ANARCHIST FEDERATION

At war with Iraq 3 Organise! Oil 5 7 Organise! is the magazine of the Anarchist Federation (AF) and the Anarchist Federation Michael Mclaughlin 9 Ireland. Organise! is published in order to develop anarchist communist ideas. It aims Argentina: the struggle to provide a clear anarchist viewpoint on contemporary issues and to initiate debate continues 10 on ideas not normally covered by agitational papers. Midnight legislation: the Whiteboys in Ireland 13 We aim to produce Organise! three times a year. To meet this target, we positively Fatherhood 16 solicit contributions from our readers. We aim to print any article that furthers the Yelensky’s fable 18 objectives of anarchist . If you’d like to write something for us, but are Reviews 22 unsure whether to do so, why not get in touch first. Letters 26 Even articles that are 100% in agreement with our Aims and Principles can leave much open to debate. As always, the articles in this issue do not necessarily represent Aims & principles 27 the collective viewpoint of the AF. We hope that their publication will produce responses Revolutionary portraits: Senna Hoy 28 from readers and spur the debate on. INSIDE The next issue of Organise! will be out in June 2003. All contributions should be sent to: AF, c/o 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. It would help if all articles could be either typed or on disc (PC or MAC format). Alternatively, articles can Back issues be emailed directly to the editors at: [email protected]. Back issues of Organise! are still available Acknowledgement: Most of the illustrations in this magazine are shamelessly from the London address. They cost 20p ripped off from other magazines and web sites, however, the photographs generally each plus SAE. come from the excellent Indymedia website. They can be viewed, along with much Issue 19: The Poll Tax Rebellion more at www.indymedia.org. We thoroughly recommend it. Issue 27: LA Riots; Yugoslavia; Malcolm X Issue 29: Debate on the unions; Italian workers organise Anarchist Federation contacts: Issue 37: Pornography; Booze, cigs and London: AF, c/o 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX dope; Moral panics Birmingham: AF, PO Box 3241, Saltley, Birmingham B8 3DP Issue 40: Work, work, work; Art as a Leicester: 73 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB weapon Issue 46: Lorenzo Kom’Boa Ervin; Email: [email protected] Manchester: PO Box 127, Oldham OL4 3FE Issue 48: French unemployed; Haile Email: [email protected] Selassie; Revolutionary unions? Merseyside: c/o 96 Bold Street, Liverpool 1 Issue 50: GM Foods; Who owns the land; South East and all other areas: AF, PO Box 375, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey GU21 2XL War in Kosovo; Ireland – the ‘peace’ process. Tyneside: PO Box 1TA, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE99 1TA8 Issue 51: War in Kosovo; Roots of our Wales/Cymru: PO Box 7, Pontypool, Gwent NP4 8YB movement; Land and freedom; East Timor Scotland/Alba: AF, PO Box 248, Aberdeen AB25 1JE, Scotland/Alba Issue 52: Mass ; East Timor; Email: [email protected] Youth resistance to the Nazis; Workplace Ireland: Anarchist Federation (Ireland), PO Box 505 Belfast BT12 6BQ notes Phone: 07951 079719. Email: [email protected] Issue 54: Civil war in Colombia; Humans and animals; Giving up activism; Dissent Websites Issue 55: Land and ecology; Kropotkin Anarchist Federation: www.afed.org.uk and tribal society; Mental health Issue 56: Anti-capitalism; Riots in Leicester AF: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/leicesteraf/myhomepage/opinion.html Oldham; Anarchist culture Manchester AF: www.af-north.org Issue 57: The war against terror; Class AF Ireland: www.flag.blackened.net/af/ireland war in Argentina; ADD; Primitivism AF Scotland/Alba: http://flag.blackened.net/af/alba Issue 58: Afghanistan War; Class war in Argentina; ADD; Primitivism and ; Santa Claus; Anarchist song in Subscribe France and Italy Issue 59: The Sex Issue: What does Name ...... sexual freedom mean?; Interview with a Address...... dominatrix; Sex workers and industrial organisation; Class Struggle in China; ❒ I enclose £6 for a three-issue sub or £8 for a three-issue supporting sub. The Ardititi del Popolo (anti-fascism in (Add £25% for overseas subs or institutions) Italy); The Prison Industrial Complex; ❒ I enclose £6 to pay for a prisoner’s subscription. The Zazous (French youth against the Nazis during the war) ❒ I enclose £8 for a joint subscription to Organise! and Resistance. Alternatively send us a fiver and we’ll Return form to: AF, c/o 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. send you one of everything, plus whatever else we can find lying around.

2 FEATURE At war with Iraq As we send The USA and Britain have launched their attack on Iraq. We expect this war to be over quickly, with minimum casualties for the USA and its allies, and at enormous Organise! off to the human cost to the people of Iraq. The following pieces will necessarily be dated by the time you read them, however they are worth reading as they provide some printers, war has background to this latest round of dominance games being played by the USA. We now have to ask, “Who next?” This war is just part of the USA’s attempt to finally broken out reshape the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Certainly Colombia is in the firing line, maybe Iran, maybe even a ‘democratic’ coup in Saudi Arabia. Only time will tell. One thing they all have in common is enormous oil resources. We do predict that resistance from Iraq will continue, even when the formal war is over. How the USA and Britain will react to a steady trickle of body bags over the months to come is anyone’s guess. Short of working class rebellion, we expect this to be the picture of the world for years to come.

The United States prepares for regime change The State and the ruling class of the United States seem determined to carry out their war threats all around the planet. Whilst the US normally prefers to conquer new territories by the penetration of its capital, there is always the option of a follow-through with military domination if that fails. Other Western powers that wish to increase their influence now see the US in the ascendant. In the Persian Gulf, the chief obstacle to American domination is now Iraq. Up until recently, US interests meant that the Saddam regime was supported and armed. Today, the American boss class needs to sweep away the Saddam regime and establish a protectorate under its military control. If that regime is not dealt with, US capital will not have enough freedom of movement in the Gulf region. To find a pretext to launch a war, the American ruling class has sought to use the United Nations weapons inspectors, but there have been problems with this, as their reports have not provided sufficient evidence for such an attack. A series of ultimatums that Iraq cannot accept are to be used in the same way as the Rambouillet accord was used – as a pretext to smash what was left of ex- Yugoslavia. Not only has the overthrow of the Saddam regime been decided but the USA has decided who to put in its place. This will consist of the Group of Four (the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the main Shiite opposition group, as well as the National Iraqi Accord) and the organisation of ex- military officers of the Baath regime (backed by the Central Intelligence Agency). US support to this Group of Four represents a policy change from support for the National Iraqi Congress, now considered insufficient to the task ahead. This itself points to a more aggressive American strategy, as all these armed groups are involved in smuggling and gangsterism. The American effort to isolate Iraq has collapsed. Russia is owed vast amounts by Iraq and economic links between the two countries are estimated at billions. The Russian oil enterprises LUKOil and Zarubezhneft and the French company Total-Fina-Elf have major interests in Iraq. Iraq is currently working to reopen its oil pipelines towards the port of Ceyhan in Turkey and in constructing a new pipeline to Jordan and another towards Syria and Jordan. Other countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam have economic interests in Iraq. Iraq has the second biggest reserve of oil in the world. The strategic position of Iraq in the Gulf and the reserves of gas and petrol close by in Central Asia mean that the domination of the region is crucial for US interests. As was admitted recently in the Chicago Sun Times: ”Military victory is

3 FEATURE anticipated inside the Bush administration flagrant dictatorship of the ruling class which has spread to many sectors of as the tonic that will prompt corporation and the industrial-military complex. society – with special reference to officers and private investors to unleash The government no longer needs proof, young people who are taking direct the American economy’s dormant trial or legal defence. It can put anyone action in their schools and in the streets. power. Although it is impolitic to say on its territory, with or without So the anti-war movement should not so, the fact that the United States will citizenship, into its civil or military be underestimated in a strategy for be sitting on a new major oil supply prisons. The recent arrest of Abdullah developing a revolutionary answer to will stimulate the domestic economy. al-Mujahir accused of plotting a ‘dirty’ the war. Hopefully, large numbers of That puts a high premium on quickly nuclear bomb demonstrates this, with people involved in this movement can gaining control of Iraq’s oil wells still no evidence offered by the become increasingly radicalised. The before they can be torched – a major government. New legislation, like the readiness to take direct action, the fact uncertainty in an otherwise strictly proposed Patriot Act, will strengthen that a huge movement has emerged scripted scenario.” this. even before the war is officially declared, But there are deep divisions within The US government has revived its are positive factors. the US administration on how this can old Cold War propaganda and even be done. General Tommy Franks in the that of the Second World War. The What about Britain? Washington Post predicted that 200,000 National Security Agency has launched Why has the Blair regime sided with military would be needed and an a campaign with the motto “Loose lips the US rather than with the Franco- invasion would incur heavy losses. The sink ships”. Indeed the US and British German bloc? It is true that there are obstruction of US ‘allies’ like France governments are attempting to re- divisions within the British boss class and Germany have slowed the American launch ‘anti-fascist’ sentiment that over the war (this explains the favourable offensive. The Russian ruling class, proved so useful in gaining popular coverage given to the anti-war movement despite lying prostrate before US military support for World War II, but with little in some of the establishment media), power, is deeply opposed to any military success so far, as a dictator not even but the bulk of the ruling class has attack on Iraq. Since November 2000, able to rule over the whole of Iraq traditionally allied itself with the US. Iraq has preferred to use the Euro rather hardly compares to a confident and The Conservative Party stands solid than the dollar for its oil transactions. expansionist Hitler. All restrictions on with Labour on the war, and the core In the meantime, the bombing by the espionage and domestic surveillance of Labour is totally loyal and compliant. US and its British ally has continued. have been lifted. A huge new The bulk of the British establishment From 17 December 1998 to 18 May bureaucracy is being created under the regards it as political suicide to break 2002, warplanes carried out 38,504 banner of the Department for Security with their US allies. raids and the bombing still continues. of the Country, centralising every The Liberal Democrats have marched The US has systematically destroyed aspect of surveillance, of application of into the ranks of the anti-war movement. the Iraqi infrastructure. the law and of public security. But their stance and that of their leader At home in the USA, the government According to official statistics of the Charles Kennedy is not anti-war as has acted rapidly to establish a more US government, foreign investment in such. They take the side of the Franco- the USA has plunged by 60% from 2000 German bloc, and that section of the to 2001. This shows the real crisis of ruling class in Britain that sees the confidence in the US economy, because most fruitful way forward is to develop foreign capital is searching for better a strong European bloc in opposition to dividends elsewhere. This is the biggest the dominant US bloc. Their emphasis slump in the USA for more than 10 is on gaining UN approval, and so years. The US administration has to legitimising a war with a larger maintain the circulation of capital in percentage of the population. They – and the USA in the same way that it has to France, Germany, Russia and China – assure the control of the most important would not be opposed to any war to merchandise of capitalism: oil. The only further their own economic and option for the US boss class is war. strategic interests, if it was more Using war on terrorism as a pretext, politically effective. This would mean the US administration has, and this is better thought-out military strategies no exaggeration, declared war on the that did not involve such mass whole planet. opposition. Their role within the anti- The realisation of this grim fact is war movement will have the long-term an underlying and as yet not fully strategy of confusing and demoralising expressed factor within the huge anti- that movement. war movement that has affected so In the long term, the US‘s aggressive many countries around the world and foreign policy may be its epitaph as a

4 FEATURE dominant world power. Huge new class women and men can yet halt the obstacle of dogmatic non-violent movements are springing into life, rush to war and barbarism. The key pacifism. There is a whole future to be partly based on previous mass factors are a break with nationalism, won, and anarchists must prepare mobilisations of the last 40 years. The with the chloroform of establishment themselves to take a full part in helping mass movement of millions of working media propaganda, and with the this come about. Oil The following comes from a talk delivered by a member of the AF Ireland in Belfast in February:

The US Department of Energy announced at the beginning of this month that by 2025, US oil imports will account for perhaps 70% of total US domestic demand.1 US oil deposits are becoming progressively depleted and many other non-OPEC fields are beginning to run dry. “This really means that the bulk of future supplies will have to come from the Gulf region”.2 Since Iraq has the second largest reserves of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, it seems sensible to seize them, particularly now that Bush and Cheney are in the White House; both are former oil company executives, while Bush Snr. was founder, in 1954, of the Zapata Offshore Oil Company. Cheney, when president of the Halliburton Company of Houston, sold Saddam $23 billion have billion-dollar contracts with American military power in the area dollars of oil field equipment. Baghdad, which they fear will disappear will naturally be used to benefit In last April’s New Yorker, the in ‘an oil grab by Washington’, if American-based corporations as opposed investigative reporter Nicholas Lemann America installs a successor to Saddam.” to, say, French ones. However, if it was wrote that Bush’s most senior adviser, () just a matter of the interests of individual Condoleeza Rice, told him she had There are a number of interrelated corporations or sectors of the economy, called together senior members of the issues here. Firstly, the profits of then market competition would compel National Security Council and asked individual corporations are dependent them to, for short term reasons, do them “to think about how to capitalise on relations with the oil producing business with Iraq, irrespective of what on these opportunities”, which she states. A diversification of oil production regime is in power there; so secondly, compared with those of 1945-1947: – opening up new sources of supply and most importantly, the question is the start of the Cold War.” (John Pilger) (such as that in Central Asia or by where does the profits which have “The Bush administration, intimately re-bringing Iraqi oil on to the open been creamed off the backs of the entwined with the global oil industry, market) weakens the power of OPEC, working class in oil-producing areas is keen to pounce on Iraq’s massive the consortium of oil producing states, end up? It can be re-invested in the untapped reserves, the second biggest thereby strengthening the bargaining world economic system dominated by in the world after Saudi Arabia’s. But position of the corporations who elites in the West, as we can see in France and Russia, who hold a power purchase from them. this extract on Saudi Arabia from the of veto on the UN Security Council, Furthermore, an increase in Washington Post: “Since the 1970s,

