Bob Dylan: Nobel Prize For Literature Winner

Fuck Yeah: Anarchist Posters

fuckyeahanarchistposters tumblr.

General Election 2015: Vote For Adam Clifford!

Adam Clifford was on The Daily Politics today - you can watch it here (50 min in).

Our Adam will be outside Buckingham Palace at 12 noon tomorrow to launch the Class War manifesto.

PS 'Promoted by Murray Healy'! Who he??? etc etc.

The Simpsons: 25th Anniversary!

Yay!

Greatest, most beautiful and (truly) anarchistic TV series ever made!

PS No, I haven't watched any of the last five seasons, either.

The Angry Brigade: Where Are They Now?

There is an interview with John Barker in today's Guardian.
Once a member of Britain's most notorious anarchist terrorist cell, the Angry Brigade, he and five comrades were convicted of a series of bombings and sentenced to ten years in prison in 1972.
We learn John is 'angrier than ever', but now leads a quiet life, working as a freelance indexer of books and spending most of his time in Greece.

But this led Fagburn to wonder whatever happened to the other angry brigadiers?

Above we see a poster in support of the Stoke Newington 8 - as the arrested members were known during their trial.
Yes, I know there are nine of them, but that's crazed anarchists for you.
That's John, bottom right.

In the centre is a certain Angela Weir, who was not convicted, so what happened to her?
You may know her better as Angela Mason, chair of Stonewall between 1992 and 2002.
Rather coyly, she now refuses to discuss her days as an angry young woman.
Awarded a CBE in 2007, Angie is currently chair of the Fawcett Society, an adviser to some bizarro government quango, and a Labour councillor in Camden.
Didn't she do well!

Next Week: Stuart Christie.

PS You may also enjoy the essay, Carnival Of The Oppressed: The Angry Brigade and the Gay Liberation Front by Lucy Robinson.

MIkhail Bakunin: 200!

The world's most well-regarded queer anarchist would be 200 today.

From his long goodbye letter to Sergey Nechayev, his lover, his nemesis, his De Profundis.

I am not angry with you and I do not reproach you, knowing that if you lie or hide the truth, you do it without self-interest and only because you consider it useful to the cause. I, and all of us, love you sincerely and have a great respect for you because we have never met a man more unselfish and devoted to the cause than you are...

Noam Chomsky: On Anarchism

On Anarchism offers a vital overview of the foundations of Noam Chomsky's thought, focussing [sic] in particular on his constant questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. The book gathers his essays and interviews to provide a short, accessible introduction to his distinctively optimistic brand of anarchism. Refuting the notion of anarchism as a fixed idea, and disputing the traditional fault lines between anarchism and socialism, this is a book sure to challenge, provoke and inspire. Profoundly relevant to our times, it is a touchstone for political activists and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of anarchism, or of Chomsky's thought.

In stores now! 

'Into old age, Chomsky carries his anarchism with uncommon humaneness, without the need to put it on display as a black-masked caricature of itself. A lifetime of radical ideas and busy activism is enough of a credential.'

from Nathan Schneider's introduction, Anarcho-Curious or, Anarchist Amnesia.

Not to be confused with Chomsky On Anarchism (AK Press, 2005), which includes the seminal interview, The Relevance Of Anarcho-Syndicalism - broadcast on London Weekend Television one Sunday lunchtime in 1976! (audio).

Asylum: Give The Anarchist A Cigarette

BRITISH anarchists are encouraging illegal immigrants to claim they are GAY if they are collared by border officials. *

A Sun investigation found activists in Calais coaching illegals on what lies to tell if they are caught in the UK.

At one meeting, an anarchist ringleader called Joy told a man from Ghana: “If you say ‘I come to England to find work for a better life’ this will be no good — they will deport you.

“Maybe if you say you’re homosexual, then this is a good story to claim asylum — because in Ghana they are going to kill you straight away if you’re homosexual.”

The Sun.

Well done.

Kind hearts like these should be given a medal.

* Why, by the many moons of Jupiter, has The Sun put 'GAY' in caps?

Terry Deary: I Am An Anarchist

Deary really does hate authority. You can see it in his books, where he is constantly poking fun at Aztec chieftains or British generals. He has turned down invitations to meet the Queen and Tony Blair.

