Worthing Anarchists

Anti-Fascist Network

2011-10-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

Worthing Anarchists are supporting a new Anti-Fascist Network.

It is being built by independent and grassroots groups seeking to working together against the rise of fascism in our communities.

Over the last year alone, the English Defence League (EDL) have held as many as 20 marches or static protests and attempted to disrupt anti-racist meetings andbenefit gigs. Anti-fascists have opposed the EDL wherever they go and continue to shut down BNP meetings, but we should be more effective.

The aim of the Anti-Fascist Network is to support local actions, ensuring that anti-fascists are never outnumbered, join together to counter regional and national EDL events, share resources and provide legal support.

The Anti-Fascist Network is not about telling people how to campaign in their areas, what type of anti-fascist activity they should undertake or what political analysis they should adopt. We simply want to cooperate to defeat fascism and organised racism.

The Anti-Fascist Network is non-hierarchical, will never work with the police and is not affiliated to any political party.

Other groups involved so far include Brighton Anti-Fascists, Portsmouth Anarchists, Plymouth Antifa and Welsh Antifa.

Subscribe to our news list by sending a blank email to:
antifascistnews-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The wesbite is at antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com

2011-05-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

A TALK about an important anarchist thinker is being held at the excellent Cowley Club in Brighton on Wednesday May 4.

Gustav Landauer is now often overlooked, but this German-Jewish revolutionary played a key role in the development of anarchist thinking before he was murdered by proto-fascist soldiers in Munich in 1920.

The talk, by Gabriel Kuhn, starts at 7pm at the club at 12 London Road, Brighton.

Smash the banks!

2011-03-27T04:02:00.000-07:00

Video footage from March 26 in London here!

The regime must fall!

2011-03-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

Resist in London on March 26!

2011-02-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

Whoever you listen to, it seems Saturday March 26 is shaping up to be an important day in the 21st century British political history.

A lot of people are concerned about the way the TUC is planning its mass march through central London and the extent to which it seems to be collaborating with the authorities to minimise its impact.

In response to this, support is now growing for plans to extend the protest over Saturday night and into Sunday – to make it a 24-hour occupation of Hyde Park and possibly other key parts of London.

We have all seen how protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya did not simply go home at the end of a march, but made their presence felt by claiming a space as their own.

While Worthing Solidarity Network is doing a great job in organising coach transport to London (which is cheap and can even be free for those who cannot afford it), it was pointed out at its last meeting that people are under no obligation to take the coach back home again straight afterwards!

The aim of the transport is to get numbers of people at the protest – we would encourage everyone who cares about the future of this country not only to be in London on March 26 but also to make provisions for staying on there long after the coaches head back for home (hopefully empty).

There are links to a lot of info about March 26 (including the TUC march) at
http://www.resist26.org

And they have out out this statement:

In response to the government public sector spending cuts the Trade Union Congress along with a variety of Trade Unions and organisations are marching through London to protest against government spending cuts will damage public services and put more than a million out of work. They will hit the vulnerable, damage communities and undermine much of what holds us together as a society.

The TUC are unfortunately working closely with the police to enforce strict rules on how we can protest on the day, even going so far as to employ stewards that liaise with a police communication HQ.

We will protest how WE see fit, we don’t need the permission of the TUC or anyone else.

Therefore we propose that rather than a typical A to B march with the same boring speeches that we actually take action for our communities and make a stand in London.

We think that people should take what action they deem is necessary for themselves. After all it is YOUR struggle.

We call for the TUC to endorse a general strike along with other trade unions to show not only fight austerity measures being taken in this country but to show solidarity with other struggles worldwide.

Rather than getting back on the coaches after a non event day, stay in London with us for 24 hours and lets see what we can do? Hyde Park will serve as one occupied territory, from which we can support various actions across London.

The idea of the occupation is to reach out to layers of trade unionists and others who would otherwise just get the coach home.They share our view of the TUC leadership’s gesture politics but aren’t yet ready to occupy buildings or break the law.

Rather than take the coach home feeling like nothing has been achieved lets see what happens?

Join us, 5pm 26th March till 5pm 27th March (or Longer?)

Why we are anarchists

2010-12-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

IF YOU get all your information from the mass media, you may think that anarchism is all about violence or chaos – but in fact the opposite is true.

Anarchists want a peaceful, happy society – but know that this is not possible under the corrupt, hypocritical, power-crazed system we currently live under.

We say that most human beings are basically decent and responsible and that, left to our own devices, we are quite capable of existing in harmonious societies, much like the rest of the natural world.

But something has gone wrong. Badly wrong. Across the world today people are suffering from poverty, from horrific living conditions, from war, from oppression, from pollution and from the sheer misery of existing in a society spiralling constantly downwards from disaster to disaster.

What sort of future is there for our children and grandchildren?

Anarchists understand that this mess is not going to be solved by voting for useless political parties at elections, by tinkering with a few details or introducing compromise reforms.

