AROOOOOGA!! - Battle Cry As Camps Get Set For Action
NEWBURY - You Can Help!
JILL PHIPPS - In Memorium
EXODUS -update
NUKE NEMBER 6 - France explode their sixth!
Party & Protest - those diary dates
Week Four. The anti-roads movement is piling on the pressure in the face of a continuing escalation of police and security numbers - the latter now nearly doubled to 1,200-strong - while police continue to criminalise peaceful protest via the backdoor with stringent bail conditions.
Under the Criminal Justice Act police can set bail - rather than an impartial magistrate - and people arrested for the catch-all offence of 'aggravated trespass' are being bailed one kilometre away from the proposed route. They must also sign on EVERY DAY at their local police station, or face jail. This is to be challenged in the High Court.
"This is the first blanket use of the CJA. Ninety-nine per cent of those arrested are for aggravated trespass - and there's over 300 of them so far, " Friends of the Earth told SchNEWS.
Almost �1 MILLION has been spent on policing the Third Battle so far, admitted Chief Supt Blair of Thames Valley police. PLUS �1 MILLION security costs - rising as more troops are bussed in. Ex-army officers are being recruited to instil discipline to the rag-tag Reliance rent-a-mob.
ILLEGAL! On Tuesday the police were coining new legal terms as protestors were dragged out of their benders near Snelsmore Common despite the contractors having no possession order on the camp. "We are not sure if it was illegal or illegal - we are describing it as 'inappropriate' and asking them not to do it again," said Supt Blair. Protestors are planning to take a private prosecution against Reliance Security.
ILLEGAL! Trees are still being felled dangerously close to protestors and security despite the government's own Health and Safety Executive declaring that felling must be at least two tree lengths away from any individual.
ILLEGAL! Workers set fire to plastics to smoke out tree-sitters - and the fire brigade, alerted by protestors, were turned away by the police.
Death threats have been received in the Newbury office - one from a man claiming to be a security guard saying: "You put one of us in hospital, tomorrow we'll get one of you". Media reports of guards injured in violent clashes on Tuesday were, in reality, one guard who twisted his ankle and another who ran straight into a tree.
Squat the route and help fortify existing camps ...
Just by sitting in existing benders you could help save them from being evicted. Every new camp registered needs a High Court possession order to evict - there are now over 20 squatted.
Join mass picketing of security pick-up points ...
Reliance Security are bussed in by Princess Summerbee Coach Company from Southampton.
Set up support groups ...
Money and tat needed! Call (01273) 559440 if you can help.
Bail breaking ....
If you do get nicked ring the Third Battle office first - they can pass on any messages for you. If you want to appeal against your bail conditions give the office your name, address, any previous and your bail details. If you are going on an action, marker pen a solicitor's number on your arm.
Your silence is your approval ...
Going to Newbury doesn't mean you have to be full-on if you don't want to be! Cooking food, making sure camps are safe .. everything helps. A family camp has been set up with communal hot food daily. This is a peaceful safe space for kids.
PILE ON THE PRESSURE!!!!!!!!! Get up to Newbury by any means you can. Don't wait for others to sort it. Do it yourself! Hitch, jump the train, blag a lift. When you get there Squat the route, monkey wrench, tree hug, pile into security, refuse bail, scream and shout, get in the way of tree felling, D-lock, arm lock, just get in the way and stop the carnage by any means you deem fit!!!!!!! Do it now! Your planet needs you!
UP NORTH ..... Protestors camped at Daisy Nook opposing the 15-mile final link of Manchester's orbital Motorway, the M66 extension, have been served eviction notices. They expect the contractors to move in within a fortnight - possibly Monday. IN THE VALLEYS .... The eviction order has lapsed at Selar and Celtic Energy have yet to apply for a new one, so any eviction will be technically illegal. Even so the protester's camp at Europe's largest proposed open cast mine site in South Wales is still on eviction alert. Anyone bailed off site at Newbury should give their bail address as: Selar Farm Nature Reserve, nr Cwmgwrach, Neath Valley, South Wales! Cardiff EF! 01222 383363
This week marks the first anniversary of the death of Jill Phipps. She was crushed to death under the wheels of a transporter carrying live animals for export whilst demonstrating at Coventry Airport on 1st February 1995. Her death will be commemorated by animal rights campaigners everywhere. It should be remembered by the rest of us also.
In the year since Jill's death over 1,500 live export protesters have been arrested in operations costing the police over �8 million. Five Shoreham campaigners await trial on highly dubious conspiracy charges - one of them, Mick Roberts, has been refused bail and is incarcerated in jail until his case comes to court in 1997! 'D' notices (official censorship) have been applied to media coverage of the protests and mass surveillance continues by the new division made up of 'terror police' (Daily Telegraph March 6th '95) sanctioned by Special Branch in response to what the Tory press squawked as 'the biggest threat to national security since the IRA' (Sun March '95). Yet this attention has seemed to spur the protestors on. Over 1000 people brought Dover to a standstill on the 20th January, the biggest action at the live export port since the protests began. Carla Lane's plea to "be nice to the police" at last week's Shoreham meeting was met with universal disapproval from the 600 strong crowd, a response of "why should we be nice to fascist scum?" being met with cheers and much stomping of feet - a measure of how far the campaign has moved on since its beginning - a campaign where 'ordinary' mainstream people of all ages and backgrounds are becoming highly politicised, thinking individually and acting collectively, dispelling the ignorance that is necessary for injustice to persist. Hence the extreme use of authoritarian force against the campaign.
