back 2 front #3 by yan tree

:'.:'' Anyway here we are \rir :-: r-':' is--* a- :-:r ::'-: -- '* e-' idisco bands and very 3r'-::a-::-::*:=;-+: : i: attention span longer iiai' i - i:': --- 3i -'* - = -: = r 3l-:=: !-r i' e?E I ' positive response largely ' 'i : '.'continents. As revolution *.as ';: -s=-: ' i:-: :: j '::: gone back to the drawing be3fi :- rr :-+ l'' t-'- ' ---' to the bb essay in the last'ssu= 't i l:'-":'1 i - i Testament quotes which they mutt;3'3:-:'-';" r ' -: -:': ?';aa" i a ' - ; wnd fall down on my knees and frage'e-+-= : '- I c?i'ca: wire new BAE Systems.baibed Y' : simultdneOusty groaning for,rqpeotan:e':- :'€ :-i bloke in the skY.

ba ck2front #3

Box F,67 Tannaghmore RD, Ballynahinch, BT24 8NU' UK bac k2front-dannY@ Yahoo'co'u k

Welcome to back2front #3 a nd iust in time to give. a ieiou,iJlng trck off to Tony Blair who got out the back door uliv quicLiy having become more despised than Margaret f n.t.'n"t for his mllitary misadventures and lickspittle lies' ln his 1998 while Clinton was getting his wrist slapped forputting in th6 .tonn fnor". where heihoui-dn't a salivating Blair sent oi.n"s to bomb lraqicivilians Only a year later British.forcps iJra trappiry committed to the bombing of Kosovo and noto' the dirtv - and ;;il;ftJIth;t were in sierra Leone doing *" neld no introductbn to the devastation of "o,irt" Afghanistan and lraq. Tonv's continual submission to US imperialism and slppoh of tsia6liaparttreid has helped to increase terrorist atlacks by noun' Ihe.. 'OOOy. .iiic" Bush declared war on an abstrac{ people Lancet and other sources state that over one milli'on . "ano displaceo million 3 while in lraq. have been killed -remSin disoossessed. This takes ourTony intgthe majorleagueqith.." Siii., nrtr"i and Pol Pot for sheer stq{istical achie'v-ements' never ever But it is important to consider that offitial history lvill .t o* ou iony in this light and that is why indep€ndent media is important for we will temember a wdr-hungry, massm, rAering, lying C hristia n bigot And tell me what kind of ,"ssaoihas blen sent to the people of Palestine now that he ii;;6;;; appointed as Mitj<tle East envov?

The last issue also generated a few rnoa:-'s $o- :i -'i- :': suspects who complained about the prc€. 1: sa-- -' : prof( is no longer good enough for those se€(t; 3?r-: :: bh wett. Another interesting phenometron € li3' -e-' :i:: Jon't feet they are affected by politics in fur awal E a=s -:' course you could ask those who survived the Lc:"::- :-t ibombings orthe September I 1rn attacks wheihe' 3::31 i' *"r" .tila"o oy poiitics in far way places Sarcast':" ltar:'

Iirr"i*1ir#;h;'i ril;lntri&lrtt ii. A;;fili;;;; ;t$ifi;i;'oiid poliqi abroad.

;' Thanks must be extended to Footprintirho is now or': ?l: printer. They use only post consumer r.ec.V9te! Pepet ar = fo r've gans' s ova-bas ed- in ks m3k r n g b ac k2f ro nt s uilablE Foltorint is a radnal worker's co-operalive and lreconnr'e': nivi,ig a tcroR"twiur footprinters co uk for all.your printirg distnbuicis needs]. Back-slapp,ngs are also extended to all our off the .rOit oi" wno netpeo in any way in getting this zinecover zine who did the Protesi of Sean especially !rounO, in print' irtWorX this time iound. The last two issues are still jr| will.donale #2 left of tew copies very iddiiri't}'"ii in contact if you'd u"i.["t to good cauies as well so do getprisoners on l*e to avail of that. back2front is free to ,ppri""1ion A list of second hand items rs also available' sales frlin ,rr,i"n help to keep this proiect motoring send'an ema rl if you'd like the most recent lbt' r

Meanwhile unelected president Bush is recovering frdm a recent cotonoscopy. li seems that the stuff th4 should 'fave been cominq out oi his ass had been f inding-its way.'out it was iust Georgie's' ' ih,;;il;;"ihli oiiriie. Perhaps excitement at the Peni?gon;, n", toy; i heat raywhiclir'when fired oives the vic{im tne feetinfof being burnedalivp' Reriledneed'forthe $8 .".ri" Ca b#vdnderson wonders aboutthe as much pain'with a ,i"ril*ir". over in Gteece a group calhng itself theus i ' Strggie-i,rrched-a rocket attack on t[d qoi' nueo po puraritv of U s foreisn"

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large scale tn otrel.nOirvs the UK has been j3 fat c at bos se s co nti n ue "p"ing posta I wo r(ert i nou"ftig.kai on by nd in a , 'd;;;d$li;;ft"mpt rn"ft.iriglOiors attempt to run the cbrtrpany into ihe grcu -

tor privatization Send workea messages or your UK bound mail' There you go posties all on irp'port just makssure I get my ma.il on time' nbw his rich bucldies Srair tds }!d* that lying bastard unelectdd lT-:tylth the man who qtate' di head we nov., have another

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oiherui*rs ton!.timi: anarcho-punk activist Chrig-torher Lee ' star 6f Didiuls andtha lor'dof the Rings has teamed up wlln -r ts-ri#t-i e rreFtr i a ls to Lx o rci s e h s d emo n i6 ili'i vocaictrorUs. Go to http://youiube com/watch?v=R0Hpk6cw- ." k0 and wonder whY.

wBS' , --.While back2frontwas beinqcobOted togettrer the news grrl one ;il;;G-o;, the alegeo x'idnappins gf a youns .At willing.to were people acrosJElrrope ooint some 40 million r"irin.inlr manufactunns of concern is an ;;i;fi;;,;# ;.;;ii;;r;unor"na'considering there aie around 200.000 ;;.h ;;;.-;;uatty,and.wnat about the ehildren ofof lraq. what [.rr'J12_ su"n bhtant manipulation il;;#;;;r

found the money for all tha kiiling With such'wonderfu Bush is next to go lf"ii".iiif. tne f'uture looks better thanwilever. get in' Let's all yawn Demdcrats the that likely and it looks and corporations the with in anticipation as the De mt side keep the war going spbn$erthan ever' Hoorayl I

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Meanwhile back athome devolutbn has returned to Northem in the knowleds,e that the i;;;J ;;;;; can all sleep happilyinto clones of ev€ry other turn streets htgh our Cs *iiir-or"r ;iiy,n i.';#;tano iur underpaid MLA's bowQown before the .lilriotlorporations. Local culture and busin?$s are.vitalto loilrrrirnit*i and need oui support. Your intreiid repbrter..the ;;;;i{ii ,lgt# ttre Fleskwatei bollective andbv di$covered niritbnite.rfining campargb spearheadpd 1€sidentg.. .-once gushed opt the .""t. il*.p&"r oi p"oire Jtanding together qnxqlggest the Airstr,afiarr nfining'companybnd.created t il6n nii E campai n in the hiSto ry of the statelet.

isreallv protest those same protestors'. i'**.[i&.aynotoii9nite.co."u.lt. ... I;"i;witn i '-"t i .." -'"" .': niiringrocrsatpoliceandstoriesoftnindlessviolence-This p/-o"t::1"j"^. the. l9!tnd of distract riowehr'h"aossporton qg Wel coast ;;;;;s;i'sdg;igneo td ciiminatize protest and ol p?ver.\'' exdoftatron plan for ll's of militarism afienda' ued n 'iontinue alt-ainst.she contin canipaig Gi8's pro ti; fl"fio, ' th6ir -unirtt ' wrttJte si{ing )iae-been environm.ental.destructiol' tt.O", economic bullying arld natrdf Sit.As usualittp State ir,L oa are now resorting t6 a tini'Ser'oinian istand accessiblb . i;;;ift[dnaiortgiantaid'sendrng in the bulfiboys.'Although onlv bv boat for theu 200-9 tea pafty'.'You'd think they were *"* tr* i,e.d"dgp'endeit the coiporate scarii'hasn't gotng

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" coVqrege of the G8 ooino on etsewhere. For btample in Rjstock blank[ refused to printariytring on why orotests occurred'. Time .after tirie the med ia'f ollows the sensatiotr'aiimages qf blackbl'ad

i .J i .t. receiv]ng .yourcomplaintsandincendiarydevices. lfqbntactingtheernail niab,a Themulti-billionpounddeal wasexposedbu!t_he cailed in.tne iublect.bor-or,you will en o uc gtr:,O!_T.u-Pj_ mysteriogsly probe blen has ,riiuqr"nt ;I"".;;Ji,G&*ronr th.reatdnihg penii-enlargenJenlspam ra: withthe irrebaudiRoyatFamily with G;;dlrefu-Jaling Gii *js notning to do ,.,t .i;;"S"ttt[ffi;iextissuewillbeoutwinler20oTi20a?'=^:t ioiur"rsecurit!tinkswithBritainiftheprobeweniahead?r.;..-lpe oplti to se nd stu" ., !f i*.Vr lrterested in getting other the fact th at arm s m anuf act urer BA E Systems ha d estab lishe-dr"ri b-qsineo^::.1, mar1. secure a to only in order is royal dudes ' Cheney Remernber Dick a slush fund for the datinq back to the 198b's Al-Yamamah arms deal Oheck odL-'--' wwwlangloarabra.com for more information. @ 2OO7 Front Cover Productions

Also behind the scenes was one of the biggest and mos.t^

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I Object are one of those bands that appear every now and again that just seem to click. The quarlet have gained a considerable reputation in the four years they've been going together playing no frills DiY hardcors punk with a strong positivist message and a willingness to lyrically tackle the roots

of social problems ratherthan merely com plain about them. Yeah you've heard a thousand hardcore bands before but how many of them come across as little more than well-rehearsed anger repeating the comfortable agenda? lt's a great surprise thâ&#x201A;Źn to find conviction and genuine concern with lObject. Your lntrepid reporter tracked down singer Barb and guitarisl Biff for a word about what they've been up to.

yous involved in the anti-war movem ent ln New York and ln your debates what ideas have come iorward regarding thi s?

Barb: ln the past I was more inwlved in the protest aspect of activism. These days I have become very caught up in the practice what you preach way of life. And by |y'n,at,l mean being more involv.ed in what is going on loaelly, b}Wotting cerla,in. companies, and just being vocal about my qerlffs: When we play we try to bing up solutions and not just sta/a probhms.

Biff; Since well beforc the war began, without going into specdics ol things, lhave been involved with a number of B2F: "The United States does a lot of messed up things to political groups and taken paft in more than my fair shan of the regt of the world and within the confines of our m usic protest-type actrvities. While I do feel that it is extremely scene one step we can take in the rlght dlrection is being importantthat people are expressing their outraga end in contact with third world punks and respecting and organizing and what-not, I also feol very similarly to what Barb supporting third world punk rock." I flnd thls note from iust statod. I guess to put it in these lerms; lthas ceme to the point where lvlew everyday that goes by as my political your first CD intri guing. W hat places/groups are you in contact with? What has thls experlence brought you? agenda. The things / cr?oose to support or not, mt modes of transpoiation, shopping locally. whatevertho case may be, Have you playeo or do you plan to play in any of these places? THAT is the most impodant thing, lf you're looking to change thtngs globally, you absolutely MUST begin locally, end then watch it spread. Barb: We have done a bit of internation al to urin g. W e h ave tourcd Mexico tvvbe and last summer (summer 2006) we played in 20 different countries throughout eastern and E2F: You aeem to have a lot of integrity when it comes to Western Europe. Bands with whom we kei'p in touch with and puting forward ideas and I see you say that you get sick of seeing blank expressions and inconsistency within the do touring with are The fangled Llnes from Germany, FPO scene. To me you seem to have the vltalenergy that from Macedonia, and Tropiezo from Puerto Rico. One of our marked the early hardcore scene but how can y ou goals as a bdnd,s to visit as many countries as posslb/e. A Puerto Rican tour is being plannedforsometime after summer radicalize people in a society thatteeches a pathy and complacency, especlally ln thes6 days when y outh has 2007, andwe are sefting oursfles on Soufheasf Asia, Austrulia, and Japan in 2008. lt is always amazing to tour othercountries, /nee t now paople, and oxperience other

never been m ore distracted?

Barb: / think it is greatwhen a punk kid is a lifer Qnvolved with DIY for the bng haul) but it's a/so sad to see someone going B2F: You got together in January 2003 and after a few through the motions of being pu nk or straight edge or whdtever line.up changes you f inally settled in and becam e I Object just because they feel obligated P unk is f u n and youthful and proper. You descri be how you couldn't/wouldn'tfunction all inclu sive. / see a bt of kids at sho rvs th et are bored and withoutthis line-up. Why is the chem istry so important to generally disinteresled ln rt. /t's ok to walk away if you want to. you? ls it because you need everyone in the ba nd to be B2F: Do you feelthat things need to physically alfect fully comm lted to the ideals as well as the m usic? people before they wlll actually do somethlng about them and part of the problem in our comfortable t/vestarn Barb: /f's funny you mention this because aiter our m ost recent taur, Ryan, our bassr'st who had i huge part in i Cb;ect society is that we are under the ill usion that we are sab? The Bush War on Terror has seen a 600% rise ln terrorist quit the band. He is moving to NC and planning on opentng a vegetaian/vegan restaurant. We are happy that he Is follov'ting attacks and we think we're ok because m ost otthose attacks are taking place in tar otl places, and yet these his dreams bu f sad fo see him go. We love playing in lO and feelit just is not time to call it quits, so w'e have asked o ur long attacks occur because of American and UK foreign policy. time friend Ben to be ournew Dassisl, Chemistry is everything. Septem ber 11th and the attacks in Britain plainly show that foreign politics can sometim es be ftighteningly local. We all h ave hea n for ou r politics and that is so important. Wd Whatare yourthoughtB? brainstorm sorg tcp ics logether and all stand behind our

ultu re s.

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Barb: / think that a small percentage of people actually seek out the truth about rinlustlces tbat don't directly affect them. I Biff : /t was a pretty harC issue when Ryan told us he was olanning on leaving. bu! after talking vtith him and seeing how was iusf having a conversation the other day about war and he was leaving on extremely good terms we all felt much more how in the USA unless someone has a soldier in their family they donl f eel the direct daily efiect of war. I definitely believe comfortable with it. He s as much into the idea of us thdt 9/1 t happened because of the way the USA government continuing the band as lhe rest of us. We ended up being treats other counties. And it is untortunate that Ameican extremely lucky hooking up ttith our fiend Ben. ln this band cilizens had to be killed for people to realize thetwe aE a bully we are tooking totour everyw'here around the globe that COuntry. point, put lot some We all a of work into ,ossrb/y canal this sand and thought it would be extremely difficult to find B2F: What's the scene like in New York these days? Did someone who could hop ril ht into this m ind set. the events of September 11h tend to politlclse or polarise the punk scene? B2F: On yourtrack "Heard the Herd" you talk about how Barb: We are from Central and Western NY tlive about 4 its fine to talk aboutour opposition to war but it's more hours from NYC. Buffato. Syracuse. and Rochester (wherely'.g. important to take tie conversation to the next level of reside) have ha d greaf scen es off a nd o n fo r years. The pin*' f inding actual workable solutions to the problem. Are

do that even if thQre are only a few people looking totally disinterested, tstiil have an amazing time playing with the other people in this band and it's always an incredible experience. tthink more than whether people go nuts or not what has really made an impact to me is when we are thousands of miles from home and there are kids singing along to our lyrics or airdrumming along with a breakdov/n that they knew was coming. lt's pretty insane.

B2F: Barb you talk about how when you first started going to shows how you felt like you were in the shad ows, You say you roalized that you had stutf to offer but how did you manage to mobilize yourself and commit? What foould you say to othor young girts getting into the scene today?-W hat l'm getting at lt ls how do y ou feel empowered enough to gâ&#x201A;Źtout there and kick ass when the scene is still very m uch a boYs'club? / wou ld tetl young girls fo sfep up to the challe nge oi getting more involved if they f eel like they want to Tne pun[: lcene ls what you make of it and gender isn't a factor rn put k like it might be in regular society. liust like being involved in my subculture, and being in a band is nty way of

Barb:

accomplishing that. lused to notice that I was sunounded b'r'' altguys butlsee so many girls at shows fhese days and so many bands that have girls in them. lt's rad!

B2F: One of the most important themes lthink you've addressed is young peoples'ideas towards pregnancy, especially in the sense of young girls settll ng- down and naving biries instead of followlng their own ldeals and dreams. Do you feel that the maiority idea of the family unit as a rite-of-passage is in fact destroying so m uch possibility and potential for women? Barb: / myself am looking farward to having a family some day, lgrew up in a small town where taen pregna.ncy wâ&#x201A;Źsnt so in youi face.'it was more of a disclosed subkct. When I started tiving in bigger cities it was all over the place and I thought a scen e tu rns ove r a lot everywh ere. I enioy vthat goe s o n locally. There are great bands popping up all the time.9/11 affec[ed a tot of people but if anything it was a reminder to really live life and embrace the moment because you never kr;ow w hat tomorrow will bring.

lot about it. Having a family is something that some considerta be something that can hold back your dreams. lt can only deteryou from fully living tife lf you choose to let it lt is obviously more accepted in pennt years thatwomen take a

B2F: Do you accept the officialstory of what happened in New York on September the t'tth? Do you think consplracy theoiies get ln the way of flnding out the truth or do you thlnk they help in pushing forward the question - did Dlck Cheney allow these attacks to happen to create the environm ent for attacks in the M iddle East? Barb: / think thatg/1 1 was the,perfect way to getthe Ameican citizens to fully back president Bush by using fear as a iool' The news coverage is constantly covering stories to scare people by showing viole nt acts comm itted, tragedies that have happened, and mass hysteria about contaminated food sources. People were backing invasion after Sept l lth . because the iear had become real- And lhe USA pointed the blame to justify invasion. .

B2F: Where have you toured since you started out and have you any tour plans forthe nearfuture? What kind of response do you get and how m uch does it matter if the

audience just stands and stares?

Barb'. We have done many tours in the last 4 years including

the IJSA, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. As / slated before we plan to tour Japan, Puedo Rho, Souiheast Asia, Australia, and retwn to Europe again. Our response wes pretty good- The way the crowil reaits doesn t m atter to us. We play in a band for an outlat and to have fun. We aren't looking to "play with big ban ds" or "get

otice d".

Biff: Our band has played quite the variety of shows. From /a4ge festiva/s with kids being psyched that we're there' to

playing in living rooms for ress than a handful of people who seerr?ed unbelievably dlsinferested in anything we were doing twouldn't say that people's reactions don't matter, it's obviously nice to see that kids are excited about what we're doing and that they get something out of it as well, but at the same time, we're a band that pufs so much forth into what we

role in life other than just motherhood but it ls slrT/assumad that every woman wants to have children, and lf they don't something is weird about that. ln most cases having a child at a young age can be a bad choice because kids can't financially support their children and aren't mature enough to handle that huge life change. We believe very strongly ln family planning including safe sex and birth control. We also support a woman's ight to choose abortion. B2F: The right to abortion has always been and always will be a controversialsubject Why doyou think that the Moral Majority has chosen to pump thls lssue above all others? I think Jello B iaf ra put it right when he said that they seem to care so much about people before they're born but as soon as you're born they couldn't give a fuckl

B2F: How did you hook up with Alternative Tentacles for m ost recent album "feaching Revenge" and what was it like working with them? You describe yourself as a DiY band and have full control by organlslng and booking your own shows. How im portant is having DiY at the centre of your philosophy?

your

Barb: We played a show in Kansas a while back and this guy Bnd Logan (who runs Blacknoise records which is a

subsidiary of AT) saw us and liked our band. Blacknoise and AT offered to do an LP with us. Af fr,?st we were a liftle unsure if they would let us do a tew things that were important to our releases meaning no bar code printed on the artwork and we wouldn'l sign any contracts. They were rcally nice about it. We went to CA to the headquarters and met the whole staff, who were all really nice!DlY is the main goal of our band. lt is what Barb'. From my experiences as a woman talking to e lot of we started from and we are not striving for anything but. We people aboul this subjecl I have noticed that the anti-choice is still book ourown tourc and got help from friends if they are not the majoity but antiebodion nghts peopb are more in foreign tours. We only play all ages shows because supporting your face about their politics. By this I mean they fund anti18+ or21 + shows is something we think has no place in punk. abortion billboards, kill abortion doctors io "save lives'of DIY is not a stepping stane. babies, and push their right wing agenda rn Washington DC. Jello put if 6est. B2F: Teaching Revenge is what society lmparts on its

B2F: ln a few of your songs I see a common trait of the im portance of personal revolutlo n a nd llving by ind ividual ideals.lknow a lot of apolitical people who feel that following a personal agenda ls where thelr activism ends. Does the idea of enco uraging personal politics allow people a safety netwhen itcomes tof say, taking things to tho nert step?

youth and, according to you, when we 3eek that revenge on churc h and state we become part of the same problem. Uyhatdo you mean by negative reinforcemenf? lsn't there a dlfference between the state's ideas of "pushlng" (based on mental submission) and "pushlng back" (based on freedom from subm ission)? Barb. Society does teach us the completely wrong rnesssge.

By that I am refering to cops beating up people (but being shocked if anyone ever fights back) or teachers talking down lo sludents (but being surprised when no respect is given in return).Ihe phrases 'teach by example', and'two wrongs don't laking the beginning sf eps of awareness. I have a friend who make a right'come to my mind when I think of the w ay cnly drinks locally brewed beer because he doesn'twantto negative rcinforcement rs used in pr&ons, schools, and in support the other companies. I know a lotof kids who roll their society in general. lt is the basis of iniustice. That is why the cigarettes so thaf they are not buying the major brands. Bythis masses always revolt in those siluationsi mean fhls ls not a drug issue buf a company issue. Eeihg B2F: Do you get really bored by over-politicized .political is becoming more cool in the DIY scene everyday. I interviewers (and if so what would you prefer to be asked see so m any younger kids thinking that the way punk abo ut)? siarted with crude rude uncaring behaviour is the way it's supposed to be loday.lt's sad. The thing about punk that drew Barb: Haha. Nol necessanly. I sometimes think that people ne in was the community and ideals of it. Society doesn't offer focus too much on international rssues and they forget about ine I to a tee nage r. lf so meo ne is awa re of wh at they su pport /ocal issues such as their own com munity. Change begins *hen buying things I think it is a sfarfing point and a gateway from the ground up. We need to befler ourselves and our :o caring ebout biggil issues. communiths betore we can wotk on bigger lssues.

Barb: / think the firslstep to being active is how you live your life. Being a political act,v,sl who smokes major brand cuarettes, drinks cotponte beer, and aftends protests isn't

B2F:What's your local area(s) like? I know upstate New York still has a lot of wilderness, Does big business impact upon the environment much in this part of the world? What is local green protest like? lf someone was coming to visitwhere would be the essertia I place to vis it?

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B2F: What kind of activities are lObj ect invoived *,:l' other tl'lan the band? Are you invol ved rn loca pc .r : s o: other scenes? Do you have jobs ordoyou feel ,oi,:a.1 make a living fronr the band? lt's funny but I know s.r-e people who are really against making a living fron" D r punk yet they're quite happy to work for some dodEy company. Do you have to balance your ideals in lh,s *a'y?

Barb We are acttve rn suppotilng our lccaisrelaj a:_, alter)c/ shof','s anc! buying bartcl s nerch.) put ng c. -

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padrcrpating tn comrnuntty poliucks ()ti r .t. -a :. a' :: .alch gtea! foretgn bands that toLtr the norlh east .:'?.-- .:; Crttical Mass, over ttte years','Je ve volunleerecl a: 'a )1 '.a: Bonhs and mv neigitbouitaad lust slarled e ne gt,.:,.'-r::r

shclls

,\,atch Dragranl that lm e\ dted lo clleck out Vie ; 'r: ... -:.i on lhe s/ce becartse l'm prei!t' sure lhe band t.'./il! ce.3'-'i'.: enollgh lo Day aLt| tent i+e toLtr and Flay n 1a!;lecr st:z .:: ir e loye pu nl\ and se eilr g r,.e !v plaaes ll r', a s neuer 3ia -: nafung lhe lstg bLtcks ArfhcL/qh ,f a Di'i' bancl can i. i :. that ts arnetngir I rr or* far liie YMCA and a locai ra!,:- ::J't Steve n,or(s fcr lNegntan s gracery saore anciEer i-,.: :, sc/)ooi i chose nti, lohs because the Y|lCA i.s a n. r ,r:'-': graLtp thal norlses er-cc/rs /I s sort of a halfr',,ay t:t: '.,st : ' ;rrst rnlercctrna rtth peo7le ,','l1o have heen cut o1 f '-: r - - - .'. for so lcng rs irrporiani ta n!egrate them bacl,; la n':,r,e tnleraclian Antl lr,','ork at nt,9*1.u, rrb because il.s ; ':i, iantrly run place Local busrness /s in so much dat)Je:

Bift: My actualjob is with an internet busmess, 1 ship

things thilling Other than that; a friend of mine and I have

started up a small screen-printing business which vlere bath extremely stoked about and I've recently starled up a D lY record label called Feral Kid Records (if anyone has inqL,rts 3 abo ut either of the se , fe el free to contact me at xFeral_Kidx@yahoo com and check out www myspace com/feralkidrecords ) Please excuse the shameless plug

.:,

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AND THEM

I.JS

en tity a nd be com un acco un tab le.

e fac to

The pointis, the real power structure is notcorrectlydefined, and thus escapes exposure. Poli ti cians are te m p ora ry face s tha t p e rpe tua te the myth ofpolitical advancem ent. But

heie is a smallgroup of globalelitisis tr athave been scheming behind the scenes for decades and only occ asion ally hav evve see n theirfaces. The political fagade is maintained by fre votes of thosewho benefit directl y fr om E conom y, narn ely the bus iness comm unity They in turn are up held by he r. iddle classes and those w ho actually believe thateither poli tical advancem entis the genuine first prrorityof governm ent orthat a cha nge of face w ill make a difference to the ir liv e s. Po litica I aci va nce m e nt does occurbut it usually through the

st:# ack 2f ront goe s to p rint an ti ii sa tio n d em o nstrators w il lb e pa ying a v isit io He ili ge nd arn m, in the pro xim it y of Ro stoc k, G erm a ny to give their e ga rds to an u nelecte d an d un acco untab ie g i'oup know n as the

gio ba

Group of

ght vrhich represents oniy

the worid'spopulation yet conrols alm ost % of its econom ic 14ok ol

ht 0 f co urse

any ho lid ay m ake rs have made their way to hese summits ove r th e yea[s to p mtesiw hat is now widely e ga rded as the gro up d irectly responsible forworld poveriy due their enforcenrentof global debt and selfi'ew ai-C ing trad in g po licle s. Th e G8 is re sp on sible fore nco ura gin g clim ate m ig

disa

ster

ons

in th at

m o

rep resen ts tho se

st res po nsib le f cr taxic

emissions G8 strategy isalso diectl acc ountab le fo rthe perpetuatron of wa rfa re for oil and cther re se rves wh ich eli

h:e ne

fit tnerr own econ om

les at tl^e expense of the restof us.

Econ om y is a w ord ce nta io ine G 8 d m od ern cap [a lism . lt is on tie irp s cf evei y politicia n at every e leciio n b.l: eve n in the c cun trie s repr esen ted b i the G 8 h,h o doe s th al econ om y actuali ,tserve? The Bush Adm inisirat ion ref u sed to sig n the Kyoto P ro to co to f ig ht cli m a te ch an Ee sta ting t lnt itivo u d dama ge U S Econ om y, T h e teie vislon new s e ve ry rig ht te lls u s l' o,', :ia t e ono my is Coing asifwe can sleep soundly knowin g that the FTSE oriheD ow Jon es are in th e asc enrl ancy. W e xno w that th ee co no my d ;rectly be ne fis at th e very be st 20 % o f the po pu lation , w hile crum b s are ccc asion ally th rcw n out for the b id s an

d the rest

us sta nJ c t, gaz

Society teaches us to aspre to'wards

iconomy. lt bombardsusw th sin ster

;d vertise m en ls, tho ug hl fre e !'io llywood mov ie s a nd ban al po p ur itt c;e m og rap hic m a rke tin g ap lo rn b. T he r: st of us are led to be lieve tln t iconomyis where it'saiand gull ibly 'i'i3 dream of winning the loot, of being ll<e them, flying around in oui' jets or

spe ed bo ats, coc klai is i n ha nd a nd happinessf inaliyach eved lt is this

lusion thatlea0s the restof usinto a li fe of quiet oblivion or into thef twlen \/ e are la be led as crim ina Is for sim p ly wantinE to do whattheywould have us do, and being unable to get iiwe take it for oui'selves byall m eans,This is ho w E co nom y pe rp etua tes the cult ure o f the fr. Th is is h ow we are led to be lie ve that b ein g rich m ea ns be ing il

ha pp y.

w ashe s its han ds at eve ry op portu nity T he pr iso ns are f u ll o f its m ista kes. The ce ntral p rob le ms of m ode rn soc iety are a d ir ect e su lt o f Ec onom y, B ut uih o are ih e rea I face s tha t perpetuate the illusion of Econom y. lhe rea I m isgu id ed m inio ns wh ose ad dict ion to powe r an d wea lth re vea is the true co nd itio n of scc ieiy?

ls it thatthey

re actu

a lly

so ad d icted

to ihe game of pcwerand wealth as a cr,.r tch fo rthe r ow n emotio nal r^i^.i r.. I ^ i,.^r.-: : I :Ul..1., J., *r,, _b^. ;.^'.-^ .t=\a 'i-..U..lC^, I!rlrr:_r ^ J = rru t c elie i'; i"ha ii'he-y are r,. or: ca3abi3 ii'.arr US airna{ixc iiii

!oiiani

iiici:rola iaaiihey ran l<'.1 .;.I:

dec;sic'ns: is

:,:.:..:

: j m.'r]::

and ecoogical cah $rophe as a global ne ces s ty?

An d no w tnat the y are s pre ad ng th is blan ketof lies ac ross ihe wor d un der the g uise of glo b alizat lon th ose o f u s w ho se e throu gh it b eg in to der ide th e po lit ical fa ces w ho se em to b e re spo nsib le. We lau gh a nd jok e at our po lit icia ns, do ub led ove r as G eo rge Bush destroys another sentence or To ny Blairtell sanothergalloping lie

but

hil e

The Global E ite are acjdicted lo power an d we alth i he y ai'e the ti'ue m a sters of Econcmy B ui ar add ct s nota f ue mas ter no m atter v,' hat,,vay he deludes h m se f The qloba eiite, tre se ad d icts, aret he"fac es b eh tn d he cor-0orati ons and corporatrons are

pc ur erf ul iha n go ve rnrn e nts. ha ve lo ng so ugh t to spr ea d tn e wingsand seek out new prey Tnis is rn o

They

globalizati ona nd it wreaks havoc.

