Back To The Archives

I return to Printer Phil’s incredible archive of all things anarcho and Class War related. Sifting through boxes upon boxes of old copies of magazines, posters and stickers from the past 30 years I managed to put together every single copy of the Class War newspaper in order as pictured above!

Also discovered some CW gems firstly above is the special animal rights leaning “Class War” produced in the early days, around issue 5, created by Tim Paine and Spike who are both mentioned in the book.

And likewise I discovered this very special Miners Strike issue which is just one A3 sheet produced and handed out amongst the strikers. A rarity indeed!

And to round up my exclusive finds I have to thank “TV Tilt” for uploading a brilliant three part programme on the Poll Tax riot. Part three is above which includes the now legendary interview by Andy Murphy on nationwide TV declaring the Poll Tax rioters as working class heroes. A great watch!

AFA and Searchlight

During my research of the script I came across a lot of documents relating to AFA and Searchlight dispute roughly around 1985 into 1986. The basic overview is that Class War, one of the groups involved in the founding of AFA (Anti-Fascist Action), was questioned over entirely false links with fascist groups and the State.

Coincidentally this all happened around the period Class War developed from being a London based group to a nationwide Federation becoming more organised and thus more powerful. Being embroiled in these allegations and investigations was to take up a lot of the Class War members time disputing such unfounded and illogical claims.

Class War member David Braithwaite wrote a brilliant article about it in the “International Times” below which traces back where this mud slinging came from and all roads seem to lead to Gerry Gable and Search Light. As the article stresses although Search Light has gathered excellent information of fascist organisation it is obvious Gerry Gable is being fed news directly from the State which he is then putting out to journalists such as David Rose. It would seem the State used Gerry Gable and Search Light to spread rumours about Class War and try to side line them from serious political activity.

Tall Chris and Australian Darren

During the process of adapting Ian Bone’s autobiography from book to script it became apparent, as mentioned before, that instead of ending it abruptly in 1986 it would make more narrative sense to take it up until the downfall of Thatcher i.e. The Poll Tax Riots in 1990. So who could fill these few years from 1986-90? Well two characters were mentioned. Firstly “Tall Chris” or as Martin Wright would conspiratorially whisper out of the corner of his mouth – “The Tall Man”.

Having heard about Tall Chris for roughly a year, word was that he wasn’t too keen to talk about the film etc, but as time passed and I slowly got to know the guy through various mutual meetings at pubs, he finally agrees to sit down with me and spill the beans and share the darkest of secrets. So a night out in my old stomping ground of Croydon was organised and a few pints, a kebab and a couple of joints later and the stories started flowing. From having organised his whole school against the National Front aged only 14 to joining Class War at the tender age of 17 to many stories of front line action over the years to the present day that merited the name “Teflon Chris”.  A working class hero and a half. The kind of character that if you put him in a film people would say “that would never happen in real life”. Well I am putting him in a film. And it did all happen. Plus the 90% of stuff that happened which won’t go in the script / film is even more mind blowing…

“Tall Chris” became a source of information filling in the gaps from 1986-90, the creation of the Class War Federation, Wapping Strikes, Wreck-a-Roller, the split between Martin Wright and Ian Bone and on and on.

The Wapping Strikes (1986-87) are an incredible example of the riotous Britain at the time of fighting back and trying to survive against the onslaught of Thatcherism. The above image is a newspaper expose of Ian Bone and Class War as the outside agitators of trouble at Wapping which is another source I’ve been using in the writing of the script. But if there was to be any real “outside agitators” then it has to the man who arrived here on a stolen plane ticket in 1986 who Ian’s biography is dedicated to: Darren Ryan.

Darren Ryans incomplete biography “I Fucked Thatcher” has been an invaluable resource, firstly Ian Bone’s introduction on the Wapping dispute, to Darren’s humourous, honest and in your face account of arriving in Britain to fight the class enemies and becoming involved with Mr. Bone and the other nefarious characters of Class War. I’ve been using this an inspiration to continue the script up until 1990.

