Britain, Resistance bulletin #146 November 2012

Contents: ---- Hit The Deck: It?s Checky Watch! ---- Away-Day Blues, Booze and Bruises for 
EDL ---- The Westcountry Mutineer ---- No Justice, No Piece! ---- Cops Target Union Boss 
---- Hey, Teacher, Make Those Bosses Groan! ---- Don?t Let ?em Rot... ---- Piratical 
Hi-Jinks and Hi-Jacks in Dartmouth ---- Antep Textile Workers Resist Attacks ---- Mine, 
All Mine! South African Miners? Victories ---- Quebec Students Chalk Up a Win ---- Good 
News from Unity Centre Glasgow ---- Yarl?s Wood Prisoners Resist ---- Write to a Prisoner! 
---- Liked Resistance? Try Organise ---- Subscriptions ---- Anarchist Federation ---- 
National Contact ------- 1. Hit The Deck: It?s Checky Watch! ---- The increasingly 
extortionate cost of travelling via public transport was highlighted in September by an 
innovative online campaign kickstarted by an outraged Jarrow resident.

?Checky Watch? begun life as a Facebook page for travellers on the Tyne and Wear Metro to 
track the whereabouts and activities of ticket inspectors and has now attracted double the 
amount of followers that the official Metro Facebook page has managed. The Checky Watch 
community has thus far provided a daily rundown of which routes are most heavily targeted 
by ticket inspectors in an effort to enable those in dire financial straits to travel free 
of charge, as well as publishing photo evidence of the Metro?s recently employed 
undercover inspectors.

Metro fees are currently calculated according to how many ?zones? a traveller passes 
through, an arbitrary and patently unfair method which does not take into account the 
distance a person has travelled and offers no reduction for students, O.A.P?s or the 
unemployed. Indeed, Nexus don?t even offer their own workers, themselves on the minimum 
wage, free or reduced transport on the very trains they maintain!

Checkies are employed by the Nexus group, themselves subcontracted to international 
industry giant DB Regio, a company with a proven track record of worker exploitation that
is currently engaged in an ongoing dispute with Metro cleaners over pay, conditions and 
unfair dismissals.

On the 7th October, a small demonstration was held at Monument, Newcastle and Checky 
Watch, in conjunction with anarchist activists, distributed flyers highlighting the 
outrageous recent fare increase of 7% amidst a time of austerity unparalleled in the last 
25 years. More actions and protests are planned in the near future.


2. Away-Day Blues, Booze and Bruises for EDL

The free-fall decline of everyone?s least favourite pissed-up, racist ?patriots? continued 
apace last month, as a trip to Walthamstow ended in bloody defeat, in fighting and mass 
arrests for the English defence League (EDL).

After a disastrous trip to Bristol back in July (less than 300 EDL were outnumbered by 
over 2,000 angry locals in what was supposed to be their biggest demo of the year), the 
EDL, in their wisdom, planned a day out in famously diverse and proud Walthamstow. The day
went even worse for them than the Bristol debacle, with around 200 fascists being opposed
by 4,000 locals and anti-fascists. After protestors occupied the route of the ?march?, the 
EDL were diverted down side streets where local showered them with plant-pots and abuse 
from their windows! Meanwhile, a separate group of 400 anti-fascists occupied the EDL 
rally point, forcing EDL leader ex-BNP member Tommy Robinson to flee in a taxi (Tommy can 
be seen explaining his actions, blaming everyone bar himself, crying, moaning that his 
wife has left him, his friends hate him and he?s being taken to court for tax-avoidance in 
a rambling, yet hilarious 30 minute youtube video). Unable to deal with what was clearly a 
defeat and already steaming drunk by early afternoon, the rabble of racists turned on each
other, seriously injuring one of their own stewards, Dave ?Shrek? Bolton who had to be 
rescued by police. With their minuscule demo in tatters, and with nowhere to go, the EDL 
were escorted back to Kings Cross station and sent on their way.

While they may seem like an Alcoholics-Anonymous day-trippers club, and attempt to pass 
themselves off as a single issue anti-sharia group, the EDL have consistently shown 
themselves up to be hardcode racists and fascists with links to the BNP, National Front 
and new ?nazi-lite? British Freedom Party. Wherever they have marched unopposed, anyone 
who doesn?t conform to their fascist image of ?values? have been the target of violence, 
from ethnic minorities, Sikhs mistaken for Muslims (really!), trade unionists and 
gay-pride marchers. One EDLer on facebook begged her mates to ?kick fuck out of some pakis 
for me? at the recent Walthamstow demo.

