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WE WELCOME News, reviews, articles, Christiania: Write Stot Christiania, Dronning- letters, cartoons...etc. Conv deadline ensgade l4, I420 Copenhogn A for next issue, Monday 4th:.December FEDERAL RE PUBLIC or GERMANY Send to Editors, FREEDOM, 84b White- SIS'I'E RWRITE. A cooperative women's chapel High Street (Angel Alley), Baden: Karin Bauer, Info-Bliro, bookshop, 190 Upper Street, London Nl London El. Postfach 161, 717 Schwtibisch Hall (nr. Highbury tube - 359-3573). Berlin: Anarkistische Bund. Publishers of Opening to the public on 30 November NEXT DESPATCHING DATE: ixnarkistische Texts‘, c/o Libertad Verlag, Monday to Friday: ll. 00 - '7. 550. _ 'I'hur'sday 7th. December Post-Foch I53, looo Berlin 44 Saturday: 10. 00 - 6. 00. Sisterwrite 'Gewa|tFreie Aktion' (non-violent action) will be carrying a large stock of British and American feminist books, ranging groups throughout FRG, associated WRI. from Women's Studies, politics and For information write Karl-Heinz Sang, Methfesselstr.. 69, 2000 Hamburg l9 history to more general literature of particular interest to women. Posters, International Hambur : Initiative Freie Arbeiter records and journals will also be avail- Union lfnarcho-syndicalists). FAU, able. There will be a comprehensive New South Wales Bepsoldstr. 49, 'Hochpaterre links, mail order service and catalogues in Black Ram, E Box 238, Darlinghurst, NSW 2000 Hamburg 1. the near future. For more details, con- 20l0 Ostwestfalenr Anarchistische Fdder- tact: Lynn Alderson, Mary Coghill or Disintegratorl P0 Box 29l, Bondi Junction, _ aiion OsHest:falen-Lippe (Eastwest- A Kay Stirling, 139 Fieldgate Mansions, Sydney, NSW‘ failian anarchist federation). Wolfgang Romford Street, London E I l I Sydney Anarcho-Syndicalists, Jura Books Fabisch, c/o Wohngemeinschaft LONDON. Today, 25 November. Dem- Collective, 4l7 King Street, Newtown, NSW Schwarzwurze], Wdhrener Str. 138, onstration outside Soviet embassy, Ken- 2042 4970 Bad Oeynhausen 2. Sydney Libertarians, P0 Box 24, Darlinghurst, sington Palace Gardens, 2 pm. Organ- NSW 20l0 FRANCE ised by London Gay Activists Alliance and Campaign for Homosexual Equality, Queensland Paris: Federation anarchists Francoise, 3 rue to protest at imprisonment and persecut- Libertarian Socialist Organisation, P0 Box 268, Temaux, 750ll Paris ion of gays in USSR - especially gaoling Mt Gravatt, Central 4l22 ITA LY of Gennady Trifonov and disappearance Self-Management Organisation, P0 Box 332, of S_e_rg_e_i___Pa'?adjan5v. North Quay, Queensland Roma: Gruppo Hem Day, c/o Giovanni Trapani, - via A. Tittoni, 5—00l53 Rome l Victoria Saturday, 2 December. JAIL conference La Trobe Libertarian Socialists, c/o SRC, La SWEDEN on - hose Law and Order‘, at North Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3083 Frihetlige Forum, Landsvagsgatan l9, London Polytechnic, ' Holloway Rd, Lon- Monash Anarchist Society, c/o Monash Univer- 41304 04 GOTBORG. don N77 9.45 -5.30. Entrance fee: £1. 00, sity, Clayton, 3l68 Melboume claimants, 50p. Subjects include: Per- Frihetligt Forum, Renstiernasgata 5l , sons Unknown: the criminalisation of South Australia li63l STOCKHOLM. political organisation; the PTA, the Dip- THE prosecution's ‘evidence’ in the before such as with the BWNIC 14 and Adelaide Anarchists, P0 Box 67, North original ‘shock horror‘ sensation in the Revolutiondra Anarchisters Organisation, lock Courts in N. Ireland; legal repress- ‘Persons Unknown‘ case is getting in- now actually seems to be learning his rest. The dropping of the conspiracy to Adelaide, 5006 creasingly flimsy. From their peak Box H075, S-100 6i STOCKHOLM. ion in West Germany. lesson. He ‘refused his fiat‘ for the cause'explosions charges has passed Westem Australia about three months ago with six danger- four conspiracy charges so the six unremarked. It may be that now their Freedom Collective, P0 Box l4, Mount Haw- N V!!! ous terrorists held in maximum security, assertions which were the prosecution's eyes have been opened by ABC, which thom, 60l8 OUT 0 . FEBRUARY hints that more would be brought to just- mainstay have disappeared. They have affects them (Freedom of the Press and Literature ice soon, justification for swamping been replaced by '_conspiracy._to- rob‘. TASMANIA .I2§.t‘i°§?.°‘“°' mar ml-Er all that) they will notice some more Aberdeen Libertarian Socialist Group Calendar. MOTCR __ .fiZ,2!,:.£. Lambeth with armed police every week, On top of this everybody still has their aspects‘ of the state's activities. We c/o 34 Kennedy St, Launceston 7250 have produced at lp. each (minimum Full of amazing photos I -I _' r‘§?.--:,,f,_,-_' ,- the whole bit, there has been a steadily other odd charges and Iris and Ronan. leave that up to you). order 25) assorted equal numbers of six and graphics from past JI ~-+»- _,. 1; ’-'_-‘,2 accelerating slide in police credibility. have been additionally charged with One of these aspects, the treatment 0 NEW ZEALAND B and present activities 4-; stickers. They are all black on red with ,_ \ .‘ _.'—|-— _, my If you would recall all six were held for possession under section 4 of the Expl- of ‘top security‘ women prisoners on around Leeds. pf .3 __ _,_ ‘conspiracy to cause explosions‘ plus a P0 Box 2052 Auckland - an A sign, ready for that snap election. _.|"" .",A'I""". osives Substances Act (our old friends, remand, is being discussed at a meeting P0 Box 22-607 Christchurch The words: ‘Anarchists Warning: Gov- Available from: iii“! “ II .1.- ragbag of other counts. Then, their in- the weedkiller, flour and sugar). Iris in the House of Commons this Tuesday energetic local book- rr-;r-51 '“‘?‘#’i*“"" Daybreak Bookshop, P0 Box 5424 Dunedin ernments can seriously Damage your shops and newsagents loll}?-"J sistence that the prisoners were all too has had the flour and sugar returned to (21st). Organised by the MP Tom Litt- Health‘: ‘whoever you vote for the gov- dangerous to be allowed out without (or her (see last issue, also photo above - erick inconjunction with Iris Mills and CANADA but ll Y0" have "°llb|e sum _wcriJTHunsrm SAT even with) a keeper, looked a bittattered frightening, isn't it? She commented ernment always gets in':'Don't Vote - It gettinga copy, they ., 2 3 members of ‘Persons Unknown‘, it will Open Road, Box 6|35, Station G, Vancouver, Only Encourages Them‘: ‘there's no can be obtained direct 4 5 5 7 8 9 1° as Trevor Dawton was given bail. Then this weekend ‘From now on dandelions ' be attracting the attention, among other BC. Write for information on activities. government like no government':'Elect- from us. 11 12 13 14 15 1s 17 Iris Mills, so fiendish she had to be held are my favourite flowers‘). _ bodies, of the NCCL and Howard League ion Dav: Tweedledum or Tweedledee'. Price £1 (plus 1 5p 1a 19 20 21 22 23 24 in a men's prison, was also bailed. The The defence have now seen the pros- for Penal Reform. ‘And to coincide with USA . P08ta9Bl- LOP . 29 25 as 27 as police, still not moving towards a date ecution case and it looks as if a date ' Bullshit‘ . Blenheim Tce, Lds 2. the meeting the Friends of Astrid Proll Minnesota: Soil of Liberty, Box 7056, Powder- for committal for trial proceedings, for the committals will be set this week are holding a torchlight picket outside Aberdeen can be contacted c/0 163 hom Station, Minneapolis, Minn, 55407 as were forced to show a little of their hand ., or next (six months after the first arr- Brixton prison. Missouri: Columbia, M0 6520l King St, Aberdeen. and very hollow it looked. ests). They might fit them in before the New York: Libertarian Book Club, Box 842, Christmas holidays. And that's only the Pagan Cards are Christmas cards GE, New York, NY l00l2 l__-’ -‘ > . ’o§> '3’ committals. The trial will be months SRAF/Freespace Alternative U, 339 Lafayette freed from doctrine. Each has a tradit- ‘Conspiracy’dropped after that and four of our comrades are ional carol restored to its folk-song i o /1 Q?) St, NYC, NY l00l2 l l I6 still in there. "'5 "Fl. -r .5’ San Francisco: Free Socialist, P0 Box |75l, original, and an A frican-type illustrat- Now it is so hollow as to_ be positively Comrades throughout the country are ion. They are '75p. for the set of six, vacuous. They have finally submitted San Francisco, CA 94l0l ‘ '.- -K’-gr)C _ i'ii4. :' asked to prepare for a week of intense from Norman Iles, 381 Marine Poad, 1 ', I. ‘ 1" |g.>\ their case to the legal establishment. Texas: Houston SRAF, South Post Oak Station, l ___"2"l_.'.\ § ' activity leading up to the committals. Morecambe. Lanes. . - *-.}'-' O PEOPLEWILLHEAR Not, as usual, to the Director of Public W Box 35253, Houston, TX 77035 .* ' MEAT LEAST! - If these are to be before Christmas there "' ' ' I. Q,-.'.I" 1 '( Prosecutions, but ‘because of the gravity will be very little warning. The activities a3, .- _ of the charges‘ to the Attorney General. will include demonstrations, leafleting, we-eR~ FreedomPress Apparently, for some reason, the cons- IN ANGEL ALLEY picketing and much more. Please contact Aarhus: Regnbuen Anarkist Bogcafe, Meijlgade 8 One_.yeor. 2 O 00) piracy charges against Vince and Trevor your local support group (see p.3 ). 48, 8000 Aarhus Six months 6.00) were not submitted so they have been Perhaps when the committals start Five issues -oao-OOO 2.50) Co enho n:Anarkist-Synd, Bogcofe, Studies- E.1 mm“ 888 /K5’; cot"-‘ dropped by default. Well, Sam Silkin the national press may do sometli ng - traede lg, I455 Copenhagn PHONE O1 247 9249 must be feeling a bit vulnerable these about their dreadful record on the case. Printed by Magic Ink, Margate. days what with criticism over the ABC There has been a bit of patchy coverage Published by Freedom Press case and the like. He's been a bit clumsy in the ‘quality’ press, nothing but the 2 FREEDOM FREEDOM 3

ll WELL, as I've no doubt you don't need opportunity to say -‘told you so, the Act that this is a problem that must be faced me to tell you, the ABC trial is over. must be reformed‘. But we are in a pos collectively by all people effectively The state has really made a fool of its- . 0\IAL ~ v ition to say ‘told you so‘ on a deeper ‘ , . concerned with changing society. How- elf, by overreaching and petiiness. As S 1 .* level (as usual!) As anarchists we rec- ever, it is not up to Persons Unknown the charges around the ‘Persons Unknown‘ _‘ % v . kg I I ognise that this sort of thing is built into to ‘solve‘ this problem on behalf of ‘the continue to dissolve 9 =let's look forward K S ,1» @ l the nature of the state. The state is try- movement‘ nor is it our sole responsib- to a similar outcome. Not that the ABC‘ Ei x ‘ “i:rl" ing to tighten up. They have their range ility to initiate such a debate, much as is entirely a victory; there's huge costs of useful all-purpose legislation, the we are interested in taking part in it. to find e \ OSA, Prevention of Terrorism Act, Crim To sum the thing up: Duncan Campbell inal Trespass Law, the conspiracy laws. - PERSONS UNKNOWN (London) is a free-lance journalist, specialising The police are getting more truculent c/o Rising Free, Box 123, 182 Upper in communications. In May 1976, togeth- ’5ECRET5'"' and demanding more powers. And every Street, Islington, London NI. er with Mark Hosenball, he wrote an now and again they dip their toes in and article called "The Eavesdroppers" bit too far and the most serious charge test the currents. There's ‘Persons Un- iZ which was printed in Time Out. This was (under section 1, against Duncan) was known‘ for instance. And there's this J about SIGINT, the government‘s organis- dropped. The defence's case was that case. Here they didn't get away with ation (technically illegal but standard the information that they had collected too much. But remember that the three For more information on the case/supp- practice) for monitoring electronic com- was freely available anyway, that Mer- were found guilty and have, in effect, ort group activities, contact: London (see above). munications. When Hosenball, along with lyn Rees had made a statement that the been given heavy fines. And the chances L} Agee, was threatened with deportation, receiving of information would not come of a repetition‘! After all, the