Covid-19: Laurens Otter lambast's hospital food

by Brian Bamford

THIS last week N.V. was shocked to learn that the veteran anarchist Laurens Otter living in Wellington, Shropshire, and long-time supporter of the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN), had contracted Covid-19.  It seems that some months ago following an operation of his knee that he got a dose of sepsis, and that this resulted in him going into 'rehab', where he recently finished up catching the coronavirus.

When I spoke to Laurens yesterday his voice was weak but not hoarse, and he expressed his despondency that he was probably not going to be home for his 90th birthday, next Tuesday.*  Also he had not been able to get his usual copy of The Guardian, owing to his daughter, Fiona, not being able to visit him in the current climate of restrictions.

What cheered me up were his complaints about the painfully overcooked nature of hospital food.  It cheered me up as it was typical of Laurens going on about having to compromise about the dreary diet on the wards.

Today however, Fiona told me that he had had another phone call from Martin Gilbert, and that he had been moved to a cottage hospital which she thought was a move in the right direction as she said she thought that the staff felt that he was improving.  Though we both thought that he will be lucky to be out for his birthday.

Laurens has had a long history of fighting in both the anarchist and peace movements and many will wish him well at this time.  We wish both him and Fiona all the best at this testing time.

* Update 07/04/20:  Lauren is still having to spend his 90th birthday in hospital today, but if the 'powers that be' can get a care package in place, all being well he may be home by Monday next. 

Update 08/04/20: Laurens who last night was a bit groggy at 8pm is today eating his dinner according to the hospital. 

Update 09/04/20:  Laurens returned home today, and is sleeping on a special care bed tonight.

*********************************

Anarchist Book Fair returns to History Museum

 by Barry Woodling

THE Manchester and Salford  Anarchist Book fair returned to the People's History Museum on Saturday the 7th, Dec.    It passed off without public incident unlike previous Anarchist  Book fairs in London, Liverpool and especially Manchester, which on the last few occasions were marred by serious disturbances.  There was none of this last Saturday, and supporters of the NAN, who were once banned and blacklisted, participated fully in the workshops at this event.

There were the usual wide array of stalls including PM Press, Freedom Press, independent book sellers, as well as Anarchist organisations such as Anarchist Communists, Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation.    A number of Campaign groups also had stalls.

The workshops had a distinct Anarchist Studies emphasis.....Matthew Adams presented a paper reviewing a book written by Marie Louise Berneri entitled 'Journey through Utopia'.   The talk contained biographical material and also mentioned the liberal critique of utopianism associated with the works of Berlin, Popper and Arendt.   

The other workshop - I attended was presented by Ruth Kinna of Loughborough University and Anarchist Studies.  Promoting her own recently published book:  'The Government of No One'.

She referred to two key historical moments related to anarchism, namely the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Haymarket trial of anarchists in the following decade.    Her talk encompassed five broad headings:  

1) culture, 2) Education, 3) Activism, 4) Social arrangements  eg utopias and experiments, and 5) Prospects.    She focused on anarchism as a philosophy which opposed all forms of domination including class, power relations, patriarchy and law.

My overall impression was that the book fair was relatively successful in terms of attendance and organisation and this augurs well for the future after a sustained period of conflict which damaged previous book fairs although issues of freedom of speech still have to be resolved.*

Northern Voices has tried hard at the time of publication to contact the organisers of this bookfair for a comment, but we have been unable to get a response or to even find out who were responsible for the event.  However, quite separately someone who knows something about the intricacies of last Saturday's event has defended the organisers challenging the critics by saying:
'You’ve all been involved in organising events before.  And you’re all patently aware of how the organisers ALWAYS get the blame for everything.  The London Bookfair collective got so much abuse after 2017.'

********************* 

*  Barry has here reported honestly on the Bookfair as we all understood and appreciated it last Saturday night.  However, on Sunday Northern Voices became aware of an incident of which neither Barry Woodling nor anyone associated with NV or the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) knew anything about, and we feel we must in fairness produce the link from 'MAKE MORE NOISE' for readers to consider:

https://twitter.com/MakeMoreNoise2/status/1203319566472040448?s=08

***************************

SAD END TO A GREAT INSTITUTION!

'Bookfair couldn’t guarantee the banner’s safety', said Dave Douglass
 

by Dave Douglass (South Shields}

THE annual Anarchist Bookfair in London was for many many years the highlight of the Anarchist and radical Marxist calendar.   It brought together the most splendid , vivid fascinating and eccentric, profound and trivial, exciting and profane, hilarious and spiritual assortments of people.   They came in thousands, they bathed in the rainbow variety of factions, tendencies, visions and issues.   Workshops and presentations, entertainment and discussion filled the entire day as the crowds crammed past stalls laden with literature and art, T-shirts and stickers, posters and badges, cards and calendars, a myriad of interesting and unique stuff you would never find anywhere else under one roof.   The Vegan food commune outside the venues hawked the most interesting of pastries and butties, tatties and cakes, rich wonderful chocolate cakes and angel cakes which tested the will power of the most dedicated of health freaks.  In my own judgement the Anarchist bookfair almost vied with the Durham Miners Gala (almost) in terms of ‘not to be missed’ events.  Ancient aud Anarchists rubbed shoulders with the Mohican punks of yesterd-a-year, born again hippies, young activist, and what a Glasgow paper talking of the anti polaris demonstrators of the 60’s called ‘ beardies, weirdies and lang lagged beasties’ 
 
Sadly the great spirit of comradely diversity, the ‘let a million flowers blossom let ten thousand schools of thought reign’ which Mao had once said and may actually at one time believed, had started to change and smoulder into authoritarian intolerances.  In a gradual change of attitude which I think has spread from the Ultra PC ‘no platforming’ ‘shut them up’, ‘safe space’ evangelists of the US campuses, only very particular schools of thought would be allowed to be heard.  

Invited to speak one year I suggested I bring the famous ‘red’ miners banner of the Follonsby Lodge.   The banner originally drafted in 1928 famously sets forth the options and variety of radical working class ideologies and ‘roads’ depicting as it does Social Democracy, Bolshevism, and Anarcho-syndicalism, the ballot box and the gun, in the form of Kier Hardie, James Connolly in the uniform of the ICA, V.I.Lenin , A.J.Cook and George Harvey.  The banner encapsulates the trajectory of ideological struggle and events which led through the birth of the IWW, the ILP, the development of the Soviets, the General Strike, The Easter Irish rising and the Russian revolution.  In this trajectory the debate around the nature of the state and working class democracy ideas of the anarchists and syndicalists, the Industrial Unionists, how society could function once capitalism was defeated were all marked by the birth of this banner. 

I had concluded that the Anarchist Bookfair was an ideal platform to retell this story and the way in which working class history had developed.   'Nope’, I was told , the bookfair couldn’t guarantee the banner’s safety.  One look at the central portrait of Lenin flanked by the hammer and sickle would be enough to stifle any debate and could lead to the destruction of the banner.   It was an early demonstration of the chain of thought which would seek to re-write history by tearing down all statues and memorials and references to un-pc historic figures.   It would be the fingers in the ears while shouting 'lalala’ to stop the sound of words too wounding to be heard. 
 
Then four or five years ago we had a gang attack on Comrade Brian Bamford of the Northern Anarchist Network.  Brian has a knack of rubbing folk up the wrong way it must be said, he had been irreverent to an old stalward of traditional anarchism who had passed away, Brian’s obituary was thought to be insensitive, which it undoubtedly was.  But it led to his stall being turned over his books trashed and he beaten up and sprayed with ketchup.  This was in the middle of an event of Anarchists who are supposed to believe we can govern ourselves without enforcement and laws imposed upon us.   It got worse, as first Brian then members of his group were banned from regional anarchist bookfares, not simply from having a stall but attending on pain of violence.   Book and Newspaper shops which stocked the NAN magazine were visited and warned not to stock the journal, the printers likewise were given the Gypsies Warning.   He hasn’t mounted a bookstall since. 
 