Eccnomy teaches central core values in w hic h to hide its m ala dv an d

n6.c,-.

ef f orts o f p eop ie a nd the ir vig ou rw tr e firstpriority of Gove rnment is Econom y and the agenda of corpo Etion s u nde rthe contro I of a self -ap po n te d G lob al E li te,

re they the real movers a nd

sha ker s? W he n the ir term in of f ice is over and new faces com e along the sam e pr oi: lem s co ntinu e. E ven tu ally

y/e see itasUs and'l he m, where Th ey are to b iam e f or the w or Id's

probiem s, lts alwa ys 'lh eu fault"bul as s uch Theybecom e an unknown

Iurge readers to watch Markachbals

taiy "Th e C orp cra lio n' w h ch ciissects the world of Econcny and shows that the ceniral prcblem s t hat he corporati on is a narneiess iace in do cum en

heeyesof lav; -it sriaccountable and above that a'.,l ioan be fined, butit can eas i ypeviie iines butit

ja ie d orc icsed down. Lets bke a deeper icok inc r.l:e m urky ur de rvrc i-ic ci ihis i,l rr c oou nta bie gcbaieli te anc s:ewho The1, vss11, can not be

at?

glor:l

e iie can be seen to have ::1,?.31e faCeS.TheSe are the Jc ip,c ia ie, the P oli ti ca I an d the i,c30 eff rc a no the irs is the T rilate ra I !,1=nda Their propaganda is the ciesswhii e the poiice, cowts and arm ies are the ir he nc hm e n. Tiro

iri::

The idea forglobalization comes from he Corpoate face. The Academ ic ,h ce pr ovide s the stud ie s a nd w hite pa per re ports in o rder to justif y th e go als of the C orpo rate F ac e. T he Politica I fa ce, in co nju nctio n wit

media, sellsthe idea to the publc and d an ge s the law in o i-de r to acco m m o date the cor po E tio n, Th e Politica I fa ce is con tinu ally aw are tha t he Corpoate face prov ides the fin an cia I ba d< in g. lf m em b ers cf the pu bli c ch ai len ge th e P ol iti cal f ace ihe pressand ihen the henchmenkeep he agenda ontrack by hook and more often than nct, by ctook, lf there is to o m uc h exp osur e an e le ction w ill bring a change offace but not a change of policy

-'.

ress is esse ntia I in f iltering the of the Corporate, Academic :rc Folitical Faces. As we shall see tne press is dominated by members of I these three groups. The henchmen are a lso led by the sam e old faces. Iet's pass over the minor players for now and see if we can uncover who the big fish rea lly are. O nce we see past the pawns we begin to see who controls the chess boa rd. P

::=nda

ln '1 973

lie

Trilateral Commission

(TC) was founded by that absolute banker David Rockefeller and geopolitical strategist Zbign iew

Bzezin ski, This group also fo unded the New ln ternation al E cono m ic O rder which has led the way for corporate globalizaticn. Before TC the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) was founded in 1921 and it had similar intentions. ln i959 the CFR was quite explicit about what it saw as the way

ahead:

"The US must strive to butld a new iniernationa I o rd er " Its central aim is to Find and nurture the n ext generation af foreign policy leaders" "

The CFR is concerned with America's role in the w orld ts internal think tank is know n as f he D avid Rockef eller Research P rogram me w hich a Iso grants fellowsh ps The honorary chairman ofthe CFR is also none otherthan that complete banker David Rockefeller. A m ong its regiona projects is the Middle Easf Drscussion G ro up. Mem bers represented includ e the Bank of America British Petroleum, Boeing Chevron, Exxon, Ford, lBM, Halliburton Lockheed Maftin, Shell, Time Warner, and Merck among others ndividuals invo lved includ e D ick C heney, Condoleezza Rice, PaL.l Wolfowitz, Colon Powell , Zbigniew tszezinski, Henry Kissinger, George Soros, Jimmy Carter and thai absolute ba nker D avid R ockef eller am ong

represent only a small percentage of its overall mem bership and ma ny of its members are only lightly involved with glo ba lization. Altho ugh it is an im porta nt stepp ing stone in the rise of G lob

al Econom y it is not ce ntral

others.

Note that these corporations are involved in everything f rom m edica drugs to arms manufacture orl companies to media entertainment. And com pared w ith the ind ivid ual members mentioned we see the three fa ces of Corporate, Acad em ic and Political. Former m em bers of CFR have included Gerald Ford, Jim my Carter and Bill Clinton, Apparently I

a Jo lie is " u nder considera tion". (www cfr.org)

A ngelin

The CFR attem pted to use the United Nations (UN) in orderto develop the idea of a single world order but the CFR soon became too large for "cutting edge policy" to be exercised and it w as also restricted to US membership, The idea at this point was what could happen if membership was global? The CFR continues to run and is a suitable hunting ground for Corporate Face w hen it is see king out the next political generation. W hile it is known that severa I key globa I elitists exist within the CFR it is thoug ht they

That com plete banker David Rockefeller rea lised the shortcomings of the C FR and so founded the Trilateral Com mission, He represented the Corporate face and his ally Zbigniew Brzezinski represented the Academ ic Face. The two self-appointed men chose 300 members from North America, Europe and Ja pa n from the p inn acles of Corporate, Academ ic, Political and P ress organ isations Of the 54 originalUS members Jimmy Carter was f ronted to wrn the 1976 pres ide ntial ele cticn . Vice pre sid ent Walter Mondale was a lso a mem ber of the TrilateralCommission lt is thought that TC has been dom inant in US politics to th is day. A lthoug h Ron ald Reagan wasn't a member his vrce president George HW Bush was and his subsequent election consolidated Trilateral dominance in American politics particularly in the area of fo re ig n policy. T he ca use w as continued by TC m ember Bill Clinton revealing that it did n't m atte r what

party you belonged to, George W B ush is not a m ember like his d addy but Vice President Dick Cheney is. The trilateral re lationsh ip between corporate, academ ic a nd po litica I ha s been very successful, ln order to maintain a level of control over the US vote TC has continually so ug ht out mem bers from labo ur comm issions such as lW Abelof the United Steelworkers and Glen E Watts of the Com m unications W orkers of America. With members of socialist

group in gs it is possible to ma nip ula te lef t towa rd s these p olicies an d ultim ate ly sn ap the spine of trade

the

union powerat the same time.

The Trilate ral C omm issio n is invo lved in Europe and elsewhere in much the sa me w ay that it is in vo lved in U S

politics

Fo rm er lrish p olitician Pete r utherland also f ina ncial ad viso r to the Vatican is a m em ber as is fo rm ei' lrish president Mary Robinson Also on the team is Richa rd B urro ugh s th e Governor of the Bank of lreland. S

They are joined by UK mem bers Lord Kerr, d irector of S hell an d Rio Tinto Zinc,Labour MP Peter Mandelson, Sir Ma rk-Moody Stuart, chairm an of Royal Dutch Shell, Lord Patten chancellor of the University of Oxford and numerous others. For a current membership list have a look at their own web site at www.trilateral.org The Trilaterat

ommission has never

bee n elected ye t it has

unconstitutiona I influence on other governm ents across the wo rld. Such

concerns have never been properly

add ressed. The biggest consiste ncy in

the movemeni, which has changed with the times otherwise, is banking, There

re seve ral com plete

ankers

involved including the President of the World Bank w hich effectively keeps the third world in chains and the president of the lnternational Monetary Fund. f he Trilateral Com m ission domtnates the execut ': branch of the US governme nt. t he Federa I Reserve a nd is also clos e', league with the Bank for lnterre::'z Sett/ements. ln ef fect it is resr: - : : = fo r the contro I of the wo rld s currencies and supply of m c-=, -- = Rockefeller ru n Cha se N ai . -: I . -' is the effective lending too :' :-= - ', The US governmentsL:bs :_'': : .=

acco unts fo r a bout three -fo urths of the

effectively runs the apartheid regime in that state a nd is ce ntral to the perpetuation of the horrors in occu pied Palestine.

world's known energy resources." (p.31 )

"The momentum of Asla's economic development is already generating masslve p/'essures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of

The TrilateralComm ission as we have

seen consists of three faces alldriven by a lust for power a nd wea lth. Key to the central philosophy is ourold friend Zbigniew Bzezinskiwho wroie in

energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the G ulf of Mexico, orthe Nofth Sea." (p.125)

197 1:

"The nation sate as a fundamental unit of man's organised life has ceased to be the principalcreative force: internationa I b anks and multin ational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation sfate."

"ln the long run, global politics are bou nd to becom e incre aSing ly

uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a srng/e sfafe. He nce , Am erica is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the very Iast." (p.209)

ln h is book "The Grand Chessboard" (1998) he goes on to suggest: "Ever since the continents inte rac tin g pol itic al ly,

s om

arted

"More ove r, as Am erica beco mes an ncreas i ng I y m ulti-c u lt ural soc iety, it may find it m ore difficu lt to fashion a

fiv e

hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power."- (p. xiii)

consensus on foreign policy issues,

except in the circumstance of a truly m assive and widely perceived direct external threat.'(P.21 1)

"ln that context, how America 'm anages' Eurasia is critical. A power

that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and econo micallY productive regions. A mere glance at the map a/so suggesf s that control over Eurasia would almost a ut o m a tic al

The events of September 11th 2001 created the circumstance of a truly m assive and widely perceived externa I thre at pa r exce lle nce. (The atta cks also cam e a t a crucia I time for the Economy. Check M ike Rupert's video ''TheTruth and Liesof 9/1 1" al

ly e nta il Afri c a's

ubordination, rende ri ng the W este rn Hem isphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the wofld's central continent- About 75 per cent of the tlorld's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia s

www .from thewilderne ss.com .) Brzezinski m aintains that Am erica must seek to control Eurasia:

"Two ba sic sleps are th us re quired: first, to identify the geastrategically

,' llif i.

.Lt;i

.r.1

consequences of their seeking to atta in them;.,. second, to f ormulate specific U.S. policie s to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above..." American co-option of Britain began at the end of WW2 and was strongly enhanced under Margaret Thatcher and fully consolidated under Tony Blair. European unification has been a central aim of US foreig n policy since the end ofWW2 but a Europe coopted into Am erican idealism .

Bzezin ski's politica I idea lism however has failed to take into ,

account that not everybody wants McDonalds and Disney to represent their culturalvalues. The European Union puts hundreds of bills into law almost da ily. lt is impossible for MEP's to read through the m all. Of ten they are to ld w hat to vote. ln effect the European Union is a giant corporate scam. (Check out www.stop the northam erican union.com / videosi EuropeanU nion.htm l).

The Trilate ral C omm issio n co nta tns the seeds of our own destruction.lts top fig ures are know n in financia circles as the "Masfers of Universe", The Trilateral C omm ission includes the heads of NATO and U S/UK intelligence. !t is 95% white and Christian. Mem bers who ga in a positio n in the ir respective co untry's governm ent tem porarily leave the Commission butthe Commiss on's the aoex of corporate fascism and the G8 implements its strategies beneath the shroud of democracy. I

Rockefeller and others have ently den ied that there is a globalconspiracy, telling his TC run media friends that we shouldn't listen to co nsp iracy theor-tsts. B ut Rockefeller has also pub Liciy e ndorsed certain individuals whc maintained the commission's secrecy. PerhaPs TC has started to go the way of our old frie nds ihe C F R. lt is also tem pting to im ag ine that p erhap s a nother sm aller group operates within TC.

ve hem

\li,

t. (

.. tr),

.:.1

dynam ic Eu rasian sta fes fha t have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distibution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely

,\\t)

t:t,

The Bohe mtan Grove is a recentlY expo sed group of occultists who perfo rm pag an rituals in great secrecyIts mem bers have included Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Colon Powell, Henry Kissinger and others. Tony Blair has apparently been filmed in attendance. Former British PM John

Majorhas also given speeches. Many members are also membersof CFR and TClBohemian Grove isthe old

,r.j.IiruJ

boys club extraordinaire. A'cccrd ng to Wikipedia membershio lnciudes many artists, pa rt culariy m usiclan s, a s w ell as ma ny h g h-ra nk ng bu slness leaCers, government off icials (includ ng heads of state) and senior media executives. The Bohemian Grove has all the hallmarks of

conspiracy but I invite the reader to do their own iesearch and make up their own m inds, lt is also worth looking u p the Bilderberg Com m ission' the so called "brother-group "of the TrilateraI Com m ision we know a nd love. www.bilderberg.org.

Community (the Asian equivalent of NAFTA). TheY were greeted bY 30,OOO police. lt was one of manY prote sts ac ros s t he wo rld.

uffice to say lt is no co nsp iracy that these global'elites are directlY involved in the division of wealth and pow er which has at its centre a m onocultural vision of PseudoS

christia n mora I P hilosoP hY w hich disrega rds hum an lif e and the enviro nme nt in orde r to fu llf il its

narrow agen a. li is the Corporate Face that will fund the Academic Face and mould the direction of study that our vou nq m ind s m ust em brace, ieei ing i-nte llectualism with in safe pro-corporate confines. lt is the borporate Face that has the money to soend 825m for everY m ile of new motorway but is curiously skintwhen it comes to education. Political Face drip-feecj s our schools and hospitals lam enting tig ht budgets, telling us it's doing its best and yet P olitical Face can f ind billion s to occu py othe r co unties and exp lo it their resources in o rd er to m ainta in a n econom ic d omlnation over the rest of the world. This economic domination often takes the form of so-called Free Trade Treaties.

The 1994 NAFTA treaty had its origins in the Bush administration and came into force under Clinton, who as we all

re both mem bers of a certain comm ission. The NAFTA trade agreem e nt between U SA, C anada anci Mexico was designed to m ake the other countries cltizens "more like the USA" by dominating ind ustrY. Th is involved taking Amei-ican jobsto whe re lab our wa s chea Per a nd the

know

eat

sho P be cam e

the

Pular

modus oPerandi. But it wasn't just worker exploitation, NAFTA had huge enviro nme ntal im Pact M exico's hazardous waste doubled in a few short years but for the indtgenous Indians of Chiapas, Mexico's adoption of NAFTA meant the Possibility of losing the only thing of value in that extremely impoverished area: the la nd that had been constitutionallY prom ised to the m af ter the Mexica n

Zapala revolutio n of

191 0.

theZapatista uPrising of 1994

coincided with the im Plication of NAFTA. The EZLN, the nam e of their orga nisation, q uickly estab lished autonom ous reg ions sim ilar to those in Anarch ist SPain in '1 936, and used the internet to spread their ideas to autonom ous groups across the globe. The f irst internationa i Encuentro Against Neoliberalism for H umanity was held in the rainforests of Chiapas' and has been held annuallY since as group s and ind rvid uals f rom all ove r the world meetto discuss how to turn the tide of glob alization. 1O,O OO activists protested in in th e P hllip Pines aga inst the As ra Pa cific E co nom ic

in '1 996 Ma n la ,\.:rE C.

Days of action against the WTO took ptate throughout 1998 and the Globat barn ival Agiinst Ca pita lism took place aoainst the G8 in 1999. What was bScom ing ev id e nt w as that a n internat io na I p ro test

m o ve m e

nt was

taking shaPe Yetthat movement is only mentioned in the media among scen es of conf ro ntation and violence, as once again the Press follows the trilateralagenda and attemPts to criminalize Protest' O ne of the big ge st P rotests to date took place in Seattle in November 1999 which effectively cancelled f ree trade negotiatto ns and co lla psed the G8 summ it. Protesters said they were inspired by the Zapatista uprising' lndymedia grouPs (l ndePendent m edia reporting on the fight b ack) have sprung up across the globe ever

since.

The neoliberalagenda of the Trilateral

Commission has attemPted and continues to try to m ake the Economic Market the central form of world oovernm ent but Peop le have stood igainst it. Anarcho-punks who tried to Stop the CitY in the 1980'E and neibim the Streets in the 1990's and were in f act one of the catalysts for this new movement began to realise tha t the re was a m ass m oveme nt with simila r aim s a nd B lack B loc gro UPS are now a common slte at Protests. (www.i nsurgentdesire.o rg.uk)

Every tim e the G 8, W TO, lM F or othe r une lected capitalist ventu re meets ii is greeted by mass organised Protest from a considerable arraY of decentralized grouPS. The media reports the confro ntatio n b ut do es not acld ress the roots of protest but that is because the media is Part of the trilateral agenda. South America has sw ung hard to the left in re cent yea rs with natio nalization of oil in Venezu ela and both Bo livia a nd Ecuado r o ptlng to lea ve the lM F, be ing a pa rticular kick in the teeth f or US interests' The m ost recent m an ifestatio n of Trilaterallsm has been the drsaster in the Middle East where, as mentioned, most of Eurasia's resources are to be fo und. D ick C heneY a ssured a concerned Trilateral Commlssion at a meeting in which no minutes were taken of the im Porta nce of U S dominated economy (powered by oil) while Af ghan istan a nd lraq were reduced to tatters' The subsequent anti-war movement represented the greatest consolidation of street protest in living mem orY. ln t he U K B la ir lo st h is parliam ent ary majority and Labour may lose the next ele ctio n while Bu sh lo st the S enate and Congress, Blair has been forced to stand down because he is now as hated as Margaret Thatcher. Of

course these changes always happen

,,rhen exposure occurs but a change of face is not a change of PolicY and Tiil.ai-iailsm contin ues unabated. W hll e E c,c,'I,or-li

y ls prcm c'red a t the

expense oi ot-,i peo3le, ania'a s, an d environmeri - 'ler, d-=: s 3'-: be '! hatched to turn the ii'de. rp,r n31 ;a l-oh1 have hapPened if antrtYar demonstrators took their p!'oiesi io the arms factories and dem o ished all ih ey found there? What might haPPen t3 our beloved EconomY if everYone adopted BuY Nothing DaY on Novem ber 23rd every Yea r? W hat lf workers appointed their bosses a nd demanded a 25 hour working week' What if consumers could dlctate the rules around the Products theY buY? What if advertisements were banned from public Places? These are interesting concepts but Trilateralism has Pushed the environment to the lim it and we now face a verY unceftain future' Lo hachara, a once inha bited isla nd in lndia where the Ganges and the Brahm ap utra rivers em pty into the Bay of Beng ll is now no m ore d ue to rising tides offering physical evidence that qlobalwarmlng is all too real. lslands ind atolls across the Pacif ic are now under water. Globalwarming is a direct result of the trilateral agenda and it w ill affe ct everY one of us. Ma ny peop le a void politica I issu es

because often theY do not see how ihey affect them personalty and it is

w he n Po litics a ctuallY come th16ug h their own fro nt doo rs that th ey

onli

react. The Trilateral agenda has been ripp ing all of us off for years and w e . xnbwlt from taking the best years cf

our lives as slaves to a wage a nd th en taking that wage back through taxes and loans while deluding us with a barrage of P ro ducts and insu ra nce prem ium s.

The Trilateralagenda has sought

to-

control the world by co ntrolling the 3 laroest comm odities -oil, arm s and The ir ad diction to prof it m argins ar,ig " can no longer be andPersonalPower oreEented a s po litica I ad va nce me nt' bizanelY the moneY theY covet

doesn't-even exist. lf everyone tried to withdraw their money f rom their bank acco unts th e ba nks cou ld not pro vio'e it. The single largest currency in the world is air milesl Commodities are exch ange d o n the prom ise to o a'e' ii-l= bearer on demand. ln God We iausi! To sum uP we now have the opportuniiy to put names lo the actual peoPle who Perpetuate this system and now we m ust hold them tc account. The last that their GB summ its are greeted by mass protesl and theY are forced to meet under e w h ile their bully boys address our concern s'+{iih tr!Ek3r c5noti ertl tea r g as is ie sisiil snl etl tlEe taci tiat they have got lrroag aFd !hâ&#x201A;Ź! L'inw

s ieg

it.

rrC epe n,Jerri ;rrr:drs

t; vcgt 1<lr:

ttl

show why there is protest, to reveal the adual reasons and take them into the mainstream. The exposure ard boycott of produc{s associated with Trilateralism must be part of this agenda along with the promotion of alternatwe systems such as

i';::- ''

':"

'..,,.

:rfr-! '.:'.-tvL4"

'.,*\( /- rti 'c

participatory econom ics and reg ional autonomy. And if the political system can be manipulated in any way it should be utilised. Economy is the god of a minority, a tiny sick minority. The summit at Rostock was su@essfully blockaded and mass disrupiion was caused by upward s of 8 0,000 dem on strato rs. At one point'1 6,000 police and 1000 troopswere pushed back by 10,000 proteste rs. Meanw hi le Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are in open revolt against the IMF and World Bank; South African shantytown dwellers are fighting water privatization; Korean workers are striking against "free trade" agreements. The future may be uncerta in b ut we are everywhere. www.d is se ntnetaru erk.o rg www .thetun nelle r.co. uk

wvwv.zmag.org

ll,lhanwti le I n Sl ngaporc

:"J :i:1S,:Xi: I Ti ::"" ;;:lJJi,, gives us the lowdoan on the effects of technology on com munication in punk and politics in h is country. y,,i?

hat would the characteristics of modern hardcore punk in Singapore be? CDR's, mp3s, internet zines, punk rock dotcoms... don't even get me started about allthose pop punk bandsl The em phasis on bands now is not the soul, not the lyrics, but the m usica I capa bility! lt's no lo nger "well concealed cash or cheques made out to.-. " its PayPal now! And what happened to mixtapes? Even mix CDRs couldn't compare to mixtapes, and what the hell happened to cut and paste zines a nd mo st im portantly, pissing people off?! Tech nologrca advances are fine but the moment they water down communicaton between peop le . ii's frcke di S omething ha s to be d onel Granied these d jg ta advances have their n"eans. Through email you don't have ro wait days cr weeks to get a response from some pJnk in Europe, and Pa ypa I guara ntees your mo ney safely willreach the abe you ordered from. Bands can exchange mp3s over IJISN and upload them for free on their

su{d

Singapore was a fishing ccmm unity sparsely populated by indigenous Malays and Orang Lauts when the U nited Kingdc m thoug ht it wo uld b e a rather jolly good show to ta ke over in 181 9- lt was the n cccup ied by Ja pan during World War ll and reverted to British rule in 1945 and was later part of the m ergei' wh ich established Malaysia in 1963. pore o nly acqu ired independence in 1965. Foreign investments and reg ime-led islande indu strializatio n ha s since "rid created an economy relying heavily on 3lectro nics and ma nufa cturing exports rr,.(h financial trade centerin g around ;s strategic port position. S inga

Stiga porea n po litics have b een r-.lcrninated by the dictatorial People's ,r.eilon Party (PAP) since self-Ltovernm ent in 1 959. Foreig n po litica Er-r3 ysts and several opposition 5-i3,riles such as the Workers'Party of Shga pore, the S ingapo re Dem ocratic .i:rrty (SDP) and the Singapore L-j!=.r ocratic Allia nce (S DA) have I

web sites,

However nothing can compare to the feeling you get w hen yo u write a lette r to someone far away in your own handwriting and get a parcel in return with zines, tapes, loads of f lyers f rom labels you never thought existed and a f ucking 10 page essay! No mix CDR I have received could compare to my first ever m ixtapes from Switzerland and lreland! lhave some demos given to me by a friend and these demos are up there in the classics now, and they can never compare to even the best demo CDs I get.

The difference between then and now is the leve I of comm unicatio n. lt's sorely m issing. An email and a han dwritten lette r is a Iot d iff erent even if it's th e same co ntent word f or word, Through endless snarlmail letters. i learnt lots of new things, like how to re-use envelopes, and even stamps (don't do it, it's...), and through a hand w ritte n letter you can alm ost feelthe crim inal -ha ha ha - person talking to you. lnternet zines a re easy but they ha rd iy move or eng age yo u like a p aper zine do es. lts irrita ting to the eye to stare at a computer scTeen all d ay but to get a h ard co py an d read it a nywhere makes it all the m ore convenient. Dem os? Ba nds used to do them on C60 TDK and Sony tapes and exchange them, a long with xeroxed inserts and lyrics and discussed w hatever that came by. Lyrics and the coolimages on demo tap es m ade the difference, it m ade the m usic m ore than just m elody. This m isinformation, this m isdirection of ideas is the reason whythe Singapore underground culture is so horribly misconstrued. Youn g pu nks here think that punkrock only existed in the U K, but there is also punkrock in Ma lta, N epa l, H unga ry, a nd lndonesia ! Punk lsn't about rehashing the Sex P isto ls or U K S ub s, it's abou t scream ing abo ut som eth ing that's wrong! 2 hours to spike up a Mohawk, but for what?: Do a zine. organize a gig , feed the po or, voluntee r for charity work! That does a lot more than sitting down in fullbattle order pun k g earl Skinheads in lndonesia smash Marlboro factories as a statem enl to fight cap italism. Red skin, Trad skin, did n't m atter, Eve ryo ne united to

smash an oppressive statel Pick O nly to ho stile cops? anize ? F or the ne xt p olitica dem onstration, for the next gig?

fights? O rg

working...they cultivate a culture of fear, where family and economic sia bility is drilled into our priorities, which makes us not want to take the path of dissent. lt's worked on

too - Ed) We all started somewhere. D lY ide as, m ixtape s a nd writing 1 0 pag e letters to som e P unk rocke r in Bolivia a re ideas lhat ca n never be exposed to the Younger generation without a proper medium!

m e. ..b ut on ly partially. othe rw ise wou ld n't have bothered with this l'd like toquote a chr,nkfron a ooe'n wrote in m y old zine: I

Pass on your old zines, share Your thoughts, and correct anY m iscon ceptio ns the younger peop le m ight have about the underg ro und Even a simple handshake and hello m ake s a w orld of d iff erence to the younger ones, w ho a re still ingra ined with socia llY ad ept co nform ist thoughts about life in general Just because you grew disillusioned doesn't mean that theY have to be as

"Occasionally a droplet comes aver as if to send regards Occasionally a ray of lightbeams across thts banen land as though on stiPulation Sometimes we have many a glittering poolof waterfor us to drink and smile afte rwa rds.

Butwe know thisis;ust to mesmerize us, to distract us, to tranquilize us. We go back to sleeP again while theY stealthily rob us of our blankets"

well.

ingap ore Ba nd K

the Boredom

Hardcore bands here are trying to hard to copy NYHC bands, even the lyrics seem to be choPPed and changed from Gorilla Biscuits and Strife! Unity, backstabbing, and being united as one ano making a chanEe seem to be the i-ule of the daY but af ter Nationa i S ervice they just aren't harclcore any mo re "We're adults now. hardcore ,,u as for growing uP" Then how do yoi.r exPlain active hardcore bands anci labels consisting of 30 something's (and older- Ed) .

everyw here

lse?

E mo? lndierock? D on't get me started. They got the right look, hairdc a nd wim py lyrics. Whatever happe ned to anguish? Whatever haPPened tc anger? Still Life was mellower than m ost of you Yet theY had ma nY things

T he o ld er ge neration d id n't d o m uch too. "Oh Iused to be in this band""'oh t used to hang out this building' that buitding'. Hey, FUCK YOU. ls that all you can do? Outline how manY Years yo u we re in the scene? Yo u threw away all youi'CDs and taPes, You sto ppe d conta ct ing the frien ds yo u have overseas, you are now decked in off ice wea r, yo u ran o ul of reasons to still be in this scene, Yo u CONFORMED

What are you doing now? Even if You had reason to noi be active anyrn0re. there was no need to conform. There was no need to f lush down allthe

years of free thought, f resh ideas and alternative living. There was no need to discard the zines and CDs You had, the re w as no need to forget w hate ver you learnt. The basis of the scene here, as well a s eve rYwhe re else, is the YOUTH! The youth are bored, ang ry a nd pissed, reach out to them, ard don t be embarrassed to be the tty 25 yearold in a bunch of Preo!berty 13 year oldsl (and over 40's

The mp3 generation can build on their wea lth of m aterial a nd co nve nie nce! Use the internet to contact punks from obscure parts of the world! Good places to start are www.byofl.org a s ite w h ich list s P unk rock from everywherei lf vinyl is available to you check out Tian An Men 89 Records, a F rance-ba sed internatio nal hardcore pun k labe l. Pu nkrock from M oldova, Bolivia, Faroe lslands, and more! Look up www.geocities.com/tam 89rds to order zines or better Yet, m ake Your own! Buy a tape player and source for the early release s from yo ur frie nds! Ma ke m ixta Pes and se nd them

aroundi

What happe ned to sayin g somethlng?! Get it in your head;the underground was NEVER about beionging. lt was NEVER about fitting in Punk rock existed because it was Pissed off! Gradually the soul of earlY Punk toucheci a few and ii became a scene. Then a movement. Now it is a counte rculture! lt is a ll abo ut comm unicating ; pa rticipatin g withou t ar cf be ing ousted or alie rrated and

above allit was about LlVlf'JG the way vou wanied.lvl usic and counterculture *as tne ve h.cle f or that; and aware ness does wc ndei's. S inga

pore is a po lice state

nd m ost

of us are reduced to spectatordom.

know it's pretty m uch a co mP lacent comm ent but if You do Your checks we are one of the few countries that are deemed a'hYbrid regime 'which is an am alga matio n of dem ocracY and tota litaria nism. Lots of us have tried to a ppropriate social ch ange but w e are worn out by the iron f ist of law, general tired ness, su rvival issues and related what have Yous. There ls no anarcho socialist whatever movem ent and in my eyes the most f easible revolution one can have ts but a personalone. PersonallY bY not succum bing to a full time job. marriage and the shitthat goes with it, l've bee n deem ed to be dem i-rad ical. Still I'm barely 25 so. carrled o ut on a regu lar by that of opposition political

A ny d isse nt

levelis

parties. Most of us, punk or otherwise would rather find ioy (or complacent comf orti ) in the ho bb ies we love. ApparentlY their iron fist is

Also check out www.talk ingcock.com a g reat satirical site on Singapore lifestyle-ism

and www.lioncitydiy'com on the true alternative/u ndergrou nd sce ne h ere,

Back to thc! Planet B2F: I alwaya liked the amblguity of the name Back to the Planet - are we ge0lng back to the planetor ane wB turning our backs to lt? Back to the Planet formed ln 1989 and came togetherthrough the London squatting scene while Mrs Thatcherwas still giving lt her best They ended up occupylng the old dole howe in Peckham, where they founded their own label Arthur Mix Records and

developod their crossgenre mel$ng pot of ska, dance, techno and dub. ln 1991 they put out their first cassetb "Waming the Publlc" and managed to sell 5000 copies of it. Encouraged the band p ut out their first l2in single "Revolution of Thought" and a second cassette "Earzone Friendlf'both on Arthur Mix Records. By thls stage they had becomewell known fortheir organisation of local gigs and involvement in the Traveller Community and the Free Festivalscene. The festival ecene had taken a beating in 1985 when police truncheons made sure thata l2rh consecutive

festivalat Stonehenge didn't occur, which otherwlse would have given the event lega! 8tatB. Harassment of Travellers continued throughout the 80's as the authoritles fied to crush tha movement which for all its faults they m ust have seen a3 a threat. However the festivals contlnued unabaEd until Back to the Planef s appearance at the lnfamous Castle Morton Free Festival. ln May 1992 the truncheons were out again under the gulee of Operation Nomad at the Avon Free Festival forci ng 30,000 festiva l-goers i nto nei ghbouqi ng cou rrties until they gathered almost overnight on CasUemorton Common to hold a free party that lasted a full week, the biggest of its klnd since Stonehenge Free Festival ln the mid 1980s. The authoritie ielt threatened by so m uch enjoyment.

The 1994 Criminal Justice Bill was the UK govemment's attempt to preventfree assoclaton. lnitially aimed at crushing the Traveller Community it was also a draconian tool against squailng and proEst in general. The band had at this polnt signed to Parallel Records and released a num ber of singles and an album "llflnd + Sou,

Collaborators" but they were generally disappolnbd. Guitarist Fraggle com menbd at the tlme:

used to vwtk for a record company as a iunior and tlley were always talking about music lke cornflakes: make it look right and make it easy to recognize and people will buy it- We haven't dono that." "/

event in p articular tha t did kin d of p iss ofl th e au tho ritle s and that I feel was the start of them putting in place the Criminal Justice Bill. The Criminal Justie Bill did put a huge spanner in the works as the police have more rights to arest people gathering in one place. And this put a bit of a dampener on things, but the ftoe party/festival *ene juil adapted with those changes and so parties/raves kind of took over, which are a bit easiCr to organise lhan fesfies with full on rigs for bands."

B2F: The first Back to the Planet release weg the cassetb "Wamlng the Public" which you sold at gigs and through DiY networks and most of your early releases were on your own label, Arthur Mix but in 1993 you moved o nto Parallel Records whlch you described as "a,, ill-fated flirtation with a major labef'. What happened with this move and why did you ultimately end up putting out your own stuff agaln? "Well basicallywe were fed up with Parallel Records as we felt they just didn't really want ta let us grow into what we were doing musically and so decided to leave and go back to our own way of doing things. And so we put our last album out on Afihur Mix again."

B2F: ls this what ultimately led you to split up in the mid 90's or were there other factors at play? Bac k to the Planet dld play a few gigs after this though and recenUy you have been playing together again. How did it all come back together and what were you doing in the meanUme?

