New SWA leaflet and updated directory

 

South Wales Anarchists have produced a new leaflet to distribute in info-shops, during miscellaneous demos and generally across South Wales, and to have at hand to explain who we are and what we get up to.

Look out for it at the Red and Black Umbrella as well as the upcoming People’s University building and on the table at Food Not Bombs on Fridays.

Here is a mini-version………….

and the updated directory of non-hierarchical groups in Cardiff:

Red and Black Umbrella Social Centre – Anarchist social centre in Cardiff, host to community events as well as occasional gigs. A place to meet, get info, watch films and be part of workshops and other misc. events. redandblackumbrella.squat.net | @RedBlackBrolly 

Cardiff People’s University – by people, for people. cardiffpeoplesuniversity.weebly.com 

Pill Community Co-op – Project to set up a non-hierarchical community space with vegan café, up-cycling, arts and other events you might find in Social Centres. 07805328172 

Stop NATO Cymru – A local campaign, also part of the Anarchist Action Network, that opposes the NATO summit due in Newport, September 2014. network23.org/stopnatocymru 

Cardiff Against Fracking Everywhere – New group in Cardiff, part of Frack Free Wales. FB – /cardiffagainstfrackingeverywhere | cardiffagainstfrackingeverywhere@riseup.net

Welsh Antifa & SWAFA – Standing against far-right groups dividing communities with direct actions against racists and fascists. welshantifa.org | @swafa05 | swafa@riseup.net 

Swansea Palestine Community Link / Swansea Action for Palestine – Raising awareness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice. We support the call for BDS of Israel. @SwanPalestine | swanseaactionforpalestine@riseup.net

Radical Wales – Website with considered political analysis of Welsh politics from wide radical perspectives. Many anarchists contribute to the content. radicalwales.org | @radicalwales

Cardiff IWW –  IWW Cymru is a direct action solidarity union for all workers, includingstudents and unemployed workers. walesiww.org.uk | cymruwales@iww.org.uk

No Borders South Wales – Nearly 10 years of organising through anti-deportation campaigns and other practical solidarity, for freedom of movement and equality for all.noborderswales.wordpress.com | @noborderswales

Claimants Solidarity Cardiff – A grassroots self-help and solidarity network for claimants engaging with the benefits system. (plus Tea Tent) FB – ‘Claimant Solidarity Cardiff’ 

Food Not Bombs – Cardiff and Swansea both have local sections of this international movement, and group in Newport due to start soon! If we can afford to fight wars why are many people going hungry? Free vegan food! foodnotbombs.net/WALES.html | @FNBCardiff 

Cardiff AnarchaFems – Launching on August 6^th as part of ‘Break the Chains’ 07804240953 

Animal Rights – Against all cruelty to animals with information sharing and promoting an ethical healthy vegan lifestyle. cardiffar@yahoo.co.uk | swanseaanimalrights.moonfruit.com

South Wales Hunt Saboteurs – Local people taking direct action against hunting with hounds in South Wales despite the ‘ban’. southwaleshuntsabs@gmail.com

 

Stop NATO Cymru Day of Action against Militarism

On the morning of Friday, July 25th, supporters of Stop NATO Cymru took action in London and Cardiff, locking themselves to the front doors of missile developer MBDA, occupying the HQ of arms company Airbus Group and closing the Armed Forces Careers Centre in Cardiff by occupying the roof. This was part of an ongoing anti-militarist campaign in the run up to September’s NATO Summit in Newport, targeting all institutions which perpetuate violence on a global scale.

Cardiff Armed Forces “Careers Centre” closed

MBDA is jointly owned by arms companies Airbus Group (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Finmecanica (25%), companies guilty of providing arms used by Israel to bombard communities, demolish hospitals and murder innocent children in schools. Palestinian solidarity activists stood with us against these monsters, with Israel having used British bombs on playing children, family homes, schools, independent journalists, rescue vehicles and hospitals in the last week alone.

In solidarity with Stop NATO Cymru, anti-miltarist activists from Stop the Arms Fair entered the lobby and picketed the entrance to the London HQ of Airbus Group (aka EADS). Airbus Group is a major profiteer of war. They manufacture jets, drones (including some with nuclear warheads) and surveillance technology. They are the second largest arms producer in Europe, with investments in authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kazakhstan. Airbus has recently announced new contracts worth £50mil, and have urged the arms industry to take ‘full economic advantage’ of the NATO Summit. The summit is an opportunity for them to showcase their killing machines and  blood-stained business through NATO procurement. Stop NATO Cymru opposes the NATO war machine, arms production and the murder of anyone for corporate profit.

When the rich declare war, the poor die.

Earlier this month the British Army launched a recruitment drive entitled ‘More Than Meets the Eye’, aiming to dispel myths surrounding life in the forces, boost their falling recruitment figures and secure the flow of “a new stream of young blood” as head of recruiting, Major General  Chris Tickell, so aptly put it.

They are right about one thing, there is more to life in the army than meets our eyes – more to what the media, charities and the state show of the idealised soldier. Waves of forced redundancies are leaving thousands unemployed, many of them young people, promised adventure and reward at the recruiting office before being spat into the jobcentre, often injured, with thousands wounded over the last decade.

