Black Flag Vol:01
1--Ii
I -. . -I. I
-I -.-i=i||1""*-*, "'
.1 ‘P -'1 o et /in o the 1" more /is X; 7° ’ eck /“O55
h rK="1ZflI'I :Ir=Ir- -II-l‘I‘I'"' 1|-Ir -I-r.— I-- In 1--. ‘I . c -Ir -.—~.' "1-- an "'u""‘I" Ii-r --.1-‘I-r-III-w.r_---1-III"-—II-I|I~1-1:-In-'rqI--I-I-L-:H*II==.-'-I=.r.ul'-Ir--I\- u—*- -- 1-" -II IF"-111'" ‘PI’ '- I'~'-ifl"*flIIFl'&1br?I"
Vol.1. No. 8. June l970p e Price 6d — sub y voluntary
~rmx r-In- .1|-.v-- PI"-.-.‘l..F-F1‘?! -r n.-..1.-.-I r¢n.—'-an-$11111.-1-‘-.1 - I |; lnI-i‘-.-rj|.$i-'I—»..|-I-31-Inn
1 1
I | L - . " It is not necessary for you to tell me that violence breeds violence. 'We of the people have known this longer than you, have, and for my part I know it ten years age when nobody came dashing down from Washington to tell Dias that to let the I peasants live on grass would breed violence; or that sheotinghwqp down those who asked for a few pence more a week would breed violence; or that feeding the lice on prisoners from one decade to another would surely breed violence. _ L " New when you see the workers with winchesters in their hands youecw" hasten to explain to us uneducated men that this will only breed more violence, and you say and I knew that history proves you right. Only I would like to know whore we should be if we threw away our guns and stood out there hat in hand bowing before the landlords and officers like we did before the revolution. My friends can answer for themselves - you.know as well as I do where I should be — three feet under after dancing six feet over. " And you also know that men who are hero have only to stop fighting and they will go to feed worms in the grave or lice in the jails or at the best go back to slavery, and this thought sometimes makes men more fierce than is their nature. But they are not barbarians, as you think. Oh, I know, when you come here with cameras, you salute me as if I were the President and address me out of my degree as General, but when you are in New York, in your offices, with -your drinks and yeurrwomen, then you write to tell the world I am the most savage barbarian of them all. Isn‘t that so? But I am not so stupid as you think, and know just as well as if I had studied history that fighting provokes more ; fighting, and blood, blood. e " You tell me (President) Wilson deplores violence but I am not such a fool as to ask you if in that case (General) Pershing has gone to work in the fields. I understand the futility of violence better than this Wilson, for I was flogged and saw my brothers starve and be shot down when he lived in a big house with servants and was . told he was a Christian. If I had not known this as a boy I might’ have been so great a criminal as to join the state army and by new be one of Carranza's generals, whom hobody tells violence is unvirtuous» b _ " Enough, we know violence breeds violence, what I would like toknew is how peace may breed peace? For my part Ithink when there are no masters and no slaves, when there are governments issuing orders indeed and churches decrees, but nobody obeying them, when all who wish land and liberty may have it, and these who want to oppress have no arms, then and then only, peace will breed peace. " " - IEmiliano Z A P A T A ‘ J‘ Q~"~
‘I 1+ * " I-
to a Gestapo in Britain? A ‘ A. C judge recently thinks we are net. _ ' 1 ” by A Gestapo "carries out politicalf TEE BULLETIN QF THE decisions", he says. How manyi, A decisions of the government would be ANARCHIST BLAQK, QRQ§3 carried out if it were not for the . pigs to enforce them? 'Without 1 the police government might as well Amiguel Garcia Garcia‘ I turn itself into a debating society - of a slightly less intellectual kind Stuart Christie. than normal. 1 _ A Albert Meltzer. p S I i S w“' A S » L S iv, In Scotland Yard there is a ”“’) A * A-»~" Fraud Squad, a Vice Squad, a Murder _ D Squad a department outside the Address lor all correspondence: Yard)’fOr Military Intelligence; S,
10 Gilbert Place, London, 'U.C.l. Politicalthere is aSquad.BurglaryOnlySquadwhenanditE comes
Giro Account No, 51 172 OOO9 ofto hypocrisythe latter,insiststhe nationalwe changevice e the name. It is called Special Branch. contr1'butions to ABC may be sent by ‘whet iS)5P@@i&1? That it 15 post or paid direct to Giro at Post PO1iti@al- Off1°G° NOTE OUR CURRENT ADDRESS It serves the government of the (Postal Only)” day. But in its private,political capacity. Rightly, ministers, or ““““““““““““““““““““'““““”'“" at any rate the Prime Minister (for QQpi@$ 6a, V91, 1, Nb, 8, his colleagues may become victims), should be surcharged with the expense June 1970 of their private police force.) For ““”““““”“II“““““““““““““"'“““““'”' Harold Wilson, for instance, delibere A It 3. atol increased Special Branch by Law and Ordbr 60 mgmbers when he knew his personal popularity was waning and when he As we go to press, Britain deemed "extremist" activity was _ damaging to his electoral prospectsa is seized by a general erection... and one of its orgasms has been Yet the taxpayer paid, including the issue of ‘law and order’. The "extremists"." K A Right'Wing is normally concerned, M _ _ _ with saying it is opposed to State , _ This 1% th? typg of question 'i intervention... but every time it Mlnlsters flnd lt hard to anSWer.- gets a Scare it Seems that it lndeed, do not answer: §Under Grim.