'rsuppose holilg backthis did lead to a split. Soon after leaving Parallel our drummer left and lhen we got another one in. We continued frke this for a whrle then the guitarist left and we got another one in and another drummer so by that tlme theln were onty three original members left and basially we had run out of $eam. Apart kom myself the other tvvo had got into making lechno along with our first drummer, And the guitarist had formed another band. After all this I decide to go out as my own thing with the last guitarist and drummer and that started my sr,lo projoct. As thee have been a lot of line-up changes some paople have been working and all of us do music in some form or another. We all got back together after being fiassled $ much to and we f inally gave in to do one gi1 last War. We enjoyed it so m uch that we are going to be playing a few fosttbs this year. That's about the size of it f or now as we arc all busy dotng other stuff but we wanted to play a few morc times and so we a re . ," I I

The band split from Parallel and went back to the DiY route releasing anotheralbum "liessages After the Bteey''and a compilation of early material, " A Poted History" on Arthur Mix Records, but split in the mld 90's. Back to the Planet reformed last year and ara glgging again. I caught up wlth lead singer and lyricist Fil to ask her about the band's glory days, hor just released solo album and plans for the future. B2F: Back to the Planet wete strongly associated with the DIY tustivalscene in the UK in the late 80's and earty 90's. Can you give a blt of background to the band during that

era partlcularly in relation to free bstivals, the Castle llllorton evâ&#x201A;Źnt in 1992 and the Criminal Justice Bill? Do you think the Griminal Justice Bill effectively destroyed the movem enf?

"As a band Back to the Planet \n/erc all squatting at that time and so we were inwlved a lot with the organisation of a bt of gigs in our local arca, mostly the Peckham dole house and a lot of other one-day fostlvals like Fordham Park in New Cross' London . There we re lots of friends a nd other ba nds at that time all helping to organise stuff - it was quite a cooperative time. The Castte Motton event was particularly memorabb Decause we had such a huge /c,qponse at our gb. The crowd just wnt mad when we played and also the festival as a whola was massive and totally brilliant, but I think that it was this

B2F: Your lyrlcs dealwith the personal and the political. Wh6tâ&#x201A;Ź do these two avenues meetforyou? How important is it to speak out about what is going on around you? Does what happens in the M iddle East impact upon you or alâ&#x201A;Ź you concerned with thi ngs closer to home?

"Well I think that we all go through personal stuff and being a the authorities if they can to make the festivals happen' and W and keep them on a sm aller scale too. Alsp (l m not nnting writer I alweys wdte to W and bring peopb together. il's here) if hald drugs i.e. heroin were kept out of things then that important to communbate; music hdlps me all the time and I would hetp. lt's the people thal have to be strong and stbk hope to do that with my mus'tc - as wel/ as to entertain too. I see the personaland the political as entwined dnyway whether togetherto g6t lhese things happening. There dre ways to do it we llke it or not. We are living in this wotd and I try to think of it if you're clever." that way. And so seeing what's happening in tho Middle Ead B2F: Hmm... l'm not sure thatworking wlth tha authorities and the p * of the world, if it ls some Knd of thre at or d ama ge would be the best approach as the boys in blue wouldn't I planet lf can bo then of couse it impacls deeply. to us or our be too keen unless ifs a case of - "yeah you can have a voie to tha cause than I have to speak out." we get to beat up tho hippies B2F: You've iust rgteasod your first solo album 't Against the Od&". W hat ls the rcleva rtce of the tltlo for the lsee a hw album? What was it liko putting lt

yourfestval as long as aftewards".,,

"As for the comment about

mem bets of lnner Terrestrials make up your backlng band along wlth Gny from BTTP. What was lt like working with them?

with the authorities towards putting on fest,es I rcally

me ant wo *i ng with the lu,al councit and Arts councils not

i" the polbe. Lewisham

suppose rcfers to how

fr putting this album together. I started it at the end of Badt to the Planet s demise and a lot of persona I th ing s happened to me. I had

ups and dovtns Basice;lly everything that was going on for me was tough and so wfien I did f inish this album, Against the Odds soemed like

the dght title as it was a miracle I got it finished, And against the odds. I had started to write the backbone of the tunes with Guy (Back to the Planet keyboardist) in his studio, and then time went by and I then asl<ed J from lnner Terrestrials to put some guitar on a track for me ' :.]t

festies il's the usualfree for all at the free ones so rt's up to all of us how we deal with tlpm. I lqe yqr see what point lwas trying to make obwousu we don't need or want them at fesf,es.

B2F: Are vou still squattinE

nowadav3? b there muchof a sou'attino moYement in you'r part df tho world? How lmoortant is itfor people io reclaim thelr

personal space in a world full of adYertisements and corporatg greed?

"l am not squatting now, afthough there are many people still doing it.But these days lt's usually to put on a party for as long as they can get the building for - thanks to the Criminal Justice Bitt." (Pick up the latest . quafting advice from this website:

ffi.tt,;,.l.

to out a new band tog'ether fortouring as

"l am looking for a drummer and a bass player to go out as a three piece. I

have my music on a 4track ihich I all separated oi.rf so / can add live

to do this and that's how I managed to finish it really. I have massive respect f or

B2F: Deeplb the Criminal Justice Bill and other draconian measures by subsequent UK governments there are still free fustivals taking place across the UK in woodlands, on secluded beaches and other out of the way places - a re you or Back to the Planet sdll involved in it a nd are y ou encouraged to see iO What were the pro blems in the original movemont as you saw it and can the new movement learn from past mistakes? l am as involved in the new movement as / can ba. I do benefit gigs still and have helped other peopb in this. I am :ealfy encourcged to see this growing aga,n, as I think it's realthy for everyone. lthink people should try and work with "

instruments b rt. lfu stlows an my own like this with a a kind of voal PA but I'd love to add a few live players now When I frst darted out on my own project I had the b*kit,o tsr,ks and live Dlavers so I wbnt to get back to

vwrking withthem.

B2F: Can we expectto see a new release f rom Back to the Pla net in the near f Gure now that y ou'rc gig again or are these gigs just a ore-off? "At the moment there are no plans for a release from Back to the Planet but we have talked about doing some remixes of tunes- At the moment that's all that we've tal4ed about and getting the time to do it is another thing. I think we arc just concentrating on fl,ose gigs we have and doing what we can in tho meantime."

thiee oiece. Will this be a morir acoustic ensemble? Whatls the story here?

all of lnne r Terrcstrials to get some live drums and oass. fhey kind of took me under their wino ltlet winq and let me have lots of stud'ao time

and

www.squatter.org.uk) B2F: On vourwebsiE it

sayE thafyou're lookin g

"i*r:"#i';'il..!#:i,r*rffi

tem

Lewisham

going after 12 years and Fordham Pa*. lnevitably the boys in blue do have to make an appearance but but at the* or?F- dav bstruals therB is usualty iuit a few to make a presence. I'm not surc as to longer

how diffbult lfound

fullof

aN got

Peoples'Day whtch is still

"The title Againsf fha Odds I

a baby boy and /osl two very i mpo ft ant f ami ly m e mbe rc ln amongst that lwas horneless and in temponry acamrnodation and a hostel, and all I wanted to do was get myself sorted out so I could make some lunes, like I was used to doing. But it was also hard sometimes to oet the studio spaceltime. fu-my tife has been

We have

sueessfully dono this with

doing this now lhave finished the album. /f'siusf a matter of finding the right people who are enough to do it." B2F: How did the London Bombings affect you? Do you think that those attacks happened as a direct result of British involvement in Afghanlstan and lraq? Do yo u think that votino miqht be a tool against futuro goverrurrents going to viar w'ithout our con'sent? (l ask this in that if the 30% of mostly young people who didn't vote did then it might be possible to gâ&#x201A;Źt Green or lndependent part+es ilrto power or doyou feel likemostsalty old anarchists that we shouldn't vote as the governmentwill only get in? r "The London bombings did really affect me i'e:-' :-,': - :':' so many rclatives and lrbnds who had !. iiz''. t -:-'::- .: thattime. Of course they happened as z :;-;::'::-: : ' i -:s'

i -,.':... :- '- :: -:,.' horrible way to be. l have neter "t:l:: - -., + --' 'e: .,::i: t-: -,-: agomainly because lneverhec 3::'-.':-.,:: a/so because I think all politC)2.s =': -- =': - -': - '-â&#x201A;Ź :.-e inwlvement in lraq and Afghanistaa

paranoidatetnrything and everyoia:.: --2: e?: z

But I haw voled twice now for the Green Party because green issues concern me a great deal but also because I didn't want my vote to the normal government. So / suppose I think at /east I a a more positive thing to do rather than to do nothing."

weird and unnatural. like l'd lost a leg or somothing $o Tjust make it up as I go along."

B2F: On the new solo album there's a lyric that questi ons the role of organised religion. W hat are your thoughts o n religion in general? Areyou interested in pagan ideas or do you them ultimatelj as having the same problem s as organised religion? "Well lthink that it's mainly governments and religions that have caused most wars throughout hiEtory I don'l think there is anything wrong with having faith. but faith in yourseff and others. The world is sach a wider place now and integrated that lthink we really don{need this anymore. We neqd.,to think on a moe global and lniinanitarian level, being nncened for att of us allover the woild as a whole. We.havd.trEd and tested all these religions and gorarnments andisth fney f ail us so for me it's people power to p ut it simply, blefoy',b wo lose our world to global warming or catastaphe.

BZF'. "Teenage lurtles", a.satire on tegnage m utant ninja whatever turtles is one of Back to the Planet's m ost renowned tracks. ls the meaning behind the song even more meaningful to you no/v thatyouare a parent? How has parenthood changed the way you look upon the world?

www . m ysp ac e. co m ib acktothepJqnPt

WwW.mySpace.com/filplanet,":i'"' - .,,

"Basically yes the meaning behind'Turtles' is still really relevant to me now being a mum only it's loads of other stuff that I try and guide my son away from. like X boxes. nasty violent computer gailes, luckily Fynn hasn't got an Xbox so onty plays on other kids opes But it is quite scary some of the content in these games let alone the amount of time some kids spend on them. One kid I know can spend up to I hrc a day on it no joke. Being a mhm does make me more conscience of what's going on aaund for \ids. ldon't think of my needs first anymore and am alwayscheckingout stuff forFynn,l'm not over the top, but I do try and encourage him to use his brain and imagination a lot. So he does make stuff, draw and read. A lot of kids now don't do much of this other than at school."

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"l stillthink the vast maJority of peoplo don't care too much about it. but because of the weatherbeing so mad at the moment and the rate of glaciers melting and seeing polar bears stranded on tiny ico patches:I is startlng to wake peoplo up. Our bcal council are really good with reclrcling and rl s starting to get better all over London now but not guick enough. Also I think that really it's the government who need to make more effort in helping everyone be able to be greener by making it morc affordablo in the first place. I think a lot more people would introduce energy saving things;if it vverc mop affodable and accessible. I've noticed in a ht ot Europe they are more greener than us and simple things like making you pay for a plastic bag makes you bring your own one."

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"l just tove music and I love having a go. /ts as slimp/e as lhaL It gives me so much pleasurc and pain doing it. , am sp usâ&#x201A;Źd didn't have soo?e musrca/ thing on the go it would be totally

a& ri *E

raleases? How lmportant is the DiY ethic to you?

to doing music now I can't imagine not doing it. I have times when I'm not very.ective and other things take ovet, but if I

B2F: Yiqurelf-released your solo album - do you think you'll coritihue to stick with the DiY approach for future

B2F: Where do you get your drive to write the music you do? ls there anything else you'd liketo add?

i 'a

m entioned that you found grebn issues important but do you thlnk people ln general are really taking any notice of global warming and probably won't until it actually affects them directly? Are we so really dlstracted by our W lifestyles that we're not really au/are ofwhafs going on around us?

B2F: You

''Well atthe moment lam stbl<ing to what I know best as far as reba'sing stuff. I am really just trying to get the CD out as and when. l'm quite happy with this for now. ldo obviously wantto .: sell it as much and as far as possr0/e. but I don't feel I'm in any pressure aboutit, which isgood. The DIY method is sfir/ c,ose to my heart and t'll continue with this for now."

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MEA}.IWHILE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Despite this. very fist punk bands in Czechoslovakia started back in late 70's after some UK punk vinyls were smuggled here - bands like EXTEMPORE, ZIKKURAT. GARAZ' ENERGIE G... later also A64, KECUP, VISACI ZAMEK or

F.P.B, They were influenced mostly by the most knov'tn punk bands such as SEX P/SfOLS, DAMNED, SfR,4NGLERS, DEAD BOYS, GENERATION X etc. Also some of these bands were not strict punk - they played sorne sorf of new \Nave or jazz-rock, but decided to throw few punk numbers {often cover songs with original music, but Czech lyrics] into their sets - fhis

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B2F: From 1948-1989 Czechoslovakia was a Comm unist state. The regime was consldered to be highly repressive

particularly in the 50's and 60's when show trials were cornmonplace but by 1989 pluralistic ideas, and the Velvet Revol ution brought m ajor changes as Communism ended and the Czech Republic split with Slovakia to form an independent state. The Czech Republic is widely regarded as having the smallest population of religious believers in Europe. lnspiring stuff indeed ! Your lntrepid reporter caught up with Filip Fuchs who has been a mainstay of the Czech punk scene for many years. What is it like living in the Czech Republic since it split with Slovakia in 1993? ls the government that's in power now similar to government underthe Communist Regime? ''I think that it's nof so drastically different from living in any

other "Western type" country with free market

and

pariiamentary democracy. Sometimes it's tough to say but yes, today's government is way better than the Communist regime. There are more freedoms and more possib/ifles how to lead your life."

B2F: What was the punk scene like under comm unism

Was it more underground and did the state treat punk as threat?

? a

"tt was more underground and more honest, no doubt about it.

ln 70's and early 8a's the state considered rock m usic in general (not only punk) as a threat and tried to ban it, There were lists with dozens of bands names, who should be

prohibited from playing gigs. lt was alm ost imposslb le to play live legally - you had to obtain some kind of guarantee from one of fhe sfate's approved organizations {like the "Union Of Socia/rs/ Youth'] and you had to go through musical exams in front of commission composed of professional musicians. local politicians efc. Also there were no clubs {of course no squats, youth centres efc. as well] and basically no possibilities to play at all. All this repression against rock went back to mid 70's vthen the sfafes-opposition {totally illegal of course} supported u

nd ergroun

and

ZIKKURAT. You can still find the {usually very good!} live tapes from these bands, which are the only soLlrce of music from these tlmes as these bands obviously had no chance to record in normal studio or even to release record {there were only three official state-owned record labels back then), I would recommend F.P.B. especially, who played really good hard-driving punk with poetic lyrics. Some live tapes do exisl + in early 90's they re-recorded their old songs and released them on LP and CD. From the ashes of F.P.B. arose two other very interesting bands - UZ JSME DOMA and SANOV, who still play and the former one are very popular in the abroad

move

ment

roun

d the b and

P LA S TIC

PEAPLE aF THE UN/VERSE. ln general you can say that Com munist state did feared of any youth movement which was nat und er his strict control.

You should understand the circumstances under which these bands did existed: there was total cultural isolation from the "Westem" wofd - you could not buy the punk rccords in the shops, you could not see fhe punk bands on TV or hear them on radio, there were only very rare possibilities to see punk bands live officially in early 80's, you could not travel outside {with the exception of other socia//sf countries}, there were no shows of foreign punk bands at all {with the exception of DIE TOTEN HOSEA/ frcm Germany who played here in 1987 and it has ended with huge riot]. So you can't v'tonder that most of punk bands were influenced by stuff like SEX P/S f OL S, EXPLOITED, CLASH etc. as /t was viftually impossible to finC recardings of more underground/D.l.Y. bands here.

On the other hand sometimes the people from Western countries have fhese ill-informed views about living in Communist times - it was not easy, but there was no hunger, the political and cultural repression during 80's slowly calmed down and it wasn't like every punk rocker would get shot or senf to prison. Of course that police sometimes did attack the illegal gigs {held in pubs, private homes etc.} and people got beaten up orfined. but usually not iailed, But the secret police

kept an eye on punk movement {like on every youth movement) and after the regime's change in 1989 it v'tas

revealed from secret police's archives that some people active in punk scene as band members or gig organisers were secret police's aEIen fs... sad b ut true.

As the 80's went on, there were more punk and hardcore at leastfor me one of the best things in punk. Paying attention bands, around 1985 the regime changed its repression to only to the most popular shit or to some reformed rehashed old more tolerance and allowed the Union of Socialist Youth to farts from the past is very mainstream behaviourto me.

organize huge "rock festivals", where some punk bands were allowed to play. lthink thatif the "revolution" in 1989 would not I am not sure if the Eastern Europe sll// does exist - we are come, then there would be also official punk records released over-flooded with Westem production {n music tooJ and most in the end {ike in Poland or Yugoslavia}. The only official of bands are of course influenced by Westem stuff. lthink that Czechoslovakian punk record from Communist times ls in Poland there were {and probably still are} some great punk V lS A C I ZAM EK 7 " released in 1 988 {a nd it's very goo d!}. bands sounding quite "Eastern European" - playing charyed driving punk bands with great melodies like 80's stuff lwould like to recommend you some more bands from 80's: DEZERTER, SIEKIERA, ARMIA, REJESIRACJA... in 90's HRD lN OV E NOV E FR ON TY {H.N .F.J: unlike many othe r POST REGIMENT... today for example PEZD {Prank records Czechoslovakian bands they were not influenced by SEX put out their LP recently]. From Czech you should check out P/SrOtS or EXPLOITED, but by DEAD KENNEDYS and F.P.B. and SMRT MLADEHO SEBEVRAHA {80's}, TELEFON, DISCHARGE. The result was crushing raw punk with great C.T,C., PSI, COMPLICITE CANDIDE, INNOXIA CORPORA, parts filled with distorted guitar solos and hapeless screams. ZEMEZLUC, MAC GYVER {90's + today}... who all play or Most of their lyrics dealt with horrors af war. They organized played something which you could consider as "typical" illegal shows in their hometown, se/f-released four demo tapes Eastem European sound. You should also check out {later there was vinyl LP released in early 90s with stuff from GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORaNA from Russra {80's stuff only},

fhese demos] and also put out the very first punk zine

PSyCHOIERROR from Estonia or some of the great 80's Yugoslavian bands {U.8.R., TOZIBABE, NEKROFILIJA, lll.

Czechoslovakia. They existed between 1985 and 1988.

KATEGORIJA etc.]."

RADEGAST: the very first Czechoslovakian hardcore band, influenced by MINOR THREAT, YOUTH BRIGADE, BATTALION OF SA/A/fS eb. put two demo tapes out, the one from 1986 {w/male and female vocals} is really great. They started back in early 1as and split up in ealy 90's after rerecording the old songs and releasing them on LP.

TELEX: great rampaging hardcare/punk actite in iate 80's. They covered many foreign bands, but used Czech lyrics + oi

course played own songs too. They did stuff from

O LH a SECO, ARMIA, CHAOS U.K., DAYGLO ABORTiCNS etc. ln 1989 recorded demo tape, split up in 1990.

ZASTAVKA MILEC/ZNOUZECTNOST: two bands with aimost the same line-up, great simple melancholic punk rock active since early 80s until today. Lots of demo fapes from 80's do ex ist,

ZONA A: from Slovakia's capital-city Bratislava, active since late 70's {back then they were called PARADOX}, they play catchy "77" punk rock. They still play, but today it's iust a ioke. They did m any tapes in B0's too.

There were more bands like PLEXIS, DO RADYi, NOVODUR, LORD ALEX, MLADE ROZLETY etc,, but there's no place ta list them all, "

B2F: What is the scene like in Czech today? ls there any political or squatting movements? You've been involved in punk for a long time - how has it changed for you and are the changes for better or for worse?

"lthink that it's prelty active compared to many other countries. Especially the hardcore scene still remains mostly D.l.Y. and well organized with dozens oi bands, some good iabels, zines,

glg spaces... Squatting doesn't exist here in last years. /n 90's there were some squats in Prague {Sochorka, Ladronka, Milada...i, but they were either evicted or left empty. Wtth politics and punk lt also used to be better here in early/mid 90's, but af /east animal rights and antifascist issues sfl// seems to be strongly accepted in hardcore/punk scene. You should uncierstand that after 1989 many ideas cr oolittcal activities were kind of nei',' and fresh here and peopie used io

be more active. today they are pacifieo

r',''i!h elriisss

consurnption and maybe a ittile ilorn out and disirTus cn eC toc'

B2F: Why do you think the English-speaking scene tends to largely ignore what's going on in Eastern Europe and Asian punk scenes? What is the wider eastern European

scene like in general? "lt used to be always like this - RocknRoll, punk rock; hardcore... they were all born in UK/U.S.A. and not in Czechoslovakia or Romania. So people pay more attention to these countries assuming that bands from more "exotic" countries willprobably suck anyway.ldon't know, ask your friends how many bands from Czech do they know. There are tons of releases {on vinyl and CD} of Czech bands and Czech bands quite often tour UK, so you mustbe really ignorant to international scene to miss them. I don't understand this kind of closed-mindedness as discovering new unknown bands ls

B2F: Do you think that scenes in these countries tend to copy the UK and Arnerica in musical styles and thatthis is perhaps why they are often overlooked or do you think it is simply the language barrier? 'Sc,,rie banCs do copy but it's the same everywhere in the \.'crld. not only in the Eastern Europe. Take a look at Japan ir-.ese bands take or even blatantly steal something and make it better sound in the end. A/so see my previous answer - as the punk was started in UK, you can hardly expect foreign bands to sound completely different. On the other hand 90% of Czech bands do sing in Czech language, so you can at least get some oiginality here. The bands I mentioned above have all unique saund, but still it doesn't seem to help them to gain more recognition from outside. Language barrier-.. lCon't knov" - how many other languages other than English do YaU speak? Over here most of people can understand English or

German.

ln my opinion the bands outside the

hyped

UK/lJS/Scandinavian circuit tend to get ignored not because they are worse, but because people in general /apart frcm few die-hard enfhusiastsJ iust don't care and are not willing to search for them. And today they don't even have to search for them so hard as there is quite a good number of releases on vinyl and other f orm ats."

B2F: ls there a political vacuum in Czech now and is there any evidence of a rise in right-wi ng organisations? ls

there m uc h anti-fascist activity?

"After the Communist's regime failed there was huge of right-wing activity and most of govemments since 1989 until today were right wing. Today there's a coalition of ight wing pafties, Christian4emocrat party and green party. One of the big issues is the planned US radar base which should be built in Czech {near PragueJ despite the disagreement of most people. Other than that it's the usual neo-liberal bollocks like in the rest of Western Europe -

resurgence

privatisation, cutting taxes for the rich, while taxing the middle-

ctass and poor, cuts

in health services etc, /l's

same

everywhere. Nazi activity goes in waves, early 90's were worst, today they seem to get more active again, but maybe not so violent, but

more "political"

- trying to organize legal

marches, h aving

official parties etc., but they are still the same Nazis."

B2F: What advice would you give to bands f rom the UK who want to play in somewhere like the Gzech Republic?

Are there any good contacts that you'd recommend for setting up gigs?

"There are many UK bands, which have already played in Czech and I think it's nothrng special anymore... You name almost any tJK band at least little active tour-wise and they have probably already played here (welt, except DISCHARGE), Bands usually play in Prague i007 ClubJ, Brno

{Yacht Club or in our practise room}, in Roznov pod Radhostem {Vrah} Liberec, Napaiedla, Jihlava... But it really clepends on the style you play and if the hand is at least a bit

known and have some releases out. There are way too many

gigs all the time and sometimes it's difficult to organize something. But still I think that people are not {yetJ so spoiled

and most of gigs are usually prctty good and wild. Our United Cruslies gig collective here in Bmo did organized gigs for

bands like BICKLES CAB, AFTERBIRTH {2 times}, 14/ARDEAD, FLYBLAWN . we usually prefer crust, f ast HC, raw pu nk band s."

B2F: Does Religion play a big part in Gzech life now that the Communist Regime is gone or is there still a large atheist tra diti on there? "yes, mosf of people tn Czech are atheist and lhope lf sfays like this. lt's very different from Poland, where the Catholics are going wild having sa much power and abusing it {ike alwaysJ. You can see many chut'ches in Czech, but only few people are religious here and the above-mentioned Christian party has all the time /ess and /ess voters. Church is not very pop ular here. "

B2F: You wrote a book a few years back about punk in your part of the world. Tell me a littl e about what the book was about and the ideas behind it? Was it well-received?

"The book has mare than 300 pages and it's about hardcore/punk scene in Czechoslovakta from early 70's till 1989. ft's written in Czech language only. but there are dozens of photos inside too. Basically it is detailed history of every punk band who ever played in this period + chapters about recordings, zines and concerts in general. I contacted many people from these old bands and it was very interesting work- I put the book out back in 2002 and there were two re-presses. ln totalthere were 2000 copies sold and currently lf 's so/d out, Maybe there will be another repress of 500 copies in the end of this year, I decided to put out the book in total D l.Y. way as I don't want to pay taxes from it and want it to stay away from musical busrness. I think it was received extremely well both from readers and from the band-members of said bands. By the way the book's name translates as "Guilars and Screams Punk Rock and H ardcore in Czechoslovakia before 1989", I wanted to write a book about Czechoslovakian hardcore/punk history from the D.l.Y. punk perspective and to put it out this way. I wanted to do it before some rock-magazine iournalist trtill do it as it would be most probably total farce. I think that it's important that we, as active pafticipants in the punk scene, document our otl\tn culture."

B2F: ls there anything else you'd like to add? "Thank you for your interest to our scene. lf you plan to come here, check out wvtw.czechcore.cz website for the list of shows alt around the country. You can contact me or my band SEE YOU iN HELL here:

orba@sezn am-cz

www.seeyouinhell.cz {you can find here links to many Czech

bands/labels]

www.m ys pa ce .co m/s eeyou inh ellthras h

Or if you prefer to good old-fashioned old school past, then my address is: Filip Fuchs, Grohova 39, 602 00 Brno. Czech Republic There is great book D/SCOGRA PHY OF EASIERA/ EUROPEAN PUNK MUSIC 1977-1999 released by French label TIAN AM MEN 89 REC ORDS, which is still availabte. lt has discographies of punk siuff from countries such as Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, German Dem ocratic Rep ublic, Hu ngary, Kazakh stan, Kosovo, Latvia, Li th u a n ia, M ac e doni a, f,tl old ov a, P ol and, Rom a ni a, Russia, Serf la & Montenegro (FRY), Slovakia, Slovenia, Tuva, tJkraine + bonus: Cuba and the People's Republic of China! 220 pages, 1200+ bands indexed, contact addresses, bibliography, full listing of vinyl and CD's, selection of cassetleonly releases, including song filles. Limited to 500 copiesI am sure if rs sfrT/ available, check h ttp.

//w w

geoc i lie

s. c o m / ta m 8 9 rd

out their website: s"

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B2F: Propagandhl 6i6 a M anitoba Ca na da w ho since gained notoriety wrth FatWreckCfiordS have gained a: 1 ieputation lor their honesly and integrity as well 8s their po[tics which often take precedence overtheir music. Unlike manyof their peers who have moved over to ma jor labels or been happy to comprom ise their supposedty nadicat polilics by ioinino overtlv commercialventures like the Vans Warped Tour ln ttre-US, th6y have maintained a strict antLcapitalist ethos with which they run their own DiY record label G7 Welcom ing Committee, while also maintaining a contagious sense of fun often absent from the genre. They played the UK and lreland in late 2006 and I caught an exceptional show in Belfast (which they saiJ was the best of the tour). Your intrepid reporler caught up with the guys just as they released their new DVD " Livo from Occupied Tetritory" and bega n wit h a very piercing question: So how did you gettogether and how did you getthe

labelgoing? Todd'. "Wetl, the band came togotherbecause Jord and Chris were two young Portaqe punks with the utge to play some tunes. One played guitar and one played drums. They played together as.a lwosome for quite a whib, I think. Actually. I think Chis ptayed bass on the first PPpagandhi demo, 'F uck fhe Scene"

hrls: "/t was a dark and stormy night on a sunny moming in beautifut downtown Portage la Praiie. Manitoba, $/ay back in the eady 80's. Me (Chnil and Jord (Jord) were playing tier'4 bantam hockey together. We bst every goddam game we played, but built a bt of character in the pocess. So much chancter, in fact, that a few years bter we ended up not having too many lriends and wee for@d to hang out with each other. Jord did wmething hilarious every day to get kicked out of Mr. Watt's Scbnce 100 class (apologies to Cindy Landriault) so I was able to overloo| the fact that he wore a Coney Hatch shirt. I asked him if he wanted fo start a band. He said OK. A f ew years tdtor, we both moved to Winnipeg and w put up a poster al Records on Wheets that read "Progressive thrash band looking for bassfllayer". C

1,( ,qrourrd thiii's,ame'time our friends dlâ&#x201A;Ź Rb/iulhersr,lrere putting on a show at the Royal Albert Arms Hotelfor a band ,

from California called NOFX. V/e showed John the songs and ptayed the show. Fat Mike approached us after our set and asked for a tape. We gave him a copy of our 2nd demo; entitted"Fuckthe Scene"(he strT/owes us $7.68 forit). He said he would be interested in putting sonlething out by us but had atlhis money tied up in a7 inch by a band calied Lag Wagan' I thought to myself, "What a dinl<y operation. lt'll never go anywherc".

Anyways, he kept calling us for about a year and eventually I lost a round of rock-paper-sassors and had to call him beck. He said. "Hey dudes, fly down to L A. and l'll pay for 6 days at West Beach Sfudios with Donnel Cameron", We werc like ' "What? Ok", just totally laughing and shit. We got on a plane, saw Gretzky at the airpoi and eventualiy recorded what tumed out to be "How to Clean Everything . So then Mike asked us if we'd go on tour in Eurcpe with NOFX. We were like. "What? Ok. Beauty, eh?"

For the next 3 years, we rode the tail'end of the punk'rock explosion. When the smoke cleared and we werc putting together"Less Talk More Rock", it vtas beaming evident that Jordy and l, the rural metal-heads, were cut from an ontirely differentcloth than little JohnJohn. the urbana poet. He iust didn't seem to enioy getting attacked by Nazi'skinheaCs or steeping on plss-soaked maftresses in lbe'infested ltalian squats anryore. Go f igurc. So shortiy after we recorded LTMR. we shook hands. pertormed a mutual cullittg of the herd and like all good revolutionary anticapitalists. got into an argument about money. Eventually, we worked out our diff erences and he lped John into his provefuial Golden Parachute. whbh he has apparentty, thus far. rclted into $80.000 worth of pennies with which to buy gournet peanut butter and bread made of goldWeird!

Our onty call came from a guy who went by the name of Hopper. I went over to his house and nng the bell- He answercd the door in his underwear with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other. / was scared. We iammed for about 5 minutes and then Hopper announced a smoke-break that was quickly fotlowed by a beer$rcak. Then another smokebreai. He ihen suggested that we may want to get more beer bafore the tiquor-storr- closed in 7 hours. Anyways. to make a long story short. Hopper eventually leftlhe band to ioin local gind legends, Crawl. but in his shoft tenurP- as Popagandhi bass-meister, managed to turn me into a blilhering alcoholic. Cheers. Fenwich! So then we got a call from a young lad named Stinky Mike tho wanted to ptay bass Mike tended to wear a leather iacket'"'/ith no shirt on underneath in the summer, hence his nick-nameWe played our very iirst shows with M ike. including one with Fugazl in 1gg1 that was definitely one of the bigger hi-iites of our bareer"to date. Most importantly, pefiaps. Mike took us to parties and inttoduced us to people, w hich I initially thought would be our ticket to Ladio sville, but Jord always managed to screw it up by f alling down the sfa/s as we made our entrance and, sadty, we always ended up back in SausageCity. Mike eventually tired of our antbs and succumbed to the "l'm' movingio-Vanauver" disease lhat nvaged the Winnipeg punk icene of the early 90's. We bid him a sad and stinky 'f arewetl at the bus station and began the search for another

Anyways, we began the search for the Chosen One. the one the Oracle had propheshed would help us fulfill our mission to thrash the planet into subrnissbn with ourradical, humane rnessage/ I was digging the !rogressive thrash band looking for a bass-ptayer" pasteroutof the archives when I saw him. Kowalski. Todd Kowalski to be exact - "Ihe Rod"as he was known back in Rogina. Ihere was something about him. I suddonly felt a warmth unlike any I had fell before. He was

peaing on my arm. @at, in addition to the fact that be didn't own a bass or a bas*amp aN to be quite frcnk, had never even played Dass Defdf,e. sett/ed il.

