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Direct Action
Direct Action is published by
Solidarity Federation, British
section of the International
Workers Association (IWA).
DA is edited and laid out by
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Direct Action ISSN 0261-8753
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this issue: DruggedSociety
Stoned immaculate?
This issue has many enlightening articles about ‘drugs'. Info on how to get them, and what to do with them when you have - this is all available in government publications found in any school, clinic, or unemployed drop-in centre. But we treat you like adults and assume you know all that already. The articles here show how ‘drugs' can be about much more than those, like ‘smack' and ‘coke', that our ‘glorious leaders' love to spread scare stories about in the Daily Liars.
There's a history of drugs, including the role of the state in promoting some and banning others so they can keep control of the workers and make loads of money while they're at it (‘State Sponsored Druggery', page 18). ‘Talk to Frank', the government's latest wheeze to get kids to shop anyone they think is an ‘evil druggy' (including their mothers) and stay pure, comes in for a bit of a hammering (‘The ‘Talk to Frank Website' - Frankly, a Load of Bull Shite', page 6). So too do the ‘dream drugs' of advertising to kids (‘...', page 22) and the prejudice peddling ‘news' papers for us adults (‘The Daily Drugs', page 4).
As well as all this there's the usual mix of topical articles - on asbestos and land developers (‘A Dangerous Development', page 10); ‘ workplace bullying' (page 9); activism and charity (‘Brown Nose Day', page 8), Blair's election victory (‘Labour Troubles Ahead'). You can't beat the breadth of stimulation in a dose of DA.
There's even stuff from around the globe... . Meanwhile, we have a version of the IWA's May Day statement (‘Against Capitalist Exploitation - Organise and Fight', page 16) which shows how capitalism and its need for energy causes seriously dangerous problems all over the world.
Bringing it down to a local level, there's also a report on how May Day went in Lancaster & Preston - where a local drug dealer has just been ‘caged' so we're all saved - (‘Lancashire Reclaim May Day 2005', page 24). Alongside is an interview with Jess from ‘urban rail punk' band, Eastfield, who provided two slices of the entertainment at the Lancaster and Preston events (page 25).
If that's not enough there's a history of the American IWW for your bedtime reading (‘A Wobbly Century', page 30), along with letters, reviews and a brand new ‘agony' column ('Ask Auntie Ana', page 23) and she's eagerly waiting to hear about your problems and worries so don't be shy. Also don't forget to look at the ads and notices in our ‘resources' section (pages 34-5) as something might get you going.
The DA collective hopes you enjoy the read and learn something about anarcho-syndicalism in the process.
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DruggedSociety: the media
The ‘Daily Drugs'
According to my Farnworth dictionary – I couldn't make it to Oxford – the definition of ‘drug' is: any substance used in medicine; a narcotic; to administer drugs to; to stupefy.
This last one throws a different light on the whole sanctimonious debate about drugs. Because ‘Big Toe' and all his Daily Mail chums only think of drugs as something the yobbish riff-raff take in sleazy joints and dark alleys while waiting to pounce on fine upstanding citizens, who also read the Daily Mail.
They don't think of the ‘Hate Mail' and all the other right wing rags as drugs in themselves. But by pandering to the pleasure zones of people's prejudices – prejudices that they have helped create – they are administering a ‘reactionary' drug. It's a drug that stupefies readers into accepting an intravenous drip of ‘shit' (an old word for dope). Brains become more addled than after ten pints of Holts bitter. Real experiences and memories about work, rip-off gaffers, what it was like when they were young and so on, get lost in a ‘haze' induced by ‘shit'. They get more ‘paranoid' than if they'd been smoking ‘white widow' for the last five years solid. They begin to think any foreign lorry is full of bombs, rapists or even ‘asylum seekers'. They get scared of everything outside their doors, especially the drug crazed youth, and write letters to the papers to say so. Then someone else gets ‘hooked'. That's how the drug gets passed around.
‘I started on them teenage magazines and one day a friend said “try the Daily Mail” – I've been on the hard stuff ever since', said one of the ‘unfortunates', mouth dribbling and eyes red after sleepless nights obsesses with single parents and ‘asylum seekers' taking over their world.
The ‘shit' they take allows them to ignore what their wonderful, well-behaved, bright little brats are up to, what they themselves may have got up to, and still do. They can also ignore all the pills keeping half the country on an even keel. The new puritans don't go on about being ‘tough on the causes of depression', ‘tough on bullying bosses', or anything like that – oh no! Their drugs induce the ‘hallucination' that there's a wonderful world somewhere where everyone wears beige, drinks red wine and votes. I think they should all piss off there.
I say these drastic words because another ‘side effect' of the drug passed down from the ‘idle, thieving bastards' at the top end of society is people getting ‘hooked' on the search for money and power. It shows itself in consumerism and the search for eternal life. The ones with the real power don't have to scramble about for the ‘fix' of fame, wealth and long life. They just get it, while some arse licker will make sure they're remembered long after death by writing books, painting pictures, or building statues in their memory. For the rest it's owning things and consuming things. You see the ‘addicts' showing off how much they're ‘hooked' at the posh shops with loads of bags, drinking ‘starfucks', in their 4x4's that can splatter any other car on the road, continually moving to bigger houses and mansions, having bigger everything, being more sophisticated, climbing ladders to ridiculously high paid jobs, wearing shiny suits and daft ties, being ‘celebrities' nip-tucked all over and covered in an even suntan.
What's worse is that these drugs are peddled, alongside other drugs like sugar for kids, all over the silver tellies to people who can't afford them. No problem for the dealers though – they've got a side racket as loan sharks and they're on the silver telly too. The world becomes stupefied and some of it turns to smack or drinking binges on a Friday night. For the rest there's happy pills and twenty-three hour shifts to pay it all off, while the kids look like they've been blown up with a foot pump. And the ‘shit heads' who make a fortune out of all this have the nerve to moan about ‘drugs'.
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DruggedSociety: the media
War on Drugs Fails to Score
Great news! The global ‘War on Drugs' has been so effective that only 200 million people now use drugs! According to an as-yet-unpublished UN report, despite multi-billion-pound anti-drug measures, the market is as insatiable as ever.
What the report didn't mention is that at this rate every man, woman, and child on planet earth will be on drugs by Christmas – expect some wild New Year's celebrations!
South America, Africa, Australia, South East Asia and the Caribbean have all seen serious drug problems emerging. In Europe, although the rapid rise of cocaine use has slowed down, an estimated 5.3 per cent of the population used cannabis in the past year and use of heroin and crack is still increasing in many regions.
This is proof positive that prohibition creates a black market, floods the streets with drugs, and churns out crime as fast as you can say ‘would you please hand me my crack pipe, it's under that nappy bag?' Current anti-drug policies have failed miserably in every way. Demand, supply, addiction, and abuse are rampant globally. Murder, theft, and money laundering are the norm all over the world.
The report says that demand has increased in three quarters of the 150 countries surveyed. Consumption levels in some states are surprisingly high — Israel uses 100 tons of pot, 20 tons of hashish, 20 million tabs of ecstasy, four tons of heroin, three tons of cocaine, and hundreds of thousands of LSD blotters annually. Wow, they are really ‘Stoned Immaculate' over there!
So the stark reality is that people are going to use drugs regardless of the penalties and consequences involved. So it would be better for society to attempt to educate in order to reduce the harm caused by all those drugs. After all, is all the fuss about drug use itself, or is it about the harm caused by it? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Israel. It's party time!
Source: Eat the State.org
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DruggedSociety: blaired vision
The ‘Talk to Frank' Website - Frankly, a Load of Bull Shite
On drugs and drug addiction, the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology has the following to say:
“These terms generally refer to illegal drugs...Research shows that patterns of use, behaviour and subjective experience will be influenced by particular properties of drugs but also by social factors such as culture and social expectations. Most commonly used is cannabis, but the greatest social concern is heroin and more recently crack/cocaine, LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy.”
This perception of addiction is unhelpful; it suggests a habit with serious repercussions for the individual and society. Not all drug users develop dependency, neither do these consequences always happen. Too often the media portrays drug users as evil criminals, when often the reason that people use drugs is to block out the oppression they experience from living in a capitalist society.
