Category: A is for Anarchy

First of all, let’s define what Food Justice is. Food Justice has three main aspects:
Access to healthy, locally grown, fresh food
Living wages for all of those involved in the food system
Community control of the food supply

The Food Justice movement is in opposition to the racial and class influence on people’s ability to acquire healthy, fresh foods. It also brings light to issues facing farmers, food workers (we’ve all heard about the media talking about how fresh food will be left rotting in the fields due to having no migrant workers to pick them, but have you ever thought about why it is that large agricultural groups target migrants and others of lower socio-economic status to pick their food?).

Some of you may have heard the term “food desert”, usually in conversations where people who are not living in one use their existence to justify why they can’t go vegan. A “food desert” is defined as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.”, this usually means that for the population within the area there are no places in which to buy sufficient fresh, healthy food, or that such places are inaccessible for the population there. The term food desert tends to ignore other factors other than proximity, such as racism, cost of living, people being time and cash poor, and due to this has largely been replaced by the terms “food apartheid” or “food oppression”.

Places living under food apartheid often have an overabundance of cheap, processed foods (think fast food chains and petrol station food), which while they may be cheaper in the short term, usually end up being much more expensive in the long term due to ill health caused by poor diet. Communities of colour, as well as low-income areas, are most at risk of food apartheid due to the system we live under. 

One method of challenging this system of food apartheid is community food gardens, which enables the community to reclaim control over the production of food. This enables communities to grow healthy, vegan food without having to rely on big businesses and the agricultural industries to decide whether or not their communities are deserving of healthy foods. This ties into the Anarchist idea of mutual aid, relying on building strong communities instead of the State. This also allows the community itself to decide where certain resources can be best allocated, and allows stronger communal bonds to be formed as everyone has a share of the work, and a share of the produce at the end.

For more information regarding food justice, and how food apartheid can be combatted, check out:

The Food Empowerment Project
https://foodispower.org/

And if you can afford to buy it (or find a pdf online), definitely check out “Food Justice: A Primer”  https://sanctuarypublishers.com/food-justice%3A-a-primer

As some of you who have followed this page for a while now, you’ll know our views on cops, and the institution of the police, we hate them. In this A is for Anarchy, we’re going to explain why that is, and why the cops are not your friends.

The main reason for our hatred of cops is that they exist solely to maintain the status quo, which in today’s capitalist society means upholding the systems of oppression that affect anyone not of the ruling classes. The Police willingly choose to uphold unjust laws, evicting people from their homes, stealing people’s possessions simply because they’re sleeping on the streets, criminalising sx-wrkers for simply making a living, locking people up for stealing food to live, and yet the large corporations who exploit humans, animals, and the planet go unchallenged, ask yourself, why do you think this is? Why can a CEO be praised for stealing millions of pounds yet someone stealing an overpriced vegan wrap is criminal filth in the eyes of the law?

Some of you may ask “but aren’t the police just people like us, shouldn’t we try to get them on our side?” or “I’ve never had a bad experience with the police” (I’m looking at you Extinction Rebellion). Whilst I guess cops are technically people, they are not like us. Do you really trust someone who’s morals can be bought for the right price? If you’ve never had a bad experience with the police, you’re very likely to be privileged, submissive, or both. The reality is accepting the police into any movement not only alienates communities that face significantly more police oppression, it also puts every activist in that movement at risk. The people who sign up to be cops choose to base their livelihoods around protecting the status quo, they know exactly what they’re signing up for and what they will be expected to do as an arm of the State. 

Now you may be wondering what we can do to challenge policing in our local area, the easiest way to do so is to start a community “CopWatch” (as long as it is safe for you to do so). What this involves is recording how cops interact with the community, either by writing it down or taking video evidence. Providing those under arrest with information about their rights is also another good way to challenge the abuses by cops, again, only if it is safe for you to do so. 

For information on your rights (with a focus on protests but a good starter in general) check out https://greenandblackcross.org/action/know-your-rights/ and https://network23.org/freebeagles/

For what to do during an immigration raid/immigration check (fuck “immigration enforcement” too) check out https://network23.org/antiraids/immigration-checks-know-your-rights/

Both of the above sites provide “bust cards” free to print, as well as other pdf’s and zines about your rights, and what cops can and can’t do

For more information about policing in general, and alternatives to cops (although with a slight USA centred spin) check out the following:
https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/the-ex-worker/episodes/5

https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/the-ex-worker/episodes/6

https://crimethinc.com/2011/10/25/seven-myths-about-the-police

https://crimethinc.com/2017/07/10/dear-citizens-this-is-your-police-in-praise-of-the-police-free-zone-in-hamburg

(if you haven’t already, go read everything you can by Crimethinc. as well as listening to their podcasts)

We’ve all seen the headlines
“100s of black clad anarchists riot through downtown”
“black bloc smash Starbucks windows”

But what is the black bloc, and why is it used?
The black bloc is often seen as a gang or group by the media and the right wing, yet this is not the case at all, the black bloc is simply a tactic used to protect the identity of protestors by giving a uniform appearance across all members of the protestors. This allows protestors to sabotage infrastructure, protect communities, prevent police incursions into established autonomous zones, and more, all whilst maintaining their anonymity.

The black bloc is not a new tactic, having originated in West Germany in the 1970’s and 1980’s prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. During the economic recession occurring at this time, as well as massive amounts of people leaving the cities for the suburbs, many areas of the inner city were left abandoned and were squatted, providing people with free housing.

Within these squatter communities, radical political ideas began to emerge, which caused clashes with police and other government agencies to occur. Due to the violence from the police, protestors donned motorcycle helmets, steel-toed boots, and other protective clothing along with ski-masks to enable them to continue protesting through the violence from police and avoid being targeted for arrest.

Is the black bloc tactic always useful and recommended? Not necessarily, as sometimes it has the opposite effect, such as being the only person in black bloc meaning you stand out and are more likely to be the target of police violence and arrest.

For more information on the black bloc (as well as an insight into the 2012 Montreal student demonstrations that heavily used the black bloc tactic) check out https://sub.media/video/a-history-of-the-black-bloc/

For a history around the world of black bloc tactics, check out “Who’s Afraid of the Black Blocs: Anarchy in Action Around the World” by Francis Dupuis-Deri