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www.freedompress.org.uk 7 MAY 2005

Littlewoods lay offs Disastrous relief plan Your G8 law guide Svartfrosk column INSIDE ►► page 3 page 4 page 7 page 8 400,000 HOMES TO BE DESTROYED hat this country’s poorest really gravy trains - consultants, accountants need is higher house prices. That’s and ‘outsourcers’ such as Capita, the W the basis of the government’s infamous privatisation junkie and PFI Housing Renewal Pathfinder schemes - contractor. demolishing 400,000 houses across the Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) are North of England to build more expensive also in on the act. The fluffy, family- homes. oriented term actually conceals a range “The aim of the £500 million housing of (private) housing associations and market renewal Pathfinder programme companies which are registered with is to turn whole communities around the Housing Corporation and pay no by improving the quality of private, shareholder dividend. Many of them are local authority and registered social involved in the government’s transfers landlord housing. This will involve of council housing stock, and they are clearing poor quality houses for which equally happy to be part of various there is little or no demand, building Pathfinder schemes, shuffling out their attractive, good quality new homes, and tenants to make way for the demolitions. upgrading existing home to push up their “They completely forget that they are market value” claimed the Office of the totally smashing community interest, Deputy Prime Minister in February. and the essential assets of an existing So this means housing market renewal, area” said Anne Powers Professor of of course, rather than the renewal or Social Policy at the London School of renovation of existing homes. In the f Economics. * WW» *t£S£ Tories VjrougVtt vrv \aws to put \ And it’s the demolitions that are far higher tax on-repairs than new build, causing the most concern — with one of and so far Labour has been happy to the scheme’s founders fearing a ‘social stick with them. upheaval’ like that which accompanied Who else is happy with the Pathfinder the 1960-70s slum clearances. schemes? The construction companies, Pathfinder schemes will demolish for one. Housebuilders have welcomed 400,000 houses, and may thus involve the programme as a means of maintain­ the eviction of thousands of families, ing their output. Well known firms such mostly private and RSL tenants, and as Bellway Homes (responsible for many also home owners. They are suffering other socially and environmentally now, and the tenants and home buyers ‘contentious* schemes) are being brought of the future will suffer later, due to the in by the government to build the new increased prices and dearth of social private houses. housing. The housing charity, Shelter, The other main winners are the has estimated that 167,000 currently ‘thousands of families may be pushed home which could have contributed to north of England than in the south, companies that usually follow regeneration affordable homes will be demolished and out of buying or privately renting their homelessness rising twice as fast in the source: Corporate Watch, www.corporatewatch.org.uk CAUGHT ON CAMERA HIV DRUG SCANDAL rtificially high costs are making it introduced, as cutbacks, rather than f the 1 ,806 people arrested during most of the people arrested” and cited the on a police tape before the incident in impossible to make readily extra funding, have been policy since the mass protests against the 2004 case of Dennis Kyne, the first arrestee. question and sitting in handcuffs after A available a drug with an 80% April 2004 when post-infection O Republican National Convention At Kyne’s trial for “inciting a riot and his arrest. success rate in preventing HIV. Post- retroviral courses had their NHS in New York the police fabricated resisting arrest,” NYPD officer Matthew The District Attorney’s office had exposure prophylaxis (PEP) was okayed funding removed for long-term visitors, charges against nearly all of them. Wohl testified that he had been forced simply deleted “parts of the tape that for use in 1997, when guidelines for and any migrants without a work According to The New York Times to pick up the defendant “while he show him calmly approaching the police health staff introduced to HIV stated it permit. (12th April), of the 1,670 cases that squirmed and screamed,” grabbing “one line, and later submitting to arrest should be used to prevent infection. But This is in stark contrast to South have run their full course, “ninety-one of his legs because he was kicking and without apparent incident.” the high cost of treatment - around Africa. The drug has been readily percent ended with the charges dismissed refusing to walk on his own.” Given that the anti-RNC demonstrations £1,000 - has made it unviable as a available there since international or a verdict of not guilty after trial.” Videotape, however, “showed Mr were massive, and covered by the media means of general public protection. pressure forced companies to grant That’s right, a whopping 91% . The Kyne agitated but plainly walking the fact that the police were willing to A study in the British Medial Journal generic drug producers the right to high rate can be explained by one fact - under his own power down the library lie on such a large scale about events showed that out of 151 people exposed make large quantities of the retrovirus the use of hundreds of people to video­ steps, contradicting rhe vivid account of witnessed by hundreds of people in to the virus, only one contracted it after to combat a national AlDs epidemic. tape their arrests. This evidence proved Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be broad daylight in front of the cameras the course of treatment. Production costs have been shown to be that the cops were systematically lying. seen in rhe pictures. Nor was the officer is extremely significant. PEP has been successfully minimal. The newspaper noted that these video seen taking part in the arrests of four Combine this with the fact they held manufactured in twelve different According to the Terence Higgins tapes offered “little support [for police) other people at the library against arrested protesters in conditions so bad countries including India and South trust: “The UK has the worst sexual or actually undercut the prosecution of whom he signed complaints.” that the locations were nicknamed Africa, but due to the commercial health in Western Europe, with higher The prosecutor “abruptly dropped ail ‘Little Gitmo* we have a situation enforcement of international intellectual levels of sexually transmitted infections than at any time since the creation of I S S N 0016-0504 charges.” where the police clearly considered property law remains expensive. The police already tape demonstrations. themselves able to do what they like The drug combination is further rhe NHS.” In one particularly innovative use of when they like it - and expect the complicated as several manufacturers The trust began a campaign to raise their own footage, they censored their media to ignore their actions. have control over separate parts. GSK, awareness about PEP last year having failed to persuade the government to own tapes to remove evidence of police Perhaps the American people should Bristol Myers Squib and Boehringer lying. Alexander Dunlop, charged with think about creating democracy at home Ingelheim each have a stake in the look at more widespread introduction Vol 66 pushing his bicycle into a line of police before allowing their rulers to impose it finished product. of the drug. It is thought over 51,000 ^ page 6 f column 5 7 7 0016 0500 09 No 9 officers and resisting arrest, was seen by means of bombs elsewhere? The drug seems unlikely to be 2 Freedom 7th May 2005 Home and away

FREEDOM Volume 66 Number 9 News from the inside Freedom for prisoners Keith Mann back inside Dark nights ahead bringing any charges. A video of the Anarchism As many of you may know, Freedom Veteran animal rights activist and The people who produce the anti-prison/ incident can be seen at www.officer.com/ Anarchists work towards a society of provides free subscriptions to anyone in former ALF prisoner Keith Mann is anti-repression magazine 325 are article/printer, jsp ?id=23119&siteSection mutual aid and voluntary co-operation. prison. If you have friends or family in currently back inside. Keith was up in hoping to supplement it with a more =1 We reject government, and all forms of prison, or regularly write to a prisoner, court for liberating nearly seven regular news bulletin in the form of exploitation and domination. if they are interested we will be happy hundred mice, which were being used Dark Nights. A pilot issue has been Freedom Press is an independent to send them a free sample issue or sub. to test botulinium toxin on behalf of produced, and hopefully this will lead anarchist publisher^ founded in 1886. If you are a prisoner yourself we can the cosmetics industry. After being to another successful project. More info Besides this newspaper, which comes provide subs to any of your fellow convicted, he initially escaped a prison from [email protected] out every two weeks, we produce books inmates if they wish. Please also feel sentence and received community on all aspects of anarchist theory and free to write to us with any news about service, but moments later was charged Harry Roberts practice - see our website for a full list. your imprisonment, developments in with contempt of court after allegedly Harry Roberts, who shot three cops in In our building in East London we run your case or anything else! threatening the head of the vivisection 1966, is taking his case to the House of Britain’s