Hackney Anarchy Week, final programme 1996

NB: This updated programme was published on the first day of the festival – Friday 24 May, so events on that day are not included.

All Week

Squat Cafe • Cheap vegan food • Every evening 18.00-23.00 • Note the cafe provides food only and not accommodation

“Mistakes” art exhibition • Barnabas Hall • Mon-Thurs afternoon & evening (not Wednesday evening)

The Wormfarts of Art open exhibition • Bring your own stuff as well • The Factory Squat • Daily 17.00-21.00

Saturday 25 May

14.00 • Anti-Fascist 5-a-side Football Tournament • Teams indude: Legal Defence & Monitoring Group, Class War, Rugger Bugger FC., The Nation’s Vibration, Hackney Patients’ Council, the Albion, Squall, Active Badminton Crew, the Co-ordinators + teams from Bradford, Brighton & Bristol + many more • Sign your own team up on the day • Bring balls! • Clissold Park • free

16.45 • Facilitating Meetings • workshop • Squat Cafe • free

18.00 • Defending demonstrators • workshop • Legal Defence and Monitoring Group • Squat Cafe • free •

20.00-02.00 • Dub Soundsystem • The Nation’s Vibration • The Factory Squat • £donations

Sunday 26 May

16.15-20.15 • Films at the Rio • 16.15 Themroc (dir. Claude Faraldo) + 18.20 Un Chien Andalou (dir. Luis Buinuel) 8.40 Ghosts of the Civil Dead (dir. John Hilcoat) • ABC prisoner support group stall • Rio £4.50/3.50

19.30 • Visions of Poesy • Riff Raff Poets • Hackney launch of this anarchist poetry bock with readings from contributors • The Acton Arms • £2

20.00 • Exploding Cinema *A visual feast – no budget and low budget shorts, films, videos and live performance • The Factory Squat • £3

Monday 27 May

All day

• Three P Pirate Radio • 102-106 FM • straight out of the ghetto with kicking music, deliberate fun and hard-hitting politics

The WormFarts of Art exhibition opens • see All Week

13.00-18.00 • Small Press (Book) Fair • Books, comics, zines, records, Tshirts, underground’s finest • Expect to see AK Distribution, Active Distribution, A Distribution, Black Flag, Slab-O-Concrete, Bypass, ACE, McLibel, Squall, Freedom, Survivors, Between the Lines, ASS, Hackney green groups and many more … • Barnabas Hall • free

19.30 • Anti-Election Alliance Meeting • Class War and the Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF) • Barnabas Hall • free

Tuesday 28 May

11.00 • Perspectives of Anarchism • workshop • Barnabas Hall • free

12.30 • Picket of McDonalds • Meet outside McDonalds, Narrow Way, Mare Street, Hackney E8 • (BR and buses: as Samuel Pepys)

14.30 • McDonalds under the Grill: lessons for fighting multinationals • McLibel Support Campaign • The essential tool kit for taking on greedy corporations with live demonstration by McSpotlight (http://ww.mcspotlight.org/) • Barnabas Hall • free

16.30 • The Unabomber Manifesto – Key Ideas • discussion • Barnabas Hall • free

19.30 • Survivors Poetry & acoustic music night • Survivors Poets • Readings & performance by survivors of the mental “health” system with Billy Childish, Dave Russell, Ray Wilmot, Fiona Branson • Barnabas Hall • £2.50

19.30 • Sexual Freedom • workshop + cafe + risuals • From free lore to the Spanner trial, with especially sexy steamy food at the cafe • Squat Cafe • free

20.00 • Acoustic night • The Astronauts, The 1926 Committee, the Dole Claimers, Dr Feelshite • The Acton Arms • £2

Wednesday 29 May

14.30 • Training day for autonomous communities in space • Association of Autonomous Astronauts • Barnabas Hall • free

19.30 • Politics and Inner Change • Discussion • Unity Club, upstairs meeting room • free

20.00-24.00 • A Night of Extraordinary Acts • Comedy night compered by Tony Allen • With Mark Kelly, Mr Social Control, Col. Fitz, Steve Ignorant, Rory Motion, Julia Palmer, Jenny Moseley + more • Chat’s Palace • £2. 50/4.00

20.30 • late addition • Grunge, punk, reggae: Penalised, Brassic Park, possibly NothingFace, possibly P.A.I.N and other bands (subject to alteration) • Acton Arms • £1.00 21.00 •

Uncle Bob’s Special Film Night • Noam Chornsky’s Manufacturing Consent + Cable Street footage (60th anniversary) + more • Technobabble • free

Thursday 30 May

7.30 • Reclaim The Streets action Stop the Commuter-Polluters • meet outside Chat’s Palace • People on bicycles needed

15.00 • Anarchism & Mental Health • talkshop • Barnabas Hall • free

18.00-19.00 (maybe longer) • Organising in the Education Industry: Discussion for students and workers, what to do in terms of organisation and resistance. Barnabas Hall • free

18.45-23.00 • Ken Loach double bill • 18.45 Riff Raff + 20.30 discussion with Ken Loach + 21.15 Land & Freedom • Rio Cinema • £4.50/3.50

19.30 • Anarchism, Islamic Fundamentalism & the Kurdish Struggle discussion • 5th of May Group (Turkish/Kurdish anarchist group)^• Barnabas Hall • free

