Bad Time to Be a Cop
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Price £3.00 Analysis: Theory: On Also inside 12 years the reality of New of economic this issue... Labour crisis Bad time to be a cop a be to time Bad Greece and G20 as the summer of rage builds rage of summer the as G20 and Greece Issue 229 Mid 2009 Editorial Welcome to issue 229 of Black Flag, the fourth to be published by the ‘new’ editorial collective since the re-launch in October 2007. We are still on-track to maintaining our bi- annual publishing objective; it is, however, difficult at times as each publication deadline looms closer, to meet this commitment. We are a small collective, and would once again like to take this opportunity to invite readers to submit articles and indeed, fresh bodies to get involved. Remember, the future of Black Flag, as always, lies with the support of its readership and the anarchist movement in general. We would like to see Black Flag flourish and become a regular (ideally quarterly), broad-based, non-sectarian class- struggle anarchist publication with a national identity. In Black Flag 228, we reported that we had approached the various anarchist federations and groups with a proposal for increased co- operation. Response has generally been slow and spasmodic. However, it has been enthusiastically taken up by the Anarchist Federation, who Barriers: Some of the obstacles laid out which stop us from changing things can seem have submitted an AF perspective insurmountable. Picture: Anya Brennan. on the current economic crisis and a report on a new anarchist archive in Nottingham, written by an AF member involved with the project. Comrades involved with Voices of Resistance from Occupied London have written an article on the Greek rebellion, which gives us an overview of recent events as well as Discussions on the future putting it into a historical context. of anarchism in the UK As we go to press, the brutal and repressive arm of the State has once again reared its ugly head, this time on the streets of London, during the G20 demo. Police thugs left 100’s of people injured, and tragically, Ian Tomlinson, a worker returning home, dead. Recently we’ve seen an increase in occupations of workplaces and schools, a prison riot over conditions Go to and a general increase in worker conference09. militancy in the form of wildcat org.uk actions. We call for independent for more working class organisation and information. The space solidarity, unrelenting class will include struggle, and direct action against 20 rooms and the state, capital and all their a large hall associated trappings. As our front as well as a page suggests, we look forward to creche for both days. a “summer of rage.” Content Ethos Black Flag is for a social system based on mutual aid and voluntary co-operation – against state control and all forms of n Cover story: Why the Greek rioters are government and economic repression. To establish a share becoming a powerful social opposition to the in the general prosperity for all state’s class war machinery Page 8 – the breaking down of racial, religious, national and sex barriers – and to fight for n In focus: In the first of a three part series, Tom Gaynor the life of one world. looks at New Labour’s time in power Page 4 The Black Flag has been a worldwide symbol for anarchism since the 1880s. It is at base a n News: Laura Norder enters the Sparrow’s Nest, representative of the negation Nottingham’s archive of liberty Page 7 of all oppressive structures. About n Interview: Black Flag talks to Irish anarchist Andrew Contributors/excerpts: Flood about his recent journey into the weird and Tom Gaynor wonderful world of US activism Page 11 Laura Norder (AF) Dimitris D Antonis V n Investigation: Paul Stott on media attempts to link Iain McKay Islamist terror to 19th century anarchists Page 14 Paul Stott Rob Ray Anarchist Federation n Interview: Rob Ray talks to Andy Meinke about policing Ade Dimmick Errico Malatesta and protest activism Page 16 John Couzin Alan Woodward Richard Alexander n Theory: The Anarchist Federation bring their perspective to the economic crisis Page 18 Layout/design Rob Ray (Freedom Press) n Analysis: Iain McKay remarks on the mainstream’s Printing tendency to disregard the theory of anarchism in Clydeside Press, preference for its caricature Page 22 Scotland ( 0141-552 5519 n History: Continuing our look at anarchists past, Ade Contact/Subs Dimmick writes on Simone Weil Page 24 : [email protected] - Black Flag BM Hurricane, n Radical Reprint: Malatesta explains why anarchism London, is not a destructive creed but a creative one Page 25 WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom, n History: Glasgow’s Bloody Friday in 1919 Page 26 Bulk Orders from AK Press - AK Press (UK) PO Box 12766 n Interview: Mark Leir on his Bakunin book Page 28 