Three refugees removed from Bournemouth, 1st May. Updated.

In a massive insult to our Class, the most anti-Working Class government in recent history chose International Workers’ Day to begin its racist deportation programme, abducting three Fellow Workers from Bournemouth as they registered at the police station.

At 10am asylum applicants began arriving at the sty to sign on as they are required to do. Many had received ‘Rwanda letters’. They were greeted by support workers from the Portland Global Friendship Group and a lively demonstration involving SWP front group Stand up to Racism, Amnesty International, anarchists of Wessex Solidarity’s John Hardy Centuria and non-aligned locals.

Applicants were asked their names and given telephone numbers for legal support, some were accompanied into the building with translation services available. We counted them in and counted them out. By midday it was evident that three people had been taken ‘for interview’ and kept for an hour and a half.

The SWP/SUTR rep seemed to think he was in charge – they can’t help it, can they? – Though he was not above shooting the breeze with babylon. Authoritarians don’t share our disdain for ‘workers in uniform’ as no bolshevik regime would last five minutes without its cops. He called a meeting and observed numbers were dwindling, this seemed to put the kybosh on it. Could anybody stay a bit longer and return in two weeks?

Given the sensitivity of the operation, we suspected the filth would try and remove the detainees in unmarked vehicles. Trotsky was adamant that: “no, they are using Home office vans all over the country”. He then sloped off to his Palestine demo, mentioning in passing that there was a back gate to the car park and someone might want to keep an eye on that.

A small group of us headed that way, just before we got there the gate opened and three identical unmarked black vans with black windows left at speed.

So that’s how they do it. If you can get to Bournemouth nick on Madeira road on Wednesday 15th May between 10:00 and 13:00 please come down, we need numbers. Meanwhile we’ve got the names of the detainees and work is underway to track those vehicles.

This embarrassing publicity stunt by rat-faced parasite Sunak must fail; the criminal gangs we want taken down are the ones that wilfully smashed the infrastructure of five countries and left their inhabitants to sit in the rubble. We will not pander to artificial scarcity, there is no shortage of anything in this country, with a million uninhabited dwellings and twelve million tons of food thrown away each year. Borders serve only the bosses, and exist to maintain differentials in prices and wages that boost the markup on manufacturing.

Update, 02/05/24:

We can now report that four comrades were taken yesterday, one omitted to give us their name. We also know that their phones were confiscated, to prevent them getting on the internet and having access to their contacts. The have been supplied with a cheap Nokia instead.

They are currently being held at:

Brook House immigration removal centre Perimeter Road South, London Gatwick Airport, RH6 0PQ. Map and directions run by the parasitic Serco corporation, which made a £249,000,000 operating profit from human misery last year.

Watch this space for further updates; this is shit the government doesn’t want you to know, so share it far and wide.

On a more positive note, a record 711 Fellow Workers crossed the channel safely in 14 boats yesterday, 1st May, we congratulate them.

If you have received a Rwanda notice, Wilson’s are taking on any Rwanda cases, details here e-mail: rwandareferrals@wilsonllp.co.uk

The SWP: Some things I wish I’d known before getting involved with the Socialist Workers Party (UK)

This gives me a shudder, bitter memories from long, long ago. It seems every generation gets led so far up this blind alley. It’s a cult, it’s a racket, it serves only itself. As for the U.S.S.R. and ‘democratic centralism’  – they failed – even by their own standards, they never created socialism or even competitive state capitalism, they killed more of their own side than the enemy and they systematically shut down every autonomous Working Class initiative that threatened their turf, leaving the door open for fascism and all the 20th Century’s holocausts. Their acolytes are still doing it. More here.

– Mal C.

Tiny Anarchist

You might read these things and still think the SWP is the best fit for you, but, for me, my involvement was based on not being aware of these things. All of this is focused on the Party leadership, ideology, behaviour and history, not on the individual people who go to meetings – I’ve met many comrades at meetings who are wonderful people who I value very much.

These are things I have experienced first-hand in going to meetings for months, taking part in street stalls and demonstrations, or that have been shared by others online about the national movement. I decided to start talking openly about these things after a while of thinking I had to stay quiet about it – it is so hard to make any criticisms within SWP spaces, but that makes it all the more important to talk about it elsewhere.

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Pubs to avoid: Chaplins Cellar Bar, Bournemouth.

We are Humans have been in contact and offered right of reply, we look forward to their response – ed.

“It’s the wrong trousers!”