20.00-23.00 • Out-take charity event • Academy 23, the Apostles, John Antiss (queer poet), Sam & Mono band (anarchistic cabaret) • Out-take – Gay & Lesbian Survivors of the mental “health” system • Chat’s Palace • £5/:.3)

Friday 31 May

17.45 • Critical Mass • Regular monthly action • Cyding mayhem in central London, meet on South Bank below Waterloo Bridge • Followed by films at Squat Cafe (see below)

20.00-01.00 • Stricknien D.C., Terminal Heads, Substandard, The Restarts, Walking Abortions • Reknaw • Venue t.b.c., look out for posters • £3

20.45ish • Critical Mass film night • Screening of Return of the Scorcher, film from California that gave Critical Mass its name • Starts after the regular London Critical Mass • Squat Cafe • free

21.00 • Farrago Poetry Slam Poets vs. Rant Poets • Farrago Poets, MC John Paul O’Neill • Current Farrago London slam champions – Mark Rathmell, Annie Byfield, Brian Lynch – against the Rant Poets – Steve Tasane, Gabby Tyrrell, Vic Lambrusco, Annie Rouse • Squat Cafe • suggested donation 12

20.00 • Bad Attitude magazine party/benefit • Women only, mesas guests • The Factory Squat • t.b.c STOP PRESS: Now on Sat 1 June

Saturday 1 June

12.00-14.00 • Critical Mass 2: This time it’s Hackney • Cycle ride through Hackney from London Fields to Clissold Park (and the Punx Picnic) • By Pub on the Park, London Fields • free

14.00 • Punx Picnic • Reknaw • Possibly with the Tofu Love Frogs • Post-picnic gig at the Albion • Clissold Park • free

17.00 (after Punx Picnic) • Aus-rotten (USA), Oi Polloi, Special Duties, The Nerves, MDM, Coitus, Red Flag 77, English Dogs, The Varukas • Reknaw • Venue to be announced at the picnic • £4

20.00 • Bad Attitude^. see Friday 31 May

LATE • United Sound Systems party • Phone for venue details on the night 0181-959-7525 £donations

Sunday 2 June

15.30-19.00 • Mad Hat Tea Party • Requirements for attendance: bring a hat • Bands – Dead Dog Hat, Ming Hat, Dole Hat • Springfield Park, outside cafe • free

19.00-22.30 • HHH Video Evening • HHH cooperative • Screening of first edit of the “official” Hackney Anarchy Week film made by HHH throughout the week + HHH films “It’s a bit rough, ain’t it?”, Spikey, ARCH, 75A, demolitions etc. • Samuel Pepys upstairs

Organising groups

5th of May Group • PO Box 16881, London 118 7L

ABC-Anarchist Black Cross • c/o 121 Bookshop, 121 Railton Road London SE24

Anarchist Communist Federation • c/o Freedom Press (address below)

Association of Autonomous Astronauts • BM Box 3641, London WCIN 3XX

Bad Attitude • c/o 121 Bookshop (address above)

Class War • BM Box 357, London WC1N 3XX

Critical Mass • just turn up

Exploding Cinema • 0956-823712

Farrago Poets • 106 High Street, West Wickham, Kent BR4

HHH • email: HHH@phreakintermedia.co.uk

Riff Raff Poets • c/o Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QX

McLibel Support Campaign • 0171-713-1269

McSpotlight • http://www.mcspotlight.org/ & email: info@mcspodight.org

Nation’s Vibration • 0171-639-8702

Out-Take • Derek 0171-613-5326

Reclaim The Streets • 0171-281-4621

Spare Change Press • Box26,136-138 Kingsland High Street, London E8

Survivors Poets • 0171-916-5317

United Sound Systems • 0181-959-7525

Bust Info

Look out for the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group bust cards and carry them at all times.

These are their recommended solicitors:

Moss & Co. • 0181-986-8336, Pager 01459-103582

MacCormacks • 0171-790-4339

Thanks to Hackney Squatters Collective, 75A, 67A, the Factory, Chat’s Palace, Charles @ the Rio, Rick, pHreak, Tao Links, Calverts, Giles and all the groups & individuals who organised events this week. See you next year!

Venues

Free maps from the council, try Hackney Town Hall

Acton Arms • 296 Kingsland Rd (corner Arbutus St), Haggerston E8, 0171-254-7056 • Bus 22A, 22B, 67,149, 243, 243A, N243 • Access: ground floor

The Albion • please note the Albion is now being boycotted

Barnabas Hall • 109 Homerton High Street, Homerton E9 • BR: Homerton, Bus 228, 236, 276, 52, W15 past the door; 221., 30, 38, 55, 106, 253, N38, N253 nearby • Access: ground floor

Chat’s Palace • Brooksby Walk, Homerton E9 • Buses and BR: see Barnabas Hall • Access: good

Clissold Park • Stoke Newington Church Street/Green Lanes N16 • Bus 73, 106, 141, 171.

