And so they should. The obvious photo-call for libertarian socialism that these demonstrations present should be taken. In a straightforward way, it was Denmark’s own Libertaere Socialister (no marks for originality) who called a block on the main protest and were joined by Norway’s Counterpower and Sweden’s Syndicalist Youth Federation (the youth wing of the SAC union), and after our entire block was pre-emptively arrested, good media work was done. With radio, television and newspaper interviews about the illegitimate power of the police, LS seem to be off to a flying start. In a vaguer, slightly whimsical way, it was good that militant dissent did take place. Anyone looking hard enough will know that it was there and that it exists. They won’t know its programme or get its message (because collectively, there isn’t one) but physical opposition partly legitimises itself just by existing. Put it this way: you don’t ask yourself if it’s okay to save the planet by torching cop cars if no one is torching cop cars.

In the event, militancy plucked a particularly bitter fruit. What might have been ‘Seattle’s 10th Birthday’ was more like ‘G20 Meltdown – The Sequel’ as disruption that had-not-even-happened-yet inspired a truly phenomenal police crackdown for a modern European softie state like Denmark.

Cops took great delight in their tourist-guide-meets-nazi routine – one minute they were wishing you a pleasant protest (without a hint of the sarcasm that a British bobby couldn’t resist) and the next they were indiscriminately CS-spraying trapped crowds. In a beautiful scene, the whole world witnessed them beating actual delegates in suits as they tried to leave the conference centre.

However the defining image of the summit will be the mass arrest of 900 people on the peaceful demonstration on 12th December. A section of the march was blocked both in front and behind by a sudden police charge. Everyone sat on the floor with their hands cable-tied and denied toilet access. They were then taken to specially built cages and held for 12 hours before being released without charge.

On the television news reports the head of the operation said they were not detaining the 900 for any actual crimes, but to prevent crimes they might later commit – and to put off other people who were thinking about committing crimes!

Although my Danish friends initially said this would not turn into a scandal as most of the country supported the police action, it cannot become anything but a scandal and a reference point for Danish politics. If there is any debate on the legitimacy of the police and what their role is, then this is perfect ammunition.

It is odd to admit, but on top of a decent enough crack at the whole counter-summit thing, the police action is the biggest and most valuable event of the week. It was just so unhinged.

The trick to having a good experience – even if you were held without charge or savaged by dogs – was to go with honest expectations. Being an outspoken negatron is not needed and will win you few friends: the way to talk about setting up a long-term movement with people in short-term affinity groups is to do it from inside their affinity groups. A good way to explain how voting is a lot easier than ‘consensus’ is to participate in consensus, then evaluate how it went with others. If you come with the open intention to have a good time but still get involved with the slightly silly activities, you have the chance to meet people who are willing to take action – an extremely valuable resource as people willing to sleep in a school hall and fight police in Copenhagen are likely to also be willing to stay up all night to fend off bailiffs in the UK. The one sure way to avoid disappointment is to take a walk straight through the reams of material on the Zen of Teargas and the Art of Lock-Ons and accept that thousands of people trying to disrupt capitalism’s zenith is a nice enough message on its own.

People on the left with a longer gameplan than a year spent organising One Big Riot, class struggle anarchists particularly, need to accept that actions are clearly still a big draw, and even those that really should know better will turn up. Rather than telling every­one, again, what a waste of time it is, we need to absorb the elements that make the big days out fun into our own projects. There is always a place for disobedient and boisterous demos, for occupations and street theatre (the proper rabble-rousing kind, not the ‘dyed my dreads pink and have a drum’ kind).

In December 2008, thirty angry Santas from the London Coalition Against Poverty stormed the Royal Back of Scotland, even getting into one trading floor – exactly the way to move on to the ‘old’ class struggle whilst keeping the best parts of the ‘new’.

Keith Hallack

Each individual caught blocking vital roads or railways could face fines worth up to £2,500 and up to two years in jail if the new rules go through.

The current debate is thought to be the direct result of an escalating series of conflicts between workers and Russian business magnates, who have been less and less willing to pay wages on time as the economy continues to stagnate.

Left and right wing protests have also been growing in recent years.
Factories in factory towns have been blocking roads to bring attention to their cause with some success, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been dragged out of Moscow to remonstrate with bosses.

