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Her Pages: Ffexcomfort: ‘The ‘Authority Is As Destructive to Play’S the Thing ’ - P .other pages: ffexComfort: ‘The ‘Authority is as destructive to Play’s the Thing ’ - p. 2 those who exercise it as it is to he Siege of Sidney those on whom it is exercised. Street - p. 3 —OSCAR WILDE focal Jtadio - - p. 3 freedomTHE ANARCHIST WEEKLY V ol. 21, No. 47 November 19 th, 1960 Threepence “It is to be hoped that the Govern­ ment will now recognise the shocking HE ‘DETERRENT’ THAT FAILED defects of the Homicide Act, and abolish capital punishment.” ..'HE front . page headlines in the one innocent citizen they intended for Penal . Reform after the Houn­ intended to rob a man, and in the course Isirt the Howard League a little l-Everting Standard last Thursday to rob. No-one will assume that slow execution, which it describes of this attempt the victim was accident­ naive in its “hopes”. Mr. R. A. sek-read: “Qn the day two die the Worthing stick-up men had not as “an appalling illustration of the ally killed, these youths have qualified Butler our enlightened Home Sec­ footpath killing” “BANK RAID heard of the Hounslow foot-path injustice of the Homicide Act.” for the death penalty, and been hanged retary surely had all the facts. And T n MEN MURDER GUARD”. murder trial verdict, nor the rejec­ in the name of the law. Francis Forsyth and Norman Harris he had the powers to reprieve at _w many readers’ we wonder, re­ tion of their appeals to the Home least Norman Harris. He didn’t. Secretary for clemency. Yet they could not have been hanged under this “One of them, Norman Harris, had acted that these headlines far from Act had they set out with the sole in­ not struck a single blow at the victim. And an hour after he hanged him ving the Evening Standard thesis, went armed and shot their way to tention of killing another man and com­ If the public were fully aware of these as an example to others, a bank at the death penalty is an effec- the money bags. mitted a deliberate murder. facts, it is unbelievable that they would guard was murdered in Worthing. Le *detemsnt£, were in fact, the They hoped to get away with their condone an Act which has proved itself What a rhinoceros’ hide the Home *pst telling afgument for abolition? loot? In which case the “example” “But because they are alleged to have so manifestly unjust. Secretary must have! e Standard’s editorial silence on of the Hounslow case did not serve ’js subject is significant). as a “deterrent”. Yet the State I justified the taking of two young |A t 9 a.m. on Thursday, November lives, even though one, Norman th, two youths, one aged 18, the Harris, had not struck a single blow p er 23, were hanged for the mur- at the *Ktim (who, it should be re­ ;r of another youth. A third youth called, was not killed by a gun shot raped the gallows because he was but by physical violence), on the ■ young to hang. An hour after grounds that others would be “de­ 3 | State, Society, or whatever one terred” from resorting to violence. Jboses to call the machine which [the one hand condemns the tak- lg of life and on the other places 'J ’HE HOMICIDE ACT is a je -seal of legality on the taking of { or two hundred—an hour later typical example of so-called ’’British compromise”, of trying to ^o men enter a bank at opening appease the abolitionists as well as T&j attack a guard, hold up at the Tory ultras who dream of the In point another employee, kill the good old days, dominated by the ■trd and escape with a bag con- rope and the “cat”. The result was Ining money. As we write, two summed-up by the Howard League Jmths aged 20 and one of 16 are jurged with murdering the guard tod a girl of 18 is accused of receiv- £928. THE MAJORITY IS ALWAYS SANE The Mayor of. Aromas, near Dijon, ye do not know whether those complained to his prefect that the in- jtfaarged are concerned with the . mates of the local lunatic asylum, who 'hooting. The fact remains that outnumbered the 148 sane villagers, were Wording to press reports two men voting as a block for the Opposition.. 