h h anarchist^weeMy
V o l.3 5 No. 28 Freedom 13 July, 1974.
the upper class snob who does not want to mix with the "common peo ple" and the rich who do not want to wait for treatment in an al ready overcrowded system, to em THE ILL-HEALTH ployers who offer the B.U.P.A. scheme (medical insurance) as an extra incentive to their employ ees (yet the boss always wins be cause it is to his advantage that OF THE STATE his staff have quick medical treatment and thus cut short time spent in sick leave). It is time AFTER A campaign by the National by illegal ? action have stopped Union of Public Employees, the that all those who feel they must the "free choice" of the indivi pay extra for their medical treat government has decided to speed dual to be either private or NHS up the phasing out of private ment (or think that the NHS treat patients. Xet to be given the ment is not good enough) should no beds in National Health hospit opportunity to have special als. This private bed system is longer exploit the National Health- ■ treatment at the expense of many Service. yet another example of wealth/ others is a privilege that our class privilege existing within so called "democratic" society can Although in this country we society, that for enough money a do without. Those in favour of have a health system that is far patient can have immediate medi the pay bed system argue that pri superior to many others, if it is cal treatment, with a private vate patients somehow subsidise to work well, and cater for the room, etc. in a N.H.S. hospital, the National Health Service. If needs of sick human beings, the at the expense of other, less this is true it shows how rotten ■management must be taken from the well off patients (and most pro the system must be. (It is int bureaucratic hospital boards by bably needing treatment just as eresting that while doctors and the doctors and nurses who actual quickly) who must wait for a specialists are paid fees by the ly run the hospitals. Then maybe free bed in the "public" wards. private patients, the nurses, etc. the strict hierarchical set up Xet the action by the union has have no extra salary. within the hospitals will be over been strongly condemned (as any come, and the abuse and exploita one reading the national press There is a vested interest all tion of doctors, nurses, cleaners will have seen). So far they along the line to retain the pay and kitchen staff will end. have been selfish, jealous, and bed/private patient system, from D.P,
DURING THE LAST few months we have been inundated with discussions cn the contest, which side would win, whether the tactics were right, whether the captains (and players) were the right choice, whether the rules of the game should be IT’S ONLY A GAME! changed - but never whether they should continue playing this es capist, adolescent, ceremonial real the whole game is oriented The goalposts he must reach - game. The captains, Heath and to his right-wing players. otherwise knows as the simple aims of food, clothing and shel Wilson, glower at each other Heath's team is disgruntled and ter - are made of elastic and re from the centre of the field, demoralised by defeats and its treat before his advance. That dark accusations are made of morale suffers from the occasional his management can make his own foul play by and of Wilson, Benn, conviction that they have the goalposts retreat in a similar Castle, Foot and even Silkin wrong captain and even the wrong (though slower) fashion makes whilst Heath's team perform tactics, and do not improve mat strenuous feats of gamesmanship, ters by changing strategy in mid- ■little difference. If his oppo nents' seem to be losing they scoring occasional goals but field. Nevertheless the game has change the rules or declare goals never really seeming to want a a great following despite the fact null and invalid. It is even victory, which event would give that the results are palpably fixed that throughout the match the game too nasty a shake-up. fixed and the enmity between the Every now and again Thorpe and teams is stage-managed. The hand the value of opposition goals is his retinue of players seek to shaking and bonhomie in the progressively devalued. He is join some team or other but no dressing-rooms and sometimes on cheered by others with the retort body is wild to get them at their the field itself are the true re "It's only a game". But in this transfer fee. flection of the relation of the 'game' men suffer, are crippled teams to each other. They have and die and there are no specta Meanwhile Wilson, whose know tors . ledge of the real game of foot- the greatest admiration for each ball, judging by one of his other as players and their con There are other games, the game speeches, is not very great con tempt is reserved for the specta ,of Law, the game of War to name tinues to play a cautious game. tors. After all. . .it's only a but two, where the realities are He uses his left wing to terrify game ! clouded, the values are juvenile his opponents and cheer the fans On other fields the game goes and the rules are corroded by time of the left - without actually on. The common man daily goes and the whole game is stacked in letting the left score any goals. out on the field. The ball is at favour of the big battalion teams. He tries to do the same thing his feet, he is exhorted from The constant urge is to be a with his right-wing who now and every side to score which it is sportsman, to take defeat as it again appear to actually score. said is easy and expected of him comes, and not to complain. The But since the battle between the but the ball is sometimes made of two sides is more apparent than lead or is chained to his font. . . ■ Continued on Page 3 Col ,, 3
Centro de Documentagao e Apoio a Pesquisa 1 unesp* Cedap Faculdade de CiSncias e Letras de Assis 17 li 19 20 21 22 FREEDOM PRESS 84b WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET FOOTBALL MAGIC LONDON Ei Phone 01-247 9249 SOMEONE ONCE wrote in FREEDOM all the skill, scraftsmanship, that sport was now the opium of Publications flair, poetry of motion and th'e people. Veil if this is finally that magic which this A B C of Anarchism. Alexander true, then many "football freaks, sport can achieve. Everyone Berkman 25p (post 5p) ;like myself, have been as high likes supporting a winding USA 75c post free
