Loan Sharks Bite
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Freedom September 2013_Freedom 13/10/2013 23:01 Page 1 £2 www.freedompress.org.uk Vol 74 • SEPTEMBER 2013 WE SMASHED THE FASH! Three hundred protesters are LENS CAP LONDON nicked… but EDL kept out of Tower Hamlets once again Over 5,000 people joined a demonstration to prevent the English Defence League from marching through East London’s Tower Hamlets on 7th September. A measly 500 EDL supporters had gathered with the intention of marching to Altab Ali Park, which is named after a Bangladeshi man who died in a racist attack in 1978. The EDL marched down Queen Elizabeth Street and across Tower Bridge to Aldgate, but were prevented by protesters and police from going any further. Despite rather grandiosely dubbing this march ‘the return’, the EDL has a pretty rubbish (read basically non-existent) track record of actually getting into Tower Hamlets for a proper protest. The closest they managed was in September 2011, when their coach broke down while passing through Mile End Road on the way back from a somewhat Photo © Max Reeves gratuitously violent and drunken rally in Aldgate (stopping briefly in Whitechapel, where a few members staggered off the coach for an abortive attempt at a ‘scuffle’ Counter-protesters against the EDL demo on 7th September were held in a police kettle outside with locals). Broken down and helpless on the Royal Mint near London’s Tower Bridge. page 38 LOAN SHARKS BITE 8 Annual interest rates of 6,000% and more, mock-ups of a tabloid front page which said INSIDE murder threats, stalking mothers at school “MR MONEY LOAN SHARKS ARE PUTTING Bedroom tax challenged page 3 gates… This is the face of loan sharking THOUSANDS IN HOSPITAL”. today as Cameron hacks away at security Sadly, the last few months have seen a Greek anti-fascist murder page 9 nets for Britain’s poor. sharp increase in such cases, as the benefits Manchester gang Ian Parsons and brothers system fails more and more of Britain’s Svartfrosk page 16 Christopher and Mark Weaver were sentenced poorest and most vulnerable. this month to 32, 18 and three months And it’s not just illegal loan sharks who Getting active page 18 respectively for illegally lending to and are screwing people over. The Queen harassing a series of young unemployed and actually owns the headquarters of Wonga, Reviews pages 20 and 21 low-waged single women. which is Britain’s biggest legal pay day The women, many of them mothers, were loans firm. Cosy. Wonga like to charge Arts pages 22 and 23 all subject to a sustained campaign of threats desperate customers annual interest rates of murder and violence when they could not of up to 5,853%. ISSN 0016-0504 meet repayments on the gang’s loans scheme. There are murmurings about imposing The gang texted photos of themselves to stricter regulations on loan firms but the victims with messages such as “When I get question of why so many need to use them you I’m gonna end you” and “He’ll snatch in the first place seems far more relevant. 9 770016 050009 you and break your jaw”. They even sent Charlotte Dingle Freedom September 2013_Freedom 13/10/2013 23:01 Page 2 2 Freedom • September 2013 NEWS FREEDOM STOCKISTS LENS CAP AURORA’S PARADE You can now pick up your monthly copy of Freedom at the following venues. LONDON • Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX, tel 020 7247 9249 email [email protected] http://www.freedompress.org.uk/ • 56A Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 3AE, email [email protected] http://www.56a.org.uk/ • Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, tel 020 7837 4473 email [email protected] http://www.housmans.com/ • London Action Resource Centre (LARC), 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES tel 020 7377 9088, http://www.londonarc.org/ • Newham Bookshop, 745-747 Barking Road, London E13 9ER, tel 020 8552 9993 email [email protected] http://www.newhambooks.co.uk/ BRIGHTON • Cowley Club Social Centre, 12 London Road, The Arctic sea ice is melting to record lows and oil companies like Shell are lining up to exploit the Brighton BN1 4JA, tel 01273 696104 fragile Arctic. To draw attention to this, on 15th September a giant people-powered polar bear, Aurora, email cowleyclub @riseup.net was hauled through central London. Aurora is a giant super-puppet, the size of a double decker bus. http://cowleyclub.org.uk/ BIRMINGHAM • Birmingham Bike Foundry, 1539 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham B30 2JH, tel: 0121 459 7276, email: [email protected] ‘Mental patient’ costumes withdrawn http://birminghambikefoundry.org BRISTOL In a truly staggering display of sensitivity, a mistake? It slipped and fell into their • Hydra Books, 34 Old Market, Bristol BS2 0EZ intellect and understanding that ATOS would supermarket, perh aps? The poor loves. tel: 0117 