Living Abroad on next to nothing: A 12 step programme
Want to experience living abroad? Too busy or too poor to afford to go? No problem, just follow our twelve easy steps, to try what half of humanity experiences every day.
First: take out the furniture: leave Seventh: cancel all the newspapers a few old blankets, a kitchen table, and magazines. Throw out the books. maybe a wooden chair. You’ve never You won’t miss them - you are had a bed, remember? illiterate. One radio is now left for the whole shantytown. Second: throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the Eighth: no more postman, government, oldest suit or dress, a shirt or fireman, services. The two - blouse. The head of the family has classroom school is 3 miles away, but the only pair of shoes. only 2 of your 7 children attend anyway, and they walk. Coca Cola has reached more Third: all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a Ninth: no hospital, no doctor. The villages in the Third World small bag of flour, some sugar and nearest clinic is now 10 miles away than has safe drinking water salt, a handful of onions, a dish of with a midwife in charge. You get dried beans. Rescue those mouldy there by bus or bicycle, if you’re or oral rehydration formula. potatoes from the rubbish bin: those lucky enough to have one. are tonight’s meal. Tenth: throw out your cheque books, “Not Pepsi, but Water!” - Fourth: dismantle the bathroom, shut stock certificates, pension plans, Slogan of the National Alliance off the running water, take out the insurance policies. You now have a wiring and the lights and everything cash hoard of £3. of People’s Movements, India that runs by electricity. Eleventh: get out and start Fifth: take away the house and move cultivating your three acres. Try the family into the toolshed. hard to raise £150 in cash crops because your landlord wants one-third Sixth: by now all the other houses in and your moneylender 10 percent. the neighbourhood have disappeared; instead there are shanties - for the Twelfth: find some way for your fortunate ones. children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won’t be enough to keep bodies healthy - so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.
Workers and how to deal with them
Without the workers no copper would be collectively then there is a possibility they’ll scroungers - keep them apart from each other Another of our great weapons is the mass mined, no oil refined, no computer systems r e bel. Treat such outbreaks extremely and the truth. They are geographically media. They are always trying to work out designed, no coffee grown and there would seriously - contain them, isolate them and isolated - reduce their price (mainly how their world works, desperate to make no b ody to clear up afterwards. They are the crush them ruthlessly. determined by their resistance) by playing off sense of it all. Present them with an illusion greatest and most valuable commodity in the A certain surplus of workers is essential one area against another. If wages or health that seems coherent. Give them ‘facts’, offer world financial system. Let us have a look at since it lowers their resistance and their and safety conditions are too great in them experiences that fit into our fra m e w o r k how they work. price. Keep them employable (through Manchester transfer production to and our world view. They are self maintaining and self schemes such as New Deal) and the law of Ma n c h u r i a . We can use mass media, make them bel i e v e re p r o ducing - some of them even seem to supply and demand will apply. Greater Give them ways to fight back - all futile. an ything. They’ll even come to see media enjoy it. They can be programmed from an surpluses are a problem since they start Ha ve them vote for different representatives consumption as a leisure activity- by early age - to get accustomed to an 8 hour organising independently. It is imperative to force them to do what we want. Let them consuming more adverts, more caricatures of working day, to obey orders, to push the right this never happens. While other surpluses can fight for ‘their rights’ - it keeps them busy. ev e r yday life then they will be happier. Create button at the right time. Most impor tantly to be burnt in the field or buried in the ground Let them form unions to fight for a bigger slice false desires and false needs, sell more and believe that their life belongs to us not them. it is not necessarily advisable to deal with of the crumb. If things get really bad give pacify more. In the end they will see Their creativity can be harnessed. Buy it up workers this way- you don’t want to make concessions such as Wel f are Benefits or the themselves as mere spectators of the world as soon as possible - it is a dangerous thing if them angry. If it comes to it, tell them that NHS - they’ll let you privatise them again around them and not active parti c i p a n t s . left free. Without their ability to get the job there is no other option and do it from 1500 la t e r . These methods act as a safety valve to Un fo r tunately there will never be a world done despite our interference we would not be fee t . stop real change. without workers - at least not one in which where we are toda y . We can then sell their Ho w e v e r , there are many other ways to The lottery is a valuable myth we must we can make profits. They have kept us for pr o duce back to them at a profit - that’s how control them and stop them reaching their continually push. Convince them that they hundreds of years - if we act wisely they will the system works. tr u e pot e n t i a l : to o can become a ‘success’ - they could start by co n t i n u e to do so. It is a matter of confidence, Un fo r tunately they sometimes want to Divide them - black/white, male/fem a l e , serving burgers in McDonalds and end up a and stamping on theirs. Create an illusion so live for themselves rather than us. However, employed/unemployed. Make use of any successful international executive. Do not let co n vincing they will never believe anyt h i n g individually they do not pose a problem - buy division to stop them acting collectively. For them know that they have a greater chance of else is possible. Remember never let them them off or lock them up. If they realise their example when cutting welfare benefits blame dying of CJD. They are often optimistic - let know that we are powerless if they act individual aspirations can be achieved it on immigrants, on single parents, work-shy them carry that optimism to a paupers grave . co l l e c t i v e l y .
We don’t want a world where the guarantee of not dying of starvation brings the risk of dying of boredom. 19 Wh o’s waiting in the wings
From the cockpit of an F-16 flying at 5,000 metres, refugees (which has now reached more than one 4) The World Bank is already providing some post- you can’t see, nor smell, nor be sprayed with the million) and rapes, it is now clear that NATO and war reconstruction scenarios, and stocks in blood of “collateral damage.” The sensory reality its political leaders knew that this would have European construction companies have been buoyant of war has been cleaned away from the “productive” been the case before the bombing started. So what since the beginning of hostilities. activity of the warrior, as it has from the is the rationale behind NATO’s inhuman agenda? 5) The war in Yugoslavia, with its heavy demand on language of NATO’s reports on the alleged the military budget of the NATO countries, may also “mistakes.” Here we cannot fail to notice the The inhuman agenda of NATO (and WTO, and IMF, and serve more immediate domestic goals, by helping to institutional, racist cynicism of NATO, which OECD, and G8...) justify (in the name of war spending and investment weighs the lives of Serbian children and other To understand this war, we must see it in the in the reconstruction) the dismantling of the civilians and finds them less important, and less context of economic globalisation and the deepening European and US welfare systems. politically sensitive, than those of Western of the capitalist crisis (reflected in the collapse 6) It also gives US and European capital control soldiers. This, however, is trading the human of the Asian economies, the profit stagnation in over a region that is rich in mineral resources rights of some - in this case mostly innocent Europe, and the increasing social opposition to and is strategically located at the cross-roads civilians - at the expense of the human rights of further liberalisation and austerity) and the between Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the others with NATO as self-appointed judge of their longer term strategy of bringing Eastern Europe Middle East, thus dominating some of Europe’s most relative value. under the influence of the European and US important trade routes. On the ground there are a million refugees who capitalist powers. In conclusion: first the economic elites imposed are said to support the NATO intervention. However, 1) On one hand, the war aims to defeat the impoverishing policies on the region, policies that nobody has asked them whether, given the choice, resistance of the Yugoslavian working classes to have shattered the social fabric and created the they would rather see the 2 billion dollars a day the free market, which has forced the Yugoslavian context in which brutal and murderous nationalisms used to bomb Serbia invested in Kosovo’s social state to halt its planned programme of has flourished. Then they seized the opportunity for services or devoted to reducing income differences privatisation. The bombings are also sending a military action (since diplomatic options were left in the region, or spent in any ways so as to message to other resistant workers in Eastern in a dead end, with the insistence at Rambouillet undermine the economic roots of “ethnic cleansing.” Europe such as the coal miners in Romania, who that NATO troops were to be present in the Yugoslav Indeed, how many ethnic cleansings are carried on early this year had to be militarily defeated territory), resulting in further deaths and human in conditions of prosperity for all? And how many because of their strong opposition to the closing tragedy. Now, they will wear again the banker’s hat in conditions of poverty and social uncertainty? of mines demanded by the IMF. to “help” in the reconstruction, cashing in new At the outburst of war we were told that bombing 2) It lays the groundwork for the encirclement of interest payments and, especially, creating a more was needed to save the Albanian population in Russia which, although weakened economically and “stable” environment for business thanks to NATO’s Kosovo from genocide and ethnic cleansing. Many militarily, is still seen as a threat. Here too heavy military presence in the region. critics have pointed out that indeed, if political and economic goals go hand-in-hand as the humanitarianism was the rationale, then it becomes US and IMF have become increasingly anxious about inexplicable as to why the ethnically cleansed Russia’s “commitment to reform” and the Russian Palestinians, Kurds and Greek Cypriots, among population’s resistance to the “market economy”. others, do not receive the same attention from 3) The prospective integration of the battered NATO. But there is an even stronger and more economies of the Balkans represents for capital a 'No war but the class war' discussion meetings explore these sorts of issues . poignant argument: not only has NATO bombing great opportunity to tap into a new source of cheap Join the discussions on Wednesday July 7, Sept.1, Oct.6 and Nov.3, 7.30pm at resulted in dramatically increasing the flood of labour right in the heart of Europe. Co n w ay Hall, Red Lion Sq., Holborn tube - all welcome. Write to Escape c/o PO Box 2474, London N8 OHW or e-mail: [email protected] to confirm these dates or for copies of our Discussion Bulletin, or check http://www.h r c . w m i n . a c . u k / g ue s t / r a d i c a l / E S K O S O V O . H T M World-wide mutiny!