ATA Centro de Documenta^ao e Apoio a Pesquisa 1 unesp^ Cedap Faculdade de Cidncias e Letras de Assis 17 li 19 20 21 22 BAKUNIN SPEAKS .onVOMEN, MARRIAGE FAMILY i
AS MUCH as anyone else I am a the interference of any autho partisan of the comp rity with that union, we make lete emancipation of women and them more closely united to their social equality with men. each other. And we are equally The expression "social equality convinced that when the accurs with men" implies that we demart} ed State power is no longer , along with freedom, equal rights with us to force individuals, and duties for men and women — associations, communes, provin that is, equalisation of the ces, and regions to live toge rights of women, political as ther against their will, all well as social and economic these will constitute a much rights, with those of men; con closer union, a much more liv sequently, we want the abolition ing unity, more real and more of family and marriage law, and powerful than that which was of the ecclesiastic as well as forced upon them by the crush the civil law, indissolubly ing power of the State. bound up with the right of in ■ /u heritance. In accepting the anarchist revolutionary prog CHILDREN ramme, which alone, in our opi and upbringing of children, and nion, offers conditions for a With the abolition of marri which therefore has not only real and complete emancipation age there comes to the fore the the right but also the duty to of the common people, 'and con question of the upbringing of watch over them, is the sole vinced that the existence of the children. Their upkeep from the guardian of the children of State in any form whatever is time of their mother's pregnancy both sexes. And since, as a incompatible with the freedom of until their maturity, their result of the forthcoming abol the proletariat, and that it training and education, equal ition of the right of inherit does not permit the internation for all - industrial and intel ance, society is to become the al fraternal union of nations, lectual training combining pre only heir, it will then deem as we therefore put forth the dem paration for both manual and one of its first duties the and for the abolition of all mental labour - must be mainly furnishing of all the necessary States. Abolition of States the concern of the free society. means for the maintenance, up and of the juridical right will bringing, and education of necessarily entail the abolition Children do not constitute children of both sexes, irres of personal inheritable property anyone's property: they are pective of their origin or of and the juridical family based neither the property of the par their parents. upon this property, since both ents nor even of society. They do not admit of human justice. belong only to their own future The rights of the parents freedom. But in children this shall be confined to loving ..We are convinced that in abol freedom is not yet real; it is their children and exercising ishing religious, civil and only potential. For real free over them the only authority juridical marriage we restore dom - that is, the full aware compatible with that love, in life, reality and morality to ness and the realisation there so far as this authority does natural marriage based solely of in every individual, pre not run counter to their moral upon human respect and the free eminently based upon a feeling ity, their mental development, dom of two persons; a man and of one's dignity and upon the or their future freedom. Mar woman who love each other. We genuine respect for someone riage, in the sense of being a are convinced that in recognis else's freedom and dignity, i.e. civil and a political act, ing the freedom of either party upon justice - such freedom can like any intervention of soci to the marriage to part from develop in children only through ety in questions of love, is the other whenever he or she the rational development of bound to disappear. The child wishes to, without having to their minds, character and will. ren will be entrusted - natur ask anyone's permission for it ally and not by right - to the — and that likewise in denying mother, her prerogative under the necessity of needing any Hence it follows that society, rational supervision of society. permission to unite in marriage the whole future of which dep and rejecting in general ends upon adequate education x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x U jA M E ., .cpn_r,i :] ur Prom ' , 1 PERHAPS the philosophy of anarchism has protagonists at a higher level, PRESS FUND its greatest appeal to the young at heart. fraternise with each other, the At any rate the following anecdote seems other members die and suffer but Donations to bear out this view . to the 'Pros' the finer points of Voltairine De Cleyre, talking with the game are subject for discus sion and admiration. The whole 27 June - 3 July Kropotkin lamented that the young peo ple, after only a few years of enthusiasm purpose is to raise the sporting PARAGOULD, Ark.: B.M. 37p; and activity for anarchist ideals, faded element to a complete abstraction. LONDON E .16: P.W. £1.85; Anon 3p; away and were lost, and Kropotkin con Our rulers are, it is said, cor DUBLIN: R.W. £3.22; KIRKBY Notts soled her with the reply, "Let them rupted by the upper-class school A.B. 83p; LONDON E.16: G.I. £1; go, Voltairine, we had the best of them, image of sportsmanship but it is WOLVERHAMPTON: J.K.W. lOp; J.L„ we had them when they were young," not only they who take refugue in 4Op; BIRMINGHAM: L.C. 75p; these shadow conflicts. Is it DAGENHAM: M.I. £1; LINCOLN: /Recounted by Harry Kelly in his intro not time that we ceased to be C.J. 30p. TOTAL: £14.85 duction to Beyond the Horizon (Thomas spectators and participants in B. Eyges)^/ Prev. acknowledged: £633,92 these mock conflicts with their pre-set rules and pre-destined TOTAL TO DATE: £648.77 results? PAGE 3 Jack Robinson.
