2.30 A.M. on the morning of set up inside the Bogside and run entirelywas concerned. He was denounced as a ATCSunday, January 6, the police, by' locals. ‘Communist’ and quietly hauled off the JANUARY 18 1969 Vol 30 No 2 having led the People’s Democracy Meanwhile the politicians were mov­ platform. ing in, the Citizens’ Action Committee Only the crap who hero-worshipped into a vicious ambush of Bunting being led by Hume and Cooper and aHume and Cooper were allowed to speak, and his thugs at Burtipollet the day select’ band of local bourgeois business­ and amid emotional appeals to ‘Trust before, and having used their batonsmen. Having come out against the John, trust Ivan’ from camp-followers, and water cannons on the peacefulPeople’s Democracy’s long march of the Hume announced that it was quite evi­ crowd of Civil Rights supporters as previous week, they had rallied round dent tbat they had the support of the they were dispersing-lfor their meet­ the bandwagon when tfife batteredpeople. In the hall the same procedure NAY DAY ing at Guildhall on the eve of the marchers had arrived at Guildhall. They]was adopted. 4th, went down into the Bogsidenow proceeded to ‘run’ Free Derry. ByX Outside, many were arriving from the Friday; 10th, they had agreed on a sell­barricades to be confronted by the news area, the predominantly Roman out! of the sell-out. These were the men who Catholic ghetto, and smashed up the Government pressure was building up had given up their beds or slept in their fident that whatever their leaders may houses in the Lecky* Road and St. say, the rank and file of these organisa­ and obviously the unionists could notclothes all night in order to be ready to tions will be with us on Thursday, May 1. Columb’s Wells. Many of them were allow Free Derry to continue, especially protect their homes, and many openly IS MAY 1 drunk, having been jgiven whiskey in view of the interest that foreign news­ expressed their displeasure. AN ENJOYABLE REBELLION by some lovable publicans, and men were paying to it. While many of Still the idea that people have a right Whether our call will be followed re­ threatened the inhabitants with the vigilantes were still manning the to decide their own lives and that leaders mains to be seen. But the fact that assault, rape and wanton violence.barricades the Committee held two short are not necessarily to be trusted is gain­ TTHE LONDON May Day Committee people believe in a course of action- and To many in EnglancLthis may seem meetings, one on a street corner, the ing ground in Derry.—Every sell-out has is calling a May Day demonstration are seen to be ready to follow it, can of other in a small hall, announcing their its advantages. Hume may have alienated for Thursday. May 1, as it has done on incredible, ridiculous-lies by people decision to take down the barricades. more than he can afford by his authori­ itself generate support and raise the level with an insane hatredTor the police. May 1 in 1967 and 1968. of the struggle. They claimed that a lot of damage had tarian action and when the police repri­ We understand that the Communist This May Day is going to be different: - Regrettably, however] it’s true. been done to property (in direct contra­sals occur, as inevitably they must, Party and the various left political Not a dreary slog through the City and Over 120 itemised apd documenteddiction to their previous statement that against the more militant vigilantes, groups are issuing a call for a march on the West End, but a short march and complaints have beeri made against the crime rate had fallen), that several Cooper and Hume of course being ex­ Sunday. May 4. The London May Daythen off to an open space (probably the squad of riot police who did Protestants had been attacked in the city cluded, many more may regret the sell­ Committee will not support this Sunday Hampstead Heath or. Victoria Park in this. By that afternoon the people, over the past few nights—though not, out. afternoon walkabout. May Day is May 1 the East End) to enjoy ourselves with of an area containing about 20,000 they hasten to add, by anyone from Meanwhile the 12 families still squat or it is nothing. bands, groups (pop not political), danc­ Bogside—so what was the relevance of in Derry Guildhall! We have been told that it is wrong to inhabitants, had had enough! They The housing despots and bureaucrats ing, sports, and anything else that the marched to police headquarters and this? \ I hold a demonstration on May 1 becausemarchers .themselves want to do. There They went on to say that they had no have done it again. Magically they have ‘the workers would not support it’. What will be speeches if anybody wants to gave formal notice that the police confidence in the word of the police butsuddenly found that accommodation is a feeble argument. It may be true (though make them, but it will be a free day in were to stay out of ihe Bogside if that “they wouldn’t dare do it again’. Ifavailable for five of the families where hardly likely) that not a single worker every sense of the word—free from work they valued their skills. Barricades they did? “Why, we’ll have the barricades hitherto none was evident. However, it will stop work for May Day, but, as far and free to do what you like. were erected and armed vigilantes,up again.’ Several young people tried has been rejected by them. ‘We stay until ' as we know, nobody but the London We shall be issuing details later on— for self-defence, werejformed. They to speak out against the sell-out decision, we all have houses,’ their spokesman an­ May Day Committee has ever asked but meanwhile we appeal to all who patrolled the streets' all night, ques­ pointing out that if Free Derry was as nounced. Three of the men are on hunger them. Incidentally, hundreds of workersthink they can help in any way, musi­ tioning anyone who jeame in, andsplendid an achievement for five days,strike, as well, and the situation is be­ stopped work last May Day (including a cians, actors, artists, to get in touch with what was wrong with the sixth? coming more embarrassing for the cor­ preventing the police tfrom commit­ poration every day. The success of the whole engineering factory in South Lon­us with their suggestions. So far our call ting further atrocities.! Alarmed, the One youngster tried to argue that the don involving more than 400 workers). has the full support of Workers Mutual people should be allowed to weigh up the squatters of last month has obviously But the logic of this kind of argument Aid, Essex University Socialists, and the Minister for Home Affairs, Adolph pros and cons of the situation for theftt- ensured that this type of activity will is that IF the workers spontaneously stop London Federation of Anarchists, butLong, friend of the1) Bunting, an­selves. without having to just rubber continue and the reports of the London work for May Day then the political more will surely join in. nounced that an enquiry into ‘alle­stamp the Committee’s decision, but Squatters were very well received by the L ~ rri/i g/.-jr in and (AennpAva 3 arc fed u p with thta Onvorn- gations’ of Dolic&Sgsi i sb.eb asip.ur there didn’t soem to be many Civil fellow homeless of this city. would be ta k e iO y v ^ S jijp r arid im-_ I at the head of things. The CommunisL, ment, millions are ..fed up SVJth^_jjus, -Rights -about as. far,-.as the Committee Our Derry Correspondent . .1 Party, of course, is notorious for this system as a whole. What better way to partial police omdbj* Another piece sort of tail-ending. But it is rather oddexpress those feelings than to turn your of comforting news^o the people of to find that groups which lay such voci­ back on the whole rotten business for at Derry was that seine of the ‘B’ ferous claims to ‘leadership of the masses’ least one day. As one worker at our Specials, the exclusively Protestant are in this instance so patently unwillingMay Day Committee said: ‘My guv’nor armed police auxiliaries, were to be to lead. will be choked if I fake the. day off, and BLACK AND WHITE called up. As one Derry man said, I would say that if workers have got to he’ll be double choked if he knows that the stage of stopping work for May Day Tm enjoying myself as well.’ ‘Not content with the Eaisleyites then they have no need of ‘leaders’ and It is, of course, a serious business to having clubs, iron bars, and petrol the political groups have no role to play. ask workers to stop work—even to cele­ bombs as they did at Burnpollet If, on the other hand, the class struggle brate May Day—Workers’ Day. It is a they are now giving them uniforms UNITE AND FIGHT! is in such a lamentable state tbat we challenge to the State and the employers, and more guns.’ cannot get even a limited stoppage for whose whole system is designed to keep Throughout the week Free Derry con­ one day—what on earth is the use of our noses to the grindstone, only allow­ tinued. The vigilantes, for the most part rjPHE ZIMBABWE PEOPLE’S Action the strain and the police pulled back. shouting (as these groups do) about ing us the occasional day off when hard-working and family men, took it in Committee and The Black People’s There were several other attempts revolution from one year’s end to the THEY say so. There will be a loss o'f turns to patrol the stfeets and guard Alliance called a demonstration formade to gain entry to Rhodesia House, next? wages for many and there is always the against the police. The crime rate January 12, in solidarity with the free­ but all were pushed back by the police The only role forleadership is to set danger of victimisation. We shall take dropped and morale was fantastic! Theydom fighters of Zimbabwe at present lines, reinforced by police horses. Reali­ an example—and those who take a day steps to prevent it but the best safeguard even began broadcasting to the world fighting the .combined forces of Rho­ sing that they were getting nowhere off to demonstrate their disgust with the against reprisals isfo get a mass turn-out. from Radio Free Derry: a pirate station desia and South Africa, to march from the crowd suddenly turned and made system on May 1 are real leaders, every There is real safety in numbers. The Speakers Corner and to occupy Rho­ for South Africa House at Trafalgar bloody one of them. But those who more that take May Day off, the less desia House in the Strand. On route Square. marshal their troops for the Sunday walk likelihood is there is victimisation. the Black People’s Alliance handed in This manoeuvre caught the police through the West End are what old But if we are serious about the business a letter of protest to No. 10 Downing completely unawares, and before they William Cobbelt used to call ‘shoy-hoys’ of ending capitalism, actions like this are Street concerning the racialist activities arrived on the scene a large number scarecrows. lust as the birds get used to inevitable. Anyone wanting to help of the British police. The march then of windows on the ground floor of the scarecrows in Ihe fields, so the ex­ should contact The London May Day DOCKERS STOP swung round ip Whitehall, taking up South Africa House had been smashed. ploiters are likewise not deceived by Committee, 29 Love Walk, London, S.E.5. the entire width of the road, and set Ed Davoren, who was talking to his those who scream their ‘revolutionary’ John Lawrence , off in the direction of Rhodesia House. wife at the time, was suddenly set upon slogans . . . on Sundays when it doesn’t Chairman, They were heckled by spectators and by a number of policemen, who had interfere with production! We are con­ May Day Committee. members of the racist National Front, taken great pains to sneak up behind him. They then dragged him to a H jjH BLATANT HYPOCRISY of the some of whom were then dragged from the pavement and set upon by the police coach that was parked nearby. T British Government over the Nigerian By the time they got him inside the Civil War was slammed with a ven­ marchers. A group of about fifty National Front members could be seen coach his face was covered with blood. geance by dockers at Tees Dock, This incident so enraged those who Middlesbrough, Yorks. The Nigerian opposite Rhodesia House chanting and waving banners. One was carrying a saw it. that their fury was turned on. ship, the Oha Ovonramwen was being South African (lag. They were protected the police. Firstly they tried to turn loaded with 600 tons of shells and bullets from the march by two lines of police over the police bus and then to stop for the Federal Army when the dockers and a police bus. it being driven away but were fought decided to walk off the ship and refused The march carried on, led by the off by police reinforcements some of to handle the arms. Zimbabwe flag, almost past Rhodesia whom were using their truncheons by The dockers have acted, according House, then swung round, with its full this stage. Scuffles continued for some to shop steward Harry Keighley, because impetus, straight into the police lines. time and those singled out by the they had seen the film of the war on The first charge came within five yards police stood little chance of escape. BBC TV the previous night. of the front door of Rhodesia House A contingent of demonstrators then Said Harry Keighley, ‘It is n matter before it was forced back. The attack marched up through the West End of moral conscience jn view of what then found itself, along with bystanders,to the South African Airways office the men saw on TV last night; it cut off by the west wing of the police at Oxford Circus, where they managed was a burning point. They are sendingechelon and was then crushed by the to break a plate glass window before food parcels in one box and bullets toadvancing police front against the win­being dispersed by the police driving shoot them down in another. dows of the shops lining the opposite motor bikes at them along the pavement. ‘The dockers have had a lot of side of the street to Rhodesia House. 31 people were arrested in all, during doubts about this ever since the ship Small groups of police then broke the course of the afternoon. Among started loading.’ away from their lines and started laying those arrested was Paul' Davies. A The ship's master Captain J. Hogg into people, more or less at random. number of these arrests need never commented, ‘I cannot say anything aboutOther police told the crowd to disperse, have taken place, had these people it, it is normal stuff for Nigeria.’ despite the fact that it was cut off on been given the full protection that was Colin Beadle . all sides by the police echelon. A possible from a demonstration of this size. TWO SHII LINOS OH THIRTY CENTS man cried out that he had his child P.S.—Later the Army moved in and with him and would the police stop This march showed how successful supervised the loading of the arms pushing. Eventually the window of swift tactical moves from one object' shipment. South Australia House gave way under Continoed on pag< — ' issues, Human \_amoiics anu riu- uuuicvaiu nuicj wacic u vnw w w — r « H j i ' g n —n m i—r>n -rfrugn------/T ■ AJ/4 nat* Barf a (*racif/vJ * ri/4 l'offliP ro J. teat against ,'p^icfe safeties during an film show*" will be charged for,; and then There will be poetry readings, exhi­ Whitechapel Art Gallery. Turn right PARIS assembly Jpf th l| Workers Commission very moderately. On Monday,' the 20th, bitions, a film show and two concerts, on emerging from station.) The police arrested two people for fly­ (legal associations of workers in Spain there is to be a discussion at 8 p.m. one of which will last eight hours, with Temporary opening times: posting, then several militants who pro­ which are beingJinfiltrated by militants, in the Faculty of Letters lecture theatre, four famous groups. Tuesday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. tested to them about the arrest and but to which Jhe'CNT is opposed owing on the question of the value of news­ For information contact the organi­ Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. finally four others who were discussing to strong communist -influence) and the papers. The title is ‘Justify the existence sers : Maureen Evans (Bridges), John the affair with passers-by. arrest of a militant who was going to of your newspaper’, and there will be Seargent (Sibley), Barbara Whittaker SARDINIA Madrid to spread the news of struggle. present representatives from the-Express, (Bridges), Kevin G. Jackson (St Davids). Hundreds of schoolchildren gathered MADRID Telegraph, Sketch, Peace N ew s, F ree­ Tickets for the films and concerts FREEDOM PRESS in front of Cagliari town hall to protest Students have been interrupting univer­ dom and International Times (see ‘Con­ are on sale at various places in the against the lack of school places. Four sity procedure, invading offices and burn­ tact Column’ for debates). There will University, while those for the two ore the publishers demonstrators were arrested. Then the ing portraits of General Franco. also be, on other days, discussions on concerts are also available from: Barnes o the monthly magazine crowd went to the police station and sat Translated from Interlude. education, in which people from the & Avis, Friar Street, Reading; The ANARCHY down in front of it as a protest against B.B. LSE, the Free Schools Campaign and Music Box, London Street, Reading. and the weekly journal FREEDOM —monthly 6d.—out in January. Oxford Road, Manchester, 13. specimen copies will HALIFAX: David Stringer, c/o Paul Simon, 91 SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY. Contact Robin Essex Street, Parkinson Lane, Halifax. Lovell at the Students’ Union. be gladly sent on request. Anarchist Federation of Britain HULL: Jim Young, 3 Fredericks Crescent, Haw­ LSE ANARCHIST GROUP. C/o Students’ Union, Note to renders: Wherever address is not given letters should bef sent to London Federation,thorn Avenue, Hull. LSE, Houghton Street, W.C.2. Read and sell c/o Freedom Frees. The fuD list is printed once a month (next fuD list January 25, 1969). AH KEIGHLEY: Steve Wood, 26B Cavendish Street, ‘Beaver’. groups that wish to be included in this shortened version (because of meetings, activity) should letKeighley. KINGSTON COLLEGE of Technology, Pcnhryn us knew at once. New groups (as Yorkshire Federation) stay in for eight weeks. LEEDS: Direct Action Society. Contact John Road, Kmgston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Contact Subscription Rates Boutwood, 142 Brudenell Road, Leeds, 6. G. Wright. (Per year) LONDON FEDERATION OF ANARCHISTS. ways, Knockhoit. Phene: Knockhoit 2316. Brian SELBY: D. Mackay, 247 Residential Site, Drax Sunday evening meetings at the ‘Metropolitan’and Maureen Richardson. Power Station, Drax, Selby. SCOTTISH FEDERATION Inland (corner of Clerkenwell Road and FarringdonThere are also active groups in: BOLTON, SHEFFIELD: Dave Jeffries, c/o Students Union, ‘FREEDOM’ ONLY £1 13s. 4d. Road), 7.30 p.m. Next meeting Sunday, JanuaryBOURNEMOUTH; EDGWARE, HERTS., IPS­ Western Bank, Sheffield, 10. All correspondence to Dave Coulf, secretary, 19, Jim Huggoa: Songs of the Anarchist Move­ WICH. NORTH SOMERSET. REDD1TCH and YORK: Nigel Wilson, Derwent College, Univer­ 3 Eskview Terrace, Ferry den. Montrose, Angus. ‘ANARCHY’ ONLY £1 7s. Od. ment. SELBY. sity of York, Heslington, York. There are active groups in: ABERDEEN, GLAS­ COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION HARINGEY. ‘Siege of Sidney Street Appreciation GOW, EDINBURGH, HAMILTON, FIFE and Society’. Meet Wednesdays, 8 p.m., at A. Bar- ESSEX & EAST HERTS WELSH FEDERATION MONTROSE. £2 14s. 4d. low’s, 2a Fairfield Gardens, Crouch End, N.8. Abroad PORTOBELLO ROAD ANARCHIST GROUP. FEDERATION CARDIFF ANARCHIST CROUP. AD corfj_ NORTHERN IRELAND Three-monthly meetings. Groups and individuals ‘FREEDOM’ ONLY Contact Andrew Dewar, 16 Kiiburn House, Mal­ pondence to:—Pete Raymond, 18 Marion Street, BELFAST ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact Robert vern Place, N.W.6. Meetings 8 p.m. evory invited to associate: p/o Peter Newell (see N.E. Splott, Cardiff. Dunwoody, 10 Newry Street. Belfast, BT6 9BN. surface mail £1 10s. Od. Tuesday. Essex Group). SWANSEA ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact WEST HAM ANARCHISTS. Regular meetings Group Addresses:--, lan Bone, 3 Bay View Crescent, Brynroill, Swan­ Meetings every Saturday, 2 p.m., 44a Upper airmail (US$8.00) £2 16s. Od. and activities contact Mr. T. Plant(!), 10 Thackeray NORTH EAST ESSEX. Peter Newell, 91 Brook sea. Weekly meetings, ‘Freedom’ sales and action Arthur Street (top floor). ’Freedom’ sales. ‘ANARCHY’ ONLY Road, East Ham, E.6. Tel.: 552 4162. Road, Tolleshunt knights, Tiptree, Essex. Regular projects. LIBERTARIAN TEACHERS’ surface mail £1 6s. Od. There are also active groups in: EALING and meetings. LLANELLI: Contact Dai Walker, 6 Llwuyanendy LEWISHAM. There are also active groups in: BASILDON, Road, Llanelli, Carra. Tel: Llanelli 2548. airmail (USS7.00) £2 7s. Od. BISHOPS STORTFORD, CHELMSFORD, ASSOCIATION OFF-CENTRE LONDON EPP1NG, HARLOW and LOUGHTON. All EAST LONDON Meetings—discussions—activities. Contact Peter COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION correspondence to regional secretary: Peter Ford. 36 Devonshire Road. Mill Hill, London, surface mail £2 10s, Od. DISCUS8I0N MEETINGS Newell, c/o N.E. Rssex Group. LIBERTARIAN FEDERATION N.W.7, Both by airmail Every Wednesday at Jack Robinson’s and Mary Canine's, 21 Rumbold Read, SW.6 (off King’s NORTH-WEST FEDERATI0H Support wanted for numerous activities in area. ABROAD (USS 12.50) £4 5s. 0d. Road), S p.m. LIVERPOOL ANARCHIST PROPAGANDA Secretary: Anthony Matthews, 35 MayviUe Road, AUSTRALIA. Federation of Australian Anar­ ‘Freedom’ by airmail, 3rd Friday of each month at Donald and IreneGROUP AND ‘RiPPY' MOVEMENT. Gerry London, E.ll. Meetings fortnightly on Sundayschists, P.O. Box A 389, Sydney South, NSW 2000. Rooum's at 13 Savernake Road, N.W.3, at 8 p m. Brec, 16 Faulkner Iquare, Liverpool, 8. Meetings at Ron Bailey’s, 128 Hainault Road, E .ll (LEY Phone No. 69-8095. Open discussion and litera­ ‘Anarchy’ by surface weekly. ‘Freedom’ Sales—Pier Head, Saturdays, 8059). Ten minutes from Lcytonstonc Under­ ture sale in the Domain—Sunday. 