In May this year, hundreds of soldiers deserte d UN coalition slaughtered the deserting troops on alternative. Humanity’s present inability to solve their posts in Kosova to join anti-Milosevic the road to Basra. Since then sanctions have caused basic problems of pov e rt y , the environment or demonstrations in Serbia. These were not the first a million deaths and the people of Iraq have never crime has nothing to do with any intrinsic mutinies in Yug o s l a via. Mass desertions shorte n e d had the strength to rise up again. To avoid another selfishness or greed in people and everything to do the war with Croatia and dissuaded Milosevic fro m tragedy like Iraq, opposition in Serbia needs to be with capitalism. If we can develop the amazing using the Yug o s l a vian army in the Bosnian war . ec h o ed on all sides in the conflict. For instance science and productive capacity required for the hi- Then, in that wa r, Bosnian Serb army units refugees in Albania need to reject nationalism and tech destruction of Serbia and Iraq then we can mutinied and took over the largest town in the the KLA. ce r tainly feed, clothe and house everyone on the region. This may seem unlikely but unlikely events do planet in luxury, with no-one having to work for Meanwhile workers in Serbia have repeatedly happen in Albania. In 1997 there was a huge armed more than an hour or two a week. resisted attempts to cut jobs, wages and welfar e . popular uprising against the pro-market All we need to do is wrest these productive for c e s After massive strike waves in the 1980’s, strikes and government and consequently the country is now from capital and replace this primitive soci a l demonstrations continued in the 1990’s. Milosevic occupied by Nato. system with real human community or, as it is could only contain this opposition by stirring up We also need resistance here, but the anti-war more often called, socialism, anarchism or nationalism and war . However the recent mutinies movement is still small. This is largely because the communism. The June 18 protest is just part of the show that workers can begin to break fr o m whole idea of socialism, of any alternative to pr o cess of building a world-wide mutiny against nationalism and could overthrow Milosevic. We capitalism and its wars, has been discredited. This capitalism in the 21st century. should not forget that it was mutinies and uprisings tactic has also been successful. But a system that against Saddam that ended the Gulf war . can only offer austerity, boredom and war will Indeed this may have led to a revolution, but the al w ays be vulnerable to people searching for an
20 A single non-revolutionary weekend is infinitely more bloody than a month of total revolution. Each crisis is an opportunity, but we all know that. It’s not enough to know that houses and hospitals have been destroyed, That transport, communications and electricity networks have been shattered, That forests, fields and rivers are dead, Or that thousands of people are homeless, hungry or dying.
To compete in today’s global markets requires tactical precision and real-time intelligence. It demands not only the most advanced data-processing and delivery technology but also a participatory relationship between corporate and military sectors, the yin and yang of a balanced global economy.
FPI offers you strategic competitive solutions via exclusive access to NATO’s network of smart-bomb video link-ups, satellite imagery and expert ground troop evaluators. Building and transport infrastructure, military hardware, healthcare, environmental regeneration, biotech food supplies - see investment opportunities unfold in front of your eyes as they happen, in the clinical detail your shareholders require...
Making profit from loss. June the 18th around the world....
Imagine the G8 world leaders waking, Clinton, Blair, Schroder et al, waking up in their plush yet soulless hotel rooms in Koln on the morning of June 18th. They switch on the TV to watch CNN news... their jaws drop...
On June 18th there will be strikes, blockades, Basque Country, actions are being organised in group, and street performers will march in protest shutdown, carnivals, sabotage and more in over 70 Bi l b o (Bilbao) and Ir u ~ n a , (Pamplona). In Southern against the banning of street performing. In financial centres in at least 43 countries. The Sp a i n , a network of environmental groups is Me d e l l i n , Co l o m b i a , autonomous groups are groups involved are incredibly diverse, from organising for J18 in Hu e l v a . From Va l e n c i a : “We’re organising a forum on globalisation, a carnival environmentalists in Zimbabwe, Poland, Israel and planning two open “critical masses” in the against multinationals with a potlatch bazaar, Portugal, to Unions in Bangladesh, India Canada and afternoon, a big street party and some groups are traditional games and puppets and acrobats, music Austria, to the unemployed in France, indigenous going to do some direct actions all over the city.” videos and poetry, and a concert with local ska people’s in Nigeria and peasant groups in Indonesia In As t u r i e s , “feminist, autonomous, ecologist, and punk bands. There will also be a demonstration and Senegal. They are building global links syndicalist groups are organising a carnival in at the multinational Banco Santander. globally between movements, as a strong front of the public savings bank CAJASTUR.” At the same time in North America, in New York, international network is needed to counter the In Sc o t l a n d there will be June 18th street party Reclaim the Streets NYC are organising an action globalisation of misery under capitalism. The sun will rise first in Au s t r a l i a , where political activists in Sy d n e y , Me l b o u r n e , Ad e l a i d e “We are conscious of the devastating capability of transnational capital and Br i s b a n e are organising a day of festive but we are also conscious of the creative capacity of imagination and protests. The Sydney J18 Collective say: “The J- One-Eight Public Holiday will definitely be 1999’s freedom. That’s why we will protest in force but we will also celebrate biggest anti-globalization event - a carnival, a with joy, the joy of making possible human contact, warmth, art and life.” direct action, a street festival. Mobile and bold Club de los Intelectuales Podridos (Decaying Intellectuals’ Club) squads of activists will be able to create a sense of mass agitation and excitement...and autonomous actions targeting individual corporations, a in Gl a s g o w . In En g l a n d , as well as the Lo n d o n in Time Square. In Bo s t o n , at noon on June 18, lunchtime mass action “Anti-Business Lunch”, and a events, Lancaster Freedom Collective have “a day of Boston Encuentro will rally near BankBoston and “Scumbags Tour” of corporate HQ’s”. Also planned actions on local corporate nasties”... In Ne w b u r y Fleet headquarters, ‘We’ll begin with a conga line, are a mass “Friday Night Office Party” street “hundreds of happy, smiling folk, dressed music, puppets, street theater and leaflets. procession at peak hours and a special J18 Critical up and armed with banners, posters, leaflets, There’s a rumour that Zapatistas may ride in on Mass bike ride through the business district. By custard pies, D-locks and much partying horses to show their solidarity.’ A mock letter this time activities will be in full swing in So u t h paraphernalia will converge on Vodafone and show from ‘Fleece Boston’, will send up the gigantic Ko r e a in the Far East, and beginning in South East them a better way of living!” merger of BankBoston and Fleet Bank, which already Asia: there are J18 contacts in Th a i l a n d , Ma l a y s i a In Wa l e s the ‘cymraeg dim sharid a cymraeg’ promises layoffs of more than 5,000 workers... and In d o n e s i a (where the North Sumatra Peasant collective is planning a critical mass cycle ‘We plan to combine satire and entertainment with Union / NSPU are organising for J18). The sun rises blockade in Ca r d i f f . The Irish section of the serious critique, to shine light on the dark side next on South Asia, with actions in Ne p a l an d International Workers’ Association is organising of finance capital - the giant banks at the centre Ba n g l a d e s h (where action is being taken by the 1.5 for J18 in Be l f a s t . Meanwhile down in Da k a r , of the neoliberal conquest of the world.’ million strong Bangladesh National Garments Workers’ Se n e g a l , the peasant farmer group Concept is the Turning North to Ca n a d a , Peoples’ Global Action, Ot t a w a (social movements such as the Canadian Federation of Students, coalition to stop the war ‘There will be protests across 25 states in India, involving hundreds of against Yugoslavia, Industrial Workers of the thousands of people who have been marginalised by the market economy and World, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and Comité des Sans Emploi, and Critical Mass) are organising World Trade Organisation policies. Many capital developments are coming to actions on corporate institutions. In Mi n n e a p o l i s , India but they benefit only the rich.’ National Alliance of People’s Movements, India Mi n n e s o t a , (US) a J18 party is being put together.. In Re g i n a , Ca n a d a students and trade unionists are uniting following the “Stop Corporate Federation). In In d i a , the National Alliance of contact for J18 organising. A few hours later, as Control” action to plan a bigger and more radical Peoples Movements (NAPM) will be taking action we move through time and space on to Latin action for June 18th. In Al b u q u e r q u e (US) a across the country. While 241 Unions in Pa k i s t a n America...In Br a z i l two networks have answered the feminist activist collective, feminists liberating take to the streets. 