.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. measures into play. be based on co-operation and not How can there be unity between who suffer it, because they are living European unity. But he assured competition. This is not possible at a time when prices are determined The organisation of production is his audience that “in working toward them? the key to the solution. The com under a capitalist economy. The by the average rate of income. There a wider arrangement for European only “unity” which capitalists recog The words of Mr. Edward Heath, is no incentive for even the mildest panies naturally have to seize their trade”—which presumably meant, opportunities to make profits and nise are cartels, and it is interesting Minister for European Affairs, after socialist movement, or for reforms getting a foothold in the rival or to note that while Mr. Macmillan the day’s speeches, should have within capitalism, since the disrup expand production when the chance ganisation, the European Common comes, and restrict it in unfavour was spinning his wordy web to brought any starry-eyed democrat, tions of unemployment do not hit Market (ECM—the Six)—Britain delegates of EFTA, the nine-man who might have been at sixes and at capitalist prosperity as a whole. able circumstances. Control by the would, of course “act in the closest workers could ensure a stable level Common Market commission was sevens over the intentions of EFTA, It is only the individuals who suffer, consultation with the other members issuing its 53-page draft of the rules back to reality, when he declared in an age in which social help for of production for need, but it would of the EFT A” ! have to be control of the whole of the game so far as ECM members that talk expressing unanimity was people affected like this is derided as were concerned, in which it was not enough unnecessary. organisation, not only of what goes Unity means “oneness”, “parts on on the factory floor, and it would that constitute a whole”. How proposed to impose fines of up to would like to see many more sug- The motor car industry, of all in have to be matched by a rational nations politically divided can ever $1,000 a day on offending cartels! tions about.how EFTA might be built dustries, is sensitive to every little economy throughout the country, achieve economic unity is beyond The draft rules would -especially from the business element. change in the bank rate, hire pur and possibly the world. our understanding. Indeed we prohibit all agreements, decisions, or ‘Especially from the business chase restrictions, export conditions, P.H. always imagined that the political concerted practices which prevent, re 2 F R E E D 01 . . a culture whose whole life, from science to politics, risks becoming one single neurotic game" i Alex Comfort’s Broadcast: ‘The Play’s the Thing’ ] oiul many lower die lit otimes(, In fact they arc often is a vehicle for individual ttcllng-oul. of real neurotics. There ia no observa Unreasonable Emotion animals, have a sol of Activities tit their most earnest over tho more The novelist can do this in his head and tion of real-life psychology behind them. which they »eem to enjoy, but which are typically mammalian forms of p la y - without help; the dramatist employs These characters are the ancestors of the Of course, the pseudo g not obviously related to their biological physical competitive activity (sport, in others to bring his fantasy-presentation fauna of phoney, emotion-seeking, ‘ex tradition dots replace a series of sJ business in life. Some are simple satis plain words) and mating display; or over into real presence. His instructions con hausting problem adults who have infes in all of which some pretext bat tgl factions like rolling or scratching. Others the sclf-contcious fantasy which we call trol l he behaviour of a whole group of ted the stage ever since: people who found for the presentation of noy are group activities, like the hydrobatics art. Indeed If wo watch the audience at volunteers in the fantasy situation so never work except at symbolic treatises demonstrative, or otherwise unreason) of porpoises. Others are mock activities a football match wo shall find that they that it will be what he wishes and not or tasks which they despise; who never emotion—so that the mixed-op intrllsfl —sham lighting—or rehearsal activities, are playing at playing. what comes naturally to them. One think when they can feel: who never uals and the symbolic nut case rep\g, like the kitten hunting leaves. The In English society, particularly, we cannot help noticing that the dramatist's forget when they can 'atone'; who have the dedicated villain of the rridodratlM common feature of all these doings is spend u good deal of emotional energy relation to his actors is very like the absolutely no sense of the ridiculous and and the fate-haunted hero (A post cfare that they look as if they were being done in repressing gesture, but we seem to neurotic's would-be relation to other who never, never ask for advice, fn an