Where does it all come from? “School. The teachers put my back up. They kick conformity into children. Teachers are just bullies and schools are a waste of time. They’re an ancient Greek idea that the Victorians borrowed to get kids off the street. It’s fundamentally wrong.”

Instead of schooling, Deary would use mentors. “Every child has an entitlement to be educated for their needs. The key is to identify their talents,” he says.

“Schools can’t do that in classes of 30. Mentors could. If you’re a writer then someone attaches you to a writer. Art to an artist. Mechanics to a mechanic. What is your skill? Everybody has a skill.”

The continuing debate about how to teach history means nothing to Deary, it’s just “a bunch of muppets in Whitehall telling teachers what to teach”. He adds triumphantly: “I’m an anarchist.”

...

I wonder if the teachers and parents who ply children with Horrible Histories realise how subversive Deary’s message is. It may be cloaked in lavatory humour, but underneath it’s pure radical. “That’s the way sneaky propagandists do it. I’m poisoning the minds of children ... yes!” he grins.

Sunday Times.

Fagburn: Well That's My Day/Week/Month/Year Made Then

x

PS Can I have another brandy?

Fagburn: Unwise

I thought I made this slogan up.
Apparently, I may have.
It exists.
Probably.

Fagburn: Most Gay Men Are Communists With Anarchist Leanings - Poll

A new poll conducted by Fagburn has revealed 100% of gay men are anarcho-communists, Fagburn can exclusively reveal.
The poll - which involved asking a leading question on Twitter - was answered by one person.

Penny Rimbaud: Happy 70th Birthday!

x

Murray Bookchin: That

“The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.” 

Murray Bookchin.

That what exists is good, that what is good exists [non].

Fagburn.

Freedom Bookshop: Firebombed

 

The bookshop has been firebombed. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but there’s quite a lot of damage from both the fire and the water used to douse the flames.
If you’d like to help us sort out some of the mess, please come down to the shop on Saturday 2nd February from 1pm and give us a helping hand. See here for details.
 We’re still assessing the damage, so watch this space
for further news. There’s a good turn-out to help clean up the bookshop – here are some photos of how the clean up operation is progressing.
Here are some photos of the damage.
And more photos here and here.
If you’d like help us out financially, cheques or postal orders made payable to Freedom Press can be sent to Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX.
You can also help by ordering books through our website here and then emailing us at
subs@freedompress.org.uk to let us know that your purchase was a donation.

Alex Comfort: Stop Calling Me Dr Sex

Few authors are remembered on their own terms; some grow to hate the books for which they are most admired. There can be few whose life and work has suffered such a total eclipse as that experienced by Comfort. If he is recalled today, it is in association with that perennial 99p introductory offer on the back of the Sunday supplement, and that line-drawing of the couple with the straggly Woodstock hair. The true nature of The Joy of Sex, though, was one that few noticed at the time and few have remarked on since. It was a book about personal responsibility and freedom from convention; a book founded on the idea that political and erotic repression shared a common pathology. The Joy of Sex was the anarchist manifesto that conquered 1970s suburbia – a radical text that found a place on the shelves of millions of readers who didn't know Kropotkin from Kermit the Frog...

Matthew Sweet on Alex Comfort in The Guardian Review.

Sweet's documentary about Comfort, Stop Calling Me Dr Sex, is on BBC Radio 3 tomorrow at 7.45pm.
Some of the late anarchist dude's books that weren't The Joy Of Sex - which is what the programme is kinda about - are available to read online here.

Michael Bronski: What Happpened To Queer Anarchism?

"When I was writing A Queer History of the United States, I began to formulate the argument that some of the major impulses inspiring the LGBT movement had roots in American anarchism. I was surprised by this at first, but then it began to make sense. Mid-19th century political thinkers such as Ezra Heywood—a social utopian who argued passionately that the state had no right to dictate people’s personal, emotional, or sexual lives—argued for frank public discussions of sexuality as indispensable for attaining personal and sexual liberation..."

Great article by Michael Bronski from Z Magazine.

The Daily Star: Be Careful What You Wish For

If only.

"Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people's ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people's ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper."

