Information correct as of December 2011 so keep checking the LDMG website for updates: http://ldmg.org.uk/
-

Anti-fascist prisoners update
With the release of two anti-fascist prisoners on electroinc tag at the begining of the year, there are now just three comrades still inside to serve out the rest of their sentences behind bars. Letters of support would be greatly appreciated:

Phil De Souza A5766CE
HMP Elmley
Church Road
Eastchurch
Sheerness
Kent ME12 4DZ

Ravinder Gill A5770CE
HMP Wayland
Griston
Thetford
Norfolk IP25 6RL

Austen Jackson A5729CE
HMP Stocken
Stocken Hall Road
Stretton
Nr. Oakham
Rutland LE15 7RD

Useful guide on writing to prisoners: http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/writing.html
Background information: Comrades jailed
-

Voices from the inside
Below are some words from Omar Ibrahim, from Glasgow, who is currently serving an 18 month sentence from November  2011 for violent disorder following his arrest outside Topshop in Oxford Street London during the anti-cuts demonstrations on March 26th:

Writing from Wanno (Wandsworth) it seems to me there could be an easy solution to the European capital crisis.  The Pakistani Cricket fixers have been locked up here for a couple of weeks.  At the same time there’s been a few international cricket matches.  I don’t know if my economics is right, but I’m sure they could at least share the contacts to put on a sure fire bet with our great economic leaders.  It seems the Governor here could have an eye on that ball already from the rumours going round.

The lads were in induction wing last week.  For most prisoners this means one hour exercise, one hour association, meals and the rest of your time banged up in a smelly cell you can’t clean with a sink that only provides short spurts of water on a twenty minute timer.  Our Guv decided he would spend a few days with the celebrities.  No doubt he was designing how professional sportsmen could exercise their full potential here in Wanno.  One senior prisoner informed me they played cricket and tennis all day over the weekend, and were never present at meal times on the wing, over the weekend when several international test matches were played.  Doubtless, information is a key component of prison life.

Omar Ibrahim

For more updates from Omar check out his March 26th Anti-Cuts Prisoner Blog: http://bangedupforprotesting.wordpress.com/

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February 2012

Fri 3rd

• Electricians picket Blackfriars, London
• Adecco pickets in solidarity with ABB strikers, London

Sat 4th

• Leeds Antifascist Film Festival Space Project, Leeds
• IWW Pizza Hut pickets, London
• IWW Pizza Hut workers solidarity picket, Glasgow
• National M&E Rank and File Meeting, Birmingham
• Prisoner Support Cafe 1in12 Club, Bradford
• Peace News present: ‘From Hastings To Kabul – A voyage of peace and nonviolence’ with Maya Evans Housmans Bookshop, London
• Grand Collapse, Left For Dead & More! benefit night Cowley Club, Brighton

Sun 5th

• Leeds Antifascist Film Festival Space Project, Leeds
• Sunday Film & Food – ‘Nothing But A Man’ Next to Nowhere Social Centre, Liverpool
• Film Night: V for Vendetta Oxford Action Resource Centre, Oxford
• Canny Little Library Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
• My Generation (a radio play by Alice Nutter), BBC Radio 3

Mon 6th

• Film Night – Guerrilla: The Taking Of Patty Hearst Pogo Cafe, London

Wed 8th

• Book Talk: ‘Journalism, radicalism and feminism’ with Laurie Penny Housmans Bookshop, London

Fri 10th

• Radical Routes Gathering, Birmingham
• Radical London benefit with Robb Johnson, London

Sat 11th

• Inverness Anarchist Film Festival, Inverness
• Pop-up Social Centre, Glasgow
• Radical Liverpool: Live Acoustic Music, Liverpool
• Radical Routes Gathering, Birmingham
  Queer Movie Night Cowley Club, Brighton
• Kurdish Info and Solidarity Night! London
• The 1in12 Cafe 1in12 Club, Bradford

Sun 12th

• Bristol Radical Zine Fest Kebele Social Centre, Bristol
• Radical Routes Gathering, Birmingham
• Canny Little Library Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle

Mon 13th

• No Borders Convergence – Week long event, London
• National National week of action against privatisation, UK-wide
• SchMOVIES presents Life in The Fast lane – The Story of the NO M11 Campaign Cowley Club, Brighton

Thurs 16th

• Merseyside Anarchist monthly meeting Next to Nowhere Social Centre, Liverpool

Sat 18th

• Stop Criminalising Hackney’s Youth! benefit night, London
• Noise Demonstration: Solidarity with Our Political Prisoners, London
• Dole Queue Cafe 1in12 Club, Bradford

Sun 19th

• Sunday Film & Food Next to Nowhere Social Centre, Liverpool
• Canny Little Library Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle

Fri 24th

• Earth First! Winter Moot, Near Glasgow
• Critical Mass bike ride, London

Sat 25th

• Earth First! Winter Moot, Near Glasgow
• Benefit for S.O.P.H.I.E. Foundation 1in12 Club, Bradford
• The 1in12 Cafe 1in12 Club, Bradford

Sun 26th

• Earth First! Winter Moot, Near Glasgow
• Canny Little Library Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle

Mon 27th

• Bristol Radical Film Festival – week long event, Bristol

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Ultras Ahlawy - A.C.A.B

At least 73 people have been killed during a match between Egypt’s bitter footballing rivals Al Ahly from Cairo and Al Masry in Port Said. Most of those who died were young supporters and hundreds more were injured in what is Egypt’s worst footballing tragedy.

Supporters from rival factions fought on the pitch as the security forces, who usually maintain a high visible presence at Al Ahly matches, stood back and allowed the carnage to ensue. Many believe this was an orchestrated move by the police to ‘get back’ at the militant Al Ahly fans, known as Ultras Ahlawy, because of the decisive and uncompromising role they played in the recent uprising. In the Tahrir square occupations Ultras Ahlawy confronted the security forces and fought successfully against the police to defend the occupation. They are also vocal in their continued support of the revolution, criticising the corrupt leaders and military regime.

Fans of the home team Al Masry were allowed to flood onto the pitch at the end of the match played on Wednesday 1st Feb, where they began attacking the players and opposing fans. It is also understood gates were deliberately left unlocked by the security forces to allow Al Masry fans access to the Al Ahly supporters. The Al Masry Ultras Green Eagles have subsequently issued a statement distancing themselves from the attacks on rival fans, raising further concerns that the incident had little to do with football rivalry. The Egyptian Football Association, which has strong links with the military leadership, has suspended indefinitely Egypt’s Premiere League in response to incident.

From stadium culture to social movement
The ‘ultras’ of football clubs in Cairo were at the forefront of the mobilisations late last year to prevent Tahrir Square once again being overrun by police during anti-government demonstrations. When people re-occupied the Square in November in renewed protests against the military rulers, football fans responded to the attacks by security forces by forming human barricades and often fought pitched battles with police to preserve the autonomy of the occupation that saw 33 people killed by the authorities during the unrest.

As one sports writer noted at the time: “The involvement of organised soccer fans in Egypt’s anti-government protests constitutes every Arab government’s worst nightmare. Soccer, alongside Islam, offers a rare platform in the Middle East, a region populated by authoritarian regimes that control all public spaces, for the venting of pent-up anger and frustration.”

Abu Ala, one of the founding members of the Ultras Ahlawy (UA07) the supporters of Al Ahly explained their actions: “We don’t usually get involved in politics – we had never done so before last January. Our clashes with police were limited to inside the stadium. But the revolution was an exceptional moment, and we couldn’t just stand aside and watch”.

And it was this response that saw the city’s football fans unite against the police in Tahrir Square. “We organized ourselves over the phone and by email. When we got to the square, we didn’t have a specific strategy. We just faced off with the police like we’re used to doing in stadiums”. They also changed their familiar chant of ‘Government, beware! We’re angry tonight! Ahly supporters will set the house on fire! to ‘Egyptian people will set the house on fire’ which acted as both a rallying cry and catalyst for those occupying the square.

UA07 and rivals Ultras White Knights (UWK) who support Zamalek, were both formed in 2007 with the express intent to bring the largely European ‘ultras’ phenomenon to Egypt. It should be noted ultras are not necessarily hooligans but are a committed part of the terrace culture, fanatical in their support of the club which includes displaying massive banners and flags, continuous chanting usually with drums and setting off flares during games.

Since November the battle lines between militant fans and the country’s rulers have hardened. When the football’s governing body EFA, under instruction from the interior ministry, tried to ban supporters and their ‘ultra’ activity from the terraces the UA07 responded with an overtly political statement: “The issue is bigger than football. We want to settle the score with remnants of the former regime and their oppression of Egyptian youth.”

UWK issued an equally provocative statement: “We suffered a lot from injustice and repression in the past, but we stood up to that with pride. We thought justice and freedom would come after our revolution. We will continue in our defence of freedom even with our blood”

Only time will tell what impact the Ultras continued politicisation will have on the future of Egypt.

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Freedom Feb 12 contains:

• News:
• youth unemployment – the kids are not alright
• Police win court battle to continue kettling
• New Labour’s u-turn on cuts
• Liverpool Solfed’s week of action against privatisation
• Global internet strike against online censorship

• International news:
• Colombian radical poet charged with ‘rebellion’
• Kazakhstan workers killed during strike unrest
• Social unrest over oil in Nigeria

• Feature: Lucien van der Walt’s talk on anarchism’s historical role
• Analysis: Haiti’s troubled past
• Bigger picture: We all need somewhere to live – housing in the spotlight
  
• Economics: growing economic inequality – what the figures say
  
• History: Short history of Freedom Press (last part of the series to celebrate Freedom’s 125 year anniversary)

• Sport:
• Wave of horse racing strikes close Italy’s racing season
• First eco-friendly football club – Forest Green Rovers

• Anarchist and radical news:
• Rita Milton obituary
• Leeds Antifascist Film Festival
• Wessex Solidarity Group
• Bristol Radical Zine Fest
• Nottingham Defence Campaign update on Atos two

• Getting Active:
• Birmingham’s Bike Foundry Co-op
• New anarchist publishers – LBC
• Making up with the Cunningham Amendment magazine
• Campaign to bring private estate land into community ownership

• Culture:
• Television review:
• Book review:
• Short Fiction:
• Art: Haiti. The ghetto Biennale by Tracey Moberly (part 1)

Regulars:

• Svartfrosk: A sideways look 
• Notes from the US – Port closed down in Oakland and environmental update
• Prison news – riots and unrest in prison system
• Inside news: two anti-fascists released on electronic tag
• Wildcat cartoon
• Anarchist Quiz
• What’s On

Freedom newspaper:

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• Freedom stockists

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Meanwhile, the local opposition group, Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCCS) is moving away from mere demonstrations and street vigils. In a bid to put pressure on the economy, the LCCS and other activists called for a general and indefinite strike on December 11 across many cities. Despite threats of reprisals and arson from government forces, most shops and schools have been kept closed, except those trading essential goods.

However, as indicated earlier, the more strategic pressures on the Assad government are coming from outside, with the EU, the US, Turkey and the Arab League imposing economic sanctions on Syria. However, Russia, China, Iran, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine are backing Assad because of their own geostrategic interests. The US at the moment seems to be involved in a two-pronged assault to consolidate its position in the middle-east, aggravating conflict with Iran on the one hand and cornering Syria on the other. Many Muslim and Arabic groups in and around Syria see the Syria-Iran partnership as the last bulwark against an expanding US hegemony.

Another problem that is causing some anxiety is sectarian strife. Opposition says that President Bashar al-Assad of the ruling minority Alawite sect is deliberately fanning divisions with the majority Sunni Syrians in an attempt to undermine the uprising. Many regional elites, including Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, are concerned that these conflicts will spill over into their borders, and are therefore opposing punitive measures against the regime.

Meanwhile, business communities within Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey are anxious to see the conflict resolved because Syria is the main trading route between themselves, Turkey and the Gulf region. Transportation costs have risen lately and oil companies, including Shell, are moving out due to the sanctions.

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NO PASARAN! : Leeds Antifascist Film Festival

Since its emergence as a distinct ideology at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, fascism has brought more misery to the world than any other political doctrine. Yet, even today, even after the titanic antifascist struggles of the past, and even the Nazi Holocaust, from Anders Breivik to Dale Farm, the threat of fascism still exists.

In the past, our comrades had the courage to stand up and say No Pasaran! – They shall not pass! – From Leeds’ own Holbeck Moor, where Oswald Mosley was routed, to the battlefields of Spain. The heroism of  these brave antifascists, who often paid the ultimate price for their resistance, should not be forgotten.

Leeds Antifascist Film Festival will take place at Space, an exciting new project at Mabgate in central Leeds, over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of February. We are showing films documenting the struggle against fascism in Spain, Germany, France, and England. The programme also includes some short talks, a quiz, and there will even be some anti-Nazi comedy.

The Leeds ABC bookstall will be there selling books, pamphlets, T-shirts, badges, CDs, and more. There’ll be sandwiches and vegan cake, a raffle, and the weekend concludes with a session of antifascist songs from Javaad Alipoor. This should be a great event so please make every effort to attend. Admission is free, but donations will be gratefully received on the door. No Pasaran! is a benefit for antifascist prisoners.

Full Programme:

• Saturday 4th February

11.00am:  Auschwitz – Recollections Of Prisoner No. 1327
Kazimir Smolen survived four and a half years in the Nazi concentration camp. In this Polish-made documentary, he returns there to tell his tale. Running time 42 minutes.

12.00 Noon: Remembering Auschwitz
A short talk by Javaad Alipoor and Imran Manzoor about the infamous death-camp and their work in taking West Yorkshire teenagers to visit the site.

1.00pm: Conspiracy (15)
The chilling true story of how, at a short conference in Wansee, just outside Berlin, in 1942, the Nazis decided on ‘The Final Solution’ to the European ‘Jewish Problem’. Stars Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci. Running time 92 minutes.

3pm: When The Violins Stopped Playing
A short talk about the Gypsy Holocaust.

3.30pm: Edelweiss Pirates (15)
Politically and culturally the Edelweiss Pirates were the polar opposite of the Hitler Youth. This film focuses on a group of young Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne towards the end of World War Two. In German with English subtitles. Running time 96 minutes.

5.30pm: The 43 Group
Returning home after World War Two, many Jewish ex-servicemen and women were astonished to see Oswald Mosely’s fascists once again trying to stir-up anti-Semitism on the streets. This short film chronicles the militant response of the antifascist 43 Group.

6.00pm: Antifascist recollections from the 1970’s
A short reading.

6.10pm: The Welling Case
A talk about last year’s prosecution of 20 antifascists on trumped-up ‘conspiracy’ charges by one of those acquitted.

6.20pm: Spinach Fer Britain
The 1943 anti-Nazi Popeye cartoon which wasn’t released until 2003.

6.30pm: Laughing At The Enemy
Bod Green tells some of his favourite antifascist jokes, including some genuine
1930’s gems.

7.00pm: The Army Of Crime (15)
The true story of one of the most notorious resistance groups in Nazi-occupied France. In an attempt to discredit them, they were dubbed ‘The Army of Crime’ by the
fascists they fought against. French (mainly) with English subtitles. Running time approximately 135 minutes.

• Sunday 5th February

12.00 Noon: Land And Freedom (15)
Ken Loach’s inspiring film about the Spanish Civil War, which follows a (fictional) young antifascist volunteer who leaves his native Liverpool to go and fight in Spain. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. Running time 109 minutes.

2.30pm: Living Utopia, The Anarchists & The Spanish Revolution
Juan Gamero’s 1997 documentary, which contains moving and inspiring interviews with 30 survivors of the Spanish Revolution. Regarded by many as the best film of the genre. Spanish with English subtitles. Running time 95 minutes.

4.30pm: The Anarchist Black Cross
A short talk about the work of  Leeds ABC.

5.00pm:  Pan’s Labrynth (18)
Guillermo Del Toro weaves fairy-tale imagery into this powerful film set in post Civil War Spain. Spanish with English subtitles. Running time 119 minutes.

7.15pm: The Dead Fascist Quiz
What it says on the tin!

7.45pm: To The Barricades!
Javaad Alipoor performs a set of  international antifascist songs.

Further further information see:
Website: http://leedsabc.org/
Space Project Venue: http://spaceproject.org.uk/

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What really happened at Occupy Oakland on Saturday January 28
A firsthand account

For the internet, here’s a first-hand account of Occupy Oakland on 1/28/2012, because the news never tells the full story. I’ll tell you about the street battle, the 300+ arrests, the vandalism, the flag burning, all in the context of my experience today. This is deeper than the headlines. No major news source can do that for you.

The stated goal for the day was to “move-in” to a large, abandoned, building to turn it into a social and political center. It is a long vacant convention center – the only people ever near there are the homeless who use the space outside the building as a bed. The building occupation also draws attention to the large number of abandoned and unused buildings in Oakland.

The day started with a rally and a march to the proposed building. The police knew which building was the target, surrounded it, and used highly mobile units to try and divert the protest. After avoiding police lines, the group made it to one side of the building. Now, this is a very large building, and we were on a road with construction fences on both sides, and a large ditch separating us from the cops. The police fired smoke grenades into the crowd as the group neared a small path around the ditch, towards the building. They declared an unlawful assembly, and this is when the crowd broke down the construction fence. A few people broke fences to escape the situation, others because they were pissed. A couple more fences were taken down then necessary, but no valuable equipment was destroyed. They only things broken were fences.

The crowd decided to continue moving, and walked up the block to a more regular street. We decided to turn left up the street, and a police line formed to stop the march. They again declared an unlawful assembly. The protesters challenged the line, marching towards the police with our own shields in front. The shields, some small and black and a few large metal sheets. The police fired tear-gas as the group approached, and shot less-than-lethal rounds at the crowd. The protesters returned one volley of firecrackers, small projectiles, and funny things like balloons. A very weak attack, 3 officers may have been hit by something but none of them got injured. Tear gas forced many people back. The protesters quickly regrouped, and pressed the line again. This time the police opened fire with flash-grenades, tear gas, paint-filled beanbag shotguns, and rubber bullets.

After the police fired heavily on the protesters, they pushed their line forward and made a few arrests. The protesters regrouped down the block and began to march the other way (followed by police), back to Oscar Grant Plaza.

All of this occurred during the day, but it was that street battle that set the tone for the police response later in the evening. After taking a break in Oscar Grant Plaza, feeding everyone and resting, the group headed out for their evening march. Around 5pm, the group took to the street at 14th and Broadway and began a First-amendment sanctioned march around the city. The police response was very aggressive.

About 15 minutes into the march, the police attempted to kettle the protesters. This march was entirely non-violent; nobody threw shit at the cops and an unlawful assembly was never declared. . This is a very important detail. The march was 1000+ strong, conservatively. The police were very mobile, using 25+ rented 10seater vans to bring the ‘troops’ to the march.

For their first attempt at a kettle, the cops charged the group with police lines from the front and back. They ran towards us aggressively. Us being 1000+ peaceful marching protesters. The group was forced to move up a side street. The police moved quickly to surround the entire area; they formed a line on every street that the side street connected to. Police state status: very efficient. They kettled almost the entire protest in the park near the Fox theater. AFTERWARDS, as in after they surrounded everyone, they declared it to be an unlawful assembly BUT OFFERED NO EXIT ROUTE. Gas was used, could of been tear or smoke gas.

The crowd then broke down a fence that was on one side of the kettle, and 1000 people ran across a field escaping a police kettle and embarrassing the entire police force. It was literally a massive jailbreak from a kettle. The group re-took
Telegraph ave. and left the police way behind.

