Freedom News

The Green Anti-Capitalist Front Week of Action 2020: what’s on

It is our great pleasure to report that the Green Anti-Capitalist Front are still holed up in the building formerly known as Paddington Green police station. Much to the dismay of coppers everywhere, GAF have transformed this former temple of state violence into the headquarters for their 2020 week of action, which culminates in the Rally Against Capital next Friday 28th February. In preparation for the week of action, we at Freedom thought we’d do a little primer on who GAF are and what they’ve got in store for us.

Strictly speaking, GAF isn’t a specific group or organisation: it is “a name, a banner, a call to arms” that different groups of people can invoke, or act under, provided they agree with 7 ‘points of unity’. These points set out a broad-brush analysis of our current impasse and the beginnings of a way out; namely, that we are facing combined environmental crises which are inextricably bound up with white supremacist capitalist colonialism, and that the future of life on earth depends on the destruction of this system by the collective action of the international working class.  

It is this emphasis on class struggle that clearly distinguishes GAF from its more liberal contemporaries such as Extinction Rebellion. Echoing radicals across the global south, GAF unequivocally asserts that it is white supremacist capitalism – not a generic “humanity” – that is the root cause of the environmental crisis, and that the nature and severity of this crisis requires us to adopt a wide variety of tactics, including forms of action not countenanced by XR or climate NGOs.

To this end, GAF have organised a full week of workshops, skill-shares and demonstrations in both London and Edinburgh, aimed at fostering the development of a class-struggle green politics in the UK. This will culminate in the Rally Against Capital – a direct confrontation with the bankers, the rich and the powerful in the City of London.

As ever, we recommend that all those planning to participate in the Rally familiarise themselves with GBC’s key advice when going on a protest.

If you are able to, then you may want to consider a donation to GAF.

London Week of Action Programme

Monday 24 February

Tuesday 25 February

  • 2pm: An Anticapitalist London Walking Tour

Join GAF for a tour of some of London’s darkest and most terrible places. Places of true evil, ghoulish spots including the headquarters of the world’s most damaging corporations. Get ready to visit the dark heart of capitalism!

Meetup: the corner of Milk Street and Gresham Street near the Koch Industries building.

A workshop based on Worlds End, a comic produced by the Mycellium Collective and published by Corporate Watch.

Ende Gelaende is a series of large scale direct actions against coal that have been taking place in Germany since 2015. Ende Gelaende events have seen  thousands of people engaging in well organised, effective and large scale actions that can’t help but impress. During this talk, a couple of comrades involved in Ende Gelaende will share their experiences of working with this succesful movement.

Every day, tons of food are thrown out, destined for landfill. This is emblematic of the capitalist system: things not being assigned value based on their use, but on what they can be sold for. Skipping reclaims that waste and puts it to good use. In this hands on workshop you’ll learn how to skip, saving yourself money while also saving the environment and sticking two fingers up to capitalist ideology.

Wednesday 26 February

Members of Newham Antiraids will be coming in to deliver a practical raid resistance workshop that aims to inform you about your rights, as well as concrete things you can do to support those being targeted in our communities.

A talk with London Antifascist Assembly

Thursday 27 February

A workshop on how to make seedbombs in preparation for Saturday’s seedbombing action

Come along to learn how to speak to an audience, how to have one on one conversations about controversial topics, and how to challenge views you disagree with, without it turning into an argument.

Films tba

Friday 28 February

Join GAF in the City of London to tell the bankers, the rich, the powerful that we won’t let them take our planet – the people will not go down without a fight and we’re taking the fight to them to show them what we can do when we organise.

End Heathrow Immigration Detention is a group that is campaigning for the permanent closure of the Heathrow detention centres.

A screening of “A story of police violence in France” by Ross Domoney and French 2019 documentary “J’veux du soleil” (A place in the sun) by Gilles Perret and François Ruffin. The films will be introduced by Ross Domoney. There will be a discussion and drinks and snacks after.

Suggested donation £2 unwaged/ £3 low waged/ £5 higher waged.

Saturday 29 February

  • 12pm, at GRASS: Weaving ecology, democracy and gender liberation into a revolutionary political paradigm with London Kurdistan Solidarity
    Description to come
  • 2- 4pm: Seedbombing

First location: Finsbury Park station, Station Place exit.
Second location: Stratford station, tube exit.

To combat the imminent threat to our environment GAF will be carrying out a seedbombing campaign, so that London’s dead concrete landscape can be tranformed into something beautiful and biologically diverse.

The Next Revolution Reading Group was founded at the Anarchist Festival in 2019. Inspired by the social ecology and libertarian municipalism of Murray Bookchin, it has met monthly in London, as well as occasionally Brighton, and chosen texts to read, and discuss, together that help an understanding of creating an approach most closely resembling a dual power approach to revolutionary social justice.

This month they are holding their reading group as part of the Week of Action. Please come along to discuss the following book in a friendly environment.

The Progressive Plantation: racism inside white radical social change groups. Reading: Intro, conclusion and chapter of your choice.

Join us as Cooperation Kentish Town tell us about creating a network of self organised, community-led food co-ops and how to start your own.

  • 6pm, at GRASS: Radical Legal Advice

Ask a comrade legal worker any question about squatters right, police interviews and how to deal with them, the hostile environment and immigration law, right of protest and assembly, terrorism laws.

Sunday 1 March

Where anti-fascism is necessarily intersectional, so must ecological activism be. No struggle exists in isolation, and capitalism ultimately influences every aspect of all of our lives in complex ways. Join the Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly for a lively discussion of feminist anti-fascist politics and how they relate to the climate emergency.

Read: Global Britain’s real climate changers: Big Oil must be taken down

During this workshop we will be tackling the following questions:
How does climate change influence migration?What areas are affected?
What is the new UN definition of climate refugee and is it useful?
What has the state response been to mass migration? What is the difference between solidarity and charity? Why is the NGOs model of response totally inadequate and why do we need working class solidarity instead of charity?
How can we think global but act local? What is happening near you and how you can get involved?

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