INTERNATIONAL – The Westcountry Mutineer

HUGO A-GO-GO?

HUGO CHAVEZ, THE now former president of Venuzuela, died of cancer yesterday at the age of 58. Left-wingers from around the world are mourning the loss of a great socialist hero, The S.W.P. are probably going to arrange discussions around this issue in the hope that rest of the left will ignore the internal crisis that is currently tearing their party apart, right-wingers will be loving the fact that the commie bastard is dead, and the BBC will be try to be ‘impartial’ out of fear of pissing off pretty much everyone in the entire globe.

As for us, we’re not going to mention too much about how we feel about his death, mostly because we simply don’t give a fuck. This may sound horrible, but that’s how it is. However we do want to use this opportunity to show you readers one of the many ridiculous things that Hugo has said whilst serving in office. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPsPUrocP8k

OBAMA VS. FLY

IN JANUARY, MORE column inches were probably dedicated to a fly that landed on Obama’s forehead than any of his policies or actions. Here at The Mutineer we thought we’d find out more about the creature bugging the President of the United States, and took the liberty of contacting an expert on flies at Bristol University. “The fly that landed on the President’s head was almost certainly a species of housefly”, our source told us. “They tend to feed on decomposing organic matter, especially meat. Obama has been looking old of late, and he has a lot of blood on his hands due to his drone war in Pakistan, so it’s not surprising that the fly took an interest in him. Houseflies are vectors of disease and in some parts of the world they can pass on some pretty nasty diseases”. So there we have it. Obama is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians through his aerial attacks, to the point where he has been described as “Bush on steroids”, and his much-hyped environmental policies have barely been realised. The fly that landed on him is nature’s warfare against his misdeeds and inactions. We hope it’s the first of many fly-strikes against him.

Police have released a mugshot of the known suspect [above]

TEN YEARS OF FIGHTING WAR

FEBRUARY 2013 MARKS the 10th anniversary of one of the world’s biggest protests – the day the world stood up and said a huge resounding “NO” to going to war in Iraq. If you weren’t in London that day, chances are that you know someone who was.

Many seeds were sown on that day. Such was the impact, that when the first protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, the birthplace of the Arab Spring (which was in turn a huge influence on the subsequent Occupy protests), were being organised, they stated that they wanted another Hyde Park.

Although it didn’t stop the war, it showed the world that the general public were not exactly happy about the impending war, and the moment that Tony Blair turned his back on us and went to want anyway, was the moment that all hopes of him being the man of the people some hoped he would be were gone for good.

PERMANENT CULTURE NOW PRESENTS: ‘RESISTANCE IN AN AGE OF AUSTERITY’

THIS IS THE most recent video uploaded by Permanent Culture Now, filmed in December 2012. This film features a panel of Bristol-based political and activist organisations, who discuss and debate resistance during these harsh economic times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5Hw5C3jQY&feature=player_embedded

“What does resistance mean in an age of austerity, how can we change the world for the better when all around us we see the dismantling of our public services, watch this debate to get a range of views on this thorny issue.

What does resistance mean take in an age of austerity?

As we see the austerity agenda having massive consequences in Greece and Spain and the UK bracing itself for the real impact of the austerity agenda, we ask what should a resistance to austerity look like. In Greece we see outright violent resistance, combined with a development of bartering systems and many people returning back to the land to support themselves. Should we just resist or do we push for more radical change in society, if yes how can we do this. Are these the right ways to resist, could this occur in the UK, what can be done in this new age of the austerity agenda? We will look at short films about the impact of austerity, hear from Bristol groups attempting to effect change and highlight new ideas of resistance and social change. The night will feature speakers from a range of speakers from Bristol IWW, Afed, Solfed, Socialist Party Badaca plus many others talking about the issues they are coming into contact with, the resistance they have been involved in and the future of resistance in Bristol to these appalling cuts.

