(en) Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Obituary:

 (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Obituary:

Colin Parker was born in the pit village of Crook in Co. Durham on 15th December 2014. His
father Martin was a miner. He apprenticed as a fitter-turner after leaving school at the 
age of fifteen. He worked as a lathe operator in the local factory owned by Marshall 
Richards, a manufacturer of wire and tube making machines. ---- At an early age he joined 
the local library and became an avid reader of books on politics, art and history. With 
three of his brothers he joined the local Labour Party and was associated with the 
Militant Tendency within it. He and his brothers were expelled for confronting a local 
Labour Party official, Colin being the most vociferous of all. He subsequently joined the 
Communist Party. ---- He was sponsored by his union to attend Ruskin College in Oxford in 
1969. After the end of the course he moved to London to study a politics degree at East 
London Polytechnic. He then went to the London School of Economics and got an MA in 
politics in 1974.

The following year he took a teacher
training course and in 1976 became
a teacher at Barking College of
Further Education where he worked
until his retirement in his early sixties.
As his son Martin noted: “He aimed
to reach out and empower working
class people to achieve greater educational
success and get more from their lives”.
In the meantime he had left the CP and flirted
with various Trotskyist groups. The Workers
Revolutionary Party considered him an important
enough catch to send around Vanessa Redgrave
to his council flat in central London, but he was
not convinced. He then attended Socialist Workers
Party branch meetings but started asking too many
questions about their politics. All of this was part
of his evolution towards class struggle anarchism.

He began producing a duplicated magazine named Virus and subtitled For Militant Anarchism 
in 1984 during the height of the miners’ strike. He contacted the Libertarian Communist 
Discussion Group the following year and suggested that Virus become the mouthpiece of the 
Group. Regular meetings were held at Colin’s flat and a network of contacts was built up 
around Britain, leading to the founding of the Anarchist Communist Federation in March 1986.

He was active in the ACF, subsequently renamed the Anarchist Federation, until his death.

He took an active part in support for the miners’ strike and then attended many 
demonstrations during the Wapping printers struggle. He threw himself into the struggle 
against the Poll Tax and refused to pay. He was arrested during an anti-Poll Tax demo and 
subsequently fined. He was a stalwart of the London group of the AF for many years, always
warmly welcoming new contacts and providing an uncomplicated introduction to its ideas.

After his retirement he returned to Crook. He died as a result of a brain aneurism on 
January 22nd 2015.

He passionately hated the police, the various Leninist outfits, and former radicals who 
had sold out, which included some of his workmates who had accepted management positions. 
He remained devoted to revolutionary anarchist ideas to the end.

He was a warm and generous person, with a wide knowledge of politics, history and art, 
which he had acquired through his own reading. I was fortunate enough to have him as a 
close friend and comrade for thirty years. His death has come as both a loss to me 
personally, to the AF and anarchism.

Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Sylvia Pankhurst on Parliament

"Women could no more reform the decaying parliamentary institution than men could...the
woman professional politician is neither more nor less desirable than the man 
professional: the less the world has of either, the better it is for it." ---- Sylvia 
Pankhurst, commenting on the election of eight women to parliament: ---- The return of 
eight women to Parliament marks an advance in public opinion. People have realised at last 
that women are persons with all the human attributes, not merely some of
them and that women have an equal right with men to take part in making the social 
conditions under which they live. This country has not been first in admitting women to 
political equality with men: other countries preceded us in admitting women to the 
legislature, and we have not yet reached political equality in the franchise here, 
although the women of this country led the way in agitating for political and legal equality.

Election to Parliament is always much more a question
of the strength of the party machine than of the qualities
of the candidate. An archangel would be defeated
at the polls if he lacked a strong party backing. The
majority of the electors vote without having heard or
seen the candidate, who actually plays but a minor part
in the election. Nevertheless, there was undoubtedly
some prejudice to be overcome by the first women
candidates; which acted as a makeweight against
them, outbalancing what would otherwise have
been the normal strength of the party behind them.

This election is the first in which the electors have voted
for thesuccessful womencandidates toanyappreciable
extent on the merits of those candidates. Lady Astor,
Mrs. Wintringham, and Mrs. Phillipson entered
Parliament merely as deputies of their husbands.

This fact, from a democratic standpoint, was
particularly objectionable in the case of Lord Astor
since he was thus given a voice in ruling the people
through both Houses of Parliament.

The women who entered Parliament in place of their
husbands introduced no original policies, nor do
we anticipate that their successors will do so. They
were nominated candidates and have been elected
to represent certain parties, and, in the main, their
parliamentary doings must follow that of their men
colleagues in the party, otherwise the party will cast
them out.

Most of these hardships, and the more serious of
them, cannot be remedied within the system. Most of
them, too, cannot even be mitigated without tampering
with economic conditions; and there, at once, the
general party policy will certainly obtrude itself, and
the party woman will be called to heel by the whips
like a party man if she stray far from the party plan.

Nevertheless, on questions of the special hardships
of women and on questions specially related to sex
the women members of the various parties may
sometimes show themselves a trifle before or a
trifle behind the general standard of their party by
adhering in some respects to what has come to be
generally regarded as the accepted programme of
feminism. It is so regarded because it was adopted
by certain women of the middle and upper classes,
who were, for their day, more or less advanced
though narrow and prejudiced in many respects, but
who were of forceful energetic personality and built
up a movement reflecting their conception of what
should be the legal status of their sex and primarily
of their class. That programme is, in many respects,
retrograde and, and in all respects, incompatible with
Socialism.

One should not expect to find new policies on any
subject springing up from Parliament; the atmosphere
there is arid, the life stultifying to thought. At best
at very best -- the Members of Parliament carry on
the politics they adopted before they entered there,
or catch up some vibrations or movements going on outside. Parliament is a decaying 
institution: it will pass away with the capitalist system: it will be replaced by the 
industrial soviets, when production, distribution and transport pass out of the hands of 
the capitalist, to become the joint concern of the whole people, each branch of industry 
being administered by those who are engaged in it.

Women can no more put virtue into the decaying parliamentary institution than can men: it
is past reform and must disappear.

Once the special legal disabilities of women in politics were in large measure, though not 
wholly, removed, it became inevitable that there should be little difference between the 
woman in politics and the man in politics.

That is as it should be.

The women professional politician is neither more nor less desirable than the man 
professional politician: the less the world has of either the better it is for it. The 
time to look forward to is that in which there will no longer be a body of persons whose 
business it is to rule or to listen to speeches of the rulers and their puppets and to 
while away hour upon hour waiting to record their votes in division lobbies to the call of 
the party whips.

The Soviets, under Communism, will meet for the administration of the services of the 
community, not to carry on the party warfare which is inevitable to present - day society, 
because it is based on competition and torn by the struggles of warring classes. To the 
women, as to the men, the hope of the future lies not through Parliamentary reform, but 
free Communism and the soviets.

Published in Workers’ Dreadnought, 15 December 1923.