Jill Phipps died fighting that force - the same force that is killing trees at Newbury, passing the Asylum Bill, introducing the JSA and so on. A force that has its source in an unjust society. That society has thrown all protesters into the same corner (witness the CJA) but is now frightened of the consequent links we are forging. If we come to realise that we are not fighting for separate 'single issues' but are part of the same one, the single issue of the right way to live versus the wrong, then we will grow stronger together and great sacrifices like Jill's death will not have been made in vain. In her own words "Go with your heart".
A mass demo of remembrance for Jill Phipps takes place today (Friday) at Dover port. Respect from all of us.
Last Friday Glenn Jenkins was cleared of breaching an injunction forbidding him from acting as the voice of the Exodus Collective, organising any parties and holding him responsible for any parties held by other crew members. This follows a previous court victory for Glenn last week (see SchNEWS 58).
So have the police given up harassing Glenn and the rest of Exodus? - fat chance. This Tuesday the police suddenly remembered about two fines dating from August 1993 that Glenn has refused to pay - and arrested him for them! The police harassment of Exodus has reached such a level now that in an "unprecedented move" Bedfordshire Council has called for a public inquiry into the events surrounding the police treatment of Exodus.
In the face of continuing injustice, the Luton party people are maintaining their full-on struggle for freedom. They are still trying to find premises for a community centre to be used as a meeting point for dances, workshops, exhibitions, a market, performances, a recording studio and a cafe. Don't you feel safer in your bed knowing the plod are keeping an eye on this sort of evil behaviour?
As nuclear disarmament talks were taking place in Geneva last week France exploded their sixth nuclear bomb in Polynesia. The French ambassador declared his surprise at "the violence of the world's reaction" to the tests! SchNEWS thinks a nuclear explosion ten times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb is just a tad more violent. Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru stated: "It is now 150 years since the French colonialists conquered and killed the indigenous Maohi people of our once peaceful paradise ... now the genocidal machine has continued to evolve into a more sophisticated form with nuclear prostitution. The mere existence of my race is at stake because of this evil war criminal. My God save us."
Jacques Chirac - who said in his election campaign that he would begin his presidency with 'a big bang' - confirmed it was the last in the series. Proposals for complete nuclear disarmament will be put before the UN General Assembly in September.
Meanwhile China has vowed to press on with underground nuclear blasts and is expected to carry out two or three tests this year. The US, at the top of the league with 1,030 blasts, is to carry out six new tests - cloaked as 'experiments' - by exploding plutonium using TNT.
Gary Mills and Tony Poole are going to the High Court on February 12th-15th to appeal against their convictions for murder -framed by the Gloucester Police. They were given life sentences in 1990 for the murder of Hensley Wiltshire who died after 12 hours in Gloucester police station, which he left with 60% more injuries than he arrived with.
There's a benefit gig for Satpal Ram, who has already spent nearly nine years in prison for defending himself against a racist gang (see SchNEWS 44) on Thursday 29th February. A very special benefit too - it's the London premier of Banner Theatre's anti-CJA play Criminal Justice - and worth getting along to. It's at the Red Rose Club, 129 Seven Sisters Road (�5/�3).
***"Inside-Outside: Homeless and Ex-Homeless Writers" is available from Mary Hoar, CCE, EDB, Uni of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RG. Priced �1 *** The dole strike is perhaps drawing to an end! Workers have agreed to start back at work on the 17th Feb with a ballot on the 19th. Keep supporting them on the picket line and we'll see what happens! ***If you went to The Land Is Ours last year you might like to know that there's another. This time it's an urban occupation somewhere in London. Set for 5th May - if you want more info contact The Land Is Ours, Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd, Oxford, OX4 1RX, phone 01865 722016. There's a planning meeting on Thursday 25th Jan at 7pm for it at the Hackney Squatters Centre, 75a Mildmay Park, London, N1. *** Yes, even Teddy bears are picketing! At a leading London store a multitude of cuddly toys were sat outside in response to the 250 Asian toy workers killed and the hundreds more injured in industrial fires since 1993. Supported by the World Development Movement, spokeswoman Harriet Lamb said that "Employees were paid 42p an hour for a 10 hour day and worked a six or seven day week" - exploitation at it's grimmest! Watch what you buy. *** So you've heard that the Government are backing away from ID cards after public consultation. Not so. Home Office ministers may give the go ahead for a voluntary scheme starting this year! Baroness Blatch, Home Office minister, told MPs that no final decision had been taken and even she said that she was dubious that identity cards "would help to cut crime." But if they do come in, it's going to be the cop in YOUR pocket! *** The SchLIVE tour is really happening! We've now got dates in Reading, Glasgow, Oxford, Plymouth, Dover, Jersey, and lots of other splendid places. If you want the up to minute news live and in ya face in your town phone the SchLIVE desk now on 01273 685913. Go on, do it *** There's a briefing for Legal Defence Monitoring on Sat 3rd Feb, 11:30AM for the following Critical Mass in the day. Meet at the New Kensington and bring a pen and notebook
Peru's military regime are a far scarier bunch than our cops or Reliance Security, so what are you waiting for, go out there and get buried in some activity! On the subject of evictions, Justice? are opening up a squatting estate agency in the near future to highlight the avaricious nature of many landlords these days. Stay tuned for details.
experience is knowledge, everything else is information
AROOOOOGA!!
Battle Cry as Camps get set for ActionYOU CAN HELP
IN MEMORIUM OF JILL PHIPPS -
"GO WITH YOUR HEART"ACQUITTAL AND ARREST FOR EXODUS SPOKESPERSON
SchNEWS IN BRIEF
...and Finally
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