The recent New Labour ‘Talk to Frank' campaign is a case in point. Established to ‘advise' young people and parents on drug misuse, it includes a website with A to Z information on drugs. It emphasizes prison sentences for possession; the side effects, the nicknames, the ways to take them. But there's no info on using drugs safely or on rehabilitation. It all suggests that lives will be ruined by experimenting with drugs. The ‘Talk to Frank' TV and radio adverts moralise to young people and imply that phoning Frank will solve their troubles. Obviously Frank is some good fairy who will cure the poverty the third generation unemployed live with, along with the despair that comes with it!
In the run up to reclassifying cannabis, Drugs Minister, Caroline Flint, was at pains to stress that ‘cannabis remains illegal and that under 18s will still be arrested for possession'. The accompanying ‘Talk to Frank' radio adverts focused on prison sentences, reduced employment prospects and inability to travel abroad. Emphasising to young people that something is illegal makes it more attractive and enjoyable to experiment with. The government is concentrating on moral panic rather than really useful knowledge.
According to the UK Cannabis Internet Activists (UKCIA), Frank's information about drugs is dangerous and misleading. For example, Frank advises that ‘cannabis is not something that dealers mix anything with...' but, as UKCIA has been warning, so-called “soap bar” is badly contaminated with all sorts. Of course, if Frank were honest, he'd warn that because cannabis is illegal, there are no controls on the supply. On occasion dealers rip you off and offer other drugs, but this is caused by the law, not by cannabis. Frank has this to say on alcohol: ‘Because it's legal and sold only in licensed premises, most alcohol is unadulterated'. Which is true, so why not warn of the dangers of the unlicensed, unregulated cannabis market caused by the fact that cannabis isn't legal?'
A more disturbing piece of info from Frank suggests that ‘frequent use of cannabis can cut a man's sperm count and suppress ovulation in women'. But of course cannabis users have no problems in breeding! This prompted one visitor to the site to ask ‘How long does the contraceptive effect of cannabis last and how many joints will we have to smoke to get the best contraceptive effect?' I have visions of millions of unwanted pregnancies and another government website moralising about young people's sexual behaviour.
A group of Manchester University Community and Youth Work students, researching the effectiveness of ‘Talk to Frank', showed that the broader perception appeared to be very limited, with hardly any uptake by youth workers. Youth workers' views on Frank show they thought it had a very limited effect as young people don't use the website or helpline at all. Young people don't seem to be interested; they remember some of the ads but not the posters. Some workers thought it was a waste of money, but found the adverts funny.
The Frank campaign has made little impact on young people. It sees drugs as an issue for young people only, rather than discussing them in a wider social context. It concentrates on problematic substance use and ignores non-problematic use. It also ignores such issues as identity and growing up; poverty, exclusion and lack of opportunity - in short, the oppression caused by living in a capitalist society.
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DruggedSociety: blaired vision
Just in Case you're a Drug Dealer
(the constable might need to smash your head against the wall)
Years ago reality TV cop shows from the US, featuring some bizarre action man type commenting on grainy footage of car chases, were stuck in late night slots.
Later, the odd local show appeared with British bobbies upholding good old British law 'n' order. They revolved around young working class people out on the town, getting a bit leery and a bit lippy, and occasionally threatening to knock seven bells out of each other. The cops were portrayed as hard working compassionate types saving people from being beaten up – usually done by piling in and shouting a lot.
Now, having lived near pubs, spent quite a lot of time in them and been on the wrong end of a pissed up idiot or two, I know drunken louts aren't new. What is new, are pub chains packing drunk kids in, getting ‘em extra juiced up and shoving ‘em on to the street the minute the bar shuts. What better way to create trouble.
And it makes ideal telly – lots of ‘incidents' for heroic TV crews riding round in armoured cop vehicles; lots of equally armoured cops; and lots of scary youngsters, the worse for wear, with little clothing, let alone armour. What's more, it's cheap. All it needs is a camera, sound person, someone to kick off, and a bod to pixilate faces. No big travel budgets. The only major expense is over time – oh, and an editor to stretch the whole thing out to half an hour.
the usual plot
More recently there's been a move to prime time. The other night BBC1 had a show about police operations in Norwich against drug dealers and drug users who commit crime. Just the usual plot – a nasty, scary, brutish world teeming with ne'er-do-wells; the cops know who the ne'er-do-wells are and they'll be hunted down and banged up; in saving us from the ne'er-do-wells, the jolly nice cops have to use a few unpleasant means. In Norwich they'd decided to reduce crime by targeting known drug users and thieves one by one. So a dozen coppers tore around Norwich in cars and helicopters for days looking for some bloke who was asleep in a tent behind some trees. They followed another bloke around before superior amounts of plod piled in to stop the ‘criminal' – not ‘suspect' – from ‘swallowing the evidence'.
It's not as though such shows put police activity in context or show its full extent. It's not as though the people targeted are given any depth or background. It's not as though alternative approaches to problems of drunkenness or drug addiction are addressed. Being TV, the producers want exciting images, cops running about Sweeney-style, hooligans terrorising town centres, druggies robbing our cars and dealers seeping poison into our pleasant homes.
bored kids
In Norwich the lads harassed by repeated stop and search were ‘cocky drug dealers' – not bored kids on street corners. In the city centres the people being piled into, shouted at, pushed about and randomly thrown in the van were ‘violent drunkards' – not strikers or demonstrators. The people being tracked, targeted and pounced on were ‘one man crime waves' – not some poor sod the local bill had decided was a menace to society.
These shows are police propaganda putting the sugar on the pill of aggressive and authoritarian policing by portraying it as a reasoned response to carefully selected and edited bogeymen.
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DruggedSociety: selling capitalism
Consumer Culture
While Tony Blair pops into hospital for a routine heart operation to cure his palpitations - undoubtedly caused by the pressures of juggling a wife, children and a full time job, certainly not by the fact he is responsible for thousands of deaths - my teenage children inform me they know what palpitations are since they suffer them regularly. Classic symptoms of stress at fifteen! Some will nod sympathetically and point to the pressures of school and exams, which no doubt play a detrimental role in the increasingly stressed lives of young people, but there are other issues to think about.
Writers like Klein (‘No Logo') and Quart (‘Branded') highlight how we are bombarded by brands on a daily basis. The global media has a homogenising effect on the world's cultures, creating a culture of consumerism. This has led to the rise of global brands like Nike and McDonalds, who no longer promote a product, but a way of life.
Advertisers use celebrities such as David Beckham and Britney Spears to endorse brands to inspire an image of wealth, beauty, success, intelligence and sophistication. Buying them means buying a piece of that image. It is also part of the message that whatever you have will never be good enough - you can always have more. Magazines and television bombard us with the luxury lifestyles of the very rich, creating an artificial and subjective sense of insufficiency, to ensure we keep on consuming.
And it's not just teenagers who are targeted. Studies now show that more four to five year olds recognise the McDonalds logo than recognise their own name.
The power of advertising is phenomenal. Whilst advertisers and manufacturers argue that they merely supply the goods we demand, the effect is not positive. Images of skinny models which adorn teenage magazines are linked to the rise in anorexia. This goes alongside rising childhood obesity. So, in an effort to maintain a healthy diet, parents often find themselves battling children influenced by the daily barrage of junk food adverts.
The result - young people judge themselves, and each other, not on their actions but on their clothes. This is a problem when taken together with poverty and unemployment. The poor live in the same world that has been manufactured for the benefit of those with money and power. The consumer culture is all around us - on television, at cinemas, in magazines, on the internet and increasingly within schools. Many people do not recognise the extent to which advertising has tied them in to a culture which encourages feelings of doubt, insecurity and inadequacy - feelings which are especially strong among teenagers.
This is a concern. Wearing brands is so normal now that, even when faced with evidence of the abuses which take place to supply them, many feel nothing can be done. The rise of the global brand has left people in many parts of the world living and working in terrible conditions so we can convince ourselves, and society around us, that we are part of the consumer culture.
Young people use branded goods to label themselves; to give the outside world what they believe to be the right image. The construction of an identity based upon your work is no longer an option when jobs for life are no longer a reality. Therefore people build their identities on what they eat, drink and wear, constantly striving to be seen with the ‘right names' and in the ‘coolest' places.
The power of the global brand, aided by the media's global reach, has led to the rise of the global teenager. The global teenager conforms to the latest fashion trend, is told by global celebrities what to drink and what to wear, and is made increasingly insecure by the portrayal of the perfect, ever-youthful body image, to which many can never aspire.
Fear of crime and isolation, worries about education and unemployment all mean that teenagers, far from being free-minded individuals making rational personal choices in a global marketplace, are instead controlled and brand-orientated, with Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nike, and others, creating a homogenous culture of insecurity and doubt.
And they worry about them having the odd spliff!
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action & comment
Workplace Bullying
The level of workplace bullying is now truly staggering. Research by Manchester University found that 50% of people had witnessed bullying at work; one in six had been bullied in the last six months; and one in four had been bullied in the last five years.
Such a high level has severe implications for workers health. A study, entitled Workplace Bullying in Britain, found that each year 18 million working days are lost due to sickness caused by bullying. This level of bullying puts paid to the partnership myth peddled by employers and unions that the British workplace has been transformed into happy teams of workers who cannot wait to get to work to do their bit for the company and add to their personal development. The reality is that Britains increasingly deregulated workplaces are full of bullying managers using fear, intimidation and guilt as tools to force workers to work longer and harder for less. The result is a growth in stress-related health problems like depression, severe fatigue and immune system suppression.
intimidation
The reason for the rise in workplace bullying is not hard to find. Under capitalism control of the workforce has always rested on management intimidation. It is in their ability to fire workers who refuse to follow orders that managers power ultimately rests. And historically it has been the ability of workers to organise, using their collective economic strength, to challenge managements use of intimidation to ensure ever-greater productivity and profit. Unfortunately the last twenty years have seen the virtual collapse of workplace organisation and, faced with less workplace resistance, capitalism demands ever greater flexibility resulting in ever greater insecurity. The result is a sense of powerlessness which makes it hard for workers, collectively and individually, to challenge the attitudes of even the most obnoxious of managers.
This situation is virtually the norm across Britain a workplace culture in which the sack is a constant threat creating a climate of fear in which management bullying and intimidation thrives. The message is driven home on a daily basis. As workers have no rights, their only long-term future lies in putting the employers interests first. Those who do not conform to this free market mantra those who have the nerve to go sick, or refuse to work long hours, or even take their holidays become branded as not being team players. They find themselves marginalised, bullied and punished, and ultimately driven out or sacked. The message is clear conform or face the consequences.
In the US and Japan where this free market inspired culture of conformity is most successful, people now work longer than at any time in the last 100 years. On average they only take 10 days holiday each year. In the US prayer reading has been introduced to maintain the American way of life in the workplace. Hence the workplace has become a flag waving environment where to question management or to refuse to conform are seen not only as undermining the companys future prosperity, but also as unpatriotic, un-American acts. It is hardly surprising that in such a poisoned atmosphere bullying is on the increase, not just by management, but sadly by other workers too.
The only sure way to challenge bullying is for workers to challenge management power by creating a workplace culture based on their own needs as workers. Workplace bullying in all its cruelty will ultimately only disappear in a democratically controlled workplace where decisions are taken collectively, banishing for good the fear and insecurity on which bullying thrives.
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On the edge
Centra Strikes
A 24 hour strike on May 9-10th by RMT members at Centra Buses in Croydon has forced the company into talks just 2 days before a second planned stoppage for May 20-21st. This is despite Centra's attempts to break the strike by threatening dismissal for those taking action, and by breaking health and safety laws by requiring unqualified agency drivers to be available for up to 24 hours. Workers are claiming a basic £500 weekly wage, equal contracts with equal pay for all employees, no zero-hours contracts, adequate annual leave, sick-pay from day one of employment, full rostered earnings for victims of assaults at work, fair allocation of overtime and an end to victimisation for trade union membership.
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On the edge
Migrant Workers
A damning report, ‘Forced Labour and Migration to the UK', was delayed until after the general election. Compiled at Oxford and Sussex Universities, it details how employers coerce migrants to work for low wages in appalling conditions; how they subject them to intimidation, to physical and sexual violence, to blackmail and debt bondage; how they report to the immigration authorities anyone who complains about their treatment. There are also examples of the state, as an employer, paying migrants below the national minimum wage.
While the research is wide ranging, it focuses on farming, cleaning, building work and residential care. It found migrants being prevented from seeking help; being forced to take loans from loan sharks; and being forced to work very long hours in dangerous conditions. One of the more disturbing findings is that the NHS is involved in this exploitation through the use of agencies, which demand huge deposits for accommodation. This report looks unlikely to see the light of day until it is substantially revised.
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On the edge
RSI
Although you might never have heard of it, International Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) Awareness Day came and went on the 28th of February. Meanwhile the fifth TUC survey of workplace safety reps showed that stress, RSI and back strain are the three top workplace hazards in Britain. What's more, these problems are getting worse - two years on, the incidence of stress is up 2% to 58%; RSI is up 3% to 40%; and back strain is up 4% to 35%. Employers are still failing to protect workers from illness and serious injury, all the while seeking to blame workers themselves. For further information on these conditions visit: http://www.worksmart.org.uk ; or the HSE site at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/msa/index.htm
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On the edge
Text for Victory
At Ozer's restaurant, Langham Place (near Oxford Circus), workers used to be sacked on the spot if customers were not fully satisfied with the level of service being provided. This was the situation before a successful texting campaign instigated by GMB rep, Serdar, which forced owner, Huseyin Ozer, to stop putting cards on tables urging customers to inform on the mainly Turkish staff. Now Ozer has victimised Serdar because he told a customer that the service charge went to the company, not the waiting staff. GMB branch secretary, Mick Duncan, has called for another texting campaign to get Serdar reinstated. To join up: text: ‘reinstate Serdar now!' to Huseyin Ozer on 07850 667777.
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action & comment
A Dangerous Development
It is proposed that 650 homes and a childrens nursery be built on the site of the Turner & Newall factory in the Spodden Valley, Rochdale, where asbestos was produced for over 100 years. Despite this, the developers report, submitted to Rochdale council, stated of particular note is the absence of any asbestos contamination.
This is somewhat surprising given that exposed asbestos waste can be found on the surface of the abandoned site, and this has been witnessed by the local MP and councillors. Furthermore, former workers witnessed, over a number of years, the dumping of thousands of tonnes of asbestos into an old coalmine located within the proposed development. This is confirmed by Turner & Newalls own records which show that by 1957, an average of 300 tonnes of dust were dumped on the site each year. Given the extent of contamination, it must have taken days for the developers to find a suitably uncontaminated scrap of land to test.
Should the Spodden Valley development go ahead theres no doubt that it will cost lives. Inhaling even small amounts of asbestos can cause mesothelioma and lung cancer. After years of denial the Health & Safety Executive has been forced to admit that there is no safe minimum exposure to asbestos. Nor is it just those living nearby that are at risk. Two million asbestos fibres can fit upon a pin head and once airborne they can travel for miles. Scientific reports estimate that living within 2km of a source of asbestos dust may increase the risk of cancer by up to ten times. Yet the developers plan to demolish 30,000 tonnes of asbestos factory, crush it into rubble on site, and use it for foundations releasing clouds of asbestos dust in the process. Unused rubble will be transported by road creating yet more contamination.
The risk the development poses to the local population was acknowledged by a Health & Safety commissioner and former Turner & Newall manager, who called the felling of tress and disturbance of soil on the site sheer madness, and suggested that with the potential amount of asbestos on the site, no development should be built. The fact that the government and council did not force Turner & Newall to clear the site of asbestos before selling it to property developers is an outrage. To allow development on land awash with asbestos waste is to further risk the lives of local people who, for generations, have had to live with the horror of asbestos production. It is time for asbestos deaths in the area to stop.
Local people have started the Save Spodden Valley Campaign to get the site cleared of asbestos before any development goes ahead. Following a recent meeting with local CWU reps the union has backed the campaign. The CWU has agreed that members with both postal and telecommunications jobs would be at risk, either when delivering mail or working to establish communication services.
Contact the campaign on 01706 644774 or at www.Spodden-Valley.co.uk
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action & comment
Labour Troubles Ahead
In the last election campaign the media cast opposition to Labour purely in terms of Iraq. The impression was that without the war Blair would have been returned with another massive majority.
That is not to say that opposition to the war has not been a factor in Labour's growing unpopularity. Nevertheless, with only one in five of the population actually voting for Labour, it is their economic polices and the continuing social dislocation they cause, which is the root cause of the loss of votes. This is especially true in Labour ‘heartlands' where much of the core vote either stayed at home or voted for the illusion of the Liberals as a radical alternative.
inequality
Labour strategists may comfort themselves that, barring another imperialist war, the anti-war vote will return to the fold. But this is unlikely to be the case with traditional voters stuck at the wrong end of growing inequality. Short of an economic about turn, Labour is going to be vulnerable in traditional working class areas which will continue to suffer the full effects of their free market policies.
But they're now so committed to the free market that they couldn't change even if they wanted. Besides a dwindling band of ‘old Labour' die hards hoping that a Brown leadership may signal a change in direction, the party is rife with bright young things who actually see Maggie Thatcher as a hero. Thatcherite economic policies are not only pushed by the government but also by Labour councils up and down the land. Take Manchester City Council, whose slogan not so long ago boasted of ‘defending jobs, defending services'. Right now they are privatising services so fast even Maggie would be dizzy. In addition, MCC has just done a deal with unions wiping out overtime pay and enhancements. For the lowest paid manual workers, who relied on shift and overtime payments, this means a gross weekly wage of £213 for a 35 hour week.
As Labour's efforts to deregulate the workforce continue, so too does the inequality eating away at Britain's social fabric. This will further alienate the core vote which may result in Labour finding itself slowly being replaced by the Liberals. Of course, voting Liberal Democrat will do little to help the working class – and not just because of the free market fanaticism that lies behind the nice words of cuddly Kennedy. The main problem for the working class, particularly those most affected by deregulation, is that they have no organisation to defend themselves. Historically workers have only made real gains when they have been able to organise themselves and take direct action. But the crushing of workplace militancy by the Tories was the prerequisite for capitalism to attack pay and conditions and usher in the growing poverty, brutality and inhumanity of society today.
confrontation
Our aim has to be the rebuilding of a workers' organisation in Britain. Nor can this be done by reforming the existing unions. Getting this or that left wing leader elected won't stop the decay in what now pass for trade unions. A new workers organisation has to be built both in the community and the workplace, an organisation centred on working class people directly controlling their own struggles and directly confronting the boss class. The key to this new movement is participation and, in terms of the workplace, the starting point is workers beginning to come together to discuss their common problems and how best to overcome them. From this, workplace organisation based on workplace meetings can be developed.
This kind of self-organisation is the only way to reverse the tide of defeats which has blighted so many lives over the last thirty years and to ultimately overcome a capitalist system that condemns much of the world's population to hunger and slavery. The only alternative to this is representative politics and giving control of our daily lives to the likes of Blair, Brown and Kennedy – in truth, no alternative at all.
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On the edge
Deserters
The number of soldiers ‘illegally absent' last year was 530, up from 205 in 2003. While many soldiers strongly disapprove of the government's stand on Iraq, a growing number are also not prepared to suffer the indignities and discipline of army life. Hardly a month goes by without some revelation about abuse and bullying of recruits while the shadow of the unresolved Deepcut murders looms large despite the government's outright refusal of a public inquiry.
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On the edge
Stress Kills
Working poorly structured shift patterns causes physical and mental health problems. This has been revealed by separate studies, at the University of Surrey and Cardiff University, on the physiological and psychological health of a group of 45 men working on offshore oil rigs. The workers on the more popular split rota of seven night shifts followed by seven day shifts ‘were at increased risk of heart disease and diabetes and stress related health problems. This pattern also makes workers more tired and inattentive, increasing the chance of accidents and mistakes.
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On the edge
Doesn't Add Up
It seems Gordon Brown's drive to reduce Whitehall cost does not include money spent on that modern parasitic phenomenon, the office consultant. Last year the government spent at least £1.9 billion on management consultants, up 46% on 2003. A spokesperson for the Treasury stated that the consultants were needed to ‘provide the expertise that civil servants cannot give' at a time when all departments are looking to make efficiency saving. Part of the efficiency saving includes the spending of £2 billion on consultants at a time when the government is planning to cut 100,000 civil servants jobs to make a saving of £3 billion.
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On the edge
The CCTV Don't Work
Most CCTV schemes fail to cut crime and do not make the public feel safer, according to a Home Office study. CCTV cameras, acclaimed by police, government and the companies flogging them as a major step in tackling crime and disorder, have been ‘disappointing' because many schemes are ‘ill-conceived'. Only in one case in thirteen could CCTV be shown to have reduced crime. The authors blame these failings on the way the technology is being used. Nevertheless they don't even go so far as to claim that overcoming such failings would cut crime – just that ‘effectiveness will suffer' in schemes lacking good management and staff. The Home Office spent £170 million on 684 local projects between 1998 and 2003.
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On the edge
£900,000 Fine no Deterrent to Shell
Shell has recently been fined a record £900,000 for a series of safety failings on its Brent Bravo platform which killed two workers in September 2003. Though the fine is almost treble the previous biggest in the North Sea, it will do little to alter Shell's appalling safety record. After all, it is equivalent to only a minute's worth of the oil giant's global revenue, which amounted to about £2.8 billion in the first quarter of this year. Though Shell released a statement taking full responsibility and regretting the ‘sad loss of two lives', what they did not mention were the warnings issued in March 2003 by the offshore union, Amicus, of poorly maintained equipment, one of the causes of the accident. The company responded by doing nothing. Just as appalling was the fact that a HSE report published three weeks before the deaths said there was no immediate problem. Which just Demonstrates yet again that the HSE is more interested in protecting company profits than ensuring the safety of workers.
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action & comment
Brown Nose Day
Anyone working for a saner world will, from time to time, be faced with the choice of caring for present suffering or working to remove the cause of the suffering. The choice is always painful. More so because we know that a preoccupation with the present inexhaustible supply of suffering is a means of social control. We all know people who have become so involved in caring for present suffering that they have no time - and eventually no optimism - for the radical changes which would remove the source of the problem.
Charity has the double social role of relieving poverty while easing the guilty conscience of the giver. It keeps the poor in a permanent state of dependence and, for the sake of a coin in a box, gives the rich the feeling that they have done something to relieve suffering. What charity doesn't do is attack the cause of poverty, starvation, famine and disease.
In recent years charity has moved away from the world of religion and bourgeois philanthropy into the world of the cult of the celeb, single-issue politics and ‘caring capitalism', it does some actual, if short term, good while presenting absolutely no threat whatsoever to the capitalist status quo. In fact it actively supports that status quo and thereby perpetuates the very cause of the suffering which it claims to want to alleviate.
It's not that there isn't enough food and medicines in the world – quite the reverse. Over-production is one of capitalism's major problems, due to insane notions like ‘just in time' production. The problem is that the poor don't have the money to buy these essential commodities – and capitalism isn't going to give them away. History has countless examples demonstrating that capitalists would rather destroy surplus food than give it away to hungry people.
What charities do is encourage the rich to buy these essentials on behalf of the poor. Thus capitalism gets to sell its previously unsaleable surplus production and charity donations are recycled back into the hands of capitalism – which caused the problem in the first place.
Charity re-appears not as individual acts of generosity existing outside capitalist values, but as an integral part of a balanced capitalist ideology. So we get the spectacle of ‘Lord Geldof Day' as the assembled celebs brown nose each other in an orgy of ‘look at me'. Not that Geldof isn't important in understanding how the meaning of Live Aid has been constructed – far from it. In a period where the very ethos of a planned, socialised and welfareist society is running down – or being run down – and the ‘individual-in-the-market' is the intended focus of all social organisation, a happy story where an individual can be seen to put the world to rights is of tremendous ideological value. Value, that is, to an interest group which depends on fostering Victorian charity values and free market fantasies.
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international news
Spain
It is always good to hear about the successes that our kind of unionism – anarcho-syndicalism – has around the world. We fight for unions that are under democratic control of the membership, with no permanent committees or delegates, that use direct action to solve disputes and that have a vision of the kind of society we would like to live in in the future.