French celebrities have joined the picket lines of over 6,000 migrant workers who have been downing tools and occupying work­places for the last three months against their lack of working rights and victimisation as sans papiers.

Football legend Lilian Thuram, actress Josiane Balasko, star of Chocolat Juliet Binoche, comedian Guy Bedos and Antoine de Caunes – known in Britain as the presenter of Channel 4’s Eurotrash – were among those sharing a ‘cake of kings’ in solidarity with the strikers on 6th January.
They are among a growing number of national celebrities who have voiced their support for the migrants’ cause, despite a near total blackout of information in the mainstream French media.

Speaking to the left-wing l’Humanite news­paper, comic Josiana Balasko said:
“We thought it would be nice to share this symbolic cake of kings with these undocumented workers. They have been in France for years, they work here and pay taxes yet their situation is unbelievable! Nobody talks about them.”

Director Phillipe Lioret said: “These undocumented workers have been in France for years, their children are educated here. They do not take advantage of the system, it is the system that benefits from them, so it is normal that they should have accompanying rights, such as freedom of movement, without having to hug the walls like shadows.
“I am very concerned that the policy of this government instills xenophobic tensions. This populism sickens me…”

The strikes started in October after the French government responded to years of campaigning over the precarious and unfair working conditions undocumented migrants workers live in with what were derided as ‘tokenistic concessions’.

The ruling UMP offered a structure for ‘regularising’, or making official, the status of migrant workers, but with restrictions so harsh that the vast majority were left no better off than before.

Without official recognition, migrants have few workplace rights and face constant attacks on their conditions with little redress.

Following the government’s announcement, militants across France were outraged both by the poor offer and by the response of conservatives in the massive CGT labour union, who attempted to present it as a victory.

A wave of stoppages resulted, spreading outwards from Paris into the rest of country, and temp agencies across the nation were invaded by workers demanding full rights. It is thought that up to 1,800 workplaces have been affected by the strikes so far, mainly in Paris, Oise and Orleans, and 30 workplaces occupied.

The government has responded by threatening to begin the closure of work­places which employ sans-papier workers.

Last year saw 200 people sacked, while another 250 on temporary contracts have been put on notice that they could lose their jobs in 2010.

Major cutbacks in the department include work on waste management, air pollution, nuclear waste, marine ecosystems and other departments, which critics say will cripple Italy’s ability to monitor environmental issues.

The de-funding of ISPRA was announced by the government earlier this year as part of what is suspected to be a shift towards the use of private companies for monitoring – which are not subject to the scrutiny rules ISPRA maintains.

Scientists at ISPRA have been outraged by the decision and over the last month have taken part in a number of protests, including the release of a video on YouTube in which they acted out the ‘gunning down of science’ by suited bureaucrats and the occupation of a ministry building as well as the rooftop vigil.

Twenty-one protestors have stayed on the roof for nearly two months during the dispute, calling for all staff contracts to be renewed and “the revitalisation of the institution which can only come through our professionalism.”

The dispute has come amid rising tensions between the scientific community and the government which has led to a call for a national science strike later this month.

I first got into trouble with my back in 1993, through working in libraries with work stations poorly adapted for computer use. My GP prescribed anti-inflammatory tablets and advised me to carry on working – advice which was subsequently reversed. Then I tried physiotherapy, which made the pain worse, and acupuncture, which achieved little. I had x-ray, MRI and ultrasound scans, all of which showed no problem, but by now rest days were used merely to recover and get my pain down to tolerable levels. The best advice, which did bear some fruit when followed, came from the GP’s receptionist(!), when she told me sotto voce, “Alan you will get no further with the NHS, you need to see an osteopath”. We are now well into 1994.

