Edinburgh Anarchists

“The world can change its rules, it’s laws, and it’s opinions as frequently as it chooses but I will remain standing beside you, that will not change”

Now that Corrie’s got transphobia beat, all that remains is for Sophie Webster to go out & proud and the Underworld sans-cullotes to defenestrate their boss (with Janice as Louise Michel) then we can rename the show Abdication Street, or Revolution Street, (or something: what’s a good opposite to “Coronation”?).

The siege tower is packed up and the acres of land behind RBS’s Gogarburn site once again returned to their natural state, a golf course. As every year, the debate about tactics, strategy, approach, politics, appearance, style, media, veganism, sociological class, Lady Gaga vs. M.I.A. papier mache and compost has begun within Climate Camp (never as politically naïve as its opponents like to claim) and the wider anti-capitalist movement.

Indymedia Scotland provides a place to start following that.

• The Best Yet So Far!
• Onwards! (neither of these are as gung ho as they sound)
• A left view from the SSY
• and you can find more I’m sure

Notable events around the Camp included a large community-led tour of a planned open cast site (news report, community campaign website), expect to hear more about that in coming months, and put in a planning objection by 3rd September.

…they’ve taken a site on RBS’s Gogarburn campus as of 9:15pm:

At 9.15PM tonight Climate Camp took the site on RBS HQ. Get on site as
fast as you can! Defence help urgently needed. Come to RBS Gogarburn
Gardens, off Gogar Station Rd. More info later. x

That’s the 48 or the 35 bus then.

In this story about the UK Film Council meeting an end worthy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, what caught my eye was this bit:

About 18 months ago, my friend, the journalist Duncan Campbell, persuaded me that Stuart Christie‘s memoir Granny Made Me an Anarchist was ideal for making into a film.

I think he’s right, though it could also go horribly wrong. Could be at least three different films, depending on which part of the story becomes the focus – a tough political thriller, a farcical crime caper, or a death penalty drama.

I feel sorry him pitching it to an apparently hip and edgy film company in the USA though:

That afternoon in New York, I outlined the basics: “This is a true story, set in the early 60s. It’s about an 18-year-old boy from Glasgow who travels to Madrid to assassinate General Franco.” I plunged on, ticking off the elements I thought would be part of the movie’s appeal: we’d have a great soundtrack; it would be part-road movie, part-unusual coming of age story. There would be idealism, politics, humour, sex . . .

It wasn’t apathy I sensed. It was something else. Confusion. The executive had started to look worried. He interrupted: “This boy Stuart is going to assassinate who?”

“General Franco.”

He looked at me. There was a pause. “Now I know I should know this,” he began uncertainly, “but who is General Franco?”

No wonder films are so full of stupid these days.

Noam Chomsky’s got a new book out. (In fact, since I last looked, he’s probably had 3 out.) “Left” newspaper the Observer gets its Chief Leader Writer to hack together a review(*) which is a masterclass in the kind of consent manufacture that Chomsky (and Hermann) laid out years back:

• label as extreme
• irrational, emotionally-driven
• monomaniacal
• hey, you’re in a free country, shut up and appreciate it.

The good news: commentators on the review eloquently take the review to pieces. (See, for example this by China Mievielle)

Maybe techno-utopian fantasies about internet democratisation aren’t so far out. Are cracks appearing in the propaganda model?

(*) — do you think he’s related to Dani Behr off of The Word?

Now that the government in power doesn’t have to pretend that it has the interests of workers at heart, it intends to go ahead with the long-term ambition of privatising the final piece of infrastructure, the Royal Mail.

Postie Roy Mayall explains why this is a shit idea at the London Review of Books(!) blog in a piece called Natural Monopoly:

The usual excuse that is reeled out every time anyone brings up the idea of privatisation is the huge £10 billion pension deficit which the company has run up in the last 20 years or so. But no private sector company will take this on. So in order to create an incentive to the private sector, the government will have to agree to fund it. Whether the Royal Mail is in the public sector or the private sector, the pensions deficit will remain a public liability.

Doesn’t anyone ever get the feeling that we are being ever so slightly conned here? The government brings in private sector bosses, such as Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier, to run the Royal Mail. They run it down while alienating staff and ignoring the needs of the public. The state then turns to the private sector for a solution. The government starves an industry of funds while it is in the public sector, but then quietly promises to reinstate a public sector subsidy once it is privatised.

And then there’s a piece by Donnacha deLong at the Guardian. Frame it and put on the wall, it’s one of the twice-a-decade mainstream airings of an anarchist ideas:

How about going a different way – not back to nationalisation or further into privatisation? How about real public ownership and workers’ control?

