The Black Hand
Unclean
It's been a while....
The Guy Fawkes working class and Anarchist bookfair
Saturday November 5th 2022
12-5pm
Tyneside Irish Centre,
43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SG.
A broad range of literature, books and ephemera, and will be on display. As well as a bar there will be an open and tolerant atmosphere, where discussion is encouraged.
This bookfair is organised at a time of economic crisis and political crisis. What passes for democracy is in desperate need of serious change. The Politicians lie for the billionaire oligarchs and the media spread it in because it's in their interests, not ours. Their plan is to divide and rule a disintegrating society which they pretend can be healed with sticking plaster solutions.
It's time to think our way beyond these limitations and do something about it.
The developing economic crisis, unemployment, energy prices, inflation, the next protests and lots more can be discussed.
Books, mags and pamphlets will cover at least; local and general history, Marxism, labour history, environment, football and other sport, culture, railways, mining, fiction, social science, co-operatives, economics, Anarchism, international relations, socialism, trade unions, sex, drugs & rock n' roll...
This is an open invite to all fellow travellers and troublemakers to come on down to the November 5th bookfair and have a great time.
We would especially welcome comrades who travel across the North, such as friends in York, Leeds, Carlisle, Dumfries, Berwick, Middlesborough and lots more.
The Context for the ghost of Guy Fawkes
Prime Minister Liz Truss and the new chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng mark a break from previous Tory governments, and summon the ghost of Guy Fawkes to help deal with this problem as they represent government by the billionaire class.
We’ve had the Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak years that saw huge state intervention in the economy, particularly during the pandemic when the state supported about a third of workers. Johnson wasn’t particularly pushing austerity. He was more interested in securing support among workers and the poor in 'Red Wall' areas.
Truss and Kwarteng had a very different approach, however. They wanted the state to play a smaller role economically while being relaxed about using public sector debt to drive through emergency measures.
This includes the energy price cap and, more significantly, tax cuts for the richest but that has been kicked into touch by the reaction along with Kwarteng. They were gambling on what are known as supply side reforms to boost growth, but the Bank of England began to inject £65 billion to support the economy.
That means they were very serious about driving through deregulation, benefit cuts, tax cuts, attacks on trade unions and more, in the hope of increasing firms’ profitability, a sort of extreme ridiculous trickle down theory which is total nonsense. Instead, they are the most right-wing Tory government this country has ever seen, and we will all suffer the consequences with the cuts to come.
The energy crisis, of oil and gas has created super profits already for energy companies, and at the source of this energy crisis in Britain was directly the mass closure of pits and the resulting destruction of coal communities leaving us dependant on gas imports which have now been turned off. This always was a reckless and vindictive Tory policy, which left us dependant on international imports at a time of international insecurity. They don't care about the wasting of scarce gas reserves to produce electricity, when clean coal could do that freeing up vast tracts of gas for the domestic market.
What we’re seeing at the moment is an increasingly inflationary environment. That’s been triggered by a collision of pent-up demand during the Covid lockdowns and disrupted supply. It was then reinforced by the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the West.
It’s also quite problematic because over the past decade and a half capitalism has come to rely on historically low interest rates. That means there are a lot of heavily indebted companies, personal debt, and the cranking up interest rates will cause a lot of these companies to fail, and some people will also lose their home.
This will crush economic activity because of the many squeezes on incomes and making credit more expensive which may trigger a deep and prolonged recession. There’s some evidence that this is already beginning to happen in Britain. But workers and the poor have been suffering Tory austerity for 12 years, with swinging cuts and no pay rises at all for some.
There is hope though with the rise of industrial militancy across the board in response to the worst attacks on living standards since the 20's and 30's. We know who the enemy is. In early October about 175,000 workers struck during the Tory conference, uniting different rail unions, posties and dockers, which is the biggest day of united action in the current wave of strikes as workers fight bosses over pay.
Mick Lynch has been the figurehead of the fight for better pay and conditions, but the right-wing Tories have threatened to further outlaw strikes and attack our trade union and human rights to withdraw our labour. Needless to say if this happens there will be no time to waste talking about political purity or your own pet subject, there will be a need for an immediate general strike to defeat any move in that direction at all, we should be acting swiftly and decisively if that is used against us.
Remember Remember the 5th of November
There's much still to do however, and we hope our modest attempts can contribute to working class actions, come and make the day a day to remember....
