Been converting a non-punk friend to straightedge, hardcore etc.  He's taken a liking to Good Clean Fun and I realised tonight it was time to tell him about Earth Crisis. First I explained their style and impact; and then I showed him the lyrics of Firestorm. He was increasingly horrified by the actual fascist phrases, tropes, imagery etc. I'm so used to thinking of them as a joke so wasn't quite prepared for an emphatic reaction. Then I put on the song -  'oh it's a fascist march too!'. 

Then appropriately we watched the film Judgement at Nuremberg. A comedy campaign has begun to raise money to pay for the kidnapping of Tony Blair so he can be brought to justice at The Hague. We wondered how old Blair will be when he is finally held to account for war crimes. 

Back in October I had a terrific vegan tourism holiday right here in the South of England and thought I ought to write it up so other folks can benefit. I went into deepest East Sussex, which most of us know only for the delights of Brighton but that be-right-on, laid back vibe extends into other bits of the county and I was pretty impressed to find that even very rural areas were perfectly vegan-friendly. 

I stayed in a yurt on a pumpkin farm, and in October there were fabulously coloured and shaped pumpkins everywhere which was of course delightful. The place is Wowo and in addition to the various yurts also has standard campsites. At reception is a little shop with organic toiletries, snacks, and essential camping food including usually - and this astounded me - vegan marshmallows for the campfire! Wowo was great and I'd certainly recommend it. 

This bit of East Sussex was a mystery to me so I just did lots of exploring while down there. Unfortunately a car is pretty essential if you want to do much of this though you can get to most places I mention within a couple of hours by bicycle. On the way down we stopped at The Old Dairy which didn't have much for vegans in the cafe but the shop was an amazingly well-stocked health food shop including Booja Booja ice cream. This was very unexpected indeed for a little place not even on a major road or in a town. Vegans may want to steer clear though because the place is a working bird farm - various free ranging feathered folk as well as large cages with budgies, goldfinches etc. presumably bred for the pet trade.

The Wowo website recommended a pizza place in a nearby village called Forest Row. The pizza place was pricy but had a good ambience and vegan, gluten free pizza bases as an option. Forest Row was the real surprise. I'd never heard of the place and it turned out to be like Hampstead but in the middle of rural East Sussex. In the town square was Macrobiotic Shop - a large, 100% vegan and eco shop the like of which I've not even seen in London. Weird. The place had loads of vegan cakes including tiramisu. We asked the guys working there why Forest Row was like this and he said there is Europe's only Rudolf Steiner college as well as the UK Scientology HQ down the road. I guess that would do it. Just off the town square there was also a decent-sized health food shop called Seasons and behind that an organic fruit & veg shop with some of the prettiest produce I'd ever seen. Organic Stepford. Nice village though. The Forest bit refers to Ashdown Forest which is the location of A.A. Milne's 100 Acre Woods, so that's one of the leading attractions in the area. It's got woods, hills, heathland, the lot. Various bits were used in the Winnie the Pooh books and so are labeled as Pooh Corner, Eeyore's Gloomy Place etc. We visited the actual Pooh Sticks Bridge which is a short walk down a path. It's a big place so again, wheels are recommended. 

When we left Wowo, the pull of the coast was irresistible of  course, but before Brighton we stopped off in Lewes which was a first for me. I mostly knew it's reputation for dangerous antics on Bonfire Night. It turned out to be a great little town with a pretty high street on a hill with views, a castle, lots of cool old buildings and a crucial health food shop at the bottom with vegan cornettos. 

The rest of the time in East Sussex was spent visiting National Trust properties which are enjoyable but not generally known for catering that is either affordable or vegan-friendly. As just one example I can recommend Standen. 

Oh dear, has it been a year since I posted? In that time I've moved house, got a new job, got a new dog and been made redundant. Now I've got time to blog again!