cal tragedy. If we did displace for their own sake. It is sometimes have no outlet for the states of mind people, but for the dramatist the cast age of real neurotics for whom one can worse moods and our trtpre irratim said that they ‘discharge tensions'—a the gesture otherwise expresses. Our will co-operate, because pretence is their feel real sympathy they are unreal—less moments from drama, therj would! form of internal sneeze: the fnimal own most practically important kind of occupation, while the neurotic, unfor real in Ibsen, perhaps, than in his suc little left, and I do not suggest that] looks as if it enjoyed what it was doing gesticulation appears now to be motor tunate chap, is casting for a plot which cessors. ‘People don't do such things!’ will or should—but we might well and felt the better for it. There is about ing. This, as we know, can easily ho has to impose on an unco-operative says Tesman, when Hedda shoots her to treat them as the badge of the inI play a characteristic element of doing- acquire the same expressive quality as a world. self—and truth breaks in. People don’t lectual way of life; for no other theatre for-the-sake-of-doing which Is its main primitive dance; but we also know that —or rather, they don't for these conven tradition does so, and ours has not, clOB distinguishing feature. it is proving u highly dangerous vehicle In fact, by far the most popular tionally emotive reasons. Flaubert, who so for long. One has only to look fitj We cannot find out whether animals for the expression of moods. modern topic of the Anglo-American knew his neurotics intimately, bad no writer of insight, like Anouilh, Ip ie#| engage in purely mental 'play', analogous The need for an expressive form of prestige play is the presentation of such illusions. Emma Bovary kills her striking contrast. That blistering to our humour or philosophy, because movement, and the fact that we feel neurotie behaviour. Our culture has an self out of fright, spite, and lack of cash. between the Genera! and his wifei we cannot ask them. Our mental play deprived without it, can be seen easily appetite for watching this which is Ibsen would make her do it on principle; Anouilh’s Waltz of the Toreadors »ftj| can be of the muscle-flexing type, such from the speed with which even a super second only to its appetite for violence. Flaubert is much nearer the mark in drags out into words the unspoken tiihies which are latent in every rnarhj as the solving of needless problems for ficially rather unpromising activity like But in spite of an enormous amount of letting her pretend that she thinks she vocal ‘psychology’, this behaviour is not is doing it on principle. Nobody else there ever was, but which marriage j amusement, or of the type of the anti student folk-dancing acquires content. pends upon keeping silent—this is j_ cipatory substitute—like the child who Even with inexpert performers, a four there to be analysed and it is not pre shares the fiction. And when Rosmcr sented realistically. It is there to be and Rebecca set off to drown d deux like 'positive' in all conscience, but the trfl plays at being a king, an architect, or n some reel between two mutually jealous ment of It is. soldier. But this kind of play in man couples looks entirely different from the manipulated with a view, as a rule,- to a couple of exhibitionist teenagers, how it not always what it seems: it often same figure danced by a pursuer, a pur justifying it, or to giving it prestige. We I always wish they would jump in and The short answer perhaps Is thatjl has much deeper unconscious origins sued, and two lovers—which is as it watch the characters raving and mud find the stream frozen solid! If Chek psychological drama has lost most pogroms took place. In Latvia, the them all, fired, there was a general ever they could grab”.) to record the England, and Rudolf Rocker in The Social Democrats were made illegal in London Years writes of a Tchisbikoff meldo with a result that Gardstein was gm s ■Column *fOur weeks ago we findings of the courts in respect to the 1897, and many of them took to severely wounded by his own comrades, survivors of that slice of history. who arrived in London with a revolu (fsctissed • the .great possibilities guerilla warfare against the Cossacks in tionary background arid was later found and threo policemen were killed. Jacob Peters (arrested before Sidney pt^loping local radio if only we. an organization known as “The Forest to be a police agent. Gardstein was helped away by two or Street) acquitted. Brothers". JWplq, had the energy, the The famed ’right of asylum’ of Britain three men who were in the building. gpye and the imagination, to Yourka Duboff (arrested before Sid To prove the basic unity of the rulers, Details on this are vague as in much ney Street) acquitted. was subject to suspension if the refugee the .opportunity before it was the ex-enemies of Russia, Japan, execu else in this case. It was possible he was John Rosen (arrested before Sidney was detected in any criminal