5 FEATURE

Saudi Arabia has shifted from its role as a large oil supplier to becoming the principal US ally and economic partner AF pamphlets in languages in the region. In the 1970s and 1980s, it bolstered the international banking other than English system with its oil revenue Since 1981, As We See It is available in Welsh, Serbo-Croat, Greek and now, thanks to US construction companies and arms our Austrian comrades, in German. They are each available for 70p including suppliers have earned more than $50 postage and packaging from our London address. billion in Saudi Arabia, according to The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation is also available in Serbo-Croat the Congressional Research Service US. for 70p including p&p. If anybody you know in Britain speaks Serbo-Croat or Investments in the country reached if you have contacts in the countries of former Yugoslavia where Serbo-Croat $4.8 billion in 2000, according to the is understood, then why not send them copies? Commerce Department. The US oil German, Greek, Portuguese, French, Italian, Esperanto and Spanish translations giant Exxon Mobil Corp. was recently of our Aims and Principles are also available for 20p plus postage. Write to chosen by the Saudi government to the London address for orders and bulk orders. lead two of three consortiums developing gas projects worth $20bn-$26bn.” (Washington Post 21/9/01) The oil industry, as well as being a 70% of the oil consumed in the US will However, a nationalist government source of capital, also produces an be imported. It could be argued that in power in an oil producing area, important resource. While ‘America’ is this would place the US at a strategic aiming to build up a native industrial certainly not dependent upon imports disadvantage. There is, of course, a base – as did most of the rogues in the of it from the Middle East, large parts way around this, not to mention the Middle East that ‘the West’ has fought of the world, included Europe and slightly more pressing problem of against, from Nasser to Hussein – would Japan, are, and thus the more power global warming, and the rise in asthma make for lost profits. The wealth which Washington has in the Middle East the due to exhaust fumes – the development could go into the coffers of the West’s more influence it has over these of sustainable transport alternatives to banks, arms companies, construction potential rivals. Thus, in the second the petrol driven motor car. But I companies, is instead invested developing two cases, the American state is wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for local industry. This is bad news, not representing the interests of not just that from a government of ex-oil just because of that lost profit, but even oil corporations, but the overall interests executives whose election campaign more fundamentally, given that we are of the corporate elite. was funded by big oil. talking about areas where lies one of Furthermore, while today there is 1 “The Looming war isn’t about the most valuable commodities in the no American reliance on Middle Eastern Chemical Warheads”, Robert Fisk, 18 world – a resource which could form oil, in the future this may be radically January 2003. the building block for the development different. The US Department of Energy 2 Michael Renner: Worldwatch Institute of an imperialist rival to ‘the West’. recently announced that, by 2025, January 2003. What goes The USA’s earnings from in Organise! Organise! hopes to open up debate the oil trade in many areas of life. As we have stated before, unless signed by the In 1992, the US control of the world’s emergence of the Euro as a potential Anarchist Federation as a whole or oil economy brought in revenue of trading currency adds another by a local AF group, articles in $4,500 billion a year. This was simply imperative for the US to wage this war Organise! reflect the views of the a charge for using dollars to trade. now. person who has written the Any country wanting to buy or sell oil It also helps explain the opposition of articles and nobody else. did so in dollars. These had to be France and Germany to the war. If the contents of one of the purchased from US banks, and the ‘Between Iraq and a Hard Place’ is articles in this issue provokes banks being businesses charged them an important article, written from an thought, makes you angry, compels for the privilege. American libertarian communist a response then let us know. This ‘commission charge’ helps the perspective, analysing the war, its Revolutionary ideas develop from US finance its huge balance of trade causes and the history of working debate, they do not merely drop deficit year on year. The emergence of class uprising in Iraq. It can be found out of the air! any alternative currency is a threat to on our Manchester web site: this nice little earner. So, the$www.af-north.org. 6 FEATURE Lions led by donkeys

By the time this article is read, it is usual to read its entrails to discover The Great possible that the firefighters will have who won the struggle between organised rejected government’s ‘final offer’ and labour and the state. But with war we will be in the middle of a bloody raging or the government in crisis, Firefighters war abroad and a bruising dispute at winners and losers will take second home. place to more pressing issues. When Strike of The firefighters rejected the FBU the dust has settled, at conference Executive’s recommendation at the time, each side will no doubt claim Brighton conference, but the result of something. The FBU Executive will put 2002-03 the ballot of all firefighters about the a brave face on the concessions they offer isn’t yet known. If the strike is will have had to make. Tony Blair and still going on, the FBU Executive will his government of management be desperately seeking to make control-freakery will claim to have concessions that avoid the strike being defeated the ‘wreckers’, the new declared unlawful and the threat of ‘enemy within’. Whatever the claims legislation to make strikes illegal in the by each side, who will have won the Fire Service. But the minimum the strategic victory both sides began to government is demanding is flexibility believe possible last year? on overtime and rostering, part-time working throughout the Fire Service Veto and the loss of thousands of jobs – an Some people feared the strike was lost outcome totally unacceptable to rank- even before it began, back in the summer and-file firefighters. of 2002 when the government vetoed Eventually a face-saving formula the 16% pay offer. ‘Modernisation’ (ie (on all sides) will be cobbled together cuts) has been the government’s and the ordinary firefighter will pay agenda for years and as soon as the the price. With war raging, the FBU pay claim appeared on its radar it struck. Executive cannot afford to be accused No doubt the FBU leadership expected of betraying ‘our boys’, but they risk a quick campaign and the municipal the union splitting down the middle. It employers to capitulate. But national, will be seeking an ‘acceptable’ form of pre-announced strikes allowed the flexibility, despite the fact that the kind government to shoulder the employers’ of flexibility being demanded has been aside in defence of their carefully- resisted fiercely for years. nurtured image of competence. The The FBU Annual Conference that suspensions of strike action and the launched the pay claim in 2002 on-off nature of the dispute helped to resoundingly declared that no strings – lower temperatures, encouraged the such as modernisation – could be media to look elsewhere and created attached to the pay offer. We may be in conditions where a deal could be done the middle of an all-out strike. Possibly (because the FBU Executive desperately the latest offer will have been rejected, wanted to settle and still does), while but strikes suspended for the duration all the time keeping the pressure on of the war. If so, both sides will no the bosses with the threat of the strikes doubt be preparing for a second round: resuming. But a concerted programme government will be preparing a of wildcat, random, station-by-station propaganda blitz and legislation to crush strikes would have put far more pressure the strike, while the FBU will try to on the employer at the local level enlist other public sector unions and while allowing no national response. the TUC in a ‘popular front’ against a With government unable to bear down war-damaged Blair. on the strikers and the prospect of an If the dispute has been settled it’s indefinitely sustainable dispute, the

7 FEATURE employers would have been forced to refuse to be dictated to by unreasonable Service has many stations in prime take back the negotiations and settle. and unpatriotic strikers. sites – 150 are targeted to go. Why The biggest losers long-term will be, But as Blair’s war on Iraq became buy fire engines? Let the private of course, the rank-and-file firefighter more and more unpopular, it was less sector buy them and lease them back! and (less directly) all public sector easy to use popular consent and media More importantly, who will be able to workers. The firefighters, well-disciplined, vilification to paint the firefighters as stand against privatisation, part- popular and with a massive democratic ‘wreckers’ or ‘the enemy within’. This privatisation and externalisation when mandate – 87% voted yes when balloted strengthened the FBU Executive’s the firefighters couldn’t? Who can in October 2002 – were led to the picket resolve when it came to debate the argue against modernisation now? line like lions and staked out for the (worse than November) offer of 16% Expect the pace of ‘partnership’ to media vultures like donkeys. over three years instead of two. quicken and big contracts for public The trouble is there is as yet no sector provision to fall into the bloated Backing off strategy for winning a pay rise without hands of the corporate fat cats. As usual, at the end of 2002, while any ‘modernising’ strings. The best ordinary firefighters called for the ‘big the FBU Executive can do is hope to Some services will push’, their generals quailed, cowered postpone the worst and most damaging and gave in, sounding the recall by changes. Even so, sometime soon, be ripe for suspending first a planned eight-day perhaps this year, the government will privatisation strike and then a planned two-day strike. issue a consultation paper on the Too late the TUC and ACAS ambulance ‘future’ of the Fire Service. The The screw will tighten around the was rushed to the field to rescue the counter-attack will be launched. A firefighters: “If you can’t talk about survivors: the battered FBU leadership full-time service (preserved in London service improvements, we can’t and the discredited fire authority and Merseyside) will go and more implement the pay agreement”. “If negotiators. No doubt the leaders of moderate (and easily cowed) part-timers you won’t modernise, there will have the TUC hoped to curry some favours, recruited. Over the next few years to be job losses”. The FBU will be making themselves useful to the flexibility will lead to 4000 lost jobs. forced to fight on the government’s government and popular with members terms, not theirs. All the dispute has and the public alike. They too are Safety threat done is put them in the firing line this firefighters, though of a different sort… Prescott announced in December 2002 year and next. If a strike should develop But their efforts misfired: government that he wanted to give Chief Fire it will be on the battleground of service ministers and their fat cat advisors Officers the sole power to override improvement (always popular with the hated the way they ‘rescued’ the safety legislation that sets out consumer), not fair pay or safety. The firefighters just as they were closing minimum standards of fire cover. This moral high ground will have been lost for the kill: public support for the strike has been the aim of government since and the dispute, if one develops, will was waning, the army was coping and 1980, and as recently as 1999 the be fought in the swamp of management- Andy Gilchrist went ‘over the top’ with employers proposed performance- speak about ‘performance indicators’, his “Time for Real Labour” speech. related pay and local flexibility as the ‘public-private’ and ‘output measures’. Two planned strikes in December were basis of negotiations in the future. The public gaze will falter and turn cancelled: the enemy within had blinked, As Bob Pounder, an FBU Executive away; the dispute will be lost. and were ready to be crushed. Then Committee member, suspended for More importantly, Blair’s jack- came the offer of mediation, the closing of speaking about the dispute, says: “In booted ministers, Nick Raynsford and ranks, the critical speeches, the hints Greater Manchester, we face a £5 John Prescott, will have won a famous of disaffiliation. Blair, Prescott, Blunkett million cuts package. Prior to this victory, consolidating their iron grip on and Raynsford will not forget such dispute, we were in a strong and domestic policy. They will have faced disloyalty, and it will be the ordinary militant position. However, unless down a group of workers driven to the worker who pays the price. something changes, the signal will go end of their tether and solidly militant Early in 2003, a new round of strikes out that the FBU is a spent force, and because of it. They will have discredited were threatened and Prescott threatened this will strengthen the hand of the Left at the same time as they out- to take powers to end the dispute and management to implement cuts, manouvered and baffled the FBU leader, force a settlement, effectively which will reverberate throughout Andy Gilchrist. They will have proved nationalising the Fire Service by taking every brigade in the country.” that no public service, however valued negotiating powers away from the Some parts of the fire service will or organised, is immune from the local employers. The FBU Executive be prepared for privatisation. The modernisation treatment. They will went very quiet. The threat of strikes, corporations delivering public services have cowed some public sector workers. quickly smothered by the TUC, gave across the country and for massive The TUC will have lost all credit with Blair his chance. How easy it was to sums will be licking their lips. No government while gaining no credit wrap his government in the flag and doubt like the railways, the Fire with ordinary workers – they played

