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Story Links: Along For Fluoride | Never Mind The Balluch | Demolition Derby | Notts Landing | Bush Whacking | Jockson Five | Campsfled | Party & Protest | And Finally

ALONG FOR FLUORIDE

AS BRITAINS FACE MASS MEDICATION OF TOXIC WATER ADDITIVE

If you knew that someone was putting poison into your water supply, what would you do? Call the authorities? Well don’t bother cos it’s the government wot’s doing it!

If you live in the West Midlands or the North East, the chances are that you already have a fluoridated water supply - and comments earlier this year from Health Secretary Alan Johnson made it clear that he is keen to see this toxic industrial waste added to everyone else’s water as soon as possible. Why? He believes that it is a ‘key means of tackling tooth decay’ – despite the fact that no scientific evidence bears this out, and much other evidence has emerged linking fluoride ingestion to bone deficiencies, cancer, joint pain, skin rash, damage to thyroid glands and even IQ deficits.

So what’s going on? Well, Alan Johnston has swallowed the arguments put forward by the dental and pharmaceutical lobbying groups, all of which have been exported here from the US where, since the 1940s, they have managed to get over 70% of water fluoridated. It’s just science they say – fluoride was shown in the mid-1930’s to have a beneficial effect on the incidence of children’s tooth decay, so why not add it at source and protect everyone’s teeth without them having to do a thing?

But this mass medication argument has more holes in than my sugar-addled teeth. Number one is obviously, er, mass medication? Unknown dosage level (everyone’s water consumption is different) and without the patients’ consent? Since when was that normal practice? You don’t forcefeed people aspirin because one of them may be experiencing a headache... it’s illogical and wasteful – not to mention people’s rights to refuse medication.

In fact, a dip in the scientific fluoride literature is like diving into a very muddy pool, reminiscent of the ‘smoking is not really bad for you’ or ‘climate change isn’t really happening’ debates of recent decades. This alone should be ringing the alarm bells. Many studies do suggest that ‘topical’ application of fluoride, i.e. applying it to the teeth directly by way of toothpaste etc does have some beneficial effect on cavity rates, although these don’t attempt to separate out all the other factors which may play a part in tooth health, like diet, or attempt to discover other ways of achieving the same benefits. While fluoride is proven (and accepted by all) to cause dental fluorosis (pitted or mottled tooth enamel) – now widespread in American mouths - little high quality study has been done on other side effects like bone deterioration or cancers, which may mean a slightly healthier smile is far outweighed by a shorter diseased life.

And the story with applying the fluoride by drinking it in water is even cloudier. There is no unequivocal proof that it works. In fact, since large parts of America started sipping it in the 1950s, numerous studies have shown that, all else being equal, tooth decay rates for fluoridated and non-fluoridated water areas are, er, exactly the same – or in some cases even higher in fluoridated areas! This has led to nearly all of Europe long since abandoning the practice – but it seems that governments in the UK (10% fluoridated) and Ireland (72%) just can’t resist the persuasive American connection.

If you were of a slightly cynical mind (who us?!), it would almost seem that nobody at the top wants to hear any evidence contradicting the fluoride dogma. The approved studies are designed (and funded) purely to decide whether adding fluoride for teeth can be considered ‘a good thing’. This is the result demanded by big business eager to turn an expensive-to-get-rid-of toxic industrial waste product (left over in pesticide production, aluminium processing and nuclear uranium enriching, amongst other things) into a ‘miracle’ health ingredient to be boxed up, re-branded and sold back in small amounts to the general public in return for a handsome profit. Well you can see their logic. Two birds with one stone and profits up. No wonder that the many more recent long term-studies and peer-reviews of past data showing no provable benefits (and many possible negatives) are swiftly discredited or ignored.

CLOSE TO THE BONE

And there are other (presumably weakened, deteriorating) skeletons in the closet. In 1997, two American journalists dug out previously classified documents revealing how fluoride policy and research was shaped by atom bomb making at the end of the Second World War. The first court cases against the government from people affected by living near to the bomb making facilities were not for the effects of radiation, but for damage to crops from fluoride pollution.