acts. Sara ■ late (“Local Radio for the ted in January 1911, twenty-eight ’social Rosa Trassjonsky, who nursed Gardstein helped by ‘Peter the Painter’ Peter Piat- Street) acquitted. >” F reedom 22/10/60). That ists', a category which included a num when he was fatally injured, and was kow alias Schtern, Fritz Svaars, and Joe Karl Hoffman, discharged. fore the business men manage ber of anarchists. said to be “Peter the Painter’s sweet Levi (or were there two Josephs, one a Osip Federoff (arrested before Sidney man with a limp?), and a woman, pos Irsui^de the government that At home, the coronation of George V heart” was issued with such an order in street) discharged. Juno 1911, but by that time she had sibly Nina Vassileva, but none of this Hvi^e die right people to do the Sara Rosa Trassjonsky, discharged. was due in 1911. There was a rather pLast'. week Mr. Greene, Direc- become insane and the order was never was ever proved, nor, after the Sidney (Had a nervous breakdown and com embarrassing libel case against the enforced. Like the sword of Damocles, Street holocaust was it necessary tn Seneral of the B.B.C. speaking mitted suicide). Liberator (published in Paris) for pub the threat of deportation to a waiting prove. iaqphester had something to say Luba Milstein, discharged. lishing an accusation that George V had tyranny hung over every political Be subject, and much of it was committed bigamy. refugee. Gardstein was mortally wounded and Nina Vassileva, sentenced to two years it was hoped to carry him up Middlesex J the lines of our article, at least but quashed on appeal. On 23rd December, 1911, three hun jming the public of what would In this context of a violent back Street (Petticoat Lane) to his lodgings at dred and sixty miners were killed in a ground, a precarious existence, and with fcn if local radio fell into the This does not read like police action Gold Street, Stepney. However, his pit disaster near Bolton. suspicions of police provocations it is strength was failing so he was left with of the commercial operators, in a case of the seriousness and magni tude w.hich it is presented as being. In not surprising that the individual act two acquaintances at Grove Street, Sara lef summary of what he told his The country was just getting over a deed the whole Sidney Street affair General Election and was involved in a of expropriation was resorted to by Rose Trassjonsky and Luba Milstein. Rice of the Manchester Lun- seems to have been magnified out of all some political idealists. About this Here, the others left, and eventually the Club was given in the B.B.C. spy case at Borkum when English naval proportion by those experts in sensation officers were discovered spying on the time, Josef Stalin was conducting bank two girls after doing all they could for f bulletin on Wednesday (Nov- alism, the press, the cinema, and Winston Germans. raids in Tiflis for the same purpose. the dying Gardstein called a doctor who fer 9) but we are unable to find a Churchill. . . . informed the police. When the police The background in the East End at The Latvian Social-Democrats, for ■about it either in the (Man that is what the group around ‘Peter the arrived next morning Gardstein had died In isolation the attempted robbery at this time seems to have been similar to of his wound, and the girls had disap ner) Guardian or theTimes. The Exchange Buildings, Houndsditch, fol West Kensington today. Rudolf Rocker Painter’ were, had been suspected of complicity in a bank robbery in Scot peared. The police found a gun under id (which, by the way, is not lowed 16 days later by the siege of a had conducted a preliminary campaign land, and in a robbery at Tottenham his pillow and he was identified as one m l as it was some weeks ago, house at 100 Sidney street, Stepney against the ‘sweating system’; in 1912, of the men at Exchange Buildings. j we described it as “worse than seems fantastic and thoroughly un- where the robbers commandeered a tram- they were ready for the tailors’ General car to make an escape. That they daily Mcdr) published the fol- British. Events however, cannot be iso Strike. In the Daily News of December On the 20th December, a poster was lated from their context however the film attended the Jubilee Street Club is no issued for Peter Piatkow, and a man and | | report of Mr. Greene’s speech 22nd, 1910, it was reported that off the more proof that they -were anarchists tries to do this. Commercial Road, two families were a woman wanted for the murder of gh Carlton Greene, Director-Gene- than attending the Malatesta Club was. 1910-1911 were years full of interest. making golliwogs at twopence a dozen police officers, with £500 reward. jth e BBC, hit out yesterday at the Zapata had issued his plan. There was profit. The house at 100 Sidney Street The word ‘anarchist’ was in .1911 a On the 27th, the police raided a house ■lies who want to run local com- a coal-strike in South Wales during was occupied by six families. perjorative in the same way that ‘bol ti radio stations. in