With the International Workers' Association, the anarcho-syndicalist international established in 1922, expanding in many places of the world where we have not until recently had any affiliates, the future for revolutionary unionism looks bright. We realise, on the other hand, that our unions aren't as strong as they were in the early years of the twentieth century and not as strong as we would like them to be, but an International means that we can co-ordinate struggles better and win the battle against the bosses.
Recently, our sister organisation, the CNT (National Confederation of Labour) in Spain has been having lots of victories in the workplace and on the social front. Here are some brief extracts of recent successes and campaigns that the CNT has participated in.
In north Spain, in Burgos, the CNT and the Burgos Social Forum called a demonstration, which gathered together more than 1,000 protesters against accidents at work and to march against poor and unsafe working conditions. The immediate cause of the demo was the death of ten workers who were working on the construction of a cycle route in the city, and were employed by the Town Council. The reformist unions, for all their loud mouthing about accidents and the like, have done very little. While this march will do nothing to bring back the ten deceased workers, it is only by refusing to work in unsafe conditions, protest and direct action that can stop such things happening again.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, the CNT Construction Workers' Union held protests outside the Spanish Ministry of Labour. Workplace ‘accidents' are the responsibility of the bosses, cutting out rest periods, putting on crap contracts and ignoring current legislation. A spokesperson from the CNT stated that these accidents are “a direct result of casualisation” in the workplace. We agree. Most of the new ‘flexibility' of work practices benefits the bosses and not us and makes it easier for them to discipline us and get rid of us when they want. The CNT continues with its national campaign against casualisation as does the IWA across its member Sections.
The CNT, which does not stand for workplace elections and does not participate in workplace councils because they are undemocratic, has recently established several ‘Union Sections' in different workplaces. These Sections are controlled by the membership and all decisions taken in them are through the workers' assembly. Recently in the television company CATSA in Malaga such a Section has been established recently and, with other workplace unions, has called for a strike in order to implement basic agreements and to get them respected. Again, while the reformist unions do little so as not to prejudice their position of power in the workplace, the CNT is organising workers with an aim to taking control of their own struggles.
In the Town Council of Adra in southern Spain, better working conditions have been achieved in terms of wages and hours worked and in Cornellá, near Barcelona, a CNT member was given his job back after being sacked from FASKA company.
These may not be huge victories and some of what we have reported on is clearly ‘on-going' work. But a union which does not make compromises before management or the state, as far as it can, is what we need in Britain, where workplace ‘accidents', casualisation and generally poor conditions are fast becoming the norm. In the future, we will report on the progress of the IWA's anti-casualisation campaign and on what's been happening in this country too.
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international news
Croatia
Formation of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Confederation (ASK)
At the last Congress of the IWA in December 2004 in Granada, Spain, the Anarcho Syndicalist Front (ASF) of Croatia was present, having sent a delegate to observe the Congress' procedures and the activities of the International. As a result of that presence, the IWA accepted the ASF into the IWA as Friends of the IWA, a status given organisations which either wish to join as fully fledged members at a later date or which cannot, at present become full members because of their small size.
The ASF has now reorganised and changed its name to the Anarcho-Syndicalist Confedera-tion (ASK), representing a step towards achieving the goal of building a confederation of anarchist workplace syndicates and libertarian neighbourhood assemblies.
The ASK has increased its propaganda activities particularly in local communities where it exists, and has recently grown in response to increased interest in its activities. The ASK also publishes its paper Antibarbarus every month or two. In addition, with the help of the IWA, they intend to translate and publish general anarcho-syndicalist literature, something which does not exist in the region. We are told that the only place where anarcho-syndicalist ideas were present was, somewhat paradoxically, in the analysis made of them by some Yugoslavian Marxist papers.
The ASK intends to ask for affiliation to the IWA at the next IWA Congress, an event scheduled for Manchester in 2006. In the meantime, they have close contacts with the Slovenian Union of Self-organised Workers and the Serbian Anaracho Syndicalist Initiative, both of which have close ties with the IWA.
We hope that the consolidation of anarcho-syndicalist organisations in the former Yugoslavia marks a starting point for the creation of independent workers' organisations and for the strengthening of our International, the IWA. What follows is a brief text by the ASK which describes their organisation.
‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Confederation (ASK) is a confederation of anarcho-syndicates and neighbourhood assemblies (community syndicates) inside the territory of Croatia. All involved in the work of this confederation are striving to build a non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian movement of working-class solidarity, dedicated to the building of a society based on the principles of solidarity, collective mutual aid, equality and true liberation of every individual.
‘ASK strives to organise workers on two basic levels; inside their workplaces (which is a form of an economic organisation) as well as inside their community (which is a form of a political organisation). United in this way, workers form one economic-political formation, ie., they form organisations which are embryos of direct-democratic institutions of the future society: the Commune. As a syndicalist organisation, ASK has two tasks: the immediate protection of workers' rights, and the fight for improvement and better conditions of living for workers within the existing society.. This aim is achieved through reforms, which are only a reflection of our struggle to the final goal: the radical transformation of society, through Social Revolution, which will be based on the principles of Libertarian Communism, where people will cooperate on the principle ‘'From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs''.'
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international news
Colombia
Young anarchist killed by police in Bogotá
A 15 year old, Nicolás David Neira Alvares, was killed while marching in the anarchist block on the May Day demonstration in Bogata. Many young people had decided to come together to protest against capitalism and they joined the huge demonstration which included union workers, farmers, students, unemployed people and activists. They marched in a non-violent manner on one of the main streets of Bogotá.
The demonstration not only remembered those who were killed by the State in Chicago, but also denounced the current unstable economical and social conditions of Colombia, demanded a halt to the Free Trade Treatise and made public the atrocities that are being committed by the current quasi-fascist government.
Trouble occurred when the ESMAD (police) started to use tear gas without any reason, and after one explosion, began hitting protesters with wooden sticks and firing rubber bullets. It was during this that many people were severely injured, including Nicolás who was beaten on the head by the police until he lost consciousness. Around eight policemen surrounded Nicolás covering themselves with masks to prevent recognition.
After some time, Nicolás was finally taken by some comrades to a hospital. There he waited for some hours until he was taken to the Salud Coop Hospital where he remained in critical conditions until he died on Saturday 7th May.
During this week, many people denounced the situation, writing articles in the alternative media, helping the family, organising and protesting in the streets. Many of these people are in turn being harassed by the police. The media covered the whole affair by trying to hide the real facts. The ESMAD claim that they never beat anyone.
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international news
South Africa
When Nigeria tried to force through tough new labour measures in the face of fierce resistance by workers, over 50 African countries condemned the moves - these countries included South Africa.
Now the business-friendly ANC government has unveiled similar plans to further exempt 'small and medium enterprises' from 'central bargaining and other labour arrangements'. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has warned of major conflict if the government persists with forcing ever more workers into the informal economy. Mbeki, the ANC President, hopes the changes will be in place by the end of this year. We at Direct Action hope that COSATU's warnings amount to more concrete opposition.
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international news
Japan
Union members in Japan have placed the blame for a massive train crash that claimed 106 lives squarely on the railway company, saying under pressure workers face humiliating penalties for slight delays.
‘The accident is a result of JR West's corporate stance of prioritising operations and high-pressure management that uses terror to force employees to follow orders,' said Osamu Yomono, vice-president of the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions. Japanese trains are renowned for their punctuality, with JR West and other operators running timetables down to every 15 seconds.
But it takes its toll in terms of stress on drivers, with punishment including ‘nikkin kyoiku' - dayshift education. That means re-training sessions for those responsible for delays or overrunning stops. The sessions often include making drivers write reports all day long on topics such as how to improve themselves or chores such as weeding, which the union says is humiliating. A 44-year-old train driver of JR West hanged himself in September 2001 after he spent three days in retraining for being 50 seconds late when departing from a station. There have been allegations that the 23-year-old crash driver Ryujiro Takami, who had only 11 months' experience and who had gone through re-education, was speeding after falling 1 minute late due to overrunning a station.
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international news
Bangladesh
Compensation demanded for Spectrum victims
Garment workers in Bangladesh staged a demonstration demanding the payment of compensation to injured workers and the families of those who were killed after the collapse of the nine-storey Spectrum factory. The disaster was due to faulty construction and left at least 93 workers killed, 36 missing, and over 200 others injured.
