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SchNEWS This Time Last Year

BACK ISSUES

SchNEWS 549, 30th June, 2006
TSARS IN THEIR EYES Russia looks forward to flexing it's muscle in the energy themed G8 Summit they're hosting this year, never mind all that human rights rubbish...Also asylum seekers hunger strike, resistance to Shell pipeline in Ireland continues and more.

SchNEWS 548, 16th June, 2006 FOOD FOR THOUGHT To celerate African Fertilizer Summit in Nigeria we're having a look at the agriculture business around the world. Also fingerprinting and surveillance at UK schools, a Bhopal update and much more.

SchNEWS 547
9th June, 2006

PRICKS AND MORTAR Locals set up a protest camp near Worthing, West Sussex to stop the building of a new Tesco and hundreds of houses on an ancient woodland. Also more protest camp updates, protests and repression in Egypt and the World Naked Bike Ride...

SchNEWS 546,
2nd June, 2006

BREAK THE ICE - The battle to fight climate change begins... This summer there will be a climate change camp. Plus - Iran and nuclear energy, protest camp protects trees in Titnore Woods, Worthing, and sweat-shop made football kit dominates World Cup...

SchNEWS 545, 26th May, 2006
SNATCH-22 - In the face of racist lies by the Home Office and media about asylum seekers we look at life for refugees in the UK. Plus Brian Haw's camp at Parliament Square is raided by police, protests against Shell pipeline in Ireland and more...

SchNEWS 544, 19th May, 2006
WALL OF SHAME - Palestinians defend land from Israeli occupation, and suffer the effects of the removal of US and EU aid. Plus - Glaxo-SmithKline get injunction to silence animal rights protesters, Bono has us seeing red and more...

SchNEWS 543, 12th May, 2006
FLOWER POWER - In Texcoco, (near Mexico city) a flower market was the flashpoint for a bloody showdown between the state and a local community hell-bent on self-rule and autonomy.

SchNEWS 542, 5th May, 2006
DOVER AND OUT - The exporting of live animals starts again as the EU ban ends. Plus - Bolivia renationalises gas supplies, Guantanamo prisoners do guerilla gardening, UK MayDay 2006 Roundup and more...

SchNEWS 541, 28th April, 2006
ONE GOOSE-STEP BEYOND - The far-right in Britain were defeated on the streets - so now they are trying to move into ''politics'. Plus - update from Nepal, Brighton activist reports from Palestine and more...

SchNEWS 540, 21st April, 2006
NEPAL OR NOTHING - SchNEWS writer in Nepal give account of civil unrest as the Nepalese population strike and protest to remove a parasitic, psychopath who calls himself the king.

SchNEWS 539,
7th April, 2006

ETHICAL CLEANSING
CO-OP bank are revealed to be not the safe ethical invester they are supposed to be - a follow up report on the Co-Op

SchNEWS 538,
31st March, 2006

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? A look at the causes and effects of UK and EU asylum policy. Also ID cards update, America calling the kettle black, protests continue in France and more.

SchNEWS 537, 24th March, 2006 GAUL TO ARMS New neo-liberal employment laws in France bring millions into the streets and riots break out. Also Anti-Shell protests step up in Ireland, another EDO victory, Schengen's birthday and more.

SchNEWS 536, 17th March, 2006 WATER TORTURE Water companies continue to cream off profits while claiming they're doing all the can to plug leaks, and it's the same the world over. Also, animal testing, deforestation in Tasmania, Shepton Mallet evicted and more.

SchNEWS 535, 10th March, 2006 PIGS MIGHT LIE Charges against 8 more Anti EDO activists are dropped. Woo Hoo! Also an update on the situation in Barcelona and lots more.

SchNEWS 534, 4th March, 2006
YOU'RE HAVING A L.A.R.R-F - Last rites for Parliament under new Bill? The proposed Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill aims to do away with Parliament! Also, more British troops in Afghanistan, Pro Test dummies, EDO victory demo report, and to name but a few.