Gold Street, where Gardstein had which miners stole sheep from the hills There was the usual prejudice against shie’, ‘communist’ and ‘fascist’ were later been the tenant and seized a quantity fcy want radio for profit, not radio to feed their families. There was a riot foreigners who had settled in the East and with as much political accuracy. of explosives, in conjunction with revolu- RS public.” in Tonypandy on November 8th, 1910, End. There were even subtle distinc This equation criminal= anarchist= for tionery literature found there; it was hundred companies have been when shops were looted. Metropolitan tions in the groupings. Gardstein, the eigner was too irresistable to miss for originally described that the house was to run the “plug” stations If and police had been drafted to the area and man fatally wounded at Exchange Build every law-abiding Englishman. an ‘anarchist arsenal’, eventually it was “ the Government gives permission. after some hesitation, Winston Churchill ings was not, it was pointed out by a The association between crime and stated that the 'explosives were safe ^Greene said if the stations were (then Liberal Home Secretary), called in leading members of the Jewish com anarchism is not always unjustified. Shaw blowing equipment. ■to! commercial interests and not to the troops under General Macready munity, a Jew, unfortunately the paper said of socialism that it attracted “not (later in charge of the Black and Tans only those too good for society but those On January 2nd, 1911, the police Ib BC, they would not be truly local which printed the denial called him received information that two suspects they would hunt for maximum in Ireland). It is reported by R. Page ‘Goldstein’. not good enough”. The individual act Arnut in The Miners that Churchill asked of expropriation was sometimes a cover were in a house at 100 Sidney Street. lienees. England was basking in the virtue of They were in the room of a Russian liey would form a net working Macready later, what Macready thought being a country regarded as a place of for what was simple robbery with politi of Churchill’s campaign in Sidney Street. cal! excuses. Also the most violent dressmaker (described variously as Mrs. angcment like independent television. asylum but this brought the usual calls Gersham, Gerhson, Gershaw), The ten His answer is not recorded. accelerated by the Sidney Street affair member of an anarchist group was quite |pwho wanted to “mint their own often a police agent. ant, Mrs. Fleichman was persuaded to ; crowns” had set their hopes on local During these years the Russian auth for the deportation of aliens and restric decoy Mrs. Gershan downstairs with a Edio. orities kept up their repression following tion of entry. Another factor that seems to have story of a sick child. She was then prejudiced the public against the ‘for He added: “If the cash register came bundled off by the police. All the ten eigners’ was the fact that they had so be regarded as the test of success, ants (six families) were got out, a ninety- many names. In revolutionary move year-old man under protest, with the (one could say goodbye to minority in ments it was necessary to conceal one’s terests, and the whole flavour would be promise to return after it was over. At real name and it is not unknown for dawn 1,500 policemen (armed) were fin for a sad change.” people to play at being conspirators by I Mr. Greene revealed what local Communist Militarism frequent changes of name. W Coatinucd n p. 4 stations would broadcast if the BBC With the background of world vio were given permission to start them: 'J’HAT the Soviet Union is one ofber will get a repulse.” These peace lence, the deaths of three policemen in Local shopping guides, road and the most militarised states in the ful sentiments continue for another Houndsditch seems a puny event but it weather reports, politics and sport, world is a fact known to all except four verses. is undoubtedly the case that a prejudice SOCIAL CINEMA angling, darts and pigeon news. Records members of the Communist Party against foreigners and a publicity-seeking for hospitals, employment prospects and Note that the argument of the first The Boulting twins, Roy and John, and fellow-travelling peace delega Home Secretary blew the affair up be like subjects that enable them to take a entertainments. tions. The displays of military line is the same as that used by the yond its importance and it is an un cool look at the world around us, ever Programmes for gardeners, good might on May Day, the much-be- apologists for Western militarism todoubted fact that the murder of a police ready to prick balloons of humbug with causes, reports from libraries, art gal medalled marshals and the films justify the manufacture of similar man brings inevitable retribution by the pin of wit. They have dealt with leries, museums and concert halls and weapons. Note also the familiar noose or gun. . . . diplomacy, trade unions and the legal from the local authorities. glorifying such Czarists as General Suvorov are typical examples. Theassumption that organised violence, The jewellers’ shop in Houndsditch profession and now they are on to a rulers of Russia have nothing toor its threat, is for “the happiness into which the Peter the Painter’s gang major topical issue—housing. Though the B.B.C. may well be of nations”. The happiness ofwere burrowing was rumoured at times the lesser of two evils, local radio learn from their Wetem counterparts If that seems an unpromising subject battlefields is notorious—and who to be the repository of Czarist jewels, for screen action you have not been read can only be truly local if it can exist when it comes to professing peace whether this was the information which and preparing for war. can describe the exquisite joy of ing the news out of the St. Pancras independently of either the com bodies peeled of their skins by prompted the raid is not known but they district here where two disgruntled ten had rented a house in Exchange Build mercial interests or the B.B.C. which One of the latest products of this napalm bombs or incinerated by ants barricaded themselves in a munici militarism of the emancipators of ings (at the rear of Houndsditch) and pal apartment building and defied the however “independent” it may well nuclear radiation? Can anyone who had obtained a cylinder of oxygen (with be in theory depends on the governthe proletariat is a new marching honestly opposes war really believe authorities to get them out—or tp make the innocent help of Malatesta) to cut them pay more rent, which was the root ment for its Charter and to a governsong for Soviet rocketeers entitled that nauseous doggerel such as this their way into the safe. It was a Friday of the trouble. ment agency for collecting its “The March of the Rocket Shooters” is expressive of anything else but evening when they were preparing to revenues as well as to another and written by the Russian army militarism? The question is not break through and a neighbour’s suspi It happens that the Boultings have been mulling over a story on “rent official agency to see to it that thecomposer Anatoli Novikov. Accordmerely rhetorical—it is one that de cion had been aroused by the tapping ing to the English version released by and he called the police. strikes” for some months but they public pays up or else! mands an answer from all who see Reuter’s its first verse assures us in the Eastern bloc a force for peace. The police dispatched five unarmed quickly switched their focus on St. Pan- Local radio if it is to be something that “For the peace of the nations/ In this country the Communists men who knocked on the door but could oras. The story is yet untitled but the Boultings have warned that this time more than a local town crier (“local For the happiness of the nations/ have recently decided to become We have created a rocket./In the they are not going to be satirical. They shopping guides, road and weather supporters of nucleur disarmament. feel strongly about this subject and want hard years of war/It served our No doubt many individual members . reports, etc . . . ”), a labour ex- THERE’S MONEY IN to show that there is right on both sides. I change, or provide “music-while-motherland.” And the refrain runs of the Communist Party are sincere They are for the tenants who have real you-are-sick”, must, as we wrote at“Rockets, rockets, rockets, rockets,/ in their support, but the party as a MOTOR CARS grievances and against the politicians You can hit any distance./In any the time, be independent not only of whole is so soiled with hypocrisy A rise in profits of more than 50 per who move in on such situations for their comer of our vast planet/The rob-and betrayal in its attitude to peace the business and entertainments cent is announced by the British Motor own greater glory. and war, as in other mutters, that Corporation, (Austin, Morris, and Wolse- tycoons and the central authority its support for any worthwhile cause ley). In the year ended July 31, group They also propose to deal with the but of the local council too. The should be vigorously repelled. “The profits were a record £31,980,258, com riotous teenagers who always get in on initiative must spring from consum and other societies, to mention butMarch of the Rocket Shooters” pared is with £20,315,465. Net profit, after the act and who, the brothers feel, “are becoming an unpleasant feature of local ers and producers; from local a few of the local activities which one more proof—if more weretax and other charges, was £12,748.836 life.” That extremist politics are always listeners who are prepared to conwould thrive and develop if local needed—of the duplicity inherent in (£7,468,485). tribute to the cost of running such radio were at the disposal of the Record profits are also announced by involved was nicely put by The Times Communist tactics. Those who can of London, whch reported, dead-pan, a station on the one hand, and onpeople. Rootes Motors. Consolidated group see this will realise that the only that among the