ISSUE TWENTY EIGHT
The summit of world leaders in Genoa faced huge disruption from tens of thousands of people protesting and going on strike. The response from the state was brutal.
Here is a statement produced by Precari Nati, an Italian communist group based in Bologna before the summit. (ti14264@iperbole.bologna.it).
The spirit and content of this statement reflects our own contempt for those who’d represent and lead us.
"If we are here, it is not as professional activists of anti-globalisation, trying to find a position of mediation between the puppets of the economy and its ‘victims’, by acting on behalf of others. We are not interested in representing anyone, and we spit in the face of those who wish to represent us. We do not understand exclusion as exclusion from the centres of economic decision-making but as the loss of our everyday life and activity as proletarians because of the economy.
If we are here, it is not because we prefer fair trade to free trade, it is not because we believe that globalisation weakens the authority of nation-states. We are not here because we think that the state is controlled by non-democratic institutions, nor because we want more control over the market. We are here because all trade is the trade of human misery, because all states are prisons, because democracy conceals the dictatorship of capital.
If we are here it is not because we see proletarians as victims, nor because we want to place ourselves as their protectors. We didn’t come here to be impressed by spectacular riots but to learn the tactics of everyday class war by the strikers of Ansaldo and the disobedient proletarians in the metal industry. We come here to exchange our own experiences as the dispossessed of the whole world.
If we are here, we do not come as members of the numerous NGO’s, official lobbies, ATTAC or the rest of those who merely wish to be included in the discussions over the modernisation of capitalism and who hope that their proposals will be able to save capitalist social relations, i.e. the same relations which perpetuate our alienation and exploitation.
If we are here, it is as proletarians who recognise capitalism not in the meetings of the various gangsters but in the daily robbery of our lives in the factories, in the call-centres, as unemployed, for the needs of the economy. We do not speak on behalf of anyone, we start from our own conditions. Capitalism does not exist because of the G8, the G8 exists because of capitalism. Capitalism is nothing but the expropriation of our activity, which turns against us as an alien force.
Our festival against capital does not have a beginning or an end, it is not a pre-determined spectacle, it does not have a fixed date. Our future lies beyond all mediations, beyond nation-states, beyond all attempts to reform capitalism. Our future lies in the destruction of the economy.
For the total abolition of the state and capital. For the world human community.
Proletarians against the machine"
The ruling elite will rant about rioting protesters and striking workers being violent and undemocratic.
These guardian angels of Democracy are the very same:
Destroyers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Profiteers from Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald, Mauthausen…
Developers of Napalm, Agent Orange and carpet-bombing. Apologists for death in police stations, and shootings in the street.
They can explain away the mass starvation in Iraq in the name of freedom.
They can plant millions of land mines.
They can suck profit from every last one of us — forever?
But try spoiling their picnic — that’s violence!
Are we violent?
Voting, sit–ins, prayer meetings, dialogue with capitalist politicians: all just mindless shit.
We oppose any reproduction of state violence by any armed elite acting in our name. We’ve seen that shit before: Red Army Faction, Red Brigades, Angry Brigade…
These democratic states won’t ever change without force.
You can call that force violence! Anarchists call it a revolutionary movement.
Massive working-class physical opposition to the continuous violence of capitalism.
The misery the having bosses, fearing the landlord, scratching together a living.
This means occupying the streets, factories, and offices and dispersing all cops, politicians and bosses. This means force, a force for liberation. It means the destruction of all states.
ON THE FRONTLINE
UK Fire-fighters Strike. 5,000 fire-fighters from all over the country - Somerset, Berkshire, London, the Midlands, Wales, the Northeast, Scotland and Belfast - filled Liverpool’s city streets in July. An eight-day strike by Merseyside fire-fighters was an attempt to prevent the Chief Fire Officer, “Mally” Saunders from breaking national agreements by recruiting people who have never served in the Fire Brigade, never even seen a fire to senior operational positions.
Spanish Airport Bus Drivers. A strike by airport coach drivers at Palma airport in Majorca had wide spread effect. The industrial action was triggered by a dispute over pay.
Bangladesh Garments Workers Strike. Skirmishes broke-out during a during a dawn-to-dusk garment workers strike in early July. Police officers were injured. Several factories damaged. The garment workers called the strike across the country demanding implementation of their six-point charter. Police arrested 13 garment workers from mohakhali area.