Act must York York Anarchists Grp, c/o Students Union, Goodricks College, York Univer- John Berry, who had been a corporal in under the Act and that it was in the public be reformed now, mustn't it? Some Comrades l. analyse the political nature of this SIGINT, approached the Defence Comm- good. The prosecution said that it didn't sity. people never learn. A quote from the In reply to Alan Westfall's article particular state conspiracy; Edinbur h c/o lst of May Books, 45 ittee, as he thought that the article may matter if everybody knew it; if the state trial judge, when the defending counsel about the Manchester Persons Unknown Edinburgh. have had something to do with the threat. chose to call something a secret, then a hoped that section 2 of the Act was now 2. develop an analysis of the current pol- workshop (FREEDOM, 28th October). itical developments in Britain and Europe Aberystwflh c/o 2 South Rd, Aberystwyth, He himself was worried about the power secret it was. (This apparently, applies too discredited to be used again: "I beg Firstly, to talk of the State's initial and unaccountability of SIGINT. Crispin inretrospect. For example, for the sec- that have created the situation within yfed, Wales. leave to doubt that". attack on these six people as being a Belfast-c/0 Just Books, '7 Winetavern St, Aubrey of Time Out was to interview ond trial the name and location of John In fact even the notrious section (never matter of ‘Black Flag and the police which the state is free to perpetuate and develop its means of oppression without Belfast. Berry and he callediin Duncan Campbell's Berry's old base in Cyprus was a secret, will be used against journalists, force playing at cops and robbers again‘ opposition. Something which all too few Leeds c/o Leeds Other Paper, 29 Blen- technical knowledge. The interview took despite the fact that it had been named remember?) has been wheeled out in is astonishing. Any attack by the state place at Campbell's and revealed little in the first trial and reported in the new- dubious circumstances. In 1959 Isis (the anarchist and left groups are tackling to heim Terr, Leeds 2. on any section of the anarchist movement Brighton c/o Sussex Anarchists, Street that Duncan hadn't put together for him- spapers. The location and use of the Oxford University magazine) waaiharged our knowledge. ought to be of concern to anyone calling T_.'i'lY13'aTy',' Refectory Terrapins, Univ. of self from open sources. Crispin was lost SIGINT headquarters in Cheltenham was under sections l and 2 for printing infor- themselves anarchists. The fact that the Bearing that in mind, to criticise our and bored throughout the proceedings. likewise a sensitive matter, despite the mation on- - any guesses! - Signals in- Sussex, Falmer. defence committees have been harrassed stickers and our choice of name is a Liverpool Box 1984, 100 Whitechapel, When they left they found the police wait- presence in court of a graduate recruit- telligence. They pleaded guilty to the is only a development of this attack. little superficial, particularly since the ing outside, presumably alerted by phone ing brochure, containing a photo and the section 2 charge and the section 1 was T..'fiF'e‘£'p'6'61. The implication of this particular comm- implication of this criticism seems to Manchester c/o 109 Oxford Rd, Manch- tapping. They were arrested, held for address. And now, at the HQ‘s annual dropped. There were two sentences, of ent is that if there had been no organis- be that there is nothing to fear. The gap 40 hours incommunicado, and then char- prizegiving ceremony, they complain 3 months and 6 months. In 1962 six full- ester. " ation around the case of the six, and this between the state's activities and general Reading 0/o Reading Univ. Anarchists, ged under the wonderful catchall section that they can't get recruits due to lack time workers of the Committee of 100 had not met with police opposition, the consciousness of them is already too Students Union, Whiteknights, Reading, 2 of the Official Secrets Act. of publicity). Further charges were were charged with conspiracy to violate six themselves could have been consign- great for us to be afraid of creating par- Media opinion was horrified. Freedom dropped, eventually leaving only one Berks. S section 1, for organising a demo at a ed to a small paragraph in the anarchist anoia by exposing it. Leiceste_r c/o 76 High Cross St, Leices- of the Press was threatened. It appeared each. Basically that John Berry had RAF base. A year later there was a press. The "Free the Six and Fight Back" that any journalist doing his or her job ter. spoken about his ex-work, that Duncan demo at the Marham Air Base, people -leaflet is an attempt at a political state- Newcas_tl_e_ c/o Black Jake, c/o 1.1.5 was threatened by the Act every time Campbell had listened to him (and more, who crossed the wire fence were to be ment and hence aimed at those likely to Westgate Rd, Newcastle-u-Tyne, Tyne s/he looked-into anything concerned with he had actually asked questions) and charged under section 1, but as they S be sympathetic and responsive, it was and Wear. government. After all, as the Director that Crispin Aubrey had helped the two ended up with about 200 of them, it was not designed for handing out in the street Huddersfield H.A.G. 1.73, YQWS Hill Rd, General of Intelligence told the Frank to meet. dropped in favour of obstruction. These but to stimulate discussion and promote investigation into the OSA, "It is an off- With the nature of the Official Secrets Lockwood, Huddersfield. ' are the sort of issuesthat the defence ‘action. We do not see our role as that of Sheffield c/o Sheffield Lib. Soc. Box 168, icial secret if it is in an official trial". Act they were bound to be found guilty. campaign has brought out. They are also directing other support groups or individ- Sheffield S_E_ 11. The Frank Report itself caused further Anybody would be. But even this had its interested in the workings of section 2 uals in the ways to act against state re- scandal; its recommendations were to dubious side; the judge actually directed and feel that it will be useful to join the pression, whether specifically in relat- have reformed the Act, the Labour gov- the jury to find John Berry guilty. There pressure for a ‘Freedom of Information ion to this case or more widely. And ernment was ‘committed’ to such reform. is now some discussion about whether Act‘, so that this can be exposed as a leaflets for ‘provincial centres‘ have to In fact, of course, the government has he's allowed to do things like that! As it sham as well. Other useful issues aris- hose livln 1l'l them let it be known that it has no intention of ended up John Berry got a suspended ing from the campaign are thewhole WenIt is not true that we feel ‘the only~ de- £1000 any meaningful revision of the Act, and sentence, Crispin Aubrey and Duncan question of the Intelligence surveys and fence should be to accept any charges D ‘i Pr- Duncan, Crispin and John would have Campbell got conditional discharges. who, if anybody, they are accountable to ma- ae again' st them (the six), any wild e a Ison come within the scope of its new manif- Which is perhaps as good as we could (answers please, on a postcard to Col. accusations of the most grotesque nature E _ F d estation. Surprise, surprise. hope for in the circumstances. But, the Hugh A. Johnstone . . . ). In fact there is and simply say "so what".' The fact that v¢I'v_£5 reeewed In un It looked bad. It seemed that the three dark side, the ‘costs’, amounting to the whole question of what is a secret someone can gain this impression is to d0fl3!l0"$ Q0 " were going to be done. The Act (in its some ‘E20, 000 have to be found.‘ The and who says so. There are the legalistic some extent our responsibility in not ad- Persons Unknown removes one brick standing and proposed forms) is so vague actual cost to the taxpayer is estimated angles to investigate - the rigging of juries, equately communicating the facts of the _ ._ - .._ - '-' — e- ___‘ and all embracing that they could not but at £250, 000. the use of contempt of court laws (eg W case. But this ignores the problem that be convicted. But the state overreached So, why did they bring the case! The reporting restrictions, the Co1.B eiiiiir; The article is right in saying that we ‘until the committals (date to be set as , itself. It showed extreme vindictiveness. Attorney General is coming in for cons- incidentally, the appeal in the Col. B. have failed to adequately counter state this go-es to press) and the official pre- I-———_—_——__ I ll U Duncan's flat was turned over and his iderable criticism for allowing it to con- comes on in the Lords on 27 November), propaganda and communicate effectively, sentation of the state's charges and all- --IL klI filing cabinet arrested. Anyone linked tinue. There are some indications that W“----1llIIIl the powers of the Attorney General and though given the number of people invol- IICIII egations as opposed to the hints and -Q II. ‘iiiIII’II II—QIn with the defence campaign was harrassed it all got somewhat out of his control, ‘much, much more. Then there is the un- ved in Persons Unknown this is an easy suggestions emerging at remand hear- A research student who had happened to which casts doubt on his competence as official secrecy, the de facto decisions- criticism. Aside from the general prob- ings, which are all we have to date, we ~ 1 I I I- write to Duncan was picked up and held, well as on his judgement. Basically, of local-"government bureaucrats and I I lem of state control of the media, it only do the state's work in responding nun‘ sfi though never charged. 'I‘he charges were these laws can be used on anybody, that's the like. So the net effect of the whole glosses over the problem of how to com- to their ‘wild accusations‘ publically. steadily upped. Counts under section 1, what they are designed for. The variable. affair has been to expose SIGINT and to municate with people likely to be symp- It's said that ‘if the facts and our -I designed for foreign spies and saboteurs, is, the decision of the state when to use B1 I set people looking into related matters. athetic, and this has to be areflection reasoning are explained properly our IW‘iiiaIl IIan IIIII-I\|Iiii: I' Illlllll A---..:. were brought. There -have been repeated them. So what was the crucial factor in Precisely what it was supposed to stifle. on the movement as a whole. It_‘s not case will help in mobilising anti-state nlnlnliIII!Il§EI IBEIIEIIu|-| IIl'lI|I|Iag|I ____legIn‘|nwIln%I|I|llIInIIII official reassurances that this would this case? It's blatantly obvious that the A positive step already is the publication just our problem that people don't know feeling and activity . . . and this is what information involved is comparatively ' I-'5'----EC never be used against journalists. Then of ‘Region 1‘ and ‘Region 6‘, pamphlets what anarchists or the nature of state isn't being done‘. We agree that the. ||-"lilo$7.»;-/II='=': came the committal proceedings, with trivial. The involvement with Mark Hos- investigating the ‘state's plans for re- oppression means. It points to the fail- problems of communicating are crucial all the farce with Colonel B. enball might have contributed. What we pression‘ in the North East and Brighton. ure of anarchists generally to relate to in support of RONAN IRIS to the success of the campaign and that TAFF STEW VINCE &TREV ‘ So, we eventually came‘ to the trial, have is a decision to make an example So let's be positive. Duncan, Aubrey the left and to the wider population. there is a very real distinction between with a total of 11 charges. The first of somebody. Once it was underway the and John are free. And now we must We call ourselves a support group for endemic paranoia and pettiness of communicating with anarchists, libert- trial dissolved in chaos. By the time work for a successful conclusion to the theisix and this must be our main funct- arians and the left, and communicating UNKNUWN "““S°‘“'k€2|) it“‘a"'*w-dcoming! the second one started the establishment officialdom escalated. Liberal opinion ‘Persons Unknown‘ case. ion. In addition we are twins tor with the ‘bulk of the population‘. We feel had begun to realise that it had gone a is horrified by the events, and has the DP . llll tr