At this point, I was on edge because I knew the police were not fucking around tonight. Because of the incident earlier in the day, I realized they were effectively treating the peaceful march as a riot. There was not rioting, or intentions to riot, just dancing, optimism, hope, and walking. But clearly the police thought differently, and I knew they would try to trap us again without warning. From the moment I saw riot police running towards are march from both directions, I knew the constitution would not apply in Oakland tonight. The police made that very clear. My friends thought differently, thinking that they would not be arrested for marching. They are currently in jail.

The second, and successful, kettle occurred as the protest was headed back up Broadway, at Broadway and 24th. Again, the police appeared quickly in front of the crowd, as well as a line behind the crowd. This time there was no side street. A few people attempted to escape into the YMCA; some mis-infonformed news reports claim that the YMCA got ‘occupied’. Around 300 people were trapped, mostly young people. At this point I had fallen behind the line of riot police in back of the crowd, and when the kettle was sprung I was on the other side of the police line. I have a policy of avoiding arrest, but I feel like I’ve been striped of some dignity. I’ve seen some shit go down in oaktown, but I’ve always avoided arrest because it was easy. Most mass arrests occur when people choose to break the law (like occupying Bank of America in downtown SF and pitching a tent to send a statement to UC Regent Monica Lozano on BofA’s board – respect). At ‘unlawfully assemblies’, people are usually extracted by a quick attack of 5+ cops, and their often ‘targets’ (previously-identified and profiled protesters). If the crowd is too large, they use tear-gas.

Tonight was different. When I fell behind the group, I knew they were going to arrest a very large number of peaceful protesters without declaring an unlawful assembly at the location. And then they did. I thought this shit was reserved for G20′s and WTO meetings. I felt shame for being intimidated away from my rights. ‘Unlawful assemblies’ feel like a boot stomp on the first amendment, but this was like them wiping their ass with the constitution and force feeding it to me.

300+ were arrested, corralled below the YMCA @ 23rd and Broadway. The only announcement that was made was one I’ve never heard before:

“You are under arrest. Submit to your arrest.”

The 300 protesters were then arrested, one by one. They were ziptied and sat in rows while they waited to be processed. OPD set up an entire processing station behind police lines, where they searched and identified every protester. They were slowly loaded onto buses, including local public AC transit buses. This took about 4 or 5 hours.

Outside the police lines, things were still happening. A group that escaped the trap decided to head back to Oscar Grant Plaza. I do not know how, but they opened the front door to city hall and occupied the building. Opened, as in no window smashing. The move was not meant to be an occupation but more of a show of solidarity to the 300 arrested protesters down the street. When all the people being arrested heard the news, they let out a big cheer…

..At this point I ran to Oscar Grant Plaza. When I arrived there were only 8 riot cops guarding the open front door, but more arrived very quickly. No one was inside the building anymore, but many had gathered in the Plaza. Someone burned an American Flag in front of city hall. I’ve seen the same guy do it before; frankly he’s weird and it’s kind of his thing.

One thing to note is the police arrested to wrong part of the protest. Most people arrested were young peaceful types. Aggressive protesters, and anyone with a record, are usually very good at avoiding arrest. Point being, back at the plaza opportunists began their work. I saw some young ‘jugalos’ spray-painting a wall with “jugalos for life” shit and then take photos next to it. They were just young and stupid kids; some good protesters cleaned it up later in the night. Some CBS and FOX news crews forced to leave the scene, with people spanking their van. They had already gotten the footage of someone burning an American Flag in front of city hall, so their work was done. The crowd was angry about what happened, and milling around the plaza and downtown area. At one point, the first of the 9 busloads of protesters drove past 14th and Broadway. People cheered for the ones inside, and chased it down, slamming on the sides of the bus. None of the other buses came past the plaza. There is about 30 police in the immediate area, 20 in front of city hall and 10 near 14th and broadway. Clearly they were stretched thin, and did not expect the city hall incident. Mutual aid been called it; I saw cops from Oakland, Alameda County Sheriff, Pleasanton, and Berkeley.

I walked back down to the 300 arrests in progress to try and get some information or spot my friends, but all I could do was wait and watch from behind the police line. My phone died. Not much happened, a lot of waiting and talking with people who also had friends on the other side. People included one French women who talked about how in France this would never be tolerated, and a teacher of one of Oakland’s 10 schools being closed who was out on his birthday ‘for the kids’. Eventually, I decided I needed to charge my phone, get on the internet, and figure out where and when my friends will be released. Siting down on BART was great after a long day of walking.

I got home and viewed OakfoSho and PunkboyinSf on Ustream to stay posted. OakFoSho filmed the entire arrest from above, I was able to look for my friends from his stream. All props to that guy. I saw that with the new development at Oscar Grant Plaza, they had to call in mutual aid from San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo. They declared the 14th and Broadway an unlawful assembly and slowly dispersed the dwindling crowd. No tear gas this time!

Now that this incident is on-record, I’m gonna get a little sleep, then go pick up my friends from jail.

If you only remember one detail be it this: Tonight’s mass arrest occurred without a dispersal order. No law was broken. The only order given was: “You are under arrest. Submit to your arrest.” 300 peaceful protesters walking down a street were trapped and arrested unlawfully.

