------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------- The Ox-Fly Biting back: Oxford’s radical newsletter Copyleft Free / Donation Issue 2 - Dec 2010 -------------------- ROAMING MARCHES STUN OXFORD Large anti-cuts marches disrupted Oxford city centre on 30th November, briefly occupying County Hall, Barclays, Lloyds, and Castle Mound, disrupting traffic, roaming through streets and shopping centres. It was clear from the start that this was not a routine demo. It was called by school students, not politicos or union bureaucrats. It was not a dry set-piece ritual, but a group of school students and others expressing their anger and their desires. For instance, the massive banner saying 'Legalise Weed - Fuck Fees' was - putting politics aside - a genuinely felt sentiment, unlike the dull SWP placards which were dropped later to allow greater mobility. Chants were also angry, fun and honest: 'When I say Cameron, you say Wasteman...' Cheney schoolkids were locked in by management to try and stop the walkout. But after others rallied outside, the gates were opened and hundreds flooded out, some as young as 14. Other schools involved included Wheatley Park, Oxford Community, Oxford European, Cherwell and Leckford Place, as well over a hundred students from Oxford Uni, Brookes and locals. There was no planned route and no negotiation with police. After marching up and down Cornmarket, County Hall was stormed by about 100 school students - some making it to the roof. After baton-waving police and mounted police blocked the entrance, people began to trickle back out, cheered by those outside. Then began a (peaceful) rampage of the city. Some climbed up 'Castle Mound', where people tried lighting a fire on top. Barclays was occupied, then Lloyds - and you could see cops looking worried outside other banks and Vodafone, which were all closed. Mounted police pushed through groups of people who'd linked arms, and again truncheons were raised threateningly. A few snowballs hit a cop and her horse. Cops pulled people out of Lloyds viciously, threatening arrest and grabbing one school student round the neck. This just riled the protestors. Some shouted that we should go to a shopping centre, and we ran through both Westgate and Clarendon Centres, where police horses couldn't follow. One protestor, around 15, felt it was "well worth a few detentions", and wanted to do it again tomorrow. Keith Mitchell, Thatcher-loving head of the county council who barricaded himself in his office during the occupation, called the school students: "noisy and scruffy ... oiks". He later spluttered: "What is driving this national outbreak of unlawful behaviour? I suspect the hard left are working up a campaign to make such lawlessness the norm ... I wonder how many of our teachers are working for this hard left agenda?" He's one of those politicians who doesn't bother to use hypocritical language to hide his contempt for ordinary people. Well guess what, Keith? The feeling's mutual! -------------------- Inside: Who's got the money? p2 > Tory cuts / Labour cuts: p3 > Foxy social spaces: p4 > To mask or not to mask? p4 > ...and more anti-cuts action... -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ RADCLIFFE RECLAIMED In Oxford, 500 people gathered on Cornmarket to protest against cuts to education, and ended up occupying the famous Bodlean Library for over 28 hours. Students from local schools and colleges joined those from Oxford Uni, Brookes and Ruskin. A lively demo quickly made it to the Radcliffe Camera - part of the emblematic Bodlean Library, which has a copy of every published book. Over 300 people clambered over the iron fence, and security quickly gave up trying to stop the crowd. After celebration and dancing to a soundsystem, a mass meeting was held. Hundreds took part, including many school students who had never been on a protest before. Decisions were made by consensus. The meeting agreed a statement calling for free education and urging "solidarity with those who are affected by the cuts, and those who are resisting them." Meanwhile the upstairs room was kept as a quiet study space for anybody to use, not just students. There were teach-ins on subjects ranging from anarchism to better chants. The atmosphere stayed positive and defiant. People discussed the significance of occupying the Radcliffe Camera, as a symbol of the control of knowledge by a privileged few (ie Oxford University), and whether to make radical or more realistic demands, or to occupy without demands as long as possible. Some even called for direct student-worker control of unis. Despite our best efforts, the authorities wouldn't let anyone in - then claimed that it was us preventing students' study! There was constant security and police presence at the main entrance, but overnight a dozen people managed to break through and join the occupation. Food and other supplies were thrown through windows by supporters. Others, sent inspiring messages of support. On the second evening, cops came through an underground tunnel and used a battering ram to smash through a door. Meanwhile the occupation had caused no damage whatsoever. People refused to go, linking arms, but police - without provocation - assaulted one person, forcing him to the ground, grabbed and escorted people out, searching them all. However no arrests were made, and a trade-union demo was outside, so spirits were high. As the occupiers said, this is only the beginning. See tiny.cc/oec to get involved. SHOW ME THE MONEY The richest 1% of the world’s people have 40% of the wealth. Everyone knows that a Capitalist economy has to keep expanding to function; any drop in growth is treated with horror on the news. The reason it has to grow is that investors demand profits. But we don’t all get richer in the process; for every £100 economic growth the poorest 40% of people only get 60p between them. Meanwhile the world’s richest 200 people doubled their money in the 4 years between 1994 and 1998, that’s like having a 20% interest rate on your savings account! The amount they gained in those 4 years is an average $2.5 billion each, how are we supposed to believe that they earned that? How could they even pretend they deserve that much money? The solution? Put simply, take back the wealth and decide together how to use it for public benefit! The attempt to squat the empty Fox and Hounds pub is a great practical example (see back page). -------------------- Pdfs at oxfly.theoarc.org.uk - Submissions for issue 3 to aio@riseup.net by Sun 16th Jan -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ TORY CUTS... & LABOUR CUTS The Tory-led County Council plan to close nearly half (20) of our local libraries. A similar number of youth centres are to be closed down, with over £4 million cuts to youth services announced. This is an attack on the standards of living that we have fought for over decades of struggle. Keith Mitchell (Council leader) claims "we are all going to bear the pain". Well it's true that we, workers, students, pensioners and the unemployed are all going to suffer. But are Keith Mitchell and his type really going to "bear the pain"? On his salary of nearly £200,000 does he really expect us to buy that? We - the working class - are in this together. We are all being attacked by these cuts; and we must all resist together if we want any chance of winning. But politicians and bosses are not suffering from the recession; we are picking up the bill for their mess. Mitchell claims 'Big Society' volunteers will step in to save these services. The Council has said that librarians and other staff are likely to make up some of the 1000 County Council job cuts. So what this really reveals is not a 'Big Society', but a plan to squeeze even more profit out of us - by not paying us! They are providing less and less; while we have to work more and more. 