books in one of the the other from those consumers who logical position for anti-militarists profits for the year are provisionally To leave it to the Commercials or fixed at £5,863,852 (£5,345,i47). Net “siege” flats of St. Pancras were Treasure are also engaged in local activities lies in the refusal of allegiance to the B.B.C. to interpret local life and profit is £2,227,614 (£2,095,609). The Island and The History of the Commun such as amateur dramatic societies, tastes is the wrong way to go about either East or West. financial year ended before short-time ist Party in the Soviet Union. choirs, music, debating, horticultural I i t S. E. Parker. and redundancy affected the car industry. New York Times 2 3 /lO f^ 4 M The American Elections P R B E D stimulating Minds W h a t Voting Doesn’t Do In U.S. education's Stmtm' j search for talent, the latest oraii • - T^pO official figure has yet abeen theoretical choice between parties envy at the inhabitants of the “free "creativity”. Few search for it harder announced of die number of which are basically indistinguishable, countries”. than Psychologists Jacob W. Getzels icw. Me is now r - In. I and Philip W. Jackson of the University kid-proof face cream." people who • voted in the United then there can be no real under It is sometimes difficult to discuss of Chicago, who sharply disagree with States presidential election, al standing by man of his own place in with people who have lived in a the prevalent notion that a high IQ is Tbo Uind of fotDv I i$mk r- i though it was expected that the size society except within the boundaries dictatorship the limitations of free the mark of “giftedness”. In fact, argue if skid-pfoof face cream coftoJ! of the poll would exceed the 1956 of the nation state. dom common to all governments. Getzels and Jackson, the truly creative 5el$ and Jackson. fckdy to ejection when only 60% of the Freedom to vote is meaningless in This is understandable on an indi child who thrives on novelty is likely eacher dotty* But vi j& the electorate cast a vote. (We don't terms of equality and justice if it is vidual basis, but the merits or other to find IQ tests boring and hence. do he kind of mind that aaivn* know how much higher until after not accompanied by a universal con wise of the degrees of freedom in poorly on them. >y striking out Ift new dMAkyAi-a investigations into the suggested cept of man. There has never been no way solve the ultimate problem Seeking a better yardstick than the ballot rigging in favour of the a political democracy which appeal of universal unity which can only be IQ, Gctzeis and Jackson tried asking ig y Democrats are completed!) ed for votes on an international resolved by the conscious rejection children to glance at “stimulus” pictures V platform if it meant the loss of of separate states and nationalities. and write an appropriate story. Re The influence of the "Ad-man” cently, the pair gave their “test” to 500 "national identity”, which has We are a long way from general Time, Octet was evident in the televised debates teen-agers, including both high-IQ stu between the candidates who were nothing to do with die preservation acceptance of this view; most people of good customs and characteristics. are only concerned with the im dents and youngsters who appeared able to reach millions of possible highly creative. ''buyers”, many of whom would The American presidential cam mediate problems which affect them otherwise never have seen the pro paign was fought on the principle of personally. These may be higher One of the Getzels-Jackson pictures a "strong America” by "good wages, a bigger house, school integ showed a man in an airplane seat. Biting ducts. This is one of the reasons his pencil thoughtfully, a high-IQ teen for the increased interest, but there Americans”, and there can be few ration, marriage difficulties, success Meetings ant inhabitants of that large continent or failure—intimate and pressing ager jotted down a conventional descrip ate many others including the tion of “Mr. Smith” returning “from a "religious issue” which must have who are not convinced that "Rus problems. Announcement sians are bad” (and Cubans), and the Our point is that while these successful business trip” and “thinking induced hitherto politically indif about his wonderful family and how LONDON ANARCHIST J only way of dealing with them is personal problems are important glad ho will be to see them again”. To ferent catholics and protestants into GROUP and M ALATESTJ the polling booths. by force of arms. they are only part of the bigger a creative classmate, the situation looked In spite of the history of democ problem of society—how to live very different. “This man.” he wrote, DEBATING SOCIETY When all the reasons have been ratic rule many people living under harmoniously with people every “is dying back from Reno where he has analysed—the "farming issue”, "the totalitarianism see it as the only where. To vote for this is not just won a divorce from his wife. He IMPORTANT racial question”, the "personality” desirable alternative, and look with enough. couldn't stand to live with her any more MEETINGS WILL BE HELP factor ei d . we are left with the in basement, 5, Caledonian KoadJ depressing thought that no change (near King’s Cross Station) in leadership will radically alter the American social structure or its re Sundays at 7.30 p.m. a lationship with fire rest of the world; ' Continued All Welcome. we only have to compare die simi The Siege of Sidney Street fro m p . 