Their demands also included the immediate payment of arrears on wages and overtime to the 6,000 workers of Spectrum Garments and Shahriar Garments, as well as job security and the settlement disputes at both factories, owned by the same management.
Police intercepted and blocked the parade of workers, mostly women, as they were heading towards the Labour Ministry to lay siege around it to press home their demands. However, they did allow a four member delegation of the organisers of the demonstration to enter the ministry to submit a three point memorandum to the office of the Labour Secretary.
Other workers staged a demonstration on the spot and shouted slogans against the owners of the factories.
Organised under the joint auspices of the National garments Workers Federation (NGWF) and Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), the demonstrating workers, earlier held a brief rally at Muktangaon in the capital with NGWF general Secretary Amirul Haque Amin in the chair.
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globalfocus: Oil, the dollar & resistance
Against Capitalist Exploitation - Organise and Fight!
Everywhere, we see capitalist rivalry and sustained attacks on workers' rights and conditions. Meanwhile, capitalism continues to exploit us, not only economically, socially and culturally; it also mobilises us for its own economic and military madness, exploiting our fear of job losses, fear of other races, fear of terrorism and so on.
The world economy is very critical and may face a dollar collapse. The US thought the Iraq war would pay for itself in terms of Iraqi oil pouring into the world market; increased oil production lowering prices; and the main OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran being destabilised due to sharp declines in oil revenues. Today we have the opposite - the enormous costs of the war in Iraq (and Afghanistan), high oil prices and falling profits have combined to aggravate the huge US deficit.
Although oil is traded in dollars, oil-exporting countries won't lose any profit. They merely respond to the falling dollar by raising oil prices. And increasingly they are considering the strong euro as an alternative for oil transactions. In addition, developing countries with large dollar reserves are also diversifying from to the euro to lessen the threat of big losses due to the dollar's decline.
‘peak oil'
The situation is dramatically worsened, according to the IMF, by the threat of ‘a permanent oil shock' caused by a combination of surging demand from emerging countries and limited new supplies from outside the OPEC countries. The passage of so-called ‘peak oil' - the point when oil extraction hits its maximum and begins to decline (predicted by some to be 2010, but may be sooner) - will fuel rivalry between capitalist powers, in turn increasing the exploitation of workers.
Such rivalry can be seen in every continent. In the light of ‘peak oil' the capitalist powers are acting as oil-junkies, desperately seeking to ensure their present and future energy supplies. And whoever controls energy resources and the supply lines, also controls their rivals because oil and gas are the lifeblood of capitalism.
The changes in Georgia and Ukraine are major victories for the USA. Georgia is a transit country for the new Baku (Azerbaijan) to Ceyhan (Turkey) oil pipeline. This is routed through Georgia and Kurdish areas of Turkey, but avoids Russia and Iran. Ukraine, the main transit country to the EU for Russian oil, will be used by the US, just like the new EU and NATO members, to undermine Russian and German/French interests.
The true nightmare of the US and other imperialist powers is that, as their energy needs rise, they will become dependent on hostile and/or ‘unstable' countries. The US strategy of controlling the ‘Eurasian corridor' - from Eastern Europe to Central and Eastern Asia - has become a very important aspect of its wider activity within the so-called ‘Arc of Instability'. The ‘Arc' stretches from Latin America (with US-inspired militarisation like Plan Colombia) to Africa (where Washington is rapidly increasing its presence) through the Middle East (occupation of Iraq and threats against Syria and Iran) to Central Asia (war and occupation in Afghanistan) and on to Eastern Asia (threats against North Korea and attempts to counter the rise of China).
the middle east
Special attention must be drawn to the Persian Gulf where America is preparing air-strikes on military targets and suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons installations in Iran, in a plan to provoke a regime change. According to US journalist, Seymour Hersh, the Bush administration has been using the Pentagon, not the CIA, for secret missions inside Iran to avoid having to report to Congress.
Such actions, as with Iraq, have a very important and hidden reason. Saddam's regime became a definite target when Iraq converted its oil transactions from dollars to euros. Iran has, at least since 2003, been considering launching an oil stock exchange that would trade in euros. This plan is, according to Alexander Gas & Oil, scheduled for August 2005. If set into practice, it will strongly undermine both the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It will send shock waves around the financial world because trading in petrodollars is one of the foundations of US economic domination. Given the huge US deficit and the weak dollar, a successful Iranian Stock Exchange would be a major threat and the US will use all means necessary to prevent it.
And we should not be amazed to learn that the Israel/Palestine issue is also tied in with the control of oil supplies. In March 2005 a number of foreign consortia, consisting mostly of US investors, contacted Israeli government agencies and the government-owned company, Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures, with proposals to renew the oil pipeline from Haifa to Iraq through Jordan. This plan could put into practice the main strategic interests of America and Israel - solving the Israeli energy crisis, and securing oil transportation to Europe and the USA. But it first requires the ‘hostile' regime in Syria to be diminished or eliminated, and the resistance in Iraq, especially the sabotage of gas and oil pipelines, to be crushed.
attacks on iran
This strategic project of a pipeline to the Mediterranean is even more important in the light of possible attacks on Iran. First, the USA and EU want to be less dependent on oil shipments from the Persian Gulf through the Iranian controlled Strait of Hormuz. Second, Iran has threatened to block the Strait in the event of an attack thereby pushing oil prices to an all time high.
At times like these it is important to uncover the motives of the capitalist powers. For instance, the EU is not a soft, humanitarian bloc that counters the USA; or take the US forces involved in the aid effort for tsunami victims - they were also clearly showing off US strength in the region. The Strait of Malacca, east of Sumatra, for instance, is a critical sea lane between the Persian Gulf and the likes of Korea, Japan and China.
China, with its rapidly expanding energy needs, is increasingly considered to be a major strategic enemy as it challenges US influence in Asia; maintains close ties with Iran; and counters the US in Africa and Latin America. Brazil and Venezuela, for instance, have agreed to increase oil exports to China, while China has been expanding its trade, including arms, throughout the continent.
Disagreements between the USA and the EU are clear to be seen over policies towards Iran and China. On Iran, the EU has a more ‘moderate' policy than the US; on China, it is challenging the US by talking about lifting the weapons embargo. America fears an EU alliance with energy-rich Russia, as well as its growing relations with Latin America, India and China.
Washington's tactic of dividing the EU into ‘Old Europe' and ‘New Europe' was openly exposed before and during the initial phase of the occupation of Iraq. What Iraq and Ukraine have shown is how the US seeks to control all energy sources and supply lines, and to block potential challengers to its hegemony. The expanding EU is a superpower in terms of trade, but it is militarily weak. However, efforts to speed up military and economic integration will continue despite recent setbacks over the proposed EU constitution.
casualisation
In Europe, as elsewhere, the rule for capitalism is ‘expand or die'. The offensive we see worldwide against public services is designed to open more markets for private corporations. Many governments are watching Britain as Blair attempts to turn a fifth of public services over to the private or ‘voluntary' sector by 2007.
Another major global trend is casualisation. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) uses as many as 22 indicators to compare levels of employment protection in different countries. This is very helpful to capitalists wanting to make extra profit, especially in a global economy where it's easier and easier to move production. So attacks from the likes of new Labour focus on different indicators, from difficulty of dismissal to the forms of temporary work that employers can impose on workers.
One form is that provided by temporary work agencies, which are often multinational corporations making profits from slave labour. Besides dividing the work force and underming wages and working conditions, agencies also have an international and political impact in terms of the so-called ‘war against terrorism'. Israel, for example, uses agency labour from the Philippines, Eastern Europe and China instead of Palestinians for ‘security reasons'.
surrender or fight
As global capitalism throws its mask off, bosses and states alike never cease telling us to accept ‘the logic of the market'. Bureaucratic reformist unions, with their dependence on state aid and subsidies from the very bosses who attack us, must surrender or fight. If they mobilise at all they are doomed to fail, since they are not built to counter attack on broad fronts, or to rely on their own strength. Instead, they've become service institutions and burdens upon the backs of workers, not tools for self-activity and emancipation.