Imagine if the Royal Mail became the People’s Post, owned by each and every person in the UK, secure beyond the grabbing hands of politicians and their friends in business. Imagine a company controlled by the people most in touch with their customers – the postman or woman, the staff in the post office and sorting depot.

A service managed democratically by the people who know the problems and how to fix them – on behalf of people they work for, the public. A service free to try new things, like the People’s Bank idea – supported by the CWU, the main union in Royal Mail – that would bring in extra revenue. Democratic workers’ control would be easier to establish in Royal Mail than in many other companies. Its highly unionised and geographically spread structure could easily become the basis of a syndicalist structure. This would mean replacing the current hierarchical management structure with a federated direct democratic system.

For all the government’s claims to be “rolling back the size of the state,” this is one “Big Society” plan I predict they won’t be getting behind.

Holidaying in Greece this year? Lucky you. Be sure and visit barthelonika restaurant, 3 Venizelou Str in the Rogoti Arcade, 1st floor, tel. 2310 225 242.

Is the food there good? It ought to be, since the workers there have fired their boss and intend to run it themselves:

Two weeks ago the owners of the restaurant announced us that the establishment was not going well and that it would close down for the three summer months – and further, that it was uncertain wether it would reopen in September and how many of us would work – and under what working conditions. They also announced us that all the workers at the restaurant would be fired immediately while firing compensations would only start to be paid out in October… that is, of course, if they had any money to pay the compensations out.

[...] The restaurant Barthelonika will be under our control, through our general assembly. Decisions concerning its running will be taken by majority and will be respected by all us co-workers. Whatever remains from profit after expenses will be distributed equally among all co-workers.

How do you like them vine leaves, boss?

Well that didn’t take long did it? New Chief Secretary to the Treasury has resigned after it was found out that his landlord was his boyfriend, pocketing him £40,000 over 5 years. And of course, he’s a millionaire ex-banker, the boyfriend a political lobbyist.

Showing that the Political Class looks after its own, Laws is described as “an honourable man” who’ll be back in the government as soon as possible.

Put aside the sexuality issue. If you’re on Housing Benefit and in a relationship with your landlord, then you don’t get HB. A millionaire ex-banker in charge of cutting the public sector doesn’t know this, or is it one Laws for him and one for the rest of us?

In fact, someone else has already made this point:

Meanwhile on Friday a Norfolk mother, Sarah Riley, was imprisoned for falsely claiming £10,000 in housing benefit over a period of 7 years after neglecting to inform the authorities that she had started a relationship.

After the General Election charade finishes, the war that we aren’t allowed to name and aren’t defend ourselves in, carries on. British Airways have been awarded a 2nd injunction against their cabin crew’s union.

There’s not much to add to this article at LibCom, which echoes some of our earlier comments.

Like BA’s previous successful injunction against strike action by its employees over Christmas, the technicality it is disputing could in no way affect the mandate for strike action that has been presented by cabin crew. 81% of members voted in favour of strike action on a turnout of over 70%. Instead, a clear message has been sent to employers that no matter how large or clear the vote for strike action is, the most trivial of technical points can be used to halt strikes.

But what these rulings demonstrate is that the right to strike doesn’t really exist in the UK anymore, because they impose an onus on unions and consequences which don’t exist for other kinds of organisations. It is unimaginable, for instance, that a council could be prevented from collecting its council tax payments due to inaccuracies in its database of residents, or that the results of the general election could be annulled due to irregular voter registration (which certainly does happen – evidence of electoral fraud arises at every general election, including this one.) In this way, smaller organisations with smaller resources like trade unions are obligated to meet higher standards of record-keeping than exist elsewhere.

Important caveat:

Its worth making a point at this stage in case we are mistaken as arguing from the perspective of defending unions’ rights. Unions are of course inconvenienced by this state of affairs, but on the other hand complex anti-union laws give them more scope for frustrating the initiative of their members. Whether or not the unions ‘want’ to impose anti-union laws is irrelevant, in practice they either have to do that or have their funds sequestered, any union which openly and flagrantly defies the laws will lose its right to protection from litigation and will be destroyed through the courts.

A 2nd day of general strike in Greece, a meeting of the European Central Bank and the prospect of bond markets opening overnight to allow betting during the vote count. As well as this, British Airways continues its vendetta against its workers.

With an online strike ballot due to finish this week and likely to bring about further action, “Big” Willie Walsh has fired a Unite official for doing union work in the run-up to the aborted Xmas strike.

While eyes are on the vote, real action is happening elsewhere. Whatever colour rosette wins the 3-legged race, a crackdown is coming and we have to stand together to fight it.