LACthe

cmoss

\NDREAS BAADF.R

•GERMANY, FOCUSOF rm CONFLICTOfficial Germany's neurotic obsessionwith the State winch goes deep into the

* roots of bourgeois consciousness,* the whole of European politics.j, other country would anyone have 1

of holding a pretest march against thekidnappers of a prominent industrialist

!headed by Government officials, andfollowed by hundreds of minorfunctionaries in the State and businessall dressed in their conventional officeclothes, solemnly carrying bannersdenouncing protest movements. At

:t when they tried that sort of thingSpain they brought in coachloads of

manual staff from the factories on over-time, or ordered soldiers out in civilian

othing. to give it some pretence oflit1 a popular demonstration.Privately the world's journalists laugh

heads off at bourgeois Germany.Bat in their reports'to the press theyreport aD the hand-outs of the Germanpolice and all the official excuses»forrepression weary cliches against theresistance. The same phrases can beseen in evtit iK^tjper, whether thereports emanate from news agenciesor correspondents; the same tendentiouslies and half-truths/the same apparentlack of logic.

; The Resistance' is treated as a smallAnarchist gang . . . yet 15,000 people orso,attend demoustratloni op its behalf!Sips oasupport - yefcMi,ffiid readyplace to hide! It is a gang directed by aman in prison, under close upservision,without access even to his own lawyers,and,by a dead woman, from whom itapparently takes it orders by telepathyand spiritualism respectively!

Perhaps the most typical of the dead-pan, accepted Press reaction comes inthe reporting of the story of repeated"terrorist attacks" upon nuclear testing

• j ^ * A^H&w—*•••*—' ~-"** ~* * -= — -

testing stations!The humbug in jddKbuncing the

"gangster" and "bandits" described"Anarchists" when the descriptcomes direct from police circles/or "theBaader-Meinhof gang" takes JK form ofdenouncing them as mindlejIPandviolent without any popular suppoand drop outs from the middle class.The media describes the situation as"approaching civil war." But not onevoice is lifted to put the other side'spoint of view . . . apart from thousandsof people in Germany itself! Justconsider wtjat they are rebelling against.

Capitalism in Germany called in fascismto help presewe it against the workers.It was given artificial resuscitation bythe Mlies. Now a cross section of theyoung takes up the offensive against it.

The resistance is a mixed bag, becauseit contains many elements. Some comefrom a revo'utionary type Marxism,some are influenced by Mao and sonationalism, some are Anarchist orhave come through Marxism to Anarchism.

And Anarchism, as the German policehave made clear time and again, is whatthe German State dreads most. TheGerman bourgeois cannot bear to livewithout defined authority, and whereasthe English middle-class look to the"idyllic past" of Baldwin and Churchiillthey look back nostalgically to thesame period, under Hitler. As EastGermany shows, they can live under -Marxism. Its authoritarianism appealsto them even if they object to itsnowadays subservience to Russia or itslack of "opportunity." But Anarchismis a clarion call to the dreaded unknown

" freedom. I t is possible as much asie bombs of the various Resistance

tions, the German bourgeois fearsutionary and libertarian ideas.

Published by Black Flag GroPrintedSubsCanada,£6.50 (U.S. # 13.00). Black

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Flag. <the Water, Sanday, Orkney, KW17 2BL, Ul(The last issue was Vol. IV No. 15. This com-mences a new volume. Don't think your subswere overlooked: there \vas a delay between thebat Issue gpd this.)

Our apologies for the delay with thisissue of the Flag but we hare beenseverely held>a<AoJ^tajtotinuinttroubles with our IBM type composerand other financial problems. Thishas extendedthe ( ienlueg^ft^.R^wfdch!have been^U^y.^pMU not in facfappear until October. However, we dothink that all C.P. subscribers and supporterwill think it worth wa^HFfltt wien they

plUS rcommentaries.As you can see this issue contairas some major books on anarchism and

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107.However, the Review is free to all sub-scribers (£6.00) and will be sent offImmediately we rece^fe-them fibm the'.printer, which should be sometime inmid-October. The next title "Land andLiberty! - Anarchist Influences in theMexican Revolution — Ricardo FloresMagon" has been held up at the printers *fcffetos8 carried forwardbut it should be in the post shortly afterthe Review. Would all Cienfuegos PressSubscribejtJoFtw7;fiBase note that

gBB-MCi*

s, among others,120pj|>

and Ubnal

; The LifeTrial and Death of Francisco FerrerGuardia with a biographical^,^. »._ -*

part of theirsubscription: The Russian Tragedy: TheBlack Flag Anarcho-Quiz Book: Marxismand a Free Society (to be repshortly); C.P. Review No.2.they, will also receive trNo. 3; Land and Litof Spanish Anarchisrth*|tear. Would a! those:who have not received the tirpublications please let us km

gettl

byexecuessay complete with b:

~lisonry; Sabotage

Berufsverbote in'est Germany; A History of the

Anarchist Movement in Bulgaria; Armsand the^omen; Anarcho-Feminism -Two Statements; Gnosticism - AncientHerfesy or Kick up the Cassock; Stepniak -Portrait of a Nihilist; Picture Books forLittle Anarchists; Science - the Imageand the Reality; Scientists in Collision;

s Kouy rouncnews stories from around the world

llowing the collapse of Christianity/id State Capitalism as a directlife discovery of J.C.'s body.

Copies are available for flyposting in yourarea for 50p per 25 copies (inc. p&p).

1. Wasltari Marx related to QueenVrStoria?

2. Whatbar-rooinaAttorney-General F. nut i escalated'-

An Anarcho-Syndicalist Conference is totake place in Manchester on 22/23 Oct.,to explore way in which Anarcho-syndicalists in Britain can work togethermore effectively and to discuss things ofmutual interest. Participants so farinclude activists from Black Cross, SWFand the Industrial Network.

There will be a creche if needed -1 etthe organisers know if you require th e

^y^ff^f

State of play as at 10th July 1977'-fc-S/ •' -* ' >" ' v - i :

Printing costs paid sincela* accountPostageStatione

Sales ft"*ubs.Donations as

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Donations:London: JT £3, JG £3; RM £2; LS £2;HMP MS £3; Glasgow: RA £3, A.McG £1;• 'ddersfield: IM £1 £ Ab*n*twyft: MS

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Comment: With money, yet to <ro| sales, this means that wefte

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for us is almost likepools! If we got paid for eversent out, and all subs renewec

r solve ourfc to* help solve our

and pamphlet production problems).

lag-

Direct Action: Paper of the SyndicalistWorkers Federation. Write c/o GrassRootav 109 Oxford Road, Manchester 1.Iiise of a creche so that they have an ideaof how many kids to cater for. There isalso a possibility of transport beingorganised fron»Xo^don. Ffe ftrtherdetails contact*-Federation, 109 Oxford Koa'd,Manchester M.I. Items forpossible agenda should be sent as soon aspossfbtp...

to become a major propagandacajmpiagn in the First World War?

3. Whit had Lloyd-George's proposedLiberal Industrial Enquiry in commonwith the Swansea HarboaHrnprove-ment Tfitot?

4. What was the CatijteMJ'*Mbfese Act? ~5. What Arrlericaneiiry^itltu^^l^

atheists and freethinlcersa¥aTfumaiMstcity, in the same way as Philadelphiawas founded as a Quaker city. SaltLake City as a Mormon one and so on?

6. The Ku Klux Klan could be described ',as a native American brand of fascism '\t equally truthfully, how did H.L.

Mencken describe it?

While reaffirming the d<mocralit rightof revolution, the Hryme Secret ary hasdecided that future jrevolutions must

follow orderly h> MS ,aid down b y the

police, taa^hnewBae desi&ied todeal wl*$&ent revolutions. Themain

answers on

-volutions must take place a t a., after fourteen days not ice to

Contmissioner of PeBce.2. No of Tensive or controversialstatemen ts may be made by the re volu-tionary le adership,' for two weeks ypriorto the saic I revolution.3. AH van. guard parties wfll b«e requiredto be licen: 5ed by the Ministry' for theEnvironme; nt.

4. All violence taking place over theweekend revolution will be firmlysuppressed and damage resulting there-from be chargeable against those deemedresponsible by a Court of Inquiry, subjectto appeal to a Higher Tribunal.5. No revolutionary demands may bemade which hive not been first submittedto Parliament.6. No revolution prejudicial to the riof Her Majesty, or contrary to parlia-mentary sanction will be licensed.

This means that the extremists canhave their revolution. But they will haveto keep, to the rule of law.

continued page 93.

THE GRUNWICK DISPUTE

THE RUNNING SHRIEKThe running shriek in which the Grun .vickdispute is discussed still manages tooccupy the dailies and television, and isthe stuff of endless debate and 'cot ; ci-tation'. After a year, the hack journalistsare standing by for the race to get theirversion of the long dispute into book formfirst but wait despairingly for the finish.Is it going to be a 'major blow at tradeunionism' or 'a disaster for freedom?'Hold on: the lad's not dead yet.

No major British employer wouldhave got himself involved to this extent:Mr. Ward, of Grunwick's, is an immigrantAsian trying to become rich quick andtrying methods long since discarded tjyour native capitalists. There is asuspicion he is being used by politiciansanxious to prove a point against tradeunionism. But if so, it is by people whomhe thinks are the Establishment, andwho are only its internal critics.

He thought he could act as traditionalmaster against Asian women immigrantworkers. Perhaps he got a surprise whimthey staged a strike against him. He ha*fought back long, persistently and withstubborn desperation — sacking themand seeing them turn to English tradeunionism, unused to beinj? thwarted,accustomed to being bought. Even inhis year-old battle he has raised wagessharply to those workers staying on, whoproclaim in return that never, neverwill they become trade unionists.

The running shriek on the one handhas been that why should people becompelled to join unions if they don'twant to; on the other hand the nearhysterical cry that trade unionism isimperilled and if Ward of Qnmwick'swins then we shall be back to Mr.Gradgrind and Hard Times with avengeance. The hydra-headed package-deal Left makes a field day of demon-

,strations at Grunwick's; even those whodo not belong to a trade union and havenever become so militant at work as tobe noticed, rush down to Hendon for thelatest punch-up with the police. Far be itfrom us to say this isn't good cleanhonest fun; why not have a punch-upwith the police? But if the Left werestill identifiable with the working classmaybe we could see a litt!i> of that actionat the places whete the picketing outsiderswere actually working? Maybe even ifthere were more militancy actually onjobs it wouldn't be necessarxjfjqrthe

I Asian women pickej^ to Wfljtf to work ft.Mr. Ward's.

The umon concerned with theGrunwick dispute is the least militant ofall. If, however, we look at the so-calledmilitant unions their ambitions are alltied up in the acliievement of the closedshop. The closed shop means that theleadership has more power than ever andcan keep the threat of expulsion overthe heads of the militants, more powerfullythan the threat of dismissal by theemployers — for it would mean that theywould never work again in their trade.This principle, regarded as the height ofdemocracy, is fascism: an independent,worker-controlled union however wouldbe regarded as undermining 'democracy'!The closed shop, and what it entails,means that the leadership can take partin wheeling and dealing, fretd frommilitant pressure; yet those who are so

1 militant that they will go down toHendon and get their heads bashed in bythe police think that 'the preservation'of trade unionism as it exists is whatthey must fight about or we shall be onthe high road to fascism. Rest assured,friends, despite the running shriek, thelabour leaders will be there before you,preparing for the labour front!

You will have a legally guaranteedclosed shop then wiWvSpanc*! '-not to mention a social contract andall the other social-democratic State"successes."

The running shriek that is heard onthe Right is that people are entitled notto join a trade union. But what havethey to say of . independence'' Thereisn't as yet an alternative to reformist tradeunionism, in permanent syndicalist form.But there are unofficial bodies. Do thesechampions of 'freedom' who opposetrade union domination support unofficialstrike action and workers councils0 Toask the question is absurd, they are itsmost rigorous opponents. They want'freedom' from trade unions, but againstworkers' councils they want "the rule oflaw!" Bargains freely entered into - bythe TU leadership - to be obeyed by all.

Meanwhile the trade union leadershipbasks in the unaccustomed feeling ofmartyrdom and the package deal Leftin the accustomed feeling of being way-out there in front — "and what did youdo in Grunwick's daddy?", they feelfuture generations will be lisping.

What does all the militancy amount to?

At tl 'C moment when the working classas a whol; is decisively rejecting thelabour Party set up, they want topreserve it; at a time when the corporatestate disguised as a "social contract" isbeing in the greatest of contempt theunions alone perpetuate it. At a timewhen a irujor step forward is beingdemanded everywhere, the 'vanguard'is not ready . . . it is frightened to let theorganised workers out of its grip, tryingto find ways to keep workers' unofficialstrike councils tied to the trade unionmovement and afraid that they will beself-perpetuating, self-sufficient andsyndicalist.

The TV cameras are not focussed onthe battle which is now shaking the work-places. Unlike Grunwick's it won't besituation comedy or a late night horrorshow: it's going to be the big feature.

For it must never be forgotten thattrade union movement as the LabourParty has chosen to interpret it, and theway it happens to have turned ou*. here,is not the only method of working classorganisation, and far from being themost desirable. It is the way tradeunionism is under the influence of Statesocialism. Its faults are those of Statesocialism, its merits — whatever theymay be — are those of State socialism.Its compromise with capitalism is thenormal compromise that State socialistideology would impose on it.

But there is another form of unionurgnaisation that is not State socialist.It is controlled from the bottom upwardsand dispenses with leadership; it iscomposed of workers' councils and doesnot seek therefore to incorporate them.It rejects political vanguards. It seekscontrol of the industries in which itoperates, not the imposition of laws orpolitical intervention. Perhaps paradoxi-cally, though it rejects capitalism, itthrives on competition; it does not needto conscript members because theywill be impressed by results; it does notneed to expel militants because only theybring results; because it does not seek adeal with capitalism, capitalism will tryto buy it off by granting what they wouldnever have otherwise granted. That formof union organisation, the syndicalist,was the big feature. It has been eclipsedfor fifty years by what we have now. Isit to be our fate forever) Or is — therunning shriek notwithstanding — thewriting on the wall?

Can we get back to Autonomy?THE NEXT STEPIt is not just the revolutionwhich has ground to a halt. All workersfeel unable to make any social change andin the grip of economic forces or theState, which cannot be challenged.

his understandable that this hasgradually become the whole feelingthroughout the totalitarian communist

„ countries, There the repression of theState has grown so much, even when theactual physical terror has abated, thatthere appears to be no chance for anychange in society.

The only "revolutionary'movementwith any chances of success in such

,. circumstances are those which can relyupon a foreign rflilitary power; hencethe struggles between different CommunistParty factions, taking advantage of therivalry between Cfifijii and feSsaa - sincethe 'democracies'military intervention and deltacommunist countries from revolutionaryplots from abroad. They neither wantreal revolution there, nor do they evenwant "capitalist roads" which wouldcreate powerful competitors.

For this reason nationalist movementsare today able to flourish. All Powersare intereste31i*the national questlofir-for it is a way, without war, to Intervenein the sovereignty of other powersV NoPowers want revolution, even for theirworst enemies. No revolutionary move-ment receives any foreign state support:

' if it did, it would cease to be revolutionary.It would be a takeover by thefoterveningState. All nationalist movements receivesuch support automatically, though (inview of their professions) illogically.

The only thing that can break theseemingly unbreakable monolithic Stateis individual action — and this is why thisleast violent form of armed strugglereceives most abuse by word and deedfrom the oppressor. Those who are busypreparing the ultimate in terror, who'iave massacred with impunity and intendto escalate to genocide and even world

IB? if they cannot gA their way'otherwislBfirle'trje moft fervent in theirdenunciation of terrorism.'

The feelings of frustration and inabilityto make any change in society equally

applies to the 'democracies' where thereis greater freedom of expression, butequal lack of being able to put changeinto practice.

Every one knows that the politicalparties do not represent a force for socialchange, or a means of control over theGovernment. Democracy, as now inter-preted, has nothing to do with controlby the people, it solely is laterprWe l a$:*

to intolerance, butdSes not rhearf thepeople h^ve any control over their rulers.

The sole manner in which the economicsystem could be changed is by people atwork, from which they are becomingincreasingly alienated. But the growingvirtual monopoly of State Socialist tradeunionism fneans that even this too isbeing eroded.

Ho

which finds class struggle 'terryi^ _._„and offers instead liberal alternativesunder or apart from the State, or evenseeks benefits from the State in order tomaintain its alternative society, has grownin recent years; and has captured comeallegiance more in despair than anything

^" »«i - -^V •"*""" -" - —*••'"else, rjto the!action?

not by weekend militancy, andnot by'dropping put of the system, in asurrender to the State - telling oneselfthat by living on it one is somehow under-mining its existence (a parallel to theauthoritarian socialist imagining thatby building a dictatorship he is helpingthe State to fade away).

One of the most heartening examplesof anarchist resurgence has been seen inSpain. It is true that there people feelsome sense of participating in their ownfuture with the dismantling of some ofthe worst features of Francoism; butalso because years of resistance nowprovide a background to a fightingmovement. Yet there is nothing beingdone in;Spate that conldWt be donehere with less difficulty - if only it weredesired.

The basis of the Spanish Labourmovement (the CNT) originally was the

Trades ttdjj - whkb>served a'amflajr- pufpQUtf to-thai .ifl .Eigland, and usuallycombined such features as were seenhere in the old Mechanics' Institutes andReading Rooms; and in France, theLabour Exchanges (a name later adoptedin England by a vastly different •institution!) There workers of all tradesformed both club and union, withoutdifferentiation of craft or skill. (It is

* MLVA- fS^, 'f'-fn^f^tjf -1~W£ I '• %.1 . i« tlmcn Anirr tVlArA 1TOC er-*rv\atrueiBsjiinTopse uays u ewassomt

difTerehtfatiorf of sex which would notbe the case today).

The unemployed were thus federatedwith the employed; there was no barrieragainst them. The skilled and the unskilledwere federated. They went where jobswere to be had and the card of the onebig union was sufficient. They weremembers of the OBU, not of the railway-meW union or the Building workers.Once on tfte job they belonged todifferent syftdfciil branches of the union.

This type of local' was also the basisof the IWW in America; it has been thebase of many an industrial union butalso of syndicalist craft unions. If thosewho come to it do so not on the basisof how they spend their leisure - thoughthat is an important angle too - buthow they spend their working week, itcarftMt a basic component of a revolution-ary movement. 'It is this that we have inpast issues designated as a workers clubmovement, on the basis of the club, whichis eminently capable of being built andwhich to exist only needs enthusiasmand commitment, a movement can beestablished which would be the basis ofmilitancy at work. From there -granted that the workers' dub is whatit says it is, and not merely a haven forthose outside the struggle - it becomes anucleus in the workplaces of peoplewanting to take over; workers councils,not outside the places of work but inthem, needing no political alliances. I twould give an immense feeling of s t rengthto those feeling isolated^ their ownjobs, cuwadife anhfrrtpibaaetwfrtts**It would befa basis' for mutual aidduring industr ial disputes and of solidarityagainst the State. Without this stepforward no serious libertarian rfeWJution-ary movement can exist.

Bolivia"Following a clandestine visit to Boliviaby a group of British miners", accordingto the press, but more probably to anopen visit to Britain by Bolivian miners'

representatives, the Nat:onal Union ofMineworkers criticised the proposed £19mloan by the British Government (of ourmoney) to the Bolivian mineowners whooperate an almost feudal system.

We are glad to say they persuaded theGovernment to change its mind. Themilitary have occupied Bolivian tin minesfor eighteen months; modernisation ofthe mines would have enabled them to

dttock all advaofiMLby jbe workers. The4

tin miners of Bolivia go on fighting againstincredible pressures, both poverty andmilitary repression.

But do not think the tin mine ownershave given in. They have friends in highplaces. Said the Bolivian Embassyspokesman (Times 9th Aug) "Themining equipment would now be boughton the open market, most probably fromthe Soviet Union." Tyranny knows nofrontier

RUSSIA Resistance GrowsSuddenly - after fifty years of silenceon anarchist resistance in Russia andforty years of silence on the conspiracyof the bureaucrats in the Trotskyisttrials (if it ever really existed), the Russia;government is announcing that "terrorists'exist in the Soviet Union. Not "foreignspies", "trotsky-fascists in the pay ofHitler", or other allegations linkirTrotskyites or Communist Partyrenegades with foreign powers; butaccusations which firmly state that thereis a resistance and label it "terrorist".

One obvious reason why the SovietGovernment may have been silent about"terrorism" and resistance for yearscould be, of course, that it did not exist.Much of the anarchist and working classresistance of the twenties »vas wiped outin blood and long years of prison. Whoknows what happened to them in theState terrorism of Russia? Anarchists,social-revolutionaries like MariaSpiridonova, went into prison - theircases were kept alive for years byinternational solidarity but in the thirtiesthe blank wall of officialdom interposed.No communications with prisoners werepermitted. No news of resistanceout, or was ever revealed withinRussian empire itself.

In recent years there has been a minorrevolt amongst the Soviet Establishment.Leading members of the most favouredclass have "dissented." (Not, though, beit noted, resisted.) Some of them -especially the Jews, with internationalconnections prepared to publicise their

cases — have become well known. Butthey do not want to resist but to emigrate.

Others, like the Baptists, only want theright to worship but not the overthrowof the State nor emigration, but even so,have waited until the comparative successof international solidarity which the Jewshave invoked until they put their owncase.

