Zine review: Morgenmuffel

I cannot believe I have not mentioned Morgenmuffel, which for more than a decade between the 1990s and very recently, has chronicled the life of its creator Isy, a German-born anarchist, and her experience of life, love, friendship, political activism and DIY culture in the UK.

There is a humanity to Isy's work which is as beautifully honest as it is by turns angry, impassioned, funny and, at times, heartbreaking. In 2009 many of the main stories from Isy's early zines were collected in book form by Last Hours as Diary of a Miscreant. The collection runs the gamut from anti-G8 protests and climate camps to mini-rants about things that annoy her (everything from periods to the gentrification of Brighton, England, a place which long-term followers will know I'm very familiar with). I found the most personal identification in shorter pieces of hers like "My First Big Demo" and "Bovine Encounter," as well as the title itself, which is apparently derived from a German word for a person who do does not like waking up early.

If you're lucky you might find a few copies via Active Distribution of London. Age, life events and a downshift to a rural co-op means that Isy will be producing Morgenmuffel far less than previously, but I hope more will follow soon, together with a fresh print-run of Diary of a Miscreant.

Zine Review: animalus

I recently discovered a copy of another zine by Carrie MacKinnon, which was lucky because her website www.blackbirdtree.co.uk appears to be down, and Active Distribution appear to have sold out of copies (I can only hope there will be more soon as this is a brilliant little zine).

Unlike the heart-rending tales of migrants in Aminullah, another zine by MacKinnon that I reviewed here last year, the focus of animalus is animal rights, and the end result is a zine packed with stories that use the logic of science fiction to make us think about things in a completely fresh way.

The zine is also packed with useful information for veggies, vegans, raw foodists or anyone concerned about the sources of our food or the ingrained assumptions that often go with it. It is angry, impassioned and thoughtful.

From a creative perspective, by far the strongest story in animalus is the title story "when we were cows."

It is my hope that by creating a record online through this review I will in some small way help to foster demand and a new print-run will be out soon. For the time being, if you want to find a copy yourself you could get in touch with Freedom Bookshop in London (where I found my copy), Active Distribution or Footprint Worker's Co-operative who printed it.

Update: Her website's new URL is www.blackbirdtree.org.uk

Positive outcome for Runnymede Eco Village in court

 
Activist-blogger Phoenix reported a "major victory" for the folks down at Runnymede Eco Village yesterday, as court has been adjourned until a hearing which will now most likely take place in early May. It seems the Judge recognised some aspects of European human rights law, but I do not know the details as yet.

Having visited the eco-village myself, met some of the residents and seen their beautiful and very unique dwellings for myself, I remain inspired by what can be achieved by ordinary people working together with little more than scrap, an area of dis-used wasteland and some basic construction and horticultural knowledge at their disposal.

As with some recent successful examples of eviction resistance at Yorkley Court Community Farm and Grow Heathrow, news of the adjournment also leaves me optimistic as it demonstrates the efficacy of keeping squatting a civil offence, where it can remain subject to negotiation between land owner(s) and occupier(s) rather than criminalisation and the rule of force.

With spring now fully in bloom, what better time is there to visit a truly unique community while you still can? Come and meet, connect with and support the endangered species of hippius rainbowfamilias. Come to Runnymede Eco Village.

One love x

 

There is hope for the homeless of London...just not in Parliament

A brief overview of some of the positive things happening in London recently.

It has been an inspiring sight to see such an upsurge of activity around the issues of housing and homelessness in the UK over the last few months. For the time being, most of this work has been happening entirely at a grassroots level, and (so far) only in London. This makes sense, as London is by far the most expensive place to live in the country, and is rapidly undergoing a process of being transformed into little more than a playground for the super rich, a process our elected representatives seem all too happy to facilitate. It is worth noting that even high ranking members of the Labour party have spoken repeatedly, not about achieving meaningful and sustainable economic justice, but about being “intensely relaxed” about the idea of people becoming filthy rich. No wonder voter turnout is so low!).

To a certain extent this is an inevitable by-product of leaving basic human needs like shelter to the whim of unregulated market forces, something that all of the mainstream parties still accept without question. Naturally most people who own even the smallest bit of property in London don't mind anything that contributes to the hyper-inflation of the property market as long as it makes them “feel richer”, but for a growing number of people on medium-to-low incomes (those who do most of the real jobs) or on little to no income at all (the unemployed, sick, under-employed, especially those trapped in zero hours contracts) this evolution is turning London into a city increasingly difficult for ordinary people to live in.

It was a pleasing surprise therefore when the residents of estates like the New Era Estate in London's east end fought back (and won) against the council's decision to sell off their homes to a private developer. These examples of self-organised working class action have lit a fuse which has sent sparks flying through other communities in the city, inspiring others to get organised and preserve working class homes against the threat of creeping gentrification of poor, ethnically-diverse, working and lower middle class areas.

