Every time Neil Kinnock's name was mentioned at the miners rally at Aberaven it was greeted with a chorus of boos and hisses. "Ramsey McKinnock"1 posters were prominent as were cries of "scab" and "Judas" whenever the Labour leader was referred to. When Norman Willis chimed in with his pathetic TUC compromises, he was greeted with shouts of "off, off, off" and the famous noose2 was dangled in front of him (though not close enough in our opinion). At long last there are signs that a large number of miners are thoroughly sickened with the behaviour of the TUC and Labour Party scabs -- and may be able to make the first real break of a significant section of the British working class from its 'own' supposed party.

It has been sickening in the past to watch striking miners at rallys applaud Labour Party speakers who only the day before have appeared on T.V. condemning the same men for 'violence'. Now that they are beginning to get their come-uppance, it is of vital importance to keep this process going. Judas Kinnock and the rest of his scumbag Labour cronies (Kauffman-uugh: -don't he make you want to throw-up) must be hounded and shouted down wherever they try to speak. Kinnock says that violence is alien to the British working class movement- the fucking ignorant tosser, what about the Luddites, the Chartists the Captain swing riots, Tonypandy, etc. It's alien to him because it might fuck up his chances of becoming the next Prime Minister, who would act like all the other Labour P.M.'s and attack the working class in the interests of the bosses.

The only difference with Kinnock is that he's moved so far to the right before even getting into power! The rest, Wilson, Foot, etc., usually have the decency to wait till the doors of No. 10 close behind them. At Stoke-on-Trent Kinnock tried to prove what a fearless, gusty, valleys boy fighter he was- by addressing an audience of hand-picked middle-class Labour Party members who were guaranteed to cheer his defence of middle class horror against working class nastiness and violence. Of 1700 tickets distributed at the rally 1500 went to L.P. members and only 200 to NUM members- yet this was passed off as though Kinnock was bravely addressing an audience of hostile miners. Many miners walked out in disgust rather than listen to more of his scab apologetics, others loudly snored through it, and others screamed scab and Judas at him backed up by a hard core of 30 anarchists from Stoke, Sheffield, Bradford, and London who managed to 'obtain' some tickets outside (i.e. grabbed them out of some L.P. jerk’s hand) Biggest applause of the night came when the chairman asked If people wanted to leave owing to a bomb scare - "Not if it's under Kinnocks seat" shouted someone!

So, now is our chance to keep sticking the boot in the Labour Party. But what alternative do we offer people like us? Unlike the leftie groups with their party programmes and “correct" analysis we don't see ourselves as separate from the rest of the working class, as its leadership as the leftie groups see themselves. The working class is quite capable of getting rid of the bosses, and the miners of running their strike without the benefit of advice from the would be little-Lenin's. The mass picketing, the communal kitchens, the women’s support groups, the Hit-Squads is our alternative to the Labour Party and the lefties- a working class struggle in the hands of the working class.

We have argued in the last two issues of Class War that the best support we can give to the miners is to open up a second front by rioting in the inner cities. This is still the case. There is no prospect of any other organised section of the working class taking industrial action in solidarity with the miners- so the sooner we get out on to the streets with our bricks and bottles the sooner they'll have to withdraw police from the mining areas.

In the pit villages in Yorkshire it’s not just miners who are attacking scabs, erecting barricades, attacking police stations. Large numbers of unemployed youths and kids as young as 10 are joining in. This is the unity that needed to win. On many nights the rioting spreads to the right around South Yorkshire with people rampaging from one spot to the next. It is getting to nearer to the outskirts of large towns like Sheffield and Pontefract- once it reaches to centres the police will be fucked. The sooner we can help this to happen and then to spread riot style to the other major cities the sooner both us, and the miners, will win. In his report as commissioner of the Met. police, Kenneth Newman stated that keeping public order was the No. 1 priority of the Met. Police. He listed 52 potential riot situations which have been nipped in in the bud in London alone this year. Every area of London had its own I.R.U. permanently patrolling in vans to deal quickly with such situations. The authorities know that they'd be well fucked if inner-city rioting breaks out at the same time as the miners strike. We know that too- so let’s see the old year go out with a bang.

• 1A reference to former Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, who refused to support the 1926 General Strike.
• 2On 13 November 1984, a hangman's noose was slowly lowered from the rafters of a meeting hall until it rested close to the head of TUC general secretary Norman Willis. Willis was in the process of denouncing miners for picket line violence.

Fighting Back in "Smack City"

Liverpool has recently been dubbed by the media as "smack city" due to the fact that Merseyside has become the most heroin-saturated area in Britain and where anyone can buy smack anywhere (in pubs, in the street, etc...) for about a fiver. News of armed police raids on the homes of suspected pushers is becoming more and more common in the local papers, as is the news of heroin-related deaths, Tory Bastards shouting for the reintroduction of everything from national service to capital punishment and Labour Party Jerks calling for the return of full employment, etc., in vain attempts to stop the growing tide of heroin abuse.

Heroin availability in Liverpool is, and is becoming more so, a life-and-death situation for many predominantly young and unemployed people who, instead of fighting back against those who have swept them aside as "surplus", are opting for oblivion as an easy way out from the all too obvious problems of being working class in Britain today. In one area in particular, Croxteth, the use of heroin is becoming common, everyone knows somebody who's doing smack or doing time for smack.

The police have not made any significant attempt on, or had any effect on, the smack dealing - we wonder why!! Ignorance, due to community distrust, and as speculation goes, links between top pigs and top dealers? Sadly, most of the community, despite the police's inaction and attitude, are still prepared to leave the ever-worsening problem in their hands.