DOESafterbelieveginalla TheStategovernmentinterventionneed Law‘Jtm Callaghan’as we have thedubbed“eweit,'Ca11aghan'Smeans that not interfere in this and that.... police Offioerg may Obaect to but the police should set out their batl on the €T°und5 that they_ ' truncheons and start hitting fir dlsdpfrove of a person S po11tlos' quick] By this they mean thafi No previous Home Secretary conceded they recognise the evils of tniS' Cillafitanifilnts lt ls O'K'Eut government but want them only to ifiiegigigi O;°ar;l:ifOigfGfiZa$§§1 0 apply against the working class nOt_Want to say SO‘ I (plus the students, nowadays). b . A Many Tories will object to In the 19i5 Blootiong Mr“ Russian Communism. Ask them if they Churchill foresaw the need of "ac . R . f I Gestaymfl pf the Labour Party Wan: will exclude ussla rem. nterpol.... " ‘ q y‘q and if so, where do they draw..the line — and was just as essential tp thfii gfifiigjsted to hear even a coherent Tories. Indeed, in this election, Mr. Hogg is battling like mad for The election of Heath or Wilson a bigger' andI "cbetter» Gos ~ t.ape, on will make no difference whatsoever behalf of the Tory Party. to the question of freedom. All the yyfire We justified in referring election prov1des,however,1s ten. minutes to.ask a question about 1t.
. , 1:’
Page 2 THE BOMBING OF THE IBERIA AIRLINES . ,_
The story behind it For some time the FIRST OF MAY GROUP have been carrying out strong and sharp attacks upon the Franco regime. These activities have greatly disturbed the Spanish police, which turned to Interpol for assistance. The French Government already had a working agreement — by which Franco was to control French Rightists operating from Madrid and French Democracy would repress Spanish Lefists operating from Paris. C The Spanish Press sought a "personal devil" on whom to blame all the "crimes" of the anarchist resistance, and elected Octavio Alberola. Every twinge that Franco gets is blamed upon Octavio. The police of no country have as yet learned that anarchists have no leaders, that their groups are independent, and that they do not have the need for conspiratorial conferences. Consequently, everybody is watching Alberola.
The kidnapping of Garrigues One of the libertarian groups in Spain on _ (we are not so sure it was the lst of (May Group, but the Spanish Press claim it was) decided as a protest to kidnap Emilio Garrigues y Diaz—Cafiabete, ambassador to UNESCO. It was his brother Mgr. M. Garrigues, who (as ambassador to the Vatican) 'was previously kidnapped as a hostage for the lives of various comrades, and later released when they were spared. C)In accordance with usual (perhaps quixotic) practice, the group concerned had made a previous statement that they (would carry out such a kidnapping. They may have thought the police would protect the other Garrigues. Be that as it may, the police were waiting and arrested four comrades who made the attempt in Paris. . i In March, then, as Garrigues was going to his apartments, four "persons of Iberian appearance" (according to the Press) were waiting with a pistol, chloroform etc. but were placed in custody. They stated "We wished to put pressure on the FTEHKD government to release our comrades". These men had come from Spain (it was said in one report they had Uparachuted" into France, which is absurd).i P I * UThe police therefore knew that there would certainly be a renewed attempt to put pressure on the Franco government. For if this attempt failed, the logic of the Franco regime would be to increase pressure on prisoners when Emilio's kidnapping was frustrated, just as they relieved it when brother Antonio's;was successful. ye How, we do not know, but Interpol learned that the "big show" would be for May the First. (Perhaps an association of ideas with the May the first group). Further, they had picked up the words "Latin Commandos" — whatever that means - who would make the attempt on Qberia Lines thay day. es V e'~ These attacks are "highly dangerous to passengersV, you think‘? Then we wonder why Tl-IE} PUBLIC ‘JAS NOT WABNED? Instead, higk.ranking police officers from.New Scotland Yard visited Mr. Stuart Christie, telling him they knew of the plans of the "Latin Commandos" and "would he tell them to cool it". A e They felt sure he would know the persons concerned — after all, he had spent several years amongst them. And unlike the Italian police (our colleagues in Interpol) who let Off bombs themselves and blow up innocent people, in order to discredit the Left.... unlike the French lpolice (our colleagues in Interpol) who employ agents provocateurs... yunlike the Spanish police (who shoot first and find youlre trying to escape after. . . also our colleagues in Interpol) the BritishSPolice genuinely desires to"cool it" and apparently do not disdain the help of ordinary members of the public. y; (Cmntinued.Over1eaf
. I _ ' |r I . q.. - ' 1:.1 . _ -- I ‘K. | _ -.