4 FREEDOM ‘ j FREEDOM 5

1 Despite the lack of detail, the case A has several aspects in common with the ‘Persons Unknown’ case here. The fact —

I of materials which could be used in bomb 1 making being found in anarchists‘ homes (the police ‘discovered’ books, period- , , . . , icals and newspapers with ‘anarchist content‘); the publicity about internation- A GREEK comrade has written to us al/subversive/conspiratorial/revolution- about the case of Philip and Sofia Kyritsi, ary etc etc groups being behind those who were sent down recently for 9 and 5 arrested; and the fact of the defendants years respectively for possession of ben- being remanded in custody for long per- THROUGHOUT the western press the ion. The De Beers/Anglo-American per cent of Nambia’s total mineral prod- zine and wadding, which the prosecution iods (six months for Philip and Sofia). Namibia ‘solution’ pits nasty South Africa group are deeply caught up in the British uction, and 20 per cent of Namibia's The severity of the sentences on people against ‘sensible’ United States and its referred to as ‘Molotov cocktails’. (Ring and North American economies. exports. It is the largest employer in any bells so far?) They were tried along who had not actually committed any bomb- friends. International comment and In Britain Anglo-A merican is repres- the country. The two largest shareholders with Mr Papadopoulis - no first name ings when compared with (in Greece) the AS we go to press the campaign to resist debate has been focused on the independ- ented by the Charter Consolidated com- in Tsumeb, AMAX and Newmont, are given - who, our correspondent suggests, acquittal of known fascist bombers, and ence date and time; the registration of both American. AMAX, the American the building of the Torness nuclear pow- pany. Charter‘s investments in 1973 denounced them to the police when his in this country the failure of the police er station has hotted up. Demonstrators voters, and the size and composition of stood at £393 million, 11 per cent of this Metal Climax Company, is heavily in- own house was raided and ’Molotovcock- even to find the people responsible for have been occupying the site for some the UN peacekeeping force. But to see in England and the rest scattered through- volved with Anglo -American. Together tails‘ found there. He said they were the series of bombings on left wing and weeks now. Last week (14 Tuesday) the this as the extent of the situation is to be out Asia, Africa and North America. they own half the copper mines in Zambia given, to him by Philip and Sofia. Papad- black bookshops, let alone bring them to South of Scotland Electricity Board Charter Consolidated holds interests in and have jointly invested in the newly op- caught up in a propaganda smokescreen opoulis himself got three years, so if he trial, leads one to ask the question - moved in and the occupiers were evicted operating to obscure the interhvined Rio Tinto Zinc, Falconbridge Nickel erational copper -nickel mine at Selebi- did denounce them it didn't do him much whose international conspiracy is this and arrested. All the dwellings they had South African - western interests at work Mines of Canada, British Petroleum, Pikwe in central Botswana. One of the good. 1 supposed to be anyway - our-s, or theirs? built were flattened. More supporters - ‘Shell’ Transport and Trading, Exxon, AMAX board members, NAM Burden, to maintain thefpresent economic condit- The trial seems to be part of a camp- V. went up over the weekend. A local farmer ion of Namibia. Mobil Oil, and -Phillips Petroleum to has held numerous US government posts aign by the Greek government to estab- Footnote Following the -attack on the 1 allowed use of his land for camping and since 1939 including a stint as US ambass- Given the level of western economic name but a few. Profits from the Nam- lish the existence of a network of ‘terror- Corner“Bookshop in Leeds last April, a marquee and an information caravan involvement in Namibia it is not surpris- ibian diamond mines have been used to ador to Belgium for 1959/61. He is pres- ist anarchists, with vast knowledge of Fourth Idea bookshop in Bradford was ently chairman of the Institute for Defense were set up. Some 80-100 local people ing that they feel that the ‘peace’ must extend British interests in the financing bombs and subversive activities, and attacked by fascists recently. The Corn- followed a farmer onto the site, while’ be controlled - even to the extent of of international mineral production and Analysis and a director of the Council on international conspiratorial organisation‘. er Bookshop Collective have been trying Foreign Relations. he was to plough up the part that had sanctions. The paranoia can be traced, the development of North Sea Oil. Our comrade suggests that Philip and to collect enough money to pay for metal belonged to him before it was taken over not to a selfless love of freedom, but to Another board member, D. J. Donahue, Sofia inadvertently helped this propagan- shutters since the spring, but so far have by the Electricity Board. This involved the activities of British, American and has served as special assistant to the da exercise by refusing a lawyer, "thus only been able to raise £47. 30. At the moving, by weight of person power, South African multinationals. The multi- For Car Sales and Service president for economic affairs between determining from the very start a collis- same time, since the attack on Fourth seven old concrete tank traps that the nationals want a western peace. It means 1956 and 1958. ion course with Power", and because Idea, they havereceived an increasing Board had set up. This morning (Monday, protection of massive investments and all over South Africa Newmont Mining has world wide min- "there were moments when they particip- number of threatening phone calls, and 2oth) at about '7 am. *about 300,people the continued economic dependence of the i ing and finance interests including the ated in the farce of the trial, deceived on several occasions there have been moved on to the site. The police arrived .- bulk of the Namibian population. -1---.--M Southern Peru Copper Corporation which by the paternal style of the chairman”. fascists in the shop or outside. The at about 7.15 and the contractors at 8. 15. A South African peace means a quick — i exploits Peru's most profitable open pit The trial took place last September, but collective say they are subject to this The demonstrators had had a mass meet- __.._i,_,_i slide into an all out war that the ‘white -iuii, mine. unfortunately our comrade’s letter gives intimidation because they sell socialist ing the night before to plan tactics, div- elephant‘ racist army cannot now contain ._._,. In 1975 both AMAX and Newmont came no details of where, or in which prison(s) and alternative literature and put up ide into small groups (10-12) and establish with 30, 000 troops when it is a ‘hit and i.__-M M under stock holder pressure for their Philip, Sofia and Papadopoulis are being posters advertising these and local activ- -....._..i.i,_, their personal attitude to arrest. They run’ stand-off. Afterwards an embittered ...i,.,._l__,_'_' i-i._.i,, heavy investments in Namibia in contra- held. He mentions only that the prosecut- ities in the window. Procceeds of any --M- 1 blocked the access roads so that it took SWA PO government will give short shrift -_ _._,, diction of UN dicta. Newmont vice- 8 collections made to help them put up i or, Arvantis, had a few days earlier the first bulldozer an hour to cover 50 to the hypocritical multinationals - and president said, "We know the people and found innocent a group of known fascists their metal shutters should be sent to: they know it. yards. During the day several people the government and we back our convict- who had carried out bomb attacks in The Corner Bookshop Ltd, 162 Wood- were ta-ken away by the police. Some What is the multinational stake and ion with our reputation and our dollars". Athens. house Lane, Leeds 2. how can they bring pressure to bear with- were released after having their names The third largest Tsumeb shareholder, and addresses taken. About 30 are still in the top levels of the political-industrial the Union Corporation, is South African. . being held with mutterings about charges superstructure? Namibia has been divid- In Britain it owns Bay Hall Trust which Rumours of a large oil find came in a In the United States the De Beers/ recent UN report which insisted that US of ‘breach of the peace‘. ed into two parts - a "white‘ area which in turn controls the large real estate‘ NAMIBIA t Later it seemed as if the excavators includes a total of 50. 6 million hectares Anglo-American group owns 32 per cent firm Capitol and Countries Property. A I Ff-10H Rf,- firms had made big finds on the offshore common and 20 per cent convertible pre- coastal shelf. South African officials were going to try to extend the work on of prime farming land, government res- Union has major interests in Anglo- There are nine fishing companies the last drainage hole (30 ft by 50 ft and erves, townships, diamond areas and ferred stock of the Engelhard Minerals American's British partner Charter Con- have refused comment. running canning and processing factories Finally South Africa will plead the 20ft deep) which had already been start- Walvis Bay; then the ‘non-white area‘ and Chemicals Corporation (EMC). This solidated. And Charter in turn has share in the harbour and a fleet of 240 purse- corporation sells ore and minerals and ‘best interests‘ of the western strategic ed. About 80 demonstrators went into it. containing no more than 32. 8 million interests in Union. seine trawlers on an estimated capital The police (there were about 100 of them hectares of land varying from thinly-pop- refines precious metals for industry. There are a number of other ‘smaller’ position while packing the enclave with investment of E15 million. There is a troops and navy. on the site) formed a cordon round the ulated desert reserves to the highly pop- The directors of this company hold bet- mines operating in Namibia. deep sea fllet of 72 ships. 23 of these ulated and congested Ovamboland. All ween them parallel directorships at The combinations are endless but the hole and the excavators started a new For example Falconbridge Nickel has have recently been upgraded at a cost of- one nearby. More people jumped into development has occurred in the ‘white’ Charter Consolidated, Chemston, Euro- a 75 per cent holding in arcopper mine pattern is clear. The mining concerns -in £2. 