Last year, a section of the Anarchist wing fighting alongside the PKK against ISIS were invited to speak at a workshop.  The hall was invaded by students from the Gulf states who although purporting to be progressives were basically supporters of the Jihadists and Theocrats.  They stamped and chanted and no platformed the speakers.  Bending over backward to preserve our traditions of free speech they were invited to present an alternative view before the anarchists spoke, which they did, and then broke up the meeting and stopped them being heard. 
 
This year was the final straw.  One of the anarcho-feminists had been circulating a leaflet saying why they didn’t allow transmen to attend women only sessions and workshops, when she was surrounded and shouted down and threatened by a gang of 'transmen’, who not only stopped those sessions but demanded a whole list of demands from the bookfare in general be met.  This was as to content of stalls, workshops, items displayed and on sale.  The organisers under a constant barrage have just said ’bollox’ you organise your own, we’re done’.  ‘That’s it, were done organising this event’. 
 
I cannot in conscience blame them.  The only way to stop this march of intolerance would have been to not tolerate it and to physically impose free thought and free speech on people who plainly don’t believe in it.  Which would be a contradiction too hard for Anarchists to cope with.  Its a sad reflection on where mostly middle class ‘safe space’ victim-mongering, no-platforming , witch hunting, tyranny has taken us.   It is a very sad day in my view.  We have to ensure that this intolerance and denial of free speech and basic liberty is not fed into working class organisations and events. 
 
Tyneside anarchists in conjunction with the Follonsby Wardley Miners Lodge Association will be hosting a Guy Fawkes Workers Bookfare in Newcastle next year, Nov 3rd.   This will be an opportunity to present books on working class political ideology and history and progressive thought which one would not get the chance to see in conventional book venues. It will very much be in the tradition of the once famous bookfare although we don’t expect the same numbers.   At this bookfare the principle of free speech and political liberty will be guaranteed, and anyone who doesn’t accept the principle ‘left’ or right will be not invited and if necessary excluded. 
 www.fiveleavespublications.blogspot.com/2012/10/  

******

Anarchists Attack Anarchists at M/c Bookfair

by Barry Woodling
 

ANARCHISTS within Campaign against the Blacklist found themselves blacklisted by Manchester Anarchist Bookfair.   An incredible happening took place at Saturday's bookfair.  

A meeting at the event on the blacklist was refused by the authoritarian clique in charge.  When two Unite members and Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) supporters Brian Bamford and Barry Woodling attended they were forcibly removed by one of the organisers Veg and several of his henchmen.  Remarkably both are citizen journalists on Northern Voices, indeed Brian is the editor and the magazine received an invitation to attend.  Spurious and bizarre reasons were given for their ejection ranging from anti-Semitism to Health and Safety.   

The resort to violence, bans and proscriptions is taken right out of the Stalinist textbook and seriously damages the credibility of the wider anarchist movement and therefore should be condemned unreservedly.

******

SORRY END TO A GREAT INSTITUTION

by Dave Douglass (South Shields}

THE annual Anarchist Bookfair in London was for many many years the highlight of the Anarchist and radical Marxist calendar.  It brought together the most splendid , vivid fascinating and eccentric, profound and trivial, exciting and profane, hilarious and spiritual assortments of people.  They came in thousands, they bathed in the rainbow variety of factions, tendencies, visions and issues.  Workshops and presentations, entertainment and discussion filled the entire day as the crowds crammed past stalls laden with literature and art, T-shirts and stickers, posters and badges, cards and calendars, a myriad of interesting and unique stuff you would never find anywhere else under one roof.  The Vegan food commune outside the venues hawked the most interesting of pastries and butties, tatties and cakes, rich wonderful chocolate cakes and angel cakes which tested the will power of the most dedicated of health freaks.  In my own judgement the Anarchist bookfare almost vied with the Durham Miners Gala (almost) in terms of ‘not to be missed’ events.  Ancient aud Anarchists rubbed shoulders with the Mohican punks of yesterd-a-year, born again hippies, young activist, and what a Glasgow paper talking of the anti polaris demonstrators of the 60’s called ‘ beardies, weirdies and lang lagged beasties’ 
 
Sadly the great spirit of comradely diversity, the ‘let a million flowers blossom let ten thousand schools of thought reign’ which Mao had once said and may actually at one time believed, had started to change and smoulder into authoritarian intolerances.  In a gradual change of attitude which I think has spread from the Ultra PC ‘no platforming’ ‘shut them up’, ‘safe space’ evangelists of the US campuses, only very particular schools of thought would be allowed to be heard.  

Invited to speak one year I suggested I bring the famous ‘red’ miners banner of the Follonsby Lodge.   The banner originally drafted in 1928 famously sets forth the options and variety of radical working class ideologies and ‘roads’ depicting as it does Social Democracy, Bolshevism, and Anarcho-syndicalism, the ballot box and the gun, in the form of Kier Hardie, James Connolly in the uniform of the ICA, V.I.Lenin , A.J.Cook and George Harvey.  The banner encapsulates the trajectory of ideological struggle and events which led through the birth of the IWW, the ILP, the development of the Soviets, the General Strike, The Easter Irish rising and the Russian revolution. In this trajectory the debate around the nature of the state and working class democracy ideas of the anarchists and syndicalists, the Industrial Unionists, how society could function once capitalism was defeated were all marked by the birth of this banner. 

I had concluded that the Anarchist Bookfare was an ideal platform to retell this story and the way in which working class history had developed.  'Nope’, I was told , the bookfare couldn’t guarantee the banner’s safety.  One look at the central portrait of Lenin flanked by the hammer and sickle would be enough to stifle any debate and could lead to the destruction of the banner.  It was an early demonstration of the chain of thought which would seek to re-write history by tearing down all statues and memorials and references to un-pc historic figures.  It would be the fingers in the ears while shouting’ lalala’ to stop the sound of words too wounding to be heard. 
 
Then four or five years ago we had a gang attack on Comrade Brian Bamford of the Northern Anarchist Network.  Brian has a knack of rubbing folk up the wrong way it must be said, he had been irreverent to an old stalward of traditional anarchism who had passed away, Brian’s obituary was thought to be insensitive, which it undoubtedly was.  But it led to his stall being turned over his books trashed and he beaten up and sprayed with ketchup.  This was in the middle of an event of Anarchists who are supposed to believe we can govern ourselves without enforcement and laws imposed upon us.   It got worse, as first Brian then members of his group were banned from regional anarchist bookfares, not simply from having a stall but attending on pain of violence.   Book and Newspaper shops which stocked the NAN magazine were visited and warned not to stock the journal, the printers likewise were given the Gypsies Warning.   He hasn’t mounted a bookstall since. 
 
Last year, a section of the Anarchist wing fighting alongside the PKK against ISIS were invited to speak at a workshop.  The hall was invaded by students from the Gulf states who although purporting to be progressives were basically supporters of the Jihadists and Theocrats.  They stamped and chanted and no platformed the speakers.  Bending over backward to preserve our traditions of free speech they were invited to present an alternative view before the anarchists spoke, which they did, and then broke up the meeting and stopped them being heard. 
 
This year was the final straw.  One of the anarcho-feminists had been circulating a leaflet saying why they didn’t allow transmen to attend women only sessions and workshops, when she was surrounded and shouted down and threatened by a gang of 'transmen’, who not only stopped those sessions but demanded a whole list of demands from the bookfare in general be met.  This was as to content of stalls, workshops, items displayed and on sale.  The organisers under a constant barrage have just said ’bollox’ you organise your own, we’re done’.  ‘That’s it, were done organising this event’. 
 
I cannot in conscience blame them.  The only way to stop this march of intolerance would have been to not tolerate it and to physically impose free thought and free speech on people who plainly don’t believe in it.  Which would be a contradiction too hard for Anarchists to cope with.  Its a sad reflection on where mostly middle class ‘safe space’ victim-mongering, no-platforming , witch hunting, tyranny has taken us.   It is a very sad day in my view.  We have to ensure that this intolerance and denial of free speech and basic liberty is not fed into working class organisations and events. 
 