Centro de Documenta^ao e Apoio a Pesquisa unesp Faculdade de CiSncias e Letras de Assis 17 IS 19 20 21 22 and this he does superbly, highlighting all the courage and confus Reviews ion of that battle, that is now one of the great and noble battle hon ours of the Left. The Greeks and the archers and the men of the Re venge never knew that they were making history, and of the 800 men of the British Battalion, only 200 were left in the line one month later, ill-fe d , poorly armed yet standing their ground for the con Ur n a a i tmmm i i waflULIV mscience of Europe. *********************************************************** It was the American counter-attack that ended the battle of the Jarama river valle y, and of the 45,000 casualties 25,000 of them CRUSADE IN SPAIN by Jason G urney. £ 2.95 Faber and Faber were Republican soldiers. Where Jason failed, and it is a small ped antic point, is that he creates a situation in isolation when it was A N D I REMEMBER SPAIN: A Spanish C ivil War Anthology, edited part of a loose and fluid front line, and the 45,000 casualties make by Murray Sperber. £ 4.95 Hart-Davis, Macgibbon the point, but 40,000 volunteers went to Spain and one third died. H E M IN G W A Y IN SPAIN by Jose Luis Castillo-Puche. $10.95 Some one rewrote the words of the "Red River Valley" to "There's a Doubleday valley in Spain called Jarama", and the last two lines are "So re member the Jarama valley/And the old men who wait patiently." REPORT OF THE PAROLE BOARD FOR 1973 . 3lp. Her Majesty's "I am old, I am old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled", Stationery Office. ! wrote the fory poet, Eliot, but we shall remember, we shail remem- *********************************************************** 1■ber. Jason, as all good autobiographers should, had his revenge in print against enemies and associates, and there is a great naming of JA S O N G U R N E Y DIED LAST YEAR, but his life as he foresaw it names, with Tom Wintringham dismissed out of hand. Macartney and ended in the aftermath of the battle of Jarama valle y, with his hand : jhe Political Commisar, Dave Springhall given the kiss of death, and destroyed by a single stray bullet. In 1936 he had all the gifts that poor Giles Romilly swept under the rug as a leader of a group of mid life could offer. He was young, good looking in the David Niven dle class intellectuals, twenty in a ll, and mostly homosexuals, for fashion, had talent as a sculptor, lived above the poverty level in Jason may not have been a political animal, but he absorbed the bohemian Chelsea, possessed a social conscience and was rightly Stalinist jargon. There were three men who dominated Jason's out aware that he would in time join the establishment of successful art look while he was in Spain. He hated Peter Kerrigan, whom he de ists. His writing is good reportage in that he catches the feel of the scribed as the eminence grise of the Communist Party, the myster period, and when he mentions Dylan Thomas, Rex Harrison, Leslie ious Brigadier George Nathan was his father figure, but the only Charteris and Betty M ay, it is not name dropping, for in that envir genuine admiration he showed was for old Jack Lemaans, the Wobblie onment, circulating around the Six Bells pub, those who made it anarchist. stamp their image on the memory. In 1974 we can make debating points, but Jason Gurney and every Jason's nostalgia is tinged with bitterness, and I think that his man he named, stood up to be counted and the ground they stood on version of romantic poverty does not tally with the harsh facts of life was the Spanish earth, and their common grave the Spanish soil. of that time. He writes of a good meal for five shillings, but 5/- Murray's anthology of Spanish Civil War writings is what its title was five hours' pay for a skilled craftsman, of two and sixpence a claims. Alexander Solzhenitsyn made the point, somewhere in his day to eat, but that was the daily allowance for an unemployed male Gulag Archipelago, that while millions of peasants and workers mar- to feed, clothe and house himself, and after six months literally ched into the Russian Labour Camps, it was not until the Russian mid nothing. He writes of £3 as a comfortable income, but men were dle class and the intellectuals became engulfed in the wave of arrests working a 48 hour week for two thirds of that, and when he writes of that the documents and the literature of this horror began to appear, £ 10 a week as affluent, then he isthinking in terms of £ 100,00 a for the middle class and the intellectuals can communicate in the week by today's standard. third person, and in so doing always dominate the action in the hist orical records of the period; so too with the Spanish C ivil W ar, and And so I have disgorged my own personal bitter memories. It was a this anthology is the overloaded documents of a brave minority who time when Sir Oswald Mosley's uniformed army fought to control the took their place in the line of battle. streets, when the national Daily Mail sang their swine song for the blackshirted fascists, and Whitehead's College at Chelsea's World's Orwell is the centre-piece of this anthology, and it is good to see End was the blackshirt barracks with Division 1 Squad draped in Roy Campbell accepted as the magnificent lyric poet he was. As a black shirts, riding breeches and jack boots strutting out their role man, he was a disgusting creature, straight out of the Tottenham in history as the drummers of Red Lion Square in 1974, and the death Court Road literary saloon bars, and his claim to have fought for of Kevin Gately as their evil battle honour. Franco was, and is, a sick joke. But he was, and is, a magnificent poet, and while the people of Spain fought and died, the intelligent This was the life and