3 million. These refitted ships now Namibia are controlled by the interlock- this and were duly removed. At about area. It contains virtually all the known American Bank and Trust Company, and (416 thousand tons a year). Falconbridge carry refridgerated or chilled sea water ing interests of South African, American this time the contractors stopped for base mineral deposits and diamond work- Ferro Corporation. More indicative is is controlled by the US Superior Oil conveyance tanks which, in the past ings and the bulk of the commercially one particular director, John Harlan. and British corporations which use their lunch. The demonstrators held an im- Company, Charter Consolidated owns season, raised cannery production by 56 promptu meeting on a pile of earth, not- active agricultural and fishing sectors. Mr Harlan has a strong record in US 10 per cent of the stock. - per cent. profits to support continued investment P Mining is the largest interest. It public service: Deputy Commissioner, in the western nations where individual iced a gap in the police cordon and pro- And then there is Walvis Bay, Namibia's But, as in other offshore fishing 1 ., mptly leapt back into the hole. Soon accounts for 60 per cent of Namibia's Defense Materials Service (1958-1966); only deep water port. It is claimed by grounds, increased efficiency has ser- A board members often double as high gross domestic product and makes the Commissioner, Property Management level lobbyists and policy makers. after work was restarted a policeman South Africa by reference to a fuzzy Brit- iously affected stocks. In 1978 the indust- was knocked down by a lorry on the (main country the second largest producer of and Proposal Service (1966-1969); pres- ish colonial land grab ‘treaty declaration‘ ry produced 45, 185 tons of pilchards and In addition Walvis Bay anchors the out- lead and third largest producer of zinc ently, Representative to the President's flow of Namibian resources to the whim road and suffered head injuries. This of 1878 when the area was annexed to 360, 000 tons of anchovy - a total catch of was the first injury in the whole affair. in Africa. Two companies produce over Commission on Economic Impact and ‘save’ it from Germany. It was trans- 414, 000 tons compared with 833, 611 tons‘ of the South Africans. Small wonder, then, that the western He was attended by first aiders from 90 per cent of the minerals - Consolidated Defense Disarmament. ferred to the Cape Colony in 1884 and in 1974. The complete Walyis Bay catch Diamond Mines (CDM) of South West The other dominant mining company in later, as part of Cape Province, became powers want to control the peace in Nam- amongst the demonstrators until he is integrated into South African exports. ibia. A western peace is a multinational could be taken to hospital. . . Africa and the Tsumeb Corporation. Namibia, Tsumeb, is owned by AMAX part of the Union of South Africa. How- The new Namibian government would not - CDM produces 90 per cent of Namib- (29. 2 per cent), Newmont Mining (29.2 ever since the League of Nations mand- peace which will given any ‘independent’ The afternoon continued with the have to worry itself about ‘over -fishing‘. demonstrators doing what they could to ian diamonds. It is owned by the South per cent), Union Corporation (15. 6 per ate was given to South Africa the enclave And now Walvis Bay is set to produce Namibia the odious position of being little more than a cheap labour ‘homeland’ impede the work. The police attitude African De Beers company which is a cent) and -the O’okiep Corporation (9. 5 has been administered as an integral part oil and uranium - items of crucial imp- member of the giant Anglo-American per cent). (O'kiep isin turn controlled of Namibia. The port handles 2 million has been reasonable both today and in . ortance to the western powers. A new _ BRIAN MUR PHY the past, except when actual hindrance consortium. Anglo American’s chairman by AMAX and Newmont). The South tons of cargo a year and harbours the (Southern Africa) African controlled South West African uranium mine recently opened at Rossing. was occurring. Some people are staying Harry Oppenheimer is also chairman of largest and best equipped fishing fleet in International investment amounted to De Beers. De Beers is the largest com- Corporation holds 2. 4 per cent. the south Atlantic. Offshore fishing To be followed by a series on South near the site tonight and will be meeting £150 million during 1976. High on the to discuss events so far and planfurther pany in South Africa. For example, its Tsumeb produces-copper, zinc, lead, accounts for 20 per cent of Namibia's list of contributors was Rio Tinto Zinc. African prisons. after tax profits in 1973 were £188 mill- silver and cadmium. Production is 80 gross domestic product. ¢°|.rr 9,5 action. i:

FREEDOM 7 5 FREEDOM

.»=""'_-‘_— Howabout £1each to /.. /’..»>X/ as:/5/=,> / FREEDOM Dear Comrades I don't know where Sid Parker gets f’ I Typewriter the idea that it was reading Stirner‘s The Ego and His Own that compelled L 4;, I Fund rx o a ndon e real humanism BEHIND the well rehearsed cries of The paradox of national rivalries and and heavy punishment of Vladimir Bukov- (not, as Sid Parker calls it, ‘ethical horror and alarm at the ‘senseless international detente is only a seeming sky in 1971.. The full circumstances humanism’) of Feuerbach. It was rather attacks’ by hi-jackers and ‘terrorists’, paradox, since these rivalries are dim- surrounding the World Psychiatric Ass- Marx's studies in political economy and inishing in exact proportion to the necess- /\/\ there lies the common ground of mutual ociation’s Congress that year has been _ 1? the conditions of the peasantry and the interest that firmly unites the Eastern ity of inter-State co-operation, or collus- meticulously described by the American AS you can see from a glance at the working class that made him, in the and Western power -blocs, irrespective ion, or ‘detente’: the word is interchan- journalist, I. F. Stone, who lays a heavy Typewriter Fund list at the bottom of years 1843-1845, move from real human- of any internal and traditional ‘national’ geable, the fact is unchanging. One might share of the blame on British psychiat- this item, contributions to the Fund have ism to communism. postures. ‘Peace in our time’ is again call this state of affairs, -real detente, rists for the refusal to discuss Bukovsky‘s begurfto tail off - with the exception of Stirner‘s book was published in 1844. 03£FUL_7 the order of the day - that is, the sort of without inverted commas. The price of ‘Open Questions’ at the Congress. one substantial donation of £35. At the beginning of 1845 Marx was prep- Dear FREEDOM peace that can be controlled and contain- this detente has still to be fully paid in During the next six years, when the The amount subscribed to date, how- aring a Criti ue of Economics and Polit- ed amost indefinitely. the West, since it means the loss of Soviet psychiatric abuses naturally in- A ever, has enabled us to buy one new ins, but decided, after discussion with I was relieved to see the beginnings of Full scale nuclear war, on the other every individual activity that is still re- creased, and had become too blatant to typewriter - a golfball machine which Engels, to first of all deal with the an open discussion of the role/content/ hand, is recognised by both blocs to be cognised as freedom. be ignored even by the British WPA will enable us to save space on the Con- format (of FREEDOM), AW is right to Young Hegelians, especially Feuerbach, praise FREEDOM‘s regularity but as he uncontrollable. Individual and sporadic One has to be extremely careful before secretariat, the Soviet psychiatric hier- tacts page and will be a valuable steady Bauer and Stirner. This he and Engels ‘terrorist’ attacks have become pretexts using the word ‘conspiracy’, if only for archy went to frantic lengths in trying to machine. You will see the style of that seems to point out a newspaper should i did in The German Ideology. _ be more than that. One only has to look - welcome pretexts - for re -establishing the reason that this word is continually prevent the slightest criticism of the in our next issue, when the Contacts Sid Parker says that, in Es German a state of law and order: one could say, a mis-used by State organs looking for a Snezhnevsky methods. They failed to stop page will be entirely re -set in a new at the back copies of the early 70s to see Ideology Marx gave up his belief in the both much greater news-» coverage and a law-and-order State. Whether these ‘out- scapegoat. AllStates condemn ‘terror- the resolution of condemnation being style. ssence of Man, but replaced it with a rages’ occur in Eastern or Western dom- ism’, i.e. unpredictable small-scale (narrowly) carried at Honolulu in the We still need, however, a new or presentation which looks like a ‘news- belief in the abstraction ‘Forces of Pro- paper in size as well as format. The inated countries is immaterial; and it acts by ‘terrorists’. Sgme States equally summer of 1977, but did succeed in smoth- x good second hand machine to set our duction‘. But the main differences bet- ering any further practical action by main columns - the material you are present FREEDOM at first glance on a would be a mistake to regard such a condemn (and punish) so-Failed ‘dissid- ween Marx's concept of forces of prod- statement as cynical - one has only to ents‘. It is only a question of choosing Western psychiatric associations. Pre- reading now. Once we get that, we can bookshop/newagent shelf is too much sumably as a reward for their ‘under- uction and Stirner‘s concept of ‘ego’ is like the rest of the left wing/libertarian remember two random examples: the the appropriate word; once a person has get the present machine serviced and precisely that the latter is absiract and Moscow underground bombings, and in been labelled, the appropriate punish- standing’, Alexander Podrabinek received renovated to give a few more years of A4 sized journals to make any separate a sentence of a mere five years exile in speculative and the former is not. ‘Ego’ impact. This is a pity as much of the, the West, the name of the Littlejohn ment is sure to follow - and here are a work, and our potential disaster, through is a philosophical concept, derived from brothers. - few labels that come to mind: terrorist, Siberia. their collapse, will be averted. paper is of great value, and it does It must be assumed that medical det- Fichte out of Hegel, and Stirner develops serve the useful purpose of introducing Probably the most vivid example of a dissident, hooligan, agitator, Sinn Fein- So please, comrades, continue to it in true Hegelian fashion. ‘He demonst- State -inspired act of terrorism was the er, extremist, anarchist, jew, charter- ente continues to this day, part of a cons- send what you can to ensure that FREE - people to the movement. Ifor one got piracy that reaches into virtually every DOM will never fail to appear for that rates the ego as the negation of spirit, in touch with other anarchists through Reichstag fire of the pre-war era, al- ist, freedom-fighter. The list could which is, in turn, the negation of the though such events are usually orchest- easily be doubled. commercial, political and cultural trans- reason! FREEDOM. Before that I'd had two action, symptom of a malaise that haunts We are very grateful to the comrades world of things. He thus demonstrates years’ isolation, having been converted, rated more carefully. What remains is Of course, detente as a phenomenon is the ego in dialectical fashion as the neg- what might be called the Constant Factor; not confined to political or State circles, the shifting quagmire that we call ‘peace’, who have given handsomely - but we also but told by Woodcock‘s history that ation of the negation. The whole process there-was no movement. that-is, the imposition of total State con- it has reached professions that are trad- but is no peace. H.G. Wells called it like to see hundreds of small donations, takes place entirely in the realm of trol. Where this control is zealous to the itionally utterly opposed to ‘government ‘Mind at the end of its tether’. too! If every one of our subscribers Keep fighting To cling abjectly to party politics and thought. _ Jonathan Simcock point of appearing oppressive in one of interference ‘ . A would give, say, £1. 