Rob Ray's blog

Having had a think about it, I decided to go back to the Wikipedia article which I'd had a go at a couple of years ago, which other than the exceedingly small IWA site itself, is the first thing to come up on a search.

First they came for the staff of the weakest private sector companies
Then they came for the strong

I think first and foremost I learned that commuting is a practice best reserved for the world's middle-management, as punishment for the shit they subsequently impose on the rest of us.

Sir Ken was responding to a lightweight rebuke over protest policing tactics from the under-fire "Independent" Police Complaints Commission when he remarked: "I saw some of the footage last week of whole groups of officers being hemmed in. Nobody wants to talk about that now. Those officers behaved really well, they acted with restraint.”

In amongst the statistics from the survey used for this piece came a couple of interesting notes:

Having a soft spot for the anarcho-punk magazine Now or Never!, I listened avidly today to an interview between Resonance FM anarchist talk show host Ian Bone and the magazine's editors, Tug and Harry K.

While calm waves lap against the shingle of Felixstowe's pretty little beachfront, giant ships tower over the horizon, headed to every corner of the world and back again. Watching them glide from one side of the sea to another seems unreal, as though they belong to another world, the vast container port they've been visiting just an alien outpost tacked onto the end of a semi-retired resort.

"It's a nice idea but it'll never work." That's the killer sentence which is thrown at anarchists time and again by people trying to justify capitalism. Yet year after year, these same people either rely on, or probably give time/money to, a vast network of aid organisations which aim to put a bandage on the worst excesses of their favoured 'ism'.

Issue no----Issue date (Saturday)-----Copy deadline

7001--------17th January---------------- 8th January
7002-------- 31st January--------------- 22nd January
7003-------- 14th February------------- 5th February
7004-------- 28th February------------- 19th February
7005-------- 14th March----------------- 5th March
7006-------- 28th March----------------- 19th March

The picture is of Jeff 'self-decribed anarchist' Monson, a well-known professional fighter with, you may note, a red and black star on his chest, just over his heart.

I'm not going to comment on the borrowing aspect of all this, because it's fairly obvious that yes, it's alot, and yes, it's a big risk (though not so much as the press is going on about, it's basically the same as France works with).

But I have found the talk of 'redistributionist taxation' somewhat confusing as a conclusion from the following figures:

It has to be one of the best-kept secrets in class struggle anarchism (and we aren't exactly high-profile to start with).

A new initiative from a few people in London, including Ian Bone and raw (one of the leading lights of the ex-Wombles and more recently of the London Anarchists network) which has both interesting and controversial elements to it is the Price Reduction campaign, which they intend to discuss in November and possibly l

The grand old man of Conservative politics, Winston Churchill has been revered for telling Britain to buck up and keep going under the bombing raids of the Luftwaffe. But outside this reasonably useful propaganda work, there's a less widely-known part of dear old Winston's personal history which is often glossed over.

Starting with Churchill's support of the Kurdish gassings. This was a dirty little war in which the British state looking to keep hold of land in what is now Iraq against a substantial and violent campaign for independence, used both gas and bombings against the populace as a sort of test run for its fast-developing weaponry.

Come the hour, come the man. From the Guardian newspaper:

This, bearing in mind, was said in 1919, shortly after the horrors of the first world war and shortly before the adoption of the Geneva ban on such weapons.

Racial supremacist

By 1937 he had gone on to explain in a little more detail his views on the worth of subject peoples in his submission to the Palestine Commission, arguing:

Drenching the Ruhr

He was back sticking it to foreign civillians again during the second world war, 20 years on from the gas ban's ratification as Britain started to gain the upper hand and send its bombers over German cities, saying:

Apparently, the Germans weren't the only ones considering the mass gassing of civilians in the 40s. Just as well the Germans weren't a bit faster building their doodlebugs really.

Dresden

What he did go for in the end of course wasn't exactly wonderful. In what is widely (and probably wrongly, given the other activities of the British empire over the years) regarded as one of the most shameful episodes in the UK's history, between 25,000 and 40,000 people died during the firebombing of Dresden. From the Wikipedia entry on Dresden:

This is backed by the Churchill centre here, though they couch it slightly differently it is clear his cigar-stained authority lay at the heart of the action.

Meanwhile, In India

It wasn't just the unfortunates of the Axis that Churchill was happily slaughtering, he presided over some of the nastiest activities the British government has yet managed while waving his V-sign and proclaiming Britain as the beacon for All That Is Good In The World.

His charming response when asked about this was to castigate the Indian people for:

(Hat-tip to the ICC and a post by libcom poster cantdocartwheels there).

One war just isn't enough

Of course, his disregard for human life was not confined only to foreigners. It was Churchill, more than any other politician, who pushed for the disastrous campaign in favour of the Whites against the Bolsheviks following the great war. Taking a large British fleet and 1,600 men as Britain struggled to find the money to rebuild, he attempted to restore the Russian aristocracy to power against the wishes of the British population. After spending £100 million in money the state hadn't got, and wasting countless lives, he was only forced to admit defeat following mutinies and widespread demonstrations of discontent at home.

(For the full tale of this military debacle, try Churchill's Crusade, The British Invasion of Russia 1918-1920 by Clifford Kinvig)

Churchill's actions during the general strike:

(From this)

Further to his pro-fascist tendencies, a direct quote:

In his own words, Churchill saw fascism as the ultimate defence against communism. His antipathy to Hitler was not based on great politics or fine motives, but on a rivalry of power. On this point, Churchill also advocated a policy of appeasement to the fascist Franco in Spain (Churchill and Spain The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940-1945 by Richard Wigg) which directly aided him in consolidating power after his butchery of the Spanish revolutionaries despite international condemnation from around the world.

So, in summary, good line in cigars and sloganeering, yes. Greatest Briton of all time? I fucking hope not...

6916 - copy deadline 4th September
6917 - 18th September
6918 - 2nd October
6919 - 16th October
6920 - 30th October
6921 - 13th November
6922 - 27th November
6923/24 - 11th December

Internationals editor
You need:
- An interest in international news
- A keen and enquiring mind
- To not mind about the whole ‘lack of renumeration’ thing

Your role:

As the hordes of people who have been to Freedom know, we have for a long time had something of an eccentric setup. On the top floor, alongside a somewhat mysterious office there is the home of the Advisory Service for Squatters.

Except that’s actually a load of old bollocks. The good General and knight of the realm is being just a little misleading – I’m sure it’s unintentional, him being such a respected state figure and all - when he fails to point out that, unlike the average traffic warden, our boys in khaki also get a number of little perks.

For those of you who aren’t up on what the Newcastle-based Projectile anarchist film festival does, it really provides the main northern answer to the London Anarchist Bookfair as the place for libertarians to get together (though Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow all have their own regular bookfairs, none are on quite the same scale).

This is actually a very serious accusation to level.