Scottish Anarchist We Hope Yon Will Be Truly Free in a Free World
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Big Brother in Glasgow • Unemployed occupy Edinburgh Centre • Looking back at Timex • The Scottish Financial Mafia • Our History • and much more £1.00 NumberCAUTION1 I o MONITORED Contents 5 The Pollok Free State .................««»•••«»..»»••»»•»••.•.•"" McLlbel 2 ^ Orwell's 1984. Glasgow's 1994? » * * Hands Off Our Babies!!! .....— ...——~»— Flushing out the Scotnsh Financial Mafia —. .... 10 Ttmex- Labour and Trade Unionism at Its best 14 Spain and Its Relevance Today ................*••«....«.••••—""" 16 Anarchism In Glasgow—— ............ 20 Review: Severely Dealt With — From an Egoist Window Pane „„„™™.™...............».....»».. 24 Ireland -for a lasting peace with justice. .......... 26 Computer Networks and Anarchy ..................................... 28 London demonstration at Downing Street editorial Cover illustration; AngryArtworks into the free, we can only who do and watch them turn WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OJ struggle. We want to be but get that we nightmare of stale capitalism. We must and Scottish Anarchist We hope yon will be truly free in a free world. To the with you. Its will sing anew and write the songs of enjoy it need you! But the first step lies new world we carry in our hearts in a new Scottish Anarchist is the Journal of the your life. of tomorrow. anarchist and the SFA aim to help language . the language Scottish Federation of Anarchists (the SFA). Scottish to hope And this tomorrow? Anarchy, a free The SFA unites anarchists, libertarian us to dream again, to fight again, forums through which we society of free and equal individuals, who socialists and autonomous revolutionaries again by providing themselves from the authority talk, think and act. By organising have liberated across this fair nation. It does this for the can discuss, new world in and existence of state, capital and church and express aim of increasing the influence of and resisting we can build the who control their own fates. Such is our aim, anarchist ideas and ideals in the class our vision. A vision that inspires our actions today, for anarchism is not a thing of the So what can the SFA do for you? Exactly Revolutionary hopefully, aid this future, but of the present It is not a matter what the name suggests. We do not see This magazine will, aims to bring a of 'demands', but of living. Something we ourselves as a new set of leaders. We do not process. Scottish Anarchist capitalism. issues; events in the can forget while surviving under want you to follow us. We want you to think unique viewpoint to all Timex or the struggle against for yourself, feel for yourself, act for yourself. class war, like current trends in enjoy These ideas may come across as strange, the criminal justice bill; politics; Iain MacSaorsa even unusual? Too long have the twin evils capital, the state, technology, history, both in of labourism and its "radical' wean anarchist and working dass the planet; to "Freedom without Socialism Is Bolshevism dominated working dass political Scotland and elsewhere on privilege and injustice fust a few. life. Both are ideologies, seeking new sheep name Is slavery viewpoint? Because it is Socialism without Freedom for old shepherds. Both want to be our But why a unique revolutionary, something rare in the state capitalist dominated left innovative and, more day our laughter with be stronger than the We aim to be an read. Too long Needless to say, we will welcome articles, voices they strangle today. We aim to make importantly, an interesting from any source. ideas written in the lyrics letters, graphics, whatever, that day arrive sooner, not later. have sodaUst been some, time stopped in 1917. Send letters, artides to :- But this does not mean we do not want to of the past For into or to Scottish Anarchist win hearts and minds. Far from it We in the But we do not aim to force reality procustean bed of c/o Glasgow Anarchist Gronp SFA want to encourage, support and place ourselves upon the the dreams of those PO Box 1008, Glasgow G42 8AA influence the spirit of revolt, the class ideology nor experience SC01 Hflji THE. BARRICADES" OF BROUGHTON— THE ONCE-FAMILIAR WOODEN DOORS WMWe're going mtock worker George Wilson, churning out reams are Denied now 'neath steel, sheets of of Labour Party literature, exploiting them out, we're going ta steel shaped and bolted on by charitable tax status. donated blacksmiths who refused all and any my here 24 hours a The locked-out organised in a payment "One donation to the Centre", dav. Ifthe police and room across the road in the Gay Centre and *aJd they. Solidarity lives. In March '92, in a splendid piece of direct door But the doors are open twixt noon and action, smashed open the Centre's and opening it again to four every day bar Sunday, and the Centre is " re-occupied the building, them