And cleaners shall inherit the Earth!

London 2012 - The enemy of democracy

2011-12-18T14:39:00.001Z

2012 is rapidly approaching and with it comes the Olympic Games in Britain. Many people might be wondering what issue anarchists could possibly have with the idea of teams of young people who have trained for years and poured their hearts and souls into the chance to show off the athletic achievements of humanity and their local communities. If we fail to explain our reasons behind our opposition then we risk being misrepresented as an enemy to sports, or to the achievements of young people, or even as just the mythical rent-a-mob which just hates everything.

Now, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to oppose the Olympic Games on face value, such as:

Reinforcing nationalism and division
Dodgy sponsors using the games to make profits
Deadly working conditions on the sites
Parents hijacking their kids' lives to live out their own aspirations.
The diversion from the class war
Forced eviction and relocation
The expense of building the sites and its generally poor value for money for us at the bottom.
Harassment of the homeless

I'm sure there's more that I've missed, but you would be forgiven for thinking that all these things are relatively minor issues compared to, for example, the cuts, the bailouts, the greed of corporations and banks, total policing, corruption in parliament and aggressive foreign policy. I agree! And these big issues are NOT going to be resolved by this summer, and, here lies the problem...

The Olympic Games are not just going to be shown to audiences in Britain. In fact, a good proportion of the developed world will have their eyes focussed on our little Atlantic island and that creates a problem for our rulers. We're still angry about how we're being treated. We yearn for democracy and equality and we're not getting it. Our response is easily predictable. We're going to want to keep fighting against all these injustices and use whatever actions we think will win us victories against the dictators who micromanage our lives for their own benefit.

This is not supposed to be a problem. We have all been sold this fantasy the only legitimate forms of opposition to our rulers is either through elections, protests, or lawful industrial action. While people are waking up to the idea that elections are a sham and lawful industrial action can only take you so far, more decide to make their voices heard through protest. People turning up by the millions to say "NO!" to all this bollocks being done in our names.

So, while company directors, corrupt politicians and bankers are comfortably seated together to supervise and reap profits from the labour of others (how capitalist!) we'll still be on the streets showing that we're strong, we're angry and that these bastards are losing their control over us. Now, there is something that our rulers absolutely do not want broadcasting around the world. There'll be no shortage of cameras about, as pretty much every news agency in the world will be operating here in Britain this summer.

It's not hard to see why the rich are so worried. Protests, direct action, strikes and the like are set to undo every bit of material gain they're hoping to raid from the Olympic Games. How can the rich push the sponsors if the TV cameras are showing pictures of people angry at those exact same sorts of mega-corporations? How can the rich get their billionaire buddies to travel to Britain to spend their cash in London's fancy hotels and restaurants, if these places are under threat of being attacked by black bloc tactics? How can the British government continue to dictate to Greece and other countries through the IMF and EU about their economic policies when the people riot against British economic policy? How can foreign policy be enforced when TV screens from Hong Kong to Houston are showing pictures of people critical to these policies?

The answer is, they can't. So, prepare to kiss your fantasy of legitimate protest goodbye.

To ensure that the corporate, not people's, voices are heard this summer, there will be a number of measures undertaken in the name of the Olympic Games:

Protests near to the Olympic sites are to be banned. We've already seen bans on protests enforced in parts of London, under the façade of anti-fascism. It's also looking like the legislation is being expanded to include new powers to the police to attack protesters wherever they may be, with encampments such as that at St Paul's or Parliament Square targeted in particular..
Display, production, or even possession of posters, leaflets, which critises the government, Olympics, or sponsors has been criminalised. Just printing this article authorises the police to break in, seize your computer, search your home and arrest you for it. Sorry about that.
13,500 soldiers to be deployed to "maintain order", including drones, the Royal navy's biggest aircraft carrier, a dozen Eurofighter Typhoons and several attack helicopters mounting tank killing missiles. Oh and a cute jingoistic Nuremberg Rally style military parade too.
Total control of the media. Reporters or networks that report anything that does not fit into the corporate plan, are threatened with being shut down and having their license (yes, license) to write, or broadcast, what's going on, revoked.
The push to further militarise the police, by giving them new powers to disperse protest quicker and new weapons such as tasers, water cannons, rubber bullets and chemical warfare agents.

Is it starting to hit home, yet? We've been had! All this time while we were out ranting about ineffective, evil, little bastards like the BNP and EDL shipping in totalitarian fascism. Meanwhile, the Tories, in coalition with the Lib-Dems have been pushing 2006 Nu-Labour laws and policy to create the nightmare that the overt fascists never could. Make no mistakes - you are witnessing the total suppression of democracy in the name of the Olympics.

"Security" measures like this have been pinned onto sporting competitions across the world. Everything from anti-hooligan laws being used to intern anarchists, to the Chinese government's widely criticised human rights violations on the path to their hosting of the games. The most extreme example is surely the murderous exploits of Mossad rampaging around the globe in "Operation Wrath of God", which was nothing more than convenient excuse to murder political opponents while blaming the tragedy of the Munich Massacre.

Even more worrying is that there's absolutly no gauruntees that any legislation or policies brought in for the Olympics will not be kept on to continue the suppression of all political opposition. We've all heard the bollocks excuse of "emergency powers".

Please tell me if I'm over-exaggerating with this image.

If we want a voice in 2012 then we will have to fight for it. I don't mean waving placards around and chanting slogans. I mean being prepared to face down the threat of mass arrest, water cannons, rubber bullets and even live fire. This is the reality. You have already been identified as a threat that warrants these actions and weapons and that means they are prepared to use them.

There is only one way to stop these laws being enforced and becoming yet another tool in the arsenal of the state and those who control it, to stamp out democracy and to make us accept cuts and poverty and abuse at the end of a barrel of a gun. The thing we must do is to show that we will not tolerate it! The worst thing that we could do is nothing, as that's all the green light that the rich need to see to make these threats of extreme violence and repression mainstream and will only encourage them to expand these ideas further.

This is why we need to carry on our protests through the Olympics and to be honest, with such threats being pointed at us, the people would be entirely justified and perhaps even duty-bound to drop the peaceful part of peaceful protest. Now it's too fucking late to hide behind token laws that no longer exist. If potentially deadly weapons are used to suppress our speech, then this is likely to provoke people into choosing between their speech, facing those weapons, or fighting back with their own. It's a situation that nobody wants, but when faced with this kind of attack, there really is not one hell of a lot of ways to respond to it.

I will leave you all with an ominous warning.

How the people in Britain resist in 2012 will, without a doubt, determine whether we live under the boot of totalitarianism, or whether we can start taking back ground. It's all, or nothing, people. Failure to resist, the display of fear, ignorance, or inability to organise, is all the rich need to turn Britain into Orwell's Airstrip One. History will hold you accountable for what happens. There is no escape. Resist, or enjoy the hell that you helped endorse.

And THAT is why I will be protesting during the Olympics.

N30 strike report - Huddersfield

2011-12-05T10:40:00.001Z

Along with thousands of others, I was up nice and early last Wednesday to show my support for the direct action of public sector workers on N30. Publicly, the dispute was brought about by the government's attempt to steal the pension contributions made by public sector workers, along with other pension changes which would mean that these workers would have to work longer, for less pay. Basically, these people have been paying for a service and both parties have agreed to this, then the government walks in and refuses to hold up their end of the bargin after they've taken the cash. If anyone else tried to pull this stunt, they'd call it fraud. This alone would be more than enough reason to refuse to hold up the workers' end of the employment "bargin", however, the general sentiment seemed to be that public sector workers have already given too much ground over to the government and now a line in the sand had to be drawn, before things got even worse.

Huddersfield was well represented in the strike. I myself, was at a Unison picket line at Civic 3 along with several other volunteers from Huddersfield Anarchist League, to show our solidarity with these people as members of the public, service users and private sector workers. We were clear to make sure that we were not "hijacking" their action and I was happy to tell these workers that, "if my private-sector co-workers had been as militant as this, I'd still have a job and probably good pay and conditions to boot!". That was probably was just my own fears about this manufactured "war" between public and private sector workers that the media is trying to push. Regardless, we were made to feel very welcome there.

The picket was well manned and morale was very good. We had music being provided by a boombox mounted to a baby's pram (don't worry, the baby is now in her late teens!) to keep our spirits up and a long chorus of car horns tooting in support. The vast majority of workers at Civic 3 withheld their labour from their abusers, with the majority of scabs being made up by a few managers and scabs that had been bussed in from elsewhere. Workers even came to up the picket line to join the union on the spot, rather than go work for the bosses.

After the union members were sure that any scabs knew exactly what they were doing to their co-workers, I made my way to the Methodist Mission, where the striking teachers were having a rally. I won't go into everything that was said there, but it was it was good to see the members of the head teacher's union and other teachers' unions well known for lack of militancy standing up and saying that enough was enough. It was a very tame response compared to what I'm used to, but for these union members this was actually a big step in the right direction. You really can push some people too far it seems.

The speeches went on a wee bit long as the teachers had to be herded to St George's square for the main rally and march there. On our way in we spotted 8 uniformed coppers spread out and watching us all very carefully just in case there was a spontaneous outbreak of democracy that needed suppressing. We spent a little time forming ourselves up into ranks to make our march and off we went around Huddersfield town centre for a little stroll among other Huddersfield residents. The response was great. Lots of people cheering for us and the solidarity toots of car horns returned quickly, despite no doubt being delayed by 2,000 union members and supporters clogging the streets.

The longer we marched, the more the confidence of the marchers grew and within minutes even the newest union member was chanting along with the veterans. A leap too far perhaps was the attempt to divert the march to the council's buildings, where the scabs were sweating away for the benefit of the boss and make sure that they could hear how many of us were out here and exactly what we thought about their attempts to sabotage these brave peoples' defence. A few union members took to the steps and a few of us die-hard anarchists and socialists followed them and began chanting "I'd rather be a picket than a scab". This did seem to spark some indecision amongst the Unite ranks who were just behind us, but the bureaucrats eventually stepped in to ensure that the march remained obedient and within the boundaries set out by our enemies. Yes, we were a little frustrated, but we'd already seen so much in one day already of people standing up for themselves. "Baby steps, sister Kay", I told myself. Maybe after some more time to stew on it, without the bureaucrats manipulating them, our people will come to the same conclusion as those other union members who took to the steps of the council building. Time will tell.

After this there really wasn't that much to report. We assembled at St George's square again, a good distance away from the West Yorkshire Police Unison branch. Everything was on rails by this point with nothing left but to roll out all the boring lot who were very reluctant to give any answers to the issues, in a situation where snuggling up to the boss has been proved to go so disastrously wrong. There was one speaker worth mentioning though and he deserves half an article of his own...

Overall, it was the biggest union action in Huddersfield in 26 years according to a Unison steward at the council. 2 million were on strike nationwide, with millions more in solidarity with them. Not a "damp squid" and certainly not a force that's wise to be threatening with firing squad.

Bloody hell. I think folk might actually be waking up and we can get this whole mess sorted at last!

Deafeatism - Are we refusing to tackle obstacles in our path?

2011-11-19T13:26:00.001Z

I'd like to begin with a definition from the Oxford dictionary :

obstacle
Pronunciation:/ˈɒbstək(ə)l/
noun
a thing that blocks one’s way or prevents or hinders progress:

We have all encountered obstacles in our lives at some point and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; A physical obstacle that blocks our path, an economic obstacle that stand in the way of us from having access to the things we want or need, biophysical obstacles that mean our own bodies struggle to do what we want and the thing that I would like to concentrate on - political obstacles that mean that our ideological ambitions are hindered by events and situations that stand in the way.

There are a whole range of obstacles that stand in our way of being able to live in a democratic society that is based on fairness and equality and justice. Lack of resources, numbers, influence and even physical barriers such as the policeman's truncheon, or security measures put in place to maintain the status quo stand in the way of progress. Whenever action is proposed, we quickly find these these obstacles standing in our way and just like we would when our path is blocked by a physical obstacle, we are presented with a number of choices in how to overcome them:

Tackle the obstacle and remove it.
Find a way to go around it.
Give up and go back the way you came.

I'm sorry to say that the attitude of many parts of the movement in the 21st Century has been to take the 3rd option, regardless of whether that is the best course of action or not. The defeatist attitude presents itself very clearly with the cries of "We don't have the cash to do that", "We don't have the numbers to do that", or even "There's too many coppers in our way" and it is left at that. Any suggestion of finding ways to get more numbers, cash, or manoeuvrability on the streets is dismissed. While, there is parts of the movement that approach obstacles more logically and evaluate the best response to them, others seek to excuse their own inaction by writing off methodical action as "impossible" the instant a challenge is put in our way. These people themselves have become an obstacle in the path to an Anarchist society.

The choice to take a course of action should always be determined by the potential risks and gains and nothing should be ruled out until this evaluation has been carried out. However, what is certain though, is that by taking the 3rd option we always going to leave the status quo determining our destinies. Or as a Staff Sergeant, I used to know, put it, "What you tolerate, you validate!"

If you're looking for a more progressive individual to persuade you, then I refer you to the words that a certain Spanish car mechanic made in 1936:

We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a while. For you must not forget that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute. - Buenaventura Durruti

While politicians of the Spanish Republic bickered over how Franco was too powerful to resist and began suggesting surrender from the get-go, militias like those that Durruti was part of, weighed up the risk of allowing a fascist
like Franco to seize power. They assessed the risk of disobeying the Republic and made the decision to take action. Spanish workers stormed the armouries and began fighting to make sure that they, not Franco, would determine their destinies.

Franco was an obstacle that stood in the way of their freedom and had to be opposed. The Republic's bureaucracy and bumbling stood in the way of what had to be done to preserve freedom and had to be navigated around.

I'm guessing that the people reading this are aware of how the story ends, however there is little doubt that the actions of the militas were nothing short of the most responsible course of action to take, given the situation. After all, what does it mean to be an anarchist, if you are not prepared to take responsibility for your own actions, or for that matter, inactions?

I fear that if history had been repeated, many would cry "Franco has guns! We can't oppose him!", or "The people are not ready to oppose Franco. We must wait until the middle classes begin to suffer too!".

Some may read this and interpret it as a call to take up arms and begin randomly attacking our oppressors, their supporters, or the infrastructure they rely upon to oppress us with. That is not my intention. While I won't go as far as to say that violence is never the answer, I strongly believe that no tactic should be written off on principle, but its use be guided by that same risk/gain evaluation that we should use whenever any form of obstacle stands in the way of our freedom.

If an obstacle stands in our way and it is in our best interests to avoid it, then that is what we must do. If an obstacle stands in our way and it is in our best interests to tackle it, then that we must also do. How we assess this is best left up to democracy to deciede, but make no mistakes, when we agree to inaction, we must also accept the consequences of allowing our rulers to carry out their attacks on us unopposed. By choosing to not resist, we send out a message out our rulers that we are content and to go further - deserve everything that they do to us.

We should not shy away from doing what is right, just because it is hard. We must find ways to tackle the difficult issues we face and not cower like a defeated people. The state and the rich bastards that command it, are already panicking at the thought of this realisation dawning upon the 99% and have begun violent repression in a desperate bid to prevent the spread of this idea. Our people really have got the rich rattled.

Obstacles are there to be overcome. 

Say no to defeatism. Say no to closed minds. 

Say yes to whatever it takes!

Repression USA

2011-11-15T14:43:00.001Z

US government forces, no doubt acting in the interests of America's billionaires, have started an assault on the peaceful occupations. Over 70 brothers and sisters have been kidnapped by the NYPD this morning. Materials such as sleeping bags and tents have been stolen and destroyed by loyalists in an attempt to freeze the resistance into submission. Assault rifle wielding stormtroopers began seizing liberated squatts from activists. Assad and Gaddaffi would be proud.

The media's access to the areas has been heavily restricted and much of what is going on is being suppressed by mainstream media. What little footage we can get hold of is coming from brave individuals using mobile phones. I say brave because since the occupations began in September, the strategy of the NYPD has been to target both mainstream and independent reporters with violent assaults and to destroy recording equipment.

The line coming from the illegitimate mayor of New York is that the camp was attacked in order to allow free access to apolitical and loyalist-supporting members of the public. "Concerns" about health and safety has been abused too, even though the rebels have installed effective sanitation systems in the park, which is something that all the dollars in the US treasury failed to do. That old chestnut of "fighting crime" has been rolled out too, as the establishment refuses to recognise the legitimacy of policing carried out by the rebels. No doubt, some of the crimes will be crimes only in the eyes of the establishment, while others would likely have been the actions of agent provocateurs. Naturally, these details were glossed over by the spokesman for the 1%, aka "The Mayor" .

If not opposed, this will all set a dangerous precedent to other tyrants across the world that they can continue to suppress the will of the 99% using violence and intimidation. Occupy LSX will be protesting outside the US embassy in London, although, given that this only happened this morning, further responses are still in the works.

In Huddersfield, we have US economic interests in the form of Walmart (aka ASDA), McDonalds, Burger King and I'm sure many more. These merchants are taking money from the pockets of local people and sending it abroad to the United States to finance the lobbying of the politicians who authorised this repression, as well as the taxes that are used to arm the NYPD. Allowing these businesses to continue operating unchallenged in our local area would be a display of the kind of isolation and unwillingness to take action which these billionaires rely upon to exploit and attack, both us and our comrades across the world.

Failure to react is support for the status quo.

Kirklees Copwatch - Groping becomes a competive sport!

2011-10-07T14:36:00.000+01:00

A little birdie told me about this happening at Huddersfield bus station. I misunderstood the scale of the abuse and quickly forgot about it until The Examiner reported on it today.

Mandy Mellor, the brainchild behind such operations as "Shop a street drinker", has teamed up with professional grass (PCSO if you want the technical term) Natalie Haigh to bring Huddersfield another step closer to Airstrip One. Possibly, going for a Guiness world record of most innocent people groped in 150 minutes, their newest hair-brained scheme was to block off the exits to the bus station and run everyone through a scanner, point a dog at them and then lovingly run their hands up and down the bodies of public transport users. Kinky!

Sadly, the people, including school children and pensioners, who were involved in this World Record attempt were not asked for their consent to be touched like this by Mandy, or her crew. The filth assures us however that people were pleased to see the gang in action. Make what you will of that one. Some people get turned on by uniforms I'm led to understand.

With the pressure at it was to complete the task within the allotted time, it's little wonder that Mandy and Natalie were really eager to score some weed, to take the edge off. Unfortunately, despite searching over one and half thousand people, the most they were able to come up with was a pack of king size papers and an empty baggie which the dog beat them to.

Neither Guiness World Records, or West Yorkshire Police are willing to comment about whether 1,500 people fondled in 150 minutes has broken the world record for fondling without consent, currently held by Mr Tickle. By the looks of things, he remains the champion while West Yorkshire Police merely chalks up another successful harassment of the public in the name of catching those evil dope smokers who threaten to destroy everything we hold dear.

We're fucking your system

2011-10-04T23:04:00.001+01:00

Sing-song time. Yeah, it's kinda a cover of "I'm fucking Matt Damon" by Sarah Silverman,with a little tweaking to the lyrics. Enjoy. This one's for my brothers and sisters resisting corporate rule in America.