I Page 3 Continued from overleaf).
'What is the Truth about the The biggest joke for several First of May Group? . centuries is on Interpol. 'When I G Philip II of Spain drove the Dutch out of occupied Holland, the fleet took refuge in English ports. Elizabeth I. typically subsequfintly sold them out and obliged them to leave refuge in England.... they sailed back into a Dutch port and from then en could not be dislodged.... Philip II was driven out instead.... LET US HOPE HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.... for the French authorities have made it so difficult for the First of May~ Group to operate inside France that it has lock stock and barrel re+established itself in a Spanish city....where it can rely upon solid support. That is why Interpol cannot find them and why Scotland Yard expected the Black Cross to act as its post office!
Iberia Nothing happened on the lst of May, it happened a I at week later. Nor was Scotland Yard taken unawares.x Theireason the public were not notified was because Iberia Airlines did not wish to lose revenue. A sad commentary on travel ethics? | On Sunday May lOth — just when Iberia was opening up its 'links with Communist Poland as part of the MoscoweMadrid line—up - there were attacks on Spanish aircraft in London, Amsterdam, Geneva, Frankfurt... in each case the aerodrome was warned beforehand, so that there would be no loss of life. I S x In view of the various speculation in the Press, how do we know anarchists were responsible? Elementary: in the first place, there was deliberately no damage to life, only to property. The word "terrorist" covers both the anarchist and the national- ist. But the nationalist fights against PEOPLES. The anarchist fights GOVERNMENTS. The attack on the Israeli school bus blowing up a number of:schoolchildren was obviously not done by anarchists; but by Arab Nationalists (allies of Moscow, Mao & Trotskyism). This is nationalism. The attacks on the aircraft, which have involved a subsequent million and a half pounds sterling in security precautions and damaged Iberia tourism beyond belief (despite official denials, hundreds of cancellations came in one day) were not done by nationalists.. Furthermore, the police do not even understand their own lousy job.; On the same day, in London, the terrorists "SIGNEDITHEIR NAMES" by also bombing I certain county courts and banks. 'Nho_could it be that would do such a thing? ‘Would Basque Nationalists also take a shot at the county court on the way home? Come, come.;. would Trotskyists? They might want the proletarianisation of thegcourtl (As for the C.P. — just celebrating its rapproahemont with the Iberia Airlines 1' so that people can fly direct from a Spanish prison to a Polish one - well, the small coverage in the Morning Star stated as its headline "Bomb blast plane saved by late passenger" and made no comment on why it could have happened. Do We Support this type of Action? Apparently there are certain people who believe that the Black Cross believes in "going round blowing things up". Our raison d'etre is in fact merely to help, by what are perfectly legal means )— at least in this country —- those who are accused o; such actions as that involved in the present instance. For we understand that the real criminals are the present military government in Spain. That the Resistance has been obliged to adopt such an extreme measure to draw the attention of the world to the plight of the prisoners in Spain — the forefront of the Resistance — is not (as some journalists have suggested) a measure of desperation. It was obviossly planned to cause the minimum.of inconvenience to the public, with no casualties, and the maximum blow at the pockets of the State airline. (Continued on page 7) Page 4' dill it be this summer SPECIAL BRANCH V THE BLACK CROSS p to replace the Springbok Tour ?
