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Direct action defies fascist ASBOs in Derby

Mickleover Black Block | 03.05.2005 15:27 | Repression | Social Struggles | Birmingham

The pigs have introduced Section 30 fascist anti-freedom orders, also known as area ASBOs, in various areas of Derby. None of these are "problem" areas in the usual sense; most are middle-class suburbs and satellite towns whose only "anti-social" problem is an infestation of whining bigots. In one area, local activists have carried out mass stickering to expose and attack the evil laws.





(This article is written by a local activist based in Mickleover, the area under discussion).

Derbyshire police have started to use fascistic powers granted under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to attack freedom of assembly in various areas of the county. Areas subject to the fascistic Section 30 orders (aka area ASBOs), which ban gatherings of over three people if a cop decides s/he doesn't like it, have mushroomed over the last few months. Previous targets have included sleepy upper-class dormitory towns such as Melbourne, and residents in the middle-class Ockbrook and Borrowash area have been refused an ASBO by the pigs because police resources are already overstretched. The city centre is also under a Section 30, leaving people who protest, go out with friends or otherwise socialise with other people vulnerable to being attacked and arrested as "anti-social". Ironically, the only way to avoid being "anti-social" is to avoid mixing with other people!

In previous incidents, area ASBOs have been used to attack protesters such as Caterpillar campaigners in Solihull, peace picketers in Camden and people peacefully leafleting against McDonald's in Leicester. In a recent interview, a Greek citizen describes the measures as "fascistic" and says that "these kinds of things do not happen in a democracy... It's the kind of law the military junta in Greece would have brought in, not the kind of law a democratic government would bring in".

Recently, Mickleover became the first residential area of Derby to be the victim of a Section 30. Although the law specifies that targeted areas must have a "significant and persistent anti-social behaviour problem", Mickleover is a suburban area with few real problems of any kind. For instance, last month there were only three recorded break-ins in the entire area. The reason for the Section 30 is perpetual whining from a vocal minority of Tory-supporting whiners and bigots based in the area, who take the mere presence of groups of young people to be threatening and criminal. They then whine to the police, inciting the police to harass local youths. Class prejudice is fuelling much of the bigotry, with youths from neighbouring Mackworth, a more solidly working-class area, blamed for everything which happens in Mickleover.

In response to this attack on basic liberties, local activists have carried out a campaign of stickering in the area, targeting lamp-posts, local shops and the area around the school, among other things. The stickers call for mass defiance of the fascistic laws, draw attention to the fact that ordinary people are subject to police violence at any time, and call for resistance against police-state measures.

In addition, persons unknown have ripped down almost all of the posters announcing the ASBOs. Defiance is likely to make the fascistic laws unworkable, as Mickleover is a large area and is covered by only a couple of pigs. Already the stickering campaign has probably caused enough fuss and bother to render the Section 30 counterproductive, in that it has generated more social deviance instead of reducing it.

At present, discussions are underway with other local activists and national anti-ASBO campaigners about the next step. With luck, the police will see sense and allow the fascistic law to lapse when it runs its course in July, instead of risking creating the momentum for sustained opposition and resistance.

Fuck social cleansing!
Defend basic liberties!
Viva la revolucion!
MICKLEOVER BLACK BLOCK

Mickleover Black Block

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

oh please

03.05.2005 20:15

will you grow up?

"Fascist this fascist that..."

Idiot.

black+red


hold on black and red

03.05.2005 22:46

At least this person is trying to highlight these issues.

Maybe if/when you get fucked over by the police on an animal rights demo come june (that's if your version of anarchy includes non-human animals) when the soca bill arrives, you may reflect and champion people that are at least trying to bring these issues to light?

BountyHunter


Why not call ASBOs fascist?

04.05.2005 20:51

I'm glad to see there's resistance going on, even though far more is needed.

There are good reasons for calling ASBOs and the like fascist. First of all, these laws are not part of a liberal-democratic state regime. They violate basic liberties recognised in principle by liberal-democratic states, and they violate the liberal principle of rule of law by criminalising specific individuals or areas. If they are part of a bourgeois state and yet are not part of a liberal-democratic regime, surely this demonstrates them to be part of a Bonapartist or fascist regime?

Secondly, measures similar to ASBOs have only previously been used in fascist regimes. Similar measures against the "asocial" are well-recorded in the case of Nazi Germany, with incidents such as the expulsion of residents for "anti-social behaviour" reported and condemned in texts on fascism such as Grunberger's "Everyday Life in the Third Reich".