*;i

'-ui.f;.

i' global onslaught. Canada, Australia, Japan, dominoesfor the Emainder of '96 dnd inta

record label, G7 Welooming Committee Records By eady '99, we got G7 under rclative control and tumed our eneqies bac* to Propagandhi. We finally got a permanent practice space (permanent in fhe sense thot it is only temporary) in Jord's basement and spent 1999 redisovering our roots, rccapturing the spirit that made us sta/t this dumb band back in whatever year we daded it, and putting together lhe songs that appear on Today's Ernplres ...And here we aro today, at wh al is likely only the end of the first chapter of what is shaping up to be a bng and sordid story ... god help you

all." B2F: You recently toured in the UK and lreland, how did that all g o?

f odd:

"We had a good time. keland uras awesome. Less people at the shows than in England but it is aol Belfast was awasome. We went to some o/d cast/es in the middle of a foggy night somewhere between Belfast and Dublin. Scotland was greal as well."

B2F: You are well known forencouraging veganism and animalrights, Do you find that espousing these views isoften counter productive in that many f ind animalrights to be extremist to the point thai human life is seen as expendable and also that ma ny people who eat animals find themselves excluded? ls there a riqht to eat meat?

Todd: ''fhere /sno rc..:iaxllt a.2.,rna'faryoursurvival if you hav.e other options l-,ree .'s irci,l .. r'E.t lo just go buy a colpse atthe store tha ,,',,as !,np.so1ea a,..C kitled tn a factory for your own enjoymenl Ercotra_,i:c aatrai,ights is not cointerprcductive to enccuraging a.,..e,,.ghts There is nothing extreme about demanding fair anl j's! lieatment for others in this world. I don't know hoi,, animai riEkis na<e human lif e expendable? ln f act I think ex!endtng canca ssicn and courtesy to all living beings ls necessarf and gcoC if pea ple who eat meat feel excluded then there n rs! be

scneth tng v,'rong v'tith what they are doing I neve r iee. zrct .tCed r',hen I'm a sole vegetarian around peaate eaitlg .r9ai 1,1 iact if i ',,",as cne in a hundred. r,'hich t hav'e beell 2! a ::'-t c iL nc:on s ihen ' am stillccn!e4i ',.,1lt n!'eics,irJl .i ?j

really, do people ever worry about vegetarisns boing ex clude

o."

ANIMALS ARE NOT BIOLOGICAL MACHINES 'lf you listen to the worcts of a c;ouple of songs, you may sense that there's a real problem in the relationshlp between humyns and other-than-human animals. And it's a socrallusrice,ssue, as real as racrsm, sexlsm and homophobia. ln f ad, it's the same problem. Opprassive power structuBs and the institutions and people that conttol them disonfranchise and exploit vulneoble individuals. The exploited bse their inherent value; they becomo of valua only so la r as they are of value to the dominant group. Their righl to chobe and selfdetermination ae rklicubd, dismissed and subordinatod to the wants and whims of the dominators. So what are we talking about? We're talking aboutwomen (wimminl), workels, people of colour, gays, lesbians, chidren- and animals. Exploitation and disrespect us the sarnâ&#x201A;Ź loors to turn individuals into commodities: in the sex trfle, chitd-labour, wage-labour. slavery and the meaVdairy industry. A bt of us make up rules of doaling with the world an.d with others: we set up arbitrary monl boundarbs. Some oxdude wimmin; some draw tines that exctude gays and resDiars; soriit dnw lines around anyone who's notfamiliar. Moit,of us,dnw lines between us and animals. So their lives and fleedg lhe-ir bves and fears all become s/abs of meaf on the tablei g.l.a ttnedhal" tool. Or a pair of shoes. Ora "pet". BUT ITS Or\ttYCONVENTDN THAT TELLS US TO EAT AND USE ANiMALS. /I'S NOI reason, or need, or anything but outight,llfge:d, We have to challenge these customs lusf as we challedge $scrimination based on gender, racr, age or sexual orhhtation- Because if's all the same bill of goods that the power elite wAnt us to ac@pt. Put it this way: if you can make a case for eating a hamburger, you can make a case fo defend 'ape, g+t.tashing and white supremaby. Arbitrary ethical boundaries don't work for the individuals on the other srde. Socia/iusfipe is a6out stopping brutality and extending consideralion to the inheDnl

valueof others, Bynoteating meatanddairy. and nat \',eanng animals for clothing, you acknowledge that animats 2,e

complex, thinking, feeling individuals who are de,',,e: :hc x and fundamental freedoms just to feed the g ree2 '' -,-'a'i beings- And you denythe syslem that tells r,.=,:'..-.' s value is in v",hether it can be bought cr scic .": - :2' a:' -:a back even more deeply by joining cr ft'-,'^ .- .' - 2 liberation organization you're thrc,','ic 2 1'3 -:='.2 ;: :' a: socjetr, calis 'decency" and 'reso=::a:: -a'a: -;'::..!,,

: =,e-. .'S:-a :., j::-- _-- _ -. : :'':-:-=: vace a.' :1e st.=::i : a .: :a :'a: a- - a : its i-:<...2'eae L.

jr:gss s.::-9:': i::---i --- :-: :-: -': :a:

B2F: Hypothetically speaking if'one of the band caught pubic lice from a ceriain activity they were continually engaged in woulcl those pubic lice be granted the seme righls as other species?

Todd: 'Jord's crabs live on lo this dayl" B2F: Bes kJes supporting th e rig hts of p ubic crab s, d rum m er Jord is abo involved in the migrants ri;hts group No.one b lllegal (www.nooneisillegal.org) a nd the Canada.Haiti Action Network (www.ca nada ha itiad io n. ca) Acco rding to thei r websile they are united by a deiermination to raise awareness of what is aclually happening in Haiti, and the real effec'ts of the Government of Canada's support for the February 29, 2004 US inspired coup d'etat that overthrew Haiti's dem ocratica lly-ele cted gove rnme nt.

Jord:'Canada an currying fawur with the Busft administration by participating ln a coup d'eldt and breaking international laws...Quebec hydro is down there [in Haiti] secuing

deals".

there's a track about COINTELPRO. Can you tell us what exactly COINTELPRO is?

Chris: 'COlA/TELPRO was the FBl's secrel program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the I 960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" politicalopposition inside the US. When traditional modes of reprcssion (exposure, blatant h arassment, and prosecution for political cimes) failed to counterthe growing insuqency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau tookthe law into ils own hands and secretly used f @ud and force to soDofage conslitutbnally protected p;olftical activity, Its metlrods fanged fatbeyond surveillance, dnd amounted to a domestic version of the covert action lor which the CtA hasbecome infamous throughoutthe world. An excrilent source for further rcading aboutthe program can be found in the form of an essay by Ward Churchiil on the "Today's Em pires, Tom orrow's AsDes" a/bum or on our website." B2F: According to Noam Chomsky, (some of whose works G7 has published) war is justifled it certain criteria are met. These were that all diplomatic eff orts had been exhausted and that it was the will of the majoniy of the people of that country or if an actof aggression has been committed. ls America in any sense.iustified by its invasion of Afghanistan?

B2F: Propagandhi run their rccord label G7 WelcomirE Committee based upon Participatory Economics. ParEcon is a type oi economy proposed as an alternative to contemporary capitalism, The undertying values are equily, solidarfty, diversity, and participatory self managâ&#x201A;Źment. The main institutions are workers and consumers councils utiiizirtg self managed decision making, balanced job complexes, remuneration according to effort and sacrifice, and participatory planning. Jord did an interview with lndymedia lreland recentl-v and was asked about the idea aiong with his reactions tc the likes of Punk-Voter and the Warped Tour.

Todd: 'No nol unlâ&#x201A;Źss Venezuela is justified in bombing Florida to get back the terrorisfs that have taken refuge fhere. U.S.

Jord'. "Participatory economics and democracy is something I think this wold seriously needs to consider and improve on. lt allows you to be critical of enterpises which are run top-down in a more dictatorial way...that form of social organisation is more f ascist than it is democratic. lt is mind boggling all the bands that inspired us to be a political band from day one werc anti-ca pitalist ta the core... I think the whole anti-globalization movement was picking up sa much speed...and then these bands are literally aligning tltc.fisr.lves with Masle rC ard, dodEe trucks and vllpo games. The whole thing tumed from being in your face and challenging...l found it soul4estrolng to watch it all unfold". B2F: You hailfrom Winnipeg in Canada. Can you tell us what part Canada has played in the War on Terrorism/Geopolitical carving-up of natural resources?

Todd: "Well, asyou may have seen on the net'rs, Canada has forces in Afghanistan right now. In fact six of them were blasted tvto days ago. Canada always has its little paws all over the place sniveling behind the good ole U.S.of A." B2F: So do ycu hate America ns f or what they're doing?

Chrig: 'We don't hate Americans. I hate the fact that we are even ever asked this quastion. Some of our besl frrends are Americans. Seriously. citicisttls of Amerba have less, if anything at afl, to do with individualcitizens. and everything to do with a level of power @ncentated in the hends of "American" policy-makers (by and laqe, rbh corpoatbns and. their lackey polithilrns). You have to keep in mind, there arc millbns of American citizens who live lives in opposition to the role that their country (and most Western countries. Canada included) plays in the suppressio n and destuction of the values of freedom and democracy- The United Slates is this planet's only economic and military superpower. We think it's important to ask how it became and how it remains the most influential playeron tho world's stage. And we think that if you take time outfrcm the shallow, whitewashed analysis we get from the corporate-owned media, you'll begin to find a lot of ugly answers abouthow the world actuallywotks.2 B2F: On your "Today's Empires Tomorrow's Ashes' album

aggression is for political and monetary gains. fhere,ia no : ] iustice tfiee at a,ll.': '. r,'jl ,I COU,VTR/ES ARE

DUMts

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there's a track about COINTELPRO- Can you tell us what exactty COINTELPRO'ts?

pubi0 B2F: Hypothetically speaking if one of the band caught ir." rrotil', certain ictivity thiy were conlinually engaged in ri,o,rri i'ti".J prou rue u6 gra-nteo the same r(?hts as other species?

Chris: 'COINTELPRO was the FBI'I &crel program to

undermlne the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Couiterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. fhe FBl set out to etiminate "radical" politicalopposition inside the US. When traditional modes of reprcssion btatant harassment, and prosecution for political (exposure, 'crimes) failed to counterthe growing insuryency, and even hetped b fuet it, the Bureau tookthe law into its own hands and secretty used f nud and force to saDofage conditutionaily protected [oliticai activity. Ifs methods ranged tarbeyond 'suveillance, dnd amoulted to a domd}tlb version af the covert actbn for which the CA has become iflfamous throughout the wortd. An excstlent source for further reading aboutthe program can be found in the form of an essay by Ward 'Chirchitl on the "Today's Em pires' Tomorrow's Ashes" a/bum or on our we Dsite. "

Todd: "Jord's crabs live on to this day!" B2F: BesirJes supporting the rights of pubic crabs d rummer b I-o'iialso invotvbo in tie migiants rightsgroup Noâ&#x201A;Źne aiU Action Can.ada-H th.e and (***.noonebillegal.org) iri"g.t

io n c a ) A c co rd i ng to the i r f.r et]"ro * (www ca nad a ha iti acl website they are united by a determ ination to raise awareness ls ai:tuatly na ppe ning ln Haiti, and the-real effects of ;f "h;i Lf Canada'i support for the February 29' tne'Cor"rntn"nt iOOa US inspired coup d'etat that ovedhrew Haiti's .

dem ocratica lly-ele

ded gove rnme nt'

'Canad a arc currylng fawur with the Bush Jord: -riiniitirti", by patbipaing in a cou-p d'etat and breaking iiiiiiiiiiil'tainisL-Qrioec ivdro is down there [in Haiti]

B2F: According to Noam Chomsky, (some of whose woks G7 has published)-war is iustified it certain crileria ale mel' These ;;;Jth;frIaipromatlc efforts had been exhausted and that it was ttre will of ihe ma,ioriiy of the people of that country or if an aci of aggression has been commitled ls America in any se nse jJstifleO by its inva sion of Afgha nistan ? B2F: Propagandhi run their lecord label G7 Welcomlrp Eommitt"e 6ased upon Participatory Economics' ParEcon is a tvoe of economy proposed as an alternative to contemporary Jipitarism. The undertying values are equily' solidarity' aGiiity, and participaiory self management' The main self inititrti6n. are workers and consumeis councils utilizing managed decision making' balanced job complexes' remun-eration according to effort and sacrifice' and ioro dkl an interview with lndvmedia b'r'iii"iJititv ptJnning.-was asked about the ilJea along with his i-;;i &dt;t[ and r*.tiont to thl lkes of Punk-Voter and the Warped Tour' Jord: "Participatory econombs and democracy is something

Todd: "No nof unless Venezuela is iustified in bombing. fl9rida iiiiioi"x tie terorisfs that haw {aken ref uge there' U 'S'

seiiously needs to oonsider and improve o,n' lt liint 'itli"iitnis woid run top-down to be criticat'of enterpnses-whh.h in

iii

iLi

.ae

social organisation is i"scist tnan it is democntic' tt is mind boggling all the that inspired us to be a polithal band from day one woe

more dictatorial way.-.that form

biinds

anti-capitalisttothecore...lthinkthewhoteanti--globalization

ir; p'rckins up so much speed"'and rhâ&#x201A;Źn rF'ese ;:;t;;;;l 'iiiiii iri tirraitv atiginins (hemse/ves with Maste:card' dodse thing tumed from being in iucks and video-gaias.lhe whole ilgr; ni-cnA b ng i ng .. . I fo u nd i t s o u t 4 e strovi n g "-, it all unfod".

vii

to w atc h

what B2F: You hailfrom Winnipeg in Canada' Can you tell us o"ti C"nrO" has played in tie War on Terrorism/Geopolitical tarving-up of natural resources? has odd: "Well. asyou may have seen on the nev'ts' Canada tn fact six of th.em were now right Afghanistan in iorces 'itiiJi,t days aga. Canada atwavs has its tittte paws all ;;;;;1;, ptace'sniveting behind the sood ote U'S of A'"

ti"

B2F: So do you hate America ns for what they're doing? are Ctrrisr We don't hate Americans' I hate the fact that we ere, e,ra.asrred thls question. Some of our best f iendsif are less' iiiiir". Seriously.'citicisns of America have to overything and individuatcitizens, with do to iiiini at a!t, po*er @ncentnted in the hands of ol Ji'iiii""liieit ;iiiirin; piti,cv'makers (bv and taQe' rbh co.rpoations and iniiiiirrxi,ry'potii?ians). You have to keep in mind' thore aE 'iiia,ii iiimerican citizens who tive lives in opposition to the (and mostWeslem countrt'es' Canada tnrttheircountry ioi 'iiiidiil pt"vi- in thb'suppress'to n and de.st.ruc.tion of the The t'lnited statesis this democracy' and ,litr"" orir6dom think it's otrrii'i ontv economb and mititary superpower' Wetf'e most how it remains Tipiiiiiti" atL to* it became and that tf vou we think And stage' wortd's plaryeron the iiiiiieitiit 'ta,xZ-time the shaltow, whitewashed orif 3f ' to iioi iiii"oiponte'owned media, vou'tt begin "il#'ZY/j wotks,' actually the world how about ugly answeis

B2F: On your "Today's EmphesTomortow's Ashes" album

aggressrbn is for politicat and m,onetary gains' fhgre,'s rro

couNTR'ES ARE

DUMB

'So. veah, for thausanis ol

yqa7s, w e

6erries

att

live il-.tr.',b:W!11f;lt}S

(iilhf' But tast' have somehow

dav

^'rZri-aiiipii;ind-ptcxin' iorward a m'iltennia or two and humans

of politicEed iiiis"d to divide the globe into a bunc.hYes' anothe r wondeiul caltei"nation-slates"' units iiioirZoni" nt d uing the advanceme nd social a ;i r;, ie,cn norcgical i;;;t 'iioirtdn inside of this. fhe host asinine of asinine race' Here'counttylellow ii-o'iii"tant, ie are taught to identifv with our heitage'

o"i.on. o, the bas,s of similarities in cultural g r ap h c al igii"'i p, it r n s, e th ic rel ati o n s h p s a n d/ o r g e o the final and "- And with each natbn, we get a state; iixinitv'. i

"itiniiJ"iinoriiv

tnrough which the govemment and allits' thts, tl'e nation-state' Decomes

ii,mponent paAi open-te. And

the facal point of many-anldentily. I am.a:i individual hu@an, but I become "CAnadian". Not 'Mexban". Not Australian". Not "Nigerian". Weid, no? The whole world has become cut and diided. How co nve nb nt fo r tho f ew wh o occ upy the pow ei ul spols ir the crass of lhe economic'elifes; gowrnmenis to fute, /aws lo ccate, cultu,r.'s to opprass, poople io exploit. identities to inject through its'media outlets and systems of education. So weire all kepl dumb to whafs going on. Sura, we have certain "freedoms'in our nation-states... like choosing betwoen Coke And Pepsi! Or between Baywatch and Cops! Or if we want to be factory workers or department store managers or teachers or waste-disposal engineers! We presuppose thal the ndtion-stafe acts in terms of the "natbnal interest". And surprise, surprise! 'l\lational interest" becomes a defence of the existence of the nation-stale and of the ay itoperates. Socalled "national interest" is more than just paftly responsible for the continuation and rcgeneratbn of a system that exlsfs on exploitation and the fucking over of human rights. "Natianal tnterest" is the justificatbn for crap like Operation Desei Storm. the war on Aboriginals, NAFTA. the decimation of the environment, racist immigration policies or, say, l/,e mass,ye nuclear arms arsenal just a two-hour drive south of our clty So whe n some flag-waving patiot tells us to "love it or leave it!". because wa're criticalof "ou/'. or any other natlon-sfale's foreign/ domesric policies. I fell like snippin' off me plums and hangin'up me Chomsky readel H a.h a.. ha....ha...... ha... ..... ha... . .....srgrh. " B2F: Your website has mainlained a fairly constanl news commentary on current international affairs. How important is it to maintain an objective politicalcommentary alongside the music you make?

Todd: "/f is eally importan! to me to watch what is going on in the word to make sure l'm notlust a sr,ent voice going abng with the world's wa r m achtnes. Also, I have very good friends that are from the cauntries vte comment on and I feel like I should do what I can ta pt! any word out in their favour. The impacts of the things iie comment on ae felt bud and clear. There is nc way to sit here and not say something." B2F: The exeoution of Saciarn Hussein was a case of wellstaged theatrics but in terri's cf cold statistics socalled US "co llateral dam age " f a r ou:,,r e g hs the crim es he ever committed. Some estimates put the death toll in lraq al over 650,000, What say you?

Todd; "Yes, you're very ngh: lt ls lhe rrostcatastrophic.,insane. thing that's happened. That's;',,hat you get when tirorlvgft/Es$.i J warheads tryto plot a course and try to make tlgpotei)nic, )t hcrocs t, drl nat heroes of lhom-eeryrc themse/yes tt nir v-,ark "I ,',o,h Thav rn"y hat;&lllo,{'l ia*'Qil"J f, ' ',;'l

i,i

thousands and destroyed an ent;rc country. tn rea(ty 'r* 'i.!' Saddam s cimes had zero to do with thls r,hvas/oniand.Ul i,: ;, occu pation. "

Iodd: "We have pretly mugh a fwr p9.4y stafe wrth two major parties golng back and forth. Yes, fre politicians make up fitenf :Sfiafi,bsues to keqp people*' minds oft the redt prbblcms, The subiects Wu mentloned are extremely important. Aborigilalissu6s lrere a{e, to me, one of the most important lssues. At tho mament dnimal rights are not swaying dny vote either way whatsoever. Gay rights should be a given and not neoded to be voted on by a majority. lthink all thes8 go hand in hand. llwe look they are all related and ell make the larger protest movement morc powertul. Everyone should be fighting for their own and each others rights. lf we look closely, the same poople keep benefiting from all the injustice."

B2F: Have you any plansfor recording a new album this yea? What do you feel about bootleggers selling recordings of your gigs or evil down-loaders and their MP3 colleclions?

f odd: "Therc's nothing I can do about any of that. lprefer, if people respecf us, ti?at they support us end buy the CD. Those fhlngs cosl a lot to record. We wofu hard. However, some places need to download because the CD is not availablo. Howzabout I say... lf you can buy it then buy it! Anybody solling recordrngs of us fortheir own gain are assn/ipes."

B2F: Part of what I'm into is trying to take political ideas to where they are needed the nrost. lt's long been said that punk is a closed arena in which the converted preach to the converted. How do you see ideas spreading beyond these seem ing ly se lf-imposed borders?

Todd: "fhere are no borders really. That's a//nonsense. New

kids and new people are forever coming into contact with new

bands and rdeas. / don't think in terms of punk. We make music and try to get out into our real wold comm unity and do a good job. The m usic is what it is. lf you like it then good. if not that's o.k. too. There are lots of types of music out there and a lot of good ideas as well."

B2F: l've heard that you all attend Church regularly What is your favourite hymn? What are your views on organised religion? W hat are your vbws on disorganised religion? lodd: "My skin boils and curdles when I entera church. I am not much of a fan. Organized religion can be the most prepostercus life ruining thing in the world because it takes away ones incentive to come to their own conclusions and so/utions to had ideas. lt can lead vast hordes of people to war, and it can lead uasf hordes of people to give imbeciles vast mountains of money. Anything that makes people give up their brains and self lespect enough to talk in tongues. /islen to Styper, or roll around on the capet possessed seems a i[tle problematb." B2F: But wasn't George W. Bush's re-election a good indication that God really exists?

Todd: "Yeah. /suppose you're right. Ha.-." E2F: Exactly

RELIGION? NO, THANKS, il was/is entirely about the theft of natural

':: :i!'ces to maintain their imperial dominance.

What is

the :: ::a scene like in Canada nowadays? Do you suffer under '-: usion of the 2-party state as the US does and b there - - -- ; rass roots opposition? Do you find thal single issue : -: -.:s such as lndian rights, gayrights oranimalrights :

::i

s t he

creation Of a larger protest mOveme nt?

"Reltgion is an impulse to explain. A natunl tr,. - :: :-.i everyone has and everyonegrapples with.lis .i, t-:- i.? tizi. saQly and tronically. has been exploited ta caa';rce :=c, â&#x201A;Ź ;o lar(a actions th at defy a nd d eme en th at i m o ::ts.e lri. .l : i c e ! s are (fuck - nol these guys again!) the M r; =i:? =' -.:.': every society, in e,very era, dnd ours is ,c e t .e;-...i : s ,-r: :

I I

hard to understand the false sense of comfort and security of taith that religion provilles. A lot of us haw been through it and can understad how hard it can be fo shake the grip of dogma. Relpbus dogma, which is a seto/ ruIes, is a tool u*d by peopb in power to keep other people powedess, and to coerce them into serving fhe interesls of the powerful. History is flooded with examples of religion used to defend and promote mostof humanity's dumbesl movas. Like genocide: the holocaust and the annihilation of the worlds'indigenous popubtions. Like war: from the beginnings of "civilization" to

the Gulf Warand beyond. Like prciudice: the continued subjugation otwomen in all the maior religions. Like poverty: as a tool of capitalism, religion has taught the poor to accept injustie. Probably the wolst effect religion has on us ls lfs' ability to create divisions so rem arkably deep that people will kill fo r t h e m . F uck, sc ra tc h at a ny maior confl ict i n t he w orld today and just benealh the slrvn of dipbmacy and teritoial demands you willf ind a fundamentalist, bloodthitsty form of one or mone organhed oligion. Many "progressive" people inwlved in religle.ns believe they can wo* within thet religious institutions to change them forthe befter. t's an understandable desirc- ve all worl< within institutbns lo some extent, but it's kinda dumb in the same way that the Catholic Church's motivatbn for wanting to feed the hungry is kinda dumb: their writings and dogma teil them to. Shouldn't they be motivated by simpty knowing thatfeeding the hungry is the right thing to do?? People indoctinated in religions (including the rcligions of ideology... not mentioning any names), seem lo believe that a monlcode cannot exist oufs0e of their institution. lt can and il does We have the ability (and the duty!) to do the right thing without the rhetoric of dogmas. the threat of hierarchies or the fear of some old coot in a beard fiing a fucken lightning bolt at our sinful, hairy, zitty little asses. The saddestthing about religion is what is lost. Religion, or moo accurately, I suppose, the appropnators and explaiters of religion, have taken our purest impulses of solidarity, compassion, celebration of the wonder and mystery of our lives, and turned them agarnsl us. fhis, most of all, is w hy I reject religion; so thal I Can reclaim these impulses for the causes they des€Ne... love and justioo. B2F: ln the resources section on your website you list a series of recommended films in which you mention The Qatsi Trilogy. Apparentty the first part of the trilogy "Koyaanrbqatsi" is derived from the Hopi Nation and translates loosely as'lffe lived the wrong way'. How do you envisage life lived lhe right way?

because of the impact of CD on natural resources?

Todd: "/ think those things will turn up somewhec. Nof sura wherc, though. Keep your eyes peeled! Haha... yeah l'm not sure the environmental im pact ram ains worth it... perhap s."

B2F: Have you any finalcomments? Todd: "Yeafi, thanks a lot, Danny. Nice tatking

to you.

I'll say check out these webslfes regarding the situation in the D a rf u r p ro

vin

e of

n. w ww.ge n oc id e int e rve ntio n. ne

www.savedarf ur.org See yal"

This interview was augmented with stuff from the website which you can che ck out at www.propagandhi.com. Also well worth a look is www.gTwelcomingcommitee.com, one of the best DiY labels around where you can pick upthe new DVD by Propagandhiand a lot of other great stuff too.

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Todd: "Ihe ight way, in my apinion,is to be compassionate,

sustainable."A Life Lived the Wrong Way" is such an awesome

titb, eh?"

B2F: l've often found that your later m usic tries to avoid traditional chord sequences and song structures. You have described yourselvee as progressive thrash. Do you always strive to push your mush into new teiritory? Why are you so unpopular am ong ska-bands?

Todd: 'Haha. .. you must have heard that song, "Hey, Chis Hannah, does Ska really suck? Haha... ieezuz. Yeah. we do our best to make ourmusic interesting. We iusttry to make music we want to hear. The goal is to be our own dream band. Of course we always fall short of that but that's what keeps us going f or next time . Someday, I hope we'll get the re. Dare to dream!"

Chris: "Ska Sucks"is only a joke. Don't teke it too wriously. Feel free to skank your checkered little hearls out next time we ft in your town. Bring your moped if you like "

play

B2F: You've a new DVD coming out soo n cal]'ed " Live from Ouupied Teiltory". Can you give us the lowdown on it?

Todd: "fhe DVD is us playing a benefit show at a bar here in Winnipeg as wel/as two documentaries one about lsraePalestine and one about the Grassy Narrows blockade here ln Manitoba. /t ls the people of Grassy Narrows resetve blockading and fighting back against the Abitibi bgging company. lt's really interesting. I am very ugly in il." B2F: What happened wilh G7 radio and the Podcast you had going for a while? Do you really intend to make allfuture releases available as downloads rathsr lhan hard copy? ls this

Switch on the news and watch the headlines and ask yourself why these particular news stories are chosen to repres€nt the latest" and notice the order of importance accorded to each item of news. ln Befast years ago people used to be furious when some dry news item about some Tory MP caughtwith his trousers down used to take precedence over the fact that 2 more people had been shotdead in Northern lreland. Thb was one of the reasons why the IRA began a bombing campaign in England, unimpressed thattheir warwas being relegated to division 2 in the propaganda stakes. wh ile the media at the behest of government was presenting them as criminals rather than freedom fBlrters. They were neither a nd both depending on who you want to believe. And now sportl Then again what about the sanitised footage of bombs being dropped on shaded buildings in Afghanistan or lraq at night? There are never any bodies or "scenes that some viewers may find disturbing" and anyway ev€n if you wanted to know the Pentagon "doesnt do body countsl" But no worries, Mrs Patterson's prize Siamese cat was brought to safety from a big oak tree by localfiremen late lasl night. Trouble is when you starl to challenge what passes for news or information you can easily enter the world of the conspiracl theoristwho often hasfartoomuchlime on his orherhands. I mean do any of us really believe the official story of the Septem ber 11th attacks? Were we surprised by the reaction of unelected President Bush who sat on listening to nursery rhymes in a class of schoolchildrcn afler being inlormed of the disa ste r by one of his a kJ es?

There's no doubtin anyone's mind that we are being lied to on the grand scale and that you just cannoi trust television, radio or news papers to get acorrate reporting on current afiairs. There is of course the alternative media but how accurate is their reporting? Ithink that you can get close to the truth if you take in a combination of reports on the same subject so below l'll mention a fewplaces worth haMng a lookat. Some will be familiar, others won't but together you can make a pretty good conclusion and feel accurately informed, l*{$EI1E H{, Elr {. U lJIlrl

Democracy Now can be found online at

ilIOGBAGY

www- democracynow.o rg, Democracy Now is an independent ne\ 6 progra m

TIIITr

coming out of the USA and is part of fiee speech TV. lt offers pe rsp edives ra rely heard in the US media and reporls on the international fight back a gai nst ca pitali sa tion f rom o rdin ary pe op ie who are d irecily afiected. Amy Goodman's War and Peace report ofbrs one cf ihe cleai'esi accounis of the War on The tMiddle East you ean sign up to get a daily news digest on US and international affairs by Email or go to the stte and downioad it-^ms of news.

'ihe

Corpwatch Index is founo at \vww corpwatch.org Ii comes Francisco anC ho Cs companies to account by uncovering and publishing vrhat they're up to. Since 1 996 when *hey forrned they've n,l ade some great exposures such as the l"lalliburton scam in lraq Th s s an rnvaiuable source for i.esearch and for holding multinat onals accountable An independent media arose out of the protests which

olt ofSan

ktD ux

took place in Seattle in 1999 Since then DiY media has spread through out the world including in the UK and lreland Type lndyrnedia ihe grass roots media in your By eiiminating the classic

ilewshJtf,.E

rnto your search engine and ine country. www-indymedia.org uk cjivision between professional prcducers and passive audiences nrany issues and discussions wh ch have been suppressed beccme visible and available to all. lt s alsc great to find out about the interna tio na i fig ht back.

ffihNE.wS Aisc coming out of the UK is the wonderfu SchNEWS anoiher - ce pendenI weekly newsheet that you can have delivered to t'cL.ri cjoor (for postage) or downioaded via email SchNEWS came cut of the protest against the Criminal Justice Bill mentioned in Brlghtcn 1994 and came out of the Metway Centre set up by The l-evel iers. lt now covers local and international events concentrating c: successful d!rect action campaigns. Sign up now and bring a s:- i:3 !o ycur fa ce.

-: > ::i3i .cn-, ng oui of GiasgO,vv which Front Cover ,- -:-: :. scna out r,vith orders back in the day. Similar -.::_: -:s been sporadic recen|y. Find itonlineat _.-,,.^.:::n cig.uk for an anarchist perspectrve on .. - -".=- : i 3! \,,/ th oositive reports

www-won"l bl es-org- u k

It's always worth checking out what the Wombles have been up to. The site focuses on the anti-globalisation movernent, antr-war activity as well as autonomous centres,eco-aclions and support for prisoners. A sf ong emphasis is placed on direct action forthose who like to keepfit, Londo n Greenpeace was the gro up that produced the'What's Wrong with McDonalds" leaflets which led to the libel trial of the century and irrepa rably damaged the huge fast food corporation. lnspiring stuff and the subject of book and film. Hasn't been upd atred for a while but ofiers good info on how to take on the might of the Multi Nation al Corporation. Their McSpotlight website h as had over 20 mi llion hits. wrl/w.m cs potlight. org

Some actiMsts are wary of this organisation due to some of the high profle names involved such as George Galloway and Tariq Ali but its websiie cloes provide excellent information on the devastation taking place in lraq and Afghanistarr. The group is the combined efforts of several different organisations inclucling CND and Muslim groups. Check out wu rv,stopvrar.org.uk for rncre info.