I 1. In a review of 'Floodgat es‘ the 'Latin.Commandos' who were Mr Allexander comments that oing to attack the airlines the Special Branch have,it %before it happened). This is seems, transferred their a bad precedent. Others could ‘comic opera’ activities be intimidated if police came from the CP to the Anarch- to their place of work. More, ists. An apt term; but it they complained he had not let is less funny when it is them know where he was living. for real and the actors I know of no law that says one really die off. Nobody should notify one's change of could better Adolf Hitler's address., impersonation of Charlie I therefore raised this Chaplin, but it stopped matter with the Home Secretary being funny around the and even now thereis an inquiry first act. into it, as yet unsettled. So maybe they were reluctant to INTERPOL It seems that go to his workplace.... so for no apparent ELEVEN POLICP reason, save that ‘Spain? in TWO CARS AND ONE is an emotive catchword,the A MOTOR CYCLE Black Cross receives more), "hid" outside and gave him.a than its share of attention. "Bonnie and Clyde" chase home from Spefial Branch; Per+ (he managed to lose them). haps the esteemed Spanish NEXT DAY FIFTEEN POLICE colleagues of Interpol have including two motor cyclists something to do with this.p repeated the performance. But it rankled with the He disappeared under their Home Secretary when th€i noses on the floor of a worke mate's car, Tories said| . "thei *1 anarchists had won a victory" over the By this time 36 gas- cancellation of the SOuth fitters were amazed spectators African cricket tour. In of the scene. Again the fact, some
A Dr Marcello Guide, head of the Milan police, says Pinelli committed suicide. He is a ? liar. Whom is he shielding? '”Railwaymen and trade unionists generally, must ask this question loudly. C NGTES OF‘ THE ANARCHIST BLACK it can be posted. 'What can be used CROSS will be sent to Spain; what cannot ; be used will be sold to defray a ' ‘expenses of sending.
|
The last Bulletin appeared in June 1
r ‘We are sorry for this long delay. ._____ i" _ ‘I due to the overwhelming amount of
work now falling'3 on Oury ltalian—speaking read re are T small committee. T p p N invited to obtainN the CroceP Nera y pp _ yr _y. y_t. Anarchica. from oircolc Ponte della ~APart from the Preperetlon of the Ghisolfa,'Piazzale Lugano No. 31, Bulletin there are a great many 20158 MIIANO Iialyfl _' Z. | matters claiming our attention? nflufloflungflfiflnn=‘uuDuaflouefiu§$éflGafl° quite apart from our other
B- G.) bombing of the Iberia Airlines activities. +-L. .. 1 x} (From page l$: p
The London Committee has "-. now deqided that in future Miguel ‘We should not even be surprised to Garcia Gar°ia"_WhO Bag now find that these “dangerous terrorists" Sicured asylum in this country 5 have apologised to the pilots for ».
be Defaiget , Secretary?’¢mendT‘ Albert,e wouldthe undoubtedappfiaf £9Jeopardyhave Dggn1n whichplaced’they.and 1Meltzer W111 act as Ccrresponoence,wOu1d bg p1acG@_if harassment and Secretary and edit the bulletin. psesecution made the ‘terrorists' T really desperate. N 1 N" I . The Spanish exile movement i in London -imovimiento Libertario »w Such a gegturfi Wovld be in y 1é8§m§$gE%et ug 3' PR:_[§2N3RS JG keeping. For the enemy is not the is ’ an We W1 OO'Opera e "nation" and the pilots are not with them in support of prisoners tho object of attack. nor the v t in Spain. Aid on behalf of passengers, but the Spanish State those in Franco‘s.jails may go i itself? first, last and all the time. either direct, to us, or to the "Comite pro Presos". e It does not need a Sherlock- Holmes to work all this out, although t. ON THE 20th JUNE there will it would appear to be beyond the ibe a concert at the CONWAY HALLp combined efforts of the British Press held by the Pro—Presos Committee and of Interpol. at T organised by ‘Mujeres Libres'. ‘Will such action sooner or later ii —, ii *“ 'N-iii ii result in a serious incident? ‘We The B1ack.Cross is operating the must admit we are afraid it mill, but SPANISH LIBERATON FUND to nobody will ask;our permission on the subsidise the activist groups in matter as to whether to continue or Spain. IMoney received will be j not. Tile can only thi.111:, however, of sent direct to aid the resistance the genocide practised by Franco over "* groups and will not be accounted thirty years.¢ The governments of the ~for. Resistance activities are world have not cared; and the police ientering a new phase of vital. forces have united to help keep the" struggle when every blow counts. regime in power ~ sometimes (as in and the Liberation Movement needs the case of Britain) even when this Ir. every penny it can get yw1'th.uto g eas against their own national inter~¢ Yhaving its hands tied. ests, simply because they preferred‘ TqBor~this reasonywe are keeping e"the Genocide State to the pOSSibi1ity" ‘this aspect of our support quite of socia; rcvolutionfi ese think Of . ‘separate from.the matter of aid half" a million of OL1I'-».O'W1T\. comrades for prisoners.1i- i _. _ T murdered; no loss than other members of
