Home | Friday 10th June 2005 | Issue 501

WAKE UP! IT'S YER FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD

SchNEWS
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Story Links:
SPREAD THE JAM | UP YOUR STREET | Last chance For Tickets | SchNEWS In Brief | Faslane Peace Camp Birthday | Inside SchNEWS | Sugar 'n' Spice | Big Brother's Back | ...and finally...

SPREAD THE JAM

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” - Duncan Tannahill, former Chief executive of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.

“Why is it the same peoples’ eggs are always getting broken?” - Local resident.

Just when you thought those crackpot road planners couldn’t get any barmier, they totally surprise us and suddenly do. Big style.

Imagine a 100 foot-wide 6 lane motorway, 40 foot up in the air on concrete stilts with 13 bridges, viaducts, embankments and cuttings. Sounds minging? It gets worse. Now, consider that this new six mile motorway will bulldoze into a huge part of a community, destroying historic buildings, homes and businesses, and be built on a site that is rife with buried lethal toxic waste and contaminants. Sound like something out of a post apocalyptic sci-fi mega city? Well it ain’t.

Welcome to the M74 Northern Extension. Clocking in at up to £1 billion it’s the most expensive road infrastructure so far and is coming to Glasgow very soon. This wonderful feat of engineering will save a whopping five minutes off commuting time! Now that’s value for money...

The road was conceived in the 1960’s on a bad acid trip with a vision of 75 miles of motorway through Glasgow to relieve congestion and aid economic development. Forward 40 years and the planners still haven’t recovered from their paranoid delusions. An official enquiry gave the road the thumbs down cos it would increase traffic congestion, damage local communities and was unlikely to create new jobs. Despite all that the road was given the go ahead the day the report came out!

TOXIC COCKTAIL

SchNEWS has a sense of Déjà vu about this scheme - peoples lives and communities shafted for the sake of economic growth. The road cutting through a poor area will mainly serve big businesses in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, making Glasgow a “drive-though city”, as one resident put it. And considering that 59% of Glaswegians don’t own a car, it’s obvious that the motorway is geared toward commuters rather than helping out the community with better public transport.

Locals aren’t too impressed with this waste of money trashing their community, one telling SchNEWS, “there is not enough money to keep our local swimming pools open but… there is enough money to poison us… and to drive a big motorway full of pollutants through peoples areas.” It was a similar story with the M77 that was pushed through nearby Pollok in 1995, leaving communities destroyed and the traffic congestion still just as bad. (See SchNEWS 15)

DUKES OF HAZARD

The proposed route of the road through Rotherglen will require digging down 30ft into the ground to support the massive stilts the road is to run on. It crosses the site of an old chemical works. Former worker, Monty Borthwick, said that it was like “disturbing a sleeping giant.” The list of chemicals that are still under the ground include asbestos, chromium, arsenic, lead, lime and a heady cocktail of other mind and body altering substances. Monty goes on to say in his day there were three thousand workers there and all the ones he knew “died of cancer!”

If this toxic cocktail is brought to the surface the chromium down there would create a lethal dust cloud that would sweep over Glasgow. Protective suits will be provided for construction workers, but not for local residents. This led campaign group JAM74 to don their own protective suits and invade the council offices last year. They spread “toxic waste” (a harmless mix of porridge and compost) over the desks of the architects of this death trap. The coalition JAM74 have pledged to take direct action and ‘beat the bulldozers’ if the building starts.

More info: JAM74, PO Box 3751, Glasgow, G42 2AL. www.jam74.org

UP YOUR STREET

There’s dog shit on the pavements, kids outside keeping people awake at night, the street lighting’s broke and no-one seems to care. Welcome to the world of residents’ groups. A million miles away from plans to disrupt the G8 summit in Scotland…or could they be a revolutionary force to be reckoned with?

Next Saturday (18th June) a Community Action Gathering takes place in London. Called for by a number of independent, radical local groups around the country, one participant says: “We are trying to stand up for our interests, our conditions and our environment, and to build up solidarity and community spirit in our own towns and communities. This includes defending public facilities and green spaces, trying to improve housing conditions, campaigning for traffic calming, opposing destructive regeneration and development projects and so on. Activists organise or participate in leafleting, newsletters, open meetings and campaigns, social events, social centres, and a wide range of grass-roots community initiatives. It’s not always easy, but we are doing our best - at the same time encouraging residents to speak up for themselves and to organise together and support each other.”