We aim for nothing less than the restoration of true democracy – power arising from below, from the grassroots, from the people. Government imposed from above is a crime against us all.

Some ill-informed critics see a contradiction between opposing the state and opposing the powerful financiers and Big Business interests that enslave humanity and wreck our environment.

But, if you think about it, states and governments are in fact the very tools with which the capitalists dominate and rob us.

Corporations don’t have to pay to protect their own financial interests.

Instead, they rely on governments to do it for them, whether by sending armies to secure natural resources (like oil), in foreign countries or by unleashing police violence to crush democratic protest against injustice.

And, as a final insult, these governments are funded by the hard work and taxes of the ordinary people – while the Fat Cats themselves use all kinds of tricks to wriggle out of paying their share of the taxes which are used for their benefit.

To find out more about the anarchist struggle for freedom and justice in theory and in practice, try some of the websites in the links section.

March on Parliament - December 9!

2010-12-05T08:59:00.001-08:00

More info at www.anticuts.org.uk

The terrorism of slavery

2010-12-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

SIGNIFICANT parts of the population – until now paralyzed with fear – are watching an unprecedented attack being launched against them, an attack still in its development phase.

Terrorism is not having the basics for survival. It’s having your wages and your pension cut. It’s having your house seized by some bank. It’s being surrounded by deadly pollution. Terrorism is living under a regime of daily fear for your survival.

To most in society, the terrorists and criminals are those who govern: the regime’s politicians, the rich, and the privileged castes, who exploit the workers and prosper by simply participating in the economic and political establishment.

The enemies of society are those who – after years of stealing, getting rich, and taking advantage of a barbaric and grossly unjust system – are asking us to donate our blood in order to save the life of the regime’s putrid corpse now that the system is going through the biggest crisis in its history.

If we allow the regime’s criminals to continue these policies, it means that we are surrendering to the most disgraceful slavery of all, feeding the country and our children’s future to the shark’s teeth of big capital, and accepting a life of constant terror from the international economic and political oligarchy.

No free person can accept such treatment.

These words, which we found in the latest issue of 325 magazine (available via 325.nostate.net) happen to come from the Revolutionary Struggle 3, prisoners of the Greek state. But it could be anywhere. It could be any of us…

Solidarity with the students! Fight the Tory scum!

2010-11-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

WORTHING Anarchists have nothing but admiration for the students who stormed and trashed the Tory Party HQ in London on November 10!

Finally it seems as if Britain is waking up to what is being imposed on us by the ConDem regime - it's the Shock Doctrine in action, a frightening step towards a future of miserable slavery.

The government is telling us the country is broke and we’ve all got to make ‘sacrifices’.

Thousands of people will be losing their jobs. Vital public services will be cut. Those who cannot find work are to be punished with what amounts to slave labour or the threat of starvation.

Only the rich are to be allowed a proper education with the massive hike in student fees. The NHS is coming under attack from privatisation. We are all going to have to work until we drop dead because the state doesn’t want to pay us the pension we’ve earned.

Meanwhile Big Business is being allowed to get away without paying its fair share of taxes that the rest of us have to cough up. And the Fat Cat bosses are laughing in our faces with their massive pay cheques and luxury lifestyles.

What we are seeing is a deliberate attack on the majority of the population by greedy global Big Business and its friends in the deeply unpleasant Conservative and Lib Dem parties.

We say we have to fight back! The students in London have shown us the way - we have to make it quite clear to the ruling elite that we will not put up with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY from Fat Cat criminals!

We are happy to support Worthing Solidarity Network in its efforts locally. As ever, for info on latest protests etc go to the Porkbolter newsletter site.

Police killing - London protest on Friday July 30

2010-07-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

A PROTEST has been announced in London against the killing of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests - and the fact that police are getting away with it scot free.

"Details: 12 noon Friday 30th July // Picket against DPP - Solidarity with Ian Tomlinson's Family

If you work, try and get half a day off like many of us are doing. Most importantly spread the word to all your friends and family.

Everyone to the streets! Never forget Never forgive!

Location:
Office of Department of Public Prosecution
Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, SE1 9HS

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139946402701890"

From Indymedia

Newsflash: Nobody wins election!

2010-05-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

A MAJOR triumph for Worthing Anarchists. Throughout the general election campaign, we urged people to vote for Nobody. And now we're being told that Nobody has actually won it!

Meanwhile, we continue to support the concept of a hung parliament, though we could do with some money for old rope.

Mayday Round Up

2010-05-02T07:24:00.001-07:00

Mayday is international workers day; a day we celebrate the battles we’ve won and remember those who have fallen in battle, particularly the Haymarket Martyrs.

As part of this historic day Worthing Anarchists travelled to London where, as well as the traditional trade union March, thousands of people occupied Parliament Square and the road outside parliament. Mayday protests took place all over the world and below is a round up of some of these, A special mention goes out to the Anarchists in Greece who look like they’re gonna overthrow a government or two this year!