This is a link tot he film we showed at the start of the evening called Athens: Social Meltdown as it shows a range of responses to a much more intense austerity agenda.“
https://vimeo.com/50028620

Bristol I.W.W.
Bristol Anarchist Federation
Bristol Solidarity Federation
Bristol Anti-Cuts Alliance
Bristol Socialist Party
Bristol Feminist Network

PALESTINE: EXPECT THE U.N.EXPECTED

NOVEMBER WAS A funny month to be a Palestinian, to put it mildly. Beginning with the assassination of the Palestinian Hamas Party military chief on the 14th, the latest Israeli offensive into Gaza started in brutal earnest, ending 162 lives until the following Wednesday’s ceasefire. Near a quarter of those dead Palestinians were children. As the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, it would have been impossible for the Israeli bombs to avoid civilian slaughter, even if that was the intention.

Immediately following this butchery came the inevitable wave of protests, with hundreds of demos held globally against the attacks, and a 15,000-strong Stop The War Coalition march in London on the 24th. In the southwest, Bath saw 20 out in protest the same day, and daily vigils stood their ground in Bristol centre. Elsewhere in the U.K., companies dealing with illegal Israeli settlements or supplying the I.D.F. weapons were also struck that week, with direct action, occupations, noise demos, and phone/e-blockades of Barclays Bank, G4S and even the Israeli state-sponsored Batsheva dance troupe!

Palestinians in the West Bank also carried out solidarity demos, to be met with typical Israeli oppression. Demonstrators were shot dead in Nabi Saleh and in western Hebron. A baby in Qalandia refugee camp was also killed, by Israeli tear gas: maybe it was a terrorist or something?

Alongside these intensifications of the 65-year occupation, since Hamas were voted in back in 2006, the Israeli government has punished the people of Gaza to an unimaginably barbaric degree. Medical aid and food shipments are regularly stolen by border guards, alongside necessity building materials and machine repairs parts. As a result, children are malnourished, hospitals are overstretched, sewage stays untreated, and poverty flourishes.

And then, just as trigger-happy Israel was busy breaking the ceasefire, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Thursday 29th to approve Palestine’s ‘upgrade’ to a sovereign ‘non-member observer state’, 138 votes to nine. The jury is still out on what this bit of paperwork means in practice, but this does mean access to various international agencies, treaties and the ability to take Israel to the International Criminal Court in the Hague over its war crimes. Whether or not the change in status will bring actual change, it does offer some hope. And it’s pissed off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no end!

Straight away, as well as America helpfully offering to punish those uppity Arabs by withholding U.S. financial support, Netanyahoo and his ultra-right friends responded by first of all withholding £75m in tax rebates to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority; secondly, Ben the Builder has just announced new plans to build another 3,000 illegal homes, and to use development to cut off Palestine’s planned new capital of East Jerusalem.

So, whilst the Israeli P.M. is embarrassing even long-term collaborators like his British and U.S. allies, Hamas (one half of Palestine’s government) – just as murderous towards everyday civilians as the I.D.F. – are coming across smelling like roses, especially to their Muslim neighbours. You could say these are interesting times…

http://angryarabscommentsection.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/israeli-premeditated-offensive-against.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/un-palestine-recognition_n_2217165.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/29/us-palestinians-statehood-idUSBRE8AR0EG20121129

http://www.thenewfederalist.eu/EU-and-the-Palestinian-UN-vote,05413

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/30/responding-to-un-recognition-palestinian-state-israel-to-build-3000-new/

http://www.bikyamasr.com/81776/israel-breaks-gaza-ceasefire-repeatedly/

GETTING STARBUCKED

THE RECENT UPROAR surrounding Starbucks has once again pushed the issue of tax-dodging, and its relation to austerity, into the limelight. Starbucks is one of the largest coffee chains in the U.K., and the second largest café/restaurant chain in the world. Yet, in the last three years they’ve paid no corporation tax at all in the U.K., despite making sales of £3.1bn. And on Saturday December 8^th, despite their sudden agreement to pay back £20m of their £400m debt, U.K. Uncut and friends hit them with a wave of 40 protests and occupations around the country. And their execs’ new-found generosity to the tax man came with a hefty price tag – two days before they publicised the details of their ‘gift’, they also told over 7,000 staff how they’re cutting paid lunch breaks, sick pay, maternity leave and a string of other work benefits.

