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DUCK AND COVER! DUCK AND COVER! WE'RE ALL UNDER ATTACK...

Issue 181, Friday 28th August 1998

TERRORISTS?

President Clinton orders a bombing of targets in Afghanistan and the Sudan hoping everyone will forget about his sex life. (How can we, it's just so interesting).

After the horrors of Omagh, the Irish and British governments look set to recall parliament early and rush ahead with new state powers. Terrorism is top of the global agenda.

So is knee-jerk reaction and hypocrisy.

In Sudan the government have denied the US target was manufacturing chemical weapons and has asked the United Nations (UN) to investigate the rubble in Khartoum. Meanwhile a country already faced with desperate problems of famine, disease and civil war has seen its major source of pharmaceuticals destroyed by cruise missiles. And what would have happened if had been a 'poison gas' factory with its deadly cocktail drifting over a crowded city?

What is so different about the innocent victims of Omagh and the innocent victims of Sudan?

The difference it seems, are what journalist John Pilger describes as "television's un-people"

Take the "un-people" of Iraq, half a million of whom have died according to conservative estimates by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Health Organisation since economic sanctions were imposed by the UN. Baby food and enriched powded milk are blockaded along with vital hospital equipment like stethoscopes, X-ray machines, medical swabs, scanners and water purifiers. The people of Iraq are punished because the West say Saddam Hussein is a terrorist. (However, during the Iran - Iraq war he wasn't a terrorist and the US and the West armed and backed Hussein in a war where a million people died.)

Or the 'un-people' of East Timor, where a third of the population have perished since it was invaded by Indonesia in 1975. But the government of Indonesia aren't labelled terrorists so its ok to do business, as Hawk jets, armoured tanks, water cannons etc. are sold to them by the West.

Business is business. Economic sanctions might be lifted soon if the Libyan leader Gaddafi, once described as the worlds most dangerous perpetrator of state terrorism, agrees to hand over the people accused of being involved in the Lockerbie. British Aerospace has already admitted holding secret talks with Libya, with an eye on juicy contracts.

Meanwhile, nearer to home and we have the imminent return of the infamous Diplock docks, where a judge sitting alone would be able to put someone behind bars for seven years on the word of a single police officer that the accused was a member of a banned organisation. Internment by any other name, and one which flies in the face of international agreements on human rights that Britain has signed.

As Mitchel McLaughlin, chair of Sinn Fein pointed out "The result of such repressive legislation has historically been the routine violation of human and civil rights, and resulting miscarriages of justice. Given the history of the RUC it would be an act of extreme folly to give that force additional repressive powers."

In fact the governments new package of anti-terrorist legislation will include unprecedented powers to convict people of conspiring within Britain to commit terrorist offences anywhere in the world. The kind of sweeping changes envisaged would once have locked up Nelson Mandela and could threaten peaceful supporters of the Pakistani campaign for a 'Free Kashmir'.

So, when is a terrorist not a terrorist? Sections of the animal rights movement are already labelled terrorists and many have received longer sentences for damage to property (or merely conspiring to damage) than rapists and murderers.

For the direct action movement the warning signs have been here a while. Last week two people received prison sentences for alleged offences at the Whately Quarry mine which is destroying the Mendip Hills. The judge said he was making an example of them because "environmental protest was becoming so popular". As one activist pointed out "When the minor sentences don't work, you start by harassing people - raiding their homes. When this fails what do you do? You turn them into eco-terrorists."

If we ever really become a threat to a world where profit comes before people, if we ever start getting even half serious about overthrowing the corrupt elite thatcalls the shots, then we will find those missiles will be aimed at us. And all of a sudden we will be the terrorists.

Recommended Reading

"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than eight thousand people This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
- Dwight David Eisenhower, US President

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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK

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CRAP EXPERTS OF THE WEEK

Derr...Fick!! Mike Clarke of Teigngrace Village Forum said: "If it had not been for the protestors entering the site last year, construction would be under way and we would be waiting for heaven knows what to happen". The inquiry resumes Sep 29. Latest - Dave: 01626 363844

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SIMON JONES

ORGANISED BY THE SIMON JONES MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN

7.30 PM AT THE HOBGOBLIN, LONDON RD.

Simon would have been celebrating his 25 birthday, except four months ago he was killed while working as a casual labourer at Shoreham docks.