Britain, BUILD GARDENS NOT PRISONS by afed

(en) Britain, BUILD GARDENS NOT PRISONS by afed

The campaign against a new mega-prison being built near Wrexham got a boost recently when 
the Reclaim the Fields network held an action camp nearby. The camp, of 100-150 people, 
was hosted by a local anti-fracking site and workshops explored the links between prison 
abolition and many other struggles. ---- People held evening noise demos at three prisons 
in the region in solidarity with those inside, leafleted the local town, and picketed 
several companies involved in the mega-prison. Finally, a blockade of the construction 
site held up lorries for over 4 hours without any arrests. ---- "Prisons are part of the 
problem." said Olly Torcada. "They are abusive places used to control and threaten people,
particularly those of us who are working class, people of colour, or disobedient."

"We need justice processes based on strong, vibrant communities," said Frieda Evans, "not 
more prisons and cops harming our communities."

The new prison would be the biggest in the UK, and the second biggest in Europe. It aims 
to open in 2017 and would give the State enough cages to lock up an extra 2100 people.

Get involved!

http://www.reclaimthefields.org.uk/

@gardensnotcages / cape-campaign.org

@BCPC2 / frackfreewrexham.org.uk

https://afed.org.uk/build-gardens-not-prisons/

(en) Britain, INTRODUCING FEDERALISM & FREE ASSOCIATION by afed

Federalism (in anarchism) is a mode of organisation where different individuals and groups
form horizontal networks on the basis of offering solidarity and mutual aid in shared 
endeavours. Rather than having a top-down leadership, council, or centralised committee, a 
federation has a method of collective decision making that gives all parts of the 
organisation fair and equal input on decisions that are being made. ---- Membership of a 
federation is undertaken on the basis of free association. This means that potential 
members would be fully informed of the organisations structure and direction in advance of 
agreeing to join. Once part of the federation the new member could be involved in any 
decision making. The structures for making decisions would utilise some form of 
participatory direct democracy where each member has fair input.

When it isn't practical or necessary for every individual to attend a discussion, smaller 
groups within a federation can select a delegate to carry their views on a particular 
issue. Delegates do not have the power to make decision on their own, only relay the 
position(s) as they have been advised and to make changes as their mandate allows. Any 
points of deviation or debate have to be taken back to be ratified by the group as a 
whole. The federation may also select officers to undertake certain tasks, however these 
again fall within a set mandate as provided by the federation.

These roles are subject to rotation so as to share workload and responsibility. If an 
officer/delegate is felt to have gone out-with their mandate or acted in bad faith then 
mechanisms are in place to recall their position and review any actions undertaken.

The aims, principles, activity and structure of a federation are collectively developed 
and voluntarily accepted by it's members. At the same time a federal structure allows for 
members to act as they want and remain part of the federation as long as are not 
undermining its collectively agreed activities.

While decisions won't always go someone's way, that is part of being around other people.
The big difference when compared with hierarchal structures is that each member would have 
fair input into decisions being made.

If a member has a fundamental conflict with the federation then free association allows 
for them leave. Due to the level of collective agreement in the decision making this is 
unlikely to take place on a whim. Members would also have accepted the mechanisms by which 
the federation could come to a decision to disassociate (as in removing membership) from a 
person or group.

Federalism and free association are important in all areas of class struggle. Without them 
our struggles will be isolated and unable to overcome capitalism and lead to a free 
communist society. If our struggles take on a hierarchal form then a class system will be 
part of any outcome. Class society can not be ended, or communism reached, by putting a 
different group in charge.

There are two examples of anarchist federations in the UK; ourselves in the aptly named 
Anarchist Federation (with our pamphlets 'The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation' and
'Basic Bakunin' both touching on this subject), and the Solidarity Federation (a 
revolutionary union initiative). Both federation's websites have great about sections that 
detail how they organise.


https://afed.org.uk/introducing-federalism-free-association/

(en) Britain, London, AFED Critical Mass to Calais: Bikes Beyond Borders!

 (en) Britain, London, AFED, Critical Mass to Calais: Bikes
Beyond Borders!

Got a bike and want to pass it on? This is an attempt to get bikes and other provisions to 
refugees in Calais. ---- If you have, or can source a bike to donate, then please, please 
join us this August bank holiday weekend on our little trip cycling across the channel: 
Critical Mass to Calais, taking bikes beyond borders! ---- We will release more details 
nearer the time, but you can get involved in any way shape or form (there are many, many 
ways) just scroll down and pick from the options below. ---- Why CMC:BBB? ---- The vast 
majority of people living in the camps have left their home countries for reasons of war 
and persecution in search of safety and security. Now, having been forcibly evicted from 
autonomous camps in Calais to a new 'designated area', 7km from the town centre, there are 
in the region of 2000 people, including women and unaccompanied minors, living in 
conditions of poor sanitation with minimal access to support and services.

Most cyclists can relate to the sense of freedom, mobility and self sustainability 
afforded by the bicycle. For people living in the camps, bicycles are an invaluable asset, 
improving quality of life by increasing access to basic essentials like the local shop and 
support and advice services, currently over an hour's walk away. Some organisations have 
already began taking bikes to the camps, but many more are needed.

Here is how to JOIN IN THE FUN:

1) THE BIG ONE - 2 Day Cycle from London to Calais leaving Saturday 29th August with 
overnight camp fun to break the journey - Location and route details TBA nearer the time.

2) 1 Day Cycle from London to Calais leaving Sunday 30th August - For the faster riders or 
those with time constraints.

3) 1 Day Cycle, starting at overnight camp (location TBA) to Calais - For those who want a 
shorter ride.

4) Just get to Calais! You may want to donate a bike and visit Calais with us, but perhaps 
don't fancy the ride or don't live in London or the UK...so just find the best way to meet 
- perhaps even starting a critical mass from your own city!

Don't have a bike you are able to donate?

1) Come along for the ride! Donating is not mandatory at all, the more the merrier, so 
join in the fun at any of the stages listed above!

2) Talk to your pals! Do you know there are 7 times more unused bikes in garages and 
gardens in London than out on the roads, so speak to your friends or neighbours to get 
your hands on one!

3) Get a second hand bike from your local bike shop or one of our recommended providers - 
details to follow.

Don't fancy the ride?

1) Get your bike to Calais in any way you can! We know that riding isn't for everyone, the 
main objective is to get as many bikes to the camps as possible, so if you have another 
way of getting yours there, then find us at either Dover or Calais on the Sunday.

2) Join us as a support vehicle! You never know what might happen the road and we would 
love to be accompanied along the way! There will be mechanics in the group but parts and 
refreshments will need their own ride.

3) Donate any spare bicycles to the cause! There are many organisations who refurbish 
unused bicycles and donate them to asylum seekers and refugees, message us and we can 
connect you!

https://afed.org.uk/critical-mass-to-calais-bikes-beyond-borders

Britain, AFED - WAKEY WAKEY!

Wake Up! gatherings, where people are given opportunity to use a quality PA on the streets 
of towns and cities to discuss politics, are mushrooming over the country. Debates which 
often only take place in limited circles and leave us divided and easier to rule - 
encompassing racism, religion, sexism, and austerity - are taking place openly in the 
street and helping build solidarity amongst the working class. The views of the right 
wingers and the racists are openly being challenged out of doors without the use of 
darkened meeting rooms and the need to read in advance. Equipment is provided by Community 
Bandstand and, during sessions, no-one is allowed to outshout another speaker, ensuring a 
degree of voice for all involved.