But the only reason that companies like Starbucks are able to employ a workforce with such scroogery at all, is due to state support, in the form of working tax credits and housing benefit (benefits now also under threat, thanks to George Osborne). And we’re not just talking Starbucks: other big names recently have been Vodafone, Amazon, and the Arcadia group. And Osborne knows this. That’s why you won’t see him raising corporation tax, or closing tax loopholes, or clamping down on offshore tax-havens.

With that in mind, up to 40 activists in Bristol shut down both the Broadmead Starbucks and Park Street one, meeting overwhelming approval from passers-by. And in Bath, a collection of 20 activists held a demo outside the High Street branch, alongside the monthly Bath FreeShop, handing out free fairtrade tea and coffee.

Outside of protests, though, one way that Starbucks workers can fight such attacks is to unionise, and take action. Starbucks, a company previously infamous for its union-busting, has now seen workers out on strike in Chile and New Zealand, and also unionising under the International Workers of the World (I.W.W.) in North America. Starbucks have clearly offered concessions in the hope of staving off disruption to their business, and the potential loss of profits that this represents. It also shows the power that protest groups can wield. Making big companies pay their tax won’t stop the cuts, but a sustained wave of pickets, occupations and blockades – alongside strike action – just might.

http://www.starbucksunion.org

http://www.iww.org.uk

http://www.bathanticutsalliance.blogspot.com

http://m.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/03/starbucks-slash-lunch-breaks

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9728630/Starbucks-20m-gift-makes-joke-of-tax-system.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interactive/2012/dec/03/starbucks-uk-employees-new-contracts

STRIKEWATCH

AS WELL AS our local posties’ pickets, this month on StrikeWatch, we look back on a couple of firsts in industrial action, last month:

For the first time in 50 years, 500 Walmart workers in the U.S. carried out a 24-hour strike on 23rd November – the so-called ‘Black Friday’ shopping frenzy. Over 1,000 protests in 100 cities across 46 states, 1,000’s of supporters, with some of the strongest demos seen in Paramount, California, and Hannover in Maryland. The employee group leading the strike – ‘OUR Walmart’ – was formed 18 months before, to fight the low wages, decaying work benefits and Walmart’s infamous anti-union retaliation practices, which borders on the illegal (for what that’s worth). Strikers leafleted, Christmas carolled, put on lightshows and mic-check flashmobs, and – in Paramount – blocked the odd road. Walmart C.E.O. ‘Dollar’ Bill Simon laughingly claimed that less than 50 ‘associates’ took part nationally, but fooled no one. The workers, for their part, chanted in a Arnie-esque fashion: “We’ll be back.”

Back in the U.K., workers were out three days earlier, but this time at Amnesty International. Hundreds of picketers were out for the second time in two months, supported by the union Unite, up in arms about the human rights charity’s shift away from research and meaningful casework, and towards marketing-themed branding and flashy stunts. Of course, the management’s intended changes will also involve £2.5m in cuts, and losses of up to 40 jobs. A.I.U.K.’s internal divide has been bitterly widening over the last 20 years, with one senior director quitting in disgust over the treatment of their own staff (who agreed to a voluntary pay freeze, despite a steady 2% annual growth in income), with the workforce calling for director Kate Allen’s resignation, and issuing a vote of no-confidence in the rest of the leaders. A senior leadership that isn’t opposed to a bit of corruption, by the way – compared to the seven people earning more than £60,000 in 2007, this has swollen to 36 people netting big cash last year, and two former execs got a £800,000 golden handshake to see them off, back in 2009. Meanwhile, Amnesty local groups and members are calling for an extraordinary general meeting to set it all straight.

http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-international-workers-start-strike-105900938.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/animosity-international-staff-on-strike-in-amnesty-offices-across-the-globe-8317303.html

http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/acpr/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/22/us-economy-walmart-workers-black-friday-strike

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/walmart-strike-black-friday_n_2177784.html

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171435/biggest-strike-against-biggest-employer-walmart-workers-make-history-again

ANCIENT HISTORY

WELCOME TO THE first column on westcountry radical history. Radical history for us involves reclaiming our story, uncovering hidden narratives, challenging established narratives, and encouraging new historians from the working class, to read, write and give talks on our story.

