SWINDON & WILTSHIRE – The Westcountry Mutineer

FOOTBALL IN SHOCK AS FASCIST WANKER DI CANIO IS MADE MANAGER OF SUNDERLAND….

EXCEPT WE’RE NOT here at the Mutineer, seeing as we knew about DiCanio’s dream career of managing English football teams since he was appointed as manager of Swindon Town. We even did a little report on how happy we were when the fash fucker left his position there earlier this year. There were other media sources that reported this but obviously it was not seen by many as the most important of news.

Of course that all changed when DiCanio was appointed manager at AFC Sunderland; it seems that everybody now is asking questions as to why this is happening, and the B.B.C., along with other media outlets and left wing groups, are starting to complain about this turn of events. Personally this writer is more pissed off with the left-wing and the media, than with the recent signing in of a self-proclaimed fash.

DiCanio pictured along with some other boneheads

It’s no surprise that the press only started to chase after DiCanio’s far-right activities once he was signed at Sunderland – which also happened to be chaired by Ed Milliband’s loser brother David. That’s what mainstream news does, and while it does piss me off we shouldn’t be surprised, because this does happen all the time. At least Paul Merton made note of this on the newest episode of Have I Got News For You “It’s a bit like invading Czechoslovakia, you got to invade Poland before people take notice”.

However, the people who have really pissed me off are the left-wing reformist idiots who run Hope Not Hate. Looking through all their articles on DiCanio, the first article they wrote on the bastard was dated April 1st 2013. Wait a fucking minute, 2013? DiCanio has been involved in English football since the 90’s – he was managing Swindon Town from May 2011, and you didn’t mention anything then? What the fuck? I would’ve have thought that a group that concerns itself with the monitoring of fascism in the UK would have considered his appointment at Swindon to be of some significant importance. The local G.M.B. union certainly took action when they pulled out from financially backing the team due to the controversial decision, but obviously it was only important for H.N.H to take action when fascists get appointed to the managerial positions of fancy premier league clubs. This is what irritates me the most about H.N.H., S.W.P., S.P., and the broad left in general: they take action on issues which have become mainstream media material. If it is not that widely reported by the B.B.C. and other media mogul elites then they tend to not bother themselves with it at all.

My respect to the individuals and groups who did highlight and take action when DiCanio was appointed manager at Swindon Town; as for the rest of you just remember that fascists must be opposed everywhere. Just because Swindon Town is not a high-profile club doesn’t mean you can relax and let the fuckers carry on...

…Not Swindon – the fascists.

FASH FOOTY BOSS LEAVES SWINDON! AND WHY EVERYONE IS SO FUCKING HAPPY ABOUT IT…

THIS WEEK HAS been great news for all the footy fans who hate the fash as much as we do. Paul Di Canio; the the perfect exmaple of an italian far right bonehead, resigned on the 18th February from his managerial posistion in Swindon. Follwing his resignation he has now apparently been caught on CCTV engaging in a midnight raid on his old office and tearing up the place.

For anyone out there who has no idea about Di Canio or indeed football for that matter, Di Canio is famous amongst the english crowd for his career within various footy clubs in the English and Scottish leagues. Such teams including the Glasgow based Celtc FC, east end London boys West Ham United, Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic. After his english tour he returned to italy to play for Lazio and Cisco Roma.

Di Canio has self described himself as a ‘Fascista’ and has been spotted giving the fascist salute to his fans on several occasions. This was done mostly during his time at Lazio who’s fanbase has a reputation for involvement in fascist politics including an anti semetic attack against against Tottenham Hotspurs fans last year. One of these salute incidents happened when Lazio played against A.S. Livorno Calcio which has a more left wing attitude when it comes to politics. Di Canio has also praised the Benito Mussolini in his autobiography describing the italian dictator as a “basically a very principled, ethical individual” who was “deeply misunderstood”

Di Canio in his true bonehead form... — Di Canio in his true bonehead form…

So when Di canio decided to manage Swindon Town F.C. it was no surprise that many football fans and anti-fascists were a bit pissed off with this new addition to the club. As a result the local GMB union withdrew their £4,000 yearly donations to the club, and many rival fans have been known to mock the Italian Boss during games as a ‘Shit Mussolini’.

So there you have it, due to financial disagreements Di Canio has now resigned from the club and we’re only too happy to see this fucker gone from the Westcountry. The only bad thing to say is that he should have been got rid of earlier, but lets just hope this fascist swine never gets a job in the footballing world ever again.