Some friends in Boscombe started a prison letter-writing group and booked a back room at Chaplin’s. Behind the empty restaurant area they were well away from the other punters. After an hour or so, one of the group went to the bar for a brew. A big sour-looking fellow on our side of the bar announced “we can’t serve you in those trousers”, “pardon?” “No sport trousers after 9p.m.”

Enquiring after the definition of “sport trousers” we were told it was at the management’s discretion.

So they asked to speak to a manager and he replied: “I’m a manager and so’s he” – pointing to the barman. “You have to leave!” This was clearly a joke, imagine a punk venue styling itself after an anarchist who made his living portraying a tramp, telling its clients what to wear!

“I was wearing a pair of very plain, black, long trousers with no distinguishing marks. I favour an elasticated waist owing to a medical condition, but he wouldn’t have known that as I had a jumper on. I was pretty sure it was a gag but the dude puffed himself up, scowling, so I suggested we settle the matter in the car park*”

* Note to middle class readers: this is quite standard practice – ed.

As we gathered up our stuff to leave their doorman appeared “we can’t have you offering the management outside” but showed no enthusism for chucking us out. “He was in no danger, I thought he might fancy it being twice my size and half my age”. Someone suggested calling the landlord, whose name is Harry, but we were advised there was no point as he was on the pop and we wouldn’t get any sense out of him.

So far so weird; he clearly had a hair up his arse, or maybe he was showing off to his friend behind the bar – no one else was there. If he really is a manager, it’s probably a mistake leaving him in charge while the landlord hangs one on.

Our prison letter-writing group is now hosted by Poole Hill Brewery, who are much more friendly. Send us a message if you’d like to join in.

Chaplin’s has always been a crap music venue, a bit like a corridor with a stage at one end, but Hobson’s choice for Boscombe since the Riviera closed – rumour has it their licence was revoked after the proprietor punched a burglar. We hear the Riviera is under new management so we should soon have an alternative with a much bigger dance floor.

Chaplin’s weirdness is not limited to opportunistic trouserism. A festival of weirdness is being held in Wimbore, fronted by the bitterly anti-Working Class professional contrarian  Katie Hopkins on a vague ‘free speech’ platform, featuring purveyors of crank science, quack remedies and hackneyed reactionary views. Another of the promoters is Wendy Jane Morrow, whose band Outlandish have a residency at Chaplin’s, alongside Matt Hoy and both feature in the weirdoes musical lineup. One of the speakers is Dolores Cahill, who was forced out of the far-right Irish freedom party for the weirdness of her free speech, now a quack ‘healing’ practitioner.

Here we see them teamed up with a food bank called WE ARE HUMANS CHARITY NO. 1201814, it states: “The prevention or relief of poverty For the general public/mankind Other charitable activities.” A nice thought but how do they expect to prevent poverty in a market economy that depends on poverty for its survival?

The “Other charitable activities” are intriguing; we know nothing about this organisation but ‘homeless outreach’ has often been a tactic of the far right to camouflage local activism and curry favour with the disenfranchised. The BNP did it in the 90s after they got kicked off the streets, various solinters off the EDL likewise, especially focussing on homeless veterans. As party politics drifts ever rightward, in the absence of a credible left opposition you want to be careful who you hang around with. We anarchists are content to let it all play out, we’ll fight the winner.

The charity’s facebook page is peppered with posts from conspiracy groups all claiming to know ‘the truth’ about something. The old magna carta freaks are still going, pinning their hopes on an agreement made between feudal warlords to keep them in power. At the time, only a few hundred people would have been aware of its existence,  fewer would have been able to read it and only those with standing armies stood a chance of enforcing its provisions. And a plug for Jeremy Corbyn – confused at best.

The Sounds Beautiful festival is sponsored by “The Light”, a white-supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy paper. Contributors to this rag span the lunatic fringe of internet trolls. The folk who never believe anything they see or hear –  unless it comes from an American neo-Nazi in a suit. Hopkins has been warned off appearing but is still selling tickets for it.

Why anyone at a music festival wants to hear these boring old farts gobbing off is baffling. This seems to be a new phenomenon; the festivals are promoted on a pastiche of hippy counterculture with vague platitudes like “truth” and “freedom” but their backers are authoritarians. Anti-vaccine propaganda is ubiquitous, along with familiar anti-immigrant, islamophobic, antisemitic guff; oil-industry stooges rub shoulders with the primitivist end of the green movement. Also swirling in the bowl are homophobes, transphobes and misogynists. Even the flat earthers are invited, David Weiss ‘flat earth dave’, who “has revolutionized the way individuals explore and learn about flat earth through his innovative teaching app, the Flat Earth Sun, Moon, and Zodiac Clock App.” What a load of crap!

