SchNEWS 89/90 - 6th Sept 1996 - Brighton Reclaim The Streets - By Justice? Brighton's Campaign In defiance of the Criminal Justice Act

Home | 6th September 1996 | Issue 89/90

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! THE WORLD IS UNDER ATTACK!

GOT ANY SPARE COPPERS?

RECLAIM THE POLICE STATION

Police stepped up the pressure in Brighton last Monday by leaning on the licensee of the Albert Pub suggesting it might be in their interests to cancel a Justice? meeting which was to have discussed the Brighton Reclaim The Streets. This followed hard on the heels of the previous weeks' banning of a Critical Mass Benefit Gig - this time the police threatening the licensees of the Beachcomber.

Justice spokesperson Jo Makepeace said: "The events of the last weeks are ominous - mass arrests, conspiracy charges, spy cameras on cranes, nicking legal observers and now banning public meetings. This is Brighton in the 1990s, not Eastern Europe of the 1960's. What are we to expect tomorrow ? It's as if Sussex Police have been taking lessons in state control. It's sinister, petty fascism."

Still, tongue firmly in cheek, Justice? decided to find a new venue .... and where better than Brighton Police Station? Nearly 100 people held an impromptu meeting and SchNEWS reading in the foyer, to a bemused desk sergeant. All good fun, but the wider implications of this are really a bit scary. Or have we just really annoyed some people up there?

* If you were arrested or witnessed any arrests at Reclaim The Streets ring Legal Defence and Monitoring Group 01273 685913 pronto.

* Brighton RTS did not get an opportunity to pass the hat around during the party, and are a bit short. Donations gratefully received. Contact the office to lighten your wallet.

RAGE OR CALM?

At the Big Chill in Norfolk last weekend the local village of Ingham was split in two. The blue rinse brigade formed RAGE (Residents Against the Gala Event), whilst Councillors supportive of the festival dyed their hair pink and joined forces with Chillers Against Lies & Misinformation (CALM).

However the Council were not as cool as their new hairstyles suggested: Organisers had to hold a 'test event', which was picketed by 20 members of RAGE - in turn picketed by 20 members of CALM! A 35-page list of conditions was thrust upon organisers, who had to contend with a heavy police presence on site and crazy archaic 'No-dancing-or-a-Sunday' laws! Yet again, funding difficulties have plagued the event they're £40,000 down (what's new?) - and this jeopardises next year's Chilling.

CRAP ARREST OF THE WEED

"TEENAGER DEFLOWERD - SHOCK! Congratulations to the Isle of Wight Plant Police who noticed a woman picking a flower from a pub garden - arresting her for criminal damage. After two hours in the cells she was cautioned and released. Obviously an avid SchNEWS reader, she immediately announced she was going to sue them for wrongful arrest. The bemused pub landlord was left sitting there wondering what was going on: "My gardens are trashed all the time and they've never been bothered before!"

*A Welsh guy had six inch plants confiscated, and was charged with possession. Two weeks later he appeared in court, and the plants had miraculously grown to a height of two feet. Obviously a police plant!

*Eagle-eyed coppers took a major drugs dealer to court in order to lock him up and throw away the key. The jury gasped at it was announced that the man was caught with cannabis to the street market value - of 24p! Thank-you-very-much and a £90 fine.

ARMLESS FUN?

Forty activists were arrested for aggravated trespass on Monday at the Farnborough Air Show in Hampshire. 150 people blocked the main gates of the fair for two and a half hours, creating chaos for visiting dignitaries and war mongers alike. Uppity residents visited the front-line and had to shout above the deafening air display, to... wait for it.. complain about the noise of the drumming!

Nine members of Brighton and Hove Action for Peace inadvertently managed to get straight into the show. In the course of trying to find a parking place, the Brighton Peace Centre van was shepherded into a lane of traffic that led them right into the official parking zone. The protesters were given access to the fair for half an hour, managing to unfurl a 'Bread not Bombs' banner, before the security collared them. Six other protesters paint bombed a Hawk jet

* The COPEX (Covert & Operational Procurement Exhibition) arms fair is happening at Sandown Racecourse on November 5th. This will be worth a visit (assemble 9am, Littleworth Common off the A307 Portsmouth Road). COPEX events are now a rarity after being driven out of America and the rest of Europe. Last year's fair sparked a libel against the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and various other publications and individuals. When the case came to court, COPEX took one look at the quality of the evidence collected against them and ran a mile. CAAT are now pursuing them for damages.