Tyneside anarchists in conjunction with the Follonsby Wardley Miners Lodge Association will be hosting a Guy Fawkes Workers Bookfare in Newcastle next year, Nov 3rd.   This will be an opportunity to present books on working class political ideology and history and progressive thought which one would not get the chance to see in conventional book venues. It will very much be in the tradition of the once famous bookfare although we don’t expect the same numbers.   At this bookfare the principle of free speech and political liberty will be guaranteed, and anyone who doesn’t accept the principle ‘left’ or right will be not invited and if necessary excluded. 
 fiveleavespublications.blogspot.com/2012/10/

******

Jim Petty: Radical Working-man Dies

Born Burnley 6^th, March 1933, died in Blackburn Hospital 10^th, July 2015:

Married to Mary (died 1989), one son Iain survives him.

WHEN we call Jim Petty a radical northern anarchist we haven't even begun to describe his nature as a man and human being.  Radical anarchism and decency grew in his soul as  remarkable human being.  His early interest in politics was in the Labour Party but he never voted Labour after the 1970s.  Later he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and was active as a shop steward in both textiles, where he worked as a stripper and grinder, and later at Lucas in engineering.  Jim Petty was on the industrial committee of Committee of 100 from 1960 to 1961, where he came in contact with the anarcho-syndicalists of the Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF) - at the time the journalist Ken Hawkes was its national secretary.   

In the 1960s, Sydney Silverman was the radical socialist MP for the nearby Nelson and Colne constituency.  Silverman was instrumental in pushing a law through parliament to abolish capital punishment later in that decade.  Consequently the local ILP in Burnley, Nelson and Colne was perhaps closer to the Labour Party at that time than other branches elsewhere in the country. 

The early 1960s was also a time when the ILP nationally; Brian Behan's Workers Party; Solidarity; some of the Freedom anarchists like Peter Turner, Jack and Mary Stevenson; Commonwealth and the Syndicalist Workers' Federation  formed the National Rank & File Workers' Movement.  The Rank & File Workers' Movement existed for little more than two years and attracted the attention of the Sunday Telegraph columnist Perigrine Worsthorne, but the success of the direct action peace movement protests around the Committee of 100 distracted most activists away from industrial Rank & File activism.  At the time of the Spies for Peace campaign exposing the Regional Seats of Government in 1963, the Burnley activists around Jim helped to reproduce the state secrets that the spies had made available on that year's CND March, and the Times of London ran a headline:  'Anarchists Take Over'.

Jim Petty, although he was involved in the campaigns of the peace movement, was very much a working-class anarchist all his life.  While he was in textiles he clashed with the then regional officer of the National Union of Textile & Allied Worker's Union (NUTAWU), Joe King, based in Accrington.  Sections of the NUTAWU, which was the spinner's and the strippers and grinder's trade union, had no proper shop stewards to represent them and the officials tended to be close to the bosses.  Later, when he working in engineering at Lucas Aerospace in Burnley, Jim was a member of the Transport & General Worker's Union, and about that time he was secretary of  Burnley Trade Union Council. 

He married Mary, a secondary school teacher in the Burnley area, she supported the Labour Party.  When Mary died he had friendships with Susan & Jenny, both who were at one time involved with Burnley anarchists. 

By the early 1980s, Jim had become a member of the Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF), and later went on to become the first national secretary of the Direct Action Movement (DAM), after  Dave Thompson the SWF  national secretary stepped down.  This was a time when the anarcho-syndicalists were on a roll, and membership of the DAM began to rise in the run up to the miner's strike.  Jim Petty led the British contingent of the International Congress of the International Workers Association (IWA / AIT), when it convened in Madrid in the Spring of 1984.   It was essentially under Jim Petty's influence as its national secretary, that the British DAM gained some serious status in the international movement and built up a grass-roots membership across the country.  The DAM during the 1980s,  was at its most effective as a protest group and political force.  During the Miner's Strike in 1984-85 at the Congress for Industrial Action in Burnley, the then deputy leader of the NUM, Peter Heathfield, and Dave Douglass spoke about the strike on the same platform.  So successful were the Burnley anarchists that there was constant rivalry with out other left groups so much so that the Communist Party sabotaged an attempt to support the Shrewsbury pickets, and Jim's T&G Branch came to have the greatest number of party political levy 'opt outs' to the Labour Party. 

When Jim left office as national secretary the DAM changed it name to the 'Solidarity Federation' (Sol. Fed.) in 1994;  it then tried to represented itself as an imitation trade union body emphasising 'syndicalism' and playing down the anarchist vision.  Jim Petty and other members of the Burnley section took a dim view of these changes, which they regarded as wrong-headed and foolish. Jim though he was a trade unionist for most of his life was cynical about the British trade union set-up generally which he regarded as irredeemably reformist, and even reactionary in the sense that rather than create a vision and set an agenda of its own, the British trade unions merely responded to the agenda set by the bosses and the state. 

Jim Petty not only had experience in the trade union movement and radical politics, but he was involved in the Church of England as a member in the Anglo-Catholic Church, he was a lay reader and was later was ordained as a Father in the faith.  His own father had been also a member of the Church of England.  This extra dimension helped Jim to swim in social circles outside the narrow political ghetto, and the Burnley anarchists were able to build up connections and become an influence within ethnic communities in Burnley in the 1970s and 80s. 

Jim Petty remained a disgruntled member of the Solidarity Federation until 2005, when he was expelled by e-mail after his branch in Preston hounded him out of the Sol. Fed.  The formal reasons given for  his expulsion were mixed up with complaints relating his links to his Church and its distaste for abortion; Jim himself disagreed with his Church policy over this matter.  After his expulsion from the Sol. Fed. a derogatory photo was published of Jim in a dog-collar on libcom providing Holy Communion to his parishioners.  Following this a leading member of the Sol Fed. in Manchester, Ron Marsden, boasted to others that he had written to the Church hierarchy at which Jim was a Minister to acquaint them with his association with the anarchist movement, presumably with the intention of getting Jim defrocked.    

Jim told me years later that he had had an interview with the Dean who showed him the letter of denunciation, and asked Jim:

'Are these friends of yours?'.    

To which Jim replied ruefully 'Yes!'.

Jim always told me that he always believed that the real grounds for his dismissal from Sol. Fed. were to do with him addressing a conference of the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) in Hebden Bridge in 2004 on racial problems in Burnley.  By that time Jim had also participated on the editorial panel of Northern Voices, and had written a remarkable eye witness report on the 'race' riots in Burnley for NV.   He helped to organise several NAN conferences in Burnley including the one in December 2012 at which Barry Woodling and others moved the Burnley Declaration which gained 150 signatures berating the conduct of the organisers of the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair in operating a blacklist against some supporters of the Northern Anarchist Network.  

As I write this, I have just returned from Tolpuddle, where I learned from a member of the IWW that the Solidarity Federation which once expelled James Petty 'imploded' two years ago.  Is it not ironic that the organisation that once excluded Jim is itself now politically virtually in ruins, and Jim's enemy Ron Marsden is helping claimants at Salford Unemployed Centre.

One Hundred & Fifty!

The final version of the Burnley Declaration below was
first published on the 7th, March 2013.  It is a response
agreed in Burnley at a meeting of the Northern Anarchist Network
in December 2012 to the curious actions of the people associated
with a 'semi-secretive' body called the Anarchist Federation (AF) led
by a retired librarian called Nick Heath:  the AF has been described by
a historian as a London based organisation.
_______________________________________
Condemnation of Bizarre Act by Secretive & Conspiratorial Group Continues to Grow!

THIS Northern Anarchist Statement to the Movement is here update with extra names adding their support, as the Anarchist Federation, which has turned a blind-eye to the irresponsible actions of its own members and constantly failed to disassociate itself from behaviour that is likely to bring the anarchist movement into disrepute. The statement below is the original Burnley Declaration approved by the Northern Anarchist Network, last December, and now includes blacklisted electricians, trade unionists, supporters of the Occupy Movement, members of the peace movement, libertarians, socialists as well as anarchists: 
'The Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) meeting in Burnley on the 8th, December, unreservedly condemns the treatment handed out to NAN supporter, Barry Woodling, at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair on the 1st, December, 2012. He was subjected to intimidation, threats, and verbal abuse at the hands of one of the organisers called 'Veg' assisted by Anarchist Federation members, including Nick Heath. In addition to being harangued as an 'imbecile', a 'dullard', and a 'fucking disgrace', he was accused of being an 'anti-semite'. Barry was subsequently thrown out of the bookfair. Such a monstrous charge beggar's belief in view of his Jewish roots, and the murder of a member of his family in the Nazi Gas Chambers in the 1940s.