(intro) F

                   C
We're fucking your system
(Yes, we're fucking your system)
Ab                    F
I'm sorry, but it's true
                   C
We're fucking your system
(Yes, we're fucking you system)
Ab                        F
And your money won't save you
                   D
We're fucking your system
                      A
In the street, at the store
                          Ab  
right on all your factory floors
                      C
on the roads, in your bars
                              F
'cos we're taking back what's ours

The silence is deafening - Wall Street is occupied?!

2011-09-27T17:25:00.002+01:00

The media is owned by rich employers, executives, directors and shareholders, just like anything else in our system. As a result, they're more than happy to report on the evils of dictators like Gaddaffi, or Mubarak and the fight against them. What they're not so happy to report about is when people take action on our own doorsteps against domestic dictators, unless of course they can spin the whole thing to pretend that our demands of freedom and democracy are unreasonable, or our tactics too extreme.

This was witnessed by myself earlier this year during the rebellion in Wisconsin in the United States in reaction to the dismantling of what little democracy still exists in American workplaces. Despite the state of Wisconsin grinding to a halt, the coppers refusing to act against protesters and celebrities such as Tom Morello getting involved, the whole insurgency against capitalism was barely reported on British television, or in mainstream newspapers. It was as if it was not happening.

Now, not even a year later, Americans have taken action again against the greed and corruption of the rich and the rebel forces have now advanced upon possibly the biggest stronghold in North America of the capitalist class. I speak of none other than Wall Street in New York City.

On the 17th of September, (yes, nearly a fortnight ago!) protesters gathered in Wall Street, NYC to call the rich to account. It has been made very clear that there is no intention to allow Wall Street to be returned to the control of the capitalist class again. This strategic ground is to remain under liberated control indefinitely. At least, that's the plan.

Now, I'm not going to suggest that this is anything like the scale of the mass rebellions in the Arab world. There's similarities to Tahrir Square, but as Phil Dickens, from The People's Republic of Scouseland, has recently written, lets not let this get out of context. While this is an important display of organisation and resistance, the revolution it is not. Far too many Americans continue to get up every morning and feed the enemy, whether they know it, or not. Let's also be honest, sitting in a park, out of the way, is hardly going to have the rich shaking in their boots.

Even so, it is surprising to say the least, that this continuing battle is not being reported in the UK at all, with only a handful of snippets in the papers. Last night, a number of Anarchists in Huddersfield were watching BBC news at the pub. We saw some reporting about Dale Farm, which is something else close to my heart, the Eurozone bailout and then, this. Yup. BBC news, decided that it was more vital the public were informed that TESCO, Britain's most powerful despot, is having a sale! I kid you not. The BBC, the organisation that claims that the TV License is justified because it means that they do not broadcast commercials, is passing off this advertisement for a supermarket as "news", instead of reporting on a growing insurgency in the heart of the United State's economy.

I would probably have not heard about anything going on over there at all if it wasn't for our international activist networks. That's how bad it is.

This cannot be allowed to continue. Our oppressors are international and are more than happy to use that against us. Meanwhile, we do not hear of the struggles happening literally on the opposite coast to us, let alone be in a position to react to them. If we have learnt anything from the Zapatista movement, it's how international solidarity of workers can not only boost the morale of our comrades abroad, but also remind the rich that we are watching and that the world holds them accountable for their actions.

So, here I am. Offering a bounty. Anyone who can get our brothers and sisters in the United States some airtime on British TV, or on the front page of the papers, will win this very special prize - One bottle, complete with rag, filled with highly volatile scotch whiskey! Do not light and drink at the same time.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be aware; The revolution will not be televised.

UK Riots - HAL's offical statement

2011-08-09T09:37:00.005+01:00

Please note that this statement was retracted on 10/08/12 and does not reflect the opinions of myself, or Huddersfield Anarchist League.

As we're sure you're all aware, violence has broken out in the UK.
Police appear to be gunning down men on the floor and attacking children with clubs for questioning police processes. They have kidnapped hundreds of people, from London, to Northern England, and caged them for demanding answers. This is violence and you cannot hide behind words like "arrest" or "maintaining public order" to justify it. Already, news channels are talking about deploying chemical weapons, such as CS gas, controlling our movement with curfews and putting more gunmen on the streets in the style of Syria, Egypt, Bahrain or Libya in a desperate bid to force us to bottle our rage for another decade or two.

Huddersfield Anarchist League met on Monday to discuss the situation and its causes in depth and agreed to release this statement.

On Saturday the community in Tottenham gathered to demand answers about the shooting of Mark Duggan. Witnesses report that he was shot while he was defenceless on the ground and that in the Met's blundering, they even managed to shoot one of their own thugs in the process of murdering Mark Duggan. The police's response was not to admit that there was doubt about the innocence of their troops and to say that the gunmen would be on trial. Instead they declared they would leave it in the hands of the IPCC - an organisation that has failed to get a prosecution on ANY of the officers involved in the 400 deaths in police custody in the last 10 years. For the family, friends and community of Mark Duggan, this is an insult, to those who have lost a father of four from their lives.

When the people demanded answers, it was witnessed that the police replied by beating a 16 year old girl with clubs, making it very clear that they have no intention of treating the community with respect. The protesters were then presented with a choice - meet violence head on, or back down, go home and wait for the IPCC to clear the murderers of Mark Duggan. The people of Tottenham, who have been under all the same stresses, anger and more that we have here in Huddersfield, did the only thing they could and fought.

Since Saturday, the rioting has spread and become more than just the
single issue of Mr Duggan's murder. Decades of anger that has been boiling up about the numerous injustices faced by everyone in the UK. Martin Luther King said many years ago that; "'When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.'". In an age of austerity, rising prices, scarce jobs and the criminalisation of unemployment, this seems very appropriate. Such anger cannot be suppressed forever and the murder of Mr Duggan was the spark that ignited it. Many of these same issues are here in Huddersfield and are still bottled away. Do we accept that there will be riots here too, do we demand that we bottle our anger for longer, or do we actually start dealing with these issues before it's too late?

While we do not condone the attacks on small independent stores and homes, this is to be expected in the chaos that was caused by the actions of the Metropolitan Police and government. We encourage anyone who was involved in these attacks to make amends with their victims and those who were not involved, help to bring these people to justice. However, the retaliation on police and their equipment is a totally justified response to the violence they have inflicted. Corporations and government buildings that have repressed us all in different ways were also targeted which shows the understandable anger directed towards them, as they are no innocent party in the repression that goes on in our communities.

We offer our support to those who have faced down the brutality of the Metropolitan police to defend their communities from further murders. We demand the release of all those who were arrested in the process of doing this. We demand that the gunmen who murdered Mark Duggan are brought to a real trial, on real charges. We demand that those who have misplaced their direct action, make reparations with their victims.

These riots are about justice, something that the police and government cannot deliver! When the dust settles from all this, we can only hope that any fairy tales of these organisations being on the side of the British people will be gone forever and that people take a new interest in finding solutions to the many problems we face on a day to day basis.

Huddersfield Anarchist League

The alliance - a counter to crabs in a bucket

2011-07-27T10:27:00.011+01:00

Imagine a bucket filled with crabs. They're all in a shit situation. Probably going to be boiled alive in the near future. Fortunately, the crabs are fully capable of pulling together to rescue each other. Unfortunately, they never do this. Instead, the crabs will drag each other down towards the the bottom of the bucket if it looks like there's a chance of escape. This is referred to as "crab mentality" and I'm sure we're all familiar with it.

Few things irritate me like the arseholes who complain about other people taking the initiative to improve their communities and workplaces, simply because they are not prepared to put in the work to get the same gains for themselves. The classic example is usually during a public sector strike, those working for the private sector lashing out at striking workers because their own working conditions are so poor.

This is by no means the only time this happens though and I think part of the reason for it happening is down to the divisions and accepted hierarchy, within the working class.

Our class is not one organisation, or culture, or party, or race, or whatever. We're a very broad front of people from a mix of backgrounds and beliefs and we share one thing in common - we're getting shafted by the rich. The problem is, instead of uniting against the common enemy, we're far more interested in taking out our frustration on our fellow workers. How is this justified? Well, by making the mistake of thinking that the other people in the same shitty situation, are too different to us.

What's wrong with different? Is different making bringing redundancies, shutting schools, selling off your only source of healthcare? Is different evicting us from our homes, or locking us up if we complain? No. Everyone, who is struggling right now can point the finger squarely at the rich who continue to reap the benefits of their abuse.

So, do we need to all be the same to unite against our common enemy? No! I am not proposing a mono-culture. I'm not even sure if I'm proposing multiculturalism. What I am proposing is an alliance.

Home-owners are getting screwed by the rich, but so are travellers. The travellers don't need to get houses, or the home-owners jumping into caravans to unite. They just need to do it and help each other fight each other's battles. Goths don't need to put on Burbery baseball caps to accept that they have common battles in their workplaces as more mainstream urban youth. Office workers do not have to live on £65 a week to see the benefit in supporting the struggles of claimants. What is important is that we fight together, or at the very least, stop sabotaging our fellow workers.

Can this be done with a party? I seriously doubt it. If anything, parties and groups are divisive to our class. Without even touching on sectarianism that is inherent in party politics, the fact of the matter is that one party's method of organisation, or focus, may appeal to some, but never all. Our diversity as a class cannot be boxed into the monoculture of a single party.

Is a popular front the answer? I doubt that as well. Anarchists learn their lessons from history well. During the 1930's in Spain, the idea of a broad spectrum of groups ranging from centralists to communist parties and even anarchists in government led to infighting and inefficiency, that crippled the government and paved the way for Franco to begin his coup. The issue seemed to be that the actions of the factions within the popular front were prone to veto by other factions, creating a circle of sectarianism. Some of the best examples of resistance to the fascist coup came from people taking it upon themselves to rule and arm themselves without waiting the weeks it took for permission from the popular front to filter through.

My thoughts on the way forwards seems to be more of an extremely loose knit federation of organisations and individuals from various backgrounds and interests. It would not be necessary for everyone to support each cause that somebody from the federation makes, but, so long as it does not harm our own people, we should not attempt to veto or sabotage it. Where we can, we support the causes of our comrades, but voting is not required from the whole organisation to approve an action. In the meantime we accept that all those who fight for their class are equals, whether they are a benefits claimant, or a union secretary.

For such a broad front, we need only one clause in our constitution: We will not attack each other!

Even in a post-capitalist world, this form of federal organising allows for us to live in our own unique ways, while reaping the benefits of diversity and countering sectarianism as well as the tyranny of the majority.

The main importance is that we, as a class, start to accept that ALL members of our class are our brother and sisters, not just the ones who fit into our own specific culture. No more can we stab each other in the backs. To make the point clear, I am saying that anyone who does not attack their fellow workers is my comrade and those who do attack their fellow workers is my enemy. I don't need people to wave a red and black flag to be my brother, or sister, I just need them to accept that we have a common enemy.

We must also put aside this idea of certain tactics and strategies being "a waste of time". The decisions made by individuals and organisations are theirs to make. We can either support them, or choose not to, but we cannot write off other people's concerns simply because we do not share them ourselves. If the Trotskyists want to try elect somebody as an MP, I won't agree with them, but I won't stop them either and it doesn't change that they are my comrade - unless they attack their own class, in which case they will be treated as any other enemy, regardless of who they are.

Fighting a campaign is hard work. It's time consuming, there is risk to what little liberty we still have throughout and it will stress you out if you don't pace yourself. We should not be flying off the handle to make enemies of our fellow workers so lightly. Our effort would be far better directed towards the root cause of all our problems - the rich.

You're either with your class, you're with the bosses, or you stand alone - weak and vulnerable against both. It's time for everyone to pick their side, because there never was a better time to do it than the present.

Mr Burns gets a black bloc butt kicking!

2011-07-13T20:42:00.002+01:00

Sheer awesome image drawn by a HAL volunteer's young daughter that I've spent a few hours playing about with on Gimp. Enjoy! Stencils to come soon!!!

p.s. The rights to the image, like all those on Rebel Cleaners, are not mine to give and seeing as though this has been done by a 15 year old, please be extra considerate and do not use it without permission.

Kirklees Council claims care changes will create more than 100 new jobs. I claim that they're full of it

2011-07-12T09:53:00.005+01:00

Officials at Kirklees Council have served up another big steaming plate of dog turd and tried to pass it off as a delicious chocolate cake.

In their bid, to try turn public opinion in favour of selling off care services, to their rich buddies, they are making the ridiculous claim that it will create more jobs, improve care and hand control to local people.

Like I pointed out on Saturday, privatisation always leads to a reduction in the quality of the service and the conditions and pay of the workforce. Adding another cost - The capitalist's return on their investment, can only ever lead to a reduction in value for money for the tax payer and livelihood of workers and service users.

These officials have made another, unusual, statement that privatisation means "delivering services to local people by local people.” which is a dubious claim as well. Putting services under the control of these 30 businesses adds yet another barrier of bureaucracy to accountability. Previously, where there was a problem with how a service was delivered, local people could attempt to lobby the council to bring the management into line. Under this scheme however, things become even more difficult for those with issues with the managers. At best, the council can threaten to end the contract of the freeloading capitalists, although even there, they cower in the face of legal challenges brought by solicitors for breach of contract.

Privatisation has NEVER worked. Everyone knows it and the council is fooling nobody.

With the lack of the working class taking the initiative to organise more widely and some still unwilling to put aside divisions such as race, religion, gender, sexuality and the like to create an alternative to these services, those who have done so, such as anarchists are left with little choice but to pursue the second best solution of fighting the cuts and keeping services public. If you're reading this and not getting together with your friends, family and neighbours to take action against privatisation then what exactly are you waiting for? The Messiah ain't coming. It's up to you!

p.s. On Thursday there is a meeting at 7pm at the Methodist Mission on Lord Street about how to oppose the changes to care services. I don't know how useful it will be, but it can't hurt to stick your head in and make some contacts and hear some ideas that other folks have had on how to oppose this.

Can you shop the corporations out of the town centre? Not really

2011-07-12T00:25:00.008+01:00

Ever since Huddersfield Anarchist League picked up sponges and took to the streets to highlight the sorry state of many of our historic, abandoned, buildings, Huddersfield town centre has hardly been out of local news.

Civic Society waded in to back us up about the state of listed buildings in our town, which was once described by Engels as "handsomest by far of all the factory towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire". McDonalds' management completely missed the point by ordering out their slave labour army to clean up the crap, that they would never themselves dare touch, as a publicity stunt. Local capitalists ranted about the state of St Peter's street, while not having the common sense to pitch in and help HAL volunteers, in the cleanup of their own doorsteps. Kirklees Council began getting their finger out to deal with the degeneration of the Co-Op building by placing student artwork over its filthy windows. The Examiner put up a survey to ask readers what they think the Town Centre's problems are and how to solve them. The tide was on our side!

One of the results of the Examiner survey was a call for more independent stores in the town centre. A number of small, independent businesses have approached the Huddersfield Examiner to drum up support for their shops at Byram Arcade on Westgate. They say their motivation is the result of a recent survey by the paper and saying that their shops present a realistic alternative to the corporate Kingsgate Centre and Supermarkets that dominate our town.

While I don't see it as a realistic way to challenge the tyranny of capitalism, I'm happy to see some people escaping the tyranny of employment and I'd rather have them there than corporations who make a mockery of democracy. That's not saying that working for an independent business is necessarily an easy ride, but it's one hell of a lot easier to keep these bosses in check than the likes of TESCO, or Boots with their infinite resources to piss all over workers.

The problem with all this, as a consumer, is quite simply that prices are higher in these independent shops, usually so much so that it prohibits most workers from going there.

On the whole, this is not down to the business owners not wanting to lower their prices (as this would bring more customers and more money for themselves) but a fundamental flaw in free market capitalism. Massive corporations are able to gain huge discounts on their costs through unscrupulous practices such as bullying suppliers and getting away with paying their staff so badly that they can only ever shop at their own stores. Independent business will never be able to compete with this, no matter how many grants and loans and tax cuts the state throws at them and even this is moot as it is incompatible with the current ruling doctrine of neo-liberal capitalism.

If you're lucky (or ruthless!) enough to have the cash to shop independent, then please do. For most of us though. who do not have the option, this is neither a challenge to corporate dominance in Huddersfield, nor a serious step towards improving our town centre. Unfortunately, the real solutions are one hell of a lot more hard work than just taking our money to a different store and require us to gain our independence and freedom through organising ourselves in our communities and workplaces.

Local news roundup 11/7/10

2011-07-11T20:54:00.006+01:00

Well, the main news surely has to be the EDL's trip to Eureka, The Children's Museum, in Halifax, on Saturday and the opposition to it. A full report deserves its own post, but the world doesn't stop for a march against mythical fundamentalist takeovers.

In other news...

- Can you shop the corporations out of the town centre? Not really.
- Kirklees Council claims care changes will create more than 100 new jobs. I claim that they're full of it

Flashman wanted by the coppers

2011-07-10T12:07:00.005+01:00

According to the Huddersfield Examiner:

A MAN indecently exposed himself in Birkby.

Police have issued a description of the man who carried out the offences in the Norman Road area on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 5pm.

He is white, possibly middleaged, 5ft 7ins with short dark hair and he wore round glasses.

He has a distinctive large stomach.

I know some things are not supposed to be funny, but I couldn't resist this. West Yorkshire Police seem to be on the hunt for this man.

On a more serious note, I don't know what the guy is supposed to have done specifically, although I think exposing nudity is something that should only ever be done between consenting adults. What did make me post this though is to highlight how poor descriptions published by the police can cause more problems than they cause. How many fat, white men with glasses and short hair do you know? What do we do? Are we supposed to grass them all in or something?

While the lack of specifics is probably nobody's fault, the choosing to publish a vague description such as this can cause far more problems than it solves when it puts such a large slice of the Huddersfield population (and a fair few of their own coppers) under suspicion and effectively gives the police cause to harass pretty much anyone to meet their arrest targets.

It also reinforces the "fear of the other" that those who steer our society want to encourage. "Your next door neighbour is not a potential friend, but a possible pervert. Fear them!". Crap like this needs to be challenged as it is a significant reason why the working class has still failed to unite under a class banner in such a long time. It's that voice from the TV that tells us not to fear or question the cars on our roads, or the bankers in London, but the caretakers in our schools and the Asian man with a rucksack on the bus. Our rulers tell us what to be upset about and of course, that will never be them.

I wish the victim all the best in trying to make sure the guy doesn't go doing it again, but West Yorkshire police really should know better.

Local news roundup 9/7/10

2011-07-09T16:18:00.009+01:00

I'm currently awaiting the results of a Freedom of Information request made to Kirklees Council regarding provision for travellers, before I make an analysis of what's going on and the way forward for residents and travellers. In the mean time, I am going to try something a little different. I'm going to take a little bit more inspiration from Phil Dickens' blog, Truth Reason and Liberty and bring more frequent updates to the blog. I'm hoping that this will lead to a better connection to local news on this blog, so that feature articles like my last one, don't end up so disastrous.

The idea is to look at the day's news and offer my thoughts on the situations and solutions from an anarchist perspective. So, without further ado, let us begin :)

Today's stories are:
- Kirklees council removes their wind turbines from Civic Centre 3
- Councillors try to put the brakes on Academies
- British Gas massively hike their prices
- Family of woman killed by Carbon Monoxide poisoning call for warnings on barbecues
- Town Centre Police harass street drinkers

£100000 Huddersfield Civic Centre wind turbines to be removed

I do strongly believe in green energy. I believe strongly that unless we embrace it, the consequences to our species is more dire than anything we have ever faced yet.

