£2 www.freedompress.org.uk Vol 73 •MAY 2012 STILL ALIVE, STILL FREE! Alfie Meadows escapes again LENS CAP GIGANTASEAL STRIKES BACK! with ‘hung jury’

“But is he lucky?” Napoleon used to ask of a promising general. With Alfie Meadows it’s very much a case of is the glass half full or half empty. You might think he’s lucky to be alive after the cops belted him over the head, he’s lucky there was still an NHS to perform life saving surgery on him, lucky there’s still legal aid so he was represented in court, lucky some people doing jury service in Kingston believe you have a right and duty to defend people who are attacked by the police and lucky that he can carry on with his course until it gets abolished by the cuts. So not that lucky at all then. Here’s a quick summary of the case, but more details can be found on the Defend The Right To Protest website. From 26th March to 18th April five people (Colin Goff, Zac King, Alfie Meadows, Vishnu Woods and Jack Locke) were all on trial at Kingston crown court for violent disorder during the student demonstration on 9th December 2010. Colin, Vishnu and John were acquitted, while the jury was unable to reach agree - While debate continues in the anarchist movement over relations with our non-human comrades, ment on Zac and Alfie after three days of some have been taking direct action for themselves as recorded in this snap taken by Freedom’s deliberations. ace wildlife photographer Guido Littlechap. page 3 8 THE MARCH FOR ENGLAND 8 Antifascists from London travelled down to delaying the march, curtailing the route, INSIDE Brighton on 22nd April to link up with drowning out the dejected marchers and Workfare protests page 3 comrades from Brighton Anti-fascists (BAf) giving the cops a run for their money too. and protest against the March For England Whilst the counter demo was genuinely Health tax grab pages 12 and 13 (MFE) due to take place in the town. representative and the chant ‘Whose streets? MFE is the usual rag bag collection of Our Streets’ actually had resonance, the MFE Prison news page 15 failed football hooligans, pissed up dim-wits consisted of about 80 people, far down on the and EDL hangers-on that know the local 300 organisers expected. EDL banners and an Svartfrosk page 16 Wetherspoons inside out but very little else. Essex Infidels flag were unfurled at the station Despite claiming to be ‘non-racist’, previous and the march contained known EDL faces Reviews pages 20 and 21 marches have degenerated into racist abuse from Portsmouth and Brighton. However a and last year fascist infiltrators amongst the ‘firm’ of London and local EDL led by Joel Art pages 22 and 23 kettled counter-demonstrators were responsible Titus have earned themselves the nickname for a number of attacks on protesters. ‘Marlborough Light-Weights’ after a smaller ISSN 0016-0504 This year was to be a different matter and group of anti-fascist stewards confronted them BAf are to be congratulated for all the ground - on two occasions, sending them packing. work put into organising an effective and All in all a good day’s work. A very strong well-stewarded militant response that saw message was sent that fascists are not welcome! 9 770016 050009 upwards of 600 people on the streets severely London Antifascists 2 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 3 NEWS NEWS ROUNDING UP OCCUPY LENS CAP LEGO’S 99% Outside Mile End the winter has not been kind to Britain’s Occupy movement, with large sections of 2011’s big tent movement shutting down under a combination of legal orders and cold weather. But supporters of the loose-knit community are preparing for a hoped resurgence in interest as a dry and warm summer draws near and the Olympics behemoth continues to settle its concrete bulk over East London. The early pace has been set by Occupiers at Leyton Marsh, who began a blockading action against attempts to grab public park - land for an Olympic basketball court at the end of March. After a promising start, protestors ran into legal problems as the courts were Protests against workfare, from left to right, in Brighton, Wimbledon’s CWU headquarters and Catford in south east London. called in on 4th April, ruling that they were at the site illegally. Police went in five days later, arresting six Occupiers for breach of the peace as they broke up the camp. P i c

Simon Moore, 29, Daniel Ashman, 27, t u r and Anita Olivacce, 25, were jailed for five e

: Workfare protests

O

days each. c c u

Despite a legal challenge, the court ruled p scrutiny after no less than six of its employees tactics to win the right for claimants to have y L on 18th April that the protesters had no o Work-for-benefits is now under were arrest following allegations they had representatives attend meetings with A4e. n d right to challenge against their eviction, o lied about how effective they had been in Despite these growing problems, the n giving the government the green light to attack on two fronts getting people into work. government has continued to try and tough With St Pauls now the subject of a blocking order to stop Occupy supporters setting up in the area, one snatch yet more of London’s precious A4e, which is owned by former ‘back to it out, backing down in its demands for green space. supporter finds some acceptable reinforcements… The government’s attempt to impose work- work’ Tsar Emma Harrison, is the main compulsory work only in the cases of young In Finsbury Park meanwhile, the main site for-benefits schemes on benefit claimants has company covering the back to work ‘market’ unemployed people and where high street of London Occupy since its eviction from run into severe problems in the last month created in the wake of Department of Work chains have withdrawn support – and even St Pauls in February, the mood is more as legal issues mix with continuing protests and Pensions privatisation schemes. this may only be temporary. upbeat with celebrations of its six-month at participating companies. And beyond legal challenges, organised Claimants over the age of 18 can still be anniversary taking place on 22nd April and Occupy: the new Hoovervilles Workfare, which requires jobseekers to protest and disruption is growing as an caught in the government’s rapidly-expanding actions being planned to go on throughout work for private companies or face a loss of anarchist-organised national day of action Mandatory Work Scheme or the Community May as Freedom went to press. The protests have failed. A large group came split into 57 varieties of occupation, benefits, is being challenged in high court by saw private companies picketed in twenty Action Plan aimed at the long-term Protests, teach-ins and open days are all together and inspired themselves with stories spreading across London to pass on a Cait Reilly in June. towns and cities across Britain on 31st unemployed. part of a ‘spring awakening’ which about how the world could be changed if mix of pacifism, conspiracy theories and Cait was forced to quit her voluntary March. In a statement, SolFed noted: “Bosses organisers hope will re-energise interest in everyone stood together and, for a few spiritualism. work in a museum, which was directly This was followed by a number of one- prefer not having to pay for workers. getting people out against government weeks, it seemed they might be right. The common theme to all the camps at relevant to her career, so she could stack offs which have dogged firms from Tesco to Instead, we are all paying to subsidise their austerity and the rule of the 99%. They claimed to be part of the revolutions the moment is that they are mostly made up shelves at Poundland – or face losing her Holland & Barrett, and even the headquarters profits. Protests have already forced some In a statement, Finsbury Occupy said: in the Middle East. Occupy Wall Street was of homeless people. Bolstered by homeless only income. of the CWU union for its leadership’s role in to pull out of the scheme. Let’s make it all “Occupy London is set to strike back as fighting in the belly of capitalism. St Pauls kids, people with mental health problems She is claiming the sanction is an affront to supporting Workfare at the Royal Mail. of them.” people around the world take to the streets clergy tripped over themselves to resign. But and unemployed migrants, casualties of the her human rights and, if she wins, the ruling More actions were rolled out on Mayday to mark one year since the Indignados civilians being gunned down in Egypt, Libya cuts, the doss houses are full and there’s no could open the doors for up to 50,000 organised by the Solidarity Federation Notable participating companies: Citizens Advice reclaimed their squares in Spain and Greece, and Syria isn’t a strong argument for pacifism. temporary housing. affected jobseekers to do the same. (SolFed) and community organisation the Bureau, Remploy, Disability Works, A4e, Serco, G4S, and six months since the Occupy movement The smarter Occupiers moved from the cold Occupy are at the point of building shanty Meanwhile A4e, the firm administering Edinburgh Coaltion Against Poverty has Atos, Primark, Burton, Boots, McDonalds, Arcadia, went global. and took a more political stand, turning a towns on the scraps of urban wasteland and Workfare, has simultaneously come under scored a victory as it used direct action Holland & Barrett “The next wave is about to begin. Put UBS building in to a Bank Of Ideas. But open parks. Where can people go except to May Day, 12 May and 15 May in your without the 99% joining up they lost their the camps? There’s a tent and coffee for you. diary.” spaces, eventually being evicted. If you pay lip service to a Rainbow Tribe Full details of the plan for London can be found at The politicos moved on to Finsbury Square you’ve got shelter for a few weeks… better Still alive, still free! CHANGES AT THE PAPER This issue of Freedom is the first to have been occupylsx.org. and Leyton, leaving the inspired homeless to then a night alone on the streets. 7page 1 There will be a decision on whether to Vishnu and Jack were also up for arson, produced without Dean Talent for two years, as he • Outside of the capital it’s been a case of retry them on Friday 27th April, and if so to whit burning two park benches to keep and the collective have parted ways. We wish one-up, one-down. the earliest date will be in October. warm (it was minus four that evening). Vishnu Dean all the best and thank him for his work on On the one hand an occupation took was acquitted of this but Jack found guilty – the building, the paper and the website over the place on a campus at Oxford Brookes at we can only guess because the video showed last while. the end of April despite torrential rain him doing a little jig of joy round the fire. With the editor gone and the appointment of a which was still in place as this article goes He has been sent for a pre-sentence report new editor looming, the collective as a whole is to press, with plans for talks, music, and will find out on the 17th May, but he taking the opportunity to take a step back and ask banner making and an ongoing debate has a very good chance of avoiding custody. where we wish to go next with the newspaper. with students and the media of the nature As we go to press the Hilliard brothers are We’ve got our own ideas on this but would of the economic crisis. starting their retrial for violent disorder and welcome your feedback and indeed if you have a On the other, one of the longest-running more cases are coming, so look out for bit of free time, your help! Occupations in Nottingham has announced updates on the website. We’re back on the hunt for writers, sub-editors, it is to close after legal manouvers from In our next issue we will have a review of people to help with marketing and distribution, the council threatened to cause serious the student protest cases, but in the meantime and are looking at ways to raise money to keep financial damage to volunteers. our congratulations to these defendants and the old thing ticking over. Get in touch! good luck to those due to come. 4 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 5 THE BIG PICTURE NEWS Squatting: criminalisation and then what?