London:

Video from Indymedia (WARNING: very slow loading)

Photos and short report from Indymedia

Athens and Thessaloniki:

Youtube Video 1

Youtube video 2

Video From ITN news

Article from Libcom.org

Photos from Athens Indymedia

Photos and timeline from Occupied London Blog (a very good place to keep up on happenings in Greece generally)

Article from The Guardian

Article and video from The Vast Minority

Berlin and Hamburg:

Article from Twocircles.net

Photos from Germnay Indymedia

Zurich:

Photos from Flickr

Los Angeles:

Youtube Video

California:

Article from The Vast Minority

Santiago:

Article from Latin American Herald Tribune

Youtube video

Gaza:

Article from National Turk

La Paz, Bolivia:

Article and video from keyc.tv

Kathmandu, Nepal:

Article from Sify

Round the world:

Photos from The Guardian

Photos from Monsters and Critics

Article from Monsters and Critics

Video from BBC

Anti Election meeting

2010-04-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

Are you physically repulsed by the thought of watching a bunch of politicians argue with each other about how they will screw us over? Then you don't want to be watching the debate tomorrow night! You'd be much better off going to this -

Thursday April 29 Worthing Alliance. Pre-election special with discussion on the meaning of democracy. Open to all. Jolly Brewers, Clifton Road, Worthing. 8pm.

And if you haven't already got plans for the weekend and want to celebrate Mayday then you could always attend Election Meltdown this Saturday!

Vote Nobody on Facebook

2010-04-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

Become a fan of Vote Nobody! on Facebook

From the page:

What a bunch of wankers eh? There's Posh boy Dave, Fat boy Brown and I can't even remember that other pricks name...

NOBODY is different ...

NOBODY WILL MAKE SURE EVERYONE HAS ALL THEY NEED

NOBODY WILL ENSURE DECENT HOMES FOR ALL

NOBODY WILL CREATE A GOOD ENVIRONMENT

NOBODY WILL PUT THE POWER BACK INTO THE HANDS OF THE ORDINARY PEOPLE

NOBODY CAN DO FOR YOU WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF

so ...

VOTE FOR NOBODY

you know it makes sense

Idiots Guide to the Election

2010-04-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

WORTHING Anarchists have produced an Idiots Guide to the Election - yep, that’s right, your authoritative guide to the idiots who want you to vote for them....

ADRIAN ARSEHOLE (Constipation Party). Adrian has worked in a range of financial institutions in the City and is widely respected as “a complete and utter banker”. A Senior Fellow of the Institute of Tax Avoidance, he owns a second home in the Cayman Islands, manages an offshore hedge fund, is a consultant to a leading global healthcare corporation and describes himself as ‘a man of the people’. His great uncle Sir Algernon Arsehole was Worthing MP for the same party in the 1930s and Adrian says: “People keep telling me this is just what the town really needs – another Tory Arsehole representing Worthing in the House of Commons.”

DICK SEAMAN (Lobotomised Dullotwat). Says Dick: “I have a unique selling point in this election – my policies are exactly the same as those of all the other political parties! And I can absolutely guarantee that getting me elected would make absolutely no difference to anything at all – apart from my personal bank account, of course! Ha, ha!” An upstanding member of the community, Dick says his aim is to inject a bit of spunk into the election campaign. He is currently studying for a PhD in Higher Masturbationary Studies. He was raised in Staines.

LAVINIA IMBECILE-THONG (Labor LiteTM) Lavinia, aged 14 and a half, was born in Switzerland and Dubai, and is currently a student at Upper Cheldean College for Nauseatingly Self-Confident Young Heiresses. Her ambition is to become a world-famous political leader and best-selling diarist, flit around the world in some style, fall in love with a darling prince and rear pheasants in Gloucestershire. She says: “I visited you people in Worthington-On-Sea once and I really really related to all the lovely voters, even the rather poor and shabby ones, actually.”

EDDIE SCROTE (British Nonce Party) Eddie, who lives in a converted sewer under Lancing Industrial Estate, says the trouble with this country is it has been taken over by the Nig-Nogs. “Look at them,” he says. “Brown, Blair, Cameron, all those bleedin’ bankers. Not a white face among them! Send ’em back to bongo-bongo land where they come from, that’s what I say!” Eddie, who was born in Johannesburg in what he fondly remembers as ‘the good old days’, enjoys rallying, particularly in the Nuremberg area of Germany, and is a keen amateur paedophile.

Or, alternatively, you could always...

VOTE NOBODY!

because...

NOBODY listens!
NOBODY cares!
NOBODY has your best interests at heart!

Act responsibly - don't vote!

2010-03-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

WITH the general election drawing nauseatingly close, Worthing Anarchists are calling on all citizens to exercise their democratic right – NOT to vote!

With public trust in the political parasites at an all-time low and the country descending into economic meltdown, it is likely that the turn-out will be one of the lowest on record.

This is YOUR chance to be part of a HISTORIC moment and bang your own personal nail into the coffin of the establishment.

Below are some pretty sound reasons for boycotting the ballot box. Why not pick out your favourite from the list and have it tattooed onto your forehead in the run-up to election day?