the time of Jason Gurney, and in the fever sia debated their consciences, and here it is, page by page. and the passion of the outbreak of the Spanish C ivil War he volunt eered to take his place within the ranks of the Republican Army Castillo-Puche's book on Hemingway is no more than spitting on fighting in Spain. Let us play time's fool and find pleasure in the the tarnished legend to light a way to a bank. Poor old Papa Hemin music of the distant drum and in the living of our shabby lives, dream' gway is due for a long bad press, and Gum ey writes of this unfortun that we might have made one with the Greeks at the pass, the com ate hollow man visiting their front and loosing off a burst of machine pany of archers, the sailors of the Revenge, and all that great and gun fire that caused their position to be mortared, and all for world glorious company who died for lost causes. fun. Ernest Hemingway tried to live up to his own publicity and only succeeded in making a fool of himself. No Hollywood starlet ever Shaw, who reduced every great truth to the level of a Town Hall did worse by their own image, and his tough prose and good minor memorandum, rightly wrote that all men condemn war but are asham talent found their quietus in 1961 when he killed himself, and Cas ed not to have taken part in one, and while one has to justify one's tillo-Puche does little for his memory with this rubbish. active participation in the official Second World W ar, one is asham ed not to have been among the British volunteers who marched in And from Brenda, my queen, comes the report of the 1973 Parole Spain. C live James, the season's latest w it, wrote that 5,000 Eng Board. Facts fact facts on the human condition, and every unit of lish speaking volunteers went to Spain and 1,500 books in English every statistic is an imprisoned man or woman. 3,344 prisoners were came out of it. And Jason Gurney's makes 1,501, C liv e ! Jason's i recommended for parole in 1973 and 4,421 serving determined sent book is intensely personal and we coast along with him through the ences, and in all 813 were paroled. 10,614 cases were dealt with, farewell parties in Chelsea, and then the journey into Spain to the and 768 DID N O T WISH T O BE CONSIDERED FOR PAROLE. 206 holding barracks in Barcelona. He gives the impression on page after prisoners serving life sentences were considered and 62 recommended page of the odd man out, for he appeared to'have no deep political for parole, and these are the figures. This year, with 41,000 people convictions and, socially, little in common with his fellow volunt in prison, a prisoners' paper is to be produced with a grant of £ 10, eers, but he took his place within their ranks. He had that middle 000; and it is said that the Krays at Parkhurst now have Straffen for class gift of being able to move around within an organisation to suit their waiter, Johnson to cook for them, and Young to collect their his own situation, and he moves in and out of hospitals and from the newspapers, but our concern should be.for the 768 who do not wish British Brigade to the 120 men of the American Brigade, as a matter to be paroled, for I would hold that they have become so institution of choice rather than necessity. Where he succeeds, for me, is to alised that they cannot and w ill not accept the officially offered bring out of myth and legend the battle of the Jarama river valley freedom. Arthur Moyse.
Ill ATA m Centro de Documenta^ao e Apoio a Pesquisa | junesp'xr C e d a p Faculdade de Cidncias e Letras de Assis 17 ANARCHISM m A UNION MAN & Natural hygiene ‘Y o u r anarchism I dig. THE NATIONAL Union of Bank Emp so complex that only the dedi But your Natural Hygiene! Aaargh! " loyees (NUBE) is what is known cated few know what it is: most as a moderate union. It regis members follow the what's hap MORE T H A N A FEW times, by friends, tered under the Industrial Rela pening (if at all) via the I'm thus told. Nor is it difficult to see tions Act and is non-political monthly newspaper. For example w hy. I'm projecting the idea of Anarch in the sense that it doesn't our side of the NUBE/ASTMS row, ism, I project a spirit of freedom, non give money to the Labour Party. selective strikes in the Co-op coercion, non-puritanism. I'm projecting Both these things stem from the Bank now negotiations over pen a kind of coercion ("East such & such but bank clerks' traditional picture sions have broken down, no non not such & such"), a kind of purifanism, of themselves. Basically they sense about a Social Contract have tended to think of them and so on. In brief, the Union'g the word "Hygiene" itself smacking of selves as being like the girl real work goes on independent some sunday-schoolish 'You must be in the Aero advertisement: "so of the majority of members and clean!" different from the crowd". The looks like staying that way. I can thus understand how one would situation is nicely put by T. P. see Anarchism and Natural Hygiene as Lyons (the director in charge of personnel for Williams & antithetical. Glyns Bank) as follows:- "the average hank employee does not Yet this antithesis, if there, is skin- regard himself as working class deep. A deeper delve into Natural Hy - i.e. unprivileged". (June Valpreda giene would show it as not outside the An issue of the Institute of Bank archist spirit, as indeed analogous to it. ers Journal). Lyons goes on to THE ITALIAN Supreme Court has Medicine is to the individual body as the say that, "He could in fact be ruled Pietro Valpreda's trial state is to the S O C IA L body. Health in less privileged than some car null and void but this doesn't each case is from within , not from with workers: the point is that he mean that Valpreda and the other out. The crux in each is self-reliance, does not FEEL