The only true ‘job-security' we have as workers is to rely on ourselves, on solidarity and on the actions we can take together. In contrast to reformist unions, the IWA rejects integration into the capitalist system. We don't have paid union officials; we don't take subsidies from the enemy; we don't collaborate with the capitalist system, for example, by participating in state sponsored ‘union elections'.
Capitalism attacks us in many ways, so the IWA fights on the economic, social, cultural and anti-militarist fronts. The anarcho- syndicalist coherence of the International is essential as these struggles are also part of the fight to replace capitalism and the state with the free federation of workers free associations - that is, libertarian communism.
article adapted from the IWA May Day statement - full text at www.iwa-ait.org
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DruggedSociety: drugs, the state & capitalism
State Sponsored Druggery
drugs, capitalism and the working class
Mention drugs and most people think of illegal drugs like heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. But loads of other compounds are used daily by millions and are rarely thought of as drugs. Alcohol is a sedative, similar to barbiturates, but we don't call it a drug because drinking's a national pastime. Medicines are seen as beneficial because the medical profession, drug companies and governments say so. And a lot of them are, but a lot are just as dangerous and damaging to our health and well-being as some of the illegal ones. If drugs are chemical agents, then our food's so full of shite, and people are eating so much of it, that life expectancy is going to fall for the first time in years.
Then there's addiction – we all know heroin and fags are addictive, but so are some medicines like sleeping pills, painkillers and anti-depressants. Boozing and gambling and ever more abstract things seem to be habit-forming, like TV, work, shopping and talking shite on mobile phones. What's more if drugs are chemical agents, as it says in the dictionary, then the chemicals stuffed in our food and water will make us all drug addicts. Either that or we'll all be dead and it just so happens that life expectancy is going to fall for the first time in years.
So why are some drugs legal and some not? Why are some seen as so dangerous that people are fined or imprisoned for using them? And why are some that are just as dangerous seen as beneficial?
Humans have used drugs in one form or another for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found that neolithic people grew plants like cannabis, mandrake, henbane and belladonna. Opium was grown 6,000 years ago in Turkey, Afghanistan, Spain and southern France. People have brewed beer and wine in Europe for thousands of years and the use of various magic mushrooms has been widespread in every continent. One archaeologist has reckoned that the Celtic tribes who followed Boudicca and burned London down were probably off their heads on mushrooms.
social control
There seem to be as many reasons for taking drugs as there are drugs but you can group them into a few areas – medicinal, ritual or religious, enjoyment and the pursuit of oblivion. A bit general maybe, but it covers most drug use. Add to this a more modern use – social control.
So, let's have a closer look at two ‘illegal' drugs - cocaine, drug of choice of the rich and famous, and heroin, associated with poverty and the underclass.
Cocaine is derived from the coca plant, native to Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. It was widespread as a stimulant, a cure for snow blindness, toothache and loads of everyday aches and pains. The Incas chewed their way through tons of it. When the Spanish Conquistadores discovered silver in what's now Bolivia they enslaved the local population and encouraged them to chew coca so they would work harder and longer. They paid them in coca; started coca plantations to meet the demand; and paid the plantation workers with coca too.
At this point we get the first example of a recurring theme surrounding drugs – a moral panic. In 1552 the Catholic Church had a conference in Lima to decide what to do about the new empire in South America. One topic was the use of coca. Some said it was the Devil's work and wanted it banned. The king of Spain sympathised but wasn't about to lower the productivity of his slaves, so nothing happened. At the second Lima conference, fifteen years later, they had another go but by the third conference the king had offered the church 10% of the profit from the mines. Needless to say, priests fell over themselves to say what fantastic stuff it was and how useful it was for the workers.
Nothing much happened to coca for the next 300 years until a German chemist, Friedrich Wohler, brought back a bale of it. He gave it to one of his students who developed a refining process that produced a few crystals he called ‘cocaine'. Then, in 1863, a chap called Angelo Moriani mixed it with wine. It became a big success and celebrity endorsements from Jules Verne, Thomas Edison, H G Wells and the US president, William McKinley, boosted sales. He marketed a range of products from coca throat lozenges to coca tea and it got into all sorts of medicines and pick-me-ups, including fizzy pop.
Then the medical profession got in on the act. Sigmund Freud thought it was a wonder drug for treating depression. A mate of his used it as a local anaesthetic. But Freud then made a drastic mistake, giving it to a friend who was a morphine addict. It seemed as if, after three weeks, he'd cured him. In reality he'd just replaced one habit with another, in the process inventing the speedball, a mix of cocaine and heroin or morphine. His mate died a slow nasty death, but the belief that cocaine could be used to treat morphine addicts persisted for years.
By the early 1900s cocaine use in America had exploded, mainly due to Henry Hurd Rusby who thought it would be better to produce cocaine on the spot rather than exporting the coca leaves. The price of cocaine dropped which was good for cokeheads, but got the killjoys chattering. In 1905 concerns about the health hazards of cocaine led to coca cola removing it from its drink and the next few years saw a full-blown moral panic. The reasons were as much to do with racism and fear of the working class getting out of control as with any concern about public health or welfare. The power addicts thought black men on coke would go round raping white women and tainting the colour. While wild-eyed working class riff-raff might become superhuman, killer rebels.
heroin
Like cocaine, heroin was chemically refined from a natural substance, opium, which had been a medicine and narcotic for thousands of years. Apparently, in the early 1500s, the Portuguese found out that smoking opium gave instantaneous effects and this became common. Later, opium was mixed with alcohol to produce laudanum. Just like cocaine, it started appearing in all sorts of remedies. Dovers powder was a lethal mix of opium, salt peter and white wine. Laudanum was regarded as a cure for all sorts including crying babies, while in 1805 a new compound, morphine, was discovered by isolating one of the chemical components in opium. Morphine was ten times stronger than opium.
By the 1830s opiate-use was widespread in Europe and America and there was an epidemic of opium addiction in China, with up to 15 million users. This came about due to the East India Company selling tons of it to local traders who smuggled it into China to avoid import restrictions. The Chinese government got pissed off and in 1839 confiscated 20,000 chests of opium from British warehouses in Canton. The British sent warships, shelled some cities and forced a treaty on the Chinese. They also nicked Hong Kong in the process. A few years later the French joined in the second opium war, and got another favourable treaty.
Opiate consumption got another boost in the American Civil War when thousands of soldiers were treated with morphine. European and American doctors also treated opium addicts with morphine. Then in 1874 a new drug was discovered – heroin, even more potent than morphine. It went into mass production at the end of the 19th century and was used for a variety of ailments, including morphine addiction. As the laws surrounding opium use were tightened, addicts switched to heroin, which was cheap and easily available. Some estimates put the number of heroin addicts in the US at 200,000 by the mid-1920s. This was too much for some and heroin was made illegal in 1924. It's at this point that heroin and cocaine diverge. Cocaine became linked to the rich and famous; heroin to the poor.
Although the Second World War disrupted smuggling routes, afterwards new routes were opened, especially via Cuba. These were initially controlled by the Mafia, then by Cuban drug gangs by the end of the 1950s. When Castro took over he chucked out the American gangsters and their Cuban partners who flitted to Florida. Using CIA money they set up cocaine production in Chile, Panama, Bolivia and Colombia. By the 1960s cocaine was becoming popular again amongst the middle classes while Colombia became an important centre of distribution.
civil rights
At the same time heroin use was boosted by the Vietnam War. Thousands of US soldiers came back addicted to opiates produced by local warlords to fund private armies. Along side this the civil rights movement in America took on a more revolutionary tone. Riots erupted in cities across the US as poor and politicised blacks took to the streets. It seems more than coincidental that cheap heroin flooded into the ghettoes on a scale far outweighing the needs of the servicemen returning as addicts. Stories that the CIA had a hand in this have never gone away. The result was the ruination of thousands of lives, an increase in violent crime, shattered communities and dissipation of the revolutionary movements. But the moral panic mongers had a field day, they could blame the whole problem on the ‘underclass' and keep the best ‘gear' for themselves.
