Letter [Bedford Anarchist Collective Day of Action, December 1984]

Dear Black Flag, 

The following is a description of our Day of Action on Dec 1st 1984 in Bedfordshire. During the morning of this day, just 8 members of the collective brought chaos to the heart of Bedford. After leafletting around the market, in butchers shops and in the local McDonalds junk-food outlet, two of us climbed up scaffolding on St. Peters Church to attach a ‘Coal Not Dole’ banner. After this, we entered the local NIREX (Nuclear Industries Waste Disposal Executive: they want to dump killer waste south of Bedford and the local MP is all for it) Office replacing their free leaflets with ours. A smoke bomb was discharged as we left, causing considerable panic. This is the first act of direct action against NIREX so far in Bedford: in our interview with the Bedfordshire Journal the following week, Anarchists Bid To Halt Waste Dump, we made it clear that the proposed public enquiry into the Elstow dump is just a sham, delegating peoples power into the hands of the bureaucrats. Some members of the collective were arrested while others went on to smoke-bomb a Conservative Christmas Fayre in sympathy with miners children robbed of Christmas: they reduced it to a shambles, as a letter, Don’t ‘plug’ anarchists, to the Bedfordshire Journal from the Young Conservatives Vice-Chairman confirmed. 

The four of us arrested were detained for six hours in police custody ‘helping with inquiries’. Police toilets were boycotted and a hunger strike declared to ensure we were not kept in over the weekend so a court-order to fingerprint and photograph us could be obtained. Police responses included illegally and forcefully measuring my height and shouting abuse, strip-searching Paul ‘because he might be carrying drugs’ and threatening to charge us with criminal damage with an explosive device (carrying a minimum 1-year sentence). Only this morning (January 10th) were charges of breach of the peace pressed. A Bedford 4 Defence Committee has been set up to stress that our acts were an exercise in civil disobedience worthy of imitation in the community, not a ‘crime’. We would be grateful for national support/publicity. The trial is at Bedford Magistrates Court on January 24th, 1985. 

Yours for anarchy, peace and freedom, 

P.N. Rogers, B@C 

PS: We are now working towards the publication of our first issue of The Mole: Organ of the Bedford Anarchist Collective. It costs only 20p and a SAE - sent to the address above. 

From Black Flag : Anarchist Fortnightly Vol. VII, No.125 28/01/1985 https://libcom.org/article/black-flag-vol-07-125-1985