The Factory Squat • 8 Shelford Place Industrial Estate, Stoke Newington Church Street N16 • Bus 73, 141, 171 Tube Arsenal • Access: ground floor

London Fields • Pub on the Park, Martello St E8 • on your bike

Rio Cinema • 103 Kingsland High Street, Dalston E8, 0171-254-6677 • BR: Dalston Kingsland, Bus: 67,76 (not Sun),149, 236, 243, 243A, 8243 past the door; 221., 228, 30, 38, 56, 277, 38 near­by • Access: good

Squat Cafe • 67A Stoke Newington Road (entrance on Princess May Road) 816 • BR: Dalston Kingsland, Bus: 67,76 (not Sun),I49, 236, 243, 243A, 8243 past the door, 236 goes near • Access: lots of steps

Samuel Pepys • Mare Street, Hackney E8 (next to Hackney Empire), 0181-533-7709 • BR: Hackney Central, Hackney Downs, Bus 221., 228, 38, 48, 55,106, 236, 253, 277, D6, N26, H253 past the door, 30, 56 nearby • Access: poor, up stairs

Springfield Park • Spring Hill ES, near Clapton Common. Bus: 253 outside, 106 nearby

Technobabble • 40 Underwood Street, Hoxton NI • Tube: Old Street, Bus: 43, 76, 141, 214, 271 nearest, 55, 243, N243 nearby • Access: poor, up stairs

Unity Club • 96 Dalston Lane, Dalston E8 0171-241-0923 • BR: Dalston Kingsland, Bus: 22k 30, 38, 56, 236, 277 • Access: poor, upstairs

Food

all cheap with vegan & vegetarian

Squat Cafe • cheap vegan food every evening 18.00-23.00

Pumpkins • 76 Clarence Road E5, 0181-533-1214 • 12pm-21.30pm ^•veg & vegan

Cafe Alba • 183 Mare Street E8, 0181-985-8349 • Mon-Fri 12.00-15.00 & 18.00-23.00, Sat & Sun 12.00-23.00

Centerprise • 136 Kingsland High Street E8, 0171-254-9632 • 10.30-17.00

Info updates during the week

Posters at events • Squat Cafe noticeboard • http://www.pHreak.co.uk/anarchy/ • pHreak bulletin board • email: anarchy@phreak.intermedia.co.uk • HAW @ BM Active, London WC IN 3XX

Message From The Organisers

So it’s finally happening, but what is it and why? First, it is whatever you “the people” make of it, if riots and insurrection ensue during or following the week you can bet we’ll be blamed or cele­brated, depending on the bias. All that the co-ordinators have done is in fact what you see on these pages of the pro­gramme. We asked those who call themselves Anarchist or Anarcho-something to do their thing during this week. Hackney Anarchy Week is therefore just a concentrated reflection _.of what the Anarchists of Hackney and London are, however weak, disorganised, diverse or dynamic that is. For those who are unfamiliar with Anarchist politics it may seem confusing but take heart that there are people who believe in chang­ing things away from the tired hypocrisy of government and trendy left (and right) wing revolutionar­ies who can’t see past their paper sales!

We did not aim to provide a Hackney Anarcho-Butlins Holiday camp. The festival has come through a Do It Yourself structure and we see it as an on­going path for the week and the eventual revolution itself. Hackney Anarchy Week did not ask the council for any­thing, and in fact all they have done is attack us, and we do not expect to be asked of anything ourselves. We want to inspire. to bring together, to celebrate and to advertise, not to patron­ise, regulate or act as benevo­lent guardians of revolutionary anger. We’ve done something, it won’t end here, what about next year’?

Dedicated to Albert Meltzer, Emma Cray and Joshua Compston for lives of dedi­cation and enthusiasm.

The Bread and Circuses Roadshow

Are you fed up with an unsatisfying, meaning­less existence’? Would you like to do something about it’? Fancy researching Ozone-hole depletion in Antarctica’? Or maybe doing that bit of metal- sculpture that you always want­ed to’? Or maybe trading in your polluting car for an environmen­tally-friendly pony and trap’? Wanna get a band together’? Or just get a break from the con­sumerist treadmill for a few years?

Well, tough shit. You can’t and there’s nothing you can do about it, because that’s the way it is. Yes, welcome to the BastardWorld (TM) Bread and Circuses roadshow. Here’s the low-down… what would you really like to do with your life instead of the dead-end tread­mill existence you’ve been allo­cated’?

Yes, that’s right, just fill in the triplicate form enclosed and return it to the Department of Social Control. Then, after it’s been bent, folded, mutilated and stapled, lost, found, lost again and then put at the bottom of the pile enough times, we’ll arrange for you to see a group of our own hand-picked professionals doing exactly what you’ve always wanted to do but aren’t allowed to. Remember, all the interesting jobs are reserved. If we allowed the likes of you to get a look in, there wouldn’t be any plum jobs to hand out to the privileged members of society, their offspring and their min­ions.

Musn’t grumble, otherwise we’ll stitch you up as a social deviant and send you off for rehabilitation therapy and find a dozen good reasons why you shouldn’t get a look in. So remember, get into vicarious living, because that’s all you’re gonna get. Don’t get any funny ideas about voting in a different government to change things at the next election, because it won’t make a jot of difference. Why? Easy, because all the political parties are just another aspect of tile Department of Social Control’s very own “Bread and Circuses” roadshow. We’ve had it all sewn up long before you were even born and were not about to change any­thing for some little git like you. Sure, everything’s bullshit and we don’t care because, we don’t give a toss. Get used to it. We control everything and that includes you.

