The Three R's Pt. 01

He checked his watch. He had a couple of hours before curfew, plenty of time to get the things he needed and get back. There was no point running the risk of getting arrested, even though around the college area, the MCF seemed to be a bit less bothered about enforcement and the college staff didn't seem too worried either.

The supermarket was about half a mile away. It was only a ten minute walk but Jack had to watch out for "women only" and "no unaccompanied males" street signs. It took a bit longer than it should have done as a new stretch of road had been designated "women only".

When he got there, as usual, there was a queue. They only let so many unaccompanied men in at one time. Jack imagined it was because they were worried in case there was going to be mass raid on the bread or the washing powder. Given how little spare cash most men had, he supposed that shop-lifting could be a legitimate concern but even then there ought to be an easier solution, especially since -- Jack reckoned -- a good fifty percent of those in the queue were men that had been sent out shopping by their womenfolk. He stood with the other men waiting, shuffling forward every few minutes as another man emerged from the store. It was hard not to scowl at the women that just strode by, entering as they pleased.

Eventually, he got inside.

The place was a microcosm of life of national life under New Order, Jack thought as he browsed the shelves. Towards the back of the store, the manager was talking with two of her staff, women naturally, all smartly dressed, engaged in some sort of discussion about how the stock should be displayed and whether they thought Jim or Terry was reliable enough to do something complicated like finding the right stuff in the store room. They took no notice as a young man in a jacket branded with the store's logo and carrying a cleaning bucket and mop edged by. Other men, and it was exclusively men, were at their checkouts, all wearing the same uniform jackets; all apparently happy to have some sort of paid work. Jack looked at them feeling depressed. Unless he managed to sort out his work placement for college he could see himself ending up doing something similar.

Jack picked up his basic needs, putting the items in his basket. It was just as well he wasn't hoping to buy alcohol; that was in a "no unaccompanied men" aisle. It wasn't that men couldn't buy alcohol, it was just that it was usually somewhere they couldn't go. It was exactly this sort of petty restriction that Jack was finding himself increasingly annoyed with.

There were a few women shopping as well. A couple were on their own. One scowled at Jack as though he had no right to be there. A couple had men with them, pushing the shopping trolleys and picking things off the shelves as they were asked.

He ended up with half a dozen things in his basket. There were only two checkouts for unaccompanied men and there was quite a queue but the store certainly didn't trust men to use the self-scan checkouts. Jack could only wait until a glum checkout operator was available to serve him. As he reached the head of the queue the operator was suddenly called away by the manager. She was standing talking to a woman customer. After some waving of hands, Jack's checkout operator scurried off to the back of the store and returned to the woman clutching a box that she obviously hadn't been able to find for herself. Scowling the checkout operator returned to his seat to scan and bag jack's few items. Jack didn't even get the obligatory and insincere, 'have a nice day' that was accorded women customers.

It was a dispiriting experience but at least he had his supplies. He was aiming to spend the evening in his room, studying. That way he would have time free on the following day to go down to the Fitzroy Square demo. If CRMRE, whoever they were, could make his shopping trips a bit easier that would be a result on its own.

Chapter 9: Fitzroy Square

Jack felt nervous as he headed north from Tottenham Court Road underground station. It was a sunny day. The streets were quiet but there was a slowly growing group of men heading in the same direction that he was. There were police officers too, watching suspiciously. He still felty angry about the rejection letter to his work placement though. That had given him another reason to go along to the demo.

He'd suggested that he and Ashran should go together but Ash had said he had other things to do. Jack wasn't sure if that was strictly true. He'd asked Ash about whether he'd managed to sort out a placement for work experience yet but he seemed to be having the same trouble as Jack.

The Post Office Tower signposted his route. Jack peered up at it, half wondering how long it would be until someone decided that it needed an SAID device of massive proportions.

Finding Fitzroy Square was easy enough. A group of perhaps fifty or so men were gathered together in one corner of the square around a ramshackle dais set up from some wooden pallets and crates. A few had raised placards calling for the restoration of male rights and an end to anti-male legislation. There was some chanting and cheering whenever it looked as though the meeting was going to start. Every so often their was an ear-splitting, electronic howl of feedback from an inefficient PA system as the organisers tried to get it ready.

