Fuck austerity, free education now!

Updated leaflet for UK student protests! Also available as a pdf – with space left for upcoming protests and contact details of local groups. Email theviolentminority [at] riseup.net for a copy of the original files.

Fuck debt! Fuck rent! Fuck Austerity! Decent, free education for everyone!

Page 1 of the Leaflet

University has become a scheme to get us to pay for our own job training. Courses are advertised for “transferable skills” and job prospects, while corporations even get a say in course content. The rich are the ones who benefit from this. They profit from trained-up, compliant workers while we foot the bill: it comes out of our wage packets each month as student loan repayments.

If this wasn’t bad enough – a huge amount of student loan money goes to crooks calling themselves landlords. Our rent pays off their mortgages while they sit on their arses watching the money roll in.

Most recently, we’ve seen the introduction of £9k fees, part of the Tory “austerity” programme. They say it is about clearing the deficit – but really it’s about taking money from us and giving it to the rich. The new fees actually cost them more than the old ones!

If we do nothing about it this is going to get worse. We’ll see hikes in the interest on student loans, even bigger rents, and more cuts to our public services. The rich get richer and we get poorer. SO LET’S FIGHT BACK!

Blocs – How to do them Better!

The anti-austerity march on June 20th saw a bloc of 150+ anarchists marching together in London – more than we’ve had in a while. (not sure what a bloc is? See note at the end of this article…) Big flags meant that people could find each other, and the masks handed out by NetPol meant that almost everyone had their face covered. Sadly, the actual action that happened was a bit shit. The bloc started off as part of the main march, with NO uniformed police in sight. Flares and smoke bombs were let off. But even though it walked past plenty of obvious targets, there was only minor damage caused. Although the flags and banners meant that the bloc kept together a lot better than normal, people were still often spread out and in danger of getting separated completely. Then came the breakaway – people were led away from the centre of London, and on a long walk south of the river. This was tiring but didn’t lead to any actions. Not only was there less obviously worth doing, the bloc also picked up a big  following of riot vans and police. After what felt like a long and pointless walk, the bloc ended up back at the speeches of the main march. (apparently the target in South London was a property developer, which people spray-painted then left really fast when police moved in)

While it was a good show of force, and better than just walking from A to B, there was SO much we could have done better! This article has three ideas on that…

(Translation) Nid oes eisiau sleisan arall o’r darten – Rydym ni eisiau’r ffycin’ becws cyfa!

(Cyfieithiad – Cymraeg | English)

We Don’t Want a Bigger Slice of the Pie… New Version!

The general election has happened – and once again the rich have got in. Just like it would have been under Labour, the Tories are planning further cuts to our services and to make life even worse for benefits claimants. To mark this totally expected event, I’ve made an updated and improved edition of the classic “We don’t want a bigger slice of the pie…” leaflet from two years ago. The message is still the same – don’t mourn, fight back!

(Translations: Cymraeg | English)

We are a Mass Movement! Class Struggle is not Dead

Vote for Nobody!

Over 3 million in the UK – that is the number of people involved in a movement that I am proud to be a part of. Each year, we refuse to register our names and addresses with the government’s “electoral register” [1]. We don’t care that this is technically against the law, [2] and we don’t care about not being able to vote – we hate all politicians anyway. The media tell us that we are just apathetic, that not voting can’t be an act of rebellion, even a small one. But why not? With over three million of us not even registered – it is obvious that none of us are alone. We are not organised, true – but then we don’t need to be. Our message is obvious: politicians are worthless to us. So worthless they are not even worth an X in a box. This is just one example of the rebellions going on around us every day – and most of them are less passive too [3]. Every time we shoplift something instead of paying for it, every time we refuse to grass our neighbours to the police, and every time we stand up for each other at work – that is an act in the class struggle. This short article will look at why we need to take these acts further, and some of barriers we will need to overcome along the way.

Students Took Parliament Square Today – Fucking Nice One!

 

Students tore down police barricades to occupy parliament square

Today in Westminster, students marching for free education broke down fences around parliament square and occupied it,  before going on a “breakaway” march around London. From the live stream I was watching it looked like the initial group (most of them in Black Bloc) climbed the first barrier unopposed, and then tore down the harris fencing after a struggle with police. They were followed by hundreds of others from the march. Following this, the occupiers went on their own ‘breakaway’ march around London, redecorating the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills along the way and causing other chaos. This is all despite there being many police present – so breaking their restrictions and taking the protest in a more militant direction is definitely an achievement!

