Why we are anarchists

IF YOU get all your information from the mass media, you may think that anarchism is all about violence or chaos – but in fact the opposite is true.

Anarchists want a peaceful, happy society – but know that this is not possible under the corrupt, hypocritical, power-crazed system we currently live under.

We say that most human beings are basically decent and responsible and that, left to our own devices, we are quite capable of existing in harmonious societies, much like the rest of the natural world.

But something has gone wrong. Badly wrong. Across the world today people are suffering from poverty, from horrific living conditions, from war, from oppression, from pollution and from the sheer misery of existing in a society spiralling constantly downwards from disaster to disaster.

What sort of future is there for our children and grandchildren?

Anarchists understand that this mess is not going to be solved by voting for useless political parties at elections, by tinkering with a few details or introducing compromise reforms.

We aim for nothing less than the restoration of true democracy – power arising from below, from the grassroots, from the people. Government imposed from above is a crime against us all.

Some ill-informed critics see a contradiction between opposing the state and opposing the powerful financiers and Big Business interests that enslave humanity and wreck our environment.

But, if you think about it, states and governments are in fact the very tools with which the capitalists dominate and rob us.

Corporations don’t have to pay to protect their own financial interests.

Instead, they rely on governments to do it for them, whether by sending armies to secure natural resources (like oil), in foreign countries or by unleashing police violence to crush democratic protest against injustice.

And, as a final insult, these governments are funded by the hard work and taxes of the ordinary people – while the Fat Cats themselves use all kinds of tricks to wriggle out of paying their share of the taxes which are used for their benefit.

To find out more about the anarchist struggle for freedom and justice in theory and in practice, try some of the websites in the links section.

March on Parliament - December 9!

More info at www.anticuts.org.uk

The terrorism of slavery

SIGNIFICANT parts of the population – until now paralyzed with fear – are watching an unprecedented attack being launched against them, an attack still in its development phase.

Terrorism is not having the basics for survival. It’s having your wages and your pension cut. It’s having your house seized by some bank. It’s being surrounded by deadly pollution. Terrorism is living under a regime of daily fear for your survival.

To most in society, the terrorists and criminals are those who govern: the regime’s politicians, the rich, and the privileged castes, who exploit the workers and prosper by simply participating in the economic and political establishment.

The enemies of society are those who – after years of stealing, getting rich, and taking advantage of a barbaric and grossly unjust system – are asking us to donate our blood in order to save the life of the regime’s putrid corpse now that the system is going through the biggest crisis in its history.

If we allow the regime’s criminals to continue these policies, it means that we are surrendering to the most disgraceful slavery of all, feeding the country and our children’s future to the shark’s teeth of big capital, and accepting a life of constant terror from the international economic and political oligarchy.

No free person can accept such treatment.

These words, which we found in the latest issue of 325 magazine (available via 325.nostate.net) happen to come from the Revolutionary Struggle 3, prisoners of the Greek state. But it could be anywhere. It could be any of us…

Solidarity with the students! Fight the Tory scum!

WORTHING Anarchists have nothing but admiration for the students who stormed and trashed the Tory Party HQ in London on November 10!

Finally it seems as if Britain is waking up to what is being imposed on us by the ConDem regime - it's the Shock Doctrine in action, a frightening step towards a future of miserable slavery.

The government is telling us the country is broke and we’ve all got to make ‘sacrifices’.

Thousands of people will be losing their jobs. Vital public services will be cut. Those who cannot find work are to be punished with what amounts to slave labour or the threat of starvation.

Only the rich are to be allowed a proper education with the massive hike in student fees. The NHS is coming under attack from privatisation. We are all going to have to work until we drop dead because the state doesn’t want to pay us the pension we’ve earned.

Meanwhile Big Business is being allowed to get away without paying its fair share of taxes that the rest of us have to cough up. And the Fat Cat bosses are laughing in our faces with their massive pay cheques and luxury lifestyles.