biggest anarchist bookshop lab involved as he left court, and sent Lords, after repeatedly being denied and host the Autonomy Club meeting Russian anarchist needs support down for six months. parole, and denied access to the room and the Freedom Hacklab open- Aleksander ‘Miller’ Tomenko is a 20 Letters of support can be sent to supposed ‘evidence’ keeping him inside. access IT space. year old Russian anarchist who has Keith Mann, HMP Winchester, Romsey The thirty year tariff imposed after his Our aim is to explain anarchism been locked up for allegedly assaulting Road, Winchester, S 0 2 2 5DF. conviction expired in 1996, but he has more widely and to show that people a fascist. Miller is from a poor family, remained locked-up. Roberts will be 70 can work together and use direct action who are struggling to pay not only for American anti-war prisoner years old this year. to practically improve our lives and lawyers, but also, since the Russian As previously reported, Brendan Walsh build a better world. authorities do not provide it for received a five year prison sentence for US cops arrest five year old girl Freedom’s editors wish to present a prisoners, his food. petrol bombing a US Army recruiting In America, an unruly 5 year old was broad range of anarchist thought, and Financial assistance is urgently office. You can write to him at Brendan forcibly handcuffed by three cops and as such the views expressed in the needed. For more details on the case Walsh, 12473-052, FCI Allenwood arrested at her school. After being paper are those of the individual and how you can make a donation see Low, Federal Correctional Institution, placed in the back of a police vehicle, contributors and not necessarily those www.avtonom.org/news/miller.html or PO Box 1000, White Deer, PA 17887, the girl was eventually released after of the editorial collective. www.antifa.org.uk USA. prosecutors said they would not be Angel Alley Another day, another batch of sawdust coming down on our heads - the Advisory Service for Squatters must be LISTINGS moving in. The top floor of Freedom, which was Every Sunday the Kebele Kafe from Institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Gower Revolutionary D IY union \ 76-78 Gower Street, for so Jong a repository for tonne upon 6.30pm, 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Street, London WC1, at 5.30pm, topic PO Box 74, Brighton, BN1 4ZQ Kebele tonne of archived Freedoms surrounded Bristol. For info call 0117 9399469. Anti-Civilisation and Class Struggle. www.iww.org.uk 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol by piles of books, is being transformed Every Friday The Loaf has arisen - Use 9th to 18th June Art Not Oil exhibition Solidarity Federation BS5 6JY in a way similar to Changing Rooms, Your Loaf cafe from 7pm to midnight at the Institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Anarcho-syndicalist organisation www.kebele.org but with far hairier plasterers. at the Ragged School, Hales Street, Gower Street, London W l. For more PO Box 469, Preston PR1 8FX Lancaster Resource Centre (LaRC) The group are busy so it’s not known Deptford, London SE8 info see www.artnotoil.org.uk www.solfed.org.uk The Basement, 78a Penny Street, how long it will be before their office is until 28th May Brighton Fringe Festival, 11th June Norwich’s second annual See also www.enrager.net/britain Lancaster finished, but we'll keep you posted. see www.cowleyclub.org.uk for more anarchist bookfair from 10am to 7pm, www.eco-action.org/lancaster Meanwhile the rest of the building info and event listings For info call 07941 657485, email Social Centres London Action Resource Centre still desperately needs doing up, by 18th May Open seminar series at the [email protected] or see Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (LARC) people who know what they are doing Institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Gower www.norwichanarchists.org (ACE) 62 Fieldgate Street, London El (hint, hint), and unfortunately we also Street, London WC1, at 5.30pm, topic 4th July Big Blockade at Faslane, for 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh www.londonlarc.org had a window put through the other International Financial Institutions and info see www.tridentploughshares.org www.autonomous.org.uk The Ragged School day, by persons unknown - I don’t Globalisation. 15th to 17th July Guilfest, for info see The Basement Hales Street, Deptford, London SE8 know, bloody kids these days... 20th to 22nd May Action Medics www.guilfest.co.uk 24 Lever Street, Manchester (contact The RampART Also down Angel Alley, the Media training in Manchester, be prepared for [email protected] or 0161 237 15-17 Rampart Street, London El 2.LA Hacklab continues to go from strength G8. For more details of this, International 1832) www.rampart.co.nr to strength. Feel free to drop in any day information on other locations in June 21st May Global Boycott Proctor & The Common Place SUMAC Centre between 12noon and 6pm. There is or shorter action medic trainings see Gamble, see www.uncaged.co.uk/pg.htm 23 Wharf Street, Leeds LS2 7EQ 245 Gladstone Street, Nottingham usually a skilled technician on hand to www.actionmedics.org.uk 11th June World Naked Bike Ride, www.thecommonplace.org.uk NG7 6H X help you our if you really can’t get to 21st May Anti-Nestle demo, for details protest against oil and clothes The Cowley Club www.veggies.org.uk/rainbow/ grips with the computers. To find out see www.babymilkaction.org/action/ dependency. Go on, do it! For info see 12 London Road, Brighton BN1 4JA lin l2 Club more about this valuable resource demo05.html www.worldnakedbikeride.org www.cowleyclu b. org. uk 21-23 Albion Street, Bradford, West either visit in person or take a look at 25th May Open seminar series at the 6th July Global day of action at the Freedom Yorkshire, BD1 2LY their website at www.hacklab.org.uk institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Gower opening day of the G8 Summit, See 84b Whitechapel High Street, London www.linl2.com Street, London WC1, at 5.30pm, topic www.agp.org or www.dissent.org.uk Et 7QX 56a Infoshop Precariry, Subjectivity and Class www.freedompress.org.uk 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 Contact details Nationwide groups Composition. Institute for Autonomy www.safetycat.org/56a Freedom Press, 84 b Whitechapel High 26th May Anarchist Communism and Anarchist Federation Street, London El 7QX the politics of the AF, a discussion with Network o f anarchist-communists Tel/fax: 020 7247 9249 the London Anarchist Federation at Box 2, 84b Whitechapel High Street, www.freedompress.org.uk 7pm, Freedom, 84b Whitechapel High London El 7QX AN APOLOGY TO OUR READERS Street, London E l. All welcome, get www.afed.org.uk Enquiries: [email protected] As you may have noticed, this Issue has In the next month or so, the editorial Anuta CopylLetters: copy

In Brief Labour fights for longer hours MEPs have voted to scrap the UK Working Time Directive opt-out, which allows Littlewoods job cull British businesses to sidestep European legislation limiting the working week to 48 hours. Labour MEPs controversially voted for the move, defying the demands A catalogue of errors led to employees picking up the of the British government. Blair’s administration sided with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and bill, reports Chris Strafford business leaders in opposing the legislation that they claim will make the UK less competitive. he Union of Shop, Distributive and Employment Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, Allied Workers (Usdaw) state that said, “We are very disappointed that T up to four thousand jobs could be they have taken this decision. We think lost because of upcoming closures at it is fundamental. We don’t want to Index, the major retail chain. have the high levels of unemployment Chris, a worker for the chain, there is elsewhere in Europe.” explains what is going on: “Like most Around one in six workers have signed Index workers I went into work on the working time opt-out, which is often Sunday assuming that it would be a presented along with the employment normal slow Sunday. Soon after contract when workers are first everyone became worried after a BBC employed. British workers are subject reporter came in and told us we was to the longest hours in Europe and do losing our jobs and that 126 stores will £23bn worth of unpaid overtime. be closed, along with the head office and the distribution depots at Equally underpaid Wednesbury. City council workers in Coventry have “Some parasite in head office decided voted for three days of strike action on to take money to let the media break the 19th, 24th and 25th May over a the news to us, sending Index staff and disputed ‘single-status’ offer designed to customers into chaos and worry.” reduce pay gaps between men and women Eight hundred jobs have been saved and between office and manual workers. after GUS (the owners of Argos) The single-status agreement was signed brought up the properties and sites of in 1997 between national trade unions 32 former index stores which will be and local government employers. It the turned into Argos outlets. This is a wake of several successful tribunal cases | welcome relief for some workers. over pay d'v&crunmauon, unions agreed Many more are thought to face to cease raising individual cases at uncertain futures, as it is the more industrial tribunal in exchange for the profitable and easier run internet and equalisation of terms and conditions. mail order service of the business which count). people time and time again. If you go safety concerns, and there has been The implementation of the offer at bosses Sir Frederick and Sir David This is a terrible blow for many into any Index store you will see