Home | 13th April 1995 | Issue 18

Justice? Brighton's Campaign in Defiance of the Criminal Injustice Act

SchNEWS

CJA ARRESTOMETER
Hunt Sabs 148
Footie Fans 37
Road Protesters 17
Travellers 11
Tree Defenders 11
No Live Exporters 3
Fascist Printers 2

Travellers Stuck On Eviction Merry-Go-Round

Criminal Justice Act clampdown on travellers lifestyle

Travellers are the biggest group who are out there doing it! = living a low impact / cost lifestyle. They are on the rond to an alternative to urban herding with its massive drain on the planet's hospitality!

So why don't they get some support instead of constant persecution. Maybe people are frightened by anyone who gives up comfort and security for fun and freedom!

A summer of Criminal Justice Act - inspired evictions is building. The last week has seen the eviction and fragmentation of a large site in Wiltshire which was:

· long established

· accepted or tolerated by many of the local community

· out of the way in secluded woods.

On Tuesday, Wealden District Council were making the final preparation to evict another major traveller community at Crowborough, East Sussex. Like Wiltshire, it's hard to see the justification for eviction from this ex MOD base which is an ideal site. It's secluded, derelict, with lots of lovely cement foundations to park on and woods to hide in so why can't they stay there?

It is estimated there are 210,000 acres of derelict and alone in Britain. - The Royal Society for Nature Conservation

The Public Law Project have secured legal aid for travellers with children and are now researching the contradiction between the Criminal Justice Act and Wealdon Council's responsibilities under the Children's Act.

By the end of the day, the eviction had been postponed until the 24^th April while the implications of the Children's Act are looked at. There's still time to campaign for this excellent traveller site to survive and to put pressure on the County council for 'tolerated sites'.

Friends and Families of Travellers Support Group - (01458) 832371

Public Law Group - (0171) 436 0964

Crap Arrest Of The Week

It now costs £60 to thrwo orange peel. Shoreham demonstrator Diane Pullen was bound over for six months and awarded costs against her.

Please Please Please - Contact SchNEWS with your crap arrests.

POLICE READ RIOT ACT

Essex Police have threatened to enforce the Public Order Act as of April 18th at Brightlingsea . This law requires protestors to "inform the police not less than 6 clear days before the date when the procession is intended to he held". The Act allows the police to "impose any reasonable restriction on the procession it is considered likely it may result in serious disorder damage, or interruption to the life of the community, or it is intended to intimidate any person from carrying out a lawful act."

Brightlingsea Against Live Exports is planning to disband so the organisers can't be done under the Act and are currently seeking legal advice. To date, there have already been 500 arrests at Brightlingsea and Shoreham for Public Order Offences, and this seems certain to rise.

The clamping down on protestors in Brightlingsea is in direct contrast to the events currently taking place in Shoreham. As of April 24th, Sussex Police will only be on duty at the port two days per week.

This comes as a bit of a surprise since in a document leaked to Campaign Against live Freight (CALF) Justice Blofleld (eh?) claimed only a mouth ago that International Ferry Traders (the animal exporters) had been in touch with the superintendent of police and he had not asked to stop trading, and said that he was willing to provide security. So why the u-turn Sussex Police? Could it possibly be that the Government are behind all this? A Detective Chief Inspector was quoted saying that the police were receiving "clear directions from the Government" on the issue.

Is this due to the fact that theTories have lost a lot of previously unshakeable support in Sussex because of the live export trade?

Shoreham will not be financially viable with only 2 days trade per week and it is believed that Dover will eventually take over as the main exporter of live animals. If the Tories are so scared of losing support why don't they sort their lives out and ban all live exports? Better still why don't they export themselves to another planet! Bye!

Police Live Export Costometer
Shoreham $4m
Brightlingsea £1.5m

CRANE SITTERS IN COURT

An extra 50 police were drafted in as protestors held a Teddy Bear's picnic at the trial of the ftrst people arrested under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.

