Anarchist Federation bulletin - Resistance 82 - March 2006
NO TO NEW KILLER
Nuclear
power: expensive, dangerous and polluting. A one time
by-product of nuclear weapons production, it remains
indivisibly linked to it.
In the 1960s the industry promised ‘electricity too cheap to be
metered’. It never happened.
The industry is in
steep decline. Their latest PR stunt is to say
nuclear is carbon free, that it can solve global warming.
However, nuclear
technology is extremely dangerous, relies on dwindling
supplies and is
so expensive that it needs massive government
subsidies. It’s vulnerable
to terrorism and to nuclear weapons proliferation. It
produces volumes
of toxic waste with no safe storage solution.
Governments, including
less reliant on increasingly expensive oil from
volatile areas such as the
them greater control and making more uranium for their
weapons of mass
destruction. Last but not least, it’s a way of throwing technology at
a problem, which avoids tackling the causes:
over-consumption of oil
based transport and industry, pollution and waste.
Carbon
free?
The nuclear process
uses energy intensive industries which depend on
huge amounts of oil and coal-uranium mining, enrichment
and transport
across the world, construction and decommissioning of
nuclear facilities,
transporting and storing radioactive waste.
Nuclear produces almost
twice as much carbon dioxide as wind power
production. Power stations themselves release chloro- and hydro-
fluorocarbons as well as sulphur hexafluoride.
Electricity production globally
only contributes 16% of greenhouse emissions. The vast
majority is
produced by transport, mining and manufacturing, which are
heavily dependent
on fossil fuels. If all fossil fuel power stations
were replaced by
nuclear and exploitable reserves of uranium, it would run
out in 3-4 years
(as
it is now they will last only 30-40 years).
Subsidies
Between 1953 and 2002 the Canadian government gave the nuclear industry
$14.5 billion; between
1948 and 1998 the
industry $67 billion. The European Union spends 61% of its
research and
development budget on nuclear, although the industry only
supplies 13% of EU
energy.
Alternatives
The real alternative is
to generate power from renewable sources:
solar, tidal, hydro, wind, geothermal etc. This would
mainly be small scale,
locally produced for local consumption, to avoid the waste
and
surrender of control of the national Grid.
Renewable energy should
also be under genuine community control, rather
than government or private hands. Large scale
insulation of homes and
workplaces is essential to minimise
energy waste. The current oil
powered traffic system should be replaced by free public
transport, with
cities and towns designed for people rather than cars.
----------
AND THE WAR DRAGS ON...
The Blair regime has
now been responsible for at least 100 dead British
soldiers and it is sending a large number of British troops
to
British casualties will
surely mount. This is not to mention the numbers of
injured and maimed who are carefully hidden from view.
Alongside all of this
have been the recent video revelations of British
Army brutality
prison at Abu Ghraib showing
more scenes of humiliation, torture and
death.
These images cock a snook at the much vaunted claim of the American and
British
governments that they were bringing freedom and peace to
Let’s not be under any
illusion that these scenes are the work of a
minority. The military machine-the armed forces – is a
killing machine.
Its function is to kill
and intimidate. The face of the murderer might
have a thick layer of cosmetics from the House of
“Peacekeeping” but it’s
the face of a murderer just the same.
The British and
Americans are now bogged down in
and the war will drag on, with the possibility of
hostilities against
to growing disaffection in the armed forces and
increasing unrest at
home as the casualty figures mount. Show piece
demonstrations are not the
answer. As the American anti-war activist Mario Savio said at the time
of the
machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart,
that you can't
take part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the
gears and upon the
wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and
you've got to make
it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who
run it, to the
people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine
will be prevented
from working at all."
----------------
IAF DAY OF ACTION
As in previous years
IAF, the International of Anarchist Federations,
has called a day of action for the 18th of March. On
this date,
thousands of anarchists around the world will show their
refusal of the state
of permanent war into which we have been led. The
tension that has been
created by politicans and the
State is a means to create consensus in
societies that feel under threat. Then internal dissidence
can be easily
smashed.
In
right). There will also be a book
stall during the demonstration on
Saturday
morning (see back page).
