the occupied times of london #19 JAN2013 theoccupiedtimes.com @OccupiedTimes Editorial Four million Britons have financed their Christmas using payday loans. This is not a statistic about greed or a lack of ‘personal responsibility’. On average, people have spent less on festivities this year. Instead, the figures point to an economy built upon debt. Unsecured loans with staggeringly high interest rates are becoming for many an increasingly normalised means of meeting basic social needs. Against a backdrop of stagnating wages, the last few decades have seen a steady increase in living costs with disposable income gobbled up by housing, food, energy bills, and more and more by things which were once free: education and medical costs. In the context of a shrinking manufacturing sector, immaterial goods have spawned a precarious, non-unionised workforce with higher demand on their gradually diminishing earnings. And so here we have Britain’s success story of the 2008 crash, with growth rates to make all other sectors envious: the personal debt industry. The last five years have seen a 25% increase in payday loan outlets, pawnshops and bookies, all of which now dominate the high streets of impoverished communities. Parasitic in nature, the influx of these poverty vultures is often the harbinger of an area’s decline, as debt levels spin out of control courtesy of exorbitant interest rates, in some cases Contents reaching up to 4000% APR. Between 2006-11 the payday loans industry alone Pages / quadrupled. Those who live in these 02 Editorial hollowed out communities are well aware 03 Announcements of the effect the industry has had - it’s no 04 International coincidence that payday loan shops were 07 Society targeted during the riots. 08 Intellectual Property The ubiquity of the debt economy 10 Environment cuts through class, though its utility still 12 Debt pushes itself onto the poor: an economy 14 Satire that fails the majority forces people to 15 Lulz take risks to maintain or aspire to an 16 Placard improved standard of living, which capital tells us we must covet. Debt was not used Editorial / to improve the lives of the majority; it was Jonni Brown used to inflate bubbles and to accumulate Sara Cameron fictitious capital for the financial elite, Ragnhild Freng Dale creating the mirage of growth where Jack Dean in reality there was none. Like the Martin Eiermann money created by the central banks of they produce, but they work to pay their value from the labours of the majority Donate To Emma Fordham the world, it does not have a material debts, for which they are responsible and the debts they are forced to take on, Flaminia Giambalvo counterpart. This virtual economic because they consume.” transforming them into commodities to Keep Us Going! Mark Kauri growth doesn’t show up on the balance Under a laissez-faire economic system, be gambled with. Most of us, the people Steven Maclean sheets as debt, but that’s essentially we are told to consume because it is good who actually do all the productive jobs, Since October of last year, The Reverend Nemu what it is, as it increases the amount of for the economy: the ‘wealth creators’’’ don’t work in this intangible economy, but Occupied Times has offered a high– Michael Richmond money circulating within the economy benevolence will allow money to trickle when it stuttered and collapsed, the debt quality alternative to corporate Mike Sabbagh without providing clear evidence that down. But trickle down economies do the finance sector incurred was cancelled, media. Our publication features Natalia Sanchez–Bell value is increasing proportionally as well. not work. What trickles down isn’t money, with us paying for it, and yet, all our debt articles by activists, citizens, thinkers Ryan Hickey Indeed, the vast increase in money within but debt, and its associated conditions – which we now know has been rigged all and academic experts from the UK the financial sector is merely the tip of of shame, guilt and isolation - central to along – remains. and around the world, and we have Designers / the iceberg. Arguably, the accrued debt the history of debt in human society, and Until we fully engage in the published 30,000 papers full of critical Lazaros Kakoulidis laced into the processes of immaterial made worse by the hyper-individualisation understanding that debt is a common analysis, opinion, features and news, Tzortzis Rallis production around the world is many and precarity of a post-Fordist existence. and historical form of bondage, which without printing a single advert. times greater. Our debt is also directly linked to must be confronted and collectively The paper is totally non-profit, Illustrator / In the quest for infinite expansion of the LIBOR scandal – the biggest financial organised against, we shall forever be printed on recycled paper with Alex Charnley value, coupled with a more immaterial fraud in human history – when the caught in the cycle of self-propelling vegetable inks at favourable rates mode of production exemplified in the world’s major banks manipulated the key financial circulation that promises by a sound and community–minded Photographers / service sector, we see an increasing inter-bank lending rate governing over freedom whilst linking us in chains. printer. It is sustained by the Andrea Bakacs exploitation of multiple aspects of human $300 trillion worth of transactions. It has Many, no longer wishing to be caught voluntary efforts and enthusiasm Wasi Danihu labour: our creative capacity, and our become increasingly obvious that the in the thrall of exploitation, are already of its writers and editors, and the Ben Cavanna relationships with each other. The system and its institutions are illegitimate, taking action around debt and engaging donations of its readers. Please help Foong Wai boundaries between work and life have and that debtors have entered into a with how its moral and economic us continue. A donation of £5 funds blurred. Ask yourselves this, how often do relationship on false pretenses. If the illegitimacy can be challenged. Later in the printing of 15 copies, and every Print run / people check their work emails at home debt is illegitimate, why must we couch this issue, we cover some of the different penny goes into our current monthly 2000 Copies these days? Hardt & Negri elaborate the removal of indebtedness in the methods of resistance and collectivisation print-run of 2,000. on the systemic realignment that has language of forgiveness and sin? If a which are developing, from the Rolling If you would like to help keep us With special thanks to / occurred because of this new dynamic debt is illegitimate, it must be repudiated, Jubilee campaign and Strike Debt printing the news and views that we Aldgate Press, E1 7RQ when they refer to the indebted as a key refused, and denied. If a system is movement in the US to calls for citizen feel need to be heard, please make a subjective figure of the 2008 crash: exposed and tactics are clear, collective debt audits in some European countries. donation by paypal to occupiedtimes@ Contact us / “In order to survive the indebted refusal can drive a wedge into the wheels People are gathering to discuss their debt gmail.com or visit our website at: [email protected] must sell his or her entire time of life. of our own destruction. stories and plan coherent and radical www.theoccupiedtimes.co.uk. Those subject to debt in this way thus Although the financial sector is a big strategies to fight against debt bondage. You can also contribute writing All information in this paper appear, even to themselves, primarily as part of the economy it cannot survive in As David Harvey said recently: “You retire and photography to the OT by visiting

© is free for non–profit distribution consumers not producers. Yes, of course isolation. It sustains itself by extracting the debt, you end capital.” us online.

editorial / 02 UK radical co–ops reach milestone

Last week the Radical Routes (RR) federation loaned £60,000 to Rose Howey Housing Co-operative in Liverpool, and reached the milestone of £1/2m on loan to member co-operatives, which has enabled the leveraging of over £920,000 worth of investment in common ownership this year.

Al Jack of Rootstock, the finance-raising arm of Radical Routes, said, "Our investors come from a wide range of backgrounds, but are united in seeking a socially conscious place to put their money. We are proud of how our small organisation has continued to grow and thrive; the half-million mark is an important symbol of that."

Radical Routes is a UK-wide network of housing and workers' co-operatives and radical social centres. Principles of mutual aid and solidarity amongst members are strongly encouraged, and members use their co-operatives as secure bases in which to live or work while challenging dominant social structures and social and ecological injustices. Through activism and education, RR members encourage others to join them in working towards radical social change.

In existence for nearly 25 years, RR has helped establish many co- operative projects and provides a strong support network. Some of the established RR co-ops provide direct finance to fledgling co-ops, and mature communities foster the growth of workers’ co-ops and social centres in their surrounding areas.

Radical Routes has, so far, never lost money on a loan. For information on Radical Routes: http://www.radicalroutes.org.uk/ For information on investing in Rootstock: www.rootstock.org.uk

London's Battle for Housing A radical housing coalition has disproportionately affecting families come together to fight for people's and young people. right to a home in the face of the Against this bleak picture, a government’s continued assailment broad range of housing groups has

hoto:Andrea Bakacs of its most vulnerable citizens. come together to form the London P A number of publicly owned Radical Housing Coalition - joining estates in London, including the forces of private tenants, Carpenters, Heygate and Aylesbury social housing tenants, travellers have been resisting an ongoing and squatters. It aims to provide urban gentrification process, which a directly democratic forum and would forcefully oust many current horizontal platform by which residents from these areas. CARP, housing groups can share resources, the Carpenters residents’ group coordinate their campaigns and opposing the demolition of the collaborate between themselves. Up the nti — estate, describes this process as It does not seek to establish a A “the planned eradication of the separate group or organisation, but A hypothetical future event of this ilk could working class people of Newham”, to find ways for existing groups or include sessions on imagining a radical alternative taking place against a backdrop of a organisations to mutually empower An important first to the welfare state, urban politics, stories from youth, decrease in traveller sites, chronic each other. et cetera. The event should be held not in a formal shortage of genuinely affordable The group has so far held two step, but just a step or grandiose setting but, perhaps, in one of housing, skyrocketing private rents very successful meetings, on 24 the many London estates struggling to hold out and the passing of a bill aimed at November and 15 December, and has The Up The Anti (UTA) conference on 1 December against ‘regeneration’. further criminalising squatting of plans for more.You can find more info aimed to budge the entrenched positions of 'the Left'. Some of the critics at UTA could have made more unused residential buildings. These you can visit the eviction resistance Activists from a broad range of political backgrounds of their experience by eschewing talks with the ‘big measures combined with crippling blogspot at http://evictionresistance. attended and engaged in healthy debates during panel names’, concentrating instead on subjects they were austerity cuts have already resulted blogspot.co.uk/. You can also visit discussions, Q&A sessions and in breakout groups, and interested in. In a refreshing session on housing, in an 18% rise in homelessness over CARP's Facebook page at http://www. united around a number of specific issues, such as young people exchanged their personal experiences the past year, according to Shelter, facebook.com/carpvoice debt and the housing crisis. about housing precariousness, squatting and debt; But the conference also illustrated that the Left a discussion about the situation in Greece was has a long way to go. The gender imbalance at the animated yet constructive; and a debate on ‘lessons conference was repeatedly raised and criticised. from the global south’ was extremely informative. The Left often side-steps gender with little more than Criticism should not detract from the efforts International a tokenistic gesture. But lip-service is insufficient made by the organising group (of which the OT was - what needs to change is the methodology itself. a small part), but will hopefully encourage everyone Feminism (or something like a femme perspective) involved to radically rethink how similar events might Workers’ Association should pervade activism. Partly due to post-UTA be approached in the future. It would be heartening reflections, the OT collective is now working more to see a conference where audience, organisers and 90th Anniversary consciously on challenging the oppressions and speakers were not hierarchically separated but were The International Workers’ Association 90th anniversary hierarchies of gender relations. working together while challenging each other conference will take place at SOAS the first weekend of January Real effort is also needed to include those at to create "a world where many worlds fit". (5th & 6th) and will have speakers from across the world. the sharp end of the current crisis in any future Check solfed.org.uk for more details. event which aims to ‘reclaim the future’. Having an anarchist, a Trotskyite and a Leninist sitting around a table does not amount to genuine diversity. More grounded, practical and experientially-based discussions would be welcome and would reduce opportunities for obscure and theoretical soapbox rants, of which there were a few at UTA. Ironically, in the closing session, one of the speakers pondered on how can we stop middle-aged white males (such as himself) dominating, without noticing that he was the only one addressing the crowd while standing up.

03 / announcements The time was July 2012, almost a month after a Since the publication of the article, the to replace immigrant workers - who are paid second round of elections in Greece produced Greek government has taken steps to correct nothing for their work - with Greeks who will only the Frankenstein-like coalition government, this iinjustice: in 2013, the government plans to suffer the same fate. Their neoliberal aspirations, comprised of conservative right-wing New collect as much as 80 million euros from taxing hidden behind immigrant-bashing populism and Democracy, faux-socialists PASOK and “left-wing” ship-owners. This figure, after many months of nationalistic sentiment, ought to be exposed.

lism Democratic Left that was now running the crisis- protest, has gone up to 140 million now, but for “Resist the selling-off of our country!” reads stricken country. An hour outside Athens, in the an industry enjoying billions in earnings every the party’s website. And it may in fact be time a town of Loutraki, strikers had blocked the road year, and which controls more than 20% of global to do so. But keep in mind that it is going to be cesof leading up to the local casino, an important part sea trade, this is nothing but “spare change”. To a fight on two fronts: on the one hand, against

er of the local economy providing hundreds with give a sense of proportion, within the same year, an elite that refuses to take responsibility for

Fa employment. Locked in a dispute over proposed 82 million will be cut from disability benefits its shortcomings or to share the burden of the b wage cuts with the owners, the strikers felt alone. Isn’t this the kind of behavior the Greek crisis it caused; and on the other, against a gang cheated and believed their employers were using government should be steering away from if which has now been granted immunity from the crisis as an excuse to attack their already they really want to disarm the Golden Dawn’s prosecution, and which jumps at every chance it severely strained income. populist rhetoric? gets to support its real bosses. What they didn’t expect was a visit from a In reality, very little is done to battle the As the Greek elite’s impunity and cynicism

he 2 he newly elected MP. Accompanied by ten bouncers, Greek elite’s tax-dodging. As was demonstrated drives an angry and confused people into the the new MP Efstathios Boukouras threatened the recently with the state’s reaction over the arms of these false saviors, who are in fact T strikers under the thin pretext that “we won’t publication of the now infamous Lagarde list, only the other face of the elite’s neo-feudal allow the communists to do as they please”. this government is unwilling to clash with the aspirations, the game needs to change. For Boukouras belongs to a group calling itself Greek elite, of which its members are an integral as long as we do not expose and stress the “Golden Dawn”. Riding the wagon of “dissent”, Why is this supposedly “pro-people” party part. It is becoming more and more apparent, connection between corrupt, long-established this neo-nazi party won 7% of the popular vote lining up behind capitalist interests, and why as months go by, that the Greek elite tolerates capitalist interests and fascism in Greece, we in June. They boasted of “clean hands” and an do the businessmen allow this to happen? The and even supports the neo-nazi party in order to are doomed to keep on fighting the symptom “anti-systemic” character. They claimed they two groups are interlinked in several different promote its agenda. Reading between the lines and not the disease that eats away at the would defend Greeks from the “dark centres of ways. Through this symbiosis, the desire of of Golden Dawn’s manifesto, one can see their country’s morale. GreekNeoli power” who sought to enslave them. factory and ship owners like Nikolas Manesis promises for flat-tax rates, fast-track investments By Yiannis Baboulias, a Greek investigative journalist Is this an isolated incident of a Golden Dawn of the Halyvourgiki steel plant to get their own and how, through “charity” work, they intend writing on finance and politics. @yiannisbab

Yiannis Baboulias Yiannis MP backing local “Big Money”? The party’s track way, strengthens the neo-nazi party. By opposing record suggests the exact opposite. The party strikes and Unions, the party is doing exactly has voted for indebted football clubs to have what “big business” has been dreaming of for their debt cancelled (clubs owned by some of the decades on a global scale. richest of Greeks, such as the ship and media The Greek elite has been enjoying a lavish owner Yiannis Alafouzos), and has supported lifestyle even now, when 27.7% of Greek citizens Piraeus Bank (which is under investigation for are at risk of poverty, as a report by Eurostat

shady business deals) in its attempt to acquire showed in February. A very revealing piece by oong Wai F Agrotiki, a state-owned bank, for almost nothing, the German magazine Der Spiegel tells us: “The

using state-provided money acquired through Greek government can no longer pay its bills hoto: P expensive aid packages. It should not come and owes private-sector companies some €9 as a surprise that Golden Dawn disagreed billion. But even now, three years into the crisis, with a proposed tax hike to earnings from it continues to exempt commercial shipping shipping activities. Ship owners in Greece are a companies, which make up its most successful traditionally powerful body of businessmen that industrial sector, from all taxes. This relief for the homes since 1948. Israeli discourse in the dock refuses to recognise the court is notoriously untouched by taxation. rich just puts more of a burden on the poor.” has promptly embraced Hamas as a (as Slobodan Milosevic, for example, scapegoat for most things to try to avoid did) their dismissal is treated with the the questions it can’t answer about its contempt and ridicule it deserves. historic human rights abuses and about violations of international law in other Most people are apathetic areas such as the West Bank, Lebanon 7 Apathy means showing a lack of and the Golan Heights. Hamas is a interest, especially about something Dangerous symptom, not the cause of the problem. important. But most people are confused, not uninterested; or they don’t know Hamas uses human shields, There are fewer Israeli casualties Supporters of Israel and enough, especially about Britain’s historic 8 Myths 1 but Israel does everything it can 2 because ‘Israelis place greater 5 Palestine all complain about BBC role. Partly this is because of the problems to avoid civilian casualties emphasis on the value of life’ coverage, so it’s probably fair with media coverage. Generally, the more about Israel Both of these messages were This shockingly racist statement A common pronouncement from people learn, the more moral outrage they repeatedly pumped out by pro-Israel PR was spelled out explicitly in one article people who consider themselves ‘sensible feel, especially because the horrific truth units during ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, on the Independent’s ‘Independent centrists’ and prefer to dismiss the serious was previously hidden from them. Apathy & Palestine just as they were during ‘Operation Cast Voices’ comment blog (Joanna Lowy, problem of media bias by concluding that is manufactured, not inherent. Lead’ four years ago. In both onslaughts Israel, Hamas, and why the idea that when opinions on an issue are so polarised, Hilary Aked an extremely high number of civilians journalists pretend it’s an even battle in a journalist is doing their job as long as There’s nothing we can do were killed, despite Israel claiming that Gaza is nonsense, 22 November 2012). both sides are unhappy. Actually, the fact 8 This is the most pernicious and ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, the its ‘targeted missiles’ would be capable of It is also often insinuated by many of that large numbers of supporters of both paralysing myth of all. We can educate latest sustained Israeli assault on executing the desired extra-judicial killings Israel’s propagandists. Yet this emphasis ‘sides’ complain means only that they are ourselves, visit Palestine and participate Gaza with a headline-hitting name, with pinpoint precision. When innocent on Israel’s life-affirming values is all aware how vital media narratives are in campaigns. By far the most useful form lasted for eight days. The bombing civilians were killed, their deaths were contradicted by the billions (7% of GDP) to public perception and action – or lack of international solidarity is to heed the from land, sea and air lasted from dismissed by Israel’s supporters with the that Israel spends on its army, navy and of it – and that they are constructed in a 2005 Palestinian civil society call for BDS 14-21 November and killed 158 claim that “Hamas is using human shields” air forces, by the massive levels of US contested space which can be shaped and (boycott, divestment, sanctions) and to get Palestinians, of which 103 were at the same time as assurances were military aid, and by the conscription of influenced by outside pressure. It bears involved with this dynamic, effective and civilians (including 30 children). provided that Israel was “doing everything its population. It’s an absurd lie. no reflection on the extent to which those global grassroots movement for justice Meanwhile, six Israelis were killed possible to avoid civilian casualties”. narrative outcomes actually reflect reality. wherever you are. by Palestinian factions. Israel has Both of these claims are untrue. 3 Hamas broke the ceasefire Scholarly research has demonstrated the been killing Gazans quietly for years, Despite the lack of evidence, let’s assume This is just factually inaccurate. pro-Israel bias at the BBC and its failure to and two days after Egypt brokered a that the claim about Hamas using human While it was not widely reported, Reuters tell the Palestinian truth. ceasefire they started killing again, shields is true. If it is, then the second did note that on 4 November the shooting dead twenty-year-old statement – that ‘Israel does everything Israeli army killed a mentally ill man International law is up for debate Anwar Qdeih. This highlights the it can to avoid civilian casualties’ - cannot in the buffer zone, the first casualty in 6 News reports, especially from the BBC, absurdity of the situation, which be. If it knows so well that the targeted the recent episode of violence. On 8 frequently finish with a crucial contextual leaves the siege intact and the militants are surrounded by civilians, why November Israeli soldiers shot and killed fact followed by a swift undermining collective punishment of Gazans does it proceed to bomb them anyway? a 13 year old boy, Ahmad Abu Daqqa, suffix. It typically goes like this: “Almost undisturbed, albeit without an all-out Military command must simply have who had been playing football near Khan half a million Israelis live in West Bank onslaught. The UK continues to give decided that these people were ‘collateral Yunis. Palestinian fighters retaliated two settlements which are illegal under diplomatic support to Israel as well damage’. If it is not true that Hamas uses days later and the situation escalated. international law, although Israel disputes as selling arms and co-operating human shields, the possibility is raised this.” The frequency with which this militarily and economically. that civilian casualties are so high because 4 Hamas is the main problem formula is trotted out by the BBC suggests Eight key myths - and many Israel is deliberately targeting civilians. Hamas has been in power in it’s included in their ‘How to report the more misconceptions - perpetuated Ariel Sharon’s son stated: “We need to Gaza since June 2007. But Israel has Middle East’ guidelines for journalists. Yet by Israel and its supporters, which flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza… been occupying the West Bank and in no other circumstances in which one are used as a smokescreen on the The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima East Jerusalem since 1967 and a high party has contravened international law current situation and hinder justice – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast proportion of all Palestinian refugees would a rejection of that law be treated for Israelis and Palestinians. enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too”. have been waiting to return to their with such credibility. When a war criminal

international / 04 The Great Debate Is the BDS campaign an effective tactic to achieve the liberation of Palestine? As a response to Israel’s incessant expansionism, attacks on the Palestinian people and violations of international human rights agreements, Palestinian civil society issued a call for a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) until Israel complies with international law and Palestinian rights. This call, made in 2005, was endorsed by more than 172 non- governmental and civil society organisations in Palestine, and was later endorsed by all national and Islamic Palestinian political factions. Despite this, a number of supporters of campaigns in solidarity with the liberation of Palestine have questioned the effectiveness of cultural boycott. The OT attempts to tease out the data from the inaccuracy and myth.