18th June call. In Mo n t e v i d e o , Ur u g u a y , the J18 our world (flow), are organising for June 18th, A few hours later in the Middle East, Green network is working on ideas such as a spoof trade Meanwhile, south of the border in Mexico D.F Action is organising for J18 together with other fair; posters and flyers, designed like cheques or there will be an action on the Stock Exchange. groups in Is r a e l . Simultaneously, Africa and Europe dollars; and banks for the poor outside the banks, Back North, Eu g e n e , Oregon will have a party and spin into life. Students for Environmental Action where they can deposit misery and unemployment and ‘finance tours’ around town. Also planned are are getting it together in Ha r a r e , Zi m b a b w e . rubbish workers can deposit their rubbish (their music, games, and murals Further down the coast, Chikoko, the network of indigenous groups resisting capital!) and block the streets with their carts. The San Francisco Bay Area is bubbling with the oil industry in Ni g e r i a will be springing into In Buenos Aires, Argentina the debt cancellation excitement as J18 draws near. Planning is focused action at the same time as Earth First! Pr a g u e in movement Dialogo 2000, (religious and social on ten locally-based multinational multideath the Czech Republic and actions against the European groupings including Madres de la Plaza de Mayo corporations. 2500-5000 flyers have already been Bank of Reconstruction and Development in Mi n s k , and trade unions), will hold a procession/march printed for SF. They say, “ART ATTACK HITS Be l a r u s . In Ma l t a the Moviment Graffitti is through the financial centre. In front of the FINANCIAL DISTRICT” in addition to a graphic of a organising a J18 punk concert, while in It a l y : “we Central Bank/IMF building speakers will argue for tripod. In Va n c o u v e r 3000 flyers and 2400 stick up are planning in Mi l a n o , something like a street rave non-payment by the peoples of the indebted South, posters have been printed with the meeting point parade, and a similar one in Ro m a : we should be able and popular artists and musicians will perform for J18 revelous subversion. And the sun will set to involve in the party a large number of squats, under the banner Liberation from Debt. on June 18th in Downtown Los Angeles where there sound systems and common people, to create a fun In Sa n t i a g o , Ch i l e a conscientious objection will be a J18 Street Party... partyin’ venue in both cities In Co l o g n e , Ge r m a n y there’s a mass ‘Laugh-Parade’, where thousands of people will make a laughing stock of the G8 leaders. “In mass we’ll march, bike ride, dance, protest and party towards There is a J18 street party organised in destinations to be announced. Have fun. Be creative. There will be music. La u s a n n e , Sw i t z e r l a n d . “Here, the streets, privatised by cars, will be given back to the There will be dancing. Remember, revolution is the festival of the citizens. A huge event with music and more” In the oppressed!” (LA Reclaim The Streets)
22 The freedom of others extends mine infinitely June the 18th in London
Carn'ival n. 1. An explosion of Freedom involving laughter, mockery, dancing, masquerade and revelry. 2. Occupation of the streets in which the symbols and ideals of authority are subverted. 3. When the Thursday June 17th marginalised take over the centre and create a world turned upside down. 6pm Campaign Against the Arms Trade planning meeting fo r 4. You cannot watch carnival, you take part. 5. An unexpected carnival is action targeting financial institution linked to the Arms revolutionary. trade. For more info : CAAT 0171 281 0297
The city of London is the world's largest financial centre. It has more foreign banks and handles more foreign exchange ($637 bn a day) Friday June 18th than any other city in the world. It deals more There will be numerous un-publicised events and action in foreign shares than anywhere else and it creates the morning, some aimed to cause maximum disruption to the almost 20% of the entire UK’s Gross Domestic financial markets. Below are some of the open events that Product. If it was an independent country it we know about: would rank the 20th richest in the world, just ahead of Belgium. 7:30 am: Critical Mass - Huge cycle action to reclaim the City streets - bring your bike! Meet West Smithfield, EC1, On June the 18th the City will be unrecognisable (near City Thameslink & Farringdon rail stations). as thousands of people occupy and transform its streets and institutions. 10:00 am : Picket of Reed Employment Agency, 87 Moorgate, EC2 (over 'New Deal' harassment of claimants). Further The Corporation of London and City police have info: Haringey Solidarity Group 0181 374 5027. been sending letters to every firm in the square mile warning of "major disruption" and advising 10:30 am: 'Animal abuse is as transnational as Capital' - companies to take emergency security precautions. meet Farringdon tube to demonstrate against animal abuse. We invite everyone working in the city to take Further info: 0171-278-3068 the day off or call in sick and join in the fun and festivities. 11:00 am: Anti-McDonalds picket. Meet Liverpool Street McDonalds. Further info: London Greenpeace 0171 713 1269 Cap'italism n. 1 A system by which the few profit from the exploitation 11:00 am Global chain reaction - human chain around of the many. 2. A mindset addicted to profit, work and debt which values treasury in Whitehall, bring banners, whistles, creativity. money more than life. 3. An unsustainable ideology obsessed by growth Meet 11am Parliament Square (tube: Westminster). Further despite our finite planet. 4. The cause of the global, social and ecological info: People & Planet 01865 245678 crisis. 5. A social system overthrown at the end of the 20th century... 12 noon: Carnival of Resistance: Replace the Roar of Profit and plunder with the sounds and rhythms of party and pleasure. Massive Carnival snaking its way through the square mile. Bring food to share, things to make music & noise with, radios. Meet at Liverpool Street Station. Further info: Reclaim the Streets:0171 281 4621
13.30 Protest against the Militarisation of Space. Me e t Green Park tube. Association of Autonomous Astronauts. 0793 08 3 4 9 0 4
4:00 pm - Picket of Aroma, 135 Bishopsgate, (Aroma is now owned by McDonald's). Meet Bishopsgate “To work for entrance of Liverpool Street BR station. Further info: London Greenpeace 0171 713 1269
delight and 19.00 Eurobunk. Meet at Waterloo Station to do a mass bunk of the 19.27 Eurostar train to Brussels (this tactic, of demanding free trains to take activists to demonstrations, authentic has been used successfully in mainland Europe) . Change trains for Cologne and anti-G8 demo on Saturday 19 June. Bring sleeping bag or tent. Contact: festivity is
from preparing If you are arrested on the day or are a witness to an arrest there will be a legal defence meeting on SATURDAY 19TH JUNE, at Marchmont Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, WC1. Starts 12 noon. For more info ring:Legal Defence and Monitoring Group for general 0171 837 7557. The office will be open all night if there are arrests. insurrection.” Coming soon to this location: charming ruins. 23 taking control of ou r own lives “We are not in the least bit afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the If we don't want this thing do manual work for 10 hour a day? variously termed neoliberalism, Who, in 1986, could have predicted earth; there is not the globalisation, the 'free' market, the fall of the Berlin wall, a or capitalism which is clearly mere two years later. As destroying the lives of oppressions are removed our slightest doubt about individuals, their families, options will probably multiply. communities and our communal How would you spend your time if that. They might blast environment, what do we want? How work was abolished? would we order a new world? How The arguments above are not to and ruin their own world would a new society function? say that, I, or the groups These are all often heard cries involved in June 18th actions, before they leave the when the removal of the current have no ideas for how we may live social order is mentioned. in the future. In the broadest stage of history. We The question of me, writing terms, as some June 18th leaflets these words, telling you, reading state, we are "against all forms these words, how to live your of oppression, and for a free and carry a new world, here future life is clearly wrong. The ecological society based on mutual idea of an enlightened few telling aid and cooperation." Likewise, in our hearts. That world (and then forcing) the masses how the consideration of alternatives to live, is the current situation is not problematic, as long as is growing this minute.“ - why would anyone want to they are not imposed. With the replicate that? How can I know emphasis on direct action and you, you may live on a housing taking control yourself those estate, you may be a peasant testing alternative to the global farmer in Brazil reading this on economy may well be developing the the internet, you may be a company seeds of the future in the present director, the answers to how we society. want to live our lives are clearly different for different people. And it is for them, free from any coercion to decide how to live. There is also the question of possibility. What seems impossible, or stupid, today is possible tomorrow. Who, 150 years ago, would think that today, in the UK at least, children do not
Exodus, Luton, UK
