War on the Home Front (part two)

 by Christopher Draper

PART one of this story explained that 13 anarchists in the North-West region were active conscientious objectors to WWI.  As soon as conscription was introduced in February 1916 two comrades, Arthur Helsby and William Greaves, applied for absolute exemption but to no avail.  A third anarchist, Walter Barlow was arrested for ignoring the draft and fined before disappearing for the duration of hostilities.  Herbert Holt, William Hopkins, William Jackson and Charles Warwick were nabbed as “absentees” at Stockport anarchist club, along with Helsby (again!).  The police then rounded up and arrested a further 4 Stockport Anarcho-Conchies (A-C’s) and by the end of the year all but 2 of our 13 (one was still under age and the other elusive) had been collared but that didn’t end their protests.

Happy Christmas Conchies!

Christmas 1916 found 10 of our 13 anarchist conchies in captivity, 7 incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs, 1 in Leeds Prison and 2 (Greaves and Holt) teetering on the edge of imprisonment. William Greaves hadn’t yet exhausted his escalating appeals for absolute exemption after he’d been automatically enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers whilst Herbert Holt initially accepted alternative work on a Wakefield “Home Office Scheme” (HOS). Soon both attracted the wrath of the authorities and they were reunited with their imprisoned comrades.

Predictably Pointless Appeals

Herbert Holt was the man who’d argued in court for return of the pamphlets the police seized on their first raid on the Stockport anarchist club only to be arrested as an absentee on their second visit. Holt’s appeal ended with “alternative work” at a new HOS at Platt Hall Fields, Manchester. The scheme aimed to cultivate unused land to increase home food production. Twenty-five or so conchies were billeted in Platt Hall whilst they worked the adjacent fields. As usual, the authorities started taking liberties and when Herbert was ordered to maintain Manchester’s other parks and cemeteries he objected and spent the rest of the war in Strangeways. William Greaves’ sequence of appeals concluded with a court-martial at Oswestry followed by serial imprisonment; Shrewsbury, Wormwood Scrubs and finally Walton.

'Lion Taming'

Arrested at the Stockport 'Workers’ Freedom Group' (WFG) Club both William Jackson and William Hopkins were compulsorily enlisted in the Third Cheshire Regiment and posted to Birkenhead Barracks whose infamous unofficial motto was 'We tame lions here!'  The regiment systematically brutalised and humiliated conchies at their Birkenhead HQ but Jackson and Hopkins remained resolute even after the shit hit the fan.  Slapped, kicked and thrown over eight foot high walls in full public view at Birkenhead Park, along with 3 fellow conchies they were then court-martialled for non-compliance.  Their case became a cause celebre after the national press learned of their outrageous mistreatment.  Despite the officers’ brutality it was the conchies who were subsequently sentenced to two years imprisonment (with Hard Labour) in Wormwood Scrubs.

Protest & Survive

Anarchist club comrades Robert Seaton and Charles Bradlaugh Warwick adopted a contrasting approach to conscientious objection. Seaton confronted conscription head-on whereas Warwick preferred ducking and diving. Initially arrested as an absentee and compulsorily enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment, Charles Warwick refused to sign his army papers and immediately went AWOL. Posted as a deserter in the Police Gazette he was eventually captured, court-martialled at Blackpool and imprisoned. Subsequently sent to Dartmoor Work Camp he escaped and was again proscribed by the authorities. Arrested inSalford on 24 October 1917 Warwick was charged with forgery, having 'creatively amended' his call-up papers to facilitate his freedom.  Pronounced guilty he was sent back to prison.
Robert Seaton’s straightforward approach was to simply say no to everything, no conscription, no tribunal, no alternative work.  He was the absolutist’s absolutist.  Consequently Seaton is amongst the conchie elite (anarchists form a solid chunk of this group) who endured three courts-martial and three consequent prison sentences; in Wandsworth, Walton and Carlisle.  In July 1917, whilst imprisoned at Walton, Seaton engaged in a mass hunger strike along with around 20 other conchies and Irish Republicans in a solidarity protest against force feeding.  Subsequently transferred to Carlisle Prison, he was incarcerated long after the war ended.  On one occasion, when the authorities feared he might die in gaol, he was “temporarily” allowed out for 28 days under the 'cat and mouse act' but it wasn’t until August 1919 that Robert and the last of Britain’s imprisoned conchies were finally and officially released.
The conchie career of Samuel Brooks, another Stockport comrade, was remarkably similar to Seaton’s.  On occasions they even were court-martialled together and Samuel starved alongside Robert in the 1917 Walton mass hunger strike.
Stockport cotton piercer Alfred Toft endured an extra level of suffering when he went on hunger strike at Lincoln Prison August 1917 in protest against enduring arbitrary punishment.  Twice force-fed through a tube shoved down his throat into his stomach he spent the rest of the war inside Lincoln gaol.
In the inimitable words of Monty Python, 'he was lucky!' - Stockport iron moulder Robert Stuart Williams was force fed more than fifty times in Preston Prison.   Arrested as an absentee in 1916, routinely conscripted into a fighting unit, Robert refused to obey orders and so initiated the usual absurdist cycle of courts-martial, prison, disobedience and then round again.  After joining the A-C elite with 3 CM’s, 3 prison sentences and over 2 years inside to his credit he decided to hunger strike against his continued imprisonment after the 1918 armistice.  As the prison authorities recorded, he was systematically force fed 'to finish or release him'.

Knutsford Welcomes Burnley’s Bakunin

Arthur Riley was a Burnley cotton weaver living at home and supporting his crippled brother and aged mother, who was afflicted with chronic rheumatism. Arthur’s father was already dead, as were four of Arthur’s siblings. It was an impoverished family and the local tribunal initially cut him some slack but in 1917 they demanded his enlistment so Arthur tried to avoid them by sleeping at different addresses. Riley’s opinions on the war were already well known around town as he was an activist who, the previous year, had a long letter published in the local paper defending conchies.  Arrested and tried in September 1917 Arthur informed the court, 'Politically he was an anarchist absolutely and he was an atheist in religious matters. He believed it was morally wrong to take human life or assist in doing so.'  After a spell of imprisonment in Preston Gaol, just before Xmas 1917 Riley was sent to Knutsford Work Camp where, along with 800 other conchies he was housed in the disused prison.  As if that wasn’t bad enough the good townsfolk of Knutsford conducted an unrelenting campaign of violent hostility to the conchies billeted on their doorstep.  An endless stream of stories published in the local press stoked up resentment; 'Milk for Objectors but Not Enough for Babies', 'Proposed Exclusion from Library', 'Freeholders Ban Conchies from Playing Football on Heath' and the cruellest blow of all, 'The Ladies tennis club at Knutsford have decided that any member who associates with a Conchie must resign at once!'
From 7am until 5.30pm Arthur and his comrades were set to work repairing the dilapidated prison building but were then allowed into town as long as they returned by 9pm.  This wasn’t as attractive as it might appear as townsfolk generally refused to serve the conchies in shops and even the local medic, Dr Fennell, boasted, 'He hated them and would like to drown every last one of them…  One was brought to his surgery and he had shown him the door.'   Most nights a hostile reception committee was gathered at the gates awaiting any conchie brave enough to leave the camp.  Violence erupted on numerous occasions and whilst Arthur was at Knutsford one attack was so outrageous that the local authorities were obliged to intervene and prosecute 10 local jingoes.
In Court Superintendant Sutherland explained, 'The attack on the conchies began in Canute Place and ended in front of the prison in something which approached a riot.” Despite damning evidence the culprits were merely bound over and the magistrates expressed their hope that their victims (the conchies) would be removed from the town as soon as possible, and so they were. In the New Year (1918) Arthur and the rest of the Knutsford conchies were transferred to Dartmoor Work camp and as the local paper reported, “There were great rejoicings in the town on their leaving.'

Cheeky Boy!

Conscription continued into 1918 and in March, as the Manchester papers reported, 'An impudent and very empty appeal was made by an 18-year-old conscientious objector at the Salford Appeals Tribunal…the youth said in his application that the British war aims were all wrong.  He did not believe in war'.  The Tribunal merely expressed amusement when the young man, 'admitted he was an anarchist' and most reasonably argued, 'that he did not think it was right that Mesopotamia when captured by the British should go to Lever Bros. the soap manufacturers, as one Cabinet Minister had intimated in a recent speech.'  Our anonymous comrade was ordered to report when called upon but appears to have evaded conscription.

Aftermath

As our comrades claimed, this was no war to end wars, on the contrary. Sadly the war’s deadly toll included the British anarchist movement which never regained its pre-war working class vitality. None of our 13 North-Western anarcho-conchies were anything above skilled workers.  Lithographer Arthur Helsby was probably the most elevated and none typified the middle class intellectuals that now characterise our vestigial movement.  Many of the most politically active workers that survived the war fell under the spell of Bolshevism and joined the Communist Party. Burnley’s Arthur Riley was a founder member but now Communism’s also collapsed.  The lessons of history aren’t obvious but our local anarcho-conchies were motivated by an anarchism that hadn’t yet grown world weary, cynical and sectarian.  Their stories are an inspiration.

