All photos Max Reeves

The fans of St Pauli
Related article: http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2010/05/16/fc-st-pauli-pirates-of-the-league/

Getting Active – Taking Action

So what is it that anarchists offer as an alternative to voting? The basic idea that people have a greater understanding about their own needs, what’s best for them, their community, and the methods needed to bring change about.

One such method is direct action – people addressing the issues that affect them and acting together to resolve them for the benefit of all. It is this that empowers people, gives people confidence, raises peoples expectations and aspirations, all the things governments try and take from us. There’s nothing more threatening to those in power than ordinary people affecting change through direct democracy.

The rich and privileged are well prepared to defend their interests. We need to be organised and able to defend ours.

Workplace
The most obvious example of direct action is in the workplace with strikes, walkouts or work-to-rule, especially if they’re not sanctioned by the union hierarchy. When the Lyndsey oil refinery workers staged a wildcat strike last year against management undercutting industry agreed rates by employing cheaper foreign labour they draw support from thousands of workers at power stations and other construction sites around the country who all walked out in solidarity. This forced management to back down allowed to workers to negotiate a better deal.

Equally as impressive was when the Visteon car parts manufacturers close down their UK operation sacking the entire workforce within 6 minutes and with no redundancy. Immediately the factories were occupied, (with the help of Haringey Solidarity Groups, and other groups listed opposite) forcing the parent company Ford to pay them money owed in redundancy. Without direct action those workers would not have received a penny.

Education
Parents in Lewisham, south London and Glasgow took direct action when local authorities decided to close their children’s primary school. The occupied the schools with the help of Solidarity Federation in Lewisham local anarchist groups in Glasgow forced council leaders to reconsider the closures.

Equally students at universities have begun campaign of occupations against department cuts and job losses at universities across the UK. Most notably students at Sussex re-occupied their campus as an act of defiance after threats of expulsion after their first occupation. Instead of accepting ‘the inevitable’ they were willing to fight for their education.

Housing
Another example of direct action is people refusing to accept unaffordable rents and house prices and squat instead. After WW2 returning soldiers found they were not being provided with housing by the government, and could not afford to rent, so they decided to squat empty buildings, most noticeably apartment blocks. This initiated a mass squatting movement with whole families taking over empty housing resulting in the government introducing the creation of large scale social housing.

More recently a local group in Tottenham, north London went to the council’s housing department with a banner and leaflets to demand to speak to the case worker of a mother and her three children who were being evicted and had no-where to live.

Because of the actions of the group the council were forced to act on their legal obligations and housed the family that day, instead of ignoring them, as they had done previously.

Poll Tax
And perhaps the most impressive and successful recent examples of direct action is the anti-poll tax campaign of the 1990s, where the unfair tax was opposed by thousands of people. At its height some 17m people were part of the non-payment campaign. Not only was mass campaign of non-payment with local groups supporting each other despite the threats of fines, prison, and evictions, there was also an extended solidarity network – local people could be called upon at a moments notice to prevent bailiffs entering homes, taking peoples possessions. Legal support groups were set up to help people in court and stop them going to jail, groups disrupted council meetings and supporting each other when they were threatened by the state, the very state we vote for at each election. This was all done by ordinary people who decided to stand together against an unfair tax imposed upon them by an uncaring government. It was this kind of direct action, rather than relying on political leaders to speak out on our behalf that eventually brought down Thatcher and stopped the tax dead in its tracks.

To order a bundle to distribute text your address and how many (for postal cheapness they are sent in 18’s) to 07913 865 928 or contact Freedom Bookshop on 020 7247 9249 .

Light refreshments will be available.

FREEDOM BOOKSHOP
Angel Alley
84b Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX

FRIDAY 26^TH Feb from 7.30pm

A newly formed group of Polish comrades in London passed on this message:
“Rafal is a lifelong anarchist, and has been a militant of the Polish Anarchist Federation for decades as well as a founding member of the Workers’ Initiative union. He is a leading figure of the libertarian workers movment and is a published writer on Poland ’s anarchist history. Now in the final stages of fighting cancer we are asking for help to let him die with dignity, a celebrated figure of our country’s movement for freedom. We are currently trying to cover 2,500 Euro travel cost for surgery in the Netherlands…”

In response and at very short notice we are proud to present 2 live acts and more TBC, as well as a ropey soundsystem downstairs!

Giles Bidder – http://www.myspace.com/dashme
Torn Out – http://tornout.bigcartel.com/

SEE YOU THERE

FREEDOM BOOKSHOP
Angel Alley
84b Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX