[tml] SchNEWS 525, INSIDE JOB
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16th December 2005, Issue 525
WAKE UP! WAKE UP! ITS YER FULL OF STOCKING FILLER...
SchNEWS
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INSIDE JOB
PROFITEERING FROM CHEAP LABOUR IN UK PRISON
"In order to obtain this information we are relying on prisoners,
their friends, and families, to let us know what's happening in
the British penal slave shops, to let us know which companies are
contracting the work, what it's nature is, and how much (or rather
how little) prisoners are being paid. The very fact that the
secrecy surrounding prisoner exploitation can be broken, and
prison slavery be put on the agenda, will in itself have an effect
on the Home Office's ability to sell prisoners' labour" - Campaign
Against Prison Slavery.
Spare a thought during this years Consumer Christmas Hellish-day
season for those who won't be pulling a cracker round the family
table. Contrary to popular belief slavery has NOT been abolished
in Britain. Behind high walls and locked doors it still
flourishes. People are being forced to toil in poor conditions,
beyond the reach of health and safety inspectors, denied even the
most basic employment and trade-union rights, and severely
punished if they refuse to work. In British prisons, there exists
a readily exploitable labour force, a Third World colony in
Britain's own backyard, cheap, non-unionised, available, and
literally compelled to work. The prison population now stands at a
record 78,000 and rising. Of those, 10,000 prisoners are put to
work every day.
As Neo-Labour continues to push the prison system towards the kind
of public-private partnership it loves so much, it's no surprise
that some well known companies have got in on this highly
profitable act. Despite all the corporate hogwash about 'Social
Responsibility' and 'Ethical Trading Initiatives', Prison
Enterprises, the part of the prison system which cooks the books
and sets up the contracts is doing business directly, or
indirectly, with ASDA, Sainsbury's and Tesco and Argos among many
others in the usual suspects style line-up. The likes of Wakenhut
and Group 4 are now running whole prisons, the productivity of
whose 'work force' is a vital part of the profit margin.
Of course according to the government and the corporations, it's
all about helping to rehabilitate prisoners and set them on the
straight and narrow. Curiously though, these companies are
reluctant to comment on the exact nature of their contracts. But
according to an inside source from the Scottish Prison Service
(who run in an identical manner to their counterparts in England &
Wales and have a turnover of £3 million a year) "This is
low-skilled 'no braining' work and is of no benefit to the
rehabilitation of the actual individual. I feel sorry for some of
the prisoners as they are offered false hope and are worked like
dogs." A survey conducted at Dovegate Prison (category B male
prison owned by Premier Custodial Services - UK trading name of
Wakenhut...) in August 2002 showed that the work undertaken
consisted of: assembly of TV aerials, packing of balloons,
assembly of lawn aerators, cleaning of aluminium moulded parts for
machinery, packing of household textiles. and the production of
pallets. And for this life-enhancing drudgery, wages were a
maximum of a massive £26.00 a week.
ROGUE TRADERS
According to the Campaign against Prison Slavery (CAPS),"In
British prisons, there have been savage cuts in education budgets
over the past half decade, any pretence at rehabilitating
prisoners and empowering them with trade skills has been
abandoned. If prisoners refuse to work, or are not considered to
be working hard enough, they are punished - placed in solitary
confinement, brutalised, denied visits, having days added to their
sentences. Private companies are making enormous profits from
prison labour, £52.9 Million in 1999, and that figure is growing
rapidly. They use it because it is CHEAP - prisoners may be paid
less than £5 for a week's work - and for prisoners there are no
'sickies', no holidays, no union meetings, no transport problems,
and if there's no work they can simply be locked back in their
cells. Prisoners are treated as the bosses would like to treat all
of us."