a lack constant theft from many stores - there Coventry City Council came with Barclay want to develop. young people, as at this time of year of investment in infrastructure and can be as few as two people on my severe drawbacks. Instead of dragging The majority of Index employees are lots of people are looking for summer technology. shop floor at times. all workers upwards to what pay would facing redundancy, many employees jobs, and it will be hard to find work in. Whilst Index’s biggest rival Argos This is not an isolated case, all over have been without discrimination, the without statutory redundancy pay. retail. have high-tech equipment and the retail sector the lack of strong offer will cut the pay of 1,600 workers, Index employs a lot of students and At the other end of the scale, some innovative lay outs, the owners of union activity means workers end up in many cases by thousands of pounds young workers. These employees work are too old to get another job or to Index tried to be the cheap alternative, doing jobs which are insecure, as the a yea x. parr time and will not be entitled to full retrain because of discrimination in the which just ended up looking run down, collapse of Alders showed recently. redundancy pay because they have labour market. These people have and poorly organised. What is needed is for people to stand Bonus is in the post either not been at the company long families to support and futures to save At many outlets there are too few up for themselves, or time and time Adam Crorier, chief executive of the enough or turned 18 only recently for. staff to run the store, and often people again we will see jobs being slashed for Royal Mail, has become the highest paid (work before the age of 18 doesn’t The bosses have chased profit before are overworked. There have been gross bigger profits without any resistance. public sector employee in the country after receiving a personal pay package of nearly £3m for 2004. The Royal Mail is still a state-owned A tale of two atrocities IWW meet in Scotland organisation run by an executive board with pay decided by the remuneration t is a truism that the crimes of the essentially ignored or, at best, treated he 2005 assembly of the Scottish short-contract, cash-in-hand and un­ committee of the same board. Most of official enemy had be exaggerated with scepticism while estimates of Industrial Workers of the world unionised workplaces, particularly in Crozier’s package will com e in the form Ifreely and without concern for government officials are respectfully (IWW) celebrates both a year of the service sector. T The IWW has historically organised of share-award. The Royal Mail made correction while those of ‘our’ state and repeated as if they had been proven growth and the union’s centenary. £500m profits last year but was rhe its allies will be dismissed or ignored. true beyond reasonable doubt (how Union members from Edinburgh, the ‘unorganisable’ with much success subject of ever increasing complaints o f The Iraq war provides a striking could even the most honest politician Clydeside, Dumfries, Inverness, Stirling, and nobody today needs militant direct poor service, late, lost and stolen letters. example of this at work. know how many people are buried in a Falkirk and Grangemouth were present action unionism more than those Customer complaints have risen 300% Take the mass graves being uncovered site before it is investigated?). This is for discussions about the way ahead for workers. Emphasising the internationalist nature in the past two years. Royal Mail workers in Iraq. According to Tony Blair, over unsurprising, as the Lancet paper the 1WW in Scotland. of the union, a message of solidarity have previously complained of a culture 400,000 bodies had been found in 270 suggests that the US/UK are In the course of the Assembly, with the Federation of Workers Councils of overwork and management bullying sites. In reality, only 55 of these sites responsible for one-third as many Edinburgh Branch Secretary Eddie in the service. had been searched and only 5,000 bodies deaths in a year as Suddum clocked up Murray gave an outline of the history in Iraq, the Union of the Unemployed and development of the IWW (popularly of Iraq and the Southern Oil Company Other board members have also received had been found. That does not (top the in two decadcif. generous payment packages with Elmar US and UK states and journalisrs stating Clearly, journalistic standards in known as the 'wobblies') across the Union was agreed and sent. world but with particular emphasis on Toine, a former executive deputy chairman the far higher estimates as facts. Yet, reporting Saddam's atrocities are more At the moment the IWW has two ousted in October receiving L I in. Saddam was a monster (Human Rights lenient than those employed in the 1WW in Scotland and the rest of general membership branches, in groups estimate that 290,000 people reporting ours. This is not an isolated Britain. Edinburgh and Clydeside and an are ‘missing’ during the decades he was case, of course. It is merely one The militant international labour Industrial Union job branch which lib co m _or£f in power) but the job of the media is, in example of a consistent pattern and a union was founded in 1905 in Chicago organises administrative and support theory at least, not to propagate striking confirmation of Chomsky and and has an extraordinary history in staff at the Scottish Parliament. Recent government lies. Herman’s ‘Propaganda Model' of the organising workplaces and resistance activities have included building solidarity Compare this to the way the media media (as discussed in their classic groups internationally. with New York IWW Starbucks covered the Lancet paper on the work, Manufacturing Consent). The Assembly also heard about the workers through informational pickets, number of Iraqis who have died as a Showing the reality of power is not growth of the union since its relaunch mobilisations around May Day and publishing our news-sheet. Burning result of the war. taking its lead from on the cards simply because that is not in Scotland in the early 1990s and the the governments responsible for the how the media operates. Hence the organising efforts being made in various Issue. IWW deaths, this report was mentioned in disparity between how Saddam’s crimes areas at the moment. Special emphasis 17 West Montgomery Place passing and dismissed as inaccuratc. are reported and how US/UK ones are. was placed on the organising of Edinburgh EH5 We’ve evolved! Thus a statistically sound survey is lain McKay ■precarious’ workers, those in temporary, 4 Freedom ftflay20 C® News

If we rule the world Louis Further exclusively reveals a US plan to hijack natural disasters for capital interests

omething which happened in the Intelligence Council and keep 'high risk’ middle of the North American countries on a watch 'list. The teams - Sequivalent of the ‘silly season’ last according to an address Pascual August, and which has aroused next to delivered last October to the Center for no media interest until now, should Strategic and International Studies - are cause alarm. made up of private companies, non­ A US government office was quietly governmental organisations and members established to enforce pre-emptive of think tanks. intervention of capital both in areas hit by disaster (earthquake, tsunami, flood); Remaking nations and also ones ‘softened up’ - by US TheS/CRS plans to change “the very military forces. social fabric of a nation,” to “tear apart On 5th August 2004 Bush created the the old” and replace it with “democratic Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruc­ and market-oriented” nations, selling tion and Stabilisation. Its chief is Carlos off “state-owned enterprises that created Pascual, a former US Ambassador to a nonviable economy” and to foment the Ukraine. Its official mandate is to disaster war and social engineering for draw up ‘post-conflict’ plans for two financial gain. dozen as yet unnamed countries which The S/CRS said: “The Office was are not yet ‘in conflict’. These are established to Lead, coordinate, and officially secret, though Nepal is known institutionalise US Government civilian to be on the list. capacity to prevent or prepare for post- conflict situations, and to help stabilise Pre-emptive and reconstruct societies in transition This latest development confirms that from conflict or civil strife so they can multinationals will be pre-signing reach a sustainable path toward peace, with its concomitant push for Lebensraum received in aid.” thousands of people in Sri Lanka, reconstruction contracts. This, according democracy and a market economy.” is dead. In its place neo-imperialism, In practice, the countries most hard Thailand, Indonesia and India relocate to Pascual, will make them able to The S/CRS will select new countries which has to first destroy in order for hit by the December tsunami have seen from the coastal areas in order for coordinate up to three full-scale recon­ for ‘intensive planning’ every six months these pre-signed contracts to be almost no debt relief; most of the World hotels, resorts, casinos, shrimp farms struction operations in different countries before the Humanitarian, Stabilisation, lucrative. Bank’s emergency ‘aid’ is in the form of and other tourist facilities to be built by simultaneously. Each should be able to and Reconstruction Team (HSRT) is This is exactly what the likes of Bechtel loans. The people in Sri Lanka need foreign investors. last five to seven years. deployed “to Combatant Commands to and Halliburton have been doing there: practical help to survive. Sources Partners are to include the World Bank participate in post-conflict planning according to the Los Angeles Times Instead the World Bank is insisting on American Enterprise Institute: www.aei.org (presumably this is one reason for Paul where US military forces will be heavily recently, all of Bechtel’s allegedly rebuilt an expansion of tourism. It is insisting Center for Strategic and International Wolfowitz’s recent appointment there - water plants have started to break that the repair of the physical infra­ Studies: www.csis.org 25% of the banks budget now goes to down. In Afghanistan even President structure such as transport systems Office of the Coordinator for this type of reconstruction, a 1,000% New found land' Hamid Karzai has criticised “corrupt, essential for local residents had best be Reconstruction and Stabilisation: increase since 1980), regional banks, There are few if any blank slates left, few wasteful-and unaccountable” foreign handled by ‘private financing’. www.8tate.gov/s/crs/cl 2936.him G8 and the IMF. The Office will work unknown lands with markets waiting to contractors for “squandering the It is also being made a condition of Project for the New American Century: in close co-operation with the National be tapped. So old fashioned colonialism I precious resources that Afghanistan aid that some of the hundreds of www.newamericancentury.org In brief