'We thus call upon the organisers of the bookfair, and the Anarchist Federation to unreservedly apologise for their authoritarian actions, and to offer a guarantee that there will be no repetition of this in future. It seems that the Anarchist Federation and the Bookfair organisers are doing the State's work for them by attacking the NAN and its supporters.'
_______________________________________________________

The following 150 people have now agreed to have their names added to the list supporting the above statement. Not all of these are anarchists, and most were not in attendance at the Northern Anarchist Network meeting at which the decision was made to make this declaration supporting Barry Woodling. It is a declaration that any decent person may sign. These are the signatures so far:
Colin Trousdale - blacklisted electrician (Bacup, Lancashire); Sean Keveney - blacklisted electrician (Manchester); George Tapp - electrician (Salford); Mark Brooks (Little Hulton, Salford); John Walker, former editor of the Rochdale Alternative Paper and now part-time correspondent on Private Eye (Forest Gate, London); David Dane (Baldock, Herts. ); Lee Brooks (Malborough in Derbyshire); Patricia Culpan (Rochdale); Paul Arnold (Manchester); Kevin Brenan (Bristol), Stacy Bluer (Salford), Mariam Shaw (Longsight), Donavan Pedelty (Wales); Trevor Bark (Northumbria); Grace Bamford (West Yorkshire); Basil Landau (Manchester); Neel Tiwana (Manchester); Sheilia Simpson (Manchester); Neil Donaldson (Shropshire); Diana Garcia (Manchester); Johnathan Davis (Manchester); Dan Hernandez (Manchester); Mingus (Manchester), Sal Choudhry (Manchester); Martin Hopwood (Manchester); Martin Gilbert (Cumbria); Barry Woodling (Swinton); John Simpkin (Lancashire); Eileen Hall (Burnley); Deon Bamford (West Yorkshire); Duncan Ball (Shropshire); Ilyan Thomas (Wales); Jim Petty (Burnley); Laurens Otter (Shropshire); Brian Bamford (Rochdale); Chris Draper (York); Derek Pattison (Dukinfield, Greater Manchester); Joe O'Neil (Swinton South, Salford); Bob Crane (Bury); Yvonne Dodge (Radcliffe); Camilo Melara (Manchester); Johnathan Simcock (Derbyshire); Denise Bamford (Todmorden); Anna Jeffery (North Yorkshire); Adele Dodge (Radcliffe); Patrick Finnerty (Rochdale); Sean Dempsey (Bury); Dave Douglass (South Sheilds); Martin Bashford (York), Dave Chapple (Bridgewater), Chris Chilton (Bolton), Susan Reddington (Bolton), Elaine Cross (Bolton), Denis Pye (Bolton), Dameon Bamford (Todmorden); Dave Fogg (Manchester), Lydia Meryll (Manchester), Heike Gabernowitz (Manchester), David Hernandez (Manchester); Deyika Nzeribe (Manchester); Johnny Pratt (Manchester); Stefano Ba (Manchester); Carmen Perugia (Manchester); Jenny Longworth (Manchester); Joseph Stacey (Manchester); Herman St John (Manchester); Sarah Redman (Manchester); Nadja Redman (Manchester); Clifford C. Cawthorn (Manchester); Dr. Phoebe Moore (Manchester); Nicola Smith (Monton); Fred Coker (Manchester); Daniel Evans (Manchester); Page Cleasby (Manchester); Jean Compton (Bolton); Janette Cosgrove (Bolton); Steve Harrold (Bolton); Graham Marsden (Bolton); Barry Mills (Bolton); Roy Ratcliffe (Leigh); Heide Connell (Manchester); Mike Koefman (Manchester): Ann Papageorgiou (Stockport); Phillip Gilligan (Rochdale): Rae Street (Littleborough, Lancs.): Ann Jordan (Manchester): George Abenstern (Rochdale): Angela Trikic (Manchester); Maya Grana (Manchester): Natalia Grana (Manchester); Edward Egan (Hale Barns, Cheshire); Jacqui Burke (Oldham); Cath Tributsch (Bury); Pat Sanchez (Rochdale); Malcolm Pittock (Bolton); Chris Cole (Oxford); Maggie Smith (Salford); George Hayes (Bolton); Julia Simpkins (Bolton); Wendy Pye (Bolton); Phil McNally (Bolton); Sara Burn (Bolton); Trudy Chilton (Bolton); Ian McHugh (Bolton); Helen Dickson (Bolton); Liz Terry (Bolton); John Terry (Bolton); Eileen Murphy (Bolton); Paul Kelly (Manchester); Helen McHugh (Bolton); Moira Hill (Bolton); Carol Gordon (Bolton) Hilary Eastham (Bolton); Neil Duffield (Bolton); Stuart Murray (Bolton); Fiona Parr (Bolton); Tim Gillibrand (Manchester); Steve Duriant (Manchester); Rachel Stokes (Manchester); Michelle Lanaway (Manchester); Merlyn Taylor (Manchester); Usman Hamid (Manchester); Keith Dowshup (Manchester); Mauricemo Shaw (Manchester); Sabrina Rahman (Manchester); Howard Broadbent (Bolton); Stephen Moulton (Bolton); Martin McLoughin (Bolton); Dave Mann (Rugby), Coventry); Michael Hazell (Rochdale); Liz Moult (Salford); Barry Moult (Salford); Cybil Perryman (Salford); Peter Bainbridge (Salford); Robin Hemuss (Chester); Jack Smith (Salford); Adam Richards (Salford);

Carlos Beltran (Madrid); Melina Gonzalez Sanches (Madrid); CARLOS ANTONIO FIGUEROA LILLO (MADRID, Spain), John Lawrence (Oman), Seamus Cain (USA); Rachel Whittaker (Republic of Ireland); Kanjana Damrongsaksit (Thailand); Bitrous Yohanna (Nigeria); Adama Yussuf (Nigeria); Cyril Wosu (Nigeria); Prof. Peter Buse (CANADA); Ana Lucia (Guatemala); 

Laughter as Militants Mock English Anarchists

'ENGLISH anarchists,' declared blacklisted electrician Colin Trousdale, 'can't organise owt!'  Comrade Trousdale was speaking at a branch meeting of the famous Greater Manchester Contracting Branch 1400/7 in the Town Hall Tavern on Tibb Lane about the attack in October 2012 of a gang of members of the so-called Anarchist Federation (AF or A.fed) on a vendor on the Northern Voices/ NAN stall at the Anarchist Bookfair, and the consequent theft of trade union literature.  To laughter from the rest of those present he suggested that the anarchists ought to invent a salad cream bomb for throwing at their enemies.  The meeting which was mostly discussing important issues such as the blacklist and the behaviour of the Unite union in attempting to negotiate separately from the Blacklist Support Group and other unions, and to engage in talks with the very companies guilty of blacklisting in the construction industry, turned to the bizarre behaviour of Nick Heath and the Anarchist Federation (AF) as a bit of light relief under Any Other Business, when the Secretary of Tameside TUC gave a report likening the behaviour of A.fed. to an organisation on the far-right of English politics.  The meeting was reluctant to give even that degree of political seriousness to an organisation like A.fed. who were likened to clowns incapable of wiping their own arses.

In a year in which Freedom, the anarchist newspaper and perhaps the oldest left-wing paper in England, died of shame having been on the its death-bed for about a decade under a variety of weak editors.  Freedom, it is noted, never reported on any of the attacks on Northern Voices and even allowed itself in its dying moment, to be bullied by the superannuated boss of A.fed the cockney Nick Heath.  The anarchists had been condemn at a another meeting of the Greater Manchester County Association of TUCs (GMCA TUCs) for their behaviour on a May Day march.  It is getting difficult to defend anarchists these days at trade union meetings such among the Manchester blacklisted electricians, simply because they behave badly in a way which lacks an English sense of humour, and there was hearty laughter at the electrician's branch when it was learned that the pretext for the attack on Northern Voices and the theft of the trade union pamphlets was provoke after NV13 carried an obituary on the late Bob Miller describing him as a 'skedaddler':  many of the blacklisted lads read Northern Voices and their branch has been affiliated to Tameside TUC for years.  Yet, few would bother to read much of the other publications on the left.   

At last night's meeting the Socialist Party and Linda Taaffe came under attack when it was suggested that the branch affiliate to the National Shop Steward's Network (NSSN).  This was agreed, but Colin Trousdale pointed out that the NSSN had never had to same clout since the split when the syndicalists and other independent socialists left, and Colin said that the biggest loss had been the departure of Dave Chapple as the Chair of the NSSN.  Dave Chapple, who is a libertarian socialist, would never call himself an 'anarchist' simply because of the kind of corny behaviour already described at the Anarchist Bookfair, where the organisers refused to intervene and challenge A.fed., the electricians expressed disbelief about this.  The Socialist Party was criticised for divisiveness, but Colin claimed that the real culprit who caused the split in the NSSN was Peter Taaffe.  It was said that the split in the NSSN was caused by the Socialist Party who wanted their own 'sovereign' anti-cuts body separate from that of the SWP and others.  The supporters of the NSSN were asked how many cuts had been prevented by the NSSN since it set up its own anti-cuts organisation, and answer came there none.  It was even suggested that Nick Clegg and Vince Cable may have in truth modified more of the cuts than the NSSN and the Socialist Party put together.   

Dave Chapple and the paper Trade Union Solidarity are organising a conference on the 'Future of Working Class Education' in August.   

The electrician's branch discussed the bankrolling of the Labour Party by Unite and Len McClusky.  One member said that the Labour Party could not be saved, and this funding was a waste of the member's money.  What is interesting in all this is how nothing ever changes the unions throw money down the political drain of the Labour Party, the English anarchists live up to their standard barn-pot caricature, and English trotskyists still seek solutions to the problems of the world through eternal point-scoring and splits. 

The Death of a Northern Anarchist: Duncan Ball

Duncan Ball – activist, NAN supporter and founding member

of both Wrekin Stop War, and the Wrekin Anarchist Group collective

died on Wednesday 12 March 2014.

___________________________________________________
LAST week, the late Bob Crow and Tony Benn are being hailed as 'big beasts' of the British left but on 12 March 2014, the left also lost one of the 'tenacious terriers' who make up the wider movement to which Benn himself frequently deferred.

Although tenacious, Duncan was no firebrand or soapbox orator – perhaps best described a being in the 'quietist' tradition of William Morris – but his influence in our collective was deeply felt as a voice of calm, considered opinion without compromise to his own beliefs. Together with his son, John, he also dragged us screaming and kicking into the technological age, setting up and maintaining an excellent website as another forum for our campaigns.

And to be sure, he always spoke out when he felt it necessary, never failing to make an intelligent, unbiased and, if necessary, forceful, contribution to the debate – a skill that he also used to great effect in shaking up the conservatism of his particular branch of the trade union movement, often as a lone radical voice.

As a friend, I found Duncan to be a kind, warm and funny man – whether discussing dogs, growing vegetables, the ups and downs of life or global geopolitics. He always put the social into socialism!
Duncan was as at home in the pages of Noam Chomsky as he was in those of Terry Pratchett and given the 'big beast' vs. 'tenacious terrier' comment with which we began it is perhaps apt here to quote from Chomsky himself, who warns us against lionising leaders 'lest the real agents of change fall from history' .
  
But ultimately, Duncan believed in the possibility of a better world without cynicism and always saw the funny side without malice or disrespect, so perhaps a more fitting final word would be Pratchett's particular take on the matter:
'Although the scythe isn't pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of, say, a peasants' revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome.' 

Duncan Ball born 8th, November 1945; died 12th, March 2014.

 



Rachel Whittaker



Political Credentials & Northern Voices

Avoiding the lunatic fringe!

DAVID Goodway, in his book 'Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow:  Left-Libertarian Thought & British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward' (2006), wrote in an introduction:
'This book was strongly recommended to the commissioning editor of one of Britain's best-known firms by a reputable historian whose latest work he was publishing...', the editor reluctantly refused. 

Mr. Goodway believes it was to do with the subject matter of 'anarchism' because he writes: 
'...anarchism [in Britain] continues to engender at the beginning of the twenty-first century the passionate opposition it aroused at the end of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries when it became irretrievable associated with bomb-throwing and violence, a violence that has re-erupted in recent years with the widely publized activities of self-professed anarchists in anti-globalization and similar movements.'

Herbert Read, the art critic and poet, relates how he found himself at a diner party sitting next to 'a lady well known in the political world, a member of the Conservative party', who 'at once asked me what my politics were, and on my replying "I am an anarchist"... cried, "How absurd!", and did not address another word to me during the whole meal' [see 'Anarchy & Order:  Essays in politics'].

In her history of 19th century slums in London's East End (see 'The Blackest Streets' [2008]), Sarah Wise writes on this demotion of 'anarchism' in this country to a political 'lunatic fringe':
'The fiery invocations being published in the Commonweal (in 1893) were relegating Anarchy to the lunatic fringe of British politics - an exile from which it has yet to return.'

Despite this bad press for British anarchism, Northern Voices still identifies itself as 'anarchistic', and we do this because we consider that good journalists should avoid a party-line by being spiritually anarchist, agnostic and sceptical.  That is why we avoid identifying even with affiliated anarchist organisations such as the 'Anarchist Federation' (A.F.) because that would commit us to a party-line.  

George Orwell in his review of Mairin Mitchell's book 'Storm Over Spain'  about the Spanish Civil War wrote:
'The Anarchists and Syndicalists have been persistently misrepresented in England, and the average English person still retains his eighteen-ninetyish notion that Anarchism is the same thing as anarchy.'
Orwell then points out that in Spain, in December 1937, 'the pity is that so much of what the Anarchists achieved (in Spain, especially in Catalonia) has already been undone...

In England anarchism, as David Goodway notes, has never had anything like the status it had in Spain or even in much of Europe.  The insignificance of the anarchists as a political force in this country is related to a lack of maturity and the insistence of many English anarchists in behaving as if they were a caricature or the inmates of comic strip.  Some of this may be traced back to the 19th Century as Sarah Wise suggests above, and Gerald Brenan in his book has something to say about why the Spanish anarchists were different from the English and others in northern Europe in his book 'The Spanish Labyrinth':
'The assassination of the Czar in March 1881 by Russian Social Revolutionaries caused a profound sensation all over Europe.  The Anarchist Congress which met in London four months later debated under its shadow.  Many of its delegates were, in Stekloff's words, "isolated desperadoes, lone wolves, infuriated by persecution and out of touch with the masses".  Others, the most violent of all in their proposals, were police spies.  Others again represented the new theories of "anarchist communism".  But resolutions were passed accepting "propaganda by deed" as a useful method ...' 

The Spanish delegate returned to Madrid, but Brenan writes that the violent methods proposed in London were not suited to Spain:
'Spaniards lived then at a great distance from the rest of Europe.  Besides, anarchism had still a large following.  Under such conditions terrorist  action was madness and would not find any encouragement among the workers.  The new Regional Federation had in any case no need to appeal for violent methods.  Its progress during the first year or two of its existence was rapid.  A Congress held in Seville in 1882 represented some 50,000 workers, of whom 30,000 came from Andalusia and most of the rest from Catalonia.'

Compared to the Spanish anarchist movement from the 19th century onwards to the present day, the movement in this country appears as an half-baked hole-in-the-corner affair that has little or no popular support.  There was a brief flowering of interest in the 1960s; during the time that the peace movement was growing there was a knock-on effect on the anarchists and those who identified with left-wing libertarianism.  This had an impact and the publication 'Anarchy', edited by Colin Ward, gained some influence among academics and intellectuals.  The peaceful direct action of the Committee of 100 also suited the libertarian left and it briefly entered the life-blood of British culture before it was submerged again by the activities of the Angry Brigade in the 1970s.

Our free association with the NAN (Northern Anarchist Network) is based on a belief that it has been an open forum that seeks to include libertarians and applies its ideas to everyday life situations, rather than indulging in political panaceas and mixing with smelly little orthodoxies.   Many of the people who call themselves 'class struggle anarchists' can't comfortably talk to genuine working folk, and as Orwell said many who proclaim themselves for rural collectives wouldn't know a White Leghorn hen or Anglo-Nubian goat if they saw one:  The only time I saw such distinguished Manchester militants as Mr. and Mrs. Miller on a picket-line was in 2004 at the Manchester Arndale, when they wanted to pass through the blacklisted electricians to get their car.  But they are not unique in this the British left in general is a fag-end affair and not worth much serious consideration. 
Fortunately, as Jim Pinkerton once said 'anarchism doesn't depend on the "anarchists" anymore than Christianity depends on the Christians'. 

David Goodway in his book 'Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow', writing about art critic Herbert Read:
'After remarking that in coming out for anarchism he had "forfeited any claim to be taken seriously as a politician" and excluded himself from "the main current of socialist activity in England", Herbert Read continued:  "But I have often found sympathy and agreement in unexpected places, and there are many intellectuals who are fundamentally anarchist in their political outlook, but who do not dare to invite ridicule by confessing it".'

George Orwell's practical and political experiences during the Spanish Civil War persuaded him that at least the Spanish and Catalan anarchists were worth taking seriously though he seems to have been somewhat less impressed with the English anarchists and libertarian friends he knew.  Northern Voices annoys many people on the left in this country because it takes an independent line, and doesn't shy from attacking anarchists and socialists when we believe they behave badly.  Anyone decent person who doesn't agree with us can always write to us and complain as the brother of Cyril Smith did some years ago, and we will publish their complaint as we did with Norman Smith.  Otherwise the danger is, as Sarah Wise wrote, we will forever see the great British public forever 'relegating Anarchy to the lunatic fringe of British politics - an exile from which it has yet to return.'

Celia Otter's New Year Death

Authentic Anarchist Activist from the 1960s Sadly Succumbs to Deadly Disease

CELIA Otter born 14th, October 1935 - Died 1st, January 2014: 

CELIA Otter, libertarian, peace activist and long-term supporter of the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN), died on New Year's Day after a long period fighting off the consequences of a brain tumour that developed some years ago.  She had been linked to the anarchist and peace movement since the 1960s, when she was active in the campaign against nuclear weapons at Holy Lock and later in the Committee of 100.  She lived for many years in Wellington, Shropshire where her father died several years ago.  Her home, a former farm house, to me resembled something which the National Trust might welcome as a treasure, and with its small orchard of fruit trees husbanded by Celia it was always a pleasure for me to spend some time stopping over-night with the Otter family. 

 

Celia came out of that confident tradition of left-wing activists of the 1960s, who were not afraid to identify themselves as activists in the libertarian political sphere.  It was in Freedom (the then weekly anarchist newspaper) that Colin Ward wrote:

'For anarchists the problem of the 1960s is simply that of how to put anarchism back into the intellectual bloodstream, into the field of ideas which are taken seriously.' 

In the 1960s David Goodway reports (see his Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow) sales of Freedom varied between 2,000 and 3,000;  today's print order for Freedom has recently been given as 300 which shows how political anarchism has declined in its influence in this country. 

 

Thus Celia Otter's political origins dated from a time in the 1960s when anarchism, according to intellectuals like Colin Ward, appeared to be entering the life-blood of the social/political consciousness both on a political and intellectual level, and this was because anarchism and anarchists felt themselves to be part of a social movement:  the peace movement.  Celia had been arrested at Holy Lock during actions there and was also arrested during the protests and sit-downs of the Committee of 100.  By the 1970s though this peace movement had lost almost all of its impetus, and the English anarchists and libertarians adapted badly to the rise of industrial conflict of the decade leading up to the defeat of the miners in their strike of 1984/5.  At the same time the open honest civil disobedience of the peace activists and the peace movement, was being subverted by some anarchists, and a culture of anarchism that owed more to Machiavelli than Marx with groups, and individuals steeped in the school of political intrigue: thus we got the politics of the Angry Brigade, and culturally the Punks replaced the Hippies.

 

At the time that this was happening, Celia herself was working as head teacher at a school for maladjusted children.  But she did not just confine herself to house-keeping and her career; in later years she attended the Northern Anarchist Network meetings in Wellington, besides providing food and accommodation for those in attendance.  Over the years since 2003, when it founded, she was a consistent supporter of Northern Voices.  It is also reported that Celia took part in the founding of the animal liberation movement in this country.

 

Celia Otter was one of those English libertarians who were proud of their politics, straight-forward in their demeanour, and valiant in their conduct.   She is survived by her husband Laurens, one of the best known and most loved figures of English anarchism, and her daughter Fiona.

Ashton-under-Lyne: Universal Credit

YESTERDAY saw a small demonstration at mid-day outside Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall in Tameside, called by the PCS union against a pilot scheme which was just introduced to test the consequences of the Government's proposed new Universal credit to try to simplify a range of benefits into a single benefit:  the proposal is to combine JSA, ESA, IS, Housing Benefit and tax credits.  It is estimated that 8 million households will get this universal credit (UC).  Optimistically, the Government hopes this scheme will be implemented during the four years from 2013 to 2017.

The demo yesterday was sup[ported by Alec McFadden, the TUC-JCC representative for the North West and manager of Salford Unemployed Centre, supporters of Salford Against the Cuts, and delegates from Tameside Trade Council.  John Pearson and other members of the PCS union, Alec McFadden and Barry Woodling (Salford Against the Cuts and the Northern Anarchist Network[NAN]) addressed the gathering.

There are fears that this new benefit will lead to less benefits for claimants and to administrative problems within the benefit system.  Even the Government seems nervous as witnessed by the introduction of this small and cautious pilot in Ashton which only applies to a few postcodes in the tameside area.  Later some of the demonstrators led by delegates from Tameside TUC went to leaflet outside the local Job Centre, where many of the media had congregated.  There the press officer for the Dept. of Work & Pensions [DWP]/ Job Centre told Barry Woodling that the scheme was operating well so far.  Some leafleters were distributing a flyer criticising the 'Bedroom Tax'.

Ashton-under-Lyne and Tameside is an interesting as in the 1990s it was one of the areas that was foremost in challenging the Job Seeker's Allowance.

NAN Declaration to the Movement

The NAN declaration of December 8th which condemned the infamous attack on me at the Manchester Anarchist bookfair carried out by the organisers backed by the Anarchist  Federation has now 125 signatories.    The latter consist of socialists, anarchists, greens, trade union militants, community activists, Occupy supporters, across the UK and the world.     This declaration which called for an apology from the bookfair organisers and the Anarchist Federation and assurances that there would be no repetition has been met with an abject silence despite several efforts to elicit a response.    This is indicative of something rotten at the heart of the UK anarchist movement which embraces conspiratorial politics at the expense of transparency and accountability.   The Freedom newspaper is now complicit in a cover up by refusing to publish the declaration as a letter having originally agreed to do so.

To paraphrase Emile Zola   I accuse the Anarchist Federation   and the  bookfair organisers  of  bringing the anarchist movement into disrepute and compromising its very integrity by the attacks it has carried out against the NAN and its supporters.

Garry Bradford: NAN supporter dies

GARRY Bradford, a loyal supporter of the Northern Anarchist Network in Wellington, Shropshire, died last week in the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.  He attended almost all of the NAN conferences that were held in Wellington over the years, and often paid for the rental of the venue.  He came into contact with the local anarchist group through his involvement with OAP group in Wellington.

'The Libertarian Communist' Makes a Stand!

A.F's Conspiratorial Cancer spreads to Solidarity Federation 

LAST year, someone close to the Anarchist Federation in Manchester wrote to the editor of 'The Libertarian Communist', a small left-wing journal published in Poole, Dorset, berating Northern Voices for publishing the obituary on Bob Miller. The Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) was blamed by the implication that some of its supporters had relations with Northern Voices and its editor. Thus, the editor of 'The Libertarian Communist' removed the NAN from its directory of contacts.

In the latest issue of 'The Libertarian Communist', the editor has excluded both the Anarchist Federation (AF) and the Solidarity Federation (Sol. Fed.) from its directory on the grounds of their unacceptable behaviour at the book fairs (in London and Manchester). Both the AF and the Sol. Fed. are membership organisations attached to what is loosely called the anarchist movement in the UK, each probably has an active membership of under one hundred. What is interesting here is that the Solidarity Federation has for the first time been punished alongside the AF.

Is this more evidence of collateral damage in the growing problems effecting the British anarchists? In the report of last year's London Anarchist Bookfair on the Five Leaves Blog on the 28th, Oct. 2012, it was announced that not only the editor of Northern Voices got covered in salad cream, but a neighbouring stall-holder, Trevor Bark, was also a victim of the AF and Sally Miller's scatter-gun attack.

Why has the Solidarity Federation, an anarcho-syndicalist body with decent trade union members, now become implicated in the actions of another organisation? Unlike the AF, which is a conspiratorial group with, it seems, few moral side-constraints, the Sol. Fed. has a proper constitution and clearly stated aims and principles. The problem is that sadly the Sol. Fed. has allowed itself to be implicated owing to the actions of one of its members in Manchester, Ron Marsden, who has incited Sally Miller/ Hymen and other members of AF to attack people associated with the NAN for his own reasons over several years. According to Barry Woodling, Ron Marsden of the Sol. Fed. was alongside Nick Heath berating Barry, when he was removed from the Manchester Bookfair, last December.

Many of the people supporting Barry Woodling and the Burnley Declaration (see the post below), have never thus far heard of the body called the 'Anarchist Federation': for all they know, they think Nick Heath & the AF is a kind of pop band. The problem for the anarchists now, today, is that they cannot deal with the issues of this culture of conspiracy and violence within its midst or get the leaders of the AF to disassociate themselves from these elements that are bringing the anarchist movement into disrepute.



Over One Hundred Up!

As the left condemns Anarchist Federation  

THIS Northern Anarchist Statement to the Movement is here update with extra names adding their support, as the Anarchist Federation, which has turned a blind-eye to the irresponsible actions of its own members and constantly failed to disassociate itself from behaviour that is likely to bring the anarchist movement into disrepute.  The statement below is the original Burnley Declaration approved by the Northern Anarchist Network, last December, and now includes blacklisted electricians, trade unionists, supporters of the Occupy Movement, members of the peace movement, libertarians, socialists as well as anarchists:

The Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) meeting in Burnley on the 8th, December, unreservedly condemns the treatment handed out to NAN supporter, Barry Woodling, at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair on the 1st, December, 2012. He was subjected to intimidation, threats, and verbal abuse at the hands of one of the organisers called 'Veg' assisted by Anarchist Federation members, including Nick Heath. In addition to being harangued as an 'imbecile', a 'dullard', and a 'fucking disgrace', he was accused of being an 'anti-semite'. Barry was subsequently thrown out of the bookfair. Such a monstrous charge beggar's belief in view of his Jewish roots, and the murder of a member of his family in the Nazi Gas Chambers in the 1940s.

We thus call upon the organisers of the bookfair, and the Anarchist Federation to unreservedly apologise for their authoritarian actions, and to offer a guarantee that there will be no repetition of this in future. It seems that the Anarchist Federation and the Bookfair organisers are doing the State's work for them by attacking the NAN and its supporters.
_______________________________________________________

The following 143 people have now agreed to have their names added to the list supporting the above statement. Not all of these are anarchists, and most were not in attendance at the Northern Anarchist Network meeting at which the decision was made to make this declaration supporting Barry Woodling. It is a declaration that any decent person may sign. These are the signatures so far:

Colin Trousdale - blacklisted electrician (Bacup, Lancashire); Sean Keveney - blacklisted electrician (Manchester); George Tapp - electrician (Salford); Mark Brooks (Little Hulton, Salford); John Walker, former editor of the Rochdale Alternative Paper and now part-time correspondent on Private Eye (Forest Gate, London); David Dane (         ); Lee Brooks (Malborough in Derbyshire); Patricia Culpan (Rochdale); Paul Arnold (Manchester); Kevin Brenan (Bristol), Stacy Bluer (Salford), Mariam Shaw (Longsight), Donavan Pedelty (Wales); Trevor Bark (Northumbria); Grace Bamford (West Yorkshire); Basil Landau (Manchester); Neel Tiwana (Manchester); Sheilia Simpson (Manchester); Neil Donaldson (Shropshire); Diana Garcia (Manchester); Johnathan Davis (Manchester); Dan Hernandez (Manchester); Mingus (Manchester), Sal Choudhry (Manchester); Martin Hopwood (Manchester); Martin Gilbert (Cumbria); Barry Woodling (Swinton); John Simkin (Lancashire); Eileen Hall (Burnley); Deon Bamford (West Yorkshire); Duncan Ball (Shropshire); Ilyan Thomas (Wales); Jim Petty (Burnley); Laurens Otter (Shropshire); Brian Bamford (Rochdale); Chris Draper (York); Derek Pattison (Dukinfield, Greater Manchester); Joe O'Neil (Swinton South, Salford); Bob Crane (Bury); Yvonne Dodge (Radcliffe); Camilo Melara (Manchester); Johnathan Simcock (Derbyshire); Denise Bamford (Todmorden); Anna Jeffery (North Yorkshire); Adele Dodge (Radcliffe); Patrick Finnerty (Rochdale); Sean Dempsey (Bury); Dave Douglass (South Sheilds); Martin Bashford (York), Dave Chapple (Bridgewater), Chris Chilton (Bolton), Susan Reddington (Bolton), Elaine Cross (Bolton), Denis Pye (Bolton), Dameon Bamford (Todmorden); Dave Fogg (Manchester), Lydia Meryll (Manchester), Heike Gabernowitz (Manchester), David Hernandez (Manchester); Deyika Nzeribe (Manchester); Johnny Pratt (Manchester); Stefano Ba (Manchester); Carmen Perugia (Manchester); Jenny Longworth (Manchester); Joseph Stacey (Manchester); Herman St John (Manchester); Sarah Redman (Manchester); Nadja Redman (Manchester); Clifford C. Cawthorn (Manchester); Dr. Phoebe Moore (Manchester); Nicola Smith (Monton); Fred Coker (Manchester); Daniel Evans (Manchester); Page Cleasby (Manchester); Jean Compton (Bolton); Janette Cosgrove (Bolton); Steve Harrold (Bolton); Graham Marsden (Bolton); Barry Mills (Bolton); Roy Ratcliffe (Leigh); Heide Connell (Manchester); Mike Koefman (Manchester): Ann Papageorgiou (Stockport); Phillip Gilligan (Rochdale): Rae Street (Littleborough, Lancs.): Ann Jordan (Manchester): George Abenstern (Rochdale): Angela Trikic (Manchester); Maya Grana (Manchester): Natalia Grana (Manchester); Edward Egan (Hale Barns, Cheshire); Jacqui Burke (Oldham); Cath Tributsch (Bury); Pat Sanchez (Rochdale); Malcolm Pittock (Bolton); Chris Cole (Oxford); Maggie Smith (Salford); George Hayes (Bolton); Julia Simpkins (Bolton); Wendy Pye (Bolton); Phil McNally (Bolton); Sara Burn (Bolton); Trudy Chilton (Bolton); Ian McHugh (Bolton); Helen Dickson (Bolton); Liz Terry (Bolton); John Terry (Bolton); Eileen Murphy (Bolton); Paul Kelly (Manchester); Helen McHugh (Bolton); Moira Hill (Bolton); Carol Gordon (Bolton) Hilary Eastham (Bolton); Neil Duffield (Bolton); Stuart Murray (Bolton); Fiona Parr (Bolton); Tim Gillibrand (Manchester); Steve Duriant (Manchester); Rachel Stokes (Manchester); Michelle Lanaway (Manchester); Merlyn Taylor (Manchester); Usman Hamid (Manchester); Keith Dowshup (Manchester); Mauricemo Shaw (Manchester); Sabrina Rahman (Manchester); Howard Broadbent (Bolton); Stephen Moulton (Bolton); Martin McLoughin (Bolton); Dave Mann (Rugby), Coventry); Michael Hazell (Rochdale);

Carlos Beltran (Madrid); Melina Gonzalez Sanches (Madrid); CARLOS ANTONIO FIGUEROA LILLO (MADRID, Spain), John Lawrence (Oman), Seamus Cain (USA); Rachel Whittaker (Republic of Ireland); Kanjana Damrongsaksit (Thailand); Bitrous Yohanna (Nigeria); Adama Yussuf (Nigeria); Cyril Wosu (Nigeria); Prof. Peter Buse (CANADA); Ana Lucia (Guatemala).