*Wed 15th march - Jose Couso: State murder. Plus anti-war
films. 7pm at
The
Square,
*Thursday, 16th of
March - Hostage cities:
Conway
Hall,
*CANCELLED: Friday,
17th of March - Inside
Occupation
and War). 7pm
at Conway Hall,
----------------
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Federation of
Bulgarian Anarchists staged a protest in
Saturday 11th February,
handing out circulars with anti-EU and anti-IMF
messages. According to the protesters, the European Union
and the
International Monetary
Fund were "thieves," applying restrictions on
regardless of people's needs. The message also slammed the
Bulgarian
government for allowing a recent increase in the prices of
many products
and services, including energy, heating,
transportation, food, alcohol
and cigarettes. The anarchists marched through
downtown
called on people to "stop the social genocide."
Three anarchists were
arrested in
The arrests started at 8 in the morning when one anarchist was coming
out of work, he was arrested by balaclava wearing Mossos d'esquadra (a
police force belonging to the the
local government of
taken to his home where the police arrested his
housemate and began to
search the house. Later on as another anarchist was
leaving his home in
the center of the city he was also arrested. In the
afternoon one of
the anarchists was released without charges. For the
moment the other two
are being charged with arson and public disorder.
Apparently the
charges are related to attacks on the company CIRE, a
public enterprise whose
business it is to make a profit from prison labour in the Catalonian
prison system. So far in
about 150 people that took place in the city centre.
These arrests are
part of a continuing attack on the anarchist movement
in
2003 four other anarchists without trial. International
solidarity is
needed now more that ever.
----------------
ON THE FRONTLINE
Resistance reports
on the industrial disputes and struggles of the
and the world.
The notoriously
arrogant and bullying Royal Mail Management goons have
faced trouble almost everywhere they’ve looked these
past few months.
200 Post office workers
in
constant harassment and intimidation and staged a wildcat
walkout on
January 31 - the union
immediately repudiated the action and the bosses
thought they’d together managed to put out the flames, but
18 days later
the unofficial strike is still going strong and
stopping deliveries to
most of the city as well as all mail being sent to
Well done to those
who’ve stayed out and sent a clear message to the
bosses that they’ll not be intimidated away from their
livelihood - which
is what many people put the arrogance of the RM
bosses all over the
down to, deliberate management provocation in order to
avoid redundancy
payments come full privatisation.
Whilst this was going
on in
forty 24 hour strikes in various London PO’s in protest at plans to shut
down yet more local offices in restructuring plans
designed to cut wages
- managers
were forced to fill in as ineptly as they could on these
days. Meanwhile, up in Dundee PO depot staff also
staged two 48 hour
strikes in response to proposals to switch all full time
jobs to part time
positions - management have again been drafted in to some
proper work
for once.
The low paid and highly
exploited cleaners at Parliament have won all
their strike demands after staging a number of 24 hours
strikes - for
the fist time they now have the right to both 28 days
paid holiday a year
and sick pay - they also won the wage raise they were
demanding, they
now will earn £6.70 ph compared to an M.P’s £60 000.
The government and the
fire-fighters may once more be heading for a
national showdown with plans to raise the retirement age
for full pension
rights from 50 to 60. A strike ballot has
been postponed for 4 weeks
until a mid-march conference to discuss a tiny
concession by the
government, but all indication suggest that the fire-fighters
are in an angry
mood and fed up the last 5 years disputes dragging on
and want a clear
and quick victory that can’t be grabbed back
afterwards on this one.
Some horrible news from
the long running lock out at the tea picking
colony at
money to feed themselves have started dying of hunger.
First to die was a
three year old girl, this was followed by two adults
shortly after -
five dependents have since also died. The stranded
workers are being
force to scavenge and eat roots and tubers of wild
plants, many of them
potentially poisonous. Further research into the owners of
this estate
will follow.
-----------------------
WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?
Tough times for the Respect
bunch, indeed! Last time I saw someone
wearing the badge I couldn’t stop myself. I know it was
cruel, but I had to
ask. So, how’s George
Galloway in the house? And I didn’t mean the
House
of Commons, but the Big Brother one. A sigh and lengthy explanations
followed: well, you know, he’s not the party, etc.