No / Daniel Cooper Yes / Mohammed Abuabdou

Since Israel’s brutal invasion of of the current situation is that some In 2004 the International Court of boycott campaigns, they support Gaza in January 2009, calls for British trade unions have adopted Justice in The Hague declared that their Palestinian artist friends in international boycotts of various the boycott - and then proceeded to the building of the wall separating Palestine. Israel is facing a wave of aspects of Israeli society – whether do nothing else. the West Bank from Israel was delegitimisation by the international academic, cultural, sporting, Insofar as it is effective, a in breach of international law. It community for its lack of respect for economic or simply thoroughgoing, boycott will strengthen the siege demanded that Israel immediately basic human rights and international root-and-branch boycotts “of Israel” mentality on which the Israeli right cease construction on the wall, begin law. Non-violent punitive measures – have gained prominence. and ruling class rely, and weaken its removal and compensate those should be maintained until Israel At present, unfortunately, the Israeli radical left and anti- harmed by its effects. Despite the meets its obligations to recognise the dominant opposing voices occupation movement. By this I importance of this international the Palestinian people’s inalienable are supporters of the Israeli mean that it is likely to hurt Israeli ruling, Israel didn’t pay any attention right to self-determination, and until government and those who believe workers and drive them into the to it. It has continued to build it fully complies with the precepts of that student or trade unions arms of the Israeli rulers. Thus it without facing any moral or political international law. should have nothing to do with big will hurt the Palestinian cause. deterrent. As a result of ongoing Since the Gaza massacre in political issues. I am not of that Boycotts of Israeli academics Israeli aggression and atrocities, December 2008, in which Israel political persuasion. and trade unions are even worse. expansionist practices, and inhumane killed 1400 Palestinians - mostly I have a long record of There are good reasons why we do treatment of the Palestinian people, children and women - and after the campaigning in support of the not boycott American, Russian or the Palestinian Campaign for the flotilla massacre in May 2010, many Palestinians - from demonstrating Chinese academics, even though Boycott of Israel declared its intent to international artists, intellectuals, and taking part in occupations these states also engage in terrible hold Israel accountable. To this end, academics, and cultural workers have hoto:Ashraf Amra P against “Operation Cast Lead” crimes at home and abroad. Nor the campaigners formed local and refused to take part in any Israeli to organising a series of pro- do we boycott British or American international pressure tools aimed at cultural, academic or artistic work Palestinian meetings at my former trade unions, despite their long de-legitimising the occupation, and at which could lead to a whitewash of university, Royal Holloway. I have history of collaboration with British resisting Israel’s racist relationship the crimes of Israel. Among those also taken policy in support of the imperialism. Rather than boycotting with the Palestinian people. who have endorsed the global BDS Palestinians to my Students Union. I Israeli students, academics and In South Africa, the cultural movement are Archbishop Desmond have continued this record into my workers, we should be linking up boycott effectively contributed to Tutu, Adrienne Rich, John Berger, Ken post as University of London Union with Isreali left wing movements, to isolating the apartheid regime and Loach, Alice Walker, Arundhati Roy Vice President: supporting London help support the Palestinians. making it shameful. In Palestine, and Naomi Klein. students’ actions in solidarity with Ultimately, this is a the situation is very similar, with In a pitiful attempt to show the the people of Gaza (and I shall be disagreement about the nature of Palestinian civil society organisations world how modern and civilised it attempting to pass policy at ULU’s Israel. I oppose the Israeli ruling calling on artists, singers and cultural is, the Israeli government regularly democratic forums) in response to class and its government and its workers to refrain from taking part attempts to invite renowned artists the brutal bombing by the Israeli imperialism, but I do not write off in any event in Israel, regarding and singers to perform in Israel, army and continued occupation of all Israelis as irredeemable enemies. participation in such events as a often to entertain Israeli soldiers Palestinian territories. I understand why many Palestinian form of normalisation of the colonial and audiences. After every assault However, I do not believe that activists and organisations support attitude, apartheid policies and and massacre Israel commits, boycotting Israel is a positive a boycott, and I sympathise with ongoing military occupation. The the government provides the or effective way to help the them, but I also respectfully boycott’s power lies in its alternative military a chance to celebrate Palestinians, and I am in favour of disagree that it is a positive way to to armed resistance. When Israeli the crimes committed against the a different kind of solidarity with help their cause. artists respect and endorse the Palestinian people. the Palestinians and the Israeli left. I would argue that the BDS This is for the following reasons: should be the future collective, Boycotts are generally not representative body for Palestinians very effective. Even in the case in their struggle with Israel. Some of South Africa (where I would people claim that the cultural boycott have supported the boycott) it was of Israel may infringe on freedom of not the boycott campaign but the expression and cultural exchange, but growing strength and organisation these are exactly the same claims of black workers and poor in made against the initial proposed the townships, which brought boycott of South Africa under the regime to its knees. Positive apartheid, a boycott which eventually solidarity with the Palestinians contributed to forcing South Africa to and with the left-wing, and anti- recognise its oppressed people and occupation movement in Israel is their equal right to exist alongside much better. One of the tragedies the white South African population.

05 / international Flaminia Zapatista Giambalvo Communities under attack In 1994 the rallying cry for land and freedom Since then, members of the Zapatista In 2010, the BAZ of San Marcos Avilés opened that sparked the Zapatista rebellion echoed communities, known as bases of support its own autonomous school. Since then, the across the globe and landed on the front (BAZ), have been constructing their own community has become the target of constant page of the The New York Times, which autonomous systems of education, healthcare, attempts to enforce displacement, and of hailed it as the “first postmodern Latin co-operative working, justice, grassroots destruction and theft of crops, livestock, American revolution”. 19 years down the democracy, community organisation, feminist property and food. A member of the San line the corporate media seems to have values, agro-ecology, appropriate technology, Marcos Avilés said: “They think we are forgotten about that “spark that lit up the and other social and economic projects, worthless. They treat us badly, like animals. world”. On 17 November 2012 the EZLN – the without any involvement from the government. They do what they want with us. When we sow movement’s political military organisation – They wish to live according to their own our maize, we cannot take it home. They come celebrated its 29th anniversary. It was a time indigenous ways of being, and have created a to steal our beans, sugar cane, bananas, they not only to celebrate almost two decades of living example of a (or another) possible world, steal everything. All we do is sow and work struggle for justice, dignity and democracy, an example which gives inspiration and hope and there is nothing. We cannot enjoy the but also an opportunity to build solidarity to people all over the world. fruits of our labour with our children, because with those communities currently under members of the political parties are eating it attack by the Mexican state. In response to the ‘threat’ posed by these on the orders of the bad government.” communities, the Mexican state has deployed The rebellion itself began on New Year’s financial blockades and dispatched armed However, in a tone of defiance the BAZ Day 1994, when some 3,000 poorly armed paramilitary-style attack groups to carry out adds, “they should not think that provocation, indigenous rebels seized six towns in alarmingly violent assaults on some of the threats, assaults and persecution will stop the Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state. Few Zapatista communities. An example of this Zapatista struggle for the construction of our disputed their right to be angry. Poverty in is “Plan Chiapas 94”. The plan prescribes autonomy and for national liberation. Because the area, defined as the percentage of the “a forced displacement of communities under whatever the cost, and whatever happens, we population that lives on less than a dollar per zapatista influence including a warranted will continue to go forward, as is our right.” day, hovered around 56% when the rebellion refugee area, annihilation of the Dioceses In response to these violent acts of aggression began, with many families lacking access of San Cristobal (zapatista stronghold), and displacement, an International Solidarity to basic healthcare and education, capture of any Mexican identified as EZLN, Campaign called “Worldwide Echo in Support while a small elite controlled much expulsion of pernicious foreigners, slaughter of the Zapatistas” has been organised by of the arable land and held or control of the communities’ livestock; supporters of the Zapatistas, demanding “an the farming population in destruction of their harvest; and deployment immediate and absolute end to the war against near-feudal conditions. of the ‘civil defense’ to break the relationship the Zapatistas”. In rural communities, of mutual aid that exists between the an estimated 20% population and the outlaws”. The campaign states: “The government of children died and its people have their strategies, their before the One of the most serious recent attacks carried violence, their terror. But we state here that age of five. out under “Plan Chiapas 94” was an invasion we also have an option in the face of so much by the paramilitary group known as ‘Peace repression: we have the option to organise and Justice’ into the Zapatista communities ourselves and to fight for justice, dignity, and of Comandante Abel and Unión Hidalgo in autonomy.” As Hugo Blanco, a renowned September 2012, during which the community Peruvian activist, argues in a newly-released was forcefully displaced. Recalling those statement of support to the campaign, “it is tragic moments, a BAZ member recounts: therefore both an obligation and in the direct “They chased us with bullets, and when we interests of all of us who are seeking a new arrived in a new place place we were already world, of all who want a horizontal society in sick.” He adds: “I felt like there was a jaguar solidarity, of all who understand that the 1% after me, I was lost and terrified, I felt as if I is leading us to the extinction of the human was no longer in the world.” species and who are committed to its survival; we must organise with all our strength and The communities remain displaced and collective intelligence in the defence of this the Zapatistas’ land is still occupied by the island of freedom and democracy in Chiapas, aggressors, who are currently building their which shows us that building another world, own houses as a way to secure occupation. a world where there is room for many worlds, The efforts are actively supported by the is truly possible.” local police. A BAZ spokesperson said: “Through a loudspeaker the paramilitaries To learn more about the Zapatistas’ struggle, are announcing, day and night, that they are visit sanmarcosavilesen.wordpress.com going to ‘eat’ us, because we are outlaws, we are beyond the reach of justice and the law.” She adds: “The government buys people, and then persuades them to take our land. It is their policy of war and attrition to make us surrender. We will not stop our struggle and we are not going to give up.”

