Why Anarchy?

We have an event coming up called Why Anarchy? It will be a brief introduction to the politics of anarchism, looking at media misrepresentation and history, as well as local and global perspectives, followed by a discussion. There will be speakers from South Wales Anarchists and a few others further afield. It will be from 7pm – 9pm at the Sandringham hotel, St Mary Street, Cardiff on Tuesday 11th October. Google maps link is here.

Please come! Even – or especially! – if you are not an anarchist, it will be an interesting, infomative and lively evening for all! The Facebook event is here (please click!)

 

 

Direct Action Training

Pissed off with politicians, banks, and other assorted power elites plundering the world? Fed up with politicians’ empty promises? Do you want to actually DO something about it? You need some direct action training! There workshops are to be held in October, November and December and will cover legal matters, the media, organisation etc. Please see the Direct Action Cardiff blog for details and book yourself a place. Come and find out how to stay safe AND make things happen!

It’s been a while… Open meeting next week.

Confronting the State! – South Wales Anarchists meeting

On Monday 21st March 2011. Meet at 7pm at the Gatekeeper (Weatherspoons), Westgate Street, Cardiff.

Due to the now much publicised infiltration of pur group by an undercover police officer known as Marco, Anarchist activity in South Wales has gone through a bit of a slump over the last few years.

Now that the episode has been made public and the relevant public statement made it’s time to start the next chapter of Anarchist activism in the region.

Things have changed since we were last properly organised, we’re all facing an attack from the a Tory government, let’s get together for a chat and help escalate the response!

Old and new faces welcome, undercover cops can fuck off.

Please be prompt. Facebook event

They come at us because we are strong

Statement on the infiltration by Mark ‘Marco’ Jacobs

For four years the Cardiff Anarchist Network (CAN) was infiltrated by an undercover police officer we knew as ‘Marco’.  During that time we believe he had a number of key objectives – to gather intelligence and disrupt the activities of CAN; to use the reputation and trust CAN had built up to infiltrate other groups, including a European network of activists; and to stop CAN functioning as a coherent group.

By 2009 suspicions had built up, but Marco had so effectively messed up relationships and trust within the group, that we were not properly sharing or voicing our suspicions.  In the autumn of 2009 he hosted a ‘goodbye’ dinner for the group, and announced he was leaving for a job in Corfu.  After he left, texts and postcards arrived for some weeks, but then suddenly dried up, without explanation. His British mobile number was not recognised on dialling it and the Greek mobile number he had been using after he left barred incoming calls and texts went undelivered. His social network pages became untouched.  Suspicions crystallised, but by now he had completely disappeared.

People who had been associated with CAN and the other groups he had become a part of in Cardiff, such as No Borders and Gwent Anarchists, tried to make it known within activist circles that the man we knew as Marco was an undercover cop.  But without definite proof we were urged not to make unfounded allegations.

It was only when news broke on Mark Kennedy and Lynn Watson that there seemed an opportunity to establish the truth for certain.  Following our leads, on the 14th January 2011 the Guardian obtained confirmation that he was indeed a serving police officer.  We don’t know exactly how this was done, but believe that confirmation came directly from ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers.  We were not comfortable relying on the mainstream media in this way, but all our previous attempts to properly establish who he was had come to nothing.

Marco worked on us (not with us) for four years.  He developed strong personal relationships and some of us feel an enormous personal betrayal.  But he also deliberately and systematically set out to damage a movement, and we think it is important that knowledge of what he did, and how he did it, is shared and discussed as widely as possible.

Possibly one of the most damaging things he did was use his CAN ‘credentials’ to infiltrate the anti-G8 Dissent network in Europe.  CAN had been actively involved in Dissent and in the planning of mass blockades at the G8 in Stirling in 2005, and some members of CAN were keen to contribute to a wider European network.  But CAN was a small group, and very few amongst us had the time and money to travel to international meetings.  Marco of course, had plenty of all of these, so it was easy for him to step up and get involved.  In at least one case he attended European planning meetings alongside Mark Kennedy.   It is likely that their activities seriously damaged the organisation of protest at the G8 in Germany in 2007.