00 - our typesetting It does not matter whether one ‘believes London N10. One has only to contemplate that most party politicians is to fail to face our problems, as far as the machines were the two main blocs, there will almost in- in‘ the forces of production or not. The evitably be a reaction from the other_bloc independent of all professions - the med- fate, or at best, a vain attempt to post- concerned, would be over. _, . . point is the actual, demonstrable influ- an exception to this was the WatE¥g'5.te ical - to understand how far the rot has pone it: and thus we seal it. ence of forces and relations of product- scandal, when the Soviet press hesitated spread. The tacit (often open) support DA VID MARKHA M 6‘ Wanted-a Typist! ion on political formations, personal to reap short-term advantages, since it by high-ranking psychiatrists in the West for the ‘Snezhnevsky School’ en- We put it like that, because behind relations and, indeed, beliefs. This in- instinctively disliked any attack on del- fluence does not take place in the realm sured, among other things, the arrest every typewriter, "there has to .be a typ- inquent Authority. ist. Because of the accident (from which of ideas. she has not yet fully recovered) sustain- Ma'rx’s theory is marred by its Hegel- Nice to that the anti-gay Prop- ed by our devoted comrade, Mary Canipa, ian castaand his belief in historical inev- ositlon Six in California has been defeated who not only ‘manned’ (‘personned‘I ) the itability. But the materialist method However the fact that it was put at all, office three days a week but also started remains more useful than the philosoph- the style of the campaign and the voting off each week's typesetting before the ical speculations of Stirner, who consid- figures does show the extent of surviving weekend, the setting of every issue is ers, in true ideological fashion, that bigotry. ~ falli-ng on the shoulders of one comrade what happens in society is determined Quotes on alleged disquiet about the who already has a full-time job, and is simply by the way people think about it ‘ progress of democracy in Spaint’ “Suar- doing the work under great stress in and by what they ‘believe iii‘. ez, Carillo, . ..tl1ey should all be shot. " Sergei Paradfinov is an Armenian film the official Soviet magazine Ogonyok necessary to eliminate them all". (Body two evenings every week. He (sic) is the basic anarchism of so ma- director noted fa; his support for the (no. 27, June 1977) claimed, fo1lo'w_i-ng Poli_ti_c_, 45, August 1978). ‘ Yours sincerely We now need another typist as well as Marshall Colman ny Spaniards. They don‘t want to accept rights of national minorities in the USSR international protests, that he had been "Tendon Gay Activists Alliance (5 Cale- another typewriter! ~If any reader can that democracy has to have its orders, _and for his commitment to the democrat- imprisoned for, amongst other charges, donian Road, London N1), together with London E11. give a couple of hours on either a Satur- "I just as dictatorship did. '2 -Vhich just sh- isation of politics in the Soviet Union. “violating still another article of the the Campaign for Homosexual Equality day or Sunday afternoon, re larl , he ows the depth -of understanding at the -* He is also homosexual, and because of Criminal Code, one that has a direct (P0 Box 427, 69 Corporation St, Man- or she would make all the_di%€F€T1{:e .to Sunda Times. ‘don't want to accept. . . ‘ this was imprisoned in a labour camp in bearing on his miserable homosexual chester) are campaigning to publicise the way FREEDOM is produced. HOW WE STAND H13?-e§.I'8 say it was a basic point. 1973. As a result of world-wide protests doggerel". the oppression of gays in the Soviet Union The conditions are uncomfortable; In “The Silent Three”, the Guardian the Soviet authorities announced that he Russian gays suffer from a stifling and in particular through the above- Cosham: P0: £1.00; the machines, as of now, are awful, but New York: JMF: £2. 50 cartoon piss take of the trendy bFiFgeoi- had been released in December 1977, but atmosphere of ignorance and prejudice mentioned cases. A demonstration is will soon be much better; as soon as we sie, Holton’s “British Syndicalism” was he has not been seen since he was visited actively fostered by the Soviet govern- being held outside the Soviet embassy on Liverpool: JRL: £5. 00 can pay the gas bill the heating will be on Cash: Anon: £35. 00 included among the impressive books-to in prison in August 1977. ment's attitude of eqating homosexuality 25 November at 2 pm (Kensington Palace again; you will be sneered at by intellect- be scattered around before a-dinner party Gennady Trifonovis a Leningrad poet with crime and insanity. Gardens). The campaigners say they J. L. £2. 00 ual giants who know exactly what's wrong Farnborough: £3. 00 Interesting in Regent St. this even- who privately circulated a series of When Angelo Pezzana, a deputy in the believe "the issues involved extend far with the paper but don‘tdo anything to ing.It was packed with people come to poems about his love for another man. Italian parliament, was arrested in Mos- beyond the gay movement, and we are help - but you will get such a glow of Total: see the Christmas lights. Naturally, there He is currently serving a 4 year sentence cow for his one-man demonstration calling on all those concerned at what is £48. 50 self-satisfaction every time yet another Already acknowledged: £381. 60 were plenty of police.And every fifty in a Soviet labour camp. He was tried against the oppression of gays in the happening to gay people in the Soviet issue appears on time. yards, leaning casually against a wall, and sentenced at a closed trial in Novem- Soviet Union, he was told by the KGB: Union to help us publicise the facts". And all for a cup of pissy tea and, if M Total received: (£430. 10 was one, twice the average size, promin- ber 1976. At the time, his mother and "You are the first homosexual we have you're lucky, a chocolate biscuit. Any ently wearing a gun. That must have hel- friends were unable to learn the exact met; in the Soviet Union there are none, volunteers? p = £569.90 ped dispell a few tourist illusions. nature of the charges against him, but and even if there were any it would be ‘E,-.

Q Anarchist Rflview 25 November/78 1, Review g - Vol.39 No.22

JIMMY ‘Schnozzle‘ Durante, born 1893 and still available for erausgleichsfonds not only for their contribution towards this Masonic rallies, political fund raising dinners and leading exhibition but for the pleasure I had in typing out their names roles in American 26 episode television series, worked a and titles. perennial gag that never died the death. He would turn to his audience in mock hate crying "They said Wagner was mad, But for the TOWI.Iand his O Level Art frau there is the they said Shakespear was mad, they said Einstein was mad, Grand Tour for the dealers and the State is fighting for their 1 they said Iouie was mad” and the the members of the backup attention. Within the Tate there is the Pier Gallery Collect- .0, band would roar out ‘Who's Louie?" and the great Schnoz ion on loan from Stromness in the Orkney, a small free would throw out his arms, close his eyes, smile and say in a exhibition of British regional painters. The work on view stage whisper “He was my uncle and he was mad”. And why represents the private pleasures of Margaret Gardiner and not for madness had always been the public prerogative of r M the exhibition is a tribute to her love of the creative arts yea the belted aristocracy and the British literary intelligentsia. even to purchasing the works of those then little known artists IN view of the symbolism now attached to 1984, it is both int- It was they who filled their autobiographies with the antics of and for that, as a town spawned spectator, I thank her. eresting and ironic that George Orwe1l‘s choice of year for the their crazy aunts, mad fathers and lunatic uncles and they setting of his anti-utopian novel was anticipated by a little- built up a golden age of an island dominated by horsemen t But it is on on to the British Museum for the company of known Russian writer, A.V. Chayanov. In 1920 the State Pub- driving coach and fours down the aisles of crowded churches, the Dutchman, Polish George and the sherry and of course - lishing House in Moscow published what is probably the one and squires in flaming night shirts, elderly ladies refusing to the drawings of Gainsborough and Reynolds. Here is the only peasant utopian romance ever written, The Journey of my come down from the branches of high trees and a landed work of good, solid craftsmen who earned their 18th century Brother Alexei to the Land of Peasant Utopia. Published under peasant:ry permanently scarred with aimed lead pellets fired corn. Fashionable painters whose work has survived for the C,hayanov’s pseudonym, ‘Ivan Kremnev‘, the book included-a at them by mad earls using hand tooled blunderbusses. Only best of reasons and that is that they were mastercraftsmen. critical foreword by ‘P. Orlovskii', the pseudonym of V. V. the middle class and the working class bowed the head in It is unfortunate that Reynold’s personal collection of ancient Vorovskii, a professional diplomat who was also a writer on place for celebration, gatherings and some other matters, A private sorrow and public shame when the subject of ‘poor master painters and artists are included within this exhib- peasant problems. point but not a social entity‘. In place of the old system in cousin Charlie‘ was mentioned by some tactless clod, but ition for Michelangelo Buonarroti (after?) ‘s is a brilliant The critical foreword, written of course from a bolshevik which the town was self-sufficient and the countryside no more three things have altered the climate of opinion relating to black chalk drawing that cuts Reynold and Gainsborough down perspective, was evidently a prerequisite for the publication than its hinterland, reflecting the sharp division between town this matter. Public television, the National Heath Service and to parochial size. Like the Islamic Painting also on exhibit- since Chayanov‘s utopia was a thinly disguised attack on the and country, the population was more or less evenly distribut- the increased recruitment of card carrying students to fill the ion we are offered a beautiful facade. And the Town and his then current bolshevik policies in respect of the peasants, ed throughout the land. Thus, ‘the whole area for hundreds of rash of red brick colleges made the temporary nervous and footloose frau are waiting for there is wine and food at the policies which included land nationisation and the compulsory miles around Moscow is a continuous agricultural settlement, mental breakdown through overwork-or domestic or social Royal Academy and the sophisticated naive paintings of requisitioning of foodstuffs. Chayanov himself was an execut- intersected by rectangles of common forest, strips of cooper- strain more fashionable than cancer. The days when the Anthony Green. Brash bright colours and claustrophic pers- ive member of the League for Agrarian Reform, formed in ative pastiu-es and huge climatic parks‘. knowledge that my gentle Uncle Albert ended his life in Ham- pectives grip the viewers but that is also its limitation but 1917, but he firmly believed that the Marxist analysis of the The abolition of the towns was, however, only one aspect the Dutchman, Polish George, the artist's wife and child and of the peasant revolution of the 1930s. Peasant power, it seems well Lunatic Asylum was the dreaded family secret passed agrarian problemwas mistaken and that a change in the owner- 7 when they took down those State signs and just called the I climbed narrow iron steps and tiptoes along narrow cat- ship of land would not automatically solve the practical diffic- did not involve the introduction of any new principles into social buildings hospitals and the perverse pleasure I derived when walks until we were alone high on the galvanised sheet metal- ulties of farming. An adherent of ‘the Organisation and Prod- and -economic life. As Kremnev was told: ‘We had no need of in l944'among the sand dunes of Caen a raging army cock plated roof of the Royal Academy. Beyond us stretched uction‘ trend among agrarian reformers, he developed a theory any new principles; our task was to consolidate the old, centur- pointed a quivering finger at me screaming, for all the rank Regent Street and Piccadilly and we peered down at the stone of peasant economy as a system comparable to what Marxists ies-513, principles on which from time immemoriaT't'l"Te peas- and file and those holding His Majesty's Commission to hear, facade of the Royal Academy and the statue of Reynold’s below call ’socio-economic formations‘. His utopia depicts such a ant economy has been based. Our only aim was to assert those that "Everybody knows you're fucking mad" is no longer valid us in the courtyard. And we look through tiny skylight wind- system in operation. It was not, therefore, simply his own as public abuse for there are too many case histories waiting in ows down into gallery after gallery watching the trapped personal fantasy but, rather, an imagined realisation of a well- the outpatients departments "Next please door on your left". spectators moving slowly from framed work of genius to considered concept of peasant socialism.