3. The Westcountry Mutineer

Several articles in this month?s issue of Resistance are taken from the Westcountry 
Mutineer, a new, independent class-struggle anarchist bulletin from south-west England. 
Here is what the editors say about the paper:
"The Westcountry Mutineer is the southwest?s premier radical scandal-rag ? sniffing out 
all the news the Murdochs, the cops and the bosses don?t want you to read! Compiled in a 
monthly nourishing meal of wholesome newsbites, we feed our readers hearty helpings of 
news, views, radical history and theory ? not to mention the odd vicious swipe at those in 
power!"
Find the Westcountry Mutineer at: network23.org/thewestcountrymutineer

4. No Justice, No Piece!

Activists across the South-west picketed Dominoes stores in early September to show 
solidarity with striking Pizza delivery workers in Australia. Pickets from Bristol to the 
South Coast were well received by the public, who were shocked to learn that greedy 
Dominoes bosses are slashing pay for Auzzie delivery drivers by 19%, which adds up to a 
lot of lost dough, all with the support of their boss-friendly union. In disgust, the 
workers set up their own union, affiliated to the anarchist International Workers 
Association and have since been striking, taking direct action and calling for solidarity
actions all over the world. Bristol Dominoes workers, initially concerned about the demo, 
soon became more supportive when they learned that it was all to support their antipodean 
mates. Management on the other hand, flew of the handle, angrily berating protesters and 
even calling national Dominoes offices to seek advice and bringing an angry regional 
manager to the Bristol demo (brilliant news, as now the high-ups in Dominoes know what 
people think of their thin-crust pay and conditions). Meanwhile, solidarity protests 
cropped up in other parts of the UK, as well as France, Germany, home of the pizza Italy 
and home of the bastardised pizza America. With every solidarity action reported to be 
boosting the morale of the Auzzie drivers, it can only be a matter of time before the 
Dominoes bosses get stuffed and the workers get a fair slice of the pizza-pie. Messages of 
solidarity and info about how to get stuck in can be left at:
www.facebook.com/GeneralTransport WorkersAssociation

5. Cops Target Union Boss

Worrying news has filtered through from London about a recent RMT tube strike which saw a 
new level of police harassment. The well supported strike, on September 10th was held by
railway support staff demanding the London Living wage (a whopping ?8.30 an hour). Shortly
after a picket line was set up at Kings Cross, Old Bill arrived, trying to bully strikers 
into abandoning the protest. At this point, Steve Hedley, Assistant General Secretary of 
the RMT stepped in to try and inform the workers of their rights. After being told it was 
?none of his business? (a strange comment to make to an officer of the workers? own 
union), the cops nicked Steve for ?breach of the peace?. Their true motive became clear 
when they told the strikers that Steve would be released as soon as they disbanded the 
picket ? something they refused to do, maintaining a large and vibrant picket throughout 
the day. Steve was unsurprisingly released without charge after a six hour wait in the 
cells. But this disgusting use of police power goes further than a few arrogant coppers 
flexing their muscles. Especially in times when an unpopular government is trying to force 
poverty-creating policies on most of us, while allowing their mates in big business to get 
richer, the police serve as little more than the strong arm of the state. The government 
knows that it cannot rely on popularity to protect it, so it gives increasing 
carte-blanche to the cops to deal with dissent with increasing violence and repression. 
This is why murders like PC Harwood, who killed Ian Tomlinson, get off scot-free, no cop 
will be punished for the disgusting cover-ups and abuses of power over Hillsborough and 
no-one ever gets held accountable for the dozens of annual deaths in police custody. The 
police are the useful idiots of the state, and in return for nicking, beating and 
occasionally killing their political enemies, the government makes sure that cops, no 
matter what they have done, will never face the same ?justice? as the rest of us.

6. Hey, teacher, make those bosses groan!

Teachers across the South-West will this month be joining colleagues across the country, 
starting an indefinite campaign of industrial action against excessive stress and 
workload. The action, designed not to affect pupils, will involve teachers refusing 
excessive observations (in some schools in the West, teachers face daily observations), 
refusing to hand in their planning to be marked by senior leaders (yes, this happens) and 
dozens of similar boycotts. The average teachers day begins at 7.45am, and ends around 
6pm, and the long holidays mostly get consumed with marking and planning. This is 
something teachers have been willing to put up with for years, but with head teachers 
increasingly treating staff like naughty children by upping already heavy levels of 
observation and scrutiny as well as expecting a rain-forest depleting level of paperwork 
on a daily basis, teachers felt action was the only option. The teachers decision to fight 
back has been made easier by education secretary Michael ?Pob? Gove claiming that teachers 
frequently leave at 3pm and should have their pay docked for doing so ? a sick joke for 
anyone who knows how deep into the evening an average teachers work runs. Clamouring to 
one-up his partner in crime, OFSTED boss and well known bastard Sir Michael Wilshaw 
recently opened a speech to school leaders with the line ?If anyone says to you that 
?staff morale is at an all-time low? you will know you are doing something right.?. Wow! 
With bosses like these, who can blame the teachers for kicking back?

7. Don?t let ?em rot...

North Swindon residents have been left angry at the council decision to push ahead with 
the building of nearly 1,700 new homes on green-field land. Despite widespread opposition
and concerns that the new Tadpole Farm development, will bulldoze yet more of Swindon?s 
garden and create a serious flooding hazard, Crest Nicholson (who have a long history of 
building on flood plains, and recently tried to concrete over 150 well used allotments in 
bath) and an assortment of local Tory Councillors have pushed the project through. The 
decision comes despite the new South-Swindon Wichelstowe development laying more or less 
empty, with no signs of filling up fast. Add this to the fact that, as of the last count, 
there were 2,518 empty residential properties falling into disrepair around Swindon (with 
a further 5000 throughout Wiltshire), and the case for new builds starts to fall apart. 
Local politicians and construction companies will always play the ?creating new jobs? card 
when defending new developments, but this argument has never added up, the real reason is
profit. With regulations on the quality of new builds at an all-time low, planning 
regulations governing green land more meaningless than ever and provisions for building 
?affordable? and social housing practically non-existent, new builds represent a licence 
for construction companies to print money, while foisting quickly and poorly constructed, 
over-expensive housing on the rest of us. If local councillors and housing companies 
really cared about Swindon, and job creation, they would be far more willing to invest in 
sprucing up the towns empties and providing them as social or affordable housing to ease 
what is already an overflowing council-house waiting list of over 13,000. The development 
at Tadpole farm has nothing to do with helping us out or creating jobs and affordable 
housing and more to do with big-business finding more ways to rake in massive profits at
the rest of our expense, all with the eager help of their Tory lackeys

8. Piratical Hi-Jinks and Hi-jacks in Dartmouth

The West country has a long and proud history of smuggling, brigandry and piracy, so, 
although not at all political we thought we?d take the time to salute Dartmouth resident 
Alison Whelan for upholding these fine traditions. After a weekend long bender, including 
copious amount of lambrini and hallucinogenic deadly nightshade, Alison decided to 
re-ignite the dormant tradition of South-Western piracy. Commandeering a 45ft vessel, 
Captain Whelan steered out of the harbour, smashing into dozens of boats, including a 
?70,000 luxury yacht, all the while screaming ?I?m Jack Sparrow?. Police on the scene 
described the harbour as ?like a giant pinball machine? as Alison attempted to make it to 
the high seas. As authorities approached, Whelan was heard taunting police by saying ?what 
are you going to do now?? and ?I believe this is out of your jurisdiction?. She was wrong. 
Later, when being interviewed, Whelan?s first words to police were ?I would have made it 
St Tropez if you hadn?t stopped me?! The unrepentant pirate is now doing a short stretch
behind bars, and, while her water-borne protest can in no way be counted as progressive, 
or even a protest, we would still like to take off our tri-corner hats in salute to a 
woman who has reminded us that the West?s tradition of drunken, criminal piracy is not 
quite dead.

9. Antep Textile Workers Resist Attacks

Textile workers in the Turkish region of Antep recently came out on strike protesting 
inhumane working conditions, cuts to benefits and bonuses from management and a decrease 
in wages. In terms of sheer numbers and mass participation alone the strike begun 
impressively, with even the most reactionary news outlets estimating that anywhere between 
3,000 to 5,000 workers were involved, with the action spreading spontaneously as 
neighbouring factories and other workplaces took direct action in solidarity with the 
strike. In recent years the Turkish government has made efforts to position itself as a 
possible regional economic superpower, hoping to ape the rise of the Chinese and Indian 
economies in a region that bridges the supposed geographical and cultural divide between 
Europe and North Africa. Naturally, such a policy requires on a total surrender to the 
whims of capitalists, corporations and bosses. Similarly, one of the sparks that ignited 
the strike was the cowardly conduct of the mainstream trades unions, who performed their 
familiar routine of mediating a dispute between the working class and capital by accepting 
a zero percent pay increase. The workers therefore refused from the outset to yield their 
collective power to corrupt representatives and instead forged ahead with directly 
democratic alternatives. The strike was concluded eleven days later, with the workers 
having gained a guarantee of improved working conditions, pay rises of between 10-20 % and 
entitlements to 10 day holiday bonuses throughout the year. Crucially, they were also able 
to combat an attempt during the strike by bosses to force financially desperate strikers 
to sign a document renouncing the strike itself.

10. Mine, All Mine! South African Miners? Victories

Over the last couple of months, the news has been full of bloody stories from the mining 
communities of South Africa. We first of all heard of the tragic deaths of over 30 
striking miners at the hands of the cops, whose government bosses then tried to use 
apartheid era laws to place legal blame for the deaths on the miners themselves. After 
that, the focus soon shifted to stories of ?extremism? from striking workers, threatening 
both bosses and scab workers (like there?s ever something wrong with threatening either 
form of vermin) and holding the South African economy to ransom. Then the news went dead. 
What most people in this country will not know is that after all the death and suffering, 
the miners won a massive victory, securing the 22% pay increase they had been striking 
for. In what seems to be corporate news policy, they are willing to show us stories of 
workers getting bravely beaten or being ?unreasonable? and violent themselves, but find it 
impossible to tell the public when ordinary working people organise themselves and win ? 
which of course sets a bad example. The good news from Africa does not stop at the miners? 
victory. Following their example, protests and strikes have erupted across South Africa, 
with everyone from teachers to gold miners taking action to better the living conditions 
of their families and communities. What started as a localised strike has become a general 
one, and is now taking the shape of a widespread insurrection. Since apartheid ended,
wealth in South Africa has still been controlled by the same elite, now with a smattering 
of black faces, and the workers, overwhelmingly black, still find themselves in dire, and 
often increasing poverty. The victory of the miners, though won at a bloody cost has sent 
shockwaves through the South African working class, which is flexing its muscles and 
gearing up for a fight which could see some of the great wealth of their country ripped 
away from the wealthy few and taken for those who work, sweat and die to create it.

11. Quebec Students Chalk Up A Win

In a striking example of how things should be done, students in Quebec have just won a 
massive victory against the government. Similar to the UK, Canadian politicians were 
attempting to introduce fee hikes, which Canadian students correctly viewed as an attack
on their basic right to an affordable education. Although the Canadian fee hikes were only 
around 6%, and the original university admission fee, far lower than in the UK, Canadian 
students took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands, and after over a year of 
strikes, sit-ins, blockades, protests, directs actions and frequent confrontations with 
the Mounties, won. Authorities quickly realised the students determination ? arresting 
over 3,000 and banning unauthorised marches ? a ban which the students, organising 
themselves through open democratic meetings, wholeheartedly ignored! The strike soon 
spread beyond the students, with teachers, lecturers and other workers joining strike and 
protests actions in what soon became a widespread movement against an unpopular 
conservative government. A spokesperson for CLASSE, the student organising body stated 
that the victory was won ?because we organized a strike movement whose support was popular 
and broad, which allowed people of all ages and walks of life to express their grievances 
about our political and economic struggle, and which helped defeat the government?. In an 
era of increasing austerity, we in Britain could learn a valuable lesson from the students
of Quebec, who refused to give up once an unpopular policy became law and united a broad 
and militant movement which took on and finally defeated the might of the Canadian state.

12. Good News from Unity Centre Glasgow


Some good news from Unity Centre Glasgow, offering friendly, practical solidarity and 
mutual aid to all asylum seekers, refugees and sans papiers.

Christine is still in the UK!

Christine who was dragged naked and screaming from Yarlswood by six guards on Monday 
evening was not removed from the UK and is back in Yarlswood detention centre.
Her treatment by the guards that evening resulted in over a hundred other women prisoners 
staging a protest in the canteen of detention centre.
Christine has been in detention since she was arrested in Glasgow by the Border Agency in 
April this year. Her first removal flight was stopped by the intervention by her MP.
Christine has a harrowing case which is based on repeated sexual abuse from members of her 
family going back for more than ten years, as well as the murder of her father and related 
death threats to her. Christine believes she is in real danger of being found and killed 
by her brothers if she is returned to Uganda.
She got help to escape to the UK where she applied for asylum and spent a long time 
homeless before being taken into detention in April 2012. Christine is in very bad health, 
is seriously depressed and was put on suicide watch in Yarls Wood. She is terrified of 
being returned to Uganda where she suffered for so long.
Christine?s story is one shared by so many of the women in Yarls Wood who fall through the 
cracks of an asylum system that does not recognise the repeated abuse and rape of women in 
the family and the support of societies for that abuse, as good enough grounds for asylum. 
Christine had previously made the plea ?It seems that I have no rights for my life, no 
right to recover from this torture knowing that I have been through a lot. And I have been 
denied the natural justice that I deserve.?

