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/2 S/A Tribute to John Olday p9—16

THE EMERGENCE of the National Front has united front is suicidal. Once the fascists have feel that decisions are sometimes made as a re- once more raised the spectre of fascism on the been driven off the streets then it will become sult of frustration arising from the difficulty of streets. For CI|"lCll'Cl‘IlS‘l'S, the question of l'OCl'lCS our tum to be driven off. Several anarchists getting anarchist ideas across. We think it a and ideas of how best to fight racialism has and anarchist groups have voiced the opinion of very big mistake not to use the electoral char- once again to be raised. The problem of fight- "No platform for fascists" (see Midlands state- ade, which givessthe social democratic state ing fascism in the streets poses more problems ment). Punch-ups in the street might deter the a semblance of govemment by consent. At a for anarchists than it does for those other National Front from publicly intimidating peo- time when the forces that control society a'p- groups who call themselves anti-fascists (wheth ple; they do nothing to erase the preiudices pear more powerful than ever before md the er they range from certain Tories to the autho- and fears on which their ideas are based from 'ordinary' person feels so powerless it is more ritarian left of the SWP/WRP. people's minds. Free Speech for Fascists is one urgent than ever before that anarchists should thing; their being allowed to intimate people As the two points of view published in our last convey to individuals their collective power to is another. However long it might take, there issue show, there are differences in iudgement change things directly. is no substitute for clear and precise anarchist of the value of the confrontation on the streets, thinking and 'propaganda'—-fascist ideas have and the debate is continued on our letter page We entirely agree with Canterbury (July 9)— to be brought out into the open and defeated by (6). Also in this issue two items (Letter from and disagree with the Midlands—in stressing reason. Intimidation, on the other hand, has to Laurens Otter on anarchists 8. trotskyists; and the truly vital importance of anti-election cam- be dealt with by community solidarity and the Midlands Federation statement on p.3) paigning. Even where numbers are small much mutual aid. The basis of is self—help raise the ghost of the popular front and the more could be done than hitherto in preparing and we must recognise in the authoritarian question of whether it is right for anarchists to and distributing anti-election material, and we groups and the wider anti-fascist groups that put their propaganda into second place in a see no good reason at all why this should con- their statist attitudes have sapped self -hel p in united struggle against a common enemy. sist of supe ficial sloganising rather than sound every sphere of life. argument. Constructive work of this kind is far The National Front are gearing their campaigns more crucial to the development of anarchism There are issues on which we campaign with (street fights, etc.) to achieving electoral suc- than is fascist-bashing, and the next elections groups whose aims and methods are close to our cess, and their not being allowed to march should see anarchist groups and federations mak- own. (For instance, we co—operated very ef- drives their racialist attitudes into more ‘legal- ing their presence felt all over the country by fectively with the Committee of l00—-but the ised' channels such as media support and politi- means of posters, stickers, public speaking and issues are rarely so clear-cut.) There are issues cal mileage which is benefiting them in terms local distribution of anti-election leaflets. in which our protest is one among those of other of electoral gains. In spite of the publicity at protesting groups whose motivation and aims are Ladywood about 20,000 people didn't vote for Members of FREEDOM Collective: A.A., very different from ours. We have to remem- anybody, necause no doubt in their minds they FQAQWQ 59nl“ ber that our means determine our ends. Politi- realised the truth that no party is on their side. cal groups whose main aim is to achieve politi- D.P. records a dissenting opinion that the cal power are not so fussy as to the means they As regards the Midlands Federation statement, street battle as at Lewisham is ‘futile but it's. use and for anarchists to take part in a popular/ we welcome a new and viable federation but necessary‘.

I 2 FREEDOM

few days before the demonstration at Malville. One must be fair, n'est-ce pas? What more Letter from Ireland could we ask than the reassurance that, to quote from L'Ex ress , "Violence has become Sunday afternoons, freeing their sexual urges by an affair of State“ and that "violence has watchinga tiny harmless animal being tortured been written into the government programme’.' P AS l listened to the riots at Lewisham and then to death. Then they go to say mass and tell at Ladywood, Birmingham, l wondered what poor women who are already overburdened and FERNANDO POO makes us tickiso horribly. l am just on 80 and live likely in a tent, caravan or one room, haw all my life wherever l have been it has been wicked they are if they practice contraception. the same, no matter what Government is in. We are hell bent on genocide in lreland if not l remember - because l was living there at the in the whole world. time - how the British Raj was for ever attack- GREECE l am of the opinion that if people are given vile THE APPEAL hearing of our four Greek and ing Gandhi and putting him in prison and the weapons sooner or later they will use them. No three foreign (two Fr-ench and one Dutch) took ghastly way the police mowed dawn the takers policeman should have a baton or a gun or a place in Athens on 27 and 28 July in a decid- of salt who were completely pacifist. They shield. No protester should have an iron bar, edly hostile atmos.phere. As previously reported came up, men and women and scooped up their a brick or a bottle! l have just heard how the in FREEDOM the seven had been accused of little token shellfuls of sea salt and the police