Speakers include sacked Liverpool dock workers and SchNEWS.

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LOCH MASS MORDOR

Which is why the Navy has spent an estimated £1million in just two weeks trying (not very well) to prevent over 130 activists from Trident Ploughshare 2000 (TP2000), along with the regular Faslane Peace Camp crew, from gaining access to the submarine base that houses Britain's nuclear arsenal. With the original 15 year old peace camp still under threat of eviction, members of TP2000 have been sending out daily multi-pixie missions from their own camp, bought and owned by a former Greenham Common protester. TP2000 is an alliance of priests, students, road protesters and peace campaigners from countries as far apart as Germany and Australia, calling themselves 'Hobbits'. Activists have nicknamed the base 'Mordor' after the evil castle in the 'The Hobbit'. The hobbits involved in the latest two week non-stop assault on the nuclear sub base have been pissing all over security, even cheekily giving embarrassed police and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) advance warnings. The MoD say, " There has never been a breach of security", funny that, considering that in the last two weeks activists have; cut the fences constantly, defeated the ' unscaleable' razor wire with old carpet, played a half hour game of football inside the base before anyone noticed, performed classical music in the road, demanded access to the base as weapons and war crimes inspectors, two elderly women have planted wild flowers and in one action, hobbits played spoons on the sound sensitive fence, setting off the alarms and distracting the guards whilst others swam across a loch to the subs. " It was so easy it took almost no planning. We just started swimming, I was able to swim past two security boats ... and right up alongside Trident". So far there have been 107 arrests, some being released without charge whilst others are being held on remand. One of those on remand for stealing a boat and taking a sightseeing trip to nearby Coulport nuclear arms depot, is Angie Zeltzer, one of the original Ploughshares acquitted last year of committing any crime when she helped sledgehammer Hawk Jets bound for Indonesia (see SchNEWS 78 & 84).

"We see ourselves as fully open and accountable"

Just as they did then TP2000 have sent the MoD their names, addresses and videos of their actions "Most people would try to evade the law", says Angie, "we say we're within it and the Goverment is outside..we are upholding international law. Britain...uses it against Saddam Hussein or others but when they are applied against Britain, it goes blank". International law is why the Ploughshares are so up for it, they won the Hawk Jets case because the jury agreed that theirs was a lesser crime committed to prevent the greater crime of Genocide (Nuremburg Principles, SchNEWS 177), now they want to put the British Government in the dock for breaking the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion on nuclear weapons which states, "(nuclear arms are)... the ultimate evil...destablising humanitarian law". Whatever the outcome tp2000 have pledged to continue the actions from now until the the year 2000 unless Britain gives up the bombs (or some prat puts his coffee mug on the button?)

• Faslane Peace Camp: 01436 850 488
• TP2000: 1603 611 953
• CND: 0171 700 2393

Recomended Reading

"From Polaris to Trident" by Graham Spinardi (Cambridge Uni Press)

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SCHNEWS IN BRIEF

• Genetix Snowball Meeting September 3rd 7.30 pm East Oxford Community Centre, Cowley Rd, Oxford

• Right to Roamers should ramble on down to The Land Is Ours Autumn Gathering in Bristol on Sep 11-13 - 01865 722016

• Workers Aid for Kosova are holding a meeting on Sunday 6th September at Conway Hall Red Lion Sq, Holborn, London Updates on the food convoys, how you can get involved etc.

• Those chaps at Godhaven Ink have brought out some more cracking reads for you. First up is a 'zine called 'Neither work nor leisure' - 'a culture where we don't stop playing when we leave school'. Merrick who published 'Battle for the trees' a personal account of the Newbury Protest (£3.50) has now knocked out 'There's A Riot Going On' which compares media articles with personal accounts of the Newbury Reunion Rampage and the last Hyde Park Criminal Justice Act demo. Both booklets are £1 (inc.P+P) from and payable to: Godhaven Ink,Rooted Media, 145-149 Cardigan Rd, Leeds LS6 1Jl

• GEC, the company which makes Scimitar military radios for the Turkish army, to help them carry out genocide on Kurds, has its AGM next Friday (Sep 4) Meanwhile, three days of peaceful protest are planned for Copex 98 (22-24th September) "The market place for electro-shock batons and other torture equipment".For details of both events contact Campaign Against Arms Trade 0171 281 0297

