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barry_x's review
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
What fun this was! Both a good laugh, a bit of a history lesson and the opportunity to reminisce and also reflect upon my youth. 'Bash the Rich' is the autobiography of Ian Bone, once dubbed Britain's Most Dangerous man. However, the book only covers Ian's life up to 1985. Originally published in 2006 I think it has recently been republished so I definitely wanted to pick up a copy (albeit for some personal reasons too). The book is as much the early history of Class War, the paper Ian founded, which then became a loose organisation of working class anarchists, and unlike other anarchist groups, certainly in the 80s and 90s were a household name (to a degree anyway).
For full disclosure, in the mid-late 90s I was involved with Class War, indeed there was a branch in my home town with a contact address in the paper (please note reader, at virtually every moment this branch was me). I met some amazing people, had a great laugh and Class War was an important part of my politics, particularly it's focus on working class activism, and speaking in the language of people like me.
Like many on the left I had fallen in with Marxist- Leninist organisations in my teens but I always felt they didn't speak to people like me. I bought a Class War paper at a youth Marxist conference, and rather than keeping the red flag flying, instead they advocated the hospitalisation of coppers! It was marketed as 'Britain's Most Unruly Tabloid' and though it got shit from the serious left / anarchos it was true that it cut through in ways other papers differed.
The people I met in Class War were almost all working class, they were the kids of the pit villages, they were the kids whose parents never had jobs, they were the radicalised by Thatcher generation - not a teacher or social worker anywhere!
I met Ian a few times, mostly when he was rabble rousing with Movement Against the Monarchy and I never did pay him £10 for copies of his novellette 'Anarchist'. He is a brilliant orator, a good laugh and spiky as fuck. He could get you up for it, and was great with the media. I remember him doing an interview with Sky News but he wouldn't say shit until the media had bought a couple of drinks for everyone in the little demo on their expenses. In many ways a precursor to how people today are suss with the media, but hopefully getting the drinks paid for too!
The book covers Ian's early life, his politics, his loves and his family. What I like about it is that he is not afraid to share the inconsistencies or contradictions in his politics. That doesn't mean he is apologetic but it is refreshing to see. It covers his activism but then moves onto the early history of Class War. I was still at primary school when a lot of the events were happening but I knew the folklore of them. What surprised me reading the book were sections where I thought, 'I've read this' and of course I hadn't- I'd just remembered the story, perhaps told in a boozy reminiscence, maybe by the raconteur Ian himself!
Seeing as most of the people mentioned, many I assume under nom de plume to protect the, well, maybe innocent, there were still a few people about who I knew in the 90s. This made me reflect upon my own activism, how at times when life got hard I was flaky or couldn't meet the expectations of others but I guess burnout is a problem most activists face.
I also had a laugh at characters who dismiss everything they don't like as 'middle class'. There were definitely some of them about, including some right knobheads who both at the time and now I think did stuff which was against ordinary people rather than against the state.
The book is full of riots, rucking with the cops and laughing at the anarchist / left milleu, although at times it needs a good editor!
What is interesting looking back is that Class War did break into the public consciousness. It did cut through (albeit a little) to working class people who wouldn't normally engage with anarchism. It was an alternative to the 'march from a to b and call on Labour to do something'. It may have been futile smashing a window, but it felt like 'something' was happening. However, at no point was Class War ever remotely close to starting a revolution. It was a release, an expression of anger at best and the opportunity to form bonds. It's the only anarchist paper that you could leave in a working class pub and may be read.
And yet it burnt out for me. I remember being at a Class War conference in a squatted library and someone Ian found from Oxford was arguing about how best to fight tanks in Hungary 1956. I mean, for me, a lad who lived on a council estate, on the dole what the fuck did that mean to me? Having enough food to eat was more important than bombing a tank. Mentally I checked out that day thinking Lord Snooty as we called him is dominating Class War meetings with this bollocks. I think he stood as a prospective MP once for Class War. It was also around the time of a split in Class War between Real Class War and Provisional Class War which definitely mimicked the language of things going on with Irish Republicanism - farcical really.
So looking back, some of the accusations were valid. It was a 'boys punch up club' and whilst no one wanted to get nicked, most activism centred on going to demos and kicking off. There was an absence of community activism at times (not exclusively, particularly in South Yorkshire they were switched on). At times it was exciting, daring, and a glamourisation of avoiding being lifted / winding up cops. Yet as Ian mentions throughout the book this appeal to working class demagogue activism wouldn't survive an intersectional analysis today. In some respects this is the books most interesting observation - elements of Class War were never politically correct, though that is not to say race, gender and sexuality were not discussed. At times positions advocated seem ridiculous now but the book is a product of its time.
Ian Bone last made the headlines protesting outside the right wing Christian MP Jacob Rees-Mogg's house and targeting his kids, when Mogg brought his kids out. Bone was criticised heavily for this in the press but I smiled. It's classic Ian Bone - the advocate of the spectacle, saying things that aren't said on TV. His Situationist influence loud and proud
If I met Ian again I'd buy him a few pints, laugh at his stories and be grateful that Class War landed for me at a time when the left spoke to everyone except the council estate kid I was.
Behold Your Future Executioners!
For full disclosure, in the mid-late 90s I was involved with Class War, indeed there was a branch in my home town with a contact address in the paper (please note reader, at virtually every moment this branch was me). I met some amazing people, had a great laugh and Class War was an important part of my politics, particularly it's focus on working class activism, and speaking in the language of people like me.
