The Harrods Bombing

THE HARRODS BOMBING

Not content with a conventional war in the Falklands and an impending nuclear world war, Thatcher was now declaring war on trade unions; using the power of government and the courts to cripple them legally and financially and then using the police to crush them physically. And just to round things off there was still the matter of the war in Northern Ireland.

“It's all very simple while you keep the war vocal,” as Crass had declared a few years earlier “But the bombs in Belfast are coming down your local. I want to know how much you can take cos you've taken it all, and that's just great.”

Rather than gaining them the freedom for their country that they sought or at least a place at the negotiating table, the IRA's war against the British State was only leading to being responded to in kind. Not that this specific war was one that Thatcher was willing to name as such.

Conventional war, nuclear war, State violence, State control; the capacity for the government to continue inflicting problems and misery seemed to hold no bounds as did the capacity for people to carry on regardless under whatever circumstances. These were problems for the IRA that they were continuously trying to break.

On December 10^th 1983, a bomb planted by the IRA went off at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, London, injuring four soldiers and a passerby. Two weeks later another bomb went off outside Harrods, in London, killing three police officers, three members of the public and injuring many more. An apology was quickly issued by the IRA over the loss of innocent lives in the explosion; that is, for the deaths of the three members of the public, not the police officers though of course, the apology counted for nothing.

It begged the question, however: If the Angry Brigade had managed to plant bombs without causing any loss of life then why couldn't the supposedly more professional IRA?

On visiting the injured in hospital, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Graham Leonard spoke of the “intensity of evil” of those responsible for the bomb, adding “The real agony is that there are actually human beings who can do this.”

Which also begged another question: What might the Bishop think of Thatcher and co, and their willingness to see millions upon millions of dead and injured from an even bigger bomb?

Warrington

THE WARRINGTON DISPUTE

Away from Greenham Common, something altogether different was taking place that was still extremely significant to the way the country was being governed and would prove to have huge repercussions for British workers for evermore. An industrial dispute at a print works in Warrington, near Manchester, had escalated into a state of affairs that no-one – except perhaps Thatcher – could have anticipated after a newspaper entrepreneur called Eddie Shah took on printers union the National Graphical Association (NGA) over the issues of closed shops and the employment of non-union labour.

Less than a fortnight after being elected to government in 1979, Thatcher had started to lay out plans for trade union reform; focussing on picketing, the closed shop and ballots. Her aim was to not just curb but destroy the power of unions and in a bid to do this had devised a raft of new laws and two new Employment Acts.

In Warrington, Eddie Shah had recruited non-union labour for his new printing plant causing NGA members to stage a walkout. Shah sacked the strikers immediately which led to a bout of mass picketing at the plant in support of them. Hundreds of union members were bussed in to take part in the pickets which prompted Shah to cite the new Tory Employment Acts, and to call upon the government for support.

Thatcher was only too pleased to oblige and gave the police the green light to do whatever it took to prevent the pickets having any effect. To Thatcher, not only was this a case of law and order and the pickets acting illegally but also a question of a greater struggle between union and government power.

The NGA was fined huge sums for breaking the rules of the new Employment Acts and finally had their entire funds sequestered for non-compliance. As for the pickets themselves, they were facing a newly equipped, combative police force, trained in the lessons of the riots of '81 and given the go-ahead from the highest level of government to act with impunity.

The strike culminated with the exits of the M6 motorway being blocked by the police to prevent the pickets getting to Warrington and then finally with a full-on battle between the two sides outside the plant where 2,000 baton-wielding police charged, drove at in Range Rovers and fought hand-to-hand with 4,000 workers.

Nobody knew at the time, of course, but this was the shape of things to come in terms of policing future industrial disputes...

Greenham Common - Reflect the Base

GREENHAM COMMON –

REFLECT THE BASE

Keeping good on the promise of opening up a new round of demonstrations and actions following the deployment of Cruise missiles, 50,000 women descended upon Greenham Common in the first week of December to take part in a 'Reflect the Base' protest. Encircling the entire base, the women held mirrors up to the police and soldiers behind the fence to reflect their images back to them.

As a peaceful protest it was another inspired idea that also created the space and the opportunity for the slightly more militant to pull down whole sections of the fence. Hundreds of arrests were made and many fingers broken by soldiers lashing out at hands with metal bars but no-one was shot, subsequently making a perfect mockery of Heseltine's idle threats.

Icons Of Filth - Used, Abused, Unamused

ICONS OF FILTH –

USED, ABUSED, UNAMUSED

And then from the Corpus Christi label came Used, Abused, Unamused, a 4-track 7” EP by Icons Of Filth. Based in Cardiff, Wales, they had first started out as friends just following Crass around the country on their tours whereupon they had encountered fellow Crass fans Conflict and Omega Tribe. Inspired by Crass, they had formed themselves into an Anarcho Punk band whose first cassette-only release entitled Not On Her Majesty's Service was put out by Conflict's very own fledgling label, Mortarhate. Following healthy sales of the tape, Corpus Christi offered to release their début single.

Over taut, frenetic and wired hardcore Punk Rock played at breakneck speed, hoarse-voiced lead singer Stig delivered impassioned observations on the system, religion, indoctrination and war. Tried and tested Anarcho Punk subjects one and all but in the hands of Stig, a clearly intelligent thoughtfulness was being applied to each: “Fear is the maintainer of this living death called system... Voting concedes incapability to run your own life. Well, how would you know if you ain't ever tried? Used, abused, unamused? Yeah, every day... God is a measure of our insecurity. We want life after death. We're so afraid that we may be alone, and the responsibility of past, present and future lies with us alone... People always die, we all die in the end and as sure as this is to be expected, we see war as natural.”