___;_;___ln______;____--_-_ ‘ I I -~ - the working—class opposition. And,~ ' 1- I _ _ I‘ ‘I ' ' - - . I ' yof those e separated from us not by ctonms a case-oar? APPAHf1L one u time but only by distance — servings BE USED BY THE ANABCHIST BLACKT” five} tor twionty“*‘vear”s imprisonment; h"'°P~°3s=' ‘aafwrite ’°° ‘ls end‘ “B “ill “Somcbodywp~x:aill have 3&0 par the reckonxhnig. . ‘ i, arrange collection or state where I . at an. be I 1% -II i i i N Page 7 — NO DEMOCRACY IN' SPAIN' RUSSIAN' POLITICAL. PRISONERS
on Agril 9th Senor Alfredo An“anonymous correspondent asks us sanchez Bella Minister of (apparently under a misapprehension as I . ’ A C t_ to our opinions about the Communist f n Ormatlon’ told the or CS Party whom he refers to as ‘your friends‘ that there will bc n " ush' ‘ _ . t d H’ Itow rld lng —— after that, enemies you don't need!) omaintainin O emcgracyreodom of theonpress whyth we dol,t_not 1 undertake_ 1 some, Rhelp_ for- "within the limits of the law" Q PO 1 lca Prlsontrs 1“ ussla‘ but there was no room for a , , . H H There is a simple answer. Since returnof to chaos . The true 133? _ , _ _ is' PecnA tnW en PPOPl~O llko' g Bgl 1a A massF clampa down on* their contacts with5' insist there will be no return . . . . even tolimited democracy‘ fi_uun outside probably meant mass liquidation.
The old Anarchist Red Cross which The Pope visiting Sicily was originally campaigned for victims of mot not by praying Catholics Tsarism, was reconstituted after the but by Anarchists who jeored at him and told him to give some Bolsheiikn°°9“ter"re7°1Pti°P to aid T of hlS. wealth to the poor._ oranarchist. t. prisonersW K. in,Russia.O1.t.Other1 Taunted, the Pope said the gflnlsa 1?nS or lng for P 1 ica Church was "doing what it could §rlPO??ri W?%1gt?niy-g;vC h?1p.dO Zhil °'“bui was not richn‘ The ngggi bio? caibdliwogznggribgothzn a y’ police waded ln to put Over Russian Socialists; most of the help the Christian messa e... work— . Q l g came from American Russian and Jewish ors and s tudents hnsfieredwitha ' Sources)‘ Up to 19359 money and t A A i 212222’aigmgoiihgssc(aniiigfiigayfeed was sent to Russian Anarchist Afterwards, the Pope said the ' €EisgP%r? by th€.BQ1iOf €?€df11Then Press greatly ovorplayed the Qt_l: rieia ?ga:’duP ll i incident. ,There were many con PC iwam Grmlna e in 9,9“ Catholics in Sicily who were ————~H—————————~——~—————————————————————-
-\. I pleasgd to See him“ I ~ CHINESE POLITICAL Paisowras| A Greek boy put a bomb in the A comrade writes: "Your idea about a Greek Embassy in London which demonstration for the Chinese Anarchists did not go off. Sentencing him in.prison is not really good since at to nine years, the judge said the present time, so far as our knowledge how terrible etc. and it would goes, all of our prisoners have been be a warning.. But a few days released, other than about four who are later, two young Basques who serving sentences for terrorism. "We do had done the same at the Spanishnet.think.a demonstration would help ,Embassy got a six months them and they may be prejudiced by it suspended sentence andwwont since their sentences come up for review. ,free... But the Greek boy had,Ihis pdcture may seem idyllic compared got scared and "blamed the with.ten years ago when.hundreds were organisation" to exculpate in prison for their beliefs. But the himfielf,sa%ing he was "terror- Government prefers the tack of humiliat- lse ‘SO t G J“d@@"WaS not? ion which it calls rehabilitation.... dissidents are reclassified and sent to _ _ _ work ‘n tr d-s ons'dered less killed ORTHODOX Chrlstlanlty taught or esbontizlothgn their own." S .... that God is triple, that hssidss this triple god thsrs is This situation is — when one thinks of a queen of Heaven and that besides it — not much different from this country this quash 't]_’]_(3I'Q are various saints where the militant may find himself, by whose Qorpses have decayed and economic pressure rather than state decree that besides those saints there are — in the same position. icons of one of the triple gods and Release of the anarchists and others is of ths queen of hssvsh; and that one aspect of the inner war now raging the most important thing in life is China. It should not be mistaken for the pap which the priests makes of liberalism. the wine and the white bread"which -—————————————— after prayers have beon.whispered then proceed.to oat it. over it becomes the flesh and blood I of one of the triple Gods. They lgkglgti Page 8 iMeetings held by Miguel Garcia Garcia.