in inhabited around the dock, seven days a the unwaged and homeless'. week. Within opening hours a busy vegan Councillor Kinder's lucrative printing left hanging. But even .Labour cafe, famously cheap and substantial, is the to mass-unemployment, and funded by the contract was a bit of direct hub of Centre activity and behind the chatting Regional Council, the Edinburgh Unemployed politicians are not averse to diners poster-festooned walk advertise gigs, Workers Centre (EUWC) was founded as a action, it seems, especially when their wallets meetings and artions, while the saining tables charitable trust and started life in the are threatened. Shortly after the Centre's sag beneath the mass of flyers and brochures basement of the Edinburgh Trades council liberation, one cold, dark March Sunday explaining anti-VAT on Fuel, Criminally building. morning, Labour trustee Jim Milne and George Wilson, Injustice Bill, Stop the Fascists, community In the mid-80's it moved to larger ex-Centre worker arts, homelessness, hunt sabs, gay rights, temporary premises off the city's High St. backed verbally by Councillors Kinder claimants rights, women's issues, Poll Tax There it became something more than a and Loughney, broke back In and arrears, AIDS, Parks for the People... printing press, computers and a meeting removed the printing press, 6 Above the cafe the pine-beamed mezzanine room, evolving, despite the reticence of the Applemac computers, a process they floor is being transformed into a snug Party-hack dominant clique, into a focus for camera, enlargers... in short took away reference library and reading room, while independent unwaged activists. The Right to £25,000 of the Trust's equipment, including next door the Centre office advises callers, Work campaign was submerged under a washing machine for die homeless. They who phone or drop in, on benefit rights. Claimants Union direct actions, then along removed the accounts and minutes books. There's a well-equipped children's playroom came the anti-Workfare Campaign. They even pinched the donations tin and the and a basement darkroom. By the time the Centre moved into its new teabags, and smashed the emergency lighting Upstairs, one end of the large hall is permanent premises in Broughton Street in system, Just for the hell of it The councillor- carpeted with defenders' sleeping bags while 1989 the Poll Tax fight was well under way. trustees then used their clout to freeze the the other end is a mass of art and craft odds By 1990 the Labour Council was setting the Centre's £10,000 bank account and stop Its andends with which the Creative Resource bailiffs on the refuseniks. All the poindings mail Repeated attempts by the independent Network makes the puppets and props for were stopped, many by pickets based at the trustees to have the assets Judicially returned its street theatre. The door of the small room EUWC By that time 4 of the Centre's 7-strong have been consistently denied legal aid. The opposite bears a hand-drawn sign - 'Cheap Board of Trustees were unwaged, unaffiliated Establishment closes ranks. Claes Shoap' activists democratically elected from the The atmosphere is busy, cheery and Centre's Users Group. The other 3 were Hie Centre Fights On sociable. No-one gets paid Anyone can get Labour councillors Tony Kinder and Des involved. But when the doors are locked and Loughney, and Jim Milne, boss of Labour- "It's getting up the nose of the Council, the blocked and the Centre quietens down, ears controlled Dalkeith Unemployed Workers fact that we're unfunded, but still here and are cocked and nerves steeled for the baying Centre. [Loughney, for his sins, was and is stilt running. of the bailiffs and the grunting of the pigs. also secretary of Edinburgh Trades Council, Maggie, Centre volunteer, Powerful enemies indeed.] STY Reporting Scotland These Labour and trade union bureaucrats had lost control. Their response was swift Custodians now of a stripped building, with "The creatures lookedfrom pig to man, and During the night of 1/2 February 1992 the 3 no equipment, no funding and no bank from man to pig, and from pig to man Labour Party trustees simply, and unilaterally, account, the Centre users decided to fight again, but already it u changed the Centre's locks one night and on. Money was raised by using the upstairs * which was which. locked 4 trustees, the users group and the hall as an increasingly popular gig venue with public, out. The now-deserted building live bands appearing from all over Britain. resonated solely to the rhythm of the Room space was rented out to community Conceived in 1981 as a left-Labour response basement printing press, operated by the paid and other groups. The bills could be paid, SC01 3 : The Pollok Free State in Glasgow Pollok Free State has been the houses, totem poles, creating stone "Free State* in protest at one more bit of established in opposition to the half begun carvings.