Like many on the left I had fallen in with Marxist- Leninist organisations in my teens but I always felt they didn't speak to people like me. I bought a Class War paper at a youth Marxist conference, and rather than keeping the red flag flying, instead they advocated the hospitalisation of coppers! It was marketed as 'Britain's Most Unruly Tabloid' and though it got shit from the serious left / anarchos it was true that it cut through in ways other papers differed.
The people I met in Class War were almost all working class, they were the kids of the pit villages, they were the kids whose parents never had jobs, they were the radicalised by Thatcher generation - not a teacher or social worker anywhere!
I met Ian a few times, mostly when he was rabble rousing with Movement Against the Monarchy and I never did pay him £10 for copies of his novellette 'Anarchist'. He is a brilliant orator, a good laugh and spiky as fuck. He could get you up for it, and was great with the media. I remember him doing an interview with Sky News but he wouldn't say shit until the media had bought a couple of drinks for everyone in the little demo on their expenses. In many ways a precursor to how people today are suss with the media, but hopefully getting the drinks paid for too!
The book covers Ian's early life, his politics, his loves and his family. What I like about it is that he is not afraid to share the inconsistencies or contradictions in his politics. That doesn't mean he is apologetic but it is refreshing to see. It covers his activism but then moves onto the early history of Class War. I was still at primary school when a lot of the events were happening but I knew the folklore of them. What surprised me reading the book were sections where I thought, 'I've read this' and of course I hadn't- I'd just remembered the story, perhaps told in a boozy reminiscence, maybe by the raconteur Ian himself!
Seeing as most of the people mentioned, many I assume under nom de plume to protect the, well, maybe innocent, there were still a few people about who I knew in the 90s. This made me reflect upon my own activism, how at times when life got hard I was flaky or couldn't meet the expectations of others but I guess burnout is a problem most activists face.
I also had a laugh at characters who dismiss everything they don't like as 'middle class'. There were definitely some of them about, including some right knobheads who both at the time and now I think did stuff which was against ordinary people rather than against the state.
The book is full of riots, rucking with the cops and laughing at the anarchist / left milleu, although at times it needs a good editor!
What is interesting looking back is that Class War did break into the public consciousness. It did cut through (albeit a little) to working class people who wouldn't normally engage with anarchism. It was an alternative to the 'march from a to b and call on Labour to do something'. It may have been futile smashing a window, but it felt like 'something' was happening. However, at no point was Class War ever remotely close to starting a revolution. It was a release, an expression of anger at best and the opportunity to form bonds. It's the only anarchist paper that you could leave in a working class pub and may be read.
And yet it burnt out for me. I remember being at a Class War conference in a squatted library and someone Ian found from Oxford was arguing about how best to fight tanks in Hungary 1956. I mean, for me, a lad who lived on a council estate, on the dole what the fuck did that mean to me? Having enough food to eat was more important than bombing a tank. Mentally I checked out that day thinking Lord Snooty as we called him is dominating Class War meetings with this bollocks. I think he stood as a prospective MP once for Class War. It was also around the time of a split in Class War between Real Class War and Provisional Class War which definitely mimicked the language of things going on with Irish Republicanism - farcical really.
So looking back, some of the accusations were valid. It was a 'boys punch up club' and whilst no one wanted to get nicked, most activism centred on going to demos and kicking off. There was an absence of community activism at times (not exclusively, particularly in South Yorkshire they were switched on). At times it was exciting, daring, and a glamourisation of avoiding being lifted / winding up cops. Yet as Ian mentions throughout the book this appeal to working class demagogue activism wouldn't survive an intersectional analysis today. In some respects this is the books most interesting observation - elements of Class War were never politically correct, though that is not to say race, gender and sexuality were not discussed. At times positions advocated seem ridiculous now but the book is a product of its time.
Ian Bone last made the headlines protesting outside the right wing Christian MP Jacob Rees-Mogg's house and targeting his kids, when Mogg brought his kids out. Bone was criticised heavily for this in the press but I smiled. It's classic Ian Bone - the advocate of the spectacle, saying things that aren't said on TV. His Situationist influence loud and proud
If I met Ian again I'd buy him a few pints, laugh at his stories and be grateful that Class War landed for me at a time when the left spoke to everyone except the council estate kid I was.
Behold Your Future Executioners!
palgolak's review
4.0
What this book has:
1) A vivid description of how Class War broke out of the self-imposed ghetto of British Anarchism and left the stilted, theory-laden pamphlets of the left in the dust with its tabloid wit, aggressive imagery and confrontational rhetoric.
2) Some great passages about getting drunk and smashing windows.
3) A frustratingly realistic depiction of the factionalism and infighting that plagues all leftist movements.
4) A lot of swearing.
What this book doesn't have:
1) Much description of Bone's actual politics (although there are some great sections with further reading which hint at the shape of his ethos).
2) A satisfying ending- the book gets to Class War's height in 1985 and then abruptly stops with no further explanation of what happened to any of the key figures.
1) A vivid description of how Class War broke out of the self-imposed ghetto of British Anarchism and left the stilted, theory-laden pamphlets of the left in the dust with its tabloid wit, aggressive imagery and confrontational rhetoric.
2) Some great passages about getting drunk and smashing windows.
3) A frustratingly realistic depiction of the factionalism and infighting that plagues all leftist movements.
4) A lot of swearing.
What this book doesn't have:
1) Much description of Bone's actual politics (although there are some great sections with further reading which hint at the shape of his ethos).
2) A satisfying ending- the book gets to Class War's height in 1985 and then abruptly stops with no further explanation of what happened to any of the key figures.
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