The secret ‘Manhattan Project’ memos – the group of government and industrial capitalists running the development of the nuclear option – show that they knew about the problems and commissioned pro-fluoride research merely to help fight these and future possible court cases. Despite editorial approval and full referencing, the damning article was dropped by the Christian Science Monitor and never widely published.

Despite Birmingham and other areas’ water being contaminated, no new UK regions have joined them since the mid 1980s when the rollout was put on hold. But the threat is back. In 1993, despite no demand, the government passed an act giving regional strategic health authorities (SHA) the power to compel water to be fluoridated. It must have been frustrating for them and their corporate sponsors that, to date, not one of them has done so. So it seems like a whole new round of propaganda and pressure is about to be applied. Anti-fluoride action groups have sprung up around the country (see www.hampshireagainstfluoridation.blogspot.com and www.freewebs.com/keepwatersafe for example) who are working to try and ensure that nobody else is unwillingly force-fed this harmful toxic poison for no health benefit. As recent studies in China and Mexico have shown a link between fluoride consumption and lower IQ scores, maybe they’re just out to keep us all dumb...?

* There’s tons more info to get yer teeth into at www.freewebs.com/keepwatersafe and www.fluoridealert.org

NEVER MIND THE BALLUCHS?

Dr Martin Balluch, Austrian animal rights campaigner, has been arrested and is one of ten held on remand, since May 21st, after a massive, violent police attack involving hundred of police and raids on 21 homes and 6 offices of animal rights sympathisers in Austria.

After police smashed their way into his home – and those of his two brothers and girlfriend - Martin had a gun pointed to his head and was pulled out of bed naked. They have nothing concrete on Martin or the other arrestees, but with all the computers and papers they have confiscated they are trying to build a fiction that Martin and others were “forming a large criminal organisation with a hierarchical structure like a company” - now a heinous crime in Austria under a new anti-terror and mafia law. This is the latest weapon in a large scale police campaign against animal rights activists which has already been going on for several years, involving phone and email tapping, surveillance and forensics.

.... For those of you with a memory of more than two weeks, a lot of this stuff sounds eerily similar to a case a little closer to home, that of Sean Kirtley (see SchNEWS 634, 632) who has recently been given 4½ years under section 145 of SOCPA for “Interfering with the contractual relationships of a laboratory.” Across Europe ever more vaguely-worded crimes are worming their way into the statute books and are used to stitch up people the authorities see as ‘key’ activists, with animal rights activists first in the firing line. Who’s next?

* Write to Martin c/- Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, BM Box 2407, London, WC1N 3XX. www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

DEMOLITION DERBY

Anti-coal actions ahead of this year’s Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth power station (3rd - 11th August) have been getting all fired up.

Last Tuesday night saw the beginning of a new protest camp in Derbyshire against a proposed open-cast coal mine. Activists descended on a site at Lodger House, near Smalley in the dead of night. Treehouses have been built, and protesters have bunkered down with supplies in the Prospect Farm house, using lock-ons around their necks to prevent forced entry, and set up barricades to prevent police from bringing in specialist equipment down Bell Lane. The land is owned by UK Coal and had already seen a mass trespass of the site on May 26th (See SchNEWS 631).

After being opposed for years by environmental groups and local councils, the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn granted permission in 2007, possibly setting a precedent for other shallow coal deposits to be dug up, this being just one of seven sites UK Coal plan to mine. The 122 hectare site will have 1m tonnes of coal extracted over five years, after which UK Coal claim will be ‘returned back to its natural state’.

This site is 10 miles from Nine Ladies, who are offering tat and no doubt numbers will move to this site, but the camp is calling out for help, tat and people to come and join in.

See www.leaveitintheground.org.uk (Site mob 0750 333 5870)

* There will be a noise demo on July 1th outside UK Coal, near Doncaster. Meet at Doncaster train station at 3.30pm or outside UK Coal at 4pm.

** Just over a week ago, protestors hijacked a train carrying fuel for the Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire. In natty white overalls and canary outfits, activists used safety signals to stop the train on a bridge overlooking the power station, before climbing on board and dumping coal off onto the tracks. They also used climbing ropes to suspend themselves under the bridge to prevent the train from moving for a number of hours until cops got to grips with the situation and made 29 arrests. See www.earthfirst.org.uk

*** For more about the Camp For Climate Action see www.climatecamp.org.uk

NOTTS LANDING

Hicham Yezza, the Nottingham student held under anti-terror laws on bogus and threatened with deportation to Algeria having been in Britain for 13 years, has been released after 31 days (for background see SchNEWS 634). He and another student were arrested on May 14th for downloading an Al Qaeda training manual off a US government site for research purposes.