Support for Burnley NAN Statement Snowballs.

SUPPORT for the Burnley NAN Statement is growing apace.   80 people have now signed the statement and they include Greens, socialists, anarchists, syndicalists, community activists and others.    T
However the Freedom newpaper has capitulated to threats and intimidation from the Anarchist Federation in refusing to publish the statement.    Such a shameful and craven decision reflects badly on the British anarchist movement and brings it into disrepute.

The Real George Orwell & Freedom Press

The Totalitarian Mind in the Modern World

AS Radio Four, this week, is running its series of programs under the title 'The Real George Orwell', Freedom Press, whose former editor, Vernon Richards, in the 1940s had a close and friendly relationship with Orwell, has taken a decision which we believe Orwell would have found utterly contemptible. 

Last year, some Northern anarchists and their now some 80 supporters sent a statement known as 'The Burnley Declaration' to the new editor of Freedom,Matthew – this declaration asks for the Anarchist Federation to disassociate itself from the actions of some of its members; Matthew then agreed to publish the declaration as a letter with the offer of a reply to the group being criticised in the 'Burnley Declaration', the Anarchist Federation. Immediately, Freedom was assailed by the founder of the Anarchist Federation, Nick Heath, a retired librarian, who works in the Freedom Bookshop on Wednesday afternoons. Mr. Heath threatened to break his relationship with Freedom if they published the 'Burnley Declaration': stop writing for the paper and labouring in the bookshop.

The Freedom editor, Matthew, then sought wider opinion within the Freedom Collective: with result,not to publish 'Burnley Declaration' in Freedom.  In an e-mail to Barry Woodling, Matthew explains:

'The decision not to publish the NAN statement remains.  Yes, I did originally agree to publish the statement, and yes, I then changed my mind. The reversing of this decision was done after consulting with the wider collective, and after discussions with several members of the Anarchist Federation...  Whilst I understand the dispute between the Northern Anarchist Network and the Anarchist Federation is of great significance for all those involved, I would not want Freedom to be seen as taking sides.  I hope you appreciate that we would like Freedom to report the positive side of the movement to both existing and to potential readers.  With that in mind I do not believe that covering this particular dispute is in the spirit of "promoting the movement". ' 

It is wrong for Matthew to suggest that it is only a 'dispute between the Northern Anarchist Network and the Anarchist Federation (AF)', because the attacks have been in public at bookfairs and others have suffered collateral damage from the physical attacks by AF members on the NAN and Northern Voices (see report on Five Leaves Blog 28th, Oct. 2012).

In November 1949, George Orwell wrote an essay entitled 'Through a Glass Rosily':
'The recent article by Tribune's Vienna correspondent (reporting the appalling behaviour of the Russian occupying troops, several readers protested against “this slander” on the Red army) provoked a spate of angry letters which, besides calling him a fool and a liar and making other charges of what one might call a routine nature, also carried the very serious implication that he ought to have kept silent even if he knew that he was speaking the truth.' 

This is relevant to the 'Burnley Declaration' because last year Martin Gilbert in a post on this Blog entitled 'Washing Anarchist Dirty Linen in Public' sought to demonstrate that the attacks on Northern Voices,and supporters of the Northern Anarchist Network by members of the Anarchist Fed. such as the Schoolmistress, Salad Cream Sally and her Nutcracker soldiers at the London Anarchist Bookfair and by Nick Heath at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, ought not to be challenged openly because it gives fuel to our enemies. George Orwell denounced this kind of talk arguing it amounts to a case of '... shut up and don't criticise: or at least criticise “constructively”, which in practice always means favourably. And, from this it is only a short step to arguing that the suppression and distortion of known facts is the highest duty of a journalist.'   Note how Orwell's use of the word 'constructive' here dovetails with Freedom's desire, expressed by Matthew above to 'report on the positive side of the movement'; what we have here portrayed rather nicely is what Orwell meant when he talked about the totalitarian mind in modern politics.

Donald Rooum, Matthew and the Freedom collective have now adopted this position,which Orwell in his essays time and time again condemns. It amounts to 'brush the it under the carpet'; 'see no evil'; or in the case of some, like the organisers at the London Anarchist Bookfair, adopting the pose of Pontius Pilot. Really, when there is a clear attempt by members of an organisation to put a publication out of business, then one would have expected something better of people calling themselves 'anarchists'. Eighty people have now called for the Anarchist Fed. to publicly disassociate itself from the irresponsible actions of some of their members, nobody is asking for blood. All that Freedom is required to do is to publish the 'Burnley Declaration' and give the Anarchist Fed. the chance to reply. To stand by and do nothing is irresponsible: it makes the anarchists look impotent in face of a crude attempt to damage Northern Voices and the NAN.

The Burnley NAN Declaration

Freedom the Anarchist paper with a long and distinguished history is sullying the memory of Kropotkin and others by engaging in a deplorable cover up of the disgraceful attack on me at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair.    Freedom purports in its promotional blub 'to cover all aspects of the anarchist movement'.   Although the Burnley Northern Anarchist Network  declaration condemning the attack by one of the organisers of the bookfair backed up by Nick Heath of the Anarchist Federation has now received the support of over 80 activists including anarchists, greens, socialists, trade unionists and community activists across continents, Freedom is still refusing to publish the declaration.   It has kow towed to threats from the Anarchist Federation.   In the words of Doctor Martin Luther King:  'The truth must be told'.   

Will the AF be the Death of Freedom?

THE recent actions of  Nick Heath and the Anarchist Federation may now be putting the paper of the anarchist movement 'Freedom' in danger:  there have been several reports of northerners in or close to, the Anarchist Fed. wanting to disassociate themselves from the two reported Bookfair incidents in London and Manchester last year.  Freedom must now be clear where it stands on freedom of the press.  Below is a letter sent to the editor of Freedom last week by one of the recent victims of the Anarchist Fed's low level bullying, Barry Woodling, a NAN supporter and member of the editorial panel of Northern Voices:

Dear Editor, 
Freedom as an anarchist paper has a long history of defending freedom of speech since its foundation by Peter Kropotkin in the 1880s. I am therefore greatly disturbed by the volte face committed at the paper in relation to the publishing of the Burnley NAN Statement to the Movement. You originally agreed to publish and then changed your mind claiming "naivety"

on your part. It appears that you succumbed to "nasty" letters from 2 leading members of the Anarchist Federation, one of whom was Nick Heath. 

My eviction from the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair was a shocking authoritarian action in which I was attacked both verbally and physically and smeared as an anti-semite. I find this monstrous allegation incredibly offensive in view of the fact that many members of my mothers family were murdered in Nazi concentration camps during WW2.

I would request that all the correspondence relating to the NAN statement be published. Furthermore failure to publish the NAN statement makes Freedom complicit in the cover up and is tantamount to condoning this unwarranted attack on a NAN supporter.

IN conclusion transparency and accountability is a sine qua non of the anarchist and libertarian movement and Freedom will lose all credibility if it does not adhere to these principles.

Yours in solidarity,
Barry Woodling