3297401, email [email protected] be proud of, supermarkets Asda and Tesco Meanwhile, Twitter remains alive with http://www.hydrabooks.org/ thought it would be a good lark this month tweets from real mental patients posting • Kebele Social Centre, 14 Robertson Road, to sell ‘mental patient’ and ‘psycho ward’ photos of themselves in genuine mental patient Bristol BS5 6JY, tel 011 7 9513086 costumes amongst the traditional Halloween costumes with the hashtag #mentalpatient. email [email protected] ghost, vampire and zombie garb. That These include such terrifying items as t-shirts, http://www.kebelecoop.org infamous bastion of ethical business jeans and socks, with some people even practices Amazon was in on the act too, also waving spine-chilling accessories like cups of NOTTINGHAM • Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, selling both the ‘psycho ward’ outfit and a tea and kittens. The scariest thing anyone Nottingham NG7 6HX, tel 0115 960 8254 deeply cute and charming child’s ‘psycho tweeted was an admission that they liked to email [email protected] surgeon’ costume on its website. knit multicoloured toy poodles. Okay, perhaps http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac These super-hilarious buys came with that is a bit scary. various accoutrements which included a Anyway, we look forward to seeing the LIVERPOOL • News from Nowhere Bookshop, 96 Bold Street, gruesome mask, fake blood, a plastic meat replacement range of costumes hit the racks. Liverpool L1 4HY, tel 0151 708 7270 cleaver and a plastic jaw restraint. The Perhaps they’ll start with the blood-curdling email [email protected] ‘mental patient’ costume was in the style of ‘chemo patient’ set, complete with bald wig, http://www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk/ a strait jacket and the ‘psycho ward’ outfit bottle of morphine, syringe and sick bag? had the word ‘COMMITTED’ slapped across No, we didn’t think so. EDINBURGH Charlotte Dingle • AK Press online, AK Distri bution, PO Box 12766, the back. The product details on Tesco’s Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9YE website said: “Everyone will be running away email [email protected] from you in fear in this mental patient fancy dress costume… it’s a terrifying Halloween http://www.akuk.com/ option.” Asda’s website offered customers • Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) the chance to: “Dress up as the most thrilling 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA psycho killer character of all time in this tel 0131 557 6242 Psycho Ward costume!” email [email protected] It’s okay though, because following a http://www.autonomous.org.uk/ public outcry all three culprits have taken • Word Power Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, the costumes out of circulation and issued Edinburgh EH8 9DB, tel 0131 662 9112 the usual hollow apologies. Online auction email [email protected] site eBay is also apparently ‘reviewing’ http://www.word-power.co.uk/ similar costumes on its site with a view to SOUTHAMPTON removing them. A representative from Asda • October Books, 243 Portswood Road, said: “We’re deeply sorry one of our fancy Southampton SO17 2NG, tel 023 8058 1030 dress costumes has upset people. This was email [email protected] an unacceptable error – the product was withdrawn immediately.” An ‘error’ and not Freedom September 2013_Freedom 13/10/2013 23:01 Page 3 Freedom • September 2013 3 NEWS Bedroom tax challenged year. Two- thirds of the approximately Estimates suggest that a staggering 19 out Draconian housing benefit law 660,000 homes affected by the bedroom tax of 20 households affected by the tax are have a disabled resident. Many of the struggling to be rehoused because of limited taken to court by disabled disabled people affected by the tax really local social housing stock. want that ‘extra’ room – because, er, it isn’t Unsurprisingly, the numbers of bedroom claimants actually extra. There are many very valid tax related suicides and attempted suicides reasons for this. They might need additional are now spiralling. But rather than simply After several months of destroying the living space for special equipment, be unable to holding their hands up and admitting that conditions of disabled people – sorry, we share a bed with a partner or a sibling even for evil Tory despots this is all ‘a bit mean preventing greedy malingering because of their disability, require an extra much’, the government have instead scroungers from living in sprawling mansions room for a part-time carer to stay in or grudgingly allowed the disabled to issue a at the taxpayer’s expense – our beneficent already live in a house which has been legal challenge to the tax… and that’s it. and caring government has selflessly granted carefully (and often expensively) adapted to How jolly jolly nice of them.