e YMiguel Garcia Garcia opened his campaign.on behalf of the SPANISH PHISONEHS with a meeting at Freedom Press Hall, Whitechapel. Speaking to some sixty or seventy, mostly anarchists, he outlined in brief the story of Soanish Resistance since 1939, facts of which most foreign newspapers have been concealing. He detailed the ‘plight of the Spanish prisoners, which at one time was equal to anything in Hitler's concentration camps, and the present situation. ______.____._._.._---—---—— In fact, under the Spanish constitution, the law of "con- said that no prisoner would ever ditional liberty" would serve take that view. It was good to to release almost all the long- get tobacco, fruit, pills and so termpolitical prisoners, and on — which he had got and was this has been laid down as a grateful fer. But every one of right, not a concession, But them preferred liberty, or since the authorities know whom lfailing that for the struggle for it will benefit, they are not liberty to go on. They all felt applying their own law. Thus, conscious they were in the pressure from abroad even if forefront of the fight against only in the form of polite the regime. petitions asking them to kindly respect their own laws, would The Trotskyist—I.S. Spanish have an effect. For this reason, "Workers Defence Committee asked letters of petition had been for collaboration. He pointed prepared,r At the present time, out that they were so out of with the regime coming to its touch with the strgggle in Spain end, these petitions might have that, in their bulletin, the an effect and were worth trying. only prisoners they listed were those of members of the Answering questions, both Communist Party. “We did not Stuart Christie and Miguel Garcia oppose help for C.P.prisoners. pointed out that the pressure ' But it should be remembered that of activitist groups by creating in prison they excluded all a certain tension, had got the other politicals from the situation to where the author- benefits they received from ities were prepared to let outside. E.T,A. (Basques), prisoners go. IMany had been Maoists and Libertarians all released. In one case, the co-operated in sharing their local feeling, the continuous benefits from outside. iNot so complaints, the threats and the the C.P. who preferred to mix, action from outside, no less as Stuart Christie reminded us, than the constant complaints with dissident Christian- inside (encouraged by this Democrats (their allies in the feeling) had brought one prison Comisiones Obreras) and ex— y governor to a nervous breakdown. Falangists. If any"Trotskyistst It was in these circumstances found themselves in a Spanish that Franco would let prisoners prison, they would find they free. tflelbert Meltzer likened would have — for sheer self- the situation to the last -I lhige Q) -GI" I-P (COIll3il'l1J.60. fI'OII1 0V€I'1E5‘8.f) A MESSAGE T0 took part in a dialogue concerning the fate of prisoners in Spain. Miguel later travelled to Liverpool I understand from Luis Edo where he addressed (in Spanish) the that the situation in Sevoai 100 strong Hispanic Society of the Segovia Prison is as bad as ever. University, both on the general It is this prison that I said - position of Spanish Anarchism and on in the letter smuggled out:from the present situation in Spanish Spain at the time (and published Resistance and jails. in the ‘Times’ and ‘Guardian‘) was like the Tower of London — er -The Society, composed of a mediaeval fortress not suited Spanish students and English students to modern conditions. Cold, of Spanish, was extremely interested insanitary, cramped, it is in in this enlightening talk. Whilst the most picturesque part of in Liverpool, Miguel met several Spain and looks most attractive members of the Liverpool group, and to tourists. went on to York - giving another speech (in English) to the York. He is being punished for Group, on the day after the confer~ the attempted kidnapping of ence organised by the group. He Garrigues and has lost all his then travelled down to Loughborough remission. 'With the affair he College of Technology, where the could have nothing to do as he active anarchist group had organised was in prison. another meeting of some 60 or TO Another comrade, one of people. Albert Meltzer gave the the 'acratas' (the anarchist historical background of the student movement) who is held Libertarian movement; a local ex- in Soria, Jaime Porzas member of the International Brigade Villema, has been accused of also spoke; and Miguel continued with trying, with a member off his talk on the resistance and the E.T.A., to escape. He was situation today. He was asked if, punished by 51 days in at this present time, the actual solitary punishment (the assassination of Franco would make legal maximum is 40). any difference. He said it would not. It had been attempted several times. IMIGUEL