8 FEATURE their part in attempting to sell the vicious onslaught). They quickly firefighters a bad deal, then ran for realised the dangers facing them but cover. Workers will be further stood firm, and argued for all-out On the net demoralised, anger about pay and industrial action to force government Articles from Organise! can be conditions deflated, pay demands to negotiate sensibly and quickly. They found on the internet at: moderated, privatisation slowed but also fought to defend the principle that http://www.afed.org.uk not stopped. The fix will be in, and no developing public services should be a mistake. co-operative endeavour, between those You can also email us at: who use and who provide the service. [email protected] Losers The service provided on Merseyside The big losers will be low-paid public has cut fire deaths in half by installing sector workers. Tony Blair raised the twice the national average number of assessment by Labour spectre of 10%, 15% or 20% pay smoke detectors, a policy championed Research Department! demands if the FBU won. If the strike by firefighters but now threatened by What lessons can we learn? Firstly is settled on harsh terms, the campaign cuts and the breakdown in industrial that strikes are best not led by the so- for a fairer share of public sector relations. At the same time, and as a called leadership, unless workers are spending is almost beaten before it can measure of just how corrupt municipal prepared to compromise from the start. start. Three per cent is more likely than government is, the councillors elected Second, that once stopped, they are 15% this year. And with all the talk of to the Merseyside Fire Authority voted hard to re-start. It is far better to change recession and economic ‘hard landings’, themselves a 50% increase in their your tactic to intensify pressure on the it’s likely that public sector employees allowances (in line with other fire enemy while reducing it on your own will be faced down and accept less – or authorities). The Chairman, Peter forces: rolling strikes and guerilla rather their leaders will. Corcoran (who got a 52% pay rise), strikes cause an image of ‘chaos’ and a The most heartening thing about said “independent assessors are saying dispute ‘out of control’ which will force the strike was the sheer determination we should receive proper allowances the bosses on the defensive. of the ordinary firefighter (and the for the job we do”. A sentiment the Thirdly, the trade union leadership public support they got throughout, firefighters would endorse, since their will always seek to compromise at the despite the government and media’s own claim to £30k was based on an expense of workers rather than jeopardise their mediating role between worker and employer. Fourthly, and most OBITUARY importantly, that there are no solutions within the framework of what we call work, our working lives – no solution Michael McLaughlin to low pay, inadequate pay, unfair pay, The tragic death, aged 34, of our comrade, Michael McLaughlin, came as a antisocial hours or working practices, great shock to the Anarchist Federation in Scotland and beyond. to stress, to alienation, to bullying or Although a libertarian for several years, Michael had only been an active indifferent bosses. Many trade unions militant of the AF-Alba for about a year. But in that time we quickly grew to were formed to enable the worker to realise that he was a comrade of great conviction. And a really good man. seize the means of production – tools, Always practically-minded, Michael took a major role in the organisation machines, the lorries and looms, the of the AF-sponsored Anarchist Dayschool in Glasgow last November and was factories and fields – and to enable involved in the AF at all levels of the organisation. Many comrades have workers to organise their working lives happy memories of Michael from last year’s National Conference. He was the for themselves and for society’s benefit. kind of person who immediately made those around him feel comfortable and Now they just sell insurance. Yet valued. He was the kind of person who inspired confidence. When he said workers, and we are workers too, put he’d do something, it generally got done. We could do with a few more of his our trust in them and expect them to kind. deliver us from the not-so gilded cage Michael was active in his workplace and was a Health and Safety Rep with of a working life, a life of toil with the MSF union and also a member of the Clydeside branch of the Industrial scant reward. We must organise as Workers of the World. If things were happening, he was generally in the thick workers to take back the means of of it. His commitment to his social revolutionary politics was rivalled only by work, in order to free ourselves from it. his enthusiasm for his beloved Celtic. His first AF meeting was followed by a visit to Parkhead with another AF Celtic-heid (the other three comrades went to Firhill as I remember!). Donations Michael’s funeral took place in Buncrana, Co. Donegal, from whence his There will be a list of donations to family came. We will remember him and carry on the struggle. Organise! in the next issue.

9 FEATURE Argentina: The struggle continues

In previous issues of On 16 March 2002, armed police and political tendency (we’re looking at hired goons (including members of the you trots!). Also, they arose on a Organise! we situated football hooligans’ Barra Bravas) classic spontaneous model – they were the Argentinean crisis in forced their way into the Brukman formed to meet the demands of the textile factory in Buenos Aires, which current situation, they are not simply its historical context and had been under occupation since the the mechanical application of forms of examined ways in which owner fled four months previously. organisation that were determined They were shortly afterwards driven elsewhere in a different struggle. the situation might out by the combined forces of the Though it should be pointed out that, evolve. In this issue we occupying workers, piqueteros, to a certain extent, spontaneity is take a look at the forms members of unemployed groups and really just the coming to light of local residents. This direct action was previously submerged networks of working class self- one of the first that brought together designed to meet collective social organisation that have in practical co-operation the various needs. Spontaneity is what the bosses forms of working class self-organisation sneeringly call working class self- been built in the space that have developed since the December activity when they finally manage to created by the actions of 2001 uprising – a wonderful example of see what is going on under their noses. social solidarity put into practice – and With 40% unemployment (100,000 the participants in the one which helped to speed the growth jobs lost a month), inflation around original uprising – of working class co-operation and 11% (also rising) and the state autonomy. imposing utility bill increases of 50% particularly the factory One of the most important things on heating gas, 35% on electricity and and workplace about the incredible growth of self- other essential services, it’s unsurprising organisation is that the initiatives that the first forms of self-organisation occupations. developed – in the overwhelming were concerned with meeting the majority of cases, outside of any party immediate needs of the community. To or institutional influence – are a direct bypass the supermarkets which were expression of the needs of the making the most of the crisis by participants and the wider community, increasing prices, a whole network of as against the needs of a particular communal community gardens producing directly for the community developed. People worked together to clear wasteland or other suitable areas for growing food, which is given to those who have no other means of support, or is exchanged for goods from the occupied factories (see below).

Meeting social needs Similarly, the piqueteros (see previous issue for background on these) dealt with the problem of social housing by simply forming a brick-making factory from whatever material they could find and proceeded to collectively build houses for those in need, whilst being fed from the community gardens and the factories. In return,

10 FEATURE the piqueteros also turn out to defend them both from state attacks. The piqueteros, who were previously looked down upon and called ‘le negrada’ (the blacks), are now seen as heroes and great examples by the people they help, who in turn help them – active solidarity is the key. A similar approach has been taken to health issues. A number of private hospitals were abandoned by their owners during the uprising. These have now been occupied and are operating as profit-free ventures. The same is true of the system of alternative education, which has mushroomed and operates entirely outside of the state system. Cultural spaces have also been opened, where people come to talk which has expanded to include not worked out by those they affect – not about how they can collectively help just immediate blood relatives, but all just the workers. each other: plays and songs about members of the local community. Today, there are hundreds of working class life and solidarity are People have grown to see through occupied workplaces (and not just performed. Crèches, bakeries and joint struggles that their problems can factories but also schools, hospitals and canteens are also set up in these only be addressed through collective other ‘white-collar’ sites) covering spaces. On top of all this, local action. Their answers lie in working every region of the country. A closer communities turn out en masse to with others, hence the almost look at how these places work, the physically oppose evictions and desperate desire to forge new links different forms the occupations have attempts to cut off essential local with others in struggle as demonstrated taken and the state’s attitude to them services. All of this activity is carried by the unprecedented growth of reveals that there are in fact two types on outside of the state and its local territorial, local, national, occupational of occupation; one that results from representatives. and interest based co-ordinations, communities organising to directly which magnificently demonstrate the meet their own needs, and one under Active solidarity is desire for human community – the control of official ‘working class communism. representatives’ or of representatives the key of the local state and capitalist In the workplace institutions who seek to recuperate A less successful venture was the The movement of factory and workplace this activity and direct it into support ‘truque’ or barter network that, at its occupations has grown rapidly during for ‘stability’ and the state as benefactor. height of popularity, had over 8,000 the past year, from a handful of The Zanon ceramic factory in the clubs and three million members. The isolated and under-siege examples at province of Neuquen is probably the problems stemmed from the network’s the start of the year, to a full-scale largest occupied workplace still use of an alternative currency that social movement with hundreds of actually producing. Pay remains at the soon became the de facto currency in occupations, complete with regional same levels as prior to the occupation many places – soon 90% of the and national conferences, ‘National (with inflation being taken into account) ‘certificates’ were forgeries and credit Plans of Action’, and attempts at and the ceramic tiles produced are sold inflation was at 40%. On top of these recuperation by state and leftist forces. at 60% of their former price through a problems, the network was being used The first occupations took place series of street vendors employed by to finance small-scale local capitalism, during the December 2001 argentinazo, the piqueteros or at the ‘popular’ and large-scale producers were taking notably of the Brukman and Zanon supermarkets set up in Rosario and their goods out of the system and factories, which have both played an other towns specifically to sell the selling them off at inflated prices immensely important role in practical goods from the occupied workplaces. outside of the network. (These were and symbolic terms. These two have When new workers are needed, not local problems – they are inherent become the public face of the piqueteros and other unemployed in systems of this type, but we do not occupation movement, providing space groups are taken on, and at the same have the space to deal with that here.) for others to work out their own plans rates as the other workers. Decisions A significant change in people’s of occupation and as a place where the are taken by the mass workers’ behaviour is their view of ‘the family’, implications of the occupations can be assembly (with delegates from other

11 FEATURE groups present) and production is workplaces, for wiping out debts and central role in the uprising and in organised collectively. A technical for establishing a clear legal framework building up resistance (Rosario and college for members of the local for further expropriations. The Cordoba being particularly noteworthy). community has also been established. Brukman factory has been forced by The slogan for the march was “Throw One of the first things the Zanon circumstances to follow this path, the bums out!” and ended up at the assembly sought to do was to establish asking the Buenos Aires government Plaza de Mayo (scene of bitter fighting links with others in struggle, especially to expropriate the factory and re-hire and many deaths last year) on the first the piqueteros and other factory it back to them, and to give them a anniversary of (President) De La Rua’s occupations, and to that end they preferential option to buy the plant resignation. hosted a national meeting of occupied after two years, when it will be put up Solidarity actions under the banner factories in April (more on the various for sale. Provincial and city legislatures of ‘Que Se Vayan Todos’ (They All co-ordinations and conferences below) are currently drafting a number of bills Must Go) took place at the same time which declared that it would start a to create a government agency to assist in every corner of the globe – plan “of public works, controlled by in the formation of co-operatives and Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, workers, to construct schools needed to facilitate expropriations, as presently Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech by teachers and students, public expropriation is only legally possible if Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, hospitals, and housing”. it is in ‘the public benefit’. This France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, temporary manoeuvre is designed to Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, State interventions speedily introduce stability, all the Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The Ghelco ice cream factory in better to allow the real capitalists to Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, Buenos Aires highlights a different step back into their old shoes when USA and Yugoslavia. The network now approach to the direct occupation at conditions allow. On top of this, many extends far beyond the borders of Zanon, one that the state is increasingly factories are not actually occupied in Argentina, putting into practical effect viewing as both a way out of its the classical sense since they are still the demand for No Borders! stability problems and as a potential paying the previous owners’ rent or bulwark for co-opting the working have written off months of unpaid Prospects class back into its political and structural work and owed back-wages. The current state of affairs is a series programmes (à la Peron and the of self-organised initiatives that unions). The factory was occupied by Communication and networks operate to a greater or lesser degree an order of a bankruptcy judge, who This is not to say that the people successfully, and largely outside of the decreed that it should be rented back involved are not aware of these state’s institutional structures. But to the workers. After a set period, the dangers: they are, and a series of there is a growing awareness and factory was then legally expropriated conferences and co-ordinations willingness on the state’s part to make by the local state and handed over to amongst various groups have taken use of these initiatives to put itself the workers, thus building up ties place to discuss these issues. The back on its feet – to get capital between the state and the occupation Brukman, Zanon and Grissinopli accumulation started again and to from the outset, and potentially factories all held national meetings introduce a measure of social stability. providing support for capital in any attended by hundreds of delegates There are clear efforts being made to future crisis (“after all you’re all bosses from all of the groups in struggle. split the movements through now”). The Ghleco workers now earn ‘National Plans of Action’, Solidarity recognising certain useful sectors as the same pay as before, but working commissions, factory committees, official and taking them under the hours have jumped to twelve hours a National Workers’ Assemblies, ‘Plans (local) state’s wing. day to cover administrative expenses. of Struggle’ were amongst the This should not be a cause for The state has offered quiet support initiatives thrashed out at these undue pessimism however – as we for MNER (National Movement of meetings in order to turn the state’s pointed out in an earlier Organise! the Recovered Factories) which lobbies for plans to their own use. The co-operation dynamic of people organising their legal expropriation of occupied between the groups over the year has own lives and communities logically built up very strong bonds of solidarity, leads them to organise against the a solidarity that was highlighted state. The genie is out of the bottle, Discussion board during the important National March and the Argentine working class is in by piqueteros last December, made no hurry to chase it back in. When The Anarchist Federation now has possible through the wider networks collective needs are taken as the a discussion board at the following established in the struggle. starting point for collective activity, address: http://flag.blackened.net/ This March lasted five days, without any fuss being made of this – wwwthreads blocking highways and organising then we can truly say that struggle Log on if you fancy a chat. soup kitchens, whilst passing through has changed people (just like we said towns and cities that have played a it would!).

