Counter Information No. 40 - Part 3 =================================== 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. ******************************************************************************* These articles are taken from Counter Information. Issue No.40 Summer 1994. Counter Information is produced by anarchists/libertarian socialists in Scotland. It collates news reports of resistance by people to the system we all live under and tries to make them better known. In this way A Hardcopy using Pagemaker layout (Mac) is available by sending a SAE or Disc to:- Counter Info c/o 11 Forth St., Edinburgh. Bundles of the broadsheets available. Donations, unshamelessly sought. Each issue costs 500+ pounds for postage and print costs (no labour costs !) If reprinting an article, please credit Counter Information, otherwise non-copyright. *******************************************************************************