But the majority of Russia long sinceslipped back into the cowardly sloth andpassiveness typical of Tsarist despotismfrom whch it stirred only a brief couplecouple of years. Russia is thought ofas "aggressive" because of the identifica-tion of people with the State; in fact,Russia as an entity is the most pacificcountry in the world, as distinct from theRussian State. Its people accept any-thing, including death, from theirgovernment, and the "bravery in war"is only a reflection of the cowardice inpeace — the Government can urge themon to the .utmost sacrifice, certain thatnobody will dare decline the utmostexpected. Police raids on an unresistingpeople have cowed the population untilit would queue up for its liquidation.In those circumstances, as in Tsarist 'Russia, lightState Communist regime, the onlypossible resistance is individual, to breakdown the moral intimidation before it ispossible to break down the physicalintimidation.

And this is happening. That is whythe State, which thinks nothing ofmurdering hundreds or even thousands at

a time, even in peacetime, and it mayhave been millions in the twenties cries"terrorism!"

In addition to the frequent bomb andhijacking stories involving "terrorists"sometimes nationalists but more oftennot, there have been marked changes inthe Soviet laws regarding arson. Crimeswhich — like in the West — are blamedon "bandits and drug addicts". Themaximun. sentence for arson has beenraised from eight to fifteen years andpeople crnvicted would lose theirpossessions and face stiffer sentences if"aggravating circumstances," such asconspiracy — which means politicaloffences - were proved.

This is especially happening in Georgiaand the Ukraine. Some may be nationa-list, but it may not be so. We seein the "free West" that aims of organisa-tions able freely to circulate their state-ments can be grossly distorted and changedin the press. Though "freedom of thepress" exists in the West, the majority ofnewspaper readers will think of years ofanarchist resistance in Catalonia as"nationalist" or the struggle against theclosing years of the Franco regime as"Basque nationalist" or of variousnationalist bodies elsewhere as anarchist.What chance is there of Russian or out-side readers knowing the truth aboutresistance in Russia? Only at one stagewill they know. Then matters will reallybe advanced!

Exit Romans,Weeping

The National Front candidate atLady wood, having scored a by-e'ectionsensation by beating the Liberals intofourth place, and notching up 888(coincidentally the fascist inner symbolfor Hitler - H the eighth letter of thealphabet and so the triple 8 club).

But a few days afterwards he resignedfrom the National Front. Mr. AnthonyReed-Herbert said he was 'giving uppolitics after a vendetta of hate.' He andhis wife had received threatening telephonecalls. He had been told he was the targetfor 'a bid to rid the East Midlands ofpeople like yru.' The safest thing was toresign.

Mr. Ian Bunce, too, parliamentarycandidate for Dundee, resigned after

(explained his wife) people had actually'daubed Nazi slogans' on the. r nice littlehornet, *;

Many others too.Had anyone daubed Nazi slogans on

walls of Black people, saying 'niggers gohome' they could not resign from theBlack race in order to live in peace. Jews^ould not, at any rate in a manner accept-able to anti-semites, resign. But NationalFront and other racialist and fascistsupporters have that opportunity, andtake advantage of it at the first moment.

Yet isn't it a commentary on themthat they do? Compare them withAnarchists who have, as readers of thispaper will know only too well, gone totheir deaths, or to long t;rms of imprison-

ment, or faced unemployment, victimisa-tion and poverty!

The Reed-Herberts and the Buncesare the elite of fascism, the chosen fewwho were destined for leadership. Theyillustrate that fascism of the NationalFront type as it now exists is never andcan never be a menace. What can be amenace is a fascist party which is neededby the Establishment (which at themoment is a liberal Establishment andthe NF a gadfly); such a fascist party isalways not only protected by the policebut acts as its vanguard. It commits arsonand murder with the police, and ultimatelythe army, to back it (as in even post-Franco Spain). Its opponents are arrestedwhen they defend themselves.

ROON'nSometimes oa^th,who would'achieve anything?that puts new fire in-your tyslly,such happened the other day. Noeland Marie Murray, now beginning asentence for life,,sent £5 for Black Flag.*In the conditions they are serving theirsentences - far jfqgpg/girrher, in a grimprison cell, than for hfri^jtijiejnilitary ,..prison of The Curragb - they are. nptlikely tp.be receiving this journal, pt •_any letters. ,We have long since been,,harmed by the Republican jailers. Never-theless, Marie and Noel have thought ofus and want to, carry on the fight forother prisoners' anojj&r. the internationalanarchist movement; rather than to,spepdthenjoiwyjpnth.^^ ,,,comforts.

balance sheet..,,

'"n'tim:*All the long-term libertarian prisoners

anti-Fnnii^r^iteiic«fig]aitersremainbehind bars. This is not entirely theresult of amnesty; most of them weredue to be released long ago, but theconstitution guaranteed law relating tconditional liberty was not being apjNow that it is being applied, the Anzprisoners have specially benefitted. Thosein prison in Spain now, some thirty atthe latest count, are on more recentcharges, or have not yet bcea trledt as areusk of demonstrations or activity sinceFranco's death.

From Ireland too, we learn withpleasure of the release of our comradeColumba Longmore, having completedhis sentence. This leaves, in the Curragh,Des Keane and Bobby Cullen, who havea year or two more to suffer, and Nod.' $Murray, who is beginning his life«Snt%rice:Marie Murray begins her sentence hi CorkPrison.

Notwithstanding the verdict whichhas removed the death penalty, however,we do not want to give up the case, ofNoel and Marie. The Defence Committeeis going to fight on. It still needs fundsfor the legal battles which lie ahead.Now that the death threat has beenremoved, less public interest is arousedwhich is a-pity. Noel and Marieirnustnotbe allowed to rot inside: admission thatthere was no evidence save torture camewith the acquittal of RonafljStenson. Allsteps must be taken to get thestsentencesreversed.

Marie Murray now has only two otherwomen prisoners with her in LimerickJail. She could become completely:;isolated soon and is in great danger • •( remember Ulrike).

No anarchist could fail to admire thefighting spirit of the hunt saboteurs andthe militant anti-blood sports campaigners,including the animal liberationists. Isthis an "uncritical approach to violence"or a recognition that direct action paysoff in results? For years the savagepractices of the upper classes and theirhangers-on were accepted as a normalpart of the English scene. Now there is,at least, an apologetic approach butwith the defence of the system takingon an ugly edge.

Tak* the-case of MB. Valery Waters,a 45 year old Birmingham mother oftwo, who took some foxhunters to courtand landed up in jail herself. Drivingalong a country lane - which interferredwith the hunt, but to doing which, she .was well entitled •- te^pa*, was ambushedby four gentlemen \iaJAy#^&&(£ .poured on it, turf thrust up the exhaust,and paint spraye^&ntf16 took thos

But the magistrate?'. provoked the attack;

Refusing to be bound over, she was sentto jail, another victim of the "damaged-policeman's-boot-with-jaw" syndrome.

In the iin-*?

"wi.ji.c~i**"~ —J*TJ i'¥**"'?T*~ j~s~j"~?~*'that redbrick horror of a jail which isreplacing the mock-Gothic monstrosity,

j London's HoUoway,- which when its(f rebuilding was announced, was said to

be going..to be a. "hospital rather than aprison." By the time these lines appeartheir "re-education" will be over; prisonwill have "reformed rather than punished"will it?

•*•«• -y ^

It is extraordinary that in 1977 one cansuccessfully prosecute on the grounds ofblasphemy. Admittedly, to get awaywith it, the definition of blasphemy hashad to be changed. Upsetting Christiansfor references to the central figure in theirfaith may be "disturbing the peace." butso are a number of other things such asflaunting obscene political opinions; it'snot what blasphemy was supposed to beabout, which was offending the Lord.There was some point in burning theoffenders in case the Lord objected tobeing offenced: but a money fine anda suspended sentence doesn't seem tobe enough to ward off lightning.

This comes as a result of a successfulcampaign by Mary Whitehouse for thegreater glory of Mary Whitehouse. Thepress has built her up, and she canonly maintain her name and fame by suchstunts as this private prosecution of

' Cay Nev» for blasphemy i Shrewd6

campaigner as she is, knowing that togo for blasphemy against Gay Newswas shooting a sitting duck because ofthe likelihood of anti-homosexual biasof the jury, she couldn't have knownin advance that she was going to geta Jewish judge who bent over backwardsto ward.pif, the threat to Christianmorality.. (Irijih Ifi^puMcan prisoners. \n English jails, unlucky enough to get

Irish Catholic warders rather thanEnglish, will recognise what happened!)

It could never have come off had shepicked a formidable opponent; insteadof James Kirkup's sad little poem, saysomething really blasphemous like BillyCormollyVNiOiarit, bawSy,liSffiS*™-The Crucifixion". (For thoee whodon't know it, Jesus really came fromGallowgate, net Galilee and was a Glasgowhooray who told tall stories about hisfaither up yonder when he had some of thatcheap red wine in him...)

But now the law has been affirmed,another campaigner, or another AttorneyGenera), will take this rusty weapon of •blasphemy out of its mediaeval scabbardand use it when it is conveo$oat*jmfc =>;,because of the precedent of a coincidenceof Mary Whitehouse's pro-Whitehousecampaign,^Uncle Tom,on the benchand ahpmose^ual defendant.. f., $at>the,democratic, process. This time {bey,,.,can take on the big league — wfaoJ..-r

Already jubilant Mrry Whitehouseand others are saying th^t they do nptfe»rjqW^pafeififirig theit should include other religions too . . .

The rusty weapon may be a treacherousone to use. Mr. Justice King-Hamilton,had he been more inclined judiciallytowards the teachings of his own religion,would have regarded teaching that Jesus

flttL8CT of God and maybeGod himself as much more blasphemousthan saying his corpse got fucked and suckedby a Roman soldier.

,t > t tDo we not, however, detect a somewhat

ingenuous - or opportunistic? — noteabout some of the left and libertarianswho, in righteous and defiant protestagainst the prosecution, have reprintedKirkup's verse, less for any worth initself than in solidarity . . . when theydeclined any solidarity with anarchists,or others charged with a revolutionary

' activity. Itj* caster* of oourte, to rreproduce a poem than to reproduce theactions of resistance movements, andnobody asks them to do that, butcouldn't they at least refrain fromsneering, deprecating «nd criticising?The criticisms in some cases take theform of saying that certain actions ofresistance fighters, such as bankrobberies, tend to 'alienate the masses.'

; It is by no means a worthwhile criterion,but if it were, which 'alienates the masses'more - bank robberies or the gay scene?

I Georgui Costakis is a 65 year old Greekwho has spent his life in Moscow, workingfor more than 30 years for the CanadianEmbassy and therefore is an exceptionallyprivileged position. This isn't a sumabout persecution or harassment asgenerally conies out of Russia; Costakishas lived modestly but well, comparedwith his neighbours, for he has had theprivilege of diplomatic wages. His hobbyhas been buying up the rebel Russianpainters of the 20s and 30s - rebel, thatis, only in their use of artistic expression(other rebels were condemned to Sibei

He has amassed a unique collectionof avant garde painters — the bulk ofwhich he has donated to the Soviet State(which has accepted them, and lockedthem up out of sight). Some howeverthey've let him take out of the country.