12 FEATURE Midnight legislation Class Struggle in Ireland 1760-1840

During the years 1788-1868, 2,249 political prisoners were transported from How the Ireland to exile in Australia. Of that number, less than 20% belonged to the well- commemorated nationalist rebellions and conspiracies of 1798, 1803, 1848 and Whiteboys 1867.1 Who were the rest? From the 1760s to the 1840s successive revolts of the rural poor broke out resisted across Ireland. These comprised of a variety of underground movements with varying names but common characteristics. They are now called after the first oppression such movement – the Whiteboys. These were movements of the rural poor; wage labourers, those who worked in small-scale industries and cottiers (small tenant farmers). Labourers would often rent (or be allowed to rent land as part of their wage), while the smallest tenant farmers would supplement their income with labouring. Whiteboys were almost exclusively male and young, usually teenage. Their organisation was secretive and underground, and also fairly libertarian, with independent groups in each town networked with others to form an entire movement across several counties. Of at least one group, it is said that all its members had ‘equal command’. There was extensive use of ritual – initiation oaths, elaborate pseudonyms, and uniforms, costumes or special insignia. Direct action was the method of these movements. Typically a proclamation or ‘law’ would be issued, to the effect that rents, priest dues or tithes were to be reduced, wages were to be increased or ‘land grabbing’, by which the middle class forced the rural poor from their land, was to cease. If ignored, the laws would be enforced by violence and intimidation. Firstly, destruction of property, mutilation of animals, warning shots fired through windows, and then assaults and murder as the movements became progressively more violent after the 1790s (as did their opponents). The enclosure of previously common land was resisted by the levelling of fences and grasslands were dug up to produce more conacre – the potato plots on which the labouring population relied.

Class structure Irish history is portrayed as a series of nationalist uprisings and movements against Anglo-Irish rule. In fact, much rural violence and agitation was class- based, of Catholic Irish versus Catholic Irish.

13 FEATURE

The employer and landlord of the not ordered and structured under the Adult males and rural class rural poor was not the Anglo gentry, control of Rome until after the Famine, structure circa 18412 but the Irish Catholic middle class of and various folk, pagan and magical farmers. Even where areas were less Category Number Per cent practices remained popular. The Catholic Rich Farmers 50,000 2.9 developed, a ‘middleman’ stood between Church, only gradually becoming a (average holding 80 acres) the mass of the population and the legal institution, was far from being ‘Snug’ Farmers 100,000 5.9 landlords. A ‘Middleman’ being a tenant the established force it was to become. (average holding 50 acres) on a long, stable lease, often Catholic/ Likewise for most of these decades Family Farmers 250,000 14.7 Irish, and profiting through subletting, there was no state education system, (average holding 20 acres and usually not but less commercially orientated than employing labour) and children were educated in ‘hedge the middle class which developed in schools’ under the control of the Cottiers 300,000 17.7 fertile areas. community (i.e. not the state or gentry). (average holding five acres) Statistics from 1841 show this, and This freedom from cultural institutions Labourers 1,000,000 58.8 clearly give lie to the popular nationalist controlled by the ruling class had a (average holding one acre, though often view of an Anglo gentry above without any land) positive impact on the persistence of homogenous downtrodden Irish masses Whiteboyism. Some of the communities (see the chart opposite). Irish agriculture was increasingly which nurtured Whiteboyism also had commercialised and orientated towards a collective economic base, through Living standards of the rural poor export, firstly to French and British ‘rundale’, a form of communal land There were localised famines in 1800, colonies and after to an increasingly tenure and farming. This was more 1817, 1822, 1831, 1835-37 and 1842. urban Britain. often found in economically back ward Prior to 1838 there was no state welfare This affected Irish society in two areas but also could be found on poor system. In 1841, two fifths of Irish ways: firstly the rise of a farming, lands in generally fertile South Leinster homes were one-roomed mud walled market-orientated, middle class. Secondly, and East Munster. cabins. In the words of a contemporary people’s lives were now subject to the observer: “The hovels which the poor dictates of the market. Increased Early Whiteboyism people were building as I passed, solely profitability in agriculture produced In the 1750s, the growing market by their own efforts, were of the most higher land values, which led to increased demand for pastoral products led to an abject description; their walls were rents and the expansion of tillage or expansion of dairy farming and grazing formed, in several instances, by the pasture for export at the expense of (which required the enclosure of common backs of fences; the floors sunk in land for subsistence farming (and the lands). As agriculture became more ditches; the height scarcely enough for people engaged in subsistence farming). profitable, land values rose, and so did a man to stand upright; poles not thicker the price of conacre (the small plots on than a broomstick for couples; a few Counter-culture which the bulk of the population pieces of grass sods the only covering; Viewed from the perspective of 200 depended). The rural poor faced ruin. and these extending only partially over years later, one of the most remarkable Beginning in Tipperary, a county which the thing called a roof; the elderly people things about the society of this period was a fertile producer of agrarian unrest, miserably clothed; the children all but is the extent to which popular culture and then expanding into east Munster naked.”3 was beyond elite control. Religion was and south Leinster, the Whiteboy

Commercialisation of agriculture Whiteboyism existed in the context of and was a response to the growth in market relations, the development of capitalism and the commercialisation of agriculture.This was not universally true: under-developed Clare was an insurrectionary hotbed for instance. However, typically the centres of Whiteboyism were the most fertile, and thus most commercialised areas, and movements arose as a reaction to what the market was inflicting upon labourers and cottiers. Analysed in this way, the world of the Whiteboys was not so far removed from the world we live in today. From the 1720s onwards,

14 FEATURE movement fought back by tearing down Organisers were sent into the adjoining the fences and hedges over what had counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork been common land, and digging up and Limerick to stir things up there. Resistance! pasture so that it could not be used for The Caravats began to move in a less Resistance is our monthly news grazing and could be turned back to pragmatic day-to-day direction, and sheet. conacre. Grasslands were exempt from according to some reports had as their Our widespread distribution of religious tithes in Ireland and this tax ultimate goal a re-division of the land. Resistance means more and more too became the target for Whiteboy This episode was unique in the people are coming into contact resistance as it fell hardest on those response of the middle class. From with revolutionary anarchist ideas. engaged in subsistence farming. 1806 an organised violent retaliation, This is at a time when the Labour in the form of the Shanavests – a Party, the Trotskyist and Stalinist Whiteboys & Rightboys remnant of the nationalist United left are spiralling rapidly The period up to the end of the 1780s Irishmen-Defender organisation of the downwards into decline. There is was characterised by anti-clerical actions 1790s, and held in readiness for a a real chance of building a in addition to the standard Whiteboy French landing that never came – was credible anarchist movement in activities. Catholic priests were targeted directed against the Caravats. Apart this country – with consistent and for denouncing the rebels from the from individual assassination, this dogged hard work. pulpit. In Tipperary “the parish priest conflict consisted of fights at fairs and of Kilsheelan, Fr. Nicholas Phelan, other public gatherings (where both If you would like the next 12 vigorously condemned the Whiteboys organisations tried to recruit), involving issues of Resistance, then send and had to flee for his life from his hundreds and even thousands of POs, cheques for £4 payable to parish. Tradition also states that a Fr. participants armed with traditional ‘AF’ to: AF, PO Box 375, Knaphill, Darcy of Kilmurry, preached against wooden clubs, home made swords or Woking, Surrey GU21 2XL. Better them in Grangemockler, was attacked spears and sawn off shotguns. This still, take a bundle to distribute! by a mob and had to flee also from the was the most pronounced expression AF Ireland produce their own district.”4 of the struggle between labourers and regular newssheet, Resistance The aim was also to reduce the fees the farming middle class. By 1811 the Ireland, which is available from: priests charged for presiding at various area was flooded with troops – more Anarchist Federation (Ireland), PO religious services. than had been there during the 1798 Box 505 Belfast, BT12 6BQ. rebellion and a ‘special commission’ Phone: 07951 079719. The Caravat Whiteboys sent to investigate. The Whiteboy- The most class conscious and violent Shanavest conflict appears to have of the Whiteboy movements, the persisted until the Famine period. out, with the Terry Alts and Lady Caravats arose in Tipperary, as a result In the 1820s discontent was Clares in Clare, Galway and Roscommon, of the agricultural boom created by the channelled into the Catholic Association, and the Whitefeet in Leinster. This is Napoleonic Wars. Rising land values a middle class organisation aiming to the first outbreak of Whiteboyism for and higher prices, coupled with an end the remnants of the Penal Laws which there are police statistics, which increasing population which hindered which discriminated against Catholics, record for Clare and Connaught (and the possibility of a rise in wages or specifically the ban on Catholics sitting most of this was happening in the employment, squeezed the rural poor. in the House of Parliament. Led by the single county of Clare) the following The Caravats demanded that wages right wing nationalist Daniel O’Connell, ‘outrages’ in 1831: Administering rise, rents be lowered, ‘land grabbing’ and employing the ‘moral pressure’ of Oaths (952), Assaults (566), Attacks on to cease, also inflationary practices ‘monster meetings’, i.e. mass rallies, houses (1,684), Homicides (72), Cattle such as hoarding food to end, all “by this body saw its goal achieved in the Maiming (125), Illegal Notices (875), order of Sir John Doe, Governor of 1829 ‘Catholic Emancipation’. Levelling (244), Robbery of Arms (571) Munster”5, as the notices of these People soon became disillusioned, and Demand of Arms (135).7 Whiteboys read. as aptly described by one priest: “I The social class which produced Failure to comply with Caravat have often heard their conversations, Whiteboyism was devastated by the demands after three warnings meant a when they say, ‘What good did Great Hunger at the end of the 1840s, degree of violence greater than that Emancipation do for us: Are we better and by the emigration that followed. previously used by Whiteboy groups. clothed or fed, or our children better Whiteboyism continued in some of the There were also numerous raids for clothed or fed?” As a Whiteboy put it: more backward areas, those untouched arms and robbery of mail coaches and “Emancipation has done nothing for by commercialisation and which had such like, as well as a concerted effort us. Mr O’Connell and the rich Catholics not seen Whiteboyism before, e.g. West to drive migrant workers from Kerry go to Parliament. We die of starvation Ulster. But the Famine can be said to and Cork out of the Tipperary area, just the same”.6 have been its end, and just a shadow and so reduce the supply of labour. A new wave of Whiteboyism broke persisted. The rural working class was

15 FEATURE silent for decades afterward until a brief adoption of syndicalism in the early 20th century. Whiteboyism was to a small extent exported with emigration, Fatherhood most famously with Pennsylvania’s Molly Maguires. The Whiteboy phenomenon was Or, some mad rad dad rants contemporary with the beginning of the long march of the Irish bourgeois to Children, the most joyous, innocent football crazy, emotionally untouchable, state power, aka ‘national independence’. and playful people, in my humble fevered egos. A recipe for disaster that During 1760 to 1840, the two historic opinion need not just ‘equality’ with currently has to be dealt with and then faces of national liberation had their adults, but often in today’s ‘civilised’ cleaned up afterwards as best as can be. first outings. The 1790s saw the radical, societies, children should take priority There is urgent need to understand non-sectarian, secular, revolutionary, over adults. Children obviously need to and acknowledge the extent of the republicanism of the United Irishmen- be cared for and they need to be uneven deal that men frequently receive. Defenders and the 1820s the narrow, nurtured; most basically they require Most men miss out on so very much, Catholic reformism of Emancipation. At love, and lots of it. You certainly don’t competing endlessly and aggressively, the same time a proletarian struggle have to be a parent to know that, but wrongly asserting how ‘right’ we are. existed in opposition to both, rather to fundamentally understand it in We speak only of absolute facts all the than as a subsidiary of either. principle helps a lot. time, with a tendency to beat ourselves Class struggle continued irrespective The word father was never in my (and other people) up, physically and of national flag, and the nationalist vocabulary prior to becoming one, for mentally, much of it verbal, often violent. movement, as a movement representing a variety of reasons. The word father In reality, men are fallible, vulnerable, bourgeois interests, fought the class sounds distant, formal and it implies emotional and do possess all the struggle against the proletariat. hierarchical authority: father figure, capacities for empathy and compassion. On those occasions where the head of the family, Our Father Who Art bourgeois successfully managed to In Heaven. Abuse marshal the rural poor behind their I’d never used the word father and One outcome of conventional parenting/ flag, e.g. Catholic Emancipation, the I’d certainly never thought about any educating is that two to three children people got nothing out of it. concept of fatherhood. How badly are killed every week in this country, The non-existence of Whiteboys in prepared the male of the species is for usually by a parent! Care homes for the history, as it is written, remembered, one of life’s greatest gifts. Volumes of most vulnerable kids are increasingly televised and commemorated, is books have been written upon fatherhood found to be riddled with child abusers... instructive of the role played by exploring many issues. Recommended The parents who think they are doing nationalism in 20th century Ireland. That is: Fatherhood Reclaimed by Adrienne the best by their kids by giving them is, as part of the hegemony of ideas, Burgess, which gives an empathic ‘everything’. It seems much more likely aiming to paper over class divisions perspective to the subject. they are taking everything away from with a heroic myth of national oppression With men particularly de-sensitised them, profoundly denying their true and national redemption. It is for this to the core, parenting is still for many identity. Children in consumer societies reason that we remember 1803, 1848, little more than a duty-bound, long-term are abused in a wide range of ways. So and 1867 while the Whiteboys go down chore, bringing with it a compulsion to many discarded children, with a the ‘memory hole’ into oblivion. work and a financial liability with no distraught Planet Earth unable to meet payback. The idea of totally giving their needs. 1 Police and Protest in England and ourselves to our kids, playing with them, The necessity some people feel for Ireland, 1780-1850, Palmer, p58. listening to them, learning from and assuming power and control to suit 2 Ireland since 1800, Conflict and with them, requires comprehension their egos results in gross imbalances Conformity, Hoppen, p38. that totally overcomes conditioned throughout our lifetimes. Consequently, 3 Quoted in The Great Irish Famine, Campbell, p18. masculinity (and conditioned femininities every interaction, communication and 4 Carrick-On-Suir and its People, Power, too). Both sexes are equally capable of intimacy is likely to be affected. There p83. transcending ‘father absence’ and – is a desperate global need to transcend 5 Quoted in Irish Peasants, Violence and just as important – ‘mother all oppressors, authoritarians and control Political Unrest, Clark and Donnelly, dominance’, if only the effort were made. freaks. The human race is suffering p86. The overwhelming majority of men great collective illness, nature made 6 Quoted in Ireland since 1800, Conflict do not begin to struggle to be ‘new’ or sick and requires healing... Only with a and Conformity, Hoppen, p19. PC – why should they? Yet the status substantial authentic ‘equality of 7 Police and Protest in England and quo portrays men as self-absorbed, parenthood’ can the foundations for Ireland, 1780-1850, Palmer, p326. authoritarian, workaholic, drinkaholic, putting an infant’s best interests first