Manchester Earth First!-ers Ollie, Pete, Chris and Paul were nicked within 24hrs the new Act becoming law for climbing a Wimpey crane at the M65 protest on November 4th last year. They were charged under section 68 of the new law which makes trespass an imprisonable offence carrying fines of up to £3000 or a three-mouth sentence. Yesterday however they were given a one year conditional discharge and fined £50 costs.

Fifteen police stood at the door of the smallest court room Manchester magistrates could find and let only a dozen people into the public gallery. Outside the vigilant cops even stopped activists wrapping the yard in wool as a symbol of togetherness.

SQUAT THE LOT!

In France last year... Sixty-six homeless families squatted Rue de Dragon a five-storey desirable empty property in the heart of Paris across the Seine from the Mayor's resplendent Hotel deVille. The government reacted by telling the protestors they could stay for a year, reconnected the electricity and water supply and promised to enact a 1945 law to requisition empty properties.

In England last year. Over a hundred homeless people squatted Artillery Mansions - 411 empty flats down the road from the Houses of Parliament and opposite New Scotland Yard. The government pushed through measures in the Criminal Justice Act that places criminal sanctions on squatters and allows property owners to gain 'violent entry' against occupants.

In France Rue du Dragon has come to be seen as the headquarters of those who aren't in power. Just before Christmas Abbe Pierre, an 82-year-old priest, led the 66 families into Rue de Dragon. Edouard Balladur the prime minister, sent a limousine for the priest and told the Left Bank protestors they could stay for a year.

Mr Balladur then produced a bonus scheme which pays 15,000 francs (£1,800) to each landlord who releases an empty flat on to the rental market. Since its victory, the group Droit au Logement (Right to Housing) has successfully occupied empty blocks of flats and office space all over France. Last month the supreme court ordered the city of Paris to pay £1,000 to each of 41 squatters it had evicted in August 1993. The families, intellectuals and volunteers who inhabit and work at Rue De Dragon. - joined recently by Monsignor Gaillot the outspoken "red bishop" sacked by Rome - have the support of the nation. Yet in England squatters are still stereotyped and, in May, are to be effectively criminalised. There are an estimated 50,000 squatters in Britain taking a sensible route through the housing crisis which sees 1.9 million people homeless and 850,000 empty properties..

Since, the CJA reared its ugly head there's been a huge increase in the number of big empties squatted in protest ... in Oxford, Blackburn, Hastings, Swansea, Rugby. Brighton, Bristol, Huddersfield, Cardiff, London, Sheffield, Nottingham and even the Isle of Wight. Most of these (when they lasted more than a few hours before the riot police stormed in!) became community centres. Is this really criminal?

SOUTHAMPTON - Southampton Freedom Network - October Books, 4 Onslow Rd 0703 224489. Have been granted a 3-month verbal lease by hotel owner. Opens as a cafe and community centre at weekends. LEWES - ReACTion - -Fuller's Pizza, 15 East Gate St 01273 685913. Community arts and action centre. Renovation work under way. BRIGHTON - Justice? Squatting Advice Centre, Grand Parade 01273 685 913. Six-storey old Council Housing Advice Centre opposite Brighton Pavilion. Community centre. Cafe, creche, information and housing. Open Thurs-Sun.

PLUS.. Squats are being opened all the time on road protest sites from Glasgow to Exeter. Contact ROAD ALERT! 01635. 521770 for their one-page weekly update. Established centres like Manor Farm squatted by Exodus are inspirational. The 17-acre city farm complete with Vietnamese Pot-bellied pigs attracts urban school trippers while the Housing Action Zone shelters 40 people (0582 508936).

In Kentish Town the Rainbow Tribe, moved 14 times, just celebrated a year in The Olde Church. They operate an open door policy for homeless people and space for travellers vehicles. (071 267 0828). CoolTan Arts Centre in Brixton, squatting in an old benefits office where John Major used to sign on, took a lease on the building for the next six months last week (071 738 6721) and in Cardiff the Council is supporting the 'Velvet Mushroom' (formerly Yr Enfs) community centre in another squatted church and are going for a £250,000 European grant to buy the building. 0222 343066.

