Offence Issue 1 £1.50
Animal: The Football Special Issue 2 80p
Offence is the fanzine-style magazine of the Libero! Football Supporters Network which appears to be a campaigning group opposing the increasing authoritarianism and 'moral policing' found in professional football. The politics appear libertarian and anti-state, albeit with a nod to 'new laddism'. It contains several quite interesting articles, not least one which plays down the hard-line Loyalist and fascist tendencies which exist amongst Glasgow Rangers fans as "..the superficial appearance of religion and Ireland". Yeah, right.
We say appear because a (not too) closer examination reveals that the glossy and expensive (20 pages) 'zine' is in fact a product of the terminally dodgy Revolutionary Communist Party and the Football Supporters Network is their latest front organisation (like Workers against Racism, Irish Freedom Movement etc.). Why a football front? Well, having given up on the working class as a bunch of losers the RCP focus on middle class intellectuals (such as themselves) as the vanguard of the revolution. Seeing the influx of middle class -types into football it's an area that they obviously feel they can organise. Therefore, despite all the (accurate) criticism of the anti-fan activities of clubs, government and police, you will be hard-pressed to find any mention of class in the pages of Offence.
Unlike Animal, for whom class is number one on the agenda. Not surprising as Animal is produced by people involved in Class War and the Movement against the Monarchy. The Animal Football Special is a bit of a mixed bag including an article on recent football protests 'When the Fans Hit the Shits', an interesting piece on the Dublin Riot a couple of years ago by Larry O'Hara and an eulogy to Eric Cantona (!). An anarchist apparently (hmm...). Animal isn't a slick production and obviously isn't following any party line. Since this Football Special is a one -off , it begs the question if there's a need for a regular football fanzine with a working class anarchist perspective? The football fanzine explosion of the past 15 years has seen a number of 'zines with decent politics and attitude, perhaps there's a place for a revolutionary alternative to shite like Four Four Two et al.?
Offence isn't it, but it's worth a look. Just approach with caution. It's available from Libero! 1 Darwin Road, London N22 6NS. Animal Football Special is available from P.O.Box 467, London E8 3QX.
Working Class Times Volume 1 Issue 1
This four sided newsheet draws inspiration from the ideas of Andy Anderson, who used to be in Solidarity many years ago and wrote some good articles at that time. Since then, he's developed a theory of the middle class as the real enemy. As the paper says "The middle class as a whole.... run everything" and "This economic system was created by the middle class for their financial benefit..."
But surely the expression "middle class" means that it is between two other classes- the working class(the mass of the population) and the ruling class. Working Class Times(WCT) confuses the class structure of this society. Those who own the wealth and land, the bosses, royalty, aristocracy, big land lords, big farmers etc. as well as those who politically administer capitalism-the top civil service, the government, the top echelons of the police, military and intelligence, the media barons and controllers, the judiciary etc. are the ruling class. To these could be added those who run the political party structures and the union bureaucrats. It is not the middle class as WCT says that "run the press...run the BBC, and all those who own and run the television companies" They are part of the ruling class.
There deserves to be a debate on the whole question of class, but it won't be found here. WCT reduces everything to a blur. Of course there are people in between the working class and the ruling class, some of whom can be defined as middle class. There are groups of people like technicians, for example, who could be described as strata rather than a class (depending if they have administrative responsibilities) There is the petty bourgeoisie-small shopkeepers, etc. There is the mass of the police force, below the command structures, the prison officers, the lower ranks of the civil service, the mass of the armed forces, those who run the media, journalists and presenters for example. Some of these are highly paid, some are not. Some of these, like cops or soldiers, may have come from the working class. They are no longer working class, because of their position as agents of repression of the mass of the population. To say as WCT do that " All who run the three armed forces, from the Minister of Defence down to the 2nd lieutenants, are middle class" removes the distinctions between say, a General (part of the ruling class) and a second lieutenant ( part of the command structure but at a much lower level). Yes, all of these are our enemy, but they are in different class positions. As I said, there deserves to be a debate. What about academics, university teachers, indeed teachers in general? Where precisely are they in a class society? Is a teacher really in the same class position, as ,say, the Minister of Education?