Getting involved in community politics is also about getting to know your neighbours. Of course they’re unlikely to agree with all (or any!) of your views, but how about building bridges and working together to improve the things you can agree on. One community activist told SchNEWS “The front line of politics is outside your door. If we base our political activity around where people actually are, we can achieve a lot. People have concerns, which may be surprisingly similar to those of other people in their neighbourhoods: they want more control over their lives, to be part of a safe and friendly community, in a decent environment with good local services and facilities.”

Take the example of the Black Panther Party. While the image of the armed revolutionary in a black beret might be the first thing that comes to mind, actually the Panthers built up a solid power base because of their involvement in community politics. In 1956 the boycott against the segregation on buses led to the setting up of an alternative bus service. At the same time, students were occupying the offices and buildings of housing businesses run by white racists, and mobilising communities into self defence and underground organization. It was this non-violent, community based activism that later merged with the Black Panther movement, calling for a radical overhaul of the whole racist, capitalist system of violence and poverty. Black community control of institutions, education, land, housing, clothing and other community resources were as central to the Panther’s 10 point platform of 1966 as the call for armed self-defence against police brutality.

Whoops, we nearly caught ourselves talking about some far-away international struggle again. Focussing back onto neighbourhood issues…

Talk Is Cheap

So if yer local park needs some attention, or some calming measures needed to slow down speeding traffic, a local campaign could be successful and make people feel they can make a difference - rather than just waiting for some professional to ‘fix’ the problem. In fact just knowing your neighbours and saying hello can create a better sense of community where people feel safer.

This ‘feel good’ factor is backed up by the longest and most expensive study in the history of criminology. After a ten year study, the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighbourhoods concluded that the most important influence on a neighbourhood’s crime rate is neighbours’ willingness to act for one another’s benefit. The study argued that most major crimes are linked to concentrated poverty and what it calls ‘collective efficacy’ - which in plain English means that if your local park was full of rubbish and the local authority removed it all, the rubbish would probably return in a few weeks. But if the local community organised a meeting to clean up the park, with a chance for people to meet, solve problems and work together, the benefits would most likely be much longer lasting and the park would probably remain cleaner for longer.

The study has challenged the “broken windows theory” that if people are allowed to get away with little crimes like petty vandalism or dropping litter, bigger acts of disorderly conduct will follow. This theory has provided the intellectual justification for a crackdown on “quality of life” crimes in New York City and also Neo Labour’s anti-social big stick crusade. The research in the Chicago Neighbourhoods study shows that crime and ‘anti social behaviour’ is most effectively fought not with more laws and more jails, but by building strong communities where people take control of their own lives. Of course that’s just the sort of nonsense which could lead to less government, happier people, and anarchy!

Yes, Iraq and Palestine are important but so are the problems on your doorstep, and these doorstep problems are ones that you have more chance of resolving. We may be trying to (albeit slowly) bring down capitalism but a central part of this is that people and communities need to meet, talk and work together, to escape life in front of the TV and realise they are important and can make a difference. So let’s get out of our ghettos and into our communities, get involved in local residents group and try and steer them away from always moaning about dogshit and street lighting and into being positive forums for change.

Throbbing Hood

The alternative to ignoring community organisation is that parties like the BNP seize on peoples discontent, and stirring up hate. In Phil Piratins book ‘Our Flag Stays Red’ he describes the Communist Party’s (CP) strategy for defeating fascism in the East End in the 1930’s.

In one chapter, a local family is being evicted by slum landlords and the CP branch discusses what to do - the problem being that the head of the family is a member of the Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. Piratin’s position is that irrespective of the family’s BUF connections, the eviction must be resisted because working class people must be protected against the capitalists. Amidst much internal hostility, Piratin’s position prevailed. The CP successfully prevents the eviction of family, and the BUF member defected to the CP, saying that he had mistakenly believed that the fascists stood for ordinary people like him.

* For more about setting up a residents group see also www.schnews.org.uk/diyguide/howtocommunityaction.htm

* Recommended book on the Black Panthers: Stokely Carmichel’s ‘Black Power’.