* It makes no difference. Whoever you vote for, the Government always gets in.

* Not only does the Government always get in, but it also carries out exactly the same policies as it would have done if the election had gone ‘the other way’.

* Voting gives you the completely misleading impression of having had some sort of say in the way the country is run.

* Voting is not an expression of power, but an admission of powerlessness.

* Voting for anyone other than the BNP won't stop the BNP, it is the anti-working class policies of the mainstream parties that give rise to the BNP.

* People say you should vote because people died fighting for the right to vote, but people died fighting for Hitler. That is no argument at all.

* Why vote for someone to rule your life when you can fight to rule your own life?

* Who better knows the issues that affect your life and your community, you or some professional politician?

* Some say “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain” but the opposite is true - by voting you give your support for this corrupt system so can’t complain about how awful the whole thing is!

* The opposite of voting isn’t dictatorship, it’s real democracy where we all have a say in how our lives are run.

* If you don’t vote it dosen’t make you apathetic and ignorant - it means you’re intelligent enough to see that the political institutions are rotten to the core and need to be replaced!

* If you vote, you are basically putting your cross in the box marked “Yes, I am stupid and gullible enough to fall for this pitiful and charmless charade.”

* They’re all a bunch of lying gits that you wouldn’t trust to go down the road to get you some beer and not spend all your cash on caviar and marshmallows for an obese sewer rat with a gambling addiction.

* If voting actually changed anything, it would have been reclassified as terrorism by now and attacked by a squadron of unmanned nuclear-armed drones.

* All politicians essentially belong to the same political party – the Fat Cat Party. They just split it up into different factions so we think we’re getting some kind of choice. Then laugh at us behind our backs. Bastards!

* Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

* Voting is not as much fun as rioting.

* Non-voting really pisses off politicians. Tony Blair once famously said he’d rather people voted for the Tories than not vote at all. That pretty much sums it all up, really.

* Non-voting really pisses off the sort of liberal tits who imagine signing petitions amounts to meaningful radical activity. “You have to exercise your right to vote!” they tell us. “No we don’t. Fuck off!” we politely reply.

* Nobody listens to your views. Nobody cares about your life, your environment, your future. And that’s why you should always Vote Nobody!

What anarchists elsewhere are saying:

Yorkshire

London

Hackney

Ireland

USA

Save Titnore Woods

2010-02-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

“Ownership” of land is one of the key things that allows exploitation and oppression to exist in society. Not to mention that the very notion is utterly perverse. No one can own land it belongs to all of us and to itself. By us I do not mean humans, there is no God in the sky who can give us dominion over the Earth and the animals. The land belongs to all of us; the plants and animals (including humans) that together create a complex and diverse eco-system, which can and should benefit all of us. Before the enclosures, when the elite in society forcefully removed good working folk from the land so they could use it to make themselves even richer, the land was held in common and used for the good of the whole community.
The proposed development at Titnore Woods is no different. The elite in society are trying to claim ownership of the land to exploit it for their own profit and gain and to do so they will violently remove the people living in Camp Titnore. The development will cause irreversible environmental damage, destroying the last ancient woodland in the area and by bringing in more people to the area despite the lack of jobs forcing them to commute and thus causing even more pollution and traffic chaos to the surrounding area. Not to mention that most of the development will be large expensive housing, which will bring in rich commuters who with their vast spending power will push the prices of goods and services up in Worthing, forcing out local residents who may have lived here all their lives and gentrifying the area.
So we urge as many of you as possibly can to attend the protest outside the council meeting, deciding to the future of Titnore Woods. This is our last chance to try and convince the Council to reconsider, if we fail it will be – TO THE TREES!!!

Protest: Monday, March 15, 2010
Time: 1:30pm - 2:00pm
Location: Outside Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing

Worthing Anarchists have been heavily involved in the campaign to save Titnore Woods since its humble beginnings. So here is a brief history of the campaign:

December 2001:
The Porkbolter reveals direct action campaign is being planned to save Durrington’s Titnore Woods from development.

Protect Our Woodland! is set up by campaigners against Titnore development.

May 26th 2002:
First Save Titnore Woods! protest sees 350 people block Titnore Lane, in the face of incredibly heavy and hostile policing.

September 1 2002:
Protest/delegation visits Somerset family, Titnore landowners, off A27 at Durrington.

September 13 2003:
Protest outside exhibition on Titnore development at Durrington Community Centre, complaining about lack of promised public meeting on issue.

April 19 2004:
Angry opposition to Titnore development plans at public meeting in Pavilion Theatre, Worthing.

July 10 2004:
Save Titnore Woods! march from Montague Place, to Teville Gate.

June 19 2005:
Protesters evicted from stormy meeting at Assembly Hall as Worthing council Okays original Titnore plans.

September 4 2005:
Emergency Titnore rally at Northbrook Park, Durrington, culminating in burning of John Prescott effigy in Titnore Lane, blocking traffic.

