[tml] SchNEWS 526, CARRY ON CAMPING
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6th January 2006, Issue 526
WAKE UP! WAKE UP! ITS YER TWO'S UP ON YER BREW...
SchNEWS
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CARRY ON CAMPING - A DECADE ON FROM NEWBURY WHAT'S CHANGED?
Remember when we were young and had flowers in our hair? Dig out
yer climbing harness and dust off yer silly name 'cos this weekend
there's a reunion to commemorate a decade since the beginning of
the 'Third Battle Of Newbury' - the biggest road protest of the
lot (See SchNEWS 56 to 66...and wonder where all those years
went).
The Newbury bypass was a £101 million, 13km trail of destruction
which saw the felling of 10,000 trees, trashed 3 Sites of Special
Scientific Interests, damaging the habitat of numerous animals and
destroying the last remaining colony of the Desmoulin Whorf snail.
If that wasn't enough it also ruined twelve archaeological sites,
including two civil war battle sites and an ancient stone-age
settlement. Occupied for nearly two years, the eviction became an
85 day battle which involved 29 camps along the route with
hundreds of treehouses. Over 700 arrests were made, and the
security bill topped £1.5million. Thousands of bailiffs and police
were defied. Although this road was eventually built, the
resistance put up along with that at many other sites around the
country caused the government to shelve its £23 billion road
programme.
The first Reunion Rampage, a year after the final eviction, ended
with a mass site invasion and the torching of caravans and
machines belonging to the contractors (for more see SchNEWS 103).
There will be a gathering and demonstration this Saturday (7th) at
2pm meeting at Middle Oak (A4/A34 junction), followed by a candle
lit vigil at Donnington Castle. Bring everything you will need
from camping gear to food. For more info contact 07963 648762.
And Now Back To The Future...
Protest camps stopping a road cutting through Dalkeith Country
Park face imminent eviction. Today (Fri 6th Jan) there is a safety
meeting between bailiffs and protesters at the Dalkeith Park
protest site, near Edinburgh (See SchNEWS 522). The eviction
company (Richard Turner, who gained infamy at Newbury and
Stanworth Valley for providing climbers to evict tree dwellers)
have come up from Wales and could be eager to start work - the
protesters fear that the site could get 48 hours notice making
next Monday an eviction red alert day. In early December several
protest camps were set up along the proposed route of the northern
bypass cutting through the middle of the 850 acre park, and there
was a reprieve because Conservation laws protected trees with bats
entered their hibernating season. Despite this more trees were
cut, turning a blind eye to the bats. Camps are protecting further
damage and urgently need more people - this could be a matter of
days not weeks. Site mobile 07743 495582 and see
www.save-dalkeith-park.org.uk
* Also in Scotland, JAM74 - stopping the building of the M74
northern extension - a 6 lane motorway on concrete stilts - which
is to cut straight through Glasgow's southern suburbs, and
recently won the 'Pock Award' for worst planning decision of the
year. (See SchNEWS 501 for more) Donations are currently needed to
mount a legal challenge to the Scottish Executive www.jam74.org.
* Bilston Glen camp is going into its fifth year - protecting an
ancient SSSI woodland just south of Edinburgh they want to
re-route the A701 road through. For more see
www.bilstonglen-abs.org.uk
* Camp Bling protest camp was set up in opposition to a road being
built on Priory Park in Southend, Essex. It's now heading for its
fourth month. As part of their campaign to stop the F5
(A127/A1159) road scheme, activists have constructed and occupied
a tree camp right in the heart of town (See SchNEWS 519). Road
work starts this year and eviction could be pending as soon as the
council get enough dosh. A visitors centre is being planned for
people to check out the site. Informal meetings with Parklife on
third Wednesday of month starting 18th January 7.30pm upstairs at
The Spread Eagle, Victoria Avenue, Prittlewell. The first of
regular informal meetings with Parklife. Camp Bling line 07817
182394 www.savepriorypark.org
GOING DUTCH
Meanwhile over in Holland, there is an expected eviction on Monday
9th Jan as a protest camp with treehouses and tunnels faces up to
1000 military and police in the Schinveld Forest in south east
Holland near Maastricht. The camp - under the banner of
GroenFront! (Dutch Earth First) - was set up on December 4th to
protect six hectares of woodland being flattened to be used by
NATO for AWACS military radar planes to land. GroenFront! are
urging people to get there - but bring everything you'll need.
www.groenfront.nl.
Keep one eye on the road at...
www.roadalert.org.uk
www.roadblock.org.uk
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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK
For heckling, by heck......
No sooner had the words "Hooray for the lesser of two evils" left
their mouths when 3 hecklers at a John Kerry rally in California
felt the long arm of the law on their shoulders. Grabbed by local
secret service men, the 3 young men are being charged with
trespassing, resisting arrest and assaulting a cop. All this for
just shouting a slogan. Imagine if they had thrown a pie at the
fucker. The case has been going on for well over a year now (with
one guy on remand for the entire time) but a hearing to have the
charges dropped is due this week.
