Bankers Sidestep
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Freedom February 2014_Freedom 18/03/2014 21:41 Page 1 £2 www.freedompress.org.uk Vol 75, Issue 2 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 FREEDOM IS MOVING ONLINE! This will be the final monthly printed copy of Freedom. The members of the Freedom Collective LENS CAP TUBE STRIKE CALLED OFF explain why they took this decision and how they plan to operate moving forward s... Since Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism first appeared in 1886 it has been in the form of a newspaper to be sold. Now the Freedom Collective has decided that we shall move content online accompanied by a freesheet, with this being the final regular print issue of the paper. We have come to realise that a sold hardcopy newspaper is no longer a viable means of promoting the anarchist message. Despite a huge publicity boost to Freedom following the firebomb attack last year (shop sales rose 50%) there has not been a corresponding increase in distribution of the paper. Only 29 shops, social centres and individuals now sell it and the number of paying subscribers has fallen considerably. As a result annual losses now amount to £3,500, an unsustainable level for our shoestring budget. Readers will have noticed that the paper has struggled to come out on time for some while. An underlying problem has been a lack of capacity to sustain it. We had hoped that Freedom would be adopted as the paper of the anarchist movement. Despite a great A second planned tube strike over the closure of ticket offices was called off in mid February, after deal of goodwill from anarchist groups and discussions between union leaders and tube bosses. page 38 BANKERS SIDESTEP CAP 8 Banks are offering ludicrous sums to senior shareholder approval is met, the EU legislation INSIDE staff despite huge losses – and a new EU also mentions the possibility of exceptions in Skipping for joy page 3 ruling which advertises itself as an attempt the case of the very highest earners. Those to curb bonuses. earning more than £410,330 per annum can Transport clashes in Brazil page 9 Devious fat cats are finding ingenious apply to their home regulators for exemption ways to get round a new EU ruling which from the cap. Those on over £1m per Svartfrosk page 16 limits bankers’ bonuses to 100% of a basic annum will be able to apply to the EBA salary… except in ‘special circumstances’, (European Banking Authority) for exclusion Getting active page 18 such as if shareholders approve a ‘maximum’ from the cap. 200% cap for an individual. The subterfuge doesn’t end there. Barclays, Reviews pages 20 and 21 HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver is set to take Lloyds, HSBC and RBS are all also set to home £1.7m in ‘fixed pay allowances’ on hand out shares to their top dogs as another Arts pages 22 and 23 top of his existing £1.2m salary – a salary way of bypassing the bonus restrictions. which is set to increase by 140%. This, despite the current financial climate: ISSN 0016-0504 Virgin Money boss Richard Branson is with RBS reporting recent losses of a being very cheerfully open about his whopping £8bn and Barclays suffering a intention to take advantage of the ‘special massive 32% fall in profits. circumstances’ clause. In addition to the It just doesn’t add up. 9 770016 050009 increased 200% cap allowed in cases where Charlotte Dingle Freedom February 2014_Freedom 18/03/2014 21:41 Page 2 2 Freedom • February/March 2014 NEWS FREEDOM STOCKISTS LENS CAP BOB CROW DIES You can now pick up your copy of Freedom at the following venues. LONDON • Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX, tel 020 7247 9249 email [email protected] http://www.freedompress.org.uk/ • 56A Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 3AE, email [email protected] http://www.56a.org.uk/ • Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, tel 020 7837 4473 email [email protected] http://www.housmans.com/ • London Action Resource Centre (LARC), 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES tel 020 7377 9088, http://www.londonarc.org/ • Newham Bookshop, 745-747 Barking Road, London E13 9ER, tel 020 8552 9993 email [email protected] http://www.newhambooks.co.uk/ BRIGHTON • Cowley Club Social Centre, 12 London Road, Rail, Maritime and Transport Union General Secretary Bob Crow died on 11th March at the age of 52. Brighton BN1 4JA, tel 01273 696104 email cowleyclub@riseup .net http://cowleyclub.org.uk/ BIRMINGHAM • Birmingham Bike Foundry, 1539 Pershore Road, New anti-gay laws in Uganda Stirchley, Birmingham B30 2JH, tel: 0121 459 7276, email: [email protected] Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni has brought of homosexuality. Which, frankly, seems a http://birminghambikefoundry.org in harsh legislation which condemns ‘repeat bit of a non sequitur. BRISTOL offenders’ found engaging in homosexual The day after the act was signed into law, • Hydra Books, 34 Old Market, Bristol BS2 0EZ behaviour to life in prison. Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper (which, rather tel: 0117 3297401, email [email protected] Male homosexuality is already illegal in awkwardly, shares a title with a well-known http://www.hydrabooks.org/ Uganda – but new laws will impose much British liberal/lefty magazine) published a list • Kebele Social Centre, 14 Robertson Road, harsher punishments for both male and of the ‘Top 200 homosexuals’ featuring their Bristol BS5 6JY, tel 0117 9513086 female gay and bisexual Ugandans. names and, in many cases, photos. Another email [email protected] The Ugandan Homosexuality Act 2014 tabloid, Rolling Stone (which is no longer in http://www.kebelecoop.org was passed by the Parliament of Uganda on print) published a similar list in 2011, calling 20th December 2013 and signed into law for the execution of those who engage in NOTTINGHAM • Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, by President Museveni on 24th February homosexual acts. This list is widely believed Nottingham NG7 6HX, tel 0115 960 8254 2014. There were originally proposals to to have been responsible for the death of email [email protected] introduce a death penalty for homosexuality, prominent LGBT activist David Kato, who http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac with the act widely referred to as the “Kill was beaten to death with a hammer in broad the Gays Bill.” daylight shortly after its publication. LIVERPOOL • News from Nowhere Bookshop, 96 Bold Street, The new laws will send ‘first-time offenders’ The UK government cut all direct budget Liverpool L1 4HY, tel 0151 708 7270 to prison for 14 years, while those caught support to the Ugandan government last email [email protected] engaging in same-sex acts more than once will year after a corruption scandal was exposed. http://www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk/ be destined for a life sentence. “Attempting Following the introduction of the new laws, to commit homosexuality” – however that is plans have been announced to divert the EDINBURGH • AK Press online, AK Distribution, PO Box 12766, defined! – will result in a seven-year jail term. remaining £97.9m ringfenced for Uganda in Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9YE Failure to report a suspected gay or bisexual the UK’s budget to entities such as inter - email [email protected] neighbour will also result in prosecution. The national aid agencies which reach the UK’s new legislation even prohibits the ‘recognition’ human rights standards. Norway and http://www.akuk.com/ Denmark have both adopted an even more • Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) rigid stance, entirely withholding $8m and 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA $9m respectively from Uganda. The US says tel 0131 557 6242 it is still ‘reviewing’ its aid contributions to email [email protected] the country. There are concerns that a with- http://www.autonomous.org.uk/ drawal of funds will hit the poorest Ugandans • Word Power Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, hardest. Supporters of aid withdrawal have Edinburgh EH8 9DB, tel 0131 662 9112 countered this by questioning just how much email [email protected] aid ever went to poor and vulnerable http://www.word-power.co.uk/ Ugandans in the first place. SOUTHAMPTON In the short-term, it seems the most vital • October Books, 243 Portswood Road, way we can help oppressed Ugandans is to Southampton SO17 2NG, tel 023 8058 1030 ensure that our borders are open to them email [email protected] when they need us. Charlotte Dingle Freedom February 2014_Freedom 18/03/2014 21:42 Page 3 Freedom • February/March 2014 3 NEWS Skipping for joy the bike-trailer with armfuls of baguettes, every common prostitute wandering in the Following a recent much- sacks of potatoes, an entire field of broccoli, public streets or public highways, or in any mango fruit yogurt with crumble, prawn place of public resort, and behaving in a publicised case which saw vodka mousse, duck a l’orange, eggs, milk, riotous or indecent manner; and every person cakes and packs and packs of steak, sausage wandering abroad, or placing himself or three men arrested for taking and mince, you wheel home through the herself in any public place, street, highway, night ready to prepare a victory feast, smug court, or passage, to beg or gather alms, or unwanted food from outside a in the knowledge that it all cost nothing and causing or procuring or encouraging any would have ended up in a landfill had you child or children so to do; shall be deemed branch of Iceland, Gyorgy not intervened. an idle and disorderly person.” Yet of course, all of this is a crime. It is legislation designed for one thing only Furiosa takes a look at the Recently three friends of ours were arrested – the continued persecution of poor people and detained for 18 hours after being found and those who choose to live an alternative fine art of skip-diving in an enclosed area much like the one described lifestyle.