Is it ever OK not to vote?
3 May 2010Posted by AFed
These two articles were orignally published by the Scottish Sunday Herald as part of their Argument of the week feature, the first, arguing against Parliamentary politics, was written by a member of Edinburgh Anarchist Federation.
YES: Terri Marquez
Let’s make two things clear. Refusal to vote is not equivalent to political apathy, and the same goes for parliamentary elections and democratic participation. Earlier this week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported that all three main parties are intending massive public spending cuts and all three are refusing to say where the axe will fall. If we aren’t told what we’re voting for, then our choice is less informed than that between Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
‘Why bother voting?’ Anti-manifesto for 2010 election
12 April 2010Posted by AFed
‘Why bother voting?’ – a 4 page anti-manifesto for the 2010 General Election is available for download from AF website, plus poster and sticker designs, and links to other relevant anarchist anti-election material and events:
Oh My God! They Killed Kelly! David Kelly Official Secrets Act Cover-Up
25 January 2010Posted by AFed
Dr. David Kelly, a biological weapons expert, hit the headlines in 2003 after it was revealed he had spoken to BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan regarding the supposed evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction put forward by the British government in the run-up to the Iraq War. Calling into question the government’s assertion of a ’45 minute’ deployment time in addition to whether Iraq actually had any significant weapons capability at all.
Mere days after appearing in front of a parliamentary committee, Dr. Kelly was found dead in woods near his Oxfordshire home. Dr. Kelly apparently took his own life and is said to have cut his wrist with a knife which, according to some sources, was found to have no fingerprints on it. Several medical experts have since stated that it is unlikely that a fatal wound could be caused by severing the small ulnar artery located deep in the wrist. Toxicology reports showed the Kelly had taken a number of painkillers but the physician who analysed the results stated that these did not amount to a lethal dose. [1] [2]
Edinburgh speaks (and acts) – Muckraker & local anarchists’ blog
22 January 2010Posted by AFed
These two websites are worth a look. Edinburgh Muckraker (supporting council bin dispute and more):http://edinburghmuckraker.org.uk/ Edinburgh anarchists blog:http://edinburghanarchists.noflag.org.uk/
On-going imprisonment of anarchists in Serbia
10 January 2010Posted by AFed
The Anarchist Federation condemns the on-going imprisonment of six members of the Serbian Anarcho-Syndicalist group ASI-IWA on made-up charges of International Terrorism since 24th/25th August…
Chomsky as Chavez’s Clown
9 December 2009Posted by AFed
* This article criticizes the weak and untenable posture the celebrated North American linguist and essayist holds in support of the current Venezuelan government. It was originally published in Venezuela’s anarchist newspaper El Libertario #57.
End of the Social Wage? Radical responses to the Welfare Reform Bill
10 November 2009Posted by AFed
This article was published in the Late 2009 issue #230 of Black Flag magazine, pp. 4-6, with the title ‘Is the war of work lost at long last?’ and was offered here in advance of the No To Welfare Abolition planning meeting on Saturday 14th November 2009 in Manchester. The Welfare Reform Act (2009) got it’s Royal Assent on the 12th.
Indigenous Mobilisations Rock Ecuador and Colombia
4 November 2009Posted by AFed
Motorways all over Ecuador were blockaded for days in late September as people from indigenous communities all over the country made their way to Quito…
The BNP, a working class party?
1 November 2009Posted by AFed
The British National Party has been getting a lot of attention lately, from politicians, the media, and most importantly from sizeable sections of the working-class who feel that the BNP represent their interests. Housing, work, pay and welfare are all issues which the BNP have supposedly taken up whilst claiming to represent the “British working-class”. The BNP however is stooped in a tradition of fighting against our class, from collaborating with rich business owners to calling for the ending of, and actively working against workers’ struggles, such as strikes. Despite this, the BNP are still attempting to tap into the working class, especially in former pit towns and dilapidated industrial zones as a way to increase their support by blaming the problems which the bosses (represented by the past and current Tory and Labour governments) have created, on asylum seekers, migrant workers, women and LGBT people, in other words, blaming other working class people for problems they have not created and are also suffering from themselves.
Guilty of being foreign
26 October 2009Posted by AFed
In a case that clearly exposes the vicious cruelty and insanity of borders and nationalism, a trainee radiologist has been jailed for 19 months for the “crime” of not being from England. Felista Peters, a 28-year-old resident of Bristol, was close to graduating when she was arrested after it was found that she had false documents and was actually from Kenya. If she’d been born in this country, she could now be working as a radiologist and helping to save lives, but because she committed the crime of being born elsewhere, she’s been imprisoned, so her skills are of no use to anyone. She will be deported on completion of her jail term. Even viewed from the narrowly selfish perspective of the “national interest”, whatever that is, it’s impossible to see how our society benefits more from locking this woman up and then flying her out of the country than it does from allowing her to practice medicine; from any vaguely humanist viewpoint, the punishment for this victimless offence is even more inexplicable.
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