Confessions of a ‘Civil Anarchist’

I am what some people call a ‘civil anarchist’, a term coined in the text “Anarchy – Civil or Subversive?” [1]. I believe in collective action, in workplace organising, and do not take part in anonymous sabotage that isn’t part of a mass-movement. Despite this, I agree with a lot of the points in “Civil or Subversive”. The past few years have seen a series of courageous attacks – around the world and especially in Bristol. Anonymous cells have burnt down a police firearms training centre, smashed the offices of a newspaper that tried to get us to snitch on rioters, and set fire to the cars of two politicians. These actions brought a smile to my face. I do not understand all of the communiques or all of the actions that have happened. But I hate the police and the rich, and I respect anyone with the courage to strike back at them! However, the response that I have seen from some anarchists – in person and in public – has been ridiculous. I will be outlining some of the actions that I think were wrong, and then responding to the attitudes I think have caused them.

Election Fallacies

Fallacies are things that sound logical, but turn out not to make any sense when you pick them apart. Since the UK general election is coming up in a year or so, it’s likely we’re going to see a lot of these bandied around by people who think that we can save ourselves by ticking a box. I’ll probably be too pissed off to write anything by the time it gets to the election, so I’m going to get in early and list some of the stupidest reasons people give for voting.

1. “People fought for the right to vote – so you have to do it too!”

This is the one that goes around most often. But is it logical? Not really. During the gin riots of 1743, working class people fought for our right to drink alcohol. But I don’t see anyone going around saying that getting drunk should be compulsory (well, no-one serious). At least one of the people who fought for the right to vote would agree, too. Catholic Anarchist Dorothy Day was arrested for going on a march for women’s right to vote, and even went on hunger strike, but guess what? She never voted once in her life.

Right to Riot

There is not much that needs to be said about rioting – the facts are so obvious that we all know them deep down, even if we don’t admit it. That the news reporters who tell us fighting police is wrong, are hypocrites who also tell us that fighting wars is right (and never count the cost) – that is obvious. That the leaders who tell us to respect the property of the corporations, are hypocrites because all that they have was got by theft and murder – that is obvious too.

We all know that the ‘rights’ we have were got by insurrection and sabotage. It isn’t hard to work out that if we want to defend these rights or if we want more, then that will probably mean rioting again. While fighting for freedom is a good thing, being on the ground when it starts is hard and scary and involves some moral grey-areas. Not everyone on ‘our side’ will be a good person. Again, did we need anyone to tell us that? Have we ever seen anything that could make us expect any different?

We have a right to riot – it is undeniable. Until the rich stop trying to control our lives and take everything we have, there will be riots again. This isn’t hard to work out. So what is there to think about? There is one question that needs answering, and only one: What will you DO? Will you sit back and let your rights disappear? Will you join the oppressors and help them keep the rest of us down? Or will you head outside and take back the streets? Answering that question – now that’s hard. But courage starts with a choice. Whether you dare to make it is up to you…

(Also, check this out – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDQCT0AJcw )

Black Bloc Tactics – A Quick Guide

Squatters protect their identities during an eviction

What’s the point?

Masking up at an eviction resistance or a demonstration has two aims – first, to make it hard to identify you personally. This is done by hiding some identifying features like hair colour/length, face shape, etc, and by obscuring others such as eye colour, skin colour, and sex. The second goal is to protect each other by making it difficult to follow or pick out any one person in a crowd – this is done by all looking the same.

Why would you want to be anonymous, or help other people to be? The main reason is that if things kick off and you’re involved, you don’t want to be identified – that could mean jail time. What feels like justified self-defence against brutality at the time can be portrayed as irrational “hooliganism” by the courts and the press later. Even if you didn’t do anything but stand near where something happened, they can fabricate evidence once they’ve identified who you are and where you were. This happens, so it’s best to be safe and stay anonymous. The other reason is to stop police intelligence gathering. They film people at protests and try to build up a picture of who is there regularly, who the “ringleaders” are, etc. Do you want police extremist units to see you as a “serial protestor”, or a “ringleader”? Do you want them searching your house for evidence because they have you flagged as a probable organiser? Probably not.

Why black?