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| 17th
March 1995
| Issue 14 SchNEWSDISORGANISATION n. An unstructured protest group of the mid-Nineties, without the leadership of a conventional organisation. Want to join one of the loose coalitions such as Justice?, fighting road-building and criminal-justice laws? Don't expect to fill in an application form. CJA ARRESTOMETER CARRY ON SQUATTING!NEW ANTI-CJA CENTRE FOR JUSTICE? Justice, Brighton's campaign in defiance of the Criminal Justice Act, has opened a new community centre right in the heart of town. The old C.J.'s building on the Western Road is the first centre the group has opened since they were evicted from the Old Courthouse and in the words of one squatter "the centre is as in yer face as the CJA is in ours". JUSTICE? were evicted from the Courthouse in November and despite promises that it would be used as a homeless shelter at Christmas the Courthouse remains boarded up and home to just two security guards and a dog. This shows the madness of letting buildings rot while people sleep on the streets. ALL GONE FOLKS!In one foul swoop the CJA has effectively criminalised protest, travelling, partying, hunt sabbing, road protesting, abolished the right to silence, introduced stop and search laws, intimate body samples, D.N.A. database, children's prisons. you name its illegal. The Centre will act as an information point letting people know about the act, how it affects them and how they can fight back. It will also be a drop in centre with cafe. creche, art space, cheap entertainment, informed debate, workshops. basically DIY. That's Do It Yourself. IT'S YOUR SPACE - USE IT. JUSTICE PROGRAMME OF EVENTSSAT 12 PM GRAND OPENING In the cafe there will be speakers, acoustic music, SchNEWS live. Also workshop on 'Dealing with the media'. Nightime The Caned Toad Club funky, trippy, wicked party night with DJs and live acts. No entry after 11pm. LIBERTY REGIONAL LEGAL CONFERENCE AT NEW SQUATNow that the CJA is in force many questions have arisen. Even the Police are unsure about what is and what is not legal. In an attempt to ensure that those who the act directly affects are as well informed as possible there will be workshops led by senior lawyers, in which they will answer questions and we will keep them up to date on what is happening on the ground. There will be six workshops on raves, squatting. protesters, Hunt Sabs, travellers, festivals and camps. Talks kick off at 11am Contact 01273 622 791 SUNDAY CHILL OUT CLUB and acoustic space in the café. 12-3 pm Children's activities in the play area SQUATTING LAWS DUE TO COME INTO EFFECT IN MAYThe so called "anti-squatting laws" will affect everyone. Property owners, including local councils and private landlords, will be able to apply to a court for the immediate eviction of anyone they think or claim is "squatting". The court hearing will take place "Ex Parte". This means in secret. You will not be told it is taking place and the first thing you will know about the court case is an eviction notice giving you 24 hours to pack your belongings and leave. IF YOU STAY LONGER THE POLICE WILL ARRIVE AND ARREST YOU AND YOU COULD FIND YOURSELF IN A NEW HOME - A PRISON CELL FOR SIX MONTHS. Under another section of the CJA any landlord or his mates can use violence to gain entry into a squat and evict the occupants. One Conservative MP said "I would consider anyone behind in their rent to be a squatter." Don't be fooled by these new "anti-squatting" laws - they represent an enormous threat to every tenant, council or private. It is another attempt by the government to avoid the social reasons behind why people squat (the rising homeless figures along with the increasing number of empty properties left to rot) 1.9 MILLION PEOPLE IN BRITAIN ARE HOMELESS WHILST 850,000 PROPERTIES LAY EMPTY Figures from Shelter Inside SchNEWSSchNEWS received a letter from Jim Chambers, whose in remand for alleged criminal damage to a road construction site "Just a quick letter to let you all know that I'm doing fine, and I greatly appreciate your cards and letters. I've been completely snowed under with loads of wonderful mail It's not as bad as it could be here, but I'd recommend avoiding prison if possible!" Write to Jim Chambers DV 2504, HMP Wormwood Scrubs, Box 757, Du Cane Road, London W12. John Livingstone, arrested at the No M77 Pollok Free State in Glasgow is still inside on remand HMP Greenock, Greenock, Glasgow. SchNEWS LIVE! Crap Arrest of the WeekA 62 year old women was arrested at Shoreham under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. She had her arm twisted behind her back and gobbed a half-sucked sweet at the said copper, and is now being charged for assault. RING THE SchNEWS DESK WITH YOUR CRAP ARRESTS!!