So if you’re afraid of falling off the edge or flouride making you gay, think vaccination is a conspiracy to stupefy us, and eating acorns cures cancer this may be for you. Buy a healing crystal, hug a Nazi, open your mind and listen to the sound of one hand clapping – but don’t forget to exercise your right to shout “fire!” in a crowded marquee.

Any credible intel on rightwing activity locally will be treated in the strictest confidence and passed to the relevant anti-authorities – ed.

Thanks for your support!

Please donate to the bookfair if you can, you could also buy a T-shirt or a book – ed.

Anarchy in the Sticks!

Dear Comrades,

Thank you to all who supported our Boscombe mini Bookfair:

As always Elkie, Chris and Staff at Obsidian Café who understand what we are doing and go out of their way to help. To Dan Kemp, and to Tabitha Wild and John D Revelator who stepped in at the last moment to save our gig. To the volunteers and speakers. Some visitors made very generous donations and we really appreciate it.

Our events survive on the voluntary anarchist-communist principle; “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. Books and T-shirts go out at cost. We are trying to deconstruct the concept of transaction because it creates hierarchy, so if you are skint and want to read a pamphlet, have it on us. If you are destitute and hungry, come and eat with us anyway. If your pockets are empty you can still come to the party.

All our artists played for travel expenses, a few people gave us a donation to this but most did not. If you are one of those and haven’t got a pot to piss in you’re welcome, most of the Collective are in the same boat. If however, you find you can afford to contribute to the cost of the food and entertainment, please consider making a donation. These events cannot continue without your goodwill.

The DRB Collective is boycotting Chaplin’s because we have been treated with disrespect and are not welcome there. We tried to explain this to our friends, with limited success.

Consumer boycotts and withdrawal of labour are the only effective weapons of our Class. Without solidarity we are powerless, none of you would consider crossing a picket line. Anyway, it’s a shit venue and not a patch on the old Riviera, which is back in business. So if we can put the Boscome Punx off the place we might get a change of regime and a more realistic attitude – over to you!

Here’s John D with a song about the Bristol Bus Boycott – it does work, you know!

Boscombe mini bookfair 20th January 2024

Anarchy in the Sticks.

The Authority of the Boot-Maker, by Mal Content.

To order the book quote quantity and delivery address. Make payment £20 each including postage, by bank transfer to: ‘Dorset Bookfair’, Account number 84669314, Sort code 51-81-18

If the above link takes you away from the page, it’s dorsetbookfair [at] riseup [dot] net

Or read it online.

Success!

Anarchy in the Sticks!

After many false starts, setbacks and let-downs, we finally managed to pull off another one. It looks like we’ve covered our costs so we can do it again.

We thank: Rachel at Bad Hand Coffee Roasters, Dan for organising the gig, Tom for the sound, staff at the Four Horsemen, the Sporadics, Uncivilized, Grant Sharkey, Surfin’ Dave and our own M.C. Sukie; Speakers Mal Content, Barley, Nick Heath, Dr Roger Ball, Neil Birrell and Isabella Lorruso.

Thanks to all our stall holders, those who have supported us since the beginning and a few new faces, collective members who worked so hard before, during and after, the folks at Obsidian cafe, for putting up with our planning meetings, and of course, you the public, without whom there would be no bookfair.

Bollocks to all those who tried to stop it, and the anonymous babylon who felt the need to poke their nose in.

We still haven’t really got enough people to make it the breeze it ought to be, ideally we’d have one crew for the daytime event and another for the gig. So if you feel like getting involved, don’t be shy, we’re meeting again at Obsidian Cafe in Boscombe on 11th November at 14:30 to discuss future events including next year’s Bookfair.

It’s a marvellous opportunity to  practice non-hierarchical organising, problem solving and personal responsibility, it builds confidence and initiative – and will cost you no more than a bit of time and effort!

Love and solidarity,

D.R.B.

Dorset Radical Bookfair 7th October 2023: The Afterparty.

Anarchy in the Sticks

Tickets

Our host at the Four Horsemen will be Sukie, non-binary comic, raconteur, writer, circus performer and activist.

