SchNEWS 150, Friday 16th January 1998

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WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S YER COR BLIMEY WE'RE STILL 'ERE...

Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective

Issue 150, Friday 16th January 1998

LET OUR REVENGE BE THE LAUGHTER OF OUR CHILDREN

THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

"There is a place for report writing, lobbying, propaganda, protest and legal challenges but when it is playing by the rules set down by the state it simply postpones the inevitable. Direct action, in stark contrast, challenges the omnipotence of the state and the power of industry. Tactics that have a direct effect on profits make industry sit up and take notice."
- Robert Allen, Republican News

For the last three years, with nearly a million words and 150 weekly issues, SchNEWS has been one of the many voices of dissent in a world dominated by corporate media. Are our rantings, ravings and reportings just the voice of a few demented activists or do ordinary millions of people have any common cause with what we say?

Over the past twenty years, the agenda of this country has been forced further to the right, but according to the 14th report of British Social Attitudes published last year, this agenda - once ruthlessly pursued by the Conservatives and now New Labour- isn't one the public always identify with. People aren't happy with the gap between the rich and poor, the majority seemed to be largely unmoved by talks of dole scroungers, and even people who grew up with the so called `Thatcher Revolution' are still in favour of free speech, the right to protest and other basic rights.

So why this continual clamp down on dissent? The ever widening gap between rich and poor? Why the onslaught on the welfare state, if this is not what the majority of people believe in?

In Britain in the early `80s, think tanks like the Adam Smith Institute and Centre for Policy Studies moved the goalposts to the right, first airing proposals in the sympathetic pages of the Economist, The Times and Telegraph, softening public opinion in advance. By the time Thatcher or her ministers embraced an idea it had already been injected into the intellectual bloodstream. In Europe unelected bodies like the European Round Table of Industrialists get to the politicians long before we even hear of forthcoming legislation. Religiously pursuing the key mantras of "competition" and "deregulation", they have also- according to Secretary General Keith Richardson- been incredibly influential in pushing for a Single Market within Europe, and the TransEuropean Networks which will involve the creation of a huge network of high speed trains, motorway and airport expansion programmes.

In Sharon Beder's book `Global Spin - the corporate assault on environmentalism' she reveals the sophisticated techniques being used around the world by powerful capitalist forces, who are trying to change the way the public and politicians think about the environment.

And don't forget the Bilderberg group, described in the Times Newspaper in 1977 as "a clique of the richest, economically and politically most powerful and influential men in the Western world, who meet secretly to plan events that later appear to just happen." (see SchNEWS 125)

So when people tell you that those involved in direct action are undemocratic, point out some of these power players behind the scenes.

What Next?

"Society will not be fundamentally changed by attempts to influence the parliamentary process, or by setting up small groupings to be the vanguard of a revolution. The organisations which take on the struggle will need to be founded on a politics of mass action which has the power not just to protest but to resist oppression and create change."
- Danny Burns 'Poll Tax Rebellion'

What SchNEWS and other independent publications must continue to do is shout, but louder, more persistently and coherently than before. The state isn't always going to find this to its liking as the three year prison sentence of three editors of Green Anarchist for merely writing about direct action show. But if we don't think the unthinkable and demand the so-called "impossible" (you know, crazy ideas like making sure the whole world has food, clean drinking water, and a decent living standard); if we don't set up our own think tanks and try and move the agenda to one where people and the planet are more important than money then who will?

The world is crying out for radical change. Sucking up to the big corporations that are killing the planet and the politicians who serve as their agents isn't gonna help. And while our stunts can grab the media limelight for a few moments, it is only grassroots community-based activity, that will ever get large numbers of people to get off their bums and change this world for the better. Don't let people tell you that's pie in the sky - read your history books and see that it can and has to be done.

But working locally doesn't mean we stop thinking and acting globally. While the corporations become ever more powerful, we are going to see even more attacks on our living standards. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) is just one example. If signed this will invalidate all international and domestic law regarding environmental, social and labour rights that work against business interests (see SchNEWS 141). But it is just one example of the increasing attacks on ordinary people ahead unless we act NOW. As the draft manifesto of People's Global Action Against `Free' Trade points out, "Only a global alliance of peoples movements, which can implement action -oriented alternatives, can defeat this emerging globalised monster."

From the struggles of the Zapatistas in Mexico, to the landless peasant Movimento Sem Terra of Brazil; to the international solidarity for the sacked Liverpool dockworkers and the Encuentro for Humanity and Neo-Liberalism in Spain last summer, people are getting together around the world and learning mutuals lessons.

Change will never come from the rich and powerful - it's up to us. Here's to the next 150 issues (let's hope they're not necessary!)

Think-Tanks

Class War (73), 50p + large SAE : London CW, BM Box 5538, London, WC1N 3XX
Fourth World Review, 24 Abercorn Place, London, NW8 9XP
Do or Die - the voice of Earth First!, £2 inc p+p PO Box 2791, Brighton, BN2 2TT
New Internationalist, PO Box 79, Hertford, SG14 1YB.