SchNEWS 533, 24th Feb, 2006
MoD PLC Neo Labour have quit hiding behind PFI and PPP and started with all out privatisation, starting with the MoD!!! Also anti Tesco protest camp, anti shell protest, peat extraction company targeted and more.

 
Fear not, my lady - i estimate we can keep up this elite dominance for a good century or two yet...
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Home | Friday 7th July 2006 | Issue 550

WAKE UP! IT'S YER READY FOR COLLAPSE...

SchNEWS

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Story Links: Revolting | All Over The Place | G8 Russia | Happy Campers | Inside SchNEWS | SchNEWS in Brief | ...and finally...

REVOLTING
SchNEWS’s ANNUAL STATE OF THE INDIG-NATION ADDRESS

For eleven years now SchNEWS has been reporting on anti-capitalist and anti-authority struggles from Bognor to Bogota. A year since the G8 and where do we stand as a movement? Although there are signs of mini-resurgences in direct-action politics there is as yet nothing like the mass numbers who participated in the 90’s. Many see the political situation as hopeless, the state and corporations as all-powerful. Yet the cracks are really beginning to show.

At the height of the 90’s wave of direct action, concepts such as the non-viability of industrial capitalism, the dangers of climate change, wars being fought for the benefit of multi-national corporations, that states are inevitably authoritarian - were (in the developed world at least) effectively conspiracy theories held by minorities. Even organic agriculture was considered a joke. Since J18 (June 18 1999 see SchNEWS 217) ‘capitalism’ has become more examined in the UK mainstream media, and the twin concepts of the free market and infinite economic growth are being revealed for the hollow sham they are. This redefinition of capitalism as an agenda / ideology rather than ‘just the way things are / the natural state of affairs’ is possibly one of the greatest successes of the movement. There is now also widespread scepticism about the introduction of the clampdown state with its reliance on surveillance, ID cards and armed goons to keep us all in line. You don’t have to be a black block anarchist to see that the banning of protest in Parliament square and the gunning down of ‘terrorist suspects’ are symbols of ominous authoritarianism.

Another development has been the acceptance by huge numbers of people that the government is perfectly capable of going to war with a mercenary corporatist agenda. The million and a half who marched against the war may not want a revolution but as they grow disillusioned of petitioning politicians with little results, and having witnessed police repression of local demos in many towns they may one day come to see one as necessary.

With oil now hitting $75 dollars an increasingly-scarce barrel, climate change becoming increasingly obvious, and the crackdown really getting underway, it is clear that a huge transition in the way we live, travel and consume is inevitable. The collapse is upon us - the only question is: who will control that transition?

The government nuclear-powered-police-state solution will encounter greater opposition as the consequences for Joe Public become clearer. David Attenborough might pop up on the telly to tell us that we can keep on living as we used to if we just change our lightbulbs, but this centre-ground is becoming an isolated island. Not so much rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic as washing the windows on the World Trade Centre.

BABYLON IS BURNING

The economy is being kept afloat by a debt-fuelled consumer boom and we are engaged in a disastrous resource war. Overt corruption in political life has been oozing to the surface once again. The electoral system and the mainstream media will try and palm us off with Blair Mark II, and Cameron may be elected, but it will only be by a thin wedge of the population. Voting numbers are in free fall as parliamentary politics entirely loses its credibility. One small-minded answer to this impasse is nationalism: The rise of the BNP (although exaggerated by the press) is fuelled by an inability to provide solutions within a neo-liberal framework. The BNP have a whole section of their website dedicated to Peak Oil.

The catalyst for bringing these issues to a head for the public will be when the economy goes into recession. Capitalism cannot grow infinitely on a finite planet. Eventually the monster will devour its own tail. Neo-Labour has had the luck of being in power during a period when the ruthless imposition of neo-liberalism has enabled the flow of cheap consumer goods to subsidise the lifestyle of the West. As America’s inability to project its power globally is displayed daily in the quagmire of Iraq, others at the back of the global classroom have begun to seriously act up. The system of global dominance that underpins our wasteful, exploitative system is under severe threat. It may be that the effects take years to be felt here – but the very fact that the government has felt the need to introduce so much repressive legislation at a time of relative domestic content (compared to say the industrial unrest of the 70s and early 80s) indicates that they are fully aware of the looming crisis.