Prison slavery is a useful way for companies to outsource all
those labour-intensive, tedious tasks and undermine the rights and
negotiating power of their own work force. Armitage Petcare is a
supplier to ASDA, Sainsbury's and Tesco and uses Lowdham Grange
prison in Nottingham for basic packaging. Sainsbury's used prison
labour to package plastic spoons in HMP Lewes. SchNEWS' contact
(literally) on the inside told us "it's probably best to wash the
spoons before you use them". The Ecologist magazine was using (a
few years ago admittedly) Holloway women's prison as a handy way
of sticking leaflets in their mag - maybe it's no surprise that
editor Zac Goldsmith is now advising the Tories on greenwash.)
Airsprung Beds ltd - suppliers to Argos have been using the
Scottish Prison Service to manufacture divan beds. The employees
of Dysons, the vacuum-cleaner manufacturer, were sacked when
Dysons decided to use cheap non-unionised labour in Malaysia, but
how many Dysons' workers knew that for some time the company had
been using cheap, non-unionised labour at Full Sutton prison?
This is of course just a tiny sample; unsurprisingly the
latter-day slave-masters are keen to keep their involvement
secret - from their own employees, and from the wider public,
aware that the issue could be a PR partypooper. Hiding behind
'commercial confidentiality', most of the contracts are kept
secret or farmed out to middle-men. Most of the major companies
named above subscribe to some form of corporate responsibility
bollocks - in fact Sainsbury's are founder members of the Ethical
Trading Initiative, a 'voluntary' code of conduct which 'strives
towards' ensuring the absence of forced labour. Given that the
alternative to this sweatshop labour is 23 hours a day locked up
SchNEWS reckons they're not striving all that hard.
In terms of pimping out prison labour to greedy companies the Home
Office are relying on being able to assure not only its cheapness
and reliability, but also ensure anonymity. Few of the companies
exploiting forced prison labour would be comfortable with their
employees and customers knowing about it. A primary aim of CAPS is
to secure reliable and up to date information on these slave
companies, and to expose them and target them. If you've got
anything you reckon they ought to know then contact them (or us!)
at againstprisonslavery@mail.com or PO Box 74 Brighton BN1 4ZQ or
check out their website at www.againstprisonslavery.org
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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK
For not being a policeman...
During an illegal squat eviction in Brighton this week, Sussex
police arrested one squatter for possession of a Metropolitan
police badge. Despite his heroically scruffy appearance, he was
charged under section 90 of the Police Act 1996 "Impersonating a
Police Officer" namely "Any person who, not being a member of a
police force or special constable, has in his possession any
article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained
possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a
lawful purpose will be guilty of an offence". Clearly fearing that
Brighton's citizens might be confused over why the police were
sporting mohicans these days- they nicked him and boarded up the
squat.
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FAIR DINKUM RACISM
Just to show that Australia's right wing and its Bush-lacky PM
John Howard aren't as dumb as they look, there's been some great
mental gymnastics shown after the race riots in Sydney last week.
The riot - which saw pissed-up hordes draped in Aussie flags
smashing cars and kicking off, was allegedly sparked by some
violence by Lebanese youths on Cronulla beach. The staggering leap
of ideas these demonstrators were able to make with their blinding
intellect was that the 'Lebanese trouble makers' are linked with
Australia's so-called very own 9-11 - the 2002 Bali bombings,
which killed 200 including many Aussies. The link in their minds
has a name - xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia take your pick. With
protesters calling for 'them to all f*ck off home' (even ones who
were born there?), SchNEWS was wondering if some of those white
Australians might like to return to their mother and er father
lands, and give the country back to Aboriginals. But then we
realised that meant they'd come here which would mean we'd have to
start our own 'send 'em back' campaign.
Meanwhile the Liberal (conservative) government which rolled in on
a racist anti-refugee ticket in the last election has claimed that
Australia has a proud record of tolerance. Given the fact that the
country officially had its own 'white Australia' policy until the
late 60s we reckon it's not only the Aboriginals who're living in
the Dreamtime.