‘E x o dus’ are not the most obvious sustainable The next step seemed simple – "We were times people have cut their hands!" this is an assault on social alienation as well crusaders - originating as a trav e l l i n g le a ving derelict buildings after having parti e s The success of both squats has given the as pov e rt y . We’ve got wonderful plans: we will soundsystem, committed to little more than in them – thinking what a fucking shame, so group incredible confidence, "we took on the ha ve a non-profit community shop, provided delivering free BPM ‘n bass to skint Lutonian much potential, sitting there rotting". In authorities and won – first we said to the with organic fresh veg by the farm, getting ra vers, the group is now involved in one of the early 1993 they squatted two of the buildings police 'In this space for a few hours, this cheap fresh food to poor people, a wind most exciting and radical sustainable urban and came up with the DIO (Do It Ourselves) community’s laws apply, not yours,' and they generator making energy for the whole estate, regeneration projects in the UK. ph i l o s o p h y , which is now central to every had to let us party . Then we said to the council cheap entertainment for kids – all sorts. The Since the early 90’s the Exodus group have project the group are involved in. HA Z 'W e will use these buildings better than you most impo rtant thing is to remove been growing in their conviction that not only (Housing Action Zone) Manor and The Farm will, and we want to spend the housing pr o f essionals who want to "provide" for us, did their town, Luton, just north of London, were established, providing homes for some of benefit we are entitled to, on regenerating but expect big wages - we can do all this much need radical change, but the whole way their the group and space in which to be g i n them – turning the money into a great place cheaper than anyone else. lives were going needed a rethink. "Most of us broadening their horizons and realising other to live, not lining landlords pockets', and This is regeneration by the people, for the were unemployed and loads of us were plans like establishing a communal organic eventually they had to let us." people. We are taking responsibility for our homeless" says Guy Jenkins, ex-train driver garden, a sustainable water system and savi n g This confidence has been vital in the own environment - we want to make it and spokesman for the group, we starte d for a renewable energy system. "We wanted to conception of their next project, The Ark liveable and sustainable. We can’t leave it to putting on free raves because the scene was challenge all those negative ideas abo u t community centre, based in the middle of a people who think regeneration is abo u t being ruined by gangsters who wanted to squatters – we weren’t the ones who had left Luton council estate that has been the scene repainting a few doors and promising make a huge profit out of us partying – then the buildings to rot – we were doing of terrible social disintegration. "We have put computers to schools. What people don’t when we really looked around us, we realised ev e r ything we could to make them liveable in a proposal to run the centre with 100 realise is that our philosophy addresses that they were not the only people making a again, and trying to be env i r o n m e n t a l l y workers being paid dole-level wages – by so cietal, environmental and spiritual pov e rt y , profit out of us - everyone else was at it too, re s p onsible – I’ve lost count of how many doing this we can unlock the voluntary as well as problems with money. from landlords to social workers" panes of glass we have fitted – and how many potential of the people living on the estate –
24 Masochism today takes the form of reformism Fruit-tree Guerrillas: Berkeley, US
Rolling back North America’s urban and sub- going for “a strategic legislative attack on the Another campaign aims to overturn the would have been, we want to open up public urban sprawl- a million acres are sacrificed to misuse of urban and sub urban land,” says Berkely planning law that insists that all new access through the whole area and have roof - it each year- may seem like a hopeless task. Re g i s t e r . This involves getting local authority residential blocks need parking spaces. Not so, top gardens and wal k - w ays between buildings. But not to activist and fruit tree planting planners to stretch their thinking- and their says Register. Why not have car fre e I want people to see how beautiful a place the gu erilla, Richard Register. The movement he imaginations. They are currently ap a r tments inhabited by people who agree not city could be if we all reassessed the way we live has mobilised, Ecocity builders, has a flair for campaigning for ‘de-development’ rights. to have a car, and are repayed by cheaper rents. and move about within our cities – we just ef f ective and eyecatching campaigns. This means that if developed land- which has, As a culmination – to show people that it don’t need cars in the centre of town." For example, there’s the time when 400 sa y , aq natural stream running under it- were really is possible to live in a better envi r o n m e n t people dug up part of Berkley to release, fro m o f fered for redevelopment, it would be – Richard is currently proposing bringing each Its interesting to note that London has over 75 under it’s concrete grave, a river. Other eco- possible to buy those rights but to de-develop of the separate projects together into one area buried rivers and streams, including the river feats have included planting urban orchards it back to it’s natural state. The development in the centre of town, his "Heart of the City" Walbrook which runs directly under the Square overnight as well as de-paving carparks. planning permission could then be campaign. "We want to establish an entirely mile (regularly flooding the vaults of the Bank In recent years however, ecocity builders t r a n s ferred to another, more suitable ca r - f ree area, with a natural creek and an of England). Imagine London with its rivers ha ve taken a more ‘legal’ approach. They are loc a t i o n . urban orchard, where roads and car parks unearthed and its valleys revealed. Green Alchemists, Tiblisi, Russia
A recently completed community action in Varketili blocks, it is a very ugly place. The planting programme. Ha p p i l y , the for m e r national political situation. I wanted to Tblisi, Russia, has radically improved the lives whole area is made up of Concrete tower dump is now a central focus for community rebuild our community, bringing back of local residents by reclaiming acres of land bl o cks typical of modern Soviet cities. There action and socialising – providing safe clean aw areness of the rights and obligations of once used for illegal rubbish dumping, and was so much rubbish – 70,000 people live in space for spor ts and entertainment. citizenship – encouraging people to take on tr a n s f orming it into a sustainable community the blocks, and the local council never Gogi has been pivotal to the project, community responsibilities and deal with park. The park is now home to new removed it. The situation was not good for initiating discussions among residents and their own local issues." community recreational facilities as well as a people’s health." i n t r oducing the idea of a sustainable "The response from the local community garden and huge tree planting campaign, The initial clean-up operation wa s community park in 1997. "For me there were has been amazing – it’s wonderful to have which is improving local air quality and pe r f ormed by residents of the blocks using ve r y personal motivations – I live in the such tangible evidence of success. The park is aesthetics. equipment loaned from the over-stretched bl o cks and I wanted to make it a healthier, al w ays full of people playing spor ts or wal k i n g Gogi, founder of "Varketili", the resident’s lo cal council, with local schools taking on more attractive and sustainable place to live – or talking, and there's no doubt that air group who initiated the campaign, points out areas for specific projects. After much work, as well as impor tant social and political ones: quality and local health have been improved the impo rtance of improving the visual the land is now home to an outside theatre The community was breaking down, people by the removal of the rubbish dump. Th e en vironment in Tiblisi as well as improving and a spor ts ground, as well as newly planted were alienated from their social and natural success proves that working together means lo cal sustainability – "I live in one of the community gardens and on-going tree en vironment, they felt dis-empowered by the much nicer cities for people to live in. “
Genetically Modified crop display is decontaminated in broad daylight during the Royal Agricultural Show, 1998. Urban Gardeners, Havana, Cuba
In 1989 Maria Felix Bonome was a teacher at a loca l sustainable. Over half of our food was impor ted and chemical fer tilisers and pesticides were outlawed. sc h o ol in the Havana suburb of Cojimar. With the the remainder was grown only in the countrys i d e . Now around 20,000 inhabitants of Havana are collapse of the Soviet Union and an ensuing The entire food industry depended on the Soviet directly involved in organic urban gardening and economic crisis and food shortage in Cuba, she and Union - machinery, grain, fer tilisers, pesticides the results have been spectacular. Half of the her husband - also a teacher - decided to cultivate and, critically, gasoline. With the Soviet Union out island’s food is now grown in the cities with public land in front of their home. She created a of the picture, the cities were totally dependent on Ha vana providing 30% of its own vegetables, and family cooperative urban garden (called the countryside for their food, but the lack of the population has really begun to show the health " o r g a n i ponico" in Cuba), which now provides gasoline made it impossible to ship farm produ c e benefits of locally produced fresh food with enough food to feed their entire extended family as into urban areas and a major food supply crisis improved vitamin A and C intakes." well as providing produce for the community fro m en s ue d . " Sustainable urban gardening brought Cuba back eight different vegetable stalls. "The situation demanded a massive government from the brink, and Maria has not only provided "Although it is now recognised across the globe re s p onse: At the instigation of the authorities and her community with food, but helped pull them that sustainable agriculture makes the best sense with absolutely no history of urban gardening to through a very difficult period. Her place in for the future of communities, nations and our fall back upon, the citizens of Havana beg a n Ha vana’s history is guaranteed, and yet she is by no planet, it came to Cuba quite accidentally. The 1959 cultivating every single available plot of land - means alone - she and her husband are examples of Revolution declared food to be a human right and including rooftops and balconies. The City opened the exceptional level of community invo l v e m e n t with the help of massive subsidies and food import s an urban agriculture department to suppor t the and com-mitment that can be found on street from the Eastern socialist block, hunger and growers by providing them with seed, technical corners all over the city. malnutrition were effectively eradicated here. advice and free land titles for cultivation only. A H o w e v e r, by the time of the political crisis, seed house network was instituted which now agriculture on the island was anything but nu m b ers 15 - one for every city district – and