October 29 2005:
Draconian over-policing at Vigil for the Death of Democracy protest against Titnore development, A259 Northbrook College roundabout.

May 28 2006:
Protest camp set up in Titnore Woods, in daring dawn occupation. Still there at time of writing. Regular support stalls held in town centre from that date onwards.

July 6 2006:
100 people attend packed meeting at Charles Dickens pub, Heene Road, Worthing, addressed by Titnore campers.

August 12 2006:
Titnore Woods day of action with mass cycle ride and town protest.

October 7 2006:
Mass protest walk to Titnore Woods from Durrington rail station.

December 2006:
Titnore supporters collect Christmas food donations for camp in town centre.

May 2 2007:
‘T-Day’ celebration of Camp Titnore’s first birthday, Worthing town centre

September 15 2007:
Open Day at Camp Titnore

(Actions from the last couple of years will be updated shortly)

The last time Worthing Anarchist were involved in a protest Camp it was against the Arundel bypass ‘bypass’ which would have gone straight through the middle of Binstead Woods. The camp prevented that from happening. So that’s 1-0, we don’t intend to let our undefeated record go down without a fight!

Remember Gaza

2010-01-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

Worthing Anarchists are supporting the Smash Edo demonstration happening in Brighton on Monday.

The protest is called Remember Gaza, in January 2009 for three weeks the Israeli military dropped bombs on Gaza killing 1,400 Palestinians, 314 of whom were children.

This heinous and disproportionate crime did not go unopposed, all over the country, and the world, demonstrations took place. See this video of the protest in London

On January 18^th 2010 on the anniversary of the massacre, we will gather in Brighton to remember the people of Gaza.

As the smash edo website puts it;

“We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering to go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths, we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember...

Assemble at 1pm, wear black...”

Meeting Point for the Demo

The SmashEDO Remember Gaza Mass Demo will be meeting in front of the Wild Park Cafe at 1pm on Monday 18th January

How to get there...

By Bus
23, 25, 24, 28, 29(A+B) from St Peter's Church bus stops.

To get to St Peter's Church from Brighton Train Station; turn left through underpass in front of station onto Trafalgar Street. Walk to the end of Trafalgar Street. Turn left onto York Place, cross to traffic island for bus stops. Remain on the bus past Brighton University's Moulsecoomb campus. Get off the bus at the first stop after the viaduct, just past Home Farm Road. You will see the Wild Park Cafe on the left.

By Train
You can catch the train from Brighton Station to either Moulsecoomb or Falmer and walk along the Lewes Road.

From Moulsecoomb Station:
Walk down Queensdown School Road to Lewes Road, turn left. After about 500 metres
walk under the railway viaduct, go past Home Farm Road on your left and you will see
the Wild Park Cafe on the left.

From Falmer Station:
Walk under the underpass to the A27 and turn Left. Carry on on the Lewes Road and
you will see Wild Park Cafe on your right.

By Bike/On Foot
From Brighton Station; walk through underpass in front of station onto Trafalgar
Street. Walk to the end of Trafalgar Street. Turn left onto York Place, continue
straight and then turn right past the taxi rank. Keeping 'The Level' on your left,
keep going straight onto Lewes Road. From here, follow the Lewes Road out of
Brighton towards Falmer. Go under the railway viaduct, go past Home Farm Road on
your left and you will see the Wild Park Cafe on the left. There are cycle lanes and
pavements along the road from Brighton to Falmer.

For more info: Remember Gaza website

Gil - a true anarchist

2010-01-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

IT IS with great sorrow that we record the death of our comrade Gil (Michael Gilbert).

An anarchist for some half a century, he was a stalwart of the Worthing anarchist scene for numerous years and a good friend of many of us.

Despite the restrictions of his failing health, he continued to take part in a range of political activities and managed to get up to the Anarchist Bookfair in London in October.

Although well versed in anarchist theory and history, it was not the writers and theoreticians whom Gil most admired - it was the men of action.

Men like Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, Nestor Makhno, the Ukrainian anarchist guerrilla and Buenaventura Durruti, the inspiring anarchist fighter in the Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939.

The attitude of all these heroes can be summed up in the anarchist slogan "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!", which Gil heartily endorsed.

Gil certainly didn't live on his knees. As well as his political involvement, he was a relentless crusader against every aspect of petty repression, discrimination and exploitation that he encountered in his day-to-day life.

A thorn in the side of the uncaring authorities, he was also a guardian angel for many people who came to rely on his guidance and support.

It was this practical dedication to mutual aid, to human solidarity, that made Gil such a genuine and exemplary anarchist.

Even when he died, after a heart attack, it was while doing a favour for a friend - dying on his feet, helping other people.

He will be hugely missed.

Gil's funeral is at 2pm on Wednesday January 13 at Worthing Crematorium, Findon (Buses 1 and 23 from Worthing town centre) and all friends and comrades are invited by his family.

Shameful history of Worthing police

2010-01-02T06:15:00.000-08:00

A major case of injustice in Worthing has been publicised by our friends at the radical local newsletter the Porkbolter. We reproduce it here and give our support to its sentiments.

