A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #68 - What we did with 2006

We attempt to recall the numerous activities of AF members over the previous 
year ... --- For the libertarian movement 2006 started in late 2005, in Hackney, 
East London. When the notoriously corrupt council decided to sell its shops on 
Broadway market to millionaire property shark Roger Wratten, they didn’t bother 
to check with the current tenants first. Despite having the right to buy his own 
café off the council, Tony Platia’s application was (illegally) rejected in 
favour of the big money, despite the fact he was even offering more money. In 
July he was evicted from the café he had run for 30 years. At this point the 
local community took matters into their own hands, and occupied the space – were 
evicted on the 21st of December – then reoccupied it for a further 2 months! 
AFers are proud to have helped slept over on eviction watch, help clean and 
rebuild and generally support the campaign: http://34broadwaymarket.omweb.org

At this point France exploded. Mass demonstrations against a proposed youth 
employment contract (the CPE) turned into school and university strikes, until 
almost all universities in France were out. Direct action was taken daily – 
motorways and railways were blocked – and riots became the norm. After a general 
strike on the 28th March – the same day a million workers in the UK struck to 
defend their pensions - the French government caved in a retracted the law. 
AFers went over for the 28th to soak up some gallic flavour and generally drool 
over French militancy: http://libcom.org/blog/cpe-france

Throughout the year, AF members were involved in many other international 
activities, especially as the current Secretariat of the International of 
Anarchist Federations which brings together like-minded organisations across 
national borders. Around the IAF Day of Action on March 18th, 600 AF/IAF posters 
against the War abroad and at home mysteriously appeared all over London and 
Manchester, and London AF organised public meetings around the day. AF general 
conference immediately followed, held in central London, with our industrial 
policy being a major topic of discussion. After supporting Gate Gourmet airline 
catering workers at the end of 2005, AFers took action over pensions in March as 
mentioned earlier, held solidarity pickets outside coffee houses for the sacked 
Starbucks IWW members in USA, and participated in a picket of JJB Sports. We 
have supported the development of the IWW union (there’s a lot of 
dual-membership in both England and Scotland) and the launch of a libertarian 
education workers network.

For Mayday, some AFers helped organise the Anarchism06 conference at The Square 
social centre which was a moderate success, and the anarchist block on the TUC 
march in London drew 300-500 people – a reaffirmation of the anarchist 
movement’s place in workers struggles.

In mid-June we helped with the Projectile Anarchist Film Festival in Newcastle 
and also held a talk about Nestor Makhno. Projectile was a really positive event 
which will hopefully continue for many years. The 2007 one will be held on 
Friday 18th until Sun 20th May: http://www.projectile.org.uk. On June 25th some 
of us helped resist the eviction of the previously mentioned Square Centre in 
London. The ‘Festival of Resistance’ was to be the centre’s final event, the 
occupants deciding to leave on a high note.

In July London AF group held a joint action with Reading Grassroots Action in 
support of Russian comrades arrested at the G8 in St Petersburg. The 
Russo-British Chamber of Commerce was occupied for 3 hours. Everyone was 
arrested then released without charge – apart from one attempted fit-up for assault.

Rossport Solidarity Camp in the West of Ireland remained a focus of activity, 
with some UK members joining Irish comrades at the camp itself during the 
summer, organising UK speaking dates for the campaign throughout the year, and 
taking part in several anti-Shell solidarity actions: http://struggle.ws/rsc & 
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/mayo/

Some AFers went to the Earth First! summer gathering on the Welsh coast. August 
also saw the first ‘Climate Camp’ action in front of Drax power station as part 
of a week of environmental activity in Yorkshire. The event drew a huge amount 
of media attention despite moderate turnout (600 on final day) and seems to have 
awakened a new appetite for eco-action in the UK. AFers who took part say it was 
good, and will support next camp this summer as well as regional action groups 
that have now been set up. On the 25th we produced a special edition and 
print-run of Resistance handed out at Leeds Festival, where some members were on 
Workers Beer Company duties.

In September we hosted the Anarchists Against The Wall speaking tour in London 
and Sheffield. As an anarchist direct action group in Palestine and Israel, AATW 
are a seriously interesting outfit. The talks went down very well with Sheffield 
raising £300 in donations. For more info on the group see: 
http://www.awalls.org. September also saw a joint anarchist block with the 
Solidarity Federation and other anarchists on the Stop The War march coinciding 
with the Labour Party conference in Manchester. A joint leaflet was also 
produced. This hopefully paves the way for more joint work in future – and why 
not? Other demos we attended in 2006 included an anti-Academy School demo, and 
outside the Mexican embassy against repression in Oaxaca.

Against their better judgment some AFers went to see if the cops really meant 
their ban on protests in Parliament Square at the ‘sackparliament’ event on 
October 9th. They really meant it. 30 people got nicked by 800 cops and one 
journalist was put in a coma by a police baton charge.

As usual we hosted several meetings at the Anarchist Bookfair in London that 
took place on October 21th, and participated in those organised by others. Then 
on November 25th Nottingham Defy-ID hosted the second national Defy-ID gathering 
on how to fight ID cards and databases, which was well attended. AF members are 
involved in several of the local groups in this small but active network.

Rounding the year off nicely, London AF held its first club night ‘Just Defy’ on 
December 15th. Originally intended to be a benefit for the comrade arrested on 
our G8 action, the police scuppered this plan by not submitting any evidence and 
getting the assault charge thrown out of court. £100 was donated to Anarchists 
Against The Wall and the rest was made available to those arrested at 
Sackparliament.

Our Resistance newssheet has come out like clockwork every month, and 2 editions 
of Organise! were published – one celebrating the 70th anniversary of the 
Spanish Revolution and the other celebrating the AF’s own 20 year anniversary, 
the Hungarian Revolution's 50th and the General Strike's 80th. In spring the 
second edition of ‘Defending Anonymity’ was published, our free guide to the 
hows and whys of fighting ID cards and databases, plus the historical pamphlet 
‘Resistance to Nazism’ which recounts the activities of libertarian groups in 
Europe during the 1930s. West Midlands AF and the Anarchist Black Cross jointly 
produced a new prisoner support guidebook, also listing current anarchist 
prisoners. Various local newssheets were produced and distributed. The AF 
website was maintained, which provides all of our publications online for free, 
and a ‘MySpace’ networking space was set up that now links up over 1000 
‘friends’ across the world, together with an excitingly irregular blog. We 
contribute to various internet forums, newswires and online libraries especially 
through libcom.org but also on Anarkismo, A-infos, and Indymedia. Huge numbers 
of posters and stickers were produced in 2006, especially in Manchester and 
London. And we did an interview for Freedom newspaper... whilst dodging various 
requests from the mainstream media (they couldn’t meet our appearance fee).

Like most grassroots activity, everything the AF does is done voluntarily - we 
have no paid workers, or paper-selling targets, unlike political parties. Funds 
come from members as annual 'subs' and by members committing effort and time, 
dipping into their own pockets, and sharing all this with others! Activism isn't 
everything. But being involved in activity and at the same time working in an 
anarchist organisation like the AF means we can form the 'politics' of what we 
do, say, and write from real world practice. Getting stuck into a campaign and 
being involved in struggles that concern us in our own workplaces and 
communities informs our understanding of the different issues and the ideas of 
the other people involved. We get to share our skills and tactics with others 
and learn new ones, hopefully win those struggles, and maybe even meet some 
future AF members.
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