If the paintings receive world acclaim.the Soviet State may yet relent and sayhow they redoutld to the gloty of theFatherland and Marxist-Leninism. Theyare rightly suspicious, however, ofaccording too hasty recognition todissident art.

No feasible dictatorship likes that sortof thing around. It gives people ideas.

ments of capitalist achievement inAmerica, nor to the authoritarian parties- fascist or communist - that thenseemed, one or the other, to hold thefuture in their hands. They stuck totheir working class occupations when theycould have gone ahead with a career; andihey were avowed anarchists, believers ina free society. For that only they wereto be dragged in as criminals and blamedfor a crime they did not commit.

Anarchism then seemed a lost cause;but was this the only treatment itsapostles were entitled to expect?

Sacco, "the good shoemaker", did notexpect anything else of the State andcapitalism. He accepted the fact that hewas in the hands of fate ertemies, tied tothe stake and to run the course. Vanzetti,at his own valuation "a poor fish-peddler",

i-» . _ - -J. ". — •**. . • * - f - " -warntf

After fifty years, the State of Massa-chusetts has admitted that Nicola Saccoand Bartolomeo Vanzetti were denied afair trial. They were executed despiteworld wide protests, only because theywere Anarchists. The Boston jury thattried them decided that because theydiffered with them politically, they mustby that token be criminal. Nor has theworld advanced much since then. To bean "avowed" or "self-confessed" Anarchistis enough to excite prejudice and bigotryeven in countries where the lawyers rulerather than the dictators.

Vanzetti prophesied that he and Sacco••Mrifii »-i«'ifi •" •<li¥^ Iwould be remembered when Judge Inayer

was known only by disrepute; and thecase has refused to die. Each investiga-tion into the case has shown that JudgeThayer was imbued with the prejudicesof 1927 America and the jury wasinfluenced by him. The State Governorhas now "removed the stigma and disgrace'attached to the two men; one may smileat his presumption. What stigma, whatdisgrace? The whole world knew longago that there was none. Vanzetti 'ssister and Sacco's grandson receivedcopies of the proclamation and were

]sakyqg«pleased; officialdom hasrecognised what people all over theworld spontaneously knew at the time —

that they were denied a fair trial becauseof their opinions.

It may seem strange today — afteryears of genocide, fascism, war - that,the case so moved the world. After allthe crime itself - a bank robbery - wasnothing much in the way of the worldat the time; and the fact that two obscureforeigners were blamed when they werepalpably innocent was no more unusualeither. But it was the blatancy of thesituation that excited the world then.Here were two men who had swum

elementary command of English, illuminedthe case. In a mad world these havebecome the stuff of literary collectionsand schoolboy essays, and the case itselfone for innumerable university thesesand scholarly books of many tomes.

We commented a few years ago, whenit was agreed that the witches of Salemhad not precisely had a just trial either —had never been in league with the Devilto corrupt New England - that it mightnot be long now before it was agreedthat Sacco and Vanietti too had theirconvictions overturned, though half-a-century too latj} to do them any good.Was it the fflm that finally"tipped the.scale?

It is 57 years since their arrest - andthere were workers demonstrating in thestreets of Paris, Barcelona, New York,

innocent of the crinie for which theywere accused, half a century beforeofficial Massachusetts. But they knew,too, that the "crime" for which theywere not accused, but were found guilty,was that of being not, as the newspaperreports would have it now, "radicals,"but of being Anichists'.;.. of Dintinga new free world.

A Hard Slow Grind

The BBC showed the stining story of"The Ballad of Joe Hill"' on television.We reviewed the film at the time sodon't need to repeat our views for the

7

TV showing; but it was of the greatfighter Joe Hill who fought to build theIWW as an authentic expression ofworking-class America. Bo Widerbergpaid a moving tribute to Joe Hill.

It wasn't good enough (or maybe itcaused pique) for the trots; Newslinecommented, 'This is not the portrait ofa man steeled in struggle ... the hard,slow grind of building a movement isleft out. The unemployed riding thefreight trains are cast more in the mouldof romantic free-movers than thedesperate searchers for food, work andshelter. It's a soft picture . . ." (July 9).

Joe HillIn an adjoining column we find

announcements for "the hard, slowgrind of building a movement": "Force'the Lib Lab coalition to resign!" - witha speaker from the teachers' union ("ina personal capacity"); "Build therevolutionary leadership in the tradeunions". Joe Hill went out in thelumber camps and fought the terror ofthe bosses, the practical, hard-headedtrots speak in halls to students for a"revolutionary leadership" of thereformist unions.

How'Joe Hill would have laughedabout the Newsline review — he mighteven have made a song about it. (Maybe"A hard, slow grind," to the tone of"A Hard Day's Night?")

The accusation of "romanticism" isoften flung at us, too from "hard-headed"would-be libertarians. Why should it bea political swearword? Is there supposedto be something wrong with continuingto believe in one's ideals and sticking toone's principles?

To Charlotte Baggins and Chris Broad:ihotrrtf daughter to swell the tfnarchfethorde.

JAKE PRESCOTTJake Prescott was moved to WandsworthPrison in early August. As the vanprepared to drive away from Albanywith its police escorts, the prison Governorcame up to him and shouted "You're onRule 43, you know," and slammed thedoor.""When he arrived at Wandswprth Jake

was placed immediately 'on $ule 3(segregation) without any explanationbeing given. Even the WandsworthGovernor admitted that he didn't knowwhy. other than it was on Home Officeorders.

So Jake, still suffering from hepatitis(and not receiving treatment) which hecontracted while at Albany, is in thecockroach-ridden cells of the Wands-worth segregajtajbto^ denied booksand visitors. ?

All the prisonln$li|NFrn the Hullprison riot last summer including Jakehave suffered savage beatings, loss ofremission, and continual shooting fromprison to prison — much of it spent insolitary confinement, as Jake is now.

Many of them, including Jake, have beendeeply concerned about the likelihoodof their being "found hung" in their cells,as a result of what they read in theirpersonal files, liberated during the Hulloccupation . . . an assumption notdispelled by recent revelations aboutthe numbers of National Front membersamongst the Prison Service. Yet prisonersare still prepared to show their fightingspirit.

Jake's determination to resist inparticular is a good example; as was themagnificent collection raised by prisonersin Gartree towardsFund. Now we haveexample of such soli<Marie Murray have si

Jaidingo

ray Defence«00ther

Noel and£5 to wards

In view of theJake to have felt about

wWlst#ad«r threat of death,thetJ*5 *"* * - f f ^ - • p*^

and bearing in mind his ill-health and ill-treatment, we shall be forwarding thismoney p a s a reciprocal gesture ofthe solidarity he has always shown forcomrades under attack. We know Noel

and Marie will be heartened to hear thatit has gone to Jake, and we can onlymarvel at their selflessness and solidaritywhen they themselves are locked awayfor a long stretch.

We ask all our readers to rememberthose comrades still fighting behind prisonbars and to show their solidari ty bycarrying on the struggle outside with asmuch determination.

Noel, Marie and Jake . .. Salud!————i___

Press GangedGeorge Melly, the jazz singer, who wascertainly once an anarchist, says that"politically be hasn't changed much."Not much! I dutifully vote Labour butI'd stffl call mysetf «n anarchist thoughthe phrase now seems to be associatedeither with the Sex Pistols or withGerman girls blowing up banks. I neverthought of it like that." (Sunday Times28.8.77). We never quite thought of itas voting Labour.

Writing on the fifteenth anniversaryof the execution of Sacco and VanzettiRichard Boston (Guardian 27.8.77) says:"one must set the context of'anarchismin America.' Most anarchists (as opposedto nihilists) have been, and are, believersin peaceful, creative, co-operative,.non-violent means: this is the anarchism ofThoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi and Kropotkin.'

Which is the odd man out? Kropotkin(the only one of the three to call himselfan anarchist) and hardly a creeping Jesuspacifist despite some of his nowadaysworshippers!

Or perhaps Gandhi — an authoritarianif ever there was one! ;'

It makes one puke to find journalistincapable of understanding anarchism tothe Jjoint^where day after day - irf1|l$''.''GufedUui tpo — they equate it with anysort of violent opposition to the State, '"irrespective of its motivation - and whenthe occasional fair-minded journalistcomes along, he rushes into the oppositeabsurdity and equates it with Gandhiannon-resistance.

children wereabout ffitter/OitotigWfie hadbeaten Bismarck in an election: Englishpressmen had a field day laughing at theignorant kids. Bismarck though wasn't abad hit (it was Hindenburg the boy, whowasn't born then, was thinking of)- Butthe unqualified journalists don't knowGandhi from an anarchist while othersthink its the I.R. A!

For the ignorance of George Melly -whose main interest has always been jazzand whose political theory has gotsyncopated — one has to lay a heavyblame on the continuous liberal traditionof the pseudo-anarchists, perpetuated bythe take-over of Freedom Press andaccentuated by Peace News. Immeasurableharm has b«« doiieWttarchitm^y th?,.,caricature of anarchism they havepresented in recent years of the anarchistmovement, both by the deliberatedistortion of their militant liberalism as"non-violent anarchism," and theirconsequent denunciation of realanarchism as ipso facto "violent," or asRichard Boston quaintly confuses it,"nihilism."

While we're on the subject of "violence"s incidentally

"There must be quite a few peoplearound - gentle, law-abiding, non-violent- who would without much hesitationjoin any conspiracy for the removal ofthe Ugandan monster, Idi Amin." beginsa book review in the London Evening

8

t iNews (28th August). But wouldn't theythen be wicked anarchists of the sort theNews denounces so severely? Or is theexception for Amin — maybe bec"ause he:sa black-skinned dictator, as distinct fromsuch gentle, law-abiding, non-violentwhite dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini.Stal in . Franco . . . . ?

INTERNATIONAL NEWS" '

CHILEFreedom for Raul Cornejo!Raul Guillermo Cornejo, aged 30. was astudent of psychology at the Universidadde Chile. He is one of 2000-3000 Chilianswhich the DINA (Dirreccion de Intele-gencia Nacional) displaced.

Raul Cornejo was a(Movement of the revolutand as a result was persecuted by .DINAbefore he was imprisoned. DINAimprisoned his paretns and his wifeViviana Altamirano de Cornejo inconcentration camps. They weretortured cruelly in an attempt to findwhere Raul was hiding. They imprisonedand tortured the parents of his wifeViviana, their three sisters, theof their sisters, a friend of Raiother people, solely to force thesepeople to give the whereabouts of Raul.Viviana was tortured so brutal ly tha tshe is still lame today. She now livesin Sweden.