L__rof

!:ttttttt ll uttu rtttr

!1n t u s'r'rrr rr

Go to wv'rwfromoccupiedpalestine org for eye witness accounts and inforrnation from the ground published in English. Essentia! for getting a good perspective on the Middle East crisis. Always worth oheckrng out is the Anarchist Yellow Pages at www. f ag .bla ckene d n eflago nv/ayp if you want to find out what the world's anarchos are up to and 'why they're dcing it, There's plenty of h istory for those of you ufro like reading about anctent bearded lefties. The site is available in several different languages as well.

,L::+5latD vou don't *on -'* f}ff

sii=

lhe

nns

Undercurrents is another alternative news netwoi-k coming out of the UK which specralises in the production of video and DVD flms that refect UK and global counter otlture Check out their online 0ocumentaries at www undercurrents org

'tA/hat

really happened dot com is always worth a look for alternative viewpoints from many different perspectives such as the BBC reporting news about the collapse of the World Trade Centre 2O minutes before it happened. Hmmm So there you have it - there's tons more out there as vrell but vvhy not get away from the computer and bring the information out into the streets andworkplaces where informatron is largely controiled. This is becoming the media, talking to people and spreading alternative ideas Why not start an infosheet or website foryourarea and hook upwith others doing the same? lts always fun to drop some info into conversationswhich revolve arouno soap operas foolball and punk Oh theyll probably cali you a preacher and ie I you rc ao fuck yourself but from time to time you can meet people vrhc are really interested and when that happens it can make a profound cjiffurence to the way they think. Rememberhow ideas spread and ic,,,J impoflant lnformation is?Now if you send me S10.000todav lllteil youthe real Truth. hallelul ahll

B2F: Oi Polloi have been called "the angry face of anarcho-punk" and for over 20 years now they have toured relentlessly with their unique brand of in-yer-face Ehout along tlrades agalnst all thlngs church and atate. They are one of the few anarcho bands to survive the 1980's albeit with numerous personne! changes on fre way. Deek is the only original membsr of the band howaver tho current line-up is probably the moststable in their hisbry. I caught up with Deek recendy and asked him about some of hie ideas and opinions beginnlng with that m ost lnventlve of lntarvlew quertlons. 'The band originally formed in 1981 when we were all school kids who,just wanted to liven up the "rock conc6rts" thal took place at our school each term. We soon got a bit morc serious though and released ourfirsl EP in 1986 and then starled touring in Europe in 1988. We've had loads of line-rp changes since then but the currenl line-up of Calum on bass, Ricky on guitar, Cam on drums and Deek on vocals has been together formore than 5 years now and recorded one live LP, one studio LP and one split LP as well as a now 7" whlch is due for rebase early 2007." B2F: You've always been one of the more vocal advocates of scene unlty. ls this why you chose the Oi style of street punk to put across anarcho ideas (or bro ught a more metal edge to the music in recent years)? Do you think this brought people together on that level? ln your oplnion what is it that still divldes the scene today and how m ight that be overcoms from your perspecUves?

a lot of emo bands and we thought itwould be great ssthE two scenes would have a chance to really m ix but allthe punx Iust stayed drinking in the bar upstairs while the emo bands played and only came down for the punk stufi - and all the emo kiis went up to the veggie cafe when the punk bands were onl lt was quite suneal- like two separate festivals taking place in ths same building at the same time but almost without any

interaction - quite bizarre.'

B2F: I've heard that the orlglnal band came from very wealthy backgrounds so isn't it lronic singing antl-rlch tongs in a way? Yeah sure - nobody can helpwhere they're born so is lt alla kind of escapism from that? "Ha, ha - classic! Yeah. we'd sip a gin and tonic, play a spot of polo, check o ur sha re s in the FT a nd th en g et ou r cha uffe urs to drive us in the limousine to daddy's private practice studio to play some Oi and anarcho-punkl No, sorry to dbappoint but I think someone's been doing a little exaggeration hee. All of us in the band come from relatively comfortable backgrounds it's true - my mum was a teacher and my dad a college lecturer, Calum'sdad isa university lecturcrand hismumworks for Shelter lthink, Cam's dad was something similar and Ricky's dad is some kind of scientific worker (no, not a vivisector!) but to describe any of ourbackgroundsas"wealthy" is total nonsense unless you'râ&#x201A;Ź making a comparison wilh people in Africa or something. lt was the same with the originalline-up. Our originaldrumme/sdad was some kind of administrator and he couldn'tafford a properdrum kit so in place of toms he had to use buckets of fertiliser!

M/e combined the Oimusic with the anarcho itteas simply because we thought that the singalong Oi music wae a lot better and pleasanterto lbten to than a lot of anarcho stuff like say laterCrass and Flux of Pink Indlans while obviously a lot of the Oi bands' lyrics were pretty dire. We thought our way was a good way to getthe best of both worlds while avoiding some ofthe bad aspects of oach genre. I don't know about this bringing people together though although we do ahuays get a good mix of folk at our gigs from Anti-fascist skins to mohicaned "streel punks" and be-dreadlocked "crusties" so that's coolwhen ilworks. I think today's scene is still divided a lot by fashion and ignorance though. lf s a bit ridiculous for example that there often seems to be e completely separate hardcore and anarcho scene in the same city despite the fact that often so many of tha politicaland philosophicalideas of the folk in lhe respective groups have so much in common. Just because the people in the bands look a different way the folk in the othergroup often won'l evâ&#x201A;Źn listen to them - crazy. I rememberplaying in Germany one time and we got talking to these hardcore kirJs who had come lo the gB by mistake and they had been really, really suprised to hear a'punk" band singing and talking about earth liberalion and veganism etc they lud apparently thoug ht that "punk" equalled The Explolted or something. lguess that while that seems a bit riliculous to older fotk like uswho rememberthe common roots of allthese different kinds of "coren you have today it m ay be a b it d iff erent f or yo unge r kida.'

B2F: Yes lthink it's the music journalist mentality that llkes to pigeonhole every genre into neat llttle compartnents which have more relation to audience targoting than anythi ng else and ultimately its aimed at the consumer. What way do you see round this especially as tfils ls one of the m ajor obstacles that keeps us apar(,

'lt's a difficult one. We've trled a few times to bring d'rfferent audbncestogether by playing with d ifferent kinds of bands but it's amazing how closed minded some folk can be. I mean, therâ&#x201A;Ź a lotof young punks in Edinburgh into a lotof US strff like NOFX etc and we played with one of their bands once to kind of bring the two scenes togetherbut all that happened was that alltheir mates left as soon as they had finished playing and dlJn't even stay forthe other bands - weird. The most bharre waswhen we and a couple of other more punky bands played at thiE festival at the 'lin12 Club in Bradford with

We had to make our own mike-stands in our meta[work class coswe couldn't afford to buy any. Both Rat and Ozzy who were in the band at school and played guitarand bass respectively on the first studio recordings came from single parent backgrounds and their mums certainly didn't have money to throw around. lcouldn't even afford a mikefor ages and just had to shout. I think your story c,omes from the fact that the band formed at a so-called "good" school whbh was only part f unded by the state and where parenls had to pay to make up the rest. Myfolks scrimped and saved to send me there instead of going on holiday or whatever and Rat and ozzy got there free cos they got some kind of eseislance for bright kids whose folks didn't have mueh cash. Unlike plenty folk I could mention we've never claimed to be working class because we aren't - bul on the other hand we never had pols of cash either - and we're all still totally skint!' B2F: Oi Polloi haa been vociGrously and openly an0fasclst for many years. bn't there a dangeronthe.one hand that thl3 very militantetance can encourage others to kick people to death for wearing a Nazi badge rather tha n confront them on an ideological level? Of course lt could be argued that many boneheads don't have too much upstairs though thie isn't alwaye the ca6a and often ln areas where there is a political vacuum people get lnto thls ehlt as a result. H ow do you argus this polnt on an

intellectua I level?

always stress at ourgigs anc sl cn that phvsical ::3osition to fascism is only one ca't of cornbating it. ::ological opposition and propaganda also has a very - portant role to play. Certainly when it's possible to confront ': k who seem io be into fascism with reasoned argumentwe'll :i so I remember once some bonehead turning up to our gig " 3ath with a Nazi badge on He was relatively young and so 'arher than kick his head in ten on one we just took his fascist 'srgnia, gave him a "good talking to" and lold him to come :ack when he had wised uP. '.',

:nink it's more likely that the militant anti{ascist stanoe :ncourages the fash to kick OUR heads in - they've certainly .'ad a few goes." B2F: Do you think that people whofall left of field are often erroneously accused of exaggerating the threat from fascists and the far right?

'ithink the problem 6 more with people who rather naively accuse those who promote physical resbtance to fascism of being "iust as bad as the Nazis" or "left wing fascists" or some such other nonsense. This is usually the result of lack of experience of the reality of being on the receiving end of fascist violence either through youth or a relatively comforlable safe background. I think a lot of people grow out of this ancj wise upwhen they get a bit more life experience but that's not lo deny that that mindset is a problem.'' B2F: I saw a wee clip of you having a go on Crammond lsland last year. Can you offer a brief history of the festival there and what sort of responss it gets nowadays. How important are events like these in alternative'culture? ''Crammond lsland is a small island on the odskirts of Edinburgh that can be reached by a causeway wlren the tiJe is cut so back in the late 80's it seemed an ideal place forthe ounks picnics when we wanted to move them out of the town centre due to the inevitable police harassment and trouble ri'cm local nerds that was lust getling too m uch and pretty m,Jch atways resulting in arrests and aggro An isolated island .n eanl that we could be lef t in peace and yet il was still only a 25 minute busjourney from the city centre so il isn'l too dif{icult :o get io, As it has still got some old buildings from WWll on it :rere's plenty of shelter and we were able to use one of these bunkers to h'ave bands playing at one of the picnics in the 80s' Tnat went reallywellso we resurrected the rdea when we had rhe big 10 day punkfestivals in Edinburgh in 95, 96 and 97. =cr those gigs some of the local punks spent months cef orehand lugging cement and bricks anci so on out to the siand to construdl proper stage (that you can now see from which was q uile a n amazing display of -a cogle Earth!) :eC rcation. You can see loads of photos of lhe constrwtion rr:rk and photos from previous festivals there on the web at: www.s upa ba bs.s upa netc o*n /indexnew.htm

was to show that there is an alternative to shit like the fucking HITS and Wasted festivals which we fucking detest with a ve ngea nce - tha t's just p unk totally dep oliticise d an d turn ed into a cash cow for promoters - horrible. Crammond, on the other hand was totally DIY and money wasn't involved aparl from a whip rou nd to pay for the generator hire and som e diesel. The eventwas free, the bands played for free, all the gearand rubbish was canied over and back by volunteers. ihugs and aimed at raking in the money for some businessmen - fuck that. Some folk might thinkthat you can't replicate something like a small free festival like Crammond on a larger scale but at the big Edinburgh festivalwe had in'96 we had over 90 bands playing over ten days in a variety of venues in the town - virlually allthe gigs were free butthe bands stillgot paid from a share of the bar takings and the few gigs that were paying-in were benefits for groups like AFA and Faslane Peace Camp, we had hundreds and hundreds of punks from allover Europe in town and we found accommodation for them either in locals'flats or in buildings we temporarily squatted for the purpose and the whole length of the festivalwas filled with various workshops, politicalaclions, demos and activities as well (hunt sabbing, trips to eco-protest camps, anti-McDonalds actions. Gaelic for Punks lessons, cider drinking workshops etc etc) - that, to us, is what lhe counterculture is about showing thatwe can do it ourselves without any kind of leaders-or police or parasites afler a quick buck - it's about empowering people and creating an allernative to the mainstream and to commercialism - and, as far as we're concerned, in purk festivals this means keeping the DIY ethos and the progressive politics as an integralpart - rather than just as sbmetning that some of the wannabe rock stars on lhe itage ptay lip service to asthey do the nostalgia bit for some m oney-gra bb ing p romoter scum bag There w ere no rip-off ba r prices or macho fucking bouncers pushing peopie around and of course there was no lrouble either. That's what alternative culture is - not some bullshit in a fucking Butlin's Holiday camp where it's allpoliced by bow-ties."

B2F: So can you tell us exactly what is involved in ciderdrinking workshops beyond ciderdrinking? 'Learning to savour the glorious flavour of the fermented apple, honing the taste buds to appreciate a good nbmeOrewed cider and developing the skillto tellthe chemicalfilled rubbish like "Blue Ocean" and most brands with the word "White" in the name ( which really aren't fit for human consumption) from the realdeal - like Weston's Organic for instance. Then again some folk claim it was just an excuse for getting bevvied -lt was a good ice-breaker to start the festival ott anA get folk from allover Europe lo get to know each olher though.bbviously alcoholcan be a dangerous drug but if you use itsensibly ratherthan letting it use you then it's also a very good "sociallubricant" - we all have our own definition of "sensibly" though!"

B2F: lt is interesti ng to see that you are slngi ng only in Gaelic these days. Here in lreland Gaellc has sad.ly become associ;ted wlth Republlcanisrn and obviously you have political reasons for taking this route but what importance does this have for you nowadays? What condition is the language in statlstically speaking and ls there m uch interest in revival? Do you think it alienates your English speaking fans to a degree (particularly in the ibsence of Endlish trinslations in the accompanylng

booklet with that album )?

': :. '-i - : -: - : -e a 'y is pretty classic a nd there are also =,-'t, .rtnx plcnicsand so on forthose -::: :-' ='='-:--: ::-:: - = : ' '-' -:-ri,:|! Foi- us the main point of stuff like - :- -:- - =-: :':-t =:rnburgh punk festivals in the 90s .

"lt's not strictly true to say that we are only singing in Gaelic these days. We stillplay plenty of the old stuff live and that is virtually all in English although we do have one,song in German. There is also one song in English on the split with Nikmat Olalim and our new 7" that should be out in the spring is in English loo - four new lracks. l'm sure though thal you're right in that singing in Gaelic will piss off some of the English monoglots and we have had a few commenls already. Logicitty us singing in Gaelic should no more alienate them thJn us singing in English alienating say Spanish speaking punks who speak no English (and they don't even get iranslations on the website) but, as we allknow, a lot of English speakers just automatically assunle that everything should be in Englbh and are notoriously bad at leaming about or respecting other people's cultures and languages. This Gaelic-only CD mightiusl make some of them think and it really is a case to a large extent of "the medium is the

message" here. A large proportion of lhe CDs are being sold to young Gaelic speakers in Scotland too so there really isn't so mrch of an incentive to havE another language on the

cover. Those people whodo need transletions in English can get them on lhe website. There willalso be translations with the vinyl version which shouH be out next year as we know that, in oontrast to the CD, most of those will go to punx who dont speak Gaelic. I should also point out here that this is all about cultural and lingubtic diversity - it has nothing to do with Scottish Nationalism as some slightly cluelessfolk have enoneously assumed. We're very interested in the links between culturat/linguistic diversity a nd biotogical diversity and in a way caring about linguistic ecology and culturaldiversity b just part of the same envlrcnmental struggle. lt's a huge subject and I don't have time to go into it in more detail here but folk who are interested should check out the Terralingua (www.tenalingua.org) website which has a lot more fascinating info on this kind of thing. "Language Death" by Davld Grystal is also a very good book for anyone who wants to know mole.

spend a lot of tine in Helsinki these days and there is a Swedish speaking minority of 6% of the population so all street names, road signs etc are in both Swedish and Finnish and despite thB being a big busy capitalcily there's obviously no traffic chaos everyryvhere with people conf used by the signs that's just total bullshit, There's a lot of i;norance too with a lot of people genuinely believing that Gaelicwas never spoken in the lowlands and places like Edinburgh ard Glasgow. That's a big obstacle too when many people don't even see it as a natio na I lan guag e. Still, that's w hy we've gotta rock some sense into them!"

B2F: You've lust done a split 12in with lsraell band Nlkmat Olallm on Campary Records. What was lt llke worklng with

them? Do you know much of the alternatlve protest culture in lerael? I heerd there can be marcheE of over 100,000 at antl war demos in Tel Aviv yet they never thow this in the mainstream medla giving the usual US-inspired dlstort€d picture anstead. Whatare yourviews on the

conflict

agai nst Palestine?

"NlkmatOlallm were cool- nice people and we had e lot of fun on tour together in Germany - and learnt a lot too. lt's true that theIe have been big marches like the one you mention but my understanding of it is that that's not the casB these dayg, There do seem to be plenty of people involved in different kinds of counterculture though - from groups like the radical gay organisation Black Laundry to the anarchopunk sc€ne which I th ink has at least one of its ow n centres and of course the peace and human righls movement with organisations like the Israeli Coalition Against House Demol,t,bns etc. On the other hand the Nikmat Olalim guys were telling us thal in the punk scene you've got lhese macho hardcore bands singing allthis nationalistic anti-Arab racist stuff - pretty fucked up - as is the whole situation eally. We could talk about Palestine for hourg and you're right to mention the distortions in the media about it - thete's so much bullshit out there and of course the usualad hominem attacks on anyone who dares to crilicise lsraeli policy - if you 3ay a bad word about the lsraelim ilitary you must be som€ kind of crazed "anti-Semite" - totalshit never mind the faot that the Palestinians are actually Semites themselves of course. I'd encourage ev6ryone to read some good books on the Middle East "The Fifty Years Wat'Eraol and the Arabs" is a good starter by an lsraeliand an Arab writing together and of course there's loads of stuff on the net check www.whabealtyhappened.com for a lot of interesting

To get back to your que$ion though, yes, it often seemsto be a glEat surprise for some in the Unionist community in Northern lreland to d'scover that a large part of the Scottish Gaelic heartland (i.e. Lewis and Hanis) i8 very strongly hardline Protestant - although that doesn't neoessarily mean the sa me thing the re as it does in lrelan d. Altho ug h the isla nds here are the hea(land of the Gaelic speaking community where it is stilla day to day hnguage there are plenly of Gaels in the cities in the centralbett as well and thete are somewhere between 50-55,000 Gaelic speakers all in all -.iust a bit more lhan 1o/o of the population. While that obviously means that the situation is pretty dire, in some areas, as I said, il is stillthe daily community language. ln my last couple of jobs in Stornoway in Lewb for instance Gaelicwas the language of the workplaoe, 20+ people ell speaking it in the office and in the pub aftenrads and you couldn't have got by as an English speakirE monoglot. There is a lot ol interest in revival and sympathy for the language but the problem is that if kids don't have chance to leain (whidr was cerlainly the case when I was at school) then as an adull most people, however sympathetic, simply don't have the time to learn a new language to fluency. There are moIe schools now where kids can learn but most of these ale in the HiThlands or lhe big cities and therB are whole areas of the country where there b simpf no possibility for a child to be ta ught the lang uage. Kind of rid iculous that as a result you can go through the education system here in Scotland and come out at the end unable to even pronourre a large nurnber of place and mountain names in your own 6ountry bt alone know what they mean. There's also a lot of hostilily to Gaellc in the medh and from some sectors of officiaEom. ln lnverness for instance, despite a Gaelic speaking community of over 'l0o/o ol the population, the councilsimply refuse to put up bilingual street narE signs, claiming that thiswould confuss touristg and cause loed traffic accidentswhich is just dter buflshit. I

links.

Basicallywe supportthe right to Palestinian self determination and an end to lsraeli occupation and war crimes (we'd like to see a lot of their military in the fucking Hague) but we're not optimistic. Jimmy Carter recently called it how it is when he talked about how it is politica lsuicide in the,.US- tg.e_ven

ffut

attempt to have an e-[ei:ha--n?[Eil-!pioach to the Palestine queslion. The lsraeli tobby in the US through organbations li(e AIPAC is so sttong that America isn't going to stop vetoing any effective action egainst lsrael any time soon. As long 8s that is the cas€ the lsraelis can continue with the collective

punishment. the imprisonment of women and children, the land grabs and house demolitbns and the slaughter of Palestinian civilians with impunity - who is going to stop them? Did you hearabout the old woman who blew herself up in an attack on some lsraeli soldbrs recently ater members of her family had been killed and maimed bythe Occupation forces? Can't say it surprises me and ljust think lhere will be more and more bloodshed to come. The lsraelileadership doesn't want peace and the continuing injustice of the oocupation and the Wallwill only breed more acts of violent resistance - like they say "No

Justbe - No Peace", B2F: "We Must Combat Sexism on All Levels" is a song you dld recently for a compilation. Punk m usic is ofren an exclusively male (and white) domain. Do you think this is still the case and if so why, or do you dlsagree wlth that ass essme nt?

'While it is true that the supposed y alternative political punk scene is often liitle more than a mlcrocosm of normal"straight" society ldon't think it is true to say thai it s an EXCLUSIVELY male domain - although in Europe I tf rk you're right to say that it lS virtually exclusively white. My view on this may be somewhat coloured by spending a lot of time in Finland though where there are definitely a LOT more lvomen involved in bands, as gig organisers, as zine wrlters and radio broadcastersetc in the punk scene than there are in the UK. ilore and more women are asserting themseives everywhere though and playing more active roles bLtt things are obviously nowhere near any kind of equality and the scene is withotd question male dominated. I think the f act that women are so often disadvantaged or in subordinate roles in the punk scene has a lot to do with the values of society at large - and also with the attitudes of many men in the scere.

B2F: Central to many of your recordings, since "rn Defence of Our Earfh" especially, is ecological direct action. This seem s to be the main idea behind your ethos and is in fact central to modern anarchist ideas. What sort

of actions do you get irwolved in (without glvlng the cop6 too m uch to go on) and in what ways would you encourage people to adopt a more responsible poâ&#x201A;Źatlon on the environment? I mean it's easy to say recycle your glass bottles and tum your thermostat down one degree but this is token gesturism surely? 'We wouldn't disrniss anyone who tries to do their little bit by recycling, saving energy, red ucing consumption. buying organic. growing their own veg etc as token gesturists - every little helps and ifs allgot to start somewhere - you know, "a tho usa nd m ile journey starts with one step" kind of thing.

Having said that though, our problem with leaving it at that is that time is definitely not on our side here so we believe there is a need for more direct action as well. The kind of things that we've p erso na lly bee n involved in have rea lly depe nded on what opportunities have presented them se lves locally We've obviously done a lot of benefitfund-raising gigs and played at festivals and parties at protest camps and piaces like Faslane Peace Camp and I've worked as a volunteerforboth G reenp eace a nd F rie nds of the E arih S cotla nd b ut we wanted to take it a bit further than that. So over the years we've also taken part in allkinds of direct action f rom resisting motorway construction through woodlands. blockades of the nuclear submarine base at Faslane, Earth First actions against planned construction of a second road bridge over the Forth, actions against Scottish N uclear and the Torness nuclear power station to stuff like disruptions of mining company meetrngsetc-a load of differentstuff really.ThenCam and used to go hunt sabbing for years too which l'd lump in with that as it's all about respect for nature too basically. We'd encourage everyone to get involved in ecologicalaction in whatever ways they feelcomfortable with - there's something foreveryone - from tree-sitting to legal support work - just watch out forthe person shouting the loudest to get you to take part in some stupid act of violence - they're the und ercover cop." B2F: Speaking of undercover cops your website is on MySpace which is owned and run by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch is an extreme conservative who has slowly taken control of the world's media so that it is estimated three quarters of the world's population watch his news I

So often for instance we'llbe on tour and its the guys atthe venues dealing with the money and organisation and the girls ln the kitchen making the vegan food - that is obviously not a ccrncidence Then we've also had female gig organisers say to !s ihat ma ny of t ie ma le band s t hat t hey've written to to so rt :,r gigs have either simply not replied or been realty ,-::Cescending to stmply because they haven't taken '-:.: serrously justthem because theywere women. That is just :::-::r. Then there's the stupid fucking macho dancing as ,. : : s rc surprise a lot of wonren don't want to put up rvith : -: J= i.ai They shouldn't have to though so as guys we can : .:.: -=sconsrbility by taking a good look at our own -. -:. : -: zi:z a lso by calling others on anything they're doing

" .- : :::=:La:,rgtheproblem.'

just a m ag net f or a buse rea lV. We've had all the searches and strip searches, pulling the van apart and even had guns pointed at us by cops in places like Poland and East Germany. ln East Germany they went mental but they maybe had a bit of an excuse aswe'd managed to get into the country "At pIesent we think that on balance we gain more from having without permission while getting lost on the way to West Berlin and then turned up on the wrong siJe of Checkpoint Charlie this Oi Polloi MySpace presence than Mutdoch does - that trying to get to the West - a long story.... The other bad thing I could change - like if he started chargingfor il butwhile it is suppose is aggro in strange places'where you're not really free we prefer this than paying some web hosting company sure how things are locally and where you don't have much who could be right-wing tossers too come to think of it You control over things and that can be a bit frightening. When we can certainly a rg ue that M yS pace is n't "rig ht-on " but then played in Minneapolis the first time we had rivalgangsof skins neither are any of the companies that we're forced to buy fuel opening up on each otherwith guns and lcan tellyou we were from when we go on tour - shouldn't we be avoiding evil petrochemic€l multinationals? Our answer would be yes, in as fucking shitting it much as b practically possible - for us that means not running On the neX US tour we had KKK guys turn up at one of the private cars and using public transport wherever possible (we've toured bytrain quite a bit over the years) - but obviously gig s and we we re like "What the fuck? Who let them in? Get programmse and get a dlstortod view of the world. With NeoCons in the US pushing for internet "phone-booths" where they can keep an eye on who does what surely we should be avoiding assoclatlon with that fucker?

the system is constructed in a such a way that it is virtually impossible to avoid contact with dodgy companies unless you're going to go and live as a hermit in the wilderness somewhere and thatcould be seen as a cop-out in itself. Yes, we should take responsibilityforouractions and our consumption but at the same time we can't cut ourselves up over things over which we have precious little control."

yo u're

them fuckin out! "bul the gig promoter was like "No, it'sok, l've talked to them, they're not gonna cause any trouble, they say they justdon'tlike the liberalmessages from the sfage so they're just gonna do a bit of seig heiling but thaf 's a// so rt's ok" - fuckin insane! We're like "No. tl's notf ucking OK" but in the US it's always scary cos you never know if some nutter has a gun. We only managed to get ti€m out'cos we refused

B2F: OiPolloi has toured extensively all over EuroPe and beyond. I think a lot of your popularity comes from from your constant touring schedule. How do you keeP it all going? How does it all come together and can you give an idea of the good side and the bad s ide of to uring

in more difficult countries. Any words of advice for bands that rodd like to get out there?

'Heyl What are you trying to say here?? You mean you dont th ink our populanty from writing classic songs like "Whale Song/' and "Skinhead'?i Seriously though. yea h, I'm sure gigging helPs - as lorg as you're good live that is. We organise most of it ourselves wilhout any kind of lour ma or roadbs oranything although sometimes we do have a friend who helps us with stuff in each particularcountry. lt's a bit of work but worth it in the end. It's not really a hassle for us to get the gigsthough aswe get offers all the time and far more than we're in a position to do so we can pick and choose which is a good position to be in I guess. The good side of touring is obviousty that you get to visit all these amazing places and meet loads of crazy people. hear tonsof great bandsand doloadsof gigswhilebeingfed piles of free vegan food and being given heaps of free booze - not exacUy a bad situation We'd n€ver have gotto half the places we've visited on tour or have had half the friends we've met all over if itwasn'tforthe band as we could just never have afforded to travel like this. Yeah, in theory, even if you are skint you can hitch etc but in reality very few folk could do this amount of travel like thai. Then of course many of those of us who'v€ been in the band have ended up with long terrn partners who we've met on tour - of the current line-up and other long-term members two have American partners they met on tour, one ex-drummer is now living together with his Dutch girlfriend thathe met on tour and two of us live in Flnland with Finnish partners so that's a pretty good thing to come out of the int€rnationat r9ckin g.

The downside isthe inevitable hassle at bord€r checkpoints from customs offiers and the like - and of couse hassle frcm cops which you alwa}€ attract if you look different and 8re traveling in somo huge fucked up bus ortruck or somethilE "

1r L,.

hi.i

to play while they were there ancl then some guy got on stage and told tl€m to get to fuck and by a really, really strange coincidence he looked exactly like this martial arts expertwho ran the loca I karate club which was in fact where the gig was taking place so they allshat it off him and f ucked off .

Then in Estonia we had to fight our way out of the \Enue when we got attacked by Nazi boneheads - none of the local punks lifted a hand to help us - and as we were trying to drive away our bus was surrounded by dozens of folk all kicking it and chucking stuff - fucking horrendous. On the same tourwe played one place in Finland and just as we are arriving at the venue the organiser says "yeah, we had a bit of lrouble finding a.venue so totl'tllht you'n playing in this bar where ail the Nazis dink but donl worry we made a deal with them so they're not coming and it's cool' - again if s like "tvhaf the fuck are these people on?'. We go in and the graffiti in the toilet is unbelievable and the iukebox is all Skrewdriver and No Remorse and so on. Well, needless to say the jukebox got some unauthoriBd tnaintenanoe and the toilet some rBdecoration - and of course there was the inevitable violenca

*'.Ere we had to have a go at the Nazis without much supporl

;c-

any of the locals. This kind of stuff wouldn't be so bad if .r: ,1'ere incredibly hard but the problem is that mosl of us -a.e encugh difficulty punching ourway out of a paper bag! :s ihe usual slory -weedy vegans lining up against folk who :re for violence and spend half their time in the gym -ar(fully we've been very lucky so far- touch wood.lcould .:. 3i and on with similar stories butyou'll have to wait for the :l:('

- s ic advice, well, o ne impo rta nt t hin g wo uld be to expect to ,:sr money. lf you look on lhe tow as a holiday and at any

?r::nses got back as a welcome bonus then you should bo -a: cy These days we usually.lust about break even but any

::.:

starting out and touring abroad is gonna havo to resign unless they are very lucky indeed. '. : ,r adays wit h e-ma il and ve nue webs ites it's pretty easy to .cntacts and organise stuff so I'd say that if you want to do ,:a :s of touring you shouH be able to. I believe that if you , want to do something enough then usually you can - but '-:-e s always a price to pay - toads of touring and being away home can stop you working or studying unless you're - . : t,red in som ething p retty fle xible a nd it can wrea k havoc relationshipsaswell- folk just need tofind whatworksfor

:-:-selves to losing money

'-: '::

'-:* *:-

almost from a record colleclor's angle with all this stuff about full names of band members and all the details of almost every one of a ll the b ands' re lea se s. D on't get m e wro ng, it's greal that someone has gone to all the trouble of documenting so much of this stuff for the future but it's not the way lwould have done it.

l'm not realty interested in names of band members and so on and yes, it would be good to see someone covering all the politics and actions in depth. lknow Lancefrom J Church is also working on a book on UK anarcho-punk which is currently being serialised in MRR and his questionsto us had a bit more politics in them but this is probably lhe darEer if your book is based on a chapter for each band ratherthan a book like Graig O Hara's ( I think that was his name wasn't it?) "Philosophy of Punk' which concentrated more on the ideas. Apparently someone in lrehnd isworking on anotherone -so Chris ex-Apostles told me anyway - so maybe that will have a bit more politics- and include the Poison Girls who ltotally agree should have been in there. Let's not be too hard on Mr Glasperthough - it was a pretty mammoth undertaking and I'm sure it's an interesling read nonetheless." B2F: A lot of bands seem to have a huge range of t-shirts,

B2F: Of course Deek it's all those old time classics like

hooded tops, baseball caps, tea -towels badges and other paraphernalia. What do you think of all thls commoditization of the scene and have you got any Oi polloi key ringe you can send me?

'JJe're definitely interested in tlem but we don'r see everything rnrough rose tinted spectacles and we're certainly not cracticing Druids or anything! lcouldn't claim to be an expert on lhrs stuff by any means but my general im oression is that a ,ot of these olderand current lndigenous reliEions have a lot rnore of a connection with, and respect for nature - and thal is a damn sight healthier than nonsense like C hilsiianity and a lot :i the other majororganised religions today tf peopie are into :especting the earth and venerating lhe natural world then good luck to them. lf more people were lrke that I suspect the world would be a much betterplace for us all '

'We used to subscribe lo lhe "if you went a t-shirt with our band name on then make it yourself'DlY idea but over time we've come to realise that so many folk want t-shirts that selling them on lourcan be a really good wayto help with covering all your tour costs - same goes for hooded tops on the rare occasions that we've been able to find cheap enough suppfiers. That said, we do find lhe overcommercialisation of this kind of thing really distastef ul and that's why we always give away our patches and button badges ratherthan selling them. That seems to surprise some people but it's nice to be able to give something back to folk and it just seems a lot healthier than just milking folk forevery last possible penny that's not what we're about. We were once persuaded by a German friend lo talk to this relatively large German punk labelwho was interested in doing some of our stuff over there and although we were skeptical we went a long to their off ices anyway for a chal. Well. we were greeted by some fat guy munching chocolale behind his desk as he told us how they could do so much for us like making Oi Polloi cigarette lighters etcl Needless to say negotiations didn't proceed any further."