No news is good news... terrorist. Does that mean these acts are of Iraq”), the Syrian state is withdrawing another government, not agents of So the privacy of Osama bin Laden Long-term readers of Freedom may considered as standard military opera­ its forces from that country. The US is another government, but the people”! has a higher priority for the Bush Junta remember that last year we reported tions between two warring parties? remaining firmly entrenched in Iraq. than the public’s right to know what how the US State Department issued But such concerns need not bother us While Bush demands that Syria with­ Osama bin private happened after 9/11. This, it should be and then corrected a report on acts of any more, A year later and the new draws its “military forces” his military Judicial Watch is an American conservative stressed, follows the usual pattern of terror worldwide. The initial report was State Department has decided not to forces number 260,000 troops in Iraq organisation which claims to fight Bush and enquiries into that atrocity. inaccurate, stating that such acts and publish its report. Could this have and are busy building 14 permanent government corruption. At theend of You could start to think they had numbers killed had declined significantly something to do with the claim of one bases costing $4.5 billion there. April it announced some staggering something to hide. during 2003, It was seized upon by the former State Department terrorism While Bush urges Syria to “not only news. It obtained a document through Bush administration to show that Bush expert that the report showed that there get out with your military forces, but the Freedom of Information Act which the was winning his ‘war on terror’. were 625 ‘significant’ attacks, making get out with your intelligence services, FBI invoked privacy right protections The revised version showed that, in 2004 the worst year for terrorist attacks too” his intelligence service, the CIA, is on behalf of Osama bin Laden. FREEDOM reality, there had been an increase in than in any year since 1985, the first part and parcel of world’s largest Yes, the leader of al Qaeda and ANARCHIST BOOKSHOP acts of terror during that year. No year the publication covered? diplomatic mission he is building in America’s most wanted man, The de­ 84b Whitechapel High Street conclusions about Bush’s competence Iraq. classified September 2003 FBI report were to be drawn from the accurate Hypocrisy unbounded While Bush demanded that the with­ obtained by Judicial Watch was London El 7QX drawal should include people who “have report. The sight of Bush denouncing the Syria subjected to Exemption six of the tel/fax 020 7247 9249 A spokesperson stated that the initial presence in Lebanon after he invaded been embedded in parts of government” Freedom of Information Act on behalf the advisors appointed by Paul Bremer, of bin Laden. report was based “on the facts as we and occupied Iraq is truly staggering. OPENING HOURS to oversee Iraqi ministries stay for the This allows the government to with­ had them at the time. The facts that we That the media can report his comments Monday to Saturday with a straight face says a lot about its remainder of their five-year term of hold all information about US persons had were wrong.” from 12 noon to 6pm office. in ‘‘personnel and medical files and Significandy, both versions of the report role in society. And Bush has the hypocrisy to state similar files” when the disclosure of You can alto o n our mall order larvtcn did not count any of the hundreds of In April Bush again reiterated his demand that Syria must “get completely that the Syrians “need to get completely such information “would constitute a ar order booki online via our webilte attacks on US troops in Iraq. Which was clearly unwarranted invasion of out of Lebanon.” Rather than state the out of Lebanon so the people of Lebanon www.fr00dompmM.org.uk strange, as these attacks are regularly can decide the fate of the country, not personal privacy,” detcribed bv the administration as obvious (“we’ll get out once you get out Freedom 7th May 2005 5 Feature General election lain McKay finds that it’s just the same old, same old ... there is no such thing as a legitimate government

cross Britain there has been politics. From the IWCA (2.3% of the general election. A govern­ vote in Oxford East) to the Socialist ■ ment was elected. It Labour Party (0.6% in Manchester happened to be a Labour Central) to the WRP (0.4% in Liverpool one. Next time it is likely Garston), to the Green Socialists (1.4% to be a Tory one. So much in Pontefract), Socialist Unity (1.5% in for the result what is really Nottingham East) and the Communists interesting about the 2005 general (0.5% in Pontypridd) the workers Aelection though is that Labour got into certainly had plenty of choice of parties power on the lowest popular vote ever. claiming to represent them. And Just 36% of those bothering to vote without exception they ignored them. voted for Labour. Even more strikingly The SSP in Scotland, for example, only 21% of the 44 million people who polled very poorly (getting 2% or less were eligible to vote (and four out of in all five Edinburgh constituencies). ten of them didn’t) put their cross next George Galloway’s Respect did though to a Labour candidate. For the first achieve some notable successes. Galloway, time ever more people did not vote the left’s answer to Robert Kilroy-Silk, (39%) than voted for the government. was elected in Bethnal Green beating Non-voters are in the majority. Labour’s Oona King by 823 votes. Calls in the Guardian and elsewhere Respect also scored second place in for proportional representation in Birmingham Spark brook and East and response to this crisis of legitimacy West Ham. Predictably these results are comp\ete\y misses the point. Tinkering being heralded as the dawning of a new with the system won’t improve anything. era by Galloway’s partners, the SWP. Proportional representation won’t The reality though is different. Respect deliver a more democratic government. gained support on the back of Muslim ‘Winner takes all’ is probably as good anger over Blair’s bloody war in Iraq itr b Jla Gibson Julian by picture as way as any to run a general election. not because of its policy on women’s The point is that an increasing number rights or renationalisation. Outside of people realise that the whole system areas with large Muslim populations its that is wrong. results were pretty much in line with Turnout in working class areas was other far left parties - 1 % in Cardiff below the national average of 61%. and in Cambridge, 0.5% in Dorset, Turnout in four of the five Glasgow 0.8% in Plymouth, 1.2% in Bristol, constituencies, for example, was below 1.3% in Bradford, 0.7% in Neath and 50%. There was a similar pattern in 3% in Walsall. Rather than a progressive is a real risk though of the BNP now mistaken: they are only so during the elections it has taken longer for this Liverpool with turnout in Liverpool force Respect has aligned it self with gaining a foothold in the south, something election of Members of Parliament. discontent to grow than he might have Riverside just 41% and in one reactionary tendencies, something that they have not achieved before. In many Once they are elected the people are expected. The relentless decline in Manchester constituency 42% . This is likely to cause tensions for Galloway seats out side of London the BNP came slaves, they are nothing.” Rousseau’s electoral turnout and the lack of trust isn’t apathy. Working class communities and his motley crew. fourth frequently achieving more than words ring as true now as they did in politicians is though now creating a know that politicians have abandoned There are some results from the 4% of the vote, well ahead of UKIP three hundred years today. Kropotkin, crisis in liberal democracy .' them so they have turned their back on election that should concern anarchists. and the Greens. The more hardcore in his classic Anarchist Communism, Last week Tony Blair stood outside them. Walk around any working class In Barking the BNP came second, getting National Front also did relatively well said “it is becoming evident that it is of Downing Street, elected by fewer area in the run-up to 5th May and you 17% of the vote, and in Dagenham getting 9J5 votes in Feltham for merely stupid to elect politicians and than two out of ten of the citizens of were struck by the complete lack of they received 9% . The BNP is feeding instance. trust them with the task of making this country aged over 18 and said that election posters in people’s windows. off the fears of poor working class Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in The laws.” he would listen to the people. He hasn’t Despite this the authoritarian left in communities and their disillusionment Social Contract “the English people While the discontent that Kropotkin be listening for the last eight years, why Britain remain obsessed with electoral with the political establishment. There think they are free. They are badly sensed the people had in the parliamentary should he start now he’s elected? Capitalism and inequality