On 15.6.76 Raul Cornejo tried with20 other persons to seek asylum in theBulgarian Embassy in Santiago de Chile.Until today it still isn'i clear how a group

,.ITALYRome —Two members of the "Nucleusof the Armed Proletariat" (NAP) wereshot down by Italian Carabinieri in Julyafter being spotted talking to friends onthe stops of Rome's San Pietro inVincoli. Antonio Lo Muscio (26) andMaria Pia Vianale (23) had been on thepolice wanted list as leaders of the NAP.Seeing two Carabinieri get out of theircar and walk towards them, Lo Musciotried to run away down an alley.Sgt.Fortunato Massitti went after him andpumped eight bullets into his head andchest, whilst his partner Pietro Pucciarmatiknocked cqmrade Vianale and her pregnantfriend Franca Salarno — who had jumped

Ti''/T)''

of the BUNA, under the leadership ofMiguel Krassnoff Marchenko, couldintrude into the embassy. All 29 wereimprisoned and brought to the tariceatra-tion camp "Tres Alamos'.' lHembers ofthe OAS conference, which was in Chileat this time, demanded freedom for the29, and they were all released on 16thJune 1976 in Santiago at O'ffiggins Park.Raul boarded a bus to go home. Therehe met his brother Patricio. He told himthat he was tortured in Tres Alamoswhen suddenly he noticed that the buswas being fo

"4T-''~*-'»2a[^&" * "*iv JJJTi.CB3'"> -"-'rf'belonging to the DINA. He and a friendwho has also been released decided toleavecornetjjtfSanlRaul went in the dir«ttwhere his brother saw thestop near Raul and four soldierhim into one of the cars.day Raul has disappeared. The 'junta denies imprisoning Raul, thoughhe was seen in the "Villa Grimaldi" acentre of torture in Chile.

(source: Industrial Defence Bulletin,/

>n with Vianale lastSd&|8ithe ground, breaking Vianale's nose. Afourth unidentified comrade managed toescape.

For the cops, Massitti and Pucciarmati,the action meant immediate'plbinottonand a ceremonious "public tribute to theirbravery!" But so brave were these twodefenders of order t h a t I ta l ians wereonly allowed a glimpse of the men'sbacks when the cereirKmy wt»%levfedvAnd Italian newspapers refrained frompublishing photos of the heroes for fearof retaliations. The "Red Brigades" havesince amounted that' Massitti will notenjoy hi? j»oraqlion'for much longer."We have a good memory^theydeclared, "and no one will go unpunished."

POLANDFollowing the mysterious death of 21year old student Stanislaw Pyjas inKrakow and claims that he was murderedby the Polish Police, the state has steppedup the level of harassment against themembers of the Workers DefenceCommittee.

Although they were forced only a fewweeks ago to grant an amnesty toimprisoned opponents, the Polishauthorities arrested seven members ofthe WDC who were intending to travel tothe funderal of Stanislaw Pyjas. Manyof the people who should have beenreleased under the terms of theamnesty, who were imprisoned for longsentences for taking part in the strikesand riots of June 1976, remain in jail.

gamizdat literature continues ta-circulate on an increasing scale, and thereare reports of posters appearing in sometowns condemning the links between thePolish and Russian governments. Onerecent publication describes how a .number of factories have been hit bywork stoppages, and in those instancesin which the workers have been forcedback to work without settlement of theirdemands, productivity haHtita-dramatically.

Letters protesting at the continuedharassment of the Defence Committee,and demanding a complete amnestv forall the imprisoned strikers should be sentto the Polish Ambassador, Polish Embassy,Portland Place, London W.I.

Messages of support to the DefenceCommittee can be sent to Jacek Kuron,Warszawa, Mickiewicza 27.nu64. Poland.(Although Kuron is one of the peoplecurrently detained in prison).

SWEDENTwelve of the thirty people arrested inStockholm during April (see Black FlagIV/15) were indicted on 24 July. Thecounts include preparations for kid-napping, robberies and bombings, whichcarry penalties of up to 10 yearsimprisonment. Their trial is expected tobegin at the end of August. The publicprosecutor has released more than 4,000pages of "documentary evidence" allegingthat Norbert Krcfecher (extradieted toWest Germany as a suspected memberof the 2nd June Movement) and the 12accused had planned to kidnap theformer Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna-Greta Leijon, in order to extract a ransomof 15m Kroner (£2m) from the Swedishgovernment. Leijon was responsiblefor the deportation of five members ofthe "Holger Meins Commando" toWest Germany, one of whom SiegfriedHausner, died as a result of being movedwhilst badly wounded. She was, the

prosecutor alleges, to have been crammedinto a specially made box and taken to acellar rented by the accused. Some of theSwedish suspects are stated to have"admitted" taking part in several bankrobberies (netting 143,000 Kroner) tofund the "extensive preparations andequipment" for the kidnapping.Altogether 1 5 people are still being heldby the Swedish authorities. Two ofthem will possibly also be indicted; thecase against a third has been dismissed.

URGENT!A 21 -year old comrade, Ted Bergstrom,(prison address: 1023, Box 121 06,10223 Stockholm, Sweden) is accusedof placing a bomb outside the "SpainTour" travel agency in Stockholm asa protest against the proposed executionof the 5 comrades in Spain in au tumn1975. He is linked to the action andhas confessed and put out a politicalstatement.

He is now in isolation arrest awaitingthe trial. We need information aboutwhat kind of manifestations of solidaritywere made in your home country' or any-thing else that you know about. It isvery important to show that his actionwas not a single (isolated) phenomenon.

It 's not too much to say that the timeis short and we are looking forward toa rapid response of solidarity.

Revolutionary Libertarian Greetings,Svarta Korset, c/o Brand, Box 1 5030,

10465 Stockholm, Sweden.

Robert X. ynn as.Jwo c i r e n , aaged 6 and a 2-year old girl, and is servinga prison sentence of between 53 and 60years.

In 1974 a police officer was shot bya man with a sawn-off shotgun whileinvestigating a car he believed was involvedin a bank robbery earlier that day.During the same evening nine morecops arrested Robert Lynn while he wasmaking a phone call. Ten months laterhe went on trial to face charges relatingto the robbery and to the shooting ofthe policeman. His conviction was theresult of identification evidence made bythree people. A female employee of :the bank who identified him by his"left eye only" (as the robbers weremasked). A witness to the shootingwho identified another person on theday following the shooting, and onlypicked Lynn out as being responsible sixmonths later, in court . And lastly by apoliceman, who swore that he never sawthe face of the man he chased followingthe shooting, yet identified Robert asbeing that person.

Robert can be contacted as follows:Robert L, Lynn, 57320, Drawer N,Trenton, NJ. 08625, U.S.A. and atRobert L. Lynn Defence Fund, 205,Williams. Street, Railway* NJ. 07065,L . S . A .

(source: HapotocJ .'

JOE REMIRO FRAMED UP IN ESCAPE >,ATTEMPT CHARGES FROM FOLSOMPRISON.The State of California has concoctedanother frame-up charge againstimprisoned ex-SLA member JosephRemiro. Already serving two life termsfor murder and jail break, Joe is accusedthis time of plotting an escape attemptfrom Folsom Prison with two otherprisoners.

The alleged plot came to light lastJune 4 (although no report was releasedon it until June 22) after a formerassociate of Remiro, Bobby Davis, handeda 9-mm pistol and 27 rounds of ammuni-tion over to the prison authorities andimplicated Remiro in the alleged escapeattempt.

•

Remiro reports that Davis told prisonofficials that the plan involved the twoof them and another inmate killingmembers of the Aryan Brotherhood, sixguards and then escaping. Remiro toldthe Fifth Estate, "Of course, these peoplewent crazy. Shotgun escort and a nakedwalk to the 'hole'."

Folsom Prison officials say they are"baffled" as to how the gun got into theprison, the first one ever discovered inthe maximum security penetentiary.Guns in the past have been planted onpolitical prisoners, such as GeorgeJackson who was murdered by prisonguards, to set them up for execution orto bring additional charges down on them.

Remiro says he thinks the chargesagainst him are weak and probably will

Davis is serving a life term for killingfour California Highway Patrol officers,and Remiro, with Russel Little, who isin another prison, is doing life forallegedly assassinating Oakland,California, School SuperintendentMarcus Foster in 1973 and for anattempted escape from the AlamedaCounty Jail in which two deputieswere wounded.

In a letter to the Fifth Estate, datedJune 29, Remiro denied being involvedin any escape plot and said he had justbeen released into the general prisonpopulation after three years of beinglocked-down in solitary confinementand nine;prisoner.'

A search of the prison after Davissurrendered the gun and ammunitionturned up 19 prison-made knives,including in his cell what Remiro called"a curious metal object that thesepeople insist on calling a knife.'Remiro has continually had his lithreatened by prison guards and membersof the white-racist inmate grouping, theAryan Brotherhood. Papers in Californiahave reported the incident with typicalinaccuracy, claiming the "weapons wereto be used in warfare within the AryanBrotherhood, a white racist prisonorganisation," implying that Joe is amember of that organisation.

10

Bobby Davisnot reach a civilian court. The incidentwill be handled as an infraction ofprison rules and "we'll be found guiltyby a jury of our accusers and keepers."Remiro plans to challenge this. "Don'tthink that any of us have resigned ourselvesto this - we have plans to push this intocourt or at least raise hell trying."

Joe and Russ Little are victims of theofficial hysteria over the SLA and areinnocent of the murder charges they aresentenced to life for. They deserve oursupport and assistance.

Protests against Remiro's treatmentshould be lodged with Assistant DeputyCorrections Director, George Warner,Folsom Prison, Represa (that's right),California 95671, U.S.A.

&*7&?&***UDwight Armstrong was senseven years in Milwaukee for his part inthe 1970 anti-Vietnam War protestbombing of a military computer centrein Madison. His elder brother Karletonwas sentenced to 23 years a while back,and David Fine received seven years.

Leonard Peltier, the 34-year oldChipewa-Sioux Indian activist who wasdeported from Canada last year, has b?ensentenced to two consecutive life termsin prison, after being found guilty ofkilling two FBI agents during a 1975 gunbattle at the Pine Ridge Reservation in "

South Dakota. Two of die people accusedwith Leonard fritter were acquitted lastsummer after the jury accepted pleasthtft thet;rtien acted in self-defence.; *An appeal has been lodge* b*?l9te>iW>fTeof the defence committee!* beirighampered by lack of money.

Among the evidence presented at thetrial was an affidavit by Myrtle PoorBear* who claimed tvW#ite& Leonard's 'girl friend, and a witness to the shootings.She was never called as a witness at thetrial, despite the defence atte'inptiC&d'has subsequently admitted tUVlM Has^

was signed by her following FBI t , eats.Frank Blackhorse, who was ai rested

in Canada at the same time as LeonardPeltier, in ,197-5, was supposed to havebeea^eported to tbat^A to .face^charges in connection with the WoundedKnee occupations, however, he remainsin prison following a H day-Wfnteftce forthe possession of a rnarijnarfe pint (liferreversed on appeal) and a 20 monthsentence for attempting ' • ' escape. TheCanadian authorities are attempting touse these criminal charges to deport himwhen his sentence finishes in October^as'they hayebeen unable to. prqyethathis entry into the country was irregular.Defence Committees: ArmstrongDefence CbriimftleW, Bbtf%2, MadSbH,Wise. 53701, USA.Blackhorse -PJka».a64,SufaH.vUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.,or you can write to Frank direct atBox 10, Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. Canada.Leonard Peltier contact: Native AmericanSolidarity qommittee, PO. Box 34%,St. Paul,W.5.5.l$p&SA.

