Squatters 1 Landlords 0.

Landlords left court with Criminal Justice Act egg on the face on Monday when an eviction using the new squatting laws was thrown out of court. In late August landlords were given an extra legal tool which which to evict squatters. However Monday's hearing brought by the Bristol Church Housing Association to evict two homeless people goes back to court this coming Monday - where the Christians could face a judical review, which would take up to a year!
A jubilant spokesperson from the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS) told SchNEWS "I think we're gonna have a few of these". Locally there is a huge campaign with shops and houses covered in posters slagging off the Trust and supporting the squatters. The ASS added : "The Bristol Church are well in the shit and deserve everything thats coming to them.

So, no score on the arrestometer yet... just a big minus for landlords .

REMEMBER: squatting is still legal ! A new issue of the Squatters Handbook will be out from late October. 2 St Pauls Road, London, N1 2QN.

The Housing Information Project (HIP) have organised a celebration action event to mark the 20th anniversary of the famous Elgin Avenue squatters' victory and other housing successes in the mid seventies. It will include exhibitions, films, discussions at WECH Community Centre, Elgin Avenue, Harrow Road, W9, noon till 7pm

Britain once again failed to condemn French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, further fuelling reports that there is collusion with Chirac over sharing data from the blasts. The second test took place on Fangatuafa Atoll at Midnight last Sunday.

The blast, at 110 Kilotonnes was five times stonger than the first test at Muroroa, where there are huge cracks in the structure of the Atoll caused by years of nuke tests. A secret military map uncovered this week reveals cracks up to 5 miles long in the island and that scientific missions to Muroroa as long ago as 1980 believed tests could cause the disintegration of the atoll and the release of radioactivity.

As the British government stays silent other governments are united in their condemnation of the tests. The 16-nation South Pacific Forum, which includes Australia, New Zealand the self-governing Island States, has cut off all communication with the French in protest at the tests.

In Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, heavily reinforced security forces are preventing further rioting by anti-nuclear and independence demonstrators by detaining locals daily and using TV footage of the demonstrations to identify rioters (sound familiar?) To date about 50 people have been nicked for rioting.

At 11 am on October 18th the people of Holts Field in Swansea are due to be evicted and have their homes demolished - apparently out of spite. The wooden chalets they live in , built before the war, are classifield in law as mobile homes, even though they have never been moved. The landlowner Tim Jones, has failed to get planning permission to build executive mansions on the site - but wants to trash the homes anyway.
A spokesperson for The Land Is Ours told SchNEWS "45 people live in Holts Field, ranging from a baby to an 80 year old woman. Many have been there for decades, their houses are tiny but beautifully built. The community is one of the last places in Britain which truely deserves that term - they all look after each other." They have sworn to resist the evictions - but can't do it by themselves, especially as most of them have no experience of direct action. So please get down there from the 18th on wards - with D-locks and possibly climbing gear.

ID cards are "detrimental to the rights of individual citizens" and should be opposed in "both principal and practice." And those aren't the words of a dysfunctional anarchist oganistion, but the opinions of local government. They have come out with a blanket rejection to government proposals to introduce any ID card scheme in this country, and therefore given fingers to the Home Secretary Michael Howard.

The attack comes from all the three main local authority associations, all Labour controlled. But it contradicts the message coming from the front bench of the party, who would support a voluntary scheme. The local authorities, however, say that if a voluntary scheme were introduced "there would be substantial social pressure to carry a card. In effect, a voluntary scheme would lead to a de faco compulsory one very quickly." Nice of them to have the foresight.

Other problems that they have highlighted include the exacerbation of tensions that would occur between young people and ethnic minorities and the police if such a scheme was inroduced. They would have to prove their identity more than average, according to their report.

The so-called "smart card" system would allow information to be stored on an individual who would have no access to it themselves. As the SchNEWS reported in May, the Government Data Network is already in place, linking up to other major databases such as the Inland Revenue and Social Security, and information could be exchanged between these state agencies. This information, according to the local government, could be " inappropriate, innaccurate, and incapable of being checked."

And, (flippin' 'eck, what's goin' on), there are further allies in the fight against ID cards in the right of the Conservative Party. They have said the cards aould have "very serious implications for the traditional liberties of the British people." But before we all get too complacent, Electronic Data Systems are a hugh multinational who are set to make a killing if the scheme goes through. They are already bidding for data processing schemes such as the DVLC licences. And we know the government are big mates with big business.........