international / 06 Body–Hair Activism & Anti–Capitalism Tasha Skerman-Gray

Over the past year there has been a resurgence in body-hair My intention is not to shame women who continue to activism and discussion within the feminist community. From shave, and I am aware that when it comes to embracing one’s the appearance of Those Pesky Dames - a video-blogging body hair the stakes are different for all of us; it is probably collective - on Cherry Healey’s ‘How to Get a Life’ on BBC3, to much easier for me as a white, middle-class person to do this Emer O’Toole’s spot on This Morning, to the Armpits4August than it might be for a trans woman, a working-class woman campaign launched by Polycystic Ovary Syndrome charity or a woman of colour. Even so, I think it is still useful for us Verity, the image of the unapologetic, hairy-legged, bushy- to question why it is that many people believe that hairless pitted feminist has returned. women are inherently more desirable. However, it is still the case that whenever an unshaven Body hair removal did not become a widespread practice woman (this term includes both cis and trans women as in modern Europe until the 1920s, when hemlines rose and well as non-binary people) ‘dares’ to show her body hair in sleeveless dresses came into fashion. Razor manufacturers at public, she is met with a barrage of criticism regarding her the time saw this as an opportunity to create a new market, appearance. See, for example, Pixie Lott’s ‘fashion faux pas’ and soon started putting out adverts to stimulate demand for of attending a film premiere this summer without first having hair-removal products. Patriarchy and capitalism worked (and waxed her armpits. Amidst these hysterical cries which continue to work) together in order to foster insecurities in denounce body hair on women as dirty, unhygienic, ‘unnatural’ women and thus encourage them to buy more products. And or ‘unfeminine’, there are two recurring themes, both of which because the idealised image of a hairless woman is impossible centre around the notion of ‘free choice’: firstly, the claim that to maintain, women are encouraged not only to perpetually a woman is free to stop shaving her arms/legs/pubic area so spend money on depilatory practices but also to participate long as she ‘accepts’ the fact that no man will ever find her in a never-ending, time-consuming cycle of hair removal: just sexually attractive again; secondly, the statement made by one aspect of what Naomi Wolf has termed ‘beauty work’, or some women who say ‘but I choose to continue shaving as it the extra labour that women are expected to perform in order just looks and feels better!’ to look even half-way respectable. The first is perhaps easier to refute, in that it is patently It is clear, then, that the act of hair removal is not untrue: I know plenty of women who are hairy and have simply influenced by patriarchy but also by capitalism and successful relationships with men. Furthermore, it is likely its imperative to consume endlessly. This is why for women that not all of these women are attracted to men and so throwing away the razor is still a radical act of both feminism couldn’t care less whether they are attractive to them or not. and anti-capitalism. If the personal is political then the act Finally – and most importantly – the act of choosing to stop of not shaving can be seen as an example of direct action. shaving is and should be made, first and foremost, for the Refusing to depilate is a step towards body positivity and woman herself. Of course, no individual exists in a vacuum, self-love whilst sticking two fingers up to the ad-man. It is a and we are all subject to structures of oppression such as fuck-you to gender-policing homophobes and transphobes and patriarchy, capitalism, racism, homophobia and transphobia, a rejection of the anxiety-inducing, body-shaming messages ableism and so on; these structures manifest themselves of the beauty and fashion industries. Until every woman has not only via state apparatuses and institutions such as the the real choice to leave her house hairy and unshaven and not media but also crop up in our interpersonal relationships and be subjected to harassment and criticism, there is a need for influence our individual choices. Nevertheless, there remains body-hair activism. As Janet Fraser once said, “all that time I space for resistance and autonomy. save in body hair removal, I devote to revolution.” Secondly, many women ‘choose’ to continue removing Written by Tasha Skerman-Gray. Tasha is a co- their body hair, but to what extent can this be considered a founder of the Armpits4August campaign and an activist. free choice within a patriarchal, capitalist society? When every They blog at http://thefactduck.blogspot.co.uk/ and can single media image we see of women is hairless and shaved, be found on Twitter @thefactduck waxed or photo-shopped to perfection? When hairy women are derided both online and offline for the state of their body? When waxing salons offer their services to pre-teens, and firms such as Gillette spend millions of pounds every year on marketing? imitrisAlexakis D hoto: P

to create genuinely sustainable living environments at a time when, arguably, our very survival as a species could depend on develop- ing such forms of living. Mike Hannis argues that policy in this The Law of the area is influenced by the idea, deeply embedded in planning policy, “that human presence in the landscape is necessarily destructive.” Against a backdrop of increasing poverty and environmenta The harsh reality of the current planning law is not lost on those chaos, now more than ever there is a need for sustainable commu- who have fallen foul of it while attempting to live a low-impact nities. The land-use planning system in England is becoming one N life. Stig and Dinah Mason were evicted from four acres of land of the biggest obstacles for those wanting to live in low-impact la d they purchased in Willand, Devon last year. The Masons had sustainable communities. environmentally friendly, sustainable development with endless begun to cultivate the site, they were growing vegetables and ‘Land-use planning’ is an ambiguous term, but it is hugely economic growth. Is this possible on a planet with finite resources? were living in a renovated horsebox with their children with the aim important to the way we live. It determines our living environ- Whether we can answer this question or not, what is indisput- of becoming self-sufficient. Yet the Mid-Devon District Council re- ments. It dictates access to green spaces and what happens in able is that the current planning system allows use of the fused them permission to live on the site, partly because it was them. It decides whether or not we will live next door to a nu- land for nuclear power generation, fracking for shale gas, the not convinced the couple could earn a “sustainable livelihood” clear power station or to an international airport. In extreme construction of new runways for airports and intensive development from their smallholding. Dinah Mason expressed her feelings cases, it is the deciding factor in whether we will have a roof of cities, all of which are environmentally devastating and unsus- publicly to the planning minister: “We feel there is a big lean over our heads or be dispossessed. tainable. At the same time, the system is preventing genuine at- towards economic sustainability but our project is about environ- In the foreword of the National Planning Policy Framework tempts at sustainability by individuals and groups. mental sustainability.” (NPPF) Greg Clark, Minister for Planning, writes: ‘’The purpose of For those of us wanting to live ‘the good life’ in the countryside, The Masons’ case illustrates serious flaws in a planning system planning is to help achieve sustainable development.’’ But what the official planning law is not just inadequate, it is prohibitive. which penalises people who are attempting to live in a genuinely exactly is ‘sustainable development’? Clark explains: ‘’Sustainable The only piece of guidance in the NPPF in relation to the build- sustainable way. A planning system centred on the needs of people means ensuring that better lives for ourselves don’t mean worse ing of homes on rural land is stark: ‘’Local planning authorities and planet is urgently needed. The current system is proving to be a lives for future generations. Development means growth. We must should avoid new isolated homes in the countryside unless serious obstruction to a vast, untapped potential which, if it were accommodate the new ways by which we will earn our living in a there are special circumstances such as: the essential need for released, could see the English countryside literally spring to life. competitive world.’’ It seems that Clark believes we can have both a rural worker to live permanently at or near their place of work sustainability and economic growth – but are the two compatible? in the countryside’’. Simon Moore Dwindling rainforests and the increasing scarcity of fossil This guidance limits the scope of the decision making proc- fuels, minerals and drinking water all point to the increasing scar- ess as to whether houses can be built on rural land. It focuses city of the world’s natural resources. This is the greatest prob- exclusively on ‘rural workers’, who are defined as those em- lem with the land-use planning system, it tries to combine ployed in economic activity in a rural area; no provision is made for individuals who seek to live self-sufficiently on the land, un- less they are generating a financial income by doing so. By prioritising the generation of economic growth, the plan- 07 / society ning framework excludes a whole group of people who are ready MAy The A Right Michele Wing Boldrin Perspective & David K. Levine Sou ce Be on Copyright From a right-wing perspective, use of the ideas (not the expression copyright is an unnecessary and of ideas) from a copyrighted work. unwarranted intrusion of government A good case in point is the successful John Bywater power on individual liberty. According lawsuit by J. K. Rowling against a to the US constitution, the ostensible librarian, Vander Ark, who released a W t You power for Congress to issue laws lexicon of Harry Potter (Rowling had COMMUNITYi havailable. When information is organised LAW on copyright is “to promote the initially given her blessing before The digital commons is about freedom, as a public good, the surplus value of The digital commons is based on a Progress of Science and useful Arts, taking Mr Ark to court). sharing, and creating community. Since code (to use a phrase from Deleuze and legal hack to convert copyright law by securing for limited Times to What copyright does represent the advent of the Internet, the concept of Guattari’s book, Anti-Oedipus) is realised into something called copyleft. The Authors and Inventors the exclusive is an effort of special interests like community has been less geographical: for the common good. movement started with free software, Right to their respective Writings the Disney Corporation and other people gather to share common concerns However, even though information in particular the GNU General Public and Discoveries.” We agree with this large music, movie and publishing regardless of physical location, although is naturally a public good, it is often License (GPL). Originally written by as a goal. But as economists, we companies to use the authority of geographical concerns are certainly organised as a private good, with end- Richard Stallman and released in 1982, know from theory and evidence that the government to profit at the one reason why people come together. user license agreements, digital rights the GPL is the first and the most widely copyright does not “promote the much greater expense of the rest of The word “community” is derived from management, and a whole broken and used copyleft license. According to the Progress of Science and useful Arts”. us. It is instructive to ask what we the Latin ‘communitas’, a broad term despotic world of secrets. Free software copyleft philosophy, the GPL grants the Hence Congress (and the Supreme have to give up so that government for fellowship or organized society. The engineers are the rebel army in the recipients of a computer program the Court) should ensure that the limited action can sustain these monopolies. digital commons is about a fellowship information revolution. They are battling rights described in the free software time during which exclusive rights are Let us start first with the American of information, about organising society against the Dark Side: corporations such definition and ensures certain freedoms available is very close to zero. Digital Millennium Copyright Act - the around informational concerns. as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and many are preserved, even when the work is First the evidence: We believe DMCA. One component of the DMCA Proceeding with other commoning others who are attempting to capture changed or added to. GPL provides four that promoting “the Progress of is the so-called “take-down notice”. concerns in the information age without the surplus value of code for private freedoms: to use, to study, to change, Science and useful Arts” means Anybody who objects to content on founding things explicitly and decisively gain and social control. In their bid for to distribute. GPL has been tested in increasing either the quantity or the internet can claim that they hold in the digital commons, is inherently world domination, these corporations court and is an enforceable and binding quality of the types of works - books, copyright to the material and send self-limiting. Anyone who cares about are happy to destroy 90% of the value in license. This corresponds to some music, movies - that are subject to a takedown notice to the Internet community and commoning should make order to monopolise the remaining 10%. extent with Elinor Ostrom’s principles copyright. In our 2008 book Against Provider (ISP) that hosts the material. a special effort to base what they are In George Lucas’s Star Wars films, Luke for managing a commons: if you use Intellectual Monopoly, we showed To avoid legal liability, ISPs remove doing on the digital commons. Skywalker is encouraged to use the Force free software to make something that music sharing on the internet the material without further question. (‘’It surrounds us and penetrates us. It and distribute your work without has provided us with a simple test The threat to free speech should be ECONOMICS binds the galaxy together.’’) Likewise, making everything available then case. The ability of copyright holders self-evident. One surreal example: Information is naturally a public good, the free software community encourages your license is revoked. to prevent copying has effectively Footage of the Democratic National and non-rivalrous in its consumption you to use the Source. In summary the digital commons been nullified by internet piracy. Convention filmed by and posted (my consumption does not diminish is about making an ethical imperative If indeed copyright is useful in by the Democratic Party to YouTube your consumption). The key distinction ENGINEERING of freedom, promoting social solidarity increasing either the quantity or was removed because news agencies between informational goods and Because free software codes are shared, and sharing, making ever-expanding quality of music, then less or lower covering the convention claimed that conventional commodities is that the people are looking to use other people’s community where technically superior quality music should have been they held the copyright aggregation function changes from the codes in their own work, so that they solutions are available to all and produced after the advent of Napster for the material. sum of the set to the max of the set. only have to code directly for the forever, often without a charge. This in June 1999. The fact is that neither Perhaps most egregious of all is So if you have six identical chairs, then concerns they are addressing, rather approach has been promoted as “open has happened. A reasonable economic the claim by the government that the you have six chairs’ worth of goods. than having to make all the pieces source”, and the principles of freedom measure of the output of music is the content you upload on the internet But if you have six identical copies of themselves. This leads to much better and of sharing have been adopted for number of musicians. If we examine does not belong to you (although some information, then you have one designs. And because the source codes other kinds of works, most notably with data from the Survey of Current apparently it may belong to big copy’s worth. This means that the way are available, the opportunity exists to the Creative Commons licenses, and by Population we find that in the five media companies). The case in point to make more value is to do something make enhancements and fix errors in the open data movement. Everybody years leading up to the widespread is that of Kim Dotcom and his web new, which isn’t necessarily easy when other people’s codes. This has driven a involved with commoning use of peer-to-peer file sharing hosting site Megauploads, a site that the web is world wide. The hard core of much more community-minded practice, is encouraged to familiarise with, (1996-2000) the ratio of the employed provided ad-supported storage for the digital commons is the free software compared to the often miserable and base their other work upon the population working as musicians was files. The U.S. Government - doing the community, which is about making situations and terrible software that can digital commons. 0.13%, while in 2006-2010 the ratio bidding of the big movie companies, software source codes that are freely be found in corporations such as banks. Copyright © 2012 John Bywater was... still 0.13%. and in violation of several laws - had Despite the rhetoric of intellectual Kim Dotcom arrested in New Zealand. property, copyright is not about the They also seized the Megauploads right to own, to buy, or to sell books, domain, effectively blocking access to music or movies. We are strongly all files on that site. This occurred on in favor of private property and the January 19, 2012. As we write, nearly right to own, buy and sell things a year later, none of the people with including books, music and movies. files stored on the site have been However copyright isn’t about that permitted access to their files, and - it is about a government-enforced the U.S. Government asserts that monopoly over a particular book, it is under no obligation to provide song or movie. That is, copyright it. It is probably true - although not gives the copyright holder the right proven in any court of law - that to tell people who have legitimately there were files on Megaupload that obtained copies what they can and violated copyright. It is certainly true cannot do with them. This includes that many files did not. It is as if you making copies, but also creating new parked your car in a parking garage works based on the old. Regardless and the U.S. Government seized all of claims that copyright is merely a the cars in the garage on the grounds monopoly over a particular expression that some of them had been stolen, of an idea, in fact copyright is very and nearly a year later asserted that broad - it covers sequels to existing because the garage is located on the works, and in the case of music as internet your car doesn’t actually few as four notes can be subject to belong to you and so they are under copyright. Indeed, a great deal of no obligation to return it. Such is litigation over copyright is not about the absurdity to which we have been copying, but about making derivative reduced by copyright law.