AUSTRALIAIn 1959 20-year old Sandra WBsofi shotdead a stranger. She was acquitted ofmurder on grounds of insanity andconfined*oYp«ydiii&ic hospital at c;theGovemor's phesuie* >fe 1971 1 panel jof psychiatrists dtoennmed' that she wassane and she was tnasferreA-frornhospital to jail.

Sandra hat flow l)e«n confined forover 17 years (longer than any otherwoman in Australia), although the averagejail sentence served by persons sentencedto life after conviction of murder inNew South Wales is 1 3 years. She hasapplied for release every year since 1971.

More than 2 1 women have formed asupport group and are campaigning forSandra's release, and have arranged foraccommodation in tor,* and have gpther a job, and will try toJbelp,her,overcomfethe problems associated With institution-alisation for long periods. The onlyproblem is that the authorities won'trelease Sandra. < They believe that because .she is a lesbian she will have problemsadjusting to the hostility of the widerworld. The support group dispute thisclaiming that Sandra is no longer likelyto react violently*? lejectioa and thatattitudes have, chaafed sinfg Ji«r. .conviction.

Pressure may help Sandra obtain herrelease. Write letters of protest to: Mr.R. Mulock, Minister for Services, Parlia-ment Buildings, Syndey, New South Wales.

' (source: Hapotoc/Bill O'Meally (see last issue) has a newaddress: AKyision, H.M. Prison,Pentridge, Cobiug. "Victoria, Australia305*.

FRANCEn i bjDokjhpp of

Libertaire was the victim of a deliberatearson attempt, and the entire interior ofthe shop was destroyed. Five days later,a second libertarian bookshop, "La ,Taupe, Viq.Le Mans, escape damage whepan incendary failed to ignite. Threepeople were asleep on the premises atthetfme.

±a

SPAINCongratulations to comrade Pons Llobet(ex-MIL) who was released from prisonon 16th July.

Angel Imprisoned.Angel Moreno Patino, who was sentencedto two years imprisonment for forgingcheques to raise funds for the G.A.C.(M.I.L.) has had his sentence reducedto I b month*.

Boletin Informative del ColectivoInternacionalista de CommunicacionesLibertaria y Ecologicas de TrabajadoresAnarcosindicalistas. Subscriptions anddonations to: B.LC;I.C.LE.T;A», loseElizalde, cuenta postal no. 1379763,Caja Postal de Ahorros, Madrid, Spain.

.' '. ' - . .if .'itvj i!cWiWv';;.'vvWEST GERMANY

sentencedof Ifie^Holgar Meins

Commando - Ltttr Taufer (SS^Hanna 'Krabbe (31). Bernard Roessner (30). aridKati-HHnz feBwo (25* to each serve'double life terms for participating inthe attack against the West Germanembassy fe-Stockhohh oh 24th April1975V The four Were found guilty 6fkilling two diplomats, Lt. Col. AndreasBaron von Mirbach, the military attache,and Dr. Heinz Hillegaart, economiccounsellor, of taking 13 hostages and"attempting to place the West Germanauthorities under duress". One memberof the six-person commando, UlrichWessel, died during the Stockholm action,and another, Hausner, died when he wasdeported whilst still badly wounded. AsJudge Muller began reading the Judge-ments, comrades and sympathisers inthe court gave clenched fist salutes andshouted "down with extermination jails"and "murderers of Hausner." Mullerthereupon ordered uniformed and plain-clothes cops to throw them out andtwenty demonstrators were carried out

11'

of the courtroom under a barrage ofpunches and kicks.Stuttgart . . . On 13 June it was announcedthat the first attempt was made to forcefeed Varena Becker, arrested in May withGuenther Sonneberg (see Black FlagIV/15), who is on hunger strike withSabine Sofcijpif&fijjcitlfB eight to associatewith other prisoners. This right wasnominally granted some time ago by theStammheim prison authorities af te r along hunger strike by many prisoners,but this promise has not been kept. Theyhave been refusing food since 2 June.Following the announcement, threeattempts were made to force feed her,but she resisted and in a meeting withVarerm's ikwVfef'ffife' doetdr* sard forcewould not be used again. This merelymeant that the next time she would bedragged before force feeding.

The lawyers of the two women havebeen charged by the state prosecutorsoffice, with at tempted murder andgrievous bodily harm, because theyrefused to persuade the two to break offtheir hunger strike! Some curious legalreasoning has concluded that they areresponsible for the dangerous conditionsof their clients. Armin Newerla. one ofthe. lawyers, stia after a press conferencethat the perpetrators were being producedto precede the deed.

Karl-Heinz Roth and Roland Otto havebeen acquitted by a Cologne court ofkilling a policeman during a gun-fight inMay 1975. Roland Otto remains inprison to complete a sentence for forgery,added to which he received an extra 10months for illegally possessing a weapon.Karl-Hein? Roth was released but linedmore than £3.000 for illegally possessingthe gun that the police used to shoothim with,

Peter-Paul Zahl has been transferred backto the prison at Weil . In the last issueof Black Flag we reported his suddentransfer to the remand prison at Bochumfollowing a prisoners' hunger-strike. Hisbelongings have now been returned tohim and the authorities are publishingthis as a magnanimous gesture. Peter-Paul's new address is:- P.P. Zahl,Postfach 301. 476 Werl, Germany.

IrishPrisoners

1 > • > T [ '

on theJubilee

We haven't said anything about the SilverJubilee of Mrs. Elizabeth Glucksburg, bythe Grace of God and the luck of the drawour gracious sovereign. All the stuffabout the Jubilee is about as corny asthe Jubilee itself; though perhaps it wasnecessary in view of the noisy royalismabout, kept up much the same way asbaptism, Jesus and Father Christmas,"for the sake of the kids" and so asnot to spoil their fun.

But when it comes to personalities,you must grant her one thing and that isshe has more guts than any other of thetitular and actual heads of the NationStates. Compare the attitude of theQueen with the rulers of France who havesoiled underpants every time they ventureinto the public ga/,e. and need to carryout mass kidnaps whenever a visit

of citizens formerly to 'Brittany, are carried out on routine

jf State heads in Paris; but inthe Queen rides through ir

open carriage sometimes withoccasional trained ape, at the behestof Ministers who like their own privatedetective for the importance it conferson them and insist on the Queen havingone. But where is the equivalent of theraids normally carried out by the Frenchpolice on this special occasion?

And courage pays off, for the lack ofrepression means that counter-attacksare not provoked. We say nothing aboutthe dictators - they need their body-guards — but could not at least the lily-livered French Presidents and Premierstake a hint? '

Can it be that France must await aMadame la Presidente before it gets onewith balls?

But lest this unexpected complimentbe passed on to Her Britannic Majesty.we must point out that there is, on theother hand, not one country with asimilar event taking up so much time.publicity and expense, that would nothave celebrated at least with a partialamnesty for prisoners, certainly forpolitical prisoners. However little, theywould all gjve something in the way ofamnesty; only in England, only HerBritannic, or whoever does the job forher. is mean enough to give nothing.

"I have been asked by some old comradeswhy I, as an anarchist support the Proves,"writes "Sidney Street" — no relation — inAnarchy 22 and goes on to give the mostincredibly naive interpretation.

Black Flag's attitude is, summed up as"it's only a religious nationalist war."Religion and nationalism do not apparentlyenter into it. What does? He goes on tostate the degree of repression, which heseems to think is unrelated to nationalismor religion, and concludes:

"If any of you want something practicalto do, what about the Irish prisoners in

England? Many of you will no doubthave helped or applauded the work beingdone for Spanish prisoners by Black Crossand allied groups, but what about theprisoners on your own doorsteps?"

To this remark we take exception anda few words for our naive friend wouldnot be amiss.

He begrudges anything done foranarchists which is typical of the type of"anarchist" taking a "non sectarian' ,"practical" and "critical support" line.The Black Cross does not receive allthat support.

The Black Cross does not only supportSpanish prisoners. It so happens that's wheremost anarchist struggle and prisoners have been.But also, the amount of Spanish prisoners hasrun into thousands — at times it was in thetens and even hundreds of thousands. Theyreceived no support from anywhere in theworld, nor from national assistance, nor didthe State support their families. (They evenhad to buy their own food in jail). The BlackCross raised in its time a total of maybe acouple of thousand pounds or so - we cannotcompute because we asked people to senddirect.

The Black Cross has always asked forsupport for class war prisoners. Due to ourpaucity of support, confined to a few anar-chists, we have had to give some priorities toour own comrades who needed it. A lotdidn't need it and some prisoners contributedto funds rather than received. Most of ourprisoners in F.ngland and Ireland havecontributed to Spanish and German prisonersaid. for instance.

In my district (not a particularly Irish district)the local Catholic church has raised £3,000for Irish prisoners, (not realising it was not areligious struggle). This is far exceeded byother churches, clubs, groups, parties in theentire English speaking world, and in thewhole amounts to millions of pounds ratherthan thousands. The number of prisonersinvolved, is - what? A list circulated by theProvisionals gives six hundred names. Wheredoes the money go?

The Provos have not only failed to supportother prisoners, and most of them were againstthe support of the Murray campaign (thoughsome came on to the campaign later on whenit was growing), but they have failed to rallyto the support of Irish prisoners who were notpolitical. Spanish Anarchist prisoners alwaysshared in a commune with all who needed.

The way you might take it from him,you would think that there were thousandsof anarchists all over England contributingvast sums to Spanish anarchists andforgetting the huge number of Irishprisoners "on their own doorstep!" Wehave always attacked the idea of "struggleeverywhere but here." The Provosincidentally object to any struggle therenot theirs - shooting in the kneecapwould be the punishment for "offences"not connected with the national struggle.They believe in Free Ireland not in FreeIrish!

We have always opposed the idea ofclassification as political prisoners, thoughunderstanding why in the Irish dimensionthis is clung to, where in the nationalistcontext people want to think of them-selves as prisoners of war rather thanclass war prisoners. In every country —Ireland too as a matter of fact — theclassification as political prisoner hasbeen to the detriment of the personconcerned. They have been classed aspoliticals to deny them human rights.Compare the torture over years ofUlrike Meinhof, as against the relativelyprogressive treatment of criminals whoare only in it for the loot. More so,in the "Communist" countries, where apolitical classification is put on to suggest"highly dangerous." In this country,many are on top security who wouldnever be so, but for the fact that theywere working for their principles and notfor their bank deposits.