The Guy Fawkes working class and Anarchist bookfair
Saturday November 5th 2022
12-5pm
Tyneside Irish Centre,
43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SG.
A broad range of literature, books and ephemera, and will be on display. As well as a bar there will be an open and tolerant atmosphere, where discussion is encouraged.
This bookfair is organised at a time of economic crisis and political crisis. What passes for democracy is in desperate need of serious change. The Politicians lie for the billionaire oligarchs and the media spread it in because it's in their interests, not ours. Their plan is to divide and rule a disintegrating society which they pretend can be healed with sticking plaster solutions.
It's time to think our way beyond these limitations and do something about it.
The developing economic crisis, unemployment, energy prices, inflation, the next protests and lots more can be discussed.
Books, mags and pamphlets will cover at least; local and general history, Marxism, labour history, environment, football and other sport, culture, railways, mining, fiction, social science, co-operatives, economics, Anarchism, international relations, socialism, trade unions, sex, drugs & rock n' roll...
This is an open invite to all fellow travellers and troublemakers to come on down to the November 5th bookfair and have a great time.
We would especially welcome comrades who travel across the North, such as friends in York, Leeds, Carlisle, Dumfries, Berwick, Middlesborough and lots more.
The Context for the ghost of Guy Fawkes
Prime Minister Liz Truss and the new chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng mark a break from previous Tory governments, and summon the ghost of Guy Fawkes to help deal with this problem as they represent government by the billionaire class.
We’ve had the Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak years that saw huge state intervention in the economy, particularly during the pandemic when the state supported about a third of workers. Johnson wasn’t particularly pushing austerity. He was more interested in securing support among workers and the poor in 'Red Wall' areas.
Truss and Kwarteng had a very different approach, however. They wanted the state to play a smaller role economically while being relaxed about using public sector debt to drive through emergency measures.
This includes the energy price cap and, more significantly, tax cuts for the richest but that has been kicked into touch by the reaction along with Kwarteng. They were gambling on what are known as supply side reforms to boost growth, but the Bank of England began to inject £65 billion to support the economy.
That means they were very serious about driving through deregulation, benefit cuts, tax cuts, attacks on trade unions and more, in the hope of increasing firms’ profitability, a sort of extreme ridiculous trickle down theory which is total nonsense. Instead, they are the most right-wing Tory government this country has ever seen, and we will all suffer the consequences with the cuts to come.
The energy crisis, of oil and gas has created super profits already for energy companies, and at the source of this energy crisis in Britain was directly the mass closure of pits and the resulting destruction of coal communities leaving us dependant on gas imports which have now been turned off. This always was a reckless and vindictive Tory policy, which left us dependant on international imports at a time of international insecurity. They don't care about the wasting of scarce gas reserves to produce electricity, when clean coal could do that freeing up vast tracts of gas for the domestic market.
What we’re seeing at the moment is an increasingly inflationary environment. That’s been triggered by a collision of pent-up demand during the Covid lockdowns and disrupted supply. It was then reinforced by the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the West.
It’s also quite problematic because over the past decade and a half capitalism has come to rely on historically low interest rates. That means there are a lot of heavily indebted companies, personal debt, and the cranking up interest rates will cause a lot of these companies to fail, and some people will also lose their home.
This will crush economic activity because of the many squeezes on incomes and making credit more expensive which may trigger a deep and prolonged recession. There’s some evidence that this is already beginning to happen in Britain. But workers and the poor have been suffering Tory austerity for 12 years, with swinging cuts and no pay rises at all for some.
There is hope though with the rise of industrial militancy across the board in response to the worst attacks on living standards since the 20's and 30's. We know who the enemy is. In early October about 175,000 workers struck during the Tory conference, uniting different rail unions, posties and dockers, which is the biggest day of united action in the current wave of strikes as workers fight bosses over pay.
Mick Lynch has been the figurehead of the fight for better pay and conditions, but the right-wing Tories have threatened to further outlaw strikes and attack our trade union and human rights to withdraw our labour. Needless to say if this happens there will be no time to waste talking about political purity or your own pet subject, there will be a need for an immediate general strike to defeat any move in that direction at all, we should be acting swiftly and decisively if that is used against us.
Remember Remember the 5th of November
There's much still to do however, and we hope our modest attempts can contribute to working class actions, come and make the day a day to remember....