intellectual property / 08 A Right Wing

Perspective iP & CensorsH Jim KillockiP Intellectual Property laws are immensely dancing to a Prince song was pulled for infringing against the company. Lucasfilm (responsible for controversial in their effects, which range from copyright. The Electronic Frontier Foundation in the Star Wars franchise) demanded that the video everyday restriction of free expression through the USA are still fighting this case. be withdrawn. The battle benefited Greenpeace abuse of copyright, to the abuse of patent law, At the very least, these losses are a kind in that they gained publicity for their campaign, on Copyright rigged mobile phone markets and the denial of of digital cultural tragedy, where the power but they lost some of the momentum behind medicines to people in the majority world. of expression given to us by the immensely the spread of the video at a critical time. Unlike The term Intellectual Property was deliberately powerful tools of digital creativity is dissipated many who attempt to subvert brands in this way, chosen and promoted by lobbyists to portray by copyright law. Greenpeace has the organisational power to stand trademarks, copyrights and patents as a kind of The second kind of restriction on free up to big business. inalienable property: to make people feel that the expression created by copyright comes through We need to ask: is it right for a copyright control over ideas and expressions created by ‘take-downs’ and threats that are often completely owner to be able to use copyright law to restrict these laws is both natural and absolute. The term unjustified by copyright law. For instance, if criticism? Some people will simply decide not is now written into international law, a tribute a company’s documents are leaked, it might to take the risk of court action and so will not to the power of publishing, pharmaceutical and be claimed that there is copyright in the produce parodies, while others will withdraw chemical industry lobby groups, and their vision documents (probably true) which means they them when threatened. We saw this kind of of the global south being forced to pay long cannot be distributed (probably not true if it is reaction in the UK a couple of years ago when the term rent to the US and Europe for utilising our in the public interest). Radical Media Conference (RMC) was threatened intellectual creations. Restrictions on creative expression and with trademark infringement by an advertising Trademarks and copyright are used to political speech collide in the field of parodies. company who had speculatively trademarked protect internationally recognisable brands. Creating a parody or pastiche of a film, song or the name, in case they decided to run marketing They also control iconic aspects of our culture. book is extremely likely to infringe copyright in conferences using it. The RMC in that case chose Whether a pop song like Thriller, or franchises like the UK. If you publish on the Internet, perhaps not to take the risk and renamed themselves the Star Wars, important shared references in our on Youtube, the result is that you are very likely Rebellious Media Conference. collective experience are commercially controlled to have your video or song taken down at the In summer 2012, the Olympic organising and restricted. There is an obvious tension request of the person you are trying to make fun committee used copyright to suppress a video by between restrictions on publication and our free of. I am writing, of course, in the Occupied Times, Mothers’ Best Child. The video featured Olympic expression. While copyright and trademark laws itself a parody that may be open to claims of mascots Wenlock and Mandeville joining a riot, in are meant to avoid these problems, by allowing copyright infringement. order to highlight the contrast between austerity ‘exceptions’ with regard to comment and news Parodies are extremely powerful: they turn the and the huge expense of the games. It was a reporting for instance, these do not work as well experience of the original work against itself, and straightforward parody, and would have been as they should. There are deep problems with two question the ideas and values of whatever is being defensible under US or French copyright law, but broad areas of copyright. parodied. Parodies are perhaps a vital tool in a was deemed to infringe copyright in the UK. Firstly, artists can find that innovative use of world of brands, in that they use the recognition There are many other extreme examples of ‘copy and paste’ culture is restricted by copyright. people have of that brand to communicate what copyright being abused to restrict free speech. In In music, copyright has been used to restrict tiny it is wrong with the company or culture behind the UK we are in an especially weak position, with two second long samples. Artists like Danger the brand. For example, Greenpeace ran a Star particularly restrictive copyright laws. These laws Mouse or Girl Talk have built careers on copyright Wars parody on Youtube, criticising Volkswagen’s need dragging into a digital age which has huge infringing mash ups, but few are willing to take original Darth Vader advert. This was a response potential for networking and spreading ideas - but commercial risks. Even individuals can be caught, to Volkswagen’s lobbying against climate change which is currently being unduly restricted. as happened to one mum whose video of her baby legislation, and it turned the good and evil meme Copyright may be a good thing, that can protect artists, but it is also open to abuse, which we need to be vigilant against. Given the huge commercial interests involved, resisting vested Scientific research is a dynamic system for to the journal owners. Libraries then have to pay exorbitant sums for interests is a difficult task, but the last ten years creating new ideas. Researchers develop ideas, access to e-versions of the published research papers. This operates have created several movements looking for y test them and publish the results, allowing as a brake on research, because not everyone has timely access to the change. From the Open Rights Group to academia, others to build on them. Now imagine that published body of research findings. The monopoly rights granted to libraries, official government reviews, ‘pirate ng scientists could claim ownership to formulas, companies through copyright or patents have a toxic effect in several parties’ and Anonymous, there are a growing such as E=mc2, requiring future researchers fields, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, software, music and number of voices asking for fairer laws. to pay royalties to use them. This would put a film. Creators have to tread carefully to avoid infringements. Only those serious dampener on research. Scientists would with deep pockets can afford to challenge ambit claims by other owners. always be worried about being sued for using But when you think about it, controlling the expression of ideas someone else’s formulas. doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you have a pair of shoes, and someone shi Luckily for researchers, scientific formulas takes them, you can’t wear them any longer. But if you write a poem, cannot be copyrighted or patented. But science and thousands of others read it, you still can read and enjoy it tivit a is an exception. In many fields, creativity yourself. Ideas should be in the public domain, and creators paid for is being stifled due to so-called intellectual production, rather than the use of their work – as scientists are. a property - which is better described as The absurdities of copyright are becoming ever more obvious monopoly restraint. in the digital age, and they are prompting people to challenge the le Consider copyright, in some ways the worst of powerful groups that run the copyright system.. In the open access all the restrictions on creativity. It is too easy to movement, scientists are advocating having articles available for re acquire and too long-lasting. As soon as you write free online from the time of publication or shortly afterwards. Some a few words, they are automatically copyrighted, options are to publish in open-access journals, to boycott the big Un C

Brian Martin without any registration process. The idea behind publishers, to post e-versions of articles on institutional websites, and this is to stimulate greater productivity by giving an exclusive licence, for funding agencies to mandate open access. enforced by the government, to commercial use of those words. But the Software is one of the biggest areas hamstrung by copyright exclusive licence lasts too long: It remains in effect decades after you controls. The major challenge to current monopolies is the movement die. Are you inspired to be more productive and creative because your for free and open source software. Programmers voluntarily offer words will be copyrighted for 50 years after your death? their expertise and effort in a collective process to produce software The prime beneficiaries of excessively long copyright periods are that, through a creative method of harnessing existing copyright big companies. The Disney Corporation holds the copyright to Mickey laws - similar to Creative Commons licenses - allows others to use and Mouse, and the US Congress periodically extends copyright so Mickey build on the code while preventing them from exercising control over Mouse won’t enter the public domain. Perpetual copyright on the it. Free software is widely known as more reliable and error-free than instalment plan is a way of protecting Disney’s profits by imposing proprietary software. It is a living demonstration of the benefits of restraints on trade. The key side effect is limiting creativity today. allowing creativity to flourish without the dead hand of ownership. Another problem is that few of the returns from copyright protection More and more people are refusing to respect the monopoly are ever seen by creators. Instead, most of the benefits go to the systems that control the expression of ideas. Those who openly companies that acquire ownership rights. Copyright has become a challenge the system are undertaking a form of civil disobedience. system for big companies to make huge profits through controlling Their struggles are crucial to the future of creativity and social welfare. rights over other people’s creative work. One example: When scientists Brian Martin is professor of social sciences at the University of send their research papers to journals, they have to sign away copyright Wollongong, Australia and vice president of Whistleblowers Australia.

09 / intellectual property To Destroy Is To Build: Ryan Hickey Hope Occupy in the Face of Disaster Sandy & The OT talked to Rebecca Solnit, dwellers and public housing occupants. author of ‘A Paradise Built in Hell: The There wasn’t a single group to demonise. Extraordinary Communities That Arise Some sections of the media ran stories in Disaster’, about Hurricane Sandy about looting but they didn’t get much and the Occupy Sandy response. traction as there was meaningful Mutual Aid pushback from people who knew better. As I brought supplies to Hermana’s car from Occupy The beauty of Occupy Sandy, like OWS, is that it The Occupied Times: After Hurricane OT: Would you say that natural disasters Sandy’s Free Store on Staten Island, she seemed abashed channels people’s efforts and talents in constructive ways. Sandy, Occupy activists have been bring out the anarchist in us, or perhaps to ask for anything more. “What else can we get you?” I Workshops, skill-shares, and all kinds of other teachings amongst the first to rush in with aid and reawaken a form of social obligation to asked. “Do you need cleaning supplies? Food? Batteries? happen daily. They range from sensitivity training - being support – it is almost as if they had been other human beings that our individualistic Take anything you need.” She smiled and mumbled aware of the devastated communities you are entering - to waiting for this moment. Why do you societies have expelled us from? amiably. I was immediately struck by her apparent shame, anti-oppression training. Carpenters, construction workers think this is? RS: The version of human nature her reticence, and her confusion about Occupy Sandy’s and social workers have all been able to volunteer through Rebecca Solnit: Occupy can be seen seen in disaster is far more generous, approach, as if she expected some ulterior motive. After Occupy Sandy. Meanwhile, people who do not consider as a response to disaster from its communitarian and even utopian than explaining that yes, everything is free and she really could themselves activists are learning about radical approaches beginnings: the economic disaster was Social Darwinists and Hobbesians would take anything she needed, we were soon filling her car to basic human interaction, which is crucial to both creating homelessness, hunger, debt allow. Our behaviour in these situations with supplies until we could barely close the doors. understanding and undermining an essential component of peonage, broken lives and a widening suggests not only what we are capable Occupy Sandy was set up a few days after Hurricane neoliberalism: atomisation. class divide. Occupy operated very much of, but what we yearn for. In a disaster Sandy hit the East Coast. The monetary damage has been Hermana’s caution underscored the importance of like a community plunged into disaster- the status quo ceases to exist, as the catastrophic, numbering in the billions of dollars. The transforming social relationships under neoliberalism. aftermath - the reaction to the crisis was to usual people and institutions are no emotional damage is incalculable. Hermana’s house on Alienation from our neighbors is perhaps neoliberalism’s build a tented community, complete with longer in charge, and this allows for Staten Island was left relatively unscathed after Hurricane lifeline, its insurance policy that reproduces a dormant, kitchen and clinic. Post- Hurricane Sandy, collective improvisation. The situation Sandy, but her daughter’s house was severely damaged. apolitical population. People feel disconnected from Occupy activists were, again, amongst the is literally anarchic, in that there is Three weeks after the storm, many houses still had no others and rely on themselves, even going so far as to first to rush in with aid and support. not much authority. There are too power and large social housing projects were relying on deprive themselves of needs that others could fulfil. Radical organisations are in a sense many shattered, flooded, destroyed gasoline generators that spewed harmful fumes into the air. Occupy Sandy’s practice of mutual aid and building always disaster-preparedness groups. houses and neighborhoods, and too The Free Store and Community Centre Occupy Sandy community seeks to erase the assumption that human They create networks of public-minded many desperately needy people for set up in Staten Island’s Midland Beach neighborhood relations exist upon predation and exploitation. Instead, individuals, have the ability to converge the emergency workers to respond to. aims to provide some remedies. It serves many purposes. it formalises and sustains relations that run counter to and marshal resources, and maintain an There are too many decisions to be Whether it’s providing food, supplies, or a friendly person the very existence of predatory capitalism. attitude of disaffection, or autonomy, from made, in too many places, for them to to talk to, people undoubtedly come to the Free Store to A leaflet published by the New York City anarchist mainstream institutions. When disaster be made by centralised authority; it regain some traction in their lives. group In Our Hearts states that mutual aid is “not struck in New Orleans, Veterans for is impossible to send word of the ten Occupy Sandy operates on the same guidelines about assuaging guilt.” Rather, it’s about addressing Peace was one of the first organisations thousand emergencies up the chain of as Occupy Wall Street: non-hierarchical, horizontal privilege while threatening the status quo. It is about to provide relief, while volunteer groups command for decisions. Often there isn’t organising structures and an acute awareness of privilege “sharing amongst equals in different positions of need” associated with the Rainbow Family ran even much of a chain of command, since and inequality. Volunteers get involved by approaching rather than sharing with those “beneath you”. Most long-lasting community kitchens and communication equipment, electricity, one of the many ‘hubs’, which act as driver and volunteer importantly, it is a social relationship. On the other related projects. and even roads may have failed. The dispatch centres as well as collection centres. People hand, charity, as the Liverpool Solidarity Federation OT: What similarities do you see between immediate aftermath of a disaster is very from across the country have donated goods (via a ‘gift writes, is “a veil for predatory capitalism to hide contemporary environmental disasters much like the throes of a revolution: no registry’ scheme); at times vast stocks of supplies have behind as it attacks the working class.” The Salvation such as Katrina and Sandy, and the San one is in charge, anything is possible, and overwhelmed the volunteers and the space in the hubs. Army, The Federal Emergency Management Agency Francisco earthquake in 1906? everyone is immersed in the moment Immediately upon entering the hub at 520 Clinton (FEMA), and the American Red Cross are, and have RS: Well Sandy did not have much in in uncertainty and anxiety, but also in Avenue in Brooklyn, one is greeted by a banner reading always been, knee-jerk reactions to storm devastation. the way of media hysteria, pernicious solidarity and a kind of role liberation. “Mutual Aid, Not Charity.” Mutual Aid is a term the left They do nothing to address the class relations that rumors, and social divides being acted Of course, disasters are terrible, but employs to make a distinction from the oft-discouraged pre-empted the scope of this crisis. Where Occupy upon, while Katrina and the 1906 still the potent generosity, creativity, ‘liberal charity’, even when the differences appear blurred. Sandy succeeds, and must continue to succeed, is in its earthquake did, in spades. After the 1906 empathy and collaborative genius of the The term “mutual aid” is sometimes used as if it’s ability to bridge the effects of neoliberal capitalism and San Francisco earthquake, the US Army response can be celebrated. something that one can turn on and off, something that Sandy’s destruction. marched in to prevent the civil disorder OT: How can the cooperation that emerges can be practised one day and discarded the next. Many Occupy Sandy must form more coherent and they presumed ordinary citizens would in these situations be kept going? Will we thus say they are “going to practice mutual aid”. Where accessible critiques of capitalism than its predecessor, create. Reputedly the largest peacetime inevitably fall back to old habits? Occupy Sandy differs from charitable organisations is in its focusing less on ameliorative solutions than on military presence in an American city RS: Nothing is inevitable, and not everyone pledge to use community centres as long-term organising transformational ones. It must not only provide supplies to date, this was essentially a hostile goes back after these extraordinary hubs (what to organise around remains up in the air) that and social services, but also explain Sandy’s exacerbation occupation. The assumption was that moments, but what can they go forward are imbued with an ethos of mutual aid and that empower of social ills, radically changing the foundations of social human nature is selfish, chaotic and toward? There is a vigour in carnivals, residents to gain control of their communities. relationships in the process. bestial, and that only state-sanctioned revolutions, uprisings and disaster violence could prevent this nature from responses that is hard to sustain, but bursting forth. After Katrina, the governor maybe we should not ask it to be sustained; of Louisiana deployed National Guard while falling in love is great, growing from troops ‘armed and ready to shoot and infatuation to a long-term relationship kill’ to New Orleans – not exactly an often means trading fizzy for solid. Like expression of solidarity or a description carnivals, revolutions and disasters of humanitarian relief. Meanwhile, generate a rupture, and in that breach is international media, the city’s mayor and space to rethink, reorganise and renew our its police chief, spread rumours about relations to each other; but that energy orgies of killing, raping and pillaging that also subsides. How to make the transition, turned the afflicted into the enemy and building on the beauty of the initial a relief effort into a military assault in moments? Occupy, despite its problems, which many people were shot by police, generated an amazing shift where we saw often in the back. The response to the how many people hate inequality and disaster, in both cases, was a disaster. corruption and dream of something better. In New York in 2012, the people most The question isn’t why the spring doesn’t affected by Hurricane Sandy were diverse, last but how it heads into summer and including both middle-class coastal autumn; and what the harvest is.

environment / 10 Patrick Nicholson

Keystone A SECOND Will Wooten Pipeline Early morning in Nacogdoches, the pipeline route with orders to Texas on November 19. Protesters illegally arrest anyone they see. with the Tar Sands Blockade, Two journalists from the New York dressed head-to-toe in camouflage Times were detained for reporting gear, build wooden platforms 50ft on the Blockade. Green Party up in pine trees. Three people will Presidential Candidate Jill Stein attempt to block construction of the was arrested for trespassing when ATTLE O controversial Keystone XL pipeline she successfully resupplied the B F today. A few miles away, four Winnsboro Tree Village. In total, more protesters lock themselves 42 protesters have been arrested, to construction equipment. Later, most of them for trespassing. 120 people rally in a small East Pain compliance tactics have Texas town - confronting pepper also been used, putting protesters’ spray, lawsuits and felony charges lives in danger on several occasions. - to demand that the Keystone XL At several lockdowns police pipeline never be built. have used pepper spray to force In aH quiet corner Aof southern EnglandS a fight is brewing. Against thisNG background, in July 2012 localS people This pipeline is planned to run protesters to unlock, even spraying Almost a thousand years after the Norman invasion,T decidedI to form a new group, Combe Haven Defenders, from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf it into cuts to cause maximum pain. the prospect of a second battle of Hastings looms as believing that the exhaustion of the legal process and Coast of Texas and will pump diluted On one occasion, two protesters protesters face off the government and East Sussex the imminent prospect of bulldozers in the valley argued bitumen, or tar sands, nearly 2,000 were shot with a taser gun County Council over plans to build the 5km, £100m for fresh energy and tactics. Members of the group all miles to Texan oil refineries. If built, until they unlocked themselves. Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR). live locally and many have been involved in activism, an area the size of New York state TransCanada also operated heavy The environmentally disastrous BHLR is one of over principally in the environmental and peace movements. will be surface-mined and completely machinery around the Tree Village forty ‘zombie roads’ that were declared dead years ago The Defenders have organised walks, exhibitions, street destroyed to extract clay-like raw for weeks dangerously close to but have now been resuscitated as part of Britain’s stalls, local press work, an online pledge of resistance, bitumen. This must then be heated support lines. largest road-building programme in 20 years. This training and strategy sessions, a weekend camp, and up and diluted with liquefied natural The sustained nonviolent direct programme, trumpeted by George Osborne and the both local and national demos. An aim from the outset gas and an undisclosed chemical action campaign in Texas has forced Treasury as the economic jump-start that the country was to celebrate and promote non-violent direct action cocktail before it can be pumped, via the Keystone XL, tar sands and needs, comprises 191 road projects conservatively (NVDA) as a legitimate campaigning tactic, and to build the pipeline, to those oil refineries. climate change issues into the public estimated to cost £30bn. up the capacity, both locally and nationally, to take In 2010, the largest onshore oil spill consciousness, keeping the focus The BHLR is the first and the worst of these effective action when required. In coming weeks, more in US history occurred in Michigan on those most impacted by the proposed new roads: the worst in terms of carbon site walks, public meetings and NVDA training sessions when tar sands gushed into the pipeline. Indigenous communities, emissions of the 45 transport schemes approved in the will be taking place; all are welcome. Kalamazoo river. Two years later, local landowners, and people living 2012 budget; and near the bottom in terms of value In the 1990s, a road protest movement exploded across that spill is still not cleaned up. next to refineries have all begun for money. If it goes ahead, it will destroy the beautiful the UK, with key campaigns fought at Twyford Down, the Extraction of tar sands is one of organising with the Blockade. Combe Haven Valley, part of the ‘theatre’ of the Battle M11 link road, Solsbury Hill and Newbury. Although it the most environmentally damaging President Obama will make of Hastings, and a haven of accessible tranquillity for failed to win all its battles, this movement succeeded in processes in the fossil fuel industry. a decision about the northern the 150,000 people who live within walking distance. winning the bigger arguments and ended up derailing The process is also costly in terms segment of the pipeline early In a recent report by the Campaign for Better the Tories’ Roads to Prosperity programme with the of carbon emissions. According next year, but resistance has Transport analysing the government’s new road cancellation of over 300 road schemes in November 1995. to Oil Change International, our already begun in Texas. The building plans, Steven Norris - Tory Minister for But it did even more: It spawned a new culture of protest, ability to keep climate change at November 19 mass action shut Transport in London in 1992 - writes that “Experience epitomised by Reclaim the Streets, that helped shape the two degrees Celsius depends on down construction at two sites tells us clearly that a massive programme of road anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist, radical environmental tar sands’ exploitation being kept around Nacogdoches and resulted building won’t solve [the problems of economic inertia, and Occupy movements of the last 20 years. under 3.3 million barrels a day. in 11 arrests. As police tried to congested roads and housing shortages] … Investing in The Bexhill-Hastings Link Road, as the spearhead of Current projects and approved extract the tree-sitters, a few effective, affordable and easy to use public transport is Osborne’s plans to tarmac our way out of recession, is the future projects are expecting to dozen protesters stood in the road part of the solution. So is planning new developments clarion call for a new generation of road protests. Opposing put out between 7.1 and 9 million to stop the cherry-picker from so that they do not rely on cars. Most of all, now is this folly is vitally important: strong resistance to the new barrels per day. For the future of getting close enough to the trees. the time for brave and creative decision-making, not a road programme at Hastings may save a unique valley, the planet, we must slow down. Immediately police started pepper- return to the past.” but, more than that, it will be a demonstration of popular In July, Tar Sands Blockade spraying the protesters, including Despite a public enquiry and numerous legal opposition that may protect countless other special places held a series of regional actions a local 75-year-old women and challenges by stalwart local campaigners from the from destruction, and a line in the sand against the at construction sites to show the a 21-year-old student. Despite Hastings Alliance, those in power have chosen not to pathological trajectory of 21st century capitalism. world that building had begun on these tactics, supporters across make such “brave and creative” decisions. The BHLR Sign the Pledge to resist the BHLR, follow the the Keystone XL pipeline. August the country raised $20,000 for appears on track for building work to commence early in campaign and get involved at: saw a series of lock-ons that shut bail in less than 48 hours and all 2013, and preparations have already started. www.combehavendefenders.wordpress.com down construction sites. Action was arrestees have been released. ramped up in September with the Winnsboro Tree Village, a fortified tree blockade which blocks the proposed path of the pipeline and includes a 100 foot wall and several tree houses 80 feet high in which protesters have been residing for over two months. The Tar Sands Blockade has gained support from over 35 major environmental and progressive organisations. More than 40 solidarity actions were held across the continent in conjunction with the Nacogdoches tree protest, lock- on and rally, targeting banks that fund tar sands, regulators in Texas, and the Canadian Consulate in Washington, DC. TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL project, has responded to the campaign by cracking down on dissent. They now pay a private security force comprised of local off-duty police officers $30 per hour to patrol