Khadija Still Here, Still Fighting!

Khadija Azergui who was being forcibly removed yesterday to Morocco managed to get her 
flight stopped after her lawyer successfully lodged an application for a judicial review. 
Khadijia, a student at Glasgow University who had claimed asylum to escape a forced 
marriage to a business acquantaince of her father, had been detained in August as a ?Fast 
Track? asylum case in August this year.
The UKBA refused to accept that she was facing a forced marriage and the threat of being 
killed by her father and brothers but she has managed ot get expert evidence about the 
treatment of women in Morocco which she submitted last week.
Khadijia is still here and still fighting!
The UNITY Centre
30 Ibrox Street
Glasgow
G51 1AQ
Tel: 0141 427 7992
www.unitycentreglasgow.org
info@unitycentreglasgow.org

13. Yarl?s Wood Prisoners Resist

On Wednesday 17 October, 200 women were ?kettled? for eight hours in a corridor within the 
notorious Yarl?s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. Many women refused food
whilst some were denied their medication. Five women were held ?incommunicado?. Screws at 
the detention centre threatened women with further reprisals.
One of the woman locked-up said: ?There has been intimidation and oppression directed 
towards us. Even today (18 Oct) we were all locked in with no free movement until 1.30pm. 
We had no access to the internet so women couldn?t get information to support their cases. 
This is especially terrible for those on the Fast Track system who have only two days to 
make an application or appeal. Some women have not been able to get the medication they need.

Women had gathered to demand a meeting with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) after Serco guards 
dragged a naked woman (Ms CN) from her room in an attempt to deport her. UKBA said they 
would only meet women if they came in one by one. Women refused to be picked off and the 
guards locked them in the corridor.
Earlier this month 120 women gathered to agree a set of demands to address the injustice 
they faced including: ?no more Fast Track [where asylum decisions are made within days, 
leaving no time for evidence to be gathered]; full internet access; pay us at least the 
minimum wage for our work; no more copy & paste of case decisions ? we need fair trial; no 
more charter flights.?

Verna Joseph, who led a hunger strike in Yarl?s Wood last year and was also kettled with 
80 women in a corridor for over eight hours commented: ?We stopped eating to protest at 
mothers being separated from children, women being held for months inside with no 
explanation or hearing and the abuse of women who have suffered rape and other torture. 
Our demands were similar those being made now ? it is shocking that nothing has changed.?
This information is from the Black Women?s Rape Action Project who are in daily contact 
with women prisoners at Yarl?s Wood.
www.womenagainstrape.net/black-womens-rape-action-project

Write to a Prisoner!

We live in a time of unprecedented repression, when more people than ever from our class, 
and from our movement, are going to prison, and for longer. In spite of this, as always, 
there are still those who are prepared to fight back. It is vital that we show our support 
& solidarity to class struggle prisoners
Many prisoners? addresses from around the world are listed on the websites of the 
Anarchist Black Cross groups.
For excellent advice on contacting prisoners download the free PDF leaflet by Leeds 
Anarchist Black Cross called ?Writing to Prisoners? from:
www.leedsabc.org
For loads of news, information and links about prisons check the Campaign Against Prison 
Slavery website at:
www.againstprisonslavery.org



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Anarchist Federation

The Anarchist Federation is an organisation of class struggle anarchists (based in Britain 
and Ireland, but with many contacts overseas) which aims to abolish Capitalism and all 
oppression to create a free and equal society. This is Anarchist Communism.

We see today?s society as being divided into two main opposing classes: the ruling class 
which controls all the power and wealth, and the working class which the rulers exploit to 
maintain this. By racism, sexism and other forms of oppression, as well as war and 
environmental destruction the rulers weaken and divide us. Only the direct action of 
working class people can defeat these attacks and ultimately overthrow capitalism.

As the capitalist system rules the whole world it?s destruction must be complete and world 
wide. We reject attempts to reform it such as working through parliament and national 
liberation movements (like the IRA) as they fail to challenge capitalism itself. Unions 
also work as a part of the capitalist system, so although workers struggle within them, 
they will be unable to bring about capitalism?s destruction unless they go beyond these 
limits.

Organisation is vital if we?re to beat the bosses, so we work for a united anarchist 
movement and are affiliated to the International of Anarchist Federations.

National Contact

Email: info [at] afed.org.uk
Web: www.afed.org.uk

Write to:
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