Notably none of the three undercover cops so far uncovered went to the G8 in Russia.  Marco was due to attend, but pulled out at the last minute – presumably unable to get agreement from the Russian government, or authorisation to act without their knowledge.

Like Mark Kennedy, Marco also sabotaged environmentalist direct action.  In 2007, having managed to get himself included in the planning process for an action against the LNG pipeline terminal at Milford Haven in west Wales, he was able to pass information to the local police that resulted in the arrests of a number of activists.   All criminal prosecutions ultimately collapsed, but not before the police had raided houses, including Marco’s own flat,  and obtained computer equipment in what seems to have been a massive fishing expedition.

Much of Marco’s time though was spent getting involved in all the normal activities of a political group – meetings, film showings, gatherings and events designed to provoke discussion and debate about radical politics.   We believe that in at least one case – the showing of an animal rights film with an accompanying talk – he put on an event purely to gather intelligence on the people who would attend.  He was also keen on being involved in projects where there was co-operation with other groups, such as the campaign against the privatisation of military training and the building of a new defence academy at RAF St Athan.   Looking back now we can see he was carefully but consistently disruptive.  Despite his obvious competence, whenever anything – building contacts, outreach, transport – depended entirely on him, it would come to nothing.

Damaging the structure of CAN was undoubtedly a key objective.  He changed the culture of the organisation, encouraging a lot of drinking, gossip and back-stabbing, and trivialised and ran down any attempt made by anyone in the group to achieve objectives.  He clearly aimed to separate and isolate certain people from the group and from each other, and subtly exaggerated political and personal differences, telling lies to both ‘sides’ to create distrust and ill-feeling.  In the four years he was in Cardiff a strong, cohesive and active group had all-but disintegrated. Marco left after anarchist meetings in the city stopped being held.

Reading this, you’d be forgiven for wondering why the hell it took us so long to suss him out, and why we weren’t more sceptical and less trusting.  Marco had no obviously apparent life outside activism. We never met his family or his supposed mates who shared his passion for rock music, although he would at times claim to be away at gigs out of town. He told us he had no wife and/or kids. His house was fairly spartan and his job as a truck driver also allowed him an excuse to be away for prolonged periods without arousing suspicion.  Also, despite a stated desire to be ‘where the action was’ he was very reluctant to get his hands dirty by being an active part of direct action or confrontation with the police.  These things all together should have been enough to at least get us asking questions.

We may well have been a bit naive, particularly in assuming that we weren’t important enough to be infiltrated.  And the man we knew as Marco was very good at deflecting suspicions. He was likeable, personally supportive, funny and very useful to have around.  He was, like Mark Kennedy, a driver.  He took minutes, wrote, edited and distributed newsletters, made banners, and went to the boring meetings no one else could be bothered with.  He was able to exploit people’s vulnerabilities to either get close to them, or make them feel isolated and excluded.  He was a very good manipulator.

All of us who were involved with Mark Jacobs are reeling with anger, resentment and guilt.  Our failure to see through his charade caused great harm to people both here in Cardiff and across Europe.  We are aware that Marco was not the only cop operating, and that the fault, particularly on a European scale, is not all ours.  But still, we feel a collective responsibility and sense of failure over our part in this.

Having said all that, we need to look forward, and it is important to learn the right lessons from what has happened.  We feel strongly that it is important that the movement does not succumb to paranoia and suspicion.  Marco worked hard to sow distrust, dislike and suspicion amongst us, and it was allowing him to do that was perhaps our biggest mistake.

We also feel that it is mistake to paint ourselves as powerless in a situation like this, or to seek sympathy in the media as the victims of an unfair and all-powerful state. We can see how this might be tempting for propaganda reasons, or to win the support of mainstream politicians or the liberal press, but it is ultimately a disempowering act. The actions of the police and the UK state in this affair are disgusting, but not surprising. We, as a group and as a movement, were infiltrated and abused because we took, and encouraged others to take, militant action against a string of colossal injustices. Simply put, we took a determined stand against what we saw as wrong, and every time we were proven right. On the abhorrent war in Iraq; the corrupt and immoral arms trade; the injustices meted out in our names by the G8; and the scandals of man-made climate change, we stand by the rightness of our actions. We reject the authority of the state to tell us how, when and where to make our resistance, and we encourage further struggle and dissent. They come at us because we are strong, not because we are weak.