LAST CHANCE FOR TICKETS

SchNEWS in brief

• “How the Cops See Crowds” A brief talk followed by questions and answers about how the police see public order situations and how this may influence their tactics. Next Monday (13) 7pm, Cowley Club, 12 London Road, Brighton
• Got an info/action report? Then send it right away to the new Earth First! Action Update - actionupdate@hushmail.com
• The Vivisection Information Network has produced a booklet detailing why experiments on animals do not help in developing drugs for humans. Send an SAE to: VIN, PO Box 223, Camberley, Surrey GU16 5ZU.
• Send us your stickers! SchNEWS wants stickers for our stalls over the summer so we can distribute them around the country at festivals and our tour.

It’s the second Norwich’s Anarchist Bookfair this Saturday (11th June 10am - 7pm) with plenty of stalls, plus music, food, swap shop, workshops on community action, direct action against fascism, Corporate Watch on Resisting the coporate invasion of Iraq PLUS the live interactive satirical show Have I Got SchNEWS For You? at 5pm. Waterloo Park Pavillion, Angel Road, Norwich, Norfolk. 07941 657485 www.norwichanarchists.org

Faslane Peace Camp Birthday

Faslane Peace Camp is celebrating its 23rd Birthday this weekend with a bash including two stages, punk band Oi Polloi, and sound systems (free entry). The camp is at Helensburgh, next door to the trident submarine naval base.

* Last Monday fifteen people broke into the naval base - with one getting spitting distance from a Trident nuclear sub. Fourteen were arrested.

* There’s a Big Action at Faslane on the 14th July, and people are welcome to stay on the site.

Inside SchNEWS

* It’s the weekend of Resistance For Jeff Luers marking his five-year imprisonment for burning three Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) at a car dealership in Eugene, Oregon. He was sentenced to over 22 years in prison! www.freefreenow.org

* In the last week there has been over 100 police raids all across Italy resulting in ten people being remanded into custody for allegedly being involved in a letter-bombing campaign - for which Animal liberation activist Sergio Maria Stefani, along with Marco Ferruzzi, Simone del Moro and David Santini have already been charged.

Some of those who were recently arrested are connected to the Italian Anarchist Black Cross. The Italian ABC are accused of circulating a press release from a group which claimed responsibility for some of the bombings, with authorities declaring it to be an ‘illegal publication’. http://squat.net/filiarmonici/crocenera/ (in Italian!)

Sugar ‘n’ Spice

This week 500 were arrested for trying to shut-down the Coca-Cola factory in Plachimada in Kerala, India.

This comes after the company was awarded a new short-term conditional license to operate, following the plant being closed for a year due to public pressure. The Anti Coca-Cola Struggle Committee and the Plachimada Solidarity Committee are trying to stop the plant re-opening because it is causing severe water shortages to the surrounding areas (See also SchNEWS 494). Help make the shut down of Coca Cola a ‘Real Thing’ go to: www.IndiaResource.org/action/faxcoke.php

Big Brother’s Back

Meanwhile, back in the Westminster home of doublespeak, ID Cards are again on the agenda despite recent evidence that biometrics is about as reliable as a neo-Labour focus group. During trials it was discovered that the “foolproof” scanning technology could not cope with all types of fools, struggling to read irises of “over 59 year olds” and “black” people and failing to register fingerprints of people with “large fingers”. Facial scans worked for only 69% of the trial group. As Professor Angela Sasse, a biometrics expert to parliamentary committees said, biometric technologies were “a lot less mature” than manufacturers made out. And they don’t stop terrorists they simply open up a new area of identity fraud.

A survey commissioned by Privacy International says that millions of people would break the law to fight the ID card, and that a million people would go to prison rather than register for a card. Groups are springing up around the country - if you don’t find one why not start yer own. See a list here www.no2id.net/localGroups

And while this is going on RFID tracking devices are going onto warehouse workers to ‘track movement’ - creating human battery farms in the name of ‘efficiency’. Already 10,000 workers for companies like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Boots and Marks & Spencer are tagged. The same companies are merrily ‘chipping’ their products with RFID devices. (See SchNEWS 415)

STOP PRESS: CRUNCH day for Titnore Woods, near Worthing, with plans for a 900-home development on woodland. Meeting Friday, June 10th 5.45pm meet Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing. www.protectourwoodland.fsnet.co.uk

...and finally...

Who’d have thought we’d run low on Crap Arrests Of The Week? If you don’t start mailin’ ‘em into us we’ll move over to ‘Crap Asbo Of The Week’ - cos there’s plenty of rich pickings there.

Disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all readers...neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours... Honest!

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