Don’t like it’? Well, there’s nowhere to go, buddy. So you can either put up and shut up or check out.

Albert Meltzer

A life time of Anarchist struggle ended this month with his death. A public procession to his memorial service is planned for 10am Friday, 24. March from Celestial Gardens, off Lee High Road, Lewisham, SE 13. Bring Black Flags, respect, but no Golden Angels.

There follows an excerpt from his recently published auto-biography Couldn’t Paint Golden Angels, Sixty Years of Commonplace Life and Anarchist Agitation:

“Personally I want to die in dignity, but my passing celebrated with jollity. I’ve told my executors that I want a stand-up comedian in the pulpit telling amus­ing anecdotes, and the coffin to slide into the incinerator to the sound of Marlene Dietrich. If the booze-up can begin right away, so much the better, and with a bit of luck the crematorium will never be gloomy again. Anyone mourn­ing should be denounced as a repre­sentative of a credit-card company and thrown out on their ear. Snowballs if in season (tomatoes if not) can be thrown at anyone utter­ing even worthy cliches like “the struggle goes on” and should any one of a religious mind offer pieces of abstract consolation they should be prepared to dodge pieces of’ concrete con­frontation.”

Reclaim the Streets…

…is an autonomous group who take direct action against ‘car culture’. Hackney has the lowest propor­tion of car ownership in London, yet every morning and evening commuters bring their pollution through Hackney on their way to the City. Stop the Commuter- Polluters and join the RTS action. Thurs, 30 May. Meet outside Chat’s Palace at 7.30 am.

Hackney’s Anarchic Nineties

Text accompaning the Timeline in the Hackney Anarchy Week Programme.

Rough and Ready

The last ten years and beyond

In the past twenty or so years Hackney has acquired what’s possibly the largest concentration of Anarcho types in the UK.

The London Borough Hackney’s Labour council is largely to be thanked for this. Their inefficient and poorly managed housing department and lack of resources have ensured that several thousand homes are always left empty. The corruption and complacency of Hackney’s Labour Party is a clear manifestation of the failure of the country’s “democratic” system.

The only viable opposition is coming from radical action outside of the establishment. The infamous and murderous activities of the Stoke Newington Police are an obvious demonstration that the state is not  interested in maintaining a harmonious community but in criminalising and oppressing those at the margins of mainstream society.

A decade ago Anarchists from Hackney were involved in the anti-apartheid campaign and anti-racist issues, the riots at Wapping (which turned a lot of people off non-violence) and squatting actions.

Animal rights issues have been of consistent interest, with actions against fur shops, the anti McDonalds campaign, hunt sabbing, the live exports protests and other more underground activities receiving considerable support.

In the second half of 1987 what became labeled as “Hackney’s Squatters Army” disrupted every monthly council meeting demanding an end to evictions while 3-4,000 council homes remained empty. Links were developed with unions, while direct actions were carried out, such as against workers attempting to steel plate empty fiats. A squat centre was opened on Northwold Road. N16, a minibus purchased and a fairly well organised network established.

By March 1988, with over 120 flats squatted on the Stamford Hill Estate alone, the council brought in riot cops to attempt a mass eviction. After a three day stand off, with burning barricades, hundreds of masked squatters and local supporters, the estate was finally lost.

The Town Hall was again invaded and the former Salvation Army Hostel opposite occupied as emergency accommodation. Brynley Heaven, the Chair of Housing, was hounded out of Hackney and squatting continued to increase.

At the end of 1988 there were weekend gigs and parties at the squatted Club Mankind, Hackney Central and Lee House in Rectory Road N16 was occupied as a cafe/ bookshop/ meeting space and an unforgettable 7 feet half pipe skateboard ramp!

Support continued for outside issues with Hackney Anarchos making lively contributions all the main demos, the Troops Out campaign, the development of the Hackney Community Defence Association and the annual “We Remember” marches in respect of all the people killed by Hackney police. The Hackney Solidarity Group was formed and the controversial “Hackney Heckler” published and distributed free throughout the borough.

In 1990 when the poll tax was introduced there had been disturbances all over the C0untry and trouble was expected the night Hackney set its poll tax. Several thousand people gathered outside the Town Hall, the police lost control and were chased up Mare Street, cop cars were overturned and rioting and looting ensued. (A lot of local people were involved in looting Radio Rentals etc.) “Outside agitators” waving black flags were blamed for the trouble…

A few weeks later there was not surprisingly a massive contingent of Hackney rent-a-mob at Trafalgar Square taking the cops on and smashing up the West End. Police raids followed and a number of Hackney Anarchos ended up in jail. Andy Murphy, a Class War member who had appeared on television, was suspended from his council job (but later reinstated). The following year the council launched a new campaign against squatting using PIOs (Protected Intended Occupier forms). Holmleigh Road estate, N16, which had for years been a hotbed of Anarchist activism including the Rock against the Rich tour, Hackney Solidarity Group etc was evicted.

Hackney has always had a number of combative anti-fascists. Activists from Hackney have been involved in confronting the fascists: in the Kings Cross area and at the annual Remembrance Day commemorations, thwarting the Hitler’s birthday celebrations at Hyde Park in 1989, closing down Nazi shops in the West End, the Battle of Waterloo Station in 1992, and at Hoxton Market, Brick Lane, in the fighting at Welling (formerly home of the BNP headquarters) in 1993 and challenging the BNP on the Isle of Dogs.