Jack made his way over to the group, passing a couple of Male Control Force officers. The red epaulettes on their shoulders indicated they were with the public order division -- 'red flaps' they were called by those that didn't subscribe to their ideas of keeping public order. He couldn't tell if they were naturally thick-set in build or if their body armour just made them look that way. He wasn't going to stare too hard, though; they might reckon that didn't fit with the Respect Agenda. Even so, he could see that they both wore an expression that said, "If anything kicks off here, we're really going to enjoy ourselves."

Jack found himself wondering about how legal the rally was. The MCF officers didn't seem like they were about to start busting heads, so he guessed he was OK for a while at least. A voice crackled over the PA system calling for order from the dais in the middle of the crowd. Jack pushed his way towards him. "Welcome everybody," the voice went on. "I'd like to introduce our speaker, "Spencer Hames."

A tall, gangly looking man about Jack's own age, dressed in a thick duffel coat over a denim shirt and jeans, stepped up to the microphone. He looked around the crowd waiting for them to quieten down. He tapped the microphone to make sure it was working and sent another howl of feedback across the crowd.

"I'm not going to say anything against the government," Spencer Hames began. "But I will say some things about how men have reacted to the rules they've handed down. We've been too quick to say, 'Yes Ma'am' and too slow to say 'Hold on, will this really improve things?'. We've been too ready to accept the way that men are portrayed by some zealots as helpless victims of their own sexual drives, incapable of making a rational decision."

The men in the group were listening attentively. The two MCF officers didn't look like they were going to try to stop the speech. In fact, they looked as though they were bored by the whole thing.

"It's clear that we need to push back when confronted with unfair assumptions about what men are and how they can and should behave. It's time to resist, reject and reverse. If we are enslaved by the rules we only have ourselves to blame."

That got a cheer from the crowd but Jack wasn't sure about the last statement. After all, it was pretty difficult to get around some of the regulations, especially all the financial stuff that the banks had seemed only too happy to put in place.

"What we're saying is that its the job of everyone of you to make sure that arbitrary rules are challenged. Pass on the message; resist reject and reverse. Let the women in your life see that you think there's another way, a better way, a more inclusive way. Show them that MDDM is a myth of their own making. Show them that Sexually-driven Attention Inadequacy Disorder is about as real as the idea that women couldn't hold down a job because of their menstrual cycle. Start organising and stop victimising yourselves!"

"He doesn't hold back, does he?" Jack remarked as much to himself as to the person standing next to him.

"No, he doesn't."

Jack was startled by the reply. It was a woman's voice. He looked around and saw a girl in her twenties, in a battered khaki parka, grinning at him from under a shaggy urchin hair cut. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Jack was surprised to see a woman there. "Are you checking out the opposition?"

"No, not really. He's a friend of mine. I'm studying politics. It seemed a good opportunity to see how a view contrary to the mainstream would go down."

"There's a lot of people nodding and cheering. Even so -- and I might be being cynical -- it seems to me like most of them will be sliding to the back of the queue if anyone suggests that they actually do anything."

"Do you include yourself in that?"

"Fair question. I suppose the truthful answer is, I don't know. What I do know is that it's going to be pretty impossible to get a job that will use my qualifications when I finished studying. Or am I not supposed to want more than to be the toy of some predatory woman?"

"I think that's the general idea. You sound like that's not an attractive option from your viewpoint. What are you studying, anyway?"

"Electronic engineering at University College. You'd have thought that was a gender politics-free world but it seems not."

"I don't think anywhere is right now. Still you'd think any girl would be glad to know an electronic engineer. Handy to have someone to fix your vibrator."

Jack grimaced, slightly shocked by the girl's frankness.

The speaker went on. "The curfew is based on unfounded assumptions of the risks that men pose. They even apply it to FORCELS who can hardly pose a threat! Segregation on public transport achieves nothing except shielding women from confronting the injustices of the New Order regime. Protest the curfew! Defy segregation orders! Reclaim the streets!"