• anti FUR NEWS is a new magazine from the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade £1 + SAE from CAFT P.O.Box 38, Manchester M60 1NX 0171 278 3068

• Trouble with the Housing Benefit ? Haringey Solidarity Group have a handy booklet called Housing Benefit: A Claimants Guide - send SAE to P.O. Box 2474, London N8

• QueerPunks on Dope - calling all Queer Punks/ess's, Pagans, tran, pan, inna van or whatever- sexuals, check out a new 'zine called Anarquist available from 121 bookshop 121 Railton Rd, Brixton, London, SE24 OLR

• There's an all-nighter, somewhere in Hampstead for the Sexual Freedom Coalition on Saturday 12th September . Ticket details 0171 460 1979

• Bath Reclaim The Streets next Saturday (5th September) meet 12 noon at The Circus

• Want to read some decent books written by travellers,, then get the catalogue from Enabler Publications, 3 Russell House, Lym Close, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3DE, Tel01297 445024

• A radical new attempt to unite socialists, greens and direct activists is 'The All Red and Green' bulletin, founded by the Network of Socialist Alliances in England. They're having a launching conference on @ Sat 5th Sep, 10am-4pm at the Rugby United Railway Club, Railway Terrace, Rugby.

• Various Centres in the UK engaged in environment, development, peace and social justice issues have set up the Centres For Change Network which focuses on sustainability to share their experiences and knowledge. Contact Jamie Hartzell, 1b Waterlow Rd, London N19 5NJ, email: jamiehartz@gn.apc.org

  The Corner House publish regular in depth briefings on everything from biotechnology, corporate PR, climate change, dams etc. Contact them at PO Box 3137, Station Rd., Sturminster Newton, Dorset, DT10 1YJ Tel 01258 473795

• Avon Ring Road an old railway bridge and 1km of tranquil cycle paths are set to disappear beneath the proposed dual carriageway given the go-ahead in 1995, but halted for the last 3 years by the SCRAPPIT campaign with a succession of legal challenges in the London High Courts. Request more information and buy Action Bonds to help pay legal costs from SCRAPPIT c/o 84 Colston Street, Bristol,, BS1 5BB Or get a map to the Reclaim the Country party site, 19th-20th September.

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34 G.E. CROPS SITES DECONTAMINATED

• GenetiX Snowball have a large action coming up in the Cambridge area on the 19/20 September. More details 0161 834 0295.

• Two women have been charged with £605,000 of criminal damage after allegedly pulling up Genetically Engineered (GE) maize on an illegal Sharpes Seeds test site positioned less than 200 yards from a farm growing organic sweetcorn. Out of 300 GE sites around the country,163 are now illegal because they are operating under another company's licence. More info from Totnes GE group - 01803 867951.

• Monsanto, those nice people responsible for Agent Orange and DDT, and naturally the future guardians of the world's food supply, are planning to field test their 'terminator' seeds. The plant's germination genes are switched off so that farmers only have one years crop before they have to buy more. Mmm! $m $m $m...

• The Vegetarian Society has announced that from 1st August next year, all foods using the trusted V symbol will have to be GMO-free. (V's up to Monsanto.)

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SMOKEY BEARS PICNIC - SCHWOOPS

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INSIDE SCHNEWS

• 12 months - Richard Dixon BK 7218,HMP Horfield, Cambridge Rd, Bristol, BS7 8PF

• 6 months - Ruth Browning ME36330 HMP Eastwood Park, Falfield, Wotton under Edge, Gloustershire, GL12 8DB

• Ben Thompson in prison after being nicked at Hillgrove vivisection farm has gone on hunger strike demanding, amongst other things, vegan toiletries and food that is guarenteed free of genetically modified organisms. He's asking people to write to the guv'ner to get him to implement his demands. Write to Mr..P .G.Cann, HMP Bullingdon, PO Box 50, Bicester, Oxon, OX6 OPR

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AND FINALLY

Monsanto, makers of healthy genetically engineered soy beans and other goodies displayed a hotline number for complaints in a recent issue of The Grocer magazine. Since, they have received 2717 calls from angry customers. Says Ann Foster, Monsanto's PR person, '...we were totally unprepared for the hostility. Some calls were pure vitriol.' Answering the phone for such a popular firm? No thanks. Pity the hotline doesn't put you straight through to the Board of Directors. Give it a go though! 0800 092 0401

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DISCLAIMER

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