There have been numerous squatted party spaces, in warehouses, factories etc. as well as more serious centres such as at 149 Amhurst Road and the Neville Arms. Support has been given to industrial disputes, occupations and actions against cuts in services. In 1988, several libraries were occupied and kept open until they were finally evicted. In 1993, the same happened with various wards of the University College Hospital.

Hackney has a thriving cultural scene (see over!) with lots of bands, sound systems and party organisers. An estimated 30,000 people attended the last Hackney Homeless Festival in Clissold Park in 1994 despite obstructions by the council. Naturally, Hackney produced a lot of opposition to the Criminal Injustice Act with active participation in the different actions and demos culminating in the Hyde Park riot in 1994.

In 1993, the council started a vicious anti-squatting campaign in Hackney, leading to the destruction of many communities. The heavily squatted Pembury Estate, where a feeling of togetherness between tenants and squatters prevailed, became one of the first causalties.

In 1994, the council managed to evict Glading Terrace, Church Crescent and the Spikey Thing with Curves (the old Salvation Army building empty again) in Mare Street. Large numbers of former squatters also began taking up offers of council tenancies on “hard-to-let” estates (for good or for bad).

Hackney Anarcho types had been involved in direct action concerning environmental issues for years and have notably been present at the road protests, in particular the long running M11 campaign and the 1995 Reclaim the Streets actions. New centres have been squatted, the New Pigasus, 75A Mildinay Park, which lasted over a year and provided a vegan cafe, creche, video and poetry nights, circus nad meeting space etc. and the current squat cafe in Stoke Newington.

At the beginning of 1996, the former North London Magistrates Court was squatted to provide accommodation for refugees. As well as combating the government’s racist immigration measures (by means of the autonomous refugee centre ARCH), another issue that is being taken up is the proposed introduction of the Job Seekers Allowance.

Hackney Anarchy Week, 1996

This ten day festival in the borough was inspired by the London-wide “Anarchy In the UK” festival of 1994. It commenced exactly 15 years ago to the day.

HAW was the culmination of six months of a small crew  holding at least weekly meetings, originally held in a squatted social centre around Newington Green, and then HQ was set up in a squatted block on the corner of Kingsland High Street and Princess May Road. Contacts were pooled, favours were called in.

The main programme was a massive foldout thing (click on the images for bigger versions):

The inner pages of the programme included a Hackney Timeline and other material which will appear here shortly.

There was also a Hackney Anarchy Week film – does anyone fancy getting that up on Youtube?

Police Out of School, 1985

I’ve not been able to get hold of an actual copy of this publication – if you have one, please get in touch!

A kind donor has scanned and emailed their copy of the publication, which is now online here.

Police Review: “25 years ago” feature:

(link)

A London branch of the National Union of Teachers issued a pamphlet calling for police officers to be banned from visiting schools.

It wanted the ban to include lectures on road safety and child abuse.

The pamphlet, from the Hackney branch of the NUT, claimed that admitting officers to schools ‘makes it impossible for teachers to retain the confidence of black parents and pupils’.

Five-a-side football matches and discos run by the Met were described as a cosmetic exercise, while decisions to limit open days at police stations to the more friendly stations were criticised.

The leaflet also contained details of alleged police harassment of schools, including phone tapping, interference with mail, ‘helicopter observation of the playground’ and interrogation of nursery age children.

The authors of the pamphlet, ‘Police out of school’, said they hoped all London boroughs would follow Hackney’s lead. Eight out of 10 comprehensives in the borough followed the policy but only a quarter of primary schools did.

The proposal to ban officers from schools had, however, already been condemned by national NUT officials.

Police Review quoted one as saying: ‘Its ideas seem totally inimical to the sort of attitudes our members wish to promote.

House of Commons debate on Policing (London)
HC Deb 11 July 1986 vol 101 cc622-53

Mr. Ernie Roberts (Hackney, North and Stoke Newington):

We are today considering the report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and the review of public order. I want to say a few words about what the role of the police should be. We have heard about what the role is and we have heard from my hon. Friends about the considerable number of problems that arise as a result of the lack of proper policing in London. I understand that the role of the police is to see that the law is enforced. It should also be for the defence of democracy and freedom in this country and to defend the rights of the common people.

Many problems face the police. That is quite clear from the Commissioner’s report to the House. Reference has recently been made to the fact that there are about 3—5 million offences each year. Of the offences mentioned in the Commissioner’s report, some 20,000 are concerned with violence. The so-called public order issues — in other words, victories which have been achieved — include the police victory against the miners, and police victories against the printers, hospital workers, nuclear protesters and others who have attempted to exercise their democratic rights in this country either as trade unionists or as citizens concerned with peace.

All that, and the many other problems that arise out of bad policing in this country, happen because of the philosophy of the Prime Minister and her Government. We have a competitive society in which people battle and victory goes to those who are strong and wealthy. Society has become more and more like a jungle as a result of the insistence upon a competitive society. I would rather we had a society based more on mutual aid and co-operation.

