Hunt Sab
Recently, some of us at Now or Never! were saddened to learn of the death of an old friend from our animal rights days.  Speaking to comrades from long ago times at her funeral reminded us of just how relevant hunt sabbing still is to challenging blood sports and encourage you to find out more and look into contacting your local hunt sab group

In more uplifting news, we've been dazzled and impressed by Oswald Repents; a local website for local people, focused on issues in the Bawdewsell area. Covering topics truly relevant to local people, like the parish football club, social events, the need for volunteers at the village hall, but with a radical commentary throughout , it's an example of a really excellent grass-root anarchist enterprise. It's not often you see a quote by Buenaventura Durruti next to a report on a Tractor Run to raise money for a village hall! It bought to mind another favourite local website of ours, Bedford Bypass who also mix local issues and anarchist politics in an accessible and engaging manner. If only anarchists in every village, town and city were engaging and participating in local issues in this way. If only we at Now or Never! weren't too busy drinking our own urine , watching zombie porn and making prison hooch to do something worthwhile. If only, if only....



 
 

Starbucks get a roasting in this interview, which originally appeared in issue 11 of  Now or Never!


Since 2004, the managers at Starbucks stores across America have been trembling in the workplace, for the infamous revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) has been organising with workers and fighting for a better wage and a better world. Daniel Gross, who has been with the Starbucks Workers Union from the beginning, was kind enough to grant Youth Section an interview.


IWW Starbucks Union
Now or Never!: Briefly, can you explain who you are and your history within Starbucks?

Daniel Gross: I’m a worker and a Wobbly.  I got started in corporate retail at Borders Books and Music. In 2003, I began working as a barista at Starbucks in New York City.  The IWW Starbucks Workers Union [www.StarbucksUnion.org] was founded on May 17, 2004.  In the summer of 2006, Starbucks fired me in retaliation for union activity and I’m currently fighting for my job back along with five other wrongfully discharged IWW baristas.

NoN!: Why did you feel you needed to unionise?

DG: First, there’s bread and butter.  6, 7, or 8 dollars an hour is a poverty wage and disgraceful from a $23 billion company showing record profits quarter after quarter.  Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, already a billionaire, took in over $102 million in compensation last year while baristas hover at or below the poverty line.  Many Starbucks workers depend on government benefits to survive. 


 
 
The Cunningham Amendment
We were, as ever, delighted when the latest issue of The Cunningham Amendment hit our doormat. Hand letter pressed on salvaged  antique machinery by the dashing Dr Peter Good, each issue is a thing of beauty - crammed full of little gems to delight and enthrall.  It's restricted circulation means those understood to be "Anarcrisps" do get priority, but if you wish to acquire yourself a copy sending your details with a donation of cash or stamps to TCA, Room 6, Tangleford House, The Street, Bawdeswell, Norfolk, NR20 4RT should get results. Just proves that when anarchists aren't banging on about the Spanish Civil War or drinking our own piss, we're also capable of making the world a little bit more pretty too.

 
 
The following originally appeared in issue 8 of Now or Never! , which you can buy in our back issues section

Detention centre
A first hand account of a Serbian illegal immigrant inside Basel, the Swiss deportation prison

First I would like to say that I didn’t experience any kind of torture from the police in Basel. They arrested me in a lawful manner (on the basis of accusations from one of their citizens that I threatened him in order to obtain money). The only abuse of position by the police was when they pressurised me to sign a form (which would allow a court to make a judgment on my case without my attendance in court). I refused to sign it. During 7 lonely days of custody I took the opportunity to rest from the hard travelling conditions I had encountered crossing the border.  The Cell was more than 15 square metres, with a radio and 72 TV channels and a free shaving kit …in Serbia it would be unbelievable, but I’ll write about Serbian custody another time.  I was only disturbed by prison guards calling me to exercise and by another one who brought us food (he tried to keep/steal cake from me during the weekend; idiot). Swiss people have high living standards but they’ll take any opportunity for more money.  They are taught to think so.


