Preparing for the clampdown?

bristol | media and culture | news report Wednesday February 02, 2005 23:05 by Bristle Collective

"Our ability to prevent a terrorist attack depends on draconian laws and authoritarian government. How well we control you depends on you." Excerpt from 'Preparing for a police state - what we think you need to know', Bristle mag issue 18, page 18. A spoof of HM Govt's 'Preparing for Emergencies' pamphlet.

That was written last year, and is part of the Bristle no.18 special feature on 'Social Control in the UK'. Since then things have got worse with absurd new proposals for 'control orders' & 'house arrest', all without trial - measures which one Home Office minister has suggested could be used against animal rights protesters, indeed any protester, anyone who steps out of line and shows dissents.

For 1984 read 2004 (and 2005), George Orwell was out by 20 years. And you thought things were bad under Thatcher during the miners strike? Well we're not paranoid, just angry, concerned, and watching the rising tides, and Bristle is a product of that.

Bristol & the south west's longest running, irregular, independent alternative mag is back again. 40 steaming pages of news, reports, comment, interviews, reviews, graphics and contact info - from an anti-capitalist perspective.

The above mentioned 'special' includes articles on ASBO's, ID cards, independent residents associations, plus the spoof, and a look at what anti-social behaviour really is.

Other articles include: property developers, Zona Marginal (Colombian hip-hopsters), Queer mutiny, anti-war, animal rights, hunt sabs, Palestine, the G8 (of course!), self-builders in St Werburghs, peak oil, outdoor advertising...and more.

This is not just a sales plug tho! Bristle is produced by a small voluntary collective of people aiming to spread an alternative message to the major media corporations pro-big business propaganda. Bristlers are also involved in a variety of other campaigns, and this is reflected in the content. However we are always on the look out for articles/graphics/photos and help & involvement generally, and we rather hope that some of you may be interested in getting stuck into helping us write/produce/distribute the mag.

Does another campaign you are involved in have an action to report or comment to make? Would you take 5 or 10 copies to sell onto your friends or get your local friendly cafe/shop or bar to sell? Do you have the ability & time to layout pages (in quark)? Or draw cartoons? How about taking an 'out now' poster to stick up at work/college/bar etc - there are some at Kebele. If you are interested then contact us.

There will be an informal introductory meeting about Bristle in late February, get in touch
if you are interested, and help us eradicate glaring typos (like the one on the front page!).

Enjoy!

Please send articles etc to editors@bristle.org.uk
For subs & the introductory meet email bristlemag@yahoo.co.uk
See also www.bristle.org.uk (being updated this week).
You can get Bristle from a host of shops/cafes/bars, as well as from Kebele and Greenleaf Books.