THE WORDS ‘police’ and ‘injustice’ seem to have a magnetic attraction for each other these days.

Whether it’s the shooting of an innocent Brazilian electrician for the heinous offence of looking vaguely (from half a mile away, with your brain disengaged) like a terrorist suspect or the fatal attack on a newspaper vendor who had the brazen audacity to want to walk home from work through the City of London, the Dixon of Dock Green image of the honest and fair-minded copper is looking further from reality every day.

But how many Worthing people remember that in 1975 this town was the scene of one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice ever seen in this country, in which the role of leading local policemen was, to say the least, rather dubious?

Paddy Nicholls ended up serving an incredible 23 years in jail for a ‘murder’ that in the end was proved not to have even happened.

The Porkbolter reported back in July 1998 that Mr Nicholls had been released from prison after being cleared of the murder of neighbour Gladys Heath - new pathologist reports showed she had died from a heart attack, not at the hands of Mr Nicholls, who found her in a collapsed state.

Funnily enough, this was also the finding of the original pathologist’s initial report, but for unknown reasons he suddenly changed his mind and decided she had been murdered...

And we quoted former Detective Superintendent Laurie Finley - a police officer who stood up to his own force to expose the truth - as declaring: “This has discredited the police, the medical profession and the law. A lot of people must have got an awful lot on their conscience. This was a deadly serious miscarriage of justice.”

Mr Finley, who had always maintained Mr Nicholls was innocent, has disturbingly revealed that he took early retirement from the police in 1976 when he was told “people were out to get him”.

Mr Nicholls’ release made national TV and radio news and was the main front page story in The Guardian on June 13 1998, as well as page 3 in The Times. Funnily enough, though, it wasn’t important enough to make the front pages of our local rags, being relegated to pages 8 and 19 of the Worthing Herald and Worthing Guardian (which was then the rival town newspaper).

So what happened next? Well, we recently spoke to a member of Mr Nicholls’ family who explained that when he left prison after 23 years, at the age of 69, he was a broken man in poor health, as you might expect. He had been made to suffer more, getting no parole, just because he refused to admit to something he hadn’t done. There’s justice for you.

Like Mr Finley, Mr Nicholls knew certain persons would be ‘out to get him’ in Worthing and used his compensation money, when it came through, to move to Greece, where he died in 2005. The enormity of what happened to him is hard to grasp. As Mr Nicholls said just after winning his appeal in 1998: “They have taken a third of my life, haven’t they?”.

Nobody was ever brought to justice over what happened to this innocent man. As is usual with situations that embarrass the powers-that-be, it was pushed to one side with the hope that it would quickly fade from the public’s memory.

But we say that Paddy Nicholls, and the way he was treated by the police and the courts, must never be forgotten by the people of Worthing.

2009-10-25T03:03:00.000-07:00

WORTHING Anarchists will be attending a two-day Gathering Against the Prison Society in Brighton on October 31 and November 1.

It is being staged at The Cowley Club at 12 London Road.

The discussions and presentations wille reflect the struggle for liberation, inside and outside of the prison walls and are organised by random anarchists and the Anarchist Black Cross.

As the economic crisis hits deeper and people get organised and angry, the state needs media diversions like the War on Terror, escalating political repression, paramilitary policing, new prisons & immigration detention centres, biometrics, surveillance, relentless imperialist incursions - all to maintain the class divisions that ensure continued economic exploitation. The UK State, leading others, is about to proceed on a major prison building project, whilst more and more our societies already resemble open prisons. It all has to go.

This is a call for debate and exchange, to reflect and agitate...

Provisional Timetable

Sat 31/Oct

9.30 Breakfast

10.30 Introduction of the event and of people.

11.20 Campaign Against Prison Slavery
Forced labour, long a feature of prisons around the globe, has many functions: as punishment, to extract reparations for the cost of imprisonment and even simply as a means of keeping prisoners physically exhausted so they are less likely to rebel. However, it is increasingly being used both as an integral component of prison control and discipline regimes and as a method of generating capital from a section of society that up till now has been held to have no intrinsic labour value.

- - --.--

Talk with the anarchist comrades from Portugal
"It doesn't seem realistic to us to talk about an anti-prison struggle in Portugal. There is an ongoing tension and struggle against this prison-society. We commit to fighting not just one repressive aspect of it. The problems are everywhere and our enemy is this whole system. With this we don't mean that we haven't targeted prisons or fought in solidarity with rebellious prisoners. It is quite clear for us that prisons are a fundamental pillar of the state's repressive system. They are a direct threat for all of us.
And so, we've had experiences of aiming our attack against the penitentiary system.. It is about these experiences and their context in a larger/global struggle that we would like to talk. We're interested in sharing the practice we had and the reflections that came from that practice so far. We want to debate the theory and the methods we choose, so that we determine the way we want this struggle to be. We're also interested in mentioning some specific cases because of their unexpected outcome- both positive and negative."