Hackney, the area I represent, has one of the highest crime rates. I notice from the figures produced that in the first quarter of this year some 7,417 crimes have been put on record. There has been a poor response to the citizens’ call for aid from the police. A petition was presented to me last week, signed by over 100 home owners in one street. They complained about the lack of response from the Mare street police to their pleas of assistance because of the large number of offences that have been committed. That petition has been sent on to the Home Secretary.

On the other hand, there is over-policing of street demonstrations, during strikes and so on. I have had occasion to complain about that in the Hackney area, where there have been as many policemen as demonstrators walking through the streets. However, I was responsible for organising some 83,000 people in a demonstration proceeding from Trafalgar square to Victoria park in Hackney. There was not one incident and there was no trouble. The Home Secretary can look it up. Masses of police were not needed. Similarly, there was a demonstration of 100,000 people across to Brixton on the issue of Nazism. Again, there was no need for the masses of police put on to the streets for such events.

We need police on the streets, but we need them on the beat, where the people can see them, go to them and get their assistance. There is still far too much of the Starsky and Hutch approach by the police to policing in London.

There have been numerous cases of bad behaviour, which I have referred to various Home Secretaries over a period. All those complaints have led to a loss of public support. For example, that loss of public support is shown in Hackney, where a pamphlet called “Police out of School” has been produced because of the bad relations that have developed between the public and the police. The teachers have had to take a stand on the matter so that attention may be drawn to it.

All those problems cannot be solved by introducing so-called new weapons, whether water cannon, gas, plastic bullets, flails or armoured vehicles. What is needed is co-operation between the police and the local authorities. The Commissioner has refused co-operation with Hackney borough council’s police committee. All political parties on the council and all ethnic groups are represented on that committee. I have a letter from the commander of the police dated 8 October 1985—the last letter I received—saying: a period of calm must prevail before we return to the vital task of setting up a Consultative Group for Hackney … I will write to you again shortly”. There is no consultative committee, but Hackney borough council has set up a committee on which there should be consultation. The sooner that is done, the better. I urge the Home Secretary to give his authority to the local police to meet the Hackney borough council police committee so that they may look at the problems and see what can be done, on the basis of co-operation, to solve the crimes in that area.

Lenthall Road Workshop, E8: 1976

Radical and Community Printshops is a new (to me at least) site chronicling radical printers, typesetters, posterists etc:

The presses were part of a network: activists in organisations wrote and designed the books, pamphlets, posters, newspapers and leaflets which they needed to further the cause. Typesetters and printers produced them. Activists, distribution cooperatives and independent bookshops distributed them. And today? Still activists, still typesetters (digital) and a few presses (eg Calverts, Aldgate, Footprint), still sympathetic distributers (Turnaround, AK, Bookspeed) and independent bookshops (eg Housmans, Centerprise, News from Nowhere)… But to a huge extent the internet provides the means for radical communications.

The Lenthall Road Workshop entry is of particular interest – a feminist screenprinting and photography collective which started in Haggerston in 1976.

The entry mentions a film from 1980 entitled “Somewhere in Hackney” which features the collective. I’ve found another entry about the film here which includes this quote:

Lenthall Road Workshop is a print-shop producing silkscreened posters, T shirts etc. It began in 1975, and the workers are quite clear about what it is for: “once you start seeing yourself as a person who can do things then you’re in a position to take control of your life”. In the film we see them working with Hackney Women’s Aid to design and produce a set of T shirts.

Obviously I’d love to see the film some day…

Hackney Heckler issue 12, January 1993

This is the last issue of the Heckler from this era that I have – can anyone confirm it was the last one produced?

CRACKPOT
By Dee Campbell

The venerable Guild of Fine Powder Purveyors has been rocked to its core by corruption allegations concerning some of its members in a north London branch. As many as 25 dealers in Stoke Newington are alleged to have been involved in policing.

“DEALER X”

Suggestions that dealers have given information to police officers are nothing new, but the Guild is currently investigating allegations that go much further – one dealer is alleged to have been earning as much as £2,000 a month as a police officer. The dealer, who can only be referred to as “Dealer X” for life insurance reasons, was named in the confession of self-styled “honest cop” PC Dick Sonofdockgreen.

The self-confessed “woodentop” claimed he saw Dealer X:

– Arresting people
– Giving evidence
– Drinking with known “officers”
– Wearing a brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and new white trainers.

Mr. Bigg, the Guild’s president told us that an investigation, code-named “Operation Crackpot”, has been ongoing for 18 months. However, Roy Nark, head of Stoke Newington’s Guild Branch denied there was any truth in the story: “These allegations have been made by self-confessed police officers – they are absolute rubbish”. Admitting the investigation had lowered morale amongst the area’s dealers, he said, “How can my men provide a service to the public with this hanging over them, knowing every time they make a sale they may be accused of being police officers”.

COVER-UP

Hugh Sless, the civilian member of the Pushers Complaints Authority (P.C.A.) overseeing the investigation, said: “I am absholutely determined there musht be a cover-up, the truth musht not come out. Theshe are sheriously allegationsh and if we find anyone ish guilty of being a witnesssh to them, we musht put them
away for a long time.”

A World Inaction investigation into the scandal will also throw light on the role of a young mother from Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott, who has allegedly been operating as an MP for 5 years. Shocked neighbours told them, “We had no idea, she seemed so nice. We got a bit suspicious when she paid her Poll-Tax, and there were a lot of foreign trips – but we thought she was just running drugs”.