The first Wake Up! Manchester followed on from some arrests in the summer of 2014 at the 
anti-fracking site at Barton Moss. PA equipment was used outside the police station where 
the arrestees were held and quality debates began. Initially, the Wake Up! sessions were 
musical, with serial monologues but they soon developed into debates.

Recently in Manchester, a rabid Christian using his own PA was peddling his church on 
Market Street. He was challenged, using another street microphone, with people asking 
"What happens to all the money you collect?". A large crowd got involved in the debate 
which challenged the power of the church and the role money plays in sustaining it while 
the poor and homeless remain on the street.

In Bolton, an EDL member was mouthing off their usual Islamophobia. A large crowd gathered 
and the racist ideas were dismantled before the racist skulked off. Collective activity 
was able to overcome racist ideas where they would have went unchallenged much of the time.

It can be dangerous to give any sort of voice to the likes of the EDL or the religious 
right, however the Wake Up! team believe that it is sometimes effective to break down 
their ideas openly in order to marginalise their opinions. This can also be used to show 
those who would otherwise be terrorised by an oppressive fringe that popular support 
stands against the racists and bigots.

For some people, access to new anarchist ideas is limited by unease with reading or a 
limited literacy. Wake Up! gets around this by allowing for street debate. When you have a 
conversation with a person you have an opportunity to clear up misunderstandings there and 
then.

Currently Wake Up! Operates in Bolton, Manchester, Liverpool and Wigan. New Wake Up! 
groups are developing in Ipswich, Newcastle, Bangor and Sheffield.

Advice on setting up a Wake Up!

If you would like to set one up in your local area contact 
www.communitybandstand.wordpress.com. The group will provide PA systems, megaphones, 
cameras, and telescopic banner poles, while you will need to cover petrol/diesel money to 
get the kit to your area. In addition:

Choose a space with good footfall, room for PA equipment, and space for a banner behind 
e.g. outside a closed-down shop with shutters.
Pick a regular time so people can find you.
Check local by-laws. In some areas, when challenged by the law, cops left when informed it 
was a civil issue and the council were welcome to come and discuss it with them. This may 
be different in your area.

https://afed.org.uk/wakey-wakey/

Britain AFED - VIOLENT GANG HELP CROOKS STEAL A PERSON'S LIFE POSSESSIONS

Outrage is being felt today in Nottingham after a man recovering from cancer had his home 
and possessions stolen by a gang of police and bailiffs. ---- Tom Crawford has been in 
dispute with Bradford and Bingley over his mortgage. Both in July 2014 and January of this 
year Tom was shown solidarity, as more than 300 people gathered on the quiet street in 
Nottingham to prevent the eviction. These acts of resistance went off without any issues 
and the bailiffs went home empty-handed ---- The same could not be said today, as 
somewhere between 50-100 police waited until Tom was taking his dying dog to the vet to 
attack his home. Flanking the bailiffs convoy, the police violently forced their way 
through anyone giving objection, before the doors were smashed down without proper warrant 
or identification.

As ever, none of the actions of the police or bailiffs followed anything resembling the 
law, showing in clear detail that the role of police is to seize and protect private 
property for capitalist ventures and the state.

Tom has vowed to fight on, pledging that his home will be his once more.

Footage can be seen on the ITV News site.
http://www.itv.com/news/central/2015-07-02/bailiffs-evict-cancer-patient-from-home/

https://afed.org.uk/violent-gang-help-crooks-steal-a-persons-life-possessions/

Britain Responding to the New Tory Strike Laws

Note: Below is an article written in response to the recent budget in Britain, following 
the return to power of the Conservatives. Governments everywhere have a habit of copying 
each other, so opponents need to learn and ask questions about their local and national 
situations to make common linkages of resistance regarding tactics that might work. ---- 
By Phil ---- The Queen's Speech recently confirmed that the Tory government's intent to 
bring in new laws further restricting strikes. The unions have reacted with fury - but 
will they really do anything about it? ---- After years of threatening to do so, the 
Tories are finally set to bring in even tighter restrictions on strikes. They are 
introducing the requirement for 50% of balloted members to take part in any vote for it to 
be legal, and in 'essential public services' no strike can take place unless 40% of all 
those eligible to vote in the ballot support action, regardless of actual turnout.

The UK already has "the most restrictive trade union laws anywhere in the western world", 
as Tony Blair once boasted, and these new measures are only set to make things worse.

The official bullshit is that this is simply about making sure strikes are democratic, and 
a handful of rabble rousers can't use the whole workforce as pawns to hold the poor bosses 
to ransom. Because, dear me, what is freedom if not the right to pay your workers piss all 
in exchange for making you obscenely rich without them having any means to complain about 
it? Nobody wants to strike, certainly not for triffling things like fair wages or safety, 
it's only that the union barons make them do it.

This rhetoric quickly falls apart on even a cursory inspection. If it's about democracy, 
why not allow workplace balloting to guarantee high turnouts? If it's about legitimacy, 
why not apply the same standards to parliamentary elections, removing most of the Tory 
cabinet at a stroke? But of course it isn't about those things. The fact that restrictions 
on scab labour are to be lifted only underlines that the point here is explicitly to 
restrict strikes as far as they can get away with short of making them illegal altogether.

In addition, it's worth noting that these laws aren't a response to overly belligerent 
trade unions. They're the act of a ruling class on the offensive. They can enact the new 
legislation without worry for the same reason they can roll back all the concessions of 
social democracy - because the movement that won them is in retreat.

No answer from the union tops

Most people opposed to these new laws will know instinctively how to challenge them. Sure, 
there'll be a naive soul here who really thinks a petition can sort it out, and a blind 
fool there who believes Labour will repeal them in five years time. But in general, people 
who want to defeat these new laws will realise that the way to do that is by defying them.

But it would be a mistake to look for that defiance to come from the union leaderships.

Such an idea is typified by the Socialist Party of England and Wales.

The Socialist Party wrote:

At the FBU conference, just days after the election, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady 
announced that there will be a special meeting of the TUC Executive in the aftermath of 
the Queen's Speech. But if Cameron (elected on 24% of the electorate!) announces the 
threatened new laws to bring in 50% turnout thresholds in industrial action ballots and 
worse for the public sector, this has to be widened out to an emergency TUC General Council.
It should be a 'council of war' to seriously prepare the whole union movement for a 24 
hour general strike, as a warning to the Tories. More importantly, it would raise the 
sights and lift the spirits of millions of workers and all those lined up to be on the 
receiving end of the Tories' eye-watering £12 billion welfare cuts. The left executives 
should work out a strategy to put pressure on the TUC. But if the TUC refuses to organise, 
then the left-led unions should get together to call action.