13.00 Lunch + Break

14.00 Feedback from Greece
Revolutionary solidarity in theory and in practice. An anarchist comrade from Athens speaking about the increasingly repressive aftermath of the December uprising and also about the outcome of the November 2008 prisoners hungerstrike. There will be an overview of the cases of bankrobbing anarchist prisoners Giannis Dimitrakis and Gorgos Voutsis-Vogiatzis, and details of the mass repressive measures taken against immigrants.

15.00 Presentation from anarchist comrades from Berlin, Germany
Some comrades from Berlin are going to give a brief overview about the situation there for what concerns the increasing of acts of attack against state and capital and the reaction to it by the agents of repression: one of the examples are the ongoing trials against several comrades and the widening of social control. Partly-privatization within german prisons and other developments within the prison world are going to be touched, as well as moments of resistance against it, both from the outside as on the inside.

16.00 Discussion

- - --.-- Close

20.30 Benefit Gig "All Cops Are Brothers" w/ Spanner, Crowzone & Jesus Bruiser. Donations entry.

- - --->

Sun 1/Nov

10.30 Breakfast

11.20 Open Session (...)

- - --.-- Lunch + Break

--.-- Open Session (...)

- - --.-- The Shape of Things to Come
Presentation by Tony Bunyan of StateWatch.org, about new European security architecture, biometrics & surveillance technologies and the open prison society.

- - --.-- Combating the open prison : Closing Discussion
Our modern consumer capitalist societies are becoming increasingly like open prisons, watched and spied on, monitored and databased, the average UK citizen is in a prison of monstrous proportions. We need a social and libertarian revolution for a world where we control the direction of our own lives.

Revolt on the streets of Europe

2009-10-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

RESISTANCE is ramping up against the corrupt capitalist system all over Europe.

On October 6 and 7 riots broke out in Istanbul as angry protesters took to the streets to oppose the IMF meeting in the Turkish city.

And on Saturday October 10 it all kicked off in Poitiers, central France, at a protest against the transfer of prisons to a new prison built in the area (see photo).

Said a report on German Indymedia: "The demonstration was not the main action of the day and local officials had anticipated that only 80 people would participate in actions. But the authorities were surprised by the arrival of a group of 250 protesters determined to do battle. They not take the control of the demo they were the demo.

"The parade first took the direction of the prison before turning around and attacking police who tried to follow. The procession set off towards the city center, forming a sort of block two banners with reinforced front and rear.

"The militants attacked all banks, insurance agencies and a business run by Bouygues (builder of prisons). A trader who tried to intervene was slightly injured. A policeman was more seriously hurt after being hit by a hammer to the head. "

The report carried in the USA's Washington Post sounded like a return to Cold War rhetoric, with its talk of "ultra-leftists" out to destroy our (capitalist) way of life...

It wrote: "The wanton destruction, which lasted for about 90 minutes early Saturday evening, was a dramatic reminder that France and other European nations, below their surface of stability and wealth, harbor tiny bands of ultra-leftist activists who still want to combat the market economies and parliamentary democracies on which the continent's well-being is founded.

"The violence seemed to have been carefully planned, police said. They discovered caches of masks, hammers, batons and smoke bombs at several points in the city center, apparently hidden in advance for use during the riot. Once it broke out, police said, the protesters used canvas tarps to protect themselves from rubber anti-riot projectiles used by police. "

Tarps, eh? Useful tip.

Although this was a major media event in France, with the usual indignant questions being asked by the right-wing press about who on earth these upstarts were and how they could ever have impinged on their complacent reality, it seems to have been totally ignored by the UK media - even though it is not exactly very far away!

Perhaps that is the problem - France is close enough to us that a wave of insurrection could easily cross the Channel and kick off here as well.

Remember 1789? Well, not literally of course, but you may well have read about the way the French Revolution inspired a generation of English radicals and scared the shit out of the authorities.

Is another storm of revolt on the way to these shores?

Anarchy in the USA

2009-09-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

DEFIANT street protests against capitalism are back on the streets of the USA, despite all the liberal hype surrounding President Obama.
That's the picture that's emerged from across the Atlantic, with the spirited anarchist demonstrations against the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this week.
An interesting report featuring photos of the clashes from radical site crimethinc states: "The basic narrative of the day runs thus: The protesters attempt to reach the summit site, but are brutally forced back by police. They eventually turn around and march through Pittsburgh neighborhoods and shopping districts, where the police pursue and attack them. Property destruction intensifies in response to these attacks, and the conflict culminates in a standoff between police and students during which a black bloc destroys a business district. One might interpret all this as legitimate acts of revenge for the police murder in London at last spring’s G20 summit; but it also signifies the survival of militant street resistance in the Obama era."
Of course, at the same time the protests showed that repressive police state tactics are still being used to repress resistance to capitalism on the streets of the USA, despite all the liberal hype surrounding President Obama. A shocking video report showing the intimidatory atmosphere can be seen on the G-Infinity site.