framed work of genius and we returned down down down to The date 1984 figures in Chayanov‘s story in the following i ______'__;_L __— the buffet and the wine and the paintings of Anthony Green. way. In the year 1921, the hero, Alexei Kremnev, after an _ )j-? 7 The late Ludwig 11 of Bavaria is at this moment in time exhausting day at the Polytechnical Museum, relaxes one eve- - ______.._€_._ Rene Clair keep your ‘Sous les Toits de Paris’. But the ning by reading a volume of Herzen, the great Russian populist. heading the pop parade of fashionable culture and one knows open plains, the wind in the face and thr thought of highway- that this would not be so if he had not been a king carrying out After falling asleep, he wakes up to find himself in strange men hidden among the falling autumnal leaves calls so it is surroundings. He soon realises that he is still in Moscow, but the public crown of the Mad King. Like all latter day Royalty to the Serpentine Gallery, the Arts Council's answer to he was born to a purple stripped of all political authority so in a new, transformed, brighter one - a fact confirmed by a Watership Down, and the wine and the buffet and Scale for newspaper which he picks up and which is dated, Friday, 5th much so that he could not even have declared a small war and Sculpture. Here is fashionable trivia presented as this work __— -~"> f .- 6 so this poor simple character turned to the folies de grandeur September, 1984. As the story unfolds, the confused Kremnev always is with the usual mind deadening pseudo intellectual discovers that he is being taken for someone else, an American in the belief that they represented an heroic age. It was and handouts yet it would be unfair to condemn it for it gives a named Charlie Mann who is on a visit to Russia to inspect agric- ;_ i -*' r Z’ still is the most ghastly Teutonic rubbish, a combination of number of pleasant people a brief moment of glory and one Wagner and Disney. The Victoria and Albert Museum are ultural engineering installations. feels that like so much discarded Action Paintings of but a The rest of the plot need not detain us here, since the real exhibiting various designs, plans and models under the tinted -few years ago the ultimate pleasure was in the creation of umbrella of "Designs for the Dream King“ and here is a mon- interest of the story lies in Chayanov‘s imaginary descriptions this rather banal work. And Sue Grayson the gallery of Russia in 1984. When he realises that he has been transport- ument to all the bad taste of that Victorian age of entrepren- director‘ looking as always very petit, slim and worried made eurs whose children had still to create a fresh social culture. ~ ed into the future, Kremnev asks himself: ‘What is waiting for the visit worth while but tonight it is to the anarchists old me beyond these walls? The blessed kingdgm of socialism, A The faults of poor Ludwig's hacks were that devoid of talent stamping ground the Lamb and Flag pub in Covent Garden and imagination they took the crude artistry of past functional- now consolidated and enlightened? The marvellous anarchy of fora publication party of Beryl‘-Cook's book ‘The Works’, Prince Kropotkin‘: Capitalism restored? Or perhaps some new ism, mixed age with age and overloaded it with all the glitter- E2. 95 (pub. John Murray) and the Portal Gallery exhibition ing rubbish, be it gold or diamonds, that the building, the hitherto unknown social system? ’ The answer turns out to be of this 51 year old housewife. Good cheerful mixture of the latter. chair or the ornament could carry without collapsing under its Stanley Spencer and Donald McGill and whisky and beer for own bad taste. It- is the old belief that authority lies in the In the social system of 1984, Moscow, we learn, is a town the drinking and that infernal buffet. of no more than 100, 000 people. Fifty years earlier, in 1934, barrel of the gun. I have no doubt that if Ludwig, or Lou as ARTHUR MOYSE we refer to him in Wards pub, were with us today, and 133 after a decade of political struggle, the peasant parties, it years old is not really old, le would be an active member of transpires, succeeded in forming the first purely peasant- the British Arts Council. One may jeer at the merry madcap /von;-‘ FAOH r>. 5 "nP~sc>~ A-o tieeannok/” class Council of People's Commissars. Among the first acts capers of wealthy phllistines yet if we have to choose between * ‘The judge, of course, was not stirred to feelings of true of the new government, conscious of the danger to democracy Der Maerchen Koenig and some faceless bureaucrat allowing justice and Ronnie and Cliff were both imprisoned for 3 years posed by huge conglomerations of urban population, was a property speculators to tear down buildings of beauty and or (Ronnie also being one of the BWNIC 14 - British Withdrawal decree abolishing all towns with more than 20, 000 inhabitants. historical value then I will stand footfirm with my mate Lud- from Northern Ireland - who were to be acquitted at the Old As a consequence, there had followed a mass exodus from wig 11. Debrett‘s Peerage Ltd share the blame for the Vict- Bailey). Later, Ronnie -was also imprisoned for ‘mice rust- Moscow. The centre of social life shifted to the countryside, oria & Albert exhibition but in passing I would like to thank ling’. He has since been released. This article has been and the towns, Moscow included, became simply ‘nodal points His Royal Highness Prinz Franz von Bayern and Luipold reprinted from Global Ta str_y no. 6. The wider the dist:rib- of the nexus of social relations’. Each town, in other words, Freiherr von Braun, the General Director of the Wittelsbach- ution, in our view, the £_%er. became ‘an assembly point . . . not a place for living, but a Review ,0 Review

- --7 - -- 7- "7: __ _ . r _ '* t --_ _ r — — — Ff‘- Fact-1 es. 1 great ancient principles, and to enhance their cultural value, of working peasant farmers, a system in which labour is not Some Utopian Characteristics of t to transform them spiritually and to endow their embodiment separated from creative management, in which the freedom of Soft Technology (Robin Clarke) with a social and technical organisation which would enable individual initiative allows each human being to develop his ‘HARD’ technology society ‘SOFT’ technology society them not only to display that peculiarly passive resilience full spiritual potential, while enabling him also when necessary 1 ecologically unsound ecologically sound 2 large energy input small energy input 3 high poliution rote low or no pollution rote which has characterised them for ages, but also to have active to make use of the whole might of the collective large -scale 4 non-reversible use of materials reversible materials and energy and energy sources sources only strength, elasticity, and, if you like, ‘striking power‘. economy and of public and state organisations’. Already at the it functional for limited time only functional for all time 6 mass production craft industry beginning of the 20th century, the peasants had collectivised 'l' high specialization low specialization 8 nuclear family communal units and organised in large cooperative enterprises all those 9 city emphasis village emphasis The economic system of 1984, like that of old Russia, was 0 alienation from nature integration with nature consensus poiitlcs democratic Poi|‘tics branches of their productive activity where big economic units technical boundaries technical boundaries set by nature founded on the individual peasant farm. This was ‘the ideal world-wide trade local barterinf scored over small ones. And these peasant cooperatives were Edited by J. Baldwin destructive oélocoi culture compatible w th local culture model of economic activity’ because ‘in it, man confronts technology I bie to misuse safeguards against misuse the buttress of the economy of Russia in 1984. 81 Stewart Brand highly destructive to other dependent on well-being of other nature; in it, labour comes into creative contact with all the species species illsnnovagon regulated by profit innovation regulated by need on wpr forces of the cosmos to produce new forms of existence. Manufacturing industry had presented greater difficulties HHQQtlimifii-i-1I-It-Ii-H-In-Ii-u-I growth-oriented economy steady-gtate economy 19 capital intensive labour intensive Every workman is a creator, each manifestation of his individ than agriculture, since in the former sector it would have ® A Penguin Book 20 ollenates young and old integrates young and old 21 centralist decentrclist uality represents the art of work’. 22 general efficiency increases general efficiency increases been foolish to expect to restore family production. So man- with size with smallness In order to establish a 20th century nation on the basis of 23 operating modes too complicated operating modes understandable ufacturing industries were organised mainly in cooperatives, [iv-ii cw E9~Fi,MAi~i_() for general comprehension by cl 24 technological accidents frequent technological accidents few and the peasant farm and the peasant way of life, the new regime although private initiative of a capitalist type was also per- and serious unimportan t 25 singular solutions to technical diverse solutions to technical and had had to solve two basic organisational problems. The and IOCIGI problems pocial problems mitted. These residual capitalist enterprises were subject 26 agricultural emphasis on agricultural emphasis on diversity economic problem was to create a national economic system, mono-culture to ‘swingeing taxation’ which did not apply to cooperatives. 27 Fuantity criteria highly valued iuality criteria highly valued Based on the peasant farm, which in its functioning ‘would 28 ood_p£odtuction specialized ood production shared by all To complete the picture of the 1984 economy: the State had 215° In us 7‘? 29 worir undertaken primarily for work undertaken primarily for not be technically inferior to any other conceivable mechanism lI'I¢'0_m¢ satisfaction rid itself of all economic enterprises, except that it retained 30 small zahmts totally dependent on small units self-sufficient 1 and (which) would sustain itself automatically without resort to o ers monopolies in forestry, petroleum and coal - the control of 31 science and technology alienated science and technology integrated I didn't believe in the alternate-energy from culture with culture state compulsion of a non-economic nature’. The social, or fuel being the means to ensure that the peasants controlled 32 science and technology performed science and technology performed by specialtst elite; _ _ by all cultural problem, was how to organise the social Eiisténce of the whole of manufacturing industry; trade was predominantly _ future until I saw how dull it was gonna 33 strong work/leisure distinction wen} cg neg:-existent work/leisure _ ll nc on the broad masses so as to preserve, in conditions of scattered .,,-_ be and how stupid the slogans were gonna 34 huh qnemrloymept (concept not valid) 1 in the hands of cooperatives; and state finance was based on 35 ¢¢¢i"'ll¢01 80418 vfllld 1'0!‘ Only o technical goals valid ‘for all men for ‘ rural settlement, the highest forms of culture which had hither- be and how much I wasn’t gonna like it. small roportfon of the globe all time‘ ‘ taxation of profits of enterprises employing hired labour and CI-d” .--I-- for o finite time 1 to been the monopoly of urban civilisation. on indirect taxes. Indirect taxes because these had been shown Then I knew it would come. ...--I- In solving these problems, the new peasant leaders, unlike to be just as progressive as income tax. C‘ the leaders in the period of state collectivism ‘when ideologists ‘tn~.___,.-it1 -_ — Steve Baer Thirty-five characteristics and counter-characteristics borrowed from AD ‘We have enough knowledge of the composition and mechan- <2Y\t\l\\\\**‘“ magazine (July '74) who borrowed the list from a book by David Dickson of the working class were realising their ideals ., . . by the R. - ‘J Solar Inventor (we ‘re still tracking it down) who borrowed the material from Robin ics of consumption of all our social strata‘, so Kremnev‘s in- Clarke, who. . . methods of enlightened absolutism', rejected ‘any idea of a formant told him, ‘to arrange the incidence of taxes mainly monopoly in the sphere of social creation’. They were ‘not not on necessities, but on luxury goods, and, besides, the proponents of a monist outlook, thought or action’, but had ‘a differences between average incomes are not so great. The SOFT TECH: Penguin Books, ‘E2. 25. $5. 00 little practical use to those of us many miles away who would mentality capable of accommodating a pluralistic view of the advantage of indirect taxation is that it does not cost the tax- (30, 000 distributed in USA, Canada and Britain. 3, 000 mail find book and postage prices too high. A problem that of world, and so believed that life is worthwhile when it permits payer a minute of his time. Our system is so arranged that order direct f-rom The Co-Evolution Quarterly, Box 428. course can only be solved by the production of similar mater- the full realisation of all the possibilities, all the new depart- you may live for years . . . and not once be reminded ofthe Sausalito, Ca. 94965.______aial wherever there is a need for it. ures contained in it’. ‘We had to resolve these problems‘, Khm- State as an oppressive power. That is not to say that our The editors, James Baldwin and Steward Brand, describe nev was told, ‘in such a way as to leave to any initiative, any State organisation is weak. Far from it. It is simply that we themselves as ‘soft technology professionals’; the book may creative effort, the chance of competing with us. We endeav- stick to methods of operation in which the State refrains from indeed be one for soft-tech professionals they wonder. How- oured to_conquer the world by the inner strength of our cause grasping the citizen by the scruff of his neck. In former times, and our organisation, by the technical superiority of our org- SOFT: Responsive, Pliable, Resilient, Mellow, ever this may E, their underlying philosophy is one of a it was naively supposed that the only way to manage the econ- Flexible, Yielding, Sensitive, Relaxed, Giving. genuine desire to replace the ecologically destructive hard anising principle; not by smashing in the face of anyone who omy was by giving orders, subordinating, nationalising, technology of today with a system that will minimalise if not- thought otherwise. Apart from that, we have always recognised forbidding, commanding and issuing warrants, in a word, TECH: Skill, Craft, Knack, Excellence, Experience, eradicate the damage that human beings inflict on this planet. that the State and its apparatus are by no means the sole man- fulfilling the-national economic plan by means of pliant per- Versatility, Mastery, Imagination, Competence, Something that all people concerned with the future of planet ifestation of social life, and so, in our reforms, we have for the for mance . . . We have much more subtle and effective means Ingenuity, Artistry, Know-How. earth, and all who sail in her, must be fundamentally con- most part relied on social methods of solving problems, not of indirect influence, and can always create such conditions cerned with. measures of social coercion‘. Nevertheless, ‘we were never \ for any branch of the economy as to make it meet our require- THE illustrated highlights of America's SOFT TECHNOLOGY blindly addicted to principle; and when outside violence threat- ‘ments‘. — A Today most people unthinkingly accept the rampant destruct- ened our cause, and expediency made us remember that state world, telling you what you can do, how you can do it, and ion of the environment as necessary for the maintenancebf The social, as distinct from the economic, problem of _ just where you can find the best books, tools and advice to power was in our hands, our -‘machine guns worked no worse building a society based on peasants‘ power proved more diff- an ever increasing propulation of already 4, 000, 000, 000. than those of the Bolsheviks‘. help you on your merry way. Hamstead bicycle technology, Though the problem might well be eased by organisational icult and complicated. Kremnev was told: ‘We had to solve the double bubble wheel engines and underground architecture Of the twvo problems mentioned above, the economic one , problem of the individual and society. We had to build a human improvements and attitudes towards distribution of wealth presented no particular difficulties. It was clear to the peasant IOOITI as examples Of the diversity and S001)!-3 Of ideas changing radically’ or such notions as ‘going back to the society in which the individual could feel completely unfettered in soft technology, and that's not all. Methane bubbles, nitinol, landn. cottage industry .. approximating to se1f_suffic1ency, revolutionaries that the typical socialist view of the peasant while society takes care of the common interest by methods farm as something inferior, destined to give way to so -called solar water heaters, small tractors and economic cars, all which I do not see as viable,‘ the only long term solution can invisible to the individual. We never allowed society to become have an important part to play! In fact this book covers so ‘higher forms of large-scale collective economy‘, was not so an idol or made a fetish of the state. Our ultimate aim was be a change to soft technology. A way to reap the benefits of much logical, as genetic in its origin. ’Socia. ism was con- many aspects, both major and minor, of ST work*that we the technological age without icurring the high ‘ecological’ always the enrichment of human life, an integrated human would have to re-write the contents list to be fair. Articles ceived as the antithesis of capitalism; born in the dungeons of personality; everything else was a means to that end. We con- price that we presently pay. the German capitalist factories, nurtured in the minds of an by those directly involved in the various aspects covered This book is not however a starting point for discussion on sider society and the state as the most powerful and essential are preceded by many impressive ‘reviews’ of books and urban proletariat haunted by forced labour, by generations that of these means, but never forget that they are no more than soft technology versus hard technology. It takes that argument had lost the habit of any individual creative work or thought, catalogues on the subject. The first of which describes a as already proven. And it doesn't merely theorise about various means. We are particularly cautious about the state, which M suggestive and ‘highly evolved-tool box‘ with which to carry it could conceive of an ideal system only as the negative of the 'we use only when necessity dictates . . . ’ ‘"' '1 possible applications and alternatives within soft technology. system it knew. Hirelings themselves, the workers, in cons- out the dirty work while expending the minimum amount of It starts with hard facts. It can work, it is working, and here How, then, is the Russian state in 1984 organised? ‘The brute force and ignorance. The outcome is that whatever tructing their ideology, made servitude an article of faith of system . . . is a Soviet system, a system of peasant councils‘, is a lot more information on how to go about it. the future system, and created an economy in which all were you're into the editors have given you a great range of infor- And it ends? A book like this will never end‘ they will Kremnev is told. In some ways, it is ‘the heritage of the _ mative sources with whichto. supplement your knowledge. M probably Soon update it ’ performers and only a few individuals possessed the right to socialist period in our history‘ but, ‘among the peasants, it creative activity‘. long predates October 1917, when it essentially existed in the It is, understandably, 100 per cent North American and so of STEVE SORBA 5 The socialists had conceived of the peasantry as ‘proto- management of the cooperatives’. ‘We value in it the idea of matter’ because they reasoned in terms of their own experience, The more subtle aspects of the film have great significance direct responsibility of all authorities to the social groups or S S I today for the growth of fascism in Western Europe will not which was limited to the field of manufacturing industries. But organisations which they serve; only the courts, the organs to the peasant revolutionaries it was clear that ‘in social terms, 3' M _ come through marchning gangs of frustrated and impoverished of state control and some bodies in the communications field The Serpent‘s Egg has not received very good reviews but youths but by the governments‘ incréasing development of industrial capitalism was merely a pathological, monstrous are exempt from this rule and are run entirely by central condition by which manufacturing industry, owing to its pecul- those of us who lived nearer the times in households of the police and social control in which all the methods indicated authority, We see particular value in the division of legislat- politically aware will view the film in a different light. are used. iarities, had been affected', and that it was by no means ‘a ive power; under this, questions of principle are decided by developmental stage of the economy as a whole’. F if .The times that gave rise to surrealism were messy, The serpent has many heads and some were executed at the Congress of Soviets,» having first been considered at the vindictive, blind and destructive. The serpents that Nuremberg so that the serpent could survive. It survives Thanks to its fundamentally healthy nature, agriculture, local level . . . The actual mechanics of legislation are entrust- Kremnev was told, had avoided ‘the bitter cup of capitalism‘, nurtured the egg were those in power in England and France. everywhere and in subtle ways: in affluent Germany, in ed to the Central Executive Committee and, in some cases, to By their crude disastrous policies they ground the German Russia and in Britain. Fascism is often a misdirected — so the',Russian peasants had no need to direct the developmental the Council of People‘ Commissars. This method of adminis- process into that channel. The socialists‘ collectivist ideal, working class into the mud and with it the working class of reaction to human misery, to loss of dignity and direction. tration involves the masses very closely in state activity and Britain and France. Withfcheap coal from the Ruhr they I liked the film but it is not entertainment. It has a ‘in which the working masses were conceived as -the executors at the same time ensures flexibility of the legislative machin- of agricultural work in.accordance with State directives‘, defeated the miners‘ struggle in England for a civilised Pasolini-type touch to it and is, perhaps, Bergman's most ery. But in any case we are no sticklers for formality in standard of living. political film. 1 5,3,, Albm seemed socially very imperfect when compared with ‘a system putting even such a mechanism into effect, and local. variants -1 J E ‘R:

,2 Review Rgyigw

marvellous anarchy of Prince l_Marxism. This P Soviet of Deputies; on the other hand, in the Mongolo-A ltai conclusion is not surprising. Historically, most peasant territory, a "governor -general“ appointed by the central movements, when they have articulated their social ideals, authority rules alone‘. 3 ' ' _ have shown pronounced libertarian tendencies. To the peas- At this point in the exposition, Kremnev interjects: ‘The ant, as to the anarchist, the State appears the tax-gatherer, I'VE been writing this on the bus, on my way to work. There had been much protest about this and a few years ago Congress of Soviets, the Central Executive Committee and the bully and the butcher, an alien intruder into ‘natural Outside the dawn is just breaking. I try not to think too much the government decreed that the hunters had to obtain licences the local Soviets of Deputies - all these merely legitimise society‘, an expression of the Elitical, as opposed to the about the days ahead. For I have damaged property to the for the killing, but licenses were always granted and the power. But on what is real power founded here? ‘ social, principle. value of over £50, 000 and with two comrades soon I will slaughter went on. Ks we all know, there was no peasant revolution in Russia His informant replies: ‘Our fellow citizens have almost in 1934. Instead, the bolsheviks under Stalin carried out their stand trial. It was decided that militant action had to be taken to stop forgotten about such concerns, for we have stripped the state This is a short story about how this situation came about.. the 1974 killings. The Save our Seals campaign had announced ruthless policy of liquidating the kulaks and enforcing collect- ofivirtually all social and economic functions, and the ordin- ivisation of farming. Chayanov, not surprisingly, was him- A tale of burglars and arsonists of the night. Another chapter that they would use motor boats to intercept the hunters but ary man has hardly any contact with it. Generally, we consid- in the saga of the struggle to free animal beings from human we were concerned that this would not be sufficient. Early in self arrested in 1930, dying nine years later. In the real er the state to be an outdated mode of organising social life, Russia of 1984 it is only too likely that Chayanov‘s vision will tyranny. The story, so far, of the BAND OF MERCY, and my the morning of June 23rd the Band of Mercy struck at