From: "jeremy dixon" <medyewsa-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: "See" Fwd: Press release from Brand 
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 01:25:00 GMT


See the post below, forwarded from the ait-iwa-talk list.

A similar case in th Australia a few years ago was the "Rabelais Trial" of 
the student newspaper _Rabelais_ for printing a "How To Shoplift" article. 
The creepy radio talkback operator John Laws got that going by persecuting 
the then Federal Minister (of a "Labor" govenrment) about where taxpayers 
money etc was going.

>From memory (and Bren who is lurking somewhere on this list will know the 
details better) the Rabelais editors were told by the High Court to go 
through their trial (for "instruction in crime") at the magistrates (ie 
summary) level first and then if found guilty the High Court might be 
interested in looking at the conviction in the light of the implied 
guarantee of free speech in the Australian Constitution etc.

The powers that be wisely decided to "drop" the charges before that happened 
(whether before they came to court as opposed to being dismissed as trivial 
I never found out); but the editors had been embroiled in several years of 
litigation, no doubt at considerable expense to themselves despite the 
support they were getting frwm (some of) the cream of the legal profession; 
and no doubt they were duly intimidated. A Federal Court judge (next one 
down from the High Court) while finding against the editors showed his 
private feelings very plainly by incorporating the whole text of the article 
in his judgment, which was duly posted on the internet!

If this list ever gets to the stage of practical networking I imagine its 
first area will be on free speech issues like this one with _Brand_. They 
might like to post the "disputed article" on this list form whence it will 
no doubt be pasted up here and there.

-j

----Original Message Follows----
From: kurt svensson <ksvensson-AT-motkraft.net>
Reply-To: ait-iwa-talk-AT-list.uncanny.net
To: alter-ee-AT-gemini.most.org.pl, alter-ee-AT-plearn.edu.pl,        
anarchy-list-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu, ats-AT-etext.org,        
ait-iwa-talk-AT-herald.uncanny.net
CC: aktielijst-AT-antenna.nl
Subject: [AIT-IWA-talk] (en) Press release from Brand
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2000 20:54:35 +0200

Press Release from Brand - Swedish anarchist magazine since 1898

On August 31st, the Swedish Ministry of Justice decided to charge Brand
magazine for incitement to insurrection, which is a breach of the freedom
of the press, according to Swedish law. The Brands issue in question,
released on the International Women’s day, March 8th,
2000, was immediately upon it’s release charged by the Swedish Secret
Police (SÄPO).

Brand is an anarchist magazine that has existed since 1898. The current
editorial collective was founded in 1995. In honour of the International
Women’s day, a theme-issue that concerned sex roles and stereotypes in
Swedish women’s magazines such as VeckoRevyn and Frida, as well as Swedish
men’s magazines Slitz and Café was produced. The issue was full of  columns
for sex-tips, test-yourself questionnaires, do-me-over columns and the
front cover was even graphically designed to resemble that of VeckoRevyn.
We also wrote a parody of VeckoRevyns’s “How to make your party a success”,
which we entitled “How to make your riot a success, from A to Z”. This is
the article that has SÄPO and the Swedish state up in arms. We think this
is ridiculous, as if one was to read the article, they could not help
notice the fact that the article is satirical and a parody of those types
of actions that the Swedish anarchist movement currently execute. From A to
Z covers small explanations of what!
!
a “barricades”, ”cobble stones” ”Zebra patterned sports jackets”, ”Xena the
Warrior Princess” and is accompanied with text such as ”It is extremely
easy to riot in high heels” and ”Zebra sports jackets are no longer
fashionable in riot situations”. The riot-guide is a
satirical poke at the powers that be. However, we who work with Brand are
activists and by borrowing VeckoRevyn’s format we wanted to turn a romantic
portrayal of violence and a macho actionist-culture upside down and in a
ironic way look at ourselves. We must also
mention that the text was layouted with baby/blue and pink colours as well
as a picture of the Spice Girls.

Why has this article caused such a storm? Well, according to the geniuses
at SÄPO, the spectacular house squat in Linköping on March 17th, only a
week or two after the issue hit the streets, was inspired by the article.
The only witness in the upcoming trial against
Brand will be a policeman from Linköping who is to testify that the
squatters used this article as a guide in their action.

Within various philosophical schools this is usually called a “faux pas”.
“Brand wrote about barricades and cobblestones, the squatters used
barricades and cobblestones and the squatters did this because they had
read Brand”. This knowledge was not taken from our riot
parody. Buildings have been squatted in Sweden during the last fifteen
years by the Swedish anarchist movement. And there as been an abundance of
rioting during the same time. The squat in Linköping was not at all unique.
Examples are the squat of Folkungagatan in
Stockholm in 1990 and the squat of the “Gamla Mejeriet” in Västerås at the
outcome of the EU-referendum in 1994. At both of these squats the same
methods were used. Squatters used barricades and masks, they threw stones
and Molotov cocktails and they shot projectiles
with sling shots in order to keep the Violent Swedish police at bay. These
means of proletarian struggle are well described in a number of handbooks
and manuals, for instance Lila Svarta. T!

!
hat which stood in Brand was nothing new.

We regard this judicial process as a frightening tendency from SÄPO to
attack the dissident press when they want to attack activism. The trail
against Linus Brohult and the magazine Ekologisten this past spring, after
Socialekologisk Aktions sabotage against the
motorway Södra Länken paved the way for this new method. We regard this in
the context that SÄPO must be reading every millimetre of Brand in the hunt
for something to charge the magazine with.
The Ministry of Justice wants to confiscate all the copies of the magazine
they can come across. In this point we must disappoint them. This issue was
so popular that it is completely sold out!

The issue can be read on the Internet, but the disputed article has been
removed:
http://www.motkraft.net/brand

Brand’s editorial collective
e-mail: brand-AT-motkraft.net

kurt svensson
c/o brand
box 150 15
104 65 stockholm
sweden
ksvensson-AT-motkraft.net
[pgp keys available upon request]

-för revolution i vår livstid-

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