16 FEATURE and foremost ever be implemented. distance from conventional militancy – impossible not to love and care for all Association and discussion are every competitive, aggressive egos struggling children everywhere. bit as essential as loving is for children. for status, dominant influence, ‘non- Perhaps, in an ideal world, all adults And we need to deflate our adult egos, hierarchical’ leadership. would care passionately, would relate if we are to deliver what some of us Elites of un-powerful power-mongers, like parents to every child. Wow, how preach, the primacy of children. blindly critical, guilt-tripping, does that sound? All those caring, Where does ‘parenting’ stop and regurgitating and putting people down, nurturing, multiple influences... ‘educating’ start? It’s a complex, grey rarely offering useful, constructive, Nobody with love to give yet living area, and perhaps they are even the positive and healing remedies of any lonely lives, isolated and unsupported. same thing. Most parents ‘home educate’ variety or substance. Empathy, sensitivity, Nobody need ever work at looking until they send their kids off to school... It compassion and a rational determined after children because of the accident seems the secret to ‘successful’ parenting reverence for the remarkable variance of birth, if they were not up to it for is to go all out to really be oneself. Not of life or continue with hastening whatever reason. No more obligation. always easy, at times incredibly difficult. degradation? Everyone gains, adults, kids, the planet How few people really know themselves, The lunatics are running the and the phenomenon that is LIFE. whilst truly loving their friends, family, asylum, they care nothing about the extending to the broader environment multitudes of common people as they Learning from play they live in, the world at large? It’s threaten to press buttons that could So much can be learnt from children. tough trying to maintain daily contact end everything we ‘have’ and have Play has phenomenal learning potential, with every little feeling and emotion, known. Maybe there never was any yet today it is seriously undermined, as even after years focused trying. Maybe hope in these environments where is the inventiveness of questing the of everyday life is the free will and up-front equality might children. Where does ‘play’ end and everyday life of revolution...(hmm). never be even vaguely considered, the process of ‘learning’ start? To help Becoming a parent can present the never mind ‘understood’ or realised. children to play freely we must start to future in a clearer, brighter light. I Same old shit… Until all are free, comprehend ourselves as adults, what want to suggest being a caring parent everyone remains in chains, physical, has been hurt, warped, damaged is deeply rooted and revolutionary, as mental, spiritual. Men and a few and/or lost in each of us, men and starkly amazing as any other aspect of women might have a lot to lose, yet women. With a healthy support network life. Thoughtful contemplation and the humanity and nature have everything of friends, family, and perhaps therapy, practise of fatherhood (growing together to gain. The current fetish for ‘freedom’, counselling, yoga or massage, etc, we respectfully and sensitively) could ‘justice’ and ‘equality’ are horrific in could re-adjust perspectives against eventually become a full frontal actuality and worse in result: women the enforced mainstream. Then we can challenge to patriarchy, the regulation copying ‘successful’ men and claiming begin to do justice to the children and male domination of everything, power, equality. How sad, demeaning and inspire through our ‘being’, our organisations, wealth etc. Looking utterly vulgar. All oppression becomes selfhood, with children. We can learn after babies and children could play a more firmly fixated, more stagnant, to play again amongst ourselves, and direct part in changing societies towards more engulfing. could perhaps for the first time really harmonious (complex, chaotic, creative, It seems basic gender equability is learn how to learn... If we dearly love co-operative) fulfilling, gratifying very rarely openly talked about, except our children, if we were to respect our natural spaces... The world over is for some crazy, unconventional ‘partners’ past, present and future, then seeing through the redundancy of the anarchistic type people. If adults got to things will change. We can undoubtedly capitalist system. Observe at first hand really know themselves intimately, to all grow every single day of our lives, its continuing failures: legal murder understand the damage incurred and the potential profound. If we don’t (wars), persistent harangues by hideous recognise a need and desire to heal sacrifice our kids to the horrors of leaders with fingers twitching on and visibly move forwards, then could establishment schools and instead nuclear buttons. Why shouldn’t we begin the transcendence of this home educate them, if we take children dare to consider alternatives? Apathetic/ de-sensitised humanity. In becoming seriously and make efforts never to crushed/damaged/sore people could re-sensitised coerce them, chances are good they help quicken the beginnings of new we will will develop into centred, rounded, communities that people might want endorse creative, co-operative free-thinkers. to live in... ourselves, Those free-spirited kids could live their After years of routine-type meetings, making it lives as they choose voluntarily, demos etc there’s a feeling of being respectfully and virtually spontaneously. less restricted, less robotised as a Rich, deep, fulfilling, whole lives, with militant now I’m a dissident dad. Often inner and outer peace for themselves, preferring now to work with women each other and all of nature... an ideal and have female friends, I relish the worth striving for?

17 PRISONERS Yelensky’s fable

A history of the ABC by Matthew Hart

For close to a century, Who would have suspected that a few men supplying boots, linen, and clothing to deportees in Bialystock would have been the beginning of an organisation that has anarchists have united spread throughout the globe?1 under the banner of the Recently, statements have been made referring to the history of the as mere folklore. But a dedicated search for the organisation’s history Anarchist Black Cross, uncovers information that is far from fairy tale. Hundreds of pages filled with facts for the sole purpose of regarding the history of the organisation are being assembled by members of the Los Angeles branch of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation in hopes of one day supporting those publishing it. comrades imprisoned The Anarchist Black Cross dates back to the politically turbulent times of Tsarist for their commitment Russia. Due to the cruel aristocratic rule of the Tsar, many Russians began to search for answers outside of existing political institutions. The words of Karl Marx and to revolution and to Michael Bakunin created a massive stir within the soul of the Russian people and the ideas of . their desire for freedom lead many of them to rebel against the toil and serfdom that defined their very existence. With the rise of political opposition to the Tsar, many anarchists, socialists and revolutionaries paid for their desire for freedom by imprisonment, exile or death. Conditions within the prisons were terrible and political prisoners faced cruel treatment.2 A prisoner’s aid organisation called ‘Political Red Cross’ was formed to support prisoners within Tsarist prisons or labour camps. This organisation not only provided aid to prisoners, but many times assisted escapes from prison or places of exile. The great anarchist thinker, Peter Kropotkin, was one of the many former political prisoners that owe their freedom to members of this organisation.3 Although the PRC was non-partisan, it wasn’t long before the Social-Democrats (the followers of Karl Marx) gained control of it. Aid to anarchists or others not associated with the Social-Democratic Party began to dwindle. When anarchist supporters became aware of this they were infuriated at this divisiveness.4 The only way their comrades would receive help was for the anarchist community to create their own aid organisation and the Anarchist Red Cross (ARC) was formed. The exact year of the Anarchist Red Cross’ formation is unclear, but it is estimated by Rudolph Rocker that it was formed during 1900-05. The organisation came about during a meeting in London with Vera Figner, who was the treasurer for the political prisoners of the Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries.5 If this is true, then the ARC appeared no earlier than 1905, the year Figner was released from prison. The only known visit by Figner to London was in June of 1909, but by then ARC groups were already established. During the visit a meeting was held and it was agreed that the ARC would support both Anarchist and Socialist- Revolutionaries in prison and in exile since both had been excluded from the Political Reds.6 Unlike the Social-

18 PRISONERS

Democrats, as long as prisoners were Revolution of 1917, the ARC in the social revolutionaries they would be United States disbanded after news supported. was received that all the political prisoners had been released. Several Chapters ARC members went to assist the By 1906, the ARC had groups in Kiev, revolution in Russia, where they were Odessa, Bialystok and other cities, warmly met by the political prisoners probably as a response to the mass they had once supported. But, before arrests by the Tsar following the 1905 long, the began arresting Revolution. Trials of revolutionaries ‘counter-revolutionaries’.10 With the took place throughout the land, including rise of a new dictatorship, the ARC at least six members of the ARC for was forced to reorganise in 1919 as their involvement in the 1905 Revolution. the Anarchist Black Cross, to avoid Many fled the country and those who confusion between them, the managed to escape started ARC chapters International Red Cross and the in other countries. The first was in Political Red Cross.11 In the Ukraine, London in 1907. The organisation the Black Cross was organised as collected funds from other chapters defensive units to protect cities and throughout Europe and sent them to villages and organise resistance to International focus political prisoners in Russia. Those pogroms led by Cossacks, White Guards By this time the Spanish Civil War and involved in the London branch included or the Red Army. Many of those then Second World War broke out in Peter Kropotkin, Alexander Shapiro, involved in these units were members Europe, and the organisation switched to V Cherkezov and Rudolf Rocker. The of the Nabat Confederation in the a more international focus. ABC worked following year, the first North American Ukraine or had previously been active to aid anarchists fleeing Fascist persecution chapter was started in New York and in the ARC in the United States.12 and those arrested in the resistance soon other chapters were formed in Because of their activities, Anarchist movement. Most ABC members at this Chicago, Philadelphia, Brownsville, Black Cross members experienced time were Russian Jews, so being caught Detroit and Baltimore.7 constant harassment by the Bolshevik in Europe during this period meant One of the more interesting groups government, including the seizure of almost certain death. Once again, Social- in early ABC history was the Lettish goods, imprisonment for belonging to Democrats refused to assist ABC in section of the ARC. In 1914, the an illegal organisation and murder of helping their comrades escape and anarchist community became enraged ABC activists. By 1924-1925, the caused hundreds of Jewish anarchists when John D.Rockefeller ordered organisation in Russia was virtually to die in Nazi concentration camps. National Guardsmen to attack the striking destroyed. By 1939, most of the chapters in the workers and their families in Ludlow, Several members of the ABC, like United States and Europe collapsed Colorado. Several miners, women and Lea Gutman, Helana Ganshina and under the work needed to support children were killed and anarchists Aaron Baron, were arrested and killed thousands of anarchist prisoners in planned to give Rockefeller the same by the Bolshevik government. Others Europe and the organisation seems to treatment.8 Members of the Lettish were arrested but due to international have disappeared. As the ABC this may section of the ARC drew up a plot to campaigns by anarchists abroad were have been true, but it actually continued assassinate Rockefeller. Sadly, on the later released.13 At least two ARC for two decades under different names: morning of the planned assassination, members converted to Bolshevism but The Joint Committee for the Defense the bomb planned for the industrialist later lost their lives during the of Revolutionists Imprisoned in Russia, went off in the apartment where the Stalinist purges. Society to Aid Anarchist Prisoners in anarchists were staying, killing ARC Several individuals who got out of Russia, Relief Fund of the International members Charles Berg, Carl Hanson Russia met in Berlin and reorganised Working Men’s Association, Chicago and two others. The bomb showered the ABC. The organisation stayed in Aid Fund and the the street below with debris and body Berlin for several years before moving Aid Fund. All these organisations were parts. Dozens of people were injured to Holland and then Paris. Chapters in continuing the work of the ABC.15 and repression after the incident the Unites States re-emerged to Towards the end of the war, only a increased heavily. This event became support the comrades still in Russian few groups remained active. The known as the ‘Lexington Avenue jails, but by 1936 contact with them Berkman Aid Fund in Chicago, one of bombing’. The plot involved non-ARC began to dwindle and by 1940 all the few groups able to organise serious members and one other ARC member, contact with prisoners in Russia aid operations, organised a Paris Louise Berger, who had left the building ceased. Later it emerged that most, if branch, where C.A.R.E. packages were minutes before and got away unharmed.9 not all, anarchist political prisoners sent to anarchists in serious need of With the outbreak of the Russian were killed during Stalin’s purges.14 funds and support. This work went on

