Tag Archives: Vol 70 No 23
Copping the Bill
The HMIC report on protest policing – a new direction or a triumph of style over substance? There is no denying that the latest report on the policing of protest by the HMIC (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary) is hugely critical of the police. Throughout the 220-page document there are many polite ways of saying [...]
Illegalism and Insurrectionary Anarchism
The recent arrest of Alfredo Bonanno on suspicion of an alleged bank robbery in Greece has exposed the risks and reopened the controversy surrounding the tactic of political expropriation. Whilst criminality remains in the arsenal of the movement on the continent, its use in the UK is rare. It is often argued that this is [...]
Chinese Authorities Fail Miners’ Families
Relatives of miners killed in one of China’s worst mining disasters in recent times are furious that authorities have provided them with next to no information about the situation. At least 104 miners were killed in the explosion last month at a mine in the city of Hegang, near the Russian border. Another 65 people [...]
French Posties Say NON!
UK parallels unmistakable as EU postal directive hits La Poste As a massive public outcry continues to build throughout France against the privatisation of postal services, thousands of workers have gone on strike against a free-for-all market. The anger of the workforce at proposed changes to the sector led to a major demonstration on 24th [...]
Star Tarnac Witness Recants Testimony
A star witness for the French police in the Tarnac Nine court case against anarchists accused of railway terrorism has recanted his testimony and accused police of misrepresenting and pressuring him into condemning his friends. Jean-Hugues Bourgeois, a farmer who lives next door to the commune in which the Tarnac Nine live, was used by [...]
Economic Commentary
In this fifth part of his look at the financial crisis, John Griffin examines the secret handouts given to banks I thought we’d got to the end of the banking saga, but then on the 24th November Mervyn King (pictured right), Governor of the Bank of England, revealed further handouts to RBS and HBOS which [...]
Jailed for Keeping Schtum
A 33-year old has been sentenced to nine months imprisonment for refusing to decrypt his personal computer files. The unnamed man is believed to be the first person sentenced under Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which came into power in October 2007. RIPA Part III was set up on the [...]
Bush Demo in the Courts
The seven day trial of George Anton and George Orton concluded on 1st December with Anton’s acquittal and Orton facing a retrial in April after a hung jury. Both had been charged with violent disorder (section 2 Public Order Act 1986) for their participation in the demonstration in Whitehall against George Bush’s visit to London [...]
Support for Polish Militants
Members of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Polish Anarchist Society staged a picket outside the Polish Embassy in London on 29th November in solidarity with the militant factory workers from the Cegielski plant in Poznan, Poland. A dozen or so activists hung a banner on the railings and leafleted the area in [...]
Blair’s War Crimes
Tony Blair continues to court controversy as more revelations emerge about his decisions to take the country to war. The official inquiry into the Iraqi war, headed by senior civil servant John Chilcott, finally began on 24th November, six years after the invasion. Set up by Gordon Brown in June of this year after mounting [...]
