Cover
P2: Openers - No nukes is good nukes, Pies keep flyin', SexPol comes out, Roadside notes
P3: Happy birthday CNT!
P4: Quebec killing spooks wardens, Peaceniks home again, Greek anarchists sprung
P5: Feminists turn tables on rapists, Rainbow army liberates Christiania
P6: News from nowhere, Germany - Inside the New Reich
P7: Polish dissident forces firm up, Czechs rock boat
P8-13: The Fugitive Kind (excerpt by Jonah Raskin)
P9/12: The Blast - Rita Brown gets 25 years for bank jobs, Peltier wins one, Links without chains, Gays thwart backlash, Feminists face life after jailbreak, Puerto Ricans stymie FBI
P10/11: Marie Louise Berneri
P14: Growing up-tight in the family, Marie-Louise Berneri - a recollection (by George Woodcock)
P15: Blue collar poets boost production (by Tom Wayman)
P16: Mutual aid Rx for prison sexism, Anarchism from a-z
P17: The Open Road's little black book
P18: Armed struggle - the primacy of action, Durutti between covers
P19: Rembering Berneri (continued), Anarcho-syndicalists (continued), Roadside notes (continued)
Back cover
Issue Six, Spring 1978 - Notes
“SexPol Comes Out” page 2, author unknown. Reports that, in the Netherlands, the SexPol movement was combining efforts with HAPOTOC to create the Wilhem Reich Social Improvement Centre “a sort-of half-way house for ex-prisoners and full-time house for anti-authoritarian propoganda.” A communal home for political/ class war prisoners to get themselves together through Reichian therapy and use as a base for the “sexual-political movement.”
“Quebec killing spooks wardens” author unknown, page 4. Warden Michel Roy of Archambault shot dead while shovelling snow at his home on 7 February 1978 by “a shadowy group calling itself the Prisoners Revolutionary Army.”(4) Shot by three men, seven times in the head. The next day a man phoned Toronto newspaper and claimed the hit for the PRA, and that “'no prisoner director or correctional officer [was] safe'” until reforms recommended by the parliamentary cttee were carried out. Roy had not been popular, responding to mass escape attempts at Archambault with increased surveillance, and indiscriminate use of tear gas. The day before, Paul Rose (serving time at Archambault) had released a letter in Montreal papers warning that the “lid was about to blow.” In the wake of the killing all wardens have bodyguards and their homes are protected. Roy was replaced by an interim cttee whose names are being withheld. Archambault patrols/ surveillance increased. “federal authorities are trying to paint a picture of a nationwide conspiracy of 'left-wing lawyers, social workers, ex-inmates and activists' stirring up trouble within the prisons. They've been telling any reporter who will listen that outside agitators were responsible for the almost simultaneous insurgencies at Laval, British Columbia and Kingston (Ont.) Penitentiaries in the Fall of 1976, and for the hunger strikes at eight prisons two years ago.” Indicates that they have also pointed to Wood/ Hoon charges as evidence of “criminal association spanning the wall.” Quotes a document leaked to the media which indicates that in all cases of unrest outside agitators had been present as visitors, or corresponded with inmates. The author suggests that this “view contrasts sharply with that of an all-party parliamentary committee which conducted an exhaustive survey of prison conditions last year and concluded unanimously that the crisis was due to a sluggish bureaucracy and to power-hungry security staff at war with administrators.”
“Feminists turn tables on rapists” by Mamie Carter, page 5. Discusses womens direct confrontations of rapists, whether by visiting homes/ workplaces to call them otu and present them with anti-rape literature, and/ or pubishing their names, descriptions and sometimes address in local newspapers to inform the community. “In the last few years many groups of women have been established to explore alternative ways of dealing with rapists and other sexist harassment. An alternative, that is, to working with the police and prisons, and to the usual counselling and service work of more traditional rape crisis centres. In their opinion there are no individual solutions to rape and it can only be dealt with by a direct-action movement rooted in the community.” Addresses the importance of also working in prisons (though they don't support them) to educate men around rape and to counter the effects of a prison setting which “encourages violence, domination and humiliation.”
“The Blast” Reports on Rita Brown's capture and trial for robberies and GJB bombings. Reports that she publically identified herself as an anarcho-communist and that may explain rumours of political differences int he group. Reports on Mary Astaforoff, a 63-y/o member of the Freedomite Doukhobor's imprisoned at Kingston Women's. In total, she has spent over 20 years in prison. Since 1974 she had been involved with “seven prison fires, three debilitating hunger strikes and a mass stripping-off of clothes in a courtroom.” She spent the last 2 years in solitary confinement.
⁃ Also discusses Leonard Peltier's ongoing appeal attempts. “Puerto Ricans Stymie FBI” discusses the release of churchworkers Raisa Nemikin and Maria Cueto after 3 ½ monthes in jail for refusing to speak to the grand jury about the Puerto Rican guerilla group – the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) with which they themselves were not involved. Applauds their refusal, discusses the increasing use of grand juries to try and break resistance within various movements.
“Gays Thwart Backlash” page 11, author unknown. Discusses the raids on the offices of Body Politic in response to an article written on sexual and romantic relationships between men and teenage boys in the wake of a sex-slaying of a 12 year old boy in Toronto by four gay men. Discusses the support the BP garnered from gays, feminists and anarchists. Discusses the pieing of Anita Bryant during a People's Church event in TO.
“Feminists Face Life After Jailbreak” author known, page 12. “The charges against Betsy Wood and, 48, and Gay Hoon, 32, are the most serious and the most arbitrary to confront politically-active people on Canada's West Coast in at least a generation. The authorities have made clear they intend to use the upcoming trial to incite public opinion against the growing Canadian prisoners' movement.”(12)
Mutual aid Rx for prison sexism” author unknown, page 16. Reports on Men Against Sexism “a multi-racial group of about 20 gay and anti-sexist prisoners at Walla Walla State Penitentiary” and their success in “destroying the barter system for exploitation of gay, transsexual and physically weak prisoners.” MAS organized after the 47-day strike when its organizers realized that sexual violence and force undermined prisoners unity. By using group pressure, MAS stops the buying and selling of vulnerable prisoners and offers safe cells, encourages gay and vulnerable prisoners to leave PCU, escorts new prisoners and orients them to the prison, consciousness-raising and raised money to buy cells so that prisoners can be placed together for mutual reinforcement. Reports that buying cells from other prisoners costs about $200-400. MAS reports having been roughed up by predatory prisoners, and the admin has tried to block their organizing but a show of outside support stopped the latter.
“Armed struggle: the primacy of action” Mark Brothers, page 18. Notes that OR's coverage of armed struggle has always been controversial. Suggests that the OR collective were not all of one mind on the issue either, but in response to requests that they have an open dialogue about it this article was written. Argues that either side of the armed struggle debate throws out a lot of rhetoric, on the one said arguing that it alienates “the people” on the other that people in the West are beholden to revolutionary action because of their privilege and their location in the belly of the beast. Uses the Tupamaro guerillas in Uruguay as an example of a successful use of revolutionary violence (in comparison to the electoral failures of the contemporary old left in that country) because they tied their actions to the “daily needs and desires of the entire population through exposure of financial corruption, by backing striking workers, by winning aid for schools and hospitals, by reprimanding torturers...” In contrast, they argue, leftists in NA often argue against such revolutionary action on their own soil “They are legal revolutionaries, people who permit the State and its laws to define and limit their tactics.” Argues that “Guerilla action can shake the consciousness of the entire population, awakening people to the oppression and the vulnerability of the State.” But that “Armed struggle is a complement – not an alternative – to mass organizing.”