CAAT told SchNEWS, "Direct action at arms fairs does work. It not only gives people the opportunity to actively demonstrate their disgust against those who peddle arms, but also show their solidarity with those butchered and maimed in the Third World."

Wanna go? There is a mini bus leaving at 8am from outside The Brighton Peace Centre on 5th November. Contact CAAT on 0171 281 0297

* Yesterday was the 15th Anniversary of the Women's Peace camp at Greenham. Peace of Birthday cake, anyone?

PARADE
SATURDAY 28^th SEPTEMBER 1996 at Myrtle Parade, Liverpool, 12 noon.

Info lines: 0181 450 6929/ 0171 582 3474
Liverpool: 0151 207 3388 Transport Info Line: 0171 281 4621
* transport details - do u wanna go/ got some space in your double decker? Ring Reclaim The Streets 0171 281 4621

WE'RE VERY SKINT!

As news was leaked about the sorry state of our finances a shock bid by the embittered Evening Argus has reached us here at the SchNEWS desk. So we bring you this issue with begging bowl firmly in hand and ask: "Can we have some more cash please, dear readers?"

It costs a fortune to keep us going (approx. £13,000 a year) and contrary to some rumours we aren't flushed for cash - we get free office space but the rest is up to us. And with tonnes of subscribers and a few thousand printed every week that's a lot of money. So we're asking:

* Can you be a SchNEWS solidarity supporter at £1 a week - maybe you can do this direct debit which will give us some guaranteed weekly income. Ring the office for bank details.

* Can you put on benefit gigs for us? - SchNEWS is mailed out all over Britain - and beyond so why not put on a benefit night in your local town?

* Be part of our fund-raising team! It looks like a regular SchNEWSnight will be up and running very soon as well a major event to celebrate our 100th issue - give the office a bell if you want to help. And on a more mundane level we really do need more people to help with the mail-out on Fridays and put new subscribers on the database on Tuesdays.

If you are skint, don't worry - the aim of SchNEWS has always been to keep it FREE - but paper, envelopes, ink, printing labels, phone bills blah blah cost lots of cash, and we're so busy writing we haven't always got time to put on events. If you have received support, information or merely entertainment from us in the last two years, you surely wouldn't begrudge us a bit of support in return. Debts of £2,500+ will not clear themselves. If SchNEWS is a thing to be valued and preserved, then this requires some effort, but it'll all be worth it in the end when there are loads of SchNEWS around Britain (indeed the world), and Rupert Murdoch is blagging dogends on Sydney pier.

Lastly, if you're going to a gig, festival, carboot; travelling on the train, bus, tube, hitchhiking why not take a bundle of SchNEWS and hand them out? If you live in Brighton you can pick them up at the New Kensington Pub (try under the Pinball machine!) - alternatively ask for Originals from us, photocopy and spread the word.

* 27th Sept Justice? presents Oi Pollio + Fish Brothers Albert Pub, Trafalgar St £3/£2.50 9-11pm

* Hey! It's the great SchNEWS sell-off! * Get yer shares now in the biggest privitisation of the, er, minute. On offer this week: Top o' the stack is our sexy day-glo orange SchNEWSreader (200 pages; B5) with issues 0-50 plus 60 pages of Kate Evans cartoons. Increase yer pulling power with best-selling 3 monkey's Justice? t-shirt (XL only) then network yer socks off with that Yellow Pages of direct action The Book (116 pages; A5). Let those fingers do the talking! Join the global village with a powerful international communications tool, the SchNEWS postcards. Over 20 different full-colour designs by David Owen (they're well professional!). Tell yer gran about all the latest actions with the essential SQUALL (Issue 13: 'Out After Curfew') then blast her ears off with the conscious dub of Zion Train and the assembled 20 track mass that is the Disagreement of the People CD. Better still buy the lot - yours for just £99.99!

ROAD ALERT!

It's cat and mouse at Newbury as everybody's favourite Private Detective firm Bray's try to issue High Court injunctions against various road protestors. Activists face contempt of court charges if they break the injunctions, which state they should not interfere with the contractors COSTAIN either on or offsite, and not to trespass on the route. Breaking these conditions could result in a maximum of two years in prison. Meanwhile Mel Parker is still on hunger strike in Holloway Prison - banged up for breaking bail conditions. She's in court today (Friday) and rumour has it she may refuse to accept bail conditions which would ban her from the Newbury 'sausage route'. Ring Third Battle Office 01635 45545 and find out how she pleaded. If she's still inside get scribbling those messages of support to her in Holloway....