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WHALE MEAT AGAIN
All hands on deck as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's
flagship the Farley Mowat pursues the Japanese whaling fleet in
Antarctica. Together with two ships from Greenpeace, the Esperanza
and the Arctic Sunrise, they initially made contact with the
Japanese factory ship the Nisshin Maru on Christmas Day. The
factory ship fled the area and any attempts to continue whaling
have been shut down. Sea Shepherd's Captain Paul Watson has vowed
a showdown, promising to "do everything we can with the resources
at our disposal to shut down their illegal slaughter of these
gentle and intelligent creatures." Despite reports in the
Guardian, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd have not rammed each other -
(Get yer facts right Jon!)
Despite pretences of abiding by an international ban on commercial
whaling, the Japanese continue to slaughter over a thousand whales
including endangered fin and humpback whales every year, under a
program of "scientific" whaling. Meaningless tests are carried out
on a selection of the whales and the meat is openly sold
commercially. The five ship fleet is currently inside the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica.
"The Japanese fleet will have to be wary of every iceberg they see
from here on in. We may be hiding behind one of them ready to
ambush the bandits as they pass by," said Captain Paul Watson. "We
intend to make this dangerous ground for whalers. We intend to
enforce the law."
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has long been in the forefront
of marine mammal protection, ramming and sinking whaling ships
since the eighties. Check 'em out on www.seashepherd.org
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RUNWAY SUCCESS
So it looks as if the government is hell bent on constructing a
third runway at Heathrow. In Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report
heavy hints were dropped about the need to build the third runway
regardless of its environmental impact. The government is talking
about 'streamlining' the planning process i.e smoothing over any
little local difficulties caused by those whose lives are gonna be
made a misery as the world's busiest skies just get a third
noisier.
Activists and local community groups have already begun a direct
action campaign to halt aviation industry and government plans for
expansion. Late last year a team of Earth First! protestors
disrupted the world's biggest aviation industry conference in
London, (see SchNEWS 522) using rape alarms attached to helium
balloons. Meanwhile, airline industry bosses required a police
escort to attend a gala dinner on Tower Bridge walkways as
residents from 'HACAN Clearskies' and 'No Third Runway Action
Group' (NOTRAG) joined to protest against expansion plans.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling copped a pie in the face from
an Earth First! activist at the launch of industry lobby group,
"Future Heathrow." (Sorry about that, Darling).
One activist explained, "The lines are drawn. The government is
showing a blatant disregard over the dangers of climate change by
flying in the face of the scientists' warnings, and pushing ahead
with plans for airport expansion. Aviation is the fastest growing
cause of climate change and they won't succeed without a fight.
Let the battle commence."
Email planestupid@hotmail.com or jet off to www.earthfirst.org.uk
and www.hacan.org.uk
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INSIDE SchNEWS
Chris McIntosh has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment, for
admitting causing just $5,000 damage to a McDonald's. Send letters
of support to Christopher McIntosh 30512-013 c/o FDC Seatac
Federal Detention Center, P.O. BOX 13900, Seattle, WA 98198, USA
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SchNEWS In Brief
** 12 Indian tribal people and one policeman were killed on Monday
after police opened fire on crowds demonstrating against a planned
steel works. The demonstrations are part of the continuing
resistance against the industralisation of their tribal land in
Orissa state (see SchNEWS 499). The day after the shooting,
hundreds blocked a main road in Orissa state, bringing traffic to
a standstill. In a statement, the tribespeople said they would not
"give up a square inch of land". See
www.survival-international.org
** Interested in getting involved in the Camp for Climate Action
happening this summer? There's a planning meeting in Manchester
next Saturday (14th) Manchester Environmental Resource Centre,
Bridge 5 Mill, 22 Beswick St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 7HR
www.climatecamp.org.uk
** Banish those winter blues with a noise demo at EDO MBM next
Tuesday 10th January at EDO MBM, Home Farm Rd Brighton, meeting at
Moulescoomb station at 4pm. www.smashedo.org.uk
** National demonstatration for the British residents in
Guantanamo Bay. Sat 21st January, 12 noon. Tothill St, London nr
St James's Park tube. See www.save-omar.org.uk
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WE'RE SchKINT!
Fancy making a late New Year's resolution to set up a standing
order for SchNEWS? We are really skint and even a schquid a month
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CFC FREE
Not content with owning the media, bribing politicians and pasting
propaganda on our every street corner, greedy corporations are now
busy setting up fake Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to give
a more benevolent and 'activist' image to their activities.
Although there are more than 10,000 lobbyists in Brussels, big
business has decided that activism is the best way to put their
side of the story across! Take the 'Campaign for Creativity'
(CFC). They've just won an award from the Corporate Europe
Observatory for being the Worst Lobby firm in Europe. That's
because CFC are in reality a front organisation for a
multinational software industry which is determined to maintain a
monopolistic grip on our computers, wiping out any competition in
the process.
CFC lobbies to persuade Members of the European Parliament to vote
for software patents. "Intellectual Property theft is everywhere"
warns their website, "Music. Design. Filmmaking. Software
Development. Inventions. Branded Products. Fashion." - it's all
being faked and it's just not fair to the people who invent
things, especially such useful and profitable things such as
Microsoft's Windows operating system. Software used to be covered
by copyright, but company bosses want patents because they provide
much stronger protection. That makes it much harder to use
existing software to provide free 'open source' alternatives to
corporate crap like Windows.