Reform my arse 25 Carnival of the dispossessed
Carnival drumming can turn the world upside- during the Ice Age made flutes and other personal future. Economic anxiety must be down. It’s the voice of thunderous resistance. musical instruments. They clearly devoted extended into all corners of life. Nobody must That’s why the European colonialists first immense time and energy to what might be have security at work; neither must we be targeted the native drums; silence them and termed “adult play” — singing, dancing, allowed to thrive outside the system. you kill the spirit. drumming, hallucinogenic trance. The whole of Casualisation means no economic security. Outside the world’s financial centres, symbolic language and culture — that special Unemployment makes those in work feel afraid. traditional carnivals or fiestas have survived thing which makes Homo sapiens so unusual — Everyone must be thrown into such anxiety and to this day in country areas, energising and might even be conceptualised as “adult play stress that nothing counts any more - except connecting each home in the village. People get writ large”. making enough money to survive. There must be to know each other, sing in each other’s homes, Wherever people put community first and no time, apart from money-making time. In reclaim the streets. In England, by contrast, personal gain second, periodic carnivals of Britain, they’ve even succeeded in abolishing the money-making classes put an end to all necessity come to the fore. Without shared Sundays; shopworkers, like much of the this. Banning May Day, Midsummer’s Eve and other songs, dances or rituals, there can be no workforce, must now treat the end of the week such “licentious” pagan rites, the devotees of cultural meanings, solidarity or identity. like any other day. profit eventually robbed us of our dances, our Unless carnival takes over whole streets, then If we’re ridden with anxieties, then we carnivals, our collective spirit and power. neighbourhoods are dead. Women and children can’t dance or play. That’s what our rulers Cromwell even tried to abolish Christmas. are then isolated in their disempowered, want. No stretch of time must be beyond their Humans are much like other intelligent silent homes. Where traffic and associated money-making grasp. If we’re prioritising money animals in that we love to play. Prevent a anxieties eliminate street-life, then tower on every day of the week, then they’ve won. kitten or puppy from playing and it may still blocks, housing estates and neighbourhoods Money first: people and planet second. But the survive. But much of life’s meaning will have might as well be graveyards. converse is also true. If we’re enjoying vanished. Young chimpanzees enjoy playing Many of us treasure childhood memories of ourselves in our thousands as we dance in tickle and chase games with each other. But in what it felt like to be free to skip in the their time and their space — then we’ve their case as with most mammals, adult life street and play. Too often as adults, we glimpsed how to save the planet and turn their tends to be competitive, producing anxieties discover we’ve lost that secret. The stresses world upside down! and jealousies about food and sex. As chimps and anxieties of life have become too much. Well today, here we are — enjoying ourselves reach adulthood, play-fights mostly turn into We’ve forgotten how to play. We know in our in our thousands in financial centres across serious contests for social dominance — hearts, though, that when this happens, life the globe. Are we anxious? Concerned about the whereupon the play stops. If you’re ridden has lost its meaning. long-term financial consequences? Enough is with anxieties, it isn’t easy to play. The contemporary capitalist globalisation enough! You poor take courage; you rich, take Since prehistoric times, humans have tried offensive is designed to achieve just that. care. We don’t need states or borders — just not to let that happen. We know from the People must stop wasting time on living. The dancing in the streets. Get a drum — and see archeological record that hunter-gatherers trick is to make each one of us fear for our you at the Millennium Dome on New Year’s Eve.
Doing the right thing?
Like it or not, we live in interesting times. flowed to fill our car with petrol, and it own actions and for the social of course - direction and evolution of the human The most interesting times that our seems abstract and distant to think of it's not yet doing the right things, not species - and every other species on this species has ever seen. areas of thriving, inhabited forest the size co m p l e t e l y . planet. The choices we make today will Never bef ore have social relationships of Wales cut down to provide grazing for Our resistance is not only abo u t define the world in which everything will between human beings and be t w e e n the cows in our burgers. destroying capitalism, it's also abo u t live, or even if it will live at all. So if ourselves and the planet been so And these are really just examples. finding right ways of living. But in order you're one of those City workers who complicated. And so unequal. And never Follow the trail of clues from any of to find right ways of living and right way s won't be able to satisfy their pragmatic has the way we secure our survival and ev e r ything to your own individual needs to relate with each other (produce, have "needs" on June 18th, and will instead be happiness had such an impact on the way and desires - "I have to earn a living", "You fun, dance, sing, love, judge, disagree, forced to take a day off work and - who others try to do the same. The decisions only live once", "It's a dog eat dog world". pl a y , discuss, reach agreement, etc.), we knows? - maybe even dance in the streets: we make during the day - from filling the Or you could look to some external, need to come together with others who think maybe about the last time you asked car with petrol on the way to work in the trusted authority for guidance. You could are attempting to do the same, in their "Am I doing the right thing?" morning to grabbing a burger at place your trust in the law, in religion, in own localities, right across the world. To lunchtime - send countless ripples across 'ethics commissions', in raw science or do the right thing then is to learn fro m the 'global village' pond. just the friendly televisual face of Tre v o r each other while building new soci a l Doing the right thing takes a fai r Mc D o n a l d . relationships which allow us to satisfy our amount of physical and imaginative Most of us would like to live our lives needs and still be able to sleep at night. ef fo r t; so it's disturbing to visualise the without causing harm to others. Yet to do We live in interesting times alright. bl o od of people in the Niger Delta which this we must take responsibility for our Times which will determine the future
26 I came, I saw, I was won over. times, it is also vital that we actualise our freedom to envi s i o n a world of our own making. If we are to express visionary freedom, then we have to begin to ask ourselves what kind of society should we beg i n to envision? To envision a new kind of ecological soci e t y , we need a new kind of passionate politics, a new idea of what it means to be politically engaged. We must demand a Notes on an Ecology of Everyday Life re v o l u t i o n a r y democracy in which citizens are no longer dominated by, or excluded from, the nation-State. We may re- create ourselves as state-less citizens empowered to directly Ecology is as much about desire as it is about need. When manage our everyday lives. activists take to the streets to fight the corporate power that We must develop a new understanding of citizenship that threatens environmental and health safet y , they also take over is not defined in relation to capital or to the nation-states, those streets, creating a carnivalesque demand for community, nation, but is instead, defined in opposition to capital and the pleasure, and meaning. Born out of the call for enough clean nation-state. We may become revolutionary citizens defined wat e r , air, and land to survive, ecology is also the demand for Yet while we need to rethink our understanding of desire, in relation to local communities that are part of a larger a particular quality of life worth living. we also have to rethink our understanding of nature. ‘Nature’ co n f ederation of self-governing bodies. We may become “a This desire for an ecological way of life carries within it the cannot be the ‘country home’ of our desires, that place we run community of communities.” This new way of thinking abou t nascent demand for an ecological soci e t y , a demand that has to in our dreams, longing to escape the pain and confusion of political regeneration is called liber tarian municipalism. potentially revolutionary implications. For once we li f e at the end of the twentieth century. An ecology of Developed by social ecologist Murray Bookchin, libert a r i a n collectively translate this desire into political terms, we are ev e r yday life translates the desire for ‘nature’ into a soci a l municipalism proposes