"Whalesong" that have endeared you to the general public, which brings me back to another old tune of yours f rom the same era in which the power of the Stones is invoked and exalted. Are you lntorested in old paga n ideas or do you see them as havlng the same old chains that m odern religlon has?

82F: What are Oi Polloi up to at the momant? How im portant is it for a ba nd of yo ur nature to step outside the recording/touring aspect of the band in terms of direct action or politlcal campaigns. W hat actions are you involved wlth nowadays. As of now, December 2006, we are taking a wee break from gigging until lil arch 2007 when we're going on tour with Gaelic punk band La Luain from Skye. We'i be playing gigs in Scotland and lreland as part of a Gaeiic punk tour Then we've got some big May Day gig in Berlin and a wee tour in Portugal rater in the month. While we're not gigging we're putting icgetherthe sleeve for our new 7" and the vinyl version of the .ew CD, both ofwhich should be out rn the spring Outside of rand stuff Calum is continuing with hs work teaching English :c refugees and asylum seekers and homeless folk, Ricky is lorng stUff with a few other bands that he ptays in (as is Cam) and l'm working on some Gaelic language promotion stuff. No ierribly exciting direct action going on for us just now I'm afraid. It is important for us to keep involved in stuff but right now we're not terribly aclive as Calum's work is fulltime, I've recently moved to Helsinki and am busy working on improving my Finnish and both Ricky and Cam have new partners so they need to spend some quality time romancing them!"

B2F: What dld you think of lan Glaspe/s book on anarcho history? I was talklng to a few people last nlght and it seems that most of us are asking "Where were the Dalitics?" What about the venues, the campaigns, the . rciests, the zines, the sq uats etc... and whe re were the :.:is o n Girls? -

"'e to

admit that I haven't seen a copy of the finished book

. :ror,igh I have seen the Oi Polloichapter of course lf it's -='.: .g like his previous one "Burning Bitain" tle n l'd - ., -: those are pretty fair criticisms. I thought f rom looking 1. ' =' . rd at the questions he asked us that he looks at things

B2F: Do you accept the destruction of human life as part of the struggle for animal liberation? "Anycne who advocates killing animalabusers is at best dangerously misguided and atworst working for the cops. That would just be totallunacy and completely counter-productive. ln any case we should allremember in the face of all the media nonsense about "animal rights terrorism" that the only people who have been killed in the struggle for animal liberation have been animal rights protesters like those hunt sabs that oot killed in Enoland a few vears back. Anvone who has been 6ut sabbing kn'ows who th6 real violent tliugs are i.e, the huntsmen. terrierboys etc "

B2F: Any final plugs? W hat question would you like most to be asked (and what is your answer)? 'We'd like to plug thinking for yourself, questioning everything, not watching TV, direct action and tasty vegan foodl As to questions well, lwould love to be in a utopian situation where someone would have to ask me what life was like before we achieved worldwide anarchy and peace. Doesn't look that's gonna happen anytime soon lfear but,like they say, "fhe darkest hour is always before the dawn".

The Flesh Society How can we put across the notion thatthe abuse of animals amounts to the collective destruction of our own species? ln previous publications I discussed, albeit with tongue firmly in cheek, what I saw as a largely misguided approach to animal issues nowadays; and in the last issue of back2front I interviewed Peter Singer who is widely regarded as the central modern revivalist for animal liberation. This article is an attempt to sum up all of the ideas that stemmed from those earlierpieces alongside conversations with others from all spectrums of the debate, I have tried to look constructively at numerous ideas related to the topic in order to understand my own position more fully and to put across those ideas as a matter of principle. ln this essay lwill take a brief look through history at the various forms of exploitation of animals and the consequences of what I call the Flesh Society. There have been arguments for and against the commoditisation of animals as far back as written records go. Some have avoided flesh for reasons of health, occasionally as part of an aesthetic

package of self-denial, others simply out of compassion or by reasoning alone.

History & Philosophy of Animal Rights

Augustine, the Christian propagandist writing in the 4th century AD argued that animals ranked far below humans, were irrationaland held no interests of their own. His viewpoint would dominate until the 1970's. Christian ideas have often been used to defend the exploitation of the animal kingdom. Peter Singer has written about an early statement in Genesis which says that God gave humans dominion over animals and the earth but what is the precise translation of the word dominion? Could a misinterpretation of a word be used to def end the Flesh Society? lt is certain that Ch ristia nity is to blame for perpetuating this notion of animals as inferior fodder. lnterestingly archaeology reveals that many early societies worshipped animals as depicted in the cave paintings found at 86deilhac in the French Pyrenees for example. Many shamanistic and animisiic beliefs held animaldeities centralto their observations, We also know that some communities have been wholly vegetarian as evidenced in Hindu, Essene and some Buddhist ideologies though we might also consider that these institutions had merely co-opted the social and cultural practices of those times, ln Ancient Greece vegetarianism was not wholly seen as a d ietary choice but had much greater implications rn view of th e cultural and symbolic associations with animals. The French anthropologist Marcel Detienne s ugg e

sts:

"To change one's diet is to throw into doubt the relationship between gods, men and beasts upon which the whole politicoreligious systern of the city rests To abstain from eating meat in the Greek city-state is a highly subversive act."

We can understand thatradicalvegetarianism has been a part of our culture ever since. However it was not generally a popular choice often leading to reactionary belligerence.ln 1052 the English King Henry lll ordered the hanging of Cathars as heretics for the crime of condemning the eating of animalf lesh. ln China in 1141 an edict declared that all "vegetaian demon worshippers shal.l be strangulated". I have often found it interesting to note that this reactionary trait still occurs to this day though herbivores are less likely to be put to death a s a resu lt of it. ln other cultures, such as the shamanistic tribes I mentioned earlier, there has bee n reverence for particular a nim als. H ind u tribes worshipped the cow while other animals such as the stag or the bear where central to European triba mythologies. Both Jewish and Muslim traditions abh or pig flesh (which inciden tally sugge sts a co mmo n cultural o rigin).

We know that our distant aniestors are often described as hun ter-gath erers b ut th is is a m isn omer f or log ically the y m ust have been gatherers before they became hunters which would have required the development of skills and weapons. lt's easy to imagine thatthey originally ate from plants by trial and error. It is only later that they would have begun following hunting anima ls and eating the remains of their prey before developing their own hunting skills. Animal flesh has been part of the human diet ever since but not everywhere and not exclusively. We know that certain religious views decried animal flesh. Vegetarianism was practised in Egypt in 3200 BC. The ancient Greeks formed the philo so phica I b ackbo ne f or ma ny m ode m anima I liberationist ideas. The Orphic Sect saw the sacrifice of animals and the eating of flesh as murder and philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plutarch established vegetarian ideals. Pluta rch h im self sug gested that carnivores sh ould try eating raw flesh which "has not been disguised by the use of ten thousand sweet herbs and splces', Plutarch's suggestion has a valid ring to it. Raw animal flesh is virtually indigestible and requires cooking or processing to render it palatable. As we shall see later there is a striking correlation between the consumption of flesh and the killer diseases of today. I have always been struck by the argument that as animals we have neither the claws or the teeth nor the digestive capability to exist as carnivores. This isn't a convincing argument though for it belies the use of our reasoning to develop tools and adapt which, of course is what sets us apart from other animals. But surely it's our reasoning that really sets us apart?

It is among heretical ideas however that radicalvegetarianism began its ascent into popular culture. The refusal to eat f lesh also brought with it the policy of class. Animal flesh was a prized comm odity and h as ofte n be en a ssocia ted with triba I chiefs and p riests who presided over relig ious sacrifices and sacred feast days right through to European monarchies who controlled the rights to hunting and dealt death to poachers. An imal flesh became the food of the elite and privileged, And so it was the Flesh Society was born

The Flesh Society was upheld by Rene Descartes (1 596-1650) who in the 17" century argued that animals had no souls and where nothing more than complex automata for the beneftt of ma n bu t Descartes was countered by Jea n Jacq ues Ro ussea u (1712-1778)in his "Discourse on lnequality" (1754)which argu ed th at:

'As animals are sensitive beings, they too ought to participate in natural right, and ... m an is subject to some soft of duties toward them," specifically "one [has] the right notto be use/ess/y

istreated by the other."

The English utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (17481832) added to the debate: "lt may one day come to be recognized thatthe number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficientfor abandoning a sens/rve being tothe same fate. What e/se is itthatshould trace th e insuperable line? I s it the faculty of rea son or perhaps the facufty of discourse? But a fullgrown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a weekor even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it

avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffeO Why should the law refuse ifs protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which bre athe

s."

Following the English CivilWar (1645) some members of the Ranters advocated vegetarian ideas. Furtheron a few of the noted 18th century radicals advocated an end to animal cruelty. William Blake wrote:

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals was chartered in New York in 'l 866. Henrv Salt's works were very influentialin this time and by the 20rdcentury animdl welfare groups and societies had helped to lobby for law6 against animal cruelty in most countries across the world.

Animal Liberation

hilosophy

"Every outcry of the hunted hare A fibre from the brain does tear" Pe rcy S helley (1792-1822), the anarchist poet, wrote in h is epic poem "Queen Mab" denouncing the rule of king and comm erce while promotin g vegeia rian ism a nd com passion for animals as part of a radical and alternative lifestyle. His article "A Vi ndication of Natural Diet" noted that"vegetaianism utill give you longevity",ln a furtherwork "On the Vegetable System of Diet" he also pointed out that eating animal flesh was an "unnatural habit producing dlsease". Later in the 19th century similar ideas were being hatched by Elis6e Reclus (1 830-'1905), the French anarchist and noted geographer. Louise Michel (1830-1905), another French An arch ist inolved in the 1871 Paris Com mun e as an am bulancewoman decla red:

"The origin of my revolt againstthe powerful \ras my honor at the torture inflicted upon animals' Vegetarianism had acquired a revoir-rlonary mantle in the west while atthe same time Rec us noted t rat animals had beccme debased of moralworth. An ma s became associated with stupidity, unhygenic conditions anc,worthlessness. ltwas not, and is still not, uncomm on lc he ar dergogato ry comm ents passed at humans for resem'ollng pigs or bitches.

was in Victoi'ian Bntain lhai ine cause of animals began to be taken more seriously bv ,ria iastream society however. ln 1822 Richard Martin tv1 P (i;54-i 834) piloted the world's first parliamentary billthat woul'J gi,;e animals some degree of protection in law. The 1875 Ci-u-ity To Animals Act, supporteC by Charles Darwin who wrci: oi h s disgust atthe "mere damnable and detestable curasii'y'of sclentists which made him "sick with horror", offerei stilct regulation in animal laboratory testing. It

The Victorians were, however less concerned by animal welfare than by Eenteel mora ity They believed in kindness and charity. William Wilberforce (i 759-1833), at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement, founded the world's first Society for the Protection of Animals in 1824. lt ls tempting to conclude that Wilberforce noted the similarrr-v between the slavery of humans and the slavery of animals Frorn these times the UK became "a nalion of animal lovers'and laid the foundations for the modern debate on the role of anima is in society. The Vegetarian Society was founded as a registered charity in 1847.11 is often credited with coining the term "Vegetaian". (Up until this point vegetarians had been known as Pythagoreans after the Greek advocate of animal rights discussed earlier). The Society's role r,,ras and continues to be primarily education al. Henry S. Salt (1 851-1939) was inspired by the writings of Shelley and began a life-long crusade for animalrights. He was disturbed how an animal could be 'vtarped front its natural standard". His first book "A Plea for Vegetarianism" was published bytheVegetarian Society in 1886. ln 189'1 he fou nded The H uman ita rian Leag ue w hich s regarded as a precursor to the League Against Cruel Sports. One of Salt's major concerns was fox hunting, ln 1923 the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports was founded by HenryAmos after he had achieved a successful ban against the barbaric practice of hare coursing. Bans existed on certain activities already such as badger baiting and cock-fig hting. As the iargely conservative RSPCA was unwilling to tackle the problem of hunting however the League saw the need to take direct action. Their main principle was: "that it is iniquitous to inflict suffering, either directly or ttCirectly, upan sentient animals for the purpose of sport"

Of course these issues of cruelty were still Iargely based on Victorian morality. ln 1 963 the H unt Saboteurs Association was founded by those who realised that direct action was becoming more and more necessary to accelerate the growing idea of animalliberation. By 1970 a group of Oxford philosophers began to question the ideas of Aristotle, particularly the notion that animals were inferior to humans. One of these philosophers, Richard D. Ryder (b.'1 940) who had previously been involved in psychology experiments on animals, began to use the term specielsm and advocated an end to,anlmal cruelty. He argued that animals do feelpain and thus deserve the same rights as ourselves. He also coined the term Painism to describe his position on non-human animals. Ryder's important text "Animals, Men and Morals: An lnquiry into the Treatment of Non-Humans" (1972) was a major influence on the Australian philosopher Peter Singer (b, 1946) who was also an advocate of the ideas of Jeremy Bentham. Singer compared the plight of animals to the plight of womens' liberation. ln 1975 he published "Animal Liberation" regarded as the key text that launched the modern animal rights movement internationally. The movement is based on the principle that the interests of all beings who have interests should be taken into consideration equally. "When we violate this pinciple because the being is not of the right sex, race, age, or species, we are practicing an arbitrary discrimination, called respectively sexisrr, racism, ageism or specrbslsm. An ethical criterion cannot be founded on a mere bialogical difference. This is why the animal liberation movement struggles not only for non-human animals, but also against all forms of arbitrary discrimination or exploitation among humans. This is why it is a political movement, based on rationality, aimed at ciefending the interests of all those who have interests to def end, and that demands an extension of the concept of equality beyond the boundaies af humanity."

Also importantto thisdiscussion is theworkof the American philosopher Tom Regan (b.1938) who paralleled Singer's ideas and suggested that as humans have a life that they consider important to themselves they are in fact the "subjectof-a-life".lt is with this intrinsic value that human animals have afforded themselves value, and ergo human rights. These rights are extended to severally handicapped, mentally retarded and brain dead humans, Both Singer and Regan would argue that non-human animals should be afforded the same rights. The criteria for this extension of rights lies in the question are animals aware of their lives and do they matter to them? Therefore any creature that has inherent value within this system has the right never to be treated merely as a means to the ends of others.lt follows that not to be used as a means includes the right to be treated with respect, which consequently includes the right not to be harmed or killed. This right, however, is not written in stone, as, there are occasions which entail that in order to respect someone's right not to be harmed, another's right not to be harmed must be overridden. Regan's philosophy, utihtarlan in nature. uses principles such as the minirtde pinciple (a.k.a. minimize overriding) and the

worse-off principle in order to deal with such occasions. The miniride principle suggests that when faced with the decision of overriding the rights of the many over the rights of the few, when each ind ividual involved would be harmed in a comparably equal way, that we ought to choose to override the rights of the few.

The worse-off principle suggests that when the individuals involved are not harmed in a comparable way given a specific course of action we ought to act in order to mitigate the situation of those who would be worse-off. Therfore if the harm ing of a few w ould rend er the m wo rse-off than the harm subjected to many would render them, then the right thing to do is to override the rights of the many. As this relates to animal rights it is notable that Regan's suggestion that an animal's death is n0t considered the same as a human's death in a sinrilar situation is worth bearing in mind. Regan asserts that because the ending of an animal life entails the loss of f ewer opportunities when compared to the loss of a human's it has less value. On Regan's view then, when having to choose between an animal life and a human life, or even the lives of many animals and a human Iife, the human life ought always to have pnority, rg ue h owever th at the la ck of certa inty with which Regan's " intrin sic val ue" or " subiect-of-a-,ife" status can be established. Note that the sufficient conditions he lists - for exam ple, having sense-perceptions, beliefs, desires, motives, and me mory (sen tie nce) in effe ct red uces to " sim ilarity to humans". According to Regan,itfollows thatanimals have a basic right to be treated with respect and that we should abo lish the breeding of a nim als f or food, animal experimentation, and commercial hunting. Yet Regan's theory thatwe can somehow quantify hutnan sentience over animal sentience in the context of their lives and experience is possibly an example of specieism in its own right.

Yo u could a

parties. They use violence to get their way when they can, and sex to get their way when they cannot. ln 1997 a piece of EU legislation, the Amsterdam Treaty, enacted a legally binding protocol to "ensure improved protection and respect for animals as senfienf beings" However it remains impossible to quantify sentience within the context of a given life, yetwe can state thata brain-dead human has less sentience than a horse or that a newborn child has less sentience than an adult dog. .

Critics of animal sentience implythatsentimental humans "see" themselves in other animals. They attest that they recognise the eyes, nose, mouth and other features and thus imprint the idea of personage. H owever in recent tests it has been shown that chimpanzees have an almost identical gen etic cod e to hum ans. Mo rris Go odm an of Wayn e State University in Detroit offered in 2003 that his team compared 97 genes in six different species: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, old world monkeys and mice. DNA is common to all life: the closer the DNA match, the closer the evolutio nary link Humans and chimps came out with a sirnilarity of 99 4o/o. On the strength of this,Goodman says:think again, humans. All the surviving great apes should be included in the family grouping known as Hominidae. And therefore both humans and chimps should share the genus Homo. And by extension they should be afforded the same rights. Of course primates are not the only species showing complexity of sentience Dolphins and whales have intricate methodsof communication that remain ittle understood and there are so many other examples that sentience is now a foregone conclusion, and a matter of commcn sense. So with these criteria established the modern a nim al rights movement has blossomed into a diverse body of groups and inCividuals who oppose everything from hunting and vivisection to the use of animals asfood or clothing, those concepts centralto the Flesh Society. Like other socia organisations, the an imal liberation rnovement exh ibits contrad ictory tendencies - at the one pole a socially conservative position such as that taken by the RSPCA, uncritical of capitalism and its exploitation, at the other a nonhierarchical, direct action-based approach placing the particular issue in the broader context of raciical social change, such as the AnimalLiberation Front, Between these opposites vario us com binations exist a nd the contra dictions cut across organisations and even individuals, This has meant that there has always been conflict within the movement I

Animal Sentience

h{' t't'

Many of these arguments stem from the acceptance of animal

sentience Sentience is the capacity to perceive, feeland

experience life. Someone in a coma is not sentient. But sentience is also the capacity to have mental experiences and feelings and be able to suffer. The latter def inition excludes plants, as th ey do not h ave brains or ne rvou s syste ms. Sentience is close in meaning to consciousness in that a sentient creature and a conscious creature are both aware of their body sensations and sunoundings. Examples of animal sentience have been welldocumented throughout history. The fact that animals suffer and feel pain is widely acknowledged Wildlife documentaries and those who keep-animals as pets offer in numerable examples of sadness, happiness, joy a nd grief N otable examples of other f orms of sentience include the work of Jane Goodall (b 1934)who f rom her studies of chimpanzees in the 1960's showed their ability to make and use tools and to operate collectively. Orangutans are n of fo nd of being ca ged and th ere a re se ve ra I stories of how they have learned to fashion tools, open their cages and escape. RogerFouts (b 1943) was able to teach chimpanzees American Sign Language to the extent that they were able to use up to 70 different signs to indicate their feelings. The chimp, Nin Chimpsky, named after political activist Noam Chomsky, has understood and used 25 signs. Chimpanzees are naturally political creatures:they have been observed forming alliances, using subterfuge and launching breakaway '1

On the one hand the more conservative groups are often seen, even by animal liberatio nists, as me re sentimentalists whereas those militant organisations so often decried by the media are regarded as terronsts, lt is worth looking closely at this area for it is whe re the interests of an im als aie often lost.

Terrorists and Trouble-Ma kers

The philosophical viewpointthat animals should be treated equ ally to h uma ns is the ce ntral point, howeve r there are a number of groups and individuals who have deified animals a nd , he ld in s uch reg ard, seen them as s uperior to hum ans, and this is where the problems begin. This form of exploitation in which anrmals are treated like gods can lead to obesity while the creatures often kept in conditions unsuited to their species resulting in illness and early death. This sentimentality also suggests that humans are inferior to animals and that they should be treated as such, From the ideas raised by Singer we can putforward a logical argument for animal liberation but when humans are taken out of the picture the logic becomes lost and replaced by an over-sentimentality that sometimes borders on the fascist. I have met people, for example, who live their lives criticizing everyone they meetfor not being a militant vegan. They regard themselves as superior to other people who have not made

h um

an-an im al con nectio n fo r w hateve r rea so n. They

c:ndescend and patronize but their over-reactionary approach 's,vhat helps to paint all animalliberationists as extremists "no are ndt pre[ared to sit down and put across a logical explanation for whet they believe in. The reactionaries prevent the idea of animal liberation from expanding by their own unwillingness to reason, and therefore educate- Furthermore. rke modern society in general, they require quick fixes but it must be obvious that you cilnnot address thousands of years ci culture by throwing-a brick through a butcher's window.

r, srmilarproblem with over-glorifying animalscan

be seen in

ihe cases of those who have lived among them The America n zoologist Dian Fossey (1932-1985) who studied gorillas in ,c.wania adopted a policy of what she called "active conservation" which involved anti-poaching patrols and habitat o,'eservation to the point of obsession. Fossey was b rutally i-,iu rdered in 1985; possibly by the poachers whose iive ihoods s.e was denying or those involved in the zoo trade even ircugh a former associate of hers was convicted for the murdir. Fossey has rightly been credited with bringing the p ght of the great apes into the foreground but her eccentric rrethodology has led many to question to what extents she m ght have gone if she were still alive. Another interesting case is that cf Timothy Tread+rei (19572003). the American environmentalist who lived am ong wild bears in Alaska over'1 3 seasons before he was rnauled to Ceath by one of those bears. Treadweli we nt aro und schools educating children and appeared on se\/era documentaries promoting the conservation of the grtz zlv bear Fortunately he docum eniEd m uch of h is life among th e be a r-s w h ich can be seen in the Werner Herzog film "Grizzly i)ian' Ti-eadwell's cbsession led him to want to become one cf th e bears and critics had pointed out that he tived dangerously close to them ' 'Treadwell was a gentle person, but emotionally depressâ&#x201A;Źd-and his obsession verging on the cavalier, perhaps a n escape f rom his own inner demons, eventually cost htrn his life. Both Fossey and Treadwell did great thrngs rn the promotion and protection of animats but did iheir oesessions killthem and what can we learn from their lives? Suo: desperation also takes many other forms including the zco i'ade that Fossey tried to prevent' The promoters of zocs i'r ii3lgus thatthey often protect species from certain exiinciron as well as playing an important educational role but the'r cannot deny the limited conditions of the cage, the poor breedrng r'ecord between ,:aptive and wild breeding and tre oiien cestructive nature involved in the "captun ng of specinen-r ''vh ch often results in the oeaths of many others. lt has also ceea established that anirnals held in captivity which are s'-;bsequently released into the wild are often killed by their own krnc

The Dernise of Hunting

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One of the greatest victories in the UK in recentyears was the banning of hunting with dogs, which Oscar Wilde once describld as "the unspeakable in fuit pursuit of the uneatable"' Hunt Sabotage had been the main actrvity of liberationists until 2004 when the ban became law. ln my personal experience I saw more people turn up to fight with hunt-supporters than to sabotage the hunt and save the animal. Fox hunting is a curiously British activity and its historv is strongly connected to Royal$. And they shall have dominion over the beasts, says Gehesis. Hunting is simply the exercise of the rich dominating the environment and its inhabitants. Supporters of hunting argue that the common fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a pest and while the fox may attack and kill fowl, or wanderinto cities it is because modern farminE has detroyed its environment but the fox is not a signficant pest, ln fact quite the opposite. The fox maintains populations of rats in the countryside, and rats have caused more problems in human history than foxes. Hunting is simply the rich exercising ciominion of the earth by extension.

The hunting ban has not been enforced though the League Agalnst Cruel Sports has monitored activity and broug ht siveral prosecutions. However hunting still takes place in the USA, lrelanO, France and lndia among other places. There is an im portant need to differentiate between hunting for sport and hunting for food, Hunting for food, however has no moral stand ing, when an alternative exists. What is obvious from animal liberation movements is the considerable outrage at such activities. This has led to the targeting of individuals involved in animalcruelty and an esCalation of activity. The tactics of anger can be summed up in an ALF press release by Robin Webb: "The ALF has always had a tiad of policies. They were basically: 1/ to tiberate animals from suffering or potentidl suffering and ptace them in good permanent homes: or where appropiiate release tham into their natural environment; A To diamage or destroy property and equipment associated with animil abuse; and 3/ To take all reasonable precaution s not to endanger life of anY kind." Webb went on to say that overtime the third policy was becoming particulady strained and wentfurther to compare armed stiuggle by the likes of the African National Congress in its attack oiiacsm with using violence with the intention of causing serious injury or even death upon animal abusers He was qu-ite right to point out that speciesism is as indefensible as racism but surely inflicting violence and death on humans defeats the logic of Singerian animal liberation? The answer is diff icult because it presents 2 further questions' The first, aiready indicated, might ask - do such actions accelerate the long term objective of animal Iiberation? The second is a matter of utilitarianisrn. ls it justifiable to take one or more human livesto prevent the destruciion of thousands of animallives? The "greater good" aspect of Bentham's ideas comes into the equation here and with in the contexi of a single action it is possibly morally accurate but as an ethical judgement within animalliberation philosophy it is inherently *rong. As Peter Singer stated in the interview with back2front in the last issue: "We need to adopt a differcnt ethical stance towards animals' There are strong ethicalconsiderations against the way we treat animals now. ln a democracy' the kind of change that is needed can only take ptace if the mdiority of people are persuaded bythese considdrations. fhe use ofviolence, and 'the tnftictionbf pain on humans, is nota waytopersuade the majority of people to change their stance." As far as accelerating the animal rights agenda goes you could argu e that such actions set it back' The ALF describes itself as

a ionviolent organisation but autonomous liberationists, such as the Hunt Relribution Squ ad, Justice Depa rtment or the Animal Rignts Militia, that act under its banner must consider whether violent action against humans who are involved in animai exploitation achieves anything more than the short term oblective of satisfying thelr own impatience? So it is then the mainstream media, fall ng over its own dribble' rushes to describe su ch action , an d by conseq uence the p hilosoph y of animalliberation in general, as terrorism. Draconian laws then come into force and with them the organisations of repression such as the Animal R ights N ational lndex which scrutinizes and restrictsthe animal liberationist movement while the public then tends to sway towards the more conservative anti-cruelty groups whose limited agenda wiil never ever address lhe central ten ets of th e Pro blem I

Modern Protest

,"RK Economic sabotage has become an important tactic to modern protest. Concentrated arson attacks on the fur trade f rom the mid 1980's onwards did considerable damage to the industry' At the same time poster csmpaigns and advertisements derided the trade in animal skins leading to a major decline in sales (although that trade is now raising its ugly head again)' The late 80's and early 90's saw millions of pounds of damage

to property as animalrights groups turned their attention to vivisection. ln 1995 protests began to intensify with public revulsion at the exportof live veal calves from the UK to H

olla nd.

One protestor Jill Phipps was crushed to death by one of the vehicles carrying the calves, The driver was never charged and the modern animal rights movement gained its f irst madyr. (A second martyr to the cause would be Barry Horne who died after complications from a Iiberationist connected hunger strike in 200'l ). Eventually many UK county councils decided on a ban especially after it was discovered that the aviation firm involved in flying the calves was also involved in cocaine smuggling. The ban was lifted in 2006 though the airport where Jill Phipps died hab refused to continue the practice, ln recent times protest in the U K has focused on Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952. ln 199 7 m embe rs of PETA (People f or the Ethical Treatment of Animals founded in Virglnia USA in 1980) filmed inside of HLS and revealed they were in sericus breach of animalprotection laws. Two lab technicians were fired by the company afterthe film revealed them shaking and hitting dogs. They were laterfound guilty under the 1911 AnimalCruelty Act, the first such prosecutio n of lab technician s f or anima cruelty in the UK. HLS also have premises in the Un ited States and Japan and have since become a f ocal point for animal liberationists of al persuasions. They are the Iargest such operation in Europe calying out tests on 75,0C0 animals per year. Stop Hunt ngoon Anima Cruelty (SHAC) was founded in 1999 SHAC ls seen by some as a flag of convenience for the ALF One member Dcnald Currie was charged with firebombing offences and jailed for 12 years at the end of 2006. I

SHAC aTe renorvned for their campaign of intimidation which has had a serioirs financial effect on HLS. By 2000 the New York Stock Exchange had dropped the company because of the collapse ir ts share value. lts huge and increasing debts have lost lt mult ple clients and in 2005 the UK Government introduced the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act in a bid to protect HLS and other such companies which contribute sign ificantly to the British E conom y. h 2A07 m embers of SHAC were arrested for fundraising without license. The UK Government had already indicated its position in 2004 when a paper "Animal Welf are Human Rights" stated that animalexpenmentation was vitalfor medical research. This is further indicaton of whythere isstill an anti-establishment ethos centra to animal liberation, when government clearly sideswith business.

Severalmembers of SHAC were charged in New Jersey in the US for "rncltlng attacks" on individuals and property in 2006. ln May 2007 the U K po lice la unched Operation Achilles aEainst anima I extrem ists. Ove r 700 police we re involved a cross the country in the largest operation of its kind The police used intelligence reports and forensicevidence from the private sector and tipped of the press in a bid to maximize publicity. However the majority of raids yielded no arrests and most of the arrested were later released. There is a clear attempt by the authorities to discredit the whole animal liberationist movement purely for economicalreasons, using the terrorist tag as an excuse. lt clea rly isn't working.

Animal Testing

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Of course animalliberationist activity of this nature now has an international dimension. Many iiberationist groups concur that the combination of apparently pro-vivisectionist government policy and draconian legislation are what encourages some individuals to take drastic action. But before tackling this problematic agenda l'd like to address the topic of animal experimen tation itself

on cats nowadays these products wouldn't reach the market. Of course advocates of such practices a re keen to point out thatthe differences between species are very minor and that many medical breakthroughs have been made including in veterinary science. Medical researchers are also concerned, perh aps condescend in gly, th at the gen eral public is not f ully aware of all the issues involved in these situations. There are also those t hat w ill ins ist th at the lives of a few a nim als fa r outweigh the life of a human being. To address these concerns animal liberationists would again point outthe difference between species so let us look at a few cases. The drug thalidomide, synthesized in Germany in 1953, showed no adverse reactions in rodents, rabbits, cats or dogs al"outrageously high levels", No side effects were noted. And yet after the "non-toxiC' drug went onto the market there were some 10,000 reported cases of birth defects in mothers who had taken the drug. lt is an oft quoted example but there are m a ny othe rs. Rofecoxib was a nonsteroidal anti-inf lammatory drug (NSAID) deveioped by Merck to treat osteoarthritis, acute pain conditions, and dysmen orrhoea. Following rigorous testing the drug was approved as safe and effective by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 20, I999 and was subsequently marketed under the brand name Vloxx. Over80 miilion people were given the drug but by 2004 the drug had to be wrthdrawn because it actualy increased the rrsk of stroke and heart attack. Another drug. Bexlra, was withdrawn by Pfizer afier there was 155 reports of adverse reactions.

More recentlythe chemical compaay TeGenero was said to be "shocked" when 4 men almost died after taking the drug TGN1412. Some of the men were swollen to elephantine proportrons. Another later lost his f ngers and toes, And yet the tria ls on animals had sh own n o adverse con ditions. TG N 1 4'1 2 had been tested on chimpanzees. our closest genetic relative. The monkeys had been given doses 500 times higher than that given to the men and yet they showed no adverse reactions. AIso in 2006 11 men diei n Japan after taking the drug Aricept prescribed for Alzhe imer's disease. 326 other cases had suffered from strokes and heart attacks. These few examples offer a clear il usiration that animalexperimentation is a dangerous game Scie ntists might insist that these are just a few isolated incidents out of a long list of success stories but there are two points arising fronr this assumption that need to be properly addressed.

The first point is that there s and always has been an alternative to drugs. There are 5000 years of historical use of herbal medicine - that's at least ten times more'field research' than modern ailopathrc medicine. There are other forms of comp limentary a nd a lte rn ative med icin e that can be used to great affect with man y of tod ay's biggest d iseases so why don't we utilize these naturalremedies. Wellthe central problem is that drug companies cannot patent herbs and the refore th ey ca nnot profit from them . They can attem pt to isolate a specif ic a kaloid in an herb but alkaloids in isolation often iead to problematic side effects not seen in whole herbs. The fact that herbs cannot be patenied immediately means that no fundlng willbe provided and so the scientists then tell us they just don't work and that we need to take their drugs.lt has been shown in various studies that cancercells cannot exist in the presence of the herb turmeric yet billions are pumped into anti-cancer drugs annually at the expense of countless animals. This is the reason why this writer will not donate money to cancer research, The second point we need to look at is that animals tested for anything otherthan medical products have just no reason whatsoever and are morally unjustifiable. That leaves the medical tests and there are numerous alternatives. Here are a few from www.curedise ase.net.

The first thing that should be pointed out is that test animals are different species to humans so their reactions to tests do not necessarily equate with those of humans. Chocolate, raisins and onions are poisonous to dogs forexample while, of course they are not to humans. lf aspirin or soya were tested

Microdosing is a new system of obtaining data enabling human testing to be carried out at the early stages of drug ' development. The system depends on the ultrasensitivity of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), one of the most sensitive measuring devices ever invented. lts accuracy at predicting human metabolism is unsurpassed.

DNA chips - enable the study ol pharmacogenetics (the study of genetic variation that gives rise to differing response to drugs), which, in tum, enables the practice of personalised medicine. This is the concept that since each person is genetically unique; medicines should be designed for individuals, rather than our current 'one drug f its all' approach. DNA chips are computer wafers with tinywells where human genes can be exposed to a new drug, for instance. The computer then reads which genes are turned on or off (or up or down) by the experimental drug. Microfluidics chips - again just 2cm wide, have etched into them a series of tiny chambers, each containing a sample of tissue from different parts of the body. The compartments are linked by microchannels through which a blood substitute flows. The test drug is added to the blood substitute and circulates around the device;thus mimicking what goes on in the body on a micro scale. Sensors in the chip feed back informatio n for comp uter a nalysis. Computer modelling - virtual human organs and v rtual metabolism programmes can now predict drug effects in humans far more accurately than animals can.

Aufopsles-though neglected of late fora numberof reasons, post mortem studies remain the best method of studying the effects of a disease on the human body. Stem cellresearch - offers potentiaL pron-l ise cf ti'eatment for a wide variety of diseases. Hu man sie n cel s have a lready been used successfully to treat some eukaemias. as well as improving outcomes for heart attack cai ents and for some patients suffering from Partinson s o'lsease im aging technologies - such as Magnetoencephalography (l'/ EG) me.Jnetc resonance imaging (MRl), functional MR rillR ) r-'agnetic resonance spectroscopy (M RS), p os itror eL*rs s: on to mog ra phy (PET), s ing le-p hoton emission com ?ui.. io rrcg ra pny (SP ECT ) event-related optical signals tEPOS ) iranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and oihers a,'e ciiering a view of the human body - in particular, the brarn - ii2i.annot be gained by

New

studyin g an im als.

Prevention - Many of ouT curreri dlsease epidemics could be prevented by highlighting the prob e ms with overconsumption of fiesh, fastfood, chemical addit ves and alcohol/drug based life-styles. We are what we eat and iak ng controlof our own health now could be a vital declslon.

with hardly a day's illness. ln the first issue of Vegan News

1944 he wrote: "We may be sure that should anything so much as a pimple ever appear to mar the beauty of our physicalform, it will be entirely due in the eyes of the world to our own sillyfaultfor not eating 'proper food'. Against such a pimple the great plagues of dlseases now ravaging nearly all membersof civilised society (who eat'proper f ood') will pass unnoticed."

The early vegan movement was heavily criticised, and largely from the vegetarian movement who argued that the diet was unhealthy. (Vegans in tu rn pointed out the dreadful cruelty involved in the dairy industry). Later critics of the movement would put question marks over certain nutrients which they had observed to be deficient in the diet, particularly vitamin B1 2. I will com e ba ck to this later b ut let's take a brief g la nce at the western diet and its implications to health. It is thought that the best diet for the human being would consist ol 70% carbohydrates, 15% proteins and 15% fats. The Western diet is deeply out of proportion with this model. For example high fai and high protein are the now norm, while table sugar has substantlally replaced carbohydrate. Other carbohydrates take the form of white bread, white pasta and other heavily processed foods devoid of minerals. But what role does f lesh play in the diet for this is what concerns us here? How does the Flesh Society impinge on our health?

The first and most important aspect of flesh in the diet is that it provides no carbohydrate or fibre. Carbohydrates are what the body uses as fuel when we break down starch into monosaccharides, simple sugars vital to our bodies at a cellular level. lt is quite simply untrue to say that meat is a good provider of energy, Meat does provide protein and this is its main nutritional role. Our bodies require protein for creation of hormones, building of muscle and repair of tissue. We break protein down into amino acids. There are 8 amino acids which are essential to life ('1 0 in children) and flesh protetn contains good amounts. lt is regarded as a primary source of protein. ln the absence of sufficient carbohydratesthe body will begin to break down protein into sugars but this creates a number of toxic byproducts within the system. ln this instance protein can be sa id to be a 'dirty fue l'. There are, of course, a number of associated problems and rememberin this section of the essay lam dealing with flesh exclusively as a foodstuff and irrespective of the moral or philosophica I concerns already d iscussed. Flesh has a high content of saturated fai. Diets high in saturated fat are the direct cause of the major killer diseases affecting the world today,such as heart disease and cancer. Wild animals typically are leaner so the Flesh Society has bred animals to be bigger in the endless search for profit at the expense of hea lth.

To summarize - animaltrials do nct ofrer even a 50% likelihood of predicting their eff ects n hu man s. Likewise, researching human conditions using an mals is misleading and can result in illness and death as we nave already seen. A cursory glance through the British Natlonal Formulary will reveal vast lists of side-effects from modem drugs. Therefore there is neither practical nor morallusitfication for conducting animaltrials, and what governments and scientists are doing by supporiing such practices is merely supporting profitatthe expense of animal and human welfare Nothing new there then.

Animals and Health

Flesh also contains high levels of arach donic acrd which is known io cause nflam matron ln the body and inrplicated in ma ny rnf lam matory d isorders. Cho leste ro I is m ade by every iiving creature that has a iver and it is stored in the muscles so even so called lean meats are high in h armfu I cholesterol which the body has to dealwith, placing a further load on the system. lnterestingly flesh needs to be cooked to render it digestible as well as to erase the possibility of parasitic infection. lt is estimated that 1 in 4 people have a parasite such as tape worm and poorly prepared flesh is often implicated. As already mentioned it was thought that increasing the size of animals was desirable but often the methods used to achieve thls have had some dangerous consequences. A recent example in the UK was Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow di se

The Vegan Societywas established in 1944 just as WW2 entered its final stages. lt was set up by Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson (1910-2005). Watson was a conscientious oblector to the war that ravaged Eu rope. When interviewed in 2Aa2 he was pleased to report that he had lived thus far wlthout reso rt to m edication "either orthodox or fringe", and

ase,

The cow is a herbivore by nature but in order to grow them biggerfactoryfarming began using the leftovers of the slaughtering process as well as the cadavers of diseased animals. So they were feeding flesh to non{lesh eaters and it resulted in a damaged protein known as a prion. The prions caused direct damage to the brain but it wasn't untilit was estab lished th at th e dise ase could be passed o n to huma ns that people began to take notice. As of 2004, 157 people have died form variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK alone. Disease incidence also appears to correlate with slaughtering

practices that led to the mixture of nervous system tissue with hamburger and other beef flesh. lt is thought that there will be ma ny more cases in the futu re particu la lry in light of the discovery of a second prion. Although the practice of feeding flesh to vegetarian animals is largely discontinued, there are no laws against it.

A camivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivore's

Other considerations for using flesh as a foodstuff would include the use of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, fertilisers and protein supplements many of whjch iake place in the dairy industry. Flesh can easily be contaminated by bacteria and also contains toxins such as herbicides, adrenalin, phenolic acid, creatine, creatinine, uric acid, urea, assorted chemicals and parasites. Although we can establish that many of the problems discussed here are largely down to poor husbandry and that organic and free range products might avoid some of these problems, we might also consider that, knowing animals are capable of fear, they also release large amounts of adrenalin into their bodies when slaughtered. Whatmightthis adrenalin be doing to flesh eaters?

Our bodies cannot create human protein directly from the consum ption of animal prote in. The f lesh eater h as to break down the animalprotein into its constituent amino acids and then reconstruct human protein from these building blocks, Proteins are formed from chains that can range anywhere from 50 to 200,000 amino acid links. These chains have to be deconstructed and recombined into human links, a procedure that is very taxing to humans, and also an extremely inefficient way of manufacturing protein. Plant derived proteins contain all the essential amino acids though lysine is not found in large amounts so eating a wide-ranging diet is important. A wideranging vegetable diet will provide allthe amino acids in an easily assimilable form.

The most common cause of food borne diseases is contaminated flesh. Food borne pathogens, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, pathogenic E. coli, avian influenza, and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are now rampant. ln the US alone, food borne diseases are responsible for over 76 million episodes of illness, 325,000 hospitalizations, a nd 5,000 deaths each yea r. ln 1918 f ollowing WW1, a f lu epidemic, a virus which had jumped from one species to another, resulted in the deaths of 50 million people, more than the total casualties for the war itself. Today the world health Organisation blames "intensive poultry production" on the current potential for an Avian Flu epidemic tha t could wipe o ut en tire popu lation s.

"Mealeating has increased 400% in the last 100 years. Cancer of the stomach forms nearly one third of all cancers of the human body. lf flesh foods are notf ully broken up, decomposition results, and active polsons are thrown into an organ not intended fortheir reception."W illiam J. Mayo

Digest This

The West is suffering from multiple diseases directly connected to consumption of flesh and dairy, A few examples: Postmenopausal women with a high dietary ratio of animal to vegetable protein intake have more rapid neck bone loss and a greater risk of hip fracture than those with a Iow ratio of

ilftrutrfl ?

urine is acid. Ours is alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours ls smooth. Our hands are perfectly deslgned for plucking fruitfrom a tree, not fortearing the guts out of the carcass of a dead animal as are a carnivore's claws."

Many humans do not possess the digestive enzymes capable of breaking down meat proteins. This is thoug ht to be particularly true of the A and AB blood group types, As I have mentioned severaltimes f lesh has to be cooked to render it even partially digestible. ln conclusion the h uman body is not equipped to digest animal proteins in any large amount, so from the perspective of hea lth alo ne it is best to avoid them.

animel/vegetable protein. Diabetes and heart disease are responsible for one third of global mortality due to the overconsumption of animal fats. Over-consumption of flesh and dairy is probably responsible for a quarter of all ischemic heart disease, or 1.8 million deaths, annually. Numerous populationbased studies have linked MS and juvenile diabetes to dairy product consumption. The European Prospective lnvestigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) looked at the diets of over 500,000 over 10 years and found that consumption of red or processed flesh considerably increased the nsk of bowel cancer. The list goes on... and on... and on...

The actual digestion of flesh takes a heavy toll on the digesiive system, particularly if it also has a high f at content, One third of the body's energy is devoted to the digestive process already Veganism so a high flesh dietplaces a considerable burden on the body, But is this flesh actually fully digested? Humans, as nutritionist Harvey Diamond suggests, are not natural carnivores: "A carnivore's teeth are long sharp and pointed - all of them! We have molars f or crushing and grinding. A carnivore's iaws move up and down only, for tearing and biting. Ours can move from side to side for grinding. A camivore's sa/tva ls acid and geared to the digestion of animal protein: it lacks ptyalin, a

chemical fhat drgests sfarches. Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple, round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non+arnivore. Our slomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure. and convoluted with a duodenum.

A carnivore's inlestlnes are three times the length of its

trunk,

designed for rapid expulsion of animal proteins, which quickly rot. Our lnlestlnes are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them untrl all nutrients are extracted. The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore. Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only a small amount of uric acid, Uric acid is an extremely dangerous toxic substance

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The vegan diet provides all of the body's needs. Some critics have pointed out that the vegan diet does not provide adequate amounts of the vitamins D and 812, which are found in useful amounts in f lesh. Vitamin D is formed by the interaction of sunlight on skin so spending a healthy amount of time out of doors will give us allthe Vitamin D we require. that can wreak havoc in your body. All meat consumption There is an ongoing dispute concerning vitamin B12 however. releases large quantities of uric acid into the system. Unlike Humans can manufacture vitamin B12 in their colons but they by bacteria; it is not most carnivores and omnivores, humans do not have the cannot absorb it. B12 is actually made plant kingdoms. lt is vegetable or the either the made by enzyme uricase to break down uric acid.

recommended that vegans use B12 fortified foodstuffs or take a supplement, however it is worth taking into account that

number of fermented producis may contain B12, These include tempeh, tofu and othdr fermented soya products, yeast extracts, the a lgae spiru lina and chlorella, sp ro uted bea ns and certain seaweeds though some have argued that these forms are not readily assimilable. Smallamounts can be found in comfrey and fenugreek. lnterestingly there are very few actual incidences of B1 2 deficiency in vegans; only 15 reported cases since 1982. ln one study on lranian vegans itwas found there was no incidence of B12 deficiency and it was posited that as they used human manure to grow their vegetables, this was how they obtained the m in eral. Others have sug gested that eaving a little bit of soil on organ ic vegetables is an other way of picking up B12. Some suggest that over time vegans are capable of producing their own B1 2 in the sm all intestine; however it is important to stick with known science.

li is vital that people following the vegan diet are aware of the foods they need to maintain optimum health, Living olf fried food. processed vegetarian sausages, pies and pizza is a diet devoid of many essentialminerals and often exp ains why many vegans, who have perhaps adopted the diet out of the political concerns raised in this essay, can often be thin and pale. lt is importantto eat from a wide range of food groups including, beans, nuts, seeds, seaweeds and gra'i,1s as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. Sprouted seeds are of particular nirtritionai benefit. Two litres of water per day iis also recomm end ed.

Sc with allsaid and done regarding diet can w,e assume that the eating of fiesh is r-rrong? ln many respects ihe answer is yes but to expect people to change overn gh,i us a rrdiculous assumption. There are massive geogra phlcat a nC cultural considerations involved. Whole comnrunirlie,s aie sustained by the slaughter of animals and it is arguab e that only the West has the actualchoice of vegetarianism. Agrain I r,vi mention the many people lhave encountered, so ca ed ahampions of vegetarianism, who's reactionary attitude ic pe ople who cion't follow their credo is to condescend and paiiri'cn!ze them and ultimately tryto anger them lvhich merely r.sLrjts in a backlash and entrenchmentof ideas. Education andexposure of ideas 'is th e pa th of the lon g term so iution,

The Environmental lmpact of the Flesh Society "Strong growth in meat praduction and consum ption continues despite mounting evidence that meat-based diets are unhealthy, and ihat just about every aspect of meat prcduction-from grazing-related /oss cf croaland and open space, to the inefficienciesof feeding\/ast quantitiesof water and grain to cattle in a hungry world. to poltution from "factory f a r m s"- i s a n e n vi ron m enta I d is a s ie lw ilh .,t, i d e a nd so m eti nt e s catasiroph ic consequences." "Producin g a srngle ham burger patty usesenough fuel to drive 20 miles and causes fhe /oss of five times its weight in topsoil." (E-The Envtronmental t4agazine 2002) I never knew about most of the f acts contained in this article rvhen lf irst embraced vegetarianism. I made my decision b,ased on the fact that a flesh-based socleiy has disastrous ccnsequences for people and the environment. Simply put the supply and demand forflesh is unsustainable, To putthings into perspeotive we should consider that, as mentioned earlier, the flesh diet was the menu of the elrte and the general populace rarely had access to animal products, Perhaps once a rveek, on public holidays and celebrations did flesh enter into tlhe general diet but when war ravaged Europe in 1914 and i938 and the rationing of food began things changed dram aticaily. lnterestingly public health records reveal that genera health was particularly good during this period as mery people were forced into growing their own food, and r*aihcut the use of chemicals tied up in the war effort.

Uniil ihe o utbrea k of war a gricultural co mm unities had te nded rn xed farming methods. The systems employed lvere targely c;g anic a nd largely susta in able. S hortag e of food and misur-rdersranding of nutrition led the captains of industry to dnve lu*rar,Cs prod uctio n of fle sh protein wh ich ih ey mista ke nly eonsilered i,he major element of the diet. Limited research dnr @an ifitc vegetable proterns with the resulting pro.JDdirrr oi -liVP and Quorn. The fledgling European

lnrards

community however began directing a subsidy-based agricu ltura I syste m th at placed heavy em phasis o n the

production of animal protein. Mixed farms turned into factory

farm s a nd crops into m onocultures with a tota I lack of ecologicalforesight. Let's take a lookatsome of the results:

A UN report from 2006 entitled "Livestock's Long Shadow" concluded that mass production of flesh for consumption was one of the top 2 or 3 contributors to our most serious environmental problems, lt is responsible for over 18% of greenhouse gases, compared with all modes of transportation collected together which had only 13.5 %. lt produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warm ing pote ntial of COz) and 37o/o of all h uma n-in duced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO2). UK physicist Alan Calve rt estim ates that flesh consumptio n em its 21 o/o of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity. lf we want to talk about reducing our carbon footprint perhaps we should begin by looking at what's on our plate. The flesh-based system has a sickening impact upon people' as well. The average vegetarian consumes between 300 and 400 pounds of grain per year, the average flesh eater consumes over 2000. Of course, eighty percent of the flesh eater's total is first digested by animals. This is how the Western diet impacts upon the Third World forgrain used to fatten a nim als could be used to feed people,

The flesh system uses considerably more land, waier, fertilizer, pesticides, and energy than plant-based systems. Given the input required to house, transport, and slaughter animals; transport and process feed grains; and transport and process flesh, intensive flesh production is only 25 percent as ene rgy efficient as soya bea n produ ction. More than one third of the world's grain harvest is used to feed livestock and considering the starving people of the world this is nothing short of disgusting. Raising animals for food consumes more than half the water and requires more than 113 of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the US alone. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations imprison thousands of animals in high concentration, and manufacture staggering amounts of waste. ln the US alone some 2.7 ltillion pounds of animalwaste is generated every year. Combined with animal feed production,flesh and dairy production is responsible for the emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus, pesticide contamination of water, hea\ry metal contamination of soil, and acid rain from ammonia emissions. Our seas and oceans are similarly exploited. Over 75 percent of existing fishing stocks are either fully-exploited or overexploited according to the UN. A 2005 FAO report concluded that rebuilding depleted f ish stocks would be "a challenging necesslfy", but a necessity f or whom? The land itse f is also under considerable pressure, Desertificatton is ihe pi-ocess which iurns productive land into non-productive desert. lt is a nrisconception that droughts are the central cause of desertif cation. Overgrazing is actually the malor cause. \tVordwide. desertificatron is causing some 12 million hectares to b.ecome useless for cultivation every year with signif icant desertrf ication both occurring and forecast for the USA. This causes dangerous changes to global edlogy. For example: Dust storms in the Gobi and Sahara deserts cause such diverse problems as respiratory problems in North America and damage to coral reefs in the Caribbean. And thanks to McDonalds. Burger King and others 2/3rds cf lowla nd trop ical forest h ave bee n turn ed to pasture since 19 50. Destructio n of ra inf orest continues u nabated inte rn ationally taking many species including plants that could yield sign ificant m edici nes.

The unsustainable practice of flesh consumption is destroying the planet. Co

nclusions

ln this essay I have pointed out the philosophical, ethical, physical and environmental cost of the Flesh Society. lam tempted at this point to include an as yet unproven theory, Following WW2 historians, psychologists and socral biologists were at loggerheads to try and understand how the Nazi's Final Solution could have taken place, indeed what is it in our

nature that makes us so violent towards each other? Often they have concluded that as a species we are inherently evil but perhaps they should look to a diet based on blood and corpses and the adrenalin they contain, perhaps they might also consider that prior to a certain date in our prehistory lhere is no archeological evidence of weaponry or warfare. Yet conjecture is pointless and merely adds to the confusion for now that it is becoming common knowledge that the planet is on the edge of the greatest catastrophe in living history, it is imperative to act and one of the most important steps is our own attitude towards animals. Unlike the reactionaries ldo not demand that the world becom es vegan overnight fo r that is plain ly ludicrous. I would say also that there are rnany parts of the world where vegetarianism just isn't an option but here in the Westwe have the choice to lessen our impact at least. lf you do not think you can give up meat. well that's your decision, but you could reduce your impact in other areas. Buying free range, organic and so-called cruelty-free products and eating less flesh urill help address some of ihe problems discussed. Avoiding ccrsmetics, f urs and skin is an appropriate step for all concerned though it just the tip of the iceberg.

We need to seriously challenge current methods of farming, At the very least this should mean a drive towards government subsidization of mixed organic f arming. lf only 'l 0% of acreage was given over to livestock and this percentage was eaten in the average diet we lvould be moving forward into a healthier more sustainable future. When this has been achieved then we m ig ht m ove furth er. Rural collectivization is also a credible goal- groups and individuals can purchase, rent or utilize land on a veganic perm aculture basis and establish a village idea that is e ntirely su sta ined on plants. As this issue goes to print a leaked government report actually suggests that as a way of reducing our environmentalimpact we should eat less meat as one of the "key environmental behaviour changes" needed to combat clirnate change. Of course ceniralto these arEuments is overpopulation (as discussed in back2front #1). We need to thoroug hly exam ine ways to curb current popuiation trends immediately, for as population increases so will dema nd. As India, C hina and other nations erroneously follow the West into piastic capitalist culture, the strain of the Flesh Society will eventually become too much, The Flesh Society will one day be seen as one of our gleatest collective failures. lt is hoped we may have the luxury of such hindsight.

Severed Head of State: "Power Hazard" 12" (Havoc): Played this once and got rid of it The SHOS hype hr outweighs their musical ability, The last album they did had it's moments but basically, the band always sound, to me, like e)â&#x201A;Źctly what they are.,,4 blokes who live in differentcorners of the US who gettogeher once in a while to record some songs. What I mean by this is fiat their strff always sounds u nder-rehearsed and thrown togeher cos they're short of time. I thin k they have the potential to be a great band if hey practiced regularly and spent some time putting heir songs together but,...This new effort simply bored me..,mid-paced, average riffed punk songs hat lcould write by he bucketload in an uninspired afternoon - difierence is i wouldn't inflictem on the rest of the world. Ruin Nation Records www ruinnation.org has copies. (Al) Hungry Ghost: "Hungry Ghost" CD (Tax Slave Records) is a selfreleased CD album by this North Carolina band. l'm not sure if \,vhat theyve sent me is a promo copy or not as therc is minimalartwork and little information so I can't com ment on what you m ig ht get if you b uy the C D. I was surprised to find I quiE liked his and one or two tracks ju mp out straig ht away like "Knew" and " Bill of Rights" for example. Musically this is mid-tempo punk and hardcore with an anarcho bent a nd inf lu en ce s from variou s typ ical g en res b ut I reckon if they th rew a few mo re u northodox instrum ents into the m ix they might expand in their own direction more. The lyrics exploring US social and cultural angst lend themselves towards the Biafra sarcasr side of things (though the delivery could be cheekier). lt's nice to see some fresh anarcho ideas amongst some well-f odden ground. This might be a mixed bag but I think Hungry Ghost have a lotof uneplored potential. Available for $13.00 from Ryan Sullivan, 234 Pine Creek Drive, Charlotte,

N C

28270,

SA,

(D O)

Radicus/Destructors 666: "GotM it Uns" Split GDEP (Rowdy Fanago): This is a well produced and packaged split EP from two Peterborough bands. Rowdy Farrago is a small label so hats off for that butthisisn't really my cup of tea. Radicus playthatgenericcommercial pop punk sound you've heard a 1000 times before though they are a tight unit. Destructors 666 seem to be an offshoot of the old punk band butthis is awful. Terrible oh yeah baby heavy metal nonsense meets the corpse of UK82 in a bikers'table-tennis matcfr b he deah. lt might int--rest somebody but not his puppy. And whats with the title - wasn't that what he Nazis put on their helmets? No price given but available from Flat 4, 101 Park Rd, Peterborough, Cambs. PEl 2TR. (RL)

Behind Enemy Lines: "One Nation under the lron Fist of God" is the third album from tris Pitsburgh 4 piece featuring ex-members of the much respected Aus-Rotten. As to be expected this isfull-on in your face anarcho punk which borrows from cTossovei'hardcore and UK82 era metalbands and hrowsin a healthy dose of cynidsm and social commentary, While I don't think this carries as much weight as their p revio us efiorts a nd seem s almost formulaic at times there's enou gh ferocity here to cause a few shudder-s. The CD comes with an impressive 52 page bookletshowing tre band have put a lotof effortin to this project. Good stuff available from Profane Existence frr $8.00. www.profaneexistence.com. Now whatwould have been nice would be if trey'd bohered to answer the interview questions we sent to them 6 months ago! (RL) ll/DC: "Live inZag@" CD (A20 Recods): This is a real gem Tle official CD corbinstvro renastered liw sds from theirl9$ bu indding a sd in Zgreb as r,rell as mct d he rare " Lirc at tu*ibl' LP ard an 8 page booklet wih lyrics. Tle soutd ryd ity is excefiimdly good wen fo a mixiru deskrcctrdng. IVDC refomed wih he origirel lire-p a ftwpars ago (see irteMewtnih Dare Ddq in bad<2frmt # 1) md are still orE of the rDSt oLlspokm, gortine ard dedicded fsces in LJS prrk. Thd r recent dbtm"lvforus brirus Ocpud' is slouiy beconiry a modsn dassic- A20 Reccrds is a newlabd in

Atstria I thnkrm by sore voy sourd peqle Tte CD is avd lSle for an e<trendy reaoraUe pice by co'rtacting he ldd at

inf@rapqudce.ar.

Normtrk : "t&l)/' CD (Ded Lanb). Mw albm frcm tl"is rish tri o. is a rixed bag of origind mnposilimswitidt have a cuio.rs lde ToJealy 80s feel to tran. Sff1e facks ae betbr tfan ohas paticularly tre faterores ho-rgh here is a telderry touards an Angicarizd sourd if pu knolwttd I near. There is obvio.tsly a smgwriting tdent here bd I thrk it corld be ns'e ref red ard ddi\ered with npre erErgy. The dsc cones u,ith nirimd artuork ard I

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Reviews Please send in yourreviarvs. Eve4[hing sent will be given a fair consideration and serreal people wil be invdvd in dcling tfte rcrriews so you dont get my opinionded ranblings wery tinre. Please do not send ermils blling us to go and dowrload strff for â&#x201A;Źrriew. Sorry, dont have thc line. Heree send hard copy only and renpnber to inchrde contact detaib. lf you are seding virryl please send a CDR rccoding wtth it You will be sent the bsue that your rerr'reweventnlly appears in.

o. ww.

inbrpLnk.com (DO)

lan Glasper: "The Day the Country Died" (Cherry Red Books) is probably the first attempt at a proper history of UK anarcho-punk and features the main movers and shakers of hat esoteric era alongside some of the lesser-known but by no means less important bands. The bookcovers the main areas of the UK (but only looselythe Celtic outposb of Wales Scotland and N. lreland) primarily between 1980 and 1984 and thus limits itself greatly as if all hings anarcho ceased in 1984 when Crass broke up butmy only real complaintisthatit is almost exclusively about bands and heir records. This is really music journalism, hat corner of media so despised by he original movement for ib misinterprebtion, misrepresenhtion and oufight detesbtion of any slight hint of a political agenda. There is little mention of the zines, the venues, t'le protesb and the campaigns trat were the backbone of the DiY youth movementthatachieved much more han itis usually credited for. (There are also a number of bands hat aren't mentoned perhaps because they didn'twant tc be included orbecause he author

I t I

iolt they weren't sf ictly of tre genre but where the hell were the Poison G irls and The Astronauts?) However, it was nice t3 see Here & Now gettng a few mentionsand he likes of Nick Toczek and lan Bone being ncluded. Despite these complaints lan has made a considerable efiort to chart he period and succeeds to a large degree in at least openrng the debate asto whatanarcho-punk achieved and may yet ao^ ieve. (DO)

Pazahora: "Oppression Will Only End On the day You Die" CD d Proje cts ): 8 tra ck C D in fold ou t d igipa ck with lyrics an d info. Pazaf,ora are a quartetfrom Singapore and heir music is in a similar vein to Tragedy and that doom-laden introspective style butthe iyr cs are angry enough and he music varied enough to keep this occasionally interesting. l'd certainly be interesEd to hear what they do fiext, The CD is available Irom Prohibited Records, c/o Shaiful , Bedok Central Post Office, PO Box 530, Singapore 91 4605, Singapore. (RL) (P roh ib ite

DOA: "Punk Rock Singles 1978-1999" CD (Sudden Death): Things must be tightover atJoey's place as yet anotherDOA compilation hits ihe streets, However it's bloody good and there'sa few very hard to get lr-sldes on this. ltcomeswih an 8 page booklet with notes and scans of iile original singles, "World War fhree" still makes he hairs on the back ofmy neck stand up, An essential purchase and a very good place to -start if you've never heard them before - check out +rvrw.suddendeath.com. I got mine off Bald Cactus for 05,60 posFaid add ress elsewhere. (DO)

Chum bawarnba: "Get On With h" (No Masters) A second llve album for Chumbas sees them sf ipped do\dn to their acoustic t'r reads and offering folk and acapella versions of their back cata ogue with one new track thrown in. This is an excellent document/keepsake for those who seen them on tour recently as Chumbawamba Acoustlc and although it's nice to see them backon an independent !abell fee they lack fre agit prop punch hey once had hough at the sanie time you could argue thatfolk music !-nakes he polltjcs more accessib e. The accompanying booklet is also a very sparse affair bui these minor criticismsaside lthink his is pretty good effor', Havlng interviewed Boff in depth ln the last issue ldo feelthey are st!tagenuine and committed band ffrough tre CD will set you back a fahe isteep 112 lrom www.chumbacom which is hardly radicel. (lD,O) Bad B rains: "Build A Nation" CD (Miegaforce); A whole new studio album by Bad Brai ns originalfine uoproJtrced by one of the guys from the Beastie Boys no less. Forme. BaC Biains re eased nothing decent after"Rock For Light" so I was hopirU ihis wculd be a reh-rrn to form bein g the orig in al li ne u p arn' all. I wesn'i disa poo nted.-. thi s i s fantastic. It sounds like it should have baen 3iâ&#x201A;Ź iCb,r t9 lo "Rock For Light',..a mix of solid fast hard core tracks.2rd r:gge: n'rmbers (its lust a pity acoutthe obligatory Rastai re fui:us crap lyrics). The production "*orship is a bit'metally' in places (lncltrding ft= odd annoying guitar solo) but the classic, catchy riffs of old Bad Braias are prevalent again and their ability to throw in breaks and i'vr.isis arrj ijrns that you wouldn't expect with the music (which is what s.d ihem apar-i back in he day in my opinion) is in full effect on this. l've g{:y,al his daily since igot it-..it's not often i do that with a record hesa dai,s. HighJy recommended! Available from Interpunk,com (Al)

Hawkwind: "Take Me To Your Futu re'' D ual CD/DVD (Hawk Records). Fresh from fre latest round of bucket bongs and fiddling around wth guitars and keyboards

ol-r

theii rura acreage comes this

late st wh op pe d- ou t offe rin g f !'om th e pio n.e er s of space -rock, Th e set comprises various works in progress for futri'e release and a few extra items. The audio side intriguingLy feaiures the volce of deceased anarchist Bob Calvert (who penned ctassics llke"Urban Guerilla" back in the day) putto new music trough itls ihe co aboratron wih Arthur Brown on " The Reality of Povefty" lhat is ffie stand out track - but for fucks sake who needs another version of 'Stlver Machine" even if Lemmy is on i? The DVD side includes iootage from different stsgesof their career, Some of it's pretty good apart from tire rehearsal footage which is pointless. BrigitWishart of Hippy Slags sings on one fack and Richard Chadwick of Smart Pils (an o d Anarcho band on Bluurg Records) is resident drummer since 1988. Hawkwind have played an 'im portant role in counter-culture over the years but have a tendency towards murdering their old material and repackaging it ad infinitum, Occasionally they can still hitthe mark and apparently they're up for a fight if anyone calls hem hippies as well. Get itfor t7,99 from usual online sources. (NB - apparently you can send hem your used mobile phones as part of a third world project they re involved with - info at www.hawkwind.co m) (RL)