But I’m sorry, actually he is. That’s the problem of
following a
leader. That’s the problem when a bunch of people rally
behind someone, and
send him to parliament. The bloke is the cause. All
Respect’s efforts in
the last months were to get him to parliament. They
succeeded. But how
did they benefit from it? Or better still, how did any
one in his
constituency benefit from having him in
It doesn’t
really matter who is your leader, who you follow. When you
give someone the power to decide for you, you’re done
for. Granted,
politicians mock their voters, once they’ve got the seat. So the moral is
clear. Make away with leaders of any kind.
All that said, it would
be a nice idea to gather all politicians and
put them in a BB type of house and make them do some
proper work.
Scaffolding
or whatever. See how many
nervous breakdowns we can see in a week.
-------------------
NOT A NUMBER - TIME
TO REFUSE ID
As predicted, most of
the Lords amendments to the ID cards bill have
been ignored. Labour has now
voted itself the power to give anyone
applying for a passport (or any other 'designated document')
an ID card and
at the same time build a vast database of personal
and biometric
information, starting in 2008/9.
Four out of five of us
already have passports and just one more act of
parliament will be needed to force ID cards on everyone.
So what if compulsory
ID wasn't in the Labour
manifesto as some
opponents have complained. Why should anyone want us to have
faith in
authority-obsessed warmongers? Politicians who voted to impose war in
now voted to invade our lives, for our own protection!
Forget the media sound
bites about identity theft and terrorism, which
are designed make us fearful of other people, and make
us feel like we
need a State to protect us. What will hurt most in the
long term is the
State's use of the National
Identity Register and other database
schemes like 'Government Connect' to control access to
public services, and
give the majority of us the day-to-day hassle of having
to produce
evidence of 'entitlement'. Labour
is intent on taking away any privacy we
have left, tracking every part of our lives, and
selling our details to
private companies.
How long will it be
before we start getting billed for healthcare if we
don't appear on the register for any reason?
How long before we are stopped in the street (more than now) and get
asked to produce our cards, or perhaps worse still, have
our private
information read invisibly from a distance, just to show we
are entitled to
exist.
The real work must now
begin to make this scheme completely unworkable.
This world should not
belong to the ruling class who, if you look back
through history, have always used force and laws to take
land,
resources and make people do what they wanted. It's time to take back our lives
- we
should not have to prove who we are to these State and corporate
identity thieves.
Defending Anonymity is
the AF's anti-ID pamphlet. Send SAE for a free
copy or read online at http://www.libcom.org/hosted/af/ace/anon.html
--------------------
NEWS FROM
Right now, anarchists
in south east
a libertarian revolutionary group and are interested
in making contact
with people in the area who would like to get involved.
Anarchist Federation
members are among those looking to organise an
anarchist presence in the Lewisham
and Camberwell areas of the city.
If you would like to
get involved or are from these areas and would be
interested in joining the AF then please contact London AF,
BM ANARFED,
------------------
TIME BOMB
...Continued from
last issues article on the Portuguese revolution in
1974.
Housing struggles
After April 25th people began occupying empty property, unwilling to
wait for governmental action. The government, afraid of
people's anger,
decreed a rent freeze and allocated money and tax
exemptions to
builders. The increase in homes built was inadequate and
more and more people
occupied empty buildings. 260
families from a shantytown in
into an empty apartment block near the city. The military
ordered them
out but were forced to back down when the families
refused.
In response to the
housing crisis people began to organise
collectively. In older working class and lower middle class
areas Autonomous
Revolutionary Neighbourhood Committees were set up.
The committees were
elected from general assemblies of local residents. They
arranged
occupations of property for use as free crèches, workers' centres and for other
community services.
In
empty houses to be taken over. A "social rent"
was paid that went towards
improvements. Another organisation
set up was the Federation of Shanty
Town
Committees. It was independent
of political parties and came to
represent 150,000 shantytown dwellers. It called for new
housing estates
to be built in place of the shantytowns, for
expropriation of land and
for rent controls.
Land occupations
When the rural workers
saw their opportunity for change they seized it
whole-heartedly and began taking the land. There was co-operation
between agricultural and industrial workers. In Cabanas an
abandoned farm
was occupied with the help of a local neighbourhood committee. Machines
were taken from a nearby factory to help clear the
land. In
meeting of 354 farm workers declared that a massive amount
of land was
to be occupied. Other workers, armed with pickaxes,
arrived in trucks to
aid the agricultural labourers
and at the end of it over ten major
farms were collectivised.
