Cover


P1: The Blast - Autonomy Centre, Paint 'em Black, No Amnesty From Socialists, Oh Hell!, Anarchy in Africa, On the Road


P2: Carl Harper - Death of an Activist


P3: Anarchy in the USSR


P4: RCMP - Maintain the Right, AIM Brothers - Busted not Broken


P5: Guatemala - Deaths and Disappearances, Open Road Innocent!


P6-7: Tu-Wat (Do Something, A Squatter's Day in Amsterdam, Squat or Be Squashed


P8-9: Interview with Murray Bookchin


P10-11: Roadside Notes, News From Nowhere


Back Cover


Bonus: Fundraising poster for Issue #13

Issue 13, Spring 1982

Editorial address indicates that rumours have been afloat that OR is dead, not true they just have no money. “When O.R. Was founded in 1976, our intention was to put out a contemporary anarchist newsjournal representing a broad spectrum of non-authoritarian ideologies and practices. We never intended to be the mouth piece of any anarchist sect. We are as opposed to anarchist sectarianism as to any sectarianism.” Goes on to encourage debate, and addresses the OR collective's base line as “anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian.”(1)

“Carl Harp: Death of an Activist” page 2, author known. Reports on Harp's Sept 15 1981 murder at Walla Walla. Reports an Inquest ruled that this was a suicide but evidence suggests otherwise. The suicide note his wife declared a fake (not his handwriting), razor blades hidden in his cell and the ideat hat CH could not have slit his wrists, hid the blades and then hung himself, he'd been in a good mood prior, he had admitted himself to PCU because he learned the guards had a contract on his head but was refused PC, the Inquest was fixed, and, finally “Harp died alone. He had vowed that if he ever gave it all up and committed suicide, he would take a pig with him.”(2) Recounts his life in prison: his declaration of himself as an anarchist and political prisoner, his appeals to fight his convictions, engaged in collective organizing of prisoners, wrote to outsiders, was something of a jailhouse lawyer, taught some prisoners to read, helped found Men Against Sexism, participated in strikes, undertook the May 1979 hostage-taking. After the hostage-taking CH was “viciously beaten and raped with a riot baton by guards”(2) then transferred to San Quentin, he gained international support and protests following this. Won a few civil suits while at San Quentin, his hostage-taking charges were dropped, he was awarded $7,000 after being illegally held in seg for 14 mos, and won a transfer back to Walla Walla where he found out about the contract on his head and went public.

“'Maintiens le Droit' – RCMP Motto: RCMP Maintain the Right” by Charles Tuke, page 4. discusses the illegal surveillance and counter-insurgency actions of the RCMP in the preceding decades and the beginning movement towards the inception of a security intelligence service.

“AIM Brothers: Busted not Broken” author unknown page 4. Reports on the trials of Dino and Gary Butler in Vancouver.

Anarchist positions: “Open Road Innocent!: NEAC Clarifies Itself” by the New England Anarchist Conference, page 5. Reports that OR had misrepresented the NEAC's views on the working-class by quoting one of their organizers as saying: “'It is our belief that the labour movement has long exhausted its potential as a revolutionary force, that the traditional working class as a class has so assimilated itself to the regimes of a consumer society that it has become an actively counter-revolutionary force.'” The NEAC backtracks, arguing that obviously a successful revolutionary movement would require the bulk of the population, clearly that includes the workingclass. “However,” they add, “for a revolutionary movement to type-cast people into their roles as workers is to confine rather than to catalyze and emancipate those human impulses that motivate revolutionary activity.” But, they argue, it is wrong to tie revolutionary consciousness only to ones relation to the means of production. Instead, they suggest, multiple forms of hierarchy exist in society and it is in their interest to encourage a creative reimagining of social organization. “A narrow emphasis on labour and production have prevented Marxists and sundicalists alike from developin ga strategy for human liberation that breaks with the oppressive development of capitalism – precisely because they have adopted the oppressor's own categories. Marxism and syndicalism have become aberrant forms of capitalism itself, replete with new legitimations for rapid industrialization and all its associated ills.” Therefore, they focus on organizing within community not workplaces.

    ⁃    letter from Ron Reed re: Carl Harp page 10 “Armchair Anarchism”
    ⁃    “The Dragon Speaks” pages 10-11 by ABDC. Addresses how common it is for prisoners to rape, beat, steal from and kill one another, actions which, according to the ABDC, make those who engage in them no better than “pigs.” Race riots and sexism, in particular, they point out are major divisive issues inside. Argues for the right to self-defense (here it would seem against oppressors whether capitalists, state employees, or other prisoners).