19 PRISONERS for many years but eventually it was was shot. Both Weissbecker and von individual collectives. His initiative forced to discontinue activities after Rauch had been associated with the influenced the growth of the Anarchist 1958.16 2nd June Movement, the most prominent Black Cross, but no unified organisation In 1967, the organisation re-emerged left-wing German urban guerrilla developed. However, in 1989 some in England, where it initially helped groups of the ’70s. Both lived very unity did develop with the setting up prisoners of the Spanish resistance. short lives and their involvement in of the ‘Emergency Response Network’ The London ABC promoted the concept the movement can be described as (ERN). This was a response to political of the Black Cross and during the short but intense.22 raids, crackdowns, death sentences, International Anarchist Conference in In the late 1970s, members of the hunger strikes, torture or killings of Carrara. Their call for an International Anarchist Black Cross in Huddersfield members of the ABC or the communities Anarchist Black Cross was answered. were tried in what became known as they worked with. Following police Other chapters emerged throughout ‘the Persons Unknown’ trial. Another action, ABC groups around the world Europe, the United States and UK member, Phil Ruff, was accused of would send telegrams, make phone Australia.17 But the early success of inciting the Gartree Prison Riots in calls or hold demonstrations within 48 the organisation was also met by 1978. Stuart Christie, mentioned earlier, hours. Sadly this idea was not widely repression. Members were arrested, continued to remain ‘Public Enemy taken up and the ERN faded away. tried and even murdered. Stuart Christie, #1’ in London and in Spain during the Although ABC groups continued to one of the founders of the London ’70s, and was constantly under police undertake support work, a united ABC chapter of the organisation was harassment.23 Members of the Irish front never materialized; there was arrested several times and on one ABC, Noel and Marie Murray, took part little common focus or unity. In 1994, occasion held for more than a year in several armed actions in Dublin. In a conference of ABC groups was held after being accused of having been September 1975, during a robbery at and once again the ERN was set up. In involved in the Angry Brigade, an the Bank of Ireland in Killester, an off- 1995, four ABC groups (New Jersey, underground group active in the United duty police officer was killed and Noel Bronx, Washington DC and Brew City) Kingdom in the 1970s. In the end, he and Marie were given the death got together to form the ABC Federation. was found innocent of all charges and sentence, later commuted.24 Other groups joined, but, in 1996, released.18 In 1979 Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, an issues of direction and goals caused a On 12 December 1969, Guiseppi anarchist political prisoner in the US, split. Those leaving the ABCF would Pinelli, member of the Milan chapter issued a ‘Draft Proposal for an ABC soon create the Anarchist Black Cross of the Anarchist Black Cross, was Network’ in hopes that it could build a Confederation but this organisation arrested after several bombings in movement to assist anarchist political only lasted a couple of years. The Italy. Not for the first time. Pinelli was prisoners. He believed the ABC should ABCF continued and after seven years interrogated for three days and on the be a united mass movement rather than is still very active. Other networks third day, 15 December, he was thrown from the fourth story of the police station and killed. The authorities claimed Pinelli had admitted the charges against him but later it emerged that the bombings were the work of neo- fascists, backed by the CIA and NATO.19 This ‘strategy of tension’ involved planting bombs to destabilise the government, discredit the Left and allow the fascists to take power. Pinelli was targeted because he was a well- known anarchist and was investigating a planned fascist coup prior to his murder. It became necessary to kill Pinelli to ensure the plot’s integrity.20 In 1971, Georg von Rauch, Secretary of the ABC in Germany, was pulled over by the police and, while resisting, von Rauch was shot.21 Several months later, Augsburg police closed in on two known radicals and during the arrest, Thomas Weissbecker, another ABC member,

20 PRISONERS emerged such as Raze the Walls, which as one who has gone before us; one was very successful for a number of who helped pave the way. , years but disappeared around 1998- once wrote, “The work is not done for Friends and 1999. Remnants of it remain in Seattle. the glory, but because we believe in Networks in Europe, such as the one Mutual Aid”. We must take these words neighbours in Poland, have recently emerged and to heart and continue our work in that seem to have a bright future. And an spirit. We are always reminded of the If you like Organise!, you might like: even more recent creation has been words of Ojore Lutalo (an anarchist Black Flag. £1.50 per issue/£6 sub. the Anarchist Black Cross Network in political prisoner currently held in BM Hurricane, London WC1N 3XX. Texas and a few other places. Trenton State prison): “Any movement SchNEWS. Weekly direct action The history of ABC is far from a fairy that does not support its political newssheet. Send stamps to PO Box tale. This article is only a small portion internees is a sham movement”. Free 2600, Brighton BN2 2DX. of the history that has been discovered All Political Prisoners!! Direct Action, anarcho-syndicalist by just a handful of people and we are 1 Yelensky, Boris, In the Struggle For magazine produced by the Solidarity sure more information is waiting to be Equality, p22. Federation.£1.50 per issue/£5 subs. found. We welcome the assistance and 2 Voline, The Unknown Revolution, PO Box 29, SWPDO, M15 5HW. aid of anyone interested in searching pp27-31. Freedom, Anarchist Fortnightly, for the past of the ABC. 3 Broido, Vera, Apostles Into Terrorists, under new management! Now As for the title of this piece, Boris p96. more anarchist communist and Yelensky was a man who for over five 4 Freie Arbeiter Stimme, February 10 decades dedicated his life to political 1956. worth a read. From Freedom, 84b prisoners throughout the world. He 5 Yelensky, B, The Struggle for Equality, Whitechapel High St, London E1 fought tirelessly for his fallen comrades p20. 7QX. Send a pound for an issue. and is a man who should not be lost 6 Ibid. Earth First! Action Update, within the pages of history. Nor is he a 7 Letter From P Avrich to Matthew Hart. monthly news from Earth First! 8 Zinn, Howard, A People History of man whose work should be forgotten £5 for 12-issue sub. PO Box 487, the United States, 1492-Present, or discredited as myth or folklore. He Norwich NR2 3AL. pp346-347. should be remembered and respected 9 Goldman, Emma. Living My Life, p533. Collective Action Notes. Bulletin 10 Letter from P Avrich to Matthew Hart. produced by CAN. Information on 11 Avrich, P, The Russian Anarchist, struggles worldwide. Contact PO Stormy Petrel pp136-137. Box 22962 Baltimore, MD 212, USA. 12 Bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross, Do or Die! c/o Prior House, pamphlets London, July 1967. 6 Tilbury Place, Brighton BN2 2GY. Towards a Fresh Revolution by 13 Bulletin of the Anarchist Red Cross, £5 for an issue. It only comes out The Friends of Durruti. Writings New York, 1924. once a year and covers a whole from the much-misunderstood 14 Yelensky, B, Twentieth Anniversary, range of environmentally-related group who attempted to defend Alexander Berkman Aid Fund of the International Workingmen issues, including news and and extend the Spanish Revolution Association, p7. discussion on the anti-capitalist of 1936. 75p plus postage. 15 Letter From P Avrich to Matthew Hart. movement. We don’t agree with Malatesta’s Anarchism and 16 Yelensky, B, Twentieth Anniversary, everything in it and they Violence. An important document Alexander Berkman Aid Fund of the sometimes say unpleasant things in the history of anarchist theory International Workingmen about us, but it’s a must anyway. refutes the misrepresentation of Association p7. anarchism as mindless destruction, 17 Bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross, NEFAC, the Northeastern Federation while restating the need for July 1967. of Anarcho-Communists. Probably revolution to create a free and 18 Anarchist Black Cross Bulletin No. 2, the group closest to us politically. equal society. 50p plus postage. Chicago Anarchist Black Cross, Write to either NEFAC (English A Brief Flowering of Freedom: The September-October 1972. speaking), Roundhouse Collective, Hungarian Revolution 1956. An 19 New York Times, December 12 1969. c/o Black Planet Radical Books, 20 Christie, Stuart, Stafano Delle Chiaie: exciting account of one of the first 1621 Fleet St, Baltimore MD 21231, Portrait of a Black Terrorist, pp63-64. post-war uprisings against the USA or NEFAC (Francophone), 21 Baumann, Bommi, How It All Began, Stalinist monolith. Also includes a Groupe Anarchiste Émile-Henry, pp93-103. C.P. 55051, 138 St-Valliers O, history of the Hungarian anarchist 22 Tom Vague, The Red Army Faction movement. 60p plus postage. 1963-1993, pp42-43. Quebec G1K 1JO, Canada. All available from AF (London), c/o 23 Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Alternatively, you can link to 84b Whitechapel High St, E1 7QX. Black Flag, Volume 5, Number 7, 1978. them through our website. 24 Times, December 21 1979.

21 REVIEWS

A question of organisation These comments do not only come Facing the Enemy: A History of from those unfamiliar with anarchism, Anarchist Organization from Proudhon this narrow and misinformed perspective to May 1968 is also to be readily found within the by Alexandre Skirda, translated by Paul awkwardly emerging anarchist Sharkey movement. Recently, I’ve read and heard AK Press from people who take the labels of Reviewed by Geert Dhondt, Valley ‘individualist’, ‘insurrectionist,’ and Anarchist Organization, Western ‘primitivist’ that they are highly Massachusetts, in Northeastern Anarchist suspicious of the new revolutionary #5 organisational efforts of North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists In the name of the principles of (NEFAC) and the Bring the Ruckus (BTR) individual autonomy and freedom of draft proposal, specifically because of the initiative, every stable organisational tie strategic organisational structures that was repudiated as being authoritarian these groups advocate. Individualist and thus anti-anarchist. Gaetano anarchistic tendencies mistrust of throughout history has failed to bring Manfredonia anarchist organising is nothing new. It about a new and free society. “Torn It will be readily appreciated that I has existed since the debates amongst between strident individual autonomy cannot remain indifferent to the the 19th century anarchists. and a sometimes lumbering collective nonchalance and negligence currently The book, Facing the Enemy, is new approach, libertarians have regularly obtaining in our circles. On the one hand, ammunition for anarchists who want a failed to leave a definitive liberating it prevents the creation of a coherent greater understanding of the history, imprint upon events and upon the libertarian collective that would enable successes and failings in anarchist movement of history.” anarchists to take their proper place in organising, and the debates and Skirda believes that a reason why the revolution, and on the other, it controversies that plagued our 19th and anarchists have failed to make an permits a making-do with fine phrases 20th century radical predecessors. This imprint on these events is because and grand notions, while shying away book is for those who are interested in anarchists have failed to build effective when action is called for. Responsibility creating truly revolutionary organisations. The main focus of the and collective discipline should not cause organisations. Organisations that are book is the organisational platform of the alarm: they are the fellow travellers of absolutely necessary for those not just Dielo Truda group. The book builds up the practice of . Nestor interested in ‘fucking shit up’, but for the writing of the Platform as the Makhno those who are fighting to win. What a highlight of anarchist organisation, “! Organisation! These are timely book. drawing on the lessons of the contradictory.” I heard these comments, The focus of Facing the Enemy is on Makhnovists during the Russian with fellow comrades from the Valley anarchist organisations in France, Russia Revolution and the following chapters Anarchist Organization (VAO), at a and Spain. It is divided into 20 chapters, discuss the influence of the platform on gathering in Western Massachusetts. plus an appendix of about 100 pages of those organisations. These confused and misguided rantings original documents (such as The Skirda contends that the did not come from an ISO initiate or Organisational Platform) and a Organisational Platform is directly in line Trotskeyite prankster, but from an bibliographic list of names. The book with Bakunist organisation. The unsuspecting individual who came across starts off with Stirner and Proudhon, Organisational Platform of the General VAO’s literature table. He seemed to continues with chapters on Bakunin, Union of Anarchists was written in 1926 possess little or no knowledge of bakuninist organisation, The Alliance and by the Dyelo Truda group, an anarchism, or other revolutionary the First International, propaganda by assemblage of Russian anarchists living traditions. He was, however, echoing a the deed, anti-organisationists and in exile in France in the aftermath of common misunderstanding that bombers, the rise of syndicalism, and the . anarchism has absolutely nothing to do international congresses, World War I, Drawing upon their experiences in the with organisation, that “anarchism and the Russian Revolution, and a large part anarchist movement for more then 20 organisation are opposites – how can you on the Dielo Truda group (a group of years and analysing the failures of the have a group with a name such as Russian anarchists in exile in France), anarchist movement during WWI and the Anarchist Organization?” Unfortunately, their Organisational Platform of Russian Revolution, the Platform was given the current trends in radical Libertarian Communists and the debates written as a proposal to form an politics, there exists a general reluctance around the Platform, the CNT-FAI and as organisation, one that would be able to by anarchists to educate non-anarchists well as some more recent anarchist respond to crises, such as war or a about what anarchism is, and a refusal organisations in France. revolutionary situation, and then take among many anarchists to attempt to In Facing the Enemy, Alexandre advantage of these crises to build a free come to a consensus definition of Skirda historically and theoretically society. anarchism. analyses why it is that anarchism Facing the Enemy is an important tool