GARCIA GARCIA Naturally, anarchist groups did not come to ask permission ofla "central headquarters" as to whether they should undertake such a venture or LOOKING BACK AFTER not. But he thought most would TWENTY YEARS and agree that the time for this had now passed. Franco was dying, in any case. There were many people around I SPANISH POLITICAL him.whc would take over, quitea?Grt PhI‘SOl\lERS 1(/- eh. and A from the question of restoring the- monarchy when.he went, which most the sample letter to the Minister people took as a joke.q The only of Justice — free - are thing that counted now was revolution. available from Miguel Garcia Garcia. A SURREALISM mm REVOLUTION 7/6d CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THIS PUBLICATION? new edition. Order from Black Cross ,lO Gilbert Place A review of "The Floodgates of p Anarchy" in BEAVER (journal of the A LOI1dOI1, w.c.1. (Profits. to ABC) L.S.E.Students Union) says: "It is really worth reading to discover what THE rtoonceres or nuacar anarchism is about. It is much better Christie & Meltzer 21/L in this respect th n (for example)_the order from your public library "Anarchist Black Cross" and might even be used as a handbook for understanding signed copies available from such publications? ABC to benefit funds. ‘we are left baffled. Is this journal ALSO: DURRUTI POSTER so difficult to understand? 'What reasons POSTER @ 2/6 ea‘ must the Beaver reviewer make of TRUTH ABOUT THE BONNOT GANG 2/6 some issues of "Anarchy"? "l649"—diggers & levellers....2/6 Page lO THE STRUGGLE IN FRANCO‘S JAILS (For new readers: iM.G.G. served 20 years in full in'a Spanish prison; S.C. 3%-years of a 20 yoarssentence. This article is based on the information supplied by them). Am International Congress of Criminology will soon be held. Spain proposes to show how advanced is its penal system. The Black Cross will endeavour to bring former I, - " - I-I— , prisoners to give the lie to the ' | the movement. This would, had he N1 apologists of the regime. But "o=have told for us, the position of prisoners. not bee" Shot on Capturfifl in- 3pain- is- no"t so1 e 1y - oneO of ,i-gT,againstb him,bqll asd Hit 1_t_did againstwins; others. humanitarian consideration. The O 6 la Grog h PO t_1CiM; ls t military regime tries to normalise Par Wofsg“ A Par *lO QQBAS O itself by introducing laws which minds a G?rma" COmradC»tO1d me that he owed his life to the fact that will appear to be in conformity. the commandant at the concentration with those of civilian—governed camp to which he was sent, did not countries, if harsher; but it understand the category "anarchist" cannot obey those laws, because and thought it meant "bandit" as unless there is the severest, explained ih his (Nazi) dictionary. most condign punishment for the The comrade thought quick, and crime of opposing tho regime, the agreed this was so. He became government would be overthrown in classified as a "criminal" and a matter of weeks. was out after two years — as a Thus, even the most element— "political" he would have died. ary ideas of industrial bargain- The politieals are not to be ing, without which capitalism reasoned with or rehabilitated, y finds it hard to continue,become officials have stated, they are criminal offences, and capitalism there to be crushed. For this lags behind. For social better- reason, they may not work.at useful ment, the worker finds himself up trades (such as they are) within against the penal laws at once - the prison, but are given cleaning and for this very reason, the jobs and the like. Stuart Christie political prisoner is not in as a British subject was an except- Spafn“4-as too often in England — P‘: . ll - iona he was allowed to work (in shoved aside, a victim of the I the printshop, as a medical orderly, class struggle, but forgotten bye and to study) solely because of the all. He is in the very forefrhnt fact that in the 4- : caseI of‘ a foreigner of the struggle. " 1.1 *_'I |'__ .' . "' . the authorities could not break A Political Status. The British. C their own laws.' For unlike a (Y3. Government does Hitler who sweeps through the laws not recognise political prisoners, he finds awkward, the Cortes will feolingthat, if it did‘, it would go through the farce of liberalising need to give them favoured treat- laws, for the benefit of foreign ment. The conscientious objectors jurists and criminologists,khowing of H;W.I. went to Dartmoor. Or d that these will het be kept if De Valera, for instance, was they prove to be inconvenient to treated like any ordinary criminal. the authorities. "You talk about Ireland, but for Prison Struggle. Thus the people all I knew, you had arms to rob in prison, a bank," a warder is said to have who in a sense take up the cudgels told him in reply to the request fdr the struggle outside, are a for special treatment. (This, perpetual