Gradually the political
parties destroyed the gains of the working
class. But the Portuguese Revolution had been a great
experiment in how to
start organising for a future
society.
------------------------
INSIDE INFORMATION
Support Tomasz Wilkoszewski!
Tomasz Wilkoszewski was sentenced to 15 years in prison for
killing a
nazi in self defence. He has now served almost
10 years of his sentence,
which means he is now eligible for parole. Tomasz has a
hearing coming
up soon to decide if he will be released early or
not. Please support
him by sending the letter below (Polish translation at
http://www.brightonabc.org.uk) to the
Polish authorities responsible for his case:
Post to: SAD OKREGOWY
III WYDZIAL
PENITENCJARNY I NADZORU
NAD WYKONANIEM ORZECZEN KARNYCH
UL. AL. ZWYCIESTWA 1
98-200
“We would like to
add this appeal to the files of Tomasz Wilkoszewski’s
case. We, the undersigned would like to express our
support for the
attempt by Tomasz Wilkoszewski
to obtain early, conditional release from
his 15 year sentence. Tomasz Wilkoszewski
has been in prison since March
1996 (10 years)
which means he can now try to obtain earliest,
conditional release. We think that he has spent enough time in
jail, he didn’t
cause any problems there and now its time for him to
start living like
a free man again. Further imprisonment will only
destroy his chances to
come back to the society.
We request that you
look into this case closely and consider his
attempts and our appeal.”
Tomasz would also love
to get more letters. He can understand some
English, but finds it
difficult to write, so don’t necessarily expect a
reply.
Tomasz
Wilkoszewski, Zaklad Karny, ul. Orzechowa 5, 98-200 Sieradz,
Italian anarchist
extradited and jailed
Francesco Gioia, c.c. Rebibbia, via R. Majetti, 165, 00156 Roma, Italy
Francesco Gioia has been extradited to
in
one of the libertarians in
association’ under the infamous article 270 BIS. They’re being charged of making
up a group called Cells for Offensive Revolution.
---------------------
SUBVERT!
March:
2nd - Worthing Alliance
meeting with updates on local campaigns. All
welcome. Upstairs at The Rest,
8th - Dave Morris will give a talk on the history of
the Tottenham
Claimants
tube: Wood Green.
10-12th - Radio 4A On Air Around
11th - Peak Oil and the Capitalist system. London
Anarchist Forum talk
with Adrian Williams. At Freedom Press, 84b
17th - Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, 5th anniversary.
BENEFIT EVENT with MARK
THOMAS - Comedian, SOFIA BUCHUCK - Peruvian
musician, DOUBLE NEGATIVE - Rappers, NAWROZ ORAMAR -
Kurdish singer
ODYSSEY
- International songs, KURDISH DANCE GROUP. KURDISH COMMUNITY CENTRE,
11
Haringey-Green Lanes rail station (Gospel Oak-to-Barking
line)
7.30pm. £8, £5 concs 07811 253600 http://www.campacc.org.uk
18th - Control Your arms.
Amnesty and The Anchor Project, a youth club
for young asylum seekers, join forces for a special
event against the
arms trade and the marginalisation
of asylum seekers. Photo exhibition,
stunts, bands and djs. One not to miss. All cash raised goes to
charity. 6pm till 2am, Truman's
Brewery, off
controlyourarms@hotmail.co.uk http://www.anchorproject.org
18th - International day of action against the Iraqi
occupation
Assemble 12 noon,
18th - Punkpurim - a night of
radical jewish
counterculture from
jewdas.org and heeb magazine.
Reviving the jewish
anarchist tradition in the
east end there will be live klezmer
hip hop, punk visuals, films,
radical torah and much much
more. 9pm rampART,
jewdas@gmail.com http://www.jewdas.org
http://www.rampart.co.nr
Anarchist Federation,
BM Anarfed,
WC1N 3XX
Email: info@afed.org.uk
Also visit: http://www.afed.org.uk
and http://www.iaf-ifa.org
Subscriptions to resistance costs £4 from the address above for 12
issues. A two issue subscription to our magazine, Organise! for
revolutionary anarchism, is also £4.
You can subscribe to resistance by email for free, or
download current (and back issues) from http://www.libcom.org/hosted/af/res/
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