(Llandudno, August 2017

Anti Fracking Action:

 Report from its front line

by Martin S. Gilbert

PLEASE will you actively support the anti-fracking action at Little Plumpton, 

 

Preston New Road, near Blackpool Lancs. This action began in January this year. I was there recently with friends from our local Green Party.  A hundred or so were present that day from different parts of Britain.  But at night the numbers are much less sometimes. All ages were present.  I chatted with protesters from many political perspectives.  Some wore Anarchist symbols.

Basic organization is impressive.  You arrive at a neat encampment with easy parking, to be welcomed with tea or coffee.  A separate tent is available for the media. The actual protest site is half a mile away, transport no problem if you cannot walk that far.  

Large professional signage shows what we are doing and why. 

All this helped the cheerful atmosphere like a big family gathering. 

Who says that protests cannot be fun?  But this one is a matter that should concern us all.

Hydraulic fracturing or Fracking pollutes fresh water, contaminates ground water and can release methane a powerful green house gas. Toxic chemicals are used to extract  natural gas. 

Storage of that gas could be very dangerous.  So far, two American states have banned Fracking.

Lancashire County Council voted with a big majority to refuse Caudrilla, the company concerned planning permission for that drilling. Westminster over ruled that Council’s decision.  Meaning that Fracking can now take place anywhere: your back garden or ours!! Among the many arrests was a woman who is a member of Lancs County Council. There is no bad feeling between those who plan to get arrested and those who only want to convey our messages to the public legally.  Lancashire Daily T.V. news 2

thoroughly covers this story, giving time to the Police who claim to be neutral, 

Caudrilla and the protesters.   Our active support is needed here.  I have not seen anything as inpirational as this for a long time.

Fracking in Lancashire

THOUGHOUT July there have been reports of incidents at the fracking site in Lancashire.  On the 12th, July 2017 there was a story in The Guardian about Ashley Robinson, 22, from Blackpool being hit by a van which immediately left the scene.

A Youtube video posted was immediately after the incident shows the protester, dressed in grey and black, trying to block a white van leaving the Preston New Road drill site.

Following this outrage ensued on social media after the incident, which follows allegations of excessive use of force by police and security officials around the plant.

 A Fylde police spokeswoman confirmed that the video was 'taken at the scene' of the incident. But she also said that the van had taken 'evasive action' to avoid an accident and no injuries were reported.

Ashley Robinson, 22, from Blackpool, said he was the protester in the video.  He said he escaped the collision with just bruising to his lower spine.  He told the Guardian: 'The van sped up as it came towards me. I caught the side of the car and went down.'

Zero Tolerance and Simon Danczuk

By Les May

SIMON Danczuk’s remarks about beggars in Rochdale town centre, or as he would have it 'aggressive’ beggars, has predictably provoked quite a lot of moral outrage.

But to what extent can they be regarded merely as ‘alternative facts’?  Fortunately we don’t have to look far to get a picture of the reality of life for those who drink and/or beg in our streets.  And who better to provide it for us than Simon himself? 

Simon sees himself as something of an ‘expert’, because he was involved in research which was published by the homelessness charity ‘Crisis’ in 2000.  Now I have read his research, and I don’t think his recent comments can be said to follow from the data he collected.

In particular he seems to be promoting a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to begging, to be downplaying the lack of both overnight accommodation and the support needed to get people off the streets, and overemphasising the role of drug addiction. A dangerous ploy for someone who has admitted to the use of Ecstasy and Cannabis, and seems to have significant knowledge of the effects of alcohol.   

A memorandum submitted to the Home Affairs Committee by ‘Crisis’ in 2005 said:

‘Begging and street homelessness constitute two overlapping parts of a broader homelessness problem, "research from across England—including Manchester, Brighton, Leeds, Blackpool, Bristol, Chester, Leicester, Westminster, Woolwich and Luton has consistently found that the vast majority people begging are homeless".'

So what did Crisis have to say about Simon’s report?

This:

'It is the contention of the report that reliance upon police enforcement policies such as zero tolerance schemes are an inappropriate response to a complex problem' and 'Of all those surveyed, just over half had slept rough the previous night and four in five where vulnerably housed.'

Do I detect a shift to the right?  Or is it just that Simon’s own addiction is to self publicity?

You can find both the original report and the summary at the links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts

http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Walk%20on%20By%20%28summary%29.pdf 

http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/document_library/research/walkonby_full.pdf 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmhaff/80ii/80we15.htm

Dave Smith Concerned About Council Contracts

LAST night, Dave Smith, at a book launch fringe meeting at the Fire Brigades Union Conference in Blackpool, expressed his concern about the way local authorities continue to award public contract to companies that were affiliated to the Consulting Association.  In 2009, the Consulting Association was discovered to be operating an illegal data-base following a raid by the Information Commissioner and its manager Ian Kerr was fined.  The illegal data or 'blacklist' included a list of 3,213 names of workers who had been employed in the British building trade.


At present many local councils are still awarding contracts to the companies who were affiliated to the Consulting Association without requiring serious safeguards that they are no-longer blacklisting workers.  Tameside Trade Union Council and the Blacklist Support Group which Dave Smith leads are seeking to get local authorities to enforce ethical procurement policies when they award public contracts.

North West TUC Conference Report:

For a future that works:

Trade Unions and the Environment

A NW TUC Conference 

Report & Recommendations

The NW TUC held a conference dedicated to Trade Unions and the Environment on 21^st July 2012 at the Savoy Hotel, Blackpool. The speakers included Chris Baugh, Assistant General Secretary PCS, Derek Wall, former principal speaker for the Green Party and Clara Paillard, Merseyside TUC Green Officer. The Conference attracted over 50 delegates, a third of them being Green Reps and half of them representing Trade Councils. The main unions represented were PCS, Unite, UNISON and UCU and NUT, RMT, UCATT and BFAWU also had representatives. Also present were members of the local community (Residents Action against Fylde Fracking), the Green Party, the University of Lancaster and Friends of the Earth.

The main plenary session explored the Trade Unions roles within the environmental agenda along three key messages:

•        Green Reps – the TUC Greening the Workplace initiative has encourage Trade Unions to appoint Green Reps in order to advance environmental awareness and negotiating in the workplace

•        Politics & Economy – the austerity agenda of the current government needs to be challenged using the idea that economic and environmental crisis can be resolved simultaneously by investing in jobs that will support a sustainable and just economy – an argument being put forward by the One Million Climate Jobs campaign.

•        Local Environmental struggles – the Trade Union movement need to act in support of local environmental campaigns in conjunction with environmental groups and the local community.

The plenary session was followed by workshops on four themes: fracking, food, transport and waste incineration. The rest of this note set out an outline of each theme and suggestions / recommendations made in each workshop

Fracking

The workshop introduced the issues raised by the controversial 'fracking' gas extraction technique which has recently caused earthquakes in Blackpool.  A presentation put together by the campaigning group Frack Off as well as the short film 'Fracking Hell' quick-started the discussion.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Support a fringe meeting at TUC Congress in Brighton in September to highlight the anti-fracking motion and campaign.

•        Support to the anti-fracking campaign at national and local level, including the production of quality leaflets and support of events, including Camp Frack 2 in the Autumn.

•        Support to the anti-fracking activists trialled after occupying the Banks fracking site

•        Encourage all Trade Unions to adopt anti-fracking policies and support the One Million Climate Jobs strategy as an alternative.

•        Call our Trades Council to demand “Frack-free zones” in their locality and support the One Million Climate Jobs strategy as an alternative.

•        Lobby for a ban of Fracking (not only on the grounds of safety but also on the grounds that gas is not a carbon free energy source) along with positive campaigning in support of the expansion of renewable energies and policies.

For more information visit: -

http://stopfyldefracking.org.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/frackoffuk

Food

A presentation outlined the number of issues related to food and climate change along the entire production chain (agriculture, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal) as the food industry is responsible for up to 20% of UK CO2 emissions. 40% of world’s agricultural land is degraded because of poor farming practices and the use of chemicals and GM food may constitute a threat to the environment and people’s health. Food processing involves the use of many chemicals, has generated many food scandals and is an industry where workers are often exploited. Food transport and import /export generate mass of CO2 emissions and refrigeration contribute to green house gas emissions. Obesity and malnutrition are two side of unbalanced food consumption across the world while 30% of UK food is wasted.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Existing campaigns supported by Trade Unions and campaigning group to be investigated and summarised in a report (Bakers’ Union, Farmers’ Union, USDAW, Education unions, Unite Community Branches, War on Want, COOPs, Incredible Edible, Food Future, Organic Farmers Association) and a round table to be organised by the NWTUC inviting the different stakeholders.

•        NWTUC to support the creation of a resource booklet for Green Reps on the topic of food (including case studies on the “life cycle” of specific products on the model of The Story of Stuff) and consider funding initiatives led by Green Reps / Trades Councils.

•        Work to be done on alternative policies around the theme of “food democracy / right to healthy food”, including coops, urban gardens, community schemes (ie. on composting, anaerobic digestion, tool hire), land reform & reclaim public land projects.

•        Investigate how a campaign against supermarkets can be supported

Waste incineration

HAGATI (Halton Action Group Against the Incinerator) explained their 5-years campaign to oppose the construction of an incinerator by multinational Ineos Chlor that will burn 820,000 tons of waste per annum with all electricity produced going to the company. A ‘gate fee’ of £100 is charged to local authorities (such as Greater Manchester) tight up in 25-years contract, out of which 60p goes to Runcorn Council. Health concerns are numerous about the effects of micro-particles, mercury and dioxins and the process will detract from recycling as the waste needs to be rich in plastic to be energy-efficient.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Awareness raising – NWTUC to support the production of a quality leaflet explaining the issues arising from waste incineration

•        Contracts & Contractors – NWTUC to encourage unions/green reps to identify workplaces’ waste contractors and to request information from City Councils about their waste contractors, contract renewal timescales and methods of waste management.

•        Lobby – Lobby City Councils not to enter long-term contracts with incinerators / Lobby Parliament for incinerators to be submitted to the Carbon Tax

•        Local groups – Encourage Trades Councils to establish links with local anti-incineration groups and support their campaigns.

For more information and resources, see:

http://ukwin.org.uk/oppose-incineration

www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_truths.pdf

www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/changing_climate.pdf

Transport

This workshop was closely linked with the Action for Rail campaign led by ASLEF / RMT. Kevin Morrison, RMT Exec for NW introduced the workshop and highlighted that the government's McNulty report called for job cuts, service cuts and allowing rail firms to raise fares as much as they like.  Buses nationally have suffered from 28% reduction income.  So while public transport is vital for dealing with climate change it is being threatened by the coalition government's cuts.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Challenge closures – through the use of Quality impact assessment (particularly on grounds of disability access) and Freedom of Information Act to gain information to stop closures.

•        Free public transport – suggestion of running surveys to show that free public transport might save money by reducing pollution and congestion.  

•        Linking with other campaign – such as Cycle Use groups and the Campaign for Better Transport (http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/)

•        Action & Democracy - The importance of democratic and active trade unions was stressed by many participants and the RMT was seen as an inspiring example in this regard.  In a wide ranging discussion ideas from fighting the sale of Britain's roads to the idea of guerilla fly posting of timetables were also mentioned.

Concluding Comments

The Conference concluded with a commitment for the recommendations to be presented to the NWTUC Council / Executive for consideration and to consider the possibility of an annual conference on the Environment. A group photograph was taken at the front of the Hotel (see below).

Miss Julie

IN THE current Northern Voices 13, now on sale at most of our outlets, Chris Draper judges his Six O' the Best Theatres of the North of England. The Royal Exchange, Manchester must figure in his thinking here as he ponders the architectural gems among his 'six superlative venues' of the North: up for consideration here must be such wonderful towns and cities as Leeds, Newcastle, Scarborough, Blackpool, York, Liverpool, Hull, and Keswick's Theatre on the Lake; which will come out top? Currently the Exchange must be a runner with northerner, Maxine Peake,now performing as 'Miss Julie' in August Strindberg's play of the same name. Of this play The Guardian reviewer of 'Miss Julie' at Manchester's Royal Exchange writes:
'Maxine Peake stated in a 2011 Guardian interview that the two things that make her most unhappy are 'misogyny and capitalism'. It's a fine sentiment, though it makes you wonder if she's finding much joy in the role of an aristocratic woman whose transgression below stairs earns her the contempt of her father's valet.'

While The Telegraph reviewer writes:
'This is a production that penetrates the heart of Strindberg’s disconcerting masterpiece, and one of the best productions I have ever seen at the Royal Exchange.'

Miss Julie by August Strindberg
Royal Exchange, Manchester: Until 12 May
Box office:
0161 833 9833 Venue website David Eldridge's new version sticks closely to Strindberg's original recipe of seduction and remorse. Though the language has been roughened up a bit (the Italian lake district is dismissed as 'a pisshole'), the location, a late-19th-century Swedish estate on midsummer eve, remains unaltered.
Northern Voices' leading cultural critic, Chris Draper, admits 'I'm biased against Manchester' arguing 'it's too big and boastful and we don't need another London in the North...', but what does he have to say about the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre? To find out send £2.50 (or £5 for the next two issues)cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' for a copy of the printed version of 'Northern Voices' to Northern Voices: c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH. Tel. 0161 793 5122. E-mail: northernvoices@hotmail.com