Editorial Welcome to the first issue of Scottish Anarchist. We hope you will enjoy it. Scottish Anarchist is the journal of the Scottish Federation of Anarchists (the SFA). The SFA unites anarchists, libertarian socialists and autonomous revolutionaries across this fair nation. It does this for the express aim of increasing the influence of anarchist ideas and ideals in the class struggle. So what can the SFA do for you? Exactly what the name suggests. We do not see ourselves as a new set of leaders. We do not want you to follow us. We want you to think for yourself, feel for yourself, act for yourself. These ideas may come across as strange, even -unusual? Too long have the twin evils of labourism and its "radical" wean Bolshevism dominated working class political life. Both are idealogies, seeking new sheep for old shepherds. Both want to be -our leaders. Let us, however, fight them and their arrogance. Let us -arrange ourselvesDD. Some day our laughter with be stronger than the voices they strangle today. We aim to make that day arrive sooner, not later. But this does not mean we do not want to win hearts and minds. Far from it. We in the SFA want to encourage, support and the spirit of revolt, the class struggle. We want to be free, but we can only be truly free in a free world. To get that we need you! But the first step lies with you. Its YOUR life. Scottish anarchist and the SFA aim to help us to dream again, to fight again, to hope again by providing forums through which we can discuss, talk, think and ACT. By organising and resisting we can build the new world in the shell of the old. This magazine will, hopefully, aid this process. Scottish Anarchist aims to bring a unique viewpoint to all issues; events in the class war, like Timex or the struggle against the criminal justice bill; current trends in capital, the state, technology, politics; anarchist and working class history, both in Scotland and elsewhere on the planet; to name just a few. But why a unique viewpoint? Because it is revolutionary, something rare in the state capitalist dominated left. We aim to be an innovative and, more importantly, an interesting read. Too long have socialist ideas been written in the lyrics of the past. For some time stopped in 1917. But we do not aim to force reality into or to place ourselves upon the procustian bed of idealogy nor experience the dreams of those who do and watch them turn into the nightmare of state capitalism. We must and will sing anew and write the songs of the new world we carry in our hearts in a new language, the language of -tomorrow. And this tomorrow? Anarchy, a free society of free and equal individuals, who have liberated themselves from the authority and existence of state, capital and church and who control their own fates. Such is our aim, our vision. A vision that inspires our actions today, for anarchism is not a thing of the future, but of the present. It is not a matter of "demands", but of living. Something we can forget while surviving under capitalism. enjoy Iain MacSaorsa "Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice Socialism without Freedom is slavery and brutality" - Michael Bakunin Needless to say, we will welcome articles, letters, graphics, whatever, from any source. Send letters, articles to :- Scottish Anarchist c/o Glasgow Anarchist Group PO Box 1008 Glasgow G42 8AA