Edinburgh EH8 n Review: Journalists and Socialism Page 31 ( 0131 555 5165 - AK Press (USA) n Review: The Anarchist FAQ Page 34 PO Box 40862 San Francisco CA ( 94140-0682 n Reviews column: Hob’s Choice Page 36 : [email protected] 4 In focus: New Labour The state of play MUCH of this article was written during the 1970s. “Stagflation” – a combination of 15%, similar to its prewar level, by the year escalating credit crisis and recession, and before high unemployment, recession and high 2000. the government’s bailouts of the finance sector. inflation necessitated a broad rethink of the The main substance of the attack on the However, though the ideology of organisation of capitalism. The ruling class postwar settlement took place under the neoliberalism looks broadly debunked after had been unconcerned by a smaller share Reagan administration in the US and under just a year of severe turbulence, there is of the total wealth, compared to the cruder Thatcher here. In both cases, the triumph of no reason to believe that the attacks on the accumulation of the pre-war period, when a neoliberal program took place as a result working class1 described below will cease. post-war growth was high. With crisis, their of widespread discontent with stagflation, Certain aspects of Keynesian economics are class interests lay in annexing as much of wedded to a reactionary agenda with making a return. Yet the transfer of wealth the total wealth produced as possible. xenophobia and nationalism at its core. upwards, stagnation in pay, privatisations Neoliberalism is both the ideological Thatcher’s victory in 1979 was based in no and marketisations which have characterised doctrine which became compatible with the small part on courting the National Front’s the neoliberal epoch look set to continue, with material interests of the owning class in this support by flirting with racism. revised ideological justification. new environment, and the political project A rhetoric of individual freedom has If nothing else, this shows the class nature to deepen their power which it justified. long been a pillar of pro-market bourgeois of the entire program. When the ideology Prior to the crisis, a recognisable proto- ideology, and this was wedded to a vigorous doesn’t fit the need to protect class power it is neoliberal ideology had been a minority media campaign against the “loony left” ignored, or redefined. view in certain circles, espoused by the in Britain, the “liberals” in the US, and likes of Friedrich von Hayek, Ludvig von (according to Friedman), their “socialist” o understand the historical context Mises, Milton Friedman and, in his earlier counterparts in power meddling with the of the New Labour project, we have days, Karl Popper. market, all to blame for the economic crisis to go back sixty years, to the glory Following the juncture provided by the and its effects on living conditions.4 days of “Old Labour”; the end of the crisis of the 1970s, it became championed We shouldn’t pretend, as leftists often do, TSecond World War and the establishment of by think-tanks well funded by wealthy that Thatcher single-handedly declared war the postwar settlement. converts, such as the Institute of Economic on the postwar settlement and the working The postwar settlement was capital’s Affairs in London, academic institutions, class. Callaghan had laid the groundwork by attempt to secure itself against the chaos such as Friedman’s fiefdom in Chicago, and introducing monetarism and accepting the IMF’s neoliberal mantra of rolling back the CupiendamThatcher’s fu: heir:rae poti, Tony state and cutting spending. num terebusBlair continued esteremnius a thread But it was the Thatcher administration sena toof audestrumneo-liberalism diemo that which undertook the project of radically began with Callaghan deepening bourgeois class power in the UK. We know the story: privatisations of undervalued public services, regressive taxation, cuts in social provisions, imperialist warfare and a wholesale attack on the working class, social solidarity and that loony left idea that there is a thing called “society”. We know the results: massive unemployment, increased working hours, casualisation, the destruction of much skilled industry and the undermining of the ability of workers to make class demands. Inequality in Britain increased at a rate unequalled in any other industrialised country bar the US. 5 New Labour did not just inherit this historical moment, they took it up as the only way to run an economy, and spun it as the means through to provide a redefined unleashed by the Wall Street Crash of the Nobel Prize in Economics, controlled by “progressive” program of “choice”, 1929, and the upsurge in working class a group of Swedish bankers unconnected “mobility” and “opportunity”. consciousness that accompanied the end to the Nobel institute.