WE ARE ONE! - SCHNEWS DOING WELL BUT NEEDS HELP...
PEDAL POWER -CRITICAL MASS - RECLAIM OUR STREETS
CONSCIOUS CINEMA III - NEW DIRECT ACTION FILM AVAILABLE!
QUARRY ACTION - GET ACTIVE IN SOMERSET, 3RD+4TH DECEMBER
DOLE WORKERS ON STRIKE - ANTI-JSA ANGER BUILDS
PURE NUTS - OUTRAGE AS GIRL DIES FROM ALLERGY
Party & Protest - those diary dates
Phew! Schnews is one year old, and what a party we had to celebrate!
In the next 24 hours ten people will die and 130 will be seriously injured by motor vehicles in Britain.
Critical Mass was born in San Francisco as a practical way of reclaiming our streets from motor madness. It has since blossomed into a world-wide movement with cycle actions causing gridlock and motor mayhem in such far-flung corners of the globe as India, Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia. In Britain the idea to reclaim the streets for the day in protest at road traffic pollution and car culture has spread like wildfire with over 20 towns and cities getting on-the-case in the last few months.
They are a success for two main reasons. First of all they are very easy to do - it's a kind of cycling coincidence. People just meet at a pre-arranged point, and decide there and then which way to go. To avoid legal problems there are no official organisers, and no pre-planned route, although some groups give the police advance warning. Secondly, the event is not just a boring demonstration against something but a positive statement about how things could be better if we gave up our addiction to the car culture. This is the sort of action that really works and is a lot more fun than shouting SLOGAN! SLOGAN! SLOGAN! Reclaim the Streets stopped traffic in London with sound systems, set up sandpits for kids in main roads and offered free food and drink to people passing by. In Oxford waiters appeared out of nowhere and brought traffic to a standstill as they casually served tea. And we all got a chance to see just how our streets could look at Claremont Road, the squatted street which stood defiant in the way of the M11 Link Road. The street was full of chairs, sofas, a bath tub, pool table - and a rusty old car blocking entry to all motor vehicles. And every Sunday people partied in the street...
Critical Mass is about this sort of positive action. As one cyclist told SchNEWS, "The aim of Critical Mass is simple - to create a car-free space in towns that cyclists and pedestrians can enjoy, free from the worry of pollution or accidents. Is that too much too ask?"
It clearly is for Sussex Police, who have been getting mightily annoyed at the subversion cyclists can spread by riding bikes. Last month in Brighton scores of coppers equipped with video surveillance units and a helicopter (costing a mere �1,200 an hour to keep in the air) tracked and recorded 70 cyclists. Local councillors agreed with the police that these cyclists needed a close eye kept on them - one complained that "everyone has the right to use the road but no one has the right to close it down because they disagree with cars" while another demanded that cyclists should "work out with the police a demonstration that would not be disruptive." Well excuse me but car owners have been disrupting the health of children, the lives of pedestrians and the future of the planet's eco-system for years and politicians haven't done anything to stop it. Now ordinary people are doing something - and, surprise, surprise, politicians and the police are ganging up to condemn these actions.
Two people in Brighton have already been charged under the Public Order Act for supposedly 'organising' an illegal demonstration - ie not asking police permission to cycle down the street - even though one of them doesn't even own a bike! An anonymous bike rider told SchNEWS: "The intimidatory tactics used by Sussex Police are meant to scare people off riding their bikes. They will not work. It is vital that as many people as possible turn up to the next critical mass in Brighton to ensure that we can still cycle about in safety ". We have heard, allegedly, that this takes place on 2nd December. Meet 12.30 pm St. Peters Church, Brighton.
The latest in-yer-face video full of naughty activists is out at the end of next week. The vid contains amongst others:
Earth First! National Action 3/4 December
The Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) is set to come in next October. This new legislation will force many unemployed people into crap jobs and will undermine the pay and conditions of everyone with a job. 70,000 people will lose all benefits and have nothing to live on and the government will save �200 million to use on pre-election tax cuts. The JSA isn't going to create a single new job with half the staff in the unemployment service set to lose their jobs.
High St shops are still openly selling nuts - just days after the death of 16-yr-old Debbie Sanders. * true, not a spoof (source: Dept of Heath)
This article is to highlight the ridiculous media hysteria about Ecstacy following the tragic death of Leah Betts and is not meant to offend. Our full sympathies go out to her family and friends.