'Volunteers' would be acting almost as scabs. But if they don't, the libraries will close and the jobs will be cut anyway. The solution is to fight back, both workers and service users, and make closures impossible. He also claims they are doing their best to protect weakest and most vulnerable. He should try saying that to a user of one of the Care Homes that he is withdrawing funding from. Or to the many homeless people who relied on the Gap Project for help, now being closed. But these cuts are not coming because we have a Tory County Council - they are happening because this is the way the ruling class has decided international capitalism is going to go. That is why these cuts are repeated across the globe; and our resistance must be international too. After all, it was Labour that promised cuts "worse than Thatcher". The Labour City Council has just announced 100 jobs losses and £10 million cuts over the next 4 years. We mustn't allow Labour to take over our movements by pretending to oppose the cuts. Already they’ve been given a platform at demos. Beating these cuts is too important to leave in the hands of the Labour Party - or any other group who want to represent us. We can win, if we put trust in ourselves and control our own struggles. -------------------- For event listings and more reports see: YOUR NEWS YOUR SITE oxford.indymedia.org.uk -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ HOUNDED OUT The Fox and Hounds pub has been derelict for four years and Tesco want to build yet another store there. This is a depressing example of the destruction of our communities by an increasingly individualistic society. On 5th December a large group took back the space and started turning it into a social centre. The place was a horrible mess inside and lots of work was done sorting it out. Frustratingly, after only 12 hours they were evicted by 8 cop cars, vans and attack dogs, even though squatting unused buildings is perfectly legal. The plan was to use the space to put on community meals, classes, art projects and other events. People visited the locals to discuss this, and called a public meeting for Monday 6th so everyone could decide priorities together. One local was unconvinced but the one thing she did want was a Pilates class - so this was going to be one of the first things organized! This was such a strong example of direct action that the people involved are determined to keep working to make their social centre a reality. A TO BARCLAYS On Saturday 27th November, around 600 Oxford workers, pensioners and students protested against the cuts. It looked set to be a routine A to B march, but the mood was lively, and some surprises were in store! As the march ended and speakers from the Green Party and the Labour Party made hypocritical speeches, people started to lose interest. A speaker from Cheney School bucked this trend by promising mass walkouts and occupations. Instead of heading home, bored and frustrated, people broke out of the usual demo format. A group of about 30 occupied Barclays; others joined soon after. Music pumped out of a soundsystem brought by university students, and schoolkids were among the more up-for-it elements in the crowd. Some started to roam for other targets; Santander Bank and others closed in response. This militancy gives great hope for the future. Tentative links are being built between school and university students and workers. Perhaps we are now waking up to the fact that these cuts are an attack on us all and we need to work together to defeat them and build something better. INCOGNITO 'If you've got nothing to hide then you've got nothing to fear!' This is a commonly-heard argument against anonymity. It is based on several false assumptions: * First assumption: only law-breakers are targeted by the State. Actually it is standard practice for police to arrest people they are interested in merely to get their details, DNA and fingerprints. Forward Intelligence Teams and Evidence Gathering cops (sometimes with blue bibs or orange shoulder slides) take footage of innocent people at every major demo. The aim is to stop any effective protest (whether legal or not) and intimidate people taking part. Police have testified in court that they routinely gather 'intelligence' on people despite their being under no suspicion of any crime. Their databases are secret and unaccountable. * Second assumption: that breaking the law is always wrong. Actually, laws are made to suit the ruling class, and don't always fit with most people's ideas of right and wrong. For instance, stealing food when you are hungry is illegal, but stealing the profit from someone else's hard work is called 'employment'. Punching someone on the street is illegal, but dropping bombs on people in foreign countries is fine. Smashing factories that produce those weapons is a crime, but evicting a family from their home is legal. Meanwhile new laws aimed at animal rights activists have seen people imprisoned just for going on routine non-violent demos. There is no shame in protecting yourself from ending up on a database. Masking up is one way to fight back against dirty police tactics, and protect each other. If people all look alike, no-one can be made into a scapegoat. This is often seen as an anarchist thing, but not all anarchists mask up and not everyone in a mask is an anarchist! For more info and details of how to stay anonymous, see tiny.cc/maskup -------------------- OUR POLITICS The Ox-Fly is written to inform, inspire and aid community struggles. It is made by Anarchists in Oxford (AIO). We think society would be better if we made the decisions that affect us ourselves, instead of being controlled by bosses and bankers. We see representative “democracy” as a scam; we don’t see how voting for someone once every 5 years amounts to democracy – especially since politicians, whatever their ideals, always end up serving business interests once they gain any real power. We think this is inevitable; that whenever a handful of people wield power they end up abusing it. Instead of using parliament, we encourage people to take direct action together, seeing this as the most practical way to create a society ruled not by profit but organised to meet human needs. We aim to show positive alternatives and debate the root causes of the problems we face. All letters, queries and contributions to aio@riseup.net. -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------