What we are seeing is a deliberate attack on the majority of the population by greedy global Big Business and its friends in the deeply unpleasant Conservative and Lib Dem parties.

We say we have to fight back! The students in London have shown us the way - we have to make it quite clear to the ruling elite that we will not put up with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY from Fat Cat criminals!

We are happy to support Worthing Solidarity Network in its efforts locally. As ever, for info on latest protests etc go to the Porkbolter newsletter site.

Police killing - London protest on Friday July 30

A PROTEST has been announced in London against the killing of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests - and the fact that police are getting away with it scot free.

"Details: 12 noon Friday 30th July // Picket against DPP - Solidarity with Ian Tomlinson's Family

If you work, try and get half a day off like many of us are doing. Most importantly spread the word to all your friends and family.

Everyone to the streets! Never forget Never forgive!

Location:
Office of Department of Public Prosecution
Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, SE1 9HS

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139946402701890"

From Indymedia

Newsflash: Nobody wins election!

A MAJOR triumph for Worthing Anarchists. Throughout the general election campaign, we urged people to vote for Nobody. And now we're being told that Nobody has actually won it!

Meanwhile, we continue to support the concept of a hung parliament, though we could do with some money for old rope.

Mayday Round Up

Mayday is international workers day; a day we celebrate the battles we’ve won and remember those who have fallen in battle, particularly the Haymarket Martyrs.

As part of this historic day Worthing Anarchists travelled to London where, as well as the traditional trade union March, thousands of people occupied Parliament Square and the road outside parliament. Mayday protests took place all over the world and below is a round up of some of these, A special mention goes out to the Anarchists in Greece who look like they’re gonna overthrow a government or two this year!

London:

Video from Indymedia (WARNING: very slow loading)

Photos and short report from Indymedia

Athens and Thessaloniki:

Youtube Video 1

Youtube video 2

Video From ITN news

Article from Libcom.org

Photos from Athens Indymedia

Photos and timeline from Occupied London Blog (a very good place to keep up on happenings in Greece generally)

Article from The Guardian

Article and video from The Vast Minority

Berlin and Hamburg:

Article from Twocircles.net

Photos from Germnay Indymedia

Zurich:

Photos from Flickr

Los Angeles:

Youtube Video

California:

Article from The Vast Minority

Santiago:

Article from Latin American Herald Tribune

Youtube video

Gaza:

Article from National Turk

La Paz, Bolivia:

Article and video from keyc.tv

Kathmandu, Nepal:

Article from Sify

Round the world:

Photos from The Guardian

Photos from Monsters and Critics

Article from Monsters and Critics

Video from BBC

Anti Election meeting

Are you physically repulsed by the thought of watching a bunch of politicians argue with each other about how they will screw us over? Then you don't want to be watching the debate tomorrow night! You'd be much better off going to this -

Thursday April 29 Worthing Alliance. Pre-election special with discussion on the meaning of democracy. Open to all. Jolly Brewers, Clifton Road, Worthing. 8pm.

And if you haven't already got plans for the weekend and want to celebrate Mayday then you could always attend Election Meltdown this Saturday!

Vote Nobody on Facebook

Become a fan of Vote Nobody! on Facebook

From the page:

What a bunch of wankers eh? There's Posh boy Dave, Fat boy Brown and I can't even remember that other pricks name...

NOBODY is different ...

NOBODY WILL MAKE SURE EVERYONE HAS ALL THEY NEED

NOBODY WILL ENSURE DECENT HOMES FOR ALL

NOBODY WILL CREATE A GOOD ENVIRONMENT

NOBODY WILL PUT THE POWER BACK INTO THE HANDS OF THE ORDINARY PEOPLE

NOBODY CAN DO FOR YOU WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF

so ...

VOTE FOR NOBODY

you know it makes sense

Idiots Guide to the Election

WORTHING Anarchists have produced an Idiots Guide to the Election - yep, that’s right, your authoritative guide to the idiots who want you to vote for them....