11 / environment If you sign a contract, it’s your moral – not to mention legal – duty to pay it back. However, this misses the fact that debt is a political, and not a personal, issue. Climbing private indebtedness is the outcome of a deliberate strategy on the part of banks and a wilful impotence on the part of government. Banks developed, sold, and lobbied against the regulation of corrosive debt instruments. They cannot, then, D Sahil Duttae t as b demand that the rest of the population bleed so they Every single one of us holds the key to power – can maintain their practises. When the creditor- debt. Just as coal miners in England used their debtor relation is seen properly, access to coal to flip the balance of power, as a socio-economic arrangement, negotiation so debtors can use their access to credit by becomes a fact, as well as an economic necessity. declaring a ‘debt strike’, to force a revaluation The next problem is building a movement big of the bank stranglehold on the economy. enough. A one-man debt strike is as useless as a Powe one-man labour strike, but the quest for a mass Forget petitions. Forget protests. Forget big manufacturers have died and the main a severe drag onr an already knackered economy. debt strike may actually be more plausible. Britain’s parliamentary inquiries. If people really want to energy source – oil – flows well out of the reach Suppose, though, if people refused to repay. service economy has fragmented the workforce as stop being ‘bankered’, there’s a better way: debt. of labour disturbance. The result is that we are Rather than channelling falling incomes back powerfully as the manufacturing economy once In the finance-first economy built over the last left sacrificing our livelihoods to keep champagne to the banks that scripted the recession, they simply harnessed it; it’s only across public sector unions 30 years, our debt has become the weapon over flowing in the City. We’re told upsetting the City reject repayment. Immediately, there would be a where there is any coherence. Debtors, however, elites that our labour once was. To understand risks wreaking interest-rate hell on our economy. union of debtors capable of clawing power away are much more concentrated. Personal finance why, we have to rewind 130 years to the insight The reason? Because, in our post-industrial from financiers. The old cliché would kick in: ‘Owe is dominated by the five big high-street banks, and discovered by coal miners striking in Manchester. wasteland, Britons don’t make things; we buy the bank £10,000 and the bank owns you. Owe the student loans even belong to a single company. “The possibility of a gigantic and ruinous them. And the fuel that keeps the consumer bank £10,000,000 and you own the bank’. Like those The most significant issue, though, is that in labour conflict is open before us,” screamed the engine running is credit. canals and railways of industrial Britain, the credit the era of securitised finance, the debts of one bank New York Times about their unrest. Why? Because This financialised model that began with cards and student loans of financialised Britain give are the assets of another. Because of that, forcing the miners realised their product – coal – was the Thatcher and flourished under Labour has, people leverage over elites. The difference is that it a debt write-down could well throw a pension fund key to Britain’s economic fortunes. The industries however, created a new choke point. As the now takes debt strikes, and not labour strikes, into trouble. Yet that need not be a bad thing. It clustered around the mines were the country’s bankers found, much like those miners many years to harness this power. would shine a torch on the murky behaviour of economic powerhouses and, by cutting off the before, control over the economy’s fuel gives The idea of debt write-offs is not even that institutional investors who serve themselves far supply of coal, the miners could close down you power. That’s why banks can rig the market, unfamiliar. In David Graeber’s history Debt: The more effectively than they do their savers. It would the economy overnight. Swiftly, concessions ignore the government, and pay themselves huge first 5000 years, he shows how debt jubilees have also force governments into a position where they were granted. bonuses in the midst of a recession. been common since the debt slates were wiped have to bail people out before banks. Successive Their action sparked a wider labour However, this is only half the story. For every clean in ancient Mesopotamia. More recently, we’ve governments have used Quantitative Easing to gift movement along the canals, railways, and docks creditor there must be a debtor and both are had debt cancellation for developing countries and, cash to the banks; the same strategy could be used that linked the country’s industries together. These necessary. While the creditors – the banks – have right now, the Jubilee Debt Campaign is calling for a for restoring people’s pensions instead. choke points were an outcome of the flourishing realised their power, the debtors – everyone similar solution for countries like Greece. Yet, unless Ultimately, the political economic reform Britain economic model of the time – manufacturing – else – haven’t. A glance at the level of private debt they are forced to listen, today’s bankers will ignore desperately needs is less a question of policy and and the primary energy source of the age – coal. reveals just how much potential there is. all pleas for ‘forgiveness’. A debtors’ strike is about more one of power. No amount of moral outrage will Together, they created the conditions that the Student debt now stands at an estimated using the power that debt gives to people to demand change that. If people really want change, they are strikers used to deliver the democratic rights that £40.3bn, while a combination of stagnant pay concessions. going to have to find ways of taking power – and the majority of people now enjoy. and high living costs has left Britain’s average There are, however, obvious difficulties. To begin debt strikes are one way. Today, it’s difficult to see where labour family with unsecured loans worth £7944 each – a with, the stigma that debt holds must be overcome. This piece was first published on strikers could find such sources of power. The staggering total of £210bn of unsecured debt. It is The idea of refusing to repay a loan seems offensive. Open Democracy.

Every 5 minutes Every hour someone is made 4 properties 35,000 bankrupt or insolvent are repossessed a year ½ the population of Kensington & Chelsea 105,000 people a year

the population of the UK’s

In 2011 the average uktheN household debt was I ½ largest town – Northampton

including Every day in 2011 mortgages the interest payment 53,786 on personal debt was

165,000,000 as much as is Enough to heat AND power spent running the same house for 45 years ½ the NHS every day

debt / 12 Debt Resistance at Up the Anti The first signs of a UK movement focusing on debt emerged during may be necessary. Credit unions were raised as an example. a session organised by the OT at the Up the Anti conference on 1 These types of financial institutions may resemble banks, but December 2012. Titled ’Are “debt strikes” the future of anticapitalist the manner in which they are run and organised are profoundly resistance?’, the session utilised a more participatory format than different. As credit unions are local financial co-operatives others during the day. Following an introduction from Michael working on the common bonds of their account holder members, Richmond of the OT and comments from David Graeber (Strike interest rates can be significantly lower (the law sets an APR no Debt), Nick Mirzoeff (Strike Debt) and Jonathan Stevenson (Jubilee higher than 26.8%) than high street banks. Debt Campaign), the session broke into a number of discussion The nature of the Rolling Jubilee in the US - that is, fundraising groups involving the speakers and their audience. for money to purchase debts from the secondary market and Graeber spoke to the nature of debt, its prevalence and terminate the debt at a fraction of the cost – was also raised. impact on so many people’s lives, its stigmatisation and its place There was a lengthy discussion about the capacity of the Jubilee to in the prevailing system of financial capitalism. Why are debt provide mutual aid and to build something larger, something with promises deemed as more sacred than other promises? How can momentum and concrete effects. The limitations of the Jubilee we mobilise and bring people together around a subject which were highlighted by many in the group since, by its very nature, many consider shameful? How can we turn a ‘poor person’s a Rolling Jubilee is unable to change the debt system from the movement’ into something which commands attention? bottom up and is ineffective against market forces. Ten million people in the UK are struggling with debt, living In the breakout group exploring actions around debt, in the fear of the threat or real consequence of bailiff action and participants expressed different ways of creating spectacle home repossession, those who can least afford it are paying back whilst scoping out the long term effectiveness and longevity of grossly inflated sums. direct actions. Nick Mirzoeff spoke of how Strike Debt in the US Nick Mirzoeff described how Strike Debt grew in America. launched soon after the May Day protests, when public angst, Realising that debt could be a powerful tool of resistance to the and sentiment, was at its most compelling. status-quo, a small group formed out of public assemblies after People focused on the significant increase of payday loan May Day 2012. The US network developed ‘debt assemblies’ stores now scattered along our high streets, the abusive practices where people gathered to tell their personal debt stories and of the companies behind them, and the absence of proper hear the debt experiences of others, encouraging the motif ‘You regulation by the Office of Fair Trading, the Ministry of Justice and Are Not A Loan!’. Those involved in developing the Strike Debt the Financial Services Authority in relation to rampant interest US movement worked hard, collaborating on the Debt Resistors’ rates and pre-loan checks. Wonga’s recent bad press exposing Operations Manual. We in the UK, with our different laws and its manipulative and misleading advertisements, which the regulations, perhaps need to mobilise around and draw up Advertising Standards Authority is responsible for investigating, something similar. was also raised as an interesting case study. Jonathan Stevenson highlighted the relevance of sovereign Several people in the group elaborated on possible action debt explaining the situation in Argentina which accumulated around sport. A number of football clubs and competitions have debt after purchasing weapons – from the UK - during the sponsorship arrangements with payday loan and other debt based Falklands War. Argentina is still paying off this debt, opening itself companies. The class-based nature of this sponsorship was made up to debt restructuring in 2004, after defaulting. One vulture clear: a payday loan company’s logo would not be splashed across fund with an estimated holding worth $1.3 billion belongs to a Formula One car. The imminent G8 summit in Northern Ireland Paul Singer, a prominent sponsor of George W. Bush and Mitt was also noted as a possible event to highlight mobilising around Romney’s presidential campaigns. Singer, a hedge fund CEO, debt. For this to happen, a great deal of careful advance planning has aggressively pursued Argentina in courts across the world, and mobilisation of different groups would be necessary. allowing no opportunity for re-negotiation. Turning to more practical aspects of Strike Debt UK, the The discussion groups were asked to focus on a variety group explored the technicalities of building a Strike Debt here. of topics: debt and its context in the political economy, debt Can we, for example, buy discounted debt on the secondary debt awareness, debt resistance and other tactics to resist the market? Do we want to do this? What is the procedure? What injustices of a system which continually extracts more than are the relevant laws in England and Wales? Do we need a Debt we can give. Resistors’ Operations Manual here? Many of the questions raised In the ‘debt and political economy’ group, Strike Debt, as in the group highlighted the need for people to come together, a concept, was praised for its anarchic practice and approach. do the research, and share their findings in an accessible way. It Marxists taking part saw value in the movement and its potential in also became very apparent that debt is becoming a popular tool mobilising the identity of the debtor as a new subjectivity, folding in the resistance of capitalism, and as defaulting becomes more in ideas of wage stagnation and reliance on debt. There was commonplace, we need to establish processes which will protect some debate around this point relating to work and debt being people, rather than financial institutions. the only two ideological tools that the ruling classes retain. Strike Debt UK is a recent initiative. It can be found at Different forms of debt were examined, sovereign and www.strikedebtuk.com and @strikedebtuk. If you are interested consumer debt, debt as credit, and how debt, in some sense, in getting involved, please contact [email protected].

13 / debt S tate Reverend Nemu Tales from I dolatry the Grind Nat Lentell and again I was wrong-footed. The than in Muslim lands, the only place It started with a call from the temp back: “Ask your UL.” I quizzed those Saxons called this place Fullenhame, they are killed today is in Israel itself, agency. I had a telephone interview around me, eliciting an array of meaning “habitation of birds”, and despite its US-backed war machine the next day and the recruiter shrugs. I tracked down the most Fulham council was evicting some and nuclear arsenal. recommended I do some research experienced person I could find, a of its last birds, to neaten it up a The Lord gives “statutes that about the company beforehand. company veteran of 13 years. He touch, or maybe to justify its budget. were not good, and judgments However, looking at the firm’s contemplated the question for a “They told me to do it!” protested whereby they should not live” (Exd website left me puzzled. I found moment, before answering: “A GL the conflicted bailiff. 20:25). Every single prophet stood familiar words, twisted into vague number? It’s a …well…It’s a GL “Didn’t cut any ice at Nuremberg!” up to Him when His wrath went and baffling new combinations. number. Ask someone in accounts.” I shouted, knowing that he too was too far, “and the Lord repented of The company professed to provide After some more unsuccessful bound a chain of necessity, of bills the evil which he thought to do” services including ‘single customer enquiries, I made a discovery that to pay and mouths to feed. And who (Exd 32:14). The exception is Noah, view and customer segmentation’. would change everything. Trawling was I to point a finger? To my eternal whose weakness resulted in a global There were sections dedicated deep in the company’s online shame, and to the eternal detriment cataclysm. If common wealth is ours to ‘Industry Solutions’ and the archive, I came across an in-house of my environment, I wasn’t prepared to enjoy, it is ours to defend, whether somewhat sinister sounding acronym dictionary. Combined with to sack off work that day and D-lock a tree or a peace. We are all bound ‘Thought Leadership’. Bewildered by the knowledge I had picked up myself to a tree. And I confess the by chains of necessity, but if you and the unfamiliar dialect, I resolved to over my stay, I began to feel like I idolatry in my decision. The weakness I do not throw them off, then who try and bluff it out. Happily I wasn’t had gained membership to some of my bended knee empowers a will? And what world will remain if found out and headed in on my first exclusive sect. I went back and vampiric master, which feeds on the we delay? day less than certain what to expect. deciphered the old correspondence One fine morning in the 90s, happiness of my children. My taxes Morality, in the final analysis, As it turned out, the firm was (General Ledger Number & Unit I awoke to the noise of a chainsaw are an offering I willingly give. As it is is what we decide, and if God can one of the world’s biggest marketing Leader, in case you were wondering) outside, felling the trio of plum written, regarding idolatry: be held to account, so can the state. companies, with its fingers stuck in a and passed my Rosetta Stone on trees which stood taller than the “Thou shalt not bow down thyself If it will be unaccountable, let us be variety of data-related pies. My role to grateful colleagues. Now that I council flats around them. The toilets to them, nor serve them: for I the ungovernable. Let us not rest until in this vast global machinery was to spoke their language, the top brass needed replacing, explained a man Lord thy God am a jealous God, this idol is smashed and ground into be managing email campaigns for aura of bureaucratic mysticism in overalls. The masonry needed visiting the iniquity of the fathers dust, and let our legacy be a gift of an academic publisher. Day-to-day, receded. I was on their level. storing, there, in the only suitable upon the children unto the third and freedom, not an infinity of hell for the I found I was able to communicate But with all this newly found space in the borough, so they needed fourth generation of them that hate generations to follow. more than adequately with those knowledge came a less savoury to clear it. Their work was the final me.” (Exd 20:5) around me in plain English. But revelation. At several points link in a chain of necessity that began, I bow down. The labourer serves, communication from the top came throughout my stay, various apparently, in my toilet (which did knowing his sin as he does. Our exclusively in the company’s own colleagues - including a guy who its job to my satisfaction, but I make children are impoverished, and our specialised brand of corporate shared my desk - had mentioned modest demands on my plumbing). children’s children. Generations of Klingon, and often contained they worked on the ‘PMI’ account. The trees were weeks away from trees gave countless tons of fruit as examples from the very top drawer PMI? It had just been another ripening, but he wouldn’t personally the commons shrank to a thicket, and of management drivel. A laminated set of letters that meant sweet miss the fruit raining down every will give no more. Infinities of poverty piece of paper arrived on my desk FA to me. I was taken aback (to autumn. His dreadlocks wrong-footed or wealth stretch out from every listing the company’s ‘strategic say the least) to learn that these me; surely a reggae-fiend couldn’t be decision concerning life. imperatives’. The second of these letters stood for Phillip Morris responsible, but then who was? Does With infinity weighing on my was to: ‘MANIACALLY FOCUS ON THE International, the world’s biggest a councillor consider how common mind I returned to scripture, hoping NEEDS OF OUR LARGEST CLIENTS’. I tobacco conglomerate. To be wealth binds a community together? to find some profound ecology amidst pictured myself on the phone with a honest, it was no surprise that the Does a town planner reflect on the the fruit trees, but this line falls in client, wide-eyed and frothing at the company would be involved in such value of a jar of homemade jam, given one of the most brutal passages of mouth and wondered how exactly nefarious activities, in fact that was by a widow to her neighbour? Deuteronomy, glorifying empire this would help anyone. entirely in keeping with what I had “It is a sin to cut down fruit- and massacre. The omnipresent Then there were the acronyms. come to expect. My plain-speaking bearing trees,” I explained.”Even encompasses all experience and They, too, came thick and fast colleagues, though – they just didn’t in times of war.” morality, and is candid about it: “I from the beginning. Most days I’d seem like the type. Sadly he did not down tools at form the light, and create darkness: receive at least one email with some I was left thinking how handy the word of the Almighty. The trees I make peace, and create evil” (Isa unfamiliar combination of initials. it must have been to all involved were chipped, porta-cabins went 45:7). We who are made in God’s One day, I received a group email to have a repertoire of acronyms up, then fences and “no-climbing” image call upon His full range, but from a colleague in the US asking to fall back on. After all, it would signs. When they finally came down, even in the throes of their most all users of a particular piece of have been awkward to call a spade saplings were planted, and continue bloodthirsty urges, the Israelites software to provide a GL# or face a spade when promoting the largest to be planted, because some poor soul knew not to do something so stupid having the software removed. I cause of preventable death in the unschooled in Judeo-Christian lore as to destroy a fruit tree. emailed back saying I wasn’t world. It’s far easier to talk it all always snaps them. Kids round here That same day, the bombs began familiar with the abbreviation away in a harmless sounding array climb fences where they once climbed to fall on Gaza, splintering worlds into and asked where I might find this of jargon and acronyms. Bullshit in trees, and wherever they explore they infinities of hell, burning into flesh number. A one-line email came anyone’s language, if you ask me. trespass. The sweet things to eat are the potential for endless retribution. the fruits of commerce, and picking IDF bulldozers have felled hundreds them is shoplifting. of thousands of olive trees in the Fifteen years on and my own occupied territories, but Zionism children are more inspired by was never a religious philosophy. Its daisies on the treeless lawn than architects were atheists, though the upgraded toilet, so imagine my their writings equal Deuteronomy horror when I heard the buzz of the in their casual racism. The Talmud chainsaw again. The estate’s final forbids Jews from forming a state, square metres of wilderness were and in the Bible the land of Israel is being cut to knee height. given after the Messiah comes, not “What the hell are you doing?” before. Zionism was opposed at its I shouted. inception, as today, by many orthodox “What about the poor birds?” Jews. Despite the fact that Jews were came the labourer’s lamentation, far more persecuted in Christendom

satire / 14 The 12 days

of Crisis

On the twelfth day of crisis, The system gave to me, Twelve councils cutting, Eleven bubbles bursting, Ten states a-failing, Nine markets crashing, Eight corps a-voiding, Seven seas a-rising, Six hacks a-hacking, Five racist cops, Four bailed out banks, Three student loans,

Two part time jobs, And a vote in a democracy!

The Revolutionary Nemu NADSYUK report on intangibles

Sunlight has dropped three points since the autumnal equinox, and conservative analysts predict a steady fall until the beginning of the next financial year. Prana and orgone have increased steadily in the same period, whilst chi continues to fall with the exception of kidney chi, which remained static. The sharp fall in the market value of mojo shows no sign of abating. Most experts blame this on the outsourcing of talent to the intangible commodities firm Barlow, Cowell & Cole, which continues with its aggressive takeover of popular culture. Meanwhile traders have linked umph, chutzpah, pizzazz and verve into a commodity bundle to prevent similar devaluations across the spectrum of zeal derivatives. Traders around the British Isles and its tax havens dumped their stock of hooray and wow after the Olympics, as expected. The conservatives among them have tended to favour meh, which is expected to rise slowly for at least the next three quarters, whilst more daring investors looking for quicker returns are opting for whoops, OMG, and bejeeeezus. The annual spike in heebie-jeebies came and went at the end of October, and futures traders have already dominated the market on goodwill, cheer, and festive spirit in the run-up to Christmas.

15 / lulz STRIKE DEBT — WE OWE IT TO EACH OTHER!