Welsh Defence League sent packing from Swansea!

An outbreak of organised racism in Swansea last Saturday 17 October was cured by a traditional remedy: street confrontation.

The self-styled Welsh Defence League organised a demonstration that day against “radical Islam.” They took their cue from the English Defence League, who have in turn been organising similar protests on the other side of Offa’s Dyke.

Pre-match warmer

The day started when a large group of anti-fascists gathered in Castle Square in Swansea city centre at 1 o’clock. It contained concerned locals of all shades, sexualities and opinions who were joined by people from Unite Against Fascism (UAF), Trades Union and religious representatives, councilors, politicians,  leftists and anarchists.

The rally was joyful and yet forceful demonstration to bemused shoppers and residents that fascists are not welcome on our streets.

A Piss Poor Start from the WDL

In the meantime, a gaggle of boneheads from the Welsh and English Defence Leagues  gathered in Yates’ Wine Bar at the top of the square and stood around outside getting pissed.

Boneheads: georgeous

Their original plan had been to have a static demo on the square at 4pm. However, shortly after half past three about 100 boneheads decided to lurch forward en masse.

They were quickly penned into a small space on the pavement by Pizza Hut and – wait for it… the Sheep Shop! – by the cops. This split their group up and they were unable to get onto the square.

Failure!

In the meantime, anti-fascists moved the the top of the Square and onto the main road, and a line of cops got in front of both groups, preventing any movement.

However, by standing their ground, anti-fascists were able to prevent the boneheads from getting anywhere near the square – despite the cops and others trying to persuade them to move.

Double failure for the WDL!

There are many, many more of us than you

The hundred or so bones, outnumbered 5 to 1 by antifascists, put up a few pathetic placards they’d obviously cobbled together in the bogs earlier. To add to their generally embarrassingly shambolic attempt at protesting, the WDL also tried out a bit of chanting.

Representatives of the Land of Song these people certainly weren’t.

On the other side of the street, anti-fascists, their ranks swelled by concerned passers by, were in full voice. Armed with drums, placards and attitude, they ensured that the during the two hour standoff that followed they really meant business.

The pot-bellied representatives of the so-called master race, their numbers dwindling in the course of the afternoon, stood and stared. And got drunk.

Not racist – honest! (pt 1)

At once stage, a swastika in a red circle with a line through it, which had previously been placed by antifascists in a window above Pizza Hut, was taken down by the WDL – and burned.

This served to remind people that the afternoon wasn’t all about fun and games. The Welsh Defence League people, despite their claims to the contrary, are Nazi scumbags who need sweeping off our streets.

The less said about the end the better

The WDL, unable to get onto the square and unable to muster the will to have a meaningful protest, were marched off by the cops to the railway station down the road.

About twenty of them got penned in by cops when they got there.

Injury Time Shocker

The one arrest that day occurred when a WDL thug started a bit of argy bargy with the cops.

Immediately afterwards, sections of the WDL crowd shouted “We are the BNP” and “We are white and proud.”  Maybe they had the wrong demo. Cos as we know, the WDL are NOT racist. No, really…..

Oops: you’re nicked

Post Match Analysis

This was the first outing of the Welsh Defence League, and it was pretty sad affair from their point of view. It showed that opposition to their brand of racist street thuggery is larger, vibrant and better organised.

Not Racist – honest! (pt 2)

You’ll notice how the EDL/WDL’s  method of combating “radical Islam” involves campaigning against the building of mosques. Well, is that going to welcome in the vast majority of Muslims in the UK that share those concerns? Of course not!

They also claim they are trying to defend the UK’s “Christian heritage.”But how many of  the EDL/WDL have ever been to Church in their lives? This has got nothing to do with combating “radical Islam.”

The English Defence League have recently made videos showing them burning swastikas and having a black contingent in their ranks. So they can’t be racist, right?

Wrong. The main aim of the far right at the moment – whether it’s advocated by the BNP, the Daily Mail or the EDL/WDL – is to demonise Muslims. Islam provides them with a convenient scapegoat and an “enemy within” on which to blame society’s problems.

