A-Infos (en) Freedom 6402 25 Jan, 2003 - Letters to the Freedom editors

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Dear Freedom,
I was surprised to read the attack on humanists 
by Shola Keenan (letters, 11th January). 
Granted that humanists don't pursue a utopia, 
thinking it unattainable, here in Lewisham 
we've modestly opposed the alternative use of 
the borough's last cinema - the former Catford 
ABC - by the United Church for the Kingdom of 
God (UCKG), a religious group that's associated 
with exorcism and the abuse of Victoria Climbie.
Opposing exploitation in any form, but 
especially through superstition, is part of the 
secular-humanist approach to life. Of course we 
believe this life is all - an even greater reason 
for improving it and not looking for a better life 
beyond it when there's no evidence for the 
existence of such an 'afterlife'.
We're all part of the community, and humanists 
have done a great deal to empower people in 
improving the rites of passage - birth and death 
ceremonies included. These rites are now used 
by working class people as much as others.
Denis Cobell
Lewisham Humanists
Lewisham Borough Council will be considering 
the church's planning application on 7th 
February.

Dear Freedom,
It's good to see you giving space to criticising 
the Universal Church for the Kingdom of God. 
Their purchase of the last cinema in the London 
Borough of Waltham Forest, in order to turn it 
into a church, prompted us at Walthamstow 
Anarchist Group to do a little research of our 
own into them.
We've managed to dig up quite a lot of dirt on 
this nasty bunch of profiteers, and have made it 
as public as possible in our community. As 
they're now attempting to open up churches 
throughout Britain, some of your readers may 
want to use this information to produce leaflets 
of their own against them. Contact us for the 
November issue of our paper, the Underdog, or 
visit our website.
Meanwhile, UCKG zealots are leafleting 
Walthamstow town centre regularly, in order to 
establish themselves in the community. We 
intend to stand next to them and give out our 
own leaflets as often as possible. As anarchists, 
we'd rather challenge them at street level than 
waste time writing letters of opposition to local 
politicians. If anyone wants to help out, please 
get in touch. No gods, no masters!
Pepe Cormano
Walthamstow Anarchist Group
visit www.walthamstowanarchy.org.uk
or call 07810-288 889

Dear Freedom,
I'd like to thank Donald Rooum for his reply to 
my suggestions about how fire protection could 
be provided without a state ('Fighting fire', 11th 
January). But his criticisms of my position were 
attacks on straw men. His claim that my "call 
for competing fire brigades resembles 
privatisation freakery" is somewhat off the 
mark. Privatisation is the process of selling off 
state 'property', yet people don't have a right to 
sell what they don't have a right to own. The 
state has no right to exist, let alone own 
property.
In other words, what it calls its property is 
actually unowned. It becomes the legitimate 
property of those who first make use of it - the 
people who work or live there. I think fire 
brigades should be taken over by firefighters and 
related workers instead of being sold off to 
corporate cronies.
Donald says "fires should be tackled at once, not 
preceded by research into which fire brigade 
covers the endangered building", which is true 
but irrelevant. Before the state set up its 
monopoly fire service in the nineteenth century, 
insurance companies offered rewards to 
whichever brigade put out a fire. Any brigade 
could do it and be paid via the reward.
I see no need for a single, uniform fire service. In 
a free society, people would be free to choose 
which service they subscribed to. The 
alternative would be to force everybody to join 
the same one, which doesn't sound very 
anarchistic.
Donald approves of the fire pumps that were 
once provided by the Corporation of London. But 
a corporation is a public body, paid for by taxes 
which are themselves nothing but extortion by 
the state. So Donald's 'anarchist-like' fire 
service was set up by the state and funded by 
state robbery. Isn't this what anarchists are 
against?
Richard Garner

Dear Freedom,
In response to H.L. querying my use of the term 
'other anarchists' (letters, 11th January), I was 
under the impression that the Socialist Party of 
Great Britain (SPGB) we were talking about was 
the new-style SPGB, formerly A-SPGB, which 
produces the paper Socialist Standard. It does 
seem they want some sort of association with us, 
even if a loose one. I wasn't asking anarchists to 
support the SPGB's principles and aims.
Mick Vick

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