To their credit, SPEW concede the likelihood of the TUC refusing to organise such 
defiance. This is amply demonstrated by both the TUC sell-out of the 1926 general strike, 
and its retreat in the face of Thatcher's anti-strike laws. But it is more than just 
reticence or cowardice. Even were the TUC not merely an umbrella organisation with no 
power in itself to call a strike or instruct its member unions, calling a general strike 
(even in the tokenistic single-day protest form) simply isn't in its material interests.

I refered to both the existing legislation and that coming in as "anti-strike" rather than 
"anti-union" because it actually serves business trade unionism. In restricting the 
ability of workers to strike, the law also reinforces the union's representative function 
- in mediating between workers and capital and providing individual case work support 
rather than organising collective disputes. In other words, it helps the union 
bureaucracies curb militancy while reinforcing their role in defusing anger for a seat at 
the bargaining table.

Of course, militancy has already been curbed to such an extent that the incentive for 
bosses to offer a seat to the bureaucrats is ever diminishing. While the majority of 
unions remain in denial of this, some keep up a show of combativeness in order to present 
some level of threat if they're not listened to. These are the 'left'-led unions SPEW 
refers to.

But their combativeness, no matter how sharply it contrasts with the TUC as a whole, is 
still largely for show. Supposed fighting unions like PCS still ultimately exist to 
moderate class struggle and how far they will go is still limited by their need to secure 
a position in negotiations by selling industrial peace. Not to mention that as businesses 
the unions have everything to lose and nothing to gain by defying the law and risking the 
sequestration of their funds.

In short, even if the TUC general council talks the talk of a 'war council,' it will 
always be a pantomime.

What then?

We're not going to see a general strike any time soon - even a token one for a single day. 
Lobbying the TUC to 'get off their knees' in ignorance of both how it works and its 
material interests is a dead end. As is looking to the Labour Party who were responsible 
for a document called In Place of Strife and would have had us today referring to the 
'Wilson anti-strike laws' instead of the Thatcher anti-strike laws had they not been defeated.

Instead, we need to look to ourselves. Enough has been written elsewhere, including by 
myself, about the need to build a movement from the ground up based on self-organisation 
and direct action that I don't need to repeat myself here. But the point remains that the 
answer lies with our class rather than those who proclaim themselves our leaders or 
representatives.

So let's not sloganise about a general strike, especially not a one-day shadow puppet 
version of it. Let's not 'call on' the TUC or the Labour Party for a single thing since 
they can offer us nothing.

Let's take matters into our own hands so that we can start to advance instead of retreating.

END

The article was orignially posted 
here:https://libcom.org/blog/responding-new-tory-strike-laws-30052015

http://www.awsm.nz/2015/06/16/responding-to-the-new-tory-strike-laws/

Britain Glasgow Anarchists - FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE by sarahkerton

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(en) Britain, AF Organise! magazine Issue 84 Summer 2015 - CONTENTS + Editorial

Britain, AF Organise! magazine Issue 84 Summer 2015 -
CONTENTS + Editorial

CONTENTS ---- Editorial ---- Fight for the City: Social cleansing. Social warfare. ---- 
Poking a future monarch with a stick ---- War and Barbarism ---- Rojava: Reality & 
Rhetoric ---- A load of crystal balls: the Election and Beyond ---- What the Suffragettes 
did for us ---- Sylvia Pankhurst on Parliament ---- Report from AFem 2014 Anarcha-feminist 
Conference in London ---- Culture: Theo Van Rysselberghe ---- Review: The Wobblies in 
Their Heyday ---- Review: The Method of Freedom ---- Obituary: Colin Parker ---- 
Editorial: What's in the Latest Organise! ---- As this issue of Organise! goes to press at 
the time of the election. As we say here, whoever wins the election the governments always 
gets in. Whichever brand of politician ends up in the majority or whatever coalition is 
lashed together we know that the current programme of capitalist austerity will continue.

It will result in even more devastating cuts than we have already experienced, coupled 
with a strengthening of police powers to curb any opposition. As the crisis that is 
capitalism rumbles on, we must be prepared to fight against its latest representatives 
whoever they may be.

Fight for the City explains some ways in which opposition can be developed, in this 
instance focusing on the housing struggle. Social cleansing and gentrification, another 
facet of the capitalist crisis, are effecting towns and cities across the world with 
increasing speed and we must learn how to organise against them with similar speed and 
tenacity.

We also include an in-depth analysis of the resistance to austerity in the UK so far. 
Looking back over the past five years of Student Occupations, TUC strikes, UK Uncut 
Actions and mass rioting. We take a look at the strengths and weaknesses and how we can 
build a more effective resistance.

Another aspect of the crisis of capitalism is the descent into war and barbarism. We look 
at the various plays of both the big powers like the US, Russia and
China and local powers like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel in the Near and Middle East. 
Our opposition to capitalism and the State must always have a strong anti-militarist and 
internationalist emphasis.

We include a critical look at the situation in Rojava from French revolutionaries, which 
questions the rebirth of the PKK into libertarian organisation.

The question of voting, not voting, and what we can even vote for anyway, is discussed in 
Crystal Balls. This theme is continued in the article on what the Suffragettes won for us, 
with a no-nonsense view on the use of Parliament by Sylvia Pankhurst to back it up. This 
is followed with a look at the contemporary
Anarcha-Feminist movement with a report from AFem 2014.

Also in this issue is an article on the Belgian painter Theo Van Rysselberghe, who like 
many other painters in France and Belgium, took up the anarchist cause. In addition we 
have our usual book reviews, which includes a look at a new collection of the writings of 
Malatesta, one of the most pragmatic of anarchist revolutionaries, and a book on how the 
State usedthe most ferocious means to crush the IWW, a mass organisation of the working 
class, in order to protect their war interests.

We finish this issue of Organise! on a sad note as we remember Colin Parker, one of the 
founders of the Anarchist Federation, who died early this year.

---

Organise! magazine #84 Winter 2015. The Anarchist Federation http://www.afed.org.uk

http://www.afed.org.uk/publications/organise-magazine/445-issue-84-summer-2015.html

Download free PDF of last issue: http://www.afed.org.uk/org/org83.pdf [large file size 17MB]

Britain, Glasgow Anarchists: What is #wecantmarch?

 (en) Britain, Glasgow Anarchists: What is #wecantmarch?

A new blog dedicated to folks who can't march but want to self-organise in upcoming 
struggles. Hell yeah! ---- On May 9th, 2015, thousands of people marched in London and 
demonstrated in Cardiff, just a day after we woke up to a Tory majority government. 
Several more rallies and demonstrations have been planned for the next few weeks (e.g. 
Sheffield and Bristol), and local and national anti-austerity groups are finding the 
energy to fight back. ---- Not all of us are able to participate in these actions. ---- 
Within its first 24 hours of being thought up and used, thousands of tweets were made 
using #wecantmarch and it gained a huge amount of attention on Twitter. So many amazing 
radical people - disabled, trans, queer, people of colour, working class, international, 
parents and those with caring responsibilities, and people who intersect many of these 
categories - are contributing to the hashtag. People are offering stories about why they 
cannot march against Tory cruelty, celebrating alternative forms of radical activism, 
demonstrating their eagerness to help with direct action, and calling for activist 
communities to value our work.