two seal and nine -tenths of our work is done by social methods; it is p thoughts and feelings on our campaign. hunting boats at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, destroying one seem to his successors (if they are allowed to learn of it) as At sometime duringathe middle of 1973 there were a few they that are characteristic of our system; various societies, no more than an idle dream of what-might-have -been. Else- c completely and damaging the other. A few days before the cooperatives, congresses, leagues, newspapers, other organs of us involved in the Hunt Saboteurs Association who were date laid down for the start of the seal hunt it was called off where, however, in developing countries where the bolsheviks becoming increasingly frustrated by the failure of HSA to take by the Home Secretary. Whether this was because our action of public opinion, academies and, finally, clubs - that is the have not yet seized power and carried through their statist k social fabric which constitutes the life of the nation. And it is effective action against cubhunting, a diabolical procedure had made him think, more deeply about the issues involved, counter -revolution, Chayanov‘s vision retains its original whereby young foxhoundsrare trained by being encouraged to or because he feared further actions~"by us and the Save Our here, in managing it, that we meet exceedingly complicated characteristic: that of providing a possible, viable alternative. tear young foxes togdeath. Given available resources we reck- Seals campaign, we may never know. organisational problems‘. In reading the romance, I was struck by how closely, in many Further, Kremnev was told, the peasant revolutionary lead- oned that the only meaningful action which could be taken It had been decided that after the attack on the sealing boats respects, Chayanov‘s social ideals resemble those of certain against cubhunting was to immobolise hunt vehicles in night the Band of Mercy would concentrate on attacking property ers had been constantly dogged by the thought: Are the higher Gandhian socialists in contemporary India - the largest non- raids on the kennels. HSA stuck to their official line of ‘no connected with vivisection, and on July ll two vans belonging forms of culture possible with a population scattered through- communist, predominantly peasant society in the world. damage to property‘ and refused to initiate such activity. Us to Huntingdon Nutritional Research Unit, used to transport out the countryside? Believing that they were, the leaders Gandhian socialism, as expressed by men like Jayaprakash few militants decided that vehicle immobilisation had to be animals to vivisection labs, were destroyed by fire. This had to find the means. The solution was found in keeping the Narayan - as distinct from the Fabian-inspired socialism of carried out, so we decided to form a guerrilla group indep- raid was followed up quickly by a damage attack on vivisection countryside for several decades in a state of psychological Nehru and Mrs Gandhi - is essentially a socialism based on endent of HSA. We decided to call outselves the Band of vans at Roebuck Farm near Welwyn Garden City, and walls tension. ‘A special League for the Organisation of Public the peasantry and infused with typically peasant values. If Mercy, a very appropriate name formerly used by the RSPCA and doors at this animal breeding centre were sprayed with anti- Opinion set up dozens of mechanism for stimulating and main- the Gandhian socialists could succeed in establishing their youth group in the last century. o vivisection slogans. Six days later a van belonging to Harris taining the social dynamism of the masses‘. But, his inform- ascendancy under the present Janata regime - which is, at In the early autumn we carried out raids on the kennels of Biological Supplies was gutted by fire at Weston-Super -Mare ant continued, ‘perhaps the law on obligatory travel for young least, overtly sympathetic to them, J. P. Narayan being the Whaddon Chase, the Vale of Aylesbury, and the Puckeridge and this was followed on July 22nd by a diversion from the men and women, and the two-year conscription for military their cheif mentor - then India by 1984 might be set on the and Thurlow foxhunts. Vehicles were immobilised the night usual plan of attack when bricks were hurled through windows and labour service played the biggest part in bringing our road to the kind of social system outlined by Chayanov. From before cubhunting by low-key damage methods such as cutting of Marlborough gun shop to damage fishing rods and other fellow-citizens to the fountain-head of culture. The idea of an anarchist perspective, there would remain much to critic- wires and putting tacks in the locks and ignition. animal murder equipment inside. journeying, borrowed from the medieval guilds, allowed a ise in such a social system, but, at least, it would be a We had been keeping an eye on a building site at Walton, The next raid came on August 10 at Hope Farm near Elstree, young man to see the world and expanded his horizons. He system pointed in the right, i.e. the libertarian, direction. Bucks since early in 1973. This was a research laboratory a place where they breed farm animals and others for vivisect- was polished still further during his military service‘. But which was being constructed for Hoechst Pharmaceuticals, ion labs. Four vehicles were damaged. Six days later boxes almost no strategic significance was attached to the latter, since, in any case, the nation had ‘means of defence more Acikngwledgement: Credit for rescuing Chayanov‘s utopian the German drug firm. One of the Hoechst bosses was quoted used for transportation of baby chicks to laboratory torture romance from oblivion goes to Professor R.E. F. Smith of in the local evening paper as saying that animals would be were taken from a shed at Orchards farm, Little Kingshill, powerful than all the guns and cannon taken together‘ - means which, as the story unfolds, turn out to be instruments to Birmingham University. The above account draws shame- used there and would be subjected to experiments using radio- Bucks and burnt in a field nearby. lessly on his translation of the work, with commentary, which active material. There was some slight local concern about Band of Mercy activity then switched to Wales where on control the climate, capable of creating cyclones and whirl- winds powerful enough to literally sweep away invading armies. is published in full in the special issue on -‘The Russian- the building of the lab and a lady member of the British Union August Zlst boxes used to imprison animal vivisection victims Peasant‘ of The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 4, No. l, for the Abolition of Vivisection who lived a few miles from were stacked around a van belonging to dog and cat breeders As the extensive quotations given above make clear, October 19767“ """""'“" "' ' " the laboratory had staged a single -handed protest at the cere- and then set on fire casuing £400 worth of damage. The Welsh e Chayanov‘s vision of Russia was got an anarchist one, ‘the G. N. O. __ monial beginning of construction .work. But this was to no breeders were OLAC (Western) Ltd and two days later their avail and it was evident that animals would be subjected to English counterpart OLAC (Southern) at Blackthorn near the prevention of suffering and the saving of lives. torture in the Hoechst lab unless drastic action was taken. Bicester were the subject of attack. But it was an attack MSIIII... Come February* we may be in prison. Our only hope for We decided that the only course open to us was to attempt to which never occurred for a night watchman had seen the two F0-OH P \L freedom, and indeed the only way in which I feel I can person- destroy the building, and on November l0 1973 the partially of us on the premises and we were captured by police as we Station, charged with going equipped for burglary and damage, ally fight this case, is to say ‘We are not sorry, we acted to constructed vivisection complex was attacked by fire. hid beneath a prefab vivisection building. refused bail by a magistrate, and imprisoned within Oxford save the helpless and the weak from suffering and untimely When workmen had left the site the building was checked Cliff Goodman and myself were taken to Bicester Police gaol. Six days later we appeared before the magistrates again, death. We were in the right‘. I feel we must attempt to relate to make sure that no human or other creatures remained in- {GMT P. \3 together with Robin Howard, who was charged with me with ‘ to the judge as a person. Deep beneath the wig and robes, side and a fire_was started by setting light to a polythene burning the sealboats, and once again we were remanded to beneath the decades of indoctrination with the legal lie, there sheeting in a room of the building, The damage caused by this I Oxford prison. The next Monday before a bench of three mag- a exists a human being. We must attempt to reach that human attack was later estimated to be over £26, 000 but the local istrates we were each granted bail, after lengthy legal arg- being, and to stir his feelings of compassion and true justice. press gave the figure as less than one sixth of this and so we A ument and much talk of ‘taking a chance with you‘ by the chair -- That is our only hope. But I realise that his humanity may be decided that another attack must be made on the laboratory. man of the bench, in the sum of £2, 050. In addition we had to so deeply buried that we may not reach it, and with pronounce- This attack came on November 16. Once again we waited surrender any passports and report nightly to the police. But k ments concerning dangers to society he will order us to jail. "until workmen had left the site and then checked the building. it was with great relief that we once agaih became comparat- a If this occurs they will have to carry me to the prison, for This time we had brought several gallons of petrol with us ively free. I cannot accept that such institutions should exist, or that we and when we had poured the contents into the building we set For myself there were several reasons why I took part in should be locked inside them, and as far as I am able I will _ ._ .___,-_ it alight. So intense was the fire and smoke that we were Band of Mercy actions; I wanted to save animals from cruelty; -..>_._g-.- not cooperate with my incarceration. My non-cooperation will almost overcome, but eventually managed to escape by break- I wanted to make people aware that such cruelty went on, and include refusal to eat prison food and to wear non-vegan prison ing a window andrunning down the fire escape. to encourage them to act against it; I wanted those who took clothes, and will continue until we are freed or until the gov- Sadly only E20, 000 damage was caused to the lab by this part in such cruelty to reflect upon their actions and hope- ernment announces the ceasing of weapons testing on animal second attack, and it was now almost impregnable as security fully to cease their cruel activities. Animals have been saved. beings. N 3 guards were present day and night. A letter was sent to the Press publicity has and will make people aware, and hopefully, My greatest regret is that Band of Mercy activity did not Bletchley Gazette claiming responsibility for the fire attacks some will take action. Animal torturers have been forced to continue as soon as news had got out of our capture by the and we decided to leave the Hoechst complex alone, at least think. Hopefully they will think long and hard and at least begin police. But the state is vicious in its punishment and I feel for the time being, Happily the opening of the vivisection lab to act humanely. Despite the adverse comments of some people was delayed by six months. How much this had to do with J P I still maintain that our actions were nonviolent, for we took the that others were afraid of reprisals against us if the raids» went on. Happily the Band has not been broken by the state. It our actions we do not know. i J greatest care that no animal or human being would be injured It was not until June 1974 that the Band of Mercy once again by our activities. We asserted by our actions the value of life, is not dead, only sleeping. And I have confidence that soon it went into action. Every July for decades sealhunters had |i______i_i__ and the fact that the lives of sentient beings are more import- will reawake to rejoin the struggle for the freeing of the murdered baby seals on the Wash sandbanks for their fur. “All the world's a cage” ant than property. I would be concerned about using damage v animal creation from the tyranny of humankind. purely as a form of protest but this was not just protest but 1:-(“c1_E_ONo‘ W) . 9 RONNIE LEE