it so much - or comrades have been acquitted; the touchstone spontaneity. Neither he does not WANT to feel it the trial is only postponed (and needs the expert, be it the medical ex because it goes against his maybe will start in November pert (M D ) a la the individaul body, or grain to be categorized as wor 1974). But this t ime we won't statist expert (bureaucrat) a la the S O C I king class." Northing more or see only the anarchists judged; less in fact than snobbery. As tried with them will be the neo- A L body. for having anything to do with fascists Freda and Ventura, al (It was either Kropotkin or Bakunin who the miners and dustmen of the so charged with the Milan bomb claimed the non-political scientific ex Labour Party — well, really ! ings. This is in a few words pert as valid authority. I don't agree. what the bourgeois press said a At the moment the Union is When the system of authoritarianism is at having to fight off Clive Jen few days after the bombs: that the slaughter had been planned last put on the run, it w ill - unless we're kins' ASTMS. (Because we reg and carried out by anarchists alert - leave behind its secret weapon, istered under the I,R. Act we and fascists. >It is on a pol the "non-political", seemingly non-autho have to leave the TUC and there itical level a disgrace that ritarian expert, like the scientific voodoo fore were no longer covered by within a short time of the Bres man known as M D .) the Bridlington agreement.) The Banks think we are a much safer cia slughter the Supreme Court goes on to align itself with "The kingdom of god is within you, " s proposition than ASTMS so we those forces that since 1969 are in the pathetic position of said Tolstoy. "The kingdom of health is have tried to give credibility being championed by the manage within you," says Natural Hygiene. to the theory of the "opposite ment. (Rather like they used Leave society alone, withdraw the state, extremisms". to champion their Staff Associ and society will go on. And go on as ations against NUBE.) The dan This is clearly an attack on meant to, like a bed of blossoms in spring ger is that NUBE will end up as all the working-class movement time. Leave the individual body alone, a glorified staff association that has for years denounced withdraw the drugs, the pills, the "immu and measures are being taken to the complicity of the state ab nization" shots — the whole creepy psy guard against this. out the fascists. The magist chology of must-do-something-fo-the- rates go on without minding pub body (meaning fucking it over) — and Certainly the management is lic opinion to cover the crimi the body will go on. And as meant to, prepared to go some distance in nal responsibility of the fas like the individual blossom. order to be nice to NUBE. In cists. The new trial will offer Williams & Glyns our staff ass the opportunity to cover the This coming July 21-27, 1974 w ill be ociation has been dissolved and real truth about the slaughter, we now have a system of office and there'll be the risk that the 26th annual Natural Hygiene conven representatives; i.e. WORKERS' in the court we'll see again tion. I'm not calling it an Anarchist con PARTICIPATION ! According to fascist violence. But the com vention. Technically it isn't. Technic the union's newspaper the off rades will be there to kick out ally it'll be to "learn about proper nutri ice representative is elected any fascist provocation. tion, fasting, recovery from disease, by the staff "to look after organic gardening.. . " But the spirit of their interests and act as a After 4 years and 6 months Valpreda and comrades are sen Anarchism will hover, spirit of spontane- vital link in union communica ity. tions". However, if any mana tenced to wait once more. ger is worried about a loss of C.B.P. But ccme see for yourself. A t the personal authority, then he University of Windsor (just across from should have a look at T.P. Detroit). Dolores Ibarruri - La Pasionaria of the Sam Cohen. Lyons' article where he talks Spanish C ivil War - and now President of Detroit. about "the essential preserve the Spanish Communist Party said last week of management" and makes it that Spain w ill seek its own road to social clear that this is what it says and "collective representation" ism, apparently via a capitalist democracy since she said that foreign capital would must keep out. Guy, 22, would like to get toge continue to be welcome in Spain. “The ther with 6-8 people to start a There's obviously not much dynamic neo-capitalist bourgeois forces commune. If interested please doing in the office representa inside Spain" are evidently to be used to write to Steve Cook, c/o 60 tive system so back to the Uni build industries for returning migrant wor Settle Street, London, E. 1 . on. Its internal structure is kers. NICE ONE, ALBERT ! LETTERS Dear Comrades, First of all, let me thank you for your thoughtful generosity COME THE REVOLUTION. in continuing to send me FREEDOM W H O A R E T H E FASCISTS ? even though my subscription had expired. I would have renewed Mach technology is totally ir Dear Editors, relevant to the problems of man it at once but for the financial difficulties that I have been kind and a large proportion is I would like to raise a few points concer- experiencing. Now that these against its interest. Most energy n;ng the Red Lion Square demo, and others, as Germaine Greer rightly points difficulties are largely cleared out, is directed to ulterior pur 1, Most people - including anarchists - away, at least for the time be ing, I am enclosing the money poses. This applies to physical would assert the right of self-defence. that was due a few months ago and psychical energy. Why then are we so amazed that the pol ice plus a little extra to be used should react a