So much for the bad news!

Vigilantes force smack dealers out

Out of the most saddening items of news from early August was the death of 14 year old Jason Fitzsimmons from a heroin overdose. He lived in Croxteth, an area of Liverpool with a well-known heroin problem. Croxteth is now often in the news as the smack trade increases, however due to police activity many dealers are getting scared and are moving out. But in one area, they are no longer tolerated and may well have a lot more to fear.

On the night of Friday 10th August, a gang of 150 youths besieged two houses in Smithdown Road, Toxteth. The occupants were trapped, missiles were thrown, the gangs broke in and the houses were trashed. Both were the homes of known heroin dealers. Later that weekend, the gang, now 250 strong and calling itself "the Anti-Smack Squad" trashed two more houses; the pushers were attacked and one hospitalised. In each case, local residents refused to give evidence against the attackers.

The vigilantes received much support from local residents and Liverpool's black community as a whole. A spokesman for the squad, speaking through the Liverpool Black Organization, asked for all information on smack dealers to be passed on to the L.B.O. who will ask pushers to stop. "If they ignore the warning then we will move in and drive them out. They will know they are at risk. We don't want to wait till one of our kids is dead before doing something. The heroin problem is not rife in Toxteth but these people are moving from Croxteth. We want them out."

Merseyside's Assistant Chief Constable, John Burrows, said "Taking the law into their own hands can only lead to public disorder and thereby deflect the police from the task of arresting those responsible." Fuck off John! We know what you really mean by your "public order" and your "police... tasks"  - and we want nothing to do with it!

Local press coverage was poor, the Daily Post chose instead to concentrate on how the Drugs Squad is to be enlarged, how successful the customs officers have been, and the latest idea to combat heroin, a string of parent committees to work with the police and collect information.The community isn't likely to cooperate with a force which spends half its time intimidating them. The information has always been there - the police's will to act never will be. At one level or another, they're part of the system in which smack dealing thrives.

The gutter press landed themselves in the shit recently when digging for dirt about heroin in Toxteth. They asked a number of local youths where heroin was sold and the youths told them that the main local dealer was a shady geezer called Panama. The Fleet Street sheep went ahead and printed the full "EXCLUSIVE SHOCK HORROR STORY" only to discover that Panama is actually one of the most well-respected elderly members of the community who neither drinks or smokes.

The heroin problem increases, the number of teen addicts increases, and the number of deaths will increase. But here in Toxteth, smack dealers have been physically forced out, and hopefully these actions will scare more away. The Anti-Smack Squad demonstrates how a community can very easily help itself, without interference by the pigs or authorities. Smack dealers will no longer be tolerated in Toxteth.

VICTORY TO THE ANTI-SMACK SQUADS!!!!
"THIS IS TOXTETH, NOT CROXTETH. STRICTLY GANJA... NO H." (local graffiti.)

Liverpool has recently been the scene of an ever-increasing number of incidents where local people have "taken the law into their own hands", gone on the offensive and increased the fight-back against both the pigs and the so-called "socialist" Militant-controlled council bureaucrats. By far the largest, most volatile and potentially riotous situations was the siege of of Admiral Street pig station in Toxteth, (the scene of the largest Liverpool riots in '81) on the night of Friday, August 30th, when hundreds of local kids, some armed with iron bars, bricks and bottles, laid siege to the local pig station for over four hours, building barricades, smashing pig station windows, pig cars and pigs' private cars (who, apparently, will receive no compensation 'cos they were parked "at owner's risk"), at the back of the station.

When the mob entered the station, forcing the pigs to lock themselves in their cells and offices for protection, (unfortunately, only one pig was injured), a large amount of wine, beer and spirits which were destined for the bar at the top floor of the station, was stolen, as was the book which contained all the names, addresses and 'phone numbers of the pigs who were based at the station (no doubt to be used at a later date!) While a number of kids roamed around the station, playing reggae music and breakdancing, with even more waiting around or doing the same outside, a group of "community leaders" with the mother and the solicitor of Stephen Nicholls, the arrested man, negotiated with the pigs to release the man on bail, which, having got the go-ahead from the Merseyside Chief Constable, Ken Oxford, they did, thus avoiding, in the words of Stephen Nicholls' solicitor, "a potential riot situation."

However, in a press statement, police chiefs said that "The release of Stephen Nicholls was not giving in to mob violence." According to some reports which have been verified by a source close to the police, Instant Response Unit reinforcements with riot gear were prevented from getting to the scene by a caravan which was dragged to the entrance of the station, overturned and then set on fire.

Other encouraging news is that, while all this was going on and many pigs were otherwise engaged, a supermarket in Park Road, nearby, had its windows smashed and was extensively looted.Some not so encouraging news, however, was the fact that the police and establishment arse-lickers, the so-called "community leaders" and a non-community and unsympathetic solicitor were allowed to muscle in on the situation and negotiate for the local kids and community (both community leaders and the solicitor praised the pigs, and were praised themselves by the pigs for "cooling down and defusing a potentially riotous situation".) Most of this information was obtained by talking to local people themselves and from a reliable source who is close to the pigs who were involved and who told us a great deal, (not knowing that we were anarchists and that we were going to publish his statements). Most local and national radio and newspaper reports, as usual, either played down the situation or just ignored (or were not told about) certain facts and events, e.g. the looting of the supermarket, the theft of the station book and drinks, the burning of the caravan, etc...

Let's hope that people can learn from both of these actions and gain confidence from them so that, eventually, working class communities can defend themselves against any attack, be it smack dealers, pigs, fascists, or anyone.