'entered the bank, and presumably He did not object to the right of a French THE PILGRIM tone shot the guard on the very day lunatic to vote, but since they came from rwhen but for the tender years of one all parts of France, he questioned their of life bandits, three youths would right to control the affairs of Aromas. have been hanged for the death of Observer 13/11/60. Macmillan calls for European «Unity* European Economics at Sixes & Sevens In the Affluent Society AT the opening dinner for the rivalries between nations were large­ strict or distort competition in trade political and economic confer- ly economic! Is EFT A proposing between the member States of the Com­ lence of the European Free Trade to rationalise production and dis­ mon market. All such agreements are Redundancy and Hardship [Association (EFTASthe Seven) in tribution within the seven member to be required to register with the Com­ London last week, Mr. Macmillan nations or is it simply a marriage of mon Market authorities and only those 'J ’HE affluent society, which pays levels of investment and the prevail­ expressly authorised by the commission told delegates that he was convinced convenience, an attempt to counter­ are to be allowed to continue. its railway shopmen eight ing degree of middle-class affluence. that the countries this side of the act the threat to their markets in the pounds per week, can hardly have It is the very worst one on which the Iron Curtain must “strive to achieve Six nations as a result of the setting­ Existing cartels are to register within much meaning for motor car work­ livelihoods of thousands of workers the maxmum degree of unity”. up of ECM? six months of the entry into force of the ers either. The news from Coventry throughout Britain should depend. The “unity” he had in mind was rules: unless the commission objects is that Standard has declared 1,700 A spokesman for the Coventry dis­ economic, for apparently “we can­ Of course it can be argued against within six months, the cartels may pro­ workers redundant and that 6,300 trict of the Shipbuilding and Engin­ our sceptical approach, as in fact visionally operate until the commission not all be united in our defence has reached a final decision . The manual workers have been put on a eering Unions said' that he did not policies or in alliances on the poli­ Mr. Macmilllan did in his address, see how Standard’s could have draft rules provide for the maintenance three-day week. These figures are tical plain.” that in signing the Stockholm con­ of professional secrecy, and for appeal in addition to the 8,000 who are avoided the sackings. What a vention the Seven nations in EFT A to the court of justice of the community. already on short time, in some cases position for someone who is alleged­ It is therefore important that we committed themselves ly at the top of an organisation should be united economically. Econo­ This to our minds, is the true only 19 hours a week, and at the to promote throughout the area of same time it is believed that 200 staff designed to protect the workers’ in­ mic unity could not be brought to the association, a sustained expansion of language of capitalism. And as we workers will be paid off. terests to make. It is however a Europe unless there was a positive will economic activity, full employment, in­ all know, from the anti-Cartel laws natural consequence of the trade to agree among all the nations concerned. creased productivity, and rational use of in the United States, no legislation Despite the alleged prosperity of That is what we must all work to culti­ will stop cartels being formed when the country, the high wages, oppor­ union view that capitalism is all resources, (our italics). right. It looks increasingly as if the vate. the industrialists and financiers con­ tunities and security of the profes­ Now a “rational use of resources” sional classes, thousands of workers days of wholesale slumps have given Of course the achievement of this sider amalgamations, take-overs, and way to a pattern of recessions and involves at least (a) a sharing of price-rings are in their best interests! are in a situation where a week’s unity depended on finding a solution technical and scientific research and notice may lead them to hopeless rises, in which each industry has its to “the many practical problems in­ We do not believe that it will be ups and downs in turn, bringing of production methods ( b) a planned any different in the case of the Seven, unemployment and poverty. It is volved”. Britain for instance, had production. In other words it de­ just because this unemployment is hardship to the people involved “constantly to bear in mind” the in spite of Mr. Macmillan’s fine without being socially important mands that the economic relationship words. There is no economic co­ not of the general level of the thirties effect on the Commonwealth coun­ between the nations concerned shall that its effect is so terrible for those enough to call defensive or corrective tries of anything it did to achieve operation in the individual nations.
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