{"id":532,"date":"2008-02-05T21:26:53","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T20:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/?p=532"},"modified":"2008-02-06T02:20:28","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T01:20:28","slug":"like-pigs-to-the-slaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/like-pigs-to-the-slaughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Like Pigs to the Slaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rebel<\/a><\/p>\n

Like Pigs to the Slaughter\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cLike lambs to the slaughter they fall at your feet. ..\u201d
\nBlood and Roses:\u00a0 Your Sin is Your Salvation<\/p>\n

Before I start, please comment on the following:<\/p>\n

1.Has anyone here read Ben Frank\u2019s book \u2018Rebel Alliances\u2019 about British anarchism?<\/p>\n

2. Was there, as Chris suggests below, a move from the \u2018nihilism\u2019 of Toxic Grafity, through the \u2018positivism\u2019 of KYPP, to the (class struggle) aanarchism of Pigs for Slaughter?<\/p>\n

3. There is no third way.<\/p>\n

In a comment\u00a0 to \u201cLots more photos up in the photo gallery\u2026\u201d, Chris said:<\/p>\n

i\u2019d say a zine such as Pigs for Slaughter was in it\u2019s own way a lot MORE important than 99% of the \u2018anarcho-punk\u2019 bands as it lit the torch for the cross-pollenisation between the anarcho-punk scene and Class War etc, from which came an increase in militancy articulated in such things as the Stop the Citys and bands becoming involved with industrial struggles (Miners, Print Workers\u2026) creating a blood-line to the anti G8 type protests of today. <\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, you could almost say that out of all the thousands of fanzines that were ever published after Sniffing Glue there are three which most encapsulate the trinity of stages the \u2018underground\/alternative\/DIY\u2019 punk (as opposed to the more \u2018commercial\u2019 bands adequately represented by the mainstream music press) scene went through:<\/em>Toxic Grafitti = Nihilism
\nKill Your Pet Puppy = Positivism
\nPigs For Slaugher = Anarchism<\/p>\n

In his book \u2018Rebel Alliances: The means and ends of contemporary British anarchism\u2019, published by AK Press in 2006, Ben Franks makes a strong argument that the core of\u00a0 the British anarchist tradition is class-struggle anarchism and has written about \u2018Bristish Anarchism and the Miners Strike\u2019 here http:\/\/www.londonclasswar.org\/britishanarchism.php
\n<\/a>
\nBen is a lecturer at Glasgow University\u2019s Dumfries Campus (where I am a post-grad student) and has also written about the film The Wicker Man – filmed here nearly 40 years ago -see http:\/\/www.cc.gla.ac.uk:443\/newstaff\/b_franks.htm
\n<\/a>
\nIn Rebel Alliances, Ben was not very \u2018positive\u2019 on anarcho-punk\u00a0 saying :<\/p>\n

<\/em>\u201cits vision was often closer to that of pacifist individualism than to radical anti-capitalism. For this reason it was derided as merely \u2018prosaic laissez-faire individualism\u2019. On other occasions it promoted \u2018an anarcha-feminist sensibility alongside forceful anti-militarism.\u2019. The sizeable following around Crass became interested in environmental direct action, animal rights, vegetarianism and veganism .<\/em>\u201cThe anarchist-punk agent for change was unclear. On the few occasions it was explicitly elucidated it seemed to reject class, and appeal to the same great hope of the \u201860s hippie culture-\u2019youth\u2019. As a result of such shared characteristics, it is no surprise that punk met a similar fate to that of the 1960s (counter) cultures it originally despised. It became a youth orientated marketing niche, subsumed into the mainstream of corporate business. Punk clothing and records could be found in companies owned by multinationals.\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/em>But as he said in a comment to my \u2018Archaeology of Punk\u2019\u00a0 rant\u00a0 here on KYPP, these quotes are selective:<\/p>\n

I think that one of my points about punk was that it was too diverse to be associated with any single political movement or culture, although I do acknowledge that it in many of its major forms it shares core features with anarchism. I also used substantially more sources, both primary and secondary, in my account than your posting suggests. Sorry I missed you at the pub. Maybe another time.
\nAll the best
\nBen<\/em><\/p>\n

At some point, if Ben is not too pissed off with me, I will do an interview with him for KYPP.<\/p>\n

Finally, here is what\u00a0 old school anarchist Albert Meltzer (who I met\u00a0 along with Stuart Christie, Ronan Bennett and Iris Mills in 1979) had to say about punks trashing the Wapping Autonomy Centre:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.spunk.org\/texts\/writers\/meltzer\/sp001591\/angels21.html <\/a>
\nAlmost simultaneously the other rotating group had decided, with other groupings, to set up a new Centre in East London. I had not myself been involved in the building of either Centre, being immersed in the new wave of industrial activity, in Black Flag, the Anarchist Black Cross and the changes in Spain following the death of Franco. But they affected me considerably, and by the time 121 was being squatted I had committed myself both to it and to an entirely different venture, the Autonomy Club in Wapping. It was Ronan Bennett’s brainchild. Ever the optimist, I hoped it would take off, against reasonable expectations and my own expressed judgment.<\/em>Iris Mills and Ronan put a tremendous amount of work into funding, finding and then building and decorating the place. Ronan, possibly misled by the backing the Persons Unknown had received, which numerically might have been about the same as that of the Republican Clubs of Belfast, not unreasonably thought at least one club on those lines could be established. In some capital cities on the Continent there are up to a dozen anarchist clubs or centres.<\/p>\n

But the amount of committed support was limited. Ronan decided to appeal for support from the punk anarchists, then a new phenomenon, saying the punks would pass anyway and would be useful for the time it was around. The punk support, especially from followers of Crass and Poison Girls, was substantial. Punk has lasted a couple of decades, long outlasting the proposed club. With the punks’ money came the punks, and in the first week they had ripped up every single piece of furniture carefully bought, planned and fitted, down to the lavatory fittings that had been installed by Ronan from scratch, and defaced our own and everyone else’s wall for blocks around. In the excitement of the first gigs where they could do as they liked, they did as they liked and wrecked the place. Loss of club, loss of money, loss of effort. End of story.<\/strong> Ronan was not unnaturally disheartened and returned to even more chaotic Northern Irish politics.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like Pigs to the Slaughter\u2026 \u201cLike lambs to the slaughter they fall at your feet. ..\u201d Blood and Roses:\u00a0 Your Sin is Your Salvation Before I start, please comment on the following: 1.Has anyone here read Ben Frank\u2019s book \u2018Rebel Alliances\u2019 about British anarchism? 2. Was there, as Chris suggests below, a move from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letter-from-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}