I worked spasmodically until 1996, then gave up. I still, 13 years later, have pain every day, which gets worse through repeated stooping, sitting on firm chairs, lifting heavy shopping, or even key-boarding for more than, say, 15 minutes. I thought them weird, but it soon became clear that symptoms like mine are not uncommon. Besides my GP, I also saw two Benefit Agency Doctors, and had no trouble claiming long-term benefits.  In 1996 Invalidity Benefit, as it was then called, paid just over £100 per week – not bad – until Major’s government slashed it to just over £60 per week, made it taxable and renamed it Incapacity Benefit. When Labour took over in 1997, there was talk of reducing IB to the level of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), but instead dramatically raised Council Tax, which effectively cut all benefits and pushed claimants towards means-testing. I received a flyer inviting me to a ‘work-focused interview’, but ignored it since there was no mention of a medical input. Nothing has changed, but Labour’s propaganda, coupled with my inability to prove that I have real physical problems, makes me feel vulnerable.

Things didn’t turn really nasty until 2007, when I was sent a hefty form to fill out. Ominously the word ‘pain’ did not appear on it – until added by me on each page. Another ‘medical’ followed, but this time, while I answered his questions, the doctor was typing away on a lap-top. As became clear later, he was trying to put together a case against my claim. I was shocked when told in a letter that I had scored only two points, my benefit was stopped and my P45 enclosed. The offer of a loan followed soon after, an offer I was fortunately able to ignore.

Having decided to appeal against the decision, my GP provided me with a support­ing letter. When it came, the appeal was heard by an independent doctor and a lawyer, and took about 40 minutes. I had two witnesses; no one appeared for the DWP, but this, it seems, is normal. The verdict, in my favour, came in writing for me to take away: amazing! The DWP’s miserly two points had been increased to 10. I got back all of the benefit which had been stopped, but the whole process took six months, and had done my developing anxiety and depression no good at all.

I had been encouraged to appeal by an ex-DWP employee, who told me that most of the DWP’s doctors would never make it in a hospital or general practice.

Six months passed when I was dismayed to receive yet another form, with another follow-on medical, but this time there was no lap-top and no further trouble. But, I was now quite paranoid about receiving any more brown A5 envelopes from Belfast. This is the reality of ‘welfare reform’.

A. Claimant

Visteon UK, formerly the main car parts supplier to Ford, went into administration on 31st March 2009, sacking its entire workforce of around 560 people without notice. The workers immediately responded by occupying the three factories in Belfast, Basildon and Enfield, and when evicted mounted a 24 hour-a-day picket to prevent the administrators stripping the plants of machinery, components and finished parts.

After a month of intensive struggle by the sacked workers, supported by anarchists, many of whom were instrumental in organising the Ford-Visteon Workers Support Group in Enfield, Ford bosses capitulated and agreed to honour its obligations with an improved redundancy package, but excluded any provision for the pension fund. A pension action group was established, which now has over 800 members, to continue the fight for what is owed to the workers.

Visteon was created in 2000 by Ford as a ‘spin-off’ company with the promise of a job for life for all Visteon employees as well as assurances that they would continue to match the terms and conditions of Ford workers, with the same pension provisions.

Steve Sharpe, co-chair of the Visteon Pension Action Group (VPAG), which has coordinated a series of protests to demand their full pension entitlement from Ford said: “It’s not unusual to move manufacturing out­side of the UK to reduce costs, but unfortunately they didn’t just shut the manufacturing plant down, they shut the whole company down. We’re all fighting like crazy because when we split off from Ford we were promised mirrored terms and conditions, including our pension.”

The dispute also affects workers from another Ford spin-off company based in Swansea, which was bought out by Linamar in 2007 and is still in operation. In total, some 3,000 former Visteon workers, including 700 from the Swansea plant, face massive cuts to their pensions.
Andy Belch, a Visteon pensioner and former worker at the Basildon plant, said:
“I worked for 38 years as a Ford employee and paid into the pension fund every day.
I had only three months in Visteon scheme. Now my pension will now reduce by around 42%, without future rises, despite commitments made by Ford to employees and unions at spin off to protect my pension.”
The finances are being investigated by the Pensions Regulator and could be taken over by the Government’s insurance scheme, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) which would severely limit pay outs. Currently around 1000 workers are in the process of having their pensions reduced to PPF levels. The PPF was established in 2005 by New Labour after the struggles involving Cardiff steel workers who were left without a pension following the collapse of Allied Steel and Wire in 2002. The fund offers compensation to pension scheme members when a company goes bust and is unable to sustain its financial commitments. Members of the Visteon UK pension scheme are likely to lose more than 40% of their pension because of the funding levels of the scheme and the PPF compensation cap along with £1.23bn financial black hole in the PPF making any future payouts precarious at best.