Jack looked back at the two policewomen. "Those MCF officers don't seem bothered by this. You'd have thought they'd be trying to stop him."

"I think they're working on the basis that it doesn't matter much what he says if nobody takes any notice of it and if they do, they'll arrest anyone that does anything. It's easy enough to get a conviction for curfew breaking or ignoring a women-only street sign. It's a bit harder to prosecute someone for what? Sedition?"

"Is that the sort of thing they teach you in your politics classes -- the laws are all equal but enforcement can be variable."

"That sort of thing. Spence gets a bit cross about it, but it's how things are."

A round of applause from the audience attracted Jack's attention back to the podium. It became clear he'd missed the parts of the speech and Spencer had finished talking.

"Hmm," he said to the girl, "it seems like I don't have a good enough attention span to be radicalised."

"S.A.I.D, New Order would call it. You get a chance to talk to an attractive woman and your political aspirations dissolve like mist in the sun." She laughed at Jack's grimace. Sexually-driven Attention Inadequacy Disorder was just New Order psycho-babble as far as Jack was concerned, but it was true that she had distracted him. "Why don't you come and talk to Spence?" she suggested.

The girl headed off towards the platform. Jack followed on behind. The crowd was dispersing already, some of them clutching leaflets being handed out by some of the organising team. The MCF officers were looking half disappointed that the meeting seemed to be breaking up without needing their encouragement.

"Good crowd, Spence," the girl said.

Spencer Hames nodded. "Yeah, not a bad turnout. Let's hope they took some of it on board. Who's this, Daisy?"

The girl, Daisy, turned to look at Jack, laughed and shrugged. "I don't have the slightest idea. We were standing next to each other."

Jack put his hand out, "Jack Toven," he said. "I enjoyed the talk."

"I'll apologise for Daisy. She collects people."

"That's OK."

Daisy launched off towards New Cavendish Street. "Let's go get a coffee. I can be your 'accompanying woman' if you like." Although Daisy was making light of the regulations, there were many places where men were only allowed inside with a woman to take responsibility for their good behaviour, places that were out of bounds to men on their own.

The two men tagged along behind.

"How do you see things changing?" Jack asked.

"Only if men want them to. Too many have found New Order a rather comfortable world. They don't have to make decisions. They've lost freedoms but it's very easy just to sit back and accept it."

"So, it's about waking men up to the possibility of change? But what do you think they should actually DO? You'll forgive me if I say I thought there wasn't really a call to action."

"Yeah, deliberately. Those MCF officers would have loved the excuse to move in and start busting heads."

Jack had to admit Spencer was probably right in that judgement.

"No, what I'm trying to do is to get men to use their own initiative. I open their eyes to the need for resistance. How they do it is up to them."

"So what's the next step for CRMRE?"

"I'm not sure, It's really only me and a couple of mates. We were waiting to see what reaction we got to the rally before we thought about that."

Jack felt Spencer's approach was far too passive. He could see the benefits of avoiding confrontation with the MCF but surely, he thought, at some point you had to come out and act if anything was going to change.

Chapter 10: Back In The Bar

Jack Toven was in Phil's Place, the bar not far from the university campus. He was expecting to meet Ashran for a drink but his friend was late. The place was empty apart from himself and Phil.

"How was the meeting?" Phil behind the bar asked.

"Yeah, OK. Interesting. In a sort of 'somebody ought to do something but nobody knows the fuck what' sort of way."

"Let me guess, politics students?"

"Well, sort of. It did seem a bit long on theory and a bit short on doing something. I could understand that though. There were a couple of red flaps there to discourage anyone from causing trouble."

"So, nothing kicked off?"

"Nah. The MCF types all looked bored as shit; proper disappointed. They'd rather have been back in the canteen. Still it made me think I should be looking for someone who actually did want to change something."

Phil looked around. The bar was empty apart from Jack. "If you're serious, I'd say that you need to get out of the centre, down the river I would guess. Do you know Mudchute?"

