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Counter Information No. 40 - Part 3
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50 Years of Slaughter for PROFIT
The obnoxious D-Day commemorations, happening only 3
days before the Euro-Voters' Big Day on 9th June, are
emphasising British uniqueness in the European partnership,
and all that rubbish.
But even if Vera Lynn's disgusting crocodile tears start to
flow once again, knowledge of the past remains important.
We should remember how the British authorities had forewarning
of the blitz of Coventry but allowed it to happen. Remember
the blood baths when Allied aircraft bombed Devon, with
heavy loss of life, in practice runs for Normandy -- and
the slaughter once British and American forces arrived on
the coast of France. Remember the German Jews who were locked
up by the British authorities. Remember how strikers in northern
Italy were bombed by both sides, and how millions were shipped
from German camps straight into Soviet ones. Remember the
hypocrisy of the statesmen who portrayed the German concentration
camps as justification of their own rule and then went on to set
up their own camps in Kenya and Algeria. In short, remember
that the ruling scumbags in one place always have more in
common with ruling scumbags elsewhere than they do with
the poor. War is always brilliant for business.
RESISTANCE - LEST WE FORGET
But above all remember the resistance to the various oppressions.
In Britain, for example, many men managed to avoid military
service, and many women avoided being forced into war work as
cheap labour. Women at Rolls Royce and elsewhere on Clydeside
struck for equal pay, often supported by men. In Glasgow
engineering apprentices and bus conductresses also struck.
When bakers in Dundee refused to work night shifts, their
work was taken over by soldiers, who were obviously subject
to a much stricter regime. Astrike by trolleybus workers
in Stamford Hill in London was similarly broken by the military.
Strikes occurred in mining, engineering, and the docks. Air
raids were commonly used as an excuse for absenteeism: some
people were willing to stay at their workplaces if sirens
went off during tea-breaks, but not if they sounded during
worktime.
Remember too, that this was a time when strikes were not
only opposed in every instance by the unions -- but since
July 1940 they were also illegal. In 1941, when miners at
Betteshanger in Kent struck anyway, 1000 of them were
fined, and three jailed. An all-out strike forced their
release, and only 9 miners paid their fines. After this,
the strike ban, technically in force until 1951, was a
dead letter, smashed by wildcat action. In 1944, the year
of D-Day, 716 000 workers were on strike, more than any year
since 1926.
The national unity which the authorities are trying to
whip up with D-Day 'celebrations' wasn't totally successful
even then. So don't be conned. It's always been the rich
against the poor. It was us they slaughtered in Iraq, us
they're killing in Bosnia, us they killed in all the wars
since 1945 'east of Suez' and in Africa. World War 2 was
no different. Our rulers are mass-murdering monsters, and
nations are just vile myths they use to oppress us.
REMEMBER 1944 -- GO ON STRIKE!!
VAT - Don't pay it!
THE GOVERNMENT added 8% Value Added Tax to fuel bills from
1 April - signing the death warrants of the extra 10,000
people who will die every year from the cold, because of
the higher bills.
But - there is resistance. Pit camp supporters
repossessed coal from Parkside Colliery, Merseyside
on 1 April in a direct action against both VAT on
Fuel and mine closures.
Next day 50 people from Lothian Communities Against
VAT on Fuel occupied British Gas showrooms and picketed
Scottish Power in central Edinburgh. Hornsey and Wood
Green Solidarity Group have picketed the Wood Green gas
showrooms 3 times. In Glasgow hundreds of demonstrators
invaded the St.Enoch shopping centre after the anti VAT
demo on 26 March.
"The best way to defeat VAT on Fuel is to do it the
poll tax way - to cause a huge amount of disruption by
refusing to pay the VAT portion of our fuel bills,"
urges a Stockbridge New Town Solidarity Network leaflet.
"(1) When you get your first blue electricity or gas bill - ignore it.
(2) When you get the red reminder - only pay the main part of the bill.
Don't pay the VAT part.
(3) Don't let the meter reader in....
(4) If threatened....ring your local group."
Resistance so far is patchy. Community self-organisation
needs to spread UK-wide.
CONTACT : Stockbridge NTSN,
c/o P&J Centre, St Johns, Princes St., Edinburgh.
(Postman Pat won't pay VAT! posters available).
Edinburgh rocked
Edinburgh. Athens of the North, Festival City, Europe's third
finance capital. "Auld Reekie", where tourists swarm and the
hoteliers and restauranters wax rich.
Edinburgh. Magnet for yuppies and financiers, with the
working class being increasingly marginalised and ghettoised
into bleak peripheral housing estates where poverty is the
name of the game.
In the large Craigmillar estate on 13/14 May alienated
youths rioted and attacked police. A car was torched,
and 6 pigs injured. The media responded with shock and
indignation, and the local Labour councillor, Paul
"the Godfather" Nolan called an emergency council
meeting.