a way for members of communities to able to challenge a global system that enslaves most of the desire to create a society that is whole, humane, and reclaim existing local political forums, or to create extra-legal world’s inhabitants, forcing them to forgo their desires, me a n i n g f u l . citizen forums, gradually transforming them into citizens lowering their ecological expectations to the level of mere Nature is not a pure and abstract thing removed from the assemblies: forums in which we may gather together as sustenance. Keeping desire within the ecology movement ev e r yday lives of people living in cities, suburbs, and towns. m e m bers of communities to directly manage our own keeps our demand for satisfaction, vitality, and meaning alive, By bringing the idea of ‘nature’ down to earth, ecology ev e r yday lives. in vigorating our ability to envision a socially and ecologically becomes the very stuff of our everyday lives: the crowded Li be r tarian municipalism is a way in which we may desirable soci e t y . street in our neighbou r h o od, the water with which we was h publicly seize our power as political actors, taking back We need to rethink desire in social rather than romantic or our clothes, both skyscraper and smoke-stack, as well as the decision-making power from professional politicians, states, individualistic terms. This is crucial because, while our soci e t y plants, animals, and other creatures with whom we share this co r p orations, and transnational apparatuses such as the WTO. of f ers us a variety of ways to describe the many dimensions of pl a n e t . As members of municipalities form local groups engaged in romantic and individualistic desire, we are offered a paltry An ecology of everyday life transforms ecology from a lofty the process of political transformation, we may confed e r a t e voc a b u l a r y to describe a social understanding of desire. We are romantic venture into an ongoing everyday labour of love. with other groups from other municipalities to create a true saturated by consumerist rhetoric of ‘personal satisfac t i o n ’ , Ecology is just as much about providing day-care for parents ra p po r t de force, a coordinated and united counter-power to yet rarely do we hear eloqu ent discussion about the craving for attending organising meetings and fighting to save urban the State and capital. If we do not find this deadening world a free and non-hierarchical soci e t y . Our society worships at ne i g h bo u r h o ods from roadbuilding and gentrification as it is desirable, then we must do more than protest: we must create the fountain of capitalism. Its insatiable waters of material ab out protecting forests and green spaces. an o t h e r . greed and sexual domination drown any desire to regenerate Removing the idea of nature from its pristine and static To fulfil its revolutionary potential, ecology must bec o m e co operative social and ecological relationships. display case, we may see it for what it is: a dazzling and the desire to infuse the objects, relationships, and practices of dynamic evolutionary process that continues to unfurl abou t ev e r yday life with the same quality of integrity, bea u t y , and us and within us. By recognising our minds, our hands, our meaning that people in industrial capitalist contexts bones and our hearts as part of a collective natural history — commonly reserve for “nature.” It means recasting many of as an evolutionary inheritance — we become outraged by the the values often associated with nature within social terms, pollution that we are forced to breathe into our lungs, seizing the power to create new political institutions that t r a n s forming it into a moral outrage that is fuel fo r encourage, rather than obstruct, the expression of a soci a l re v o l u t i o n a r y action. desire for a cooperative, pleasurable, and ecological soci e t y . Once we are able to locate ourselves within this evolution, An ecology of everyday life is about reaching for this we can begin to measure our everyday lives as they could be desirable soci e t y , reclaiming our humanity as we reclaim our rather than as they are. Suddenly the dull office job, the abilities to reason, dream, and to make decisions about our lonely neighbou r h o od, the pov e r ty or even the unsatisfying own communities. It is about looking into the uncharte d privilege — all take on new meaning. ‘wilderness’ of direct- d e m ocracy itself, that delicious, Ecology provides a lens through which we may take a long em p owering, and deeply social process through which we and often excruciating look at our own lives, a chance to become a truly humane expression of that ‘nature’ for which evaluate the quality of our relationships, both local and global. we have yearned all along. And if we are not heartened by what we see, we realise that we ha ve an enormous challenge bef ore us. For once we appreciate the interconnectedness of life, we understand that we cannot simply work to save a certain species of plant or animal. We realise that we must also transform society itself. In turn, the demand for an ecological society cannot be reduced to an individual or personal quest for a better quality of life. It must be a social desire to fight for the quality of life for all, a desire that ultimately requires a dramatic restructuring of political, social, and economic institutions. It asks that we transform our love for nature into a re v o l u t i o n a r y activist politics that strives to bring to soci e t y the best of what we long for when we talk about “nature.” We need to rethink our desires to ‘simplify’ our lives, or our desires to create autonomous zones in which we can seek asylum from the deadening society that capitalism creates in its own image. In addition, we must begin to grapple with “the complexity of complicity”: a recognition that, despite attempts to extricate ourselves from systems of injustice through personal choices about how we will live, because of the pervasiveness of overlapping systems of pow e r , we will alway s remain embedded, and thus complicit within, institutions like global capitalism, the State, racism and sexism. The desire to rebuild our lives represents a kind of ‘visionary freedom’ that goes beyond the ‘protest freedom’ that has become prominent within social movements. While we must express our freedom to protest against the inhumanity of our
Those who speak of revolution without referring explicitly to everyday life have a corpse in their mouth 27 Is there Life After June 18th?
The June 18th day of action has brought together a wide range of If you've been inspired empowered intrigued, or bemused by today’s groups taking action on a massive range of issues. It's not just events, and want to find out more about resistance to social about one day, it's about building a movement. From the global to injustice, environmental destruction, globalisation and corporate the local it’s about taking back control of our lives bad guys, there are literally thousands of things you could do next.
The following is a totally random collection of events, contacts, Get in touch with one of these groups. rants and resources sent in to ES by groups from around the country. Get along to some of these meetings, actions or events. It's a tiny selection that makes no claim to be comprehensive or to Take a look at (or subscribe to!) the many publications represent the diversity of exciting stuff there is happening, but it giving you the news you don't get on the News. hopefully gives an idea of how easy it is to get involved! Get on the Web and find out what's going on in your back yard and on the other side of the world!
Thinking local...
BI R M I N G H A M : BR I G H T O N : C e m e t a ry, Church Street, Stoke people acting on their own terms- as c/o Box G, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxfor d , NO MORE ROADS! THE REBEL ALLIANCE Newington, N16. Public transport : the best way to effect meaningful OX4 1RQ. Email: oca @ o x y a c e . c o . u k We are a group of protesters from the The Rebel Alliance - Brighton's Stoke Newington BR, 73 bus fro m ch a n g e . Birmingham Northern Relief Road forum for direct action groups who Kings Cross. (To Green Lanes: 141, The Forum is not where things SC O T L A N D : (B.N.R.R.) protest camp come down organise as equals, without leaders, 341. To Stoke Newington High St: 67, actually get put together, but rather Pressmennan. ~60 trees down, over to the big city. The BNRR is Britians outside and against all po l i t i c a l 76, 149, 243). All welcome. the place where you might meet the 300 to go in the Autumn, occ u p a t i o n first toll motorway cutting through p a rties We share news and people you want to work with. It required to be set up bef ore that time areas of natural beauty and the i n formation about direct action MA N C H E S T E R : focuses fee d back from various groups Landowners have to stop fe l l i n g Midlands ever decreasing green events, building community Monday 21 Party Against the ab out what they are doing, fol l o w e d ancient woods and the Forestry land. If you see us come over and resistance and creating grassroot s Ru n w ay- Arthur's Wood. Get a bus or by time to ask questions and propos e Commission have got to stop say hello and get some details. More alternatives to the crap presented by train to the airpo rt then wa l k new projects, plus a video showing or encouraging them, in these illegal protestors and stuff always needed to governments, corporations and the to w ards the Cargo Centre and out sp e a k e r . activities. In meantime all we can do keep the battle against the media. It’s an oppo rtunity fo r onto the A538. Go down the A538 is stand in way of the chain saws and construction companies going!! If groups and individuals to meet, to w ards Wilmslow and turn off at Critical Mass - Norwich Cyc l e draw attention to the issue. All due you want to get in touch the no is: network and socialise. Meet 7pm, the roundabout onto the Styal Road. Shenanigans on the streets of pr o cesses have been exhausted so its 07931 161761. Hey Hey Hey!! upstairs at the Hobgoblin Pub, Immediately turn right towards the Norwich Last Saturday of EVERY down to direct action. Contact WAN D London Road, Brighton on the last Moathouse Hotel. Follow the month, Meet at the Old Library Car c/o PO Box 1021, Edinburgh, EH8 9PW BR I S T O L : Wednesday of every month. The bridlepath on the left hand side to Park 2pm. Bring your Bike, Bristol Reclaim the Streets- July 10th next meetings will be on Wed n e s d a y the camp. Info: (07931 931850/01226 Sk a t e b oard, Feet, Hangliders.....Now YO R K : LEAF will be holding a picnic meet 12 noon Castle Park March at 30th June, Wednesday 28th July. 764279, [email protected]) with added Sound System! and protest nr Menwith Hill spybase Manchester EF! Dept 29, 255 Wilmslow Road, Manchester M14 Norfolk EF! The Greenhouse 42-46 Bethel Street Norwich NR2 1pm. Bring colour, noise, energy, 5L W 0161 226 6814 mancef@nematode . 