12

Now we learn how the Irish RepublicanSocialist-Party is taking advantage of thedesire for political prisoner status,reinforced by the fact that in NorthernIreland, this does cover some privilegesand holds out the hope, whether illusoryor no t . ot amnes ty .

Considerable dissension in I.R.S.P.compound in Long Kesh led to sixteenprisoners leaving the I.R.S.P., and therebylosing their right to stay in the compound.They went into the cell block as agreed(in the unique circumstances of almostshared power between governor andpolitical commissars); when they triedto go back, there being no other compound,as they would have lost their politicalprisoner status, the I.R.S.P., refused toadmit them though the Governor was inagreement.

The sixteen therefore stayed in Hblock without political status. On June27th the sixteen went into blankets,refused prison clothes, and started astruggle to maintain their status.

But since then fourteen signed thestatus away. The two remaining arecarrying on the struggle though it meansthey will have to serve their wholesentence of 12 years each entailingremaining in cells 21 hours a day, havingno visits, only two letters a month, nobooks (but the Bible).

Both the two prisoners are denouncedas anarchists by the I.R.S.P. though theydo not accept that definition.

PONTO EXECUTION DOCUMENTWe have just received the followingcommunique on the execution of theWest German Banker, Ponto, during anattempted Jadaapping:

"In the present situation in whichboth the Federal Attorney's Office andthe State Security Services have beguntheir massacre of prisoners there is no,real justification for long declarations.

When the shots hit Ponto hi Oberurselit became very clear to us that thesepeople, who start wars in 3rd World

in their own homes.The smear put about by the State

Security Services of "big money" is asuntrue as everything else that was saidabout the attack.

Naturally, the thing to do always ispit the new against the oUi, and here itmeans: the struggle - for which thereis no prison -against the universe ofmoney in which everything^ prison."

Ponto was:1. Speaker for the Board of Directors ofthe Dresden Bank AC Frankfurt (2ndbiggest bank in W. Germany).2. Chairman of the Supervisory Board:Bunk fur Handel und Industrie AG,Berlin, Deutsche Landerbankfurt, AEG-Telefunken, Berli

i Chairman of the Board ofCompagnie Luxembourgeoise de BanqueS.A., Luxembourg.4. Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory BoardDeutsch-Sudamerikanische Bank AG,Hamburg. Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg/Bremen, Friedr. Krupp Gmbh, Essen,Munchner Ruckversicherungsgesellschaft,Munchen.5. Member of the Supervisory Board:Allian/ Versicherungs AG, Munchen,Daimler-Benz AG, Stuttgart, Degussa,F i a n k f u r t . Mctallgesellschaft AG, Frank-furt, Rheinisch-Westfalisches Elektrizitat-swerk AG, Essen, August Thyssen-Hutte'\G, Duisburg, Banque de la SocieteHnanciore Europenne, Paris.6. Member of the Board of Directors:Banque BruxeHes Lambert, Brussels,Knorr Nahrmittel AG. Thayngen,ABECOR, Associated Banks of EuropeCorp. S.A* Brussels, Rothman* bite*national Ltd., London, SFE, SocieteFinanciere Europeene, Luxemburg.7. Member of the Advisory Board:ROM, Warme-und Klimatechnik Gmbh,Hamburg, Larideszentralbank in Hessen,Frankfurt.8. Member of the Executive Board:Bundesverband Deutscher Banken e.V.,Kola, Hertie Stiftung, Frankfurt.9. Chairman:Committee for Credit Policy of theAssociation of German Banks, Rota.10. Member of the Presidency:German Group of the InternationalTrades Council, Koln, German Societyfor Foreign Policy e.V., Bonn.

11. Senator:Max-Planck Gesellschaft

The Dresdner Bank under Pontobecame the most aggressive and expan-sionist bank in W. Germany. Accordingto Newsweek he w$s one of the 5 who"meant" something in W. Germany. Hesold Daimler Benz Shares to Kuwait(14%), 25% of Krupp shares to Iran, heholds talks with Sadat. He is "advisor"to Vorster, and ships for radsj SouthAfrica are built in his shipyards- TheSociety for Foreign Polic;. ( 1 0 ) is tlipGerman equivalenroYme*Krn«rfcah'(Sysituation) Council on Fo-.eign Relations.whose imperialist policies are open fact.Then there is also his position in theCredit Policy Association (11) whichrecently gave Italy its credit, as long asNATO bases were secured. Ponto wasone of the few men whom Schmidtturned to for advice.' PontoSmnof1

a mere merchant banket, but an imperialistaggressive policy maker.

GREECE - Solidarity Now!May Day demonstrations this yearwitnessed clashes with the State authoritiesin many parts, of the world.

In Athens, some 800 anarchists inarchedas part of the unofficial May Day demon-stration. At one point the police hadblocked access to a square the demon-strators wanted to go towards. Realisingthat there was a police blockade, theanarchist section refhrtrf to niuve back -after the Marxist-Leninists withdrew. Atthis point, and without any announce-ments and without provocation, thepolice charged into, the demonstrationand the watching crowds, with theirsticks drawn injuring quite a few peopleand making arrests. The anarchists fellback and then began to retaliate asbest they could. Over 30 people werearrestpdand some 2JrtoM.trialon avariety of charges. 'A Canadian anarchistwitnessed 11/these events.

The Greek police as well as the Armyare still very much in the hands of thekind of people who collaborated withthe dictatorship. Also in the last fewmonths since the May Day] events, theGreek press, left, right and centre, havewhipped up an anti-anarchist hysteria.

Long articles have appeared on theanarchists, anarchism and all of thesestories have djstorttdjthe facts.- <.

As a matter of urgency and inter-national solidarity the Greek anarchistsask that letters be written to the Greekpress from abroad to protest abouttheir treatment and to indicate that theyare not isolated. Such a letter wascomposed and circulated by the Montrealanarchists and a letter was sent andpublished in the Greek press bearing thesignatures of 'Murray BooTcchin, Sani 'Dolgoff, Claude Lafon, Bob Mayo, StanNemiroff, Dimitii Roussopoulos,George Woodcock, Karl Hess, RichardBarnett, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn,George Saltzman, Will Watson, BillGraham, 'G.raeme1 'Nicholson, Paul Hollow,Calvin Nonnore anil Paul Ayrich. Thisletter was published in Athens on 6th June.

Oh 21 May Tiowever, at 4.30 am thepolice raided the home of C. Konstan-tinidis, the coordinator of*'DiethnjsBibliothiki" (the leading Greek anarchistpublisher) in Athens. They arrested and ;

savagely beat up S. Papadopoulou,M. Anasusiadis, N. Papaionnou, aswell as their guests Roelf Jacob fromHolland and Jean-Marie Sogut andLaurence Hubert from France.Konstantinidis who was not there at thetime the police broke in and smashed up

the beatings contmueiand severalcomrades had to be hospitalised.

A trial was held of those arrested. Thecourt found them innocent of the policecharges, but the prosecutor intends todemand a re-trial. At this point ofwriting we do not know the date of there-trial.

The photograph shows comrades C.Konstantinidis and S. Papadopouloscoming out of court. We can see some'•if the effects of the beatings. S. Papado-poulos is the coordinatdr of the "ManroRodo" bookshop in Athens, the firstanarchist bookshop in the city.

Send solidarity messages to: —C. Konstantinidis and S. Papadopoulos.Diethnis ffibliotrffld.lAlfon 2, Athens,Greece.

ReviewZEROZero is a new anarchist monthly beingproduced by a collective composedpartly of people who produced the nowdefunct Kildcat, some members ofSolidarity, and some people whooriginally worked on Freedom (beforethe latest split occurred - Freedom nowhas more splits than IMG or the WRP,which must mean something). Such amixture of people seem unlikely toproduce a paper that was any th ing otherthan the sum of their respective parts,but the first issue of Zero is a workman-like job, well printed (on a print run of3,500) and if things go well it lookspoised to take over Freedom's role asthe anarchist paper.

Although several ex- Wildcat peoplehave helped to publish it. and remarksin the short editorial echo aims set outin ihe first issue of H ildcat. the similarity(apart from the polished layout) endsthere. M ildcat was libertarian (anarchismwith the revolutionary element removed),Zero is distinctly and militantly anarchist.

Issue number one contains an articleon the (already legendary) CNT Confer-ence held at San Sebastian de los Reyes:

several news items on repression in manycountries (including the UK); and anarticle on "anarchism/feminism" describedas a "hesitant collective statement" ofthe group's own ideas - "We don't justwant the overthrow of capital but fu l lsexual-social revolution, the simultaneous

and state.

long biographical sketch of Marie LouiseBerneri, by Philip Sansom and partlyillustrated by Cliff Harper; book reviewsand a fairly comprehensive "Agitprop"page.

The second issue maintains the highstandard of the first, and the content isa little less 'heavy'. Barry Smerin hastranslated a very interesting article on theautonomous groups and the metropolitanindians in Italy, and Geoff Ingarfieldexhumes OZ and examines its impact,successes and failures. There are alsothree book reviews, and some news items.Cliff Harper manages to capture thespirit of the anti-abortion lobby in oneof his more humourous illustrations.

Surprisingly, the first article in issue2 is written by the Rape Group ratherthan by members of the Zero collective.Headlined "Against Rape" it takes theastonishing position (for an anarchistpaper) of assuming that tough jailsentences deter rapists. Much of thisarticle is a thoughtful analysis of the

reality of rape, but Zero fell down badlyby not seizing the chance to present aclear and well-argued article from adistinctly anarchist perspective.

If Zero is going to succeed on its ownterms and "help give expression to thestrong resurgence of libertarian ideas andpractice in recent years" and "reach alarger audience than anarchist papershave reached in the past", it won't do soon the strength of its smart layout, orthe painstaking care and effort that goesinto each issue — it won't even be theresult of a secure financial base. It willonly succeed if it becomes a useful toolin the growing social struggle. Any paperwhich restricts its role to analysing societyand describing contemporary events andissues from an anarchist perspective willrecreate the division between spectatorand spectacle that characterises theexisting media. Unless a paper can becomea vehicle for communication betweengroups of active people its achievementswill be ephemeral rather than revolutionary

Zero is at the br ink , and has a goodchance of making it to the other side if itcan take the opportunities that are avail-able.

"SJntft C6p& fcraOp^pfos postage),and there is a subscription rate of £3(UK subscribers), £4 airmail subs, fromZero, c/6 tiffing Wipe, 18?, Upper Street,London. N.I.

Paul Wilson.

• : • : - ; ' L.^V,•-*;!«« A''-f r',• • ; ' ..' •)!/"> • " . : • < ••^••' ?i

On February 21 1973, two anarchists -described by Mr Justice Park as "verydangerous young men" were jailed atWinchester Crown court for alleged raidson the officers' club in Aldershot andthe Portuguese consulate in Cardiff. Itwas said they belonged to a group calledFreedom Fighters for All.

