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7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
1/6
Issue # 2 Autumn 2013
AUTONOMYAUTONOMYAUTONOMYA Scott ish newssheet for socia l change f rom below
Stirling Council workers
in UNISON were on a one-
day strike on 27th August,
in response to what would
amount to an effective pay
cut of 4.5%, to be imposedin November. The Labour-
Tory coalition in charge
has threatened workers
with dismissal if new
contracts, which require a
1.5% pay cut plus an extra
hour per weeks work,
aren't signed by individual
workers. Whilst the GMB
union at Stirling Council
announced a ballot for
industrial action on thesame day and the smaller
Unite and UCATT unions
are also considering
action, it looks like a
united response has not
been co-ordinated. If
Stirling Council manage to
successfully impose these
new contracts then this
will send out a message to
other councils that an
imposition of austerity can
be got away with and it
may be the beginning of a
similar cuts across the
country. The support forthe strike on the day was
strong but council workers
thatAutonomy spoke to in
the run up to the day of
action questioned whether
unified, cross-union action
would be forthcoming.
Certainly, without
concerted action involving
all workers at the Council,
regardless of union, the
administration will steam-
roller a workforce already
subjected to the salami-
tactics of the trade union
chiefs. Whether Labour-affiliated union officials will
be willing to seriously
challenge their political pals
remains to be seen and it will
require rank and file
initiative to make sure that
the fightback isn't
undermined.
Free/Donation
Work in
education? Join
the Scottish
EducationWorkers
Network
UKBA
intimidation
in Glasgow
Extreme gasproduction in
the Forth Valley
Events and
groups around
the country
Stirling council workers strike against pay cut
Bedroom Tax: Edinburgh Council continuesattacking disabled people
must be removed.
City of Edinburgh Council is
attacking people with severe
disabilities by unfairly
denying them
Discretionary Housing
Payments. The Council
is counting Disability
Living Allowance and
Personal IndependencePayment as income when
calculating if a claimant
needs DHP. This is
completely wrong.
(continued overpage)
Jamie Oliverdoesnt have a
clue about
eating on a low
budget
Anti bedroom tax
campaigners from round
Lothians met in an
emergency meeting in
August and issued a
statement condemning City
of Edinburgh Council's policy
of quizzing people on their
expenditure on alcohol,
cigarettes and satellite TV
and using this information in
deciding whether to award
tenants Discretionary
Housing Payment. This has
led to newspaper reports
portraying DHP claimants
as scroungers and wasters.
In fact research by the
Scottish Government and
COSLA reveals that at
least 80% of households
affected by the bedroom tax
contain disabled people,
state the LothianFederation of Anti Bedroom
Tax Groups. We believe
this policy is an incitement
to hatred against disabled
peoplethese questions
7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
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We are education workers organising
to strengthen ties within the education
sector here in Scotland, throughout theUK, and around the world.
We represent an alternative, rank-and
-file, industry-wide model of
organising.
With the support of the Industrial
Workers of the World and other like-
minded groups, we are in the process
of building a network of workers and
students who are interested in fighting
for our rights and in developing and
sharing anti-capitalist teaching andlearning practices through education
forums, films, conversations, and
writings.
Those of us who are members of the
IWW will function within our TUC
unions as dual carders and will work
with other radicals to form caucuses
within these unions. The Network also
welcomes those with connections to the
education sector but who are not
currently permanently employed
within it, or not members of any union.
Join us if you agree that
workers and students, united non-
hierarchically throughout the
education sector, have every right to
make and carry out decisions about
curriculum and working conditions.
the skills agenda and corporate
control, at all levels of education,
have to go.
there is no place in our sector for a
division between mental and manual
labour; or on the basis of gender,
religion, ethnicity, or physical ability.
Solidarity, communication, and
compassion within the working class
is essential.
we need to take militant direct
action against job cuts, department
closures, give-backs on pensions and
benefits, and excessive workloads.
the crisis in education is part of a
global assault on the public sector, so
building relationships and
coordinated actions across national
boundaries is very important.
we dont support mainstreampolitical parties, including the Labour
party and the SNP, since their
interests and methods are at odds with
our principles of education for
liberation.
Please contact us at
[email protected] if you
have questions about the Scottish
Education Workers Network, or
would like to join our email group([email protected]).
For information on upcoming SEWN
actions and events, check our
website iwwscotland.wordpress.com
/scottish-education-workers-
network.
We look forward to your participation
in this exciting project.
Introducing the Scottish Education
Workers Network
PAGE 2 AUTONOMY
DLA and PIP should be completely
disregarded as available income,
because it is paid to cover thesubstantial extra costs incurred by
people with severe disabilities.
Recently Bill Scott, manager of
Inclusion Scotland, described this
policy as plainly
discriminatory (Herald 16.8.13).