Speaking through a solicitor Ms. Abbott told them: “Politicians are scum; as a local woman with a young child I know only to well how concerned parents are about the menace posed by MPs. I shall certainly sue, I have never represented Stoke Newington at Westminster and I never would.”

NEWS

IN THEIR WORDS

A recent confidential report from Mike ‘Cassanova’ Craig made clear the council’s priorities for the next year. In it is the bland statement: “There will be some scope for reducing the staffing establishment in Payroll as a result of staffing reduction which all directorates are likely to be making next year”.

So it looks like compulsory redundancies all around – and the services that we need further down the drain. But there is one area of growth (apart from Mike’s salary). In his words: “I consider that the Audit Inspectorate is the one area within my budget where growth is required“. So lots more investigating so-called ‘fraud’ while services collapse. But the Town Hall bosses can boast of their “drive against fraud” to draw our attention from their continual series of cock-ups.

COMRADES

In the Prince George recently, after a few beers, Councillor Jon Burnell was holding forth about Tommy ‘The Vamp’ Shepherd: “The trouble with Tommy is that he’s go no political ideas beyond furthering of his own career“. Now if Hackney’s labour councillors hate each other so much is it any wonder we hate them too?

OVERDUE

We’ve been informed that Chair of the Leisure Services Committee, Andy Buttress has not been returning his library books. And not from one but three different libraries! We think that it’s about time that Andy returned his books, especially as he has just issued a memo to the hard pressed library workers that stops them from taking out too many library books. One rule for them and one rule for us perhaps? And while we’re on the subject of Andy, he should pay up his poll tax before the bailiffs come knocking again. After all, it’s Andy and the rest his Labour mates constantly ordering us to pay ours.

YES SIR…

Talk about getting down on your belly! Council leader John McCafferty has now had the guts to invite Tory Housing Minister, Sir George Young, to come and speak in the Town Hall at 6pm on January 21st. This upper class toff is best known for his reference to the homeless as, “the sort of people you step on when you come out of the opera”, to which he added, “the Government’ s efforts to help the rough sleeper are a widely acknowledged success.”

The snob will speak for up to 2 hours on the ‘Government’s Urban Policy.’ What policy? Chaos, cuts in road repairs, cuts in housebuilding, cuts in jobs… It’s the equivalent of a butcher speaking on vegetarianism. Knowing full well that local people might like to ask some difficult questions John ‘always-the-democrat’ McCafferty has made the event ticket only.

So, Sir George Young won’t have to answer why the Tories have halved the councils capital spending programme from £79 million to 1989/90 to just £38 million in 1992/3, thus producing more urban decay! And he won’t have to talk about the cockroaches, the failure to build any new houses… and nor will McCafferty. McCafferty is now a great pal of Sir George, having drunk champagne together celebrating the granting of a mere £7.5 million a year, for 5 years, to Hackney under the City Challenge bid. But as we know, what the Tories give with one hand they take back with the other. So in December they announced massive cuts in Section 11 Funding, threatening 300 local jobs, and causing McCafferty to whimper about “the dire impact on jobs and service delivery.” The Tories also told the Council they were cutting the Inner City Partnership programme by £3.7 million in 1993/4, leaving less money for street lighting, cycle routes, making buildings accessible for people with disabilities, etc, and destroying almost all the local summer playschemes.

McCafferty and Co joined in, announcing their very own cuts of £1,150,000 in the voluntary sector, ending the funding of Hackney Under-5’s and Under-8’s, the Pakistan Welfare Association, the Roots Pool and the Trade Union Support Unit, plus imposing massive cuts on Centerprise, the Claudia Jones Womens’ Project, and many others. Sir George Young should be made aware we don’t need his pompous lectures, so this beano will be picketed. And, if you’d have liked to ask Sir George a question, or just want to know why you weren’t invited, you can phone Shan Nicholas on 071 490 1600 ext2262.

NO SIR NO WAY!

An unemployed poll-tax non-payer was recently fed false information when summonsed to Thames Magistrates Court. He’d wanted to challenge his arrears with the magistrate, but in the court building he was directed to Hackney Council Community Charge staff. They said that he could pay £5 per week, making out it was the least anyone could pay. They also used threats that he could be imprisoned.

The non-payer refused, and only then did it turn out that the maximum they can legally take from people on income support is £2.10 per week with a liability order. This wasn’t mentioned in any literature, nor said by any staff, and quite a few people at the court were tricked into agreeing to losing £5, deducted weekly from their dole. Hackney Council again show themselves to be spineless cheats, taking money off the poor. If you are on income support, the most they can take out is £2.10 per week. If you do go to court, make it clear you know this, and stick to your guns.

LESSONS FROM OUR HISTORY
COLIN ROACH

Colin Roach was shot dead in the foyer of Stoke Newington police station on the night of Wednesday January 12th 1983. The police immediately spread false stories that a young black man with a “history of mental instability” had shot himself. Members of Colin’s family were treated with contempt undeserving of grieving relatives. The community responded with two spontaneous demonstrations and a highly effective campaign against police racism and injustice.