trifle aggressively when in whatever way you feel will Those who like your correspondent charged head-on by several hundred demon Kathy Perlo are opposed to the be most beneficial to our move strators - - i f it has been the NF charging ment. I enjoy reading your ex scale and irrelevance of such acti and then been attacked and had one of vity are always told that the cellent paper and also spread their men killed would we be so upset? wheels of progress cannot be rev ing your well written, lucid, and intelligent propaganda am ersed. If we are to assert our 2 . I can only speak from reports from selves as human beings we must ong my friends and anyone else this particular demo but my experience I feel is open to our movement exercise the ability to reverse from others showed that there was no lack processes which are clearly becom ...but wherever I go, I always of people who could not wait to get at the try to propagandize the Idea. ing destructive. p o lic e ; O.K. But don't be surprised if they then react. The books you publish are of Ambition and power are the most great benefit in explaining the dangerous perversions of the modern 3 . In the circumstances it was IN E V IT anarchist position to those who world and the larger our political ABLE that there would be an almighty are not aware of it or who have and economic institutions the grea punch-up between the Left and the police been (mis-)educated by the Sys ter the opportunities for the prac or N F or maybe both. Could anyone ex tem to oppose it. I feel that tice of these activities. Kathy plain to me just what such a punch-up the Revolution must take place Perlo is right in pointing out the would do to help fight racialism? in the minds and the hearts of importance of agriculture and the the people on an individual bas irrelevance of industrially based 4 . I assume that the idea of a public is first before its collective revolutionary programmes which ac demonstration is to propagate an idea expression as a social reality cept the illusion that industrial or point-of-view to a mass audience. Can takes place. I feel that society is capable with all its anyone explain how the sight of scruffy, FREEDOM PRESS is doing an exem imbalance of being the basis of an hairy students brawling with the police plary job in this important work equitable and free society. The will further the cause of anti-racialism? and it is an honor to be a application of industrial technique I'm sorry to talk of "scruffy, hairy stud friend of such a wonderful anar to agriculture will result in very ents" but you know as well as I do that chist group. I hope that the many adverse effects and particu anarchists of all descriptions that is exactly how 90 per cent of the larly in the decline in production in the US will be able to get per acre. polulation will see it. some type of communication go 5 . I stand to be corrected but 1 don't ing between individuals and The degree of freedom acquired recall seeing any black faces in this groups. The Anarchist Confer by society depends on the freedom march against racialism — why not? And ence held in New York this past of those making up society. The And are we so sure that the Black commu April wa§ a step in that direc fear of freedom is something that tion and I hope that it will nities approved of this march on their bo - we must strive to overcome in re turn out to be a positive one. lationships with people - adults half? and children; in economic and Finally, I would like to com mend FREEDOM and FREEDOM PRESS social relationships. How many more Kevin Gately's must there be before we stop and actually for the courageous way you stood As your correspondent says, it THINK about what we're doing at these behind our fallen comrade, Sal vador Puig Antich and also for is not easy and often the shouting demos. Fraternally, of slogans and so-called revolu the continuing support given to our brothers and sisters in the tionary activity is an impotent David Lister. Spanish Anarchist Movement. alternative to practical applica Their bravery and selfless dedi tions of our energies to the cation will stand as an inspira changing of our ways of life. tion to all humanity long after The attitude to self-employed the nightmare of fascism is workers by trade unionists, extinguished. particularly in the building trade, is particularly reaction Ita ct Sincerely yours in Love, ary. Building trade unions Peace & the Joy of Anarchy, should be encouraged to encourage vej-n PPres,,,- , rn®ent is Albert F. Stokes, Jr. workers to form collectives and ttOjTQ to use the funds now sent to pol d re a r i. *ercerl Ventura. itical parties in direct labour tiger e!i Centro de Documentagao e Apoio a Pesquisa unesp C Faculdade de CiSncias e Letras de Assis P R I SONERS DUBLIN ANARCHISTS Robert Cullen, LETTER P U T I T S I M P L Y Eddie Jones, Desmond Keane, Col- umba Longmore, Noel Murray, all remanded in Detention Centre, Curragh Military Camp, Co. Kild are, Ireland, wd. like letters. nake no mistake these men are Dear Comrades, STOKE NEWINGTON FIVE Solidarity fascists) have on the working Committee, 54 Harcombe Rd, N.15 I am writing to your magazine nan is almost omnipotent. They because it is hard to find peo lave created a system through GIOVANNI MARINI DEFENCE COMMITTEE ple with the courage to say that extensive propaganda and ext Paolo Braschi, C.P.4263, 2100 they are anarchists. reme thuggery whereby its exis MILANO, Italy. Letters, postcards tence has become essential to to Giovanni Marini, Carcere di While proclaiming that anarchy the existence of life itself. Potenza, 85100 POTENZA, Italy. is the only real 'truth' and the They have created the truth Still awaiting trial after 2 yrs. only real 'freedom' that can from a lie; while many people 11 held re kidnapping of