22 REVIEWS to be used in the current debates in the guide the revolutionary masses in an watch over the “CNT’s doctrinal anarchist movement around organisation anarchist direction. orthodoxy”, a relatively small group of and synthesis vs. platformist and cadre The aim of the revolutionary anarchists who worked to steer the CNT organisations. The platform organisation, organisation was, according to Bakunin, into an anarchist direction. The objective as detailed and analysed by Skirda, was “to assist the people’s self-determination of the Platform, the formulation of the subject to every sort of criticism and on a basis of absolute equality, and full FAI, NEFAC and the BTR, is to organise accusation of being anti-anarchist. In and multifarious human freedom”. The along the lines of a theoretical and similar fashion to the attacks against the Alliance was the Bakuninist organisation practical programme. It is not the platformists in the 1920s, NEFAC, which within the context of the First purpose to take control of any movement seeks to federate anarcho-communist International and while both these but instead it is the strategy of the collectives, and the Bring the Ruckus groups were pursuing the same ultimate formation of such groups to influence proposal, which calls for the formation of goals, their strategies were different. and steer autonomous self-activity of a revolutionary cadre organisation, are The International had as its mission to oppressed people into a revolutionary facing anti-anarchist criticisms by some organise the workers into one body, and anti-authoritarian direction. of today’s anti-organisational, self- while the Alliance had as its mission, I have found this book extremely proclaimed anarchist factions. “the endowment of those masses with a relevant if not invaluable to my A whole chapter covers the debate genuinely revolutionary direction”. The understanding and approach to the around the Platform: attacks on tactical Organisational Platform picks up the issues we face in today’s anarchist unity and collective responsibility by tradition where Bakunin left off. movement. But the book is much, much Malatesta, synthesis vs platformist As Skirda explains, “The chief reason more than that. It is a complete and easy debate with Voline, as well as a debate for the anarchist movement’s lack of to read history of anarchist organisations that the Platform was the ‘Bolshevisation success has been the absence of firm in 19th and 20th century Europe. It of anarchism’. Interestingly, the principles and consistent organisational covers the struggles our deceased and strongest opposition to the Platform practice”. Anarchism had to “marshal its beloved comrades faced and how came from anarchists who stood by the forces into an active general important anarchist figures related to synthesis position. This synthesis idea is organisation, as required by reality and organisations. Facing the Enemy also not to differentiate your position from the strategy of the social struggle of the includes interesting details and different anarchist tendencies, but classes”, which was in tune with the anecdotes (such as a police-paid-for instead that those who hold Bakuninist tradition and the wishes of anarchist paper in Paris, police contradictory positions can work Kropotkin. This organisation would lay infiltration of anarchist ‘propaganda by together in a meaningful way. The aim down a general tactical and political line the deed’ groups or how Voline of this process is to try to fuse the for anarchism, leading on to an translated the Platform to French from different anarchist tendencies and be as “organised collective practice”. This does Russian to give certain important words inclusive as possible. This synthesis not mean that they believed that all different meanings in an attempt to position is exemplified now by social anarchists should unite under this one undermine the Platform). ecologists working in the modern platform; from the very beginning the Skirda exhibits full control of the movement. Dielo Truda group stated that this would subjects he discusses and the book is full Taking the perspective put forth by be impossible and undesirable. There of quotes, interesting analysis and Facing the Enemy, anarchists will find exists a wide variety of tendencies insights into the events that shaped insight into the problems plaguing the within anarchism which are often 20th century anarchist theory. Skirda’s success of NEFAC and the Bring the contradictory. The Platform was written invaluable historical account is written Ruckus document. I find that these to “make an ideological and political in a serious and sometimes witty style. groups are the current versions of the selection of anarchism’s homogeneous Facing the Enemy also gives an platformist (NEFAC) and cadre (BTR) forces and at the same time differentiate accessible overview of how different traditions of anarchist organisations. themselves from anarchism’s chaotic, trends within anarchism developed These two groups, though utilising petit-bourgeois (liberal) and rootless throughout the last 150 years. I different issues, come forth from a elements”. sincerely hope that this important book tradition including Bakuninist The creation of an organisation of will be widely read. organisation, the Alliance, the militants on the bases of a theoretical Organisational Platform and the FAI and practical programme, differentiating (Iberian Anarchist Federation). Bakunin themselves on the basis of ideology and thought that a revolutionary anarchist strategy from other anarchists, is the organisation should be the grouping of a core of the Platform. Similarly, the small group of well-disciplined creation of the FAI in Spain in 1927 is revolutionaries that would act as a sort the continuation of these ideas of of ‘general staff’ in the revolution, who organisational practice. The FAI was “would take great care not to supplant created to keep the CNT (National the people in its struggle for Confederation of Labour), a large union, emancipation”. This organisation was to anarchist. The FAI goal was to keep

23 REVIEWS

The Bolsheviks’ pet anarchist were justified in turning to theft and robbery to maintain themselves. Victor Serge: The course is set on hope. was greatly Susan Weissman. Verso. 2001. influenced by the thinkers Stirner and £22. 364pp Nietzsche. In many ways it reflected the Verso seem to want to cash in on the defeats and repression suffered by awakened interest in anarchism around anarchism and the workers’ movement the world. To quote from their press release: in Europe, a turning away from the class “A spectre is haunting the world, the struggle, the social anarchism of Bakunin spectre of anarchy… condemned as a and Kropotkin, and revealed the penetration ‘travelling circus’ and even a fascist of bourgeois ideas into the movement, threat to democracy, the anti-globalisation even though in the main it was made up protestors summon up a spirit that has of working class people. been vilified by both left and right… Rather than looking to social action, it Victor Serge, the subject of this timely turned to the individual, who through political biography, perhaps best articulates thought, action and life-style would this revolutionary spirit. Here is a man achieve some sort of liberation. It had a who genuinely deserved and relished the disastrous effect on the anarchist movement moving on to shooting down bank ‘anarchist’ label.” in France, Italy, Germany and Argentina employees. One of the Bonnot Gang, Fortunately the writer of the book is a and, in my view, contributed to the Garnier, justified this by writing, “Why little bit more objective than the author development of the anti-organisational kill workers? They are vile slaves, without of this puff, putting Serge’s break with wing of anarchist communism around whom there wouldn’t be the bourgeois anarchism in 1913 (whether this itself is the Italian anarchist ; this and the rich. It’s in killing such true, we’ll look at later). represented a frightful synthesis between contemptible slaves that slavery will be Victor Serge has been popular in this the ideas of anarchist communism and destroyed”. country among Trotskyists eager to adopt anarchist . Serge, as one of the theoreticians of a ‘libertarian’ veneer in order to recruit The extraordinary personality of Albert this movement, wrote in l’anarchie the anarchists to their cause. This was certainly Libertad was one of the architects of article “I am with the bandits” on the case with Peter Sedgwick (translator individualist anarchism in France. Serge January 1912: “I find that their role is of Serge’s superb Memoirs of a became an orator at Les Causeries the beautiful role… the bandit is virile”. Revolutionary) and David Widgery (both Populaires – the People’s Chats – that The Bonnot Gang were either shot down members of International / had been initiated by Libertad and were by the police or were to face either the Socialist Workers Party and both now a series of lectures well attended by the guillotine or long years in prison, which deceased). They held up Serge as an Parisian working class. many did not survive. Serge was implicated example of a ‘libertarian Bolshevik’. Indeed It has to be remembered that this form and at the trial broke solidarity with his Widgery, through his writings for both of individualist anarchism, unlike later co-defendants by trying to say there was Socialist Worker and the hippy underground varieties, at least looked to the long- a vast difference between theorists like papers Oz and International Times, term goal of an anarchist communist him and the illegalist gun-toters. That he attempted to don this apparent mantle of society. Through vegetarianism, and was accidentally involved in an affair in Serge, himself posing as a ‘libertarian indeed veganism and fruitarianism, which he was innocent. Yet he had been Bolshevik’ when in practice his devotion teetotalism, giving up of tobacco, coffee its main cheer-leader! to the SWP was slavish. and tea, and through regular physical Spotting Lorulot, who had rejected Serge, whose real name was Kibalchich, education, this school of anarchism, , in the audience during the was born in Belgium to two exiled Russian Serge wrote, “demanded everything of trial, he demanded that he too should be revolutionaries towards the end of the us and offered everything to us”. At this charged for having mixed with and lodged 19th century. His family’s precarious time Serge thought that “the anarchist is illegalists, going so far as to falsely accuse existence meant that he experienced always illegal – theoretically. The single him of informing. This did not stop Serge hunger from early on, and in the course word ‘anarchist’ means rebellion in every from getting five years in prison, portrayed of his life he was to have a long sense”. In the illegalist milieu some in his excellent novel Men In Prison. acquaintance with hunger: his younger dodgier types even justified prostituting Unfortunately these strange political brother died at the age of nine due to a their girlfriends. contortions are glossed over in Weissman’s bad diet. Serge began to write for l’anarchie (in book, which devotes about three or four Moving from the ideas of the Belgian lower case, because capitals were pages in this biographical work. Socialist Party and rejecting parliamentary hierarchical!) and unlike Lorulot, its Following his release from jail, Serge action, he adopted the ideas of French previous editor, who at least looked towards went to Barcelona, involving himself in individualist anarchism after his expulsion some anarchist communist future, exalted the Spanish anarchist movement and the from Belgium in 1908. He went further illegal acts and the cult of the individual. failed uprising there in 1917 (which than most, supporting the illegalist wing, From around this magazine emerged became the subject of another of his fine which believed that all free individuals the Bonnot Gang, who began to rob banks, novels Birth of Our Power). Again, this

24 REVIEWS part of Serge’s life is given short shrift Man’ in spite of his behaviour, seeing statements, where he seems to be and I would disagree that Serge had him as one of the great figures of the accommodating himself to the Gaullist broken completely with anarchism in Russian Revolution. regime in France, my opinion is that he 1913, as he at least attempted to associate Serge at least offered later insights, in was turning to some form of social with an anarchist movement looking 1937-8, into the course of the Revolution, democracy and had lost hope in the towards the masses and social action. when he admitted that the suppression power of the working class to overthrow Arriving in Russia in 1919, he of the Kronstadt Revolt was a dreadful capitalism through a . enthusiastically joined the Bolsheviks. mistake, as was that of the Makhno Serge was an immensely interesting Serge’s writings of this period are shallow movement and that the establishment of character, but the sketchy description of justifications of the Bolsheviks’ authoritarian the repressive political police, the Cheka, key parts of his life fail to do justice to rule and appeals to anarchists to join the was the beginning of the end. him. This is not the definitive biography. Party. Serge was a great writer, and his Sloppiness in research gives us some When the Kronstadt sailors rose against novels must be regarded as some of the real howlers too. At the risk of sounding the Soviet regime in 1921, Serge agonised greatest works of ‘proletarian literature’, like one late writer on anarchist history, but failed to resign from the Party. He as indeed are his Memoirs. The realism I’d like to point out the following. Elisée had attempted to become involved in of his works is flecked through with Reclus, the French anarchist thinker, is mediations between the Kronstadt sailors great sensitivity. He saw most of his given as Recluse (this is repeated in the and the regime via the anarchists Alexander generation of revolutionaries dead in index); the Black Guard, an anarchist Berkman and . Serge’s combat, executed, or forced to commit grouping organising in Moscow is confused ambiguous attitudes and vacillations suicide and he remained alive through with the movement around Nestor earned him the contempt of both the some fluke of luck. This immense Makhno in the Ukraine; the great poet anarchists and the Bolshevik leadership. tragedy had an effect on his Yesenin is given as Yesinin, and the It could be said that the jump from revolutionary morale. Though supporters French sycophant of Stalin,Vaillant- individualist anarchism to Bolshevism of Serge have defended his final Couturier is given as Vaillant-Couturior. was a quantum leap. Yet both shared a contempt for the masses and Serge was not the only individualist to sing the Other Anarchist Federation publications praises of Bolshevism. Lorulot, for Anarchism As We See It, £1. Describes the basic ideas of anarchist communism example, was to write in 1918 that: “in in easy to read form. time of revolution, a measure of The Anarchist Movement in Japan, £1.50. A fascinating account of Japanese dictatorship is necessary” and by 1921 anarchism in the 20th Century. Japan had an anarchist movement of tens of was arguing for an “iron dictatorship of the proletariat”, a “dictatorship of elites thousands. This pamphlet tells their story. over brutes”. Other individualists like NEW: Aspects of Anarchism, £1. Thoughts and commentary on some of the Armand, Mauricius and Charles Auguste most important issues that anarchists must confront. Collected articles from Bontemps also spoke sympathetically of the pages of Organise! on the fundamentals of anarchist communism. the Bolsheviks’ methods. As Stalin began Against Parliament, for Anarchism, £1. Insights into the political parties of to establish his rule, Serge became Britain and why anarchists oppose all parties. associated with the Left Opposition within COMING SOON: Where There’s Brass, There’s Muck, Price to be announced. the Party and with its leader, Trotsky. Our newly-revised and extended pamphet on ecology. It would be fair to say that whilst Basic Bakunin, £1. This revised edition outlines the ideas of one of the 19th Serge worked with Trotsky he never really regarded himself as a Trotskyist per se. century founders of class struggle anarchism. For this he suffered persecution, exile in COMING SOON: The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation, £1. This 2003 Siberia and imprisonment in dreadful reprint explains the concept of revolutionary oganisation and its structure. All conditions. Weissman’s book, a large one, libertarian revolutionaries should read this fundamental text. deals in the main with this part of Serge’s A Brief Flowering of Freedom, £1. An exciting account of the Hungarian uprising life. Indeed, Serge’s final years in exile in against the Stalinist monolith in 1956. Also includes a history of the Hungarian Mexico are assigned one chapter, so that anarchist movement. the book as a biographical work seems The Friends of Durutti, £1. The Friends of Durruti were a much misunderstood oddly unbalanced. group who attempted to defend and extend the Spanish Revolution of 1936. Serge showed remarkable courage as Included are an historical introduction and two political statements by the an oppositionist, it must be said. What is Friends themselves. particularly valuable is the depiction of the relationship with Trotsky. He is shown Beyond Resistance – A revolutionary manifesto, £2. A detailed analysis of as unspeakably arrogant, intolerant and modern capitalism and the state and our understanding of how they will be narrow-minded, and Serge falls out with overthrown. him over many things. Yet he still For all pamphlets, the price includes the cost of postage. remains oddly impressed with ‘The Old