The future of Middle England, the main pillar of support for the centre right consensus, is in jeopardy. Britain’s personal debt is increasing by £1 million every four minutes. Personal debt where the family home is used as collateral has grown 52% in the last five years. A recession with its inevitable round of house repossessions will have a far greater impact this time around. Will people stand by this time and allow the banks to board up their homes? In Argentina in 2002 it was when the middle classes slipped into bankruptcy and joined forces with those lower in the social pecking order that change became possible (See SchNEWS 350). But when the same situation washes over in the West, who will bail out the leaking neo-liberal boat? Their vision is unsustainable in every sense of the word.

As the centre declines new ideas will come into circulation. At the moment apathy and alienation are obstacles to be reckoned with, and will be as long as ‘politics’ is still identified with mainstream media / electoral soap operas. And as the global crisis bites those who feel they’ve earned their right to security we will see a rise in political engagement – but what alternative models will be on offer for them? All those involved in the creation of a sustainable future, from compost loo’s to class war, may not have a blueprint for utopia but they / we can input ideas into the bottom-up transformation of society, bypassing the media machine by linking up with other grassroots struggles.

The libertarian direct action movement is now smaller and fragmented and we need to engage with other social networks without losing sight of our values and analysis. For example, large amounts of activist energy has gone into the social centre experiment. It is possible social centres may become beacons of organisation but equally possible that they will cause us to develop a ghettoized siege mentality. Social centres in the UK have so far struggled to be attractive to people not already involved in the counterculture. To be successful these places need to link into local struggles against overdevelopment and exploitation, and contribute more to local communities. Anyone remember think globally, act locally? It is important to understand the international situation but if summit-hopping and sitting in groovy anarcho-lifestyle hang-outs are to become the backbone of our movement we are destined for the dustbin of history.

It may be that for the first time in the UK’ shistory, our views are no longer confined to a small minority. The anti-war movement may have reached its peak but great damage has been done to faith in the status quo and the liberal-authoritarian idea of democracy. We need a strategy that goes beyond mass-media politics, to convince a fractured population that there are other solutions and ideas, and that they are not alone in their fears.

The Global South is rising, and we need to get back out on the streets and in the trees – we have no choice. Be part of history - don’t just let it happen to you...

We Are Still All Over The Place

You’ve heard the call to arms – now here’s just a few of the people you can contact if you want to get active to help build a new future...

Climate Change: Rising Tide - www.risingtide.org.uk ** Camp For Climate Action - 26- 4 September – ten day camp in north of England to bring together all wanting to work to tackle climate change. www.climatecamp.org.uk

Peak Oil: (See SchNEWS 499) Oil is an unsuistainable finite resource - and we are about to hit the down-turn. See www.powerswitch.org.uk www.peakoil.net for more.

ID Cards: Join the growing fight against a total surveillance big-brother state (See SchNEWS 466). See www.defy-id.org.uk and www.no2id.net

Anti-War: Justice Not Vengence - www.j-n-v.org ** Smash EDO - www.smashedo.org.uk Direct Action against the war machine. Smash Edo campaign to shut down bomb builders EDO MBM in Brighton. ** Campaign Against Arms Trade - www.caat.org.uk ** Faslane Peace Camp - www.faslane365.org

Animal Rights: Confronting the abuse of animals by pharmaceutical corporations ** Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty - www.shac.net Speak: fighting the Oxford Animal Lab - www.speakcampaigns.org.uk

Protest Camps: Titnore Woods – anti-development tree-top protest near Worthing (SchNEWS 547) - www.protectourwoodland.co.uk ** Camp Bling – road expansion camp in Southend (SchNEWS 514) www.dragonnetwork.org/campaigns/bling

Social Centres: Kebele – Bristol, Basement - Manchester, 1 In 12 Club – Bradford, Sumac Centre – Nottingham, Cowley Club – Brighton, Common Place – Leeds, 56A Infoshop, south London. Find details on these and many others from www.schnews.org.uk/links

Alternative Media: Indymedia www.indymedia.org.uk ** Ainfos - www.ainfos.ca ** Libcom - www.libcom.org ... et al...