The aim of #wecantmarch is to coordinate and crowd-source resources so that those who 
cannot participate in traditional direct action can be active. We are calling for a 
radical shift of narrative regarding how we do activism and direct action: we want to move 
away from considering those able to be on the front line as top of the activist hierarchy, 
and expose and celebrate all of the other, more accessible radical work that can be done, 
and is being done. To build a radical movement, and effectively fight back against Tory 
and State violence, inclusivity, diversity and accessibility are crucial.

It is important to note that we in no way oppose marching, demonstrations, or radical 
direct action. Black Lives Matter, for example, has been a phenomenal force, an extremely 
powerful movement, with so many radical aspects – from blocking highways, occupying spaces 
(even police stations), “Black Brunches”, in addition to an incredible swell of legal and 
jail support, community-building efforts, online organising/activism, and fundraising. We 
are completely and utterly in favour of radical and revolutionary action, but “radical 
action” can manifest itself in so many shapes and forms. What is usually assumed to be the 
most valuable work of direct action – marching, occupying, civil disobedience, etc – can 
often be inaccessible to those the hardest hit by Tory policies and State violence. Some 
of us can’t stand or walk around for hours, some of us can’t stand in crowds of thousands 
of strangers, some of us are rightly terrified of the police, and for some of us the risk 
of being arrested is life-threatening.

Since the hashtag took off on Twitter, there have been so many incredible contributions 
and suggestions, but we’ve also noticed an attempt from some who are anti-protest and 
anti-direct action to co-opt our struggles for ‘proof’ that radical action isn’t helpful. 
Don’t make that mistake. We’re not here to silence or shame protesters, we’re here to 
highlight that people can be pushed aside, alienated and invisibilised by traditional and 
most visible methods of action. Solidarity efforts, behind-the-scenes work, fundraising – 
to name but a few – are not only essential to the fight, but make demonstrations and 
direct-actions themselves safer and more accessible.

This Storify has been set up to collect some of the useful suggestions that came through 
Twitter. We are currently organising this blog so that we can offer it as an accessible 
resource.

ANOTHER exciting thing to have come from this is that some people have taken it upon 
themselves to organise #wecantmarch meet-ups in their towns and cities, to discuss among 
themselves how they can contribute to direct action! This is incredible, and there’s 
already talk of meetings in London, Edinburgh, Sheffield and Liverpool.

If you’re interested in helping us out, contributing to the blog, or want more 
information, please email: wecantmarch@gmail.com.

https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/what-is-wecantmarch/

Britain, Glasgow Anarchists: More of the Same by awhendry

So, the votes are in and it’s a victory for the Conservative Party. Which doesn’t really 
surprise me to be honest as there is nothing, aside from tie colour, to differentiate the 
two major political parties. They both offer the same ‘solutions’ to the economic crisis 
-class warfare dressed up in the rhetoric of austerity and fiscal cut backs. Many of my 
friends on Facebook today have been wailing and gnashing their teeth over the results of 
the election as they seem to believe that had the Labour Party won enough seats to form a 
government then they would have mitigated the onslaught of attacks on the quality of life 
that we have at the moment. The truth is that had Labour won the election, either with a 
majority or through forming a coalition with the smaller parties, then they would have 
continued on the path laid out by the Tories.

When Labour were last in office, 1997-2009, they slashed benefits, introduced private 
testing for the sick and disabled (because apparently GPs don’t know enough about their 
own patients to be able to tell if they’re fit for work or not), introduced the much hated 
‘Bedroom Tax’ in the form of Local Housing Allowance for private tenants, and they did not 
repeal a single piece of anti-union legislation brought in by the Conservative Party under 
Thatcher and Major. How can a party that calls itself ‘The Labour Party’ not have repealed 
laws preventing flying pickets/secondary picketing? By having absolutely nothing to do 
with the interests of the working class, that’s how.

It seems that many people have very short memories.

I have to admit that the Scottish National Party landslide up here in Scotland did make me 
smile. Not because I support the SNP -far, far from it in fact- but because I absolutely 
detest and abhor the racist, war mongering, anti-worker, Labour Party with a hatred that 
knots my stomach. I worked with asylum seekers through the last Labour administration and 
the horrendous policies they brought in, that saw children being incarcerated for the 
crime of having been born in the wrong place, caused unthinkable suffering to people I 
knew and deeply cared about. That and the millions dead in Afghanistan and Iraq means that 
I can never forgive the party that has the cheek to claim a socialist heritage.

The SNP victory here in Scotland does however serve as a nice illustration of one of the 
problems with bourgeois, sorry, “representative” democracy. The people in Scotland, those 
who engaged with the election anyway, have chosen the SNP as they feel, I’m sure, that the 
SNP will best represent the interests of those who live in Scotland. However the power to 
make decisions over what happens in Scotland still lies firmly in the hands of political 
parties that have absolutely no interest in the wishes of the people who live in Scotland. 
The decisions that affect the lives of people from Ardrossan to Aberdeen and beyond are 
still being made hundreds of miles away by people who are not affected by the outcomes of 
those decisions.

If we take this to a more local level then in Scotland where, for the most part, people 
are represented by SNP members. Now these individuals, whatever their intentions, are 
expected to represent the interests and wishes of the tens of thousands, sometimes 
hundreds of thousands, of people within their constituencies. It’s plainly and simply 
impossible. Add to this the fact that the vast majority of politicians, of all parties, 
tend towards being business people, solicitors, or professional politicians -having joined 
the party straight of university, which is hardly representative of the population at 
large. These people aren’t the ones affected by changes and cuts made to the benefit 
system, they aren’t the ones working all the hours they can and still needing to claim 
benefits to make ends meet, they aren’t stuck on zero hours contracts, or having to feed 
their children from the charity of strangers via food banks. In fact it is often these 
same people, and their friends, who benefit from these decisions. It is utterly absurd.

To have a properly democratic society we need to do away with the antiquated notion of 
representative democracy and find something that is more suitable for a growing 
technological society. We need decisions that affect communities to be made by those 
within those communities and not by a class of wealthy politicians who, understandably, 
only look out for them and theirs. We need to be able to have a proper say over how our 
communities are organised, how our resources are utilised so that we have what we need and 
what we want in our communities.

We will never be able to have a truly democratic society however whilst people are having 
to spend a third of their lives working for fear of being made destitute. How can you 
spend time as part of a proper community, taking part in making decisions that affect your 
community when you are working 40+ hours a week just for the privilege of being alive? For 
that reason we need to change the way that work.. well, the way that work works. We need 
to stop producing things for the profits of a tiny minority and start producing things 
that benefit everyone. Sure I want to have the latest gaming tech and a snazzy smart phone 
in my pocket, I want nice clothes and a nice house. I want everyone that wants them to 
have these things -and for those that don’t to have access to them should they so desire.

And you know what? We *can* have all these things. We can have these things without the 
need to work 40+ hours a week, without the need to destroy the environment that our kids 
will inherit, without the need to sell our lives to a parasite so that we can just about 
afford some of these things.

To achieve this we need, to put it bluntly, communism.



Not the communism of the USSR, China, or Cuba. No. We need to work towards the stateless 
and classless society which Marx described thus in The German Ideology:

in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can 
become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and 
thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the 
morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just 
as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.

A society where we organise our work and our lives ourselves, where our concept of work 
has changed so much that it would be unrecognisable to us today. A world where a person 
can engage in useful activities without being explicitly defined by those activities. Thus 
I may spend the morning writing and the afternoon working on a local farm. Doing the 
things that need to be done to improve my life and the lives of those in my community.

Of course those who presently hold all the wealth and the power will not allow change like 
this to be implemented as they have a vested interest in maintaining their positions of 
power and influence. These are the same people who are friends with politicians, who fund 
the political parties, who control the various media outlets we turn to for news and 
entertainment. It is these people who have done such a good job over the last hundred 
years that many of us now see the placing of a tick in a box every five years as political 
activity. That we see the theatrics of Parliament as the be all and end all of politics.

I don’t consider either voting in Parliamentary elections nor the charade of the House of 
Commons to be politics. Real politics happens where we live and work. Real politics is 
when you get together with your neighbours and fight to get the council to fix the local 
play park or to prevent them closing down your local library or sports facility. Politics 
is when you and your workmates go on work to rule or walk out on strike. Politics happens 
all the time all around us.

It would be foolish to believe that the rich and powerful would allow us to merely vote 
for meaningful social change. instead we are given the illusion of choice and pretty 
sounding yet empty promises. For this reason we have to force change, we have to 
collectively change the way our society works so that the work done benefits us all.

In order to force change we need to be organised. Traditionally the way that the working 
class has organised has been through the trade union movement with workers in a given 
trade bandying together to support one another in their common interest. This works well 
when you are in a trade that has high union density and when you are specifically 
struggling for something that affects those within that trade. Many modern workplaces 
however have people from a variety of trades working within them and so the workers within 
a given place of work are divided with some having greater bargaining power than others. A 
good example of this is the rail industry where if the drivers go out on strike then they 
are bargaining with the bosses from a very powerful position -without them the entire rail 
network shuts down. The people who clean the trains however do not have such a strong 
position from which to struggle.

For the modern workplace it is far better that workers are all organised into the same 
union rather than being spread across a variety of different unions with varying levels of 
militancy -and when it comes to unions militancy is extremely important. For that reason I 
shall, later on today, be renewing my red card and rejoining the union who say:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so 
long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who 
make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as 
a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in 
harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centring of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes 
the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The 
trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted 
against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in 
wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into 
the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an 
organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all 
industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department 
thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must 
inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.”

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of 
production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to 
carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially 
we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

I didn’t vote in the election. I have never voted in an election and I never will. What I 
have done is fight; I have fought for a better world for us to live in in the here and now 
and for a better world for our children to inherit. If you voted in this General Election 
and are feeling disheartened by the results, don’t be. The game was rigged from the 
outset. Choose instead to get organised, actually engage in proper politics, and to fight 
for a better world.

https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/more-of-the-same/

Britain, London Anarchist Federation - 2015 Mayday Report

Some commented numbers were slightly down on the year previous when the RMT threw their 
weight behind the Mayday march after Bob Crows death. On the way to the rallying point 
people would have come across an SWP banner emblazoned with "Hands off Tower Hamlets". 
They're consistent, if nothing else, we should give them that. ---- Starting off at 
Clerkenwell Green, you were overwhelmed by the 57 varieties of Stalinism both overseas and 
domestic. When one looks overseas, you have serious militancy being shown on Mayday; there 
is a worry that the British equivalent is being turned into a historical re-enactment 
society being led by the bureaucratic trade union wing of the labour movement. ---- There 
were smatterings of union banners and housing campaigns, but alongside that you had ample 
banners with Stalin and even on one occasion Soviet-era style military formation marching 
with flags. Agh, working class regimentation, just what we need! But anarchists weren't 
about to be undone with the pointless A to B marches and a half empty Trafalgar Square.

At 4pm there was an initiation to briefly occupy Tower Bridge to highlight the lack of 
social housing and the continuing gentrification/social cleansing of London. Recent 
reports suggest fifty thousand have been pushed out of London because of the increased 
cost of living.

A large contingent of activists were able to take the bridge stopping peak-time traffic 
accompanied by flares and then impromptu like snake around to London Bridge with a large 
police escort before scattering to the four winds at the other end of London Bridge.

After a brief restbite from the occupation of the bridge, the Mayday evenings, happenings, 
were put together by Class War under the auspices of their widely touted 'Fuck Parade'. In 
Germany, apparently 'Fuck Parade' is a counter-cultural festival with anti-gentrification 
flushes to allow city dwellers to express a sense of community in places where they're 
being squeezed out. Starting off near Aldgate East a large crowd of several hundred 
revellers started off with a make-shift sound system before spilling out into the road. 
There was concern that the police would confiscate the sound-system, but they must have 
thought better than taking on the crowd.

From Aldgate East the crowd took the long almost sporadic journey to Soho Square, 
avoiding the various ambushes of the entourage of police who followed them, taking in the 
capitals sights while avoiding mass arrests. The police were of course on hand to protect 
various assets from protests along the way including Southwark Council offices and oddly a 
pub full of what, I assume, were bankers.

Protecting who against what?

The entourage encountered a lot of questions on its way around. A major criticism is that 
more could have been done to explain to all and sundry with either literature or banners 
what the full purpose of the march was, but sufficient people showed an interest and 
conversations were had. And some people did join us on route.
After a trek and half the make shift sound system and followers ended up a convergence hub 
just off Soho Square, put together by the Squatters Homeless Autonomous (SHA) crew to 
highlight the 74,000 empty properties in London. No doubt the powers that be will 
prioritise their removal, above any of the progressive demands being put forward on social 
housing.

All in all the day was a militant display for Mayday. With a bit of forward thinking we 
can rescue the whole sordid affair from the dustbin of history where some would happy it 
was confined.

Remember the dead, fight for the living!
Happy Mayday

https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/2015-mayday-report/

Britain, AF London - 2015 Mayday Report

Some commented numbers were slightly down on the year previous when the RMT threw their 
weight behind the Mayday march after Bob Crows death. On the way to the rallying point 
people would have come across an SWP banner emblazoned with "Hands off Tower Hamlets". 
They're consistent, if nothing else, we should give them that. ---- Starting off at 
Clerkenwell Green, you were overwhelmed by the 57 varieties of Stalinism both overseas and 
domestic. When one looks overseas, you have serious militancy being shown on Mayday; there 
is a worry that the British equivalent is being turned into a historical re-enactment 
society being led by the bureaucratic trade union wing of the labour movement. ---- There 
were smatterings of union banners and housing campaigns, but alongside that you had ample 
banners with Stalin and even on one occasion Soviet-era style military formation marching 
with flags. Agh, working class regimentation, just what we need! But anarchists weren't 
about to be undone with the pointless A to B marches and a half empty Trafalgar Square.

At 4pm there was an initiation to briefly occupy Tower Bridge to highlight the lack of 
social housing and the continuing gentrification/social cleansing of London. Recent 
reports suggest fifty thousand have been pushed out of London because of the increased 
cost of living.

