Creepy Crawling

This is the text for this song that was ommitted from the North American version of the "Tubthumper" CD:

Wake up at 4am to find your front door kicked in and the television gone. Creeps steal from those who can least afford it.

"This is a working class area. Don't steal from your own!" --From sticker, 1995

"Inequality is the source of all revolutions; no compensation can make up for inequality." --Aristotle, Politics

"Crime is as endemic to modern capitalism as pollution is to industrialism." --Class War, from 'No Justice, Just Us'

"Those who want social justice for all are by necessity anti-police. If we accept that the state is motivated by its own self-interest, rather than by the population's desires and needs, then we must also accept that the arm of the state, the police, is there to protect the state's interests rather than those of the population. But in attempting to push police interference out of our lives and communities, we have to also address the issue of anti-social crime. Corporate crime is rarely classed as anti-social crime because the rich criminals who steal millions, take enormous bribes and live in luxury off the backs of the working class, put a civilised veneer on their actions by never having to associate with the people they are ripping off. Anti-social crime, muggings and burglaries are at their most concentrated in poverty-stricken working class communities. We steal from each other because it's easier pickings than confronting real enemies. The rich can afford to protect themselves and their homes from mugging and burglary. Private security firms, expensive alarm systems, fences and private roads make the rich invulnerable to attack, so we steal from each other, justifying it with excuses about survival of the fittest and Thatcherite 'I'm alright Jack' logic. Crime has become a livelihood and a source of conflict in working class communities. Insider stealing from the most vulnerable has to be condemned by the community as a whole. Crime which attacks the interests of capitalist enterprise isn't a problem, since the enterprise culture is the biggest scam of all. Crime which erodes our sense of community (and as a consequence our ability to organise in groups) and leaves us distrustful of our neighbours has to be dealt with by the community. Anti-social crime shouldn't be seen as something that individual victims are left to deal with. Community spirit is the force that allows us to survive and fight back against capitalism's catastrophic influence on our day to day reality. The striking dockers can continue to fight because they are bolstered by the support of the whole community. Whether it's burglary, violence or the competitiveness of ripping off our neighbours... those tearing neighbourhoods apart have to be ostracised. In recent years frustrated estate dwellers, in communities like Salford, have tried to deal with the expansion of anti-social crime - not by calling out the police but by taking responsibility for their own communities. Not in distrustful vigilante style, but with the interests of the community at heart. The dog-eat-dog ethos of capitalism is sneaking into our homes and making off with our televisions and videos. Those who can least afford it are again bearing the strain." --Class War 1997

"A society gets all the criminals it deserves" --Emma Goldman

"Do not waste your time on social questions. What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness." --George Bernard Shaw

'Let's see. I tell you what we'll do. We'll have a vote. We'll sleep in area A, is that cool?' - 'Okay, good.' - 'We'll eat in area B. Good?' - 'Good.' - 'We'll throw a crap in area C. Good?' - 'Good.' Simple rules. So, everything went along pretty cool, you know, everybody's very happy. One night everybody was sleeping, one guy woke up, Pow! He got a faceful of crap, and he said: 'Hey, what's the deal here, I thought we had a rule: Eat, Sleep, and Crap, and I was sleeping and I got a faceful of crap...' So they said, 'Well, ah, the rule was substantive -' --Lenny Bruce