BLUE-BLOODED SEX PEST STRIKES IN SWINDON

FROM CORNISH TORIES caught with their fingers in the public purse, we now turn to Swindon, where Councillor Nick Martin has been slapped on the wrist for having his clammy fingers all over the public servants. Well known in the town for being one of the nastier characters amongst the local Tory clique (and believe us, there’s plenty to choose from), Martin is now in hot water over his wandering hands. At a recent social function, Martin – Deputy Mayor and Conservative councillor – was found guilty of inappropriate conduct for rubbing the hair and head of council officer Helen Miah. The married father was also found guilty of passing borderline-pervy comments about Ms. Miah’s haircut. Miah, who described herself as “freaked out” by the incident also told how the Martin ran his hands over her back, commenting “I’ve been dying to do that all night,” while his wife sat only a few metres away. It has since emerged that Ms. Miah had complained previously about the dirty deputy when she saw him touching female council employees inappropriately in 2008. Despite a clear pattern of alleged dirty behaviour, Martin has been let off gently: being forced to attend sensitivity training and write letters of apology. However, thanks to Helen Miah standing up for herself, Martin will at least be placed under heightened public pressure to behave, not to mention the fact that his long-held ambition of stepping into the mayor’s bejewelled boots will now be in tatters.

HEY, TEACHER, MAKE THOSE BOSSES GROAN!

TEACHERS ACROSS THE southwest joined colleagues across the country, last month, starting an indefinite campaign of industrial action against excessive stress and workload. The action, designed not to affect pupils, will involve teachers refusing excessive observations (which teachers in some schools in the west face daily), refusing to hand in their planning to be marked by senior leaders (yes, this happens) and dozens of similar boycotts. The average teacher’s day begins at 7.45a.m., and ends around 6p.m., and the long holidays mostly get consumed with marking and planning. This is something teachers have been willing to put up with for years, but with headteachers increasingly treating staff like naughty children – upping already heavy levels of scrutiny as well as expecting a rainforest-depleting ream of paperwork on a daily basis – teachers felt action was the only option. Their decision to fight back has been made easier by education secretary Michael ‘Pob’ Gove claiming that teachers frequently leave at 3p.m. and should have their pay docked for doing so – a sick joke for anyone who knows how deep into the evening an average teacher’s work runs. Clamouring to one-up his partner in crime, OFSTED boss and well-known scrote Sir Michael Wilshaw recently opened a speech to senior leaders with the line “If anyone says to you that ‘staff morale is at an all-time low’ you will know you are doing something right.” Wow! With bosses like these, who can blame the teachers for striking back?

In some schools, headteachers, scared of losing their iron grip over staff, have attempted to ban the action. In at least one school in Wiltshire, staff standing together have already beaten back this attack, and in another, staff in a religious school are preparing to escalate a campaign against their boss who has banned the action on the grounds that it doesn’t fit with their religious ethos (we’d argue that religion and freedom have never had much in common anyway)! Teachers at the school will be going loud with their campaign soon, so we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you are a parent or pupil, you can support your teachers simply by telling them know that you appreciate what they do. Letting them know you think Gove is a bastard, or offering to deck him will also be guaranteed to raise morale amongst your local educators!

THE TADPOLES OF TOADY HALL

NORTH SWINDON RESIDENTS have been left furious at their council’s decision to push ahead with the building of nearly 1,700 new homes on greenfield land. Despite worries that the new Tadpole Farm development will bulldoze yet more of the town’s green spaces and create a serious flooding hazard, Crest Nicholson (who have a long history of building on flood plains, and recently tried to concrete over 150 allotments in Bath) and an assortment of Tory Councillors have pushed the project through. The decision comes despite the new South Swindon Wichelstowe development laying more or less empty, with no signs of filling up. Add this to the fact that, as of the last count, there were 2,518 empty residential properties falling into disrepair around Swindon (with a further 5,000 throughout Wiltshire), and the case for new build starts to fall apart. Local politicians and construction companies will always play the ‘creating new jobs’ card when defending their plans, but this argument has never added up. With regulations on the quality of new buildings at an all-time low, planning regulations governing green land more meaningless than ever, and provisions for building ‘affordable’ housing practically non-existent, new builds represent a license for construction companies to print money, while foisting cowboy constructed, overpriced housing on the rest of us.