A large contingent of activists were able to take the bridge stopping peak-time traffic 
accompanied by flares and then impromptu like snake around to London Bridge with a large 
police escort before scattering to the four winds at the other end of London Bridge.

After a brief restbite from the occupation of the bridge, the Mayday evenings, happenings, 
were put together by Class War under the auspices of their widely touted 'Fuck Parade'. In 
Germany, apparently 'Fuck Parade' is a counter-cultural festival with anti-gentrification 
flushes to allow city dwellers to express a sense of community in places where they're 
being squeezed out. Starting off near Aldgate East a large crowd of several hundred 
revellers started off with a make-shift sound system before spilling out into the road. 
There was concern that the police would confiscate the sound-system, but they must have 
thought better than taking on the crowd.

From Aldgate East the crowd took the long almost sporadic journey to Soho Square, 
avoiding the various ambushes of the entourage of police who followed them, taking in the 
capitals sights while avoiding mass arrests. The police were of course on hand to protect 
various assets from protests along the way including Southwark Council offices and oddly a 
pub full of what, I assume, were bankers.

Protecting who against what?

The entourage encountered a lot of questions on its way around. A major criticism is that 
more could have been done to explain to all and sundry with either literature or banners 
what the full purpose of the march was, but sufficient people showed an interest and 
conversations were had. And some people did join us on route.
After a trek and half the make shift sound system and followers ended up a convergence hub 
just off Soho Square, put together by the Squatters Homeless Autonomous (SHA) crew to 
highlight the 74,000 empty properties in London. No doubt the powers that be will 
prioritise their removal, above any of the progressive demands being put forward on social 
housing.

All in all the day was a militant display for Mayday. With a bit of forward thinking we 
can rescue the whole sordid affair from the dustbin of history where some would happy it 
was confined.

Remember the dead, fight for the living!
Happy Mayday

https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/2015-mayday-report/

Britain, Glasgow Anarchists: Total solidarity with the Baltimore uprising

Total solidarity with everyone striking back against white supremacist shitbags in 
Baltimore! ---- This linked document will be constantly updated with actions and activity 
going on in Baltimore. Many have contact details that can be used to send support and 
solidarity. ---- Of particular note is that today all Baltimore schools are also closed. 
188 schools. 85,000 students overall. 84% of those students rely on free/reduced meals 
from their schools to have enough to eat every day. Operation Help or Hush will be serving 
lunch to students today in 4 locations in West and East Baltimore. You can donate to 
Operation Help or Hush here: http://operationhelporhush.org ---- Here's a relevant 
soundtrack from Seattle: "And they call this a riot? Aw man, fuck that, I'm gonna call 
this an uprising."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afgHqFOPDN0

https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/total-solidarity-with-the-baltimoreuprising/

Britain, Bristol Anarchist Bookfair 2015

Coming at you live and direct from east-central Bristol, just 13 days before the 2015 
British General Election & local elections, we are pleased to invite you to the 7th 
Bristol Anarchist Bookfair – and there wont be a single lying, corrupt, 
austerity-enforcing, media-spinning politician in sight. ---- Full Bookfair info is here - 
http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/2015-bookfair/ ---- The Bookfair will include 2 
halls filled with stalls – from local campaigns & groups to national anarchist distros & 
publishers; plenty of workshops & meetings to discuss & debate the key issues; the Radical 
History Zone just down the road at Hydra Bookshop; activities in Trinity’s outdoor 
permaculture garden & green space; an outdoor Soap-Box for Ranters; a quality vegan cafe; 
an indoor kids space; and a few surprises too!

Seven years on from our first Bookfair, 7 years on from the start of the global financial 
meltdown, after 7 years of austerity cuts and the rich getting richer, we are still here 
kicking and fighting back, providing alternatives and demanding a new world based on 
co-operation, total equality, and freedom. A new world we carry in our hearts and dreams.

We’ll bring you Bristol’s largest, free, open to the public, political event in the month 
before the election. As just a small part of a Britain-wide anarchist intervention into 
the key debates surrounding the election, we may well be a part of the largest electoral 
block – the Non-Voters. Because just as you know, whoever the public votes for – the 
government always gets in.

The British political system doesn’t just need tweeking, a bit of devolution here or PR 
there, or a new face in No.10 or City Hall. It is fundamentally flawed, it doesn’t work, 
and whichever bosses party runs it they will never act in the interests of the majority. 
It doesn’t need an overhaul, we need systemic change. All over the world, resistance and 
experimental alternatives to this rigged, biased & broken system are well under way. From 
everyday resistance enacted in the home, workplace or school, to more spectacular forms of 
direct action. From a thousand spanners in the works to a million spades in the earth, 
people are occupying, creating and organising new ways of living without hierarchy, 
domination and capitalism.

The Bookfair is a space for radicals, independent thinkers and those pissed of with & 
alienated from the political system, to come together and think outside the box. To 
discuss, network, laugh, cry and share the ideas, inspirations and strategies to resist 
and thrive. Leaders, politicians and representatives are never going to create the future 
we want. A better world is in our hearts – but is only through considered self-organised 
action, together, that we can make it a reality.

(en) Britain, Belfast, SolFed The Leveller December 2014 - Ireland: Smash Water Charges

The mobilisation, anger and direct action of working class people opposing water charges 
in the south has got the government on the run. Much is made of a brick thrown at Garda 
and Joan Burton being trapped by a ‘mob’ in her car during a water charges protest. ---- 
Little to nothing is said about police violence against protestors or the devastating 
impact this charge will have on poor working class families. Families already devastated 
by attack after attack upon them by bosses and government in the name of ‘austerity’. ---- 
Tens of thousands took to the streets on 10th December. making it clear that they will not 
pay water charges. They were prevented from reaching the Dail by a government that cowered 
behind barricades and police. The government, unsurprisingly, has shown itself to be not 
only completely out of touch with working class people but also extremely callous in 
regard to their plight. A plight that has gotten worse and worse in the name of 
‘austerity’ as the rich have got richer.

The government and media have, largely without success, resorted to a smear campaign.

On the same day in Belfast a solidarity demo was organised in support of our fellow 
workers in the Republic of Ireland. We were also showing that resistance to water charges 
in the north has not gone away.

Around 35,000 water meters have been installed here since 2007. People have mobilised to 
face down the threat of water charges in the past. The building of mass campaigns of 
non-payment, such as the We Won’t Pay Campaign mobilised working class people from all 
across Northern Ireland. It was the growing strength of working class resistance, based on 
mass non-payment and organised street by street, community by community, that forced 
Stormont to back off then. It will defeat them again.

We need to take a lesson from working class people in the south and our own recent 
experience. Water charges are unjust, water should not be a commodity, privatised for the 
rich to make even more money at our expense. A mass campaign based on direct action and 
non-payment will defeat water charges in the south. Just such a campaign will defeat water 
charges in the north.