Youngsters involved told the local press that they were consistently
harassed and assaulted by the police. "There's nothing to do and
nowhere to go. We've had enough", declared one. "You can't even
get a job in Craigmillar unless you're related to Paul Nolan"
said another local. Councillor Nolan is one of those who are
trying so hard to shut down the Edinburgh Unemployed Workers
Centre.
Spain: General Strike
The Spanish general strike on 27th January, in response to
the Socialist Government's labour reforms, brought major
cities to a standstill. Hundreds of thousands joined
pickets and demos, often clashing with police. In Granad,
400 pickets were attacked with rubber bullets and gas,
injuring 9, and 40 people were arrested in Barcelona
following running battles.
As well as massive demos in Madrid and Barcelona, there
were large ones all over Spain: 40,000 in Seville; 25,000
in Gijon; 90,000 in Oviedo; 20,000 in Cordoba. There were numerous
reports of people breaking away from the Socialist (UGT) and
Communist (CCOO) unions' official demos in favour of direct
action tactics.
The reforms constitute massive attacks on workers' rights,
allowing companies to replace people on permanent contracts
with a cheap and temporary workforce. The new apprenticeship
contract for under-25s runs for up to 3 years, with pay at
55% to 75% of the minimum and no unemployment benefit rights
at the end. Part-time workers will lose protection when sick,
unemployment benefit and pension rights. With 3.5 million
unemployed and 1 million families without a wage, the reforms
will force people into low-paid jobs with almost no protection.
(Javier, Barcelona; ANA; CNT)
beast beseiges cowering councillors
The drumming built to a crescendo, his dancing grew ever
more frenzied, then suddenly the grotesquely-garbed Beast
of Broughton flew across edinbrugh's historic Parliament
Square and hurled himself bodily at the doors of Lothian
regional Council Chambers.
Councillors peered nervously from windows as
street theatre performers, speakers and musicians
all sent out the same message - Edinburgh Unemployed
Workers Centre must stay open. The 25 May demo was
the latest shot in the battle to save Scotland's only
self-managed community centre.
As we went to press the Centre was preparing to resist
a Council eviction notice due to take effect on 14 June.
Last minute negotiations, which aimed at a new lease being
granted to first the local Community Council and then to
a new charitable body, were still proceeding The Centre
voluntary workers are backing the new plan, which if
agreed should ensure that the Centre's important
activities continue.
The Centre provides a cheap vegan cafe, advice and
solidarity on benefits problems, a communtiy space
for meetings etc, a base for claimants and others
to organise resistance against social injustice
and many other resources.
EUWC, 103 Broughton St., Edinburgh. 031 557 0718
A FLIGHT OF CONDOMS
Glasgow Women Anarchists and anarcho-feminists from
Edinburgh caused a stir at a SPUC meeting at Edinburgh
University in March when they threw condoms at the
startled bigots, this followed opposition at a SPUC
meeting at Glasgow University.
edited slightly -info PO Box 1008 G42 8AA
Broken Spectacles
"They're brainwashing us", says a member of UNPLUG, "and we're
not taking it any more." Members of UNPLUG have been
smashing and stealing TVs and videos in their US
high schools.
The equipment is supplied free by Channel One to 12,000 schools
in deprived inner-city areas. The catch? Schools must sign a
contract agreeing that the TVs will be switched on to Channel
One's cable student news service for 90% of the academic day
and that 90% of the students must watch the "news" each day.
Each 10-minute "news" broadcast has a 2-minute commercial
break typically advertising Coke, Reebok and Pizz Hut.
The underground UNPLUG organistaion is rapidly growing
amongst inner-city school students and calims many direct
action successes against the force-feeding of corporate
mindrot.
Remember Winston Silcott
REMEMBER Winston Silcott? Winston was one of the Tottenham 3,
brutally framed for the murder of PC Blakelock in the 1985
Broadwater Farm uprising. The convictions were quashed after
an intense mass campaign.
But Winston remains in prison. Why?
Winston was a vocal black rights activist, a role which
brought him into open conflict with the racist police who
repeatedly vowed that they'd "get him". When he rescued a
black youth from a beating by a local gang, they also
vowed to get him.
One of the gang, Tony Smith, attacked Winston in a club,
and was killed with his own knife. It was obviously self-defence
and the pigs were furious that the murder charge would not stick.
So they stitched Winston up for the PC Blakelock murder. While
doing time for the Blakelock killing, and labelled an "evil murderer"
by the press, Winston was tried for the Smith affair,
and found guilty.
He is now desperately trying to have that conviction overturned.
Remember Winston Silcott.
Info & speakers Winston Silcott Defence Campaign,
c/o The Selby Centre, Selby Rd., London N17. 081 365 0448.
Tearing down the walls
LAST issue we reported how Gary Hayes, after years of police
persecution, retaliated by taking an armoured personnel
carrier and using it to smash into the local police HQ
and law courts.
Gary has since been sentenced to four and a half years.
Like Winston Silcott, another activist has been taken off
the streets.
Letters of support to :
Gary Hayes, Casaurina Prison,
Locked Bag 1, PO Kwinana WA 6167, Australia.