1N R on the 20th of June. Meet 11am music, foot b a l l s LO N D O N : fre e s e r v e . c o . u k Harrogate stn. Email Sick of London’s rat race mentality, OX F O R D : s [email protected] or mail An t i - W ar Actions - Wee k l y , meet at pollution, and apathy? Wanna get NO R W I C H : The Oxford J18 coalition is gearing up Yo r k L E A F, SU ctr, Uni of Yo r k , 10am at the Hippodrome in the town i nvolved in fighting back and Norwich Direct Action Forum Direct to a summer of resistance and Heslington, York, Y01 5DD centre Visits to army bases and direct finding solutions? Don’t know Action Forum exists to improve celebration cutting through issues action against the bomb makers! where to start? Come along to the communications be t w e e n like genetix, greenbe l t- housing, Bristol Activists Against the War : Action Alliance: A new forum for individuals and groups that use s u b v e rtising, transpo rt, asylum contact Kebele 0117 939 3093 direct action news & events in direct action, to raise awareness of rights and much more. We ' r e London It’s a chance for old and new these groups and to provide a poi n t arranging a monthly 'Campaigns STOP PRESS: Activists in Bristol have activists to hear short of contact for people interested in Up date' meeting and social which squatted The Bishopston Community announcements from a whole range getting involved. We focus on Direct will allow groups and individuals to Centre (Originally a church) which of groups about what’s going on in Action rather than any parti c u l a r share ideas, resources and people; has been closed by the Church of London - and to soc i a l i s e ! i s s ue as we recognise the and help to further connect the England who were threatening to Wednesday July 7 1999 at 7.30pm at interconnectedness of various m a ny radical groups of Oxfo r d . sell it. “The Church”, opposite Abney Park s t r u ggles and see Direct Ac t i o n - Contact: Oxford Community Act i o n ,
Some other contacts:
Bath EF! Fife EF! LE A F Oldham EF! South Devon EF! Wolves Eco Action Advisory Service for Anti-Quarry Action Hunt Saboteurs Assoc. Save the Hillgrove Cats c/o PO Box 426, Bath c/o 91 South Street Box Z, 13 Biddulph St. PO Box 127 Bi r d w o od House c/o Wolves Hunt Sabs Sq u a t t e r s ( AQUA ) PO Box 2786 Box CB Autonomous Centre of 1 in 12 Club Somerset BA1 2ZD St. Andrews Leicester LE2 1BH OLDHAM OL4 3FE 44 High Street, Tot n e s Wolves Uni SU 2 Saint Pauls Road Ki m b erly Mill Park Brighton BN2 2AX 111 Magdelen Road Ed i n b u r g h 21-23 Albion Street 01249 713742 Fi f e KY16 9Q 0116 270 9616 Devon TQ9 5SQ Wul f runa Street London N1 2QN King's Steignton 01273 622827 Ox f ord OX4 1RQ 17 West Montgomery BRADFORD, BD1 2LY 01334 477411 Reclaim the Streets Wol v e r h a m p t o n 0171 359 8814 TQ12 3NR hs a @ g n . a p c . o r g 0121 632 6460 Place, Edinburgh EH7 01274 734160 Cambridge EF! Leeds EF! c/o CRC, PO Box 9656, London N4 Swansea People EF! WV1 1LY ad v i c e @ 01626 363844 5HA 0131 557 6242 Box E, 12 Mill Road Glasgow EF! 16 Sholebroke Ave n u e 4JY 0171 281 4621 c/o Green Act i o n sq u a t . fr e e s e r v e . c o . u k Industrial Workers Aldermaston Women's Worthing Anarchist Cambridge CB1 2AD PO Box 180 Leeds LS7 3HB rts @ g n . a p c . o r g Sw ansea Uni SU Anarchist Teapot Disabled Action Network of the World Peace Camp Citizen Smith Te a p o t Glasgow G4 9AB 0113 262 9365 Sw ansea, Wal e s Action Kitchen, Box B ALF Supporters Group 3 Crawley Road 75 Humberstone Gate ( alternative weekends ) Old Community Centre PO box 4144, Wort h i n g Cardiff EF! co r n e r s t o n e @ g n . a p c . o r g Reclaim the Valleys Public House Book s h o p BCM Box 1160 Wood Green, London Leicester LE1 1WB 33 Heron Road 161 College Road Kensal West Sussex BN14 7NZ c/o Green Group Guildford EF! c/o Swan s e a TAPP (Tyneside Action 21 Little Preston Street London WC1N 3XX N22 6AN 0181 8891361 Bristol BS5 0LT Green, London te a po t @ w o rt h i n g . e c o - Glamorgan Uni SU, PO Box 217 Liverpool EF! En vironment Centre for People & Planet) Brighton BN1 2HQ 10 0 3 0 2 1 6 1 6 @ Legal Defence & 0117 939 3746 / NW10 3PH 07931 980534. ac t i o n . o r g Pontypridd, Gu i l d f ord GU1 1WS 96 Bold Street Pier Street PO Box ITA co m p u s e r v e . c o m EarthRights Law Centre Monitoring Group 01703 554434 ci t i z e n s m i t h u k @ Mid-Glamorgan fax 01483 203212 Li v e r p ool L1 4HY Sw ansea SA1 1RY Newcastle Upon Tyn e Spirit of Freedom 26 Field Lane, BM Have n ho t m a i l . c o m CF37 1DL NE1 1TA (E a r th Lib. Prisoners) Anarchist Communist Teddington, Middlesex, London WC1N 3XX Faslane Peace Camp Gwynedd & Mon EF! Mid-Somerset EF! Reading Roadbusters ta p p @ n e w c a s t l e 5 4 . c/o Leeds EF! Fe d e r a t i o n TW11 9AW 0181 977 2248 0181 5337116 Shandon, Helensburgh Kebele Community Ctr Cheltenham EF! The Greenhouse PO Box 23, 5 High St. R.I.S. Centre fre e s e r v e . c o . u k ea rt h l i b p r i s o n e r @ c/o 84b Whitechapel ea rt h r i g h t s @ g n . a p c . o r g Du n b a rt o n s h i r e 14 Rober tson Road 16 Portland Street 1 Trevelyan Ter r a c e Gl a s t o n b u r y, 35-39 London Street ho t m a i l . c o m High Street London GreenPeace & Scotland G84 8HT Ea s t v i l l e Cheltenham Ba n g o r , Gwynedd LL57 Somerset BA6 9PU Reading Berks RG1 4PS Warwick EF! London E1 7QX Genetic Engineering McLibel Support 01436 820 901 Bristol BS5 6JY Gloucs. GL52 2PB 1AX 01248 355821 0118 954 6430 c/o Green Soci e t y West Country Activist Network (GEN) Campaign 5 Caledonian 0117 939 9469 hq @ c h e l t - af u 0 1 b @ b a n g o r. a c . u k Nottingham EF! ro a db u s t e r s @ c l a r a . n e t Warwick Uni SU c/o PO Box 478 Anti-Fascist Action (as for RTS ) Road London N1 9DX 56a Infoshop ke be l e @ m a i l e x c i t e . c o m ef. fr e e s e r v e . c o . u k c/o The Rainbow Ctr. 182 Co v e n t r y CV4 7AL Taunton TA2 7YR BM Box 1734 0181 374 9516 0171 713 1269 56 Crampton Street Hull On Earth Mansfield Road Southampton EF! su u a d @ wc a @ c o n k . c o m London WC1N 3XX ge n e t i c s @ g n . a p c . o r g in fo @ m c s po t l i g h t . o r g London SE17 3AE 121 Centre (infoshop +) Exeter Environ. c/o PO Box 43 Nottingham NG1 3HW SUSU Pigeonholes cs v. wa r w i c k . a c . u k Open 2-8pm Thurs & 121 Railton Road Ne t w o r k Hull HU1 1AA 0115 958 5666 Southampton University Fr i x x x x x x x x x Br i x t o n PO Box 185 University Road London SE24 0LR Exeter EX4 4EW Southampton SO14 0171 274 6655 ec o @ s o t o n . a c . u k Close Down The UK's The Land Is Ours - A Landrights Movement for Britain Arms SuperMarket!! Peacefully campaigning for access to land, its resources,and the decisionmaking processes affecting them, for everyone, irrespective of race, The Defence Systems & Equipment age or gender.' Contact: Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd, Oxford OX4 1RQ +44 International (DSEi) arms exhibition. (0)1865 722016 http://www.oneworld.org/tlio (Sept 14-17th ‘99, London) The biggest UK event of the year for fat cats "Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for who profit from human misery: 25,000 them to bag and barn up the treasures of the earth from others, that these may beg square metres of warmongery, and the or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?" Ge r r a r d government is using over £25,000 of Winstanley The New Law of Righteousness, 1649 taxpayers' money to fund the event. Join CAAT’ s biggest campaign to date! MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE Contact: (0171) 281 0297 Building a grassroots movement to fight racism/homophobia in the police, prisons, mental health institutions etc... Organising in communities to empower people to fight against the fascists. Meetings most Thursday evenings at 366 Brixton Road, SW2 (next to Tesco Petrol Station) Tel: 07957 696636.
The Solidarity Federation is a revolutionary union run directly for workers by workers.
LONG HOURS? NO BREAKS? UNSAFE AND UNHEALTH YC O N D I T I O N S ? From Bangladesh to Broadgate, bosses will continue to exploit us as long as we remain divided, unorganised and apathetic. If we want change, we have to do it ourselves through direct action. This starts in small ways: Like getting together with your workmates and challenging your boss at work, without getting the sack. ORGANISING AT WORK: The Future’s Red & Black! National Genetic Engineering We are anarcho-syndicalists and believe that workers ourselves are the best people to take control of how we work, what we produce and how things are run.
We offer help, advice and regular support surgeries for workers: Ways to get other workers meeting and organising together. Information, our own experience, and resources to help you. Research advice (e.g. into company profits/health and safety regulations) Help with support for pickets and collections for hardship money. SM A S H Action on July 31st at 12noon. For A national and international federation of groups for solidarity actions. more details contact 07808 191858 or [email protected]. Contact: 0181 374 5027 (State clearly that messages are for the Solidarity Federation) www.gn.apc.org/SolFed or Direct Action Magazine www.directa.force9.co.uk. This is the summer of our discontent...