Also penned by Australian Darren is his account of the “Rock Against The Rich” tour with ex-Clash front man Joe Strummer and host of the event Page 3 singer / Alarm paper seller Ray Jones. As with “I Fucked Thatcher” this has also been a quintessential tool in aiding the writing of the script. Darren Ryan is a larger than life character to say the very least. I gathered this from his writing but also the fond stories and high regard he is held in by Ian Bone, Martin Wright, Printer Phil and Tall Chris.

Moving from the Wapping Strikes into 1987 the Class War election campaign with John Duignan will get a mention. Below is the poster dug out from Ian’s very own archive. John use to have a dog named “Maggie”. Why? Because like Thatcher, she’s a bitch.

Going Native

So where the hell have I been for almost 12 months? What is going on with Bash The Rich? Why hasn’t this blog been updated?! Well the honest truth is for the past 12 months I have been living in Whitechapel and getting up to all sorts. Firstly I have made a new feature film called “SSDD: Same Shit Different Day”, my third independent feature made on 10 Grand, and I have been keeping an online blog on the full in’s and out’s of it’s making at BrokeButMakingFilms so check it out! Above is the trailer, it is close to completion and will be screening before the year ends, with possible public screenings next year. So keep your ear to the ground!

But secondly, as Mr. Bone himself predicted, I went “Native” for the past twelve months being heavily involved in the founding and running of the Whitechapel Anarchist Group. Though there aren’t too many comparisons to be drawn between WAG and Class War, apart from the obviously same class outlook and pro-active attitude, I have been able to get a taster of what it must have been like for Mr. Bone being involved in a tight group of friends, producing a popular paper and getting into all types of mischief.

The past twelve months have been a roller coaster being involved in WAG, from absolutely nothing a strong group was formed and built over the months, as thousands of our WAG paper were distributed, social events such as Radical History Pub Crawls and The Spitalfields Fair were put on, from local organising and local struggles (Tower Hamlets College Strike to gentrification of Brick Lane market) to being involved in big mass demos from Gaza, G20, Mayday to Climate Camp. WAG have been in the thick of it as the most active and exciting group on the anarchist scene (Yep “scene” not “movement”) for a good few years.

The highlight had to be 6 months into the group around March / April when we produced the “Storm The Banks” posters for the G20 which created a media shit storm! Appearing on almost every TV Station! The newspapers went crazy for WAG and Mr. Bone was also thrown into the mix. Below I can be seen in the photo from The Independent article which wrongly claimed Mr. Bone was the leader of WAG!

Despite the false claims of Mr. Bone and Mr. Chris Knight as our spiritual gurus we continued to wind up the media over the course of the G20. The most funniest thing to happen to us as a group around that time was the completley fabricated The Daily Mail infiltration article. It made me so proud. To have been heavily involved in a group hated by the Daily Mail and described as a “Bizarre Group of Misfits”. Thank you Arthur Martin.

During my period of “Going Native” with the WAG’s, Mr. Bone has also been keeping himself busy and living up to the moniker of most dangerous grandad in britain.

During the “Put People First” March (28th March 2009) a brilliant speakers corner rally was held, video of Mr. Bone above, despite the fact I was almost arrested for disturbing an agent provocateur over some odd catapults.

The final video above is from the May Day rally of Ian’s stirring speech. It’s great to look back at this year and what a year it has been. I have decided to take a back seat with my political activity and get back onto this film. Though I know the sound people in WAG will keep the torch burning and are definitely one to watch in the future. From G20 to Brick Lane Market to Climate Camp it’s been a fucking laugh comrades!

A Belated Update

It’s been a while so what is the latest news with the adaption of “Bash The Rich”? Basically I am about half way through the first draft which has already had the over seeing eye of Mr Bones approval. It has been over a year since I first spoke with Ian about adapting the book and that has been quite a journey this far, meeting up with a variety of colourful characters, and dusting off the skeletons from the cupboard.

I must give a mention to Jay Jay, whom I had a wonderful night of pints, at a pub in brixton where she filled me in on her role within the book and life back in Swansea. Jay was a character first involved in “The Alarm”, notably the flour bombing incident, then moving to London around the same time as Ian and being involved in the early issues of Class war notably “The One For The Girls”. It was fantastic to hear stories of life as a punk in swansea, dodging the beatings of narrow minded locals, as well as the squatting scene in Brixton during the early eighties. 