f there is a common belief in the right, in two ways. First, they argue that Friedman in his book Capitalism and levels), as it did when free market ideology In a report published at the end of it is the love of inequality. On the capitalist societies tend* to be more Freedom, like most of his ideas it has was imposed on Eastern Europe in the April, they have found that Britain has authoritarian right, this is expressed egalitarian than ‘caste* societies (like proven to be without basis. 1990s. one of the worst records for social I He suggested that the more free in racism, hierarchy and leader worship. Stalinist regimes) and, second, that In effect, Friedman refuted his own mobility in the developed world, beaten On the so-called ‘libertarian* (free market based systems have more social market a society was, the more equal it claims and provided his critics right by only by the USA out of eight European was. He pointed to the example of the market capitalist) right, racism is mobility, i.e. people are more likely to having his ideas applied in practice. and North American countries. Norway usually eschewed in favour of class improve their position over a short USA and compared it to Soviet Russia. Needless to say, the right still hold this was the best followed by Denmark, (wealth) inequality along with hierarchy period of time and rise in the social He conveniently forgot to mention the 'old fraud in high esteem. Sweden, Finland, Germany and Canada. and leader worship - the cult of the ladder. For some strange reason they role of such New Deal policies as high As for the second argument, the claim This means that children bom to poor levels of taxation and social spending in businessperson. fail to mention that upward mobility that free market regimes have higher families in Britain are less likely to fulfil producing that equality. their full potential than in other countries Anarchists, like other socialists, have automatically implies downward social mobility, that is just as baseless. Ironically, these policies were the very and are less likely to break free of their long pointed out that wealth inequality mobility too. These two ‘facts*, it is In fact, numerous studies have shown things Friedman spent most of his time backgrounds than in the past. and a class system in which a few own claimed, show that we need not worry that the opposite is the case. Researchers fighting against and by the 1970s and In other words, we find it harder to tne means of life makes a mockery of about social inequality. at the London School of Economics, on 1980s his ideas went mainstream and earn more money and get better jobs freedom for the many who are reduced The first argument in defence of behalf of the educational charity the Sutton were applied by politicians like Reagan than our parents. Moreover, not only is to little more than picking masters. capitalist inequality is not found that Trust, are the latest in a long line to show and Thatcher. Inequality exploded to that the more free market a country, the social mobility in Britain much lower L When faced with this obvious objection, much these days, for an obvious reason: record levels (and way beyond Soviet worse is its levels of social mobility. ^ page 6, column 5 me free market right have tended to reply it was rubbish. Popularised by Milton Freedom 7th May 20G5 Editorial Commentary

he Cardinals, with the also be holding an event outside the will gain significant results as any anti­ HIV election of Joseph Ratzinger Coca Cola National Portrait Gallery on the evening war feelings will be directed towards ta * page 1 J to be the new Pope, have An update on the Coca Cola in Kerala of the Portrait Award presentation the Lib Dems (who are in a position to shown the world that the article in the last issue (23rd April). ceremony on Monday 13th June. Then actually win seats). people are living with HIV in the UK, 21st century is just not for Despite a decision by the local governing Art Not Oil. 2005 will move, we hope, Respect, in particular, will suffer most them. Pope Benedict XVI, as body the ‘Gram Panchayat’ to again to Scotland since the G8 will be there as the usual SWP hyper-hype will make around a third are undiagnosed. Ratzinger has chosen to call deny Coke a license to use the factory in July, as will many thousands of even the unlikely event of moderate The government is being taken to himself, has a track record of being for the next five years, the Indian High protesters calling for justice, freedom success seem like an anti-climax and, court over its failure to provide the sectarian, authoritarian and conservative. Court has decided to allow Coke to arid a fossil fuel-free future. As well as consequently, a defeat (although no drug by two HIV-positive men who Ratzinger enforced the old Pope’s restart work at the factory. This is from returning to London, we also plan for the matter what, the post-election rhetoric believe the failure to introduce PEP agenda on such matters as homosexuality a press release from the protesters: exhibition to be present in Sunderland will proclaim any result, no matter how nationwide on the NHS has led to their (the “legalisation of evil” supported by “Palakkad: The protest against Coca and Edinburgh in autumn/winter bad, as a victory of earth shattering condition. If successful the case could politicians who are “gravely immoral”), Cola is intensifying in the context of the 2005/6, since the BP Portrait Award proportions). allow thousands of other people to sue. freedom of information (the government permission granted by the High Court to exhibition will tour to these cities. Hopefully the descent of party leadership The cost for a lifetime’s supply of should “avoid exposing young people Coca Cola to function. The protesters Do you know a great place for an into the most crass opportunism and anti-AIDs drugs for one person is over to erroneous ideas about sexuality and are firm that the company would not exhibition like this, either this year or reformism may give any genuine £lm , a factor PEP campaigners believe marriage”) and adoption by gays be allowed to operate even if the in years to come? Gould you put any socialists remaining in the party cause should be taken into consideration (“allowing children to be adopted by authorities make all the arrangements time into helping make it happen? Or for concern j j and thought. when planning the drug’s deployment. persons living in such unions would for its operation. While appeal against- do you have something you’d like to As for those seeking to express their But the government has argued it actually mean doing violence to the the High Court judgement would be filed exhibit? If so, it would be great to hear opposition to Blairism and its wars, may would be impossible to introduce the children”). in the Supreme Court, the agitation from you. we suggest a spoilt ballot paper as the drug on a widespread basis, fearing it He even denounced rock music (“the against coca cola would be intensified. Contact us on 07708 794665, email logical course of action. A large increase would simply lead to more unprotected vehicle of anti-religion” and an “expression Activists of AIYF would march to [email protected], write to Art Not in spoilt ballots gives a message that we sex and a mounting bill for preventative of the elemental passions, and at rock Plachimada Coca Cola plant on Oil, d o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E l are not apathetic, but angry; not apolitical, treatment. festivals it assumes a sometimes cultic Monday.” 1ES or see www.artnotoil.org.uk, but anti-politics. Rob Ray character”). And a more recent release talking www.nationalpetroleumgallery.org.uk One noticeable aspect of the campaign And just as the Vatican downplayed about the march, entitled Clashes During or www.londonrisingtide.org.uk was the undercurrent of concern over the American clergy child sex abuse AIYF’s Anti Coca Cola March: The Art Not Oil Collective turnout. The Sun even decided to make scandal, so did Ratzinger (stating the “Palakkad: The march by AIYF to the a campaign about it. There seemed to . Capitalism “constant presence in the press of the Plachimada Coca Cola Company on be an awareness that more and more page 5 sins of Catholic priests, especially in the Monday ended in clashes. Skirmishes For war, not people were seeing through the game of than in other advanced countries, it is United States, is a planned campaign”). with the police erupted when the politics and recognising that no matter actually declining and has fallen markedly Should we be that surprised? It is no activists tried to forcibly enter the plant. back who you vote for, they will put the over time. mistake that Ratzinger has chosen Saint Satyapal, the District President of AIYF, This election campaign is hard to get interests of state and capital first and The findings were based on studies of Benedict as his namesake. Benedict led the protest march that began at 11am enthusiastic about, particularly for die­ foremost. .That is healthy, in as much as two groups of children, one set born in founded the monastic tradition