2 p.m. Call at Every Monday at A. Barlow's. 2a Fairfield Sundays,. Evenings. ground. mail (US$10.50) £3 17s. Od. Gardens, Hornsey, N.8. (Siege oiSidney Street Active groups In: LEYTONSTONE, STEPNEY, 59 Eveleigh Street, Redfern, NSW 2015 for per­ Appreciation Society). MANCHESTER ANARCHIST GROUP. Secre­ sonal discourse, tea and overnight accommodation. tory: Sue Wamock, 9 Boland Street, Fallowfield, NEWIIAM, ILFORD. DAGENHAM, WOOD­ BELGIUM. Groupe du journal Le Libertairc, 220 REGIONAL FEDERATIONS Manchester, 14 FORD and L1MEIIOUSE. rue Vivegnis, Li&ge. PURLIDATI0RS include Regular weekly mtetings. Contact Secretary for USA. James W. Cain, secretary, the Anarchist A N D G R O U P S venue- STUDENT GROUPS Committee of Correspondence. 323 Fourth Street, Berk man’s MERSEYSIDE ANARCHISTS. Meetings every Cloquet, Minnesota 55720, USA. BEXLEY ANARCHIST MOVEMENT. Cfo John Tuesday at 8 p.m. «t 118 High Park Street, Liver­ ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY GROUP. C/o Ian ABC of ANARCHISM 2/6 (+5d) Bonner, 40 Lutlingslone Crescent, St. Paul's Cray, and Peggy Sutherland, 8 Esslemont Avenue, Aber­VANCOUVER. B.C., CANADA. Anyone interes­ Kent. Tel.: 01-300 8890. Meetings every Friday, pool 8. Contact; Chris Kneallt, Basement, 52 ted in forming anarchist and/or direct actfoe Rocker's ticlvidcre Road, Liverpool, L8 3TQ. deen, AB2 45L. peace group contact Derek A. James, c/o 24-160 8 p.m . Lord Bexley. Besleyheath Broadway. PRESTON ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact i. B CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY ANARCHIST BIRMINGHAM ANARCHIST GROUP. Secretary, GROUP. Contact Matthew Robertson, Trinity East 20th, N. Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Tel.: NATIONALISM AND Cowburn, 140 Willing Street Road, Fulwood, 985 7509 or 987 2693. e/o Birmingham Peace Action Centre, Factory Preston. Meetings 'The Wellington Hotel', College, or John Fullerton, Jesus College. CULTURE 21/- ( + 4/6) Road, Birmingham 19. Libertarian discussion SUSSEX UNIVERSITY ANARCHIST GROUP. USA: VERMONT. New Hampshire Anarchist Richards’ groups held 8 pm . on each Tuesday at ‘The Olovers Court. Preston. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Contact Francis Jarman, Red Brick Lodge, 49 Group. Discussion meetings. Actions. Contact Crown’. Corporation Street (Opp. Law Courts), SURREY FEDERATION Upper Rock Gardens, Brighton. Meetings every Ed. Strauss. RPD 2, Woodstock, Vermont 05091, MALATESTA: His Life and Ideas Birminuham City. S.a.e. to Secretary for details. USA O. Wright. 47 College Road, Epsom. Surrey. second Thursday jointly with Brighton Group; TORONTO LIBERTARIAN - ANARCHIST Cloth bound 21/- (+1/3); CORNWALL ANARCHISTS. Contact Arthur Groups ami individuals invited to associate. bookstall every Monday outside J.C.R., 12-2.30 Jacobs. 76 East Hill. St. Austell. Discussion pro- GROUP. 217 Totyork Drive. Weston. Ontario, paper 10/6 ( + 1/-) meetings on the second Friday of each month YORK UNIVERSITY. Contact Nigel Wilson. Canada. Weekly meetings. Read the ‘Liber­ SUSSEX FEDERATION tarian*. Berner i's at Brian and Hazel McGee’s. 42 Pendarves Street. Oroups and individuals invited to associate: c/oDerwent College, University of York, Heslington, NEITHER EAST or WEST 6/- ( + 9d.) Beacon, Camborne. 7.30 p.m. Visiting comrades Eddie Poole, 5 Tilfbury. Finden Road, White- York. very welcome. bank. Brighton. EAST ANGLIA UNIVERSITY. Contact Dave PROPOSED GROUPS Woodcock’s CROYDON LIBERTARIANS. Meetings every BRIGHTON it HOVE ANARCHIST GROUP. Lomax. F A S. II, U.E.A., Norwich. NOR 88C. LANCASTER & MORECAMBE. Contact Les THE WRITER & POLITICS 7/6 2nd Friday of each month. Laurens and CeliaContact Nick Hevh. Flat 3, 26 Clifton Road, LIBERTARIAN STUDENTS FEDERATION. Smith. 192 Euston Road. Morecarabe. Lancs. Otter. 35 Natal Road. Thornton Heath (LIV Brighton, BN1 3HN Regular fortnightly meetings. Contact address: Keith Nathan, 138 Pcnnynicad,WATFORD. Anyone interested please contact an d 7546). Contact Secretary, Harlow. Ronnie Anderson, 31 Marlborough Rood, Wat­ I.PICESTFR PROJECT. Peace/I IhrHarian Other groups in CRAWLEY and SUSSEX LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY ANARCHIST ford, Herts. action and debate. Every Wednesday at 8 p m,UNIVERSITY. GROUP. Contact us at the bookstall in the Stu­ ROCHDALE. BURY & OLDHAM areas. Those Annual Volumes of Selections from n( i Th- Cr^crnl, Kina Street. I eicevtrr dents Union Foyer every Friday lunchtime. interested in libertarian activity contact David NOTTTNG HILL. Meetings at John Bennett s. OXFORD ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact Francis Purdy, c/o 35 Balmoral Drive, Dam Hill Estate, : AEEDOM 1952-1964 Flat 4, 88 Clarendon Road, W.U. Every Monday YORKSHIRE FEDERATION Casllne. Pembroke College, or Steve Watts, Heywood. Lancs. . tch year’s volume 7/6 (+ !'-) evening. I pm Meetings every 8 Wr*k*< Neil meeting February 2. Trinity College. MALATESTA GROUP: West Kensington Area. ORPINGTON ANARCHIST GROUP. Knockhoit, Secretary: Colin Brudle, c/o Oakwood Farm, MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY. Contact Mike Contact Reg Sharpe, c/o Freedom Press. Initial . nil lift on application. Nr. Sevenoaki, Kent. Every six woeki at Oieeo* Lund, Selby, Yorkshire. Look out for ‘Liberty! Don or Bill Jamieson, c/o University Union, meeting Tuesday, January 21. In 1961 Anarchy was launched under FIFTH COLUMN the editorship of Colin Ward, each issue dealing at length with topics of interest About Freedom and AMCfey to anarchists. Remember Stalingrad Freedom Press, in its long existence, HERE IS a great moment in Till has also published many hundreds ofT Death Do Us Part (the film) when •tlTE HAVE BEEN asked by several Wolfe (who incidentally still works at copies an issue. The contributors in­ books and pamphlets, not many of Alf Garnett and his son-in-law are TT readers new to anarchism to say Freedom Press .at the age of 92) for cluded Vernon Richards, Herbert Read,them unfortunately still in print. watching the final of the World Cup. a few words about ourselves. Now issuing and distributing leaflets callingKen Hawks, Tom Brown, Alex Comfort, We are shortly to move into - our England and West Germany are level. that many comrades are engaged in on the troops to desert. George Woodcock, and the paper’s in­ new premises with ample space for a Suddenly an England player shoots and battles with the authorities, whether In the thirties there Were two fluence was tremendous amongst civilians library, bookshop and editorial office the ball hits the crossbar of the German outside Rhodesia House or in Northern F reedoms , one under Tom Keell’s edi­ and soldiers weaty ..of war. Again and a meeting room. goal, bounces down and then runs Ireland, perhaps a brief summary (while torship and another by some remarkably editors of F r e e d o m were sent to prison One word about our finances andclear of the goal. The ref goes over we still have the time) is necessary illiterate anarchists. by the frightened authorities when they circulation. We are entirely dependentto consult the Russian linesman to as to our aims and origins. Some people claim that Freedom truly called on the returning soldiers to holdon sales and subscriptions and whatevercheck whether the ball did in fact Freedom was started in 1886 by Peter folded up by 1936 (others say that on to their weapons and form soldiers’ deficit we make in the year readers cross the line. The whole of Wembley Kropotkin and Mrs. C. M. Wilson. It occasional issues kept the title alive) soviets. One such soldier who received have generously made up through our is screaming. Alf shouts: ‘Remember was a very carefully printed monthly and all that can b e . claimed is that such a leaflet and.; was persuaded by Press Fund and our Premises Fund.Stalingrad’. The Russian linesman nods on good quality paper which has scarcely Freedom Press itself . weathered the it is now the editor of our sister Through this we can maintain complete to the ref and the goal is given, faded and was probably handset Thestorm. magazine Anarchy. S independence and are not reliant on theThe first part of the film describes first issue of the paper prophesied revo­ Looking through old files of Freedom After the war was ‘over’ War Com­ whims of advertisers. In our Contact the war experiences of Alf Garnett. lution in the United States of America one can conclude that the ten years mentary correctly forecast the continuing Column we nevertheless publish urgent Driven into an Underground shelter by by the turn of the century, an attack 1936-1946 were the most exciting in tension in an article 'The Phoney Peace’ information whether paid for or not. German bombs Alf shouts abuse at on individualism and a hopeful piecethe publishing history of Freedom Press. but not listening to their own advice The circulation of our paper has not the other people there for singing Lily stout the unrest of the Celtic population. This saw the publication of Spain and as by the following issue they have kept pace with the enormous public Marlene. When his milk ration runs Later on Tom Keel] was editing, the World and the excellent but short­ changed the title tOpFREEDOM'—through now interested in anarchism but we out he borrows his baby daughter’s setting and printing the paper andlived Revolt which gave way as the anarchism. feel this is only a matter of inequal bottle and squeezes some milk into his fought against the war hysteria as well Second World War broke out to War The paper, first under the editorship distribution and that as propaganda bytea. When his call-up papers arrive as against Kropotkin’s pro-Slav senti­ Commentary, first a duplicated, then of Vernon Richards and then by anthe deed increases in this country our he goes white, then protests that he ments. He was imprisoned in 1916 a small but by 1944 a vigorous large editorial committee Spf varying numbers, consistent propaganda by the written would dearly like to go but that he together with his companion Lillian sheet paper that, some say, sold 40,000 continues, word is going to bear fruit. Editors . can’t because of the importance of his work to the war effort (he is a time­ keeper). Later in the film Alf shouts at his son-in-law: ‘I fought in the war for Trouble in you’. So far as Alf is concerned he FREE SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN did. Like millions of others he suffered the misery of war as a civilian—and German Army at the same time followed its military BOUT 150 PEOPLE attended the by about 3 to 2.] This was very encourag­ feeling that, given the autonomy of the progress cheering his own side and A initial meeting by the SSC on Satur­ ing in view of the fact that many of the local groups, such inferences would be ECORDED CASES of sabotage are hurling insults at the opposition. day, January 4. Secondary school studentsstudents there had not experienced thisbest seen as exchanfes of ideas and ex­R are becoming more and more fre­ Alf is an outrageous caricature but and teachers from London, Bristol, .Man­sort of ‘political’ set-up before. There periences, co-ordinating action on aquent in the West German Army, there is enough truth in him to give chester, Swansea, Cardiff, Hertfordshire, was in fact a considerable amount of national level where the groups them­ according to the West German Ministry us an insight into the attitudes of many Middlesex and Abingdon CAL, represent­resentment against the politicals (as far selves felt this to btfidesirable. The local of Defence. A spokesman, who did not middle-aged people not only in the ing SSC, SSSU, LTA and STOPP, were as is known, mainly they were Maoists) groups themselves are still thin on the give any figures, said that they could working class. In general they resent present. A number of people from the that sprang from a dislike of being lec­ ground, and strengthening and expandingonly be interpreted as malevolent acts. young people for having more money RSSF and similar organisations also tured at a conference. They had come these will probably be our main work in The Ministry of Defence and the and leisure than they had. And having tamed up. After introductions by the to the conference to find ways of getting the coming months Bundestag defence commission said (hatfought and suffered to save Britain from various groups it soon became clear in rid of such goings on at their own If you know anyone who has started there was an alarming coincidence be­the Nazi hordes they particularly resent the discussion on aims and principles andschools! Plans are in hand to continueor can start something up, or if you can tween the acts of sabotage and the young people who either don’t care what on national organisation that there were the dialogue between the groups. start something younielf, the Secretary of continuing increase in the number ofhappened—or positively object to the two main views on these subjects—educa­ The results of the conference? Many ESC, Roger Sadie* 90 Ermine Road, soldiers who were refusing to continue way the war was won. tion with a bit o f politics, or politics people expected all the questions to be S.E.13 (DUN 1572) would be very their military service. The defence de­ The Soldiers, which I have seen since with a bit of education. The clash was answered in one day, and some werepleased to hear fronfiyou! partment noted that in the first ten I wrote about it last week, must shock between those who wanted to change disappointed, but there is a growing M.M. months of 1968, nearly three thousand most middle-aged audiences. There is their own environments in the schools, soldiers suddenly declared themselvesthe familiar yet revered figure of and those who were interested in using conscientious objectors. The concluded Churchill brilliantly brought to life. But secondary school students and teachers that a propaganda campaign was taking instead of undiluted admiration for the for their own ends and under their own place in the army, and was not neces­heroic Winston, a clear argument is leadership. FRANCO PRISONERS sarily directed from the outside. put forward to show that in winning Various amendments to the proposals Trans, from Espoir, 29.12.68. the war Churchill used exactly those of the SSSU and SSC members submitted methods which led him to describe hv £be latter were consistently defeated QN HUNGER STRIKE j Scottish ConferenceHitler as a murderer and a gangster, ROM SORIA, we political and social The inalienable right of association -. Traumatic conclusion forthe —raidms- prisoners of the Central Prison, aged: Churchill was a murderer and a F should be guaranteed. The right of self- Proposal gangster. fraternally united in our struggle, appeal determination should be guaranteed to to public opinion to lend us its support. the oppressed minorities. The Spanish To all Scottish groups and individuals: The Soldiers is not a crude work of Have you In the state of Spain there are a con­ Government should renounce military Dear Comrades, propaganda: it is a play of subtlety siderable number of political and social agreements made with the USA, which and depth which throughout treats A recent letter in F reedom by Com­ Churchill the man with compassion and prisoners, which means men who have are not in the interest of any of the rade Lynn of Glasgow suggested the Signed been arrested (and sometimes ill-treated),peoples of Spain. warmth. It is precisely this quality calling of a meeting somewhat on the which must make the play so disturb­ judged, and condemned to long sentences,We are now at the end of 1968, the lines of the Scottish Anarchist Con­ simply because they have expressed their 20th anniversary of the Declaration of ing to middle-aged audiences: familiar ference last year. Winston who playfully refuses to get the Pledge ? political and social ideas; for which they Human Rights, and entering the 30th Aberdeen Anarchists have, for some would not be imprisoned in most so-anniversary of the end of the Civil War, out of bed for an audience with the npH E BILLS are coining in for the time, been pressing the idea of just King becomes unfamiliar Churchill who called ‘civilised’ countries. yet no amnesty has been decreed, andsuch a meeting, but have met with little repairs and installations in our new Since the end of the Civil War there an amnesty is the first basic step towards discusses with Cherwell the precise effects response—including silence from Glas­of dropping thousands of bombs on premises at 84b. Last year the amount have been political prisoners in Spain, application of the principles contained ingow. in the Premises Fund reached just over and these have continually struggled forthe Declaration. And so we call for a German city. half of our target of £1,000 per year. It is our proposal that a meeting of But the middle-aged—like everyone their liberty and for an amnesty (based (a) Recognition sof our status as poli­ Scottish groups and' individuals be held May we ask those comrades who made on the principles contained in the Uni­ tical prisoners, and a prison regime else except for us regular theatregoers their pledges last year to honour them in Aberdeen in late February. The —are less likely to see The Soldiers versal Declaration of Human Rights), which respects this status. proposal by Comrade Lynn that the as early as possible this year. And and for recognition as political prisoners. (b) Normal conditional liberty. than Till Death Do Us Part. And can we have some more pledges? Fewer meeting be held in the first week of while the play brutally punctures myths During this time, we political prisoners (c) An immediate amnesty for all poli­ January was quite impracticable—as than 500 readers pledging £1 per year have attempted passively to put an end tical prisoners as the first step to about the last war the film does nothing would cower our outlay. anyone who has lived through a Scottish more than mock them gently. to the harassing which violates not only establishing freedom of association New Year would surely understand. PREMISES FUND our own human dignity, but often that and expression. Less Productivity, of our families also. We have tried and We, being all the political prisoners in Would groups and individuals who Target Is £1,000 per year. we are still trying to put an end to the Soria, call on public opinion, and say wish to hold such a Conference in Less Obedience 1969 Fledges honoured and donationssystematic torture applied to political that only by united action on the part of Aberdeen (we would not wish it in to date: £43 7s. Od. Glasgow, since we consider anarchist "VTO SURPRISES in the Wootton re- detainees, of which we have all been the all the popular forces, will this state of S ' port on pot: we can’t find a reason moral or physical victims. things be brought to an end. principle best served by rotation of meeting places) please get in touch with for saying that it's harmful but even so it MOVING FUND We are working for the end of the Signed by 43 prisoners (Anarchists, would be dangerous to make it legal. State of Emergency whose effects reach Basque Nationalists, Communists, Mao­ me with regarding to arranging accom­ Target is £500, modation, etc. Meanwhile we think that those people Donations in 1968 reached £436 0s. 3d. beyond the Basque country, and whose ists and supporters pf the Workers’ Com­ who insist on smoking should be cruel imprint is imposed in spheres of missions). i For Aberdeen Anarchists, 1969: To date—Nil. Ian S. Sutherland . treated less savagely than they are now. popular demands. Trans B.B. The three main arguments for keep­ Also we call for the suppression of the 8 Esslemont A venue, A berdeen ing pot illegal are: emergency tribunals, which are instru­ P.S. Yet anothe? recently arrested stu­ (a) though pot smokers are a large and ments of repression for the movements of dent group from Madrid University are increasing minority of young people, the workers, peasants and students, andreported to have joined the hunger strike. with a few older ones thrown in, some GIVE! the oppressed populations of the Basque POSTERS of them would come up against the country, Catalonia and Galicia. We also law in any case. It’s very convenient FINANCIAL STATEMENT call for the abolition of the special laws, to be able to arrest somebody on one Estimated Expenses: Holding back Ihe Rent Rise? particularly that one called the law Important FIGHT ON! charge while continuing to investigate 2 weeks at £90: £180 against ‘banditism and terrorism’. something else; Income: Sales and Subs.: £157 Remember! These alone would amply justify our 116 GI.C Councillors (b) it is asserted that pot reduces Announcement ambition and the will to work: the DEFICIT: £43 protest. But as well as this, the authori­ ennnot beat ties systematically refuse us conditional half a million more pot the less productivity; liberty, in flagrant violation of the law; united Tenants (c) pot gives pleasure. More, it P R ES S FU N D these refusals are not decided by tribu­ LONDON issued by: does so generally without causing the Wolverhampton: J.K.W.