Since I last blogged I have also been kept busy with Ian and other former characters from the book. Firstly “Page 3″ (Ian Bone and Ray Jones) singing about the recession:

And also with John Rety:

But mainly my research has also led me to filming Ian’s very own radio show on Resonance FM called “Anarchism In the uk”. Firstly John Rety, the former editor of Freedom Newspaper, who appears in the book debating with Tariq Ali over the anti-vietnam demonstration.

On the show as well is a character I have been spending a lot of time with and who has been mentionned in this blog before, Ian’s partner in crime, Martin Wright.

And in a strange twist of fate I also ended up being interviewed talking about my previous feature films, adapting bash the rich and anarchism etc.

So what’s the plan? Well I need to get the second half of the script finish as well as the first half re-written which should be hopefully completed over the christmas period. Although the book ends in 1986 I am taking it up until the Poll Tax Riots of 1990.

Once the first draft is complete I will then get the script into funders, notably Film4 who I have already spoken to about the project, and though this may take a few months I have my fingers crossed and will keep the blog updated on it’s progress. The point of initially creating this blog was to archive the research I was digging out but I am also hoping it can chart the films full production. Whatever happens the film will get made by any means necessary. 

This has always been my approach as a filmmaker. My first feature The Plague, screening on BBC2 Monday 17th November at 01:15am (Sunday night kinda) obviously programmed for unemployed and students staying up late, pays testament to that fact. The video player of my interview on Resonance FM above explains it all really so I don’t want repeat myself. But basically in the mean time of getting Bash The Rich hopefully funded I will be making my third feature film “S.S.D.D: Same Shit Different Day”. Fed up of waiting around as usual I have decided to make my new film on absolutely no money, it will be workshopped with a small handful of actors over december, and filming happens during January 09. You can follow the whole journey on my personal blog Broke But Making Films where I will be keeping an online video diary that will show all the secrets of no-budget filmmaking from improvising with actors, shooting illegally, editing on domestic equipment to actually distributing and promoting your own film your self. That’s right, I will be attempting to put in place an independent distribution network with the independent cinemas across Britain, an infrastructure that can remain in place for other no-budget filmmakers. It seems we have all the tools to shoot and edit films for nothing but the one thing that fucks us over is the distribution. And also the methods of improvisation etc and digital technology are often kept secret forcing you to spend £60 on some pretentious book telling you how to do it. Save your money as I hope to show you all those details. So who knows, I will go at it full steam and see what happens. The plan is that off the back of “S.S.D.D” I can get “Bash The Rich” funded. Please support independent and british cinema. At the moment we have NO British Film Industry. Ultimately the distributors hold all the power. I am not interested in making “Four Weddings And Another Notting Hill” bullshit. The current climate we live in i.e. the recession, rising house, fuel and food prices, the continual growth between rich and poor – is the influencing factor as a filmmaker to feel an urgency to make “S.S.D.D: Same Shit Different Day”. To create contemporary and relevant cinema that will connect with people. Check out the progress on how to – or possibly how not to – make a feature film in Britain for no money. Thanks to Ian Shepherd for already supporting.

And this new lease of energy and enthusiasm? Well it must come down to spending all this time with a certain elderly gentleman…

Bristol, Swansea & meeting Jan Green

“She fucked the rich to redistribute their wealth – mainly to herself, but then, for sure, osmotically to her comrades by way of drinks, food, or dossing rights in her Ladbroke Grove flat.” (Extract from Anarchist by Ian Bone). 

