its coming some time, maybe?
For ten days from May 24th Hackney anarchos enjoyed a festival "celebrating subversion in East London".
It included a bookfair, a punks picnic, poetry, comedy, music, workshops and actions. Hundreds came to hear Ken Loach speaking about his films. A Reclaim the Streets action disrupted the morning rush hour traffic. There were different musical events every night. McDonalds was picketed. Class War won the football tournament (after nearly having a punch-up with the North London Buddhists). The workshops were interesting, varied and generally well attended. Our squat cafe was open and busy every night. Altogether it went really smoothly and was much appreciated by a lot of people. people came from France, Belgium, and even South London. the only intervention of Stoke Newington cops (who should have been more involved as they break the law more than any anarchos) was to trash two punk gigs, beat people up and nick them.
In many ways it could be interpreted as something of a barometer on the state of the anrcho scene in Hackney. All the known groups and individual organisers in the area had been contacted and invited to organise something. The resulting programme reflected the current range of interests and activities.
Few people were interested in organising actions apart from around environmental issues. Most wanted to put on cultural events which invariably cost money but were pretty good.
We recieved glowing coverage in the Hackney Gazette:
"(the organisers) are hoping the special week will highlight their positive work"
"CYCLISTS SHOW WAY. Pedal-pushers brought anarchy to Stoke Newington on Saturday....... one of the highlights of Hackney Anarchy Week."
It seems that anarchism has become a recognised and relatively respectable position.
But what has all this got to do with revolt, revolution, transforming our lives and our world? Not a lot I'm afraid. There's a lot of struggles going on in Hackney and elsewhere, and plenty to be angry about, to rebel against, and you don't have to be a fulltime activist to be involved. The problem is to get together those who are fighting and who want to fight, who want to find a way to rebuild the world, to find what we really have in common instead of hiding behind labels and scenes that are scared even to confront internal problems.