After the six day interrogation process was over he was immediately re-arrested and accused of living in the UK illegally and threatened with deportation. The Home Office tried to claim that he had no close ties in Britain, when in fact he is a well known campus activist and magazine editor, and hundreds of references attested to his positive character. A campaign worked to see the release of Hich and now will fight to secure his right to remain in the country. He has been granted bail, and immigration law specialist firm Cartwright King will represent Hich in a judicial review.

On his release Hich said: “Being detained for the past 31 days has been the most harrowing experience of my life. The support my campaign has received from thousands of friends and supporters - including MPs academics, artists and concerned citizens in Nottingham and beyond - has been nothing short of inspirational and has sustained me through this difficult time.”

For more tel 07948 590262 or see www.freehichamyezza.wordpress.com

BUSH WHACKING

The planned STW/SWP demo against Dubya’s last UK visit on Monday was more exiting than yer standard march’n’chant affair.

Despite the best efforts of the Stop the War coalition to serve up a generic McMarch against the ‘World’s No.1 Terrorist’, an up-fer-it crowd of some 2,000 people defied the wishes of the police and STW stewards and tried their damnedest to deliver their message in person to Whitehall.

The rally started around 5pm. George Gallotwat, Tony ‘Against The War But For The Warmakers’ Benn and Lindsey ‘Vanguard’ German all made their appearance, alongside People’s (or is it Hello’s) favourite Bianca Jagger, all on hand to provide a soporific voice-over to the demo.

The march had initially been banned by police, who threatened to use powers originally brought in to quell the Chartists in 1839.

The demo proper started around 6.30. Led by a samba band, the crowd went from Parliament Square towards Whitehall. Once the crowd met the lines of police, the demo broke out of its traditional conformity and a bit of genuine argy-bargy ensued. Either hoping for a bit of street cred or caught out by the turn of events, onlookers spotted Gallotwat and Bianca in the fray.

Once up against the pig pens the crowd started pushing, busting down the fences in one place, gee'd on by Parliament Square's badge-headed resident MC Brian Haw. Afraid of losing control of the situation, the police hit back, pushing and shoving while hitting people with their batons. For good measure they also broke some hippy drums.

The protesters used the Stop the War/ SWP banners for the only thing they’re any good for - bashing the cops. Meanwhile, the Socialist Worker stalwarts bravely hung around the back and sold papers.

As it all kicked off the STW stewards showed their true allegiances as they started ordering the crowd to obey the police and leave quietly. At one point they had their backs to the police and were physically blocking the demonstrators from getting any closer to Bush and his minions. This went on for about 1 ½ hours as people tried to get closer to Whitehall. They didn’t succeed, but a valiant effort by all concerned.
There were further clashes when people tried to get around the back of St James Park, only to be met by police in riot gear, who soon put a stop to their fun.

There was nobody masked up at the demo, even those in the front lines weren’t disguised in any way. Compounding this naivety, after the demo people hung around Parliament Square, only to be picked off by police snatch squads. Next time perhaps bring a scarf..?

JOCKSON FIVE

Yesterday (Thursday) five activists from Trident Ploughshares locked on to the gates of Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland.

Reminiscent of last year's Faslane365 rolling blockade (See SchNEWS 604 and work backwards), they were there to mark a year since, as one of the activists said, “the Scottish government voted NOT to support Gordon Brown’s plan to foist illegal, immoral and unaffordable nuclear weapons on Scotland for another 50 years. Along with the majority of people in Scotland, we don’t want them here or anywhere else.” After blocking the entrance for an hour and a half, all five were eventually removed and arrested for Breach of the Warmongers (er, we mean Peace).

As one of the arrestees put it, “By using our hands and our bodies in this way, without causing harm to others, we hope that we can make it easy to see how it is the simple actions of ordinary people that are needed to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.”