That said, the wind turbine on top of civic 3 was never going to be a good idea. A far better saving for the planet would have been to implement better energy saving programme, such as not having all the lights and computers on all the time, more efficient heating and insulation. The turbines should be put in a windy place where they could actually support themselves. If the council wanted to show off that they're doing their part for green energy, they would have been better situating the turbines near the M62 and stuck a Kirklees Council logo on them.

Instead, as the comments on the Examiner website show, the council has ended up reinforcing the myth that green energy doesn't work. Communities need to be directly involved in putting forward and approving sites for green energy to make us enjoy the benefits of using it and property rights be damned, rather than it becoming a rallying point for the fossil fuel industry to get away with screwing up our planet further.

That does mean putting them on what is currently landbanks for corporations or even farmland, yes! I wouldn't blame farmers for panicking at that idea and rightly so, because the government has done less than nothing to help them defend themselves against the bullying tactics employed by supermarkets. Farmers could cope with losing a little land to green energy if they were getting a fair price for their work.
Wind turbines should NOT cost £100k either and in light of the extreme danger of not getting green energy in use, we have to ditch patenting laws on green solutions, now, so that we can get these things built for hundreds, not hundreds of thousands.

We need green energy. We need the community to have a say in where it's put. We need farmers to get a fair reward from society for their produce. We need patenting and property laws challenging. Only if we deal with all these issues will we be able to continue to inhabit this island. Evolve or be destroyed, humanity.

Academy process probed by Kirklees Council

The rate of applications, made by head teachers looking to make a quick buck by converting to academy status has rocketed, to 1 out of every 3 secondary schools, with little concern for the consequences. This lack of foresight is set to screw up the lives of an entire generation of kids and do irreparable damage to the teaching profession. Some councillors, motivated by winning votes, have banded together to try put the brakes on the rush job of selling off schools to the super-rich.

It's not rocket science is it? How adding yet another expense - investor profit, to the upkeep bill of schools is hardly going to make them cheaper to run.

Sure, they could find more efficient suppliers for school meals, or cheaper contractors to do maintenance on the buildings, but that's an awful lot of hard work for not a lot of profit for the investors. Far more money in sacking teachers, selling off school property, ending school trips, cutting teaching materials, abusing the workforce, etc.

This is your kids' future at stake here. Why are so many people still sat on their backsides, watching their schools get run into the ground, while the super rich take off into the sunset with all the cash, again?

It's time to fight back! Lobby, protest, take direct action. Whatever it takes and if one thing don't work, try another. You only get one chance to look after your kids' childhood. This is it.
Or are you going to start planning for that awkward conversation in a decade's time of "Where were you, Mum, when my future got sold off?" We need to shut this scheme down now, not just stall it.

Can you afford to pay 18% more for your British Gas heating?

Utility  bills for British Gas customers are set to be hiked again. This time by  more than 35 times interest rates, or expressed differently - almost an  extra £1 spent out of every £5 we put in the meter. Naturally, British  Gas is quick to cry out that it's not their fault that the annual death  toll of frozen pensioners is going to rise and instead and blame their  suppliers and cheerfully announce that there will be no escape from the  hike as they expect their competitors to do the same.

British Gas has  only one supplier, themselves! All of their product is sourced from BGE -  British Gas Exploration.

As you'd expect, there is no question of  pushing a 18% pay cut, or even a pay freeze on their top execs, or  wealthy shareholders, instead the burden falls onto us, the consumer,  while they insult our intelligence by claiming that the price rise is  out of their hands.  

We cannot trust the lives of our elderly in the hands of those only  interested in profits. Utilities should be available for free to  residents universally and generated sustainably. You cannot put a  pricetag on a life. If we cannot break free of the energy companies then  it is up to us to take what is rightfully ours and necessary for our  survival and run it properly. Power to the people!

    Families call for more carbon monoxide warnings in wake of Slaithwaite woman’s BBQ death

This is a sad story about a woman who has been killed by Carbon Monoxide poisoning in her tent from a barbecue. Her boyfriend is in hospital, but looks like he may survive. The families of victims of CO poisoning in Kirklees have joined to demand a common sense warning on barbecues about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide.

I'm very sad to hear this and the story strikes a personal chord with myself, as I only escaped a similar fate last year very narrowly.

After being homeless for several months, I was homed by Kirklees council in a tower block in Huddersfield. When I moved in, I had no furniture and no cooker. Being poor, I couldn't afford to get takeaways while I waited for a loan from the council to get a cooker, so I had to take drastic action and used Hexamine solid fuel tablets on a makeshift hob in my kitchen. I checked the packaging for warnings on about Carbon Monoxide, or even if they should not be used in an enclosed space. There was nothing, so away I went.

While cooking my meal, an alarm went off in the building and minutes later the fire brigade were hammering on the door, while I was trying to keep my eyes open by my "cooker". They explained quickly that Kirklees had installed Carbon Monoxide alarms in the buildings and that I had set them off. We put out my stove and opened all the windows in the flat and the fire warden visited me to highlight the dangers of solid fuel tablets.

The danger is real and the packaging MUST carry warnings and manufacturers are totally to blame. I searched for advice, didn't find it and as a result it came within minutes of killing me. Only the foresight of KNH and the swift response from the fire brigade saved me. I am very sorry to hear that somebody else was not so fortunate and I send my condolences to the family and friends who have lost somebody dear to them as a result.

Huddersfield police crackdown on street drinkers in Huddersfield town centre

I foresee a Copwatch feature coming up about the Town Centre team in the near future. In the meantime, Sgt Mellor, copper and arrogant cow has been getting drunk in the town centre - on power.

She decided to take a break from telling cyclists to stop cycling, smokers to stop smoking and instead chose to tell drinkers to stop drinking, threatening them with the cells if they didn't.

“We are having problems as there are several Polish people in the town centre who cannot understand that you can’t drink in these areas.” - Sgt Mandy Mellor (power junkie)

Of course they couldn't understand. It makes no sense. The council and law is all too happy for people to get absolutely mashed in the town centre every night, so long as they have enough cash to do it in the pubs. The fact of the matter is that far more time and money is spent keeping an eye on the legal drinkers than the street drinkers.

The street drinkers, for the most part, just keep to themselves and sure, they might look a bit scruffy, but that's not a crime. Many of the legal drinkers however get plastered then knock ten bells out of each other, give abuse to the taxi drivers, throw up in the street, piss in the street, wake everyone up on their way home and the council opens the doors to welcome more and more excesses in with more and more late licenses. Far bigger fish to fry than some friends getting together and having a quiet drink together in the open air. There's a bunch of robbers been camped in the town centre now for years - The banks and corporations. How about dealing with them?

Other stories I haven't got around to, which are worth looking at:

200 villagers unite to fight development plans at Lindley Moor

Job losses at Kirklees College nursery amid ‘veil of secrecy’

Batley peace campaigner Peter Brierley fears his phone may have been hacked

Territory - Our backs to the wall

2011-06-02T13:42:00.006+01:00

I'VE FELT LIKE A DOG CHASING HER TAIL WRITING THIS. I'M NOT HAPPY WITH, ESPECIALLY THE CONCLUSION, WHICH I'M NOT EVEN SURE *I* AGREE WITH, LET ALONE ANYONE ELSE. I HAVE LEFT THIS HERE TO PROVOKE DEBATE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE AND MAY BE EDITING IT HEAVILY IN THE NEAR FUTURE

Anarchists - We're a people without a home and no place to roam.

Currently I'm sitting on what's known to some as "British Territory". That means that by some crazy logic that I've consented to respect and obey the deeply unjust rules of the British state. I've had no say in what the rules are other than the flawed process of voting for representatives and at no other point am I even asked if I want to be part of the British state, let alone if I'm allowed to make an informed choice about whether I agree with the rules that have been drawn up by overpaid Eton politicians.

Furthermore, part of those rules set out by the British state is that they will allow the governing of British territory to be carried out by anyone with enough cash to pay them. Landlords, property developers, estate agents, home owners, banks, businesses, tenants, etc are all granted a varying degree of governance over the territories that they have made a financial contribution to. A neat little border is drawn around it and it's made clear that whoever has the most cash in that area will decide who lives there, what's built there, what's not built there, whether it is land for grazing cattle, or land for a call centre, or industrial development.

The amount of control that the various parties have over a territory is not decided by need, or even by the fact that there might be families living or working within a territory, but purely based on a legal peice of paper, which is granted power and paramilitary support in its enforcement through a democratic process that most people in the world have little or no control over. A tenant may be granted the governance over the colour of the walls in their flat at the discretion of the landlord. Why is the landlord allowed to have the final say on the colour of the walls? The landlord doesn't live there (usually). Even worse, the tenant must pay the landlord what meagre earnings they might scrape from employers or face homelessness.

The landlord's power has been granted through purchasing the flat itself from whoever, so long as their behaviour is within the guidelines set down by Westminister, or to a lesser degree - local councils. Again, what is acceptable for the property owner to do is decided by government, even worse, so is what is deemed acceptable for the tenant to be doing.

Losing your job and not being able to afford the rent for example, has been decided by the powers that be, to be totally unacceptable behaviour for a tenant. The law is very clear on this - the most vulnerable people should be made homeless, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the landlord. Did I agree to this? I know I signed a tenancy agreement (under duress I might add), but the law says that power of that agreement comes not from me, but from the state and I most certainly did not consent to British State giving landlords this power.

So to sum up:
- Because I was born and currently live on one of the islands of the British Isles, I have somehow consented to being ruled by the decisions made by the palace of Westminister, often before I was even born.
- Unless I want to colonise Mars, Antarctica, or the middle of international waters, then no matter where I go this will still be taken as consent to be ruled by whatever government claims rule over wherever I do move.
- Private citizens are granted a degree of governance over parts of a territory by the state, based upon wealth, not need.
- Other than, the proven to be ineffective system of, representative democracy I have no say in changing any of this.
- If I break these rules that I am told I have consented to, even though I haven't, then the government is right to use whatever means nessicary to punish me for it, including using paramilitary forces to beat me up, haul me out of my home, and lock me in a cage.

To call this democracy is a joke. It is merely a circular system for keeping the rich in power and everyone else with no rights, no voice and no hope within the current system. I feel like I'm chasing my tail just describing it. There is a name for a system like this where all the vassal (land)lords take tithe from the peasants, with the support of a nation's ruler. It's called feudalism and believe it or not, House Windsor is still at the top of it!

So, that's the situation. We are ruled without consent at every stage of our lives, but what's the way out? Despite the meatheads in town yelling "Go back to Russia!" every now and again, that was never an option. There is no where for us to run to. We're cornered in, surrounded by capitalism and with no escape. Not surprisingly, it's meant that we end up doing what any threatened animal does when it has its back to the wall - it fights. The options are limited. We stay where we are and be destroyed, or we take our chances and try to fight our way through the system that is threatening us.

Doesn't seem like a formula for victory really, does it? Perhaps instead we should try a third option. Perhaps, like the commissioned explorers and prospectors of the past, we should be running around, planting flags on things and declaring them to be free territories to be governed the way that we see fit? After all, there are plenty of precedents for doing it, often ignoring the current sovereignty of existing government.

But, wouldn't that make us as bad as the people who we're trying to escape? The Jews, another group of people who historically lived without self-determination, fled persecution throughout history. The end result was Zionism, which has had genocidal consequences for the natives, both ancient and the current Palestinian situation. Again, this is hardly a recipe for success.

This is hard stuff. You can't just draw a ring on a map and say "This is ours. We will rule ourselves" unless you had the situation of everyone within the ring consenting to this. On a geographical area the size of a country, a town, or even a street, this is unlikely and although attitudes are changing, this is far too big a jump for most people to embrace. What we need is an area where everyone is an agreement about wanting to rule themselves.

One such place is the commune. Isolated and shut off to the world and usually end up becoming hopelessly unable to cope with the realities of life. There is also the issue of needing to work with the capitalist system to either pay the rent, or mortgage and that comes at the price of freedom. Squats can be great while they last, but ultimately, can never be a permanent solution. I'm sure that there are a lot of people who are very happy in communes, who are happy to accept the problems in return for a bit of freedom and self-determination. Even the people involved in these places though would probably admit that communes are not for everyone.

Another place is during a public gathering. This can be something as simple as when you're sat around in the pub with friends deciding whether to get another pint, or to move to another pub. Oddly enough though, when you put a few hundred anarchists, even when they don't know each other, in one spot they quickly begin to start using principles of direct democracy and consensus to decide how that spot and its current residents should be governed. If you haven't witnessed this, then you're missing out, as it's a beautiful and inspiring example of anarchism at its best and it's usually happening in the midst of some of the toughest scenarios faced by most people - where our personal safety is under real and immediate threat.

Unfortunately, as wonderful as that is, these sorts of things are temporary. We can only sit in the pub for so long and we can only stay on the streets as long as we can stop our heads getting caved in by the coppers. Even if that wasn't an issue, living on the streets isn't exactly a fun idea to do for any length of time.

The only other option I can come up with is form some kind of non-geographical worldwide nation. Wherever people can come to consent an area under their control should be run through real democracy, should be able to declare themselves part of this nation. It would be like an island nation, with pockets of civilisation sat in the middle of the sea. Organised all together in some kind of federation with one self-determining area to be a squatted house, another to be a commune and another to be something as small as somebody's living room and even temporary liberated zones like those at public gatherings.

Then I realised... we already have that. We don't lack identity at all. We already operate in this way as one unified and consenting force and it's under the banner of anarchism - not a state.

No war but glass war!

2011-05-31T17:48:00.011+01:00

You may have heard of masked anarchists in Huddersfield, stalking the streets and growing bold enough to venture around in daylight hours in enemy strongholds and make strategic assaults on the wrongs that capitalism has brought to our town. With a bottle and rag in one hand and a soapy bucket in the other justice was done and continues to be done.

Truth can be stranger than fiction.

Huddersfield Anarchist League has been doing some guerrilla maintenance around the town centre recently. Many buildings in Huddersfield town centre have been derelict for some time and without an organised squatters' movement in the area to keep them in good nick, they're beginning to look bloody filthy.

Some of these buildings are well and truly historic and there really are some beautiful buildings that were built with pride and love. Of course, you've got to look up to see it though. Corporations just love to knock out the whole of the shop floor and cover the whole thing with the uniform PVC and plate glass cladding. Towns like Halifax, just down the road, actually respect their architecture and the difference is massive, even though they have the same sort of buildings. To let these buildings fall into disrepair would be a crime to those people who designed and built these buildings for them to die like this, unloved.

In fact, some, like the 1930's Co-op building are due for demolition by Kirklees Council to build a new Cathedral of Consumption, like the Kingsgate Centre. The co-op movement, which has done significant good for people around the world, and such rare buildings that were part of that history, deserve preservation and appreciation. Instead, this institution of a better world is to be torn down to make way for more corporate bullshit and despair.

The council likes to use excuses like the condition of derelict buildings to pull them down, when in fact they are often directly responsible for the condition of those buildings themselves. Southgate flats and the sports centre are to be demolished next year to make way for a new super-Tesco store. How do the council get away with pulling down so much of their social housing stock without replacing them? Well, they've sabotaged them. At any point the council could have intervened at Southgate flats to improve them, for the benefit of their tenants as much as anything else. They didn't. Instead they chose to take the flats off the council housing waiting list and not put them on the Choose and Move system. As tenants moved on, or were evicted and new tenants ceased, the council began to use to argument of the flats being unpopular, because they are only half occupied. What they failed to mention was how they were directly responsible for both and still could deal with both problems at any time.

We were not going to allow places like the Co-Op building to meet the same fate. If they wanted to knock down our history then they'd be doing it without the bullshit excuses they used with Southgate. We'd maintain the building and make sure that public opinion was with us, not the corporations, come the time of its defence. That was one reason for the campaign.

The other was quite simply that they looked bloody awful. To understand how desensitised we have become to pollution, you only have to take a look at the windows of an abandoned building. Huddersfield is no longer the site of industry's belching chimneys (we pay China to do that bit of polluting for us), however there is still a massive amount of air pollution in the air, coming from cars. There are almost 4,000 car parking spaces in Huddersfield Town Centre and it shows. Even windows in the pedestrian zones such as New Street begin to get caked in thick dust in just a few weeks. You're breathing that in. So, the buildings had become an eyesore of the worst kind - the kind that's actually depressive. Again, it's down to the council, particularly with the co-op building which they own, ready for the wrecker's ball.

So, seeing as though the council refused to do the right thing and nobody else seemed in a rush to do something, then somebody had to take responsibility and bring a little justice into the world! We were going to go out there and clean those windows and whatever else we could do to make the council's plans to knock it down as hard as possible. If a job needs doing, get on with it.

We decided that with the current media vilification of black bloc tactics we'd subvert the image a little and combine bloc tactics and windows in a whole new way. So, head to toe in black, complete with masks we made our move on the co-op building. Maybe not surprisingly, especially because the cop shop is only around the corner, we were quickly challenged by a couple of PCSOs who claimed had been given reports that we were flyposting. Then we were challenged about our protective gear, but being good girls and boys, we explained that our black facemasks were to filter out the same air pollution that had stained the windows in the first place. Glad that was settled quickly. The coppers then advised us, on camera, to take a look inside of the building. We may take them up on that offer at some point.

While cleaning, we were whistling happy tunes, calling out friendly greetings to passers by and occasionally breaking out into singing. I think it's fair to say that quite a few people must have thought we were mad and most people had big grins on their faces seeing us getting on with it. A few even came up to talk to us and voice their support of what we were doing. One old fella even came up and started telling us jokes before saying goodbye and wishing us well. Very good vibe to it all.

The weird thing was that it was actually enjoyable. We were out in the sunshine, with friends, working at our own pace, on something we cared about, being appreciated by the community and all without managers barking at us. I wonder what else could become fun if you do it in a fair way?

To be honest though, we were not the best prepared for all this. The supplies situation was kind of grim. Between us, we had a few dish sponges, a bucket of soapy water and a bottle of water to rinse. For a squeegee, we had a car windscreen wiper (irony anyone?) tied onto a stick. We didn't have a ladder either. As you'd expect we did have some problems with getting the windows clean with this equipment, but at least it was an improvement and maybe it might encourage somebody to finish off what we started with better tools.

Anyway, I think the whole thing demonstrates many important anarchist concepts:
- The community needed a job doing, so somebody took responsibility and dealt with it.
- People who are blocc'd up are your best friends, not the enemy.
- Enviromental concern.
- You can't rely on corporations, or government to deal with our problems.
- That we share the interests of the community.
- Work on our own terms is actually enjoyable.

The cleaning shall continue!

Thanks goes to Takearaincoat for the pictures and having a good reach with a squeegee :P

Just when you thought it was safe...

2011-05-28T15:41:00.006+01:00

... Rebel Cleaners makes a comeback!

Well, it's been one hell of a year! Last I left you, I'd been sacked from my job and become homeless. Since then I've slept on sofas, got a council flat, seen Huddersfield Anarchist League explode in strength, got arrested on Christmas Day, yelled down megaphones, travelled all around the shop, got arrested again, become entangled in some kind of freaky silent feud, written a little for Rearguard Action, stopped drinking and FINALLY got a computer working and with Internet so I could make this post. Probably missed a few things there too. It's been nuts!

So what about the news? That's been one hell of a year too. Ever since the students kicked off last year at Milbank Towers, rebellion is in the air. For ages it was just the students, going out and embracing direct action and showing a real functioning resistance to the government forces. Then, reluctantly, the TUC got their arm twisted into setting a distant date for the anti-cuts demo, hoping that this spirit of disobedience had been stamped out by then. If anything, this stalling lead to even more bottling up of the rage which poured onto the streets of London on March the 26th. The coppers never knew what hit them. One minute a boot is going through Barclays' window, seconds later there's a wooden horse going up in Oxford circus, the next The Ritz is getting a new paintjob. There wasn't one group of people using bloc tactics, there was loads. By the time the coppers got to one spot, the troops were on their way to their next target in need of a little justice. Meanwhile, across 4 continents governments were being seriously challenged and often outright thrown into panic and defeat. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin USA, Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Iran, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Israel and many more.

Things are hotting up. Maybe this change in attitudes might actually bring about some positive changes to the world. So far so good.

So that's catchup done (I think), so I'll be posting soon. Glad to be back. Well done, world!

OMG an update?

2010-12-20T15:01:00.002Z

Don't hold your breath too long I'm sorry. Although I'm no longer homeless, I still haven't got a computer at home, let alone internet access. Seeing as though most of my blog posts take on average 3 hours to do and I only get 1 hour a day at the library PC's it doesnt take a rocket scientist to see that I won't be updating the blog properly until I can get net access at home so I can gather my sources together and spend a long time correcting my spelling and stuff.

I will get something sorted I promise. I miss this blog and the last six months have been very eventful, both personally and politically, so I've got one hell of a backlog to clear. Jesus, I've not even gone into me losing my job yet! Anyway, I'll update where I can with little things like my DIY playdough receipe, but you'll all have to wait a little long for Rebel Cleaners to return properly.

I miss yooooooouuuu!!!!

DIY Playdough

2010-12-20T14:59:00.002Z

There's a red star on the Christmas Tree. la la la la.

Yes, it's Christmas and we're being told to spend spend spend! I'm pretty sure everyone dislikes giving over what little crumbs our bosses give us, back to them, so here's an alternative for the kids. DIY playdough.

Really easy to make and it's a bit better than the commerical stuff too if you ask me. It is non-toxic too and comes out of the rug with minimul effort, which is always handy when you're giving something to kids. What's really shocking is how easy it is to make and that you've probably got everything sat in the kitchen anyway all ready to go.

Ingrediants:

- 1 cup of plain (non-self raising) flour
- 1 cup of water
- 0.5 cups of table salt
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- (optional) colourings, which can be either be artifical stuff you get off the shelves, or spinch, beetroot, or carrot juice for gree, pink and orange respectivly. You always knew that there was a reason you grew beetroots on the plot now, didn't you? :P
- Greasproof paper
- some containers with lids

Recipe

1) Mix together the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large pan

2) Slowly start adding the water, while stirring and then put on a medium heat on the hob.

3) Keep stirring until it gets to a nice smooth consitancy. Then add your oil and you can add the colourings now if you like, but I prefer to leave it to later.

4) Get stirring again and when it shows the first signs of getting stiff, get it out and put it onto a piece of greased paper and knead it until it's like... well, playdough. I usualy split it into three pieces add the colouring while I'm kneading so I can get multiple colours from one batch.

5) It's done! Just whack it into an airtight container and it'll keep in the fridge and it'll be just fine. Wrapping it up in selophane helps too.

To get the most life out of it you should add about a tablespoon of water to the container each time you put it back. It it gets really dry you can just knead more water into it. I found that those little containers you get from Chinese takeaways, or sealie bags are ideal for storing the playdough. In a pinch you couuld just roll it into balls and put it selophane.

If it does get into the carpet then don't panic. Either just leave it until it dries and run the vaccum over it, or scrub it a bit with some warm soapy water. It'll come right out. I promise. A mat, idealy vinyl, for them to play with it on may be an easier solution. The Twister board just got a new use.

You can also see all the ingrediants at the top and know with confidence that the kids can shovel as much of it in thier mouths as they like and the worst that'll happen is that they may make a bad smell and pee beetroot colours. And when the inevitable happens and they end up mixing all the colours together into a sludge you can either just redye it or make up a new batch.

See? You don't have to be anti-consumerist and a grinch afterall! :P Merry Christmas

Bit of a break

2010-08-04T16:22:00.003+01:00

Well, it's happened. My landlord's moving to Bournemouth for work and has decieded that he wants to put the whole house, including my room, up for rent. He's a live in landlord and so long as he lets me know that he plans on booting me out, then it's perfectly legal for him to do so without a court order.

That's exactly what he did. In a drunken rage about his own failures, he decieded to throw all my cooking utensels, food and cutlery into the road on Friday night while I was out trying to put a deposit on another place. I didn't get the place and he wouldn't let me back in the house. He was threatening to throw everything in my room out the next day into the skip outside.

Fortuantly I am not without friends who were willing to put me up and help me move all my stuff off the road and to thier's for storage. I came back the next day to pick up the rest of my stuff that he hadn't destroyed in one of his alkie tantrums. Unfortuantly, my bike and computer didn't survive the ordeal with one hacked into pieces and the other destroyed in transit. In revenge for that I didn't clean the room after me. I was tempted to sabotauge the plumbing, but even I'm not that mean.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, the problem is that now I don't have internet at home, or any home at all for that matter, I'm going to have a lot of trouble making blog posts. Right now I'm using the library's computers and I'll use them again for anything immediate. So sorry, guys, but this is the break in normal service until I can sort out this whole bieng homeless and unemployed problem.

This isn't a total cop-out though, as I thought it'd be worth drawing attention to what that lovely police helicopter of ours has been up to. If you thought that them sending the thing out after spotting a couple of kids wearing sunglasses was bad, then you're going to love this. They've sent out the helicopter again, this time to catch two men skipping.

The victims were at a household waste depot in Brighouse when the chopper came after them. Thier "crime" was to be rumaging through the rubbish. It's not even as if they'll find TV's or computers or whatnot in there. We're talking about household waste - Food scraps and packaging mostly. The two men have been arrested and charged with theft. The police are there to defend the barrier between food and every hungry person it seems.

I can't provide links atm, because I'm bieng kicked off the library computer. Check the Examiner website. I'm sure you'll find it

Anarchists believe in rules!

2010-07-28T16:36:00.006+01:00

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Pretty common thing I hear from people who have little idea what anarchism is, seem to think that anarchists do not believe in rules. Apparently we love chaos and destruction and selfish individualism and reject all forms of authority imposed upon the individual.

They couldn't be further from the truth.

Yes, there are anarcho-individualists out there who really do have issues with anyone who dares question their own personal sovereignty. Thankfully they're a minority. I'd also question whether they are actually anarchists or not for reasons that will become clear later.

Anarcho-socialism is not about abolishing all forms of authority. That is simply impossible. There will always be differences in opinions between people and some people will always feel strongly about those and conflict (hopefully verbal) will occur. What anarchism is about is levelling the playing field and ensuring that authority is spread evenly amongst everyone in the community or workplace.

Currently your individual, or collective opinions are judged depending on how much capital you have. If you are a worker then you have little say over how your workplace is run, while your employer may dictate as they please. If you are a tenant then you have less say over what happens to your home than your landlord. This even applies to those who own a bit of capital and have formed large groups such as a residents association of homeowners having to defer to politicians, who have been lobbied by big business, to decide how often their bins get emptied, whether a toxic waste dump is built outside the local school, or what laws they must adhere to.

By opting for a gift economy, capital is no longer used to weigh up how much somebody's opinion is "worth". Other kinds of socialists such as Trotskyists and Marxist Lenninists agree on this too. Where anarchism is different though is by taking note that representative democracy also leads to corruption, especially where ANY voices of opposition are judged to be "counter revolutionary"

Anyway, the model we opt for is for rules to be agreed upon by workplaces and communities through direct democracy where everything is voted upon by referendum. Now that might sound anything from tedious, to downright unworkable, however remember again that we're talking about a different world to our own now, where these rules and laws are being made by the whole of the working class, not just a small elite and most crimes and motives for crimes are simply impossible to commit in a git economy. (You'd have a hard time stealing something that is free, or mugging somebody for cash when there is no money in the world).

What you'd likely end up is a small set of simple rules, each slightly individual to each community that have been agreed upon by the majority. There of course is some things that are pretty much universal that it's pretty much certain every community would agree upon, such as not to assault fellow members of your community, informed adult consent in sexual relations and not to damage or take somebody's personal possessions (their home, bike, TV, etc). On top of that there might be other things which is unique to each community that they think benefits all of their wellbeing such as a requirement to wear clothes, an age of majority for damaging products like tobacco or alcohol, or a requirement to work a certain number of hours to benefit from the produce of the community.

This is far from chaos, as it's actually the community deciding upon the rules that they consider to be important to themselves, rather than having unpopular law and rule imposed on them by force by a third party.

Speaking of force. Lets talk about how these rules would be enforced too. Firstly you have to remember that unlike existing laws, these ones will have been agreed upon by the majority they effect and they should be enforced, unlike many of the rules that have been decided for us by illegitimate 3rd parties like we have now. The law and justice would be one and the same. As for how exactly each community would enforce those rules would be largely up to them, with some opting to establish professional police forces to gather evidence and bring suspects before a jury, while others might believe in alternative systems such as a sheriff style department where law enforcement is elected, or even rotated. Some smaller and more close knit communities would probably be happier just to deal with problems as they arise in their own ways.

Another criticism of anarchist organising is the so called "tyranny of the majority", where a majority, no matter how small, can impose rules upon a majority that are downright oppressive and unfair. Once again, the gift economy comes to the rescue. In a system of a gift economy, work is divided up equally and fairly between all community workers, including the not so pleasant jobs to be rota'd. If a community is too oppressive of some of its workers, then they would leave the community and refuse to participate, meaning that there is less workers to divide the work up between. Rules and punishments for those who break the rules would have to be carefully considered by the community to decide whether it's in the community's best interests to act. This prevents "mob rule" where people go around hanging others, or otherwise being oppressive, with little consequence for their actions and ensures that any sort of criminal justice system is fair for all members of the community. In summary, what's good for the individual is good for the community and vice versa.

There is the question from Individualists, as to whether to have any rules, or enforcement at all. Most of us agree that this is a bad idea and actually works in opposition to anarchist thinking. With no rules, the physically strongest, or craftiest individuals would actually have more authority over the other members of their community

All in all you've got a very watertight system, where everyone is accountable for their own actions, both as an individual and as a community, where there are rules, but they are fair and with the support of the people. This is not a system for chaos and disorder, but harmony and order. If it wasn't I wouldn't be fighting for it.

Copwatch: Raoul Moat and closing ranks

2010-07-16T00:39:00.004+01:00

It's been an interesting week for West Yorks Copwatch. Firstly, Huddersfield's Anarchists have been developing posters highlighting how out of control the police are and giving suggestions for residents to organise and take action. I've also discovered that my name Copwatch hasn't been all that original. There's in fact a several organisations in North America with the same name that's been going for over two decades, which focuses on filming (something that would be in violation of terrorism laws in the UK) and reporting on their local police forces in an effort to tackle police brutality and injustices. I kinda stumbled across them by accident and quickly sent them an email apologising and asking whether they'd like me to change the name of what I'm reporting to something else. Instead I've sort of been bombarded with requests for this to join the North American chapters and become "official". I'm not sure what to do really. Thoughts on a postcard to the usual address.

Back on track with the nitty gritty, West Yorkshire Police have been in national news lately about thier handling of the Raoul Moat case. It seems that the firearms officers who fired tasers at moat while he had a shotgun to hit head were from West Yorkshire Police. It's also emerged that the particular tasers they were using are a highly dodgey and still untested XREP"shotgun" type which are NOT approved for police use.

At the best of times tasers are awful weapons, which the United Nations describe as "a form of torture", and Amnesty International condemning thier use. Tasers have a history of abuse. I'm not even going to start listing these. Just go onto google and type in something like "taser abuse" and it'll come up with a ruck. Tasers are also dubious about thier "less than lethal" status, after hundreds of people have been killed in various situations as a direct result of thier use. This discovery about the use of "shotgun" tasers though is particular worrying. What else do the Police have knocking around their armoury that they're not supposed to use, but may if the fancy takes them? Machineguns? Rocket Propelled Grenades? Flamethrowers? Who knows with this lot! We know at least that they also keep balaclavas and assault rifles handy for rainy days.

The use of tasers in this particular case has been investigated too as the possibly cause for Moat's "suicide". Anyone who's had an electric shock will know that it causes your muscles to spasm and fingers to curl. If you've got a weapon under your chin and your fingers on the trigger, that's the sort of thing that would make you pull the trigger involuntarily. Mr Moat's brother seems to agree and has viciously condemned the officers for forcing his brother to shoot himself by using these tasers.

No doubt, the ranks will close and everyone involved will be let off scott free. Although Moat was a monster in most ways, he was almost certainly not the threat to the public that you'd expect for such a response. Moat's threat was directed at the state itself that had failed him and a clear warning had to be sent out that if you fight the law, the law will win. Moat was executed to make a point. David Cameron has been absolutly bricking it apparantly because he's seen a Facebook page with tens of thousands of supporters and realised that his little stormtroopers are not as popular as he'd like.

On the subject of closing ranks though. Remember those two Huddersfield coppers who thought it'd be clever to reverse up the M62? Remember how they were charged and found guilty of dangerous driving and lost their licenses for a year? Remember how West Yorkshire Police said that there'd be an internal investigation? Remember the damning CCTV and witness evidence that left no doubts about thier actions?

Well guess what. It means nothing. The internal investigation has cleared them. The courts have cleared them on appeal. They're even entitled to claim compensation. Why? Well, the court makes it very clear that they're a special case simply because they work for West Yorkshire Police. Corruption anyone? Cake with that? Sure. Nevermind that the other six who were caught the same night doing the same thing have been banned from driving for a minimum of a year, now got criminal records and received fines. There's one rule for us and one rule for the coppers.

It's not hard to believe the corruption and injustices of West Yorkshire Police's conduct never being held to account. Not only is the entire system of internal regulation and the courts always siding with the coppers who are clearly in the wrong, but also they've got a history of it. More about that some other time...

Copwatch: No, Raoul doesn't live here you silly sods!

2010-07-09T17:54:00.006+01:00

Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere for the past week, then you've probably heard about Mr Raoul Moat, who's become famous for... well, spending the last week living under a rock somewhere for the past week.

Quick recap though. He's just got out of jail and attacked his ex-girlfriend and partner with a shotgun, killing the boyfriend. He then went outside shot a police officer in his car and took to the Northumbrian wilderness, swearing revenge against the police force who he claims has wrecked his life.

Well, that's what we think anyway. Nobody knows exactly for sure where he is. At least now we know for certain one place he is not - 115 miles south at Fare Hill Flats in our very own Huddersfield.

An anonymous tip was made to Crimestoppers that the fugitive had been spotted. The armed police swooped in on a disabled man's flat with dogs and "the biggest guns I have ever seen" according to the victim. They then spent 20 minutes tearing the place apart, looking for their suspect before leaving.

West Yorkshire Police released a statement, amazingly admitting that they had absolutely no suspicion, intelligence, or evidence that Mr Moat could have been hiding there. The icing on the cake has got to the announcement that this is "normal operating procedure" and offered absolutely no apology to those terrorised, nor Mr Tingay for ransacking his home.

If this anonymous call had been to say that Barry Sheerman, or the Ramsden family was harbouring Moat, do you really think that there'd been this kind of a response? No. Operating procedure does not apply to the bourgeois and those who they value. Moat also presents a desperate threat to police forces across the country by setting a precedent that you can fight the law and win. While I don't think Moat's motives are even remotely progressive, opposing the police is something that can be carried out for all the right reasons in other cases.

I would hardly call myself a supporter of Raoul Moat. He's a caveman with a history of domestic violence against his young daughter and ex girlfriend. There is a case to say that the criminal justice system and council has failed him for not getting him help sooner before he turned violent and ended up in jail. And coppers are bastards who enjoy causing misery far too much, as this raid and the other actions reported on Copwatch just goes to confirm.

Meanwhile, here in Huddersfield, the double standard on justice continues.

Self determination VS Enviromentalism in Grange Moor?

2010-07-08T22:23:00.015+01:00

I'm doing a great job of avoiding talking about me being sacked. Every time I try write about it, I'll do a few lines and get depressed and stop. So, heads up, lets talk about another local issue and this'll be a messy one. I await the hate mail. Or maybe not. We shall see.

In Grange Moor, 120 residents have grouped together on a campaign against what they see as a wrong in their village. Although politicians have jumped on the bandwagon after the community demanded that the council respond. The council promptly threw up thier arms and said that they'll complain alongside the residents (probably arriving in the last 2 minutes to talk to the press, like Mehmood Khan does in demos in Huddersfield), but nothing else. This campaign seems to be mainly in the control of these residents. They're not party members, they're not political radicals and they're certainly not anarchists and they're protesting against green energy.

Their concerns are that the wind farm being planned near their homes will create a strobe effect with the shadows of the blades and also noise. They are worried s about what would happen if a blade was to break and the damage to the land itself.

Now, this is the point where most of us lefties spring to their feet and start foaming at the mouth condemning these people as murderers of the planet. I am not one of them.

Not because I don't believe in green energy. I do. I believe strongly that the world we are to inherit should be capable of sustaining life, not a toxic hellhole with an intolerable climate and continuing to burn fossil fuels will only lead to the later. I strongly disagree with the resident's objection to the turbines... but I'm on thier side.

A rather weak arguement in thier defence would be to simply say that it's not our place to dictate how others live thier lives. I reckon I could do better than that. Hence the long article.

These people have gotton together, discussed the issue and demonstrated real life, grassroots community organising. Something that is totally vital for any revolution. Their objection is not against wind power or green energy, but essentially stating that property rights are less important than the needs of the community. Could it be that this protest could actually be progressive and is that more important?

Maybe I've gone too fast here and I need to slow down and explain.

The wind farm is being built by a private developer on private land for profit. Like all capitalists, they believe that because they own the land, they should have absolute authority to dictate how that land is used, so long as they stay within the limits of the law. They believe that the only other authority they should listen to is the market (their profits) which in turn means the consumer. Not their workers and certainly not the community, unless of course they happen to be consumers of their product as well.

Meanwhile, the residents of Grange Moor believe, whether right or wrong, that the developer should listen to the voices of the community, not just the law and the market. They have recognised that justice and the law are not the same thing.

In short. The community has demonstrated that they believe that they have more right to decide how the land is used, than the capitalists who claim ownership. They also believe that the law is wrong and has been written without taking into account their opinions. Like so many things, this has actually become a class issue!

But surely the planet which we are to inherit must be able to support life if we're to live happily on it? Yes! Absolutely, yes! And things like wind farms are the thing to do this! However, it is up for communities to decide how and where this is done. it must also be done universally.

At the end of the day, the Earth cannot be saved by capitalists listening only to the market and the law which is written by other capitalist sympathisers. The market will always favour fossil fuels as long as they're available, because the corporations have made it the only accessible way for energy to be delivered cheaply, and this in turn means that our energy generation will always be majorly from dirty sources while the market is in power.

In order for the market to fall, then communities must decide that they believe that the needs of the workers and the community is more important than the greed of capitalists and their exploitation of property. Isn't that what these people are doing?

With the market abolished, people will be able to decide what they want in their communities and who will vote for the construction of a coal fired power station, or oil refinery and who will vote for there to be a wind farm placed in a responsible place that is acceptable to that community's needs? With the profit motive removed, there is no place for fossil fuels.

In opposing these particular wind farms, they are actually a bigger piece in the puzzle in favour of environmental protection. It will be people like this, deciding what they want and organising on a grassroots level, who will, even though they don't know it yet, defeat capitalism and save the Earth.

I never thought I'd say this, but "Go NIMBYs!"

Why DIY?

2010-07-05T00:14:00.005+01:00

Apologies for the lack of updates. Work's not been kind recently and now that the whole fiasco has finally unfolded I promise that I'll write up exactly what monkey business has been going on. It's not going to be a happy story I'm afraid. I confess that the World Cup, Kirkburton Free Festival, friends, non-internet activism and politics and life in general has been a factor in the lack of updates too though :P

Back to the matters at hand, here's something cheerful and optimistic for everyone. DIY! Obviously DIY stands for Do It Yourself, but I'm not talking about stopping at putting up shelves or painting the fence (who ever hires anyone to do that kind of stuff anyway?). The DIY I'm talking about is doing the best we can to become self sufficient.

That means growing crops, generating your own electricity, brewing your own booze, making your own clothes and even engineering tasks. Doesn't sound too much fun, but hear me out, you'll be surprised.

Why not just go down to Tesco and buy yourself a new top, a few cans of beer and a frozen pizza? It's easier. More convenient. Isn't it? Well, not really. To buy that stuff you want, unless you've got very simple tastes, you're going to need a fulltime job. Now, that means spending 40 hours a week doing boring, monotonous tasks to make somebody else rich. Even if you enjoy your job, you're working to make your employer richer and they can always just sack you on a whim. So, instead, how about working with your friends for say 10-20 hours a week to get the same stuff, but actually having the sense of achievement of creating it yourself?

There is something to be said for achievements. Somewhere in our attics we've still got our swimming certificates and photos of our sports days and our art projects, woodworking disasters and creative writings. Do you remember how you felt when you did all that as a kid? I do. It was great! I'd put the work in and I'd got something I wanted and it was down to my hard work. Anyone not familiar with socialism is probably doing a bit of a doubletake hearing me saying all this as I think they assume we're lazy buggers who want something for nothing. We want an easier life, sure, but we're not dumb enough to think we won't have to work for ourselves in the place of an employer.

Well, why not go back to that idea? Wouldn't it be fun to go and design and build your own solar panels from recycled stuff that'd otherwise go to a landfill with your friends? And to make matters even better, it saves you money off your electric bill, reduces the carbon you're responsible for and creates a pretty cool talking point when you've got friends over. It's there, you've made it and you're enjoying it and you didn't have to sit in work and get barked at by your manager to benefit from it!

I'm not going to try hide that your first attempts at anything are not going to be able to rival the quality of a professional, industrially made product. It takes practice, which is all the more reason to get started now. If you don't like a particular type of project but your friend does, then why not just make the stuff you like and they make the stuff they like and you just operating a gift economy right here and now?

There is a revolutionary side to it too, although I'd stress as only part of the bigger strategy. The rich rely on us not only to work for them and provide them with the products for them to sell, but also to buy those products back from them afterwards. By holding onto our money we're taking away the power of the rich which they abuse to lobby political parties and distort democracy for their own gains.

It's also very important to remember that the world we hope for in the future, there will not be managers barking at us, giving us commands about what we must do and how we must do it. It will be up to us and our communities to organise ourselves to produce the goods and services for us to enjoy. After reading Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell, one of my criticisms of the anarchist movement back in the 30's was this lack of foresight which had led to all sorts of problems as people either waited for orders from the Popular Front government, or had to learn how to DIY in a very short time which led to inefficiency.

So here's a list of little suggestions of what you can do today with no experience, special tools, or whatnot, with the exception of the last two. Some are less mainstream than others, but keep an open mind. Don't do this stuff alone (unless you want to of course!), but have some friends over and enjoy it and practice it. Develop the skills that we will need as a future society, not just out of duty to the cause, but for fun and for you to benefit from having these products without having to spend another minute working for your boss than you absolutely need to.

I've already covered homebrewing cider in the past. I may do some more detailed accounts of other projects.

Brewing
Growing crops (You do NOT need your own garden for this!)
Homegrown tobacco and rolling
Keeping chickens or other livestock
Refining biodiesel (Any diesel car will run off this with no modifications to your engine or anything)
Knitting, sewing and weaving
Generating your own electricity
Cooking
Skipping/dumpster diving
Opensource software
Squatting (if done responsibly!)
Art, music, film, writing
Electronics projects (radios, alarms, doorbells, etc,)
Science and engineering development (Yes, really!)
Learning a trade like plumbing, electrics, gas fitting, etc.

Pretty much anything that you're handing over cash for now you and your friends can get together and make yourselves and it's easier and more fun than working for an employer only to buy it. If anyone wants any tips or links to guides on the above subjects give me a shout and I'd be very happy to help you hunt down some more specific guides.

Start freeing yourselves, start having fun and start having some variety in your lives! :)

Copwatch: Follow up from yesterday's lunacy in Linthwaite

2010-06-12T14:14:00.003+01:00

A day's passed and some more details have come to light. Here's the statement from from West Yorkshire Police.

"A 32-year-old man and three 30-year-old men have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery and are currently in custody."

Ah right. So that's why they thought it'd be reasonable force to charge around Linthwaite in civilian clothing, balaclavas with assault rifles? Funny that. Notice how there's no accusations of the suspects bieng armed. Also notice how they're accused of conspiricy, which is notoriously flakey bit of the law which is often interpretted as merely bieng aware of a crime about to occur, without alerting police, which is exactly what happened when the Stoke Newington 8 were framed in the 70's.

Here's what the witnesses on the scene had to say.

“There were at least a dozen police and about four unmarked cars.
“I saw two men on the ground, they weren’t putting up a fight.

“Police had Tasered them and one was on the ground with the officer kneeling on top of him.

Remember again that these are unarmed men who have not put up a fight who have been tasered. The crime that they're accused of (they're innocent until proven guilty!) was that they were not grasses.

West Yorkshire Police still has not apoligised to the bystanders who were put in mortal danger by this reckless action, nor revealed why they thought it'd be a good idea to wear balaclavas. Maybe the police were acting in good faith for all we know and had recieved intelligence suggesting that the men were armed and dangerous. If that's the case, then it's crap. More likely though, the police are just using overwhelming and irresponsible force simply because nobody's brought them to account for it.

I'm honestly begining to think that we'd be better off without the police around here.

Copwatch: What next? Tanks?

2010-06-11T19:52:00.008+01:00

Well, in the absence of any sort of campaign to call West Yorkshire Police's tactics into account, they are becoming more and more extreme very quickly. When locals in Linthwaite saw a BMW screeching to a halt and these un-uniformed guys in balaclavas running around with assault rifles, they were probably wondering where the cops were.

Closer than they thought! Yes, these guys ARE the police! Even I'd have been a bit skeptical, had it not been for their recent track record. The interviews with the witnesses gives a universal picture of terror. They scared the life out of these people! Once again, West Yorkshire Police make no apologies for their behavior and no, I'm not just reffering to suspects. Local residents were given no warning about what had been planned.

With this kind of firepower, there's a lot that can go wrong. Imagine if thier suspect really had been a threat and there'd been a firefight? How many people would have been hit in the crossfire? As it was, the locals got away "lucky" with just bieng subjected to bieng terrorised by armed lunatics.

I've personally witnessed them doing the same thing on Wakefield Road in Huddersfield about a year ago, albeit in uniform that time. Both times there was no fight put up by the suspects and they did not appear to be armed. Both times the suspects were held down on the road with boots with rifles pointed at their heads. Even Dirty Harry wasn't this nuts.

No consideration for the locals. Totally over the top use of force. Abuse of powers. Brutality. No accountability. No apologies. These are the things that West Yorkshire Police has come to stand for once again.

Well, I've had enough! It's time to start campaigning against them. And as lovely an idea it would be to blockade their police stations, you've got to do this in stages and give them every opportunity to change their ways and join the human race first. So, please forward suggestions for what kind of initial actions should be considered. Petitions, letters to the paper, etc? Another question is whether some kind of campaign group should be formed to get the coppers in line. Or perhaps you think that we should just leave them to it until somebody you personally know has their door kicked in for absolutely no reason?

Why class is more important than migration

2010-06-07T17:00:00.003+01:00

This is a draft of a leaflet I'm working on right now. I think it waffles too much, but I'd appreciate some feedback :)

Britain has become an angry island. Unemployment is high, council house stocks are low and our lives just seem to be getting harder and harder. We have every right to be angry!

Anger is only good though if we can direct it in the right places, not only to fight back for what we have lost, but also to push forwards for a better life than we have ever had before.

The far-right and the mainstream media has pinned a scapegoat for all our problems and it's an argument as old as the hills. We've been told to turn on others like ourselves who are struggling at the hands of the poor decisions of the rich.

But has anyone stopped to think whether we've been here before, or whether we can actually gain anything by preying on on each other like the papers tell us we should?

Here's some facts to consider:

- Job losses can NOT be stopped by border controls! For years now, everything from industry to call centres have been moved to the cheap sweatshops in Asia, run by the same big corporations that laid off workers here in the UK. We've all seen it with McDonalds toys stamped with "made in China" and phoning your "local" services to be put through to an Indian call centre. These jobs were once done by people in the UK and they have been moved in the name of profits, regardless of who it harms along the way. In the UK, employers have learnt that they do not need to move their businesses to the other side of the globe for their profits to benefit from low wages and poor working conditions. They can impose it right here on British soil, if they use migrant labour and best yet, they think that these other workers will not fight alongside migrants. We're undercutting our own wages and jobs by NOT supporting foreign workers! Meanwhile, if you were to even take the extreme measure to deport every migrant in the UK, all that would happen is that the employers would up sticks and move to where they can still exploit the labour force. The rich are international, even if we are not yet.

- Migrants do NOT get put to the front of the housing register! New migrants who have not paid income tax for at least 12 months are totally forbidden to claim ANY benefits, or housing from the state, let alone get put to the front of the list on the basis of their nationality. Asylum seekers/Refugees from Bush's wars are on an entirely separate system completely. We all know somebody who works for Kirklees council, ask them and they will confirm this. Also stop and think for a moment, what is there to be gained for those who decide policy, from skewing the housing policy in favour of migrants? There is none. In fact, they want migrants to be as desperate as possible so that they will not unionise and resist like we have in the past.

- The real culprit for the council housing shortage is the last Tory government with their "right to buy" policies. The Labour party has only encouraged further. When the housing bubble burst and repossessions of low income homes went up, a lot of these houses are now owned by the banks!

- It's not just migrants that have been scapegoated this way. At the start of the 20th century, there was public hysteria about allowing women to work. People feared that women would take jobs from men and undercut their wages. Many within the unions even resisted allowing women to join before finally accepting that by not allowing women to fight for their rights, they were just undercutting everyone's wages. It would be unthinkable now to demand that women should be barred from the workplace and quite rightly so. When we as workers of all nationalities unite, as men and women did in the 20th century, we can make real change for our lives. Turning on our fellow workers not only harms them, but harms us as well as solidarity is our greatest weapon against the employers who seek to exploit us.

- Very few people actually want to migrate. Would you move to a foreign country with no money, little understanding of the language, away from your friends and families, without a really good reason? This is not a get rich quick scheme. Just like the workers of England before them, the richest in Western Europe and the United States have pushed the poor's noses into the dirt in their endless pursuit of money and power. These people have called on us here in the UK to do something to stop the abuse against them, time and time again and they have been ignored and left no other option but to migrate.

- Migrants bring us great things! We rely upon our friends from abroad a lot in the UK. Not just when they share their food with us, but also when they keep our schools a pleasant place to work and learn, or treat our injuries and illnesses day in day out. They have the potential to become highly valued members of our communities if we let them and many already have.

- The crisis we're in now is not the fault of migrants. It doesn't take a genius to work out that migrants have not broken the economy. That was done by a combination of bankers, estate agents, big corporations and those in Westminister who accepted their bribes in the shape of party donations. So why should the migrants pay for the screwups of the rich? We're told that everyone's going to have to make hard decisions? Well, the rich won't be. They don't pay any tax in the first place and they certainly will not be in the same situation as somebody at the bottom who loses their jobs. This is the crisis caused by the rich and it should be totally paid by them, instead of the exact opposite we have right now.

A different world is possible though. Where new members to our communities can bring down the working week, increase productivity and better working and living conditions for us all, instead of being abused into undercutting our wages, breaking our strikes and paving the way for lay offs. This isn't just a pipe dream. It's been done before and it can be done again. You'll hear from us again. However, we are not going to fix things for you, nor will any political party. We have sat on our backsides for long enough deluding ourselves that we can put a tick in a box a dozen times in our life and that'll somehow make a difference. It won't. It never has and it never will. Anyone with any doubts about that should just watch your "new" Tory government perform just like the last one.

We don't want your money. We don't need you to attend our meetings and we certainly don't want to sell you a newspaper. What we want is for you to talk between your friends and family and co-workers and to think outside of the box that the rich media tycoons have drawn up for you. We want you to question everything and start thinking about what is justice and what is right.

We'll be in touch.

Cleaners at additional risk of asthma

2010-06-07T01:32:00.006+01:00

To any other cleaners out there, how many of us have asthma? Personally, I do not, but every other cleaner I've worked with, who's been in the profession for a long time, has. I always thought it was just a co-incidence, however Dr Jan-Paul Zock doesn't seem to think so.

Dr Zock has spent years researching asthma in the workplace and has published numerous papers specifically about cleaners and has come to one conclusion throughout - our employers are killing us.

Asthma is a big deal. It can be treated with drugs (that you must pay a hefty prescription charge for), although it is far from curable. Here are some facts about asthma from Asthma UK.

on average, asthma affects people in one in five households
asthma accounts for at least 12.7 million work days lost each year
on average, asthma is responsible for one hospital admission every 7.5 minutes.
asthma killed 1,400 people in the UK in 2002

Lets not forget too that if you do have to go to hospital and miss work, you probably won't get sick pay.

What he has found is that not only do commonly used cleaning products make asthma worse for those who already have it, but there is a good chance that it can give previously healthy people the condition. He even goes on to warn that even regular light cleaning at home poses risks, let alone professional cleaners that may spend 10 times or more time using these chemicals.

The risk seems to come from spray bottles, but also bleach, which is still used in hospitals and some other workplaces. Whatever the cause is, the results were that for professional cleaners, the risk of you developing asthma could be as high as 50% greater and could account for up to 1 in 7 cases of it developing in adults. The highest risk group in any of his studies were hospital cleaners where they were using the most powerful products and usualy working the most hours.

Most cleaners have not had a single day's worth of training in the use of their chemicals, especially not about health and safety. The only health and safety related thing I was ever told was to make sure that wet floor signs were out so that the client did not sue the agency. Profits are more important than us in their eyes.

Dr Zock's findings, as well other scientists' research has been available and greatly publicised for at least the last 10 years. Asthma UK supports the findings and has been trying tirelessly, to get the government to listen. They haven't.

In fact there has not been a single debate in Parliament about the risks to cleaners. No bills put forward. No letters to the health secretaries. Nothing. Our health, is not their problem they think.

It's an absolute disgrace that none of this has been told to cleaning staff and that no action has been taken to reduce the risks. There are however a few things we can do to protect ourselves.

Try to avoid using sprays where possible
When you must use a spray, spray it directly into your cloth, NOT onto the surface you're cleaning. This catches the mist in the cloth so you don't breathe it in as much
Use ventalation where you can. Open windows and put on extractor fans.
Ideally, you should wear a dust mask, but it's highly unlikely you'll be provided with one and it's even possible that your boss might order you to take it off.

It really does upset me that it's me saying this and not the people who we have wrongly put our faith into protecting us. Don't trust your boss to protect you. Don't trust Westminister to protect you. Only you, your co-workers and those who have proved themselves to care will ever take a real interest in your safety.

First our bosses rob us. Now they're killing us.

Huddersfield in solidarity with victims of IDF massacre

2010-06-01T13:14:00.005+01:00

Despite the best efforts of the BBC to put a lid on things and William Hague practically saying that the aid workers deserved it, the world was horrified yesterday to hear that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) boarded a flotilla of aid ships bound for occupied Gaza early yesterday morning and began massacring the aid workers onboard.

Accounts vary on exactly what happened, with the IDF claiming that they were attacked after they boarded and defended themselves, while witnesses say that those onboard were unarmed and that the boats were raked with machinegun fire before being boarded, at which point videos across the Internet show screaming and terrified humanitarian workers, bloodstained decks and gunfire from Israeli rifles.

It is still early days and as with all things, we'll probably never know what happened there for sure, however the state of Israel has proved itself time and time again to fit the profile for everything that the witnesses claim. With that in mind, an emergency protest was called in Huddersfield yesterday afternoon by the Stop the War Coalition.

With only a few hours before the event and on a bank holiday, up to 40 people attended the protest and numerous speakers, from across the (left-wing) political spectrum and faiths condemned Israel for their actions and called for action to be taken either by the British Government, or through direct action, to get the Israeli state to tow the line.

At the end there was a brief shouting match between two of Moldgreen's more well known pissheads and brawlers and a very passionate Muslim man, but otherwise it all went very well and some good ideas of how we can help the Palestinian people were put forward.

Today, there is to be yet another protest at Market Cross in Huddersfield at 5pm to protest Israel's actions and there will be a meeting afterwards to decide what is to be done to try amend the situation. Everyone of all political inclinations and faiths are welcome, so long as they accept that we all have this same common enemy.

I don't usually cover international events in this blog as Phil Dickens does it far better than I ever could on Truth, Reason and Liberty, but it is worth mentioning that all these big international things do filter down and have an effect on us here locally. If the working class is to get anywhere then it must learn to work together with each other. It does nobody any good if there is hostility between workers of one nation and another, because at the end of the day, the bourgeois are international, even if we are not and they exploit our divisions to get us to drive down each others' pay, scab for each other and even kill each other to further the gains of the rich.

So, standing up for the Palestinian people is a local issue, because with them on our sides, we can hope that one day when (not if) we need their help that they will not turn their backs on us.

Copwatch: Police dogs, helicopters and tasers arrive in flockton

2010-06-01T11:58:00.005+01:00

Seeing as though this is becoming quite a regular thing, I thought I'd give it a name. May I present you with Copwatch - A tough look into the policing tactics used by West Yorkshire Police.

Flockton is a tiny Kirklees ex-pit village just between Huddersfield and Wakefield with a population of around 1,400. It was one pub and one working man's club, one church and one post office. It's tiny.

Even so, on Saturday residents of Flockton reported that they were swamped by dozens of police cars loaded with dogs and even what may have been an armed response team. Our old friend, the force chopper made an appearance too it seems. They'd been called in to deal with a "disturbance", which turned out to be two young and unarmed brothers, well known around the village for arguing with each other. Like siblings do I suppose. The call had been made by a resident who was also well known for her conduct.

“The lady that did ring up complains if somebody sneezes outside.”

Now here's where the police and the residents of Flockton's accounts differ. According to the police they were under attack by a gang of 10 throwing missiles at them and they fired on one man in self defence with a taser. Problem is, that's a totally different story to what everyone else in the village is saying. According to everyone else:

Stones were only thrown after the man had been unjustly tasered
The man was unarmed
The police shot the man in the back at almost point blank range as he was walking away
There was a two year old child within a few feet of the target that could have easily been harmed by the 50,000 volt weapon

The consensus was certainly that the man was not a threat and the villagers have been speaking to the local paper about their disgust at West Yorkshire Police's commando tactics.

