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. out farmland, sawn-down copse gravel cannot be got from some­ and ravaged hedgerow pay divi­ where else of less natural The Maplin project is another dends in gravel, beet and bar­ beauty, whether it is really a sign of the South-East syndrom?, ley and the genius who can make fact that it will bring employ­ the conviction that England two houses grow where one grew ment to the village (gravel must huddle together in the before is respected of men. pits are not all that labour South-Eastern corner and that intensive - unless it is to anyone who comes to Britain The production of ready ac­ be excavated with shovels); naturally wants to get to cessibility to beauty and rural what happens when the gravel London as soon as possible. calm destroys that beauty and is gone? Is it not just a This is an illusion fostered ty calm in the process. There are question of private profit Londoners who have cornered the sentimentalists and conserva­ and did not Councillor X show administration in the capital. tives who would conserve, that his interest after the The accompanying illusion that is, preserve.untouched and in­ election? Britail is overcrowded is fos­ accessible to all others, pre­ tered by this situation. It serves of natural beauty as The arguments used are fal­ is as if, living in a forty- the sole property of a class lacious; the permanent myth rooned mansion most of us (i.e . themselves). Such a pro­ that these projects make work hudilei in the cellar and com­ cess entails restriction upon - which is thought of as a plained of the overcrowding, development of desires for necessity - rather than the the noise an 1 the expense. betterment and even upon the simple fact that it is the eco­ Maplin will not help. necessity for a livelihood. At nomic results of work (viz. , the same time the wanton des­ wages) which are a necessity Jack Robinson truction and neglect of agri­ and given the wages we could culture have been and are a well do without some of this ANGRY BRIGADE deliberate programme to make work, which at best is boon­ Britain a manufacturing, expor­ doggling and at worst harmful. ting country and the encourage­ The gravel pit at Gravelham The five members of a ment of the moloch of the motor most likely will go to make vehicle is part of that pro­ the concrete that builds the group alleged to have conspired gramme . building that nobody lives in to cause explosions have been refused leave to appeal to the The sentimentality of the or to build the roads that conservative conservators con­ attract the motorists to drive House of Lords. The three Lords deciding whether an ap­ sists in a ready acceptance of for pleasure and lorries for peal can go -to the Law Lords much of this technology plus a one-way business wnich they held that no point of law of refusal to face up to the con­ would not think of if the road general public importance was sequences. The commuter menta­ were not there. raised by the case. (What lity which regards the village as a quiet dormitory or a logi­ PAGE 2 shit!) J,W. a bloody good paper, one which an anarchist type. The a lli ­ could teach many anarchists a ance seems to have many thing or two. strange people in it, Upper LETTER Duke Street is the HQ and book­ The left should be proud they shop of the local CP, they have took on and defeated six silly Demonstrations or on many occasions in the past little fascists and fifty police, they only had 500. Of Counter—Demons trati o ns refused to stock FREEDOM and other papers which knock the course we have yet to have Dear Comrades, party line. Stalin killed riots in Liverpool over the fascism of Ulster, fascism in It is a rare thing for me to many anarchists and signed a write in support of Jack and pact with Hitler. At the risk action! of being laughed at, I ask must Mary, we profess rather differ­ I do not knock street fight­ we as a movement forget Spain, ent kinds of anarchy, however I ing, I have done my share, and when the CNT/FAI almost alonef feel moved to write in support have scars to prove it. I am of their article on the "Liver­ fought fascist armies and not soft on fascism, I just Stalinist, treachery. The Trots pool 13" (FREEDOM 28.7.73). plead, comrades, before you also fought well then, but must play "cowboys and indians", As a Scouse, and feeling that we forget Trotsky and his k il­ remember, history can, and I may know some of those in­ ling of thousands of our com­ does, repeat itse lf. volved, I can only say they rades? made a. mistake in smashing up Best yishes, the Jordan meeting. Freedom Big Flame, the Merseyside of speech must be for a ll, paper which claims to be so­ Vincent Johnson even fascists. I am not sure cialist and libertarian, says Oxford. that all those involved would that "Fascists are driven off give this right to our move­ Merseyside..." Vhat utter ment, any more than the fasc­ balls, Jordan is. small fry, FREEDOM PRESS ists would, however must we but some of our local fascist 84b WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET use fascist tactics also? leaders are not, and come in LONDON Ei Phone 01-247 9249 different clothes. However as Fascism can only be defeated Big Flame are willing to ex­ (Aldgate East underground by a united and revolutionary clude anarchists and other station, Whitechapel Art working class, however that libertarians (Solidarity) from Gallery exit and turn becomes only a slogan if we their meetings we can only con­ right - Angel Alley next as a movement adopt reactionarv clude that they would also deny to Wimpy Bar) methods, though at the moment freedom to others than fascists. FULL LIST OF BOOKS, PAMPHLETS the workers don't seem ready I am sad to see their involve­ to organise for revolution of & BACK ISSUES ANARCHY ON ment, however, as they produce REQUEST

MUGGERS. . .Cont'd from P. 1 2. Of 16 defendants 7 were accused's sentences with acquitted. the effect of securing their and especially young black 3. In two of the four cases immediate release. people, as scapegoats for the the magistrate not only increase in crimes of larceny. acquitted the accused but cast 8 . In every case there is Both are visible and very serious doubts on the propriety evidence that the police failed to identify themselves distinctive and people are of the police behaviour. when making the arrest and quick to accuse such a minority. 4. Sgt. Ridgewell was involved used an excessive amount of For some, it is practically a in all four cases. A num­ violence. crime for someone to be young, ber of other officers were also let alone black as well. involved in every case. In another case 5 were con­ 5. In no case was any indepe fltii victed, two of whom, Courtney This country suffers from a witness called in spite of Harriot and Tesco Johnson, are built-in institutional racism. the fact that the essence of a s t ill imprisoned. The NCCL is To*mg minorities suffer discri- "mugging" charge is that whoever preparing a fu ll report on minai ion in housing and employ­ is "mugged" is obviously aware these and other cases to submit ment. But increases in larceny of the fact - and no independent to the Home. Secretary. have been growing throughout complainant came forward. the 60s and 70 s and have been 6 . The only evidence in the * * * the same in other urban areas two cases which resulted The authorities have a huge both here and abroad and are in conviction was the accused’s arsenal of legal weapons to linked with consumerism. This own statements. In both cases oppose any who question the ha3 brojght about what ha3 been the accused said these were present social and economic described as a 'panic reaction*. given after physical assault by system or those who, because Much of this is a racist hyste­ the police and under duress. they find themselves without ria and has been used by the (Re cently a number of cases a job, take goods from shops popular press and fascist have cone to light in which the and 'steal' money from other groups to frighten the so-call. police have secured "confes­ people. At the same time we called ordinary law-abiding sions" of offences which were all know that the police are citizen. subsequently proved to be non­ forever seeking advantages existent .) T\s within the legal system and By Law Protected? 7. In the case of the 'Oval trying to undermine the few The National Council for Four', a conviction was safeguards defendants s t ill Civil Liberties initiated the obtained on only 11 of the 17 have. The over-zealous are inquiry into the Vest End Cen­ counts and then by a majority not beyond going further, as tral police station and Sgt. verdict of the jury. The ap­ we saw in the Challoner cases. Challoner of brick-planting peal court ruled, on a point of law, that it was unable to However, laws are made to fame, and believes that an in­ protect the interest of those quiry into Det.-Sgt. Ridgewell's hear new evidence, evidence which we believe would have who own and control the anti-'mugging' is a 'matter of wealth of this country. They equal urgency1 . conclusively established the innocence of the accused, but want to maintain their power, Tney list a number of dis­ 3! position and privilege and nevertheless reduced the turbing facts which have governments will pass all the emerged from 'cases: necessary laws to assist this ruling class. p T 1. All the defendants were PAGE 3 black. Banks in setting up the In ter­ ^ ------U1 national Energy Bank to con­ oil or advances in alternative centrate on financing inter­ (to oil) energy production HEATH national and fuel projects and satisfy the increasing demand by the attitude of the main for energy. On this score it oil-producing countries. is worthy of note that an oil company chairman referred to ENERGY Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran • • the North Sea oil discoveries and Colonel Gadafi’s Libya to­ as "a puddle in the ocean" gether with Yasser Arafat of ACCORDING TO Anthony Tucker, when set against the Middle the Palestinian guerrilla com­ E a st. writing in the Guardian (27 mand are a ll making noises and * Ju ly), the Prime Minister rattling oily sabres for jit­ FREEDOM’ S correspondent, "seems to have taken energy tery Western Governments (and Julius, continues that it is roblems to his own bosom” Japan) to hear. The fact that not "the benign influence of ?rumour has it Heath’s energy the EEC is showing such con­ e c o lo g ists, but economic ob­ problems are lower on his cern confirms the growing sense stacles, in this case the oiK anatomy) and the future of of power fe lt by the o il produ­ producing countries" which ha’, Britain as regards energy "de- cing Arab world. have shaken capitalism . How­ pends on the nerve and vision ever i t is fa c ts made known Ky Suppression and subterfuge of Mr. Heath”. At the end of eco lo gists which demonstrated a week in which Maplin propo­ The extraordinary thing is that there was an approaching s a ls fo r a huge new c ity in that despite all this we read critical shortage of finite Essex with rail and road links of an amazing political subter­ resources, such as o i l. These to London from the airport- fuge by Heath (in the Sunday facts have produced "economic seaport have been published, Times of 22 July) which was % obstacles"• when the Government has been designed to make the Govern­ attacked by the Public Ac- Certainly we don't want to ment’ s Maplin plans seem more counts Committee in its underestimate the capacity of acceptable. Roger Eglin of the censored report for the escal­ capitalism for innovation to "Insight" team writes of a re­ ating costs of Concorde (from preserve the profit system and port by Government research £l60m to £1065m in a decade) v growth economies but no amount scientists on reducing the and furthermore when the Chan­ of investment finds things that noise levels of aircraft by nel tunnel has been described don't exist and if resources one-quarter in the next twenty reportedly by Heath as being of raw materials are finite * * years. "The conclusions," with Maplin "vital to Brit­ then investment, at a certain * Elgin tells us, "were appar­ ain’s industrial future” - at* measurable stage, will be ently circulated to Government J the end of a week like this to pouring money away. ministers nearly four months read that energy questions de­ ago. They came at an embar­ As growing scarcity of oil pends on the "wisdom and nerve A * f rassing time, because in the has helped to produce the * of Heath" is enough to preci­ Maplin debate the Government energy crisis so bikes will be pitate total panic! is arguing against the precise produced in greater numbers For in Anthony Tucker's claim that, if the objective when the demand increases. The article it becomes quite clear is to relieve noise around sooner we talk about bikeways that energy consumption has to Heathrow and Gatwick, research instead of motorways, Maplin, be reduced not increased. into noise reduction looks a Concorde and the Chunnel the Tucker describes the findings better and vastly cheaper in­ wiser for us all. What poli­ of "an expert working party set vestment than Maplin. Minis­ tician would have the nerve to up by the Institute of Fuel at ters therefore decided not to do that? , w V t n t the request of the Government” publish the forecasts". Yet and which has produced a confi­ this suppression was not en­ ough. Heath set up a commit­ NICARAGUAN D3 CTATORSHIP d e n t ia l document• with "ra d ic a l C recommendations" such as "re­ tee "to devise ways of recal­ ducing fuel wastage by private culating noise figures so as Anastasio Somoza Debayle, cars, utilising 'waste' heat to improve the case for that well known philanthropist Maplin" and the Aerospace Min­ and ruling dictator of Nicar­ from power station s and the C 1 establishment of a powerful ister, Heseltine, "effective^ agua, is sending his eldest son stymied efforts to quieten to Sandhurst for a good sound Energy Commission to oversee II and coordinate the efficient present aircraft noise". In British military education. addition the Sunday Times use of energy". A key to j * The dynasty of Somoza has "Business News" has an article Tucker's piece is the para­ 1 been the ruling political, 3 from Keith Richardson claiming graphs "Anyone who has any economic, and m ilitary power in "the massive weight of expert doubt about the reality of the Nicaragua for 33 years. The opinion" against Maplin and problems likely to arise dur­ Somoza regime means oppression, "an almost unprecedented re­ ing the next two decades if exploitation, censorship, cor- volt of Civil Service advisers" energy demand continues to •ruption and harassment of trade in accord with the experts. rise at its present state, unionists and rival political And Heath is supposed to be the needs only to examine the p arties. Somoza has the full man whose "nerve and vision" enormous role at present as­ blessing and support of the U.S. we depend on for solving energy signed to oil in the eighties government, in that is how problems! by the major users". This *4** V 'fV b Ia he maintains £ower. But Britain brings us to our major area * * is not blameless; how much of interest, along with Sir O longer will/ Britain actively A correspondent in FREEDOM Gerald Nabarro, it seems, who support oppressors by training (28.7.73) writes about my said in the House'of Commons their h e ir to inherit and earlier article on the Petrol js on July 23rd: "Reports reach­ r# maintain tie status quo? ing me and others, say that Crisis and points to Nixon's there are many thousands of "multi-million dollar invest­ Tachito (the heir in ques­ retail establishments which ment campaign to find alterna­ tion) is arriving in the U.K. are likely to run short of tive sources of energy"; he sometime in September. Will petrol and associated fuels adds to this the investment of someone please go to the air­ at a very early date." Al­ major motor companies in port and give him the welcome though the inevitable Govern­ "secret" research on steam and he deserves. electric cars. Yet investment ment denial was forthcoming Yours hoping for freedom and does not of it s e lf produce it is clear that there is an social change, energy crisis demonstrated • PAGE 4 J .R. both by the attitude of the Nicaragua. removed from all the shelves of the Brent libraries. One way that library users LIBRARIES AS CENSORS could overcome this problem would be to insist on seeing these JACK ROBINSON at the end of books which although not on the his review of Colin "Ward's book BRIEF shelves must still be catalogued. Anarchy in Action (July 7) sug­ gests that readers might obtain No library has the right to pre­ the book at their local public vent any reader from browsing 13.S, Anarchist Black Cro .33 library. However many readers through or borrowing any book states that criminal proceed­ might find some difficulty in this. that is on the catalogues. This ings are being taken against Many libraries have a small col­ would require a library assistant the Cologne Anarcho-Syndicalist lection of what they consider to accompany you into a backroom paper Befreiung. W illy Huppertz, equivocal or dubious books. or, if the books are stored in the one of the two comrades charged These books are usually of a Branch Librarian's office it would is an ex-prisoner of the Nazis salacious type or else are tech­ mean inconveniencing him so that and a veteran of the Workers' nical books with a limited appeal if enough readers were to do this Council movement of the Ruhr. he would be forced to bring the Financial aid welcome to Luise (Gynaecology, Anatomy Manuals) books out into a place where they Huppertz, 433 MULHEIM/RUHR, and also books dealing with topical are less likely to cause either Winkhauserweg 54 (West Germany). emotional issues'- e. g. drugs and Previously a charge of 'inciting their uses. There are a few deal­ him or his staff trouble - on the hatred against a minority' viz . ing with extreme political views shelves. the police ! was tried and (Nazism, etc.). As anarchists we find it hard dropped. I know of one Central Library enough to put over our ideas with­ i y i (this is a library which buys and out having what few books and art­ Pat Arrowsmith and two other distributes all the books to the icles there are around being made demonstrators were arrested branch libraries within a borough) less accessible to the public. It under the Public Order Act at which intends buying copies of takes little imagination to see that Colchester M ilitary Tattoo on Colin Ward's book for its branches from accepting the removal of Saturday 4th August. Leaf­ with the expressed intention that books with limited appeal and lets had been given out advo­ these are not to go on the shelves extreme views (whether sexual, cating the withdrawal of but must be stored in an office and pornographic or political) from the troops from U lster. Col­ can only be obtained by the mem­ shelves of our libraries into the chester is a garrison town backrooms to accepting the re­ which regularly supplies bers of the public if asked for. If moval of these books from the troops for Northern Ireland. you want the book you must ask libraries altogether is but a small Previously, during the march- one of the library assistants to get past before the Mayor, inter­ it for you. If you do not know of step. lopers from the withdrawal the book then you will remain in P.R. campaign, dressed as wounded ignorance. This may seem a *Many libraries overcome this soldiers and a nurse, walked small thing but it is in contradic­ problem by 'dumping' or rele­ along the parade route, a tion to the open access system gating their dubious books all banner urging withdrawal was that has now been in operation on to one library within a Bor­ displayed. Posters flyposted for about three-quarters of a ough and anyone wanting one of in the town depicted a soldier century. these books has to fill in a re­ saying 'I'm in a dead-end job. These books are kept in the quest form (which can be off- This is k illin g me' and giving offices* * of libraries not out of putting) and may take some statistics of dead soldiers in any contrived effort to dupe and considerable time to obtain it. Ireland. censor the reading matter of the (The three arrested demonstra­ public but usually through a tors are remanded on b a il un­ In Brief reluctance to challenge the dic­ til August 28.) tates of the head offices who The Bank of England has decided • t decide on the suitability of the to dispense with the Brigade of Guards sentries, seventeen Ma?s Received. books. Libraries, generally, Taunton People's Press. lOp of whom were on duty there hold their readers in high esteem. from Fons George House, every night since the Gordon Duplicity on the part of librarians Vilton, Taunton. A comrade Riots (1778). It is thought to to censor books is almost unknown. sending this notes that be safer now. "things have certainly However, libraries are dependent changed here in the last few and subject as much as any other Supporters of CND laid a wreath years as far as social aware­ civil service institution on their at the Cenotaph on Hiroshima ness is concerned". Just communities. Pressure can be Day but the accompanying card part of the growing evidence brought to bear on libraries to which usually referred to that no matter how fra g ile censor or remove books that may 'victims of other nuclear tests' the national Press is get­ offend and antagonise members of was le ft blank since the Depart­ ting, the provinces are the community. ment of the Environment (which controls the Cenotaph, if not quite healthy. On to a de­ 9 centralized society! A recent example of this type 1 i the environment) refused to of action occurred in Brent. At allow any reference to deaths Anarchist Black Cross. 713 the trial of the mass poisoner outside the two world wars. Armitage, Chicago, 111. 60614, Grahame Young last year, it was it U.S.A. News from Spain, Germany, established by the prosecution Jesus Christ Superstar grossed Japan and a report on the that Young had obtained much of SlOOmillion in tickets, records prison movement. No price given. and tapes, according to the his detailed knowledge of poisons Sunday Times Business News.

from books in various libraries • % Peace News carries a headline throughout Brent. These books Friends in Croydon, Surrey, "Otter hunt fo ile d ", Not, were on the open shelves for any­ have started a Croydon Conser­ alas, in its letters column. one to see and use. Since the vation Camp. One Saturday in Right on, Laurens! July they closed Church Street, poison case, however, pressure Croydon to traffic and gave was brought to bear and now all Herr Valter Ulbricht died, He'd away about 1,800 leaflets de­ books on toxicology have been ploring the council’s placing .better have his pass. I t 's a Jigb Vail. Sancho Panza of traffic before people and PAGE 5 homes. archist ideas, but its commu­ - TV Echoes. niques suggest rather a combi­ nation of situationism and Some FREEDOM readers in this syndicalism. Curr mentions country will have read the the former but misses the lat­ letter from Nicolas Valter in ter. His second major mistake THE LISTENER of 2 August. ment that introduced a new form is to deny the Angry Brigade Ve print the full toxt below of urban guerrilla activity’ ; its political position and to for other readers, and to in­ every point in this thesis is pretend that it wished 'to dicate the portions omitted wrong. Far from being the declare war on society itself'. (underlined) by the Li stener. sole concern of a few Spanish Its methods may have implicitly expatriates, anarchism was re­ tended towards nihilism, but Sir: Gordon Carr's version of viving in this and many other its policies were explicitly the history of the Angry Brig­ countries well before the death derived from the class struggle. ade, as given in his BBC tele­ of Sabate and the coming of vision programme of 20 July, It considered its violence to Alberola and long before the and supplemented by his be 'class violence1 (Commu­ formation of the First of May Listener article of 12 July, nique 3). and said after the Group. Vhon I discussed the should not be taken as autho­ b»,thing of Robert Carr's subject in the Listener more ritative or even accurate. house: 'We have .st arted the than five years ago (22 Feb­ Grace Windham Goldie was quite f\pht back and the war will ruary 1968). I noted that the wrong to describe it as 'a he won by the organised work­ anarchist revival was already factual account of the group ing class' (Communique 5). ten years old and that there of British Anarchists which Later it explained: 'Organised were probably more anarchists has been responsible for a num­ militant struggle und organised in Britain than ever before; ber of violent acts' (Listener. terrorism go s ide by side. and I also suggested that vio­ 26 July) — just as Peter These are the tactics of the lence and revolution had lost Fiddick was quite wrong to revolutionary class movement' some of their appeal and that describe it as 'the best (Communique 6); and again: propaganda by deed now tended piece of factual reporting on 'We believe in the autonomous to be non-violent rather than the subject' (Guardian. 21 working class. We are part of violent. Whatever links there July). i t ' (Communique~7) ♦__This posi­ may have been between the First tion could be general: 'Power It is precisely the factual of May Group of.1966-70 and to the_people' (Corrmur. iques 9 test that Carr fails. His the Angry Brigade of 1970-71 and 10): or it could be speci­ minor errors — such as calling were clearly technical rather fic: 'Bogside, Clydeside, join the FIJL the 'International' than ideological; there is the angry side' (Commuriqu^s rather than the Iberian Federa­ in fact no evidence to suggest I P and ll). In either case, tion of Libertarian Youth, or that any members of the Angry the Angry Brigade was clearly the organisation formed by Brigade were anarchists — in­ waging war on the ruling class, Stuart Christie the 'Inter­ deed those of the five in not on society. It is not national' rather than the prison who have mentioned the surprising that the response it Anarchist Black Cross — may issue have said they are not. won in the anarchist movement not be so serious in themselves, Carr is on firmer ground when was mainly from members of syn­ though they do suggest his pos­ he describes the Angry Brigade dicalist groups, and that the sibly unconscious obsession as part of the growing revolu­ response it won in the wider with the international aspects tionary libertarian movement, revolutionary left was mainly of the case. His not so minor but undermines his own point from people involved in such omissions - such as the blat­ by failing to recognise the populist activity as squatting, antly illegal behaviour of the difference between this and claimants' unions, women's police in the hunt for the true anarchism. No doubt lib­ liberation, end tie underground Angry Brigade during 1971. or ertarian ideas have influenced press. the glaring contradictions in the underground movement the prosecution evidence and in Predictably, Carr constructed (crudely symbolised for Carr the jury verdicts at the two a melodramatic scenario in by the hippies of Haight- trials of 1971 and 1972 - may which the Angry Brigade was not Ashbury), the student movement not seem serious to those who so much explained as explained (symbolised by the 1968 are unfamiliar with the case. away, being made both foreign 'events' in France), and the But Carr should surely have at and anarchist, and therefore commune movement (symbolised least mentioned the crucial doubly alien. Grg.ce Wyndluur by the communards of West Ger­ fact that ao.flng-Iias yet bssa Goldie complains that 'little proved responsible for any many) ; but neither of these light was shed upon the import­ movements is specifically anar­ Angrv Brigade bomb: Prescott ant matter of motivation'; but chist. And even if the Angry was convicted of conspiracy the point is rather that this Brigade did derive from such because he addressed envelopes particular ma.tter was deliber­ movements, its closest foreign for a single Angry Brigade ately left in the dark so that analogues are far from anar­ communique, and the Stoke New­ the Angry Brigade could be rei­ chist — the Red Army Fraction ington Four were convicted of fied as a spectacle. The third of West Germany (which Carr conspiracy because they pos­ major mistake was to suggest includes) and the Weathermen sessed (or were planted with) that its activity was both ali of the United States and the incriminating arms - but all alien and new, when the fact Tupamaros of Uruguay (which he the charges of actually caus­ is that revolutionary violence excludes) are all libertarian ing explosions have been dis­ is a normal rather than a devi­ Marxist rather than anarchist; missed. and the inhumanly ant phenomenon. Cari remarks the Provisional IRA of Northern vicious ten-year prison sent­ that there were 145 political Ireland, the analogue closest ences are based entirely on explosions in Italy during in time and space to the Angry notoriously vague charges of 1969, but not that there were conspiracy. Brigade, is not even remotely 123 in Britain during 1969-71 libertarian; as for France - not courting Northern Ire­ But leaving such things and Italy, there have been land - of which the Angry aside. it is important to ex­ more bombs against anarchists Brigade was responsible for pose Carr's major mistakes. than by them. only a dozen. Typically, The first is to take the Angry Curr established a spurious Brigade as the culmination of It is possible that the Angry Brigade was influenced by an­ balance by giving both sides 'the development of anarchism, once the sole concern of a few Continued on P. 7 Spanish expatriates, to a move­ PAGE 6 pjjMjtBVIKV tones that this implies), one can not quite free oneself from the lurking wondering that suggests perhaps the whole film was financed by the CIA as a collective warning to all dis­ RADICAL contents that, world-wide, the Authorities mean business! Any book not in stock, but in The problem of violence as I print can be promptly supplied. have often reminded myself in Please add postage and cash CHIC my writing, is the most pres­ with order helps. sing one that the world faces, and it is ore that worries and * An Illustrated Life of William distresses all thinking people. Morris One concedes that in making a Richard Tames £0.40 (3}p) film one has to make some con­ * Writers and their Work: REVOLUTION cessions. to "entertainment" William Morris but I am very dubious about Philip Henderson £0.20 (2-jp) the manner in which the activi­ * William Morris: His Life, S1 ATE OF SIEGE (France/ltaly/ ties of the urban guerillas in STATE OF SIEGE are shown to be Work and Friends V.Germany, 1973 Directed by Philip Henderson £0. 90 (9p) Costa-Gavras) exciting and thrilling. Per­ haps in some ways they are, but * The Political Writings of IT IS an iror.ic reflection of then in some ways so is cruelly, William Morris our present society that this but this in no way justifies Edited by A. L. Morton avowedly left-wing film should indulging this dark area of our £1.00 (9p) be playing at London's most subconscious minds, and the * William■r ■■ 1 ■■ Morris; — ■ —■ ■ ■ — Selected luxurious cinema in the heart "game" element, that is in my Writings and Designs of Mayfair, and one's first personal opinion, at the base Edited by Asa Briggs reaction to this radical-chic of so much pseudo-radical £0.70 (9p) paradox is further deepened thinking, is ultimately des­ *Autobiography whilst watching it, for all it tructive and false. We all Mother Jones £1.50 (12p) is really saying is ‘the old know of the victorious General/* * ♦Anarchy hoary platitude that violence Detective-Inspector/Returning Errico Malatesta* £0.20 (2^p) is dreadful and terrible, but Warrior of fiction who admits necessary when justified. Thus grim admiration for his defeat­ it pretends to pose a question, ed foe, but this subconscious ♦What is Communist Anarchism? but it is really a non-inter- clue that reveals a much more Alexander Berkman rogative cliche with a meaning­ sobering truth about "the be­ £1.50 (15p) less question mark posed on the loved enemy" is the one that ♦Anarchy and Order: • - . # end. Like Costa-Gavras' other is constantly ignored and Essays in Politics film (the futile and naive Z ), overlooked. Herbert Read £1.25 (15p) STATE OF SIEGE is not an intel­ STATE OF SIEGE is addition­ ♦ Instead of a Book - by a man lectual film, for it proceeds too busy to write one from a se'ries of assumptions ally disappointing because it was written in the main by Benjamin R. Tucker which are almost as arrogant in £7.00 (25p) their own way as the Divine Franco Solinas who also wrote KAP0 (i960), THE BATTLE OF Right of Kings was in its way. ALGIERS (1964) and QUEIMADA! To the average viewer this is (1970) - three of the best probably meant to come across ♦Denotes title published in the films I have ever seen, but in as "committed cinema", but I USA. this film there is no examina­ found myself wanted to stop tion of the motivations that the film end go back to reel Please send foolscap (9l,x4") exist in the minds of both one and explore a few cf the - «% * • ^ TTi SAE if you would like to receive protagonists, and because of points raised and question some regular booklists. the film's lack of intellect­ of the motivations and reasons ual involvement, one also be­ 0,1 for the action being undertaken. came aware of a lack of emo­ The story, set in a Latin > tional involvement, which.is ANGRY BRIGADE... con' d from P.6 American country, is based on a dreadful admission to make If.AT the kidnapping (and subsequent when one is seeing human be­ of the case a hearing; but nurder) of an American AID ings subjected to horrible the spokesmen of the First of representative who was in real­ tortures. But if I am also May Group, the Anarchist ity instructing the local pol­ expected to spare no compas­ Black Cross, and the Stoke sion either for a father and ice at the International Police Newington Five Solidarity husband who is shot in cold % Academy where the curriculum Committee all agreed, more or blood (no matter what his includes electrical torture. trt) _ less, with the policy of the When negotiations with the guilt or crimes), then I can not be that intellectually Angry Brigade, and the spokes­ government fa i1 to secure the men for the police'agreed release of political prisoners, dishonest and see any merit V * with Carr's simplistic inter­ he is duly shot, and then left in a presentation that re­ duces all of us ultimately pretation of the case. A more for the authorities to find genuine balance would have al­ and bury with fu ll pomp and to "goodies" and "baddies". Whatever else violence does, so given a hearing to some of ceremony. That these subver­ - W it certainly brings about the those anarchists, syndicalists, sive activities of the Ameri­ situationists, hippies, com­ can government should be ex­ strangest metamorphosis amongst its advocates until munards, and other libertari­ posed at all in a film is to ans who are familiar with the be welcomed, together with the the one side becomes indis­ tinguishable from the other, milieu from which the Angry barbaric use of torture around Brigade emerged but who are the world, but when one ponders and its disciples forget that opposed to the technique of the duplicity of the "masters pain and death are non­ terrorism and who are convinced of war" who, I am quite sure, partisan . _ . „ „ \ V/ David Godin that the development of a lib­ would resort to collective sui­ ertarian consciousness has been cide, rather than yield to de­ * \ retarded rather than advanced . feat, by unleashing a nuclear l U itiv'L .M PAGE 7 ty this tragic episode. • war (with all the Divine over­ I 4 ft M* A « V * If you are interested in helpil! LONDON READERS------STOP PRESS to found an anarchist group ir Heidelberg please contact PEOPLE OP IRELAND ontact Paul Zimmcrmann ( ontact CaluDM b 6931 Zwingenbcrg ON SATURDAY, 11th August, at lor attktoc contact! the Centro Iberico (see Con­ list It but Im Hohen Garten 17 donation' to"«rdi W. Germany. tact Column) the film, People tyycMttlnf coats o f Ireland mady by Cinema •it welcome THURSDAYS 2 p . m . onwards. Action is being screened. Ac­ cording to a leaflet 'The film Help fold and despatch FREEDOM is an analysis and chronicle or at Freedom Press. instance of dual power in the north of Ireland: we see the MENTAL PATIENTS UNION The CENTRO IBERICO holds barricaded resistance zone of General Meeting Sat. 18th Aug. meetings on Saturdays and Sunday,, Free Derry in August 1969, the FriendB Meeting House, at 7.30 p.m. New address: contradiction between labour Euston Road, NW1. 