Most of us are concerned at any interpretation of Islam that encourages suicide bombing and the like. But the advocates of this are a small minority, and should not be used as a means to target every Muslim.

The BNP tried the tactic of lining up other UK ethnic minorities against Muslims, and at one stage managed to persuade some representatives of the Skih community to appear in one of their party political broadcasts.

This fascist trickery should not deceive people that what they’re signing up to is a far right agenda. It’s classic divide and rule.

The WDL and their friends claim to act all surprised that there is a far right presence a their demos. They’re either too stupid to realise what they’re doing, or too stupid to realise their being manipulated. Either way, they’re pretty stupid, really.

Newport here we come!

The WDL claim they called off their demo in Newport next Saturday 24th and will reschedule when they can persuade people they are “not racist.” Well, burning a swastika with a red circle and a line through it and chanting Nazi rubbish isn’t really going to help that, is it?

Whether this cancellation is true or not, there needs to be a strong antifascist presence in Newport next weekend to support the local Muslim community and show the boneheads  that they can’t get a foothold on our streets.

The far right have traditionally set a lot of store in having a presence on our streets. Let’s show them they can’t have it.

Follow the link http://twitter.com/NewportCAR for more details.

Trash the fash!

racist? moi?

No doubt buoyed by the recent electoral success of the BNP, the boot boys of the English defence league (EDL) along with various other far-right groups are bringing their hatred to the streets of south Wales. Simon Daborn, organiser for the Swansea division of the Welsh defence league, has issued a call to meet at 5 pm on Saturday 17 October somewhere in Swansea. Venue to be announced. A counter demo has been called for 4 pm outside the YMCA on St Helen’s Road.

The following Saturday we’re expecting them in Newport at 1 pm in John Frost Square. South Wales anarchists will be there in solidarity with the call out by Newport communities against racism.

We cannot let these thugs go unchallenged. The EDL’s claim to be “a non-racist organisation” is ludicrous, judging by their antics on previous demonstrations in Birmingham and Harrow. And while they currently consist of only a handful of ex-BNP morons and assorted hooligans, financial backing from fascist business man, Alan Lake, who runs a number of right-wing web sites, could swell their ranks and create real problems for our communities. In the run up to the planned EDL march in Manchester on 10 October, over 20 Muslim graves have already been vandalised in a cemetery in south Manchester.

Join us in Swansea and Newport and send this scum packing!

Bookfair feedback & an anarcho-punk benefit gig

First up a massive thankyou to everyone who came down to the first Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair on the 23rd May, we feel the whole thing was a great success, most of the workshops were busy and around 250 people came through the door, all the stalls were happy with the reaction they got. We intend to do another one next year. If anyone has any feedback, we’d love to hear your comments.

What with the donations on the door and for tea, coffee and cake as well as a number of benefit gigs the bookfair ended up paying for itself which was very unexpected, we’re very grateful for all the donations! But as the machinery of Anarchism in south Wales rolls on, there’s always more things that need paying for. As such we’re having a Anarcho-solstice benefit gig on Saturday 20th June with Active Slaughter, Kilnaboy, Filthy Habits, Jesus Bruiser, Obscene in TJ’s, Newport. At only £5 entry, it’s a treat!

Press release: First Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair

Dublin anarchist bookfair 2007 courtesy of Workers' Solidarity Movement

In the midst of global economic meltdown, parliamentary corruption and British constitutional mayhem, the first ever Anarchist Bookfair to be held in Cardiff opens its doors this Saturday 23rd May at 10am in Cathays Community Centre, 36 Cathays Terrace, CF24 4HX.

As an example of anarchy in action, the event is free and is being organised by South Wales Anarchists, a network that takes direct action against capitalism and government. South Wales Anarchists have been involved in a range of local and national activities, as detailed in their regular newsletter Gagged!, and recent events in Westminster might suggest they have a point.

Anarchist Bookfairs have acted as the centre of anarchist organising and networking for decades, with thousands of people attending the London event every year. The recession has given anarchism a fresh impetus, with the black and red flag flying above occupied universities, schools and factories whilst summits across Europe attract increasing crowds demanding freedom and equality and an end to a world of oppression and profit.

