160 Hanging out With those nice Anarchists

Reclaim the Future Festival

I stayed at a nice little Youth Hostel in the forest near London then went in to London to help with a festival called Reclaim the Future. ( a collaboative effort between alternative groups including Reclaim the Streets and Indymedia) It was the most alternative event Ihave attended ..they squatted a building whilst the police stood outside, talk of police surveillance special branch etc I had read about it and it seemed really interesting alternative workshops and lectures film shows and a party. A good place to meet alternative people for ideas. I was surprised to find it was the most radically alternative event I had been too. Instead of having it outside, these people had squatted a derelict nightclub ! They were all pretty much experienced with the anarchist and squatting scene and so they were able to handle the Police when they turned up shortly after the location was released on the internet. Apparently if the building is squatted as a home then the police can't come in. And as it is a private home then you are allowed to have a party and if these people give you donations for entry and beer this is perfectly legal. (though of course charging them would be completely illegal) All in all it was an interesting radical event. The music crowd and smoke was not really my scene though

Radical Dairy and Peacecamp

The anarchists run a Social Centre called the radical dairy and since it also in a squatted building people are need to stay there and keep the building occupied so I stayed there a couple of nights Mon- dairy Tue- Dairy reading a great book : The Anarchist Reader by George Woodcock It turns out that anarchism isn't to be dismissed too easily it's a complex idea just like communism or freemarket capitalism and you have to be pretty smart to understand the basics. as as PC Brian Paddick says anarchism is an attractive idea. It's central theme of getting rid of the bureaucracy and oppression of centralised state I can agree with to an extent. Yes people should be their own leaders, but some people are very bad at doing this and they drop litter and drop nuclear waste etc so I think we need authority to control them Also If you are completely against the state fine ...but I can't agree with living off state benefit ..surely in a anarchist society there would be no benefit ? The anarchists I met were all intelligent and pleasant people, but I can't help thinking of thebook by Tom Sharpe called Riotous assembly where two different groups of police try to infiltrate terrorists groups by pretending to be terrorists and it turns out there were no real terrorists at all just police undercover. I'm not sure about their direct actions either maybe the authorities manipulate them towards certain actions to keep them happy thinking that they have achived something when in reality they don't change anything

Peacecamp

Some of the people from the party organised a peace camp to protest about the possible Iraq war. I went down to find out more and to lend support. I slept there for a couple of nights and met some interesting people. Though the camp turned out to be a little badly organised so that it did not have the imputus to become the big event it was a bit of a sqib Then on Friday I went to a party of the beach of the Thames river in the middle of Londo ..calle Reclaim the Beach

Hustling to Cuba

Finally after a lot of hustling on the internet through cheapflights.co.uk, www'lastcallflights.co.uk I finally got a very cheap flight to Cuba £150 quid wow! with airtours off tomorrow ...I'll do some tourist stuff and look for interesting projects like teaching English if I don't find anything I'll fly on to Cancun (Mexico)and do something like WWOOF or English teaching

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