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Anarchist Mmweekly anarchist mm weekly Vol. 34 No, 32 11 August, 1973 GREAT CONTROVERSY has been pro­ On the national plane we have and his Government are moved by duced in Britain by the deci­ been promised the development the same springs as Gravelham sion to go on with the complex of the long-debated, long de­ Parish Council. plan for a new town, a road layed Channel Tunnel and the In Gravelham (not its real network and a new airport at omnipresent moribund Concorde. name) the samo growls are heard Maplin (formerly Foulness Economically, Government, Oppo­ as centre round Maplin. "You Island) in Essex, In a small sition and much of the popula­ can't stand in the way of pro­ village in Suffolk a great con­ tion have been entrapped (Tony gress". Gravelham must be troversy has been produced by Benn notably) in the dangling dragged kicking and screaming the decision to open up a bait of provision of employment. into the twenty-first century. gravel-pit which necessitates These operations have taken It's later than we think.) The heavier usage by lorries of old argument is produced (which picturesque country lanes. their place beside Hitler's autobahns and the Tennessee sounds startlingly new) that The two problems are the Valley Authority as examples of our forefathers objected to macrocosm and microcosm of the economic 'pump-priming'. On a railways hence they were built apparent dilemma facing man in world scale, war, the prepara­ well outside towns with the society today. For anarchists tions foe war, and space travel consequent inconvenience to the problem is particularly ac­ perform the same functions of town-dwellers; many a feudal, ute since it involves concepts providing employment and put­ landowner-, defied the railways of progress and (in opposition) ting money into circulation. arid consequent detours played alliances with strange bed­ havoc with timetables; must we fellows for very mixed motives. At the same time, on a sordid lag behind in gravel pits and level, such vast projects pro­ airport facilities? * * * vide dividends for party spon­ The concept of progress is a One of the chief recommenda­ sors (for Trade Unionists in the shape of work) and oppor­ Victorian heritage based upon tions of Maplin and of the gra­ the development of technology vel pit is that they are marks tunities of graft for bureau­ crats and on a higher level and sustained by an optimistic of progress and w ill help to 'kick-backs' and moral support conviction that 'more' means solve economic problems, partly for political functionaries, 'better'. 'Progress' is in by providing work and addition­ and promises of votes all round. truth an indication of motion ally providing an economic It is obvious that Mr. Heath superstructure. % • • Continued on page 2 acquitted. It appears that the plain clothes men once IF THE MUGGERS again failed to identify them­ selves. In that case Judge Gwyu Morris said: 'I find it terrible that here in London DON’T GET people using public transport should be set upon by police officers without so much as a THE 'OVAL FOUR' want a Home selves. Not unnaturally a word by anyone that they are. Office inquiry’ int? their case fight started and they were police officers'. nov that they have been re­ arrested and taken to Kenning- The appeal judges were well leased from prison (one from ton Road police station. There aware of the cases that Det.- borstal) following the Appeal they signed statements admit­ Sgt. Ridgewell had been in­ Court's decision. The four ting to picking x>ockets on the volved in. The judge at the black youths, Winston Trew, Underground. trial of the 'Four' had not Constantine 'Omar' Boucher, During their trial they main­ allowed evidence about his in­ Sterling Christie and George tained that they had signed volvement in these other cases Griffiths were convicted last these statements because they and the Appeal judges consi­ November of assault on police were beaten up in the police dered this wrong. officers and attempting to station. Although these state­ steal. ments were discounted, all four The 'Oval Four' were mem­ bers of a black political or­ The -trial took place during were found guilty of assault ganisation, the Faslmbas, and a time when a 'mugging' hyste­ on jJo'Li.c© officers, despite as such had the backing and ria had been created by the that they had been unaware of support of a defence committee. popular press' lurid tales of this fact. The exploits of Det.-Sgt. people being waylaid and The senior officer of this Ridgewell and his squad have beaten up. They received sen­ anti-'mugging squad, Det.-Sgt. created an impression among tences of two years after a Ridgewell, has been involved sections of the black conmuni'ty five weeks' tria l. They had in similar arrests. (A calypso that they deliberately go out been arrested by plain clothes ‘sung in South London pubs runs to 'get' young blacks. The police officers belonging to a 'I f the muggers don’t get you whole hysteria built up by the London Transport anti-'mugging1 Sgt. Ridgewell w ill'.) At an­ press created young people, squad. The four said they had other trial at the Old Bailey been set upon without the pol­ the two black defendants were Continued on P. 3 ice officers identifying them­ cal extension of the bus-ride Motorists are like pigeons KAPLIN. cop. t ' d from mme 1 from the office with the con­ the more you give 'em the » 0r stant need for the improvement they come. If they Can go rather than direction. If one of facilities to get from A to fast from A to B they don't hag taken a wrong turning, fur­ B as quickly ns possible, but see why they can't go fast ther ' progress' however fast or also the inevitability of A from B to C and so on until athletically admirable will becoming more und more like B they vourily reulize they a re only servo to confound us fur­ as time goes on. travelling fast from Z to A. ther and will never indicate Vo are also told that Maplin At its worst this point of the right route. is necessary to take the pres­ view expresses itself us sure off Heathrow und we ar» We need a new concept of "Somebody else - not us!" and conlemning the residents of 'progress'. A concept buBed >1 the airport like a gypsy Heathrow to continuous noise upon values other than those of wanders from rejecting village if we don't sanction Maplin. acquisition and a ruthless con­ to rejecting village. Whilst If Heathrow is overloaded quest of nature. the new slick villagers fly by (during tourist season only) jet to New York on pleasurable We, and the Victorians, became are we intended to believe business and to Benidorm (or absorbed in progress regardless somewhere more fashionable) on that the whole of the traf­ of direction. Modern technology fic will be withdrawn from the sad business of pleasure. has an equally disastrous con­ Heathrow and everybody will Like gypsies, everybody admits cept: that if a thing can be be able to sleep o' nights? A the airports' necessity to done, it must be done and hence exist but makes it clear that plane is a plane is a plane. progress has become a lop-sided they must exist somewhere else. Even in Gravelham there are progression in the wrong direc­ rightful complaints when the * * # tion, like a crippled crab. local farmer-airman takes off As a member of society it can on mysterious business or en­ In Gravelham, as elsewhere, gages a crop-sprayer. concern has grown up recently be observed that the individual for the state of the environ­ is prepared to concede some The pigeon-principle applies ment and the amenities. As tfv? part of his own personal feel­ to the air, too. The more air­ small Suffolk village grew, be­ ing or convenience for the sake ports there are the more ser­ came more accessible to commu­ of the community in which he vices there will be. Big busi­ ters and as its financial poten­ lives. For the anarchist it is ness abhors a vacuum and even tia litie s became more obvious probable that the limit of that a three-quarters empty off­ to avid speculators so its society's impingement is at a season tourist plane makes a beauty, calm and remoteness be­ minimum - for the individualist lot of noise. What happens came wasting assets. The v il­ it probably does not exist! For when Maplin gets full up? The lage green that fed the goose the conformist the demands to aeroplane, like all expensive that laid the golden eggs was which he concurs are made by pieces of capital equipment, turned over to development, or society; for the conservative must have the absolute maximum the sheer necessity of housing by profitability; for the pat­ usage (consistent with safety the indigenous population to riot and the totalitarian by or not) in order that the capi­ whom the tied cottage or the State. tal return be made aS speedy thatched house were no longer The anarchist would limit as possible. That's what ad­ available or attractive. those demands by questioning vertising's for and consumer­ ism's all about. Our gravel The environment is an easily their practicability. Before pit is not going to stop opera­ wasted asset in this cash-nexus Gravelham is ravaged by gravel pits one should ask if the ting until every last speck of consumer world and the scooped- sand is excavated.
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