* FAIRYMILE: Yeah, yeah, we know we've said this loadsa times before but the tree-dwellers of the two-year-old A30 direct action campaign on the Exeter-Honiton road have serious reason to believe that eviction is imminent. Mr Popular, the Undersheriff of Lancashire, Andrew Wilson, has been spotted in the area. Four majorly defended sites to protect. Check the top up-to-date web site or Tel: 01404 815729/0385 278157/6. http://www.fury361.demon.co. uk/a30/index.htm.

HEALTH SHOPS?

Notices of possession were served last Monday for camp set up on NHS land in York. The land is being sold to developers who want to the old hospital site - now a sprawling unofficial nature reserve - into a out of town shopping centre. Just what everybody needs. Arguments from local campaigners that the site was common land fell upon deaf (geriatric) ears, and the camp is on imminent eviction alert. This is one issue which is due to kick off now, so, Northern nature nuts, get your arses down there now! If the land can be held until the NHS sells the land, (which is also imminent), then the whole process will have to start all over again. Campaign mobile 0831 586938, ansaphone updates 01904 651407

SchNEWS TRAINING DAY

There won't be a SchNEWS next week - instead next Wednesday, we are holding a Training Day, for all you out there itching to get involved with helping to produce your favourite publication. You are advised to attend all the workshops, in order to get a rounded picture of how we work, but of course you may come and go as you please. Workshops will be of a practical, hands-on nature and there may well be a hot story or two being phoned in during the day for you to transform into a right rivetin' read...
* ITINERARY FOR THE DAY* 9am-11 Skiving *** 11-12.30 Writer's workshop. *** 12:30-1 Break time (no smoking behind the bike shed!) *** 1-2.30 Design and layout workshop *** 2.30-3 Playtime (inside if raining!) 3-4 Database workshop *** 4pm Home time!
* Ring the office A.S.A.P if you are interested, book early to avoid disempowerment!

INSIDE SchNEWS

We have received a list of Strangeways Riot prisoners in need of a bit of cheering up: Tony Bush CV0405, HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Rd, March, Cambs PE15 0PR (9 years +18 months for escape during trial)
Barry Morton CV0221 HMP Garth, Ulnes, Walton Lane, Leyland, Preston PR5 3NE (8 years +18 months for escape)
Mark Azzopardi DA0147 HMP Garth (8years + 3 years for escaping twice!)
Glyn Williams HMP Garth (10 years)
Kevin Gee HMP Full Sutton, More Lane , York, YO4 1PS (10 years)
The Strangeways uprising lasted for most of April 1990, and was in response to the terrible conditions in the jail, such as overcrowding and the treatment of the prisoners by the screws. Before the protest ended, the government commissioned the Woolfe Report, which later recommended many improvements to prison life. Today, we seem to be returning back to the dark old days, and surely it cannot be long before another incident occurs. In the meanwhile, write and give your support to those who lead the fight for change six years ago.

And Finally

OI RAVERS! Say N'eau to PVC! Don't buy those little Vittel, Evian or Volvic water bottles. Where there is PVC there is dioxin, and dioxin is the most toxic substance known, causing all sorts of horrendous things. (see SchNEWS special report, or send off to us for it) Although consumption of plastics is as a rule a no-no, there are less harmful non-PVC alternatives, most other brands use PET, which only causes pollution, resource depletion, etc. etc. A briefing sheet on the subject is available from Greenpeace. RAVE WITHOUT MAKING WAVES!

DISCLAIMER
The SchNEWS warns all readers not to donate any cash to dodgy A4 rant rags written by penniless no-good filthy dole scroungers. Do not let us run up bills in your name, or give credit from your business address(es). Always stay within your credit limit, and never spend your money on anything except Big Macs and Porsches, and always remember that a friend in need is a pain in the arse. Never run up any debts and you will feel content. Honest.

Subscribe! Keep SchNEWS FREE! Just send 1st Class stamps (eg 20 for next 20 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?) Or, if you can afford it.... SchNEWS SUPPORTER RATE: £1 A WEEK. Mark Original if you plan to copy. SchNEWS is post-free to prisoners
SchNEWS c/o on-the-fiddle PO Box 2600 Brighton East Sussex BN2 2DX tel/fax: (01273) 685 913

PLEASE HELP US EXIST! HAPPY B-DAY 2 B, S, T, G & W!
* CHEERS VICKY - GOOD LUCK
* DON'T FORGET KIDDIES - BRIGHTON CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE THIS SATURDAY (7TH) 12.30 PM ST PETER'S CHURCH