Prominent South Wales Anarchist Michael Bakers claimed that on-line social networking had driven him to help organise the event. “I was bored with Facebook, and I had Twittered so much I broke my phone. So I decided to try to meet real people and jumped at the chance to help get this bookfair off the ground. It promises to be a controversial event, with challenging opinions and revolutionary concepts.”

There will be a diverse range of stalls offering books, CDS, DVDs, badges,tshirts, free information and more. The day will include a full programme of talks and workshops. Some of the issues presented will include: how to build genuine community democracy, radical approaches to education, the case against border controls, why prisons should be abolished, how to get a computer for free and stay secret and how to turn the tables on the police who harass political activists.

Food and refreshments will be available throughout the day which closes at 6pm. Children are welcome. The event will be rounded off with a ‘speakers corner’ open mic for any anarchist to air their views and a night of live music at Cathay’s Liberal Club from 7pm.

“Michael Martin didn’t answer our invitation to the ‘speakers corner’ session,”

Alun Cairns AM – once a banker always a banker?

banker

As allegations of corruption against Welsh MPs grow, perhaps it’s time they took a leaf out of Tory assembly member Alun Cairns’ book?

First it was shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan’s squalid claim for pet food, then Stephen Crabb’s bill of £9,300 in reclaimed stamp duty, followed closely by Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan’s claim of £450 for a TV and Paul Murphy’s £1,000 for TV and hi-fi system.

Two other South Wales MPs have since added their names to the list of disgraced, but unrepentant Westminster politicians. Ex-Tory vicar Chris Bryant (below), Labour MP for the Rhondda since 2000, has trousered over £90,000 of taxpayers’ money to spend on properties in London and the Rhondda. Meanwhile, the sale of his West London flat in 2003 netted him a tidy (tax free) profit of £77,000, enabling him to buy another property worth £670,000. Madeleine Moon, Labour MP for Bridgend, has also allegedly had her snout in the trough. Despite strict rules to the contrary, she had furniture costing thousands of pounds delivered to Wales, while designating a London flat as her second home. 

Readers of South Wales Anarchists’ blog and sister publication, Gagged!, will certainly be familiar with former banker Alun Cairns, AM for South Wales West. Cairns infamously described Italians as ‘greasy wops’ during a radio programme. He was subsequently forced to resign as chair of trustees of the assembly members’ pension fund when we revealed that the £10 million pension pot is currently invested in some of the world’s worst polluters, while the assembly boasts of pursuing a green agenda.

Nevertheless, even we were pleasantly surprised when Tory boss, Nick ‘iPod’ Bourne, proudly announced that from April this year Alun Cairns wouldn’t be claiming a penny of the £13,000 additional costs allowance to fund his second home in Cardiff Bay. A breath of fresh air amidst the stench of corruption, we wondered?

Not a bit of it.

Why Cairns should ever have been allowed to maintain a second home at taxpayers’ expense beggars belief. He lives in Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, only 22 miles or 30 minutes by car from Cardiff Bay. Welsh assembly rules, however, allowed him to claim tens of thousands of pounds to spend on his Cardiff Bay flat because his home was deemed perversely to be in the Bridgend constituency. That was until 2006 when electoral boundary changes meant that Ewenny, once more, became part of the Vale of Glamorgan and Cairns’ gravy train came to a grinding halt. But rather than accept the change, he ‘lobbied’ members of the assembly house committee to get an exception to the new ruling and, in a secret meeting held in November 2006, the committee duly upheld his request.

Nevertheless, could his decision to ‘sacrifice’ £13,000 be a genuine desire to send a message to the voters that, in stark contrast to the crooks in Westminster, he’s now a reformed politician?

Alas, no sooner had Alun made his noble gesture, he was heading straight for one of Cardiff’s leading letting agencies to put his luxury pad up for rent. And at a going rate of up to £1,300 a month, the Tory twat could pocket £15,600 a year! Reformed politician? Don’t make us laugh…

Gagged! 27

The new issue of our regular newsletter is out now, and it’s a Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair special!

You’ll also find reports on Mayday in Cardiff, actions against the Aerolink Wales arms fair, the Smash EDO Mayday Mayhem in Brighton, along with the latest news from South Wales.

Download Gagged! #27 as a PDF here.