On Tuesday 27th March, the House of need of a place to sleep will still enter derelict Lords passed the Legal Aid, Sentencing and buildings, activists will still use the empties – Punishment of Offenders Bill, sending it there’s more than enough to go round in this back to the House of Commons. 1 This event, time of austerity. Only a small percentage of pretty much unreported in the mainstream Britain’s estimated 720,000 empty buildings press, caused waves in the squat scene since are actually squatted. 14 section 145 of the bill proposes to criminalise A group of squatters recently opened a squatting in residential buildings. As SQUASH shop in Brighton, selling fruit and veg by (Squatters Action for Secure Homes) donation. It’s been wildly popular and commented, “the proposed legislation will shows what can be done with the empty have impacts on the most vulnerable people properties blighting every high street. Of in society, will empower unscrupulous course the shop is zoned commercial, not landlords and will burden the justice system, residential (although it comprises one land police and charities”. 2 registry item with the flat upstairs) so it to change very much. We expect some A report by SQUASH has made it clear would be ‘safe’ under the proposed confrontations, but as you can see, those that the cost of criminalisation will dwarf legislation. battles are already being waged. Once any presumed benefits. 3 Presumably most It remains to be seen how residential will squatters are illegalised, despite broad public people reading this will agree that criminalisa - eventually be defined and as a supposed sympathy they will soon be portrayed as tion is a step in the wrong direction and legal brain said recently “that there will at domestic extremists / terrorists, the ‘bad’ much has already been written about the some point be an offence of squatting in activists as opposed to the ‘good’. This may legislation in general terms so in this short commercial buildings […] seems inevitable. sound paranoid, but there are already piece we aim to focus specifically on the The question is simply how soon”. 15 Stand precedents, such as the Bloomsbury Social impacts for political activism. by for smear stories in the media about Centre being profiled by the Met’s SO15 Occupation as resistance takes many raves and dangerous artists using Counter Terrorism unit. 18 forms. Recently, perhaps because squatting warehouses. In the meantime squatting offers us all a has been under threat, there have been chance to contest definitions of public space plenty of actions – Cardiff has a new social and to establish autonomous spaces from centre (the Red and Black Umbrella), 4 the which to organise. Whether these spaces are previously rented Forest Cafe was squatted defined as illegal or not seems quite frankly in Edinburgh, 5 the Hinkley Barnstormers irrelevant. Keep on squatting! drew attention to the planned construction of a new nuclear power station in the West Footnotes Country, 6 the Citadel of Hope (an old 1 http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010- Salvation Army hall) was cracked in Sheffield 7 12/legalaidsentencingandpunishmentofoffenders and campaigners replaced a phased out /documents.html homeless shelter with a squatted project in 2 http://www.squashcampaign.org/ Brighton. 3 http://www.squashcampaign.org/2012/03/cost- Alongside these great initiatives, there of-new-squatting-law-could-be-790m/ have been plenty of illegal evictions of other 4 http://redandblackumbrella.squat.net/ projects. In London, the School of Ideas was If we take a brief look at Europe, in Spain 5 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/12/ illegally evicted the same night as the St Paul’s squatting was criminalised in the late 1990s 489555.html occupation, and then quickly demolished. 8 and interestingly, the numbers of squats 6 http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/content/ Previously, a freshly squatted Iraqi bank subsequently increased. The law appears to hinkley-point-barnstormers-occupiers-aim-stop- (empty since 1994) had been evicted by be unenforceable, with only a few cases edf-land-trash-video-and-flyer chainsaw-wielding cops who pretended the being brought so far. In the Netherlands, the 7 http://en.squat.net/2011/12/29/6150/ building was in diplomatic use and thus the squat ban introduced in October 2010 only 8 http://occupylsx.org/?p=3815 Section 6 was subject to legal exemption. 9 In seems at present to be being applied in 9 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ Lancaster, Occupy squatters took a building Amsterdam, where nevertheless new squats protesters-evicted-from-building-linked-to-iraqi- and were illegally evicted soon after. 10 Squats are still being opened, such as the Valreep embassy-6295728.html have also been illegally evicted in Brighton, 11 social centre. 16 It has been subject to various 10 www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/occupy_ Bristol 12 and Peckham. 13 legal challenges. campaigners_angry_at_police_arrests_1_ This only serves to indicate that political Here, Mike Weatherley 17 and other 4132436 squatting is already difficult in this country opportunistic politicians will now most 11 http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/04/494570. and a proposed law change will not have likely move on to their next chance to grab html much impact. Just as those desperately in the limelight. The law will become law, but 12 http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/04/494655.

h slowly and with many challenges. html t t p :

/ Meanwhile the squatters will keep on 13 http://en.squat.net/2012/03/10/london-100- / w squatting. In London we do not expect the police-illegally-evict-social-centre/ w w

. Met to bother with squats more than usual, 14 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/criminalising- d e r

r they’ve got bigger fish to fry, although social squatting-is-the-real-crime/ y a

n centres and the like will still receive undue 15 http://www.estatesgazette.com/blogs/property- a r c

h attention. In Brighton we expect the police law/2011/10/residential-squatting-criminalised i s t

s to be all over this new law, and a lot to ---is-commercial-far-behind.html . b l

o hinge on interpretations of how exactly 16 http://valreep.wordpress.com

On the 10th anniversary of the death of former Civil Rights activist and Anarchist John McGuffin, local activists including former g s

p ‘residential’ is defined. 17 http://www.mikeweatherleymp.com/photos/

friends and comrades gathered in Derry’s Bogside and gave the iconic monument a fitting rebellious make-over with the red and o t

. iron-maiden/ c So as far as we get into it in this short

black colours of anarchism. Over the next fortnight the black flag of anarchy will fly over Free Derry corner in a fine tribute. No o . u article, the impending criminalisation of 18 http://en.squat.net/2012/01/26/london-student- Gods No Masters! k / squatting in residential buildings appears not centre-branded-terrorist/ 6 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 7 ANALYSIS COMMENT FREEDOM STOCKISTS You can now pick up your monthly copy Palestinians hungry for freedom of Freedom at the following venues. Breivik’s defence

Barely a week goes by these days without LONDON persons, and some patriotic propagandists Palestinian detainees announcing a hunger • Freedom Bookshop , 84b Whitechapel High Anders Breivik did not say appear to take the metaphor as literal truth, strike in protest at their treatment by the Street, London E1 7QX, tel 020 7247 9249 speaking as if the nation, or whatever, is a Israeli prison system. Yet, the world has email [email protected] ‘self defence’ real person with thoughts, beliefs, and been pretty much kept in the dark as mere http://www.freedompress.org.uk/ ambitions of its own, independent of the snippets of information trickle out about • 56A Infoshop , 56 Crampton Street, London Anders Behring Breivik does not deny that individuals who comprise it. what is turning into a cascade of resistance. SE17 3AE, email [email protected] he killed eight people and injured 200 others This way of thinking may have been Now, as Palestinian’s marked Prisoner’s Day http://www.56a.org.uk/ in Oslo, then went on to shoot and kill 69, current among the militaristic nations of on the 17th April, 1,200 prisoners declared • Housmans Bookshop , 5 Caledonian Road, mostly teenagers, at a youth camp on the classical antiquity, and is certainly present in an open-ended hunger strike. Demands London N1 9DX, tel 020 7837 4473 island of Utøya. On the first day of his trial modern fascist ideology. Max Stirner, the include an end to prolonged solitary email [email protected] on 16th April 2012, he was reported in the author of Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum confinement and night searches of prisoners http://www.housmans.com/ English-language media as telling the court, (‘The ego and its own’), is commonly and their cells. • London Action Resource Centre (LARC) , “I acknowledge the acts. But I do not plead reckoned a precursor of anarchism, because The protesters are in good company. At 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES guilty. I did it in self-defence”. he advocated that individual persons should the end of March, Hana Shalabi was finally tel 020 7377 9088, http://www.londonarc.org/ He spoke in Norwegian, and reports in make decisions for themselves, and not released from administrative detention, • Newham Bookshop , 745-747 Barking Road, English quoted the word of the court sacrifice themselves to causes like patriotism. ending her 44-day hunger strike. However, London E13 9ER, tel 020 8552 9993 interpreters, who much later issued a But Hitler’s mentor Dietrich Eckart, a deeply despite being in critical condition she was ‘clarifica tion’. What Breivik said was not patriotic fascist, proclaimed himself a email [email protected] exiled to Gaza instead of being able to return “I did it in self-defence”, but “I did it out follower of Stirner, because when Stirner http://www.newhambooks.co.uk/ to her family home of Burqin in the northern of necessity”. wrote of ‘self’, Eckart thought he meant the West Bank. There were approximately twenty BRIGHTON The misinterpretation may not be German nation, as a separate, self-aware • Cowley Club Social Centre , 12 London Road, other Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike inexplicable. The word ‘self’ does not entity. Brighton BN1 4JA, tel 01273 696104 in solidarity with Shalabi, a small percentage always mean ‘self’ in the ordinary, mundane Whatever Breivik actually said, he seems of more than 300 Palestinian’s currently email [email protected] sense of a self-aware person. Sometimes, for to have swallowed the crazy idea that the being held without charge. http://cowleyclub.org.uk/ instance in political cartoons, nations or European race is a more important ‘self’ Another striker, Hasan al-Safadi was BIRMINGHAM populations may be symbolically depicted as than himself. rushed to hospital on Friday 7th April after • Birmingham Bike Foundry , 1539 Pershore Road, fainting on the 33rd day of his refusal to Stirchley, Birmingham B30 2JH, tel: 0121 459 take food. Also in hospital are Omar Abu 7276, email: [email protected] Shalal, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla. All formal charges. Initial detention is scheduled more than one and a half million inmates, http://birminghambikefoundry.org are being held without charge. What is to last for six months, but this is simply some exiled to neighbouring countries. BRISTOL extended as the expiry date approaches – For what it is worth, the Fourth Geneva • Hydra Books , 34 Old Market, Bristol BS2 0EZ and can be renewed indefinitely. Obviously, Convention prohibits the transfer, by an tel: 0117 3297401 email [email protected] Israel needs some sort of legal footing to occupying force, of a population from http://www.hydrabooks.org/ justify the imprisonment of people for occupied territories – much the same as it • Kebele Social Centre , 14 Robertson Road, simply disagreeing with military occupation, prohibits the transfer of a population into Bristol BS5 6JY, tel 0117 9513086, but the parameters are so loose as to make an occupied territory as Israel is also doing email [email protected] them meaningless. with it’s colonisation of the West Bank. It is http://www.kebelecoop.org The mainstream media have been a classic case of ‘do as I say, and not as I NOTTINGHAM ominously quiet on the issue, perhaps do’. The day before Shalit was kidnapped on • Sumac Centre , 245 Gladstone Street, because both Adnan and Shalabi’s stories the Gaza border, Israeli forces slipped into Nottingham NG7 6HX, tel 0115 960 8254, open a can of worms that would force the the Strip and whisked away the Muammar email [email protected] world to acknowledge Israel’s barbaric brothers. http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac treatment of Palestinian prisoners. This Gilad Shalit’s father Noam recently caused LIVERPOOL glaringly obvious is the need for international treatment flies in the face of any modicum uproar when admitting he would kidnap • News from Nowhere Bookshop , 96 Bold Street, solidarity activists to work tirelessly to high - of human rights, and is in grave breach of Israeli soldiers if he were Palestinian. He Liverpool L1 4HY, tel 0151 708 7270 light these acts of non-violent resistance and the Geneva Convention (although, as the US also highlighted the fact that Hamas’s email [email protected] help bring Israel’s hidden policies to light. fails to adhere to any of these principles, it is actions were similar to those techniques used http://www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk/ According to the Israeli Prisons Service, as difficult to see why Israel would bother). by Jewish paramilitaries against the British EDINBURGH of August 2011 there were more than 5,000 Shalabi’s plight also exposes the verbatim in what was then Mandate Palestine, noting • AK Press online , AK Distribution, PO Box 12766, Palestinian prisoner’s. reproduction of Israeli propaganda by even “we also kidnapped British soldiers”. The Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9YE These protests follow the agreement the supposedly critical press. She was one of legal framework for Israel’s policy of email [email protected] reached between Israel and Khader Adnan, the prisoners exchanged, to much fanfare, administrative detention is also a hang-over http://www.akuk.com/ whose administrative detention will not be when Hamas agreed to release Israeli soldier from the same period, enacted by the British • Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) renewed beyond 17th April following his Gilad Shalit back in October 2011. Whilst in 1945 at the height of Jewish resistance. 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA 67-day hunger strike beginning in December the world was fed stories of convicted tel 0131 557 6242 last year. Still, he remained shackled to a terrorists being unleashed to commit further http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/hana-shalabi-now- email [email protected] hospital bed in northern Israel, with armed crimes, in truth the large majority should hospitalized-our-freedom-is-even-more-precious-and- guards overseeing his recovery. Adnan was not have even been behind bars in the first more-powerful-than-their-cells.html http://www.autonomous.org.uk/ previously held in the notorious Ofer Prison, place. Many were held in administrative • Word Power Books , 43-45 West Nicolson Street, partly run by Anglo-Danish security detention. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/15/ Edinburgh EH8 9DB, tel 0131 662 9112 company G4S. With he release date now Whilst exact figures are vague, as with gilad-shalit-father-kidnap-israel email [email protected] behind us there are unconfirmed reports that previous prisoner swaps a number of http://www.word-power.co.uk/ Adnan has returned to his home in the West Palestinian’s released alongside Shalabi in http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/latest- SOUTHAMPTON Bank. the Shalit deal were swiftly re-arrested and palestinian-hunger-striker-hospitalized-after-fainting • October Books , 243 Portswood Road, Israel’s administrative detention policy again disappeared into the Israeli prison Southampton SO17 2NG, tel 023 8058 1030 allows the state to hold detainees for system. Others were banished to Gaza, http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action- email [email protected] unlimited periods of time without trial or which is essentially an open air prison with Israel-End-use-of-administrative-detention 8 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 9 INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS IN BRIEF LENS CAP PALESTINIAN PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE

GREECE: On-going austerity demonstrations in Greece have been stepped up following the tragic death of Wildcat strikes in Poland Dimitris Christoulas. Dimitris was a 77- year-old retired pharmacist who had found Metalworkers fight back himself poverty stricken due to government austerity measures. During the rush hour against casualisation he travelled to the Greek Parliament building, stood outside, and then shot Around 400 metalworkers employed at the himself through the head. His death Huta Batory ironworks in Chorzów, Poland sparked a new wave of demonstrations started a wildcat strike on 2nd April. The and increased police brutality. His suicide bosses had been dismissing staff on a weekly note explained that he had chosen to take basis, including 50 in the previous week. his own life as he did not want to have to They then replaced them with agency rummage through bins for sustenance, workers who were paid around 50% of choosing instead to take his own life. He permanent staff wages. The management also called on the ‘young people’ of Greece have made no secret of their intentions and to take up arms and hang the traitors of have announced that their long term aim is this country at Syntagma square, just like to have around 80% of the workforce on the Italians did to Mussolini in 1945". temporary agency contracts. The workers had become disillusioned by negotiations between their ineffective trade RUSSIA: Automotive workers at a factory in Kaluga who supply Volkswagen have On 17th April 2012, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons launched a mass hunger strike union and the company management, and decided to walk off the job. They immediately ended a strike after they thought they had demanding an end to administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures taken against blockaded the factory entrance and refused won significant victories relating to pay, Palestinian prisoners including the denial of family visits and access to university education. For updates to let any deliveries in or out. and union recognition. This was in spite see http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=470 and see also page 6 of this issue. The bosses responded by hiring large on many attempts by the company to groups of private security guards to try and break the strike. Bosses brought in break the strike. Word quickly got around university students, office staff, the local community and later that day construction workers, and workers from several hundred people travelled to the rival car manufacturers in order to carry Police close down social centres factory to support the strikers. Several buses Members of the ZSP (Polish section of the Workers are convinced that the decision on production. The striking workers had full of security staff arrived, but they were International Workers Association) went to by the bosses to disregard the agreed managed to prevent scabs and deliveries There has been a massive police operation in The police are claiming that the centres are confronted by a hostile crowd and decided picket the company headquarters in Warsaw, ‘negotiation arrangements’ with the unions, from entering the site. Unfortunately, since the Exarcheia district of Athens which has being used as “laboratories for explosives”, to drive away. but unfortunately they found the offices to and to recruit agency workers was a deliberate the strikers returned to work they have seen two anarchist social centres closed down despite there being no evidence to corroborate be closed. attempt to provoke a dispute and enable them seen scabs receive bonuses; they have been and all occupants evicted. At around 5pm their allegations. The Greek media are Later that day the company announced to sack large groups of workers for going on threatened with dismissal, disciplinary on 20th April the police smashed windows claiming that the evictions are just the first that they intent on closing the factory, an illegal strike. This would have the added measures, or demotion if they do not leave and doors to gain entry and arrested all 20 stage of a wider operation to close down sacking over 100 people who they believed benefit on enabling the bosses to ‘bypass’ the union. The bosses are also in the people who were inside. The two anarchist anarchist havens around the city. to be trouble makers with immediate effect, expensive group redundancy agreements. process of taking legal action against the spaces had only been occupied for two weeks, Just two days after the evictions, one of and locking out all the remaining workers, Alchemia, the company that runs the one of which was due to have an opening the centres has been re-occupied by hundreds Two weeks after the strike started, bosses ironworks has recently issued its annual union relating to the legality of the strike. event the following day. of people, who removed the steel plates that organised a shareholders meeting in Warsaw. accounts which showed that it had made It is believed that the decision to close down covered the doors and windows. The police Members of the ZSP joined ironworkers in an 800% increase in profits over the last CANADA: Anti-fascist activists and the centres had been taken by I. Tentes, a were looking on, but made no attempt to picketing and disrupting the meeting. twelve months.The company is owned by hundreds of people from the local prosecutor at the Athens High Court whose prevent them from entering the building. Tellingly, the only item on the agenda one of the richest families in Poland,who community managed to prevent an annual career had started when he was appointed to Following the re-occupation, over 1,000 was regarding the decision to close the have a large portfolio of other companies ‘white pride’ march from taking place in his post by the right-wing military junta in people attended a solidarity concert organised factory, timescales and how assets were to and are alleged to have a fortune of around Edmonton. Within minutes of the march the early 1970s. by the social centre collective. be liquidised. 1.8 billion. commencing, anti-fascists blocked their path and chased them off the streets. The fascists took refuge in an underground Notes from the US railway station and had to be provided with safe passage out of the city by the Notes from the US 7page 8 police. No Pasaran! Bluffdale, Utah. It’s apparently part of a conversations and exchanges of data revealed at the start of this month just how Economy men for the same health insurance coverage. secret NSA surveillance program codenamed originating inside the US as well as abroad. widespread such activities by the police are The state of Michigan seems to be nearing In the states that permit ‘gender rating’ 92% ‘Stellar Wind’ and will occupy almost a Also included are private individuals’ in the United States. Over 200 police USA: The FBI has raided a facility in New York, seizing a server that is used by the appointment of an unelected an of the top plans charge women more – even million square feet and cost nearly US$2 Google searches, parking receipts, travel departments which admitted to tracking emergency manager to take over the city though most of those plans do not cover (£1.3) billion to complete with an estimated itineraries, bookstore purchases and the like. mobile phone calls also acknowledged that Riseup and other progressive groups. The of Detroit. Freedom has reported before on maternity care! In most states, female non- annual energy cost alone (the capacity to According to the Wired report’s author, they have routinely obtained warrants to do removal of the server means that hundreds this trend, where (as the economic crisis smokers are also charged more than male pump 1.7 million gallons of liquid a day, James Bamford, the NSA lost its lead in the so. So routine, in fact, that phone companies of email accounts have been closed as well deepens) cities and municipalities seize the smokers – again because they are women. manage air and sewerage as well as cool the 1990s, failing to predict various attacks on now make manuals available to the police as email lists belonging to anarchist opportunity to put in unelected managers to server farm) of US40 (£25) million. The site the US inside and outside the country. To which explain the range of data stored and groups, gay rights groups, community run them – often in the interests of capital Surveillance will be self-contained and self-sustaining – rectify that, it apparently plans to capture, if pricing plans (!) for police to obtain it. groups, and free speech groups. Riseup and the élite. An exposé in Wired magazine in mid-March for up to three days in an emergency. necessary decode/decrypt and detect patterns Louis Further have described the act as a “sledgehammer revealed details of the United States’ largest The purpose of those servers – which are in… everything! approach” shutting down hundreds of Health spying outfit, the National Security Agency’s likely to have almost unimaginably massive As similar attempts in the UK to track Resources accounts in their search for one New research by the National Women’s Law (NSA), latest huge spying complex – quietly speed, power and storage capacity? To almost anything that moves are announced, American Civil Liberties Union: www.aclu.org anonymous person. Center shows that women are paying US$1 being built in the middle of nowhere – in intercept, tap, monitor, gather and listen in a new investigation by the American Civil National Women’s Law Center: www.nwlc.org billion (£630 million) more each year than page 9 8 on virtually all emails, (cell-)phone Liberties Union (the equivalent of Liberty) Wired magazine: www.wired.com 10 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 11 ECONOMICS HISTORY Rich holing that boat we’re all in The African Forum looking to other surveys that report some - what cheerier statistics, particularly for the construction industry. Repeated across London anarchists in the business papers is the sentiment that news of a double-dip will retard growth by 1950s had some influence eroding consumer confidence, sinking the economy into a more serious recession than on African politics after the already exists. There are not many ways to dress up end of British rule in Africa. these figures though or to hide daily hard - ships from consumers, so the government This may not be important, and its critics will be forced to take this seriously. but it would be a pity to Osbourne has already announced that he will not sway from the austerity programme, forget it and he reiterated that his strategy is supported by business groups and the Inter - The Malatesta Club was an anarchist social national Monetary Fund (IMF). However club with its own hired premises, founded in the IMF’s forecast for 0.8% growth this 1954. It hired its premises full time, but did year looks increasingly unlikely. At this not use them full time. On some evenings, it point the govern ment seems intent on rented its room to other organisations, one continuing the cuts, despite the figures of which was the African Forum, a group of being “very, very disappoint ing” and clearly politicians from the British Empire in Africa, showing that austerity is not generating the hoping to take power when their countries promised results. became independent. Oppression was rife in Attempts by the coalition to shift the blame the colonies, but all the inhabitants were for the contraction on the Eurozone crisis British subjects with the same legal rights, in doesn’t hold water, as construction is largely London, as other British subjects. Black George Osbourne’s budget has only seen the period of economic flatlining and a failure sheltered as a domestic economy. There has Britons, however, suffered from the wide - light of day for five weeks, however criticisms to reduce the deficit despite cuts. This been a 25% reduction in public sector net spread belief that black people were inherently are already mounting that the government’s period of stagnation dates almost exactly investment last year, including the building inferior to white people. Drawn in the Malatesta Club by Rufus Segar in 1956 cuts regime has backfired as figures released to the intro duction of the coalition’s of new schools and hospitals. Members of the African Forum came to on 25th April show Britain plunging into a austerity programme. A contraction in the economy can only see what anarchist club nights were like, and 1963, as a Zanzibari politician named Nigerian independence, he became Minister double dip recession. The mid-term outlook is also gloomy: mean further hardship, compounded by four of them became regulars of the Club. Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu , suspected of of Education in the federal government, and A recession is defined as two consecutive contraction is expected to continue into this the coalition’s mismangement of the budget Manny Obahiagbon , professionally being a Maoist. He told his television subsequently in several other federal govern - quarters of contraction. The economy shrank quarter, extending the downturn to nine and a stubborn – if unsurprising – conviction known as E.E. Obahiagbon , was the one interveiwer, “While I was in London I was ments of different political complexions. 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, with an months. Overall this recession is the longest to stand by their austerity programme no who had the idea of hiring the room. He attracted to anarchism, but anarchism Later, he was a lawyer of some local overall drop of 0.5% since October primarily in the past century. matter what the data says. However, we can published and edited The Nigerian at Home requires a certain political sophistication, importance. caused by a fall in construction output and a Some economists believe the economy take heart that the anti-cuts demos, campaigns, and Abroad , printed by Express Printers, which is not available in Africa”. Susuke Omubu was another Ijo, a smaller downturn in manufacturing. The may be stronger than these figures – based and groups are right: austerity simply isn’t which was owned by Freedom Press. Philip He had visited China in 1959 to negotiate journalist employed in London as a sub- first double-dip since Thatcher follows a on gross domestic product – suggest, and are working. Sansom, who managed Express Printers, was (successfully) for the promise of Chinese editor on the News Chronicle . also the prime mover for the foundation of financial aid when Zanzibar became Omubu, a lively guitarist, entertained at the Malatesta Club, so Manny was there independent. He had said he would never the Malatesta club with African-style songs from the beginning. join a Zanzibar government which had of four bars, continually repeated. One song, Manny was a Benin, a scion of Benin Abeid Karume as president, but when in English, was ‘Never marry a white The Dutch Experience: hypocrisy and fear nobility (the European-imposed border of Karume became president, he joined, woman, or you will go hungry’, changing modern Benin cuts through the ancient explaining his u-turn unashamedly, with a after many repetitions to ‘Never marry a The Dutch government has collapsed after credit rating and seen as a stable haven within the 3% deficit limit and in 2011 proposed Kingdom of Benin, putting part of it in toothy smile, “That’s politics”. white woman. All you get is fish and chips’. only 18 months in power. Prime Minister the central Eurozone countries. Only four of that heavily indebted states be taken into Nigeria). Rita Milton, who worked at In 1964, when Zanzibar and Tanganyika Much hilarity was caused among the Mark Rutte and his cabinet resigned after the Eurozone’s 17 nations still possess the ‘guardianship’ under the direct control of a Express Printers, said she believed he was an were amalgamated in the new country called Africans when English people joined in songs they were unable to reach an agreement with coveted AAA rating. European commissioner. As caretaker, Rutte anarchist, but I think this was because she Tanzania, Babu moved to Dar-es-Salaam to in African languages, such as for instance other parties over the 2013 budget, including In the current round of budget talks, the will submit a provisional budget on April found him attractive. In fact, he was more of join the government of Julius Nyeryere, and ‘Funfun l eye nsu, funfun leye nsu’, which is proposed austerity cuts in the Netherlands. Dutch deficit was revealed to be 4.6% of 30th and is still intending for cuts to be a Marxist. secured a grant from China, additional to Yoruba for ‘Whiteness is shat by birds’. Queen Beatrix accepted the resignation, gross domestic product, well above the 3% integral to this. Manny taught me the rudiments of the aid which was already there, for the An English woman invited him home and however Rutte will stay in power as a limit for Eurozone countries. Rutte’s proposed However as the debt crisis creeps northward Nigerian politics, which I found useful in the building of the Tanzania railway. offered him food, by which he said he was caretaker government while Dutch political budget included €19 billion in spending cuts, and the Netherlands’ credit rating is threatened, 1970s, when the Prime Minister of East In 1972, Babu’s old rival Abeid Karume insulted, because where he came from, food parties decide how to proceed. Elections in order to bring the deficit down to 3% next the coming elections will be decided on Nigeria, one of the British delineated was assassinated. Babu was found to be was only offered to beggars. A well-educated may be held as early as 27th July. year. The government could be fined €1.2 whether the country should stick to its own regions, declared it an independent country, implicated and sentenced to death, but freed man, he must have known that in England it Rutte’s liberal-conservative coalition had billion if unable to reach this target. Eurozone rules and impose similar devastating ‘Biafra’, to prevent it from being divided by Nyeryere in 1978. He died in London in is good manners to invite visitors to tea, so strongly backed the Eurozone’s fiscal union Talks collapsed amidst political opposition cuts prescribed to Greece. into smaller regions by the new federal 1996. his pretence of feeling insulted was very treaty, urging that Greece be penalised for to the cuts from the Labour party, the Dutch While left-leaning parties are also against government. Some British radicals were Wenike Briggs was a descendant of Young rude. falling behind on implementing spending cuts. Central Bank and the government’s own the proposed austerity cuts, it is Geert misled into thinking this was a move for Briggs, the famous nineteenth century chief After Wenike Briggs returned to Nigeria, Rutte also supported Germany’s proposal in Central Plan Bureau. Rutte’s minority govern - Wilders who has the international spotlight freedom. Manny also taught me some useful of the Ijo people in south-eastern Nigeria. Omubu saw himself as the senior Ijo January to strip Greece of sovereignty. ment was finally prompted to resign after in the wake of the collapse. Comrades in the Yoruba greetings. In 1963, I heard that he Wenike came to London to study law, and resident in London, and took the name of Despite repeatedly lecturing on the value far-right politician Geert Wilders walked out Netherlands have a many-pronged battle was publicity officer of the Nigerian Timber returned to Nigeria as a barrister, after Omubu Briggs. When he returned to Nigeria of austerity to Southern European countries, of the budget talks. ahead of them: austerity, politicians in Corporation. showing photographs of himself in his himself, it was as editor of a newspaper the Netherlands was carrying a higher deficit The Dutch have been was a driving force Brussels, the caretaker government and far- Mohamed Ali , as he was known at the barrister’s wig to his friends at the Malatesta owned by Wenike Briggs. than Portugal or Italy, yet retaining its AAA behind tough Eurozone rules, particularly right nationalism. Malatesta Club, turned up on television in Club. Following the first elections after Donald Rooum 12 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 13 FEATURE FEATURE WELCOME TO THE NEW, TRANSPARENT NHS Care UK purchasing on behalf of four London NHS Private health firms’ tax grab Care UK is one of the biggest private trusts. It has strongly argued more patients providers of NHS treatments, is the largest should use private providers within the exposed operator of independent sector treatment NHS. centres and also operates GP practices and GHG is owned by a consortium of While in public they have been presenting out-of-hours services, NHS walk-in centres companies including private equity firms themselves as the future of the NHS, a and Clinical Assessment and Treatment Apax Partners, London & Regional and Corporate Watch investigation into the Services around the country. Brockton, alongside South African hospitals accounts of five of the major private The company has had contracts with all giant Netcare which holds a controlling healthcare companies has found a use of tax of the current Strategic Health Authorities, 50.1% share. havens and tax avoidance schemes that works with one in three Primary Care Trusts The GHG deal was financed by Barclays or Vodafone would be proud of. and is currently bidding to take over the borrowing and issuing bonds for a total of management of the NHS George Eliot £1.9bn from a variety of third party sources. Spire Healthcare Hospital in Nuneaton. It also runs 85 As this was all set up pre-credit crunch, the Spire is one of the biggest private healthcare residential homes and provides care for over interest rates are low, though conditional. providers in the UK. It treats 25% of its 17,000 people across the UK. The prospectus for almost £400m of asset- patients through the NHS, providing Previously a publicly listed company, it backed bonds issued by the company in operations such as hip replacements. Spire was bought by the private equity company May 2007 for example makes clear that was formed in 2007 after private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital in 2010. The new companies within the group must be resident Cinven bought 25 hospitals from Bupa for owners restructured it, increasing its levels for tax purposes in the UK. £1.4bn. Since then it has acquired 12 more of debt and introducing a tax avoidance Even here the potential for remains. Each hospitals to take its current total to 37. The scheme that sees interest payments on of the 47 hospitals owned by GHG are company has said it is aiming to be a borrowings and dividends on shares owned by separate subsidiaries, all “provider of choice” to Lansley’s new GP channelling money out of the company. incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. commissioning groups. Care UK lost money in 2010 due to the These are registered in the UK for tax Spire is highly profitable: its revenue rose costs of restructuring, but while its owners purposes, as insisted upon by the terms of by 4% to £643m in 2010 and it posted an will enjoy healthy returns when it returns to the bonds, but they are still British Virgin operating profit of £123m. Much of that profitability the public finances may not. Islands companies. This means that when was eaten away by the £108m in interest it Care UK paid £41m in finance costs in Netcare and partners come to sell GHG, had to pay bank loans taken out by Cinven 2010. they can transfer the ownership of the to finance its acquisition of Spire. But even £25m of this was the interest on a £250m hospital-owning subsidiaries to the new after that has been paid, there should still be bond it had to issue for Bridgepoint to buy owners in the British Virgin Islands, £15m of taxable profit remaining. it in the first place. £8m is going in interest potentially avoiding UK stamp duty. However, in addition to the interest on the payments on £130m of loan notes – I l l bank loans, Spire has paid £65m in interest essentially IOUs – Care UK issued on the u Ramsay Health Care s t r