Andrew Maxwell.

Johann Hari: Oops!

"As an amusing aside from our usual ruthless criticism of everything existing, here’s a little insight into the workings of the mainstream media. We’ve long found this piece of super-liberal journalism rather lulzy- it’s an attempted take-down of Italian communist and every ultra-leftist’s favourite “psychopath”, Toni Negri, by Orwell Prize winner Johann Hari from The Independent in 2004. Hari interviews him at the ICA in London, and carefully tries to balance his horror at the Gulag with his horror of Negri’s flagrant disregard of a no smoking sign, heavily implying throughout that Negri is a murderous terror-monger. It was a poor interview, failing to even attempt to engage with his writings on the grounds that it’s too impenetrable, although he paints a vivid picture of Negri as a personally rude and rather objectionable man.
"A great introduction to this formidable “old terrorist” is the book “Negri on Negri”, published in 2003, where Anne Dufourmentelle produces an in-depth interview, based around a lexicon of his thought, and forming a much more cohesive and thorough look at the man’s ideas and life. But reading through it, a strange sense of deja-vu settled over us. Where have we read that before? This week, it was bought to our attention.
"Hari’s “interview”, vivid and lifelike and seemingly full of conflict between the two great minds, seems to contain whole passages lifted from Dufourmentelle’s much lengthier interview. Compare and contrast… [Go here]

Deterritorial Support Grouppppp.

Hari fesses up to making stuff up here.
Cue shitstorm.
Today Johann Hari blogs;
"Yesterday on Twitter I was accused of plagiarism. This accusation is totally false – but I have reflected seriously on this and do have something to apologize for.
"When you interview a writer – especially but not only when English isn’t their first language – they will sometimes make a point that sounds clear when you hear it, but turns out to be incomprehensible or confusing on the page. In those instances, I have sometimes substituted a passage they have written or said more clearly elsewhere on the same subject for what they said to me so the reader understands their point as clearly as possible..."

The non-apology is as bad as the original accusation.
For more on Mr Hari's dodgy journalism see Fagburn - passim, but here and here
Mr Hari is perhaps best known for telling lies about Iraq in the run-up to war.
Have a look at various critiques of Hari on MediaLens, as a frequent servant of power.
Fagburn's favourite article by Johannna is when he - overnight! - became an expert on late-19th century Anarchists here.
I wonder where she got all that from?
Silly moo.

Update: Andd he's now been accused of ripping stuff off from Attitude, too.

The Real Brighton Pride: Beneath The Pavement, The Beach!

"I certainly will not be going to anything the so-called 'Official Pride' have miserably mismanaged this year...
"I've met friends in the street who have said that they intend to help take over the whole of the beach eastwards of the Palace Pier, all the way to the Marina this year with our fabulous rainbow flag stretched out across the shingle for as far as it can go.
"We can entertain ourselves as we always did at the end of the original Gay Pride marches in London in the early 1970s. We can party all day long and if everyone tunes into the same radio station we can have our music too. We can feed ourselves by bringing our own picnic foods. We can pee in the sea if necessary. We do that anyway.
"We don't have to use the beach; there are dozens of local parks we can also use for local picnics. We never had to ask anyone's permission in the 1970s when we still illegal, so why should we 40 years later...
"We can also reclaim some of our colourful but peacefully anarchic roots.
"Many of our lovers and friends have died since the UK's initial eruption of gay sensibilities, from the LSE four decades ago. Let's celebrate their lives and sacrifices this year with one fabulous, unscripted, uncensored, glorious day out on our very beaches and smaller parks.
"Reclaim our history, give those wonderful younger gays a a different kind of day out to remember...
"At the age of 70 I look forward to many more gay and proud moments here in this lovely city of Brighton.
"Lots of out and proud gay love to everyone."

Michael James.
Letter to Gscene magazine, May 2011.

Excellent stuff.
I hope people will join Michael James in turning their backs on the "official" Brighton Pride - now it has turned its back on the very principles on which Gay Pride was founded.
Fuck 'em - you don't need permission for anything.
On the weekend of Saturday August 13th, let's take over our gay village in Kemptown, our parks, our beach, and our city.
And let's reclaim our Pride.
Nothing can stop us!