police in Soweto have shot another black man. resisting arrest, causing public disturbance, mowed them down with lathis (a particularly His only sin the colour of his skin, which does insulting the policeand God, after a deliber- brutal form of baton). Then another lot came. not make p worth of difference. l have a col- ately set-up police provocation. ln the first Repeat repeat repeat. However, in the end oured granddaughter and l adore her. trial, nearly two months before, all had been the police themselves got sickened and would This reader thought your reprinted gay poem of found not guilty on all charges, and the public not strike any more and ten days later Gandhi the Centurion and Jesus very very beautiful prosecutor had deemed it necessary to save was marching up the steps of vice regal Lodge after the first sort of shock. lt showed LOVE both his and the police's face by appealing. to take tea with the Viceroy and putting a and that is what we one and all are so short of. token pinch of salt into his cuppa. .. By the way, not all journalists are rich and From the very beginning of the proceedings it . l saw the rise of the Nazis during the thirties own houses. Many in Dublin are out of work was clear that some sort of conviction would when they could have been stopped, but no- and drawing the dole. l am lucky enough, in be forthcoming. Remarks by the president of one did. Churches and States alike were silent spite of my age, to just keep my head above the court confirmed all expectations. He and so the terrible things went on happening water, but l live in a tiny bedsitter and buy asked himself, and the public in general, how and the I939 war erupted. There were thé hun- my clothes second hand! it was ever remotely possible that such people ger marches in England in the thirties and again H.B. as the accused with their long hair could the powers were on the side of the rich and Dublin defend Greece against the Turk. Other such the poor and starving were mowed down. ln my remarks and comments, such as those referring own country these things have gone on for to the defendants‘ attire, drew heavy protest. 800 years, and the Queen of England comes The president then defended himself by claim- over and talks about how she was crowned FRA CE ing he was not (prejudiced — it only seemed Queen of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The that way ... This sort of comic interlude rel- papers did not tell you that 320 people were EQUAL publicity has been given in France to the report on violence by that best-selling ieved some of the boredom in the packed court- an"ested for NOTHING before the Queen arr- room. ived, nor that James Daly, a lecturer at author and govemment minister Alain Peyre- Queens was himself arrested at dawn together fitte, whose private apartment on the rue du The verdict was in fact better than expected. with some French visitors by the Royal Marine Ranelagh was recently burgled and his collect- With the exception of two Greeks, all were Commandos, who brought a sniffer dog into his ion of priceless statuettes stolen. lt is reliably once again declared not guilty. The two con- house and tore the whol-e place to bits. When reported that the country has been shaken to victions were reduced to a 20 and 40-day sus- James Daly said to a major who forced his way the core by the revelations of the Violence pended sentence for a period of three years. into the house, "ls this trespass’? Are you up- Committee, whose members (all of whom The reputation of the defenders of law and holding the law or breaking it?" the reply was have also been burgled) claim that the chief order has been saved! ! ! "Fucking bastards, one more word out of you source of violence is the Town, or more FRANCOIS EVERSON 0 and you will be in Fort Monagh and you'll get precisely, as the French language has it, a rough time. This is not a threat, it's a prom- the "gigantism of the agglomerations" and ise." The soldiers said to Daly's children. the "provocation of concentrations." Peyre- (3\A USED To BE "Poor little bastards. Fancy having a father fitte et cie come out sensibly enough in NO siALAmq wOT iT and mother like you'." favour of "minituarisation", or the small -is- l came out of the Four Courts recently where beautiful point of view. He makes no less than l05 Recommendations against Violence, l had been hearing a case about thebanning of WE ARE ‘TOLD we live in an age of nostalgia; thelFamily Planning booklets and as I appear- which, he reassures the govemment, are all a seeking of roots even if they only go back to ed l wasiattacked both physically and with fairly cheap to implement. Among them are Vera Lynn and spam. The death of a cult figure vile abuse by members of what l call the "Pur- the setting u_/p of committees (what else '?), like Elvis Presley sends middle-aged men back ity Leagues." They call themselves The lrish education by TV, more green belts, tighter into Teddy-boy suits and paroxyms of sobbing Family League, The League of Decency and film censorship, the replacement of the death nostalgia—"he was the grestest, things will Parent Concern etc., and are against all con- penalty by a "security penalty" of I5-20 never be the same." years‘ gaol without pardon for certain crimes. traception and wish it banned by law. They But there are limits even to nostalgia. The an- The French have at the same time taken are cruel to a degree to homosexuals. Did a niversary of the judicial murder of Sacco and garda come out torescue me? Not on your note of Peyrefitte's counterpart in England, Sir Leon Radzinowicz, whose recent public- Vanzetti passed almost unnoticed in the media, nelly, though l am old and very lame. Mind as we call it, no special television 'l was ation "The Growth of Crime, the lntemational you, to be fair l think if lhad gone back in there‘ features, no Sunday supplement spreads, and demanded one they would-have come. Experience" observes (and l quote from the French) that "no national characteristic, no Only , faithful to its liberal trad- One female brandished herplacard in my face itions, gave us a good food guide round up of and nearly‘ knocked my spectacles off, and political regime, no juridical, police