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CARAVANDALS
In a display of morbid callousness, Bedfordshire County Council
waited until travellers were at a funeral in Ireland before
removing their caravans. The 'window of opportunity' as Councillor
for Caddington and Slip End Richard Stay put it arose as the whole
family was mourning a relative abroad. The family had parked up at
the Timberlands site, in Pepperstock three weeks ago, but
Bedfordshire County Council claimed they were staying illegally.
Heartless Dicky was apparently 'delighted' by the outcome of the
ruse. The travellers will now have to pay hefty fines to get their
vans out of the council compound. Justifying his actions Stay said
"The county council has been able to take firm and robust action
to remove the caravans - the family had no right to be there. I'm
glad we were able to find a mechanism to remove them because it
can be difficult to do so under current legislation." Let's hope
that next time one of Mr Stay's dearly beloved shuffles off this
mortal coil somebody parks a truck on his front lawn while he's
paying his respects.
Anyone who fancies congratulating him on his cunning should drop a
line to richard.stay@bedscc.gov.uk or 312 Manor Road, Caddington,
Nr Luton, LU1 4DN.
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SPIN TO WIN
In a shock move unprecedented in SchNEWS history, we are
encouraging our readers to VOTE.... in this year's "Worst EU
Lobbying Award" by a corporate body.
The election is organized by Spinwatch and FoE amongst others. The
vote is designed to find the year's most offensive, hypocritical
example of Corporate Greenwashing in the Brussel's corridors of
power. Backed by almost a billion euros per year, over 10,000
corporate lobbyists roam Brussels. Ever more inventive ways of
gaining influence are being used. Pretending to be concerned
environmentalists, buying science, funding extremist capitalist
think-tanks, these shadowy, powerful lobby groups manage to get
their interests satisfied.
This is your opportunity to decide which case deserves to be
remembered as the most ruthless influence peddler, the fastest
spinner of spin, the grand master of disguise, in short who will
become the 'Worst EU Lobbying' Award 2005 champion. See
www.corporateeurope.org or www.lobbycontrol.de
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FERRY 'NUFF
Irish Continental Group, who runs the Irish ferry cargo line,
caused more waves than they expected when they hit on a time-old
money saving device - (Wage) Slaves.
Ireland saw its biggest demonstrations for twenty years as the
company attempted to replace its work force with cheap eastern
European labour. The dispute was triggered by Irish Continental's
proposal to replace 543 Irish employees with crews hired from
Eastern Europe, to be paid 3.60 euros an hour. While Ireland's
minimum wage is 7.65 euros an hour, the company can avoid those
rules by registering its ships outside Ireland. Inflicting exactly
what happened to their very own forefathers on Europe's new poor,
bosses at the company over fired 500 (largely Irish) staff. The
top brass meanwhile, struggle by on a mere £338 per hour, poor
things. No replacement management from Poland then boys?
A strike has meant that none of the company's ships have moved
since Nov 14th, leaving tonnes of cargo on the dockside, with one
crew barricading themselves inside the wheelhouse. The protests
were not entirely successful as unions eventually agreed to deal
whereby Irish Ferries will now be registered in Cyprus but will
still pay the minimum wage of 7.65 an hour. Two IF ships were
occupied by staff in Wales since the protests started.
* See www.indymedia.ie
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NEWS SILENCED SHOCK
This is the last SchNEWS for 2005 - but don't worry we'll be back
next year. And if you're thinking about a New Years resolution,
why not set up a standing order for your permanently poor
SchNEWS - even if it's just a quid a month.
www.schnews.org.uk/extras/help.htm
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LET'S GET FIZZICAL
Christmas is coming, so it must be time for us to wheel out a
traditional favourite - a Coca-Cola rant. Well, they must be
feeling a bit flat as the continued opposition to their operations
in India keeps mounting. Residents in the states of Kerela and
Uttar Pradesh are sick of the company's over-indulgence with the
local water supply (See SchNEWS 474), and the past weeks have seen
more mass demonstrations at the gates of bottling plants. It
wasn't quite Coke and a smile of course - the protestors have been
met with police violence and arrests. The pressure does work
though and one bottling plant in the south has been closed since
March because of pressure from farmers in the area.