The Occupy Movement got to London/the UK on 15 October 2011 and I'm not overstating to say in my view it is the best hope we have for moving our society toward economic justice after decades of Governments that deliberately:
- dismantled social solidarity
- undermined organised labour
- promoted a culture of selfish individualism
- freed the financial sector to gamble with the whole global economy and our livelihoods

Creative, high profile direct action by sizeable groups is what it takes now to push for progress. This situation creates a particular extreme tension though - this type of action tends to bring out the fascism of the ruling class, and this fascism is already likely to be provoked by:
- the current and inevitability of future economic crises
- the class and other social hatred that is being provoked by the current populist, right-wing government

It's a bit of a tinderbox, but a few things are in our favour including:
- distrust and dislike of the financial sector is ongoing in spite of politicians unwillingness to seriously engage with the issue
- distrust and dislike of the political class, particularly since the expenses scandal
- the fact that it the occupation is peaceful
- the lack of movement figurehead individuals - the media tends to make movements be about these individuals and that tends to silence the messages and aims of movements and later discredit movements when figurehead individuals cock up and or sell out
- the good fortune of ending up getting sanctuary from a high-profile cathedral and the contribution of the resulting religious and church discourse to keeping the issues and the occupation itself in the public eye
- the police have been hampered from using violent and oppressive practices following the outcry from methods used at protests in recent years

Unfortunately in this country the media discourse is inevitably extremely poor when it comes to movements for social/economic justice. Even columnists who claim to have some sympathy for the occupation roll out the same lazy claim that the occupation is disjointed and aimless. I wonder if they would prefer it had a 5 year plan and prospective parliamentary candidates? Even the most cursory investigation of Occupy LSX would tell any commentator that:
- it is a direct democracy and decisions on aims for the occupation are being made at the on site General Assembly, the minutes of which are on the website.
- This direct democracy resulted in an Initial Statement at the occupation
- Within the first two weeks discourse at the occupation also resulted in specific demands for the democratisation of the City of London (the financial district), something that previous Governments have also seen the need for.

It's an interesting time to be a Londoner.

THEY CAN'T EXTINGUISH THE FIRE

( yet another leaflet about cuts and the student riots... )

Went to the Bookfair yesterday for the first time in a couple of years. A lot of people came this year including a couple of folks there for the first time who I know from other parts of my life and surprised me because I didn't know they were interested in Anarchism and also several friends from abroad. For some reason this year attracted a lot of folks.

Last time I went I heard about ParEcon and afterwards read a bit about it without really getting it. This year though Michael Albert himself spoke twice and what he said gave me a lot to think about. He was certainly a highlight.

Didn't look at the books this year. There are so many new books, let alone old interesting ones, one could spend every waking minute reading anarchist books but that would be a pretty crap example of anarchism in practice. More audiobooks would be preferable anyway - at least I could listen while doing the washing up. As it is I spend my whole working life sitting down and reading.

Worst thing about the Bookfair this year - no chocolate cake. In previous years, lots of stalls had cakes and choccies etc. and this year Veggies had about 2 pieces that sold out immediately. WTF. I'll have to bring my own in future. No Pogo stall for some reason.

Bod was at the Fair this year and was explaining to a younger sxe guy that he and I and two others are the only British folks from the '90s who are still sxe. And I don't even count. Effing depressing. Actually there are a few others. Just a few, I think.

At the Fair I finally met Gabriel, who edited the Sober Living book. Today he did a talk about it at Vx after which Edge, the Movie was screened. Ace event.

Local gig on Thursday with Petty Bone and a band of 20 year olds called Grappler who sounded so 1996 it was unreal. So of course I enjoyed them a lot. I brought the zine distro but few people took any notice, as typical of gigs in the last couple of years. It seems one has to go to zine fests to do any business. Too bad really.

You Tube is a wonderful thing. This week I've hunted down some videos of bands I never got to a chance to see live including Guyana Punch Line - a real treat.

Over  the past week I've spent a lot of time & care making a comp cd of '90s hc for some friends who have no knowledge or experience of punk or hardcore. The plan isn't to get them into the music, just to share with them. It might well end up being very inaccessible to them (particularly the screamy stuff), but I didn't let that bother me too much. When it seemed particularly important I included lyrics for several of the songs. 

In many cases, I'd only ever heard the bands on vinyl or cassette and hearing them as mp3s I realised or remembered that the recordings were very bad quality indeed (eg Bob Tilton, Penknife... and Boy Sets Fire, This Crying...). That's likely to make it even less accessible. Also, I wish the recordings (for those two bands in particular) weren't so removed from the power of the bands live which can be so important for context. Another thing I realised is just how many of those songs have love song-type lyrics and not just the indie-type emo bands. Maybe that's unfair though - a lot of those songs are about raw emotions from relationships gone wrong and not in the  'please take me back' - type way you get from commercial music. 

Discharge are playing London in December. I imagine that'll be an experience.