3 NOV. 20.—lan Leslie on larities of the Republican and THE EARLY WORK OF Democratic platforms to prove this. posted at strategic points. Sergeant The military genius who later planned memoirs an account of meeting ‘Peter WILHELM REICH Leeson and Detective-Inspector Wensley Galipoli, Antwerp, Archangel, Narvik the Painter* in Australia. With the poli . The problem we feel is not one of NOV. 27.—Ian Celnick on knocked on the door of No. 100 Sidney and the successes of strike-breaking at tical ignorance of policemen he goes on good or bad leadership, but die Street. There was no reply so gravel to instance Sidney Street as the start THE KRONSTADT REVOLTS idea that the democratic vote gives Coventry and editing the British Gazette r was dung at the window. A shot was had even then the indifference for human of Stalin’s malevolent influence on DEC. 4.—Laurens Otter on people wisdom and responsibility fired and Leeson fell wounded. His life and passion for power and publicity British affairs (surely he means Krush FELLOW-TRAVELl.LRS Wfl •4 which they do not have under words-were "Mr. Wensley, 1 am dying. out of which ‘great men’ make them chev?), but he docs not go so far as to ANARCHISM totalitarian rule. They have shot me through the heart. selves. claim as some do that Stalin was Peter Goodbye. Give my love to the children. the Painter. Rudolf Rocker mentions DEC. 11.—To be announced. I If, however, a democratic leader One of the casualties of the Sidney ship reflects the wishes of the Bury me at Putney." He was wounded that Alexander Shapiro met Peter in DEC, 18.—Philip Sansom in the lungs and did not die. Street affair was the Jubilee Street club Russia working for the Cheka. Subject to be announced. majority then we have to assume which was ihe connection of the gang' that actions taken -by an elected The long siege then commenced. Shots with anarchism. iPeter the Painter’ had The whole affair seems to have played DEC. 25.—JV< meeting. leadership are generally approved were exchanged between police and painted scenery for them, and Gardstein upon the fears and prejudices of the gunmen until 10 a.m. when two squads was to appear in a play there. The solid respectable citizens, who could con by die electorate. Nowhere in the of Scots Guards arrived from the nearby Western world do we see any sig Club seems to have been more highly jure up fearful visions of foreign revolu Tower. Subsequently no one seems to propagandist and educational than tionaries spawned in Eastern ghettos nificant signs of a wise and respon have taken responsibility for this extreme and looting, raping, and murdering the London Anarchist Group sible people, least of all in the United shown in the film, it had a library, read step but eventually Winston Churchill ing-room, ran classes and a Sunday kindly British bobbies in less time than AN EXPERIMENT IN States, where anyone holding un took credit for this military operation school, speakers’ classes and ran trips it takes to read the Protocols of the popular views is socially ostracised. and made an appearance on the field of to the British Museum. After the affair Elders of Zion. Nevertheless, St. George OFF-CENTRE DISCUSSION It is true that in totalitarian states battle. the landlord gave them notice. was there for them as he has been from MEETINGS .the extreme penalty for the political At about noon smoke was seen coming time to time but one must not slay all . undesirable may be death, but in from the house. The theory was that In all the confusion of aliases, foreign the dragons at once otherwise there is 1 st Thursday of each month 8 atp.k tolerant attitudes spring from the Peter the Painter had set fire to the names, informers, it is possible that no work for St. Winston (alias St. At Jack and Mary Stevenson's, house - to cover his getaway, this is ‘Peter the Painter’ never existed. It is ■ George). 6 Stainton Road, Enfield, Middx. follies and feats of men whichever, certain he would have repudiated being shown in the film. A likelier theory is J ack Robinson . Last Wednesday of each month political system they live in; the a Russian—he was a Latvian! It is also (Based on a Lecture given to "mere” social ostracism of today can that a stray bullet ignited a gas-pipe and 8 p jn . set fire to the house. quite probable that he would have said London Anarchist Group, be the baas of more extreme penal he was no anarchist—-only a Social 30th October, 1960). At Dorothy Barasi's, ties tomorrow. Whatever it- was, Churchill in his Democrat! 