If local councillors and housing companies really cared about Swindon, and job creation, they would be far more willing to invest in sprucing up the town’s empties and offering them as social housing to ease an already overflowing council-house waiting list of over 13,000. The development at Tadpole farm is nothing more than big business exploring more ways to rake in massive profits at our expense, all with the eager help of their Tory toadies.

NOW THEY’VE GOAN AND DONE IT

Swindon Workers Get Stuck Into Bullying Bosses

FOR THE PAST half a year, cleaners at Swindon’s G.W.H. Hospital have been taking action against their employer, Carillion, who take on the maintenance, construction and management of hundreds of buildings across the U.K. The action comes in response to a culture of bullying and racism from Carillion bosses towards the mostly Goan cleaners. As well as routine racist abuse, Carillion managers frequently force workers to present them with ‘gifts’ in return for time off, overtime and other basic rights at work. The Goan workers were also denied the right to take enough of their holiday in one go to visit their families back home. Since the first strike back in February, the workers have given the rest of us a shining example in how to treat your boss, joining the G.M.B. union en masse, taking dozens of days of strike action (always involving nearly 100% of the workforce), blockading Carillion H.Q., holding well-attended meetings, a 400-strong demo through Swindon and numerous solidarity events and protests, alongside Swindon Anarchists and other union and activist groups.

The campaign has already seen one racist boss get kicked out, but instead of taking strikers’ demands seriously, Carillion have responded by sending in scabs to undermine strikes, lying, faking and fudging internal ‘investigations’ and further victimising the victims by launching disciplinary procedures against 10 of the strikers – they even had the gall to accuse the workers of “offering bribes!”. As a result, not only are Carillion losing their reputation in the industry, not to mention lucrative contracts, but they have also been caught playing a central role in a blacklisting scandal – where major companies have been denying work to ‘troublemaking’ workers for the ‘crimes’ of attending anti-fascist protests and being members of a union! With Carillion refusing to take the hint and clean themselves up, an ever-growing number of ordinary workers are getting drawn into the fight, voicing disgust against Carillion (and yet more stories of corporate intimidation). With more strike action on the horizon – as well as planned action from anarchist and activist supporters – you can be sure that we’ll all be hearing more from the brave Goan workers that refuse to be trampled by their arrogant employer, and you can be equally sure they’re not gonna quit until they’ve won the rights we all deserve at work. To send messages of support to the workers, drop us an e-mail at mutineerpress[at]riseup.net and we’ll pass them on.

IN FULL SWING

THROUGHOUT ENGLAND IN 1830, agricultural labourers, tradesmen and smallholders rose up in their thousands to fight back against the driving down of wages, lengthening of hours, enclosure of public land and the starvation of their families at the hands of wealthy landowners. Nowhere was the rioting more fierce than in Wiltshire.

Between 1770 and 1830, over six million acres of common land had been placed in the ownership of a few rich landowners, leaving farm workers with nowhere to graze their small herds or grow subsistence crops. This, combined with a steep decline in wages for farm workers and the introduction of new machinery robbing them of their livelihoods, meant that many rural people found themselves and their families starving and penniless. The wage for a labourer in Dorset and Wiltshire was far worse than the national average.

Within a week of workers burning a threshing machine in Kent, rioting had spread to Wiltshire, where bands went on the rampage, burning farm produce and equipment and threatening the local gentry with physical force and letters demanding higher wages and food (always signed by the mythical ‘Captain Swing’). Some of the most extreme events occurred in Pewsey and Oare, where local landowner James Self was pushed into the flames as he attempted to save his property! The damage in this spree was estimated at £400. In the same night, the crops of a Mr. Fowler were also burned, with the local aristos surprised that “…the labourers of Oare, instead of assisting to put out the fire, appeared to take pleasure from the situation, and… were lying about enjoying the scene”.

Hoses brought to the scene were immediately sabotaged. Rioting was not only limited to farm labourers either, as demonstrated when a mob of 500 in Wilton gathered to attack and loot the mill of John Bishop: including his employees! And so it was in tens of towns and villages across the county, with workers successfully ‘persuading’ employers and landowners to hand over substantial amounts of money, food and, of course, beer! But before long, the shocked employers retorted, swearing in a ‘yeomanry’ comprised mainly of the local well-to-do, responding to disturbances with violent relish. After four months of sustained unrest – and, predictably, repression from employers and courts – the rioting died down, leaving hundreds imprisoned, dozens deported and 19 hung.