challenge to the regime. however, is completely contrary Their attitudes are of interest. to the official mentality in The libertarian movement takes a Spain today, for the political unique attitude which even the prisoner is given that status_tQ_ Basque ETA, with.whom.they co—operate ~‘receivefworse treatment than the on most anti—jailer actions, cannot criminal. A.man like Sabater , agree, 'For them, the political for instance, in the course of prisoner may seek the same privileges strenuous guerrilla fighting, as other prisoners, but they do not carried_out many armed robberies regard him as a cut above the others. of banks and other institutions. Fer them, all who behave themselves But he never made a poseta from honourably according to the prisoners it himself; Everything went to (continued overleaf) -DEE l""'I|l.r""'\. '1'] Fem Overleaf). ethic, are victims of capitalism. Freemasons and Republicans at They do not seek privileges above best, or even Catholics and others. For them, too, the major Nationalists. The children have struggle is that for LIBERTY. disowned the sins of the fathers They fight for remission and also and rebelled against them. The plan escapes. In this they have CNT-EAI in exile still finds it found Th6 °1°S@$t &11i@S in-ETA’ hard to understand this phenomenon, (Th? HQW Ba$qu@ m0V@m@ntsn@aT@T I but not so in Spain, because of the to helsh.nationalism than the unity~whiOh hag bggn fOrg@d in prison, ‘Irish nationalism‘ of the old Basque civil war movement). It is (This will be continued in a strange alliance ~ the ETA with our next issue). its quota of priests, the anti~ ______l______clerical EAI ~ but it has been better than the CNT—FAI has ever had with the Marxist parties Significant of the fact that (other than the Asturian Socialists the struggle goes on in Spain.... who have always been false friends every day there are news of fresh or like the CP open enemies. arrests, and the latest tells of four anarchist comrades grabbed Communist Party._ "While the by the Civil Guard in Madrid, Peking—line among them.the well+known anarch- Communists have supported the ist Cipriano Damiano. "s struggle for remission all along, The veteran militant of the and to some extent the bids for Spanish exile movement, one of escape (which some legalist A the great organisers of resist- Socialists have regarded as ance from abroad, and one of our contradictory calls), the C.P. earliest supports in the Black X, has until recently only demanded PASCUAL, has died in Paris., A better conditions. New its nminer, he has finallysuccumbcd prisoners have become indignant to silicosis. His loss will at being looked on as pawns or be greatly felt at this time. perhaps some sort of seminary in gwhich, when young members of the The comrad s in Milan propose Comisiones Obreras are sent by holding a mass march in funeral the authorities, the veterans procession in honour of Pinelli may instruct them in the ways of murdered by the Italian police. 1Moscow communism. The successes An independent enquiry will be of the CNT—FAI and ETA, and the held by the committee investig- solidarity between those movements ating his murder. * S wand the Maoists, have induced the C.P. to take a more militant line for the present. Though it remains as sectarian as ever "The authors‘ plea is for a free‘ society in which all structures of and has no wish to associate with the other left politicals. In" authority*vill be abolished former the Comisiones Obreras, after all, 0 0 9 an .BiI'II1iI1gl1£;1Il1 P05-to "Tllj.S V@I'y the C.P. is finding a profitable interesting book has the distinct- ion of being well written..lucid palliance with the Catholic Left. and patiently informative..." Sheffield Morning Telegraph. "Stuart The Acratas One of the most S significant facts Christie is alive and*wel1 and hunting the 'hounds'" - Hamilton of Spanish politics has been the Advertiser. "..extremely import- student uprising, which has been ant and interesting...anyene who close on that of Erance and else- y wants to know what anarchism is where. The acratista movement - K. I about would do well to start here..." ic composed of young students who Sunday Times; "enjoyable,refresh— have come to anarchist ideas I ingly frank and thought+provoking.." almost independentlyof the past. It has been difficu t for thew Ethical Record; "impressive & alway interesting" Times Literary Supp. older movement to understand it, since the old GNT—FAI was almost THE FLOODGATES OF solidly proletarian. The students ' ANARCHY ‘by (especially in Spain, with no .3 Stuart Christie & Albert Meltzer. educational opportunities for the- workers) have come from bourgeois (K a A 21/- hardbound)( From us; Freedom,Press;tHousman's,Collet's, families, who were formerly either Compendium, Eoyle's, etc.) ____Hl.______~______~__s__ p£Q_ugeQ b voluntar labour Page 12