Italian metal workers strike. In Italy a wave of industrial action swept the country on July 6. 300,000 metalworkers marched through the streets. In Milan, an estimated 60,000 metalworkers joined the demonstrations.
In Turin more than 30,000 workers downed tools, disrupting production at several major plants including the Fiat car group. Similar marches were held in Rome, Bologna, Florence, Genoa and several southern cities including Palermo in Sicily.
Italian air traffic controllers, pilots and flight attendants went on strike. Air traffic controllers from CILA-AV and other unions stopped work for 10 hours and some Alitalia flight attendants and pilots struck for eight hours, causing the cancellation of more than 200 flights and the re-scheduling of many others.
Wildcat in Paisley. Hospital porters at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland went on wildcat strike on Monday 16th July. They are demanding a pay increase for learning the extra skills required to use a new blood transfusion barcode system. More than 60 porters walked out over the issue, bringing many RAH services to a standstill. Emergency cover was maintained. Three staff were suspended for refusing to work with the new system. They were escorted from the building, provoking a mass walkout by other workers. The suspended men had not received proper consultation or training in the new blood barcodes. Willie Young, one of the suspended porters, said: “If we made a mistake with this new system, then people’s lives are at risk.”
A riot broke out following a demonstration against another fatal shooting by the police. Derek Bennett, a psychiatric patient, was shot dead by a copper in Brixton on Monday 16th July. The action began at about 9.00pm and continued until the early hours of the morning. Three police officers were injured in the violence - one copper reportedly suffered a broken arm. Twenty-seven people were arrested. Shops were looted. The demonstration began on Friday afternoon, with about 120 protesters gathering outside Brixton police station. They then held a minute’s silence at the scene of the shooting on the Angel Estate, before dispersing.
The British police have also shot dead a schizophrenic man armed with a sword July 12th in Liverpool; and painter Harry Stanley, in Hackney on September 22nd 1999 while carrying a chair leg in a carrier bag. In January 1998, Sussex police shot an unarmed and naked man dead in front of his girlfriend — 2 officers were subsequently acquitted! There have been similar fatal shootings by the police of unarmed people in the last 6 years. 2 had air rifles, 1 a fake gun, and 1 a torch. Not forgetting the 24 people the police have run over in the last year, or the usual quota of ‘accidental’ (that is avoidable) deaths in police custody. Currently the police and army have just been authorised to use new ‘safer’ plastic bullets. Plastic bullets have killed 16 and injured 615 in Northern Ireland, even a 1999 government report recommended that they be discontinued as soon as possible.
Tasers, a new weapon for the cops can fire 2 darts with 3-7 metres of wires trailing from them in to the victim, who then receives a 50,000 volt shock As revolutionaries we aim to disarm and DISBAND the police.
Sandra Condon, a member of Householders Against The Service Charges (HASC), was arrested at her home in north Cork City for littering offences in connection with the ongoing campaign against rubbish collect charges in Cork city (see resistance #26 and 27).
Her sentence is for three days. In total, another four HASC activists are now facing jail terms. All are pledged to non-payment of the ‘littering’ fines and will serve their sentences under protest.
In a further update on this, a total of three other HASC activists have been cleared of the ‘littering’ charges they faced after the Cork District Court found that the Cork Corporation hadn’t proved the case against the targeted activists.
What you can do:
Send a solidarity message to hasc@ireland.com (or to HASC, 55 North Main Street, Cork). Organise a solidarity protest in your area. Let others know about the issue by what whatever means you have. Spread the word - Stop The Jailings!
Send an email to Cork Corporation (lord_mayor@corkcorp.ie) protesting at their action.
Locals in Tow Law, Co. Durham are fighting against a mass foot and mouth burial site designed to take 300,000 bodies, it currently holds 36,000.
Rotting bodies produce hydrogen sulphide which is a toxic gas. It has already been found in the local primary school 100 yards from the site.
The site is built upon 78 mine shafts dating back to 1830. These shafts are riddled with faults and are filled with water that runs into many local rivers and streams before joining the River Wear.
The smell from tens of thousands of festering corpses is unbearable. Children have fled into their homes vomiting more than once. People are already ill with headaches, nausea, sore throats, aching limbs, breathing difficulties etc...