A two day mission is planned as I get the train from Paddington station. Im to travel up to Bristol meeting Ian and former Class War comrades, stay the night, then head over to Swansea for the day to meet old members of Page 3 but most importantly a woman I had long been waiting to speak to. Early on in my chats with Ian over the character breakdown of the book it became clear that for legal reasons a certain person had been separated into various characters – and it is her story that weaves a thread throughout Ian’s life – she is the financier of Class War, the Alarm local council election candidate, Stonehenge Kate, Cynthia Payne’s girl and Page 3’s Jelly Baby dispenser. As a writer it’s like discovering the vital missing piece to a puzzle. A moment of clarity as a new main character steps to the fore. My imagination runs wild. I discover she has also been captured by the writer Daniel Lux, under the character name of Cleo in the novel Camden Parasites:        

“I heard she’d cleaned her act up, worked earning money at her profession, the oldest one around. Cleo was small or, as they say in the trade, petite, with a rather prominent conk, making her look like something out of a Tolkien fantasy.” (Camden Parasites extract).

In my mind she has been elevated to near mythic proportions. The life she has lived. The tales she could tell. I pensively mull it all over as the train rattles along the tracks towards Temple Mead Station. I am on my way to finally meet Jan Green.

But first off I am met by Ian at the station and we head to a pub to meet a local and longtime Bristol Class Warrior. Stories start pouring out about the violent times of the eighties, the daily conflicts between the State and the people, and the spontaneous and sometimes organised direct actions to fight back. Tales of entire housing estates being flooded by riot police, local people taking to the streets and defending the front lines of their communities. It’s an eye opening conversation that gives me a fresh perspective on the period of the book, gaining a wider understanding of the confrontational and violent times of Thatchers Britain and the very real sense of class war. It was more than just a catchy title. It was everyday life. The Tory Oligarch versus the “lumpen” masses. The riot to work.

After the pub I am treated to a delightful dinner cooked by a former character instrumental in Ian’s life and Class War. My previous conversation covering mass actions is now contrasted with a more in depth enlightenment of the character make up and conflicts of the founding london Class War mob. The diversity of colourful characters easily sparks a sense of anecdotal humour but it is also great to get a clearer understanding of the very real and ‘human’ relationships that were playing out amongst people. I sleep well with a feeling of beginning to grasp a grounding within the story I’m wanting to tell. It’s an early morning and a big day tomorrow.       

The train pulls into Swansea while Ian reflects back on the changing landscape since his first arrival as a university student in the sixties. We walk into town, swanning pass The Griffin bar as though we were Junkie Ginge and Kustard re-incarnate though minus the poncho’s and bump into a former friend Howard who shares a coffee with us. He reminisces about the Swansea that was. A rough and tough town. A time prior to cctv and security tags. It’s like the lawless wild west but with a shopping centre and fast food dependency. Howard tells us stories of shop lifting with Viv Cory and Ray Jones, who is pictured above with Ian singing in the band Page 3. I am painted a vivid picture of the thriving criminal underbelly that made up the fabric of working class existence during the 1970’s.   

I make my way with Ian to a tucked away pub which seems to be a favourite for heavy metal fans but at this time of the morning only a handful of locals quietly sip pints as the bar staff cleans up. A Page 3 reunion is planned as we are met by Glenn Evans a.k.a Dr. Richard Normal the former bass player from the band. Glenn also use to play with Venom and his brother Greg, who joined us, played with Autonomes so between them they had a fair knowledge of the Swansea punk scene. Despite the fact that Glenn was apologising for not being able to remember much about his time in Page 3, which to me tells me everything about the very nature of the band, he does run an excellent website and archive called Swansea Punk.      

Next to arrive was Jock “Negative” McVeigh the character in the book who was reported dead as a publicity stunt for the band in which Jock was the “exotic dancer”. Ian’s description of Jock as a “lovable, tattooed, gay proletarian Swansea ne’r do well” is very accurate. To describe Jock would come nowhere near doing him justice – he is a colourful and spellbinding character that is larger than life – I am sure that when people see him translated into the film they will say “People like that don’t exist in real life”. I assure you he does. I have met him. He truly does deserve the moniker of “living legend” that follows him in the town of Swansea.  

Finally the moment I had been nervously waiting for. Enter Jan Green. Petit as Daniel Lux had described, frail from health issues and walking with the aid of a crutch, but still a firery, passionate and wild woman. It’s good to see time doesn’t change all things. Her hatred for social workers remains relentless and she is still a massive fan of 2000AD comics as originally displayed in the Class War “One From The Girls” issue at the top of the post. 