As I touched upon above, local councils in London, no doubt driven by the prospect of being able to charge higher rates of council tax, have been entirely complicit in this process, happily arranging the sell-off of publicly-owned land to private developers whilst completely ignoring the thousands who languish on council waiting lists. They make small, token concessions to what remains an urgent and growing need by merely requiring that developers provide a handful of 'affordable' homes in any new development of over-priced luxury flats.

We can see how this approach tends to work out in practice if we consider the case of 1 Commercial Street in Aldgate. In a throwback to the old, two-tiered Victorian 'Poor Doors', the developers have created a separate entrance for social housing tenants to use...in an alley around the side of the building near the bins. The wealthier, private tenants and owner occupiers get to use the more luxurious front entrance, complete with chandeliers and a concierge service, without having to suffer the indignity of rubbing shoulders with the proles.

The Aldgate/Whitechapel area has always been a predominantly working class area, with a large, ever-shifting immigrant community and has always had a very vocal and well organised community of libertarian socialists who have formed the backbone of resistance to this particular luxury housing development, organising weekly protests every Thursday night since last summer, in which they block the posh doors with their banners. Sometimes the police turn up to protect the wealthy inhabitants and find themselves forced into the position of having to form a cordone which serves to block the doors anyway.

The problem with pricing ordinary people out of the market is that if you can't afford to pay private rents or to commute from the outskirts of town everyday there is a very real risk, with benefits cuts, that you will simply be forced onto the streets. This is why the parallel upsurge of activity by and for the homeless, which occurred around the holiday season, is so desperately needed. This activity was mostly centred around the actions of grassroots groups formed of primarily homeless people (and some Occupy people too) like the Love Activists, who occupied the empty, former HSBC building in Charing Cross to highlight how many buildings there are in the city sitting empty while homeless people freeze on the streets, subject to increasingly harsh measures like the notorious anti-homeless spikes, designed to discourage rough sleepers (and fortunately removed after a large public outcry).

Following their eviction from the former HSBC building some members of the Love Activists created the Homeless Kitchen London, a form of DIY self help/political action which operated throughout much of January, culminating in the March for the Homeless, and an ongoing occupation of the derelict Aylesbury Estate in south London. Another March for the homeless will be taking place in London on April 15th, whilst occupations by threatened residents like the one at Sweets Way estate in Barnet continue.

With related campaigns to protect the musical culture of Soho from a kind of cultural cleansing, there is clearly a great deal of popular energy among Londoners to fight for our immediate housing needs and protect the unique cultural heritage that has made this city so much more interesting and vibrant a place to live in than deserts of steel and glass like Dubai.

Unfortunately, it remains a depressing fact that, despite there being so much grassroots activity going on against the transformation of London into a vapid and soul-less yuppie playground, and even with a General Election on the horizon, the pressing issues of housing and homelessness in London are nowhere on the party political agenda. This clearly demonstrates how divorced the majority of politicians are from the needs of the people they are supposed to represent, but perhaps also how desperately we need to build new, more genuinely democratic and representative institutions that can protect the interests of ordinary Londoners more than the old trade unions and political parties ever did.

When it comes, it will come from those very people who are beginning to prove that when we organise together we can win important victories for ourselves and our communities, with or without political representation.

Peace Hotel

I discovered recently that there is a Peace Hotel in Paris. In the Montparnasse district to be precise. Can anyone tell me what its like? I am tempted to stay there next time...

Zine review: Aminullah

 
Subtitled "more tales of migration" this is a heart-rending collection of stories from the lives of migrants, from the powerful title story to the many other accounts of people fleeing violence and persecution only to meet more of the same in Fortress Europe. What is especially useful about this little 'zine is that it also tries to document tales of struggle and resistance, and ends with some practical advice both for illegal immigrants in the UK and those wanting to show solidarity.

The perfect gift for anyone who wants to understand the lives and struggles of some of the most demonized and neglected human beings on our planet. Someone should really give Tony Abbott a copy!

Zine Review: Henry & Glenn Forever & ever

How could I not pick this one up? After all, when you find a satirical romance comic about a great love affair between Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig... well, it is so unique and unexpected that you just have to. Even if the love affair in question exists solely in the minds of a group of very talented artists and writers the result is still hilarious.

The zine, published by Cantankerous Titles of Portland, Oregon, is the creation of Tom Neely, with additional art by Ed Luce, Benjamin Marra, Scot Nobles, Christopher Cooper, Eric Yahnker and Keenan Marshall Keller, and I discovered my copy in the charming independent comic shop Traveling Man in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is very supportive of both local and international 'zine culture.