For those of you who might not have heard of tasers, they are small harpoon guns which then discharge tens of thousands of volts of electricity down the barbs to cause a fit. They are very controversial weapons and Amnesty International condemns the use of these "less-than-lethal" weapons, stating that over 300 deaths have resulted from their usage. In the United States they have even been used on unarmed children as young as 10. These have been added to the belt arsenal that non-firearms officers may now carry as well as their club and can of chemical weaponry.

The local cops got their batch of them only in the last few years and West Yorkshire Police being West Yorkshire Police, decided that they'd try break the record of being the most aggressive and oppressive force in the land. In 2009, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that our local police force had used tasers almost 400 times in a single year, making it the 3rd heaviest user after London's Met and Northumbria Police.

Back onto the subject of Flockton, West Yorkshire Police has said that they refuse to respond to any of the criticisms or allegations unless an official internal inquiry orders them to.

Says it all really doesn't it?

Counter-Terrorism and West Yorkshire Police

2010-06-01T01:09:00.006+01:00

Wow. I only really expected to make one post about West Yorkshire Police, but it seems they are on a roll! They're leading the way in being oppressive, arrogant bastards even by cop standards.

I know I said this last time, but I thought this load of pricks couldn't stoop to a lower standard of policing, but once again I've been proved wrong. It seems that while they were blocking roads like gestapo and sending in the choppers after three kids who were suspiciously wearing sunglasses, their counter-terrorist squad has been kicking down doors for the most ridiculous of reasons.

At lunchtime on Wednesday 26th May two addresses in Belper, Derbyshire, were raided by the West Yorkshire Counter Terrorist Unit....
... One address in Sholebroke Avenue, Leeds was visited by police looking for specific people identified as having taken part in kayak training in April. The training was publicly advertised and well attended. The police questioned one individual - questions included:
- what other groups are they part of
- why were they on the training
- who else was on the training
- were they planning to take action against power stations

The previous day (Tuesday 25th), police searched the premises of a different organisation not involved in boats, but with links to various gatherings. Nothing was taken. The warrant was under the Terrorism Act and is possibly related.

Dangerous business is that kayaking I guess. Or I guess not I suppose. It's just yet another example of West Yorkshire Police throwing their weight around with little, or no provocation. As stated in the article, there was no doubt that there was any motive for the trip other than to paddle around for a few hours. It wouldn't surprise me if some folks who'd been involved in Earth First or ELF actions in the past were there as well, but it certainly wasn't a meeting to organise any direct action, or anything.

This is not the first time I've heard of West Yorkshire Police have abused the Terrorism Act and I'm sure it won't be the last. In fact, the Counter Terror Act itself has been worded in a way that makes even the most mundane and innocent of day to day actions open to interpretation as terrorism. For example, the definition of a terrorist action, according to British Law as follows:

(1) In this Act "terrorism" means the use or threat of action where:
(a) the action falls within subsection (2),
(b) the use or threat is designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public and
(c) the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.

(2) Action falls within this subsection if it:

(a) involves serious violence against a person,
(b) involves serious damage to property,
(c) endangers a person's life, other than that of the person committing the action,
(d) creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public or
(e) is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.

So, in theory, you can be arrested under the Terrorism Act, for "serious damage to property", which can be anything as minor as knocking over somebody's pint in the pub, so long it can be proved in court that you did it for "advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.". If that's not crazy enough, then when you add onto this conspiracy to commit an offence and section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (Promotion of terrorist acts) it actually becomes a terrorist act to even think about encouraging somebody to knock over a pint. All of these "offences" you can be detained for up to 3 months without trial, or being charged, with there being absolutely no evidence against you and if found "guilty" then you're looking at substantial jail time. This is only only one small part of the Counter Terrorism Acts (there have been several since 2000), but even with this one example you can see how crazy things have gotton.

We have now got to a point where every part of our every day lives can at some point be claimed to be criminal. With CCTV everywhere, ID cards, stop and search and your private conversations and emails scanned by the NSA on behalf of the British Goverment, it's no longer a case of innocent until proven guilty. In the eyes of the law, me, you, everyone are already guilty of something. It's just a case of when they find out and/or whether they personally like you or not to decide whether to charge you or not. The "Got nothing to hide" argument fell flat on its face years ago when we all became criminals in the eyes of the law.

You might be thinking that it's okay. A jury with their common sense will clear you. Hate to break it to you, but most hearings happen outside of crown court, which means that you'll be put in front of some middle class magistrates to decide your fate. Even if you do make it to Crown Court, since last year, even that's not a guarantee that a jury of your peers will decide your fate.

We are no longer moving towards a totalitarian state. We are already living in one, whether it's got around to biting you personally yet, or not. Police forces such as West Yorkshire Police are at the front of enforcing this new side to law enforcement and it's not a pretty picture.

I'm honestly beginning to think that there needs to be some kind of campaign in the area to shame West Yorkshire Police into behaving themselves, until we can get to the point where we can get them proper jobs anyway. There's also a dire need to publicly expose the criminal justice system for the sham it is, because so many people pin their hopes on the law to protect them, while all it really does is oppress them.

Laws need to be made and enforced for the people, by the people, but as long as democracy is resisted (ironically using the tools of "law and order" usually!) every Briton will continue to be branded by the British Goverment as a criminal awaiting conviction. This is happening now, people and it's on your doorstep. We must shame our authority figures with this information, until they change their ways and if that doesn't work, then we should really start thinking about reducing their capacity to continue their terror against the working class, before it's too late.

Kirklees police continue thier rampage

2010-05-28T23:25:00.006+01:00

West Yorkshire Police received 875 official complaints last year it was announced earlier this month. This is a rise from last year and "The most common allegations related to assault, incivility, failure in duty and oppressive conduct or harassment.". No surprises there really is it?

But just when you thought they couldn't get any worse... This question came up.

What do you do at quarter to seven in the morning in Kirklees when you're bored and have a helicopter? Well, it seems this was the question West Yorkshire police were asking themselves this week. Here's what they got up to.

PARTS of the Healey area of Batley are sealed off this morning as police search for three men.

The three teenagers, wearing hooded tops and dark glasses were seen acting suspiciously around 6.45am outside a newsagents in Healey Lane at its junction with Halifax Road and Batley Road.

Police have sealed off part of the area and the police helicopter has been involved in the search which is ongoing.

Yup. You heard right, they're sending out the force helicopter after three teenagers who are suspiciously wearing sunglasses in a heatwave. Seriously. Do these guys think that they're the A Team or something? Did Spiderman's spidey senses tingle or something to tell them that these three kids are some kind of big threat to the world? Did the guy getting into the helicopter stop and think for a moment, "Hmmm. Maybe this makes sense!". Honestly, I am totally and utterly amazed that they could do something so stupid and was expecting it to be a wind up.

Next day, the local paper's got some additional details.

THREE teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of robbery and possessing a firearm after a major police operation yesterday morning.

Parts of the Healey area of Batley were sealed off and the West Yorkshire Police helicopter launched into action at about 6.45am.

It came after three teenagers, wearing hooded tops and dark glasses, were seen acting suspiciously outside a newsagents in Healey Lane at its junction with Halifax Road and Batley Road.

Boys aged 13, 14 and 15 were arrested on suspicion of having a gun and of robbing a newsagents at Staincliffe Road in Dewsbury and a person on The Spen Valley Greenway at Dewsbury Moor.

Right, so the "men" have now become young teenagers and they are "suspected" of possessing a firearm. In other words, the cops have no gun, or any other evidence for that matter. Nothing. After locking down the estate like an Israeli invasion and sending out the chopper, they STILL can't find anything. Maybe that's because you're on a wild goose chase, boys?

Is there even a motive? A 13 year old does not hold up a newsagents for cash with a gun. Right now, firearms in the UK are only in the hands of those involved in organised crime and the state (although they're not that different really!). Nobody sane enough to be running a criminal operation successfully enough to have access to firearms is going to give a 13 year old a gun. Now I'm not saying that kids don't get involved in crime, violence and theft, because some do. They just don't go around waving guns around in Batley though when they could get the same job done with a far cheaper and easier to explain option.

While I do not think these three had anything to do with an armed robbery, some kids do fall that way. Maybe it's time to start thinking about what kids can possibly be spending the cash on? They can't buy cars, houses, TV's, etc. There's drugs and alcohol, but they can be got hold of much easier ways than armed robbery, such as dealing, or doing favours which is usually manual labour. Only possible motive that drives kids this young into armed robbery is when their parents themselves are in dire trouble. With cost of living rising, unemployment rising and these new welfare reforms that make life very difficult for the poor, not to mention their own ways of coping with poverty. There are real cases of entire families in real risk of losing their homes, not being able to eat and violence at home. Symptoms entirely of the making of capitalism.

We need police OFF the streets and preferably being tried by a jury. In its place there is a desperate need to not only put more money into welfare and end the torture it inflicts, but also to demand a 4 day week, with the same take home pay, to create more jobs. With the open borders policy with the EU, this needs to be an EU-wide scheme to prevent the bourgeois doing their famous globalised vanishing trick to Eastern Europe too. It'll also create jobs across Europe for a fairer day's work for a fairer day's wage, which might prevent people from feeling so desperate that they have to leave their friends and families to work abroad.

Make no mistakes though, the wage system is inheritantly wrong and needs to be abolished, however we won't ever get to that point until workers know thier own strength again, through smaller victories like the 4 day week.

There's only two ways this can go. It can get better, where desperation and greed is removed from our world, or it can get worse as people sit back and let these jackasses in their helicopters push us further into an Orwellian society. Every time you do nothing, you're just telling the state and bourgeois, that you're happy for them to walk all over you, us and all workers.

The Sims commune

2010-05-15T23:23:00.004+01:00

Thing have been difficult at work lately, which I'll be writing up as soon as it's all unfolded fully. In the meantime, here's a humorous account of my gaming.

I took some time out lately to play The Sims again. The Sims is a game where you build a house, the adults get jobs and bring money in to buy nicer stuff and make friends, relationships and get better jobs, etc. It's a lot more addictive than it sounds.

Anyway, I thought I'd try an experiment. Instead of the traditional nuclear family, I thought that I'd make a Sim commune. The idea was great. There'd be 8 working and they'd all bring in loads of cash and they'd have loads of friends because they'd always have time for them with their chores split equally between them, not to mention not needing to hire a maid or gardener.

Of course, things never go to plan...

Despite having 8 Sims, they still could only muster the basic $20k, so they couldn't afford to build a house that could properly accommodate them all. There was bottlenecks everywhere, which meant that everything was really slow. They could never make it to work on time meaning they couldn't hold onto a job to save their lives. They were always hungry because there was no money and the bathroom was a warzone, which meant that a lot of them just gave up on showering completely. The place was a tip and because they were so slow to do anything, they didn't even have time to study cookery, so they kept setting fire to microwave (how they managed that I'll never know). The fire brigade couldn't fit into the tiny kitchen filled with flailing housemates and the death toll from the pyromania was high.

When they did ever manage to cook something, it was always crap and had to come from a microwave and was crap that never filled them up. They must have looked like skeletons.

Their cheap beds meant too that they were crap at getting up in the morning because they weren't sleeping properly and were haunted by the ghosts of their ex-housemates.

They never did get around to inviting anyone around and the neighbours learned to steer clear of them. The place was just too small. However they were very social with each other. VERY social!

The end result was that you had a group of pyromaniacs, who wouldn't get out of bed any earlier than noon, never showered, were barely eating, were constantly getting off with each other and were nearly permanently unemployed.

All in all, I thought it was a wonderful simulation for a commune!

(Please don't take any of this seriously. I just found it funny that the game mechanics pushed the Sims towards all of the old stereotypes)

A community approach to Youth Clubs.

2010-05-10T09:43:00.008+01:00

I was reading Phil Dickens' blog again today about libertarian ideas in schooling and it's persuaded me to share my idea about a slightly different approach to Youth Clubs. Here it is, although it's work in progress currently.

I ran out of tobacco the other night and went for a stroll down to the petrol station to get some more. As I was walking, I noticed a group of maybe 15 teenagers in hoodies sat on the wall nearby, drinking and smoking and playfighting. Ten years ago, I was doing pretty much exactly the same sort of thing and if somebody looked our way in a disproving way, we'd shout after them something along the lines of "What do you think you're looking at?". Things never change. The kids spotted me feeling nervous around them and now it was me who had them shouting after me. It's amazing how quickly the mainstream media can make you forget where you came from. I know I'm not alone either. There's certainly a lot of scaremongering going on with the papers, local and national, some of it valid, but most of it not. Around the pubs and in work, there'll always be the debating about "what to do about those bloody kids?". The usual answer is for harsher punishments, more surveillance and other stuff that the adults themselves would never want turned against themselves. I reject this "answer", as not only can these powers be abused with adults, but also it just pushed for a new generation of zombie working class who are fully beaten down under the thumb of undemocratic authority.

Well, I've kinda had a thought about a possible way to sort the "problem", anarchist style.

The reason I used to hang around on the street corners was because our parents used to chase us out of the house and there was nowhere else to go that didn't want money from us. There was a youth club, but that wasn't practical because other groups of kids who we didn't get along with used to hang around there. Basically, it covered far too big an area, so peace could never prevail there. Cinemas, skate parks, etc all wanted money from us, which we never had. So, between the lot of us we could chip in for some booze and find a park, or car park, near our homes, or a wall to drink it until the police, or some rivals, chased us away. When it rained, we stayed at home, or sometimes took shelter in a bus stop and were bored or even more visible to harassment form the police. We were quite lucky really as we had bikes and used to do most of our socialising sat on the saddle and it also gave us a quick getaway if anyone didn't like us bieng around there.

I really do want to point out that I never considered ourselves to be "a gang". I'm only in my mid 20's, but there just wasn't the whole LA Bloods and Crips thing popularised in the media by this time. We didn't consider ourselves violent or aggressive, but sure, we got into some scrapes. I'm pretty sure that older people were intimidated by us though and if we'd been kids today, we probably would have got labeled the same way as all the other kids. Maybe it's a different kind of youth nowadays, but I doubt it.

The holy grail was always when our parents went away for a weekend and we had the house to ourselves. Sometimes, yeah, we had wild parties, but more often than not we just used to hang around and play on the Playstation, or watch films, etc.

So, why not give them a house to themselves to use?

See if the residents nearby could chip in to pay the rent and electric on the place and have the community and kids agree together on some rules; probably just to keep the place tidy, the noise reasonable and the cops away (i.e. No drugs or booze). Have a TV and a games console and a few sofas, hi-fi, etc. You could probably get them from Freecycle for nothing. You could also use the place to distribute leaflets about free stuff that teens might find handy that charities or the council provide like counselling, help with schooling, free condoms, abuse helplines, etc. I don't see any reason why it'd have to be staffed to be honest, although I'm sure there's some stupid laws out there that say otherwise. Going a bit further down the line, the kids might be interested in taking a bigger part in improving their community in other projects.

With some careful choosing of the building too, we could even rescue some of Huddersfield's historic buildings from demolition, which has been happening in Moldgreen.

The first step at doing all this I thought would be to approach the youths in the area. I must admit that I'm not the most confident of people and would probably ask another comrade to lend a hand. We could then see what the young people themselves think to the idea, whether they have any better ideas, or suggestions for it and also whether they'd agree to certain rules to keep the peace around the house, like being responsible for cleaning it themselves and taking steps to make sure that they don't do anything to provoke any blue flashing lights outside the place.

We could then go knocking on doors, on a weekend, around the area and asking local people whether they'd support the idea and whether they'd be prepared to put a pound or two a week aside for it. We'd give assurances that the youths had agreed to make sure that their behavior in the house isn't disruptive. Maybe we could persuade one or two of the youths themselves to come with us to back up that they're genuine.

For collections I thought the best idea would probably be to have a collection tin in the local shop/garage/post office/etc and to collect them regularly to pay the rent and bills. Obviously, we'd need permission to do that. There'd be regular open meetings to discuss how the project's going and to deal with any problems as they come up, the kids would be invited to attend as well to make sure that both sides are heard of any problems and they can give their input about what sorts of things they want. It's also go some way to show both parties the human side of each other and build a better relationship of two-way respect.

A few possible issues:
- The kids screw it up. The cops are going to be watching that place like hawks. No doubt about it. It only takes one of them to be spotted smoking a spliff on doorstep and you've got a local scandal on your hands. You'd expect funding to dry up overnight and for it to wound the idea of community organising. It'll be REALLY important to make the kids understand that if THEY mess this up, they'll end up back in the parks and on the walls with everyone hating them again.

- Not enough money comes in to pay the rent and bills. Obviously that's a problem if the place is cold and dark and there's nothing to do in there, or if they get evicted. Only thing I can think of doing is that if it looks like there's going to be a shortfall, to go knocking on doors with a tin.

- There's too much funding! Crazy I know, but it could happen! What do you do with it all when it's being collected anonymously. I'd be reluctant to put in expensive stuff because everyone will know it's unoccupied at night and easy to burgle. I thought that maybe you could invest in decorating the place, or maybe do some kind of event like hiring a field for a football match or live music something. If there's really more coming in than we can spend then maybe looking into other projects that we can work on. Either way, it'd be up to the community and kids to decide at the meetings how to spend the cash.

I think that this could really work and could get the whole community involved in doing something to improve things for themselves and their young people, without having the police slapping ASBOs around. This kind of grassroots organising would show that it really can work and opens the door to new projects and getting the community familiar with each other and happy to work together..

I've been told that a similar project has been tried before:

"The town where i used to live built a 'Beerless Pub' for the local teenagers. The kids run everything themselves. It's been a struggle, but the essential ideas behind the scheme were pretty sound and I don't know of anywhere else where the kids have been given so much freedom; there's an overview here - http://www.wren.org.uk/projects/askern-shakers-project "

It seems very positive! :)

Anyway, all this is work in progress at the moment and if anyone has any suggestions, or criticisms, they'll be greatly appreciated :)

Rachel Firth, the scum of the Earth.

2010-05-04T17:39:00.006+01:00

I don't use the term scum lightly, however this woman fully deserves it!

In case you're wondering who she is, Rachel Firth has two claims to fame. Firstly, she tried to disguise a party fundraiser as a charity event and the charity rejected her "donation" and secondly that party was the BNP and she's the candidate standing in Huddersfield for them.

Lets look at the first point more closely. Rachel Firth spent 24 hours in a cardboard box (pity she left it really) to do fund raising for the BNP. She got more media attention because she offered to give the British Legion half of the money raised as well. The Legion originally rejected the money because they did not want to be associated with the BNP. This is not their first time they've gone head to head with the BNP after they asked Nick Griffin to stop wearing poppies. The legion eventually accepted the donation after they were assured that it was coming from her and not the BNP, as the Legion has a strict policy of not wanting to be used for political gain.

Anyway, Ms Firth also said that the aim was to raise awareness of homelessness and poverty in ex-servicemen.