Despite the bloody end to the Swing Riots in Wiltshire, the workers scored some important victories. They met their material needs by looting money and supplies from landowners who were previously happy to let them starve but, possibly more importantly, the rioters experimented with ways to organize themselves to answer their own needs collectively, setting a blueprint for future working class self-organization that would inspire future generations of rebels and society as a whole.

AUNTY PARSONS HINTS AND TIPS TO BEAT THOSE RED LETTER BLUES

WHAT WITH THE govermint cuts and with the price of food, rent and bills skyrocketing, it can be difficult to scrape enough to get by. Final warnings may start to pile up and then a bloke who looks like he’s on steroids starts knocking at your door. What do you do? Well, don’t panic, Aunty Parsons has a few tips!

First DO NOT invite the bailiff into your house. They may ask if they can discuss your debts inside your home, or they may try and march in as soon as you answer the door. As with any stranger, always answer the door with the chain on. All bailiffs should carry I.D.; always ask for it and for a copy of the warrant they are collecting. A bailiff cannot use force to gain access to your home – they can only enter via what is known as ‘peaceful entry’, including entering through an unlocked door or window. Pushing their way past you at the front door is forcible entry and isn’t allowed, so if possible try to catch them on film and report it.

If a bailiff gets into your house, they are allowed to come back at any time and force entry, even into locked areas, and they will take anything unless you have a receipt proving something isn’t yours. It isn’t illegal to hide things outside of your home; what they can’t find they can’t nick! They can’t take anything which you can claim is related to your work or is necessary for you to live; like a builder’s van or your fridge and clothes. They also have to leave you one TV… They will get you to sign a ‘Walking Possession Agreement’. This means that you agree not to remove these goods and that you acknowledge they now belong to the bailiff, and they will be back later for it. Be warned they will charge you more money for each visit if you then decide to hide from them! The bailiff will usually keep visiting and if they are unable to get in, or if you have insufficient goods to pay your debts and the bailiffs’ full costs, the warrant for the debt will be eventually be returned to the Court. If the debt is in respect of rent, then they are only allowed to visit during daylight hours; for other debts, it’s any ‘reasonable time of day’. Complain to the company if not and keep a record!

If you’re expecting these filth it may be useful to let your mates know and get them to come round at short notice, so if they do turn up and throw their weight around, you have witnesses; sufficient numbers may also prevent their entry on Health and Safety grounds, and gives you that great satisfaction of victory! As an aside, on Swindon’s Penhill estate, a bailiff’s harrassment of residents was recently cut short when he ended up mysteriously bruised by unidentified assailants.

Remember, don’t get your stuff stolen by the rich! Get advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau, if in doubt. Or, if you have any questions, please send us an e-mail, addressed to Aunty Parsons, and we’ll get back to you.

A GAY OLD TIME IN SWINDON!

EVERY AUGUST, THOUSANDS flock to Swindon for the annual Swindon Pride. This year was no exception, with an estimated 8,000 attending what is thought to be Swindon’s biggest Pride yet. Organiser Phoenix Stewart said “Swindon Pride is so important because it celebrates diversity within the community and I think there are still some barriers, and we need to break these down”. While everyone enjoyed the music and bar, many on the march – including activist groups and unions – were there to remind people that Pride, and gay rights in general, are still a political issue. For the first time, the parade was joined by a contingent from Swindon Anarchists, expressing solidarity with the L.G.B.T.Q. community. James from the group said: “It’s great that so many people have turned out, but it is important to remember that this is more than a celebration. Homophobic attacks and discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. people still continue, and we need to unite as a group to deal with these threats. As anarchists, we are opposed to all forms of oppression, be it based on gender, race, religion or sexuality”.

Another positive development was the absence of the National Front – an openly Nazi group who have traditionally opposed Swindon Pride (admittedly in pitifully small numbers). Usually, they turn up with a few offensive banners and sit around getting annoyed, and laughed at, as same-sex couples revel in getting intimate in front of them! But why no Nazis this year? Another member of Swindon Anarchists explains: “A couple of years ago, we heard the N.F. would show, so we found their meet-up point and chased off a couple of the organisers. Their ‘demo’ ended up as five fat men getting drunk in town under police protection! Since then, they seem to be less eager to turn up!” So, with no drunk Nazis and a record high turnout, including huge numbers of families and straight supporters, a great day was had by all, and a clear message sent out that Swindon is proud to be diverse.