In aid of Freedom Bookshop

Solidar | 06.02.2013 10:58 | Social Struggles

No-Gods-No-Masters.com t-shirt shop : money donation to Freedom Press library following a firebomb attack

Our solidarity is a weapon that neither fire nor bomb can destroy !

An upsetting event has shaken the anarchist movement two days ago. The famous library ‘Freedom Press’ has been hit by a firebomb attack during the night of february 1st. This attack, suspected of being sponsored by fascists, sadly reminds us of nazis’ book burnings in 1933 that was then targetting to destroy any litterature against their ideas. The neo-nazis from Combat 18 (“Combat Adolph Hitler”, a neo-nazi terrorist organisation affiliated to Blood & Honour) already attacked the same library in 1993 and set it on fire.

Freedom Press is Britain’s longest running anarchist publisher and traces its history back to the original Freedom paper started in 1886 by Charlotte Wilson and Peter Kropotkin, a famous anarchist activist, writer and one of the founders of the library. Until recently, the library had over 8000 books, CDs and other activist publications.

As well as selling books, Freedom Press publish a number themselves, produce a monthly paper and provide office space for several radical and anarchist groups such as the Solidarity Federation, Anarchist Federation, Advisory Service for Squatters, Corporate Watch and London Coalition Against Poverty.

The basement has suffered from tens of thousands pounds of damage and many books were destroyed in the fire that followed the explosion, including some unique or very rare copies that had a big historical value. Fortunatly, nobody was hurt.

Freedom Press, who didn’t have insurances, has launched a solidarity call to raise funds so the library can get back on it’s feet and reopen it’s doors.

The anarchist t-shirt shop No-Gods-No-Masters.com answers this call by giving an immediate monetary support to Freedom Press comrades following an attack of an unspeakable lazyness which reminds us the most horrible moments of the last century.
A first donation will be sent this week and more will follow on the upcoming months according to our monthly income.

Information is a wealth that must be defended at all cost and anarchist education is a fundamental need for the establishment of any anarchist society. Places like Freedom Press are rare and the ideas that they share plants the seeds of anarchism. We must stay in solidarity with them to preserve our ideas and continue to transmit today’s and yesterday’s anarchist philosophies that will be the roots of tomorrow’s revolutions !

In front of fascists who wants to shut us down and censor our ideas to impose theirs, we stay in solidarity. Neither aggression or intimidation will overcome our ideas !

In solidarity,
Ni-Dieu-Ni-Maitre.com / No-Gods-No-Masters.com / Ni-Dios-Ni-Amo.com

Buy a t-shirt to help Freedom Press:

http://www.no-gods-no-masters.com/

Solidar

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insurance

06.02.2013 12:09

i reckon it was an insurance job...

jo blogs

Petition to get Amazon to pay fair corporation tax

06.02.2013 12:10

Another way to make bookselling fairer is to ask Amazon to pay tax. Simple. Here is the link.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/amazonuk-pay-corporation-tax-in-the-uk

The petition states:
We pay our taxes and so should Amazon!

We run the Kenilworth and Warwick bookshops, independent shops which have been a proud part of our local high streets for many years. We are proud of the personal service we provide to all those who visit our store.

But times are tough and getting tougher.

We face unrelenting pressure from huge online retailers undercutting prices, in particular Amazon and it's pushing businesses like ours to the brink.

But what’s even worse is that Amazon, despite making sales of £2.9 BILLION in the UK last year, does not pay any UK corporation tax on the profits from those sales. In my book, that is not a level playing field and leaves independent retailers like us struggling to compete just because we do the right thing.

All Amazon UK book and toy sales are routed through its Luxembourg subsidiary. So when the British public buy goods from Amazon, they are in fact paying a Luxembourg company. This means Amazon can avoid paying British corporation tax on the profits it makes. Experts say if Amazon's total UK sales profits were not funnelled to Luxembourg, it could be paying as much as £100m a year in British corporation tax.

As Independent booksellers, we are happy with competition in the market but it must be on level terms and by dodging corporation tax in this way, Amazon start with an unfair advantage.

As they grow bigger it’s inevitable that shops like ours will be under even more pressure. That’s bad for customers, bad for the high street and bad for the UK.

Amazon may be obeying the letter of the law - but they’re certainly not being fair. Last year Starbucks announced that they had caved to public pressure and would look at their tax affairs in the UK. It’s time that Amazon did the same.

We pay our taxes and so should they -- please take a stand with us and tell Amazon to pay their fair share.

Until they do, please consider purchasing from local, independent shops instead.

John Robertson
Homepage: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/amazonuk-pay-corporation-tax-in-the-uk