Asylum Seeker Support: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns - www.ncadc.org.uk ** Noborders Network - www.noborder.org

Anti-Fascist: ANTIFA - www.antifa.net

Prisoner Support: Anarchist Black Cross - Support for anarchists and class war prisoners. www.brightonabc.org.uk

For more groups see our contacts list with 800 entries on all these topics and much more at www.schnews.org.uk/links

G8 RUSSIA

Another year, another chance to be a fly in the ointment of the world’s ruling elite. For any of you activist-hobbyists out there, it’s time to dust off yer demonstatin’ boots once again: the G8 cartel meets next week (July 15-17th) in Strelna, a suburb of St.Petersburg, Russia.

While protesting in Russia is a bit more tricky than gallivanting up to Gleneagles in the UK, this is not going to stop the activist circus from going to the party. A cycle caravan has already started from Berlin to St.Petersburg (reports and photos on Indymedia) and many others are to converge in Moscow 8-12th of July for a libertarian forum – leading on energy and G8 plans for a nuclear power renaissance - as a build up event for protests in St. Petersburg. During the summit there will be clowning around at a social forum in St. Petersburg and a convergence space in the Kirov stadium (with an autonomous space).

Even if Russia itself is beyond your reach, don’t despair: on 14th of July there is a call for a Global Day of Action. There will be protests against neo-liberal politics of the G8 in cities around the world, and if you can’t make one of these you can always start one of your own...

* For info and links to networks and groups, see www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/g8/

HAPPY CAMPERS

Eleven peace activists from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Citizens Inspection Agency (CIA) got into the US military base at Daws Hill, Buckinghamshire, last Monday (3rd) and established ‘Camp Freedom’ for 24 hours, staying around for the traditional annual celebrations of July 4th by the US servicemen and families stationed there (this base has 70 houses and a boarding school for ex-pat American kids). Once in, they hung banners around and set up tents around the entrance to the three-storey underground nuclear command bunker at the base. Daws Hill is a secret communication base for the National Command Authority – which relays information for the US military, and through which a US president would order an attack. On Tuesday the entrance to the base was locked with a chain, and a Section 6 notice on it, to say it’d been occupied by squatters.

Eventually, as the campers worried that trigger-happy Americans might get a bit too merry during celebrations of their national day, MOD plod were notified of the camp, after which they arrived on the scene but had to climb the fence to get in because the entrance was blocked. They weren’t in the mood to arrest, and eventually when the protesters decided to leave, they were escorted by police past the celebrating US families, with the cops really not wanting to draw attention to the protests.

This action was one of several around the country under the name From America Independence Day – appropriately held on July 4th - with veteran peace campaigner Lindis Percy leading a demo of 100 at the Menwith Hill US spy base in North Yorkshire (for more see www.caab.org.uk), and the Feltwell US base’s traditional July 4th funfair for servicemens’ families, which had a group of peace campaigners as an added attraction.

The underground complex at Daws Hill was built during the heady cold war days of the 1980s, and has an electric fence around it ready to switch on to keep the hoards out. It was the site of a peace camp from 1982-84, established with Faslane, Molesworth, Lakenheath and others after the Greenham Common all-women peace camp (see www.greenhamwpc.org.uk).