Among the Roach Family Support Committee’s achievements:

• organised four demonstrations
• Hackney Council voted against paying the police precept
• trade unions backed a ‘break links’ policy and community organisations refused to co-operate with the police
• exposed the inquest system as a rubber stamp for police explanations for deaths in custody
• commissioned an authoritative report into Colin’s death and policing in Hackney.

The police tried to beat the campaign off the streets. 80 people, including Colin’s father, James Roach, were arrested on five demonstrations within two months of his death. Ten years on the importance of the campaign is clear. The police’s official cover up failed. The community believes somebody shot Colin Roach and the police have to answer for it. It is fitting that on the tenth anniversary of Colin Roach’s death that a centre is opened in his name. It is in tribute to his family and a campaign which represented an important step forward in the struggle against oppression.

INNOCENT

Another worker, sacked in the council’s so-called “crackdown on fraud” has had his name cleared. This time, the council didn’t even dare to go in front of an Industrial Tribunal: They settled out of court, giving the man £5,000 and good references. John Mac-Cafferty, declared “the paying of compensation should not be seen as the council throwing in the towel”. It all shows that the council have (yet again) completely cocked-up and wasted more of our money. More cases are coming up soon, and we expect the workers involved to be totally cleared. Of course, this caring council won’t give them their jobs back. Solid workers’ action could achieve that. And recent strike action has shown people won’t take much more, so there’s hope.

OFF THE BACK OF A LARRY?

We all know corruption is rife in Hackney. The triumvirate running Hackney – cops, local businessmen and Labour councillors – grin at us from the pages of the Hackney Gazette, the non-campaigning paper which doesn’t care. Several people have recently contacted the Heckler with lurid tales about corruption in the council.So, our team of investigators is about to delve into the murky past If you know anything about golden handshakes to Labour Party members,dodgy contracts, employees sacked to be silenced, keys for cash (yawn!), or especially about Larry Lobjoie, get in touch with the Heckler and help stick the boot into the Hackney Council Mafiosi.

Hackney Heckler
NEW YEAR’S HONOURS

Special Team Awards

For Services To Anarchism: STOKE NEWINGTON POLICE “CRACK” SQUAD for their selfless contribution to the breakdown of law and order.

For Services To Capitalism: HACKNEY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP for their unflinching support for developing enterprise combined with their spectacular destruction of local services.

For Services To Ignorance: To the three stooges of the HACKNEY GAZETTE PRODUCTION TEAM, seeing nothing, hearing nothing and saying nothing, and charging us 28p for the privilege.

International Solidarity Award:  HACKNEY TRADES UNION COUNCIL for sending two delegates to Turkey who met the Mayor of Kartal only weeks after he had sent the police to break up a council workers’ strike, leaving 20 wounded when the police opened fire on them.

Industrial Harmony Award:  HACKNEY JOINT SHOP STEWARDS COMMITTEE for having jointly done nothing at all together to upset anyone, least of all the Council bosses.

For Services To The Anti Poll-Tax Movement:  STOKE NEWINGTON COMMUNITY CHARGE OFFICE for mistakenly giving out the phone number of a squat in Stamford Hill as their office number.

Individual Honours

Services To The Media: DIANE ABBOTT for only ever doing anything if the papers and TV are there to see.

For Long Suffering: BRIAN SEDGEMORE. In over five years he has not once spoken out against Ms Abbott, some say his parliamentary colleague, and also for cycling around every pothole in Hackney.

The Family Values Award: LINDA HIBBERD, Chair of Housing, for rescuing her son and other family members from the bottom of the Waiting List, and installing them and herself in very nice homes.

Unprincipled Trade Unionism: JOHN McCAFFERTY for not letting his membership of the National Union of Teachers hinder the council in sacking teachers.

The Free Enterprise Award:  LINDA BELLOS for taking the redundancy money, and going back to work for the council, doing the same job as a consultant earning 4 times as much as before.

Bloodsucking Chameleon Award:  TOMMY SHEPHERD for keeping his mouth shut when the Stokey Cokey scandal broke, despite having embarked on his political career in the Community Alliance For Police Accountability.

Headbanger Of The Year Award:  CHIEF SUPT ROY CLARK for repeatedly insisting that nothing was wrong at Stokey Coke-shop, and then quitting for criminal intelligence.

Police Flexibility Award:  D.C. ROY LEWANDOWSKI wins for being bent enough to be convicted of theft, charged with V.A.T. fraud, and for supplying hard drugs.

Justice Award:  SGT. GERRARD CARROLL for getting the right man. When he shot himself (if in fact it was he) many people felt safe to leave their homes again.

Milk Tray Award: CHIEF SUPT BERNARD TAFFS for giving chocolates and flowers to a family mistakenly raided by armed police.

Professionals In Publicity- Grabbing Award: MARTIN SHAW for actually speaking to Stokey Cokey about his noisy neighbours, and posing menacingly on the front page of the Gazette.

Extreme Loyalty Award: CLLR. MEDLIN LEWIS for spending a whole year in the same party.

Even-Less-Caring-Than-McCafferty Award:  LORD TOMLINSON for deciding we don’t need Barts any-more.

Three-Bags-Full Award:  SIR GEORGE YOUNG for getting the maximum from the Council with the minimum of resistance.

Brown Trousers Award:  JOHN McCAFFERTY for what he does every time he hears the name Larry Lobjoie.

PDF version available here.