Anarchist Bookfair 2009

2009-08-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

WITH the summer fading fast and autumn in the air, Worthing Anarchists' thoughts invariably turn to the Anarchist Bookfair held in London every October - this year it's Saturday the 24th, 10am to 7pm.
This event is a bit more interesting that it might sound. It's not just books that can be found there, but also the latest issues of an enormous number and range of zines, papers, campaign literature and so on, plus DVDs, CDs, t-shirts etc etc.
More than that, it hosts a full day of meetings and talks covering pretty much every subject you might be interested in - if you have already decided that you'd enjoy a big anarchist day out!
The venue for this year's London Anarchist Bookfair, for the 3rd year running, is Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS.
From Worthing the best way to get there is train to Victoria and then the District line east to Mile End.
From Mile End tube come out of station and turn left. Walk along Mile End Road until you get to Harford Street and entrance to venue is opposite Harford Road. From Stepney Green tube come out of station and turn left. Walk along Mile End Road and venue entrance is on your left opposite Harford Road.

Protest at Armed forces day

2009-06-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Saturday 27th June) 'members' of Worthing Anarchists and Worthing Against War held a protest against the Armed forces Day event in Steyne Gardens, which shamelessly glorifies war and all the suffering, death and destruction that it involves.

Protesters were dressed in blood stanied bandages representing all those who have been killed or injured by wars across the globe. The event got a mixed response from people who supported what we were doing and some who were opposed to it. Around 200 leaflets were handed out to members of the public.

Below is the text of the leaflet handed out:

We are protesting against the staging of an event in Worthing which shamelessly glorifies war and all the suffering, death and destruction that it involves.

Commemorating conflicts in the past, such as the Second World War, when Britain really was at risk from invasion, is one thing.However, today's armed services are plainly not being used to defend this country at all, but to illegally invade and occupy distant countries in the interests of American global strategy and to grab oil and gas supplies for Big Business.

We believe that the so-called "Armed Forces Day" is nothing but a propaganda exercise designed to whip up public support for a thoroughly discredited British foreign policy.Waving the Union Jack to try and get people to march in step behind the Government is no way to run a democratic country in the 21st century - this sort of approach should have died a death with the end of the British Empire or with the last of Hitler's Nuremberg rallies!

Two million citizens protested in Britain against the invasion of Iraq, which is now widely seen as having been based on lie after lie. Many of us think Tony Blair and George W Bush should be facing war crime charges, while Gordon Brown's regime is still trying to hide the truth by holding its whitewash enquiry behind closed doors!At a time when this country is sinking into huge debt, we simply cannot afford to spend £35 billion (MoD figures for 2009/10) on helping the USA to try to control the whole world - meanwhile lining the pockets of well-connected weapons manufacturers! If only we could invest that sort of money in healthcare, education or in developing green technologies to help us build a healthy and sustainable future for these small islands! While young men and women join the armed forces for various reasons, we should not be encouraging them to do so. There are so many more important, and less destructive, jobs to be done in this world.Do we really think "our boys and girls" are doing a good deed by bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan, blowing up little children with cluster bombs or causing defects in babies for generations to come by using highly toxic depleted uranium in our weapons?And if they are killed in action can we really claim that they are "heroes" who have died for something worthwhile, or are they in fact victims - victims of a system that regards them as cannon fodder for its own insatiable greed and megalomania?

No more taxpayers' money wasted on the military! No public subsidy for the arms industry! No more blood for oil!

UKIP billboard subverted!!!!

2009-06-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

According to a report on Indymedia this billboard was spotted "somewhere in the mean streets of East Worthing "

News has also reached us that people were so inspired by this action several UKIP billboards and other town center locations has posters put up proclaiming "Vote for Guy Fawkes, the only perosn to enter parliment with honest intentions!"

How to organise an insurrection!

2009-05-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

SO WHAT does it mean to be an anarchist? What should you be doing, who should you be doing it with and - most importantly, how exactly do you go about organising an insurrection?!
These are some of the themes of an important interview with Greek anarchists published by the CrimethInc Ex-Workers' Collective.
Here's a taste of their advice: "You have to be friends with people you trust 100% to plan anything dangerous, you have to be aware and informed about anything that is happening in this world to decide what the proper course of action is, you have to be crazy and enthusiastic, to feel that you can do incredible things—you have to be ready to give your life, your time, your years in a struggle that will never end.
"It is healthy not to have expectations, because then you don’t get disappointed. You don’t expect to win. You are used to appearing, fighting, and then disappearing again; you know how to become invisible as a person and visible as collective power; you know that you are not the center of the universe, but that any time you can become the center of your society."
The rest of the website is well worth a look as well!

Happy Mayday!!!!!

2009-05-01T02:23:00.001-07:00

Happy Mayday everybody and welcome to the new Worthing Anarchists blog!

Mayday began in the USA in 1884, when the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.

This Mayday just down the road in Brighton there is a mass street party against war, greed and capitalism see http://www.smashedo.org.uk/mayday-09.htm for more info