TARGET TARMAC. R E S O U R C E S : Tarmac have destroyed some of the Ea r th First! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a “The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, most beautiful countryside in the country, co n venient banner for people and those who are killing it have names and are guilty of way too many dodgy who share similar and addresses” - Utah Philips. philosophies to practices to list here. Yet they are the work under. The company when it comes to commercial general principles beh i n d the name are non- greenwash and have won awards for the hierarchical organisation Corporate Watch The Earth First! Action Update is a monthly roundup of Direct Action news environmental practice from both the from around the UK and beyond, an essential networking tool for those and the use of direct action to confront, stop RSPB and John Prescott. engaged in radical resistance. It’s written by activists for activists, is non- profit making and is based on non-hierarchical principles and rotating and eventually reverse the for c e s Publications pr o duction teams. re s p onsible for the destruction of the Subscriptions cost £5 for 12 for individual subscribers, £12 for overseas, Ea r th and its inhabitants. negotiable to groups and free to prisoners. We need donations, Uncovering corporate wrongdoings EF! Big Days Out! subscriptions, repor ts and distribution! Ex p osing corporate weaknesses We want your repor ts of June 18th - and other actions Earth First! Action Update c/o CRC Undermining corporate pow e r As a movement we need to show this 16 Sholebroke Ave n u e, LS7 3HB, Leeds. [email protected] 0113 262 9365 greenwash for what it is. Show the world Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd, Oxford, OX4 1RQ that despite their rhetoric a capitalist Tel: (01865) 791391 e-mail
I N C I T E M E N T Other Useful and Interesting Publications: The case against the Global Economy and Check out these websites and their links: “The Blatant Incitement Project exists to Squaring Up to the Square Mile, The for a turn towards the local. Ed. ww w . a g p . o r g -Pe o p l e’s Global Action Network empower people to organise, without Corporate Watchers Address Book and many Goldsmith and Mander, SIerra Club Books, hi e r a r c h y , for radical action by sharing other cool Corporate Watch publications 19 9 6 . ww w . j 1 8 . o r g - June 18th! skills, knowledge and inspiration.” It ’ s a (contact CW) ww w . g n . a p c . o r g / r t s - Reclaim the Streets nationwide network of skill sharing which so far Global Village or Global Pillage, ww w . o n e w o r l d . o r g - loads of good links New Internationalist, monthly magazine J.Brechter and T.Costello, South End includes NVDA workshops, ecological events reporting on world poverty and inequality Press, 1998. ww w . e s s e n t i a l . o r g - links to cool US stuff for kids, slideshows, political musicians, and and the fight for alternatives- ww w . t a o . c a - inspiring Anarchist link page school education programmes. You can offe r www.newint.org (01858) 439616 And coming soon, an open discussion paper on the ww w . c o r p w a t c h . o r g - Corporate Watch (US) theory and ideas behind and a critical analysis or request skills or workshops, putting in as ww w . u r b a n 7 5 . c o m - alternative web-zine much or little time as you want. When Corporations Rule the World, D. of June 18th. Submit your thoughts to Reclaim Contact c/o Manchester EF! Korten, pub. Earthscan 1995 the Streets, PO Bos 9656, London N4 4JY. (Or ww w . u n d e r c u r r e n t s . o r g - Direct Action video rts @ g n . a p c . o r g ) Or
30 Police are numbered so they don’t get lost “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” next time...’
In any case, no regrets! 31 FRIDAY 18 JUNE 1999 Sp o r t EVADING STANDARDS Grown men running around in brightly coloured pyjamas – what will sponsors ask cricketers to do next? see page 74 Who picked Ronaldo, his manager or Nike?
RONALDO, the world’s most expensive EXCLUSIVE by Luther Blissett footballer, again played while injured last night. The Brazilian national side drew 2-2 influence games. In the World Cup final in English team in a special centenary match against France, Ronaldo again played whilst clearly unfit to do so. Conflicting stories of what Barcelona, with Ronaldo looking happened and persistent rumours suggest Nike first to play exhausted. Across the sports world more ordered the World Cup favourites to play and more fans claim corporations have Ronaldo for their own commercial advantage. A Zapatistas taken over football, and increasingly the Nike spokes person replied at the time, ‘Nike BRISTOL’S Sunday football team the lives of the players involved. wants to emphasise that the reports of such ‘Eastern Cowboys’ became the first The leaked contract of Nike’s reputed £200 involvement is absolutely false’. foreign team to play the a series of million Brazilian sponsorship deal states that In 1997 a new deal between Ronaldo and his Mexican Zapatista teams since the Nike can dictate when, where and against which last club Barcelona broke down, allegedly over indigenous people of Chiapas‚ took back sides the world’s most famous football club will the way Nike and the club would split the £30 control of their land and communities, in play five times every year until 2006. T h e million needed to keep him there. Ronaldo was 1994. contract states that the team must be the full then linked to other clubs. Eventually, again in Despite the heat, ban on alcohol, and strength national side. The small print makes mysterious circumstances, Ronaldo signed for constant army surveillance, Roger clear that Ronaldo’s presence, regardless of the £125 million Nike-sponsored club Inter Wilson, Cowboy centre-half said, “We form, is a necessity. Milan. It seems that Ronaldo, in Nike’s eyes, is had a great time and the football was The game between Brazil and Nike- far from being a human being, but merely excellent. We have learnt a lot from these sponsored Barcelona, the biggest club in the another source of profit, like a factory, or their courageous people. They have shown us world, was Nike’s finest corporate showpiece. Vietnamese workers on £1 a day. what is possible when you get together The centre of the show was, despite being Of course, nobody should blame Ronaldo Luis and organise with a vision for a better plagued by injury, Ronaldo, whose personal Nazario de Lima for any of this. As his Brazilian future.” sponsorship with Nike is £10 million a year. As team-mate and friend Roberto Carlos da Silva The star of the tournament, who Jose Texeira, Ronaldo’s childhood friend from says, “Football is a route out of poverty. Brazil is wore a trade-mark bandana to conceal their slum in Rio de Janeiro, commented a land of social tension, and football takes our his identity, and know only as “Jock of ‘Ronaldo has no say, no idea what he’s doing. He mind off it” he adds “in fact, if we didn’t have the Jungle” said, ‘never has the old is controlled by the businesses’. football we’d have a revolution in Brazil”. saying that football breaks down Last year Nike was again at the centre of Perhaps the world of corporate-football is not the barriers been so true.’ allegations for using its financial clout to place where we should invest our dreams. MALE PROBLEMS QUICK CROSSWORD Ul t i m a t e l y GROWN MEN PLAYING FRENZIED Check the type of action taking place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 It is in the streets that VIDEO GAMES AND DRESSING UP in each country on June 18th IN SILLY COSTUMES ? 9 power must be dissolved, ACROSS DOWN for the streets where daily 1 Australia (6) 1 Bangladesh (6) 10 1 11 life is endured, suffered and 5 Zimbabwe (6) 2 Malta (6) eroded, and where power is 1 1 12 13 1 1 9 Poland (5) 3 Nepal (4) confronted and fought, 10 India (6) 4 Italy (5) 11 Austria (9) 5 Germany (5) 14 15 16 1 17 1 18 19 must be turned in to the 12 France (5( 6 Brazil(4) domain where daily life is 14 Nigeria (4) 7 Canada (6) 20 21 1 1 22 enjoyed, created and 17 Indonesia (3) 8 Belarus (6) nourished. 18 Senegal (4) 13 Wales (7) 1 1 23 1 1 20 Greece (5) 15 Mexico (5) Reclaim the Stree t s 22 Scotland (5) 16 Spain (5) 24 25 1 1 26 27 28 23 Basque Country (6) 18 England (5) 24 South Korea (4) 19 Chech Republic (5) 29 1 30 31 1 32 0171 281 4261 26 Thailand (3) 21 Sweden (3) 29 Malaysia (6) 22 Argentina (3) 1 1 33 34 1 1 30 Uruguay (7) 24 Finland (6) 32 Switzerland (4) 25 Ireland (6) 35 1 36 33 Romania (3) 27 Colombia (6) 35 Chile (6) 28 USA(6) 1 1 37 1 1 36 Netherlands (5) 30 Portugal (5) 37 Israel(4) 38 1 39 Disclaimer: This crossword does not work, we have better things to do with our time. Today's Answers ACROSS: 1,Carnival 5,Demonstration 9,March 10, Protest 11, Street Theatre DOWN: 1, Leafleting 2, Communication 3, Comedy 4, Creativity 5, Freedom 12, Music 14, Laughter-Parade 17, Dance 18, Self-Expression 20, Picket 22, 6, Cooperation 7, Deconstruction 8, Construction 13, Evolution 15, Empowerment 23, Rebellion 24, Defiance 26, Revolution 29, Festival 30, Celebration 16, Direct Action 18,Solidarity 19, Opposition 21, Festivity 22, Parade 32, Party 33, Anarchy 35, Takeover 36, Office Invasion 37, Diversity 24, Resistance 25, Occupation 27, Squat 28, Strike 30, Blockade
Richard Grasso head of the New York Stock Exchange, The production team disclaim all responsibility for the content of this paper, anything you don’t like can be blamed on sleep gives thumbs up to June the 18th day of action after Noddy deprivation, too much Taurine and five hours in a police cell.. We tried to write a witty disclaimer but the need for sleep overcame us. @nti-copywrite 1999. We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police forfunding this publication. occupies the trading floor. Newspapers pollute yourmind and the environment - just say no !