As Ian and Jan recollect on old stories it becomes very apparent how their lives have been inter woven over the years. The thread of mystery around Jan Green unravels, the woman who within the book appears as a number of characters, now acquiesces for her role in the story to be represented. She even jokes that one day she will write her own auto-biography. My imagination races with the idea of her life tales. To say the woman has seen a lot would be an understatement. The photo below from the Kensington “Bash The Rich” March (11th May 1984), was only recently discovered by Phil Gard when rummaging through his archives, and shows Jan Green smiling directly at camera – dead centre of the photograph below bottom right hand corner of the banner.    

While “Bash The Rich” is the auto-biography of Ian Bone it would be nothing without the characters that cross paths with our protagonist. And the past few days have made that obviously clear as I mull it all over on the long train journey back to London. The role of Jan Green within the events that the book covers is paramount and I am happy to be able to make her involvement more evident. I begin to feel that I am getting to grips with the main characters from the book – having spent much time with Ian, Ray Jones, Martin Wright and now Jan Green – I just hope I can capture an honest essence of their characters and a fair representation of their stories as I continue adapting from the book into a script.

“…another Class War supporting working girl with a flat in Paddington had as a punter an aristocratic Scottish Lord who liked to be abused while he was whipped. ‘You rich fucking bastard!’ she screamed as his blood flecked buttocks turned beetroot. ‘You rich fucking scumbag!’ He always gave her a big tip. ‘Sounds like you really mean it’ he used to say. She donated the fees to Class War and if the Scottish Lord had ever looked under her bed he’d have discovered the Class War banners she was sewing in the dead time between punters.” (Extract from Bash The Rich)

The image above is a very rare political zine created by Jan Green from Swansea during the 1980’s.  

Crass, Conway Hall & Mr. Lux

“The scene was set for the battle to move the Crass anarcho-punks away from pacifism to violent street rioting.” (Bash The Rich extract).

While trawling the Kill Your Pet Puppy website I came across archive images of the Crass statement denouncing the anti-fascist violence against bullying right wing skinheads in Conway Hall 1979 which is mentioned as a pivotal occurrence of the London punk/ anarchist scene by Ian in Bash The Rich. It has been a great joy writing this scene and I have been relying heavily on the book “Anti-Fascist” by Martin Lux in portraying the event.

Penny Rimbaud denounced the anarchist confrontation against the British Movement skinheads as fascist: “It is not the National Front or the British Movement that represents the right-wing threat.” (Last Of The Hippies extract) whereas Martin Lux saw it very differently: “I suppose in my heart of hearts the reaction following the Conway Hall bloodbath didn’t really surprise me, although I was taken aback for a while. After years of abuse, insults and cold shouldering from many in the anarcho scene, it came as no great shock. Even so, it infuriated me. The group Crass and their support band The Poison Girls, issued weighty statements. There were shock horror reports of the carnage in the Guardian and Time Out. The BM Nazis were treated as sacrificial lambs, despite them outnumbering us over two to one. We and our friends from the left were ‘Red Fascists’, a ‘Football Gang’, ‘their leaders appeared to be Scots’, even in the supposedly liberal press of the day a by-word for ‘nutter’. Such parochialism – even the Nazis would blush. The odium was heaped on me and others, but I withstood it with the usual fortitude, a couple of minor outbursts aside. After all, my critics would soon disappear into the halls of academia, respectability, the Labour Party, the media and property-owning classes. Fuck ‘em.” (Anti-Fascist extract).

George Berger’s “The Story Of Crass” also offers an alternative to the Crass view on pacifism and violence during the changing period of Thatchers late seventies into the early eighties: “The punk squatters saw the reaction of Crass to the Conway Hall incident as a clear case of Crass being out in Epping and out of touch with their everyday lives in London. Some I’ve spoken to are incensed that Crass could even think this, given how heavy the violence was at the time. An example – ‘Penny Rimbaud… what a wanker. He probably thinks broomsticks shoved into unwilling anal cavities are wizard pranks much like what he use to get up to in public school, whato’”. (The Story Of Crass extract).     