45 Twyford Avenue, Fortis Green, N.2. capacity as Home Secretary refused to 1st Wednesday of each month 8 p.m.at Democratic-minded people assure let the fire-brigade put out the fire so It seems unlikely that there was a us that their system provides the the two gunmen were burnt alive in the third man who. escaped from Sidney At Colin Ward’s, Street. One edition of The Star pro 33 Elierby Street, Fulham, S.W.6. checks against the ' possibility . of building. Subsequent reports speak of LETTER political bullying, but there; have one body; charred beyond, recognition, claimed “rix city murderers” killed at beat too many instances of ”the having a bullet wound in the skull (not Sidney Street, sb the evidence of Mrs. IN DEFENCE OF checks” breaking down in times of self-inflicted) and the other probably Gershon that she only had two visitors Study Group on Non-Violent can be accepted as more reliable, than SENSUALITY crisis; Hiders’ Germany is die best dying from suffocation. Defence Five firemen were injured, one ser that in the film ’Peter’ is seen making example of this. We are certain his escape from the house next door and N.W.’s article: “Sense and Sensuality” (Organised by CND) iously when dealing' with the wreckage that democracy is also vulnerable. he sees Sara Trassjonsky, who has been brings to mind one of the finest books Every Thursday at 8 p.m. at after the fire. Police casualties during shot in Sidney Street, being taken dying, ever written on that dodgey subject, 18 Campdcn Grove, W.8. If freedom is only held to be valid the siege were less than this. A top hat ;away in an ambulance. In fact Sara sensualism. I refer to: “In Defence of Admission 1/-. within the bounds of national neces was pierced, a walking-stick severed but Sensuality” by John Cowper Powys who sity, and politically limited to a _a stubborn old lady crossed the street was, at the dine under arrest, she later committed suicide. must surely be one of our oldest as well without harm. || as most famous individualists. At eighty- jjifr two-thirty ia detachmem. pf Royal W c7,.^. iff. ■’Peter the Painter’ the eight, he was born in 1872, he is still Horse Artillery with two guns arrived making of a myth. Some one once said writing his wonderful romances and Public Discussion Meetings : novels and poems and essays living in but their services were not required. if he had been a plumber nobody would RANK AND FILE INDUSTRIAL FREEDOM PRESS a tiny cottage in the heart of North As with every sensational event the have , heard of him. Leeson, the police CONFERENCE LIAISON MEETING Wales like a modern Merlin. He has opportunists profited from it, from the man who was wounded, gives in his White Swan, 28 Farringdon Road, been referred-to as “the Welsh Wizard” pickpocket in Sidney Street crowds, to London, E.C.1. and once, in America, as “the English W.C.H. whose Conjessions of an Anar ‘FREEDOM’ Degenerate”. But he is certainly more Friday , November 18th at 8 p.m. chist went into a second edition in 1911, I V o L i, 1951, Mankind is One of a magician than anything else. Philip Sansom opens discussion on Vol. % I9S2. Postscript to Posterity to the Canterbury Music Hall (1906) who I urge any who are plagued by the “What Sort of Rank and File Vol. 3, *9*3, 'affTr’d presented a policemen’s benefit soena on B | g § t : W ^ i . 1 Movement do we Warn?” Vol. 4 .19S4, Living on a Volcano the perils of anarchism, to Steinie Mor horrors of puritanism as well as all | Vol. S, 1955, The Immoral Moralists rison’s defence counsel who hinted that "funny ones” who are being driven mad December 2nd. Brian Behan on J : I - 9 Waters Beron was killed by anarchists, and PROGRESS OF A DEFICIT! by modern life or by any other damned "Why We Need a Rank and File Vol, 6 ,19S6, Oil and Troubled finally to Winston ChudchiU whose finest WEEK 46 mania whatever, to get hold of this book Movement.” j Vol. 7,1957, Year OK^SpumihEid and also: "Philosophy of Solitude”, “Art j VoL 8,1958, Socialism in a hour was as usual midst the blood and Deficit onFreedom £920 of Happiness” and “In Spite Of'. Wheelchair sweat of others. Fresh from military j Vol. 9,1959,Prim, Press & PubEc triumphs at Tonypandy, South Africa, Contributions received £873 I believe that these books and the a d d volume egger 3t. 6d. and Cuba, this master strategist brought DEFICIT' , . ;£47 philosophy put forward therein could FREEDOM doth 10s. 6y*l! John; John die Baptist. Truly a voice Anarchist Philosophy) doth 21s. Anon.* 2/6: Sheffield; P.M.B. 2/6: Nikeroi crying in the wilderness. Special Subscription Rates for 2copin* FREEDOM PRESS A.M.G, 5/-: Pee St. GervaU: E.E. £1/0/0 12 months 29/- (U.SA. $4.60) V. RICHARDS: Stpckporif: f-,0, 5/3; Northampton: But, thank the Gods, Powys’ message 6 months 14/6 (U.S.A $226) Lfffons of the Spanish g r e e t i n g x y & m London: j.T. 2/-; London: P-.S. 12/-: Kidder- is not the anti-life blight that Christian Cheques, P.O.'s sad Mousy O .dsn O m U .. Revolution 6s. minster: J.W1H. 1/-: jSgreeyb'P.B.* 5/-. ity has turned out to be. 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