What we're seeing at the moment is a permanent abrogation of any and all civil liberties of whatever kind. New Labour don't think that people have rights. They are trying to make every last right conditional on social conformity. So, we see laws introduced to ensure that any action can be banned in the case of a particular individual, or in a particular area. This is an attack on the very idea of unconditional rights.

political theorist


ASBO's HELP COMMUNITIES LIVING IN HELL

13.05.2005 20:01

ASBO's aren't state imposed acts of suppression. They are a response to desperate requests from thousands of residents in communities who have lived in hell thanks to gangs of youths roaming the streets.

The rights that need to be respected are the rights of innocent people (who aren't bigots or racists) within these communities to live in peace without being subjected to gangs of hooded youths swearing at them, spraying graffiti and damaging their property.

In Mickloever such crime has gone down significant significantly since the section 30 was imposed. Coincidence? I don't think so.

The problem is that without ASBO's the Police are often powerless to deal with these idiots. It hasn't meant youths being hounded off the street by Police. Quite the reverse - loads of kids who were scared to go out because of these gangs are now doing so. Open your eyes and you'll see them. Not being beaten up by Police, but just going around like normal, decent kids.

Did you read in the local paper about 'the ultimate family from hell' in Mickleover? The only way to tackle them was through ASBO's. Guess what - after ASBO's were imposed on them they've now gone from Mickleover and people (like my friends who lived close to them) can finally sleep at night and go out with a better than even chance that their homes will be intact when they return - thanks to ASBO's.

Straight Talk


"Straight Talk" = straight lying

18.01.2006 20:53

I live in the area under discussion and there have never been gangs of youths roaming the streets, there have never been people afraid to go out. There are a few places where youths hang out in evenings, which other people tend to avoid - though whether they really need to is debatable. I used to go out for walks all the time, including late in the evening, and was never so much as insulted (and yes, this kind of thing has happened to me, but never in Mickleover). If you love statistics so much then check out (for instance) how many "muggings" (street robberies) there have been in Mickleover down the years, even how many burglaries there are. There are occasional acts of nihilistic deviance such as vandalism of the local park and items going missing from unlocked garages. Mickleover has never been a crime hotspot. I wonder where "Straight Talk" gets her/his statistics from, regarding the alleged fall in crime.

The "Section 30" has solved nothing; basically the same things that happened before, keep on happening. There was a brief displacement situation when it was first introduced, with youths not gathering so much in Mickleover and moving into surrounding areas instead. Even this effect was weakened as time went on. Subjectively it seems problems have in many ways got worse, in that those already involved in social deviance have become nastier. Police have now revealed that they've met some hostility from parents to their actions in randomly harassing youths, not getting a very sympathetic response when they frogmarch innocent youths home at night. After two renewals, the fascist measures have now been rescinded for the time being after a court ruling (presumably) that the measure is not justified (probably because it has no effect).

The local paper is a right-wing bilge rag. I don't believe a word of what they publish, because in three cases I know personally, the coverage has been heavily slanted and borders on outright misrepresentation. Of course they will jump on all kinds of things to fit their pre-existing stereotypes. So I don't care what they say. The so-called "neighbour from hell" case, had nothing to do with the area ASBO, and as far as I can tell, was about occasional loud parties at night - hardly a new problem, and something that wouldn't attract police attention in a less petty-bourgeois area.

In any case, it is obvious that everyone is being punished by such fascist measures. I myself have been afraid to go out for the period of the ASBO, and have partially left the area because of it. Advocates of evil throw around labels like "living in hell" very easily; in fact the real hell is the totalitarian hell they are creating. I am living in hell because of fascism-apologists such as "Straight Talk".

If the demoniac evil of state fascism is the only way to respond to petty deviance, then let it go un-responded to! I daresay everyone thought Hitler was the "only way" to respond to the problems of the 1930s as well, I hardly see this as any excuse.

Mickleover resident


And to PROVE "Straight Talk" isn't from Mickleover...

18.01.2006 20:57

I doubt he's even from Derby, because if he was, he'd know that the reference to bigotry from Mickleover residents towards Mackworth residents was not a reference to "racism", as Mackworth is not especially populated by black people or people from other minorities; but that the reference was to class prejudice (Mickleover being an area with high house prices and middle-class residents, whereas Mackworth is an ex-council estate and solidly working-class sociologically).

Such an elementary error of interpretation proves the Straight Talk is an impostor who knows nothing about Mickleover or about ASBOs but who simply jumps to conclusions based on kneejerk bigotry.

critic


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