Even those who keep their job are constantly exploited y the state. The fact is that every individual within the armed forces – from the musician to the infantryman – is part of an effort to further the state’s  expansionist agenda. In Afghanistan, war for oil saw the deaths of almost 4,000 coalition troops and an estimated 20,000 Afghan civilians killed to bring NATO’s version of democracy to the Afghan people. Now we see conflict flaring in Ukraine, with British companies having armed the Russian dictatorship, America throwing its weight behind a neo-Nazi backed government and the  people of Ukraine and the world suffering the consequences.

We took action to show that we will not stand by and watch ordinary people suffer in the wars of the wealthy. We are anti-militarist, opposed to states, their armies and the world that creates them. When NATO brings its circus to Newport in September, we will make our feelings known.

NATO is the militarist juggernaut that encourages military spending in times of austerity, stokes the flames of conflict in places like Ukraine and represents the armed wing of capitalist exploitation. In spite of the power behind NATO – and all militarist institutions in a world of government by violence – we will keep up our fight on the streets, doing all that we can to bring change, until every gun is cold, every bomb is dead and every cage is empty.

Stop NATO Cymru and Anarchist Action Network Meeting

Stop NATO Cymru and Anarchist Action Network National Convergence

Saturday 19th July 11am -5pm in Newport, South Wales at the Community Space Partnership, 128 Lower Dock St, Newport, NP20 1EG

Sunday 20th July 11am- 5pm in Cardiff, South Wales at the Owain Glyndwr Pub, (Tair Pluen function Room) Cardiff, 10 St John’s Street, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 1GL

Stop NATO Cymru is a group initiated by local activists to mobilise against the NATO summit. Stop NATO Cymru joined with the Anarchist Action Network as a group with the same fundamental principles and as a group with the experience and skills gained from the anti-G8 mobilisation in 2013.

The Anarchist Action Network is working with Stop NATO Cymru to mobilise against the forthcoming NATO summit. This is the penultimate organising meeting before the summit – come and join the mobilisation!

Please email us in advance to discuss any queries about disabled access, childcare or crashspace at: stopnatocymru at riseup dot net.

Police harassment in Merthyr

On Wednesday, July 9th, the otherwise successful Day of Action against Nato in Merthyr Tydfil was marred by an intrusive police presence, the attempted intimidation of Stop Nato Cymru activists and the harassment of a public meeting that afternoon.

As soon as a stall was set up in the town centre the police made their  presence known, with a mixture of “Community Support” officers and actual coppers surrounding the table – groups of two standing at either end of the street and four walking passed repeatedly, taking leaflets and demonstrating their cutting edge intelligence gathering techniques with questions such as “What you up to?”, “Are you moving on?” and “Are you doing this anywhere else?”.

Later that day a meeting was called in a public community centre to plan local and national opposition to the Nato Summit, with a warm welcome to anyone who wished to attend – apart from cops, who couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that it wasn’t for them.

Two police (55608, plastic copper, and 4680, fully-grown porker) told staff at the community centre that they’d come to find a meeting – “something about Nato”. They hung around in the adjacent cafe, peering in to the meeting room, realised that they’d been noticed and proceeded to take a walking tour of the outside of the building. When confronted by activists they admitted that “We’d heard there was a meeting”, refused to disclose where they’d heard and walked off, ignoring requests for further details.

What’s clear now is that Stop Nato Cymru and South Wales Anarchists are networks that are well and truly on the state’s radar, with the likelihood that this website, social media and possibly emails are being closely monitored in the run up to the Nato Summit.

Making this so blatantly obvious was either an idiotic mistake by Merthyr’s police or an attempt to intimidate activists before the Summit, in which case they failed spectacularly.  That anti-war and social justice campaigners can be targeted in  this way, just for their attempts at social change, makes our reasons for targeting the state all the more justified. When 60 “world leaders” besiege Newport for two days in September and the heavy muscle of the state tries to keep their circus going by suppressing dissent, we will be ready and more determined than ever to make our feelings known.

Details of the police (pictured above)

Warning: These individuals could be dangerous, intrusive and potentially violent. Stay away if spotted in public.

4680, left, real copper: Grey hair, short-back-and-sides, balding, clean shaven, average build, between 5″7 and 6 foot, possibly late 40s.

55608, right, plastic cop: Dark hair, clean shaven, average build, between 5″7 and 6 foot, possibly late 20s or early 30s.

Day of Action against Nato – Merthyr

This Wednesday (9th July) there will be a day of anti-militarist outreach and actions in Merthyr Tydfil town centre, with local people and activists from South Wales Anarchists, Stop NATO Cymru and No Nato Newport uniting to raise awareness of why we will protest this September’s NATO Summit, why Nato’s expansionist agenda must be challenged and how we intend to do this.

This will be followed by a joint meeting of Stop NATO Cymru and South Wales Anarchists in the Canolfan Soar community centre.

Merthyr is a community which recently suffered cuts to some of its most vital services, with £15 million worth due to be made in oncoming years. Although figures on the exact cost of the NATO Summit – the 10,000 police due to descend on the city and the day-to-day cost of NATO membership itself – are curiously difficult to find, what we do know is that endless trillions is spent on imperialist powers fighting each other while ordinary people from Merthyr to the Middle East suffer under deprivation, poverty and the daily grind that keeps the system going.

All are welcome to come and help distribute leaflets, talk to the public or just to find out more information about our campaign.

Meet at 11:00AM, outside Specsavers for leafleting – 126 High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8BT

Meet at 16:00PM at Canolfan Soar for the meeting – http://www.theatrsoar.co.uk/your-visit/how-to-get-to-canolfan-soar/

See you on the streets!