Junkie Ginge spotted

“Junkie Ginge said we should organise a march from the Griffin one Saturday to the cop shop round the corner – no particular reason. When we got there he put on a tin helmet with an anti-slug smoke pellet on top, walked into the police station reception lit the pellet and started dancing about wildly as the flare exuded choking orange smoke. We ran to the pavement opposite as he exited the cop shop pursued by gasping red-faced Keystone Cops. Those were the days, my friend.” (Bash The Rich extract)

Rare footage has appeared of Junkie Ginge, the character from the Swansea late 1960’s part of the book, on a BBC Newsnight programme in rare archive footage of the 1968 anti-vietnam protest. Watch it HERE. 

He can be spotted briefly at the end of the video. Question is – Where is he now?

1968 And All That

A sunny Saturday 10th May over at Conway Hall (Red Lion Square) for “1968 And All That” a conference and book fair “to celebrate the hopes and dreams of May 1968 – forty years after” where Ian was doing a talk on his student days in Swansea. He was joined by Martin Wright, the video is below, and it was filled with humour and scathing class hatred to a packed room.

When I first read the book one of the main points that stuck out for me was the period around 1968 – firstly the comedy of student life as an anarchist in Swansea (Burning mushroom below!) – but secondly and most importantly the impact the Vietnam war and it’s opposition had on radicalising Ian and countless others of the sixties generation. I found the most poignant point to be the anti-war demo of October 1968 where the traditional left decided to hold a talk in Hyde Park while others scuffled with the police in Grosvenor Square trying to get to the American Embassy – a clear split in tactics to stop the continuation of an unjust war which as the book states seems to have echoed into the passivity of the current “Stop The War Coalition” and the opposition to the Iraq War. What attracted me to interpreting the book into a film is the prospect that I can convey – through an entertaining comedy – a sense of 30 odd years of radical british history through the eyes of Ian Bone to a contemporary audience.

The event at Conway Hall was a highly entertaining day, pints of bitter flowed in the blazing sunshine, and I got to meet some old characters from the book. It was like a “who’s who” with Ian, Martin, Phil the Printer, Young Chris, Ray Jones, Dave Douglas and Ian Slaughter. I was pleased to get the chance to meet Dave Douglas and talk about the Miners Strikes of 1984. Also meeting Ian Slaughter, a character who I had been hoping to come in contact with, and we had a great chat about the culture of zines in the late 70’s / early 80’s. I hope to catch up with them both properly in the near future. As usual the drunken day had many highlights – the heckling of Lindsey German and the Stop The War Coalition being one – but once again the performance of a NEW Page Three song “You’re All A Bunch Of Cunts” was the cherry on top for me. Ray Jones you are a fucking legend!

Phil The Printer

A rainy afternoon myself and Martin Wright walk pass the Broadwater Farm Estate as Martin begins recalling memories of the political climate around the time of PC Blakelocks murder as we make our way to Phil The Printers.

Both Ian and Martin describe the role of the printing press as the “aristocracy of the working class” and they also speak highly of the need to meet Phil to grasp a better understanding of the 1980’s and Class War. Within the book Phil plays a pivotal character in the creation and realisation of the newspaper and his archives pay testament to that fact. To the back drop of reggae music Phil tells me stories of Calverts Press while taking me through stacks of old political zines, photographs and flyers evoking memories in Martin as a wide grin beams with fond thoughts.

Some of those gems included the original Class War stickers created by Sean Mason (above) and the “Vermin In Ermine” flyer (below) which was handed out at the march on Biorex, bombing badly due to “speciesism”.

The archive of treasures is immense and a return visit is planned. This time I get to see old photographs of most of the key people mentioned in the book – which is a massive inspiration in being able to formulate the characters in my mind as I write the first draft of the script. Phil’s input into my research is priceless.

Having seen the development of Class War from it’s original paper and founding mob transforming into a federation and later organisation over a decade of social disorder, Phil has a wide and paramount perspective of the subject and period. His collection of Class War newspapers is an impressive archive and much needed source of research for the film and no doubt I will spend more time discovering gems in his dusty vaults. And which is Phil’s favourite issue? See below: