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Bob the Bilderberg | After Eights | Crap Arrest of the Week | DU-LALLY | SchNEWS in Brief | Monsanto Claws | Positive SchNEWS | NO HOUPPE | Inside SchNEWS | ...and finally...

BOB THE BILDERBERG

“When such rich and powerful people meet up in secret, with military intelligence managing their security, with hardly a whisper escaping of what goes on inside, people are right to be suspicious.” - Tony Gosling, journalist.

While anti-capitalists gear up for next month’s protests at the G8 Summit, last weekend the cats cream of the world’s elite were meeting behind closed doors in France with hardly a protestor or journalist in sight.

Welcome to the Bilderberg group, described by one small paper as “the most secretive organisation in the world.” Despite the world’s most powerful people rubbing shoulders, the corporate media hardly give it a mention. Taking its name from the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland where it held its first meeting in 1954, they’ve met every year since behind closed doors, shunning publicity, and keeping very quiet about just what they’ve been talking about. According to Will Hutton of the Observer, “The Bilderberg conference is one of the key meetings of the year. The consensus established there is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide.”

This years shindig was at the exclusive Versailles’ Trianon Park hotel, surrounded by French riot police and inaccessible to the public. Those arriving in long, black limos, behind police escorts and shrieking sirens included Billionaire Banker David Rockefeller, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Henry Kissinger-of-Death, Ex-Tory Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, US businessman and champion of perpetual war Richard Perle and Bob the Bilderberg. (see SchNEWS 399).

So is Bilderberg a secret conspiracy? A bunch of lizards in human form trying to take over the world? The ideology pushed at the Bilderberg conference is that what’s good for banking and big business is good for everyone. Tony Gosling, a journalist who has studied the Biderberg group adds “It’s not a ‘conspiracy’. The world’s leading financiers and foreign policy strategists don’t get together at Bilderberg to draw up their ‘secret plans for the future’. It’s subtler than that. These meetings create an artificial ‘consensus’ in an attempt to spellbind visiting politicians and other men of influence. Blair has fallen for this hook, line and sinker. It’s about reinforcing - often to the very people who are on the edge of condemning Globalisation – the illusion that Globalisation is ‘good’, ‘popular’ and that it’s inevitable.” Or as one old Labour Chancellor Denis Healey and key Bilderberger explained “We make a point of getting along younger politicians who are obviously rising, to bring them together with financiers and industrialists who offer them wise words. It increases the chance of having a sensible global policy.” One which continues to put profit and power before anything else.

For more on the Bilderberg see www.bilderberg.org or read ‘Bilderberg Group - The Global Manipulators’ by Robert Eringer (Pentacle Books 1980).

AFTER EIGHTS

For months, government spies have been infiltrating, discretely photographing faces and noting names, observing changes in neighbourhood routines and asking shopkeepers questions about newcomers. Since April 1, the French anti-riot police began patrolling, and recently all campsites within a 30km radius have closed, all unauthorised meetings banned and all construction sites told to down tools. Soon over 20,000 police, gendarmes, riot units and troops, supported by barricades of barbed wire, armoured vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles, helicopters, special forces frogmen and patrol boats will be completing the picture and turning the small French town of Evian and the harbour of Lausanne in Switzerland into a militarised “exclusion zone”. Hey, it must be time for another meeting of our world’s leaders.

The Group of Eight (G8) summit is happening on June 1-3 in Evian, France. The Group is made up of the richest seven industrialised nations of the world - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – plus Russia. Twenty one other countries have been invited as observers. To cheer on our great leaders thousands will be demonstrating on the streets.

The annual summit was initially the idea of France in the mid-1970s to help the world’s richest economies deal informally with big crises, but as one commentator said “Its list of memorable achievements is almost zero. Recent summits have been noticeable only because of the length of their vacuous final communiqués, the distance at which the political leaders have been kept from the public and the outrageous cost of organising the meetings.”