on almost £600m of loans it owes to the Channel Islands stock exchange straight a Ramsay, Australia’s biggest private hospital t i o

company Rozier, which is another subsidiary after its acquisition. n chain, bought Capio UK in 2007, acquiring

©

of Cinven, based in Luxembourg. Rozier’s Usually when a UK company borrows its 22 hospitals and nine Independent Sector G i accounts show it paid almost the same sum from a non-UK company it has to pay 25% u Treatment Centres for NHS patients. Almost l i a

to its owner in 2010 as share yields. In of the value of the interest to UK tax B 60% of Ramsay’s work is from the NHS, a a r Luxembourg these shares are treated as authorities. But there are exceptions to this, b proportion that has increased for the past e r debt, so Rozier deducts the interest from its one being the Channel Islands stock a five years. A 9% revenue increase in 2010 Luxembourg tax bill (in the process almost exchange which is eligible for a “quoted Illustration drawn by Giulia Barbera after the 9th October 2011 demonstration to save the NHS.º came in large part from the increase in NHS wiping it out). UK tax authorities meanwhile Eurobond exemption” – meaning the work the company was getting through the will treat it as dividends which count as interest payments are taken off Care UK’s dividend every year even if the company is But its accounts show that, when it does, we cannot see exactly how much of the Circle Choose and Book system. income, not profit, so the money Cinven taxable earnings. not profitable. those owners are well placed to minimise Partnership is owned by its employees. But Ramsay’s accountants will be more receives from Rozier will also be tax In addition, £8m a year is going straight When the Bridgepoint fund bought Care their tax burden. Circle Holding’s financial statement shows interested in their parent company’s tax deductible. to the Bridgepoint fund investors that UK, it invested £130m into the company. Circle’s corporate structure is far from the that at least 10% of shares in Partnership are authorities that HMRC. In 2010, Ramsay Spire has only paid any tax at all in the last bought Care UK as dividends on £126m of However, it put £126m of this into these social enterprise model its publicity claims. held by a company called Health Partners UK borrowed £57m from RHC Finance Ltd, three years because HMRC has deemed some “cumulative preference shares” which do preference shares, with only £4m going into Circle Health Ltd – the company that Limited, a “wholly owned subsidiary of Health a subsidiary of its Australian parent expenses “not deductible for tax purposes.” not allow voting rights but guarantee a ordinary shares. actually provides healthcare – is 50.1% Trust (Jersey), a family trust of which the registered in the Caymans, to finance the owned by a company called Circle Holdings, Chief Executive Officer [former Goldman acquisition of a 57% share of French firm Circle Health with the other 49.9% owned by Circle Sachs bigwig Ali Parsa] is a beneficiary” and Proclif, now re-branded as Ramsay Sante. Circle Health took over the management of Partnership. Circle Partnership is part- which, as suggested, is registered in Jersey – This led to £1m leaving the UK for the Hinchingbrooke hospital in recent months, owned by Circle employees and is the social another tax haven! Cayman Islands in interest payments. becoming the first private company to win a enterprise part. Why the company routed the financing contract to manage an NHS hospital. It has But while this may mean some of its staff General Healthcare Group for its investment through the Caymans is also operated NHS services in Burton, benefit when the company starts making a GHG describes itself as “the leading provider unclear as RHC Finance’s accounts are not Nottingham and Bradford, private clinics in profit, as it is registered in the British Virgin of independent health care services in the UK”. made public. When asked, Ramsay UK told Stratford and Windsor and a private Islands, these benefits will not be shared. It owns BMI Healthcare, the biggest private Corporate Watch that RHC is a subsidiary of hospital in Bath. A self-described “social Companies registered in the Caribbean healthcare provider in the UK. BMI has a its Australian parent and the UK company enterprise,” Circle has been among the island do not have to pay tax on dividends network of over 70 hospitals and clinics, does not have any information about its foremost advocates of competition in the from investment in a UK company. which treat NHS patients through the Choose operations. NHS. Companies registered in the British Virgin and Book system, and is looking to sign more Circle was founded in 2004 and the costs Islands do not have to make their accounts NHS contracts in the near future. A longer and fully-referenced version of this article is of its rapid expansion have meant it is yet to public – and Circle did not respond to In December last year it signed a contract available on the Corporate Watch website: make any significant returns for its owners. Corporate Watch’s requests to see them – so to provide procurement and consumables corporatewatch.org/?lid=4251 14 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 15 INTERVIEW PRISON NEWS Broke but making films A brave new outsourced world? Another month of Coalition policy making Award winning film-maker, gone by and more of the already tarnished veneer of the ‘Rehabilitation Revolution’ has writer and director Greg Hall peeled away to further reveal what we already knew: a) that the policy bares little talks… or no resemblance to anything any rational person would consider to be in any way Long serving anarchist Greg Hall is an award- revolutionary; and b) the notion of the winning film-maker, writer and director of ‘rehabilitation’ of ex-prisoners was never The Plague (2004), Kapital (2007) and really the core issue. SSDD (2010). Yes, the ideological raison d’être of the policy was to cut so-called ‘re-offending’ by How did you come across radical politics? newly released prisoners, but alongside the The first event that evoked a political response more pressing motive force – saving money in me was the anti-war build up before the by cutting the prison population, and attack on Iraq. I was at art school and I rehabilitation (“to restore to health or normal remember we organised some street parties life by training and therapy; restore the amongst the students and went along as a standing or reputation of; restore to a former contingent to the big demos. I was coming condition” – OED definition) was never the away from the protests with bundles of bottom line. propaganda. Above, a still from Bruised with characters Mick and Ru; below, Greg on the set of SSDD . In fact, the central piece of the Coalition’s Radical politics began to have more of an criminal justice legislation, the Legal Aid, effect on me. In my second year I was making Orwell’s answered “to even suggest that is a What do you see as the future of film? Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill a film project about the 121 squat set in the political argument”. For me film-making, Even though a lot is changing in terms of (LASPO), was originally due to actually 1980s, looking at the Brixton riots and the media, culture, it’s used for political means. online distribution, you’re never going to get include the word Rehabilitation (i.e. LASRO) people to prison, so let’s send the prison to whilst still in prison, will also be referred anarchist community while everyone else on Everywhere we look from billboards to TV away from people wanting to come together but No. 10 decided that they needed the them. onto the Work Programme (WP) from ‘Day my course was making costume dramas. there is a continuing war of communication. and watch a film, which is what cinemas ‘hang ’em, flog ’em’ faction in the Tory Most post-release prisoners are already One’ (as the DWP press release ostentatiously My interest in politics led me to the I feel that as a film-maker I need to stand up used to be. But, the multiplexes have been Party (not to mention in the Media) on subject to exacting licence conditions, in calls it) or who subsequently claim Jobseeker’s London Action Resource Centre and 56a, and put ideas out there that can combat the shutting down any sense of individuality board in order to get it passed through some cases amounting to external exile. Add Allowance within 13 weeks of release. Plus, then I came across Ian Bone’s Bash the Rich. dominant culture. in cinemas, they’re all showing the same Parliament. Not that it has had such an easy to that the introduction of the early release WP providers will get £5,600 if they manage I was on the fringes of the political scene and All you get now is a remake of Shakespeare, films. ride despite that, with the House of Lords Home Detention Curfew tagging experiment to get an ex-prisoner into work and keep went to a few Class War meetings, mainly a rom com, a ‘how wonderful Britain is’ What really is lacking is the infrastructure particularly miffed at the curtailing of Legal that has at least managed to free-up a few them there for two years. because they were in a pub and it was an take on life. Films coming out about the for independent film-makers to work together Aid provision, but it has passed the final prison places, and the model is obvious (not All the same JSA sanctions will apply to excuse to have a pint with Ian. Queen, Margaret Thatcher or the King’s to get their films out. You can put your film hurdle in that chamber, though with a that there is any evidence available for the prisoners of course. So, not only will they I wanted to get involved with political lisp. They’re not critical, they don’t engage online, but without marketing no one will further 11 amendments for the government effect of HDC on re-offending rates and have the current problems that apply to any work but things had been dead since the the audience into asking questions. If there’s see it. At the same time a lot more people to try and ditch when it comes back to the electronic monitoring itself has been shown newly released prisoner – license conditions, WOMBLES, so a few of us decided to form a film set on an estate then it’s got to be a can make films, but that doesn’t mean a Commons on 17th April. to be no more effective than other forms of probably having to live in a bail hostel, the Whitechapel Anarchist Group and it gangster film, working class youth depicted load of good films are coming out. A lot of There was of course another core ideo - community punishments). No doubt the attending probation meetings on time, trying kind of became a big thing, bigger than it as violent stereotypes. people aren’t really saying anything, just logical driving force behind the policy, one heavy-duty lobbying by up to 30 companies to re-establish contact with friends and actually was. It gained a media reputation; In my films I try to show real life, reflecting making cheaper versions of the mainstream. that is conveniently smoke-screened behind last year when the previous eight-year tagging family, and generally finding one’s feet after really WAG was just a crew of good people working class culture because there’s an As independent and underground film- the supposed need for cost-cutting: the mass contracts held by G4S and Serco, and worth being stuck in an environment where all that wanted to have fun. Radical politics authenticity there, even if it’s broken into makers, we have to be telling stories that outsourcing of government ‘services’ under around £1bn, were up for tendering had your decision-making and most of your had become so boring and sectarian that we little pockets. In The Plague a lot of my best will engage an audience. the ‘Payment By Results’ banner, and in something to do with it, especially as the thinking was done by someone else – they just wanted to have fun, we learnt our actors were untrained, they were kids from particular, as much of the criminal justice industry was touting new hi-tech tags that will have to effectively do any job they are politics as we did it, it was a good laugh. those estates. If you’re making a story about What’s your next project? sector as the Tories could get away with, can monitor a wear’s blood alcohol levels in offered (not much change from being in kids from a gang, you might not be from that I’ve just shot a short film called Bruised given the need for a certain amount of policy addition to carrying out standard monitoring prison then). Has politics influenced you films? exact experience so getting an actor that is which I co-wrote and co-produced with the horse-trading with the Lib Dems. And the in real-time. Except this plan completely ignores the George Orwell was asked “Do you think art brings an authenticity and realism to it that main actor, Paul Marlon. It was made for past month has seen a further invasion of Given that there are a potential of key hurdle that prisoners face when finding and politics should sometimes be separate”. does not exist in main stream cinema. under £100. It follows two characters, Mick the tentacles of the private ‘security’ sector 100,000 to 120,000 new ‘customers’ a year, a job post-release: the vast majority of and Ru. Mick takes part in illegal street into the State’s business. it’s a market many want to get into. Currently companies refuse to employ ex-cons, and the fights, with Ru as his manger. We shot it in Chief target has been the provision of a 90-day tag costs the taxpayer around Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, even Dartford, a post-industrial white working community sentence monitoring and, by £1,100, assuming no additional callouts (to allowing for Ken Clarke’s recent low-level class area. At points it’s very real, at points inference, the Probation Service. Already reset the tag, etc.) compared to roughly tinkering, remains an effective barrier to cinematic, at points very funny. part-privatised via the Trust model, it now £11,000 for a similar length stay in prison, prisoners even getting so far as the interview It was made just to get it out there, not appears that it is due to be flogged off to the but this new model is unlikely to save the stage. No amount of bribery (of potential looking to the film industry but trying to highest bidder as the direct result of a newly government that much money in the long- employers) or coercion (sanctions) is going build a network with underground and announced consultation into making run given the number of breaches of both to overcome this barrier… independent film makers. community sentences ‘tougher’, i.e. more HDC and, more particularly, licence But hey, a select few will get rich just trying It’s going to have its world premiere on exacting and attractive to yer average Daily conditions that lead to recall to prison, in and screw those who fail to make the grade 11th May at the Bootleg film festival in Mail reader, via “intensive community the latter case often for the most mundane in this brave new outsourced world. So Toronto, a film-maker-led festival. The UK punishment sentences”, involving the greater of reasons. prepare to be nicked by G4S coppers, held premiere will be on 14th May at Write- use of electronic tagging, curfews and travel In another announcement, newly released in a G4S custody suite, escorted to a G4S-run Shoot-Cut in Edinburgh, with a London bans. Thus, the last vestiges of the old prisoners will be subject to yet another court* by G4S guards, sent to a G4S factory- screening 18th May, and then going online Probation model, helping ex-prisoners to re - intervention by private service providers, prison, release on a G4S tag, supervised by a on 19th May. settle in the community, will be consigned to this time with regard to benefits. Now any G4S probation officer and shoved on a G4S- the scrapheap in favour of the of the Service prisoner who intends to claim benefits upon run workfare scheme. You can buy Greg’s films and follow his work at effectively becoming just another wing of the leaving prison will, in addition to having brokebutmakingfilms.wordpress.com Prison Service – we can’t afford to send Jobcentre Plus staff process benefit claims * How long before there are G4S-provided judges? 