We are not particularly interested in John Cabot. But we are interested in seafarers, press gangs, slavery and pirates. For example, were all pirates murderous villains, led by vicious psychopaths only interested in plunder and rape? Not necessarily: most pirate ships were very multicultural affairs, who elected the captains and had democratic structures on board. Discipline was easier than the Royal Navy, and unpopular captains could be deselected if they were unfair and did not secure enough booty. Some pirate ships directly attacked slave ships. On capture most of the crew were thrown overboard, whilst the slaves were freed. They were given the choice of taking the ship back to Africa with them, or joining the pirates. Many pirates had been known as privateers, when Britain was at war with Spain and France, it was accepted by the British government, when ships were attacked. At times these ships carried massive amounts of gold the Spanish had stolen from the Incas an Aztecs. When friendly diplomatic relations were restored, these attacks were now declared the actions of pirates.

You don’t read this in the mainstream history books. But this our story. As it would have been the likes of us who, whilst walking home from the pub late at night, would have been attacked by a press gang. Ripped from family and friends, we would wake at sea, and be forced to live under a brutal regime of discipline, where life was cheap. One means of escape would have been jumping ship at some foreign port, and entering the service of a pirate ship. Years later, whilst attacking an English clipper carrying sugar back to England from the slave plantations, we are captured. Eventually we are taken back home, to be hung by the neck, or further slavery by being transported to the colonies under the penal code.

There are millions of stories like this, and in this column in future editions we are going to tell them. In the next issue: collective bargaining by riot, in a Kingswood style.

If you have any stories or suggestions send them into the West Country Mutineer.

Love and Rage

Bristol Radical Group

NO GRASSES ON OUR TURF

IT’S EASY TO have political beliefs, but so much harder to maintain those beliefs in the face of violence and intimidation. Which is why we’re straying from the sandy shores of the westcountry to bring news of three imprisoned anarchists from Oregon, U.S.A.

Way back in August, anarchists Matthew Duran, Katherine Olejnik and Leah-Lynne Plant had their doors kicked in by armed police, all of their personal possessions seized as ‘evidence’, and the three were then locked up. Police reports parroted by the media claimed that all three were being held in relation to (a minor) vandalism of banks that had occurred during this year’s Seattle Mayday parade.

Despite being able to prove that they were not at the protest, all were ordered to return to court in order to provide names and information that may lead to arrests for the vandalism. During the course of their defence, lawyers working for the anarchists found that the arrest warrants had been signed off in March – before the vandalism at the centre of the investigation had even occurred. The arrests were nothing more than part of an evidence-gathering mission against a vibrant American anarchist movement. Back in court, all three anarchists refused to testify or provide any names or information. As per American law, the judge then applied to strip the defendants of their right to silence, which was duly granted.

All three still refused to talk and now, all but one are starting lengthy prison sentences for the ‘crime’ of refusing to grass on people who may or may not have committed minor crimes at an event which none of the defendants were actually at. Since the trials ended, a fourth anarchist, Matt Pfeiffer has been called before a grand jury. He is also refusing to co-operate and is due to be imprisoned soon.

Across America, acts of solidarity, from protests to sabotage of court-houses and cop-shops, have been intensifying and the prisoners have reported receiving hundreds of books and letters of support (which you can add to by checking out nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com). Here at the Mutineer, we want to raise our hats in salute to four people who took their politics beyond a game or lifestyle choice. When faced with a real test of their beliefs, they lived up to the thousands of anarchists before them who have faced imprisonment and repression simply for holding the dangerous belief that we can, and should, create a world free of injustice, inequality and tyranny.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

SOMETIMES – NOT OFTEN, mind – we here at Mutineer H.Q. feel the need to tip our hats to someone in a position of authority. This month, we doff our caps to Jon Gnarr, the awesomely-named mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland, who has been spotted modelling a daring dress and pink balaclava, in solidarity with imprisoned Russian punks Pussy Riot. When asked to address a gay pride rally in Paris, like all good speeches, Gnarr’s was brief and to the point. Taking aim at gay-bashers, he said “Homophobia isn’t a phobia. Homophobics aren’t scared, they’re just assholes!” Couldn’t have put it better ourselves!