wants basically Indians also to recognise his wish to go to make something out of their everyday life. Ron Ellis’s first contact with the U’wa tribe SPORT
Going down - today's results of capitalism
THE FACTS Top clubs may The statistics below are not spoofs, they are the very real consequences of a system that rewards greed. THE VIOLENCE "They are worried about a few windows being smashed. They should come and see the violence being done to our communities in the name of liberalisation of trade." A Philippino activist on the streets of Seattle,during the shut desert FA Cup down of the World Trade Organisation. Why does the corporate media focus on the so called "violence" when during a protest a Mc BY LUTHER BLISSETT Donalds or a bank looses its windows? They never look at the real violence, the every day SE V E R A L TOP clubs including Manchester violence of capitalism, day in day out, 24 hours United, Arsenal and Chelsea are considering a day - the fact every day 40,000 children die of pulling out of next years FA cu p . starvation the fact Sanctions against Iraq kills This season Manchester United, the worlds 5000 children every month the fact that in Columbia it is cheeper for kids to drink coca first £1 billion club, pulled out of the FA cup in cola than fresh water the fact that in this favour of the more lucrative World Club country 1 in 3 children is brought up in poverty Championships held in January in Brazil. the fact that the most common cause of death Following their mid-winter break in the sun, for an under 14 year old is being hit by a car the United looked fresh and now head the Carling fact that the worlds tropical rainforrests may be destroyed during our childs life time - surely Premiership by an almost uncatchable 13 points. that is the real violence. On the advice of directors and shareholders other THE VITAL STATISTICS top clubs are now said to be considering The fifth of the world's people living in the dropping less profitable‚ games and highest income countries has 86 per cent of competitions in favour of longer preparations world gross domestic product (GDP), 82 per for games generating higher revenues. cent of world export markets, 68 per cent of Most vulnerable is the fans favourite, and most foreign direct investments and 74 per cent of prestigious club up competition in the world, the world telephone lines: the bottom fifth, in the poorest countries, has about one per cent in FACup. With the Premiership’s most successful each sector. club out this year, and other clubs likely to follow next year, the future of the FA Cup looks Shares in Manchester United have rocketed over the last few years The income gap between the richest fifth of the bleak. world's people and the poorest fifth, measured The stage is set for the elite clubs to pursue by average national As both Newcastle United and Chelsea fans Over time football has mutated from it’s income per head, increased from 30 to one in big-money European and new world club k n o w, it’s shareholder dividends that count beginnings on the streets of late nineteenth 1960 to 74 to one in 1997 competitions - good news for shareholders in top these days. Longtime fans at both clubs have century British towns, where normal life clubs, but bad news for fans, smaller clubs and been moved on to make way for corporate stopped for several days as thousands The 200 richest people in the world competitions without big prize money like the hospitality suites. c o n v e rged to play wild football in teams more than doubled their net worth in the four years to 1998, to $1 trillion. FA cup. Four thousand Newcastle fans took their club sometimes comprising thousands. Now football As United club spokesman Ken Ramesden to court following plans to move them from is for a specialised elite of players. But why is Tanzaniaís debt service payments are nine said, “The fundamental issue here is the number their usual seats to make way for corporate it the norm for football fans to walk fast or run times what it spends on primary health care of matches our players will have to play. We clients, despite paying a bond to keep the same as they leave matches? Because what the and four times what it spends on primary understand what others are saying, but until seats for 10 years. followers of the game really want is to play it. education. someone can offer a solution which reduces our Supporters boycotted the clubs commercial Perhaps we should focus on doing what we Women occupy more than 30 per centof number of games, then we are stuck where we outlets, made stand-up protests in the stands and really enjoy, and not be drawn in by the parliamentary seats in only five countries;in 31 are. Therefore our position remains unchanged, refused to wear the traditional black and white spectacle of the modern staged-for- p r o f i t s they occupy fewer than five per cent. we reject Prime Minister Tony Blair ’s plea for colours. After banning England and ex- football game. United to defend the FA Cup.” Newcastle player and manager Kevin Keegan As capitalism’s never-ending search for Since coming to power in May 1997, up to the When a conflict arose, the multi-million end of February 2000 from giving evidence against his former club, profits degrades another thing we hold dear, New Labour have deported over 101,643 pound appearance fee and prize money of the the judge ruled, unsurprisingly given then perhaps it is time to move to collective people. mickey-mouse World Club competition beat the money at stake, against the fans. However, ownership of our teams, in fact control of our prestigious, but no prize money, FA cup. appeals continue. time, lives and environment too. Depression is the UK's biggest killer www.reclaimthestreets.net RTS To prove a ‘legal title’ to land one must trace it back to the man who stole it: Page 10 020 7281 4621
Resistance could take you to another world.
• Freedom from a system that rewards greed and competition. Freedom • Freedom from imposed authority. Give it a go • Freedom to decide things amongst ourselves. • Freedom to share, co-operate and enjoy life to the full. www.reclaimthestreets.net