As an ex-soldier myself, who has faced homelessness after leaving the army, this particularly upset me. Soldiers are abused tools of the capitalist system and brainwashed into a state of total dependence of the army, although less so with the British Army compared to the US military. The end result is that when soldiers leave they have no idea how to look after themselves. When support from friends and family for those suffering from mental issues brought on from the Army runs thin, they quickly end up wrapped up in crime and/or on the streets. The BNP has no intention on tackling any of these problems. They intend for soldiers to be used on British soil to be used as deadly weapons against their own class on home soil, like the police are. If soldiers are becoming traumatised for fighting wars on the other side of the world, how will they react to being asked to gun down their own friends and families? Add onto this the BNP's very hard-line punishments on criminals and soldiers will be worse off than ever. The only way to stop soldiers ending up on the streets is to stop abusing them in the first place!

It'd also be very wrong to suggest that ex-soldiers are the only ones on the streets. In fact, the best example of somebody who has done something positive for the homeless, regardless of thier backgrounds is Ian Brooke. In 5 months, he has been a big part in finding homes for EVERY person sleeping rough in Huddersfield. Now THERE is a local hero!

Rachel Firth has an online presence and anyone with any doubts about her racist or homophobic attitudes just needs to take a brief look at her comments on Facebook that were passed to me:

Put it all together and you're left with the full picture of Rachel Firth:
- has tried to deceive the people of Huddersfield.
- has abused the trust of a charity for political gain.
- And STILL a racist and homophobe.

And you thought the last BNP candidate for the election was bad! Yup. He was a smack pusher.

Homebrew cider - Easy peasy

2010-05-03T23:00:00.006+01:00

Well, it's taken me nearly two days to sober up from Mayday, but I thought I'd share with the world, the surprise star of the show - My homebrew cider.

Well, the end result was something that was EXTREAMLY potent, fairly tasty (at least better than White Lightning) and cost me only 15p a pint to make. The only downside being that it was very very cloudy, although it's just an appearance thing with it being natural it seems.

Anyway, no specialist equipment required at all. You can get all this from your local supermarket with no fuss.

Ingredients:

2 x 2ltr bottles (I used empty cola bottles)
Cheese grater
Hammer
CLEAN canvas bag (put it through the washing machine on a high heat)
2 x balloons
a large bowl
a pair of rigging gloves (optional)
a funnel (or you could just improvise with a rolled up envelope like I did)
a bag of Apples
1 small sachet of bread yeast (check the bakery isle in the supermarkets)
Sugar

1) Start by taking your apples and washing them, removing the stalk and then cheese gratering them and putting the pulp in the bag one a time. Do not put more than one apple's worth of pulp in the bag at once.

2) Get all the pulp into the corner of the bag and give it a good squeeze over a bowl. Some juice some come out. When no more comes out, put the bag on something sturdy and give it a few whacks with that hammer. Squeeze over the bowl again. Repeat this and make sure you wring all the juice out of the pulp. A pair of rigging gloves might help keep your hands in one piece. Once you've done that, empty out the bag, grate up another apple and do the same until all the apples are gone and you've got a nice big bowl of apple juice.

3) That is the hard work over. It's all easy cruising from here on in. Divide your juice up between those two bottles. You should have about 1/5th of your bottles each filled with juice now.

4) Add your yeast and fill up the rest of the bottle to about 4/5ths of the way with warm water. If it's too cold then you won't activate the yeast. If it's too hot then you'll kill the yeast. About lukewarm's good. Now you just sit back and enjoy. It should be bubbling away nicely. Leave it overnight with the caps off the bottles and come back to it. Just in case it froths over, you should leave it in the sink or bathroom floor or something where you can clean up afterwards if you need to.

5) You've come back to it and it looks scary, right? Don't panic. That's normal. Put a pinprick in the top of each of the balloons and put them over the necks of the bottles. Leave it again, but check back on it once a day. The balloon should sort of inflate with the gasses given off, but when it deflates again you can move onto step 6.

6) Just add a little sugar. Using the funnel helps. If it fizzes, then add another few tablespoons worth, put the balloon back on and check back again tomorrow and repeat.

7) If it doesn't fizz, then it's done! All that's left to do is to get the goo out from the bottom. What I did was pour it very very slowly into another container and all the gunk was left on the bottom. Wash out the bottle, screw on the cap (no balloons anymore) and put it back in again. Leave it overnight and see if there's any more gunk. It's pretty much up to you now how much gunk you'll tolerate in the cider, but it's nasty stuff and you'd be wise to get rid of it really.

8) Stick it in the fridge and enjoy. Be very careful with it though and treat it like you would white wine, rather than cider, because it is very very strong.

Enjoy :)

And in case you do not heed my warnings about just how potent this stuff is, expect this kind of result...

The police in Kirklees on a rampage

2010-04-29T12:07:00.003+01:00

The police in Kirklees are really getting out of hand. All these anti-migrant raids but one of these have occurred within the last 8 months.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25973112/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25683559/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-20510195/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-24219255/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-24317730/

There is a clear purge going on against migrant communities in Huddersfield, who's only crime was to add to our culture with their cuisine, and in at least the case of the 888 staff, their friendly attitudes. Along the way, some cigarettes may have changed hands, well good on them! We're being well and truly robbed by tobacco tax in the UK. I'm happy to smoke, but I'd rather not be damaging my health AND bailing out the banks, financing illegal wars and putting more of these armed thugs in uniform on the streets with the same packet!

10% of Huddersfield's population was not born in the UK and we greatly value them here. Yes, there's some minor tension with the whole "British jobs for British workers" nonsense, but that's the fault of capitalism, not the migrants. If there we lived in an anarcho-communist world, then we'd welcome each new member to our community as would bring down the working week for all of us, instead of being used as a tool to lower wages and cut jobs by employers. Anyway, I'm rambling again as we're supposed to be talking about the cops.

Where were the police when Gurmal Singhn was being murdered by a gang with hammers? Six local people managed to respond faster than the police, who were probably out looking at who they can throw out of Huddersfield next, instead of protecting the public they they pretend to do. Yes, I know he is petit-bourgeois, but he certainly has no political control of the country and his 24 hour was a godsend when you needed a pack of ciggies in the middle of the night. Most that knew him said he was a likable man who provided a useful service to his community. He was a nice guy and didn't deserve this at all. A loss to the community of Huddersfield.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25884510/

I've personally witnessed the armed police in Huddersfield pulling Asian men out of cars at gunpoint on Wakefield Road and holding them on the floor with their boots. I don't know what their crime was, but judging from the tatty condition of the car they were in, I'm guessing they were not exactly the Mafia.

Police in Huddersfield have also been cracking down on drug dealers in the area lately, mainly around the Moldgreen area which is experiencing its own gentrification issues.

They even had the balls to proudly announce how many doors a month that they're kicking down to the local paper!

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25648730/

What's really showing them up though is that the intelligence that they're using to haul these people out of their homes is being proven to be out of date, inaccurate and even utterly false!

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25958375/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-25972980/

While living in Huddersfield, in the past five years, I have also had my own home broken into by West Yorkshire Police twice, both times without a warrant. Once when I was in hospital and once when my housemate was physically assaulted by CID, who were looking for my landlord who'd skipped bail. On that second occasion, plain clothed officers broke down the door to my own room and started searching in my wardrobes and under my bed for him, while I was still in bed myself! They had no warrant in either case and used physical force to enter the properties.

Not as if there's any point putting in a complain to the IPCC. The policemen who have murdered members of the public have got off scott free. The High Court rules exclusivly in the favour of what best suits the state's intrests. In fact, the only time the police ever question thier tactics is when thier own skins are in the firing line

Kirklees council is not helping matters with their overzealous attempts to tempt the gentry into Moldgreen, by even going as far as to place an ASBO restraining order on two family's own home, simply because the new middle class residents "suspected" that they may be drug dealers.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-23970111/

There is certainly more to that story than the article suggests as this was actually on my road. The shouting and fighting was all from a single incident where some stuck-up middle-class asshole who thought he'd try take photos through the curtains to "shop the dealers" got caught, refused to wipe the film and then became aggressive. I wasn't friends with the people in the Church Street house, but everyone knew that if you left them alone, they will leave you alone.

The idiot was from the newly built, gentrified vanguard on Leef Street's new walled block of flats. It wasn't surprising when two weeks later there seemed to be a response when a Mercedes Benz, no doubt belonging to the residents of these yuppie flats, was torched.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-23095871/

Meanwhile, Kirklees police officers have been spotted not only turning a blind eye to, but actually taking part in fox hunts in the local area and driving the wrong way down the motorway! Naturally, the criminal-justice system closed ranks and dropped all charges against them quickly.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local...6081-23243713/

It has become very clear that the police in Kirklees are totally out of control. They are using taxpayers money to fund a racist campaign against ethnic minorities and appeasing the gentry while turning a blind eye to real crimes in Kirklees such as serious violent crime. Is it any wonder that the police now need to have an advertising campaign now to try win back public support? If they think putting posters up and adverts on TV telling me how "great" it is that there's so many of these thugs in blue on our streets then they're sorely wrong.

Police are everywhere. Justice is nowhere.

Why wealth makes a mockery of democracy

2010-04-27T13:14:00.010+01:00

As promised, I am going to explain why I think that the crazy amounts of cash that certain people have do us so much damage politically. Yes, there's some jealously there that we're stuck eating whatever Netto's got on offer, or getting chased into the carpark by security with a pack of bacon hidden down your top, while the rich have all the nice stuff, but there's certainly bigger reasons to be upset than just plain envy and resentment for the material things we are denied.

My biggest problem is that wealth has become an attack on democracy itself. We all know that politicians and governments do not work in our interests. We've seen the broken promises and them closing ranks a thousand times over. So, why have we never seen a political party rise to power that fights for the working class, who form the majority of our 60 million population here in the UK?

Well, first you have to understand how politicians get elected.

In all but the most marginal seats, who becomes your MP or councillor has already been decided. Huddersfield example has never had anything other than a Labour MP and despite them frequently receiving only minority support from adults of voting age. Electoral reform may go some way to sorting the issue of the "First Past the Post" system so that the number of seats in Westminster represent the number of people who voted for that party, however it is a doubled edged sword (I suppose that's going to be yet another blog post!) and does not change the inevitability of party corruption.

Seeing as though very few of us actually know our candidates personally, we rely on the mainstream media to sift out the good from the bad for us, with disastrous consequences. For an MP to win a seat they must first have the support of the mainstream media. That means that the images shown on TV and printed in the newspapers must back up the candidate, so that we in turn back them up. You only have to do your own research on what the tabloids print to realise that what's not exaggerated is outright made up. Sadly, many workers lap it all up and skip over to the ballot box to vote for whoever Rupert Murdoch's papers; The Sun and Daily Mail, tell them to.

The media doesn't do all this for the politicians just for the fun of it, or any sort of dedication to the truth, but depending on who can serve the interests of the company's CEO and their buddies best. One thing to be said about the UK is that bribes don't usually happen with briefcases filled with used banknotes. More often the bribes take the form of invitations to holidays, meals and other social events to build up a good friendship, or alternatively, they will be simply that somebody will use their influence to make sure their partner in crime becomes more successful. For a politician this usually means that they'd promise not to hunt down Rupert Murdoch's tax havens, or turn a blind eye to any slander, libel, or hate that he may print. Of course, where business is concerned though, there is always cash involved, albeit not in a briefcase filled with banknotes. Parties that want a nice stories printed about them and nasty ones printed about their enemies are expected to make sure that when they pay for advertising space, that they are most generous with their donations and likewise, the party members hired by the paper to type up propaganda, are expected to do so for very little, if any money.

In short. Those who can pay the papers the most will win the election. So where does the money come from? It certainly doesn't come from you and me, at least not most of it. Most party donations in the big three parties come from businesses. That's right. The money that's being stolen from you already by your bosses may well be going into the pockets of the Tory party, with absolutely no consent from you! Of course, for a businessman to make any kind of investment they expect a return on it. That means that they'll want low taxes, or the ability to evade them, bad labour laws and access to as many employees as they can, preferably that they're desperate. They may also ask for "nice" things too like education (so that there's a clever slave to work their nuclear power plant) or tax breaks on national insurance (because they pay some of ours too), but make no mistake, it's all in their interests, not yours.

A great recent example of how sneaky the lobbyists who push for these things from politicians can get is how TESCO tried to slip Huddersfield MP, Barry Sheerman, £3,000 through a charity he set up. This close to the general election, it's more in Mr Sheerman's interests to reject the bribe and blow the whistle to the papers, but had the timing been any different I doubt we'd had ever heard about it. Tesco have of course denied that there was ever such a bribe made, despite overwhelming evidence.

Small businesses, the working class, or unions cannot make any sort of meaningful contribution to the parties. The richest 60,000 people in the UK own 70% of our wealth. Independent candidates and those from smaller parties such as the Socialist Party, or Greens don't have a hope in hell of matching that. Even if the Labour party, which is accused of being under the control of Unite too much even they only receive 25% of their union donations, not even thier total funding, from the union. The rest is ironically from big businesses and super-rich individuals which oppose unions, or from fiddling expenses (10% of all Labour councillors' expenses are paid to the party). No prizes for guessing why Nu-Labour hasn't repealed any of the Tory anti-union laws since they got in.

So, as you'd expect, the bigger the company, the more influence they can have over a party and likewise, the bigger the party, the more influence they can have over the media. The end result is the same. Whoever gets elected will only do so with the full support of the richest in our society. In South Africa this was called Apartheid; where the rich minority have all the wealth and political power while the poor majority have none. When people started demanding a fairer system in South Africa, the police started firing shotguns into the crowds of demonstrators. At the same sort of time, the miners were being imprisoned in their thousands and being beaten, terrorised and even murdered by the police here, while the media and politicians egged on their batton-wielding thugs to save their own skins.

This is why I believe that you cannot vote in a party to act in our interests and why the only way forwards is to undermine the power of the state itself and reject their power over our lives. In the end, the state and bourgeois, as they always do, will start using force against the people who have only asked to be left alone, we shall defend ourselves against it and hopefully, this will bring revolution to change the whole system from top to bottom.

Finaly, on the subject of Tesco's neverending ambitions, here is a humourous youtube video of them invading Denmark. Enjoy.

Sick as a dog - The great SSP scam

2010-04-27T11:15:00.009+01:00

Seeing as though I'm sat here with what could possibly be a broken ankle right now, thanks to an injury at work, I think now's a good time to talk about sick pay.

The sick pay laws in the UK are pretty damn unforgiving. There's basically two types. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Contractual Sick Pay. SSP is the basic minimum that by law every company must adhere to, while the other is entirely voluntary which must be agreed to by the employer. Naturally, employers will only ever give more than the basic minimum in the rare cases when they feel that it's more profitable to do so i.e. when there's a militant workforce prepared to damage profits to get what they need.

With the state of unions and workers' militancy in the UK at an all time low, it shouldn't surprise anyone that most workers rely entirely on SSP, which is a very poor deal. In order to even be eligible to receive a penny in SSP, you must be:

- Off work for at least four days in a row
and
- Earning more than £97 a week

As you can imagine, most cleaners are working part time and earn less than that £97 a week and therefore cleaners are not eligible for any sick pay whatsoever. You may still be able to claim the incapacity benefit, or ESA as it's called now, directly from the Jobcentre, but this will take a very long time to claim and you will receive even less than SSP, which I'll show is already a poor deal.

Even those who are eligible are getting a raw deal. SSP is a rate of £79.15 a week. At best , this is a minimum decrease in pay by about 20%, going up to a 300% decrease for a full time worker on minimum wage and even higher for those above that! You don't even get paid for the first three days at all!

The end result of all this is that despite having an ankle that's probably broken, I will be going into work tonight. I doubt I'll get everything done, but I cannot afford to do anything else. I've had to do similar things numerous time, such as when I had to go in with flu and unfortunately probably infected numerous other workers. I got a phone call from my area manager the next day telling me that there'd been a complaint that I looked ill at work (!) and that I must take the day off if I thought I had flu. I did the only thing I could. I told her I didn't have flu and went back to work.

I'm not saying any of this to appear big or anything. If anything, I know it was a bad thing for me to infect all those people and I got hardly anything done that shift at all, but because of the state of wage slavery, I had a gun to my head telling me that if I wasn't there, I'd lose my home and not be able to eat, etc. If there'd been any way whatsoever I could have stayed home, I would have. This is the sheer stupidity and outright danger in not paying sick pay. It puts not only the sick worker at risk, but all the other workers around her.

Workers on the sick are often told to endure additional humiliation and abuse by their employers too while they are sick. It's not uncommon for workers to have to phone their employers daily to explain the intimate and personal details of their illness and also be pressed to give an answer to a question that nobody can ever answer, "When will you be back in work?". I used to just answer "When I'm better." these days and that tends to upset them, which did make me feel a bit better.

In recent years the rules on SSP have changed for employers too. Previously, the state paid SSP and the employers were more reasonable about it. Now, employers have to prove that their profits are significantly damaged by paying SSP in order to claim it back. Any claims that your employer paying sick pay is "ruining them" are utterly false, because if that's the case then they're entitled to claim the money back.

Other unpleasant tricks employers have tried is taking the holiday days from sick workers, "losing" doctors notes, or sacking workers for taking time off ill. All of these are illegal and your only defence against it is to have a strong and militant union.

I cannot stress this enough. If you've not got a union, then for pete's sake, please join one and make sure that they've got a good reputation for militancy. A non-militant union isn't worth a penny of your money, because it basically means that they won't ever do anything to upset your employer. I'll shamelessly plug the IWW, my union, right now, for having the lowest dues, worldwide solidarity and absolutely no union officials to stab you in the back. Other good militant unions currently are Unite, PCS (public sector), certain Unison branches (public sector) and RMT (transport workers), although all of these operate on the basis of having decision made by union officials which can change and militancy can vanish overnight as a result. The others I'd only advise joining if you're going to try radically change them from within, which is a lot of work. That's not to say that the rank and file in these unions are not good people, just that the leaders are backstabbers and traitors to their class who you cannot rely upon.

During the H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak, my union branch was handing out leaflets to shop workers in West Yorkshire. We'd had a meeting (lots of cheap drinks and then throwing a few ideas around and looking for volunteers is a meeting in our world) and decided that retail workers were the most vulnerable because of the outbreak. They usually worked part time, so were ineligible to SSP. They were exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of members of the public daily who may be carrying the virus and there is no cases I'm aware of where retail workers have got a good, strong union backing them to push for fairer sick pay terms. If there'd ever been people who should have joined a proper union, it was them. What confused me was that we had no responses, which surprised me. Anyway, here's the leaflet they got.

In the absence of any fair rules or payments on SSP, I think we have only one choice and that is to force our employers to accept fairer contractual sick pay agreements. That can only be achieved by organising ourselves together through militant unionisation and showing our bosses that we are prepared to harm their profits in order to get what we need.

What is class?

2010-04-24T20:26:00.004+01:00

I've been asked this question more times than I care to remember, so I guess that it's worthwhile that I explain a bit about the class system that I hope will be abolished in my lifetime. The mainstream media, as usual, makes explaining things much harder with their propaganda, so bear with me :)

In the simplest terms, your class means basically whether you own a business or not.

Those who don't own a business are "working class" and those who do, are "ruling class", or sometimes "employing class" or "bourgeois". These are the only two classes that there are when we talk about class based politics. You may have heard of the "middle class" and "upper class" too, but these are not classes at all, but a just a sign of wealth.

For example, you can be a wealthy worker, such as a bank manager, or a doctor. Or you can be a poor bourgeois such as somebody who owns a small independent newsagent or Internet business. In most cases though, the bourgeois are richer than workers.