But more than this, more than ever, we need to smash the rotten capitalist system. 
Stormont, the Dail and Westminster are ruling on behalf of the rich, its time to organise 
and fight back.

http://www.solfed.org.uk/belfast/ireland-smash-water-charges

(en) Britain, Belfast, SolFed The Leveller December 2014 - Austerity? This is Class War

Executioner for the rich, George Osborne, has challenged ‘our’ local parties to fully 
implement welfare reform measures that will see even greater hardship, poverty and 
homelessness heaped upon poor and vulnerable working class people across the north. ---- 
In exchange the power to reduce corporation tax will be devolved. Despite the Sinn Fein 
“Stop Tory Cuts” all the parties in the Assembly are committed to imposing ‘austerity’ 
measures on us. The draft budget has exposed Sinn Fein’s ‘campaign’ as cynical bullshit, 
lies and attempted manipulation of those who still fall for their ‘socialism’. ---- The 
DUP and Sinn Fein, with no opposition from other parties at Stormont, are launching cuts 
of over £640 million in April 2015. At least 6,000 public sector jobs will be axed, 2,500 
in education, more pay cuts are coming and this will mean less money to spend and 
resultant job losses in the private sector.

Despite having been forced to defer water charges water meters are being installed across 
the north. The Green Party are in favour of this charge!

Already there are announcements of job losses and the loss of services that working class 
communities depend on. Isolation and increased poverty will be the lot of many as local 
bus services are threatened.

Money is being taken out of our public services and, through privatisation, into the 
pockets of the wealthy. Decreasing corporation tax is part of the same process. This would 
take another £400 million out of public services. Driving us further into the dirt while 
the bosses pocket the money.

They aren’t alone. Politicians have had their hands in our pockets for as long as there 
have been politicians.

Fraudulent expenses claims totalling hundreds of thousands are being investigated at 
Stormont. Meanwhile the Lords are crying about cheaper champers!

Across the wee north we already suffer the lowest wages in the UK, if you are one of those 
‘lucky’ enough to have a job, we have the highest claimant count with 21% of working age 
households workless in April-June 2014! In working class areas there are increased numbers 
dependent on welfare, suicide rates have doubled and the life expectancy of men has 
dropped! The so-called recovery is clearly only for the wealthy few.

So what in fact is austerity? Simply put it is an intensification of class warfare by the 
rich against the poor. The motivation - increased profit without any concern for the 
people and environment fucked over in the process.

We need to organise, to protest, to strike. Our methods - workers control of our struggles 
and direct action. The rich are getting richer while we get poorer. Its time to stand up, 
organise and tell the rich and their lackeys to get to fuck. This escalation in class 
warfare can only be met in kind.

http://www.solfed.org.uk/belfast/austerity-this-is-class-war

Britain, Bristol Anarchist Federation - Anarchy in Pontypool

During the excellent Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair we had a chance to meet up with Terry, a 
long time Anarchist Federation member who lives in Pontypool. He was busy organising a 
protest against cuts to local services planned by the County Council. We agreed to join 
him, before we realised it’d mean a 6am train to Pontypool & New Inn! ---- Not deterred 
(too much) by the early start a couple of us made it along last Tuesday to support Terry 
and others who were picketing the council meeting and distributing leaflets to councilors, 
council workers and passers-by. ---- We headed into the council chambers with an anticuts 
banner and anarchist flags. Later whilst being escorted out of the building we were asked 
how we’d managed to get these (apparently contraband) items inside, never under-estimate 
the power of confidently walking through the front door!

The meeting started with a petition against one of the cuts already made by the Council – 
switching off 66% of the areas street lights in order to save £70 per light. As you can 
imagine the impact this has had on residents, especially the elderly has been huge, and 
the call for the lights to get switched back on met with a deserved round of applause from 
the public gallery, but sadly no promises from the council.

The Labour led council then began the debate on the budget, its £11million of cuts and its 
rise in tax. Their leader spent most of the introduction blaming the Conservative led 
government, although he was later called out on the fact that Labour planned to make 
similar cuts to Welsh Council budgets. The heckling (most of it from the Anarchists!) 
intensified throughout, with the loudest round of applause reserved for Terry’s suggestion 
that perhaps if the mayor was committed to preserving services she should give up her 
chauffeur driven car and get the bus!

We were ‘asked’ to leave and escorted out of the building before the budget came to a 
vote, but we did stop to get a picture of a mural honouring the Chartists on the way out. 
I don’t think any of the council employees were bothered by us giving councilors a hard 
time – especially not whilst they were voting through cuts to pay, employment and services!

Predictably the labour led council passed its budget cuts, and predictably much of the 
organised opposition abstained or voted against to avoid getting their hands dirty – but 
we all know had the council been Tory led (like many are) they would’ve been voting 
through the exact same cuts!

After retreating to a pub for lunch we got to hear more about the activism Terry pursues 
in Pontypool. From the local trades council and run ins with the far right, to getting 
anarchist magazines stocked in the library, handing out 100s of anarchist papers single 
handed and organising a campaign against the privatisation of council housing. Inspiring 
stuff!

We are making a concerted effort to link up with and support anarchists in towns and 
villages across the South West and South Wales. All too often action can focus on larger 
cities, but the struggles in places where anarchists may be isolated or small in number 
are just as essential.

If you’d like support in your area get in touch!

https://bristolaf.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/anarchy-in-pontypool/

(en) Britain, Anarchist Federation Nottingham, The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Something else they are hiding from us!

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a new capitalist agreement 
between the USA government and the European Union. It gives US business free reign to 
privatise public services and other regulated industry in the cause of 'Free Trade'. On 
the one hand this is another way for big business to take over internationally and for the 
American capitalist empire to culturally colonise the world. But specifically under threat 
is whatever is left of nationalised industries and services (not that there is much left 
of that in England anyway). ---- The obvious worry here is what is left of the NHS, which 
working class people are still fighting hard to save. It would also affect food quality by 
deregulating things like food production and quality, for example by-passing EU 
regulations about meat quality and the condition animals are kept in. Banking regulations 
would be undermined. Even the EU admits that jobs would be lost. All the main UK parties 
(except the Greens) are in favour. Even if there is a EU-referendum, whatever the outcome, 
this law will overrule.

Similar agreements exist in other parts of the world. A fracking company was able to sue 
the state of Quebec for lost earnings when it passed and an anti-fracking law. The Philip 
Morris tobacco company was able to sue the Australia government for its laws on 
plain-packaging.

TTIP is just the latest in a string of trade 'agreements' which have been opposed 
internationally including by anarchists. In the 1990s NAFTA allowed US companies make 
money in Mexico and Canada more easily. Meetings of The World Trade Organisation were 
strongly resisted, not least in London (J18) and Seattle (N30) in 1999. Anarchists need to 
spread information about this agreement, and we need more mass civil disobedience and 
anti-globalisation activism at a local and international level to raise awareness and 
oppose this in practice.

Links:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-is-ttip-and-six-reasons-why-the-answer-should-scare-you-9779688.html
http://aftinet.org.au/cms/node/519

Related article: Why opposing capitalism and privatisation does not imply support for 
state-controlled services: 
http://afed.org.uk/blog/international/114-private-versus-socialised-healthcare.html

https://nottsblackarrow.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/the-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership-ttip-something-else-they-are-hiding-from-us/