Supporters of the campaign understand that before Visteon UK went into administra­tion, leaving behind an under-funded pension scheme and a £669m debt, senior executives created another Visteon company, Visteon Engineering Systems, taking with them key management staff and transferring their pensions into a separate new account. The original company was then placed into administration, factories shut down and remaining employees made redundant.

Investigations by VPAG have also uncovered that the Ford pension fund was 120% funded in 2000 at the time of the spin off, but had a £49m shortfall by the final transfer to Visteon. Workers are angered that Ford’s business dealings have put the value of their pensions in jeopardy and have staged a number of public meetings and protests to voice their discontent. There is an ongoing protest each Saturday and Sunday between 10am and 4pm outside the Enfield branch of Dagenham Motors.

Around 120 workers met in Swansea before Christmas to discuss talks scheduled to take place between members of the VPAG and senior Ford executives in New York on Friday 22nd January. To coincide with this important meeting VPAG have also organised a mass demonstration outside the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff the day before the talks, and people from across the country are encouraged to attend to show their support.

Coaches to the demonstration have been laid on for free and are booked to leave:

• Basildon at 6am from the Sports and Social Club, Gardiners Close.
• Enfield at 6.45am from the Homebase car park just off the A10.

Bring warm clothes, refreshments and something to eat. Visit visteonpensionactiongroup.co.uk for contact information and to book a seat.

The government has insisted that these cut­backs should not affect the quality of education in the UK, but a recent survey suggests a possible ‘brain drain’ if the plans were introduced. Over a third (35%) of professors polled said they would consider pursuing their academic career abroad if the cutbacks go ahead an over two-thirds (69%) say they opposed the cuts.

In December the University and College Union (UCU) handed in a petition objecting to the planned cutbacks with almost 18,000 signatures that came from the full range of academic disciplines and included six Nobel Prize winners and over 3,000 professors.

Student opposition to the cutbacks is increasing with campaigns in Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Newcastle, Cambridge, Manchester Met, Sussex, London Met and elsewhere heating up. In November students at London College of Communications (LCC) occupied their university in protest at the cuts. Student anarchists are currently organising themselves in the Autonomous Students Network (see autonomous-students.net).

Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce’s (BCC) warn that workers can expect to endure another tough year in 2010. Their latest Monthly Business Survey reveals that 63% of businesses are planning wage freezes or pay cuts next year, while 18% are considering the removal of benefits, such as bonuses and gym membership. Despite hopes that the end of the recession may have arrived in the final quarter of 2009, employers plan on persistently squeezing the employee pay packet in 2010.

A very fragile recovery was highlighted in the BCC survey, as a majority of firms (67%) stated that they would operate at the same or reduced capacity levels in the first quarter of 2010.

The Bank of England’s regional agents also noted that firms up and down the country had relatively few plans to employ more workers. Apparently, a number of companies are to let headcount drift down by not replacing staff that leave. This will be especially bad news for students who graduate later this year as they will have great difficulty finding work.

Richard Lambert Director-General of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI), the UK’s top business lobby organisation, has called on the government to deal with the current crises by focusing relentlessly on flexible labour markets, i.e. lower wages, poorer work­ing conditions and less job security.

WAG (Whitechapel Anarchist Group) are finally returning to the streets after setting out our election strategy last Sunday.

Since the Anarchist Bookfair we’re now a grand and a half closer to getting our own printing press and want to get the rest of the money from a celebration of resistance so, on the 3rd April, there’ll be a day of anti-election and anti-fascist talks, a special film showing from an award winning director and a benefit from some mainstream musicians (acts and venue to be announced soon).

Until then our campaign kicks off with a new electoral special of our local free sheet, which will deal with the candidates running in elections and offering anarchist alternatives to their crude policies. This will soon be on the streets of Whitechapel. We’ll also be working with other notorious groups such as Class War and the Cambridge Anarchist Group to get a national fight going. WAG are keeping an eye on Barking and Dagenham to help an anarchist group form there in order to counter their BNP infestation and to offer a real alternative to the SWP’s Unite Against Fascism ‘vote for any master as long as their not a fash’ anti-BNP operation.