25 REVIEWS/LETTERS

Don’t Back Down, Revolution Now Press & Distro, 808, 14th Street, Saskatoon, Letters Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 0P8, no price Dear Organise! Don’t Back Down! is a detailed and Many thanks for publishing my letter in highly informative manual of how to take Issue 56. I have had similar letters direct action and avoid the consequences published in Class War, Green Anarchist for the serious activist. and Republican Communist (Scotland), It provides information on equipment but as you can imagine, not in mainstream Dear Organise! and supplies, getting people together for predominantly Trotskyist papers. This is I was surprised at the inclusion of a text action, tactics during and after riots and partly because groups like the SWP, SSP by the group Stop Huntington Animal other actions, first aid for people and SLP and their allies do not wish to Cruelty in the letters section of issue 59 gassed/sprayed, techniques for staying disturb their relationship with the masses of Organise! Their statement was calm, to stay focused, looking after other by appearing ‘ultra green’, ‘loony left’ reproduced complete with address, people and generally having a successful etc. This is understandable, because at website and telephone details – a fine ‘day out’! This short pamphlet/zine is the present time capitalist ethodology endorsement of SHAC’s politics. packed with information, easily carried has made the car a functional feature of Why no Editors’ reply? on the day or photocopied to be its population and the means of urban SHAC’s comparisons between the distributed among people up for direct and regional distribution, as well as a Nazis and people who work in the action and protest. It’s a very valuable status symbol. The old crafts of horse- laboratories at Huntington Life Sciences work, with lessons for all no matter drawn ploughing, inshore fishing and are reactionary bullshit. The ludicrous where you are, and clearly written by machine shop production, with stable and ideas that they spout about individuals people with a lot of experience to share. widespread community use is, to capitalists, with feathers or fur are hilarious but As the Distro says: “there’s no an anachronism. Significant in this respect should they be given any space in a fucking way the revolution will be is their denunciation of ‘Eastern Bloc’ revolutionary anarchist magazine? This transmitted via the internet. Paper zines inefficiency in production and farming ongoing association of anarchism with can be carried in your back pocket, read practice: ‘whereas the East German animal rights in this country acts as a in the crapper and passed to anyone on regime employed ten thousand in a factory hindrance to the development of an the street. Paper zines slide below the we need only one thousand’. They also anarcho-communist movement. Why class lines, phone lines and picket lines. mention the inefficiencies of Soviet labour help perpetuate the idea that Paper zines don’t give a shit about the distribution. Even their hero Ford is no contemporary British anarchism is linked cyber gap….”. Get it, and pass it on! longer a model, as robots replace human with these sorts of idiots? No price is given but the Distro asks skill in order to increase profits. Ford, of For communist anarchy everyone to make five copies of the course, created the human robot, but Dan. East London. pamphlet and accept donations from human labour is now only viable at third those able to make one. world slavery rates. The Labour and Tory parties are able Dear Organise! Catalogue to sustain votes without interacting with I’m starting a project that I was hoping South Chicago ABC Zine Catalog, PO Box the people outside of a TV screen. This is maybe some of your readers could help 721, Homewood, Ilinois 60430, USA because the masses in Britain are intent me with. For those interested in supporting prisoners, on obtaining cars and other ‘first world’ I’m looking at ‘Anarchism in the North this catalogue of zines, newsletters and luxury items, even though many workers East of England, 1945-1995’ for a North pamphlets provides the basic tools to can only afford second hand cars. I refer East Labour History Society project that understanding the oppressive nature of to the car as the ‘vehicle of alienation’ will hopefully become a chapter in a the US prison system in detail and the because it is devisive and sustains book next autumn. There is too little ways in which it is resisted in depth. capitalism, destroys the environment, and attention paid to the British anarchist All publications are written by separates the First from the Third World. movement by historians, especially in prisoners, their relatives, supporters or In China there are over 600 people to one the post war period, and I’d appreciate friends and explore not only the prison car. Communism, to function successfully, any help in an attempt to at least begin system and its effects but also the views must collectivise transport and that will to rectify this. Obviously, before anything of political prisoners for whom ‘release’ include bicycles. goes to the publishers, I’ll anonymise will only come via a libertarian revolution: Grass roots action has been very contributions (if that’s what contributors ideas from some of the most oppressed successful in building experience in want). If anyone can help me with this in people on the planet. All the publications community and debate. As the crisis of any way, I’d like to hear from them at are extremely cheap and the publisher is capitalism intensifies, yet again there will this address: a clearing house for other zines and undoubtedly be an increase in resistance. PO Box ITA, Newcastle, NE99 ITA pamphlets on anarchism, and Best wishes Or by email to: [email protected] anti-racism. AC, Edinburgh In solidarity, Lewis

26 ANARCHIST FEDERATION Aims and principles

1. Anarchist Federation is an organisation of revolutionary class management. Their aim, through negotiation, is to achieve a struggle anarchists. We aim for the abolition of all hierarchy, fairer form of exploitation for the workforce. The interests of and work for the creation of a world-wide : leaders and representatives will always be different to ours. anarchist communism. The boss class is our enemy, and while we must fight for better conditions from it, we have to realise that reforms we may 2. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class achieve today may be taken away tomorrow. Our ultimate aim by the ruling class. But inequality and exploitation are also must be the complete abolition of . Working within expressed in terms of race, gender, sexuality, health, ability and the unions can never achieve this. However, we do not argue age, and in these ways one section of the working class for people to leave unions until they are made irrelevant by the oppresses another. This divides us, causing a lack of class unity revolutionary event. The union is a common point of departure in struggle that benefits the ruling class. Oppressed groups are for many workers. Rank and file initiatives may strengthen us strengthened by autonomous action which challenges social in the battle for anarchist-communism. What’s important is and economic power relationships. To achieve our goal we that we organise ourselves collectively, arguing for workers to must relinquish power over each other on a personal as well as control struggles themselves. political level. 8. Genuine liberation can only come about through the 3. We believe that fighting racism and sexism is as important revolutionary self-activity of the working class on a mass scale. as other aspects of the class struggle. Anarchist-communism An anarchist communist society means not only co-operation cannot be achieved while sexism and racism still exist. In order between equals, but active involvement in the shaping and to be effective in their struggle against their oppression both creating of that society during and after the revolution. In within society and within the working class, women, lesbians times of upheaval and struggle, people will need to create their and gays, and black people may at times need to organise own revolutionary organisations controlled by everyone in independently. However, this should be as working class people them. These autonomous organisations will be outside the as cross-class movements hide real class differences and control of political parties, and within them we will learn many achieve little for them. Full emancipation cannot be achieved important lessons of self-activity. without the abolition of capitalism. 9. As anarchists we organise in all areas of life to try to 4. We are opposed to the ideology of national liberation advance the revolutionary process. We believe a strong movements which claims that there is some common interest anarchist organisation is necessary to help us to this end. between native bosses and the working class in face of foreign Unlike other so-called socialists or communists we do not want domination. We do support working class struggles against power or control for our organisation. racism, genocide, ethnocide and political and economic We recognise that the revolution can only be carried out colonialism. We oppose the creation of any new ruling class. We directly by the working class. However, the revolution must be reject all forms of nationalism, as this only serves to redefine preceded by organisations able to convince people of the divisions in the international working class. The working class anarchist communist alternative and method. has no country and national boundaries must be eliminated. We We participate in struggle as anarchist communists, and seek to build an anarchist international to work with other organise of a federative basis. We reject sectarianism and work libertarian revolutionaries throughout the world. for a united revolutionary anarchist movement. 5. As well as exploiting and oppressing the majority of people, Capitalism threatens the world through war and the WANT TO JOIN THE AF? destruction of the environment. WANT TO FIND OUT MORE? 6. It is not possible to abolish Capitalism without a revolution, which will arise out of . The ruling class must be I agree with the AF’s Aims and Principles and I would completely overthrown to achieve anarchist communism. like to join the organisation. Because the ruling class will not relinquish power without the I would like more information about the Anarchist use of armed force, this revolution will be a time of violence as Federation. well as liberation. Please put me on the AF’s mailing list. 7. Unions by their very nature cannot become vehicles for the Name ...... revolutionary transformation of society. They have to be Address...... accepted by capitalism in order to function and so cannot play a part on its overthrow. Trade unions divide the working class Please tick/fill in as appropriate and return to: (between employed and unemployed, trade and craft, skilled AF, c/o 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. and unskilled, etc). Even syndicalist unions are constrained by Anarchist Federation (Ireland), PO Box 505 Belfast, the fundamental nature of unionism. The union has to be able BT12 6BQ. to control its membership in order to make deals with

27 REVOLUTIONARY PORTRAITS Revolutionary portraits Senna Hoy Senna Hoy was born Johannes Holzmann in 1882 into a well-off Jewish family. Hoy is mentioned as a member of Helen Blavatsky’s Theosophical circle We continue our series, on the in Berlin in 1903, when he would have lives of those women and men been 18. The following year he broke who have done so much over with the compromise politics of the Social the last 120 years to build the Democrats and their accommodation to anarchist movement. the Kaiser’s Germany. He took the name Senna Hoy (his first name more or less spelt backwards) and started Democrats would support it and that it bringing out a weekly anarchist magazine would be disastrous for the German notorious Citadel prison in Warsaw, Kampf (Struggle). Kampf reached the masses. Senna Hoy argued for and from there to the criminal lunatic circulation figure of 10,000 in 1905, workers’ self-organisation and against division (with echoes of the treatment which was no mean feat for a political the trade unions controlled by the of dissidents under the Soviet regime). weekly of that period. Social Democrats. Anarchists from Suffering from TB brought on by Kampf was an amazing publication. Kampf went to the industrial region of starvation, he was in a terrible Alongside the agitational articles were the Ruhr to spread this message in condition. Else Lasker-Schuler, who pleas for sexual freedom, above all gay 1905, and their efforts laid the basis was in love with him, came to Russia liberation. Whilst not homosexual for a strong working class anarchist in 1913 to plead for his release. But it himself, Senna Hoy was a pioneer in tradition there. A national network was already too late, because a few advocating tolerance of homosexuality. around the magazine began to be created, months later, on 28 April 1914, Senna In 1903, in conjunction with Adolf Brand, which spread throughout Germany. Hoy was to die at the age of 29. His he brought out a pamphlet, The Third body was brought back to Berlin. Else Sex, on the subject. Alongside this were Repression Lasker-Schuler wrote a moving poem articles from artists, writers and poets. The Berlin police began to take note, in tribute to her fallen lover. But let Erich Muhsam, who was to become a and repression against Kampf forced Senna Hoy have the last word in a notable anarchist and end up being Hoy to leave Germany for Switzerland, poem smuggled out of prison in the done to death in Hitler’s concentration where he edited the anarchist magazine last year of his life. camps, began to contribute and was a Der Weckruf (The Dawn). A great What does it mean to have lived, felt, close associate of Hoy. revolutionary ferment was taking place known, wanted, sown, reaped? Gustav Landauer, another notable within the Russian Empire from 1905- Soon I will be no more and the world – anarchist who was to be murdered in 1907 and Hoy gravitated to this. In who knows? – will last for eons. the repression of the Munich workers’ Poland and Lithuania, part of the Tsar’s Deeds there are, which I haven’t done, councils in 1919, also contributed. Empire, the anarchist movement was thoughts burn – which haven’t ripened yet. Trailblazing artists and poets began to young and vibrant. A secret conference Pain, whips, which haven’t tortured, contribute, like Paul Scheerbart, who of anarchist-communist groups from laughter resounds, which I haven’t laughed. invented ‘sound poems’ and the gifted these two countries took place in June There go my gravediggers to their work poet and writer Else Lasker-Schuler 1907 and a Federation of Anarchist with pipes, jokes. (she had thought up his new name). Communist Groups was set up. The last thought ices over in the brain, Hoy had a profound influence on Franz In the repression which followed, last desires shriek in the heart. Pfemfert who was to bring out the 24 anarchists were arrested, among I regret every crime in my life that I magazine Aktion, which united them Senna Hoy, apprehended in haven’t yet committed, Every wish which I haven’t realised in revolutionary ideas in politics and art. Moscow. They were imprisoned for a my life. Pfemfert paid tribute to Hoy when he long time in dreadful conditions. Hoy called him:” A 20-year-old political was tortured and then sentenced to Senna Hoy had an important part to conscience in Berlin. He did not go in prison with hard labour. Some of the play in his action and his influence on vain into the fight for freedom”. comrades became mad as a result of others in the growth of the German Kampf prophesied a coming war the appalling treatment they received. anarchist movement, and his obscurity with the British Empire, that the Social In 1911, Senna Hoy was moved to the is unjustified.

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