Last year’s bash in the Canadian Rockies cost around £347 million, while the one in Japan a record £460 million. France, fighting rising unemployment and urging its public to tighten their belts and save for their old age because of a pension crisis, isn’t letting on how much this one will cost, but there’s no doubt that the champagne will be flowing freely, and the security costs will be astronomical.

Groups such as Oxfam are asking the leaders to declare a war on poverty, but as a recent Amnesty report shows these nations are far too busy making money out of war to care about that. Between 1997 and 2001 at least two-thirds of all arms sales came from five of the G8 members - America, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, busy arming some of the world’s worst human rights abusers. As Oxfam commented “If the same amount of money and the same political will committed to the war on Iraq were put into aid, trade, and debt relief, it would end the suffering of millions of people. For the cost of just two stealth bomber planes, 48 million children in Africa, who have never had the chance to learn to read or write, could attend school for a year.”

Demonstrators are planning a Carnival against Capitalism from May 28 to June 3rd. To find out more www.g8circus.org.uk & http://uk.indymedia.org You could also join the Pink and Silver Bloc. “Anyone who is interested in creative, direct protest, organised in an anti-authoritarian and non-hierarchical way will be welcome. Lausanne is where there is a real chance of blocking the delegate’s passage to Evian; join us and help make it possible. Bring your own costumes, ideas and enthusiasm...get ready to samba!” info@rhythmsofresistance.co.uk And there’s transport from Brighton, email megan.mccauley@lycos.co.uk

* Read the Amnesty report “A Catalogue of Failures: G8 Arms Exports and Human Rights Violations”. For copies 020 7814 6200 www.amnesty.org

* Don’t forget the EU Summit happening on the 20-22 June on the Halkidiki peninsula in Greece. The summit has been moved from Thessaloniki apparently because of fears of crowd trouble, with one cop saying “Nothing will be able to come close to the summit, not even a fly.” European heads of state will discuss amongst other things EU expansion, new measures to control populations in the name of ‘security’ and building ever-higher defences for Fortress Europe to keep out refugees. To find out about the protests www.resistance2003.gr and www.wombles.org.uk

Crap Arrest of the Week

For waving a flag!
A 57 year-old American pacifist is in jail after refusing to pay $20,000 bail money after being arrested at an anti-war demo when mis-elected President Bush was in town. The police said he punched a police officer after refusing to move back. The protester claims he was simply waving a UN flag at the Bush motorcade in Indianapolis to show his opposition to the war on Iraq and was attacked by the police.

DU-LALLY

Next Thursday (29th May) is the Second International Day of Action Against Depleted Uranium (DU). DU is a radioactive by-product of the nuclear industry that is used in armour piercing shells and “bunker buster” bombs. When a DU weapon hits its target it burns on impact and creates an extremely fine dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body. In the last Gulf War the Pentagon admitted dropping 320 tonnes of the stuff resulting in increased cancers and birth defects among the Iraqi people. Over 90,000 US troops who served in the Gulf have also reported medical problems. Symptoms include lung, liver and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and birth defects among newborn children. In the second Gulf War an unnamed US Colonel has admitted that 500 tonnes of depleted uranium was dropped on Iraq (other estimate up to 2000 tonnes) and that they did nothing to limit DU use in cities.

With these health effects it is hardly surprising that the United Nations has passed two resolutions, which include depleted uranium weapons among “weapons of mass or indiscriminate destruction”. Not only that but the US military don’t care that they are leaving a toxic legacy in Iraq and don’t care about the health of their own troops. In an interview with al Jazeera television Professor Rocke, a former chief of Depleted Uranium Project at the Pentagon said he was told to lie about the effects of DU, “Even though we know there are health and environmental effects, you should make sure that we can always use uranium munitions in combat because they are so effective. And therefore lie about the health and environmental effects of the use of uranium munitions in combat.”

Campaign Against Depleted Uranium 0161-273-8293/8283 www.cadu.org.uk

To read the interview with the US Colonel involved in the Gulf War www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0305/S00050.htm

* Not content with using DU in bunker busting bombs, the US military will start to research “low yield” nuclear weapons, part of next years staggering $400 billion dollars to be spent by the US military.

* With US weapons inspectors soon to leave Iraq because they can’t find anything, maybe they could turn their attention a little closer to home where they will be sure of finding weapons of mass destruction and evidence of international weapons treaties being broken. The US Army has proudly developed a grenade that can be used to fire biological and chemical agents. This is in clear breach of the Biological Weapons Convention, which explicitly prohibits development of bioweapons delivery devices “in any circumstances”. Jan van Aken, a biologist from the Sunshine Project commented, “Hans Blix might have an easier time finding illegal weapons if he were inspecting near Baltimore instead of Baghdad.” www.sunshine-project.org

* George Bush is on Trial in the Pavilion Gardens, Brighton this Bank Holiday Monday 1pm. Sadly not the real thing, but street theatre performance by Sussex Action for Peace. 07815 998127 www.safp.org.uk

* In the UK people will take action against Britain’s own weapons of mass destruction: No to Star Wars UK tour visits missile defence and nuclear hotspots, 4-13 June. 020 7702393 www.cnduk.org ** Faslane Peace Camp 21st Birthday week of action. 9-15 June. 01436820901 www.faslanepeacecamp.org.uk ** Trident Ploughshares International Disarmament Camp at Britain’s nuclear weapon factory, Aldermarston, nr. Reading, 6-9 June. 07904 450307 www.tridentploughshares.org/aldermaston/index.php

SchNEWS in brief

• This Saturday (24), to mark African Liberation Day, there’s a rally and demonstration at the World Bank Offices. 11.30am, 80 Haymarket, London. 020 8625 1731 uhuruasi@aol.com
• ‘The Great Pipeline Debate’ - discussion on BP’s plans to use UK tax payers money to help fund the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, next Wednesday (28), New Theatre, LSE , Houghton Street, London 7.30pm 01865 200550 baku@gn.apc.org
• Beyondtv in Dub Benefit for people of West Papua. Wed 28th, films start at 8.30pm at Jabez Clegg, Portsmouth Street, Manchester £3/£1.50.
• Former framed anarchist prisoner Mark Barnsley will be speaking at The Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone St, Nottingham, next Thursday (29) 9pm Tel 0845 4589595
• This year’s Anarchist Bookfair is on 25th October at a new venue which has loads of meeting rooms. If you’re interested in putting on a meeting or having a stall contact mail@anarchistbookfair.org www.anarchistbookfair.org
• Help Rigaer94 housing project in Berlin who recently had their house seized by the authorities by contacting the Mayoress and asking her to listen to demands. In return her occupied party offices will be returned! Tel: 0049 30 2324 2301 Email: cornelia.reinauer@ba-fk.verwalt-berlin.de
• In the past six weeks 14 construction workers have been killed at work - the highest figure in the UK for over 10 years. Despite a promise by neo-Labour in their 1997 manifesto that corporate killing would become a criminal offence, companies are still being allowed to get away with murder. This week the government announced that it was finally going to introduce corporate manslaughter laws… some time soonish…and surprise, surprise individual company directors WILL NOT be able to be prosecuted. Centre for Corporate Accountability 020 7490 4494 www.corporateaccountability.org

Monsanto Claws

Last week around 80 members of Landless Peasant Movement (MST) invaded a Monsanto test site with the intention of turning it into an organic farm. MST leader Celio Rodrigues explained, “The government of Parana says it doesn’t want transgenics and we producers don’t want it.” Commercial growing of GM has been officially banned in Brazil since 1998 however up to a third of Brazil’s soy output is thought to be GM due to illegal importing of Monsanto soy.

This is the second time in a week that the MST, which was set up to remedy the fact that 3% of the population own two thirds of the land, have invaded this site.

* Meanwhile protestors in north Fife have laid waste to an oilseed rape trial - the last field of GM crops in Scotland.

Positive SchNEWS

Everyone is familiar with the common stinging nettle, but did you know that the nettle is one of the most valuable plants known? In the garden, they provide the natural habitat for several species of butterflies, including the Red Admiral, and make excellent organic compost activator and plant feed. In the kitchen, nettles can be cooked like spinach and made into tea and cordial. They’re rich in Vitamin A, B and C, iron and even seratonin, the ‘happy chemical’. For centuries, nettles have been used across cultures for their medicinal properties, and are good for aches and pains; gout and arthritis. They can made into clothing and were widely used in WW1 to provide military uniforms. So it seems there is almost no end to the beneficial properties of our stingy friend. Be Nice to Nettles Week runs from 21 - 30 May. Why not test your nettle knowledge at www.nettles.org.uk?

NO HOUPPE

A protest camp has been set up in one of the most beautiful forests of Belgium to protect it from turning into an ecological nightmare. D’Hoppe (La Houppe) is a small village about 40 km south of Ghent on the border of Flanders and Wallonia. Its forests provide a habitat for various rare and endangered species of animals and it borders on the Brakelbos nature reserve, which is highly protected for its natural and biological value. Unfortunately for the eco-system of this area the vast majority is owned by Marcel Fort, a local dodgy businessman, who isn’t averse to using violence and intimidation to get his own way. He is an extremely powerful figure in the local community who operates outside and above the law and has been terrorizing the village for years, making a stack of cash by turning what were once the highest hills in the area into a landfill site and a sand quarry.

When Fort wanted to cut down 30% of the trees that were left to increase the size of the quarry the locals decided enough was enough. They demanded the landfill site be closed, that quarrying be stopped, that the illegally built road to the site be removed and that every forest in D’Hoppe becomes officially protected and made publicly owned. On 27th April the camp was set up with tree houses going up and people arriving daily. For more info check www.foert.org or phone (+0032)/(0) 497-630312

Inside SchNEWS

Despite the fact that the Itoiz dam in Spain has now been filled, resistance is still going on against it. At the beginning of the year residents of Agoitz occupied the town hall for two weeks, and in March activists occupied an island behind the dam walls before being arrested. Inaki Garcia Koch is still serving time for cutting cables at the site during the dam construction. He’d appreciate letters of support: Iñaki Garcia Koch, Carcel de Iruñea, C/San Roque s/n, Iruñea 31004, Euskal Herria.

* For a list of people who are serving time around the world for their part in the anti-war and anti-nuclear resistance, and who’d like letters of support go to www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister

* Ray Gilbert has spent over 20 years behind bars protesting his innocence, framed for murder with no physical evidence. A discussion forum to push for his appeal case is happening next Thursday (29) at Friends Meeting House, Paradise St., Liverpool (opp. Holiday Inn) 8pm. www.ray-gilbert.co.uk

...and finally...

Animals angry at the abuse being dished out by humans are taking matters into their own hands: in Uganda baboons have been protesting against deaths on the busy Tororo-Jinja highway. In one incident a lorry driver deliberately ran-over a female baboon, the baboons then sat in the middle of the road surrounding her body causing a traffic jam for 30 minutes. In another incident baboons threw stones and sticks at motorists after a baby baboon was run down.

In South Africa some captive antelopes were freed by a herd of elephants. The herd circled the fence and the matriarch undid the gate latches and opened it. The antelopes then saw their chance and escaped. The elephants then ambled off back into the bush.

A dolphin used by the US navy to detect landmines has gone AWOL. The dolphin, named Tacoma, on his first mission in Iraq, got a taste of freedom and decided he wasn’t going to be a tool of the US war machine and hasn’t been seen since!

Disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all bodgers yer Bilderberg crack’s showing. We’ll be round next week to look at it - honest!

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