CFC is run by Campbell Gentry, a London-based public affairs firm
whose boss is one Simon Gentry. He's usually obtaining biotech
patents for the likes of SmithKline Beecham, but has clearly seen
how much cash software firms are willing to splash out to keep
their share of the market. His colleague, lobbying veteran Daniel
Guéguen, told reporters that "in the future we will tend to adopt
ever tougher lobbying strategies that will probably involve
practices such as manipulation, destabilisation or
disinformation." SchNEWS reckons the future's already here, but
see what you think of the blag by visiting
www.campaignforcreativity.org and get the low down on corporate
propaganda at www.corporateeurope.org.
* Global Exchange have just produced a report the 'Most Wanted
Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005'
www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/corporateHRviolators.html
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Lights Camera Reaction
Austrian activists have been trying out techniques that infiltrate
CCTV cameras after the government there have passed a law to allow
their installation in public places without a court order. The
activist group 'Quintessenz' have disrupted the cameras using
devices such as balloons and lasers in their determination to
avoid the big brother phenomenon which is ever-present in Britain.
The UK is the most-watched nation in the world, with more than 4
million surveillance cameras monitoring our every move - in a city
such as London, people can expect to be monitored by CCTV cameras
up to 300 times a day. And this is only the start. After 25 years
of development the government are set to install a new national
surveillance network that will track the movements of cars by
number plate, and information on journeys made will be stored for
years. Face recognition by camera is also in the pipeline, as The
Home Office Scientific Development Branch in Hertfordshire is
currently working on ways of automatically recognising human faces
by computer. Here's looking at you kid.
* For more info on the use of anti-surveillance devices
www.naimark.net/projects/zap/howto.html
* For more on Quintessenz see www.quintessenz.at if you read
German (or translate on your search engine).
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BAE-UTIFUL
Ah, the New Year! Time for New Labour to turn over a new leaf? Er,
no, don't be stupid. (Big) Business as usual of course. And
there's no business bigger than the arms trade... Take for example
the recently announced multi-billion pound deal for BAE Systems to
supply Saudi Arabia with Typhoon fighter jets. Lets see how the
deal might fit into the UK's own rules on arms dealing.
The rules prohibit any sales which might unbalance regional peace
and stability, and restrict deals involving countries which
disrespect human rights and international law, or engage in
excessive military spending.
Saudi Arabia continues to arm itself massively against Israel;
military build-up in the Arabian peninsula is a further strain on
the shaky peace efforts in the Middle East. Strike one.
Last year Amnesty International reported an escalation of the
'already dire human rights situation in the country', with
increased killings by Saudi security forces, and routine arrests
and torture of political dissidents. Strike two.
Saudi Arabian military spending from 1997-2003 was the highest in
the Middle East, consuming an average 11% of its GDP (five times
that of the UK and over 3 times that of the USA). And you're out!
A perfect fit (up) then. So how did BAE get the go-ahead for this?
And whilst The Serious Farce Office is also investigating BAE for
operating a £60m 'slush fund' for Saudi officials involved in
Britain's previous major arms deal with the regime. Who could
guess? New year, old New Labour.
It's not too late do something - see The Campaign Against Arms
Trade www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/
calltheshots/saudi.php
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NEW HACKNEY EMPIRE
Having been temporarily evicted just before Christmas, on December
29th the squatters reoccupied Tony's café (No.34) in Hackney's
Broadway Market (see SchNEWS 523), the site of a ongoing community
struggle against gentrification. Whilst the property was vacant
the developer's henchman managed to knock down some of the
building but undeterred, the spirited protesters have begun an
ambitious rebuilding scheme, and claim to be planning to create as
fast as the wreckers destroy. As of January 4th they are still
there but face another imminent eviction attempt and urgently need
as many bodies as possible to go down and help out. Anyone with
building skills, or who can provide tables, bedding, food and gas
heaters or anything else useful will be especially welcome -
they'll even come and pick stuff up if you can't make it.
For more see http://34broadwaymarket.omweb.org Tel: 07939 333 465
/ 07940 814 170 or look it up in the A-Z and drop by!
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..and finally...
You're nicked...no you are...
Two cops protecting a nuclear waste convoy ended up fighting and
threatening each other with arrest at an anti-nuclear demo in
Germany recently. Apparently a special 'conflict management
policeman' wanted to stop another copper from moving in on
protesters because it was very crowded. They started arguing until
the 'conflict management' cop hit the other guy on his helmet. A
fight ensued and was only broken up when a local female protester
held the arm of one of the policemen and calmed things down.
Luckily most protestors are more experienced in conflict
management than the boys in blue. SchNEWS hopes this trend catches
on in a big way
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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 - just resolve not to let them break
your resolution. Honest!
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What's On? Check out out Party and Protest guide at
www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm - it's updated every week, has
sections on regular events, local events, protest camps and
more...
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