* There will be The Big Demo at RAF Lakenheath - the biggest US air force base in Europe – on October 1st at the Lakenheath Main Gate. For more see www.motherearth.org/lakenheathaction

Inside SchNEWS

Carol Fisher was stapling an anti-Bush poster to phone poles in Cleveland USA last January, when two police officers approached and told her that posting was illegal. She said she was willing to take it down but before she could do so, one of the officers suddenly backed her against a shop window and demanded her to show him her ID. Carol didn’t refuse to do so, but offered to get the ID from her car. Strangely, the officers didn’t give her the chance and instead cuffed her hands and threw her on the pavement, holding down her face. Carol called out in protest to bystanders but never made any aggressive moves against the officers. She was the one being assaulted, then taken to hospital and later charged with two counts of felony assault.

As if that wasn’t enough, she was recently found guilty in a strongly biased court-hearing on 2nd of June, with conflicting evidence given by heavily-coached ‘witnesses’, was forced to undergo a psychiatric examination and finally sentenced to two months in jail, with two years of probation including community service and mandatory anger management classes. Good old free speech in the Land of Liberty! The verdict will be appealed as Carol hasn’t committed any of the offences she’d been charged with. * For information and support, see www.worldcantwait.net

SchNEWS in Brief

  • 7, 8 & 10-15th - Indymedia film festival - with films about topics from climate change to war on terror and more. www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london
  • 8 - Second Sustainable Science Symposium, a day of talks and workshops hosted by Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in conjunction with the University of East London – with a focus on architecture and sustainable building technologies, with other family friendly events. Call 01654 705957 or visit www.aees.co.uk/symposium
  • 9 - Profiting from the Occupation. Conference with Dr Mustafa Barghouti (Palestinian Presidential Candidate and MP) and Elizabeth Corrie (cousin of murdered activist Rachel Corrie) about how corporations like Caterpillar, Connex and high street supermarkets are exploiting the Occupation of Palestine, and international resistance. 10:30am- 7pm, free, Human Rights Action Centre 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA web www.waronwant.org
  • 10 - Big Aldermaston Blockade. Resist Britain’s WMD programme - Stop the next generation of nuclear weapons! Corporate war profiteers and their military masters are building new nuclear weapons facilities at Britain’s nuclear bomb factory at Aldermaston in Berkshire. Come and join us for a big and practical/active NVDA blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/action
  • 13 – Talk from the President of the powerful Iraqi oil workers union in Basra, Hassan Juma’a who will be speaking at the Iraq Occupation Focus monthly meeting. Hear about how this repressed union is fighting the US-led grab for Iraq’s oil resources. 7.30pm, the Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London, WC1. (tube Warren St). www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk
  • 14 - Oscar Olivera, the renowned trade union activist who led the fight against water privatisation in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is to talk in Brighton, followed by a short film by the Bolivian Solidarity Campaign. 7.30pm, at Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton, free entry. Call 07886 313196, email leila.deen@gmail.com
  • 15 - Titnore Woods Tree Camp Open Day, 12pm. Workshops include shelter construction, camp cooking, nature trail and more. See www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/?q=node/1398 for directions and more information.

...and finally...

Losing in the real battlefields of Iraq, the Pentagon is unleashing virtual wars it can win. Mercenaries 2:World in Flames released by Pentagon subcontractor Pandemic studios deals with the oh-so fictional scenario of “a power-hungry tyrant messing with Venezuela’s oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a war zone.”. You play a mercenary whose job is to sow mayhem and devastation until Venezeula achieves ‘democratic norms’. It boasts ‘No morals and no rules has never been so much fun.’

Pandemic, who develop battlefield simulations for the Pentagon and then turn them into family-friendly shoot ‘em ups such as Full Spectrum Warrior, were recently acquired by none other than Bono for £300 million. Not content with lecturing about poverty and flogging (RED) products, he’s now considering an X-Box version of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” where you play a crack paratrooper gunning down civil rights demonstrators.

In response, SchNEWSsoft is shortly to release ‘Nihilist Assault Group: U2 Must Die’ (for Linux) where your mission is to find your way through a maze of bullshit at a global summit to hunt down an ‘ego-mad rock star threatening the public with toxic industrial hypocrisy’. We boast ‘Never has no morals and no rules ever been so depressing’.

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