See www.tridentploughshares.org

CAMPSFLED

Yesterday morning (19th), seven detainees broke out of the Campsfield Detention Centre for asylum seekers in Kidlington, six miles from Oxford. While three were recaptured, four are still at large. Of the four, two are Palestinians and one is Afghan, all who apparently have been told they have 'safe' homelands to return to. Police are combing the area and are calling out for the public to look out for ‘dishevelled, disorientated individuals’.

This is just the latest act of resistance from inmates at Campsfield, the privatised prison run by Group 4. Last August during a riot at Campsfield against appalling conditions, 26 broke out, with 15 recaptured, and there’d been previous rioting in March, and another last December.

www.closecampsfield.org.uk

PARTY & PROTEST

• JUNE: 21th - Tent City protest at Parliament Square over Iraqi deportations – A SOCPA-unauthorised 24-hour “tent city” to protest against ongoing UK deportations to Iraq, and for the restoration of benefits, housing and the right to work for all rejected Iraqi asylum seekers. From 12 noon Saturday. www.voicesuk.org
• 23th-28th - International Anti-Nuclear Festival in Finland - Workshops, seminars, music, ACTION. A free international gathering to expose nuclear madness, create better alternatives and to have a good party! In close vicinity of Olkiluoto, nuke plant and building site of the world’s largest nuclear reactor, a fault-ridden prototype... Email: camp@olkiluoto.info or see www.nuclearmadness.info
• 28th - Nonviolent Power and Climate Change – Rising Tide host a one-day workshop in practical aspects of nonviolent power with participatory workshop about effective campaigning and group-working. 10am-5pm in central Reading. Small donation appreciated, but not what it’s about... Call 020 7663 1064, email: denised@quaker.org.uk or see www.turning-the-tide.org
• JULY: 11-13 - Anarchist Summer Camp, Ireland - A weekend with activities, workshops, campfires and more. Low-cost catering by Lental Disorder. Bring a tent and a sleeping bag, plates, bowls, cutlery (but no dogs). The farmhouse can be used for special needs. Near Coolgreany, Co. Wexford. Please email to enrol beforehand and get info about maps, lifts, car sharing, running a workshop etc... anarchistsummercamp@yahoo.com

For the full Party & Protest Listings, updated daily, click here

...And Finally...

Evidence that electoral politics is a sham is an everyday occurrence here in Britain, but recent local election results in other countries get our vote in a farce-past-the-post pole. Last Sunday, the Romanian village of Voinesti re-elected their mayor of eighteen years, Neculai Ivascu. It seems that Ivascu was by far and away the most popular and charismatic candidate despite the small matter of being, er, dead. One resident told Romanian TV, “I know he died but I don’t want change.” The authorities handed the post to the runner-up, but now Ivascu’s Social Democrat Party want a new vote.

At least they bothered to vote, unlike another mayoral election on June the 10th in North Dakota, US, where nobody actually voted, including the candidates. Apparently the turn-out is usually around 6 in a total electorate of about 25, but with nobody at all bothering this time the sitting mayor Darrel Brudevold was re-instated unopposed. And his wife retained her seat as a councillor. It wasn’t helped by the fact that there wasn’t a polling booth in the town, and voters had to travel twelve miles to vote. Apparently the non-existant opposition didn’t demand a recount.

Disclaimer

SchNEWS advises all readers - swallow the red pill but don't wash it down with fluoridated water. Honest!

SchMOVIES

ON THE VERGE - The Smash EDO Campaign Film - is out on DVD. The film police tried to ban - the account of the four year campaign to close down a weapons parts manufacturer in Brighton, EDO-MBM. 90 minutes, £6 including p&p (profits to Smash EDO)

TAKE THREE - SchMOVIES Collection DVD 2007 featuring thirteen short direct action films produced by SchMOVIES in 2007, covering Hill Of Tara Protests, Smash EDO, Naked Bike Ride, The No Borders Camp at Gatwick, Class War plus many others. £6 including p&p.

V For Video Activist - the SchMOVIES 2006 DVD Collection - twelve short films produced by SchMOVIES in 2006. only £6 including p&p.

SchMOVIES DVD Collection 2005 - all the best films produced by SchMOVIES in 2005. Running out of copies but still available for £6 including p&p.

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