Click on front cover to download the. pdf
Issue 25 of our newsletter is out now! featuring articles on Stop and Search, ID Cards, Greek uprising, the DNA database, police corruption and brutality, protests, dodgy deals and more!
As well as our own input we have contributions from No Borders South Wales, Cardiff Anarchist Black Cross and Westside Climate Action - if you want to see a story in Gagged! just get in touch!
On Saturday 6th December at around 10pm two Greek policemen were on patrol in central Athens. They had an argument with some young people & during the argument one of the policemen pulled his gun & murdered 16 year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
The murder sparked angry riots throughout Greece. Hundreds of schools & universities are under occupation. TV & radio stations have been occupied. Banks & shopping malls, symbols of greed & corruption, have been attacked. & the Greek police are running out of tear gas while politicians bleat.
The demonstrations are clearly about something more than the murder of an innocent young man. The protesters are not the ‘mindless thugs’ the media would have us believe, but are organised. They have a large support base & are acting in rage against a repressive, destructive system called capitalism. People everywhere are waking up to the fact that governments do not care about them, but are more than willing to spend billions of pounds to prop up the very financial institutions which have wrought havoc with our lives.
Solidarity with Greek protesters is spreading like wildfire across the world. Demonstrations have taken place in Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, New York, St Petersburg, Madrid & London. Greek embassies have been occupied and, in Cardiff, slogans were daubed on the walls of Canton police station and two police vans covered in paint stripper.
From outside police headquarters in Athens during a protest came the following message:
“These days belong to all the marginalised, the excluded, the people with the difficult names & the unknown stories. They belong to all those who die every day in the Aegean sea & Evros river, to all those murdered at the border or at a central Athens street; they belong to the Roma in Zefyri, to the drug addicts in Eksarhia. These days belong to the kids of Mesollogiou street, to the unintegrated, the uncontrollable students. Thanks to Alexis, these days belong to us all.”
Follow events via Occupied London, Indymedia Global, and the Centre for Strategic Anarchy.
In response to the international call out for a day of action in solidarity, South Wales Anarchists will be meeting on Saturday 20th December, 12 noon at Nye Bevan statue, Queen Street, Cardiff to demonstrate solidarity with those resisting state repression on the streets of Greece and in memory of Alexis Grigoropoulos. We will be distributing a new edition of Gagged! and information about the uprising.
Cardiff Anarchist Black Cross recently received a letter from Political Prisoner Sean Kirtly, where he tells the story of how he ended up incarcerated, you can read it here.
Cardiff Anarchist Black Cross is part of an international movement supporting the struggles of prisoners, and of anarchist and class struggle prisoners in particular.
With houses already unaffordable for working class people plus growing numbers of evictions and home repossessions, what options are left to us as recession bites? Some people are starting to advocate squatting as the only viable solution.
The squat at 87 Ashley Road, Bristol, is owned by Places for People (P4P), the UK’s biggest housing association. Incidentally it also boasts the highest paid chief executive in the housing sector. P4P’s director trousered £258,000 in 2007. Housing associations were set up to fill the gap left by Thatcher’s destruction of social housing provision. Legally, they cannot make profits, so they make up by handing out big fat cheques to fat cat bosses. And let’s not forget that it’s our money which is going to fund these extravagant payouts.
On November 12th 2008, P4P executed an eviction order on 87 Ashley Road, even though this building hadn’t been used by P4P for four years and was empty until May 2008 when around 20 homeless people decided to take matters into their own hands and moved in to create a better life for themselves. Up to that point P4P had refused all attempts to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement. Thereafter the company repeatedly submitted incorrect possession claims to Bristol Magistrates courts and threatened illegal evictions. At one stage the sitting magistrate called P4P’s representation ‘a right dog’s breakfast.’
At 10am on the 12th November police and bailiffs attempted to evict the squatters. Residents awoke that morning to find the street shut off and around a dozen riot vans parked outside. The front garden was a sea of police in riot gear with angle grinders and battering rams. Residents then agreed that the best way to resist this eviction was by occupying the roof. Unable to remove the squatters, police and bailiffs set about smashing up the property to make it uninhabitable.
Those on the roof remained in good spirits and plenty of people were giving them support on the ground until a temporary halt to the action came on 27 November when a public meeting was called to discuss the matter. Unsurprisingly P4P failed to turn up. In the meantime P4P continues to do its bit to solve the housing crisis by flogging off one-bedroomed flats for £140,000 and making the area even less affordable to ordinary people!
Despite all this the residents of 87 Ashley Road are determined to stay.
To support the protest contact:
Email: 87AshleyRoad@gmail.com
Phone:07722 786 379
For general information on squatters’ rights go to: http://www.squatter.org.uk
South Wales activists travelled to Brighton to take part in the ‘Shut ITT’ demonstration on 15th October 2008, which aimed to shut down the EDO MBM arms factory there. They joined 400 activists from around the country in this mass anti-militarist action.
EDO MBM Technology Ltd is owned by ITT, a US-based multinational arms dealer. They have contracts with the UK Ministry of ‘Defence’ and US arms giant Raytheon (see the article on St Athan) to supply the release mechanisms for the Paveway III guided bomb system. The Paveway bomb was the most commonly used munition in the 2003 ‘shock and awe’ destruction of Baghdad and murder of thousands of innocent Iraqis. After four years of setbacks, Paveway IV is now in full production in the UK. EDO also makes components for tanks, helicopters and unmanned combat air vehicles. Research into the company has revealed direct links between its supply of Israeli F16 bomb release units, and war crimes committed by the Israeli military in the Occupied Territories.
Before the march moved off, police read out a ‘Section 60’ notice, used to enforce the removal of face coverings. A number of arrests were made at this early stage for failing to comply with the instruction and for obstructing police in their ‘duty’. The 400-strong march then started on its way, with the aim of reaching the factory to protest. However, as the group approached the EDO factory, its progress was blocked by a large number of police. Attempts were made to break through police lines, only to be met with batons, pepper spray used at short range and cops in full riot gear. Half the protestors then took to an elevated wooded area, giving access to the rear of the factory. Along the way there were further skirmishes with cops and their dogs. Some of the police officers present, batons drawn, appeared to be provoking protestors. In spite of this repression, the back of the factory still got covered in red paint.
The protesters eventually managed to evade all police cordons and marched into the centre of Brighton. A substantial number of activists made a break into a park, the cops having lost control. A party on the beach followed after six hours of protest. There were ten arrests, four houses searched and up to twenty protesters injured by police. For more information on this ongoing campaign, see www.smashedo.org.uk.
Plaid AM Bethan Jenkins has uncovered that 64,000 Welsh young people are now on the national DNA database - that’s more than 1 in 5 people between the ages of 10 and 17!
Are 1 in 5 of our kids criminals? Of course not. But Welsh cops have been on a DNA thieving-spree for the last 10 years, and have already doubled the number of people whose “genetic fingerprint” is being kept on record, irrespective of whether they’ve committed a crime.
Spurred on by a right-wing media which demonises young people as criminal hoodies, and aided by more than a decade of Blairite policies which have given the police unprecedented powers, the cops are now completely out of control. Those who agree with this biological identity theft say that it helps catch murderers and solve ‘cold cases’ - this just doesn’t wash as an excuse to catalogue the DNA of children. The only possible reason for storing the DNA of so many innocent young people could be the extension of our surveillance society, and normalising and extending state control over the lives of coming generations of adults.
Last year there were more than 264,420 on the database overall; many are innocent and have never been charged with anything, but their sample will be kept for life. The annual number of samples taken by Welsh police forces was twice as high as in 2006-7 as it was a decade ago.
If you are interested in fighting back against Big Brother and the growing power of the police state come along to a meeting of the South Wales Anarchists, and we’ll fight back together.
The South Wales Echo has reported that armed cops are carrying out stop and searches under Section 44 of the terrorism act at Cardiff Central railway station.
Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows the coppers to stop and search anyone in a specific area. Before this law was introduced they could only stop and search individuals if they had “reasonable grounds” and certain criteria were met. This is no longer necessary, and in recent years we’ve seen these anti-teror powers used against anti-war, anti-climate change, and anti-capitalist protestors.
Human Rights group Liberty still insist that, “the power to stop and search under anti-terrorism powers should only be used when there is evidence of a specific terrorist threat”. But cops yesterday revealed the searches in Cardiff were not led by specific intelligence about a threat, and were instead a “routine” operation.
Sergeant Alan Muggleton from British Transport Police said:
“These operations are carried out as a matter of routine to make the railways as difficult a target for terrorist activity as possible. We hope that, as well as disrupting and deterring possible terrorist activity, it will also provide visible reassurance to the travelling public that the police are being vigilant for their safety.”
A spokeswoman from British Transport Police underlined that this was not linked to any credible threat:
“This is not intelligence-led and there is no reason to believe these areas are more at risk from terrorism than anywhere else. This is a routine operation the like of which British Transport Police carries out at various locations. It aims to disrupt and deter potential terrorist activity and we assure the public are being active in ensuring their safety.”
Just to translate from cop-ese into English: “There’s no specific terrorist threat in Cardiff, but we’re going to patrol your streets with guns and search people’s bags at random anyway, and there’s nothing you can do about it”.
We see the use of ever more draconian surveillance techniques as an invasion on our personal freedoms, and a blatant attempt to use an ill-defined yet seemingly ever-present “terrorist threat” as an excuse for the state to infringe on our everyday lives in ever more invasive ways. The fact that they are done at random lends weight to this idea.
But even if you don’t share this belief, anyone can see that sporadic random searches like this in different cities accross the country are a singularly stupid way of trying to stop terrorism on the railways. Looking for terrorists at random in a crowd of commuters is at best like looking for a needle in a haystack, and at worst will end up with ignorant rozzers stopping disproportionately high numbers of young Asian men and further alienating this group (something the Islamic Human Rights Commission are clearly worried about). And surely if a terrorist wants to blo up a train they aren’t going to try and do it in plain sight of armed police. They are far more likely to target a quiet secluded spot somewhere along the 1000s of miles of virtually unguarded track that lies outside the heavilly poiced metropolitan areas.
Here's to more death and destruction!
Two years ago Westminster politicians, Ministry of Defence top brass and their cronies in big business were slapping each other on the back about a new military training academy in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. In Wales first Minister Rhodri Morgan popped the champagne corks on the Senedd steps and the Welsh media crowed about a £14 billion contract and around 6,000 new ‘high-quality’ jobs.
It’s taken a while, but the plan is now unravelling as it becomes clear it’ll be a complete failure.
South Wales anarchists have been saying this all along, of course. The deal would mean the privatisation of military training. The power to train soldiers, navy and airmen and women would be handed to a bunch of dodgy arms dealers who make up the Metrix Consortium; companies like Raytheon, who manufacture cluster bombs which kill thousands of civilians.
We talked to the unions representing those who train the army and found out most of the instructors were against it, too. They didn’t want to move to St Athan, and they didn’t want to work for private companies.
Researchers looked at the jobs claims and found out that the 6,000 figure was pie in the sky - most of the ‘new’ jobs would be relocated from other parts of the UK and the small number left over for locals would be low-skilled service jobs such as cooking and cleaning up after trainees.
We went to the Vale and talked to residents and found out there’d been no proper consultation and that hardly anyone had any idea of the scale of the new academy. They had no idea that St Athan would be turned into a massive garrison town through which every new member of the UK’s armed forces would pass.
Slowly, everyone else seems to be catching up with us! A string of setbacks has meant that the project looks in danger of going under. The lucrative ‘phase 2′ of the project was scrapped much to the annoyance of its supporters. Staff at the Open University, who are involved with the consortium of ‘defence firms’ behind the project, have started to complain about consorting with such scum. The scheme is running over budget with the price rising from £11bn to £12bn and senior MOD officials have joined opposition in the rank and file, one senior general describing it as ‘Alice in Wonderland’. A top air force officer complained that allowing companies to profit from military training would lead to cost-cutting and would put UK forces in danger. Tory MP Mark Pritchard has said that moving training from RAF Cosford to St Athan ‘would put frontline operations at risk‘ and others have questioned how realistic the plans are. And, most damaging, the MOD’s senior defence training review board has voiced serious concerns about the viability of the plans, suggesting it is not affordable, and it poses ‘intolerable’ risks.
This time, we actually quite like saying ‘we told you so’!
Lord Marcher of Trellech aka Mark Roberts aka Mark Andrew Tudor of Friar's Point, Barry Island; owner of Tacticall Radio Hire, Trecader Court, Barry or would that be 11, Wayne Street, Trehafod?
Not Glenys Phillips, an 86 year-old disabled widow living in Ferndale, Rhondda, that’s for sure. Mr Roberts bought up the freehold property of her home for £6,350 three years ago without her knowledge and is now demanding up to £20,000 for the leasehold of the house she’s been living in for 60 years. Mrs Phillips will just have to go on worrying about being evicted while the case is considered by the leasehold tribunal. That can take 18 months!
Julie Foster and others living in Peterstone Wentlooge, near Newport, may not be overjoyed to have Roberts ‘lording’ it over them either. Over the years Roberts has bought up 60 manorial titles, including that of Romney, which covers common land in and around Peterstone. Having paid £10,000 for the hereditary title at an auction, Roberts then sent letters to the residents, demanding sums of up to £45,000 in return for access to their homes across paths and verges – access they’ve enjoyed freely all their lives! The letter threatened litigation if villagers didn’t cough up immediately. Housing officer Ruth Winstanley faced an £18,000 bill.
“I was flabbergasted when I received the letter demanding I pay for the right to park my car in my own drive, I’ve never heard of such an outrageous thing in my life.”
Julie Foster and her neighbours paid out £100,000 before the legal loophole was closed and Roberts handed a hefty bill for legal costs. A resident of Alstonefield, a village in the Peak District where Roberts tried a similar scam said:
“This is the 21st century and we feel trapped, prisoners on our own land.”
The fishermen of West Wales certainly wouldn’t consider Roberts fit to be their councillor after he tried to establish title to half the coastline of Pembrokeshire and exclusive fishing rights! Who’s to say what fishermen would have been asked to pay? Fortunately, Roberts lost this case as well and earlier this year was handed another bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds, which may explain why he’s now targeting vulnerable people like Mrs Phillips.
Plaid Cymru, however, would be only too pleased to see Mr Roberts, dubbed the ‘lord of extortion’ by the press, in a position of authority. In fact, such is Plaid Cymru’s conviction of Mr Roberts’ integrity and of his commitment to civic duty and social justice, that they backed him as the Plaid Cymru candidate in not one, but two council elections in St Athan in 2004 and Buttrills in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2008, where he finished a respectable 4th out of 6 candidates. Watch out for Mr Roberts at the next Welsh Assembly elections! A bright future as housing minister may be in the offing. Homeowners, check your leases now!
South Wales Anarchists held a stall on Cardiff’s Queen Street on Saturday 25th October, to give out copies of the latest Gagged! newsletter. Hopefully there’ll be more regular anarchist stalls on the streets of South Wales in the future. If christians, socialists and communists can be bothered to get out there every week, maybe we should too?
Our banner below a quote from some big old book
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