* 2/-; J.L.* 3/-; nals, but by the caprice of the admini­ London Federation of Anarchists smoker pain afterwards. It therefore Bristol: Anon* 5/-; Sweden: H P. 5/-; stration, against its own laws. 84b Whitechapel High Street, offends against the principle that you Ridgwood, N.Y.: L.G- 10/-: Brooklyn, Here there is a comrade who has spent SQUATTERS London, E.I. suffer for your sins. N.Y.: O.A. £3; Grantham: G.l. 5/8; Wan­ 20 years in prison (and is seriously ill) The above text is printed as a poster The illegality of pot may he incon­ who would have been freed a long time (15" x 20") available NOW. 6d. each or venient : prices are higher and there tage: D.G. 5/8; Brodick: P, & D.G 5/-; Public Meeting to instal is a risk that the law may drop round. Edmonton, Alta.: S.P. £5; Ilford: P.G. ago, had he received conditional liberty 4d. each on dozen minimum. Postage as was his right. Homeless Families extra. But it also ensures that a number of 10/10. 0 • ♦ otherwise docile and law-abiding people TOTAL: £10 12 2 As we have received no reply to our in Empty Properties have to step outside the rules of bour­ Previously Acknowledged: £30 18 3 petitions we can think of no other option I.FA Mini Poster No. I: No Rent Rise — Unite and Fight. geois society. Particularly absurd laws than to go on hunger strike. This has SUNDAY FEB 1 9 2 pm have the habit of provoking disobedience. 1969 Total to Dale: £41 10 5 been freely and unanimously decided. For we ure many and they are few. M ANOR PARK With excellent drawing of the Patch The more each individual law is Deficit B/F: £43 0 0 In the light of what we have said disobeyed the less respect there isfor above, we think that the political and family dealing with (he rent collector (British Railway Sjat.) (by Arthur Moysc). Price 3d. each plus the law in general. TOTAL DEFICIT: £1 9 7 trade union movements and organisations Wynford H icks . that exist should be officially recognised. ,j sm wBW BBm iBrewrere postage. One Step Tyranny w T AST YEAR’S EBBING seconds Roy Jenkins, their sycophants, right arm, to use a bad pun. What will for Workers’Control ^ were filled with the final pre­ assorted hacks, and brilliant, scho­ happen, is what other refractory forces parations for the total subjugation larly intellectuals whose vision can like CND and Anarchists are already of every man, woman and child inonly be equalled in its naive belief familiar with from past experience— JANUARY 18 1969 Vol 30 No 2 in utility and blind hope of successthat the leaders will be given heavy fines these islands to the aims and will of and long terms of imprisonment. This the modern industrial state. with the surreal parallel of a cat’s policy has worked in the past, and there The declared intention of thearse in Piccadilly -on a Saturday is no new reason to suppose that it will State to make strike action a night. not be tried again. criminal offence is the most mon­ Their baited hooks have finally The great mistake that can be made strous political manoeuvre seen in accounted for the last vocal chord from guessing the likely effects of this this country since the beginning ofof the Trades Unions, as prophesied incursion into the only defence to ex­PLAYING TRUANT the century. Complacent people by J. K. Galbraith in his book The ploitation left to machine-age man is to think that there will still be room for have yet to realise the implications Modern Industrial State where he N JANUARY 2, 1969, all radio’ and said: effective strike action. free will, take a few hours off from dig­ of this interference with the one Should this initial State sortie not be O television news bulletins had the ging for coal, and he is branded as worse great weapon of the individual, the The trade union, militantly ex­ wholly repulsed, there will be absolutely same main item. It took precedence over than a criminal. only safeguard which the ordinary pressing the power of the worker, nothing in the way of conditions andthe wars (always going on in some part Meanwhile the posh Sunday news­ man and woman can erect in defence was to be the cutting edge of the agreements that can be taken for granted, of the globe), over famine and disasters papers are full of adverts, for winter of whatever technocratic tyranny is revolution. But the industrial absolutely nothing that is beyond the of all kind—so the powers-that-be must cruises—‘spend the winter in the sun’— employed to spirit away their hard- system mellows and even absorbs bounds of possibility; wage cuts, un­ have thought it mightily important. ‘get away from it all’. These are pre­ fought-for gains and improvements the union. announced redundancies, ruthless auto­What was this earth-shaking news? sumably aimed at tired executives, share­ for themselves and their families. and mation, deliberate incursions into private Simply that on New Year’s Day some holders and all the leisured layabouts in That this State action, the like of Since the Second World War the lives, compulsory savings . . . there is thousands of dockers in Liverpool andgeneral. which is unprecedented even in no end to it. . * * some Welsh miners had TAKEN THE This doesn’t make the news bulletins acceptance of the union by the DAY OFF! —nobody in fact gives it a second occupied Czechoslovakia, should industrial firm, and the emergence The most explosive proposal, the crucial manoeuvre -in any political in­ They had thumbed their noses at ‘pro­ thought. But if a worker takes an ‘un­ stem from a so-called socialist gov­ thereafter of an era of compara­ trigue is always introduced unobtrusively, authorised' day off from some back­ ernment, is living proof that The ductivity’—had a lie-in or enjoyed them­ tively peaceful industrial relations, hidden behind matter-of-fact delivery andselves in other ways—and generally breaking job, you’d think the world was State is the primeval enemy of man­ has been hailed as the final raucous diversionary tactics. Like this asserted their dignity as human beings— coming to an end. This is the morality kind. triumph of trade unionism. On one. men, not machines. of the system we live in. Our own particular brand of sup­ There are two possible results from the We can understand why they scream. closer examination it is seen to And didn't the Government set up a pression is supplied by that little reveal many of the features of State proposal. First, that the Trades For once the idea gets abroad that Unions perform an extraordinaryvolte- howl! The clever boys had calculated to WORKERS, not bosses, are the useful team of ‘economic master baiters’— Jonah’s triumph over the whale. a penny how much this disgraceful beha­ Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, John Torode -writing in the face and become uncompromising. people in society; that we can live very Second, that after chest-beating andviour had cost the country. In real terms well without them, but they cannot live Guardian on 2.1.69 concluded in ritualistic shrieks of anger, the Unions it was the men themselves who lost most without us—then the exploiters will have much the same manner: will accept some form of State inter­ —because a few pounds put of a worker’s cause to tremble. It is easier for the State to bully ference in industrial relations. This isweekly wage means a lot. But this did Even such a limited exercise of free­ big, tough union bosses than it iswhat I earnestly hope will happen. For not concern the commentators—what they dom as taking one day off is more than for them to take on an anonymous then, for the first time since 1939, all the wept over was the loss of PROFIT! they can tolerate. mass of'disgruntled and unpredict­ people of this country will have a com­ Incidentally the fuss about the Welsh This little episode may add point to This column exists for mutual aid. able strikers. mon enemy. Such a force is necessary miners is peculiarly ironic. Pits by the the call issued by the LondonMay Day Donations towards cost of typesetting to unify all the multifarious factions who hundred have been closed. So much forCommittee for a stoppage on May 1. will be welcome. Perhaps for the first time since the have, been set against each other for too productivity. But let a miner, of his own J.A. Trades Union movement began alllong. Liberty!—Vol. 1 No. 1 published by the those years ago the entire popula­ With perverse fortune, this latest pro­ Yorkshire Federation. 6d. from' tion, people of many different tfades,posal of the State, completely disinterested Beadle,^Cfo^Dakwiyod Tuiin,1 Land, skills,—colour, religion and ethnic in ,l,.' nMa1** -acyoU, thp very S€lby. groups can have no doubtwhere lies action that ANARCHY requires for the Confrontation. National Press v: Under­the focal point of repression and realisation of all its creative aims. I.D. ground Press. {Freedom included.) frustration; of the one power that Comment: Local comrades asked to attend. knocks them down whenever they While agreeing with I.D.’s comments TYHE TUC AT their last conference the women 10/-. In other words the Monday, January 20, 8 p.m., Faculty make a move to overcome some accepted the principle of strike of Letters lecture theatre, White- on the Government's proposal to legis­ women are helping pay for the men’s petty tyranny; one monolithic, im­ late against strike action, we do not, un­ action to support equal pay demands. bonus. knights Park,' Reading. It is true to say that the platform was far YCND requires an Organiser. Applica­ personal structure that must1 be like our correspondent, welcome this The recent national agreement between smashed if they are to live as men move. Such legislation will not neces­ from happy about the situation because the engineering unions and employers tions to YCND, 14 Gray’s Inn Road, they realised it could mean trouble. Get­ W.C.l. and women free from incessant in­sarily produce the effect I.D. wants. The was only finally signed on the basis of dustrial bondage. restriction of people's freedom does not ting resolutions passed at conferences is further TALKS about equal pay. Help wanted (girl, couple, anything con­ great fun, lobbying, scheming and con­ sidered) in isolated rural household, All the words from all the huma­ necessarily make for a revolutionary Unfortunately the women return to situation. niving, and when they finally forcedwork on Monday on the basis of an im­ • Colchester/Ipswioh area. Working nitarians down the ages are never through the movers'and supporters come anarchist parents offer board, lodg­ Empty Bellies Do Not Make Socialists. proved offer, a thousand pities they could as effective as tactile tyranny in away with big smiles. On the question not copy the formula of the women at ing, and pocket money for sharing ditors pointing out the path to walk, in E . of implementation, that’s a different Fords—‘offer and acceptance before re­ care of children and chores. Time/re- making hungry fighters of once- matter. If it means ‘talking’, that’s fine— turning to work’. sponsibilities flexible. Children 4 blind men, in advertising which ‘We are on record as supporting’ is the and H. Driver preferred. Box No. The plain facts are, the women them­ forces have to be strangled in order BLACK & WHITE UNITE often-quoted boast. But if it means selves have got to spark off the equal pay Brighton and Hove area. Anyone in­ action!—‘Christ! we only support the terested in group activities contact that man may survive. issue, the male species or the majority Exact details of the State proposals are Continued from page I principle’. of them have a Victorian outlook on this Nick Heath (address in groups list). to another can be. One can only Obviously the girls at the Renold chain Typing jobs done at home. Reasonable taken as read. 1 concede that it is pos­ question. In many cases the issue is so sible for someone with a belief in the achieve an objective on such a demon­ factory in Manchester had heard enough simple, 'Would you do a job exactly the rates. Douglas Kepper, 21 Vernon stration as this when one is not in pious resolutions to last them a lifetime. same as the bloke next to you for LESS Road, Leytonstone, London, E.ll. inherent concern of the State for the individual to conclude that the mentiondirect confrontation with the police. They decided to take action. All they money?’ The short answer is ‘Not bloody Poster Workshop, 61 Camden Road, Perhaps the irony was in the fact are demanding is equal production bonus. N.W.l. Free silk screen facilities at of deals from ‘delaying periods’, ‘arbi­ likely!’ So? that, although the march- was aimed The men receive about 25/- a week and Bill Christopher . the service of the class struggle. tration’ and ‘talks’ is sufficient to allow concurrence. Just to dispel this attitude at Rhodesia House, many people see Free Schools Campaign. Support needed the assault on Sovith Africa House as for anti-authoritarian Schools Cam­ I would like to list the demands made by the CBI to the State, The Confederation symbolic, in so far as South Africa paign. Posters available 6d. each, is the guardian of racialism and the 5/- per dozen. Duplicated leaflets 1/- of British Industry — the employers’ mouthpiece, that personification of para­ real power behind the repression of per 100, postage extra. Any other the African people-in the Southern part leaflets or posters on schools needed. noid economics, manned by and for four­ VTANC HESTER S ‘International Socia- him his job back, before the strike Contact Roger Sadiev, 90 Ermine eyed cash registers—have laid out the of that continent.-];. M.H. ■‘•'-a- lists’ seemed more than ready,,, last came off. Road, S.E.13, or phone Mike Rauley extent of State interference in industrial month, to drop one of their supporters But it just goes to show how some at DUN 1572. relations they require for the future: that in the shit after he'd been sacked. of these groups are when it comes to Makhno Poster/Cakndar. In aid of a trade union registrar have powers of Just before Christmas John Gaffeny, practical help, where there’s not much (Anarchist) Black Cross. Splendidly discipline in respect of trade unions, in­DOUBLE well known and liked in anarchist circles political profit to be got. Though designed and printed. Poster 2/6d.cluding the right to deprive them of up here, was given the boot at the possibly on this score we might all be Calendar 7/6d. from Freedom Press. immunities from legal action‘in respect SEAMEN'S WAGES local chemical factory at which he has found wanting. Postage extra. of sympathetic strikes, inter-union dis­ long been actively fighting for better North West Workers . The Crypt, 242 Lancaster Road, W.ll. putes or strikes occurring in breach TF THE WAGES.of merchant seamen conditions. To his surprise his Music, Poetry, Theatre every Wed. of agreed procedures; that fines should I were doubled the extra cost would workmates offered to strike in sym­ 2/6. Audience participation. be imposed on individuals strikinghardly be noticed by the shipowners. pathy. So it came as a sickener when Birmingham Discussion Meetings. Tues­ in breach of procedural agreements; This is the implication from a recent his party, the international socialists, days at 8 p.m. At The Crown. Cor­ plus rejecting the proposals suggested by statement made by Mr. Cameron Parker, didn’t back him. BUILDING poration Street. Jan. 21: Graeme the State as a sweetener to the Unions managing director of marine engineers Was it bone idleness? End of term? WORKERS! Mclvor on 'Freud and Anarchism’.concerning worker-directors and a rever­John G. Kincaid& Co. Ltd. Or just politically inconvenient? It’s hard to say, but at least Man­ Jan. 28: Godfrey Webster on ‘The sion to status quo pending arbitration He said a completely unmanned ship JOIN MASS LOBBY Origins of the Hungarian Uprising’. over employer-union disputes. could be commercially viable and techni­ chester’s anarchists, to their credit, Feb. 4: Geoff Charlton on ‘Anarchism This at present is the voice of the cally feasible in the next 15 years. It offered to back him with a leaflet. Any­ AND RALLY and the American Novel’. (Worth city. A swing Right in the next electoral was unlikely to be developed, however, how as luck would have it the firm gave moving to Birmingham.—Q.C. Com­ farce will make it the voice of the State. he said, because the savings in cost IN AID OF piler.) And that will be the very end. ‘would be marginal if measurable’. WAGE CLAIMS Badges and Banners. Rectangular metal Some right-wing voices have said that Logically therefore if all the money the proposals as they stand (apart from spent in wages at present is hardly at Genoa, that if the war in Vietnam black/red badges 2/6 each post free stopped a problem of over-tonnage would CLAPHAM COMMON or bulk rate (10 or more) 1 /- each— being ‘too weak’) are unworkable be­ measurable it would mean that doubling cause the State would never jail and/or wages would be equally marginal to the be caused by American container ships, (near Tube Station) resell at 2/- or 2/6. Also flags and at present used for military purposes, banners to order, from 7/6. McGee, mete out heavy fines to large bodies of shipowner. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28 workers. This, as far as it goes, is un­ And for those who don’t believe we being used for commercial purposes. The 42 Pendarves Street, Beacon, Cam­ congestion would mean more economic borne, Cornwall. questionably true. No body of men live in a Warfare State, Mr. Jurgen Assemble at 1.30 p.m. solely concerned with figures on a bal­ Dipner of Germany said at the Inter­ problems. If you i M to make contact let ns know. ance sheet is going to cut off its own national Convention on Containerisation Portworker .

Printed by Exprees Printm i , London. E. 1 Published by Freedom Press. London. F QINCE THE occupation of ‘The ministered by the London Borough‘squatting’ demonstrations.. The ® Hollies’ on December 1, the of Camden. Some of these sup­ Notting Hill Squatters held their Squatters’ Campaign has grown, porters were able to climb in first ‘squat’ at Arundel Court—a spread and even won some import­through a window before the police luxury block of flats in their area. ant victories. The response from all cordoned the place off. This was a protest against the Coun­ sections of the has been The idea of the- demonstration cil’s policy of allowing luxury flat What is COMMON? extremely favourable. Jj In our visits was to" ASK the Church to hand building. They stayed for six hours to slums and hostels throughout the over this empty house to the home­ and left, without incident. East End we received a very friendlyless. If they refused we said we The same day, Saturday, Decem­ and sympathetic reception. In addi­would remain in for 24 hours—andber 21, Ilford YCL demonstrated tion to this there was a tremendous then leave. ■’ outside a block of offices in Ilford— press and television interest in the We achieved our objective, .and arguing that houses should be built Whose WEALTH ? campaign, again mostly favourable. left on Sunday at 2 p.m. Despite the instead of offices. This demonstra­ tion also passed without incident. SQUATTING, SQUATTING fact that the police got into the house, our barricades upstairs held, The last of the ‘token’ squats was TF THE COMMONWEALTH really corruption of his pocket-lining Ministers EVERYWHERE and we remained in occupation. Theon Saturday, January 10—again by ■*- had anything to do with brotherhood, was too blatant to hide any more, when Less than a week after ‘The women from Council Buildings the Notting Hill Squatters. This then a Conference of the representatives his own power mania became intolerable Hollies’ demonstration, the Com­ spoke to both the Vicar and the time they occupied a £17,500 empty of millions of people of differing colours, even for his own patriots, when he was munity Action Service, a group in Archdeacon. Both refused to allow ‘town lane’ for the*day. cultures, levels of technical development, chased out to live it up on the money he’d fiddled away from the Exchequer—West London started by Jon Steele,the Vicarage to be used for home­ VICTORY NUMBER ONE! coming together to pool experience and National President of the Young less people, claiming it was used ‘for practise mutual aid, would indeed be anthen the ‘Progressives’ were silent—except One member of the London occasion for celebration. to start cheering his successor! Liberals, carried out a one-day meetings and. sporting equipment’. All the Commonwealth citizens in Another aspect of this year’s gathering occupation of an empty house in So nice for brotherly love: no room Squatters, Alf Williams from Har­ London would have poured out on to thethat did not escape unnqticed was. theTavistock Square. *This, and many at the Vicarage! low, told the Harlow Press that the streets (though holding the Conference fact that the Prime Ministers have others in the road like it, are owned The spirit of the demonstration next squatters’ demonstration was in January is a slight deterrent to this!) ‘mellowed’. In a TV interview after the by the London Borough of West­ was excellent. At one point those ingoing to be in Harlow. This was and the night air would have been throb­last session, Singapore’s Premier, J.ee minster,' Which has refused to let occupation were short Of supplies. two weeks ago. He also said that bing with African rhythms, steel bands, Kuan Yew (a, smooth and charming them be used for the homeless. The supporters outside responded—we would move homeless families bouzoukis and belly dancing. character) said how different he found into empty Council property in Har­ Alas for the grey, sordid reality. The his fellow Premiers this time as com­ The group stayed in for a day-, and, over a period of about an hour and cleaned and decorated theor more, supplies were thrown up low, and block the main London to only Africans dancing were dancing withpared with 1966. Then, he said, they Newmarket road, the A. 11. The rage outside the Conference or Rhodesia were a pretty rough bunch; now, he house. After, Jon Steele said that for us to catch at the upstairs win­ v House or South Africa House, or they would trust himself with them anywhere! dows of the Vicarage. authorities in Harlow went berserk they had made the rooms look very and really got the wind up. The were Biafrans and Nigerians expressingOdd commentary, you might think, but nice. Ti.; just shows how easy it It was at this point that one un­ anything but brotherly love. No steel showing that the ‘mellowing’ process that would , be tp makes these places result of a lot of fuss was that the - bands, no bouzoukis, no calypsos, no gives us Harold Wilson today as the heir fortunate incident occurred. MostHarlow Development Corporation of Keir Hardie and Jimmie Maxton,habitable. We will ibe continuing of the police, throughout the occu­ belly dancing, no nothing to indicate that our campaign to: gaj; these places agreed to allow three houses to be this meeting of Prime Ministers had any operates on the African scene, too. pation, behaVed, reasonably, . andused for rehousing homeless families happ.'ness-conten: for the millions back The, anti imperialist struggles of this --soi^pyca~hclpcd OT up'w kV i-supplics. However, -oil /ibis occasion '.the from hostels in Essex, if the demon- home, or cared about anything other century are really the equivalent in the The London Squatters’ Campaign, _sU;ation was .called off. With such than the little axes they had each come colonies of the workers’ struggles in this the group that' /organised ‘The reasonable behaviour of the 'poffce country in the last century. In both aii offer A lt ti^rd no -hesitation in- to grind. Hollies’ demonstration, planned itswas marred 'by the provocative agreeing, and the demonstration has cases the strength and sacrifice of the follow-up for tile weekend of behaviour of one or two of them. WHO CARES? ordinary people have been used to ease (This is a familiar story-^we on the been changed to Manor Park, in into power a managerial class. The December 21/22/ the place chosen London. What has Canada to do with Sierra was All Saints Old Vicarage, in Left, usually being the sufferers.) Leone, or Australia with the West Indies difference has been the speed with which it has been accomplished in the colonial Capworth Street, Eeyton, E.10. This While Jim Radford was throwing THE SECOND VICTORY! —except to say KEEP OUT! The white up blanket rolls, one policeman leaders of the white ex-Dominions care field—due in part to the ruling classes of twenty-roomed house has been This is probably more important nothing for the Asians and their prob­the world no longer being afraid ofempty for at least three years. At deliberately tried repeatedly to get than the first. On Saturday, January lems; the Asians care nothing for the change that they can control, and also—a the time of the Abridge Hostel cam­ in the way of the rolls after they had 18, Notting Hill Squatters took over Africans; the Africans resent the white more sinister difference—the new native paign in 1966, I, /on behalf of the left Jim’s hand. He eventually suc­ number 7 Camelford Road, W .ll, leaders because Rhodesia is slipping Governments have stepped into power Friends of Abridge, had approachedceeded (although this is doubtful), better primed for operating it than were and installed Mrs. Maggie O’Shan­ through their fingers. They criticise the the Vicar about the place being used and as a blanket roll came up to the non and her two children, with in­ Labour Government’s slimy immigrant our own early Labour leaders. by the homeless. ’He had put the window a piece of string tied round policies, while practising discrimination tent to keep her there on a perma­ THE POWER GAME phone down in annoyance. it either brushed the officer’s helmet nent basis. At the time of writing against their own non-African minorities. or just missed it. The Commonwealth Conference was a Mainly Western university-educated or Three days before Christmas, this they are still in occupation. It looks gathering of slick political operators and Moscow-trained, with the vast experience was too good a target to miss. At The officer stepped forward andas though they are going to succeed. hatchet-men, ex-police or military men, of totalitarian methods of government in 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, arrested Jini for assault. A scuffle The first, real permanent ‘squat’ has party yes-men or bullies, one archbishop this century to draw upon; with modern about 15 people entered the building developed and Bryan Symons wasso far resulted in the rehousing of a and a widow. It was not true to say, as methods of communication, crowd con­and started to /erect barricades.also arrested. Both have to face family. We hope this will encourage the ever-more stupid Enoch Powell said, trol, propaganda and massacre at their disposal, the new nationalist governmentsEventually the police arrived, but so charges of assault and obstruction others to follow suit. That is the that all they had in common was the did more supporters, including someat Stratford Magistrates’ Court on whole aim of the campaign—to, English language. What they had in have been able to skip a lot of lib-lab common was that they were governors, nonsense and democratic flannel; theyhomeless families from Council February 3. encourage widespread direct action. and thus they had the common problems have been able to get down to the busi­ Buildings, a hostel in Poplar, ad­ That weekend also saw two more B.R. of those who set out Jo govern their ness of governing without any pretence fellow men. about public opinion. With largely The fact that a majority of the faces illiterate populations to deal with, the around the Conference table were black leap from imperial tyranny to one-party does not affect that situation one little tyranny has been but a small hop. bit. A governor is a governor is a But to imagine that there is anything HOME OWNERSHIP FOR EVERY FAMILY governor and the pigmentation of his ‘progressive’ about this is to live in the periphery is irrelevant to his function. clouds. The bourgeois leaders of the new This is something that our naive socialist ‘independent’ slates can play the powerH H E STRUGGLE for Civil Rights IN IRELAND TOMORROW friends choose to ignore—for all their game as well as anybody—well, nearly. TI jn Ulster, with its great excitement ‘class’ analysis, and historical economic And one of their prime functions—like and much publicity on newspapers andAnother at Fenian Street fell and en­interests and then evicting the tenants hoo-hah. all governors—will be to prevent their TV, has obscured an equally important tombed two little girls in the rubble. to make way for tall blocks of offices. This is why the ‘revolutionary’ socialist own people getting too revolutionary. fight that is now going on in the capital The Public Health Inspectors condemned By these tricks a whole generation of students drop a clanger when one of the The ‘revolutionary’ socialists who, in city of Ireland, Dublin. This is the hundreds of old houses; and theirhumble people were dispossessed of four points you have to accept to join their time, would have had us support protest against the evils of landlordism dwellers were hastily evicted—into the their homes; great areas of Dublin were them is ‘support for nationalist move­ Nkrumah, Nasser, Makarios, Nehru, the and the demand for the right of the street. The oity was like a battlefield depopulated; and many thousands of ments fighting against imperialism’—or Federal Nigerian Government—Christl common people to the ownership of the with the gaping walls of demolished people were exiled to the ghettoes of words to that effect. even America started as an anti-colonial homestead—however humble that may houses. Hundreds of the dwellers stood Birmingham and London. state with one of the world's great state­ be. staring at their former homes, or wan­ In 1962 a slum landlord, Laurence WINDOW-DRESSING ments for its revolutionary constitution! The present agitation has its roots dered lb and fro in the rain. Old peopleLane, was indicted in the Dublin Court It was generally and openly admitted—these students of revolution must ask deep in Irish history. Tho Land War on slicks, little children, mothers with on charges of unjust exploitation and by most commentators on the Conference themselves if they can be satisfied with a of the 18K0’s concerned chiefly the rural babies at the breasts, sheltered in door­ criminal oppression; and of serfdom, that the real business was carried on revolutionary concept which means only workers and small farmers, many thous­ ways or crouched in makeshift tents contrary to the international law of back-stage. It was in the smoke-filled a change of government. If our revolu­ ands of whom wore evicted from their in the back streets and alleyways of slavery. He was accused of buying and hotel rooms of Belgravia that the real tionary tactics involve ‘taking steps’ at homesteads so that the landlords could tho city. Many of them are now, owning houses as weapons of entrap­ haggling went on. What was said in the least let them be steps forward -not side­ make more profit from cattle. In that several years later, still homeless, with­ ment, with intent to force the dwellers open sessions gf the Conference and in ways or back I war there were thousands of casualties; out place to sit or lie, without hearth into serfdom. Tho United Nations the carefully-prepared hand-outs for the The Commonwealth Conference, then, many of the oppressors were killed to warm them or fire to cook their Slavery & Similar Institutions Act 1956 Press was the window-dressing; and it iswas not at all meaningless. It was telling and maimed. Today the same strife meals. defines serfdom as the state or status the window-dressing that the young (andus loud and clear that if we are interested engages the urban proletariat in the great At the same time, gct-rich-quick of a tenant who is by law, custom or old) socialists fall for, time and again. in a revolutionary society emerging in cities of Dublin, Belfast and Derry. speculators hastily moved in to bargain agreement bound to live and labour Nkrumah is a dirty word now. a name the under-developed countries of Africa About six or seven years ago, the old for the title-deeds of the stricken home­ on the land owned by another and to you never hear at Commonwealth Con­ or Asia or the Caribbean—or anywhere buildings of the city of Dublin, many of steads. Many thousands of pounds wererender service (to pay him rent) to ferences—but he wus one of the great —we do not support nationalist parties them several hundreds of years old, made by selling out the rights of the be­ such other person and is not free to nationalist leaders fighting against im­aiming at power. We support inter­ began to crumble and fall. One house wildered people to plutocratic interests. change his status; and the act further perialism; he was the darling of the national movements aiming at destroyingat Dorset Street fell down in a cloud Even in the less-stricken areas of the ordains that such oppressor is a crimi­ ‘Progressives’ when he came to power— power! of bricks and dust, killing an elderly city, many and many a dishonest poundnal. However, the charges against Lane like Stalin was for so long. But when the J u s t i n . couple a s ' they slept in their bed. was made by buying out the landlords' Continued on page 7 < A T THE LATTER end of the summer forced by past history to act in industrial BOOKS ON *** vacation, thirty-two part time isolation and they had to pay the price. teachers of the Guildford School of Art If there had been a solid and united were summarily dismissed. Seven mem­ front they could have turned the strike ANARCHISM bers of the full time staff were at the into a lockout but they were victims of same time suspended by the Governors AROUND THE GALLERIES events that they themselves set in motion and have since been dismissed.’ and could no longer control, like actors and kindred subjectsSo begins the preamble to the sixty- in a Greek tragedy, and the world was We can get books to order (school page documentation of their case drawn operated in a Vacuum of .their own every policeman who dared to strike and content to sit back and watch as these and technical books included). up and publicly circulated by the forty creation. the whole of the working class stood by men and women struggled to their pre­ Please supply name of publishers. discharged members of the teaching staff Throughout the whole of the industrial and grinned and remained completely destined doom. of the Guildford School of Art. The scene there wasIK one plpp section indifferent and the State and the police The lesson for them is to seek allies Hie Spanish Labyrinth Great Debate for these men and women that they could |um to for support for learned two vital lessons for their future who share a common cause and to use Gerald Brenan (paperback) 13/6 began in the high summer of that 5th of they had never fife* themselves with wellbeing. For the police it was never methods that will force the Authorities The Case of Joe Hill June and they examined and sat in judge­ any industrial acti°D- Like the police, to resort to strike action again and to to concede to their demands. To hell Philip S. Foner (paperback) 12/- ment on all the faults and failings of they are regarded!^ Part W t*ie Establish­ let it be known that they would not; and with the pictures in the national press The Sane Society their place of employment. They, and I ment and, as witji police, when they for the State it was that it must always and the sympathetic Big Names. One Erich Fromm (paperback) 14/- quote, ‘condemned substantially the came out on strip the whole mass of the protect its human instruments with comes out on strike as the final act of Fear of Freedom whole system of teaching, curricula, the industrial workers stood by and ignored guarantees of permanent jobs, high an industrial struggle and not to amuse Erich Fromm (paperback) 10/- structure of courses, the School’s facili­ them regarding the whole sorry affair as wages, good pensions and decent living some passing student or grinning reporter Obsolete Communism ties and the absence of genuine consulta­ no more than art* amusing squabble be­ accommodation. for when the polemic dust has finally Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit 25/— tion and participation in policy-making tween coshered white-collared members One feels that this is what will be the settled on the abandoned field of honour The Shop Steward Movement and and administration. They wrote lengthy of the Establishment. end-product resulting from the sacking one is left with a tattered glory flag and Workers’ Control documents on art education, etc.’, and What the Guildford teachers have been of the Forty Teachers from the Guildford the stark fact that these forty men and Branko Pribicevic 30/— as always their employers replied that forced to learn is that if you exist in School of Art for, because of their un­ women were left out on a limb fighting The Making of the English Working there is the proper channels for these social isolation as a pampered section of sought sacrifice, the Government has now to retain their weekly wage packet for Class E. P. Thompson (Penguin) 18/- matters to be discussed so that the staff the Establishmeni then comes the crunch called upon the Coldstream and Summer- the sweaty hand of the landlord is always The Fake Revolt: the Naked Truth and the students organised their sit-in and you are forced to play out your son Councils to re-examine the whole waiting for the weekly rent while fine about the Hippie Revolt and were evicted and finally sacked for hand in isolation^ structure of art education while token principles can invariably wait for next G. Legman (booklet) 8/- their efforts. The police accepted their role as the staff- and student-participation has been week’s discussion group. Summerhill A. S. Neill 30/- smiling boys paid! to protect by authorised agreed on by the Authorities and there At the Royal Institute Gallery at 195 It is a sad and miserable story that has Talking ofSummerhill A. S. Neill 25/- force their pay jlfflasters’ interests, and will be the inevitable inquiries and the Piccadilly, W .l, these Forty Teachers are been played out ten thousand times in To Hell with Culture Herbert Read 21/— found that when they dared to come out inevitable whitewashing reports and making their public appeal for support the industrial field where it has only The Russian Anarchists Paul Avrich 60/- on strike the State struck back without recommendations. The Forty Teachers by showing their work and it is surely merited a column in the local press. But The Anarchists hesitation or mercy. The State sacked of \ the Guildford School of Art were worthy of bitter and jnward reflection (ed.) Irving L. Horowitz (paperback) 7/6 the dismissed teachers won the support that at the Private View the attendant Selected Writings Wilhelm Reich 60/— of so many influential names from the press only became active when John The Good Soldier SchWeik pop world of the arts while the pictorial Lennon of the Beatles performed a brief Jaroslav Hasek (Penguin) 7/6 press had themselves a ball for the happening for the amusement of the French Revolution 1968 amusement of their 20;000,000 viewers Town and his wife, for the action lay Patrick Seale and and the Guildford Governors sat tight in DEVELOPMENTS IN FRANCE with John and Yoko and not the Guild­ Maureen McConville (Penguin) 8/— their office and the School continues to ford—minus forty. The Political Philosophy of Bakunin function on a two-department level as a fPH E UNION OF Anarcho-Syndicalists Dany Cohn-Bendit is their comrade. A r t h u r M o y se . College of Design. (ed.) G. P. Maochnoff (paperback) 28/— have called ! for a meeting of all They, say that they are opposed to the The Autobiography of Big Bill The Forty Teachers made their case and anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist groups, personalisation of politics, that they are Haywood (paperback) 18/6 lost their jobs and let us be brutally honest organisations and individuals in France for an open anarchism; that' does not The Hawkspur Experiment when we ask if any outside the com­ (and presumably'any . others who have preclude dialogue and co-operation be­ W. David Wills 24/- mitted narrow limits of those involved been active in France) to discuss ideas tween anarchists and marxists; that the Siege really cares. The A l'll Executive has and co-ordinate activity. labels ‘anarchist’ and ‘marxist* are not gone on record that the actions used by Freedom Bookshop The 2nd Regional Federation (Paris) important; what matters is the main­ of Sidney Street the Guildford Authorities were ‘tech­ of the French CNT have produced tenance of the libertarian, as opposed niques that hark back to the 19th century to the bureaucratic-lenin ist, concept of a new monthly magazine called Direct industrial disputes*. What they mean is Appreciation Society Action. The CNT? produces two other organisation.' Thus they are opposed that for the first time teachers came into papers, the weeklies Combat Syndicalist to ‘national’ anarchist federations of the violent conflict with their employers and ‘Siege of Sidney Street Appreciation (Paris) and Espoir (Toulouse). The latter kind represented at the International Write or Come! the police and from their sheltered posi­ Society’, 2a Fairfield Gardens, London, magazines are in ^French and Spanish Congress at Carrera, and prefer to tion within our society they now felt that N.8. The off-centre discussion group Editorial office open Friday, January 31, and are read mainly by Spanish-speaking work with 'libertarian marxists rather all established values were crumbling have assembled a list of speakers for 6*8 p.m. and Monday, February 3, anarchists who fled from Spain after than bureaucratic so-called anarchist into irretrievable dust and that their their Monday night meetings at Alan 2-8 p.m. the Civil War. I have not seen a copy organisations. B.B. situation was unique. Yet this was in a Barlow’s, 8 p.m. The February pro­ Telephone: BlShopsgate 3015. of the new magazine, but it is edited year that witnessed punch up after punch gramme is as follows:—’ New temporary address: by a young Frenchman, Roger Veinante, up, strike after strike and lockout after Monday, February 3—John Sullivan: S4a WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET, and may show a tgrowing interest in lockout from Fords to the Barbican LONDON SQUATTERS Socialism v. anarchy. c/o Express Printers, anarcho-syndicalisijp on the part of ^ building sites in thejCity of -Londqn.^ Monday, February 10—Jim Huggon; (entrance Angel Alley), French^ pe^ic^j^H hav© no memories^ - WE NEED . Free Schools. WHITECHAPEL, B-l. Sixty pages of reasoned analysis of the o r the Civil War injSpain. 1: Money. Monday, February 17—Nicolas Walter: (Underground: Aldgatc Ernst E ait: teachers’ case can be reduced to the Noir et Rouge iGroup complain 2. Offers of food, water containers, and Anarchist co-operation with other Whitechapel Art Gallery. Turn right simple statements that these men and that they are ( not ‘Cohnbendists’, barricade materials. groups. on emerging from station.) women RIGHTLY demanded workers* as described by the bourgeois 3. Car on the day. - Monday, February 24—Arthur Uloth: temporary opening tunes: participation in the running of their in­ press and the ^bureaucratic French 4. Meeting leaflets available 32/6d. per Anarchy and decision-making. Tuesday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. dustry, they tried to take over their place Anarchist Federation, because they do 1,000, 4/- per 100. All interested in discussion and debate Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. of employment and they were sacked. not believe in leaders; even Bakunin, Offers and further information from are invited and we would welcome any This is surely where their strike, and let Malatesta and Durruti made mistakes 128 Hainault Road, E.ll. suggestions for the future. us use this word, has failed, for they and had their faults. Nevertheless 01-539 8059. S id n e y S t r e e t ju n .

30 Dunkeld Street, Lancaster. Regular literature MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY. Contact Mike FREEDOM PRESS sales. Don or Bill Jamieson, c/o University Union, Anarchist Federation of Britain CRAWLEY ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact Oxford Road, Manchester, 13. me the publishers Richard Ashwell, 87 Buckswood Drive, Gossops SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY. Contact Robin Green, Crawley, Sussex. Lovell at the Students' Union. # the monthly magazine LONDON FEDERATION OF ANARCHISTS. NORTH SOMERSET ANARCHIST GROUP. SUSSEX UNIVERSITY ANARCHIST GROUP L9E ANARCHIST GROUP. C/o Students’ Union. ANARCHY Sunday evening meetings at the ‘Metropolitan* Contact Roy Emery, 3 Abbey Street, Bath, or (see details under Student Groups). LSE, Houghton Street, W.C.2. Read and sell (corner of Clerkeawcil Road and Farringdon Geoffrey Barfoot, 71 St. Thomas Street, Wells. ‘Beaver’.. and the weekly journal Road), 7.30 p.m. Next meeting Sunday, JanuaryNOITING HILL. Meetings at John Bennett's, KINGSTON COLLEGE of Technology, Penhryn Flat 4, 88 Clarendon Road, W .ll. Every Monday YORKSHIRE FEDERATION FREEDOM 26, David Bell: ‘First impressions of Anarchism*. Meetings every 8 weeks. Next meeting February 2* Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Contact February 2, Jim Huggon: ‘Songs of the Anarchist evening, 8 p.m. G. Wright. specimen copies will ORPINGTON ANARCHIST GROUP. Knockholt, Secretary: Colin Beadle, c/o Oakwood Farm, Movement*. Cliffe-cum-Lund, Selby, Yorkshire. Look out for be gladly sent on request. EALING ANARCHIST GROUP. Contact Lindsay Nr. Sevenoaks, Kent. Every six weeks at Green- SCOTTISH FEDERATION Wither, 19 Aylmer Road, Shepherds Bush, W.12. ways, Knockholt. Phase: Knockboit 2316. Brian ‘Liberty!’ and Maureen Richardson. —monthly 6d.—out in January. HARINGEY. ‘Siege of Sidney Street Appreciation HALIFAX: David Stringer, c/o Paul Simon, 91 All correspondence to Dave Coull, secretary, Society*. Meet Wednesdays, 8 p.m., at A. Bar- REDDITCH ANARCHISTS AND LIBER­ Essex Street, Parkinson Lane, Halifax. 3 Eskview Terrace, Ferry den, Montrose, Angus. low’s, 2a Fairfield Gardens, Crouch End, N.8. TARIANS. Contact Dave Lloyd, 37 Feckcnham HULL: Jim Young, 3 Fredericks Crescent, Haw­ ABERDEEN ANARCHIST GROUP. Bob Comrie, Subscription Rates LEWISHAM. Contact Mike Malet, 61B Gran­ Road, Headless Cross, Redditch, Worcs. thorn Avenue, Hull. 288 Hardgate or Ian Mitchell, 3 Sinclair Road. (Per year) ville Park, Lewisham, London, S.E.13. Phone: ESSEX & EAST HERTS KEIGHLEY: Stave Wood, 26B Cavendish Street, GLASGOW ANARCHIST GROUP. Robert Lynn, 01-852 8879. Keighley. 12 Ross Street, S.E. or Joe Embleton, 26 Kirk­ Inland PORTOBELLO ROAD ANARCHIST GROUP. FEDERATION LEEDS: Direct Action Society. Contact John land Road, N.W. ‘FREEDOM’ ONLY £1 13s. 4d. Contact Andrew Dewar, 16 Kjiburn House, Mal­ Boutwood, 142 Brudenell Road, Leeds, 6. EDINBURGH. Tony Hughes, Top Flat, 40 Angle vern Place, N.W.6. Meetings 8 p.m. every Three-monthly meetings. Groups and individualsSHEFFIELD: Dave Jeffries, e/o Students Union, Park Terrace, Edinburgh 11. ‘ANARCHY’ ONLY £1 7s. Od. Tuesday. invited to assooiate: c/o Peter Newell (see N.E. Western Bank, Sheffield, 10. HAMILTON AND DISTRICT ANARCHIST COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION WEST HAM ANARCHISTS. Regular meetings Essex Group). YORK: Nigel Wilson, Derwent College, Univer­ GROUP. Robert Linton, 7a Station Road, New and activities contact "Mr. T. Plant/!), 10 Thackeray Group Addresses:— sity of York, Heslington, York. Stevenston, Motherwell. £2 14s. 4d. Road, East Ham, E.6. Tel.: 552 4162. NORTH EAST ESSEX. Peter Newell, 91 Brook FIFE. Bob and Una Turnbull, 39 Stratheden Road, Tolies hunt Knights, Tiptree, Essex. Regular Park, Stratheden Hospital. By Cupar. Abroad OFF-CENTRE LONDON meetings. WELSH FEDERATION •FREEDOM’ ONLY DISCUSSION MEETIN6S NORTH-WEST FEDERATION CARDIFF ANARCHIST GROUP. All cnirea- NORTHERN IRELAND surface mail £1 10s. Od. poadeaee tot—Pete Raymond, IS Marion Street, Every Wednesday at Jack Robinson’s and Mary LIVERPOOL ANARCHIST PROPAGANDA Splott, Cardiff. BELFAST ANARCHIST GROUP. Meetings every airmail (US$8.00) £2 16s. Od. Canipa'i, 21 Rumbold Road, S.W.6 (off King’s GROUP AND ‘HIPPY’ MOVEMENT. Gerry SWANSEA ANARCHIST GROUT. Contort Saturday. 2 p.m., 44a Upper Arthur Street (top ‘ANARCHY’ ONLY Road), 8 p.m. Bree, 16 Faulkner Square, Liverpool, 8. Meetings Ian Bone, 3 Bay View Crescent, Bryanaill, Swan­ floor). ‘Freedom’ sales. Every Monday at A. Barlow's, 2a Fairfield weekly. ‘Freedom’ Sales—Pier Head, Saturdays, sea. Weekly meetings, ‘Freedom’ sales and motion Meetings every Saturday, 2 p.m., 44a Upper surface mail £1 6t. Od. Gardens, Hornsey, N.8. (Siege of Sidney Street Sundays, Evenings. projects. Arthur Street (top Boor). ’Freedom’ sales. airmail (US$7.00) £2 7s. Od. Appreciation Society). MANCHESTER ANARCHIST GROUP. Secre­ LLANELLI: Contact Dai Walker, 6 Llwuyaaandy tary: Sue Warnock, 9 Boland Street, Fallowficld, Road, Llanelli, Carm. Tel: Llanelli 2648. LIBERTARIAN TEACHERS’ COMBINED SUBSCRIPTION REGIONAL FEDERATIONS Manchester, 14 surface mail £2 10s. Od. A N D G R O U P S Regular weekly meetings. Contact Secretary for EAST LONDON ASSOCIATION venue. Meetings—discussions—activities. Contact Peter Both by airmail BEXLEY ANARCHIST MOVEMENT* C/o John MERSEYSIDE ANARCHISTS. Meetings every LIBERTARIAN FEDERATION Ford, 36 Devonshire Road, Mill HH1, London, (US$12.50) £4 5s. 0d. Bonner, 40 Lullingstono Crescent, St. Paul’s Cray, Tuesday at 8 p.na. at 1 Iff High Park Street, Liver­ N.W.7. Kent. Tel,: 0J-300 8890. Meetings every Friday, pool 8. Contact: Chris Knaath, Basement, 52 Support wanted for numerous activities in area. ‘Freedom’ by airmail, 8 p.m., Lord Bexley, Ilcxieyhcsih Broadway. uelvidarc Road, Liverpool. L8 3TQ. . Secretary: Anthony Matthews, 35 Mayvitlc Road, ABROAD ‘Anarchy’ by surface BIRMINGHAM ANARCHIST GROUP. Secretary, PRESTON ANARCHIST GROUP. Contaot J. B. London, E .ll. Meetings fortnightly on Sunday* c/o Birmingham Peace Action Centre, Factory Cowburn, 140 Walling Street Road, Pul wood, at Ron Bailey's, 128 Hainault Road, E .ll (LEY AUSTRALIA. Federation of Australian Anar­ mail (US$10.50) £3 17s. Od. Road, Birmingham 19, Libertarian discussion Preston. Meetings: ~The Wellington Hotel’, 8059). Ten minutes from Leytnnstone Under­ chists, P.O. Box A 389, Sydney South, NSW 2000. groups held 8 p.m. on each Tuesday at 'The Olovers Court, Preston. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. ground. Phone No. 69-8095. Open discussion and litera­ Crown', Corporation Street (Opp. Law Courts), Group Addresses:— Active groups In: LEYTONSTONE, STEPNEY, ture sale in the Domain—Sunday. 2 p.m. Call at Birmingham City. S.a.e. to Secretary for details. BASILDON. M. Powell, 7 Llngcroft, Basildon, NEWHAM. ILFORD. 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Dam H311 Estate, hippies which he finds himself with other demon­ the balance of power. The answer then in officerj * coats of Union dark-blue. law-enforcement agents, yeah! There was something at loose now instrators after his epic trot across the was to get out, to get out any way oneThey had picked up their costumes where American life, the poet's beast slinking to the market-place. The country grass in front of the Pentagon parking could. Get out. There was nothing tothey could, in surplus stores, and Blow - had always been wild. It had always been harsh and hard, it had always lo t: Mailer reflects with his typical fear—perhaps there never had been. For your-mind shops, Digger free emporiums, had a fever—when life in one American town grew insupportable, one mildly malicious irony on his own atti­ the more Communism expanded, the and psychedelic caches of Hindu junk. could travel, the fever to travel was in the American blood, so said all, but tude to the Marxist method: 'he had more monumental would become itsThere were soldiers in Foreign Legion now the fever had left the blood, it was in the cells, the cells traveled, and heard Communists and Trotskyists ex­ problems, the more flaccid its preoccupa­ uniforms, and tropical bush-jackets, San the cells were as insane as Grandma with orange hair. The small towns patiating on social problems and social tions with world conquest. In the expan­ Quentin and Chino, California striped were disappearing in the bypasses and the supermarkets and the shopping actions for years with fust this same mili­ sion of Communism, was its own con­shirt and pants, British copies of Eisen­ tant, precise, executive command in tainment. The only force which could hower jackets, hippies dressed like centers, the small town in America was losing its sense of the knuckle, the analyzing the situation, the same com­ ever defeat Communism, was Communism Turkish shepherds and Roman senators, herb, and the root, the walking sticks were no longer cut from trees, norpelling sense of structure, same satisfying itself.’ (p. 187.) gurus, and samurai in dirty smocks. They were they cured, the schools did not have crazy old teachers now but almost happy dissection and mastication were close to being assembled from all teaching aids, and in the libraries, National Geographic gave way to TV of the bones and tendons of the problem THE VULNERABLE CLASS the intersections between history and the Guide. Enough of the old walled town had once remained in the American before them, and Mailer had in fact de­ But this, though acute, is in the margin. comic books, between legend and tele­ small town for gnomes and dwarfs and knaves and churls (yes, and owls cided years ago, repelled by some bright The main substance of the Mailer analy­ vision, the Biblical archetypes and the and elves and crickets) to live in the constellated cities of the spiders below implacable certainty in the voices of such sis of the revolution which has come movies. . . . The aesthetic at last was in the eaves in the old leaning bam which—for all one knew—had been a full-time Marxists; that Leninism finally home to roost in the precious body andthe politics—the dress ball was going into secret ear to the fevers of the small town, message center for the inhuman w a s good for Leninists about the way blood of all of us, is a picture of a class: battle. Still, there were nightmares be­ dreams which passed through the town at night in sleep and came to tell psychoanalysis was good for psycho­disorientated, fragmented, apprehensive neath the gaiety of these middle-class analysts. It was a superb mental equiva­ and vulnerable, yet this very vulnerability runaways, these Crusaders, going out to their insane tale of the old barbarian lust to slaughter villages and drink lent to weight-lifting— the brain worked, the instrument of its vision and its fear­ attack the hard core of technology land their blood, yes who knew which ghosts, and which crickets, with which perspired, flushed itself, and came back lessness, in its total irresponsibility, in its with less training than armies were once spider would commune—which prayers and whose witch's curses would with hard tangible increments in mental exile to the extreme edge of existential offered by a medieval assembly ground. travel those subterranean trails of the natural kingdom about the town, tone and vigor, but it had nothing to do being—the sons and daughters of the The nightmare was in the echo of those who knows which fevers were forged in such communion and returned onwith . the real problem which was: how American middle class are the image and trips which had fractured their sense of the blood to the seed, it was an era when the message came by wind and do you develop enough grace to capture the reality of the revolution in process: past and present. If nature was a veil not by the wire (for the town gossip began to go mad when the telephone a thief more graceful than yourself? 'They came walking up in all sizes, a whose tissue had been ripped by static, Leninism was built to analyze a world in citizen’s army not ranked yet by height, screams o f jet motors, the highway grid tuned its buds to the tip of her tongue), the American small town grew out of the suburbs, smog, defoliation, pollu­ of itself again and again, harmony between communication and the wind, which all the structures were made of citizens ■' army not ranked yet by height, steel—-now the sinews of society were an army of both sexes in numbers almost tion o f streams, over-fertilization of earth, between lives and ghosts, insanity, the solemn reaches of nature where founded on transistors so small Dragonequal, and of all ages, although mostanti-fertilization of women, and the insanity could learn melancholy (and madness some measure of modesty) radiation of two decades of near blind had all been lost now, lost to the American small town. It had grown out atom busting, then perhaps the history of itself again and again, its cells traveled, worked for government, found o f the past was another tissue, spiritual, security through wars in foreign lands, and the nightmares which passed no doubt, without physical embodiment, on the winds in the old small towns now traveled on the nozzle tip of the unless its embodiment was in the cunei­ flame thrower, no dreams now of barbarian lusts, slaughtered villages, form hieroglyphics of the chromosome (so much like primitive writing!) but that battles of blood, no, nor any need for them—technology had driven insanity tissue of past history, whether traceable out of the wind and out of the attic, and out of all the lost primitive places: in the flesh, or merely palpable in the one had to find it now wherever fever, force, and machines could come collective undetworld of the dream, was together, in Vegas, at the race track, in pro football, race riots for the nonetheless being bombed by the use of Negro, suburban orgies—none of it was enough—one had to find it in LSD as outrageously as the atoll of Vietnam; that was where the small town had gone to get its kicks.' (Norman Eniwetok, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the M ailer, The Armies of the Night, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1968, 455., scorched foliage of Vietnam. . . . The pp. 152-153.) same villains who, promiscuously, wan­ tonly, heedlessly, had gorged on LSD and consumed God knows what essential T IS PROBABLY no longer necessary mental prophylaxis offended him > pro­ marrows of history, wearing indeed the I to recommend to readers ofF reedom foundly. . . . There was always Good- history of all eras on their backs as Norman Mailer’s magnificent account of man’s damnable tolerance for all the trophies o f this -gluttony, were now going m the peace marcto on the Pentagon in the~''vrafietteS~~0'f' sex" 'Did fTe' kno'w nothing' forth (conscience-struck!) to make war autumn of 1967. AH that needs to be of evil or entropy? Sex was the super­ on those other villains, corporation-land said is that it has all the qualities of an highway to your own soul’s entropy if villains, who were destroying the promise honest, a supremely intelligent and it was used without a constant sharpen­ of the present in their self-righteousness acute, getting hold of one average sensual ing of the taste. And orgies? What did and greed and secret lust (often unknown man’s experience of his crisis of identity Goodman know of orgies, real ones, notLady could hide them beneath her nail.’ were young. Some were well-dressed, to themselves) for some sexotechnological lib-lab college orgies to carry out the in the shape of his confrontation with (p. 179.) And yet there is more to both some were poor, many were conventional variety of neo-fascism.’ (pp. 91-93.) the idea and the practice of world revo­ higher program of the Great Society, but Marxism and Mailer: whether we like in appearance, as often were not. The lution : the writing is confident, even real ones with murder in thej air, and it or not, revolutionaries or counter­ hippies were there in great number, rHE ENEMY arrogant, but within the mannered and witches on the shoulder. The collected revolutionaries* we are all beneficiaries perambulating down the hill, many The enemy: the blockade in the mind egocentric construction of an image of Tory in Mailer came roaring to the sur­and victims. of that cave-illuminating dressed like the legions of Sgt. Pepper’s Mailer there is a wild and gentle irony face like a cocked hat in a royal coach.’ which seeks to stem the movement of device which Marx was the first to exa­ Band, some were gotten up like Arab revolution: is not the fighting of a war transmuting the dross of self-obsession (pp. 24-35.) mine, whose examination is still the most sheikhs, or in Park Avenue doormen’s into the gold of sympathy with the in Vietnam—it is not the fighting of any THE MODERN REVOLUTION exciting and the immeasurable founda­ greatcoats, others like Rogers and Clark way—it is the stupid, lazy unimaginative­ human condition: here I am, a tawdry tion of all others—the dialectical progress of the West, Wyatt Earp, Kit Carson, half-cock show, and yet withal a brilliant ness (shades of Nietzsche—‘Be what thou But eventually Mailer’s picture of revo­ of both thought and action in history is Daniel Boone in buckskin, some had art!—not what you have lazily and coruscation of comedy and a glimmer lution is not a humorous and rather cosy an illumination blowing the minds of all grown mustaches to look like "Have and to see with a whole eye the irrepres­ thoughtlessly accepted yourself to be, parlour-dialogue with the spirits of the of us. Mailer at his most artfully sim­ Gun, Will Travel’’— Paladin’s surrogate secondhand in thought and feeling and sible, irreparable, unbearable mock- dear departed (Goodman, Lowell and plistic—-as in his chapter ‘Why are we in was here!—and wild Indians with tragedy of being human—the last and action!’) which can find no apotheosis, MacDonald are of course all still alive— Vietnam?’—cannot evade the picturing feathers, a hippie gotten up like Batman, no god nor demon, except in the violence most rigidly particular of created things at least they were when Mailer wrote— of contrary, symbiotic development.'A another like Claude Rains in "The In­ cast out upon the boundless ocean of of physical destruction—and of course but in the same arch way that he writes submersion of Asia in Communism was visible Man’’—his face wrapped in a tur­ cannot find it there, and So seeks the thought and feeling! I have quoted one of himself in the caesarist third person going to explode a shock into Marxism ban of bandages and he wore a black of the more ambitiously tendentious more desperately to find it there: escala­ singular, so he writes of his friends like which might take a half century to digest. satin top hat. A host of these tropps tion is die logic of war: as Norman passages in the book because I think this a benign nostalgically reminiscing old Between Poland and India, Prague and wore capes, beat-up khaki capes, slept is the heart of the matter of the book. Brown might say—perhaps already has auntie): this is—as it was also in the Bangkok, was a diversity of primitive on, used as blankets, towels, improvised said—it is the psychosocial corollary of It is this sort of impressionistic analysis strategy of the march—the scene-setting lore which would jam every fine gear of duffel bags; or fine capes, orange linings, which at last justifies and makes sense that genital fixation of the libido which for the great collective event, and also the Marxist. There were no quick meals or luminous rose linings, the edges can find orgasm only in that act which of the brilliant introduction which sets (though this is an interpretation perhaps in Asia. Only indigestion. The real ragged, near a tatter, the threads Mailer and his compatriots—fellow star has had assumed for it that exclusive reading too much into Mailer’s intention) difficulty might be then to decide who ready to feather, but a musketeer’s hat uniqueness. Magnificently Mailer cap­ performers and notables (who on the an epitome faintly awry of the kind of would do more harm to Asia, Capitalism on their head. One hippie may have march ‘kept being crowded into the tures the symbolism and the reality of the social relationship, as richly frustrating or Communism. In either case, the con­ been dressed like Charles Chaplin; Buster Pentagon: second rank by notables less notable than as rewarding, that revolutionaries must quest would be technological, and so Keaton and W. C. Fields could have themselves’) like Dr. Spock and Dave 'The Pentagon rose like an anomaly make the most of. The kaleidoscope of primitive Asian societies would be up­ come to the ball; there were Martians Continued on page 5 Dellinger and above all Dwight Mac­ Mailer’s deeply impressionable imagina­ rooted. Probably, jthe uprooting would Donald and Robert Lowell—absolutely tion is as is the kaleidoscope in the end be sayage, the psychic carnage unspeak­ right in their place. Even the most puri­ ruthlessly coherent, imposing upon the able. He did not like to contemplate the tanical of anarchists (which I class my­ whole a magnificently textured pattern compensating damqge to America if it self as near to being) must be impressed or theme assuming all discordant pheno­ chose to dominate a dozen Asian nations with the delicate mixture of mockery, mena into itself: not denying their dis­ with its technologies and its armies while criticism and some honest admiration cordance so much as it denies the having to face their guerilla wars. No, ' Jugoslavia; is It workers control?' which Mailer puts into his description of incompatibility of discordance and unity. Asia was best left to the Asians. If the his encounter with Paul Goodman. 'Paul At the heart of the revolution lies the Communists absorbed those countries, Goodman has been the first to talk of recognition that discordance does not and succeeded in building splendid the absurd and empty nature of work rule out relationship, but its affirmation nations who made the transition to tech­ and education in America, and a genera­ is the actual form of the real relation­ nological culture without undue agony, tion of college students had formed ships of our human life. Reading Armies one would be forced to applaud; it around the core of his militancy. But, of the Night, rereading and reflecting on seemed evident on the face of the evi­ oh, the style! It set Mailer's teeth on it, it seems there is in this march a para­ dence In Vietnam, that America could edge to read it; he was inclined to think digm (it is one of Mailer’s favourite not bring technology land to Asia with­ that the body of students who followed words as well as one of mine: it is a con­ out bankrupting itself la operations ill- Goodman must have something de- cept without which we cannot breathe) conceived, poorly comprehended, ana animalized to put up with the style or at of the modern revolution—of what is in executed In waste. But the greater likeli­ least such was Mailer's bigoted view. process right now, of what it is trying to hood was that if the Communists pre­ His fundamental animus to Goodman go on to, and of how it is going to getvailed In Asia they would suffer in much was still, unhappily, on sex. Goodman’s there: it seems also that in Mailer’s the same fashion. Divisions, schisms, ideas tended to declare in rough that kaleidoscopic, macrocosmic-microcosmic and sects would appear. An endless heterosexuality, homosexuality, and ona­sensibility — contracting and expanding number of collisions between primitive nism were equal valid forms of activity, with the assured violence and abandon­ custom and Marxist dogma, a thousand best denuded of guilt. Mailer, with his ment of an unabashed would-be prophet daily pullulations of intrigue, a heritage neo-Victorianism, thought that if there —we have the ideal register of this of cruelty, atrocity, and betrayal Would SHILLINGS OR THIRTY CENTS was anything worse than homosexuality revolution. fall upon the Communists. It was not and masturbation, it was putting the two Listening to the complete Leninist difficult to envision a time when one together. The super-hygience of all this Walter Teague (whose ‘philosophy prob­ Communist nation in Asia might look working class like winning a truly were the simple equal, man for man, of no less/) than eight days In the stink, dangerous fist fight ihe age of eight these soldiers, and so when this vanguard bustle, fear, and propinquity of steerage PICTURES OF REVOLUTION or getting sex fourteen, dead confronted soldiers now, and were able on an ocean crossing (or the eighty days of dying on a slave ship), each generation Continued from page 4 terror and confusion: drunk by sixteen, Whipped half to death to stare them in the eye, they were, in by your father, mak^H It In rumbles with effect, saying silently, '7 will steal your of Americans had forged their own rite, of the sea from the soft Virginia fields *If the troops were relieved that a in the forest of the Alleghenies, and the pullulating unwashed orgiastic Com­a proud street gang> living at war with elan, and your brawn, and the very (they were crossing a park), its pale the educational sysVm> knowing how toanimal of your charm because I am Adirondacks, at Valley Forge, at New yellow walls reminiscent of some plastic munist-inspired wave of flesh did not roll Orleans in 1812, with Rogers and Clark right over them, and that in fact the snicker at the empl^y^r from one side morally right and you arc wrong and the plug coming out of the hole made in of the mouth, ridlfllfr/ a bike with no balance of existence Is such that the or at Sutter's Mill, at Gettysburg, the flesh by an unmentionable operation. majority of demonstrators right there be­ Alamo, the Klopdlke, the Argonnc, Nor­ fore them were not unlike in appearance hands, entering the Golden Gloves, do­ meat of your life is now attached to my There, it sat, geometrical aura complete, ing a hitch in the kfivy. or a stretch in spirit, l am stealing your balls"/ (pp. mandy, Pusan—the engagement at the isolated from anything in nature sur­ the few quiet long-haired cool odd kids Pentagon was a pale rite o1 passage next they had never quite gotten to know in the stockade, and wlm it all, their sense 257-259.) rounding it. Eras ago had corporation of elan, of morale, f°r buddies are the to these, and yet It was probably a true land begun by putting billboards on the high school, the demonstrators in their THE RITE OF PASSAGE turn were relieved in profounder fashion manna of the working class: there is a For the last few hundred demonstra­ one, for it came to the spoiled children old post roads?—now they worked to God-given cynical indifference to school, of a dead de-anlmallzed middle class who clean them up—just as the populace had that their rank of eyes had met the sol­ tors who sit out this night in the plaza diers, and it was the soldiers who had morality, and job. The working class is before the Pentagon it is a rite of had chosen most freely, out of the In­ finally succeeded in depositing comfort­ loyal to friends, not ideas. No wonder comprehensible mysteries of moral choice, able amounts of libido on highway signs, looked away. They looked across the passage: *. . . this passage through the gulf of the classes, the middle classes and the Army bothered mem not a bit. But night was a rite of passage, and these to make an attack and then hold a testa­ gasoline exhaust, and oil-stained Jersey the working class bothered the sons of ment before the most authoritative em­ macadam—now corporation land, here the working classes. It would take the disenchanted heirs of the Old Left, this rebirth of Marx for Marxism to explain the middle class with their easy confident rabble of American Vlctcong, and bodiment of the principle that America named Government, took over state pre­ virility and that physical courage with was right, America was might, America serves, straightened crooked roads, put definitively this middle class condemna­ hippies, and pacifists, and whoever else tion of an imperialist war in the last which they seemed to fie born-—there was was left were afloat on a voyage whose was the true religious war of Christ up government buildings, removed un­ a fear and a profound respect in every against the Communist. So it became a welcome signs till the young Pop eye ofCapitalist nation, this working class first note had been struck with the first affirmation. But it is the urban middle middle class son for his idea of that sound of the trumpet Mailer had heard rite of passage for these tender drug- Art wept for unwelcome signs—where most virile ruthless Indifferent working vitiated )argon-mired children, they en­ are our old friends?—and corporation class in America who always feel most crossing Washington Monument in the uprooted, most alienated from America class which would eventually exterminate morning. "Come here, come here, come dured through a night, a black dark night land would succeed, if it hadn't yet, in them as easily as they exterminated gooks. which began in joy, near foundered in making nature look like an outdoor hos­itself, and so instinctively most critical here," the trumpet had said, and now of America, for neither do they work And this is not even to mention the sense eighteen hours later, in the false dawn, terror, and dragged on through empty pital, and the streets of U.S. cities, grace of muted awe which j lived in every son apathetic hours while glints of light came of Urban Renewal, would be difficult to with their hands, nor wield real power, the echo of far greater rites of passage so it is never their lathe nor their sixty of the urban middle class before the true In American history, the light reflected to each alone. . .1 (pp. 279-280.) distinguish when drunk from pyramids American son of the small town and the of packaged foods in the aisles of a acres, and certainly never is it their com­ from the radiance of greater more heroic THE EXORCISM mand which is accepted because they are farm, that blank-eye » snub-nosed Inno­ hours may have come nonetheless to supermarket. For years he had been writ­ cent, bewildered, stubborri crew-cut pro­ It is at this point that Mailer begins to ing about the nature of totalitarianism, simply American and there, no, the urban shine along the inner space and caverns fumble, at least I begin to sense a mere middle class was the last class to arrive tagonist of all conventional American of the freaks, some hint of a glorious its need to render populations apathetic, life; the combination of his symbolic attitudinizing, an attempt to force a cli­ its instrument—the destruction of mood. at respectable status, and it has been the future may have hung in the air, some max which perhaps does no-t exist: an­ most overprotected (for its dollars areforce with the working class was noiv in refrain from all the great American rites Mood was forever being sliced, cut, focus here. other climax, a more outrageous and yet stamped, ground, excised, or obliterated; the great nourishing mother of all con­ of passage when men and women perhaps more significant, rite of passage mood was a scent which rose from the sumer goods) yet the most spiritually un­ *Standing against them, the demonstra­ manacled themselves to a lost and pain­ is recorded carliek’ and more vividly in acts and calms of nature, and totali­ defended since even the concept of a tors were not only sons of the middle ful principle and survived a day, a night , perhaps the best chapter in the book: tarianism was a deodorant to nature. Yes, crisis in identity seems most exclusively class of course, but Isons who had de­a week, a month, a year, a celebration ‘The Witches and the Fugs’: it is the and by the logic of this metaphor, the their own. The sons and daughters of parted the middle class, they were rebels of Thanksgiving—the country had been performance of the Fugs on the eve of Pentagon looked like the five-sided tip that urban middle class, forever alienated and radicals and young revolutionaries; founded on a rite of passage. Very few the March which for Mailer most truly on the spout of a spray can to be used in childhood from all the good simple yet they were unbloodied; they felt had not emigrated here without the echo represents and penetrates the reason or under the arm, yes, the Pentagon was funky nitty-gritty American joys of the secretly weak, they did not know If they of that rite, even if it were no more (and rather the non-reason of an operation spraying the deodorant of its presence which at last did not know what it was all over the fields of Virginia.1 (pp. 116- at. . . . 'The new generation believed In 117.) technology more than any before It, but 4It was an historic moment when the the generation also believed In LSD, in reconnoitering vanguards of the Mobili­ witches, in tribal knowledge, in orgy, and zation Committee went into the Pentagon worksong-cum-blues. A woman sits in revolution. It had. no respect whatsoever to study its vulnerability to attack, his­ the corner by Dylan (his wife?). He for the unassailable logic of the next Friday Night (h it carries on typing his work and Joan step: belief . was reserved for the revela­ toric not for the magnitude of the events which were to derive from this visit, but Baez, now married to David Harris, an tory mystery of the happening where you organizer for The Resistance (Anti-Mili­ did not know what was going to happen historic as a paradigm of the dispropor­ HpHE ARTS LAB founded by Jim destroying human beings—white women tions and contradictions of the twentieth tary Revolution), sings some sad love next; that was what was good about it/ Haynes has been open to experi­ killed by bullets. However it is funny song, her eyes tired and sad as if already (p. 86.) The exposure-Hhe demystification century itself. Nineteenth-century generals ments in music, theatre and poetry; film, and does cut-up the dear images of reli­ would not have been permitted to ex­ very far from Dylan’s love. The type­ —of the great American pragmatic: its sculpture and painting for well over a gions. Religions ' ofj politics, sex and writer continues to pound . . . working very competence and technological ex­ plore the fortress they would attack, but | year. But recently the Drury Lane labo­ money. Religions ofj nationhood, novel they would have known its storehouse on new songs—Poems with Music. pertise at least humanly shoddy and in­ ratory lost half the team of organizers writers and film-makers. I enjoyed the adequate: is the. rediscovery of the mys­ when they took it. Now recapitulate the over a difference of policy: Jim Haynes Another scene shows his manager, A1 shots of recording studios.The Rolling Grossman, bargaining for £2,000 as fee terious of the politic. The rite of passage problem at the Pentagon: an enormous wishes it to be open for people not aft. Stones making theirlnew LP. A long- office building in the shape of a jortress for a half-hour show on television, is an exorcism: Meaning, as far as I know, the enjoy­ ‘October 21, 1967, Washington, D.C., housed the military center of the most ment, entertainment and awareness of Granada, or BBC, it doesn’t matter powerful nation on earth, yet there was people and their participation (whoops) which. He plays one company off against U.S.A., Planet Earfh. no need for guards-—the proliferation ofI mean their activity, not simply that of the other and gets his money (two shows, . 'We Freemen* of oil colorsof the spec­ the building itself was its own defense: paid artists. So, as Jim Haynes puts it, I think). trum, in the name of God, Ra, Jehovah, assassination of any high official in the there should be two arts labs in the near But those scenes I remember best Anubis, Osiris, . Tlaloc, Quetalcoatl, edifice could serve only to augment thefuture. (I don’t know the policy of the were between Dylan, Alan Price and Thoth, PtaJx, Allah, Krishna, Chango, power of the Pentagon; vulnerable tosecond Arts Lab.) the lonely student interviewer; and the Chimeke, Chukwu, Olisa - Bulu - Uwa, sabotage, that also could work only forAt the Arts Lab, Drury Lane, last one in which Dylan grills the journalist lmales, Orisasu,. Qdudua, Kali, Shlva- the fortification of its interest. High week, Essex University students put on from Time magazine. In the former an ShakraGreat Spirit, Dionysus, Yahweh, church of the corporation, the Pentagon *X', written and directed by Pani Aubrey earnest and tiresome student persists in Thor, Bacchus, Isis. Jesus Christ, Mai- spoke exclusively of mass man and his also at Essex. This is a play of immense asking questions—unable to listen to treya, Buddha, Rama do exorcise and civilization; every aspect of the building power and commitment as acted by this Dylan and Alan Price in a warming-up cast out the EVIL which has walled and was anonymous, monotonous, massive, group of white, liberal students in por­ session before appearing on stage. The captured the pentacle of power and per­ interchangeable. For this committee of traying black negro history, seen through student has been educated by the head verted its use to the, need of the total revolutionary explorers, the strangeness the founder of Black Muslims, Elijah method. That is, he has no warmth of machine and its child the hydrogen bomb of their situation must have been com­Mohammad. The play is suitable for personality for he has been emotionally and has suffered the people of the planet parable to a reconnaissance of the moon. almost any large open room or outdoors deadened by environment and education. earth, the American people and creatures They could enter the Pentagon without and the only props are lights and music. He cannot remain silent and still learn, of the mountains, woods, streams, and difficulty, walk wherever they pleased — With Elijah Mohammad as narrator, or even understand, so he worries Bob oceans grievous mental and physical tor- although not without attracting attention negro history is shown in a series of playing record called Beggars Bouquet Dylan into answering. He has no ‘heart’ ture and the constant torment of the quite soon, for if most of them looked sketches with statements and speeches of (Decca). Mick Jagger singing a song so or ‘soul’. imminent threat of utter destruction. like responsible executives and experts, people like slave traders; slaves; indivi­ obviously influenced by the haunting Tirilk magazine is publicly annihilated 'We are demanding that the pentacle Rubin's hair was brushed out like a duals like Dubois; Martin Luther King; imagery of Bob Dylan (onJohn Wesley by devastating analysis of its ‘real’ news of power once again be used to serve the Black Militant's in five inches every Harding, etc.). Singing it again and again or its ‘real* importance. The journalist, interests of GOD manifest in the world Ku Klux Klan; the negro girl refused as man. We are embarking on a motion direction from his head; they could none­ entry into the Little Rock School, in an effort to record as they wanted it discomforted but tough, learns that theless explore their target, debate their recording/sounding: the song— SYM­ Dylan will not be reading any Time which is millennial in scope. Let this day, Arkansas. October 21, 1967, mark the beginning of approach (even debate aloud if need be But the strength of this production lies PATHY FOR THE, DEVIL. article anyway for he never buys Time in these corridors filled as much with magazine. suprapolitics. in the movement and mime supported by So to the final and as yet hardly re­ 'By the act of reading this paper you moving people as a busy subway station), good jazz music. Dress is black from leased film over here in England, DON'T Dylan is shown travelling through they could even if they had wished prob­ are engaged in the Holy Ritual of Exor­ head to toe. White bibs denote ‘Whitey’. LOOK BACK. This is a portrait of Bob England on tour. Meeting Liverpool cism. To further participate focus your ably have paid a call on the Secretary of I remember particularly the scenes of girls and putting up with official praise Defense to inform him of their project, Dylan as up to and about 1964/65. The thought on the casting out of evil through a negro woman raped; lynchings of rebel­ camera simply follows Dylan everywhere. from a patronizing Lady Mayoress. He the grace of GOD which is all (ours). yet it was impossible to locate the sym­ lious plantation workers; jazz club sounds ends his tour, after that Albert Hall con­ bolic loins of the building—paradigm of Here is a young professional singer and A billion stars in a billion galaxies of and scenes; the ‘black and white together’ songwriter—storyteller as he used to call cert, after singing It's All Over Now space and time is the form of your the modern world indeed, they could changing into ‘Black Power forever' and Baby Blue and Gates of Eden; Talkin' explore every inch of their foe and himself—standing in the street flipping power, and limitless is your name/ (pp. ‘We Shall Overcome’ into 'We Shall Over­ the words ofSUBTERRANEAN HOME­ World War Three Blues and Its Alright 120-121.) known nothing about him; the twentieth run'; the storming of city buildings cli­ SICK BLUES onto the ground as they Ma, I’m Only Bleeding; sitting in a taxi; And at last Mailer feels at home: this century was in the process of removing maxed by machine-gunning of the boom out at you. ;.. . murmuring about the deadened English is the lonely journey he has made and the last of man's power from his senses demonstrators; the massing of more and communists saying that word ‘anarchist’ in order to store power in piled banks ‘John is in the basement Mixing up the now he finds it shared with other lone­ more demonstrators, jinked-arms facing medicine I’m on the pavement Thinking —‘Now that would really worry me to liness. 'Now, here, after several years of of coded knowledge. The essence of the powers of government and army. about the government. . . . Don’t follow be called anarchist.* ‘Anarchist?’ the blandest reports from the religious coded knowledge was that it could be Defiant and prepared for future battles. made available to all because only a few leaders or watch the parking meters. . Yes, he is very very wealthy now. He explorers of LSD, vague Tibetan lama had the code to comprehend it/ (pp. 228- Of course this 'is a hymn to Black Twenty years of schooling and they put has four children and a wife hidden goody-goodness, auras of religiosity be­ 229.) Power. An attempt to forge negro dignity you the dayshift Look out kid is there uway. He writes, mostly, since ho is still ing the only publicly announced or even and identity through an understanding something you did Better jump down a under contract to write/record. He re­ rumored fruit from all trips back from SOCIETY IS A PRISON of their own history. manhole light yoiifsclf a candle Don’t cently released LP John Wesley Harding the buried Atlantis of LSD, now suddenly There is ho criticism ofpower politi­ wear sandals ypu can’t afford the has boon described as ‘a load of rubbishy tm entire generation of acid-heads seemed In the gloom of his prison Mailer is cians. There is no comment on conscrip­ scandle. . . lyrics’ but 1 would not describe it like to have said good-bye to easy visions of not happy. 'Floods of totalitarian archi­tion and high Vietnam losses among Ho js shown sifiging the Ballad of that. For if what he writes is complex heaven, no, now the witches were here, tecture, totalitarian superhighways, totali­negro soldiers 1 There is no alternative Mcdgor Evers to a negro work-team on it is meaningful and beautiful poetry. and rites of exorcism, and black terrors tarian smog, totalitarian food (yes, to the streets or to violence! some typical janh> outdoors dressed in Not poetry for birthdays or deathdays of the night—hippies being murdered. frozen), totalitarian communications—the But this is a serious and sober pro­ overalls, with short hair and grim expres­ but for every day; and if wc cannot Yes, the hippies had gone from Tibet to terror to a man so conservative as Mailer, duction which should equal any other sion of belief. The camera switches to Understand it perhaps that is our problem Christ to the Middle Ages, now they were was that nihilism might be the only student play put on at the Exeter student the Albert Hall*—with bank on bank of not Dylan’s. Songs like Dear Landlord; Revolutionary Alchemists. Well, thought answer to totalitarianism.' (p. 176.) But finals. (Any reader wishing to book this people hidden behind tiny lights in a Lonesome Hobo; All Along l he Watch- Mailer, that was all right, he was a Left in the final confrontation mass man, Essex University Group with *X’ should pitch-black stage waiting for this poct- tower; Drifters Escape and l Dreamed Conservative himself. "Out, demons, out! ‘anonymous, monotonous, massive, inter­get in touch with Pam Aubrey, 35 Hal­ wjth-guitar to appear in the spotlight. I Saw St. Augustine seem fairly direct! Out, demons, out!"' (p. 124.) I have changeable', becomes individual, tangible, stead Road, Kirby Cross, Essex. Tel.: He is wearing black leather jacket and See SINGOUT magazine, Oct./Nov. *68, given long extracts from the book, to susceptible: he is a soldier in the US Frinton 3139.) carrying harmonica and a wry defensive for his current thoughtlincs,'', try and show its importance, so that you army barring the way across the asphalt After midnight and the emotionally look as he sings the Ballad of Medgor DON’T LOOk BACK is showing in­ can keep some of the best passages with­ plaza in front of the Administration stunning play, ‘X Godard’s film One Evers to a paying audience of nice whites definitely at the Arts Lnb; telephone for out spending 45s.; but the whole book | Entrance to the Pentagon, and six inches Plus One seemed boring, tedious and the in cosy marketable comfort. details: 01-242 3407. must be read so lhat Mailer’s achieve­ away is the nihilist: and totalitarianism Rolling Stones apart, uninteresting. The There is a scene of great interest to mo D r n n i s G o u l d . ment may be fully appreciated and is not so totalitarian as Mailer had ima­ Black Power sequences were simply tri­ where he is pounding away on a type­ enjoyed. gined, and the nihilist possesses the grace vial though they revealed the emptiness writer, it is early hours of the morning. *SINGOUT (8s. 6d.) from Dobell’s M a r t i n S m a l l . of renewal and rebirth in the midst of of political sloganeering and the ease of Joan Baez sits in a o easy chair singing a Record Shop, Charing Cross Road. (To be continued in February Supplemen t) Towards Workers’ Control WHY WAS WORKERS’ CONTROL DISCUSSED? [in France) labour was questiofl&d* and hence the working below capacity. They wanted to even though things may appear other­ HHHE IDEA OF WORKERS’ CONTROL has appeared on different organisation of work itself. organise things in a better way and par­ wise. Thus ‘participation' has re­ As well as this there was an increased ticipate in the running of the enterprises appeared, being founded on the demand historical occasions: during the Spanish Civil War by the anarchists;consciousness acquired partly from ac­ and avoid the divisions between different for information and a certain amount of in Yugoslavia after the rupture with the Comintern; and in the formationtion: ‘At the Renault factory at Cleon enterprises in the same branch of in­ control* that the bosses are ready and of certain countries such as Israel and Algeria. were some young workers who, at the dustry. It is from here that their attitude willing to give in order to deceive the However, the idea was not immediately involved in the May and Junetime when the occupation of Sud-Aviation to and their interest in workers’ control workers. But nothing within the frame­ movement in France: it is not mentioned in the agreement of the ‘Workers’was announced, spontaneously stopped arose, in so far as it is a system which work of capitalism is changed. and Students’ Struggle’ Commission (see bulletin of the 22nd Marchwork in certain shops and decided to is concerned with the organisation of Besides workers' control is control of Movement for 26.4.68). occupy the factory. It was then proposed work, and requires the co-operation of all the aspects of the economy, whereas Only after May 10 was the idea brought up publicly, when the Sud- and adopted that th6 managers be locked all. But it is almost certain that they dis­ the different concepts proposed by the in their offices as at Bouguenais.* Also liked the revolutionary implications of government (autonomy, participation, Aviation factory at Nantes was occupied and workers’ control was dis­contacts were made with other factories workers’ control. cussed after May 13. Humanite (the French Communist daily) of May 22 etc.) only came to a particle of power and workers made contact with students As for the trade unionists who are, let within a limited sector. said that it was a hollow formula. The CFDT (a trade union federationand peasants. At Nantes the distribution us not forget, a minority among the with Catholic tendencies), however, adopted the concept (‘of which the firstof food was organised. It was self-defence: workers [in France], there was a clear If there is no theoretical clarification preliminary is trade union rights within the factory’). The idea was dis­ of workers’ control, the slogan will be cussed by Syndicalisme on May 25 andCombat on May 30. (The latter accepted in some reformist sense, to the benefit of some centralist formula which had previously described Cohn-Bendit as ‘a wandering puff of smoke’.) is directly recuperable by the communist It appeared, therefore, that in a few weeks an ideology almost unknown movement. to the masses had been considered by them, and that all the proposals of the great central trade unions had been powerless to destroy it, since, being BRIEF CONCLUSIONS forced to attack it, they had given the idea more publicity. There was no workers' control. Wor­ The means of communication were consequently of the utmost importance, kers’ control became a miraculous word but they were not able to dominate the situation. The bureaucrats were which would devour the snake of re­ forced to denounce ,\yhat they would have preferred to ignore. formism. It is up to us militants to Because an ideology is talked about, it does not mean that it is accepted. explain and spread the idea of workers’ Let’s look at the concrete cases of application. control, wherever we may be. The essential criticism that one can WHERE WERE THERE GROPINGS cities. However in Brittany [an extremely give to centralism, even if it is demo­ TOWARDS WORKERS’ CONTROL? conservative area] and Savoy there were cratic, even if the proposals from the attempts at application. In Paris and centre are discussed and amended by the One hears of factories at Brest, of cer­ Nantes, workers’ control was proposed base, is that such an organisation really tain large stores in some towns. . . . and attempted. reserves the initiative for the elite, which About twenty examples are cited. One There were, therefore, three levels: results in passivity on the part of mili­ hears of the strike committees in Savoy propaganda without results, propaganda tants at the base and maintains them in who issued coupons for goods. with results, and, apparently, results with­ a state of submission, which they often A certain consciousness was shown in out preliminary propaganda. readily accept, because they are the vic­ the form of the strikes, the feebleness of tims of capitalist alienation. the demands of the trade union bureau­ TO WHAT END WERE THE The power of decision-making and the crats, and the fact that a respect for ATTEMPTS AT WORKERS’ elaboration of the political line should human dignity often appeared on lists of CONTROL? belong to all the militants of the revolu­ demands made by the workers. What tionary organisation. This federalism, was lacking was lots of propaganda be­ -In practically all the factories where forehand, and militants ready to act, not active occupation had followed the this running of an organisation in its as leaders, but as militants. strike, the problems of the running and totality by all the militants is also ‘workers' control’ (autogestion). An example: when some students administration of the enterprise had been the formation of a revolutionary power. • division on the subject of workers* con­ brought some chickens to be sold to the more or less taken into account by the There appeared therefore, two reac­ trol within the left. Since May there The bureaucrats always oppose this strikers on the cheap, the workers at first strikers. This corresponded to the ten­ tions concerning the . practicalities of have been fluctuations in membership with ‘efficiency’; everyone cannot decide regarded this solely as an act of kind­ dency of the young workers and mili­ workers’ control; one,,attitude slow-mov­depending upon the positions taken. At the political line, this is an affair for ness, but it took on another meaning tants, who generally refuted a system of ing, progressively arriving at a con­ Flins radical workers left the CGT (Com­ specialists; one must guide the masses on when the workers started doing this industrial relations that no longer corre­ sciousness and another more forceful munist) for the CFDT, whereas moderate the road of increasing consciousness . . . themselves, entering into direct contact sponded to their culture and their per­ and determined. and passive elements have joined the federalism will enfeeble the workers and sonalities.* with the peasants and students, not ATTITUDES TO WORKERS’ unions which took a ‘reasonable attitude*. therefore would be the objective ally of through the trade unions, as before, npr We do .not know if a factory has ever capitalism. However this is a false prob­ on an individual basis, but o*n a 'living corresponded to' the personalitieso f-its -eONTROtr ----- THE REACTIONS OF CAPITALISM lem, a false dilemma'; the rear probfeirr ~ solidaric basis. personnel; but it is evident that what had The workers generally received the ‘Everything will be as it was before,’ is to give the revolutionary organisation This happened in several areas where to be done to find rapid solutions toidea favourably. The new element was explained M. Lip in Le Monde (15.8.68). a federalist structure, which will allow it was least expected. There were im­ urgent problems, led to a heightened con­ the role of . the technocrats. In spite of ‘Let us not be mistaken, there exist and the revolutionary line to be expressed portant demonstrations in Bordeaux and sciousness; the opening and running by the presence of certain of these who were there will exist for a long time people and therefore be effective. Lyon where groups were interested in strikers of canteens and funds to give militant revolutionaries, a great ambi­ who have an inadequate level of pay.* credit and coupons for petrol, etc. workers* control, but we do not know guity existed. The technocrats, engineers This corresponds to the needs of capi­ —From Nctir et Rouge, No. 42. of any cases of application in those At the same time the division of and technicians felt that things were talism, which cannot modify exploitation, Trans.: B.B. Inside the French Army

N ANY REVOLUTIONARY situation were ready to at the time, to make the Finally certain soldiers would have order to do something. . . , tions know what was being thought in I the role played by the army is crucial. rebels respect law and order, and also liked to leave the camp and join the the other sections. In order to do thi$, because they were a little jealous of the rebels (I say would have liked). On the theme “Were the students The following, which is an extract from right?” (among half a dozen men) one there must be more anti-militarists in the a letter by a French soldier which was “Sorbonne beardies” (“Those students So much for the acts; the mental atti­ army, and friendly contacts with people talk top much; they ought to let the CRS said, '“As far as I’m concerned I’ve got sent to comrades of the ‘Noir et Rouge’ tude of the soldiers was more difficult to the tricolour on my arse and the red flag outside. To wait till the last moment, group, describes the reactions of the at them” (sic).) Some of them were estimate. For example during a conver­ at my head. ...” Another said, “We’ve then suddenly think of the army, and soldiers in one camp to the May revolt. admirers of Mao. sation held by eight conscripts in the already been defeated” but admitted dish out a leaflet to friends here and ‘We will now see what effects the May When the parachutists, the marines and guard-room one saicj he would have fired “The tricolour will always be necessary” there, means risking a lot for a little events had on the camp at Frileuse; first the hussars arrived at Frileuse, the ex­ on the demonstrators (he wanted to join (he was a member of the CGT*). ITie (especially for the soldiers): it would be the measures taken by the government, paras of the 5th Infantry, meeting many the paras, but didn’t come up to the Others agreed with him. Finally in one dangerously childish. Undoubtedly there then the reactions among the men. old friends, summed up their reaction standard), six would not have fired (one section of about forty men, about half a are some places in the army where one with the oft-repeated phrase, “It’s always The measures taken were of two kinds: of these was the corporal who said, “Just dozen hummed or sang the “Internatio­ can do almost anything without being the same blokes who have to do the because I’m in uniform, that doesn’t discovered, but as far as the situation as 1. The 5th Infantry Regiment were nale”. dirty work.” mean I'm a soldier; I would never fire on THE QUESTION THE MEN I know it is concerned this sort of thing confined to the camp and put in a state The other officers were a bit thick and should be avoided.’ civilians; that would be like shooting my WERE ASKING of alert; their only contact with the out­ didn’t realise what it was all about. How- mates”), and the last of the eight said, side world was by means of transistor eyer ope of them said about some new “I would have fired, but not on the In conclusion, we will ask the question Trans. B.B. radios; one company, commando com­ recruits, “This will stir things up a bit; demonstrators. . . .” that the men themselves were asking: pany No. 2 (the toughest, which con­ there must be some workers’ sons “Suppose it begins again. . . .” tained all the juvenile delinquents), was amongst this lot.*' The reactions of the NEW RECRUITS If it starts all over again, it is most prepared to go into action at any given conscripts were expressed by words and Now for those who were called up in probable that there will be at Frileusc moment. During the night lorry-loads of actions. July, just after the revolt. There was some conscripts ready to fight the armed men drove around. One section some tendency on the part of the regulars demonstrators. All the officers would not (of trainee sergeants) was designated to ARMS THEFT to consider all the new recruits as ex- be available as some would have to look Important maintain order in the camp if necessary. One night there was a big arms theft demonstrators. The recruits themselves, after the conscripts. However the sup­ 2. The camp itself was transformed into from the genera] armoury (the sergeant however, only spoke of barricades when port of the conscripts for a revolutionary Announcement a re-grouping base, Three huge tent towns who commanded the guard was a don- they were fed up, but they said hardly movement remains uncertain, apart from were built and the best company from script). The military police could prove anything else (apart from the thug who the isolated actions of certain individuals, each of the following regiments arrived nothing against him, but he was dis­ was passing through, under arrest for at great personal risk. [here there followed a list of the regi­ missed and sent elsewhere. Rumour had attacking a gendarme, who declared that It is more difficult for revolutionary LONDON ments]. it that the arms were found dumped in he was a member of the “Anarchist spontaneity to show itself in the army What were the reactions to the revolt? the Seine, but I'm not sure whether this Party” (sic), or the young man who re­than in other occupations. To do some­ First, the officers. . . . The officers (who was true or not. plied to the question: “Have you ever thing here means risking a lot. It is SQUATTERS sometimes show an amazing incom­ understandable that there is a lot of mis­ A captain was to leave for Paris by been a member of any youth organisa­ petence in the performance of their tion?”—“Yes: the JCR”*). However, one trust; each man Jcnows his own section duties) looked on the students as a jeep. His deserted vehicle was parked Public Meeting to instal ready for his departure. Several unknown gained an idea from several conversations. inside-out, but there is little contact with nuisance that had disrupted the regular For example, on the theme “If it starts other companies and among the different flow of their lives. Among the lower conscripts surrounded it; looked as Homeless Families though they were giving it a check-up, again in October, and we are sent to sections of each company. ^This isolation ranks of officers were a certain number deal with it . , (among a dozen men) is a great obstacle and is aggravated by of ex-parachutists, who had been sent as then quickly disappeared leaving the the artificial rivalries encouraged by the in Empty Properties jeep with four punctured tyres and a one said, “Once one is there, one would be instructors to improve the regiment, after obliged to fire if one received the order, officers/ Also there is no work done in their own regiments had been dissolved leaking petrol tank. The incident seemed common nor meetings in which different SUNDAY FEB. 9 2 pm to have shaken certain officers. and if at the same time one is on the re­ or transformed after the de Challe rebel­ ceiving end of flying stones, one is liable to companies lake part. On the other side, M ANOR PARK lion. These were often the most com­ There were several attempts to distri­ get angry. . . .” One said, “It would be the repression is united. Some sort of petent officers in the camp. They had a bute leaflets in the recreation rooms and better to refuse to go”, and another, “On embryonic secret liaison would be neces­ (British Railway Stat.) mixture of egalitarian, republican and around the camp; some of these were the contrary, one would have to go in sary to pass on information and let scc- anti-democratic tendencies. They weren’t published by Action Committees outside mad about defending dc Gaulle, but they the camp. ♦A Trotskyist group,-now illegal. *A Communist trade union organisation. LETTERS FIFTH COLUMN______

News from Northern Ireland North-west Belief in Convention

N FRIDAY, January 17, 60 pupils The campaign in Eire must catch up. It policy of divide and misru^ Federation T USED TO BELIEVE in morality O from six different schools picketed has started but it has a long way to go. The battle at the moment is one of * and reject convention. I now believe St. Dominies, Belfast, in support of a propaganda by deed. ,"e People’s Dear Comrades, in convention and reject morality. ‘Protestant’ workers must march with the A conference will be held in Preston 16 -year-old girl who was expelled the Democracy of Queens University, Bel­ By morality 1 mean: doing what you already marching ‘Catholics’. on February 1 on the question of reviv­ previous week for distributing the ‘Who fast, won a major victory Burntollet, are told. By convention: doing what It must be made clear that the struggle p ing N.W. Federation to improve liaison/ the hell do you think you are’ leaflet. the forces of the GovernnHmt took the other people do. is only sectarian in the sense that NI conference in the North-West. Any group The picket was well covered in the North gloss off it at Ncwry. Tpiis week has But as it would not be possible to politics is based on the Catholic/Pro- or individual not previously contacted Irish Press, the Newsletter (Belfast) re­ testant struggle, and it is the politicians been a breathing space, the battle follow simultaneously a number of produced the leaflet. One quote from the must continue all over Ireland. and who are interested in this, would different moral codes so it would not who keep this alive. It is the Govern­ they please contact Preston Anarchist headmistress,. Sister Virgilius: This is ment and their forces who try and make We of the militant left must bury our be possible to accept all conventions. ridiculous. You must have authority. differences and give our active support, Group at the following address, giving It is necessary to discriminate. every march look like a sectarian fight, numbers and if accommodation is re­ This sort of thing will be stamped ou t’ for as soon as the Protestant and Catholic remember Britain pays S'? million to An example of a convention I accept is More action and fuller report follows.— keep the Unionists in power. The ulti­ quired. driving on the left hand side of the workers unite, the Government and the Yours fraternally, (Phone.) whole one-party system will collapse. It mate responsibility lies here. Biafra, road in Britain. I think that we would Ian C owburn . * * * is for these reasons that Bunting and Malaya, Mexico, Japan ana Italy, miss­ benefit from changing the convention Preston Anarchist Group, Freedom has reported in depth the Paisley have the connivance of the ing from our list of struggles supported, and agreeing to drive on the right. c/o Ian Cowbum, battle for basic Human Rights in N. Ire­ Unionist Government, for they, by all let not Ireland become another. But for obvious reasons this is not an 140 Watling Street Road, land, a revolutionary situation is develop­ they do, keep the religious issue alight. appropriate area for direct action to Fulwood, Preston, ing. Various steps have yet to be taken. They are the sectarians. It is the old Reg. B. initiate change. It is important that Lancs. we should all drive on one agreed side of the road. It is not so important London May Day which side it should be. side of the city, a bomb was fastened Another convention I accept is speak­ to the underneath of the landlord’s car ing the truth most of the time. If we WHAT THE COMMONWEALTH outside his own luxurious villa in Committee did not speak the truth most of the time engines, the Lightning has a top speed of suburban Dalkey. It failed to explode; Dear Friend, at least two consequences would follow: IS ALL ABOUT 1,500 miles ah hour and can carry a wide but there were more arrest*; Preparations for this year’s May Day we would find it very difficult to gain range of weapons, Saudi Arabia and There were High Court proceedings (May 1) demonstration are now under information from one another and we RITAIN MAY SELL a squadron of Kuwait have bought the Lightning from against one of the squatters, Denis way. At our meeting on January 10 the would be unable to lie. Lying is B supersonic Lightning fighters worth Britain and negotiations for further sales Dennehy; and he has now been on following decisions were made: based on the convention that most of a total of about £12m. to Malaysia if are going on with other countries. hunger strike in MountjoyjjjTail for over 1. To organise the biggest possible the time people speak the truth. talks due to begin in London recently If Malaysia buys from Britain the con­ a week. Demonstrations in his support demonstration on Thursday, May 1. The two examples 1 have given are are successful. tract will be similar to those with the 2. To hold a Rally and Meeting at not only examples of conventions. Saudi Arabians and the Kuwaitis with a have been held. On Saturday, Janu­ Tunku Abdul Rahman. Prime Minister ary 18, 1969, a mass meeting was held Tower Hill (as last year) and then People who believe in morality would of Malaysia, is cutting short a visit to. package deal embracing the training by BAC of both air and ground crews over by the Dublin Housing Action Com­ to march with banners and slogans say that we have a moral obligation Paris where he was about to. negotiate to some large open space (probably the purchase of 16 French- Dassault several years at their home bases. mittee at the centre of ■ the city; and to drive on the left hand side of the Mirage jets to fly to London for dis­ With its advanced electronics and other prominent speakers demanded his release. Victoria Park in the East End). road in Britain—and to tell the truth. cussions with the Government and the systems, the Lightning would be far too At the end of the meeting, the demon­ 3. To provide there the possibility for Moreover the law insists that we drive Lightning’s manufacturers, the British complex an aircraft for the Malaysians strators marched down O’Connell Street the demonstrators to enjoy them­ on the left—and in certain circumstances Aircraft Corporation. to take on without such assistance. (the main highway of the Irish Republic), selves for the rest of the day with that we tell the truth. (Or—-How tp Stay East of Suez, with The Tunku had been offered the much and held a sit-down protest on the music, dancing, sports, acting, ar­ Law, morality and convention often older Hawker Hunter while he was in Profitsr—Eds.) —The Times, 20.1,69. bridge. Traffic in the great city was tists—’anything, in fact, that the come together to propose/impose the London for the .Commonwealth Prime marchers themselves want to do. It same thing and many people are not Ministers* Conference. He said in Paris: completely immobilised for several hours. ‘Only when they knew I was. going to The police attacked with drawn batons will be a really free day-free from interested in the differences between Paris to buy Mirages did the British as Safe as everand the demonstrators defended them­ work and free for everyone to enjoy them. However the difference* gre wake up and offer to provide Malaysia selves with fists, placards- and poles. ^ themselves. crucial—particularly for anarchists. with Lightnings.’’ OOT OF THE leading gold mining It was, I am told, onelof the biggest May 1 is already recognised as a Laws are regulations imposed by the Malaysia could need 15 or 16 Light­ M ^groups in this.; country are very meetings ever held in the city since workers’ holiday in most countries. We state: when you break them the law nings, 12 for a squadron and three., or highly - valued in the stock exchange. . . . the 1913 Lockout and the great days want to see it recognised in Britain also tries to break you. Moral codes tell four back-up or trainer machines. No Largely, it would appear, because it has of Big Jim Larkin. —a day when we turn our backs on the objection exists on security grounds tobeen concluded that political risk is rela­ you what to do but don’t punish you The demonstrators’ demand is a simple State, the profit-makers and exploiters when you ignore them. Conventions the sale to Malaysia of the aircraft which tively unimportant. The gold price crisis, and assert our dignity as human beings, is the RAF’s front-line fighter. " with the resultant strain on currencies, one. Homes. Homes at a price the are agreements—not necessarily formal Powered by two Rolls-Royce' Avonhas made investors aware of the im­ people can afford to pay. Ownership, men and women not work machines. and explicit—between groups of people portance of commodities as a sound and not perpetual rent or Jany form of So, if you are fed up with unemploy­ to behave in a certain way. continuing investment. The chance of the serfdom. No more landlordism. Home ment, homelessness, bad housing, high Anarchists object to law but sometimes mines themselves being snatched away ownership for every family in Ireland rents, rising living costs and endless defend morality. I think morality also by intransigent or left-wing governments tomorrow. Government direction of our lives, then is .absurd. has ceased to be a major risk. This is a just ahut police spies, his own original moral code then tells SKINT! noxious form of economic crime. and articles dealing with the various Yours fraternally, himself what to do. There is no law nor statute in Ireland tricks played upon the unemployed, how John Lawrence , At worst morality is an excuse for FINANCIAL STATEMENT they are used to frighten into sub­ Estimated Expenses: or in Great Britain to confer upon the Chairman, causing pain to other people—or, if landlord the right to buy o r . to own mission those who stilHhave jobs. Also London May Day Committee. you are a masochist, for causing pain 3 weeks at £90: £270 there is an article on mental illness and Income: Sales and Subs.: £217 the dwelling-place of any other man; to yourself. At best it is a waste of but the title-deeds of criminal land­ unemployment. It is a* pity there does time. not seem to be anys address on it, DEFICIT: £53 lordism rest solely and specifically upon If you try and adopt the moral the personal corruption of many gen­ where one may send tor a copy. Per­ principle ‘thou shalt not tell a lie’ haps this is dictated bjSprudence! PR ES S FU N D erations of court personnel—many of FREEDOM IN you will go mad trying tp keep to it— the judges and court lackeys are them­ or you will begin to make exceptions. IV’minster Coll. Gp.: 2/6; Glasgow: T.D. selves landlords, and sons of landlords. Your moral principle will become: ‘thou 8/1; Ilford: C.S. 5/8; Mansfield: C.S. 5/-; As the tenement houses stood empty, DIE YOUNG AT DUNLOP THE PROVINCES shalt not tell a lie except to policemen, Aberdeen: I.M. 2/-; Wolverhampton: many of the former dwellers, who had magistrates or ticket collectors in the Continued from page 8 Outside LondonF reedom and Anarchy J. K.W.* 2/-; J.L.* 3/-; Manchester: M.D. nowhere* to sleep, returned by night to a pep talk calling for our co-operation. London Underground’. Or, at the end 2/-; Falmouth: R.W. 1/8; London, N.W.3: their former abodes and forced en­ now available from the following news­ of a long and exacting process, you Alas, our old gaffer got out when he agents and booksellers: K. L. 5/-; Neath: N.B. 4/6; London: J.B. trance—in defiance of the landlords and found the job bad for his nerves. will conclude: ‘thou shalt not tell a lie 3/-; London: G.H. 2/-. their legal accomplices—and squatted Marsden said he wanted ‘fair do’s’ NEWSAGENT except where greater good can come TOTAL: £2 6 5 there. outside Ilford Station. for the new bloke, and; warned us that of the lie than the evil done by it’. Previously Acknowledged: £41 10 5 All over Dublin there were many if need be he could fbe ‘a bastard’; THE HYPERION, This is not a very satisfactory con­ evictions and angry scenes as the Harry, himself about the size of two- Waterloo Street, clusion : you have not travelled a great - 1969 Total to Date: £43 16 10 dwellers were forced by police batons penn’orth of copper, hjfe also threatened Birmingham, 3. distance since you started. It would DEFICIT B/F: £53 0 0 CASTLE STREET BOOKSHOP, of course be more simple to_$ay: ‘I away from their shelters. There were privately to shake us up. On us asking protests and marches and demonstrations 1 Castle Street, Edgeley, tell the truth unless I have a good about our rise (see Freedom , 11.1.69) TOTAL DEFICIT: £9 3 2 in nearly every area in the city; and Stockport, Cheshire. reason for lying’. But as soon as he admitted it was all but in the bag. BUX for PAPERBACKS, you say something like this you leave many of the protesters were jailed. But Co-operation OK, but blind obedience, SKINT! 16 Drury Hill, morality behind. As I have pointed the police persisted in protecting the subservience, and sheer slavery are not Please Renew Subs! Nottingham. out there is a convention that we do landlords from the anger of their victims. on. And if that’s what he wants he’s ^Denotes Regular Subscriber. Following an eviction in the north TOWER BOOKS, usually tell the truth. To turn this got another think coming. 86 South Main Street, convention into an effective moral prin­ Marsden, Brown & Cp- please note: Cork, Ireland. ciple involves listing all the possible we will co-operate best with a manage­ MR. G. M. BREMMER, exceptions to it. Anything less than ment which takes notice of us, the Newsagent, this leaves you more or less at your MASS MEETING workers. We will work best when we Bigg Market, starting point—with a vague and general know we work for ourselves and not Newcastle upon Tyne, I. idea which needs to be worked out in for the few who control and pocket the The CURIOSITY SHOP, each concrete human situation. of Building Workers profits of these giant combines, such as 150-154 London Road, The absurdity of morality is also Dunlop. Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. shown by my other convention—driving A MANAGEMENT OF WORKERS CLYDE BOOKSHOP, on the left. It makes no sense to say at DENNISON HOUSE A management of workers would have 292 High Street, that we are ‘morally obliged’ to follow no need to get out thejbig whip, to Glasgow. a practice which is so obviously in the Vauxhall Bridge Road, Victoria, S.W. I threaten and sweat workers into pro­ Further help is needed to find new out­ general interest. ducing. Higher production comes from lets for Freedom and Anarchy (see In many areas the ‘general interest’ increased mechanisation, ^improved or­ Contact Column). would be difficult to define. But the ganisation of the job, and the incentive basis of social behaviour in a free TUESDAY, 11th FEBRUARY to work. Does anyone dpubt that this society would surely be conventions could best be done by| the workers Often lacking in practical knowledge, between groups of people rather than either law or morality. The fact that at 7.30 p.m. themselves? m though capable of blinding us with At Dunlop, a convenor belt and science, these managers blunder on so many pre&fent conventions are un­ Make sure your Branch and Job are represented masks could probably reduce the menace threatening workers and causing strikes, acceptable does not make convention of dust. But we have neither. but are basically clueless when it comes itself objectionable: the meaning of the word is agreement. Issued by West London Branches of Building Trades ’ Workers Industry today is full® of heartless, to providing any real practical solutions. spend nowt—do nowt managements. Municipal & General Workers . Wynford H icks . The Block ‘ WhitePopei’ 'J'H E PRE-ELECTION tactics of The need to strike that blow is the point that it *s UP *be employers For Workers’ Control the Labour Government are plain. I applaud Barbara for recog­ to convince unions that legal enforce­ working out very well. By present­ nising it.’ ability of contracts is in their own in­ ing the White Paper In Place of Mr. Macleod, ‘Shadow Chancel­ terests. The Tories and the CBI want JANUARY 25 1969 Vol 30 No 3 lor’, has stated, ‘We shall urge contracts enforceable by law. Such a Strife they are drawing the Tory policy would strangle rank and file action Party further into the open in de­adoption of this in the committee and at the same time strengthen the hand claring their policy' on industrial stage of the legislation in the House of the unionbureaucrats. affairs. (he was talking about contracts be­ No Government White Paper on in­ Two Tory Party spokesmen have ing enforceable in the Courts) anddustrial affairs,would be complete with­ seized the bait. In theEvening News if the Government do not accept our out reference being made to Restrictive dated 17.1.69, Charles Curran, for­ views then we shall strengthen the Labour Practices. They go on to talk ONE AGAINST mer Tory MP for Uxbridge, in legislation when we come to office.’ about overmanning or unnecessary over­ writing about Barbara Castle’s pro­ One can imagine the use of these time operated by groups of employees posals stated: ‘But she will also who see it as a way of protecting their two quotes in Labour Party election jobs or of maintaining earnings. No make a permanent name for herself material, making the point that mention is made of ‘employers’ restric­ in British history.. Tory policy will be far tougher, and tive practices’. Mergers followed by clo­ Her proposals are the thin end of therefore the Labour Party propo­ sure of plants and consequent sackings. THE OTHER a very thick wedge. It is far easier sals are the lesser of two evils. By So-called labour restrictive practices are for a Labour Government to drive this method the Labour Party hope essential outside a'system of Workers’ in that wedge than it would be for to frighten the industrial worker Control. rrtHE SITUATION at present existing in their own industry, as well as in many the Tories. into supporting them, and at the The creation of a new ‘Industrial in the steel industry is a classic others. The CAWU has 3,500 members No doubt the Tories will seek to same time hoping to retain the Board’ puts the bite into the White example of the trade union’s role as the and the ASTMS has 4,100. This consti­ drive it in a good deal further whenmiddle class vote who want the Paper. Within’ the twenty lines describ­ middle man in the labour market. It is tutes substantial inroads into the labour they return to power. ing the Board’s function are hidden theironic that, with the change from ‘com­ market of the industry, which until re­ unions ‘brought to order’. penalties, to cover inter-union disputespetitive private enterprise’ to monopoly cently had been practically an exclusive But where wedges are concerned The Government White PaperIn Place (re , isteel industry) and the ignoring ofState ownership, the competition as to for the manual unions and particularly it is the first blow that counts. Of Strife certainly waffles on through the ‘cooling off period’ for unconstitu­ who can recruit the most members is the ISTC. its 40 pages. It could have stopped after tional strikes. The penalties are fines by now between the manual and white-collar These inroads, followed by the recog­ the first sentence on page 5, ‘There are attachment of earnings. unions. The British Steel Corporation nition of the white-collar unions, are not necessarily conflicts of interest in indus­ The CIR will >be asked to assist in (BSC) now finds itself in the middle ofjust an accident, but are part of the try.’ What the White Paper failed to say problems - of trade union structure andcompeting unions and faces a threat ofchange in the make-up of the industry. was that there always will and must be organisation, the idea being to draw thea national stoppage by the 16 manual It has been pointed out inF reedom Contact Column under the capitalist system. The other official trade union closer to the unions, starting from January 26. before that the main reason why the This column exists for mutual aid. thirty-odd pages consist Of blarney lead­Establishment if that’s possible. The The strike decision was taken after the steel industry was nationalised was so Donations towards cost of typesetting ing eventually to industrial shackles. training of full-time trade union officials BSC has finally decided to recognise twothat, with centralisation, it could serve will be welcome. Under the paragraph ‘The Role of the and shop stewards is emphasised. It is white-collar - unions, the Association of capitalism far better. It is a 'command­ Government in Industrial Relations’, thefar easier for the, shop stewards to ‘con’ Scientific,' Technical and Managerialing height’ and as such it has to be Help! John Bonner and Steve Leman,Paper states: ‘The State should recognise the rank and file into labour rationaliza­ Staffs (ASTMS). and the Clerical and efficient on capitalist terms; but a major after refusing to accept the authority the. right to strike and the right to bar­ tion schemes and productivity deals'thanAdministrative Workers. Union (CAWU), part of the industry was nowhere near of the courts, were fined £5 each for gain collectively to improve wages and it islfor management. at plants where they had a ‘substantial this mark. Already a programme of conditions-. But so long as the “rules of The policy of balloting the member­ membership’. Following this, manual modernisation and rationalisation has fly posting Elliot Automation demo ship before taking strike action is a sop sticker. Donations (loans) gratefully the game” were roughly fair to both union members have been instructed to started and new processes are being intro­ sides, the State should not be concernedto the middle-class vote. The amount of refuse to follow instructions from anyone duced. Soon the different jobs of blasting received. Contact Bexley group official strikes called in the last ten years please. with its consequences.’ One wonders who is not a member of their own unions. and refining will be a continuous process. < where the ‘Prices and Incomes Board’ fit can be counted on. one hand. Neverthe­■ Before gaining recognition, the white- SACKINGS FORECAST ------t Help Increase ‘Freedom’s’ Circulation. in to that statement. The State make the less it is another example of Government' Are you willing to take ‘Freedom’ collar unions have had to put up a con­ These new methods are already in : rules for their game, anyone thinking to interference into! trade union affairs. siderable fight. After nationalisation of operation, but are not yet widespread. and ‘Anarchy’ regularly "to local the contrary must be living on another The whole purpose of the Industrial newsagents and collect returns and the industry, the newly-appointed headWhen they are, what is now described as planet. Bill outlined inIn Place of Strife is of personnel, Mr. Ron Smith, formerly a ‘labour intensive’ industry will be cut cash? If so We’d like to hear ffom When discussing the present state of to screw down the rank and file. Control you. 9 CIRCULATION DEPART­ of the Union of Post Office Workers, down and it will be the skills and -know­ industrial relations the ‘Paper’ attempts from above will, b.e strengthened, en­ refused to recognise both white-collar how of the manual workers that will not MENT. to encourage the popular concept that couragement will be given to the official Chicago Gallery and Bookshop in the unions.-' This was despite the fact that be needed in such quantity. Instead, it one section of workers in struggle is not trade union leadership to crack down onboth unions had recruited a considerablewill be the white-collar worker who will service of SURREALISM AND the concern of- other sections of workers. the rebels. Industrial militants could be REVOLUTION, desires contacts, in in for a rough time. percentage at both the clerical and fore­ be running the machines and, it is this The report prattles on about the right of man levels. The case for recognition was long-term prospect that is frightening the UK. Interested in stocking all revo­ an employee to withdraw his labour be­ If you .believe in the. Ballot Box yOu put before the XUC who said that the have a choice of two evils. If you do manual unions, especially the ISTC. lutionary publications, avant-garde ing one of the essential freedoms iff a two white-collar unions should have only It is a frightening prospect, because poetry journals, Tittle mags’, etc. democracy, but then goes on to say that not, then organised rank and file actionlocal recognition. something like a quarter of the present Gallery Bugs Bunny, 524 Eugenie, strikes in key positions can damage the is the only alternative. If the opposition COURT OF INQUIRY labour force of well over 200,000 will be Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA. interests of other people so seriously— to the Prices apd Incomes is any criteria, The CAWU thought otherwise and made redundant by ,1975. BSC hope to Scottish Anarchist Conference in Aber­ including the interests of other tradethen Corporate State here it comes. carried out a very successful campaign do this painlessly by natural wastage, but deen March 1 and 2. Details from unionists;—that they should Only be re­ Bill Christopher . whereby their members at the plants of the unions say this is ‘too optimistic’. Dave Coull, .3 Eskview Terrace, sorted to when all other alternatives have the former Colvilles and Stewarts and The axing will not mean that less steel Ferryden. failed. The purpose of the Industrial Lloyds in Scotland went slow. Laterwill be produced, but the ‘modern International Summer Camp. This year Bill is to ensure that such workers will their members at Pressed Steel refused to methods’ will in fact turn out more with it is going to be held in Cornwall. only ever be able to strike in theory. handle anything from BSC and soless men. Committee meeting at Freedom The Report criticises the weaknesses in DIE YOUNG threatened a hold up in car production. With this sort of threat to jobs, the Press, Tuesday, January 28, 8 p.m. collective bargaining and the outdated It was this action that really did the trick unions in the industry," obviously, should Help wanted in organisation. distinctions between hourly-paid workers because following a Court of Inquiry set not be fighting one another. But being Help wanted (girl, couple, anything con­and staff and then goes on to state thatAT DUNLOP up by Barbara Castle and headed by what they are, the middle men in the sidered) in isolated rural household,‘The combined effect of such defects is Lord Pearson, it was recommended thatlabour market, the white-collar workers Colchester/Ipswich area. Working to increase the feeling of many employees ‘How managers cause strikes.’ both the CAWU and ASTMS should be in the industry represent a large prize anarchist parents offer board, lodg­that they have no real stake in the enter­ ‘Workers are remarkably tolerant of recognised. and the entrance of the CAWU and the ing, and pocket money for sharing prise for which they work’. conditions of heat, noise, stench, and The BSC were now faced with a ASTMS is considered to be an intrusion care of children and chores. Time/re- The difficulty these days is not only sheer physical pace which would make dilemma and one that could only bringinto the domain of the other unions. sponsibilities flexible. Children 4 not having a stake in one’s place of nervous and physical wrecks of most them up against the 16 recognised (Before the white-collar unions became a ‘.I and II. Driver preferred. Box No. 30. work, but not being sure of whom one of those who comment on strikes—so manual unions, headed by the 105,400- •threat, the other 16 unions fought Poster Workshop, 61 Camden Road, really works for. Two directors have a long as these conditions are clearly an strong Iron and Steel Confederation.amongst themselves.) But what remains N.W.l. Free silk screen facilities at chat over lunch, decide to merge and inevitable part of the job. But the Out of these 16 manual union?, 11 form at the basis of this dispute is the matter the service of the class struggle, ‘pop!’ some workers are out on the strain comes out in their angry in­ a consortium of small craft unions of choice, that workers, no matter what Free Schools Carapajgn. Support neoded ‘stones’. , tolerance of avoidable frustrations. Look totalling 22,300 members, of which 400 the colour of their collars, should be able for anti-authorifarjan Schools Cam- The final paragraph in the ‘Reform of into a strike-prone enterprise, and you are white-collar workers,. The ISTC has to join the union of their own choosing poratibn Street. Jan 28: Godfrey Collective Bargaining’ section attempts are quite likely to -find sheer muddle.' • 11,750 white-collar members. and once having gained a following, that ■ Webster on ‘The Origins of the Hun­ to 'butter up those in opposition to in­ ■.—Guardian, Economic Editor. Tn the past there has been considerable union should bargain on their behalf. It garian Uprising’. Feb. 4: Geoff dustrial reform by suggesting that reluctance on the part of foremen and is as simple as that. Charlton on ‘Anarchism and the managements should make available to HD HEY CALL IT the Dunlop Dust- clerical workers to join the manual wor­ However, the tragic thing is that the American Novel’. (Worth moving to employees’ representatives the informa­ Bowl! With the air thick with dust, kers’ unions. This reluctance is based on union leaders are more militant over an Birmingham—C.C. Compiler.) tion necessary for them to do their work. the Regent Rubber tyre men arc getting two counts; one, that no doubt they inter-union dispute than they are over The Crypt, 242 Lancaster Road, W .ll. This is a real load of ‘old oobblers’. choked-pff with the bad working con­ thought they did not need a union andone with the management. While this is Music, Poetry, Theatre overy Wed. Managements kid their own shareholders ditions at Dunlop, Rochdale, and athat certain staff, associations would look the case, men’s jobs will be lost. Instead 2/6. Audience participation. therefore the possibility of them opening few of us are looking for fresh jobs. after their interests and two, that the of fighting one another, they should be ■ Birmingham Discussion Meetings. Tues­ their hearts to the workers’ negotiators Due to tNs irritating dust from dirty manual unions were ineffectual anyway doing something about the forthcoming days at 8 p.m. At The Crown, Cor­ with worthwhile information is a bit far­ tyres one lad is having to have his against the management and that they sackings. poration Street. Jan. 21: Graeme fetched. tonsils out, bad chests and sore throats did not cater for their interests. The I do not, however, anticipate any such Mclvor on ‘Freud and Anarthism’. A ‘mother hen’ is to be established abound, and all of us discharge largetwo white-collar unions, on the other fight from the leadership of any of the Jan. 28: Godfrey Webster on *The called a Commission on Industrial Rela­quantities of black slime from our hand, had shown considerably more mili­unions, whether it is Dai Davis, General Origins of the Hungarian Uprising’. tions (C1R). Its job will be to see that mouths and nostrils. tancy and were recruiting members fast Secretary of the ISTC or Clive Jenkins Feb. 4: Geoff Charlton on ‘Anarchism the ‘game is played fairly’. Development On top of this there are the lorries of the ASTMS. While saying it is up to and the American Novel’. (Worth of acceptable rules governing disciplinary which are -allowed to run inside the workers to choose what union to join, moving to Birmingham.—C.C. Com­ practices and dismissals. Bring shop works for unloading, so pouring out plain our absentee management! the present dispute can only divide them. piler.) ;. ■ stewards within a proper framework of deadly diesel fumes into an enclosed The only boss who ever comes regu­ The rank and file of both manual and I Badges and Banners. Rectangular metalagreed rules in the firm. I suppose one area where we are working. larly to Dunlop, Rochdale, is Harry white-collar unions should realise this black/red badges 2/6 each post free should not quibble; it provides employ­ ABSENTEE MANAGEMENT Marsden, and then only once a week.and act upon it. A divided house will or bulk rate (10 or more) 1 /- each— not prevent the wholesale axing of jobs ment, and it’s nice to increase one’s This kind of factory conditions could He doesn't like it, but no doubt he resell at 2/- or 2/6. Also flags and earnings jusl before retirement—better likes the expenses for coming. between now and 1975, but unity of I banners to order, frpm 7/6. McGee, easily explain why Rochdale is near common interest tould demand that re­ than a State pension. top of the charts when it comes to CO-OPERATION 42 Pendarves Street, Beacon, Cam­ It was Marsden who, last Friday, training takes place where necessary and borne, Cornwall. The section on ‘Collective Agreements reckoning up how many of its in­ that hours are cut instead of jobs. and the Law’ is one of the sections most habitants have bronchitis, TB, and other introduced us to our new foreman with If you wish to make contact let us know. heavily criticised. Barbara Castle makes industrial diseases. It could also ex- Continued on page 7

Prill ted by Exprefi Printers, London, E.I. Published by Freedom Press. London, E.I