In addition to the obvious thought behind the lyrics, what was of particular interest about the record was the artwork adorning the Crass-style fold-out sleeve. Drawn by one Squealing Niallee Wheelee, the style and subject matter was reminiscent of Nick Blinco's; being very detailed pen and ink drawings of skeletal figures and human skulls though it was distinctive enough in its own right that it would be an influence upon and be emulated by other Punk artists for years to come.

Amebix - No Sanctuary

AMEBIX – NO SANCTUARY

From the Spiderleg label came a 7 track, 12” EP by Amebix entitled No Sanctuary, that in a way was far more suited to the general mood of the time due to it being very dark and bleak. With this record Amebix were finally discovering and revealing their own unique sound and in hindsight were actually on their way to creating a whole new musical genre, combining Punk and Heavy Metal to create Crust – a slow but very powerful and heavy form of Punk Rock plumbing sub-Black Sabbath areas of gloom, outrage and horror.

Like a tortured and distorted Discharge on bad drugs, Amebix were emitting an almighty howl of rage from the innermost core of their beings; racked with pain and sick with the state of the world: “And in our ignorance we let them take control, and in their wisdom they decreed that we should bow. When we put our lives into their hands, we put our hands into their chains,” from the track Control, and “They lead you to your slaughter like they lead a horse to water. They can't force you to drink – but you do,” from the track Progress.

Not that Amebix were without humour, however, as shown in such lines as “Roses are red, sometimes violets are blue but we're always puking on cider and glue,” from the track Sunshine Ward. Interestingly, their sense of humour was reminiscent of Disorder's as in “Vomiting green- haired Punks standing on the dole. No money, no clothes, no place left to go,” from Today's World on the Complete Disorder EP. This made sense, however, due to Amebix and Disorder sharing the same squats (and the same drugs) in Bristol.

Disorder were by this time well on their way to being an influence upon squat Punk bands throughout the world whilst Amebix's time was still to come though their influence would eventually turn out to be far greater.

Naked - One Step Forward Towards Reality

NAKED –

ONE STEP FORWARD TOWARDS REALITY

The arrival of Cruise missiles cast a shadow over everything that month, even the release of Anarcho Punk records from some of the best record labels in the land. From the Bluurg label came a 7” EP by Naked called One Step Forward Towards Reality. Naked had first appeared on Bullshit Detector 2 with an Omega Tribe-type Pop Punk song called Mid 1930s Pre-War Germany, that in its own right was another classic of its time, echoing Dancing by Zounds but far more upbeat. On hearing it, a lot of people wanted to know what else Naked had in their repertoire but when it came to their début release on Bluurg, though very melodic it was something of a disappointment due entirely to the poor lyrics.

The arrival of Cruise

THE ARRIVAL OF CRUISE

There was no doubt at all that Mark Mob didn't mean every word he sang and every sentiment he expressed in his songs, and just like everyone else with an iota of awareness was totally dismayed at the way the world was going. Mark's anxiety could only have been ratcheted up another notch when Michael Heseltine announced that any protester caught within the boundary of Greenham Common missile base ran the risk of being shot.

As it was mostly American troops deployed there it obviously meant that British citizens on British soil would be shot dead by agents of a foreign power. And this was meant to be deemed as being acceptable. For his troubles, a short time later when attending Manchester University to address a meeting of Conservative students, to shouts of “Better red than dead!”, Heseltine was sprayed with red paint and pelted with eggs by anti-nuclear weapons protesters.

When Heseltine condemned the attack as being 'undemocratic', as to be expected by that time his condemnation was supported by the CND leadership. Threatening to shoot dead peaceful protesters was acceptable it seemed but not so taking direct action against the perpetrator of that threat.

The atomic bomb might well have been less culturally relevant than the poems of Charles Baudelaire but it was still without question of huge social relevance even to Penny Rimbaud, so when the first Cruise missiles started arriving at Greenham Common on November 14 of 1983, the impact was emotional, to say the least.

Tears were shed and anger was vented in abundance. Outside the House of Commons over 300 mainly women peace protesters were arrested for trying to block the entrance with a lie-down protest, whilst at Greenham another 150 women were arrested after conducting a sit-down protest outside the main gates.

Had it always been a fanciful and naive notion to believe that the deployment of Cruise could be halted? Cynics would have said 'Yes' but then they would also have chosen to remain cynically silent about the whole issue and of course, that silence would always be taken as a sign of consent.

If the anti-nuclear protesters had been even greater in number would they have succeeded in their aims? As there never seemed to be any tipping point in sight it was unlikely. If the anti-nuclear protesters had been more militant would they have been more successful? Possibly.

If all the marchers traipsing off to Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square had stopped off in Whitehall and started rioting or had made their way to the City and brought it to a grinding halt, for example, what might have happened? Whilst potentially giving ammunition to the pro-nuclear brigade both in the government and in the Right-wing press, it would certainly have made Thatcher's (and also Kinnock's) position more difficult and it may also have led to a Constitutional crisis.

Such thoughts, however, were purely hypothetical because rather than rioting or stopping the City, protesters had chosen instead to remain within the law, penned in on marches by police and CND stewards. Contained.

The government had refused to listen and for all the marching and non-violent direct action, Cruise missiles were now in Britain with the only thing to raise the spirits being the promise from anti-war groups that the deployment would open up a whole new round of demonstrations and actions.