Spanish possibly be obtained, one at the accept there are injustices in same time must say that freedom side the system, to think of banker: postcards to Octavio will not come easy and life will changing it, to think of it as Alberola Sunilach, Georges r not have a prepared path to tra basically, morally wrong is qu Riviere; Lucio Urtubia Gimenez; vel - quite unacceptable to the way Pierre Gilbert and Arnaud Chastel at Prison de Fresnes. Paris, and they have been trained to think. The majority of the people in to Ariane Gransac Sadori; Jean this country live in a state of And yet, this is where the Helen Weir; Annie Playen; Anne 'purgatory', in which life it revolution must come from, -this Urtubia; Daniele Hass and self is very seldom experienced. is where our movement must find Chantal Chastel at Prison de An almost continuous state of its grass roots. For too long Femmes. Fleurv Merogis■ Paris guerilla warfare would be a far now have anarchists come from more preferable alternative high sounding intellectuals too ARTHUR MOYSE's ironically wound which would give an initial mea concerned in the theoretical ing, lamentably laughing, dread ning to life for millions of side of anarchy without giving fully beautiful evil flower gard people. a damn for the people. For too long have they failed to act. en. $2.50 (£l) post paid. IDEA But anarchy is not. as many The ideology of anarchy is basi Publishing House, c/o Matsuki people believe it to be, a con cally simple, to live with, work Building, 1-464 Higashiookubo, tinual state of disruption, vio ■with and help other people, to Shinjuku-ku, TOKYO. lence and hate; it has a goal. oppo'se oppression in any form. It fights for the coming togeth It is for the basically simple tation systems of big cities is er of human beings with the aim people and we should put it to the "White Bicycle Plan" of of mutual help, but it will not them simply. It is inevitable those inspirational anarchists, tolerate the oppression of one that we succeed. the Provos of Amsterdam (not to man by another for any reasons. be confused with the usurpers Yours faithfully, The stranglehold the minority, of their name, the sluggish- the capitalist fascists (and minded and thuggish Provisional H. James. I.R.A., who should, by all ety mological rights, be called the Provvies - the original misap- pellation was no doubt applied by some ignorant journalist who vs. thought there could be some connection between them, and has been perpetuated by the equally mind-less and word-deaf media). _ WHITE BICYCLES The Provos' original plan en THIS SUNDAY (July 14) Can^Len and safe. (The last one I went visaged the closure of the Friends of the Earth are Organ on was lacking in numbers, ancient city-centre of Amster izing a large bike-in starting which some people tried to make in Covent Garden,at 10.00 a.m. up for by kami-kaze riding in dam to motorized traffic, and L'et's hope that a lot of cyclo front of enraged motorists, a the provision by the municip ality of bicycles each commuters, tourists, bike- mindless and dangerous animal.) 20,000 year to supplement public trans freaks and others turn out, be Perhaps the immediate ancest port. The White Bicycles were cause this kind of activity or of these efforts to restore needs plenty to be effective to belong to everyone and to no- a little sanity to the transpor- one, thus attacking the central symbol of modern consumerist THE MOST CONVENENT WAY OF CBTAMNQ FREEDOM S BY OWECT society - private possession of SUBSCWPTION. USE THE COUPON TO ORDER, THEN COPES W U. ARRIVE EACH WEEK BY POST. PLEASE SEND PAYMENT WITH ORDBT a petrol-powered, fume-producing, subscribe CHEQUES ANO P .O i PAYABLE TO FREEDOM PRESS. noise-generating lump of poten tial scrap-iron. 1 year 6 months 3 months The, Friends of the Earth's INLAND, and OVERSEAS SURFACE MAIL £4. 00 £ 7 £2.,00 £1..00 demands for bicycle lanes sep a ZI7 arated from cars, seem reform AIRMAIL EUROPE a £4. 60 O £2..30 a £1,,20 ist in comparison, and though AIRMAIL THE AMERICAS $14 .50 ZI7 $7,.25 $4..00 practical, have been "sympa LJ o thetically" rejected by the AIRMAIL AUSTRALASIA, JAPAN &c a £5. 85 ZZ7 £2,.95 a £1,.50 G.L.C. The culture of our cities (the ability to hold a PLEASE ENTER MY SUBSCRIPTION AS TICKED. i ENCL0SE/HAVE REMITTED BY conversation in the Euston Road INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDER PAYMENT OF without damaging the lungs, or even to cross the bloody thing) NAME...... is being speedily eroded by peaceful co-existence with the motor-car — city-life is van- ADDRESS...... ishingvfast and we have no time for compromise. Free Wheeler. PAGE 7 Centro de Documenta$ao e Apoio a Pesquisa 1 unesp Paculdade de Cidncias e Letras de Assis 17 li 19 20 21 22 THE IMPATIENT REVOLUTIONARIES cialists, one of the-key bodies — A N D WHERE involved in the recent counter THEY A k E GOING demonstrations, doesn't rate the danger very high. In the HELP fold and despatch THE CURRENT TREND in 'revolution edition of 22 June (immediately FREEDOM on Thursdays ary politics is fot 'anti-fascist' after the Red Lion Square from 2 p.m. at Freedom Press, followed by get-together with demonstrations, and activities events) Chris Harman, a member , aimed at denying 'fascists' the of the IS Executive, writes: refreshments. right to speak. It is claimed "Fortunately, the National Front Catonsville Roadrunner: In issue there is an 'imminent danger of is weak. It cannot even trans 54 - TV, Drugs and Religion Opp fascism' and the only solution late the few thousand votes it ose Social Change, Women Speak to 'clear the fascists from the gets in elections into demonst on Class and Religion, On the streets'. ration strength. On Saturday Road in Africa. lOp a copy. Sub £1.60 for 12 issues, 80p for six The revolutionaries pushing it had