SchNEWS IN BRIEF
Shell Oil, the scumbags whose destruction of the Ogoni land in Nigeria led to the execution of nine people last week (see SchNEWS 49) are now claiming in national newspaper ads that their death was the fault of world-wide protests! A National Day of Action last Saturday saw at least 100 petrol stations picketed This coming Tuesday (28th) John Wybrewon, Shell's Corporate Affairs main man, is giving a talk in Brighton. If you'd like to ask him about the Ogoni people meet 6pm at the East Slope Bar, Falmer University. James Mirrian Promotions aims " to organise grassroots and underground culture around the cause of homelessness " using music, art, performance, literature. Fort Trollheim, one of the protest camps set up along the proposed Honiton to Exeter route needs help! The camp occupies a former woodland which has been destroyed by the DoT. People always seem to go to the more well-known Fairmile site but the trolls also need sorted people, tools, tarps, donations... Two road protesters in Wells were found not guilty of CJA trespass laws cos they had permission to be there. Sort it out France's fourth nuclear test happened on Tuesday in Mururoa. The bomb was equivalent to 40,000 tons of TNT. Youth CND have organised an action in response to this latest outrage, next Tuesday, starting at 5pm. They are encouraging people to dress up as death for a torch-lit death march from the French Embassy to the Conservative Party central office Richard O'Brien was killed by the Met police a year and a half ago. They were supposedly arresting him for being drunk and disorderly but somehow found it necessary to beat the shit out of him in front of his 14-year-old son, who heard him shout "I can't breathe, you win". A copper replied "We always win." It is one of only 5 cases where a jury gave a verdict of "unlawful killing" against the police and criminal proceedings against the cops involved can now begin.
The Animal Rights National Index (ARNI) is an organisation made up of anti terrorist detectives at a bit of a lose end since it all went quiet in Northern Ireland . According to Headman David Tucker animal rights protestors are now the biggest threat to national security. However "The ordinary protestor has got nothing to fear - the people we are interested in are extremists who use criminal tactics or commit public order offences to achieve their ends". And ARNI are justifying their existence by stitching people up. People like founder-member of CALF (Campaign Against Live Freight) MIKE ROBERTS up on charges of 'conspiracy to commit criminal damage' who this week was again refused police bail despite no forensic evidence that he committed a crime. It could now be a full 18 months before his case comes to trial. KEITH MANN is another animal rights activists fitted up on 'conspiracy' charges. Last week he had his 14 year sentence reduced by 3 years. Big deal. Keith never hurt a fly and yet his sentence was harsher than some people who commit murder.
''experience is wisdom everything else is information''
Back to Kent again where those nasty road protestors against the Thanet Way are feeling the full force of 'Operation Eco-Warrior' (seriously!)
So why are the authorities now allowing the evidence to come out? The worst excesses of racism, homophobia and general narrow-mindedness are due to fear of difference; governments usually play on these fears for their own advantage.... Traditional distinctions between human groups pale in comparison to the differences between humans and aliens. Yet just as most gays, commies, foreigners, travallers etc. turn out not to be demons when everyone gets to know each other, so should any actual aliens be given a chance.
It is quite scary, the idea of meeting people from another world; but not quite as scary as what our governments do. There is a chance that the establishment will want play on our fears of this new 'other' to justify moves towards totalitarianism and a global step onto a war footing, under US control, against this 'new threat'. I just think we should keep our eyes very open, watching not only the skies but also the dodgy humans watching over us...."
experience is knowledge, everything else is information
WE ARE ONE
The 1st birthday extravaganza encompassed everything we stand for. Conscious Cinema premiered some of their new videos including police harrassment of hunt sabs and fighting the JobSeekers' Allowance. Interspersed with these were speakers like Chris from Shoreham Defence, Michelle from the Advance Party and Ian and John, two Liverpool dockers who had come down to Brighton to tell us about the 500-strong wildcat strike and emphasise the need for us all to stand together.
From animal rights activists switched on by the tactics of the police and the bullshit of the mainstream media, dockers looking for support from the wider community, party people criminalised under the CJA - the message was drop the single issues, forget our differences: let's stick together cos that's the only way real change is going to come.
So - where to now? Basically, the Schnews scribes are worn out and want a rest. We need more people to take on greater responsibilities: writing, investigating, distributing, desktop publishing...so we're asking all interested people out there to get together each Tuesday (from Dec 5th) at 6pm in the Sub cafe (on the seafront near the Fortune of War). This isn't a meeting it's a SchMeeting - a chance to chat about what should be in the new and future SchNEWS.
In short, if we want to reach our second anniversary then we can't - and shouldn't - rely on the few. Don't think you can't do it, cos you can!
Keep your eyes peeled for posters in your area for when and where.
CONSCIOUS CINEMA III
STANWORTH VALLEY EVICTION, THE NEIGHBOURS GUIDE TO DIRECT ACTION!, CLAREMONT RD, JSA, THE HUNT SAB GUIDE TO UNLAWFUL ARRESTS, ECSTACY, SEA SABS, TSG TRAINING CENTRE TOUR, DAVID BELLAMY BEING CRAP, JUSTICE? & CINEMA ON TOUR - and more!