Faced by a challenge by disabled
claimants, Glasgow City Council
recently changed its decision and
disregarded DLA in such a DHP case.
The anti-bedroom tax federation
maintain that City of EdinburghCouncil must do the same.
Councillor Cammy Day told north
Edinburgh campaigners on 17 June
that he disagreed with DLA being
counted for DHP purposesthis
needs changed now. This
discrimination against the disabled
must end.
Instead of attacking disabled
claimants the Council should be using
its powers to increase the amountavailable for DHP by 2.5 times, urge
the Lothians Anti Bedroom Tax
Federation. The Evening News
recently reported that 72% of
Edinburgh Council tenants hit by the
bedroom tax are in rent arrears.
More, properly trained staff are
needed to make sure Discretionary
Payments reach all in need.
The campaigners have further
charges. City of Edinburgh Council
have admitted they are not assessing
claimants individually to check if they
are entitled to an exemption from the
Bedroom Tax. As a result the Council
hounded a disabled tenant for rent
arrears despite the fact that she had
overnight carers stay every night and
was thus exempt. Eventually this
tenant, Margaret, became so ill that
she had to give up her tenancy.
Despite the Council's welcome no
evictions policy, in other respects theLabour-SNP administration seem to
be enthusiastically implementing this
totally unjust Tory/ LibDem
legislation, say the Anti Bedroom
Tax Federation. Extra staff are
being deployed to phone and harass
tenants about rent arrears. A
seriously ill disabled tenant who has
overnight carers on average 2-3 times
per week, has been refused an
exemption on the grounds that her
carers are not staying regularly.
We urge all who care about justice tojoin with us in opposing this unfair
attack on the poor and disabled.
Bedroom Tax
(continued from front page)
From the Lothian Federation of Anti-
Cuts Groups:
www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/http://www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk/http://www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk/http://www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk/http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-education-workers-network/mailto:[email protected]7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
3/6
Extreme gas extraction: the situation in Scotland
PAGE 3 AUTONOMY
The town of Airth, between Falkirkand Stirling could be the site of the
first unconventional gas
development if energy company, Dart
Energy, gets its way. Test drilling
has already been carried out and after
both Stirling and Falkirk councils
refused to grant planning permission,
we are waiting to hear from official
reporters appointed by the Scottish
Government if its plans for coal bed
methane production get the go ahead.
They are due to begin hearing
evidence in October.
Coal bed methane extraction is
related to, but slightly different from
the shale fracking (or hydraulic
fracturing) which is being opposed
right now in Balcombe, down in
Sussex. Instead of pumping
extraordinary amounts of water into a
shale layer, forcing gas or oil out,
water already present in coal beds is
pumped out which gets the gas
flowing, although sometimes fracking
and other methods are required.
Dart Energy proposes to to build 14new well pads with 22 new wells,
around 20 km of pipelines to connect
the sites, a gas processing facility and
an waste outfall into the Firth of Forth,
near Airth between Falkirk and
Stirling. According to campaigning
group, Frack Off, this could be just the
thin end of the wedge. There is said to
be enough gas in the area for 600 wells.
The threat posed by this type of gas
extraction is very similar to shale
fracking. The major problem is watercontamination. De-watering involves
pumping out millions of gallons of
contaminated water (which has been
marinading in coal for years) and
disposing of it. he produced water can
be up to 5 times more salty than sea
water and may contain a variety of
toxic and radioactive materials
including heavy metals and
hydrocarbons. They plan on dumping
this water in the Firth of Forth, and
there has already been reports of waste
water with high benzine levels (a
carcinogen) being disposed of fromthe testing wells.
Add to this the industrialisation of
the countryside,air pollution,
increased traffic, accidents, spills
etc. And all for the extraction of a
non-renewable source of energy
when we should be pushing for a
fast transition to renewable energy.
This is a development which makes
lots of money for companies like
Dart Energy but forces the long-
term costs on the people who live inthe area affected.
We need to take follow what the
protestors in Balcombe have
been doing. Their amazingly
positive and popular campaign
is now has now reached its 40th
day and caused real disruption
to Caudrilla who dont care if
absolutely everyone opposes
them. If the Airth development
is given the green light we need
to organise and resist!
For more information, check out:
frack-off.org.uk
And the following groups in
Scotland:
Falkirk against Unconventional Gas
www.faug.org.uk
Frack Off Scotland
frackoffscotland.org.uk
UKBA intimidation in Glasgow
Weve heard reports that UK Border
Agency immigration enforcement
teams have been operating in
Govanhill, Glasgow. They left
without detaining anyone althoughthe police later arrived because
people had been shouting out to warn
others, and tell them of their
immigration rights.