But the main fight is at home. Every politician will be desperate to get their ideas across, so we have to be in meetings and confronting them on the streets – nobody has the right to govern anyone.

We hope other local groups will join with Whitechapel anarchists in subverting every single piece of propaganda the political class decide to spew on to our streets and put out our own messages of self organisation and revolution.

Gawain Williams

1.Avoiding Getting Caught.
Prevention is better than a cure. The simplest plan is to avoid committing crimes but in these days of the overarching state and voluminous legislation combined with the need to live it’s not that easy. While we would certainly not give tips to enable people to commit anti-social crimes most people who end up in court from demonstrations and political events had no idea they would end up in the cells when they got up that morning. The most important thing when going on any event is to have situational awareness.  Watch what the cops are doing, are they putting on riot gear? Try to look out for advance signs like senior officers conferring in an agitated way then make sure you have escape routes planned in case of kettling.

2. Don’t make it easy for them.
If you have the misfortune to be arrested, don’t despair. The cops get a lot of convictions from people admitting to things that they don’t have enough evidence to prove. Some people admit to things they haven’t done. Thanks to the wonderful liberal democracy in which we live the cops still have to prove what you’ve done wrong not make you tell them. Say “no comment” to all police questions. For full information see Freedom 7021 7/11/2009, page 13, or on our website. You are entitled to a copy of the Police Codes of practice for treating detainees. Read it, and as you do reflect that these aren’t rights that were won lightly, that booklet is if fact distilled rioting

3 Work on your defence.
If you can get professional legal help. In these days of restricted legal aid you may find it hard enough just to get legal representation. However this doesn’t mean that once you’ve got a lawyer you can sit back and let them get on with it. By tradition solicitors are “instructed” by their clients. This is exactly what you should do. Tell them how you want to run your case and let them supply the legal expertise for dealing with the complexities of the system. They will not have the time (or more accurately, funding) to do everything you want so you and hopefully your mates need to go through the statements and CCTV footage, find witnesses and do all the donkey work so the facts are at your lawyer’s fingertips. Treat it as if you are having to defend yourself but with the bonus of a lawyer, which brings us to. Defending yourself. “Who defends themselves has a fool for a client” goes the old adage. Sometimes you may not get a choice but occasionally you will want to take on the system yourself.  The advantages are that you will get more leeway to bring political points up and can speak directly to the jury in Crown Court. However you will be an outsider in a hostile environment and you will need to be better than a trained lawyer to get the same recognition. You can have a friend (called a MacKenzie friend after a case in 1970) to sit with you in court to help with note taking etc but they will not be able to speak on your behalf. If you do get off defending yourself you will have earned it. Good luck

Now to defences. Careful research has shown that there are only four defences to all crimes.

A. It wasn’t me.
A cast iron alibi is the best remedy to all manner of fit-ups. For this purpose it is best know what you’ve been doing so avoid use of those inebriating substances that can cloud the memory, ketamin for example. Ideally it’s best to associate only with ministers of the gospel but since these folk are very boring make sure the friends you do chose will be an asset in time of trouble. Try this simple test, get your pal so say a simple sentence such as  “I’ve known Jane/John for 12 years and they’ve always tried to calm down aggressive situations“, then get them to say the same adding the words “your Honour”  at the end. If they sound convincing, good. If not send them on a witness training course pronto.

B. I didn’t do it.
Many people have ended up with convictions for things done by other people, often in crowd situations where the police have inadvertently arrested the wrong person. Even in this age of CCTV mistakes are common. Notable was the reign of terror imposed in the early noughties by “The Phantom Lamper”. This fiend would rush in and hit (or “Lamp”) unsuspecting police officers while cunningly disguised as a nearby peaceful protester thus resulting in their arrest. Fortunately the court were able to distinguish the difference with the help of credible witnesses leading to the innocent parties being acquitted.