ADRIAN ARSEHOLE (Constipation Party). Adrian has worked in a range of financial institutions in the City and is widely respected as “a complete and utter banker”. A Senior Fellow of the Institute of Tax Avoidance, he owns a second home in the Cayman Islands, manages an offshore hedge fund, is a consultant to a leading global healthcare corporation and describes himself as ‘a man of the people’. His great uncle Sir Algernon Arsehole was Worthing MP for the same party in the 1930s and Adrian says: “People keep telling me this is just what the town really needs – another Tory Arsehole representing Worthing in the House of Commons.”

DICK SEAMAN (Lobotomised Dullotwat). Says Dick: “I have a unique selling point in this election – my policies are exactly the same as those of all the other political parties! And I can absolutely guarantee that getting me elected would make absolutely no difference to anything at all – apart from my personal bank account, of course! Ha, ha!” An upstanding member of the community, Dick says his aim is to inject a bit of spunk into the election campaign. He is currently studying for a PhD in Higher Masturbationary Studies. He was raised in Staines.

LAVINIA IMBECILE-THONG (Labor LiteTM) Lavinia, aged 14 and a half, was born in Switzerland and Dubai, and is currently a student at Upper Cheldean College for Nauseatingly Self-Confident Young Heiresses. Her ambition is to become a world-famous political leader and best-selling diarist, flit around the world in some style, fall in love with a darling prince and rear pheasants in Gloucestershire. She says: “I visited you people in Worthington-On-Sea once and I really really related to all the lovely voters, even the rather poor and shabby ones, actually.”

EDDIE SCROTE (British Nonce Party) Eddie, who lives in a converted sewer under Lancing Industrial Estate, says the trouble with this country is it has been taken over by the Nig-Nogs. “Look at them,” he says. “Brown, Blair, Cameron, all those bleedin’ bankers. Not a white face among them! Send ’em back to bongo-bongo land where they come from, that’s what I say!” Eddie, who was born in Johannesburg in what he fondly remembers as ‘the good old days’, enjoys rallying, particularly in the Nuremberg area of Germany, and is a keen amateur paedophile.

Or, alternatively, you could always...

VOTE NOBODY!

because...

NOBODY listens!
NOBODY cares!
NOBODY has your best interests at heart! 

Act responsibly - don't vote!

WITH the general election drawing nauseatingly close, Worthing Anarchists are calling on all citizens to exercise their democratic right – NOT to vote!

With public trust in the political parasites at an all-time low and the country descending into economic meltdown, it is likely that the turn-out will be one of the lowest on record.

This is YOUR chance to be part of a HISTORIC moment and bang your own personal nail into the coffin of the establishment.

Below are some pretty sound reasons for boycotting the ballot box. Why not pick out your favourite from the list and have it tattooed onto your forehead in the run-up to election day?

* It makes no difference. Whoever you vote for, the Government always gets in.

* Not only does the Government always get in, but it also carries out exactly the same policies as it would have done if the election had gone ‘the other way’.

* Voting gives you the completely misleading impression of having had some sort of say in the way the country is run.

* Voting is not an expression of power, but an admission of powerlessness.

* Voting for anyone other than the BNP won't stop the BNP, it is the anti-working class policies of the mainstream parties that give rise to the BNP.

* People say you should vote because people died fighting for the right to vote, but people died fighting for Hitler. That is no argument at all.

* Why vote for someone to rule your life when you can fight to rule your own life?

* Who better knows the issues that affect your life and your community, you or some professional politician?

* Some say “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain” but the opposite is true - by voting you give your support for this corrupt system so can’t complain about how awful the whole thing is!

* The opposite of voting isn’t dictatorship, it’s real democracy where we all have a say in how our lives are run.

* If you don’t vote it dosen’t make you apathetic and ignorant - it means you’re intelligent enough to see that the political institutions are rotten to the core and need to be replaced!

* If you vote, you are basically putting your cross in the box marked “Yes, I am stupid and gullible enough to fall for this pitiful and charmless charade.”

* They’re all a bunch of lying gits that you wouldn’t trust to go down the road to get you some beer and not spend all your cash on caviar and marshmallows for an obese sewer rat with a gambling addiction.

* If voting actually changed anything, it would have been reclassified as terrorism by now and attacked by a squadron of unmanned nuclear-armed drones.

* All politicians essentially belong to the same political party – the Fat Cat Party. They just split it up into different factions so we think we’re getting some kind of choice. Then laugh at us behind our backs. Bastards!

* Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

* Voting is not as much fun as rioting.

* Non-voting really pisses off politicians. Tony Blair once famously said he’d rather people voted for the Tories than not vote at all. That pretty much sums it all up, really.

* Non-voting really pisses off the sort of liberal tits who imagine signing petitions amounts to meaningful radical activity. “You have to exercise your right to vote!” they tell us. “No we don’t. Fuck off!” we politely reply.

* Nobody listens to your views. Nobody cares about your life, your environment, your future. And that’s why you should always Vote Nobody!

What anarchists elsewhere are saying:

Yorkshire

London

Hackney

Ireland

USA

Save Titnore Woods

“Ownership” of land is one of the key things that allows exploitation and oppression to exist in society. Not to mention that the very notion is utterly perverse. No one can own land it belongs to all of us and to itself. By us I do not mean humans, there is no God in the sky who can give us dominion over the Earth and the animals. The land belongs to all of us; the plants and animals (including humans) that together create a complex and diverse eco-system, which can and should benefit all of us. Before the enclosures, when the elite in society forcefully removed good working folk from the land so they could use it to make themselves even richer, the land was held in common and used for the good of the whole community.
The proposed development at Titnore Woods is no different. The elite in society are trying to claim ownership of the land to exploit it for their own profit and gain and to do so they will violently remove the people living in Camp Titnore. The development will cause irreversible environmental damage, destroying the last ancient woodland in the area and by bringing in more people to the area despite the lack of jobs forcing them to commute and thus causing even more pollution and traffic chaos to the surrounding area. Not to mention that most of the development will be large expensive housing, which will bring in rich commuters who with their vast spending power will push the prices of goods and services up in Worthing, forcing out local residents who may have lived here all their lives and gentrifying the area.
So we urge as many of you as possibly can to attend the protest outside the council meeting, deciding to the future of Titnore Woods. This is our last chance to try and convince the Council to reconsider, if we fail it will be – TO THE TREES!!!

Protest: Monday, March 15, 2010
Time: 1:30pm - 2:00pm
Location: Outside Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing

Worthing Anarchists have been heavily involved in the campaign to save Titnore Woods since its humble beginnings. So here is a brief history of the campaign:

December 2001:
The Porkbolter reveals direct action campaign is being planned to save Durrington’s Titnore Woods from development.

Protect Our Woodland! is set up by campaigners against Titnore development.

May 26th 2002:
First Save Titnore Woods! protest sees 350 people block Titnore Lane, in the face of incredibly heavy and hostile policing.

September 1 2002:
Protest/delegation visits Somerset family, Titnore landowners, off A27 at Durrington.

September 13 2003:
Protest outside exhibition on Titnore development at Durrington Community Centre, complaining about lack of promised public meeting on issue.

April 19 2004:
Angry opposition to Titnore development plans at public meeting in Pavilion Theatre, Worthing.

July 10 2004:
Save Titnore Woods! march from Montague Place, to Teville Gate.

June 19 2005:
Protesters evicted from stormy meeting at Assembly Hall as Worthing council Okays original Titnore plans.

September 4 2005:
Emergency Titnore rally at Northbrook Park, Durrington, culminating in burning of John Prescott effigy in Titnore Lane, blocking traffic.