CURFEW!Introducing the electronic ball & chain. A little black box attached to the ankle or wrist marks the start of new curfew laws in Britain. Home Secretary Michael Howard has announced trials of electronic tagging of 'offenders' which he believes will eventually become the principal community sentence with up to 20,000 orders imposed a year. People will be confined to their homes for between two and 12 hours a day for up to six months. If they move out of the range of a designated telephone the black box will transmit a signal down to a central monitoring centre. Securicor have 'won' the £1.4M contract for the trials in Manchester, Reading and Norfolk to begin in June. They will be required to consider all violations of a curfew order and take appropriate action. Serious violations would include "being absent from home for more than 24 hours without a reasonable excuse" which would trigger immediate court action - supervised by Securicor (see 'WE SAY'). Other violations include "interference to the monitoring system caused by the actions of others such as pets, children or other householders. Examples could be the disconnection of the power supply or telephone link; the phone repeatedly left off the hook or repeated minor tamperings." Not only do Securicor have no experience of dealing with offenders, they face huge practical problems. For a kick off, "suppliers" must first attempt to install a telephone if one is not already available but their staff have no legal right of entry to the offender's home and can only visit with consent. Secondly the tags have got to be difficult to remove - it was tried in Nottingham four years ago and was "a complete farce" with people simply removing the box undetected. In the US, where electronic tagging is already in force, 'correction staff' only discovered one woman under a curfew order was dead after two weeks. In addition people with jobs could not be tagged during working hours, and those on benefits could not be tagged as they would be unavailable for work. EasyTollWe at SchNEWS do not agree with the 'traditional left' who think that technology is politically neutral. Nuclear power, new crops in the 'green revolution' and motor-ways have all helped to put power in the hands of the few, while destroying the environment of the many. Other 'innovations' such as closed-circuit TV and phone taps have all contributed to the erosion of civil liberties. Recent revelations that MI5 bugged the NUM offices and a chip shop used by miners in the miners strike have come as no surprise to anyone. The latest in this long of Big Brother technologies is a box known as EasyToll. which the DoT wish to install in cars to monitor movements and record the details on a huge database. The system can record every journey taken by linking computer systems to satellites orbiting the earth. People fear that this system will not only be used to collect tolls. Protestors and travellers are people who could easily find their movement monitored. Opposition to the scheme has come from none other than that great radical journal, Computer Weekly. They write, "Who is to say the police would not be tempted to install cameras and other sensors to keep eye on those below? Indeed who can guarantee the security of the data collected by the unseen sentinel above". Well said Computer Weekly. SchNEWS IN BRIEFLambeth Unemployed Action Group have occupied their local Unemployed Centre after Lambeth Council removed the grant. If you wish to go on the phone tree to resist the bailiffs ring 01273 671 213 *** Brighton could soon be getting a lovely new drive-thru McDonalds (& multi-storey car-park). Write and object now Info 01273 677 284 *** The No M11 Campaign have set up a new camp next to the Greenman roundabout. They need people 081 989 8741 *** Royal Court of Justice (?) have over-ruled Shoreham Port Authority's decision to ban live exports. Now if there's a free berth in the harbour the port authority have to let the boats in 01273 720 401 *** Freedom Network have set up an action line which will be updated every two days detailing all national events 071 501 9253 *** North Yorkshire County Council are planning to evict the peace camp outside the US Spy Base at Menwith Hill under section 77 of the CJA. The camp has been there for years and needs women only to turn up between 18th March - 1st April to fight the evictions 0585 329 313 / 0532 588 974 *** In a hate/fury campaign whipped up the a local rag East Sussex County Council used section 77 of the CJA on travellers parked on The Level in Brighton. However the local branch of Friends and Families of Travellers managed to get a good solicitor and a friendly local resident to argue the case for travellers, some of whom had no way of towing their homes away, and get a two week extension to stay at the site 01273 673 210 WE SAYIt's the end of police as we know it...For the first time in the history of British criminal justice private security companies are to be given powers to prosecute offenders as well as organise and supervise their sentences. The departure is part of the Government's plans for the electronic tagging of offenders but could soon be vastly widened to cover a range of police roles. Group 4 has already made representations to take over running what they term "police custody suites" (in reality: police cells) although they are understood not to be interested in street patrolling. Alarm bells should be ringing - private security 'on the beat'?! There is no accountable regulation of this industry which now has more personnel (167,000) operating in the UK than police officers (127,328) and which includes firms who already possess dire reputations. Is this the end of the police as we know it? A review by chief constables of police functions which could be taken over by private security companies is expected to be delivered to the Home Secretary. Michael Howard, this month. Keep a very, very, careful watch. Also coning soon in Britain 1995:ID CARDS (Green Paper this month); NATIONAL DNA DATABASE (FORCED MOUTH SWABS) (Section 59, CJA); ARBITRARY STOP & SEARCH ('SUS' LAWS) (Section 60, CJA); CHILDREN'S PRISONS (Part 1, CJA); BUILDING PRISON SHIPS (Section 100, CJA); BLANKET SPY CAMERAS (incl. Section 163, CJA); MORE FORCED MEDICATION FOR MENTALLY ILL (Supervised Discharge Orders, Mental health Act amendment); ABOLITION OF RIGHT TO SILENCE (Section 34-38. CJA) Party and ProtestSAT 18th Sunnyside Party somewhere in the West Country Ring 081 450 6929 after 11pm FRI 24th Demo against M4 Relief Road Meet 10.25 am Severn Tunnel Junction to Cardiff Central then to the Welsh Office. 0633 881630. MON 27 till FRI 31st Direct Action Conference in Berlin. Phone SchNEWS for more info 13-17 APR Earth First! Gathering near Swindon 0794 512 790 23rdAPR 'Occupation Dragon". A major occupation of land is planned to take place somewhere in the south-east SAE Land Reform, Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd, Oxford OX4 1RQ. E-mail: eartharc@gn.apc.org
For further copies of the SchNEWS send stamps/donations (payable to Justice?) SchNEWS c/o on-the-fiddle PO Box 2600 Brighton East Sussex . Tel: (01273) 685913. Or pick one up @ Peace Centre, Gardener St, Brighton and around town e-mail: Justice?@intermedia.co.uk Justice? meet every wednesday 7pm @ prince albert Special blow our own trumpet issue
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