Headlining, local heroes The Sporadics, socially conscious ska/dub punk.

Grant Sharkey, bass-playing troubadour, writer and stand-up comedian.

Uncivilised, lively punk from Portsmouth.

Surfin Dave, local guitar man, supported the Clash in the 1980’s.

Dorset Radical Bookfair: Meetings programme for 2023.

Anarchy in the Sticks

We’re now full up, and have something for everyone.

Meetings will be held on the raised area adjacent to the cafe bar so you can get food and drink but please keep noise down. Hosts please allow a couple of minutes for changeover and guests please take seats and vacate promptly. Thanks

12:00 ~ 13:00

Confessions Of a Non-violent Revolutionary: Bean Stew, Blisters, Blockades and Benders. The True Story of a Peace Activist in Thatcher’s Britain by Chris Savory. Workshop hosted by the author.

Radical movements and protests tend to come in waves, with enough time in between for people to forget about the previous ones. This workshop will explore what lessons can be learned from Non-Violent Direct Actions (NVDA) in the recent past, with particular emphasis on the 1980s and my personal experience, but hopefully including participants experience of other times. This has particular relevance given the recent re-appraisal of direct action tactics by XR.

13:00 ~14:00

Avoiding the infinite waiting list: Workshop hosted by Barley.

The bleak state of trans healthcare in the UK can make transition feel unattainable. Supporting each other must consist of more than listening as our friends and comrades complain that their lives are being put on hold. There are options beyond the GIC, with their waiting lists stretching out towards the heat death of the universe, and it is up to us to share our knowledge and build the future we want for trans folks.

Despite all the boundaries in our way, we will live our lives authentically as the people we are.

14:00 ~ 15:00

The Idea – a new book by Nick Heath. Presentation by the author:

Nick Heath’s book on anarchist communism is the first such comprehensive work on the subject. Anarchist communism often hides in the shadows in the general works on anarchism available, only clearly emerging when the ideas of Kropotkin, Reclus and Malatesta are discussed.  This book seeks to rectify all of that. He asserts that the revolutionary core of anarchism has been obscured by what are essentially bourgeois histories which pursue an eclectic approach  which encompass many ideas, philosophers and movements. In an exhaustive number of chapters on different anarchist movements in many countries, Heath reveals that that anarchist communism had a preponderant hold within those movements, as in France, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, Latin America, China and Japan; and that indeed it is the dominant current within anarchism.

15:00 ~ 16:00

“I fear there will be blood spilt this evening”: The 1831 reform riots in Dorset. Hosted by Roger Ball (BRHG).

In October 1831, the defeat of the Second Reform Bill in the House of Lords led to a wave of pro-reform public protests and disturbances across Britain. Concurrently in Dorset, a microcosm of the national struggle over electoral reform was being fought out in a county by-election which posed Lord Ashley an anti-reformer against the pro-reform candidate William Ponsonby. In the aftermath of Ashley’s controversial victory, a series of riots began, first in Dorchester followed by Poole, Blandford, and Sherborne in Dorset and Yeovil in Somerset and led to pitched battles with the Yeomanry and Dragoon Guards.

This talk examines behavioural patterns in case studies of the latter three events with particular emphasis on the targets of the rioters, who the rioters were and their interactions with the authorities. From this evidence an attempt will be made to understand the motivations of the rioters, the majority of whom were not going to be enfranchised by the Great Reform Act of the following year.

16:00 ~ 17:00

Fighting Women – a book by Isabella Lorusso.Presentation by the author:

For 17 years Isabella Lorusso travelled through Spain talking to women who put their lives on the line to fight fascism – and, too often on a second front, confronting men whose commitment to liberation stopped at their own front door. Lorusso’s work is both a tribute and a social history for those women of the 1930s whose actions and visions of the future continue to inspire and inform today. Come and meet Isabella talking about her book and other projects she has been involved in.

On the road again: Weston Radical Bookfair 2023.

Three of us spent a pleasant day in the West country at the second Weston Super Mare Radical Bookfair, hosted  by the North Somerset LGBT+ Forum and the Sanctuary Cafe. Unfortunately this friendly progressive venue is closing shortly due to rising costs. Our comrades have another location lined up for next year so keep an eye on the facebook page and if you’re in the area perhaps visit the Sanctuary Closing Night Bash on Saturday, 18th February From 18:00-23:00.

We made many new friends and met up with some old ones, a good start to the season and we hope to do it again.

 

Pictures by Green.