16 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 17 COMMENT FEEDBACK ABOUT FREEDOM The Anti-Fascist Network came about Many of us, myself included, ignored the far Anti-Fascist Network when groups such as Brighton Antifascists, right for too long… it’s time to stop the rot! ANGEL ALLEY A sideways look by SVARTFROSK This letter is just a quick heads up to say Portsmouth Anarchists, Plymouth Antifa, AFN Despite the unhappy events described on that in the next few weeks all libertarian/ and Welsh Antifa met to discuss how we http://antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com/ page 3 of this issue, the work at Freedom In all the opposition to education cuts and but are usually fairly reasonable. As a lot of anarchist groups, and the syndicalist unions, could combat the rise of fascism on the Press continues apace. the ramping up of fees, adult education these courses are aimed at pensioners, will be receiving an invite to join the new streets in our areas. Since the first meeting For the benefit of new readers, and a hasn’t had a lot of airtime. There are though, the timings can be completely UK Anti-Fascist Network (AFN). Below is we have been joined by representatives from refresher to our old ones, the building at basically four reasons people want adult impossible for anyone holding down a job. just a short introduction to the network and Bristol Antifascists, Wessex Solidarity, Beating the fascists 84b Whitechapel High Street contains the education: for basic skills, to learn FE colleges mainly cater for 16 –19 year is made up in part from the AFN unity London ALARM, Nottingham Antifascists, Charlotte Wilson, the founder of Freedom Press, bookshop, the Freedom office, store room something they need to improve their job olds, but will run evening classes as well. statement that groups will be asked to 3CAFA, and Liverpool AF (sorry for those I wrote (anonymously) about what anarchists and ‘Autonomy Club’ meeting room, which opportunities, for fun and to have a second They are often tied into a range of display, as well as parts of a letter we are have forgotten to mention). The network believe, in the first issue of Freedom : also doubles as an art space for exhibitions opportunity. qualifications and include things that would sending out. has already had some success, which groups “Therefore, we reject every method of (currently showing some of Tracey Moberley’s Despite pretensions otherwise, all are have been part of apprenticeships when they The Network comes in response to recent will be hearing about soon. enforcing assent, as in itself a hindrance to Haitian photographs). Also in the building under attack. Basic skills education is needed happened. events that have seen all out fascist tactics Even if we cannot support each other effectual co-operation, and further, a direct are the offices of the Advisory Service for for those who didn’t pick up enough at The specialist universities were set up to on the streets of the UK pass by without physically, we can work together to share incentive to anti-social feeling”. Squatters, Corporate Watch, Solidarity school, or have come from somewhere else allow working class people, especially those sufficient opposition. We believe it is every anything from information and skills to legal Anarchism is opposed to all intimidation, Federation and London Coalition Against where English is not spoken. One of the who’d not done well at school, a second libertarian’s duty to oppose fascism, for the aid and propaganda. Everyone has a place in or influencing behaviour by means of Poverty. In addition, numerous groups use things the last government did was to talk chance. Birkbeck is increasing its fees and benefit of the communities we live in and for the Anti-Fascist Network. It’s a job that no threats. Against chattel slavery: ‘Do as I say the building for meetings and as a postal about the responsibilities of immigrants, but the OU is tripling fees for its modules, so the rights of others and ourselves, to operate one wants to do, but while the threat is there or you will be beaten or deprived of food’. address and we’re always happy to help they did at least make a point of funding that the equivalent of an undergraduate year freely without the fear of threats and we must be prepared to defend ourselves Against wage slavery: ‘Do as I say or you where space and time allow. some teaching of English as a second will cost £5,000. Apparently OU management intimidation. and each other. will be reduced from poverty to destitution’. On the social side of things, we seem to language (ESL). I know enough people think they will pick up undergraduates who The Anti-Fascist Network seeks to join Individuals who want to join a public email Against military conscription: ‘Join up to kill have had a lot of birthdays recently and we working in this sector to see it as a soft target cannot afford to leave home to go to a together small and large groups alike, with the list to share information about the activities the subjects of other rulers, or you will be will restrict ourselves to embarrassing only for swingeing cuts. After all, the people who conventional university. Birkbeck is thinking aim being to eventually ensure anti fascists of the far right can sign up by sending a imprisoned or shot’. And of course against the oldest of the comrades by wishing many need to learn English are often marginalised along the same lines. Both point out in their are never outnumbered on the streets. As a blank e-mail to antifascistnews-subscribe@ what is sometimes described as government happy returns to Donald Rooum, our anyway, and a particular area that has been justifications that the new fees regime part of the network we will not tell people lists.riseup.net – this list is public so please at its most primitive level, mugging: ‘Give resident cartoonist, on his 84th birthday. cut has been ESL for women. So we have brought in by the Tory-LibDem coalition how to campaign in their areas, what politics do not treat it as secure, it is good for sharing me what you have, or I will bash you’. We’ve also been cementing relations with the situation where the right wing press allows for part time students to get loans, they should adopt, or what form of Anti- general information, that may already be in The ideal of anarchism is a society where our neighbours at London Action Resource complain about immigrants not speaking which was always the argument against fascist activity they should choose. We will the public domain as well as last minute call all relationships are of voluntary co-operation, Centre, who had a packed Red and Black English, their husbands don’t see the need massive fee increases before. Given that a lot however support each other to defeat all outs etc. There will be a private e-mail list and nobody ever makes threats to anybody. Club on the 20th April. for their wives to communicate outside the of students using these universities are people forms of fascism and organised racism. for trusted groups to sign up to. But we recognise that we do not live in an With summer nearly upon us it’s now home, and the women themselves cannot dipping their toe into higher education for ideal society, and therefore that some threats warm enough to have the shop door open afford to pay for private lessons. the first time, do they really think many are are regrettably necessary. People who drive and we may soon have some outside events The other three are usually provided by going to do this at £2,500 for a couple of cars without regard for the safety of other in the alley – watch this space! local council’s adult education departments, books, an online forum and a handful of road users face the threat of being deprived FE colleges and a couple of specialist tutorials? It seems to me it is a case of of their cars. People who go in for raping, universities such as the Open University “welcome young undergraduate, piss off killing people, or (not to put too fine a point SUBSCRIPTIONS (OU) and Birkbeck. Adult education has older worker.” upon it) mugging, face the threat of various It’s now even easier to work out when long been a soft option to cut and every year One loophole that I intend to exploit social sanctions. your subscription is up for renewal. The the list of courses offered seems to get when I’m older, if they’ve not closed it, is And there are even cases where anarchists number above your name on the address smaller and smaller. The range depends on that if your income doesn’t reach over might approve of threats against expression label now tells you the year and month the facilities, but usually includes languages, £21,000 a year you don’t have to repay of ideas. Those who organise propaganda when your subscription runs out. There’s a arts and crafts and basic skills. Fees depend anything. Now all I have to do is catch up campaigns, in favour of racial discrimination renewal form on page 16 of this issue if on whether it is for a qualification or not, with that ever-increasing retirement age. and oppression, face the threat of being hit you need it, or you can subscribe online at on the head with beer bottles. freedompress.org.uk/news/subscribe. Don’t DR forget that donations are always extremely welcome, or you may like to take out one of our supporter subscriptions. Help London ABC We always need money, the majority of which CONTACT DETAILS gets spent on postage and, when possible, Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High sending postal orders and stamps to prisoners Street, London E1 7QX who are low on funds. We also need cash for Tel/fax: 020 7247 9249 printing costs, such as flyers and prison guides. www.freedompress.org.uk We welcome any donations, no matter how Enquiries: [email protected] large or small; both money and stamps are Copy/Letters: [email protected] always useful to us. If like us, you don’t have Subscriptions: [email protected] much cash then you could always organise a Bookshop: [email protected] benefit or bake sale for us. If you do it in Freedom Press Distribution (for trade book London then we will usually be able to help orders): [email protected] out and we can always publicise events on our blog. At the moment the easiest way to get donations to us is to drop them directly NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE into Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b The next issue will be dated June 2012 and Whitechapel High Street. If you are outside the last day to get copy to us for that issue of London then get in touch with us at will be Saturday 12th May . You can send [email protected] and we can figure your articles to us by email to copy@ something out. freedompress.org.uk or by post to ‘The A big thanks to everyone who has donated Editors’, Freedom, 84b Whitechapel High or raised money for us so far. Street, London E1 7QX. London Anarchist Black Cross https://network23.org/londonabc/ 18 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 19 GETTING ACTIVE SPORT WHAT’S ON MAY n 1st and 15th Practical Squatting Evening at Offmarket, 68 Dalston Lanes, London Dead heat for the Queen E8 3AH from 7pm to 8pm, contact [email protected] or call 07583870733 With the Jubilee nearly upon us, the powers for details. that be are plugging the Epsom Derby as n 1st Divine Kingship in England and national celebration of 60 years of Queenary. Africa, a lecture by Chris Knight and Camilla Er Maj is a big follower of the nags and Power at the St Martin’s Community Centre, doubtless knows all the past winners of the race, such as 1782’s Assassin or 1802’s 43 Carol Street, London NW1 0HT from Tyrant, but may yet be puzzled over the 6.15pm until 9.00 pm, for details see meaning of the name of the 1807 winner, radicalanthropologygroup.org. Election. We on the other hand would like n 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th London group to see a black horse win, but the chances are of The Anarchist Federation meets weekly slim as only two have since 1780, Smolensko on Thursday evenings at Freedom Bookshop in 1813 and Grand Parade in 1919. 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 The ‘sport of kings’ may not have a very 7QX. If you would like to attend please anarchist ring to it, but there is a history of email [email protected] beforehand. radicalism and popular culture surrounding n 8th Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological Epsom. The long tradition of the London Perspective, a lecture by Chris Knight at mobile vulgus descending on the downs for the St Martin’s Community Centre, 43 a day of revelry has revived in recent years, Carol Street, London NW1 0HT from particularly since the big race was moved 6.15pm until 9.00 pm, for details see from its traditional Wednesday slot to radicalanthropologygroup.org. ● The All London Anarchist Revolutionary extend beyond the boundaries of the M25. Saturday in 1995. While we have not booked telegram sent on behalf of the then Queen to While Freedom is a pillar of inter - n 8th and 22nd Practical Squatting Evening Movement ( ALARM ) are holding a Annual The success or failure of Total Policing looks a Freedom stall for the day, it has become Herbert Jones, Anmers’ jockey: “Queen nationalism, we can only hope for a repeat at 56a Infoshop, 56a Crampton Street, General Meeting on 13th May. Currently likely to set the tone for policing policy traditional for London anarchists to join the Alexandra was very sorry to hear of your of the merriment of 1907, when Orby London SE17 3AE from 7pm to 8pm, see the location is secret squirrel so check out throughout England and Wales. throng for, after all, we are aiming for a sad accident caused through the abominable became the first Irish-trained winner of the http://www.56a.org.uk/ for details. the ALARM website for details. This conference will be looking at the social revolution and if you can’t dance or at conduct of a brutal and lunatic woman”. blue ribbon of the turf, when his trainer n 12th News from Nowhere Club presents In its first year ALARM had a number of ways in which our lives and freedoms are least win a few bob… Hopefully this year the royals will also was congratulated by an old woman with The Voyage In: Bangladeshis and London, exciting adventures and will hopefully be being affected by the Total Policing approach Readers will be familiar with story of Emily receive a message that all is not hunky-dory the