Greenland Whalefishers: "Amazing Space" CD (Patchwork Records): Think Pogues inabsolutely everyaspectof thisband, Even the name comes from a Pogues song and every song sounds like itsa re-arrangement of early and mid-period Pogues. Even he singer sounds uncannily like Shane MacGowan hough the band is very tight and this is very well-played. Funny thing is hey're a Norwegian band. Yes he Vikings invaded lreland in he 700'sand settled there founding D:b in city and establishing a historical link between the 2 countnes but ihis kind of style is like 20 years out of date for me and I find it a shame il'ui such talented musicians wouldn't go for more of their own sound errJ ideas. The minimal 4 page booklet has no lyrics and anyway lyrics atr:'ui drinking pints of whiskeyfor breakfast and lagerwith everything bitJsi so 1984. lf I should fall from grace with Thor indeed! This CD is a a.{lection of b-sides and rarities and if you like The Pogues you will sdrrE ihis, www.interpunk.com, (DO)

Michael Franti & Spearhead: "Yell Fire!" CD (Boo Boo Wax): Older readers willrememberFranti as partof the Beatnigs and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprby, His work ln Spearhead, alhough it has a more commercial sound, maintains a socially conscious agenda and this album focuses sfongly on he Middle East. Musically d'ris is roots reggae meets hip hop with forays into rock wrth a punk attitude though there's more than a few cheesy momentsthat have me reaching for the skip button, Franti has been an outspoken artist for many years, taking his guiAr b lraq and Palestne to film the impressve documentary "l Know l'm Not Alone" (which I'd recommend) and then traveling the world with his guitar and film to talk about what he seen there. Many of he tracks on this albunr are from the film. I seen him several months ago and although he's one of he biggest hippies in the world his integrity is impressve and what he has to say is at times very moving. C heck it out at www.spearheadvibrations.com, (R L) Greg Graffin: "Cold as the Clay"CD (Epitaph): Greg Graff n is the singer with Bad Religion and this is his second solo album. Musically it's a kind of countrif ed folk many miles away fom his band but the lyrics are inteiesting as to be expected. "Cold asthe Clay" is nota patch on hrs first solo effort "American Lesion" from 1997 and seems to lack the passion and raw honesty that earlier record had. I imagine there's a few tracks willgrow on me if lcan talk myself into giving itanotrer lislen. At leastthere's no praises forthe makers of guitar strings in the impressive 24 page booklet Definitely interesting but l'd rafier read his books. Available from big baci stores online. (RL)

Subhumans: "All Gone Live" DVD (Bluurg): Professionally filmed live recording from a recent US tourfeafuring a fine selection of classic songs and a new number along with assorted home movie bonus footage, I caughtthem in Belfastlast year and itwas he bestgig l've been to in a decadel Now you can call me old fashioned butwhen a band plays wih his much energy and integrity I getall silly and need to iump about like a cut snake and drink far too much cider. Midlifu crisis? - Certainly not Essential purchase? -Absolutely- Get it from Bluurg Records for f8 post paid. (DO)

Boxed ln: "2OO1-2OO5" CD (Flat Earth). The disc includes their LP, 3 singles and compilation facks and comes wih an excellent20 page booklet and wraps up nlcely t're life and timesof Boxed ln. The music rs intensely driven hardcore punk that's tghter than a duck's arse butthe lyrics are delivered with that rare blend of ferocity and compassion so often missing from music that claims to be this pissed off. This is dripping with brutality and anger and it's infectous. The factthat this costs !5 should have you running to the post box with your order. FIat Earth Records, 145-149 Cardigan Road, Leeds, LSO 1 LJ, UK, (DO)

Anathema: "Feeding of the 5000" CDR: Self-released CDR version of Anathema's 2 demos and some live recordings from the early 80's. Anathema is an old anarcho band that eventually became Com passion morphing into some kind of anarcho-techno hybrid nowadays. They have remastered treir old recordings here which they describe as somewhere between The Mo b and Conflict but to be honest it does little for me, being largely uninspired and with too many excusesfor guitar solos. I thought the price was a bit steep for a basic CDR package too but then I'm a grumbly old bastard these days. ltwill set you back t5 pospaid with details fom www,greedy-dig.com, (RL)

The Subhumans: "New Age Dark Parade" CD (Alternative Tentacles): New record from the Canadian Subhumans and heir f rst in a very long time though older readers might remember Gerry

Hannah's tape " Songs fro m Underground" hat was smuggled out of prison where he was serving tme for arson related direct action back in the day. The CD comes witr a chunky 16 page booklet of great art and lyrics. Long regarded in Canada and internationally as one of the most genuine bands of the scene - it's impressive to see hem back at it and this is a catchy collection of rocktinged punk with inspired social com mentary and a forward looking attitude, www.al te rn ativetentad es.com. (R L)

Jello Biaf ra: "ln the Grip of Off icialTreason" 3CD (AK Press/Ahernative Tentacles): This is Jello Biafra's 8'n spoken word album. ltcomesasa trlple CD digipack with an information booklet which foldsout into a fine poster. A very nice package indeed witr phobsfrom the afbrmath of Hurricane Kafina and plenty of contsct information fur those who wish to get involved and f nd out more about the numerous topics raised here. Biafra is of course better known as the singer of Dead Kennedys but he has continued to produce a series of highly informative collections of spoken word material focusing on US foreign policy and its international effects alongside domestic and social issues but he offers a number of consf uctive ideas as well. Unlike the rest of hisformer band who are currently milking heirback catalogue Biafra has mainbined a constant vision of a better world delivered in his inimitable cartoon voice style often dripping wh sarcasm or humour but occa sio na lly very po ignant. Th e time tc a ct is n ow; h ere real ly isn't an y two ways about it, You're either with us or you're against us. Don't mess with Texas. www.alternativetentacles.com- (DO) V/A - "Lambination 2" Compilation CD (Deadlamb Records): Tidy international (wellEurope and USA) punk compilation introducing a raft of bands and assorted stylesfrom allover he place and some of them are wellwortr checking out while some are cerbinly not worth bothering with being as generic as hey com e. T here's a 4 page booklet with contacts for everyone involved, A bigger bookletwould have been nice but its well priced and available f om www,interpunk.com for $5 plus postage so get it and help support sm all labels today, (DO)

Negative Reaction #7: Trev & Dawn are back w th another we put together issue including diverse interviews with Honey Bane, Cock Sparrer, Down and Outs, Newtown Neurotics and the mighly Nardwuar alongside opinionated rants, humerous colum ns and honest reviews, This z ne is always worth a look being well laid out, easy on the eye and there's always at least one arlic e frattll make you laugh. This is the bollocks to bureaucracy issue, Chav-Watch is very amusing if itweren't central to the social problems in many areas nowadays. How do communities deal with casuals. spldes and chavs? Answers on an "l've got ten ASBO's more fian you ya fucka'' postcard please- Good to see a mix of interviewsfrom diffurent punk styles as lfind moststreet punk bands, which normally feature, leave me with nothing to think about. Of course here in cheese and we're much more interested in Trev's sexual prowess so come on Dawn, we want allthe gritty bits Available by sending e1.50 to Trev & Dawn, 20 New FrontSt, T/Lea, Sbnley, Co Durham, DH9 9LY, UK. Trev also collects used stamps for PDSA so send ihem along wih yc!r order and check out he huge disto list as well. lssue #8 is aiso now ava lable. (DO)

garde and much more in between. Most of he bands sing in English as' well. The CD is housed in a card slipcase and comes with a massive 52 page bookletfull of photos and info which is all in Dutch but fear notas the enhanced C D contains English translations and further information. This is a slice of local anarcho history from Belgium and inspiring stuff. It s been out a while so get your copy quickly. soci aa lcentrum @hotma il,com ( DO)

Anti-Cimex: "Scandinavrian Jawbreaker/Made in Sweden" CD (A20 Records): CD versiol oithe first 2 albums by the much vaunted Swedish harCcore bancl. Antl-Cimex are righty renowned for heir f rst

The Cravats: "The Land of the Giants" CD (Overground): John seems to have an uncanny knack of rediscovering the classics and making them available in a decent package and ata decent price. The Cravats are largely remembered for theirsingle on Crass Records but they'd done stuff before and after in their inimitable Dadaist purfi flghting with jazz in a seedy underworld stylee. This double,,C',D'assembies most of their back catalogue and a new track ir!:'r!iffi-tbred and resequenced form with a tasty h pag. booklet and rs..offirlfifn and cerebrally stim ulating atthe same time, The Cravats stand out as a band that had some very different ideas than the rest of the pack and the Shend is one of d're greatcharacters of the punk avant garde. l've read recently hat theyre reformed and recording. I certainly hope so. Sfongly recommendedl Available from Trev Hagl,20 New FrontSt, T/Lea, Stan ey Co D urham, DH9 gLY, UK for f 7.50 (DO)

UNIT: "Rock in Opposition (Phase 2)" CD: Andy Martin has been playin'g experimental music srnce his days in The Apostles, eventually turning his back on punk which he seen as fake and riddled with cQntradiction but he is just one of many forces at work here. Thrs is he 7' album byUNlT. lt's adouble CD packagewith a 12 page booklet that explains the ideas behind each track along with fetching photos of the band who all seem to play the saxophone (listening to too much Evan Parker again no doubt)- The musicfeatures he second part of ff',eir Rock in Opposition series whiclr sees them explore anti-rock, avant garde and non-conventronal musical ideas which varies in listenability and accessibility, and is certainly self-indulgent, No doubt many peoplewill hate itfortrat factalone but l'd betif they played Naked: "One Step Backward" CD (Overground): Here we have one generic punk rock they'd be really popular. As with he previous release of the best refospective releases iin fie Overground roster to datg. the largely spoken lyrics/ combined with clever sampling focus on the Naked were an anarcho-punk baod that had a fack on the "8ul/shlt travesty in Palestine and US supported lsraeliapartheid along with Detector 2" album put out by Crass n 1982 and a single on Bluurg Records in 1983. This CD reissre includesthe single and a number of revolutionary ideas from various historical movements in China, Germany and Russia among others. The piece comes across attimes unreleased demotracks alorgwith al2page bookletof band history as part documentary, part cerebra soundscape, part cacophonous and unreleased photos. The mr,'slcis reallyagooci blend of 70's style punk meets 80's anarchc tviih assorted experimentai efforts in between, racket and only rarely touches on conventional form, It's hardly cuttng edge but they've been sharpening their swords. â&#x201A;Ź10 postpaid from Unit The quality production malres ifiese facks sound very fresh and HQ, PO Box 45885, London, E 1 1 1UW, UK. (DO) energetrc for treir age anC ihis is rvel! worh picking up. (DO)

few EP's particuiarl!, 'F,aped Ass" which is widely regarded as Lhe template for Scanii-ciust and Swedish hardcore. The two LP's featured here are not as polqe;'1ui though "Scandinavian Jawbreaker'isllte better of the t\r,,c ard confains a few gems. The metal inf uence began to take over a blt on later recordings and they started to look a bit like a poorman's Guns n Roses which is enough to put me to sleep. The CD has been remastered though and as I don't have the original vinyl can't @mpare it bui the production is clear. The disc comes with an 8 page bookletof lyrics and photos- Checkout www,newprejudice.com for furtherdetails. I

The Day the Couniry Died DVD (Cherry Red): This film by Roy Wailace of Toxic Waste is an accompanimentto the book of t-re same name reviewed earier. Roy has made a film t'rat's fuil of politcal unCercurrent and visual tension suggesting that the problems and injustices raised by the anarcho-punk movement are stll here and we still need to do sornehing aboutthem while atthe same time paintng a picfure of how anarcho punk came to the pass ihrough recent interviews and arcirive footage of the great and the good, (and the odd Toxic Waste reference). Alongside the main feature there's several live performances by various bands from eariy lo modern times (including Toxic Waste) suggesting a continuity that I thought was missing from the book. There are some interesting points raised some very boring and pointless bletner and a few laughs on the.way butas Roy points out in his introduction, if you don't like it go out and do your own. There are lots of fiyers and album covers flickering between sections along with inverted irnages that won't do your eyes any bvour. My main concern is hat this should have appeared on a DiY label surely or am missing the point of whatthe movement stood br? My second concern is thatthis, like several other recenthistories of anarchist punk, dwells exclusively ln mus,ic back catalogues ratherthan dissecting he political awareness and urgent need for change hat gave it all focus, or notng its place in anarchist history. There was more to it all than music, wasn't there? Good prices from Active, Bald Cactus and others. (DO) I

Citizen Fishi Leftover Crack - "Deadline" CD (Fat Wreck): Quintessential English ska-punk meets existential US ska-core. This is thefirstnew materialfrom Citizen Fish since 200'1 's''Life Slze" and probably their best for some time as well, With new drummer Silas (l assume Trotsky is concentratng on Subhumans now) and a top brass section used much more efficienty than previously there's 5 new tracks and 2 cover versions of Chocking Victim and Leftover Crack which are rather good. The production is crysEl and Dick's voice sounds better than ever. As for Leftover CracK l've warmed to them a lot in recent years and there's good material here though I think Sturg's vocals could have been broughtforward in the mix a little more on a few numbers. LOC do an excellent cover of Citizen Fish's ^Supermarket Sony''from treir first LP and a less convincing version of "Reasons rror Existence" by Subhumans. Dave D ictor and Jello Biafra make an a pp ea ran ce as we ll. Th e 20 page bo okle t tha t a ccom pa nie s th e digipack features impressive artwork by Dick Lucas and Eric Drooker. Thrs is an essential purchase, no doubt about iL.Available from Bluurg Records, 11 Pathfield Close, Roundswell, Barnstaple, Devon. EX31 3XP for 18 postpaid. (D O)

V/A: "Squattus Ex Machina" Compilation CD: Villa Squattus Dei has been cenfal to the anarchistand alternatve community in bourgeois Leuven, Belgium for the last 5 years, This CD compiles some of the many, mostly Belgian bands who have played at the squatted venue and info shop. There'sa f ne blend of styles on here and some very original stuff aswell which was a surprise- you'll find everybing from UK82 style punk via ska, hrash, hardcore, folk and industrial avant

T his issue incl ud es inte rviews wi flr Flat Ea rth Re cords, Splinter, the Repeaters, Lost Cherrees and Paranoid Visions

Anarc hoi #19:

alongside reviews and opinions, There's not too many hand-written zines outthere so that's coolbutthe whole zine has a bitof a rushed feelto it, and it'd be nice if James spent a weq bit more time on it. l'd like to see a bit more content as u/e to give it a rounder appeal. Anoher 2 issues have appeareC as expected - #20 has The Dragged, and Toxic Reasons whi e #21 has Burnt Cross and the excellent Reagan Youth who are back at iL You can get a copy from James, 3 Hazel Grove, Kilwinning, Ayrshire KA1 3 7JH, Smtland. (DO)

SignalLost: "Prosthetic Screams" CD (Prank): Signai Lost

fro,m

Texas play mid tenrpo punk rock thatweaves in and outof catchy Dop melody and tight hardccre hook,s and they've made a bitof a narne for themselves with their d st,nciive sound and interestng if downbeat lyrics. This is their secoild albu{n and once again l'm impressed on he whole though itswhen Sings sp,eed up thatthis band are at th,eirr very best especially on tracks like'Casua/ty Routine". One thing bLrgs the hell out of me though s ho't+r ycu can calla 21 minute CD a'fu11 lengh" is beyond me. lt's a fucling EP, okl The artwork's coo anolii comes with a fli msy 6pa ge boclrle I of yr cs but it's very juicy a 1 i'h e same. Take a visitto www.pranKreâ&#x201A;Źcrd'Ts.corn to find out more. (DO) 1

V/A: "Gaidhlig Na l-arsailr'' CD (Problem Records): Comptiaton CD entirely in Scots Gae.licwilh 8 p,age bookletfeaturifE Atonrgevitter, Oi Poiloi, Nad Aslingean and others. SavinE Gaelic atliure is regarded as a n act of resista nce tc e ncro ach in g A ng lo- Ame rica n ccr s um er- ba sed imperialism. This is a rice'iy varied CD and there's scrre great stufi on here including some Oll Fo loi materialthat hasn't beer released elsewhere but it's worth supporting for the idea a,lone. Ycu can geta copyfrom the most excelientActive Distribution fcr !5 postpaid. BM Actve, London, WCl N 3XX, UK (DO)

Ploppy Pants #5: This zine features intervierws ,i/iih Steve from Ripping Thrash zine. Kamikazee and Step On lt a ongside enough

fecal-related anal humourto sink a boat. ltspariaily handwritten and there are some m dly amusing columns and scme stuff that's just slllly. A m ixed bag. 50p plus P+P from Pillars Farm. Fal kland, Fife, KY'115 7AD, Scotland. (RL)

Richard Dawkins: "The God Delusion" (Black Swan): Darvkhrsis well known for his dissemination of Darwjnian theory but finair_v he comes outswinging in this wonderfu book which systematica,B! rubblshes religion on a number of leve s while at the sam e irfl'" espousing the scientific model as a scurce of wondermeni. lihis,ls easily the best texton atheism s nce George H Smith's'Aifi.-'toaal fhe Case Agalnsl God", The excel lent section on the orig n oi.no{ellls shows the bible to be a source of all society's wrongs rather rhan ihe ehical tem plate it is boasted to be. On every level that he tacl:les *re,re is no logical, scientif c or rational need to delude ourselves wiith ifie idea of gods. Look at the state of the planet and make the hlsifiic?rl

connections. There's even a self-help sectron for hose weaning themselves off the poison, This is an important book hat should be compulsory reading on every schoolcurriculum and the recommendation of the issue. Available online and in most book shops.

(Do)

belteves in while continually singing Graffin's praiseswhile Graflln's retorts are often striking and intelligenL Yes folks Christianity and organised religion has fucked us over big time so it's trme to reclaim our minds but is Graff n's idea of naturalism, a 'religion'without Gods any nearer the mark? Go f nd out - cheapestonlne from that big company, (RL)

Destructors 666: "Many Were Killed Few Were Chosen" (Rowdy Fanago): Really didn't like the singles l've heard but his album is deflnitely worth a listen when it doesn't fall into the pit of meEl and rock. There s some nice chunky guitar, some good tunes (some crap ones ioo. and funnily they are the metal/rock ones -weird hat) and you geta iasteful '16 page booklet of artwork and lyrics. The lyrics themselves are largely excellent and it's cool to hear his old punk style sounding fresh. You can order h js from www.destructors666.com (DO)

Oi Polloi/Nikmat Olalim: "Heavenly Peace" Split LP (Cam pary Records). Oi Polloihave become very prolific of late having finally found a shble line-up. Their four tracks here are all new materia with ihe excepton ol"They Shoot Children Don'tThey" which is a very r:levant remake but not as chunky as he original vers on on thelr 'n-esistthe Atomic Menae" EP from many moons ago which s a p:rsonal favourite. The other songs are sung in Scots Gaelic as with iheir recent LP and "Saorsa Do Vanunu" is the stand out fack by far. Nikmat Olalim are from lsrael and they play a mixed DiY hardcore style ihat occasionally reminds me of Dead Kennedys. Accordlng to their urebslte they are "named after a Jewish organization thai set a pipe bo,lib in a schoolin East Jerusalem. This subject doesn i receive mucfr aii€ntion in the lsraelipublic, even though when there are terrorist ;fi.aoks against Jeurs you would hear about them for weeks, and he ifiEntion is to show ourselves and the world hat the Je+rs are tre vrctir,'s and we're under constant threaL Obvious y. brln€inE up the €xsl-.nce of Jewish terrorism against Arabs damages his image. When ihis issue is being raised, the Jewish terrorists are pfes.nted asqazy exremists, cutside the lsraelimainstream. Few make ihe connection h-lween this illegal act to t're much worse acljcns caitri.d out by the lsiaeli Army which are considered legal (at least accErdi.ag io lsraeli l3vr), and receive pradically full support from he. sia3ii pub lc.'This is :nil-Zionist punkl This is an important release and sL€!.eS you go get it i,nmediately, Checkoutthe interview wlth Oi Pdki alsa*'here foi' 6cre detalls. (DO)

Riot On Your Own #25: This is a 28 page phoicolpiad sfeetpunkzine from Belfastwhich has been going for quite a wtil= end is essential readlng for those interested in the Belfast scene +riih lci's cf g g r-views, interviews wih Holy Racket and Outlaw, r:lumns and

girs which is a bit suspect for a man of Billy's age but I did llke hispi=='l :ril an AntCrust" in which the crusty brigade are savagei'r'bei.:,Fd io'iiurning punk into a sorry-faced, funless dead-end. Not befor- ili-re ioo. lt's free br an SAE from Billy Riot, 5 Glen Road, Belfast, BT5 7,rH. UK 3,.id ih3re have likely been a few more issues since this one. {D,O) ie i,iews. There's lots of pictures mostly of young gJr-f-

Runnin' Feart#16: Chunky, user-friendly and exe-isii3ftallv r,,,efi-.orinted zlne thatdescribes itself as Scotland's top curik ian:ine:ad ii Scbably ls. There are tons of interviews with Acid Fasci:st.s.. The Boys, Lower Class Brats, The Grey Army, TV Smith, BedouL, n Soundclash, The King Blues, Dog's Abuse, Down To Kill, The rCravats (€ra;i ic see) 2rii the Subhumans from Canada (best parioiih€ zii€) :s wel as plenty of in depth reviews. Some of the intei.d",ris zt.v=r'! slLlri and ihe questionsare not particularly adventur-ous':raj ii vrcdd b€ nce io sea some columns or politics hrown into he;rilxbui Callu.ii b,anches ouislde of he punk bracketwith his music.al i=i^3s ,+rhlcn is nice'io see. i'll Cefinitely look out for anoher issue. Get y..1,.)ipy fron' Cal u,m lgiesson, 12 Crusader St Stewartln. Ayrslike KAJ 3BL, Scotland. No price given butIreckon €1.50 should c,oveiii. (.!L) Chris Salewicz - "Redemption Song: ilhe D.efinitive Biography of Joe Strummer": This is certainly definitirls. E irClc'*,s Strummer through his early life and the suicide of his Nazi brcthe. whrch he never really got over to the London squat scene and hc 101ers \'./hen he was called !r'/cody, on through the years with The Clash, his *,ilderness years dabbing with soundtrackwork and actng, andhis f iumphantreturn to ;crm nrfr The Mescaleros. Whattranspiresis an often very broken character thatfoughtback against his cl,,'n _chosts. and often against

ihe od0s. to make himself, as he putit a pcr,,,ef. The depth of Sa ervicz's work disturbs me slighty - I wouicn't want anyone prying inic my life that much - I don't need to know inings to th s detail, Strummer cerEinly fought againstthe idea oi hlmself as a rock icon and comes across as a genuine man of the peop,ie with interestng ideas and fasc naLrng music hat he hoped would get them to trink. lwouldn't be sat here today if itwasn'tfor The Clash but l'm not into hero worship e d- er. Strumm er brought cu ltural id eas to getrr e' a 1d pLrt tne pol it;cs i nto or.1k and he should be remembered for t Ialso reco'n.nend Dicr< Rude's f lm on Strummer"LefS Rock Agair'. Straightto hell boyslllGo !elltonline from frem big bad shops. (DO)

Preston Jones - "ls Belief in God Good, Bad or lrrelevant?" Jones is 2 iecturer and a Christian and also a fan of punk band Bad Religion. li-r ihis book he corresponds with Greg Graffin, the Bad Reiigion vocalist

:ni llrlcistto try and argue against

the aheism trat Graffin has pnei-roied in h s band as well as in he academic world where he holds a iri-O- Graffln's fresrs argued that natlralistic approaches to science r:lli:rpiain the human question on biologicalgrounds alone and ;3erefor€ rellglon should play no part, and rightly so. He interviews the graaie,f ihe good including the mighty Richard Dawkins to back up his yr3*i:}rhi. Jcnes offers a largely weak debate for the nonsense he

Last Hours #15: One of the bestzines coming outof the UK by a Iong shotand definitely London'sfinestmanaging to mmbine punk and oher music with politics, comics, columns, reviews and in-depth articles, alongside inspiring reports of largely positive direct actions. Th is tim e roun d there' s intervr ews with Pro paga ndhi, Seein' Red, Strike Anywhere, the Dauntless Elite, Christy C Road, Peter Kupur, Defiance Oh io and more. There's an essay on anarcho-punk compilations by he editor of back2front (nohing like a shameless plug now is here - Ed), a great report from Motala Heights in South Africa were people are resisting the demolition of their villages and a fascinating account of the Siege of Madrid in 1936 by someone who was actually there. There are DiY stencils and skull patches and plenty of reviews and numerous comrcs to boot. At 116 pages this is well worth your money and comes highly recommended. www,lasthou rs.org.uk, Costs e2.50 ( RL)

lnitonit #2'l is a zine coming out of Peterbcrough in the UK. This issue features interviews with Swedish crust band To What End and olde Yorkshire punks Dogsf hsh- Alongside mus c and zine reviews there's an interestingarrayof columns covenng a numberof sublectsand making up the mostpartof the zine which is encouraging. Paul has an enquiring and questioning style thatcomes across as humerous and sometimes thought provoking. lts user-friendly but couid do with more in the way of graphics to break up the text Send 50p plus an A4 SAE to 10 Regents Court Princes Street, Peterborough, PE21 20R, U K, (DO) Saturday Night Heroes - "Promo" CD: Nornrally when I get sent a pop punkalbum lquickly run outslde sc can pour battery acid into my ears and burn away the memory forevei- Seturday Night Heroes, hailing from Ontario Canada, do play pop punx buiwhat lifts them outof he generic rut is their exploratory leaps into different genres and a seeming willingness to experiment I imag ne frls avenue is where they need to go if they don twant tl3 sound like every cther teen punk band around. They released an EP in 2005 and this is their first full lerrgth, lyrically adolescent but upbeat with it, tight and ,,vell-.orcduced- Check out www.myspace.com/saturdaynightheroes foi mcre details, (DO) Fil Planet - "Against the Odds" CD: Flrsi soic oulng forBack to the Planet singer Fil , interviewed in thisissue. In ways has self''r.ranyieft off released album takes off where Back to the Plaret fuaturing up tempo dub, ska and dance rhyhms courtesy oi Guy from BTTP and backed by he lnnerTerrcstrials but alsc explores more modeTn territory with crystal production, The lyrics are an edectic mrx of the personal and he politjcal and Fil's voice ls in greai shape full of range and emotion. This is a great return to form and if ycu're into that DiY dub dance fiing then you'll need this in your co teo5on. My only d jsappointment is fre 4 page book et which has no lyr-lcs. You can order a copy for

post paid through www.fi

anelco.uL iDO)

- This is a free zine ard a breaih cf fresh air bringing an uplifting if surreal slant on the edltcr's wcild Dae,r describes it as oddball satire with free-floating anarchlsicor'iifii-a,il- i's cerebral and fun and a welcome breakfrom "so who plai,s quibi inte,'vlews and al lthat rubbish, C5 SAE plus UKstamps to Deaa Kei-d:ll, i5 Darlington Walk, Leigham, Plymouth, Devon, PLO 8OA, Llr K. (F,L) Readers Digress

Totalitar: "ViAr Eliten" LP (Prank): Th= S+rsrlish_ccds of hardcore

return to assault your senses wrth whai's riieani io be their epitaph release and sweet jesus, this kicks as.s, lt's iasi, its got great riffs but, interestingly, there's a few more'u.ncx.pe.l.'i 'break down parts like' theyVe experimented a bit rnore wlth iheir sonE writing brmula, The end result is one genius punk record. For ii-,e, this is one of he best things they've released. lf you dont like thls, you might as wellrealise you're never gonna be punk and go back to your Meatloaf records. $10 from lnterpunk.com (Al) Re port Sus picious Activity :''D rea mla nd" E PCD (Unde rg rou nd Communiqu6): Follow up to the excellentdebut album on Alternative Tentacles last year this 5 track EP features Vic Bondi formerly of Articles of Faith and Alloy, (intervlewed in he lastissue of B2F by the

way). This would have been an album if Bondi hadn't broken his arm but nonetheless this is anotrer great effortand perhaps much darker in mood and tone han he previous album. I didn'tlike it f rsttime round butthen some of the music is'less obvious' if you catch my drift. Post hardcore sounds and lyrics that bubble to boiling point; RSA are becoming an excrting unit and l'm looking forward to more. Details can be fou nd at www.u nderco mm.org P

rofane Existence #52l53 is a

assive zine that comes with 2 free

com pilations CD's. There are lots of interviews inciuding

Chumbawamba, Signal Lost and Appalachian Terror Unit among many others but he important part of this zine, indeed the Profane Exstence Collective, is the reports on alternatjve culture from around the wodd. There's an excellent feature on the dem ise of the Ungdomshusetautonomouscentre in Denmark and the State clampdown frere (aswell as the backlash) an artrcle on the Subwar Collectve and a superb essay by D ave Trenga of B ehind Enemy Lines examining in detail the Bush regime in comparison with the rise of fascism in Europe. All of tris alongside a shipload of reviews and

columns galore make this one of the most important zines in the rntemational DiY community. Check out fie disf o too at www. profa neexisten ce. com ( DO)

Ruin: "Live Against the Grain" is available as a free download from www.ruined pwp blueyonder co uk Recorded live at lhe'Againd the Graln'festival atthel in 12 Club in Bradford 2006 The festival was a benefitfor lhe Zorosquat in Leipzig - and the CD is free to download and distribute non-profit. This was recorded live with no overdubs - ("ifs not per{ect, neither are we") and s a fa ntastic offerfrom one of the most genuine bands in the Scottish,4\orthem scene Hard as nails D-beat anthems delivered Wth pounding tntent featuring one of the best bass guitarists on the ClarkSon circu t coupled with intelligent and genuine lyricalexpresson make thrs essential . Ruin has some newwork coming out soon ard rt wll demand your atEnt on. Check out the backZfront interview with Ruin in Max m um Rock n Roll #285 (DO) r

Chinesehappy: "Bear Hands" EP rs a self-released 6 track EP from this oddly-named pro-brcycle Detort quartet lt comes with a 4 page booldet including lyr cs rt s a baslc package but musically you can instantly tell that they re iry rg to find something new even hough they're on well worn ground ndie povler pop occasionally ttnged wth hard guitars and e>oer r.enia passageswith a splash of the avant garde; however the vcca s1v e could do with being as adventurous as the music. Deta ls ca" 3e cctalnd ftom wvwv.chinesehappy.com. (DO) The Lobotomies: 'Drink, Pass Out, Repeat" (CDR Promo): Just got this in the post as ::e z re was going to print and was pleasantly surprised, The Lobctoo'o* are fom Northern lreland and this sixtracker is theirfr rc re ease lthink. The music is straight ahead melodic punkbut its playe: ,,',ih a very hard edge and thai's what grabs your attention. l've seer rr'.m live a few times and thought they were ok but this is worth chec< ^g out There's a nice clear production and some good lyrical obseruatcns Find out more at www thelobotomies.com (DO)

Propagandhi: "Live From Occupied Territory" DVO (GZ): A show from 2004 featur ng some eariy versions of tracks from their last album, a coverversion a:i a fewclassics all assembled in a DiY stle There has been a lot of rctrghtgone intothis fn;m sourcing ecologically sound packaging :c lre DVD extras which include a full-length documentary f ln- cr Palestirle Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land,lhe indeper:entiy produced documentary As Long As the Rivers Flov,,; the story o! :'e GnssyNanows Blockade, a ridictllous commentarytraci cy Chris of Propagandhi and Derekof G7 and pttotc presentations cr: 'e n Gaza and the Grassy Narrows Blockade by photo.iournalists -:- Elmer and Jon Schledewitz respectively Exceilent and informative a -: possibly the last time G7 will produce an actua product as they ia' : deps towards perhaps the firS download-oniy label.www gTvre ::- ngcommittee.com (DO)

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