October 29 2005:
Draconian over-policing at Vigil for the Death of Democracy protest against Titnore development, A259 Northbrook College roundabout.

May 28 2006:
Protest camp set up in Titnore Woods, in daring dawn occupation. Still there at time of writing. Regular support stalls held in town centre from that date onwards.

July 6 2006:
100 people attend packed meeting at Charles Dickens pub, Heene Road, Worthing, addressed by Titnore campers.

August 12 2006:
Titnore Woods day of action with mass cycle ride and town protest.

October 7 2006:
Mass protest walk to Titnore Woods from Durrington rail station.

December 2006:
Titnore supporters collect Christmas food donations for camp in town centre.

May 2 2007:
‘T-Day’ celebration of Camp Titnore’s first birthday, Worthing town centre

September 15 2007:
Open Day at Camp Titnore

(Actions from the last couple of years will be updated shortly)

The last time Worthing Anarchist were involved in a protest Camp it was against the Arundel bypass ‘bypass’ which would have gone straight through the middle of Binstead Woods. The camp prevented that from happening. So that’s 1-0, we don’t intend to let our undefeated record go down without a fight!

Remember Gaza

Worthing Anarchists are supporting the Smash Edo demonstration happening in Brighton on Monday.

The protest is called Remember Gaza, in January 2009 for three weeks the Israeli military dropped bombs on Gaza killing 1,400 Palestinians, 314 of whom were children.

This heinous and disproportionate crime did not go unopposed, all over the country, and the world, demonstrations took place. See this video of the protest in London

On January 18^th 2010 on the anniversary of the massacre, we will gather in Brighton to remember the people of Gaza.

As the smash edo website puts it;

“We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering to go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths, we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember...

Assemble at 1pm, wear black...”

Meeting Point for the Demo

The SmashEDO Remember Gaza Mass Demo will be meeting in front of the Wild Park Cafe at 1pm on Monday 18th January

How to get there...

By Bus
23, 25, 24, 28, 29(A+B) from St Peter's Church bus stops.

To get to St Peter's Church from Brighton Train Station; turn left through underpass in front of station onto Trafalgar Street. Walk to the end of Trafalgar Street. Turn left onto York Place, cross to traffic island for bus stops. Remain on the bus past Brighton University's Moulsecoomb campus. Get off the bus at the first stop after the viaduct, just past Home Farm Road. You will see the Wild Park Cafe on the left.

By Train
You can catch the train from Brighton Station to either Moulsecoomb or Falmer and walk along the Lewes Road.

From Moulsecoomb Station:
Walk down Queensdown School Road to Lewes Road, turn left. After about 500 metres
walk under the railway viaduct, go past Home Farm Road on your left and you will see
the Wild Park Cafe on the left.

From Falmer Station:
Walk under the underpass to the A27 and turn Left. Carry on on the Lewes Road and
you will see Wild Park Cafe on your right.

By Bike/On Foot
From Brighton Station; walk through underpass in front of station onto Trafalgar
Street. Walk to the end of Trafalgar Street. Turn left onto York Place, continue
straight and then turn right past the taxi rank. Keeping 'The Level' on your left,
keep going straight onto Lewes Road. From here, follow the Lewes Road out of
Brighton towards Falmer. Go under the railway viaduct, go past Home Farm Road on
your left and you will see the Wild Park Cafe on the left. There are cycle lanes and
pavements along the road from Brighton to Falmer.

For more info: Remember Gaza website

Gil - a true anarchist

IT IS with great sorrow that we record the death of our comrade Gil (Michael Gilbert).

An anarchist for some half a century, he was a stalwart of the Worthing anarchist scene for numerous years and a good friend of many of us.

Despite the restrictions of his failing health, he continued to take part in a range of political activities and managed to get up to the Anarchist Bookfair in London in October.

Although well versed in anarchist theory and history, it was not the writers and theoreticians whom Gil most admired - it was the men of action.

Men like Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, Nestor Makhno, the Ukrainian anarchist guerrilla and Buenaventura Durruti, the inspiring anarchist fighter in the Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939.

The attitude of all these heroes can be summed up in the anarchist slogan "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!", which Gil heartily endorsed.

Gil certainly didn't live on his knees. As well as his political involvement, he was a relentless crusader against every aspect of petty repression, discrimination and exploitation that he encountered in his day-to-day life.

A thorn in the side of the uncaring authorities, he was also a guardian angel for many people who came to rely on his guidance and support.

It was this practical dedication to mutual aid, to human solidarity, that made Gil such a genuine and exemplary anarchist.

Even when he died, after a heart attack, it was while doing a favour for a friend - dying on his feet, helping other people.

He will be hugely missed.

Gil's funeral is at 2pm on Wednesday January 13 at Worthing Crematorium, Findon (Buses 1 and 23 from Worthing town centre) and all friends and comrades are invited by his family.

Shameful history of Worthing police

A major case of injustice in Worthing has been publicised by our friends at the radical local newsletter the Porkbolter. We reproduce it here and give our support to its sentiments.

THE WORDS ‘police’ and ‘injustice’ seem to have a magnetic attraction for each other these days.

Whether it’s the shooting of an innocent Brazilian electrician for the heinous offence of looking vaguely (from half a mile away, with your brain disengaged) like a terrorist suspect or the fatal attack on a newspaper vendor who had the brazen audacity to want to walk home from work through the City of London, the Dixon of Dock Green image of the honest and fair-minded copper is looking further from reality every day.

But how many Worthing people remember that in 1975 this town was the scene of one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice ever seen in this country, in which the role of leading local policemen was, to say the least, rather dubious?

Paddy Nicholls ended up serving an incredible 23 years in jail for a ‘murder’ that in the end was proved not to have even happened.

The Porkbolter reported back in July 1998 that Mr Nicholls had been released from prison after being cleared of the murder of neighbour Gladys Heath - new pathologist reports showed she had died from a heart attack, not at the hands of Mr Nicholls, who found her in a collapsed state.

Funnily enough, this was also the finding of the original pathologist’s initial report, but for unknown reasons he suddenly changed his mind and decided she had been murdered...

And we quoted former Detective Superintendent Laurie Finley - a police officer who stood up to his own force to expose the truth - as declaring: “This has discredited the police, the medical profession and the law. A lot of people must have got an awful lot on their conscience. This was a deadly serious miscarriage of justice.”

Mr Finley, who had always maintained Mr Nicholls was innocent, has disturbingly revealed that he took early retirement from the police in 1976 when he was told “people were out to get him”.

Mr Nicholls’ release made national TV and radio news and was the main front page story in The Guardian on June 13 1998, as well as page 3 in The Times. Funnily enough, though, it wasn’t important enough to make the front pages of our local rags, being relegated to pages 8 and 19 of the Worthing Herald and Worthing Guardian (which was then the rival town newspaper).

So what happened next? Well, we recently spoke to a member of Mr Nicholls’ family who explained that when he left prison after 23 years, at the age of 69, he was a broken man in poor health, as you might expect. He had been made to suffer more, getting no parole, just because he refused to admit to something he hadn’t done. There’s justice for you.

Like Mr Finley, Mr Nicholls knew certain persons would be ‘out to get him’ in Worthing and used his compensation money, when it came through, to move to Greece, where he died in 2005. The enormity of what happened to him is hard to grasp. As Mr Nicholls said just after winning his appeal in 1998: “They have taken a third of my life, haven’t they?”.

Nobody was ever brought to justice over what happened to this innocent man. As is usual with situations that embarrass the powers-that-be, it was pushed to one side with the hope that it would quickly fade from the public’s memory.

But we say that Paddy Nicholls, and the way he was treated by the police and the courts, must never be forgotten by the people of Worthing.