words, “Thanks be to God and you sir, with Tulip Siddiq at The Epicentre, West pulling off some more fun stuff in the year both in London and across the country Davison at the 1913 running, but would in their realm and that radical change is in that I have lived to see a Catholic horse win to come. As it says on the tin, ALARM is – and asks how we can defend what we perhaps not agree with the sentiments of the the air though we hope not at such a cost. the Derby”. Street, Leytonstone E11 4LJ, buffet 7.30pm, for all London (and anyone visiting – no have, and resist any further erosion of our talk starts 8pm, for details see http://www. visa required) anarchists to work together on civil rights. newsfromnowhereclub.org/. projects requiring intergroup co-operation Entry by donation: a suggested donation Shooting down the Olympics n 15th Blood sacrifice and the Hunter’s and strategic thought. £5/£10 and includes lunch, with the 7page 24 ‘Own Kill’ rule, a lecture by Chris Knight We don’t have the full details as the opportunity to join us for informal discussion the other sounds like a glorified fire truck. for which these weapons system are being forget the more mundane trampling on the at the St Martin’s Community Centre, 43 planning meeting is after we go to press, but and networking (to ensure your lunch, please One is unlikely to be used unless a rogue placed in various London locations is both population in the name of national pride (and Carol Street, London NW1 0HT from early indications are for an open format register in advance at http://kettlepolicepowers. state with planes decides to use one on the extremely unlikely and, if it were to occur, tenuously, sport) that is going on around us. 6.15pm until 9.00 pm, for details see with people very much encouraged to bring wordpress.com/ registration/). Olympics. This scenario in itself is unlikely. very likely to result in massive numbers of Alongside displacement of the poor, the radicalanthropologygroup.org. their ideas along on the day. The Netpol conference will be held at the The other could take your eye out whilst deaths to quite a substantial number of very changes in policing and the acceptability of n 18th The Red & Black Club at LARC, See http://www.soundthealarm.org.uk/ Bishopsgate Institute in London on Sunday 20th you protest about the egregious spending ordinary people. It has no use in a public soldiers patrolling London’s streets in times 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES from May from 10.30am to 4.30pm, for further details and the social cleansing and so forth. order, civil liberties or common crime fighting of perceived danger to the state is the real 8pm, Dissident Island Radio will be ● This year’s conference by the Network for see http://kettlepolicepowers.wordpress.com/ In one sense, the question should be ‘why situation. Its just not possible to make use of and lasting damage these Olympics will broadcasting live as the local anarchists Police Monitoring, Netpol , brings together are we hosting something that needs to be it like that. bring, and I think its towards these that we host a traditional east end knees-up. activists, lawyers and others working at the ● We make no apologies for giving another defended like this so close to such a high I would be very concerned if a shiny Ground should put our energies in defence of freedom n 20th The Netpol ‘Kettling Police Powers’ sharp end of challenging unlawful, violent, plug to Smash Edo , the big anti-arms demo populace?’. That question aside, the scenario Based Air Defence system caused us all to and a non-militarised society. conference at the Bishopsgate Institute, racist or excessive policing, to look at the in Brighton on Monday 4th June. In our 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH from concept of Total Policing – the London-based next issue we will be reporting back on the 10.30am to 4.30pm, for further details see policing initiative with an elusive definition. Mayday noise demo outside the arms ✂ SUBSCRIPTION RATES http://kettlepolicepowers.wordpress.com/ Are we seeing Total Policing or, in reality, a factory. As always there will be a highly Please return completed form to: Freedom Subscriptions, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX Total Lockdown? trained team of legal observers present and, inland Europe outside outside n 22nd Noam Chomsky’s ‘Cognitive Europe Europe Revolution’, a lecture by Chris Knight at While the Total Policing concept is the brain- while we sincerely hope no laws are broken, ❑ Please start a NEW subscription / RENEW my subscription to Freedom (surface) (airmail) (to avoid errors, please circle required subscription rate, see right) Freedom (annual subscription, 12 issues) the St Martin’s Community Centre, 43 child of Metropolitan Police Commissioner should the police prove over enthusiastic the Claimants £18.00 ––– Carol Street, London NW1 0HT from Bernard Hogan-Howe, it is an idea, with its recommended solicitors in Brighton are I enclose a donation ‘robust’ attitudes towards any form of Kelly’s, tel 01273 674 898. ❑ Regular £22.00 £30.00 £30.00 £50.00 6.15pm until 9.00 pm, for details see misdemeanour, that has the potential to More details can be found at smashedo.org.uk Institutions £26.00 £44.00 £44.00 £64.00 radicalanthropologygroup.org. ❑ I’d like to pay by Standing Order, please send me details Supporter £48.00 £60.00 £60.00 £72.00 n 27th Take the flour back! day of action against the Rothamsted genetically modified I enclose £ ...... payment (cheques payable to Freedom Press please) Note that we have a special ‘supporter’ sub rate for wheat trial, meet at 12 noon, in Rothamsted, those who wish to ensure the future of the paper. Harpenden, Herts, for further details see Name ...... If you want to make a regular donation to Freedom get www.taketheflourback.org in touch and we can send you a Standing Order n 29th The origins of symbolic culture in form – email [email protected] for details, Address ...... Africa, a lecture by Ian Watts at the St or to find out how to donate online. Martin’s Community Centre, 43 Carol Street, London NW1 0HT from 6.15pm ...... For more information on subscriptions/bundles, email until 9.00 pm, for more information see [email protected] radicalanthropologygroup.org...... Postcode ...... FREEDOM fortnightly ISSN 0016 0504 20 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 21 REVIEWS REVIEWS FICTION BOOK A Penny Drops For the third time that week, Connie Prisons of the body and of the mind dialled Steve’s mobile. It was still dead. Mutual Aid: researched and free of academic jargon, Steve had not now been seen for two An it provides a succinct introduction to weeks. Connie had asked around and Pete Introduction Kropotkin’s social philosophy, as this Hamilton Richardson once hadn’t seen him either. It wasn’t unknown and relates to the concept of mutual aid – the for activists to burn out and just disappear Evaluation inherent sociality and co-operative nature again unpacks the not-so- for a while, but to do so without any trace by Iain McKay, of human life. was unusual. AK Press, £4 Even though it deals with some rather veiled implications of some Steve had come to the group without complex ideas relating to natural selection much back story – it was Pete who had and evolutionary theory, it is an engaging timeless children’s classics introduced him a couple of years ago, text. In particular it offers some worthwhile vouching for him as having been ex-AFA and telling critiques of the sociobiologist and a good comrade. No one else really Richard Dawkins, the Marxist Pat Stack, Unsettling echoes of Josef K and the geneticist Steve Jones, indicating the If 1984 or The Trial had been a children’s knew him but he’d been a real asset. He limitations of their writings, particularly the book, Mr Messy would be it. No literary turned up on time, did what he said he Throughout the Thatcher era and beyond I degree to which they misrepresent or distort character has ever been so fully and would and was always willing to use his have been defending through books, reviews Kropotkin’s ideas on mutual aid. Although categorically obliterated by the forces of van. Connie thought about how many and letters to Freedom and the Green McKay does not mention Lynn Margulis’s social control. Hargreaves may well pay times it had just been her and Steve turn Anarchist the integrity, importance and pioneering studies of symbiogenesis with homage to Kafka and Orwell in this work, up to something. contemporary relevance of an early generation regard to biological evolution, he does stress but he also goes beyond them. He was always cagey about what he did of class struggle anarchists – specifically the need to distinguish between mutual aid We meet Mr Messy – a man whose entire for a living as well, describing it as Bakunin and Kropotkin. For they have been and symbiosis, and emphasises that day-to-day existence is the undiluted “ducking and diving”. She knew he did denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed not only Kropotkin’s study, as a work of popular expression of his individuality. His very deliveries for the taxi firm by the station by liberal scholars and Marxists (as one science, was crucially about mutual aid or untidiness is a metaphor for his blissful and sometimes, and sometimes spent time in would expect) but also by self-proclaimed co-operation not about symbiosis. In this unselfconscious disregard for the Social Amsterdam. She’d thought he was anarchists, usually those enchanted by regard Margulis also misunderstood Order. Yes, there are times when he himself involved in drug dealing and hadn’t liked Christian mysticism, socio biology, primitivism Kropotkin. is a victim of this individuality – as when he to ask. and so-called post modernist theory. Likewise, Given the continuing relevance of Kropotkin’s trips over a brush he has left on his garden She ran her mind back over the last few for more than a decade Iain McKay and his ideas on mutual aid – the well-known LSE path – but he goes through life with a smile actions the group had done. The last one associates have been producing an invaluable sociologist Richard Sennett has just published on his face. failed because Steve’s van broke down. and comprehensive Anarchist FAQ as a a book entitled Together: The rituals, That is, until a chance meeting with Mr Another failed the previous year when resource, outlining and defending anarchism pleasures and politics of co-operation (2012) Neat and Mr Tidy – the archetypal men in he took a wrong turning and got caught as a form of libertarian socialism. McKay – Iain McKay’s pamphlet on mutual aid is suits. They set about a merciless programme in a police road block. But then, lots of has now produced an excellent pamphlet on highly recommended to readers of Freedom . of social engineering and indoctrination that smiles the smile of a brainwashed automaton, The book ends with a dry reminder from actions Steve went on worked well, too. Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid – an expansion of It includes a useful note on further reading we are left in no doubt is in flagrant violation blandly accepting what he has been given no Hargreaves that just as with the secret police Was she jumping to a conclusion here? his earlier introduction to the re-issue of with regard to Kropotkin’s life and work. of his free will. “But I like being messy,” he agency to question or refuse. It is in this in some totalitarian regime, our own small She called Dave. Kropotkin’s classic by Freedom Press. Well Brian Morris protests as they anonymise both his home very smile that the sheer horror of what we expressions of uniqueness and volition may “I think we do have a mole, Dave,” she and his person with their relentless cleaning have seen to occur is at its most acute. also result in a visit from these sinister suited said. activity, a symbolism thinly veiled. Somewhere behind this blank expression agents. “Let me guess: Pete?” he said. This process is so thorough that by the end though is a latent anger – a trace of self- “No, listen. Think about it – who has of it he is unrecognisable – a homogenised knowledge as to what he once was – in the Mr. Messy (Mr. Men Classic Library) by Roger just disappeared? Do you know much pink blob, no longer truly himself (that barbed observation he makes to Neat and Tidy Hargreaves, £2.50. about Steve? He’s not at home and neither vibrant Pollock-like scribble of before). He that they have even deprived him of his name. his mobile or landline work any more.” Freud helps Hargreaves loosen his tie “He could’ve just burned out. It’s been a Hargreaves’ first work, and regarded by bit of bad time,” answered Dave. many as his masterpiece, Mr Tickle is some - “So where is he?” she asked. thing of a rarity amongst the Mr Men books. “I dunno,” replied Dave, “but I can find Elsewhere, we see much exposition on the pitfalls of excess – such as in Mr Greedy and out I think. I’ll call you back.” Mr Messy , for instance – but a distinct lack of discourse on personalities that are over- An hour later, Connie’s phone rang. rather than under-regulated. A case in point “Dom’s come up with something,” said might be another work, Mr Fussy , which Dave. stands out as an opportunity glaringly missed. “Yes,” replied Connie. Despite a faintly ridiculing tone to the prose, “He trawled through all the emails on this is essentially a lamentation on how the group list from Steve and checked the others cannot live up to the high ideals and IP addresses. Most of them were normal, QUIZ ANSWERS perfectionism of its titular central character. but one stood out as being from the It is at best an ambiguous critique of Metropolitan Police.” 1. They were all Paymaster General in the Spain granted the company the asiento , repression, and Mr Fussy escapes the moral “The Met! Not even our local cops?” eighteenth century. The office controlled the right to trade slaves with the Spanish judgment so often dished out to others in she asked. all payments in and out of the armed colonies in the Americas. the series. “Yes, it turns out we were more forces, the holders used the opportunity 4. Because DEFRA is working with pesticide So what a glorious anomaly we find in Mr important than we thought,” answered to enrich themselves. manufacturer Syngenta and has directed Tickle – a breath of fresh air from the Dave. 2. Before conception! Governor Jan Brewer funding to looking at fungal infections, unrestrained id. The all-consuming sensual “Okay I’ll call the others, and try to talk signed it into law on 12th April. It mites and environmental factors. The delight he offers relentlessly disrupts the to Pete,” said Connie, sighing. criminalises abortion after twenty weeks, research that found the links at Stirling social order. A postman drops all his letters Martin H. but dates the start of that period from the University “wasn’t really funded at all” in a puddle, the tickling of a policeman To be continued… woman’s last menstruation. and researchers had done it in their causes a traffic jam, and the unbearable 3. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht signed with “spare time”. reverie he inflicts upon a station master 22 Freedom • May 2012 Freedom • May 2012 23 THE ARTS THE ARTS ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR

2 3 4

if we had just arrived from another planet.” Sig Waller’s current series of work is about contemporary forms of protest. If anyone has any interesting photos or memorabilia please get in touch with Sig via her website, sigwaller.com as she’d like to include them in the project, which is a work in progress.

1 All that is solid melts into air: Smash the banks 2011, mixed media on canvas, 70 x 90 cm 2 All that is solid melts into air 2011, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm 3 All that is solid melts into air: Stop the war 2011, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm 4 Exhibition view: ‘Who is?’ / ‘Wer ist?’ Saarländische Galerie Berlin, 2011 5 All that is solid melts into air: Atomkraft? Nein Danke 2011, oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cm 6 Burning desire: Burning car II 2012, oil on canvas, 75 x 75 cm 7 All that is solid melts into air: The lovers 2012, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm 5

1

Sig Waller grew up in Swansea, Wales, and “How will future intelligence make sense future look like? I am interested in the Saarbrücken, Germany. She studied Fine Art of our times? Which aspects of our civilisation archaeology of the present, in utopian visions and Art History at Goldsmiths College, will survive the years and how will they be of the future crumbling into dystopian decay – London, and after graduating worked in interpreted? My work explores the dark and in hope born from despair. animation, music videos and design. In 1995 borders of our culture of excess, drawing “There is black humour behind a lot of she moved to East Berlin, where she became attention to human destructiveness, human my ideas. Wit functions as critical social involved in the local art scene and is currently frailty and the delicate balance of life on Earth. anthropology, helping us acquire an alien based in both Brighton and Berlin. We may have it all now, but what does the perspective, and letting us view the world as Review 7page 21 brings the local rail network to a temporary think that Hargreaves’ purpose is to challenge are left with the gentle realisation of our standstill. There is something almost the external Social Order. Rather, it is to need to give a measure of expression to Bakhtinian about the manner in which he loosen the vice-like grip of an interior foe: desire and joy. tickles a dour schoolmaster until he loses the overdeveloped superego. Because one thing we can be sure of is that control in front of his class. We note that Mr Tickle himself is no slave the more we repress the pleasure principle, But Mr Tickle is not Stirner’s Egoist, nor to sensory delight – quite the opposite; he is the more we guarantee that sooner or later A l l

does he proclaim “Do what thou wilt shall a model of psychical equilibrium. At the end we will fall victim to an overpowering and i m

be the whole of the law.” And if he is a of his day’s escapades he relaxes in an arm - fervid release from the id. a g e

terrorist, his weapons are laughter and ecstasy. chair, sated and quiescent. Our hero preaches And rest assured, it will be at just that s

©

Though his principal targets may well be those a message of catharsis – a call to arms against hour we fail our Superego the most. S i g

who wear uniforms – those who exercise, becoming too bogged down by self-suppression W

Mr. Tickle (Mr. Men Classic Library) by Roger a

embody and therefore are most in the grip and normative regulation. Via psychoanalysis, l l e of Authority – we would be mistaken to we arrive at an Aristotlean middle way, and Hargreaves, £2.50. 7 6 r 24 Freedom • May 2012 SPORT Shooting down the Olympics

distraction from the more worrying, and needing to hire an airship to invade Graham Martin takes a look at lasting, changes brought on by the games. Buckingham Palace for a protest aside, none There are a great many things going on of us are likely to be the targets for such a how the Games play with civil around the Olympics that are incredibly weapons system. worrying developments, both for civil liberties A rooftop Ground Based Air Defence liberties and for public well-being. A police officer system sounds pretty terrifying, but compare may enter your house to remove a window it to, say, a water cannon. One of those sounds There’s been a lot of general anger on twitter display that is felt to be offensive. A demonstra - like something in a futuristic dystopia, and and facebook recently concerning the tion anywhere close to an Olympic site will page 19 8 positioning of missiles on residential buildings face immense repression. Major corporations for use during the Olympics. It’s a terrifying with hideous human rights records are using thought in some ways, but its also kind of the Games to gain legitimacy when they irrelevant to civil liberties, and a very big should be facing massive court cases or even THE QUIZ dissolution. Whilst I understand exactly why missiles on 1. The Earl of Ranelagh, the Duke of apartment blocks is terrifying, it’s not really Chandos, Robert Walpole and Henry Fox the biggest issue, just perhaps the most visible. all founded fortunes on brief tenures of There are several reasons for this. The first which office? is that, in order to store ordnance on a roof 2. At what point does life start according to for more than a few months, an awful lot of a law passed by those crazy Republicans staffing will need to be committed. The in Arizona? longer they’re up there, the more likely it is 3. What was the supposed big commercial that someone will try to nick them. It’s a advantage of the South Sea Company, very short term development, in comparison which caused an economic bubble in to any damage to civil liberties. Budgets are 1720? too tight to keep that stuff up there for any 4. Two new studies have linked honeybee length of time. colony collapse to neo-nicotinoid The other main reason is that these are pesticides. Why were none funded by the pretty specialised weapons. Most modern Department for the Environment, Food weapons are. These things are for shooting and Rural Affairs? down aircraft. Now, the odd pub joke about Answers on page 20

Published by Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. Printed in Great Britain by Aldgate Press, London E1 7RQ. Printed on recycled paper.