Under a banner saying: "In the land of milk and honey Pepsi/Coke -
we don't want any!" (Ok, it could be snappier - but they obviously
haven't got a Coke-sized budget for copywriters), local groups are
also demanding that the state initiate criminal culpability and
liability cases against Coke for "destruction of lives,
livelihood, health and environment of the people" (Now that's a
slogan! We had "Can them, not water, sugar, caramel, caffeine,
phosphoric & citric acid and a secret recipe of special
chemicals..." Mmm, not that catchy either). Keep up to date at
www.IndiaResource.org
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SchNEWS in Brief
* Keep Our NHS Public! Demonstration this Saturday (17th) in
Cambridge. Meet 12.30 at Guildhall, Market Square. And check out
the new bulletin service from Keep Our NHS Public
www.keepournhspublic.com
* The occupation of Dalkeith Country Park continues (see SchNEWS
522). They need help to protect precious mature trees and vital
wildlife habitat. Why not do something beneficial with your
Christmas and go and stand in front of a bulldozer or, failing
that, support their campaign with a gift - they're asking for
money, chocolate, blankets, rope, tarpaulins, hot food, tinned
food, nuts, love, mobile phones and credit, visits, tools, vehicle
use, climbing equipment, water and your energy - take yer pick!
Contact the tree defenders direct on 07783 904397 or the protest
site on 07967 488703. Watch a short movie about it at
http://scotland.indymedia.org/media/all/display/3332
* Sing-along-a-picket outside Yarl's Wood Removal Centre, December
17th, 12.00pm. Twinwoods Road, Clapham, Bedfordshire. Yarl's wood
has been called the "Bleak House" for our times (see SchNEWS 524).
Legal Action for Women: law@crossroadswomen.net 020 7482 2496,
07958 152171
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A GOOD BLOKE
RIP Bloke who tragically died in France a month back. Bloke played
in the band Flannel, and was our very own anarchist Alf Garnett.
He never shut up - couldn't be shut up. Loyal and true and
fiercely protective about what he believed in - and crucially the
people he cared about. This Sunday (18th) at the Concorde 2 in
Brighton is a fund raising event for his long term partner and 2
children. 4pm till 2am £10, DJ'S and bands including Los Albertos
and of course, Flannel.
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Inside SchNEWS
WRITE TO A PRISONER THIS CHRISTMAS
Let those on the inside know we are there for them on the
outside - send a political prisoner a card this Christmas. There
are loads of people serving time for kicking back against the
bastards and they love receiving letters of support from all
concerned. See www.vpsg.org (animal rights porridge-eaters) and
www.brightonabc.org.uk
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..and finally...
SchNEWS's favourite Nordic stormtroopers the BNP came a cropper
when an attempt to co-opt the Mr Men into the struggle for white
nationalism backfired. Mr Jihad's appearance on the BNP's website
'humour page' (think Bernard Manning with a hangover), prompted a
'cease and desist' letter from the owners. Maybe everyone should
send them a 'cease and desist' letter.
The BNP 'humour' page is preceded by a statement; "if anyone is
offended - tough! The essence of comedy is to have fun at someone
else's expense!" How's that from a bunch of no-neck drivellers
with less chance of getting into power than the Natural Law Party.
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New SchMOVIES DVD
In burst of unashamed capitalism (well slightly ashamed) we want
you to buy our new DVD!! Featuring the best of this years short
SchMOVIES, including EDO, DSEI, G8, and loads of extras. All in
high definition, but not THX sound. Thrills, spills and coppers
aplenty. Place your orders now, out 14th of January. Buy this for
£6 inc p+p at www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies and keep SchNEWS free.
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Disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all readers that the revolution won't come gift
wrapped with batteries included. Honest!
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sections on regular events, local events, protest camps and
more...
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