The people affected are taking their own actions. They have sat down to blockade lorries coming onto the site (8 people face court), twice someone has D-locked themselves to the gates.
Protesters gathered to stop 2 lorries entering the site but were prevented by the police.
There are daily pickets at the site and plans to carry on actions to stop site from filling up with more corpses to poison ourselves and our environment. Anybody wanting to come up and help out is welcome.
They are also currently are selling a video to raise funds - £6, cheques to Newlittlebighorn defence fund, 3 Elm Park Terrace, Tow Law, Bishop Auckland, Durham, DL13 4NH. Contact Newlittlebighorn@aol.com or (01388) 731577
“There are people who are taking money, my money, and betting on horses. That’s not what the welfare state was set up for. It was meant to be a fail-safe system to stop people falling through the net. Now it’s a hammock.”
TV racing pundit John McCririck
John McCririck, that’s the mouthy, straw-faced geezer seen prattling away, acting as stupid as he looks, at the horse racing scams on TV. Well, we reckon the rustic McCririck (is that his arse or his face that sports those ridiculous whiskers?) should at least know of what he’s spouting about; after all, he’s surrounded by spivs, hangers-on and wealthy parasites in silly hats who’ve got nothing better to do with their days than egg on beautiful and docile animals to run themselves into the ground, all for the benefit of the idle rich racing fraternity and horsey set.
Twelve thousand miners occupied La Paz for 5 days, bringing dynamite with them for good measure. They demanded the expulsion of the mining multinationals and the setting up of a $100m fund for reviving the co-operatively run mines. Union bureaucrats actively sabotaged the struggle with their dead hand of compromise. Isolated, the miners returned to work having won some concessions, including the freeing of those arrested and compensation for those injured. They also promised to bring down the government if it breaks its promises.
Truckers went on strike for 7 days, blockading most of the country’s highways, and returning to work only after winning some concessions.
Thousands of factory workers across Bolivia have begun actions in protest at the crises devastating the country. 23% are unemployed, with 70,000 expected to lose their jobs this year.
Health care workers and teachers began an indefinite strike against the government’s privatisation plans. Prisoners have also been on hunger strike demanding improvements in conditions.
As a proponent of democracy President General Banzer has used shootings, imprisonment and torture to try and control unrest. As a military dictator (1971-8), then just a colonel, he gained power through a coup, and proceeded to enrich the already wealthy and multinationals by flogging off nationalised industries and tripling the national debt. He also oversaw the massive expansion of coca production, at no small profit to himself. 10,000’s were imprisoned or exiled by the military.
The government began a police-military intervention into the Yungas region, another coca growing area, on June 14th. Farmers organised and chased out the troops village by village. The military responded by firing gas and guns indiscriminately causing more than a dozen injuries. The government calls the farmers ‘armed fanatics’ (they should know!), and is preparing a military build-up prior to another intervention. Unperturbed farmers are raising barricades on highways across the country.
Information supplied by Juventudes Libertarias, Bolivia.
email: jjll_bolivia@hotmail.com
or visit: www.come.to/jlb
The intense rioting in Bradford and many other cities (see resistance #27) has been explained away by the capitalist media as a series of race riots. From where we’re standing it looks more like a class issue.
Economic depravation and police harassment in all working class communities in the area, both Asian and white, are the reasons why people felt frustrated enough to seek other alternatives.
Unfortunately some white people have turned to the false radical alternative provided by fascists like the British National Party. This is in contrast to the inspiring actions of those who Asians and whites who vented their fury on the police and local establishment.
When we can control the streets, even temporarily, we experience a sense of our collective power - a power which if unleased on a wider scale could sweep away all those imposing their authority on us.
Continuing our regular look at history: ‘Bloody Friday’, Glasgow, 1919
“It’s not industrial trouble in Glasgow. It’s a Bolshevik uprising!”
Those were the rather hysterical words of Scottish Secretary Robert Munro, when a riot broke out in George Square. Fifteen months after the Russian Revolution had sent waves of panic through the capitalist world, politicians were screaming ‘Bolshevik!’ at anyone in a red sweater.