 
 
A very quick post to point out that, if you haven't noticed, the site's had a bit of an overhaul and we now have some new regular blogs - Rice Serbic will be commenting on politics and current affairs, Tug Wilson will mainly be regaling you tales of rancid films, Charlie Cody will be discussing all things artistic and Paul Knight will be enthralling you with celebrity bullshit. In between having nervous breakdowns whilst pulling the new site together, we've managed to scrape together a new issue of the magazine - yes, Now or Never! issue 21 is hot of the presses and it's a corker. And we've finally entered the modern world and made it possible for you to buy digital copies of the latest issue. Not only that but we're updating our audio files collection for those of you who want to listen to our bullshit. We have new books for sale in our shop,  plenty of new articles for you to enjoy and we've put some of our more popular regular columns online including History in a Nutshell, Old Whinger's Corner, the first few installments of Harry K's brilliant Bible Reviews and Rick's Rants .

 
 
Regular contributor Sidney Street Porter's thoughts on the 2011 Dale Farm Eviction, the prejudice Roma people face and that TV show....

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
My mother never said “I never should play with the gypsies down in the wood”, she was quite open-minded like that; unlike some of the other mothers about who'd tell their kids not to do so, in keeping with that quaint, bigotry-enforcing nursery rhyme of old. Mistrust of gypsies and travellers by insular, parochial society stretches back centuries, through Prosper Merimee’s Carmen, turned into a famous opera by Bizet, past the not very politically correct Enid Blyton character Gipsy Jo, through Nazi elimination in concentration camps, to the gypsies, tramps and thieves of popular pop ballads and jokes by lazy middle of the road hacks like Peter Kay and Jimmy Carr. Isn't it about time that we overcame this fear of the not that particularly unknown?
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Issue 21 of Now or Never!
Issue 21 of Now or Never! is now available in our shop and features all sorts of rancidity, such  as surviving Poundland; bizarre films; fashion, Nazis and the occult; BOY London; the end of the world (religious AND atheist); how to bury your friends and much more, including regular columns Rick's Rants, History in a Nutshell, Dead in the Scene and Old Whinger's Corner. We've finally entered the modern world and you can now download a digital copy of the latest issue too if that floats your boat.

In other news we're adding audio versions of our most popular articles to the site. So if you're blind/partially sighted and have a fetish for piss drinking you've come to the right place.

We've got lots of changes to the site in the pipeline, and will be focusing more on web-based content in the coming weeks and months, so watch this space....

 
 
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Now or Never! #21 is well on the way,  but if you can't wait till May and  fancy a sneak peek why not check out Leave the Boy Alone, our interview with Rhys Dawney about LONG clothing and their infamous club nights, Rihanna and relaunching iconic clothing label BOY London. First Chris Brown and now this - we're like the new Heat magazine, but with less piss drinking.

 
 
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Who needs chocolates and roses?
Oh joy - it's that time again, the next issue of Now or Never! is well under way ready for it's traditional May Day unveiling. In the meantime we've got a few new bits and bobs for sale, check out our postcards and keep an eye on the shop as we'll be adding new stuff over the coming weeks. We've also got some new articles online, including Paul Knight's thoughts on Valentines Day.  Hopefully they'll be some exciting (depending on how you define "exciting") new developments in the near future, including, amongst other things, us finally pulling our fingers out and making available audio files of articles for the blind/partially sighted and we'll be gingerly dipping our toes into the murky waters of  e-publishing. Which frankly has us all in a state of utter confusion, so anyone wise in the ways of them there e-books, do get in touch.
 
In  more interesting news,  Kevin Seccia has offered $1000 to anyone who beats up Chris Brown . We're not one to usually dabble in celebrity business, but would like to offer a life-time subscription to Now or Never! for whoever can make this happen. Not exactly $1000 but hey, if you've twatted Chris Brown, surely  anything else is a bonus.

We've also being having much fun checking out the Google Analytics  Google Anayltics log of terms people use to find this site. There's a shocking amount of traffic through piss drinking, which must be seriously disappointing for the deviant little bleeders when they click, kleenex in hot little hands, on the results. But we must have proved even more of a letdown to whoever asked "why are enemas popular on valentines day?" on the 15th of Febuary. Guess we know what their partner got them....

 
 
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So this is horribly hypocritical, given that we accept Paypal on this site (although hopefully not for much longer), but this story is worthy of attention. Recently members of the Regretsy website raised money to help give 200 families who are struggling financially a boost this Christmas. However, as Paypal took issue with the button that the site used to raise the money (as Paypal exlained "You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people") they responded in the most ridiculous way, freezing the personal account of the site owner  April Winchell , and refunding, in $2 increments a large amount of the donations...whilst keeping the fees for their fat greedy selves. And it's not the first time they've behaved like utter utter cocks when faced with the prospect of someone trying to make the world a slightly nicer place.