or judicial system, no system of puniiihment, of preliminaries to the scorching of the flesh pro- also nearly knocked me down, as l am very cedures by Richard Boston—who failed to get lame, having lost half a leg when a "Good treatment or even of terror has protected a country from criminality. " the famous speech in the right place, and Catholic" knocked me down by cutting in on gave the extended version which is of doubtful the zebra crossing three years ago. lt is But, strangeito say, both Peyrefitte and Rad- provenance. The BBC's Alastair Cooke, a MORE thanitime that dll religions and all zinowicz steer clear of the real heart of the soured liberal ex-Guardian man, took refuge govemments were done away with and human matter. We shall have more censorship of behind his aunt in vocing doubts of the doubt- beings were allowed to be human. ln this films and TV, but no censorship of the Censors, less innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti country the cruelty to animals is beyond bel- we shall have smaller buildings and cities However nostalgia is only suitable for happy ief. Priests go to enclosed hare coursing on . but not smaller prisoners or police forces. events and Boston is no place for a laff.J R Of course, the Peyrefitte report came out a

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FREEDOM 3 THE SITU Tl IT LY problems and reparing for the forthcoming ON Saturday 20 August the score of Whilst the FAI, with its long tradition and comrades who had been able to gather at very its weekly Umanita Nova, has become a focus international congress in November. h short notice profited from the visit of comrade for debate on current situations, there is at the There was lively questioning from the floor, Luigi Carl izza from Italy (FAI) who spoke to same time a mass of other groups throughout one of the earliest questions being about the us about the movement in Italy. He outlined Italy, based on particular affinities which do syndicalist movement. Comrade Carlizza said the structure of the anarchist movement which not adhere to any of the three federations. that for the past 4-5 years anarchists have is mainly organised in three federations, the The FAI has set itself two tasks: the theoret- been trying to establish an anarchist presence FAI (Anarchist Federation of Italy), GAF ical one of trying to provide the political an- in the work place in three main ways. Firstly, (Federation of Anarchist Groups) and GIA swers which people were looking for when by working within the union structure which (Groups of Anarchist Initiative). they came to the movement after the heady up to recently has been dominated by two days of '68; the other the organisational one unions, the Communist-controlled CGIL The anarchist movement in Italy had been of getting the groups throughout the country (General Confederation of Italian Labour) through a relatively quiet period in the l950s in contact. and early 60s , but the student ferment which and Catholic-controlled CISL (Italian Con- followed the Paris "May Days" of I968 brought To this end this year's Carrara congress will federation of Labour Unions); the speaker a number of young people to the anarchist spend six days examining recent and current explained that the Communist Party's "historic movement, finding its principles of freedom events in the Italian political situation, with compromise" (with the Christian Democrats) had resulted in the CGIL conceming itself and opposition to the State sympathetic with the aim of reaching clarity and understanding with keeping quiet and keeping its members their own needs and demands. Yet the circum- on such wide-ranging subjects as the women's in order. Secondly, by establishing libertar- stances of these young people's lives went movement, youth movements, changes in .against permanence and continuity of particip- social classes, relationships of production, ian nuclei in individual factories and thirdly by advocating the more general idea of the ation in the existing groups and federations, trades unions, political parties, unemployment, workers‘ councils. But the anarchist presence their leaving school, going to university and exploitation and alienation in work, what is is not yet a major influence in workers‘ strugg- into jobs resulting in a continuous flux and going on in the anarchist movement, where it loss of contact . Therefore a need was felt to stands as regards armed struggle and insurrect- les in Italy. The GAF have established a bring about a more organised movement with ion and "working with the masses", social presence in the railway workers‘ union in " L closer contact between different groups and struggles in education, planning, land, etc., Turin, however. more efficient and organised activities. as well as discussing internal organisational About the "New Left“ in Ital , the speaker said it was not comparable with tile "new Left" in some other countries. In fact it sounded as if it did not exist. The three main groupings started out as extraparliamentary parties, but THE 2"“ came together under the name of "Prolet arian Democracy“ to enter the ele ctions of June I976 got four seats and fell under the domination of MIDLANDS the CP. Out of the "crisis" of extra-parliam- entary groups came several "autonomy groups", the most numerous being among students, CO FERE CE another in the area of workers‘ autonomy - obviously more organised within the work place revolutionary struggle and revolutionary cons- than are the more generally libertarian students THE SECOND Midlands Anarchist Federation truction to come. - and a third, orientated to clandestine armed conference took place on 25 June I977. Besides struggle. But the speaker did not think it corr- the groups at the first conference (i.e. those CAMPAIGNS There was a consensus that an ect to refer to the autonomy groups as political Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Leam- anti-election campaign in the event of a gen- ngton and Warwick University) there was rep- eral election would not be productive; that organisations; while their activities, being spectacular, gain attention, they are restricted resentation from Nottingham, Wolverhampton such a campaign would, given the facilities at to specific issues, and the clandestine groups and Oxford. Apart from a general exchange of our disposal, result in sloganeering rather than the anarchist movement is not interested in information, the following topics were discussed- presenting our case as anarchists. It was felt that in these circumstances it would be more working with. FEMIN ISM The idea of an anarcho-feminist useful to embark on campaigns against the The events of the past I0-I2 years, and the caucus was discussed at some length. Doubts of National Front and National Party. crisis of the political parties, leave the anar- the need for such a grouping were expressed on Basic agreement for the ‘no platform for chists as the only people now with anything to the basis that anarchism encompassed fascists‘ policy was expressed, and that this in as much as anarchism has a commitment to say. should be achieved by mass action in driving M.C. the liberation of all individuals. However it the Front off the streets (rather than using the was felt by many that this ignored the specific legal apparatus of the state). Propaganda forms of oppression experienced by women. against the Front, it was decided, should con- These are not only economic and political, but centrate on present activities rather than their are bound up with the deeply seated attitudes Nazi past, and it was resolved to exchange that women are inferior, and that, as in other ideas on leaflets and posters. In the event of cases of oppressed sections of society whose an election before the next meeting, it was oppression goes far beyond that of the white decided to call an extraordinary conference I"lE€*i"i'~iQ- /R-‘T male heterosexual worker, there is a need for for this purpose. these sections to form groupings within the an- In connection with the Murrays, support archist movement to discuss and combat their FREEDOM Booksi-tof’ will be given to Noel's private prosecution own particular problems. On a very immediate against the police for brutality: there is a ben- level it is immensely useful to have a critical efit concert in Leicester after the next confer- §Pv'T"\/lR.!:>P¢\/ I“ se P1" faculty within the anarchist movement to tell ence. us when we are being sexist (or racist, etc) . Also discussed was an idea for disseminating lZ'O0 n.M- (Ffompb There are also many struggles of the woman's anarchist ideas: an anarchist "Roadshow", movement which the anarchist movement tends intended to help in the formation of new groups to ignore or give a token seal of approval only. a travelling bookstall , speakers, theatre and Above all it is vital (or so it seems to me at song. We are at present mustering our resources least) to alleviate now all forms of ‘supplemen- ‘for this enterprise. tary’ oppression within capitalism, so that these See Contact Column for details of next con- groups can play their full part in the years of ference. ' ‘ 4 FREEDOM .

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THE NEW censorship laws (notably articles 88a and I30) have already irregularities and distortions of the trial. The mini-Stammheim in Cologne had their effect on freedom of expression in West Germany. Already threw a spotlight on the real Stammheim. Last Wednesday the defence many left wing bookshops have been raided, and books confiscated and counsel for Roth and Otto demanded their release from custody after others voluntarily withdrawn from public view. To give but one example, testimony accusing them of conspiracy to murder the policeman Paul a warrant to search a bookshop in Landshut that was reported to have the had been proved invalid. The equation "Left means Killers" was dis- book Ha market in stock, was issued in August last year, and then con- proved. But the comrades‘ good hand of cards was destroyed by the death fiscated an the grounds that it contained descriptions of how explosives of Buback, which has given the Minister of Justice the means of negat- could be produced. Written by Horst Karasek and published by Klaus ively influencing the verdict.* The blindness of those for whom the Wagenbach in Berlin in I975, I-iaymarket is a historical work about political world is restricted to Stammheim and who conduct their struggle anarchists of German descent living in Chicago in I886, and documents and choose their methods in total independence from the "political con- their struggles for the eight-hour day and the classic case of the judicial juncture" as a whole could in this way make other comrades vulnerable. murder of eight anarchists. There is also the example (see over page) of "Counter—insurgency" in reverse ... the re-trial of the publishes of the book Wie alles anfing, whose author I have in the past (as have indeed many others) sympathised with the draws conclusions from his experience of the urban guerilla movement actions of the urban guerillas. I who, as a civilian, never held a gun in that are not dissimilar from the passage printed here and freely translated my hand, have set off a bomb.... I have. imagined myself as an armed from the German. guerilla, hunted, living in some conspiratorial group, having to make This obituary was first printed in the newspaper of the student council sure that my daily movements (shopping, emptying waste paper baskets (Asta) of Gbttingen University. The article came anonymously from going to the cinema) do not betray me. a student calling himself a "Mescalero" after the apache tribe of New Mexico, and who is known to be a member of the anarchist "Movement I wonder how, isolated from the daily personal and political continuity of the Undogmatic Spring". The appearance of the obituary resulted in of life, I would be able to decide on any action with my people. Months uproar at the University, with a row between the Chancellor and the in advance I would need to prepare myself for the event of killing Buback, students developing into police action against the Asta, in the form of logistics and ballistics would control my every thought; I would have to raids and then criminal charges. Amongst the material confiscated was be convinced of the necessity of that particular person having to die; I documentation, incidentally, on the anti-nuclear demonstrations of would have to include the possibility of another person being involved, Brokdorf and Grohnde. The conflict escalated with the publication by of a third person being lamed for life. 43 professors and lawyers of the same obituary in a document in which I would like to completely re-think my position. I still believe that the they declared the importance of a "debate on the relationship of violence decision to murder and kill lies with the rulers, the judges, the police in our society." The piece was also reprinted in the last issue of the (Bullen) , the factory guards, the military. To be like them I would need German anarchist paper Befreiung in solidarity with the Gdttingen» Asta to be specially trained, to be coldblooded like Al Capone, brutal, and "our common "interest in the freedom of our press." We print it here calculating, quick on the draw. for the same reasons, and because of the vital importance that we attach How shall Idecide if Buback is important enough, not only for me and I'O present events in weSI' Germany I (15 well Q5 for I-he tongue-in-gheek my comrades but also for others; that he is more important than Judge X yet also serious contribution it makes to a theme that concerns us all. or Prison Y or one of its prison wardens? Or should the shopkeeper on the comer who is always shouting “Off with their heads! " carry less ... MY first reaction to the shooting of Buback can be quickly dealt guilt than Buback? Simply because he has less responsibility? Why this with. I cannot, and indeed, will not, hide a secret numbed joy. I have cult of the personality? Couldn't we for a change kidnap a cook and heard such types agitate and incite people before. I know the role that then see the reaction of these right-thinking Democrats? Should we not this man played in hunting down and torturing people on the left, turning concentrate altogether more on cooks? them into criminals. Anyone who had looked closely enough at his por- When a State-appointed killer is murderedrin Argentina or in Spain I trait in the last few days could see what features are growing more prom- don;t have to face this problem. I have the feeling that the people's hate inent in this Constitutional State, which he embodied so well. And recog- for these figures- is really a people's response. But ‘who and how many nise too the characteristics of that bloc of right-thinking Democrats people wished Buback dead? Where would I draw the deciding line bet- who, as one man, now shout in shocked indignation. ween life and death, were I belong to the urban guerillas? Really I have only the smallest regret that we can no longer put this face We must all get away from being the target for people's hatred in the in the small red and black criminal album that we intend distributing place of the true oppressors, as we have avoided supporting political after the , to capture the mast hated and most wanted criminals parties. If Buback ..was not the victim of the people's anger (or, where of the ancien regime and bring them to open trial ... I am concerned, of ) then the violence that expressed itself But this is not all that has occupied my own and many others‘ thoughts. as it did has as little to do with the population as Buback‘sdid. We cannot feel so simple a joy as over the demise of Carrero Blanca. We need only open the daily newspapers and read the headlines: the Not that I allowed myself to be swayed by the remarkably well —orchest- strategy of liquidation is the strategy of govemments. Why should we rated "public" shock and hysteria: this spectacle functions better each copy them? People (the people) fear it through their own experiences as time, and none of us believe any more that a few critical voices might through incarceration and labour camps. Whatever we do casts a light still be raised from among the ranks of political enu chs who thrive off I onwhatwe are trying toachieve. We will not I iq uidate the manufacture of “public opinion." But that doesn't mean that I can o u r e n e m i e s, nor lock them up in prison, while on the other hand remain indifferent to the indifference of the mass media, the official we do not have to feel obliged to handle them gently. statements and commentaries, to the extent that I no longer care when a particular action does occur ... With regard to Stammheim we missed Our aim is a society without terror or violence (though not without agg- an opportunity to use the disquiet arising from the blatant breaches of ression or militancy); a society without forced labour (though not without law practised by Buback, Maihofer, Shiess and Bender. That opportunity drudgery); a society without law or prisons (though not without norms is now gone. Now - following the assassination - every move against of conduct). Such an aim does not advocate every means, only some of the "terrorist scum" can be justified ... This may only be a personal them. Our way to (in my view, to ) should not be impression. I had neither the energy nor the ideas to contribute to the strewn with corpses. affair. But what I want to criticisecan be demonstrated with the example Why liquidate? Ridicule can also kill, for example: in the long term. of the Roth/Otto trial. In this trial Buback‘s strategy was to pronounce Our weapons are not just imitated from the military, but the kind they the left police murderers, even though it was proved that they (Roth and cannot shoot out of our hands; our strength does not need to be contained Otto) had not used their guns. The revolutionary left are killers, their in such phrases as "solidarity"; our power , finally, cannot be that of theory and practice determine them as killers, prepared to use ANY Al Capone's, a mimicking of open street-terror; it should not be author- means - this was the view of the prosecution and (obviously) the judge. itarian, but antiauthoritarian, which is more effective. To achieve By carefully sifting through the minutiaie ouricomrades managed to ex- power (Oh God!) the Left should not let themselves become killers or pose this strategy and forced the indifferent mass media to report on the rapists or knucklemen, any more than they can be saints or innocents.

FREEDOM 5

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in acquitting the two defendants and in rec- IIIES II cmmending that they be financially compen- IT WAS mentioned a couple of weeks or so ago them and who at this moment are prepared sated for the banning and confiscation of the by someone reviewing Hitler's Children for a for them (the situation as I write is still one book. This will be an important trial for Sunday paper that the number of deaths so far of deadlock), butby some too on the other the future of literaiy and press‘ freedom in attributable to the Red Army Fraction and rel- side, when they have drawn out of them the West Germany. ated groups combined does not yet equal the capital they need. And this is not the only re—trial to be planned number of deaths caused by the Birmingham Well, if that's death then what is "life" plus for the near future. Indeed, a pattem seems bombers. It was, of course, meant as a patron I5 years for good measure? And would some to be emerging whereby re-trials are ordered the back for the British authorities and their amongst us, notwithstanding our vast differ- whenever a lower court acquits a defendant coolness compared to the German - one that in a political case, or treats them mildly. ences and, I think, our fully justified distrust, is, though, hardly warranted when one recalls Such is the case of Karl-Heinz Roth who was and would not some among their own support- the PTA or, indeed,the over—reaction to the freed on I2 July on the basis of lack of evid- ers, no do a Frau Kappler, so to speak, clashes at Lewisham and Ladywood. But apart if Stammheim were the military hospital in ence after a new judge had been called in to from this, can the difference between the Rome and if there were in any country a town replace the original one, sacked for bias in bombings in Birmingham and in Germany be like Soltau where they could go? favour of the prosecution. Such also is the summed up in terms of statistics alone, any case of Ralf Stein. As readers of this paper more than the difference between the deeds of But this is a society of law and order where may remember (interview with Ralf of I5 the RAF and those of the veteran SS colonel only Nazis and their kindred are saved by May I976, 3 April I976) he was formally Herbert Kappler? wives with trunks and cars nonchalantly wait- sentenced to I8 months‘ imprisonment, most- ing in the courtyard below, and by the not-to- Questions of ethical conduct, of life and death of which he had already spent in pre-trial be—sneezed -at assistance of well-wishing detention, and was freed at the end ofthe .pre not, unfortunately, what it is about. Even govemments. Stammheim was not built for the proceedings. Charging him with five offences, the Sunday reviewer should have known better! Nazis, and if Spandau may live on as the Including membership of a "criminal associat- The important point is not the precise quantity propaganda tool of a regime that way surpassed ion" and possession of weapons, the prosecut- of flesh and blood torn apart with explosive or Hitler's in terms of statistical murder, not even filled with lead, but the precise goal aimed at ion had demanded a 4 year sentence. The the Kremlin really believes in Spandau any appeal hearing began on I6 August in Cologne in the process. Looked at that way, how com- more, and almost everyone believes in Stamm- pare 335 Italian -Jewish hostages or 20 or so district court, of which we hope to carry more l'|eim. Brummagans, with - "traitors" excluded - a news later. handful of NATO soldiers, a Judge, a Chief Surely this has become one of the most elo- ‘lI‘II‘lI Public Prosecutor or a Banker? quent symbols of what we, as anarchists, are WITH the murder of the banker Juergen Panto, up against; and when, of all people, some There is, of course, no comparison, the roses in which Susanne Albrecht, daughter of a anarchists would seem to support gaol senten- friend, is alleged to be involved, it is report- on Herr KappIer's mat being a recognition of ces (not for the RAF as it happens, but for this on the part of Soltau‘s respectable burghers. ed that the German government has launched certain others) its mental as well as physical a secret investigation into the phenomenon of Besides the fact that while everyone has heard destruction may seem impossible. Yet destroy- about his triumphant escape from Italy almost the women guerilla. The results will not be ed, in both senses,it has to be and (of course) made public, "but will be fed into the new no-one here was aware of the thirst and hunger the sooner the better. strike of around 45 RAF and 2nd June prisoners anti-terrorist police branch known simply by during the same week, let alone of the issues II ‘II II the letter ‘T"‘ (S. Times). A long article in behind it, which, briefly, are as follows. Der S iegel whose 8 August cover bears a MEANWHILE the High Court of Karlsruhe has large and lurid picture of Susanne Albrecht During the last hunger strike in April the pris- ordered the re-trialof Gisela Erler and Herb- with the words "Women and Violence" splash- oners at Stammheim were examined by several ert Rlittgenwho run the publishing house ed across, gives a detailed account of the officially appointed medical experts who came Trikont, and who were acquitted on 27 Oct- views of the Various Experts on the subject. to the conclusion that if they were to survive ober last year of a charge of "gIorifying vio- This highly illuminating article, observing they needed company, and that their poor lence" and giving support to punishable off- that almost two-thirds of those being sought physical and mental health was a direct conse- ences (the new censorship laws had not yet for terrorist offences are women, lists such quence of their isolation. One of these experts reached the Statute book). The prosecution suggestions as the wish to escape sexual bon- later recommended that they be held in groups arose out of Trikont‘s publication of the book dage through the masculine symbol of the gun, of at least I5 people. Gudrun Ennslin, on be- Wie alles anfing (How it all began) by the the desire to feel like "female superrrien", half of the RAF, called off the hunger strike former 2nd June member Michael Bommi the rich female's sense of class guilt, etc. at that time on the understanding that the auth- Baumann, who is'still being sought by the Top marks in perception must go to the chief orities had agreed to extended integration of police. The court action (see FREEDOM, 3 of the Defence of the Constitution police , prisoners, but by July it had become clear April and 6 November I976) was initiated by Gunther Nollau, for seeing "something irrat- that the authorities had changed their minds, a State prosecutor who argued that the guer- ional about the whole business" that must and on 8 August a clash between prisoners illa bank robberies and other crimes referred somehow be related to an "excess of emancip- and prison officers in Stammheim led to the to in the book had been described in a "cyn- ation. " But there are dissenters. The inter- present thirst and hunger strike in jails through- ical and inhuman" w'ay and did not adequately national lawyer Hubert Armbruster, maintains out West Germany. But prison condition, un- convey the pain felt by the victims...All this that female terrorists are still sexually depend- less unusual enough to provide headlines - if despite Baumann's conclusions that the shot- ent on male ones, while the sociologist Erwin then - make poor news; the fact that a man gun tactics of 2nd June and similar groups Scheuch, maintains that from the point of and a woman, even when "lifers", are not should be abandoned. In solidarity with the view of intellect and character, women are allowed to have sex together, or that they are publishers an international team of about 300 often, indeed mainly, the strongest. Thus not allowed to close the door on the prison was organised, and a new edition of the orig- the controversy continues. What makes a guards, or that they are deprived of social as inal, which had been confiscated, was rel»- woman a kil Ier? Perhaps one day we can well as sexual intercourse, and that social eased. The move was supported by over a look forward to a similar investigation about isolation is once more the order of the day, thousand writers, publishers, papers etc., m_e_i_1_?! I But whatever the verdict of the or that the remaining core of the so-called including Freedom Press. No subsequent secret report T we can be sure it will not Baader-Meinhof group will die rather than do action was made in confiscating the book. allow for any boringly political or social without it, is just not dramatic enough until Now, however, in ordering the re—trial, the explanations. there's a corpse or two. And even corpses are high court of Karlsruhe claims that the lower quickly forgotten, not just by those who made court in Munich had committed legal errors Illltl

A concept and practice which develops from a power/militancy that . , ,_, . , has the people's blessing, and which directly involves them, this is A lmle Clumsy’ men ' l ' BU' "‘ S hone5'ly mew" ° '° (practically speaking) our objective of every day. That the Left does not A Gdttingen Mescalero acquire the killer-face of Buback. * see Mate 5 on Cf-e,.riv\a.ny_ 5 FREEDOM Holmes in his letter is quite wrong in believing that the action at Lewisham will deter individ- ual attacks by thugs - it is likely to increase them. The answer to this is community solidar- ity and defence groups at the point of attack. The sort of simplistic propaganda of the NF is THE contrast between the hysterical opposition a symptom of decaying urban society, not a to the National Front on the part of the Left L /Li / cause. The escalation of violence will never and widespread support for it among sections of benefit the anarchist cause; it may well im- the working class is an example of different pede our attempts to influence the mass of class/individual interest leading to different people. political outlooks. /.\ The white working class, especially the law- paid "unskilled" section of it, is attracted by MATRIARCHY the Front‘s policy of repatriating immigrants Dear Friends because this would improve their conditions. ALAN Albon , in the last issue of FREEDOM, In jobs, housing etc., through the law of supply expressed the view that the violent nature of In Dave Cunliffe‘s letter, published 6 August, and demand. demonstrations such as we have seen at Lewish- he quotes Margaret Mead ‘s denial of any past The largely middle class left welcomes immig- am, Ladywood, etc, are "counter—productive" matriarchy, saying that she "knows something ration for the same reason the capitalists do. and only, in the end, serve to strengthen the about anthropology." Doubtless she does, but It keeps the price of unskilled and semi-skilled State. that's like saying H.J. Eysenck knows some- labour down. This benefits them because other- Although I agree that the State will come to thing about psychology. We are fortunately wise they would have to cut down on their fre- reveal more of its true character, in the form at liberty to heed other sources, and it is the quent nosh-ups at the trendy pigs‘-troughs ad- of greater powers of repression, the escalation belief that we can weigh one piece of evid- vertised in Time Out and elsewhere, as well as of the conflict (especially by the police at ence against another that frees us from depend. have to pay through the nose for a lot of other these demos) will not have the desired effect ence on experts. goods and services. They would in fact be in of subdueing the rebellious youth, and these Malinowki's studies of the Trobriand islanders much the same position as the worst off sections violent clashes can, and do, serve a purpose. were early enough to see how a transition of the working class are today. from matriarchy to patriarchy was taking place, All this of course explains their inability to Firstly, the intense assault of the National and Wilhelm Reich has reflected on this pro- discuss the immigration issue rationally, their Front on the streets, by the left, will actively cess in "The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Mor- hysterical labelling of anyone opposed to imm- prevent these fascist thugs from intimidating ality."He points to the link between the marr- igration as "racist" , when working people are coloured communities and other minority groups. iage institution and the centralisation of pow- only trying to defend their own interests. This A slight increase in their vote at the next elect- er in tribal chieftains. A marriage gift by the is very bourgeois and reactionary of us no doubt, ion due to publicity, is unimportant. What is bride's family to the groom's father leads to but it does appear to be what all other sections important is to keep them off the streets and to male dominance, concentration of wealth and of society are up to, so why should we be ex- disrupt them, wherever they may try to spout a denial of sexuality reinforcing eachother. ceptions? their particular nauseous brand of fascism. Yours truly Of course it would be wrong to ascribe entirely Secondly, the “mass base" which Alan Albon Richard Gates selfish motives to these revolutionaries. They rightly sees as necessary for the transformation probably hope that as the immigrant population of society will harddy come about in a vacuum. CORRECTION becomes increasingly threatened by the grow- Escalation of violence by the State wili, by ing strength of the Front, aided and abetted by cause and effect, evoke a corresponding miIit- Comrades—Something went wrong with the the set piece publicity stunts provided by them- ant response from the least contented sectors of final sentence of my letter about the judge in selves, large numbers of immigrants will flood society, particularly the unemployed youth and the Gay News trial (August 20). It should have into the leftist organisations, thus providing students . read: these armchair generals with the cannon fodder ‘It is also ironic for a poem about Jesus to be In France in '68 the Gaullist regime was nearly they need to convert their power fantasies into , , , , , condemned for blas hem b a Jewish ' d e, reality. mppled by C‘ llberiqrlcn 'nsu"e,ci'°n premsely and under a law whFich plfotldcts only CIh'i"isgtian- because the heavy handed tactics employed by I Their appeals to the white working class to ity from attack I ‘ N W I I support them are ludicrous. For instance, they the State against the young workers and stud- call for the removal of all controls on immigrat- ents rebounded against it and its mighty capit- ion. For the unskilled working class, black as alist edifice. well as white, this would be a catastrophe, Perhaps over here in Britain, a spirit of rebell- reducing; them to a soup-kitchen level of exist- ion will at long last be kindled. Anarchism 8. ence. This may be what our revolutionaries David G. Holmes want, of course, in,the hope that it will prov- Trotskyism ide another source of recruits. But we can't be Cornwall blamed for not relishing the Prospect. Dear All As far as anarchists and libertarians are con- Alan Albon replies: Let the debate continue. cerned, it isn't going to make any practical Probably one of the most important books pub- May I take up the question raised by Steve difference whether we join in these "circuses" Iished in recent years has been Jose Peirats‘ Dawe and Dave Norman - without necessarily as David Peers called them. But there is anoth- Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution (Black & endorsing your earlier editorial or taking sides er side to the whole issue of immigration. Red, Detroit, distributed by Solidarity Books of in what may be a purely semantic debate. Not When confronted with the arguments of workers Toronto). For those who believe that the anar- that I wish to sit on the fence but that it is not who support the N.F. it is pointless to scream chist revolution will benefit by being tied to in fact stated clearly in your editorial that you about racism and fascism. However, it is poss- the tail of left wing politics this book contains would reject the thesis: ible to get people thinking about the class Fessons which appear to be still unlearned. - "effective campaigning on an issue may nature of present society by pointing out wr_hy As Peirats remarks in his preface: "Anarchism mean that we cooperate with a wide is largely responsible for its own bad reputat- our rulers need a large supply of immigrant variety of statist groups" labour and why the middle classes take a so- ion in the world. It did not consider the thorny called "liberal" attitude to it. Inthis way it problem of means and ends. In their writings nor that you would reject the postulate: many anarchists conceived of 'a miraculous may be. possible to show up a lot of the crap - “we affirm our belief in the value of solution to the problem of revolution. We fell about the "nation" and "national interest" for uniting with Trotskyists on matters of what it is, thus helping to undermine the easily into this trap in Spain. We believed common concern.“ fascist ideology instead of reinforcing it as the that ‘once the dog is dead the rabies is over."‘ present tactics of the’ "Left." are doing. Guilt by association and relationship is the There have certainly been anarchists who A.K.M. . hallmark of the terrorist activities of the auth- would in all circumstances have rejected both ortiarians of left and right and anarchists have of these postulates, but all the FREEDOM I.OndOn N owe I 0 been victims of both groups. I think that David editors I know have in the past acted on the

_ - | FREEDOM 7 IJE§F1iEE{S P assumption that both are correct, while insist- united front, this it was alleged was produced ing that they must be on defined issues, and in In rief by a broad spectrum of revolutionary opinion ways that did not involve subordinating anarch- including the anarchists, and it even published ANARCHIST MOORLAND PICNIC ism to Trotskyism - or whatever else might be some seemingly libertarian critiques of the van- the faith of the statist socialist (or indeed non- guardism, substitutionalism and authoritarianism SHEFFIELD ANARCHISTS WELCOME COM- socialist) concemed. It is obvious from the of the rival groupings; it did not prevent the RADES FROM OTHER AREAS WI-IO CAN Canterbury Libertarian letter that they too ovemight expulsion of the more libertarian mem- JOIN THEIR EXCURSION ON SATURDAY accept some reservations for such collaboration. bers of its editorial group (those who later I7th SEPTEMBER. Write in advance to 4 Have- The issue seems to me too important to leave launched Solidarity) for no stated reason. lock Square, Sheffield, OR BE THERE BEFORE IO am on Saturday I7th. Extra cars for trans- there. You and your correspondents may be The same body has a weekly paper which was port to the picnic spot will be very helpful. divided only by a matter of emphasis or seman- launched ostensibly as a united front industrial tics; but there are those at either pole who paper; this was in fact an attempt (successful) might appear at first blush to endorse one or to split an industrial rank and file movement other argument, but who would in fact disagree '.Vl’tiCl't had been launched by a number of other more radically with either of you, than you xevolutionary groupings, amongst whom were . Blflkfl = a with eachother. anarchists and Solidarity. The dogmatic extreme of saying that in no It also has/had a paper published for print- belated obituary cjfggmgfqnges will anarchists work with non- workers which was launched as a way of splitting ‘Those who restrain desire, do so because anarchists, is not a purist anarchist position, (and then scabbing on) the rank and file print- theirs is weak enough to be restrained, and but a vanguardist and therefore by definition workers‘ movement in London. the restrainer, or reason, usurps its place .an anti-anarchist one . Space does not permit me to enlarge on this and governs the unwilling. And being re- The opportunist extreme of saying "unity is it would be easy to instance enough other aspects strained, it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.‘ all that counts, we should not look a gift horse of this grouping to fill an issue of FREEDOM. in the mouth, if we are offered unity“, logically It has frequently in spoken word and on at least AUGUST I2 saw the I50th anniversary of the leads people to subordinate their activity to two occasions in leaflets claimed that the group‘: death, in I827, of William Blake, the famous non-anarchists; and frequently to those mindless- ranI