The video is available free, on the condition that a communal showing is put on, donations taken (and some sent to us!), and the tape is returned so it can be sent out to someone else.
Conscious Cinema is currently running at a �200 per month loss.... The only way it can keep going is for donations to come in!
More info from (and donations to):
Conscious Cinema, PO Box 2679, BRIGHTON BN2 1UJ
QUARRY SHUTDOWN
Whatley quarry - which if expansion goes ahead will be seen from the moon- supplied the road stone for Twyford Down & Solsbury Hill. Direct Action training is on Sunday and we will close down the quarry on the Monday.
Tickets available NOW from the Brighton Peace Centre.
Bring tents, waterproofs, food etc.
Cr�che available .
No dogs or alcohol.
DOLE WORKERS ON STRIKE
There's going to be a national strike against the JSA next Thursday, the 30th, organised by the Civil Public Service Association (CPSA). At least 27 dole offices are expected to be out on strike including Brighton. There's a picket outside the job centres before 9am (with North St job centre being the main one in Brighton) so turn up and give them your support.
For more information on the Campaign against the JSA ring: PURE NUTS!
note: this is about Ecstacy!
note: purple nut logo?
Over 35 people have died in the UK since records began six years ago from an extreme reaction to nuts, known as Anaphylaxis.
And it was revealed that up to three-quarters of under-18s consume nuts regularly. A spokeswoman from the Dept of Health told SchNEWS: "The lethal dose is tiny - even half a walnut can do it."*
These shocking facts have not stopped the pushers knocking out 'pots' with trade names like SunPat, Meridian and Sainsbury's Own. They even carry their own 'logos', or 'stamps', such as a rising sun, or laughing children.
Debbie's distraught mum appealed to youngsters not to be drawn in by the flashy packaging and the lovely gooey substance in the mouth. She declared: "This evil nut culture must die, like my daughter has died."
Attractive Di Bulkam, 58, neighbour of the dead girl stormed: "These shops should be burned to the ground and the pushers jailed for the rest of their days. Do they not realise they've taken a life?"
Nuts can be taken in a variety of forms - as a dip, a 'sandwich' or even mixed as deadly cocktails with Jelly.
A special SchNEWS investigation has uncovered Brighton-based Infinity Foods as a major dealer in a nutty turf-war. They are flooding the market with a pure form of the substance at just 98p for 225gs, known to users as 'organic'. Addicts report late-night cravings. One user admitted: "I can't think about anything else. It's ruining my life."
Former US leader Jimmy Carter, who became known as the Peanut President, made dirty money growing fields of the stuff.
One unrepentant addict told SchNEWS: "People die from extreme reactions to all kinds of things - like penicillin, alcohol or even Ecstacy." But added: "IT'S NOT GOING TO STOP ME ENJOYING A TASTY SATAY SAUCE."
FIVE MILLION USERS ..... IT'S TIME TO TALK SERIOUSLY ABOUT 'E'
(0171 359 4837)
Meanwhile $HELL are looking for a new Marketing and Publicity Officer who will "encourage action by local people to improve the quality of life at neighbourhood level in ways that respect the earth's resources." Just like those nine executed Ogoni people were.
Call 0121 212 9221 if you'd like to apply ...
More info: 11 Styles House, The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 7D. INSIDE SchNEWS
So every single person at the live animal export demonstrations nicked under public order offences even for such crap arrests as throwing orange peel, sweet wrappers, hitting a copper with a woolly hat blah blah is now on computer as a terrorist!
In fact Tucker changes his tune by telling us that ARNI is building up files of everyone who attends animal rights demos, because although people start off with peaceful intentions they could end up violent in the future!
Please show your support by writing to him.
GE3743, HM Prison Lewes, 1 Brighton Rd., Lewes, BN71EQ.
Help the campaign c/o ICA, PO Box 1135, Downs View Rd., Hassocks, W Sussex, BN6 8AA.
Five people having Sunday lunch in their new squat were arrested and charged with 'abstracting electricity' .16 hours in the cells for that heinous crime.
At a 'Shell are Scum' demo Kent Consultabulary show further restraint and arrest a man for standing in front of the video survellience cameras.
CJA ARRESTOMETER
Aquitted: 90%
...and Finally
SchNews c/o on-the-fiddle, PO Box 2600 Brighton East SussexTel. 01273 685913
Or pick one up @ Peace Centre, Gardner Street, Brighton uk
Justice? meet every wednesday @ the the new kensington, kensington gardens, Brighton @ 7pm
e-mail: Justice?@intermedia.co.uk