For the libertarian movement 2006 started in late 2005, in Hackney, East London. When the notoriously corrupt council decided to sell its shops on Broadway market to millionaire property shark Roger Wratten, they didn’t bother to check with the current tenants first. Despite having the right to buy his own café off the council, Tony Platia’s application was (illegally) rejected in favour of the big money, despite the fact he was even offering more money. In July he was evicted from the café he had run for 30 years. At this point the local community took matters into their own hands, and occupied the space – were evicted on the 21st of December – then reoccupied it for a further 2 months! AFers are proud to have helped slept over on eviction watch, help clean and rebuild and generally support the campaign: http://34broadwaymarket.omweb.org
At this point France exploded. Mass demonstrations against a proposed youth employment contract (the CPE) turned into school and university strikes, until almost all universities in France were out. Direct action was taken daily – motorways and railways were blocked – and riots became the norm. After a general strike on the 28th March – the same day a million workers in the UK struck to defend their pensions - the French government caved in a retracted the law. AFers went over for the 28th to soak up some gallic flavour and generally drool over French militancy: http://libcom.org/blog/cpe-france
Throughout the year, AF members were involved in many other international activities, especially as the current Secretariat of the International of Anarchist Federations which brings together like-minded organisations across national borders. Around the IAF Day of Action on March 18th, 600 AF/IAF posters against the War abroad and at home mysteriously appeared all over London and Manchester, and London AF organised public meetings around the day. AF general conference immediately followed, held in central London, with our industrial policy being a major topic of discussion. After supporting Gate Gourmet airline catering workers at the end of 2005, AFers took action over pensions in March as mentioned earlier, held solidarity pickets outside coffee houses for the sacked Starbucks IWW members in USA, and participated in a picket of JJB Sports. We have supported the development of the IWW union (there’s a lot of dual-membership in both England and Scotland) and the launch of a libertarian education workers network.
For Mayday, some AFers helped organise the Anarchism06 conference at The Square social centre which was a moderate success, and the anarchist block on the TUC march in London drew 300-500 people – a reaffirmation of the anarchist movement’s place in workers struggles.
In mid-June we helped with the Projectile Anarchist Film Festival in Newcastle and also held a talk about Nestor Makhno. Projectile was a really positive event which will hopefully continue for many years. The 2007 one will be held on Friday 18th until Sun 20th May: http://www.projectile.org.uk. On June 25th some of us helped resist the eviction of the previously mentioned Square Centre in London. The ‘Festival of Resistance’ was to be the centre’s final event, the occupants deciding to leave on a high note.
In July London AF group held a joint action with Reading Grassroots Action in support of Russian comrades arrested at the G8 in St Petersburg. The Russo-British Chamber of Commerce was occupied for 3 hours. Everyone was arrested then released without charge – apart from one attempted fit-up for assault.
Rossport Solidarity Camp in the West of Ireland remained a focus of activity, with some UK members joining Irish comrades at the camp itself during the summer, organising UK speaking dates for the campaign throughout the year, and taking part in several anti-Shell solidarity actions: http://struggle.ws/rsc & http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/mayo/
Some AFers went to the Earth First! summer gathering on the Welsh coast. August also saw the first ‘Climate Camp’ action in front of Drax power station as part of a week of environmental activity in Yorkshire. The event drew a huge amount of media attention despite moderate turnout (600 on final day) and seems to have awakened a new appetite for eco-action in the UK. AFers who took part say it was good, and will support next camp this summer as well as regional action groups that have now been set up. On the 25th we produced a special edition and print-run of Resistance handed out at Leeds Festival, where some members were on Workers Beer Company duties.
In September we hosted the Anarchists Against The Wall speaking tour in London and Sheffield. As an anarchist direct action group in Palestine and Israel, AATW are a seriously interesting outfit. The talks went down very well with Sheffield raising £300 in donations. For more info on the group see: http://www.awalls.org. September also saw a joint anarchist block with the Solidarity Federation and other anarchists on the Stop The War march coinciding with the Labour Party conference in Manchester. A joint leaflet was also produced. This hopefully paves the way for more joint work in future – and why not? Other demos we attended in 2006 included an anti-Academy School demo, and outside the Mexican embassy against repression in Oaxaca.
Against their better judgment some AFers went to see if the cops really meant their ban on protests in Parliament Square at the ‘sackparliament’ event on October 9th. They really meant it. 30 people got nicked by 800 cops and one journalist was put in a coma by a police baton charge.
As usual we hosted several meetings at the Anarchist Bookfair in London that took place on October 21th, and participated in those organised by others. Then on November 25th Nottingham Defy-ID hosted the second national Defy-ID gathering on how to fight ID cards and databases, which was well attended. AF members are involved in several of the local groups in this small but active network.
Rounding the year off nicely, London AF held its first club night ‘Just Defy’ on December 15th. Originally intended to be a benefit for the comrade arrested on our G8 action, the police scuppered this plan by not submitting any evidence and getting the assault charge thrown out of court. £100 was donated to Anarchists Against The Wall and the rest was made available to those arrested at Sackparliament.
Our Resistance newssheet has come out like clockwork every month, and 2 editions of Organise! were published – one celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution and the other celebrating the AF’s own 20 year anniversary, the Hungarian Revolution's 50th and the General Strike's 80th. In spring the second edition of ‘Defending Anonymity’ was published, our free guide to the hows and whys of fighting ID cards and databases, plus the historical pamphlet ‘Resistance to Nazism’ which recounts the activities of libertarian groups in Europe during the 1930s. West Midlands AF and the Anarchist Black Cross jointly produced a new prisoner support guidebook, also listing current anarchist prisoners. Various local newssheets were produced and distributed. The AF website was maintained, which provides all of our publications online for free, and a ‘MySpace’ networking space was set up that now links up over 1000 ‘friends’ across the world, together with an excitingly irregular blog. We contribute to various internet forums, newswires and online libraries especially through libcom.org but also on Anarkismo, A-infos, and Indymedia. Huge numbers of posters and stickers were produced in 2006, especially in Manchester and London. And we did an interview for Freedom newspaper... whilst dodging various requests from the mainstream media (they couldn’t meet our appearance fee).
Like most grassroots activity, everything the AF does is done voluntarily - we have no paid workers, or paper-selling targets, unlike political parties. Funds come from members as annual 'subs' and by members committing effort and time, dipping into their own pockets, and sharing all this with others! Activism isn't everything. But being involved in activity and at the same time working in an anarchist organisation like the AF means we can form the 'politics' of what we do, say, and write from real world practice. Getting stuck into a campaign and being involved in struggles that concern us in our own workplaces and communities informs our understanding of the different issues and the ideas of the other people involved. We get to share our skills and tactics with others and learn new ones, hopefully win those struggles, and maybe even meet some future AF members.