Immigration control teams perfrom
speculative spot checks on the street
but sometimes also raids on
peoples houses. It seems like they
have been out in force recently in
the south of England. This is about
intimidating communities andtargetting Black and Ethnic
Minority peoplei.e. it is
incredibly racist. These teams rely
on people thinking they have the
same powers as the police: they
dont, and individuals dont have to
answer their questions.
Refugees and asylum seekers are
one of us. We believe in peacefully
confronting these attacks on our
communities like the Southall
Black Sisters have done in London.
If news arrives of teams operating
we should shout them out andmake sure those theyre targeting
know their rights. In the meantime,
weve reprinted the Unity centres
poster on immigration rights. Cut
it out and put it up at bus stops.
7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
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7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
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Food has always been characterised
with angst, guilt, and worry for me. As
a teenager I was dangerously
underweight and tried to remedy this
by stuffing my face with processed
food, fizzy drinks, cakes and chocolate,
in the hope that I'd develop a body
shape other than that of an etoilated
ten year old. I mostly just passed out a
lot after the sugar rush hadplummeted away.
In my early twenties I was diagnosed
with a chronic and incurable illness
called endometriosis, which is
characterised by pain and fatigue, and
has had only a limited response to
surgical and medical interventions. As
a result, I work part-time in a pink-
collar job that's so far tolerated my
inconsistent good days and bad days,
and I earn a little more than I did last
year when I got by on housing benefit
and three casual jobs. But food is stillan issue.
A few years back, desperate to try
anything that might help me manage
my illness, I saw a nutritionist that
specialised in my condition, who
recommended up to 12 different
supplements a day (at 75 a month,
this was... unlikely), recommended I
cut out gluten, avoid all red meat, eat 6
portions of (preferably raw, fresh,
organic) fruit and veg per day, and a
whole load of other measures that I
kept up with for a few months. I feltbetter, but this feeling of elated control
over my body was short-lived. I worked
shifts, and split my food shopping with
my partner. And slowly but surely my
neurotic meal planning slipped, the
carrot sticks were replaced by chocolate
bars, the milk was fatty and laden with
bovine hormones, and I felt a creeping
sense of guilt that I was making myself
ill, that I had failed to do the only things I
could do to try and keep my illness at bay.
As my circumstances changed and I found
myself scraping by for weeks, months,
probably forever, I got increasingly
annoyed at the suggestions and advice
offered to me by everyone from medical
professionals to smug student hippies
who implored me to stop using poverty as
an excuse (there's bins to
raid), to think about the
ethics of my shopping habits
(don't you know why that
chicken only costs 2.50?!),
that if I just shopped
around/planned thingsbetter/cared about my health
more/was more of a self-
righteous hippy cunt I
wouldn't be in this situation,
I'd be healthy and full of the foresight
required to pre-soak pulses and turn a tin
of sardines into a main course and desert.
The control I'd once felt from targeting
my diet to alleviating my illness turned
into yet another unlivable, unrealistic
standard that just made me feel guilty
and personally responsible for my ill
health.
There's a general background noise of
sneering judgement about the food
choices of people on low incomes.
Sometimes the snobbery and hatred
towards the poor, the sick, and the fat
spews right into the open, for
exampleWestminster council proposing
benefits cuts for the overweight who
"refuse" to excercise. Those of us whose
bodies are supposedly a drain on the
welfare state and the NHS are
continually reminded that our
predicaments are of our own making, and
the organic-everything-you-are-what-you-
eat brigade are just as quick to tell us if
we'd only stop eating all that processed
sugar we'd be a lot healthier, and that a
good diet is perfectly possible on the dole.
But try making 71 a week last over a
month, a year, the next 20 years.
Combine that with a disability, factor in
all your other expenses, try replacing
some cookware or fixing your freezer, and
then talk about how easy it is. You might
not bother instagramming your lunch
once the novelty wears off.
Of course, food guilt and demonising the
sick and obese is tied up in layers of class,
race, and gender. Behold arch-feminist
Caitlin Moran keeping the kids quiet
during her hangover by feeding them
quails eggs, compared with the
predictable hand-wringing outrage
should some unfortunate benefits
claimant be seen buying her kids a
happy meal. Think of Gillian McKeith
flushing the fatty, stinking, shameful
shit out of some white-bread guzzling
prole on prime time TV, or Etoniansmall-holder Hugh Fearnley-
Whittingstall teaching single mothers
the importance of buying organic.
The fat acceptance movement has
critiqued the narrative that fat people
are unhealthy, undesirable, or
somehow morally repugnant, and the
fat acceptance
movement in
turn has
been critiqued
for being colour-
blind and
ignoring the
racial and class
dynamics of
fatness. But
whichever angle
you look at it from, the neoliberal shit
sandwhich of choice, personal
responsibility, and the ability to eat
your way out of poverty and illness is
laden with moral judgements about the
shopping habits of the poor.
In a climate where the working class,
and benefits claimants and the sick
and disabled in particular, are
constantly dehumanised and painted
as the architects of our own
misfortune, food and health become
another stick to beat us with. Food
blogger Miss South has written
eloquently on the snobbery of well-
meaning foodies advising us how to eat
on a "budget", and the frequency with
which "someone will take the chance to
opine on how poor people just need to
try harder, be less lazy, just read the
labels and realise you can buy a weeks
veg for two quid if youre a good enoughmember of society". And she's pretty
much nailed it - the reality of juggling
chronic illness and a low budget is
difficult enough, without adding in
helpings of guilt and individualistic
ethical consumer bullshit, that helps
no one and reinforces the idea that if
only we knew what was good for us, we
would find a way to avoid those battery
eggs. Because it really is bullshit:
What you eat may have an impact on
your dietary fibre, but it has bugger all
to do with your moral fibre. Itspatronising and reductive to suggest
otherwise and to focus on the actions of
an individual, rather than those of the
food industry, helps no one and hinders
many, while causing massive divisions
in society.
Theres a general background
noise of sneering judgement
about the food choices of
people on low incomes.
PAGE 5 AUTONOMY
Guilt, choice, and responsibility in the austerity kitchenMillionaire chef and TV celebrity,
Jamie Oliver, was in the news in
August for condemning people in
poverty for what they chose to eat.
Oliver, a supporter of right-wing
UKIP and the workfare scheme, said
hes spent a lot of time in poorcommunities, and [found] it quite
hard to talk about modern-day
poverty. People with large TVs live
off of ready meals and chips. Whereas
people in Sicily eat well with not
much money. His comments feed into
a wider narrative which emphasises
blaming working class people. In fact,
there are many things that people like
Oliver dont take into account
including time, disability and living
in a city. Research shows that peoples
diets improve with their income.
Heres Ramona from libcom.orgwith
her thoughts on food choices.
7/30/2019 Autonomy - Issue 2
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Autonomyis produced byAnarchist Federation (AFed) Scot-
land. It aims to promote and link
together campaigns that empower
working class people and that
challenge capitalism and irrational
systems of power. We want to re-
port on positive, inspirational ex-
amples of struggle but also storieswhich motivate us to act. We will
emphasize things happening in
Scotland and also report on events
in Britain, and around the world.
Upcoming Events
The Anarchist Federation stands for organising
for social change through solidarity, direct
democracy and direct action. We have groups
and members across Scotland including
Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. With RadicalIndependent Bookfair stall.
AFed Glasgow & Edinburgh monthly talksWere organizing monthly talks on different
aspects of social change from below. Were stillworking on the details, so keep an eye on oursocial media (details below)!
9th September: IWW Branch Meeting inEdinburgh. Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, from7.30pm.
9th September: Stop the Home Office Poster-Campaign of Hate and Harassment: Demo @UKBA Offices (Glasgow Campaign to Welcome
Refugees) 200 Brand Street, Glasgow, G51 1DH4.30pm - 6pm
14th September: Bin the Bedroom Tax rally andprotest against the LibDems national conference.Assemble at Glasgow Green for 11.30am.
21st September: 101 Organiser training inEdinburgh. Book a place [email protected]
21st September: Hollaback! Edinburgh dayschool on intersectionality and street harassment. 1-4pm. See the flyer for more info.
8th October: IWW branch meeting in Glasgow.Electron Club, CCA, Glasgow for 7pm.
18th-20th October: Document 11 InternationalHuman Rights Film Festival. In Centre for
Housing
Glasgow Solidarity Networkglasgowsolnet.wordpress.com
Edinburgh Private Tenants Action Groupeptag.org.uk
Work
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)iwwscotland.wordpress.com
Scottish Education Workers Network
http://iwwscotland.wordpress.com/scottish-
education-workers-network/
Welfare
Edinburgh Coalition Against Povertyedinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
Contribute your article or
let us know about a
grassroots iniative!
Get involvedAsylum/RefugeesUnity Centre Glasgowunitycentreglasgow.org
Glasgow Campaign to WelcomeRefugees
www.gctwr.co.uk
Feminism
Glasgow Feminist CollectiveSearch on facebook!
Hollaback! Edimburgh
edinburghhollaback.org
Social Centres
Autonomous Centre of Edinburghautonomous.org.uk
Disability rights
Black Triangleblacktrianglecampaign.org
Crutch Collectivethecrutchcollective.blogspot.co.uk/
Anti-cuts & Bedroom Tax
Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Allianceedinburghagainstcuts.org.uk
No2BedroomTax Campaignno2bedroomtax.co.uk
Greater Leith against the Cuts
On facebook
For regular updates on events in Glasgow, subscribe to:
facebook.com/afed.scotland@ScotAFed
afed.org.uk/scotland