It was just one event in many that contributed to the period known as ‘Red Clydeside’. This period (roughly from 1915 to the 1920s) was marked by a high level of working class militancy, especially from the ship builders, who were usually at the forefront of many of the struggles. Indeed the Clyde Workers Committee was involved in many of these struggles and made demands of both a social and economic nature.
What became known as ‘Bloody Friday’ began as a demonstration, agitating for the implementation for a 40 hour working week (started by the ship workers). When a red flag was flown, the police responded with baton charges, leaving many lying bleeding in the streets.
Trams were left stranded as rioters clambered on the roofs, pulling down overhead wires, throwing bottles, singing revolutionary songs, generally giving the cops a hard time of it. They were finally dispersed by mounted police, and three later ‘luminaries’ of the Labour Party were nicked: Willie Gallacher (one time ‘ultra-leftist’ and recipient of Lenin’s savage polemical tongue in ‘Left Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder!), Davie Kirkwood and Emmanuel Shinwell.
The following day (this is how scared the Government was!) 6 tanks patrolled Glasgow, along with 100 army lorries. Sadly, revolution did not break out on Clydeside, although riots and strikes continued to occur well into the 1920s, with anarchists such as Guy Aldred and John Taylor Caldwell involved. The memory of these events has largely been forgotten in Glasgow - let’s recover the history of our class!
And anarchists in the UK, sw@rm, have a info tent at loads of festivals:
http://www.subdimension.com/community/subversion/swarm
With so much brutal repression taking place across the World as states rush to quell protest and imprison activists prisoner support work is becoming ever more important. Due to a lack of space in
resistance the best thing we can do is to direct anyone interested in prisoner support (that should be most of us!) to the bi-monthly news bulletin put out by Anarchist Black Cross - Dijon.
The address is: c/o Maloka, BP 536, 21014, Dijon-Cedex, France. Send one International Reply Coupon for each issue. By email free: maloka@chez.com - free to prisoners, it is the most comprehensive revolutionary prisons newspaper available in English. Support our distressed comrades on the inside!
Last November the Spanish media, principally the press, fabricated a whole pack of sensationalist lies and innuendo (similar to the May Day reportage bias over here) about Iberian anarchist Eduardo Garcia Macias and several comrades. Aware that all the accusations were false, a fanciful creation of gutter press journos, all were acquitted save for Eduardo who was framed as a result of the media-pack frenzy . He is now serving a harsh prison sentence. The state repression of activists is rife at present all across Spain, particularly for those held in FIES isolation units. They need our support.
Contact Eduardo’s support group for further details: CNA, Paseo Alberto Palacios, 2-28021, Madrid, Spain.
An anarchist is on hunger strike in a Turkish jail. Dervis Orhan was imprisoned in 1990 with for being a PKK member. In 1995 he left the PKK and has defined himself as an anarchist since then. He has 26 more years to spend in jail.
Over 4 months ago he started a hunger strike with a list of reasonable requests-mostly against the pressure and violence of Turkish government on prisoners. In his note he emphasizes that other political movements have their own political proposals to end hunger strikes but he personally does not agree with them. In his words: “Because if I would propose anything on political ground, this would only be completely annihilation of the state; for sure I would not request such a thing from ‘them’.”
He has continued his hunger strike for 125 days (with a 5 days break on the 50th day) until 29th of June and has had a break recently although his requests are not realised; that’s why he may continue with the hunger strike.
DOWN WITH THE WALLS!
Send solidarity messages to:
Dervis Orhan, Mersin E tipi Kapalý Cezaevi, B/6 Kogusu, Mersin / Turkey
A young anarchist, Steve Swart is still on trial for the protests at last Summer’s Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He is accused of attacking a police officer, he argues the opposite is actually true. He says the officer attacked him, and then someone else knocked the cop down. What can you do to help Steve Swart?
(1) Make a donation to The Committee for the Legal Defense of Steve Swart, c/o Michigan Activist Legal Defense, P.O. Box 6236, East Lansing, MI. 48826
(2) Send letters of protest to: Lynne Abraham, District Attorney’s Office, 1421 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19102
An anarchist militant has been sent down for 6 months for violent disorder on Mayday 2000. Please write to:
Sean Cregan, Prison No. FR8832, PO Box 757 HMP Wandsworth, Heathfield Rd, London SW18 3HS
Please visit the regularly updated Anarchist Federation diary page for details of the latest events