10 a.m.- 83A Haverstock Hill, NW3. and c a p ita l, the struggle ag­ 6 p. m. Room 789 Phone 586-2038. Entrance in ainst imperialism, the demands: Steele's Road, second house in a socialist workers' republic. STOKE NEWINGTON FIVE road. Tube to Chalk Farm or Within Free Derry ensues the SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE Belsize Park station. SATURDAy struggle fo r democracy, for the righ t to assemble and for is at 54 Harcombe Road 11th AUGUST at 7. 30 p.m. ' free expression of opinion London N16. FILM AND DISCUSSION: against the petty-bourgeois "People of Ireland". ALL elements who succumbe to the INTERNATIONAL CAMP this WELCOME. COLLECTION. British Government's "new year July 25-Aug. 20 (possibly deal". The barricades are to 30th) at SAINTE ENGRACE Syndicalist Workers Federation taken down temporarily but the (Basses Pyrenees), Bayonne- Pamphlets Voice of Syndicalism ♦ struggle continues.' (From a Pau route & via Tardets- and Makhno and Durruti, Revolu­ le a fle t issued by Cinema Soholus. Camp will be indicated tion 1917 1936 reprinted from A c tio n ,) 'Citoyens de la Nature'. Freedom. Both 5p each from After the film members of Freedom Press plus postage. Cinema Action w ill discuss EVERY SATURDAY 2-4 p.m. the film, the events in Ire­ Picket outside Brixton Prison. Any Anarchists/Libertarians land and other topics arising BELFAST TEN DEFENCE in the Aberystwyth area please from the showing of People of COMMITTEE (88 Roslyn Road, contact P eter Good, 39 Portlard I rela n d . N15. Tel. 800-9392) Street, Aberystwyth. From the anarchist point of • Help to set up a S.E. London view a socialist workers' re­ CORBY ANARCHISTS Gutter Press. 61B Granville public is at best unclear and Discussion meeting first Friday Park, S .E .13. Phone 852-8379 at worst a contradiction of how in every month at 7 Cresswell we would like to see society Walk, 7.30 p.m. SUBSCRIBE" to FREEDOM organised. The film and dis­ cussion w ill give comrades a DRUG DEPENDENTS CARE Surface Mail & Inland good opportunity to argue out GROUP urgently requires cash One year £3.00 $7.50 these points of disagreement donations, trading stamps and Six months £1.50 $3.75 with Cinema Action. It is a cigarette coupons, in order to Three months 80p $2.0t p ity that we as a movement survive. Send to Douglas cannot produce films about Kepper, Walnut Cottage, Moor­ Airmail events affecting us politic­ land, Bridgester, Somerset. Europe & Mid.East 1 yr. £4,00 ally and socially. The Americas 1 y r • $12.50 Refreshments w ill be avail­ LIVERPOOL ASA contact May India, Africa &c. 1 yr. £4.50 Stone, C. 32 Summer field, Tower Australasia, 0able and a collection will be taken to recover the cost of Hill, Kirkby, nr. Liverpool. Japan &c. 1 yr. £5.00 * hiring the film and projector. $ (six months pro rata) LONDON ASA for details of meetings phone 226-0817. Black 2 copies £5.60 per year & Red outlook always available (surface mail) for 5p + 2yp post from 3 Grange Bulk: 10 copies 40p House, Highbury Grange, N5. PRESS FUND post free INSIDE STORY No. 10 (Aug.) Contributions Briant Colour work-in; Anarch­ ists Speak; Prisons, Internees; 26 July - 1 August inclusive Watergate; Time Out etc. We welcome news, a rtic le s , let­ ST. LEONARDS: K.McF: 30p; 20p + 5p post (sub £1. 50 ($4. 00) ters. Latest date for receipt ILFORD: D.P. lOp; LONDON SW19: six issues) from 3 Belmont Road, of MSS, Notices &c. is Monday P.V.C. 21p; NEWPORT I .o f W.: London SW4. Also available in the week of publication. P.W.H. 50p; HONG KONG: M.S. £2; from Freedom Bookshop. Earlier receipt is helpful. MAIDSTONE: M.F. £1; GLASGOW: A.J. 12p; LONDON NV3: D.S. £3; Paul Goodman: J. G. Lergessner LONDON E16: P.W. £2.45; LONDON of Faculty of Education, Univ. of E16: G .I. £1.30; WOLVERHAMPTON: Alberta, Edmonton, Canada is J.L. 40p; J.K.W. lOp; In Shop: researching Goodman's contribu­ "ANGR7 BRIGADE" ECHOES J.H. 33p; Anon £1.55; DUNDEE: tion to reform in education in the T • A. 25p. TOTAL: £13.61 1960s and wishes to contact people now engaged in work on Goodman. The le tte r to Time Out Previously acknowledged: £844.11 which we published in our TOTAL TO DATE : £857.72 MICHAEL TOBIN DEFENCE issue of 4.8.73 (sent to COMMITTEE. 265 Dale Street, us because Tijne_0ut had Chatham, Kent. (Freedom Book­ not published i t ) was pub­ lished in that weekly sim­ Published by Freedom Press, shop also stocks pamphlets etc. ultaneously with ours, with London, E. 1. Printed by by M. Tobin published by the minor cuts. Vineyard Press, Colchester. Committee.)