Party and Protest

13 - 17th APR Earth, First! Gathering Colleymore Farm, about one mile from Coleshill Village near Swindon 0794 512790

SAT 15th APR International Day of Action Against McDonalds 0171 713 1269

SAT 15th APR Barricading weekend at the A30 in Exeter 0385 278 156

SAT 15th APR Mass rally and action against foxhunting and the CIA 12.30 pm Charing nr. Ashford, Kent 01233 633 037

MON 17th APR 'Civil disobedience = global responsibility" march organised by Youth CND assemble 1 pm Marble Arch, London 0171 607 3616

TUE 18th APR Close Down the BNP HQ Crayford Town Hall, Crayford 9 am onwards 0181 533 4533

SAT 22nd APR World Day Against Laboratory Animals 0181 846 9777

SAT 22nd APR Liberty Legal Briefing on CJA in Norwich 0l7l 403 3888

25th - 30th APR A five day series of workshops for activists interested in becoming trainers, organising & preparing for actions and exploring issues around non-violence 01865 770833

WHITE BOOK.
The definitive book of anti-CJA and related groups. Get your forms in by April 20^th at the latest! Funded by the Levellers, put together by Justice? - you've gotta be in it to win it. Forms from SchNEWS.

SchNEWS LIVE!
@ The New Kensington, Kensington Gardens, Brighton. Every Friday 5:45pm

SchNEWS IN BRIEF

The No M65 Campaign near Preston invite you to build treehouses at Stanworth Valley's "Village in the Sky". There are now 32 - target 50 before eviction begins. Get up there now and experience the place before its gone forever. 0161 861 7895/ camp mobile 0585 164 311

*** No M11-ers have taken the only house left standing on the three-and-a-quarter mile route. The symbolic mansion on Filibert Rd in Leytonstone, East London, was squatted when security guards popped out for a cup of tea. Spontaneous actions continue - 0181 527 4696 (general info)/0181 989 8741 (actions)

*** A hate campaign against a Kettering Hunt Sab continued last Friday when entrails of dead animals were dumped and smeared over Clive Richardson's house. This is the latest incident in a year long hate campaign which began after he was beaten up at the Woodland Pytchley Foxhunt. Local police have dismissed the attack as a "litter problem"! 01159 590 357

*** According to a leaked confidential government ministerial memo, staff in Job Centres are being prepared for an upsurge in violence and abuse because of cuts in unemployment and disabled benefits. Personal alarms, closed circuit TV and training in handling aggressive people are being introduced by the Department of Employment. As usual it will be the staff on the counter who carry the can for this government's obsession with penalising unemployed people

*** Ministers and delegates at the Berlin UN Climate Summit were blockaded by 200 protesters who refused to let them out until they had actually done something. Are they still there?

The Land is (Y)ours

To highlight our exclusion from the land, a politically sensitive site in the south of England will be peacefully occupied for a week from 23^rd April. MUSIC * CIRCUS * STORY TELLING * SCULPTURE * TREE DRESSING * LAND & MEDIA WORKSHOPS * LAND CULTIVATION * be self sufficient, bring tents, tarps, water, tools, seedlings & projects to share - phone 0171 501 9253 after 3pm for the location.

INSIDE SchNEWS

Jim Chambers, inside on remand for alleged criminal damage to a road construction site, has been 'ghosted' to another prison. Write to PV 2504, HMP Pentonville Road, London, N7

John Livingstone, arrested at the No M77 Pollok Free State in Glasgow is still inside on remand HMP Greenock, Greenock, Glasgow

and Finally...

"This is a great pity, I saw a group of young people standing outside the shop with clipboards and initially I thought they were young entrepreneurs" - President of Lewes Chamber of Commerce commenting on Lewes' new squat. Well aren't they...?

e-SchNEWS
Now available on pHeak BBS 0171 434 3800
Or email address below to be on e-mailout e-mail: Justice?@intermedia.co.uk

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 @ the (71) grand parade squat

Has anyone got any phone stamps?

SchNEWS, PO Box 2600, Brighton, BN2 0EF, England
Phone: +44 (0)1273 685913
email: schnews@brighton.co.uk

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