A note about police militarization: I saw some big guns and scary gear tonight. Alameda County Sheriff seems to have an endless budget for that shit. But tonight I saw something much scarier, that I’ve never seen before. First, I saw that the police have a printed profile books of protesters. I saw a cop flipping through pictures with descriptions, talking about who on their list they’ve seen today. When resting in Oscar Grant Plaza, a cop was filming the plaza from a rooftop in an adjacent building. They’re always filming, some have cameras on their bodies now, but this was clear spying and sophisticated intelligence gathering and analysis. Second, a very large tank on wheels, with a water cannon on top, rolled on scene. Someone said it was called a “grizzly”, but I can’t find a photo anywhere. help? It was massive, and I stood right next to it before they brought it behind police lines. It was a hardcore, modern urban tank. The police are funded and prepared to use a water cannon on protesters, if need be. Know that.

The thing about Occupy, and especially Occupy Oakland, is it refuses to exclude. We are the 99%, and we mean it. The homeless and disenfranchised were welcome in the camp from day 1. The crime rate in Downtown Oakland went down, and some people finally had a safe place to sleep. Idealistic youth, google techies, students, teachers, parents, children, poor, homeless, workers, all coming together. It rekindled hope for a lot of people. Occupy changed the conversation. The idea is more important than any one protest. An idea cannot be stopped. It is no longer about occupations; instead, it’s about bringing people together. The 99%, all with their own problems and concerns, have brought their collective attention to the root of the forces preventing them from making a better world.

A lot of the people arrested today were my peers…a lot of young people and students. For us, the occupy movement can’t be diminished or co-opted…it’s bigger than occupy. I will seek the changes I marched for tonight until I win or die. It is the task of my generation, worldwide, to return power to the people. Governments around the world are quickly realizing that our generation will not back down. This is bigger than ‘occupy’, this is bigger than one country, one problem, or one protest. The people want their world back. We are fighting for our future, and we are winning.

Edit: Forgot to add this context – The Oakland PD will soon be taken over by the Feds because of their poor conduct and inability to change: http://www.baycitizen.org/policing/story/judge-strips-power-oakland-police/

Original: http://networkedblogs.com/tiQ7f

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A research expert in police ethics warned that the biggest danger is that the technology would be used for political control. “If authorities in Egypt or Syria had this, would they use it for dispersal or to shove crowds into potentially lethal harm’s way?” he asked from Leeds.

Given the new police commissioners penchant for expensive novelty devices – it was Bernard ‘Hulk’ Hogan Howe the Oxbridge graduate now in charge of the police who introduced the enormous ‘Berlin wall’ style crowd barriers onto the streets during the last student demonstration and his dedication to kettling –  it won’t be long before we see the British police using the new riot shields for political purposes.

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Parents in Sheffield have joined together and formed a protest group to campaign against their local secondary school becoming an academy. The group KES PLEAS (King Ecgbert School Parents for Local Education Authority Status) is angry at the school Governors going behind parents’ backs in ensuring the school is changed to academy status.

The group discovered that as far back as June 2011 Governors had registered an interest with the Department for Education in converting to an academy, some five months before the consultation process. The Governors are set to formally make a decision and vote on the proposals on January 17 depending on the results of the consultation. Headteacher Lesley Bowes said the financial advantages brought by academy status are essential as the school is facing a 25 per cent cut to its sixth form funding.

• Campaigners who demanded a public consultation involving “ordinary people” in the face of sweeping cuts to small hospitals in the region have won a three-month extension to threatened services at Bridport Community Hospital, Dorset. Plans to remove outpatient appointments, day case surgery & radiography from Bridport hospital have been pushed back from March to July after a concerted effort by local people to stop the move.  Community Health Campaign (CHC) was formed to challenge decision after a consultation process had been set up that excluded those who would be directly affected by the change. Eileen Harding, a member of Community Health Campaign (CHC) said: “To discover that a group, which I did not know existed, is being consulted on my behalf, is unacceptable. Any group dealing with Bridport should be local and represent ALL aspects, including, pensioners, families, low paid workers, and the disabled.”

• The Court of Appeal approved a case brought by a King’s Cliffe residents against the Secretary of State over the dumping of low level nuclear waste (LLW) at the King’s Cliffe landfill site in Northamptonshire. Despite this Augean PLC who are set to deposit up to 250,000  tonnes per year of radioactive waste, ignored requests to stop until a legal decision has been made. Residents of King’s Cliffe and surrounding villages responded by mounting a blockade of the site in December.Around 25 residents arrived at the site early one morning, and set themselves up in the entrance. In order to delay the passage of lorries bringing LLW, four residents clipped themselves into steel tubes inserted in barrels of concrete, leaving a small group to continue the protest by the roadside. Six people who had ignored police instructions to move were arrested, and later released.

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Other important questions lead on from here:-

• Are we existing in a tacitly recognized political ghetto, where we see ‘our’ concerns as more or less unrelated to the more ‘mainstream’ struggles of the students and the workers (public as well as private sectors)?
• If many of the anarchists identify themselves ‘as class struggle anarchists’, are we adequately engaging in that class struggle?
• Perhaps the term ‘class struggle’ itself needs to be sufficiently defined in order for us to engage in it?
• How do we relate to the rest of the anti-cuts movement, which falls within the ambit of ‘class struggle’? Is there a desire to do so?
• Most crucially, as social anarchists, how do we act collectively and in a unified way, as an ‘anarchist movement’, not just in name but in deed?

Looking forward
The answers to the above questions – the desire to engage with these questions – will determine our future as to whether anarchism has an appeal beyond the visuals of menacing-looking black blocs and street battles with the police. Do we have answers to the thorny problems of everyday life? Can we practically and materially create the alternatives needed that the Left has no desire to do? Or, are our ideas mere rhetoric, and incapable of being implemented?

Organizing ourselves, and mobilizing people to this end, not just in the current social unrest but also in the long-term, is key to the continued political life and growth of anarchism. Otherwise, the title ‘anarchist’ would mean nothing at all, and we may have to consider ceding the way to new political subjectivities and new political subjects who are better able to adapt to the changed circumstances. The is true of the Left as much as it is true of anarchists.

Perhaps we can begin this self-critical, but also self-renewing process, by examining whether our current organizations and organizational frameworks have been adequate to meeting this challenge, or do we need to create entirely new spaces and structures that are efficient, inclusive, and non-sectarian. For there is no doubt that the need for such structures and procedures exists, and if we can begin to build them together it might just spell the difference between our political obscurity and a political rebirth.

Back to basics

 1. Who we are
After doing the rounds of the anarchist movement in London as an insider, as well as looking at anarchists from within the student movement as an outsider, a number of features of the existing anarchists stand out to me. The most salient and baffling aspect is the tacit and unquestioned assumption that the only criterion for being an ‘anarchist’ is calling oneself an ‘anarchist’, despite us knowing full well that there are many strands of anarchism. As a result of this, one’s politics is never questioned, never presented, and ultimately never tested. The assumption – and this is an insidious thing – that because we all call ourselves ‘anarchists’ we all share the same politics.

Some of these forms of anarchism such as individualism and anarcho-capitalism are as anathema to anarcho-communism or social anarchism or collectivism as Conservatism and capitalism are. Therefore, I’m astounded and disturbed to find many of the features of individualism and even nihilism among those who call themselves collectivists. The lack of awareness of this contradiction leads people to form attitudes such as hostility to and phobia of organizations, confusing unified and co-ordinated action with hierarchy, and dressing up the lack of accountability and culpability as choice and autonomy.

Such attitudes lead these anarchists to hold rigid and biased beliefs, bordering on superstition, like opposition to the very ideas of leadership (even when nothing is going well), movement, due process and formal relations. Informality, structurelessness, and ‘network’ are deified regardless  of the context and raised to the status of tenets. And there are those anarchists who, though they are part of a formal organization, hold many of the same  beliefs mentioned above. These latter are extremely comfortable being a part of their organization but have little or no involvement outside of it.

Yet none of these contradictions are recognized, let alone examined, even as they have long been hurdles in the development and growth of anarchism, at least here in London. It’s either a case of a new awareness that is lacking and needs to be introduced, or that there is no desire whatsoever to engage with this problem, or even worse, that people think that it’s not important and therefore, does not need to be discussed. This last is most probably the case.

So, there is a crisis of political identity that needs to be sorted out first and foremost. We need to understand what it means for us to ‘do politics’. All the rest follow from here.

2. What do we do
The next thing to resolve is our political role in London. If we want to create political influence among the general population, and make anarchist principles and practice real alternatives to statist Left politics, we should figure out not what we want to do, but what we need to do. We should be able to perform both the fun aspect of politics (if there is any such thing) as well as the tedious, laborious, and difficult part of politics (which is most of it) with equal dedication. Exploring how we put anarchist principles into practice could be fun even as it is tough and labour-intensive.

Once we have assessed that we have the requisite willingness and dedication to engage in politics, we can start to build groups, networks and organizations that define their areas of struggle (workplace, schools and universities, non-unionized workforce, immigrants, women, etc), but also work in tandem if need be (such as during Far Right challenges, or city-level or national mobilizations). The key is that we should stand prepared to act together in a unified fashion, regardless of what happens politically in the country. As social anarchists, we should take responsibility for our beliefs and acknowledge that we have a duty to respond to large-scale disturbances (such as the anti-cuts movement), even as we assist and provide solidarity to small-scale struggles (such as stopping the eviction of a squat).

Thus we can start drafting a long-term political strategy that gives us direction and purpose as a movement. This strategy does not have to be a centralized thing drafted by ‘the movement’. Various groups and networks can draft their own political agendas keeping in mind the various struggles we are engaged in. But these various strategies can feed into one another and feed out to each other in a porous, inflow-outflow mechanism. Perhaps this can be achieved by calling annual all-anarchist conferences or some other type of unified activity for our mutual understanding and benefit, so that we have a physical space to meet in and see each other (visual impression is crucial), and talk to and learn from each other face to face. This is how, at present, I envisage an anarchist ‘movement’ being created out of nothing. The infrastructure and political culture need to be created, maintained and constantly enriched if we are ever going to attract radicals in the making who are looking for a political expression.

For those who fail to see why we need to be a ‘movement’, we must remember that others (outside the anarchist circle) will see us, if they see us at all, as one political entity, as ‘anarchists’, in short as a ‘movement’. It’s only by being a movement that we can liaise with and build connections with other groups and political entities, or oppose ourselves to them. We cannot do so as atomized individuals, or as fractured or disparate groups with no real relationship with each other, practising our own fetishes in our precious corners. If we insist on acting this way, we unwittingly act out the alienation engendered by the present system, and more perniciously, reproduce those same alienated relations and behaviours we claim to oppose. The only position of strength is as a movement. A movement gives us a legitimate claim and a legitimate voice to speak with. Otherwise our existence is weak and fractured at best, or worse, an illusion that exists only in our minds for our reassurance.

When we have all this up and going, we can start to take risks with our actions, and start to be actual revolutionaries. As of now, no anarchist in London even comes close to being a revolutionary. Most of their attitudes are closer to a liberal or soft left ideology than a truly anarchist one. Moreover, without knowing or understanding anarchist history, what our relationship to our own past is – what people who swore by collectivist anarchist ideals thought and did since the nineteenth century – we have no means of knowing who we are now and what we are doing here. If anarchism has mutated in the UK it has mutated into a most undesirable form. If we have no past we have no present – and no future.

What we have now are mere remnants of a vision and an ideal that existed and was real to the anarchists of the past, but which we seem to believe only out of habit. Our attitude is one of fatalism proper – of waiting for something to happen, and if and when it happens cheering it on voyeuristically as the best thing ever, or looking down our noses at it as something ‘leftie’ or ‘liberal’ that we are too good to be part of. No popular struggle is ever seen as ‘ours’. We don’t see ourselves as a legitimate part of a popular struggle (as is happening with the anti-austerity movement), and that allows others to view us as outsiders, so when we do choose to take part we are seen as ‘injecting’ ourselves into them. Not only does this attitude make us at times look like political vultures, but it also effectively hands the baton to long-established and inefficient Left parties who then take over, reduce it to useless sloganeering and stamp it with their brand.

Political Vision
Politics is a struggle for power. It is a struggle by those who have less power to have more of it, and once they have it, to retain it. In our case, it is the struggle to neutralize ‘Power’, spelt with a capital P, and to enhance self-power. In the long run, anarchist political struggle is a struggle to create a society where no one power is dominant, where there is a balance of power. This is the invisible goliath we are tackling.

But politics is also about the ‘polis’, or civil society; it is the art of actively planning, creating and managing the structures, institutions, customs and practices of the society we live in. In this way politics involves two different but intricately and inseparably connected facets. The sooner we understand this the better for us. I say this because, as I mentioned earlier, there is a strong nihilist element in the ‘anarchism’ I’ve witnessed where politics is a ‘bad ‘word; politics is something the lying, corrupt, power-mongering elites, or the long-discredited ‘Left’ (seen as a monolith) engage in, replete with its association of boredom and bureaucracy.

Perhaps this attitude is the reason why we refuse to define ourselves ‘politically’ or to explain our ‘politics’. This way we effectively saw off the branch we’re sitting on, because we enter into battle with the powers-that-be without a plan, without a political strategy, since one needs to have a politics in order to have a political strategy, and having a political strategy means doing politics (in the sense understood above, which involves a plethora of tasks). It means figuring out one’s own position, one’s relation with other comrades, one’s relation to the political antagonist (e.g., state and capital), one’s relation to the rest of the world – regionally, nationally and internationally. It entails figuring out our collective political purposes and the goals to be achieved, and committing ourselves to achieving them – in deed, not just in word.

When we begin to think on these lines and begin to put the work in in earnest, we begin to engage in revolutionary politics. Anything short of it is a wishy-washy liberal attitude of “Oh, I’ll do whatever little I can to make the world a little less nasty” disguised in revolutionary posturing. Now, I don’t expect such revolutionary politics to emerge signed, sealed and delivered in a matter of days. Years of work needs to go into it. But the process has to begin sometime.

Every once in a while time presents us with an excellent opportunity to begin this process. The 1840s in Europe, 1917 Russia, 1930s in Spain and Germany, the mid-twentieth century in the colonies, the 1990s in the Americas etc. have all been terrible times, but also opened up trap-doors for people to break-through their usual paralysis, apathy and despair. And that’s what constitutes political vision: to be able to notice the calm before the storm and prepare for the challenges and opportunities provided by the flux. Political vision also involves recognizing that we may fail due to lack of resources, or lack of ability, or because we make mistakes, but failing because we never got started is worse. Political vision might come with experience but there is no excuse for a lack of willingness to act while claiming to be ‘revolutionaries’.

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