C. I did it but it’s not a crime.
The most common reason is acting in self defence or defence of others. English law uses the test of whether force used was “reasonable in the circumstances”, this is a complicated definition set out in section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The key element is that the circumstances are as the defendant perceived them, allowance being given for not being able to “weigh to a nicety the exact measure of any necessary action”. Much of the reason for the endless moaning by the tabloids about “innocent householders” getting done for assaulting burglars is that they tell the truth that they have given them a hiding at the first opportunity because they thought they deserved it. Instead take a leaf out of the cops book. When they give evidence in court there is not an occasion when they didn’t fear for their safety, that of their colleagues, passing members of the public, a nearby cat stuck up a tree or even as in the recent case of R v Anton & Orton, a middle aged woman who the cop was truncheoning as she tried to handcuff herself to some railings. In all these circumstances they affirm that “I‘ve never seen such violence in all my years of policing” and  “it was worse than the Poll Tax/Mayday/G8/that fight outside the chippy last week“- delete according to age and experience. In front of magistrates this is hard work but before a jury if you can portray the police as the aggressors wonders can follow. One comrade was acquitted despite footage of him throwing 11 sticks and two bottles at police because he was “defending a kettled crowd from cop violence”. Well done!

D. The voices told me to do it. (or any other form of mental incapacitation)
This is the very last option. A defence of insanity is only worthwhile if you are facing a very lengthy sentence and have a reasonable hope of persuading the authorities that you have the chance of making a miracle recovery later and being let out. Feigning sickness to get out of jail is a good wheeze but unfortunately restricted to the ruling class. Witness Ernest Saunders, jailed for corporate fraud but released as he was suffering from the incurable Alzheimer’s disease only to make a miraculous recovery.

E. I was very, very drunk.
This is not a defence it’s a confession-DON’T USE IT.

Finally, if you have avoided jail yourself extend solidarity to those less fortunate. Contact the Anarchist Black Cross to find out what you can do.

-

Mindaugus Lenartavicius was imprisoned 2 years under the criminal damage act for his part in the G20 protests last year. He is feeling particularly isolated and would like some support.  Mindaugus has also asked for music to be sent in to him – old school non-commercial punk! His address is:

Mindaugus Lenartavicius XT6221,
HMP Wandsworth,
Heathfield Road,
LONDON, SW18 3HS.

Two activists have won a landmark victory in the European courts over the UK police’s use of the controversial anti-terrorism laws to stop and search political activists. On Tuesday 12th January Pennie Quinton and Kevin Gillan won their case against the Metropolitan Police in the European Court of Human Rights over being stopped and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act (2000) at the DSEi arms fair protest at Docklands, London in 2003.

The court ruled the police had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to respect private life, in stopping and searching the pair who were on their way to the demonstration, as the powers under Section 44 were “neither sufficiently circumscribed nor subject to adequate legal safeguards against abuse”.

The seven judges, including one from the UK, and Section Registrar unanimously agreed that not only did the searches constitute an interference with private life, but were also applied in a manner that meant there was no form of legal protection for individuals involved, ruling the searches were “not, therefore, ‘in accordance with the law’ and it follows that there has
been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention.”

This is the first time the terrorism laws have been successfully challenged in such a way through the courts and calls into question not only the police’s misuse in applying Section 44, but the legislation itself as a breach of human rights and an infringe­ment on civil liberties. The government, who introduced the act as a replacement to the Prevention of Terrorism Act, are now compelled to reassess the application of such a policy.

As the legislation currently stands, the police have the right to stop and search anyone under Section 44 within a defined area over a defined period, authorised by a senior officer, but confirmed by the Home Secretary, for articles which could be used in connection with terrorism. Section 44 does not require the police to have ‘reasonable suspicion’ that an offence has been committed nor there is any suspicion of wrongdoing by the individual. This gave rise to the application by Quinton and Gillan for a judicial review in the domestic courts and finally, some six years later, recognition in the European courts, who noted in their judgement: “The individual can be stopped anywhere and at any time, without notice and without any choice as to whether or not to submit to a search.”

Sections 44 of the Terrorism Act came into force in February 2001 and has been in permanent use in the capital as part of a rolling programme of successive section 44 authorisations, each covering the whole of the Metropolitan Police district and each for the maximum permissible period, 28 days, have been made and confirmed ever since that time. There were 256,000 stops under the terror law in 2008/09 but just 0.6% resulted in any arrest.

Both Quinton and Gillan were awarded 33,850 euros for costs and expenses.