So, what's the big deal?

Well, firstly, we're told that we live in a democracy, where we have control, through voting of our own lives. The power of the vote is massively overrated. Most of us spend most of our waking hours at work. As workers we are forced to accept conditions to our employment. The biggest one being accepting authority from supervisors, managers, directors, CEO's. We do not elect these people, but if we do not do as we're told by them then we are sacked.

Being sacked is a big deal. It means that the source of income that you have built your life on suddenly vanishes. As I said in my earlier post, state benefits are very hard to live off at the best of times. When you include credit commitments you've built up while you were employed and it becomes next to impossible. The real consequence to all this is that if you lose your job then there's a high risk of you losing your home, being able to eat properly and run the risk of developing mental illness because of not only the denial of the things you need to survive, but when overnight society judges you to be a villain. Make no mistakes, your employer has the literal power of life and death over you. This is a gun to your head to tell you to work. You did not elect these people. This makes the working class wage slaves to the bourgeois. Should we fail to serve them, then our very lives are put at risk.

The rules that dictate whether you are employed or sacked are not even based on right and wrong, but profits. As a worker, you are a resource. A machine with a running cost. The second it becomes more profitable to remove you, the employer will sack you. That could be due to things out of your control, such as redundancy due to poor management decisions, or it could be that you present a threat to current profits by demanding more equal rights for yourself and your fellow workers. It's rare for a worker to be sacked for doing something that harms other workers. All this power is not granted through elections, or consent, but simply because the bourgeois have the money, or capital, to set up the business.

Another issue in the workplace is how the work's divided up. There's no doubt whatsoever where the wealth is produced in companies. It is always the workers who do the actual service that the customer buys, yet the money is not handed to the workers, but to the bourgeois, who take a very large cut, without even doing the work that the customer has asked for! This is grossly unfair and nothing short of theft. When you include the threat of the sack if you complain about it, it moves from theft to mugging.

You may be thinking right now, "But ahh, the government looks after me and I do elect them." . Well, now it's important to understand the power of wealth and how it has corrupted our House of Commons for centuries but that's another story.

Right now, it's important to understand that the difference between the working class and the ruling class.

Cleaning: The good stuff

2010-04-24T11:53:00.013+01:00

In part one I went on about the generally lousy stuff I've got to put up with being a cleaner, but I despite all that, I still do it. There's a few personal reasons for that, but on top of that there are actually some very good reasons to enjoy the job itself.

1) Freedom. There's a lot of freedom in cleaning. For the most part, you very rarely have a manager, or supervisor on the site breathing down your neck. They only really show up every blue moon to do an audit, or if there's been complaints (real, or otherwise). So, where does that leave us? Well, generally come and go as we feel like it. We talk to whoever we want and when we want. We do the jobs that we think need doing, to the standard we reckon's acceptable, at the pace that we feel comfortable with. This is not to say that we do the bare minimum, but means that we do what we think is fair. After all, we're there to provide a vital service that benefits our fellow exploited workers. We don't want them getting MRSA, or Salmonella, not because it'd piss off our managers, but because we genuinely think that should be looking out for our comrades in this big struggle against the employer. We're paid next to nothing, so we're not going to go out of our way for our bosses, but that doesn't change our commitment to the workers at the sites that we clean at.

2) You're not hurting anyone. Now here's a rare job these days! How many of us can honestly say that about their jobs? Our job is simple (don't mistake that with easy by the way). We keep the place clean and hygienic and even do our little bit for saving the planet by helping with recycling. Compare that to sales where you're churning out useless bits of paper and trying to get people to spend money on stuff they should be entitled to for free anyway, or banking which everyone's had a life ruined by, the police where it's your job to punish the most desperate people in our society and so on. I go home every day and I could think to myself happily, "I've done my job well today and it's done nothing but make people's lives better". Off the top of my head, only doctors, nurses and those in manufacturing and some kinds of industrial work could ever say the same thing.

3) When you go home the day's over. Again, how often do you get that in jobs these days? I've been in other industries and I've gone home at night and thought to myself "Oh god. What's going to need doing tomorrow". You don't get that in cleaning. You come. You see. You conquer. You leave.

4) Meditation. A strange one perhaps, but I do some of my best thinking at work. There's not much thinking involved in cleaning, so you let your mind wander through most of it. I might be thinking up new riffs for my guitar and what to have for dinner, right through to pondering whether we should really hate benefit thieves and whether things could have gone differently for the miners in '84-'85. Meditation doesn't mean sitting with your legs crossed with incense burning humming "Ommnnnnn". It simply means to relax yourself and let your mind daydream up answers to problems and that works well for me.

5) Chatting. This ties into the freedom part again, but we can go and do our jobs in any order in any way we feel like on our sites. I chat with the other workers at the site while I'm emptying their bins, or polishing their desks and when we're doing the dishes, there'll be one of us washing and the other drying and we'll have a right good laugh in that kitchen usually. We've talked about allsorts in there and it's good fun.

6) Part time working. My politics mean that I believe in a world where everyone only has to work part time, without managers and without stress in order to be allowed to have anything and everything that the whole of the human race produces. Well, I work part time at least. Working on the other part, which I doubt I'd be able to do if I was working fulltime. In case you haven't guessed already, I'm in my mid 20's and I've got the "wanting to change the world" bug, which I'll have to talk about some other time I'm sure. Anyway, my duties to that cause I don't think I'd be able to squeeze into evenings and weekends, but other people could have other commitments to their weekday daytimes. Whatever the reason, part-time working is good.

7) Health. Bet you didn't see that one coming, huh? Cleaning is hard work. Every week, thousands of people hand over their wages to gyms so that they can spend a couple of hours bending, squatting, lifting, walking and stretching and generally breaking a sweat. I get paid to do that! Not long after I had started cleaning, I had to visit my GP and told him about my new job. I have never seen a doctor excited before, but on that day the grin on his face went ear to ear as he told me that cleaning is one of the best jobs to do for your health. "Cleaning is excellent cardio-vascular excercise" he told me. And he's right. This kind of exercise is good for you and I'm being paid to do it! Ha! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Duncan Bannatyne!

8) The hours. Hang on. Didn't we have this in the bad stuff too? Yes, it's true that the hours are anti-social, but these kinds of hours are ideal too if you're raising children, or after a bit of part-time work to work around another job, or uni studies or something, because it's before/after the 9 to 5, that most cleaning gets done. I'm partially deaf and have problems with alarms, so I cannot rely on an alarm to wake me. Me doing evening work fits in well with me geting up naturally.

9) Free stuff! This is "naughty", but I'll tell you how I justify it. As I've already explained, we are robbed by our employers every day as they do not pay us the full value of our labour, despite them not actualy putting anything into the actual service we provide. So, I strongly believe that it is our right to try claw back what is stolen from us any way we can. As a result I have not bought any cleaning products for my own use in the last two years. Is it theft? No. This stuff was bought with money that is rightfully ours, so it already belongs to us. In that way, it's not free either because we've already paid for it, albiet against our will. We're just taking some of it back. I have no doubt either that the workers who produce these products would welcome the thought of it bieng used for the benefit of workers like themselves. I do want to really put my foot down and say though that people's personal possessions are a no-no. If somebody's worked to get some cash, or some nice things for themselves, then I would never ever take those from them. At no point have I ever taken money, or personal possesions from another worker and I would fiercly oppose anyone who did that. I only take what is already rightfully mine.

We're human beings and we all have our reasons for cleaning. I've met cleaners who got into cleaning because no other job was accommodating for them looking after their kids, as most employers outright oppose the idea of flexible working for parents. Other cleaners are students, looking to make a few quid with a part time job, due to new tuition fee costs. Some had other jobs in the daytime and were paying off debts that the bailed out banks were threatening out of them. Personally, I'm half-deaf and I wanted a job where that wouldn't be a problem.

So, yeah. That's the good bits in my job and I'm happy with that. Notice carefully too that the bits I enjoy are the bits that management have no control over, while most of the stuff I hate, is the stuff that management mess with. I stress again, that I consider management and employers to be parasites, living of our labour and all they really do is make everyone's more unpleasant anyway! So, in general, left to our own devices we're happy and the work gets done. Stick your nose in and all you'll do is piss us off and you'll see the place suffer as a result.

Not much to ask really is it? To just leave us alone.

How I learned to stop worrying and love the benefits cheats

2010-04-24T00:48:00.007+01:00

I'm sure everyone's seen the adverts. They're on TV, in newspapers, on bustops and on the sides of the buses themselves. The "We're closing in" ones designed to make so called "benefit thieves" look like right villains. Anyone who's claimed benefits in the last few years might know too how unpleasant an experience it has become now with a mix of intimidation and surveillance everywhere in the system. There's even handy phone numbers so that you can grass your friends, families, neighbours, or even total strangers.

Alister Darling and those two brain caterpillars that control you. You are not going to enjoy this...

I fully support workers who cheat the benefits system! There! I said it! I'm not suggesting for one moment that I personally cheat the system. I'm paid by BACS, directly to my credit union account. The government, sadly, knows exactly how much I earn and in their infinite wisdom, believe that I £4k a year in wages is enough to live off without support other than £60 of my rent paying. More's the pity.

Those that have found a way to fiddle the system. Good on you!

We in the UK have some real drains on our system. They don't live in council houses on estates, or come from abroad (who are actually denied all state welfare, despite BNP propaganda saying otherwise). They live off us whether we like it or not and they're taking hundreds of billions a year.

Drains like Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland and one of the biggest causes of the recession, that's put millions of people worldwide on the dole. He's only in his 40's, but he's retired with a £600k a year pension. We're paying for that when against our will, the government bailed out RBS. Lord Ashcroft receives protection from the police and has the British Army fighting to keep him and his buddies in power, at the expense of the taxpayer, while he is not one himself. We've had MP's who already "earn" over £60k a year, claiming for moat cleaning, duck houses and using their second homes as a property development company.

On a more everyday scale though, we are robbed every day by our employers. We provide the labour that customers want and pay for, while our bosses, take our money for it to pay themselves better than what we get. At the end of the day, a business can always run without a boss, or managers, but it cannot run without workers, which are the most vital part, yet paid the least.

These are our work-shy "sponges" on the system. Hopefully you agree with me that it is wrong that they take this money from us. However, it is perfectly legal. No doubt because these same people are the ones who dictate what the law is in the first place, either directly, or through funding the parties in power with the condition that the party pleases these rich funders.

Now, I know that the Daily Mail might tell us that people who smuggle away £65 a week extra in dole are somehow the scum of the earth, but lets actually think about this like adults for a moment. Job Seeker's Allowance for a single person under 25 is £45 a week, over 25 it's £65 a week. Housing benefit is capped at around £40 a week for under 25's and £60 a week for over 25's. These are what single people get, couples get even less.

Now, that gives you a grand total of £85 a week income for an under 25 to pay your rent, bills, eat, and try get a little entertainment in there to stop you going nuts. The grand total of £125 a week for over 25's isn't much better.

Consider for a moment whether you could live on that kind of an income. Forget about your Internet, credit card bills, running your car and phone and entertainment for a moment. Can you even pay your rent/mortgage, gas and electric and feed yourself on that? The answer is no.

Yet currently, nearly two million people on benefits in the UK are told to do just that. This doesn't even include people, such as cleaners, like myself who's wages are below this income! There is no question here that we are talking about peoples' health and welfare here and in a world where the rich irresponsibly put a price tag on water, food, shelter and warmth, to deny those things means death.

So, I do not consider it wrong if somebody tops up their benefits with a bit of cash in hand work, or tops up their undeclared wages with a bit of benefits. This however is not only illegal, but also criminal. Break these rules and not only will the money be forcibly removed from you by sequestion and bailiffs, but you can also get jail time. I'm sure this comes as no surprise though that this double standard exists, as we as the poorest workers do not fund parties with large donations. Even if we wanted to fund the parties, we couldn't match the donations of the rich, seeing as though "the richest 1pc in the UK hold some 70pc of the country’s wealth" . We simply can't ever match that kind of political bribe and as a result it is the poor, not the rich, who are declared the outlaws for a far lesser crime.

The intention of making benefits so unpleasant is to encourage us to accept substandard working conditions and pay and even to scab, join the army, or police, or do other such things that in the end only harm our other workers more. If benefits were fit for purpose, to support those who have been forbidden to work by the rich, then maybe there'd be a slight case for having a pop at "benefit thieves", but at the end of the day, there's not and there's far bigger fish to fry before you do that anyway.

The lesson here is to understand that what is right and lawful and what's wrong and illegal are not allways one and the same. Justice and the law are not the same thing.

Cleaning: The bad stuff

2010-04-23T22:48:00.002+01:00

I figured that probably the best place to start is with a good old rant about what's lousy about the job. I've been cleaning for two years now and despite me loving my job, there's some big bad nasty rants about it too.

1) Lack of respect. This is the biggie. Cleaning is unskilled manual labour and people can get very judgemental with you about that. We also work with people's waste and stains and bodily fluids, again, another dent to any sort of respect. It all comes together with this image of cleaners being stupid, anti-social, ugly, smelly and thieves. Most of this is bullshit. This whole lack of respect makes every single part of our job harder.

2) Low pay. National minimum wage is the benchmark and unless you work for the council, or NHS then it's unlikely to ever get more than 10p an hour more. If national minimum wage doesn't go up, then regardless of inflation, your experience, performance, or needs, then your wages do not go up either. Minimum wage is particularaly a problem for younger cleaners who are paid as little as £3.57 an hour. Just stop and think about that for a moment. We're talking about unskilled labour here. I'd never describe our job as "easy", but it certainly doesn't take years of experience to learn how to do it, so there really is no excuse for paying younger cleaners less. The only thing it's achieved is that the bosses get cheaper labour and can threaten to replace us with younger, cheaper, staff on a whim. The low pay also means that many assume that we must steal from other workers to get by. I've never met a single cleaner yet who would steal the possessions of another worker, although we all have heard the occasional horror story which the exception, rather than the rule.

3) Anti-Social hours... or not? If getting up at 4am's your thing, then there's cleaning work gallore. For the rest of us, it's at best a nuisance and in my own case of being deaf and not being able to rely on alarms to wake me, totally unworkable. There are evening shifts too but then you just lose out on the social part of your life with friends and family. On the other hand, these odd hours do work in some cleaners' favour, but I'll save that for the "The good stuff" post.

4) Driving. The best paying cleaning work is always going to be the residential jobs. Somebody who's too bone idle to clean their own big house calls for a cleaner. Now, the sorts of people with the cash, or "need" to hire a cleaner are not living in the same areas that the cleaners themselves live in. So, there's traveling involved. Getting the bus over's a no-no because usually you'll be looking at 4 buses to get you to and from your destination, costing you around £4, which is going to be most of the money you make from cleaning the house. So, you need a car, or it's unworkable. I know very few people who can afford to run a car in the industry, so we end up relying on agencies, which are notoriously unreliable in picking up and dropping off, to run us to and from our sites, which brings me onto my next rant...

5) Agencies. The bane of my existence! Now, here's what bugs me. The client wants a clean house/workplace and wants cleaners to make it that way. That's all they want is to make sure that we keep the place clean and that's the only reason that they hand over a single penny to anyone. So, why is it that the money goes to the agency and not to us? I mean, we're the ones actually doing, you know, the actual cleaning? Seriously, what exactly do our managers and CEO's and company directors actually do? They don't do the cleaning that the client's asking for. That's for sure. In fact, their sole job seems to be to support us (which they're universally crap at), or bollock us, (which they seem to be universally determined to do, just so it looks like they actually do something). And for this shockingly poor service, they get paid in the realms of £30k+ a year for it, while I, the one that actually is the only person that the client actually wants, gets paid £4k a year. The admin staff then have the balls to come over to our sites and try to tell us how to do our jobs and then, get this, claim that we should be grateful for them giving us a job! I'm sorry, but what??? Last I checked, it's us that do the job that brings in the money, which these managers take a large cut of, without our consent. I employ the managers (unfortunately) not the other way around! It's time they showed us some damn respect.

6) False accusations. Maybe this one's a personal gripe. I don't know, but I find that I get accused of a lot of stuff that's outright wrong. If anything goes missing, then the cleaners are surely to blame. If there's a tea stain on a desk, it's not because somebody may have spilt a cup of tea on there 5 minutes ago, but automatically because we haven't wiped that desk the night before. If we are not working in absolute silence, then we must be wasting time. Surprisingly, it does even go further than this. I've been accused to disturbing meetings that were going on four hours before my shift and work not getting done while I was on holiday! It all comes back again to this whole lack of respect for us. Managers think that we're easy to push around and pin all their problems on us. I can only hope that my fellow cleaners start sticking together and showing these parasites just how wrong they can be.

7) Sick pay. We don't get it. Little known fact about sick pay is that you are only legally entitled to it if you earn above a certain amount. Most cleaners do not earn enough and so, if they're sick they either have three choices, take a holiday, don't get paid, or come in anyway. During the Swine Flu outbreak I turned into work, clearly with flu-like symptoms. I was dead on my feet and it was a awful awful week and a half. My manager did phone me up one night and ask if I had flu and I asked why. She said that I would be immediately suspended from work without pay if I did. I put on my best un-sickie voice and told her that I was fresh as a daisy and went back to work to infect most of the client's staff. Give a businessman the choice between doing the right thing and the thing that's free and guess what they'll do. Let this be a lesson to them. You must reap what you sow.

8) Men. The women do the cleaning. The men are the managers and supervisors. Never the other way around. Sexism in the workplace is still going strong! Nothing more to add to that.

9) Bullies. This goes for a lot of jobs I guess, but I think we're particularly vulnerable to it, again down to lack of respect. There are some lovely people that I clean for who will say hello and ask how I am and I'll do the same and they'll let me know if there's anything out of the ordinary they'd like doing. Unfortunately, there's an awful lot of people who either ignore you completely and seem horrified if you speak to them or make eye contact, or the bastards who are watching you like hawks for something to pick at so that they can feel a little bit of power and control. One woman at work even demanded that I painted the pipes in the toilets and when I told her that I wouldn't do it, she threatened to get me sacked. Of course she was just a bully and was bluffing, but the attitude remained with her for a long time. Another time this same woman started shouting and screaming at me in the office because when she demanded her tiny waste paper basket have a massive black bin liner in it, instead of the usual little ones and my answer was that I'd go and check if we had any spare. I wasn't sure if we'd even got any because the agency had messed up the order on bin bags (surprise surprise) so we were short of them. Anyway, this wasn't good enough an answer for her and she started screaming at me. Bear in mind too that this woman is not even my boss, or even high up in the client's business. She's an accountant who works at the site who'd just decided that I was going to be her target for abuse. We've had lots of "complaints" from this woman. Karma will visit her soon hopefully.

With all of this, I think the only way forwards is for everyone to realise how important cleaners are, but a good start would be the cleaners themselves to realise it! I've met so many women who've been ashamed of being a cleaner, for doing the same sorts of stuff that they do at home. In fact, if you're not doing any cleaning at home then you've probably got a good reason to be ashamed as your home's probably a pigsty. You don't feel guilty about cleaning at home, so why anywhere else? We've got to stop letting the bullies decide for us what we should be proud of and what we shouldn't.

When we've done that and we can say to ourselves that we're proud of the work that we do (which will be part 2) then we can start fighting back and defending ourselves against these injustices. There is hope out there, but we've got to work on it ourselves.