"Down on the Isle of Dogs?"

"Yes."

"That's the sort of place I might look. Try the railway arches in Millwall Park. Hypothetically."

Jack looked at him carefully. He was obviously being serious. "Thanks," he said, slowly, "I might just do that."

Jack sat down with his drink. It was a few minutes later that Ashran arrived. He had Daisy with him. "She was looking for you up at college," he said. "I know it sounds unlikely but I brought her along just in case."

Phil looked startled by the new arrival. It had been a while since any sort of woman had been in -- that's if you didn't count Male Control Force Officers. He didn't know whether it was a good sign or not. Jack wasn't much less startled. He couldn't remember the last time a girl had showed this much interest.

"You disappeared from the rally. I wondered if I'd upset you. Ash was kind enough to help me find you."

Jack shook his head. "No. It all seemed to have come to a conclusion. I couldn't see that anyone was suggesting anything that could actually be done, so I didn't think there was much point in hanging around. Has Spencer decided to try and mobilise some resources then?"

"I don't think so. For him, it's like it's some sort of intellectual exercise rather than an affront to his personal liberty. He's great at sloganising but not so good at encouraging action."

"So, is there anything more to the CRMRE than that 'MANifesto' newsletter and the rally? I was hoping that someone would be interested in getting the government to change they way it's working."

"It's hard to know. CRMRE seems to be mainly students like you and me and Spence. I mean it's not like he runs it or anything. There's been a lot of talk about whether they should produce more leaflets or have more meetings."

Jack grinned. "I don't think the problem is more leaflets or more meetings."

Daisy shrugged. Jack felt that she was as frustrated with Spencer's approach as he was. "Ash, am I being dumb here or is it unreasonable to be expecting some action to try to achieve change."

"Don't ask me, mate, I'm just a simple engineer. What I do know is, if you want the engine to run you have fuel in the tank and you have to press the starter."

"Exactly. Daisy -- Spencer had some good thoughts about Resist, Reject, Reverse. Isn't there something we can do to, well, I don't know, reverse some of the street restrictions or resist the curfew. I mean if a few thousand men turned up after curfew in Parliament Square, they couldn't arrest all of them could they? Isn't there anyone around that wants to actually do something? Daisy, you must have covered some of this stuff on your course. Does that tell us anything?"

Daisy shook her head. "Last week we had a talk from a government adviser on. 'Institutional Resistance to Structural Change in Government'. It was pretty obvious she was talking about the experience of New Order coming to power and how they had isolated any alternative ideas within the civil service. Basically their approach has been to stop those that disagree from coalescing around a common agenda. You see the same in the police and the military, not to mention the banks and industry. Anything that's going to happen is going to come from a groundswell outside of the institutions."

"Exactly, That's what I'm saying. It's going to be some form of action by ordinary people."

"Yes, but when there's a call to action there has to be something behind it; a bigger idea and an objective in sight." Daisy smiled. Jack felt she admired his desire to act for change. She didn't seem to have any answers though. He wasn't even really sure what she thought of the New Order government. Did she think they should be opposed or not? She ran her fingers though her hair as though she might comb out some thoughts. "I'm never really sure what the best ways are to respond to a government with an agenda you don't care for. Most of the protest movements we've studied on my course don't seem to go anywhere much and if there's a common thread between the successful ones then I haven't spotted it yet. The ones that look promising usually end up with a Stalin running them. Do you two want a drink?"

Jack and Ashran didn't need to be asked twice. "Sure," Jack said.

Daisy grabbed three beers from Phil at the bar. Jack and Ashran nodded their thanks.

"Is it so unreasonable to want to change things?" Jack asked.

Daisy took a sip from her drink. "From your side, no. Certainly New Order have used the democratic process to achieve some pretty illiberal outcomes from the male perspective. I guess the Government have a different opinion and, as a woman, seeing what went on before New Order came in I can understand why they've got a pretty solid 50% of the population behind them. The trouble is, I don't see anyone in the other 50% that wants to do more than complain about how things are. You do know that around ten percent of men voted for New Order?"