Black Flag 219 (2000)

Contents

NATIONAL NEWS

• Reclaiming the Railways London's N30 Mini-Riot
• Close Campsfield Down! Sixth Anniversary Demo & John Ouaquah's Victory
• Solidarity with West Papua - Direct Action Across UK
• Massacre in West Papua - 300,000+ Killed Since 1962
• British Nazis in Spain - ITP Buys a Village
• Mayday 2000 Festival of Resistance
• ABC Network UK Folds But Local Groups Continue
• Rat Thrown Off... Nick Hudson Sacked
• Death Control? Spanish Peace Activism

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Butchery in Chechnya - Russia's Diversionary War
• Blood for Oil - Colombian Resistance
• iViva Las Mujeres Creando! - Bolivian Anarcha Feminists
• Swedish Activist Murdered - Fascist Violence Exposed
• The Zlin Ten - Czech Anti-Fascists On Trial
• In the Ghetto - Roma in the Czech Republic
• Rioters Greet Clinton - Greek Anarchists Strike
• Social Exclusion in Colombia - Civilians Respond to 'Peace Talk' Exclusion
• Raid at Mehringhof - Berliner Autonomists Hit
• Crackdown in Indonesia - State Terror Against FAF
• The Class War Kills Again - Death at NZ Picket Line

FEATURES

• Stateless in Seattle - N30 Eyewitnesses' Report
• Global Capitalism, Global Protest - N30 Around the World
• Clinton - Champion of Labour Standards? N30 Workers' Mobilisation
• On to Davos - Swiss Militant Protest
• After Seattle '99 - Where We Go From Here
• Shooting to Kill - New Politics Of Punishment
• Talking In Their Sleep - The 'Affair' With Democracy
• Health, Wealth & Inequality – It's Official – Poverty Kills!
• Anarcho-Quiz
• The Murmuring Volcano - Ecuador's Economic Crisis
• Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism - Dehumanisation of Labour

PRISONERS

• Nikos Maziotis
• Ron Easterbrook
• Mark Barnsley Update
• Amelia Johnson
• J18 Prisoners

REVIEWS & LETTERS

• Evolution & Environment Kropotkin's 11th Volume
• The Last Flight Of The Ornithocheirus - Walking With Dinosaurs
• More Reviews
• Letters
• Peter Miller Obituary
• Contacts

Editorial

"Capitalism? No thanks! We will burn your fucking banks!" So chanted a group of black-clad anarchists in Seattle. A slogan of immense theoretical power and clarity, it sums up well the promise and power of anarchism! We have the politics to understand the world and, more importantly, the tactics (direct action), the ideas (a free and libertarian socialism) and ideals (liberty, equality, solidarity) to change the world for the better.

Needless to say, after the event, the hordes of self-proclaimed vanguards will publish articles trying to "educate" us poor, thick, anarchists of the errors of our (petty-bourgeois/ lumpen proletariat) ways. Of course it never enters their minds that we are anarchists not because we have never heard of (or mis-understand) Marxist-Leninism. We are anarchists because we understand Leninism. We reject the ideas of vanguardism and embrace the lessons learned by people actually active in the class struggle. Kropotkin was right, Anarchism "originated in everyday struggles" and draws its ideas and ideals from those struggles. Struggles such as those in Seattle and the organising and organisations that preceded it.

That is why Seattle is so important - it was an expression of the class struggle which inspires and informs anarchism and from this struggle anarchist ideas will grow. Black Flag congratulates all involved! Well done! One in the eye of capitalism and the state! Direct action gets results, yet again!