in from Kannimari in the context of the High hard anti-parliamentarians. The two its shows that you cannot fool all of the the 1950s and the other in the 1970s. Catholicism, an attempt to present the Court judgement. E.K Selvakumar, mainstream parties with any chance of people all of the time. In the UK, while 17% of the former church as a refuge from an inherently Secretary, P. Manikantan, O.K Saithalavi, winning are basically running on the However, as long as this expresses made it from the bottom quarter sinful world. and T.A Rashid, Executive Committee same platform and quibbling on the itself in cynicism rather than the income group to the top, only 11% o f The key was submission to the church members. The Adivasis who have kept details. As for the Liberal Democrats, creating of genuine alternatives which the latter did so. hierarchy for, as he put it, “the first step up their agitation for 1,085 days they could promise a lot more because use direct action to achieve change then Mobility in the Nordic countries was of humility is unhesitating obedience, saluted the AIYF activists. A massive they are in no position to-‘deliver’ (i.e. the elite can happily tolerate it. twice that of the UK. While only the US which comes naturally to those who police force fully armed including with betray those promises). As such, the concern raised about did worse than tbe UK in social mobility, cherish Christ above all.” tear gas led by C.A Antony, Circle The Tories campaign seems to amount ‘apathy’ should not be considered as this may not last as the divide between The Benedictine legacy is one of Inspector of Kollangode was present at to playing the race card and can be sincere. Actual turnout is utterly rich and poor in Britain was getting submission to authority and the new the gate of Coca Cola.” summed up as “if you don’t want people irrelevant to how a party governs or deeper while in the US the situation Benedict has already indicated that this No more specifics, sorry, especially like Michael Howard’s grandfather whether it claims a mandate for its was static. obedience must be expanded. This regarding the dates of the marches/ getting into the country then vote for actions. The findings effectively demolished explains his warnings against the actions/clashes - the e-mail was unclean Michael Howard.” The US state has happily survived the idea that America was a ‘land of “dictatorship of relativism which does Andy Williams Blair’s campaign amounts to “don’t decades of around 50% of eligible people opportunity’. In reality, the upper not recognise anything as definitive and mention the war” - perhaps they should voting. As long as the non-voters leave reaches of US society had been cut off has as its highest value one’s own ego.” reconsider changing their campaign it at that, then they will be as ignored for most of the worse off since the In other words the attempts of people Art Not Oil slogan to “For war not back”? As it is, as those who bothered to go to the 1960s (i.e. before Friedman’s ideas to think for themselves and work out Art Not Oil is an annual event aimed at both are running on a neo-liberal polling station. To state the obvious, started to be applied). what is right and wrong based on their encouraging artists to create work that platform and like the Democrats and the level of abstentions has no relation Rather than produce a ‘classless’ own intellect and shared humanity. explores the damage that companies Republicans in the US, emphasising to ‘the level of anarchy’ a given country society of opportunity for all, the rise of It is this last factor, the sense of equality, like BP are doing to the planet, and the different aspects of it to get people to has unless there is a large and active free market capitalism has resulted in which ensures that any decent system of role art can play in counteracting that consider them the least likely to mess- anarchist movement present. We have an increasingly unequal and rigid society. non-absolutist ethics does not allow damage. up their lives. no interest in apathy and while the Growing income inequality has seen oppression and exploitation to be tolerated. It is designed in part to paint a truer The parties’ manifestos were unleashed current alienation with the political the rich got richer while the poor It is precisely this sense of equality portrait of an oil company than the and the newspapers took them seriously system is good, unless it turns into a struggle to break the cycle of poverty. which a hierarchical organisation like caring image manufactured by the BP in spite of them being simply ignored positive agenda for social change we will So after 25 years of Thatcherite and the Catholic Church cannot appeal to. Portrait Award, a search for the year’s once in office. If we had a real media not expect much to change. neo-Thatcherite governments, social In this attack on individual freedom ‘best’ portrait which also helps to divert they would have prefaced their coverage That means looking seriously at building mobility has fallen while social and equality, the current hierarchy of public attention and indignation from with “Last election, New Labour’s anti-parliamentarian alternatives which inequality has risen (so much for the the Catholic Church is not alone. The BP’s actual activities. manifesto promised not to impose will inspire those who, while turned off ‘classless’ society). desire for obedience can be found in all Climate chaos is set to have a tuition fees...” When push comes to from politicians, are actively interesting forms of fundamentalism, whether catastrophic effect on all of us, while shove, election promises wither under in changing the world for the better. There's one DIY spacejnXn^UK. A where yoli, can getzjnes like; Islamic or Evangelical Christians. hitting the poorest hardest. Oil is a the heat produced in the greenhouse of And that is the task any serious Slug & Lettuce. Prdfan^lixIst^nce, The aim is the same, to produce an curse that also fuels war, poverty and big business and the state bureaucracy. libertarian movement should be looking Maximum Rock n R6ll,Heartattadkf- ‘Eternal Authority’ which can provide and R.ltBv jntisic from labStt like; ^ environmental destruction. Yet the As for the fringe parties (like the Greens into. It means tapping into the current Broken Rekids, Actiyt£ Skuld/ Havoa the basis for a moral life and so relieve companies most responsible are profiting and Respect), it is doubtful that they disillusionment with politicians in order Malarie, Flat Earth and Mdrtahate,! people from thinking for themselves. handsomely, and they are still welcome books from AK Press, Freekfom, to present a positive alternative based Rebel Prkss,^and many others! Ultimately, the new Pope shows that it seems in many of our most prestigious on what many people are doing already cs So1 the struggle of authority and the public galleries and museums. or logical extensions of it. The 56@ Infoshop 56A Crampfon St, SE17 \ individual still goes on and that previous Art Not Oil 2005 will include It means encouraging militant rank Elephant& Castle, Londdn conquests of liberty need to be continually paintings, photos, sculpture and other and file unionism against bosses, Open Tftur&fFrl and Sat aftetaoons*^ wwto.safetycat.org/56a/ \ defended against those who would creations that address issues like producer and consumer co-operatives destroy them. It is one of the ironies of climate chaos, corporate greenwash and against capitalist firms, credit unions ;.<56@ I U -23 the 21st century that those who are the suicidal madness that proclaims against rip-off banks, community groups leading the onslaught on freedom get ‘profit is king’ and ‘money can solve against local state bureaucracies, in proclaimed to be ‘champions of liberty’ any problem’. We also warmly welcome general direct action against bosses and Quiz answers by their fellow authoritarians. work dealing with the cancerous impact politicians. Jrttu>9 3rd Sun* munbap -|Un* 1. It was so precious it should be rationed. The atheist message is still as relevant of the oil industry on the planet, and of We have a positive message and a 2. Plotino Rhodakanaty, born in Athens in wortT o 4#v,nu m p h h m today as it was in the past and it is no course work that dares to imagine what means to make the world a better 1828 he migrated to Mexico in 1861. IN THE SUIT coincidence that anarchism and atheism solutions to these serious but not place. We are saying to people that 3. It*s the north-eastern name for an eider go hand-in-hand. The struggle for insoluble problems might look like. (Jive Up Al Hops they, and they alone, can make their duckj so called because early Art Not Oil 2005 will begin as a lives better. That direct action not only conservationist St Cuthbert decreed they liberty must be waged not only against W i n d o w Y i c k h r s virtual gallery at www.artnotoil.org.uk, .... — - ♦lotopftbo'l can be used to fight the current system, economic and political authorities but aoluron" 44& 3 U"* UP3EIZK) be protected because of the valuable down progressing to a physical space at the it can also create a new, better, one to that was harvested from their nests. also spiritual authorities. The new Pope p-rt<* foo,,° tournament, Scumbag Olympic Garnoo ♦ lurpriiaa TBCI replace it. has done us the great service of Institute for Autonomy in London (see 4. Woody Guthrie. Much as I approve of the u)ii3u).gpodinfl.oPfl.uM)Pixton5cum.btm I.M. reminding us of this.______page 2, listings) from 9th June. We will subject matter, it’s not his fawt Freedom 7in May 2uus> « REVIEW Will the movie of the classic anarchist comic V for Vendetta miss the point, asks lain McKay

lan Moore’s classic graphic Watchmen (also, incredibly, being made novel (i.e. comic for grown­ into a film), it is a modern classic. ups) V for Vendetta is Making a movie of it was inevitable being made into a movie as and we can only hope it will be good I write. Its opening date is (the people who made the Matrix are planned to be this year’s involved so the special effects may be Guy Fawkes night, befitting good). Unfortunately, Alan Moore’s the fact that V, the hero of the book, comics have generally been butchered dresses like him and succeeds in blowing when made into films. This seems to be up the Houses of Parliament. happening to V for Vendetta as well. The Why should you be interested? Simply following is the movie’s plot synopsis: because, in Moore’s graphic novel, V is “V for Vendetta takes place in an an anarchist fighting a fascist state in a alternate future in which Germany wins grim post-world war III future. It made WWII and Great Britain becomes a compulsive reading when it came out in fascist state. A terrorist freedom fighter late 1988, inspired as it was by Moore’s known only as ‘V’ begins a violent disgust of Thatcher’s Britain. guerrilla campaign to destroy those It also included some excellent anarchist who’ve succumbed to totalitarianism, propaganda (such as V s television appeal and recruits a young woman he’s rescued to the people to take responsibility for from the secret police to join him.” their own lives and get rid of the criminals So does our anarchist hero become they allow to have power or his simply a ‘freedom fighter’? As for ‘discussion’ with the statue of justice at “Germany wins WWII” that utterly the beginning of the book). misses the point of the book, which is While its glorification of ‘propaganda about home-bred fascism. Moore by the deed’ is troublesome and no guide obviously believed that Britain could ro action (and why should it, it is a become fascist - and with Thatcher in comic book set in an imaginary fascist office who could blame him? In the future after all!), V was no mindless book, we did it to ourselves and that terrorist. His targets were carefully puts V’s struggle in a slightly different selected and included sources of power light - if a fascist regime is created or rea\ syttft>oY\c') as we\\ as state \ supported by a majority, does that criminals. His actions, therefore, express make struggle against it ‘terrorism’? already been turned into films. Let us (imposed by the necessities of the super­ transmuted into a general plea for ‘liberty’ the best aspect of ‘propaganda by the Not from an anarchist perspective, of hope so, although I’m not holding my hero comic book genre and the nature (even ‘democracy’!) and against the deed’, the holding to account of those course, but under Thatcher rebels were breath. In today’s climate, an anarchist of the regime V is fighting rather than totalitarian form of government only. in power for their oppression and constantly subjected to the argument that hero may be too much. V may be expressing any core idea of anarchism) The real message may, therefore, be lost repression. direct action was ‘undemocratic’ as the turned into a generic ‘freedom fighter’ may be brought to the fore while his or, at best, mentioned in passing. As such, given its political nature and ■ people had voted for her authoritarian who liberates the masses who are too redeeming belief that people can govern If so, it would be a great shame. But its grim account of both the rise o f British agenda. repressed, stupid or apathetic to do it themselves without bosses and at least the film may get people reading fascism and life under such a regime, it Perhaps ‘V for Vendetta’ will fare better themselves. politicians of any sort, is consigned to the original graphic novel which is still is of interest to libertarians. Like than those works by Moore which have The potential elitism of V’s tactics memory. His anarchism may become a masterpiece by a master of his craft. YOUR GUIDE TO DEALING WITH LEGAL PROBLEMS AT THE G8

We at Freedom want our readers to be England and Wales. We have been busy you have committed an offence, or have Arrest (using a mouth swab). They have a safe, and indeed free. Here is a cut-out putting together An Activists’ Guide to potentially witnessed an offence. The general power of the police to right to use reasonable force to do all and keep guide to dealing with policing Scots Law, which is currently available 2. When you are detained or arrested arrest is defined as ‘com m on-law’ so of these. and legal problems you could face if to download from our website. Due to (see below). there are no certain criteria. As a You may also be questioned and we you plan to be one o f the several thousand limited space here we will only deal 3. If you are stopped when driving a working rule if they reasonably believe advise you to say ‘no comment’. You people protesting the next meeting of with some key issues. Anyone going to motor vehicle - you may also be required you have committed an offence you will be either released, asked to sign an the G8 group of nations at Gleneagles. Gleneagles should read the Guide. to produce a driving licence, insurance may be arrested. This is the practice undertaking or held until the next certificate and MoT certificate within where you are caught in the act. working day for court. Public order policing tactics Stop and Search seven days St a police station. Passengers Otherwise it is usual to detain you. Arrest can be a very intimidating The police favour close contact public There is no general right for the police need not give their details. You should be cautioned and experience. It can also be a very boring order policing. The main tactic is to to search you. The police will often try anything you say after that point, to and slow-moving one. Stay calm, relax divide very large groups o f people into to get people to co-operate where they Detention and arrest any police officer, can be used as when you can, remember your rights smaller groups and surround and have no legal power to compel anyone The police in Scotland have two evidence. You do not have to give any and you’ll soon be out. contain them, sometimes for hours, to do so. If you allow them to search separate powers: detention and arrest. information apart from your name and before dispersing one by one; When through your bag, for example, address. You may want to give your Juveniles they fail to divide groups, riot police anything they find may be used as Detention date of birth as this can speed up Anyone aged 16 or over is treated as an are sent in lines to break up and evidence against you in any trial, even You may be detained if you are release, but this is not legally necessary. adult in Scottish law. If you are under disperse crowds, by hitting out with if they had no legal power to compel reasonably suspected of having You have the right to have a person 16 and are arrested then the police will batons at peoples’ heads. you to submit to a search. committed an offence that is subject to informed of your place of detention. inform your parents. They may also The police often use teams of snatch imprisonment (an example would be You also have a right to have a solicitor (especially if you live abroad or your squads to make arrests. These consist of Giving Your Name and Address breach of the peace). You need to be informed of your arrest. We advise you parents cannot be contacted) inform six officers in a triangular pattern, with In general you do not have to give your told that: a) you are being detained, to contact a solicitor and to say ‘no Social Services. They may refuse to and b) what you are being detained for. the outer police protecting the arresting details to the police or answer their comment’ to any questions until you release you until your parents come to officer. questions, but giving a false name or You cannot be held in the legal state of have spoken to your solicitor. A list of pick you up. ‘detention’ for more than six hours, The police also make wide use of address can be an offence. We advise solicitors will be available from us If you are coming to the protests with after which time you must either be photographers, video camera operators, you not to give your name and address, nearer the time. an adult other than your parents it’s released or arrested. helicopters with video cameras and as this will be added to their intelligence If you have been hurt at all you should worth that person bringing a letter If you are detained this may be evidence gatherers, who record a database, and to say ‘no comment to demand to be seen by a doctor. If you from your parents authorising them to because there is not sufficient evidence funning commentary. any other questions. are on any medication or have a medical act on their behalf - the police don’t There are three circumstances when yet to have you arrested, and that they condition which could require it, then have to accept this but it can help. Scottish law you are required to give your name and wish to question you. You do not have make sure you tell the custody officer. G8 Legal Support Group to give any information apart from You will be fingerprinted, photographed I Contact us at [email protected] and There are important differences address: your name and address. and they may also take a DNA sample see our website at www.g8legalsuppoit.info between the Scottish law and the law in 1. If the police reasonably suspect that tions to the prisons when a comrade m m We don’t have an exit strategy We have a success strategy V to rid the world of a dictator who was destabilising, the Review inside needs our support, whether they resion,and brinsin era of woffle, wdfle, woffle, bUKbJah. are in struggle or have been brutalised. Mite’ll leave lrae when we’ve succeeded in doing what we said If It was easy thay wouldn’t we would