In Britain there hadn't been much of a heroin problem. When laudanum and other opiates were made illegal the British working class turned back to alcohol as their drug of choice. The few heroin addicts were mostly doctors, sailors and jazz musicians. When drug use took off in the '60s heroin was viewed with fear, so youth culture was fuelled by cannabis, bluey's, bombers and other amphetamine sulphate pills, then later by LSD. Heroin use rose slowly through the early '70s but didn't really become a problem until the 1980s. In 1978, there were 2,402 registered addicts; by 1995, the figure had leapt to 37,164 and estimates put the number of heroin users at over 250,000. The Thatcher government was directly responsible. Working class communities became wastelands; working class culture was attacked and undermined; and alien values like self help, thrift and selfish individualism were promoted at every opportunity. While spivs and yuppies hoovered up tons of cocaine, working class kids were sniffing glue and get
ing turned on to cheap heroin, which seemed to get cheaper as youth unemployment rose and rose.
So what did our modern entrepreneurial society do with these kids, apart from create another moral panic about them? F*ck all – sent them to prison and got them addicted to synthetic heroin, methadone, which is even harder to get off than heroin. One reason why people take drugs is the pursuit of oblivion and this was, and still is, the prime reason behind heroin addiction. For many, heroin was and is an alternative to boredom, hopelessness, low self-esteem, poverty and exclusion from Maggie and Tony's brave new world. While damaged lives and communities become even more damaged. Junkies will do anything to maintain their supply:
Junk is the ideal product, the ultimate merchandise, no sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy. The dealer does not sell his product to the consumer. He sells the consumer to his product…you would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, because you would be in a state of total need, because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. (William Burroughs, Naked Lunch)
Up to 1970 the few opiate addicts were treated as if they had an illness and were prescribed opiates to manage their addiction. Tougher penalties against use and supply in the '60s and '70s didn't stop more people using drugs. The ridiculous ‘war on drugs' promoted by successive British and US governments has been a spectacular failure. Only the security services have benefited, getting to play cowboys in the Colombian jungle. There's more prisons, more screws, more bureaucrats, and more ex-cops paid massive salaries to be ‘drug czars'.
more drugs
The US government has done more to flood our streets with heroin and cocaine than all the Golden Triangle warlords and Colombian drug cartels together. US foreign policy has created the conditions that let drug production thrive. And our problems are nothing compared to addiction levels in producing countries. Since the US invaded Afghanistan opium production has increased dramatically. In 2003, the harvest provided three quarters of the world's heroin and 95% of Europe's – last year's crop topped even that. There are now 10 million people worldwide addicted to Afghan opiates. Washington has linked an aid package of 2.3 billion dollars to the destruction of opium crops. But with an acre of opium poppies earning $2,500 compared to only $120 for wheat, poor farmers become even poorer while the richest landlords pay bribes to prevent the destruction of their fields. Just as the war on terrorism produces more terrorists, the war on drugs produces more drugs and more addicts.
The role of heroin as a method of social control and its use to undermine the black power movement has been mentioned. Prescription drugs perform a similar function. We were told at the end of the 1950s that we'd ‘never had it so good'. There was an economic boom, more consumer goods were available to more people, but more people were being prescribed dangerous psychotropic drugs, which had appeared in the early '50s. By the 1960s diazepam (valium) was the world's most widely prescribed drug and by 1990 one in five American women used some kind of tranquiliser. Added to which, the pressure on women to conform to an unrealistic physical image meant that doctors prescribed millions of amphetamine based slimming tablets.
The popularity of tranquilisers, sedatives and sleeping pills raises an important question – if everything was so fantastic in our liberal democratic consumer society why were so many people prescribed addictive happy pills? We can ask the same question about the next generation of pills, anti-depressants. There's no doubt that since the Second World War our physical health has improved but our mental health has nosedived. Depression, stress and anxiety have reached epidemic proportions. So have allergies. Any kid with too much energy or who doesn't fit in at school is diagnosed as having ‘attention deficit disorder'. At best they get suspended, at worst shunted off to some quack psychologist to have their behaviour modified. These kids, especially in the US, are prescribed Ritalin, a drug with similar properties to cocaine. 4% of American children are taking some form of anti-depressant and, while we reached this level in Britain, more and more young people are treated for depression and anxiety with drugs.
The mental health charity, MIND, estimates 3 out of 10 people experience mental health problems every year. Most are treated with anti-depressants. However, the vast majority of these people are actually suffering from capitalism – poverty, environmental pollution and chemicals in our food, not to mention stress at work, at home and at school, are all products of capitalism. What's more, we live in a world where it's almost a crime to be miserable.
doctor dependence
In Limits to Medicine, Ivan Illich argues that ‘recent times had brought a medicalisation of life which involved the expropriation of health by the medical profession whose prime aim was power and aggrandisement'. He goes on to say that the medical profession creates disease rather than cures it. People might be living longer but they spend more time being ill and grow ever more doctor-dependent. Medical costs escalate and the main beneficiaries are not the sick, but the medical profession along with insurers, lawyers and pharmaceutical companies. Similarly, people like R D Laing and some radical psychiatrists have argued that it is psychiatry that has made people mentally ill.
The medical profession, the psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists and counsellors want to treat the depressed by turning them from chronically unhappy introverts into confident, energetic extroverts. In effect, this is changing people from what our culture finds least desirable into what it finds most desirable – well-balanced, competitive consumers.
It's likely that in the next few years more people will suffer depression and mental illness; there will be more alcoholics, more addicts to gambling, shopping and sitting in front of the TV. More kids will be given more drugs to modify their behaviour. Drug companies will make more powerful happy pills and billions more dollars in profit.
Drug use is a cultural phenomenon and binge drinking isn't something that's just started to happen. Alcohol consumption per head fell from 1900 through to 1960 when levels started to rise again but per capita consumption is still much lower than in 1900. What we're seeing is a good old-fashioned moral panic, the type usually used to justify a change in the law. Like at the end of the 19th century when opiates became less culturally acceptable to the ‘chatterers'. One reason for this was the middle class reformers like the first temperance movement and the utilitarians who wanted a drink and drug free workforce. Another reason was the rise of the medical profession and the idea that doctors, as specialists in health, should have total control over drugs like opiates. While alcohol was never in danger of being banned, due to the vested interests involved, opiates came under an international control system that was strengthened in the early 20th century under American influence. These controls have influenced states' domestic drug policies for the last 75 years while the pharmaceutical industry is seen as the only legitimate drug producer.
state control
As the medical profession became more powerful the idea that doctors know best took hold. People who feel stressed or bad with their nerves don't think twice if their doctor puts them on a course of prozac. The doctor isn't going to say ‘right, pack your job in and go fishing' or ‘here's a couple of ounces of skunk – go and have a good smoke'. They're in the business of prescribing expensive medicines to ensure a docile compliant workforce who consume state-controlled drugs.
What can be done for the thousands of addicts and the millions taking anti-depressants and tranquillisers? A couple of things spring to mind. We can stop the insane practice of giving addicts methadone and argue for the legalisation of all drugs, and specifically the provision of free heroin for addicts. Pure pharmaceutical heroin can be taken indefinitely without any negative effects. Before 1971 this was the norm and it would immediately remove the need to steal to get money for heroin.
As for anti-depressants and tranquilisers, that's more difficult because until there's an end to capitalism and the authority of a few over the many, we'll go on getting ill. All the while the war on drugs will go on too, giving the US government the excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries under the guise of drug control programmes and aid packages that pour money into military and security services. These policies confine millions of people around the world to a short and brutal life while the rich get their addictions treated at specialist clinics like the Priory and the Betty Ford clinic.
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Letters
Ask Auntie Ana
DA's very own agony aunt – guaranteed to help with all those tricky bouts of activist angst and anarchist anxiety
Dear Auntie Ana
I am very new to anarchism and I have just been to my first anarchist bookfair. I spent loads on books and pamphlets – but I really need a recommended reading list – can you help?
Earnest Very, Lancaster
Dear Earnest,
Bless! This takes me right back to the days when I thought I could be an Airfix anarchist (find the assembly plans and join the right dots etc.) My advice is very simple, dear. Stop reading the books, get out and meet some nice anarchists who are active in the workplace and local community and next time you stop by at the bookfair, just buy a T shirt (if you must).
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Letters
Dear Auntie Ana,
The other week I went to a meeting and met this bloke who seemed to know a lot of anarchist theory – I've bee | |