fewer than 1000 people From 28 Brundretts Road. Manches these policies offer us a super marching with it." ter 21. ficial picture of society, where Had it not been for the counter social change is defined in terras demonstration called by the com Houseworker's Handbook, articles, of 'capturing power', show cont bined forces of the vanguard, cartoons, poems, comments on Wom empt for the working class they the C.P., I.S. and I.M.G., the en's work. $1 .00. c/o Leghorn & claim to represent ( a 'represen NF demonstration would have Warrior, Women's Center, 46 Plea tation' clearly defined as 'lead passed by unnoticed and unheeded. sant St., Cambridge, Mass. 02139. ership') and an impatience for WILDCAT monthly anarchist bullet political power. But counter demos of this kind are popular with the rank in. Send details demos, groups As anarchists, our objective &c to WILDCAT, 7 Cresswell Walk, and file of the traditional is a stateless and classless Corby, Northants. society, differing from all e x left. There is always a good isting and previous societies turn out, reflecting the impa R.I.P. from Apathy, June 1974. in that for the first time tience a superficial understan The Anarchist Industrial Network. ding of social revolution can each and every citizen will de ANARCHO FEMINIST NETWORK fromed generate. Politics becomes so cide for himself how he will at Anarchist Conference April. live, what he believes and what much simpler if it's just a question of who controls Lond We'd like to make contact with he rejects. This free society our sisters everywhere. A-F Net on's (generally empty during will be consciously created by work, c/o Unity Press, E. 17th the entire population. It is demonstrations) streets. Chris Street, New York, N.Y. 10003. impossible to learn swimming Harman ends his above quoted without getting into the water; article in this vein: "...the ANARCHO-FEMINIST ANTHOLOGY - we it is absurd to imagine the fascists can develop into a real are collecting material for an population to a man can 'learn' menace — and the working class anthology of anarcho-feminism. to manage his own affairs in needs to use physical force to Arlene, c/o Siren, 713 W.Ar"i- the abstract. We build the clear that menace from the tage, Chicago, 111.60614 USA streets". classless society here and now. Alternate Sundays HYDE PARK ANAR The fight for the free society If the revolution is just a CHIST FORUM, Speakers' Corner is the free society in construc matter of 'leadership', if the 1 p.m. Speakers, listeners and tion . fascists are serious contenders hecklers welcome. for working class, and hence 'Decision making' is the very Portuguese Libertarian Movement state 'leadership', then politi ABC of the free society, and it needs books, pamphlets, free cal struggle degenerates into a is the right to this decision copies of anarchist publications, conflict between rival gangs to making that the trendy revolu money & ideological 'support. Send 'control' the streets. tionary would deny us. The as- ! what you can spare to Movimiento sumption behind the "banning" Our concepts go deeper. The Libertario Portugues, Rua Angelina of a 'fascist' speaker is that movement towards the anarchist- Vidal 17-2°-E, LISBOA 1, Portugal people are so stupid, so unin communist society is the daily telligent, so gullible that a battle of ideas deep in society, terms, to 'skip history' by sub few words from Enoch Powell or in the factories and fields, at stituting 'leaders' and 'dicta H. J. Eysenck will suffice to work and leisure. There are no torships' - proletarian or convert them to racism and fas short cuts. otherwise - what's in a name?) cism. What contempt for the very masses that the same This is not to belittle those Far from advancing the revol trendies declare will create who participate. They are a ution, the anti-fascist demo is the new social order!! measure of the frustrations of at best a safety valve of those everyday life where at work and pent up frustrations, and at Are the arguments for racial study people are 'objectified', worst, a guarantee of good pub ism really so dangerous, so turned into cogs in the giant licity for the fascists. contagious, so convincing? all-embracing productive appara The real struggle may not ap Given free expression would fas tus, and at the slow pace tow cism really win the battle for pear so glamorous to those who ards the social revolution en do not base their politics on the mind? And are the arguments visaged by the traditional left. a total view of society. But for a libertarian society so There is an understandable des if recent history has shown us unconvincing i If the answer ire to do something now. It's to these questions is "Yes", o anything, it is that 'elitism' much easier to simplify the in its final logic of deciding our hopes for a 'free' society struggle, to see fascism as a for people, offers us a society are best forgotten, for citiz form of rule qualitatively dif different from Western Capital ens who, after a rational con ferent from 'normal' capitalism sideration of the facts out in ism only in that it is more re (which, of course, it isn't). pressive, more alienatory, more, favour of authoritarianism will Hence the popularity of the inhuman. Bob Potter- never create the classless so- many broad anti-fascist fronts c ietv. during the last 50 years. * (It is the same impatience Published by Freedom Press, To what extent is fascism a that leads to the superficial, London, E.l. Printed by threat here and now? Strangely simplistic politics on which all Vineyard Press, Colchester. enough even Socialist Worker, vanguardism is based and nour organ of the International So ished, the desire, in concrete Centro de Doaimenta;ao e Apoio a Pesquisa unesp* Cedap Faculdade d e C id n cias e Letras de A s sis