do; to rid the world of ------— This kind of solidarity has had a real call It ‘stniggte’ SaUd&ris o f T effect on prisoners’ treatment in the past. by Mark Barnsley Aiatf eatiw tieo, This pamphlet is an excellent starting whkh fed been gotrid point for those who want to learn about This pamphlet contains a talk Mark jf, gome years earlier. gave in Lille, France, last year, with the prison resistance. Highly recommended. question and answer session that TW followed. Also included is a question If it was easy, they wouldn’t call it ‘struggle’: and answer session from a similar talk Mark Barnsley talks about repression and Mark gave the previous month in resistance In British prisons, £2.50 (including Barcelona. UK postage, add 50p elsewhere in Europe, £1 This pamphlet covers a lot of prison outside Europe) from Mark Barnsley, JFMB, PO issues, from the brutalisation of Box 381, Huddersfield, HD1 3XX. Please make If you keep on you might destabilise prisoners to the ever-increasing prison cheques payable to ‘Mark Barnsley RP. reminding us our faith in the privatisation scheme, however the main about WMDs, veracity of governmen ts. theme throughout is Mark’s belief in the importance of resistance. Mark’s determination and defiance Imagine if... should be an inspiration to all anarchists, Pope Benedict stood at his balcony, regardless of whether they are inside or heavily swathed in the most stunning not. This pamphlet is jam-packed with textiles the great technology of his anecdotes from Mark’s resistance and servants could provide. those of other prisoners. His silver hair had grown brittle with Despite the odds, these prisoners have age, his kindly demeanour, so long held refused to be broken, in fact the opposite for the crowds and the cardinals, had is true, what the prison system has relaxed into his more common horrified thrown at them has made them stronger^ rictus. made them even more determined to At his side stood Darth Vader, who left school effectively when he was 14 - Blast from keep their integrity. Here, Mark had ever been in the shadows. A Sideways Look a combination of indifferent teaching illustrates the kind of strength some “What do you require my master?” A friend tells me of a project he is and a desire on his part to do M l prisoners have shown: The old man grimaced at a bird that running with his kids’ primary school. something practical. He learnt to be a Taken from Freedom of May 1989, written by “I know one prison comrade who only had flown past in an offensively He already helps run the organic builder the practical way, having gained Brian Bamford and entitled The Triumph of drinks water, he never drinks coffee or unclothed manner. vegetable garden they have, but little from his secondary modern Thatcherism: tea, so that the guards have nothing to “We have much to do Vader. encountered the problem of what to do school. Ironically, that school, now | After more than ten years of Thatcher take away from him. This guy told me, Somewhere out there are millions of souls about keeping it watered over the closed, was meant to specialise in | Government, the political pundits are he was in segregation for a long time, yet to be conquered.” A blue lance of summer holidays. He came up with the teaching trades as any academically cashing in by publishing books this man is a real fighter^ and he won’t lightning shot out from Benedict’s idea of running a project with some of inclined children had already been analysing the Thatcher era. Hugo back down to any extent, even in the finger as he grew more excited. the classes to engineer a solution. filtered out by selection. Young in his book One o f Us has said segregation unit he fought back. “Imagine, the filthy dirty heathens, He tells the kids that engineering is This comes as no surprise to anyone, Thatcher promises to stay with us “into “The guards tried everything to break screwing... bumming each other...” A about making something you need out except perhaps policy-makers and an indefinite future,” and one critic him. One day after a long time, one of stray bolt hit Vader’s chest box, causing of things you can get hold of. Put opinion formers. Children, like the rest recently admitted he’d given up writing the senior guards came to see him, and a minor short and bringing the dark simply it’s community engineering - of us, have different aptitudes and her obituaries. he said to him, ‘Listen, when you were Sith’s wheezing back. dealing with everyday matters rather potentials. The education system we For Hugo Young the triumph of first down here in segregation, we Haw Sss than sending rockets into space. The have refuses to recognise that. The Thatcherism is a personal one: “There carefully monitored what you spent’. “Sorry. I just get a bit frustrated. I idea is not just to get the kids involved, reasons why aren’t hard to fathom - was no corner of British society to Every week my friend had made one am but a humble worker tending the but to expose them to some basic anything that isn’t academically- which ‘Maggie* could not sooner or phone call to his family, and he had Catholic garden you know.” He concepts of engineering and problem oriented is looked down on by our later turn her hand: no problem which bought one Mars bar. straightened his golden robe, and solving in a hands-on way. class-ridden society. Even the alleged she could not solve, no governmental “The guard said to him, ‘Why not leaned more heavily on his solid silver The school ha**extensive flat roofs, meritocrats in New Labour think it’s tmmvpYi that iaWed to start conforming, and you can have sceptre for emphasis. so the design, which everyone worked okay for children of dustman to hers.” In politics staying the course is that again?’ My friend stood away from “You shall rule beside me Vader. on, funnels rainwater from the roofs become accountants, but not for important, and being on top is even the door, he pointed to the window Together we shall destroy the republics, into reclaimed storage tanks which children of accountants to become more important. Because of this ability , ledge, and he said, ‘A Mars bar? Like and I shall assume my rightful place as have been cleaned up. A solar panel dustmen. Until this attitude changes to stay on top the aura of greatness, that one there?’ It had been there for ruler of the galaxy. I have already powers a pump which then slowly feeds and we recognise that actually a cleaner and even genius, sticks to Thatchei; as nine months, he didn’t eat it as a sign become pope, it is all going according the water into the vegetable beds. is worth more than an advertising they say, like shit to a blanket... of resistance. He told me the next thing to plan.” The project is part way through and copywriter, kids will continue to forced Their success is not in doubt. John ten guards ran into the cell with riot Haw Sss. Vader banged his chest a few the children have helped in bidding for down a path crammed with exams, Mclllroy, a marxist writer on trade shields to seize the Mars bar.” times and turned a few knobs. “Haw... sponsorship and coming up with ideas rather than given a chance to make unionism has recently claimed: Sadly, not all prisoners are able to I feel a presence... one I haven’t felt - some of which are being followed up something of their aptitudes. “Thatcherism still holds the stage and display this degree of strength. For for... Sss” Benedictine nodded. in addition to the project. My friend Svartfrosk the future of trade unionism remains many the harsh conditions and lack of “Yes I too feel a disturbance in the tells me that the academically-oriented uncertain and insecure.” political consciousness has resulted in force. The death of Darth John Paul kids have not been the ones most them succumbing to a ‘liying death’. has left a vacuum, but we will bring involved, while children in other classes Mark highlights the difference prisoner balance. The cardinals are weak, and who he doesn’t know have asked him if support can make to those inside. stupid, or corrupt. They will not stand they can do some engineering too. The quiz Letters are an important part of this, in our way.” Darth Vader shifted The current demand for Polish media hacklab 1. Lenin thought liberty was precious. it helps alleviate the isolation prisoners uncomfortably. How did he qualify this most un- builders in Britain isn’t solely because Technology for social change, are feeling, plus it shows the guards that • “When you say balance master” His they are cheaper. I’ve heard enough independent media, free software Leninist thought? these prisoners belong to a movement, mentor snapped at him. tales of them taking meticulous care and open access IT 2. Which Greek-born activist was the that they are not alone. However^ letter “I mean a balanced scouring of all and a craftsman’s pride in their work to first advocate of anarchism in writing should only be a starting point non believers, the establishment of recognise there’s something else going Open every day Mexico? for prisoner solidarity. Raising funds to conservative Catholicism as on. The Stalinist system might not have from 12 noon to 6pm 3. What is a cuddy duck? help a prisoner’s family visit them, sending unassailable and the total destruction of provided much, but it did do basic at Freedom 4. Who made an entire album dedicated 84b Whitechapel High Street them books, money, etc., are just some the Liberation theology rebellion!” training, the sort of thing that used to to anarchist martyrs Sacco and of the things we can do to support them. Vader sighed. Perhaps he should have be called apprenticeships here and was www. hacklab. org. uk Vanzetti? We should also be sending demonstra­ stayed with the Emperor. seen off under Thatcher. 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