We had not heard of it, but that is notto say it did not exist. The evidence«howed that this was a genuine andhonest attempt, to expose some of theworld's ills. Against the massacre ofhundreds in Mozambique by thePortuguese Army (since adlpitplaced a hoax boa^M ttMen|!Assy andstarted a fire.^jppdjil»Bus", MrPark! They also called attention to thedeath by starvation of 50.0Ethiopia, wtt& tne world!Even more dangerous.Aldershot shattered wiiout frames - really darone thinks of the nuclear threat ]every day by the Army!"

The two fighters for freedom wereDafydd Ladd (23) and Michael Tristram(24). They went to jail for seven yearsand six years respectively.

The type of offences for which theywere convicted are regularly committed,with more serious consequences, and withconsiderably greater threat, by fascisticorganisations (possessions of arms etc)which pay a small fine. Dafydd Laddand Michael Tristram were sentenced tojail for six and seven years and placedunder s t r ic t secur i ty . So s t r ic t t h a t onedoes not know what has happened tothem, and one has never known. Peoplecan "disappear" in totalitarian countries.But how about in this country?

We know from the Huddersfield case: Iris Mills and Ronan Bennett

" from sight. Friends whowere told they had "gone away

a week." One who called was arrested•ges were

__ .disappearedwithout sight — and they were at liberty.What has happened to Michael Tristram'7Questions to the Home Office haveproved abortive. He has, so far as wehave ever heard, vanished fmt&ijjfat.

We wanted to do something & regardto his case, but had no trace^Sf film.Maybe his relatives know. We weren'tin touch with him before so we don't

14

know. But Dafydd Ladd's wife got intouch with us. She said that Dafyddurgently wanted to contact us. He askedus to get permission from the HomeOffice to visit him.

No letters to him have been answeredHe nei ther receives our mail nor have wereceived his. His wife could not under-stand why we did not contact him. Nowwe no longer hear from his wife. If thiswere in Amin's Uganda what a story itwould make!

While Britain does not admit tohaving political prisoners, some are morepolitical than others. No prisoner wouldbe refused permission to see a visitor ofhis or her faith . . . only an anarchistprisoner. Interest by outside organisationsin the welfare of prisoners would bewelcomed ... but not if they believe inthe class struggle. It would be unthink-able tha t someone serving a sentenceshould be refused parole, and kept onspecial security, not because of anythingthey did or for which they were sentenced,but solely because the political climateof the times -- because of a completelydifferent set of circumstances arisingsince the sentences - does not allowthem to be released.

3

Dear Comrades/People,Today die paper got through enemy

lines and we here in the SegregationUnit of the Washington State Penitentiaryread the Hull riot story in rage. To thosebrothers who suffered, won and lost, stfflstruggling, we send aflwe have,from tiiis_

hasin the last three months - diis unit foughtback and the whole prison went on strike.The strike lasted longer than any strikein the history of the American PenalSystem, and still continues here in thisunit. WehaWnp"Cha«|is assured andldkl in into

support hasgathered and of over 80 men in here,many for years, over 30 have beenreleased andmpre shall be,. TheAssociate Warden-w^s removed and today

new warden tc»ok over, many guardsre being moved, and the future looks good

- in coordination with the above andbelow ground we have shaken the stateand rallied die people to seize controlof their lives.

Where there is oppression there isitance.if we st

people, as one botcamps, and out diere we can win. Thestruggle for liberation is long and hard, butwe ir.ust be strong and believe. We musthave patience and be calm, draw the lineand stay on 4t to die

What happened at Hull is happening inevery prison and camp in the capitalistworld on all levels - it must stop. Thoseoutside must help and support m progres-sive and political prisoners in this struggle,which is your struggle too. At everyopportunity the community, the peoplemust get back control over their lives,.getting into the prisons is one of the bestways to stop crime, and tear down thewalls of such evil, cruel places that haur

of the greedy bourgeois. Are notprisoners your husbands, wives, sons,daughters, friends and/or lovers — canyou stand there and donothtiif as ahuman being while they M@fttf«ad cryout - even when you may *e next?

Prisoners must be helped to eliminatetheir own class - they must be self-rtHaat, they more thWfi8miliei and

make change, make revolution.Many think bad of prisoners, <

are ignoraif|of tteicaught up in^ bui^raaifiMthat we are^peopte and fmust be self-reliant and we mustthe truth out diat idie state, die system^

jrfends to support them,must become one and the Left, theirfriends etc., must help, support andstruggle with them.

Where theory can be put to practisemore than any other place best, is in theprison movement. The labour and prisonmovement are two of the most importantmovements in our struggle — for in them

io we find this uniqueness.T^fiG^ r^^^r *j - -"^T"' * ^~~~ " .I mere is the strength wemust have to win ...

Carl L. Ran^

P.S. €4 months)sacrifice feels goodstill the guts of this monster hard - toall who sent cards and letters my love

l^!" *: you, they have givens to continue.

Carl Harp$|M}6,, Box 520,

recognised,!it must unite world wide with the people. appreciated.

1. Presumably so, by marriage, as hiswife Jenny (nee von Westphalen),Hke VfctoA,trtcedrwftfescent from

Royd H61fi»3f fltatrt. •2. Smith regal ecFIusarmlbngcrorties with

Sir Roger Casement's homsexualexperiences, gleaned from the diariestaken on his arrest on a charge oftreason; Ernley Blackwell (of theHome Office legal department) realisedthey iS»ttot>t used to prejudice world

Casement after hisi was bound ottier-

o be sympathetic to Irish rebellion,since Carson, who prosecuted, had been

formed a Czech Legion to fight their>^J^^Drds, Austria, were regarded as

3. Both were proposed names which hadto be altered when it was realised they

• V)BMld t>« known by their initial letters.4. An Aetbf Sir Reginald McKenna,

> Borne Secretary, directed againstwomen militants on hunger strikes,allowing for their release and sub-

•"; sequent toumtfc,£. LitanMfissjQuri (founded 1881 by

George Walser). The Methodists ofDenison later captured it by movingin; the character of the town was

up arms against the State before thewar; and the Czechs, who had just >

Ranged by 19MTX6. The political arm of the Southern

Methodist Church.15

I was going to the parole board thisAugust but at this time I know I haveno chance of getting released. Myself andtwo friends were really getting aheadwith the people in here and slowly makingsome headway on establishing theirthoughts towards what was really goingdown here, why we were really in prison,

r who were die true criminals etc., - butlast month my friend got into an argumentwith some c^Jftit)iajnateswhotendedtpfeel that the administration, if notcorrect, were at least unbeatable and bestleft alone. The argument grew into a fistfight ana then the 'Keepers' used theopportunity to violently enforce theirrul*. Unfortunately for them it seemsthai qattfca; few of them got hurt. 1 waslocked Up and<mjr fnend. was beaten andstomped in the hospital and then received54 stitches and was put in the "box."Certain pet inmates, in order to gainfavour from the Keepers made statementsagainst my friend mfcfotor of the pigs.

So the other day three of them werestabbed in the yard by someone otherthan myself and the man with me. Thepigs immediately converged on the areaand one of them who we have had repeatedtrouble with said to the others that Imust have done it, and they tried to

As soon as $eyjpt uVfo our cellsdiey gotdie "goffl«4aadn;«nd took u»

.. to the. Wfc.;vW<$e"now being charged"iete».

r the methoddown to cold hardttiattheroadbalof sacrifices oatprinciples and Ielse. I would like mywidi my wife and children, fjbenjoysome semblence of normalcy,, but ifthose things means that I might have to

romise my beliefs then I'll have to

onto ine ramble

_ an abundance -f people I can relate to on the same

plain who can readily relate to myeelings fron¥&st hand

't aiute your wolfc and onlyto maintain the mental

and moral strength to carry on with itand never weaken. It's my pleasure tocorrespond^ with comrades and I'll belooking forward to hearing from them

v. True freedom All'

i -t.J. Smidii 13SStateSt.,

Auburn, N^T. 13021 ,>'iUSJL'

P.S. Thanks agate for die liyou can be sure that 111 spread Jtup here in die box.

GERMAN POLICE INVASIONIn the Daily Mail of Sept 7 and theBirmingham Post Sepr 3, a scare storyreads of 'Midland Connection in GermanKidnap.' We confess to being disappointedthat they haveh'Vas us*al, bfc(H»d theBlack Cross.

Says the Mail, "One of the groupsthat has been named by the West Germanpolice is the Birmingham-based Red andBlack Movement formed a year ago."Peter Le Mare, was interviewed, and said(according to the Mail) they had noconnection with the "Baader-Meinhofgang." In the mroe extensive BirminghamPost report, he is supposed to have said,in the same interview there was noconnection with the **Ba?der-Meinhofgroup." The Post, going into the matterfully, says that a police spokesman atKarlsruhe "could not disclose furtherdetails but said it was 'very hot stuff."Peter could not explain it. He couldn'tthink where the police had got the -name of th»R|«iad Black group >•:(Post version) frb«C b*

The explication U qiHtotttapJe. BeterLe Mareandoaeortwqethwformedthe Red and Black Group a year ago(later calling it the Libertarian SocialistGroup). Be probably did not know that

the name indeed was "very hot stuff."The Red and Black Movement existed

in Birmingham forty yean ago and isstill recorded in German police files.

According to the Karlsruhe policeit was prepared to give a hide-out to."the Baader-Meinhof gang - group -take your pick. But this is police/presscant for the German resistance of today.

The Red and Black Movement basedin Birmingham in 1937 did indeed offerasylum to members of the GermanResistance; amongst others, to thoseinvolved in one of the two GermanAnarchist attempts on the life ofHitler. Whether the German police chiefbrought this forward thinking the samegroup was still in existence, or mistookthe date in the files, or wished to involveforeign groups in accordance with aGovernment directive to get foreignGovernments interested, and dug up thename, we do not know. It was a lucky, orunlucky, shot that hit Pete- Le Mare'sgroup. Had the German police been incharge of theInvestigation, allin-.thatgroup would by now be in jail; if indeedPeter Le Mare had not been shot whileopwini;*edot*(a» happened .*&British agent McLeod, shot by theGerman police as if he were a person withdangerous thoughts).

It may strike the public here asdangerous, perhaps, that British police

can invite German police over here topursue their inquiries — using as aprecedent the case they got away with,inviting French police to raid Britishhomes in company with a British officer.Though there is no legal compulsion totalk to a German police officer, ourreaders with their customary politeness,may ewe to greet them with a classicquotation from Goethe to make them feelat home . .. for instance Goetz vonBerleichin's "Leek mich an Arse."* But

reMhow,you. open the door to6 '. f»r/.4f»»V *which has the samedeal justification in reply to intimida-

tion as Cambronne's "Shit!" when askedto surrender at Waterloo.

West <>rman police examining bullet holes at site of kidnaping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer; car in foreground carried slain bodyguards