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WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WHO'S GOT THE SKINS?
Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
Issue 215, Friday 11th June 1999
PARTY ANIMALS
"Sire, I am from the other country. We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun....And you, forgotten....without music and without geography, no longer setting out for the hacienda where the roots think of the child and where the wine is finished off with fables from an old almanac. Now that's finished. You'll never see the hacienda. It doesn't exist. The hacienda must be built."- Formulary for a New Urbanism (1953)
Two weeks in the wake of police impounding the Exodus Collective's soundsystem, which had provided sounds at dozens of their renowned free parties, last weekend just one party rocked the North. The Hacienda, once epicentre of the country's burgeoning new dance culture, revered international music venue, and mecca for those of the chemical generation, was squatted last weekend for one final blow-out bash.
The thousand or so party-goers inside were matched by almost as many again outside, as police moved in at midnight to prevent any more people from gaining entrance to the building, squatted since the previous day. When their cheeky attempt at storming the building was repelled by vigilant party people, the cops went wild outside, randomly batonning anyone who seemed most lively. One particularly excited six and a half foot uniformed officer struck someone straight across the back, before this plain clothes guy cried out "I'm a copper you idiot!"
The soundsystem eventually was negotiated out at 8am. Until then overhead, the police helicopter spotlight swept over determined party-heads getting hauled up into windows or shuffling along ledges, and all those still circling the building.
Funny how things turn full circle. The Hacienda, whose name came from an obscure political tract written in the 1950s (quoted above, and, where unattributed, elsewhere in this article) was so-called by the club's original co-owners Factory Records and the band New Order, to echo those no-compromise situationist ideals of untrammelled desire and sensory pleasure.
"There will be rooms more conducive to dreams than any drug, and houses where one cannot help but love."
Pioneering in playing imported Chicago house music, in its 1988 heyday the club stood at the heart of the acid house scene, and fresh wave of dance culture - the second 'summer of love'. Venue for Madonna's first UK concert, now for a brief time the Hacienda was he world's most famous club, featuring on the front page of Time magazine. But things fell apart. The profit motive cut in as gangsters sought to control the drug trade; guns and fear, threats of closure. Then the demons took our space: after Factory records spectacularly crashed, the Hacienda closed in '97 as that same profit motive put it in the hands of property developers. The word is they are planning to turn the building into luxury flats. Ever felt the hardcore dance energy rush in a luxury apartment?
Not so luxurious, anyhow, as the Marquess of Tavistock's gaff, holed up as he is in one of Britain's largest stately homes, Wobern Abbey. We might be content to let him fester there for the time being, but that when the Exodus Collective came to put on their last big 'do' on a out-of-the-way bit of his land last May 29, the police turned nasty. After their strategically-planned operation seized the Collective's vehicles and rig at the tail-end of the party, and nicked seven, one senior Bedfordshire officer was unusually honest; "It is unfortunate that a telephone call from the Marquess of Tavistock receives more attention from high up than a complaint from a member of the general public. But that's the way it goes."
Exodus continued to receive plenty of attention the following day when, securing the release of their rig from a compound in Leighton Buzzard, they were trailed by two police helicopters and an armed response unit(!), while another helicopter buzzed over Exodus' HAZ Manor. Spokesperson for Exodus, Glenn Jenkins commented "Once again, improper political pressure on the police at a high level has made them jump like grasshoppers. Previous to this incident, we were in a situation of dialogue, discussion and no confrontation with the police...but when there are dodgy attempts to stop the dances then the consensus of the Exodus Collective and the people who come to the dances is that the frequency of the events should step up."
"Games are forbidden in the labyrinth."
For what would be the alternative to Exodus' exemplary determination? On the same bank holiday as Exodus got busted, Homeland's 'pay-rave' took place in Hampshire. 17 hours of corporate entertainment, yours for a mere £44 +booking fee (then pints £3 a go; burgers £4). Part-sponsored by the Mean Fiddler, the event's seven dance stages were all sponsored by such dance culture devotees as Ericson mobile phone company, Bud Ice and Strongbow. Meanwhile on the hill outside the triple fencing compound, a blacked out police van carried out surveillance to watch out for any 'dodgy looking geezers.' SchNEWS has learned they had instructions to move in if people hadn't spent enough money in the past hour (OK that last sentence we made up, but you get the picture).
The hacienda must be built.
- Anyone who was arrested at the Hacienda party, knows anyone who was or witnessed an arrest, please call the Manchester Hacienda legal hotline - 0161 2266814
- For a survival guide to free parties (including gems like 'Wherever you party, cleaning up afterwards is essential. Why should we fuck up the countryside for a party - after all, industry and roads do it much more effectively') check out the latest SchNEWS book. The 260 page Survival Guide includes issues 151 - 200 and a whole lot more. Yours for £7.20 inc p+p from the usual address.
- Watch out, there's some dodgy pills about!(no, really?!) White, hard gloss finish, domed, with identical obverse & reverse,no logo, no score,some have blue flecks inside, 7mm wide x 4.3mm thick in centre, 3.1mm thick at edge. These contain dangerous amounts of a chemical which has killed 2 people recently in the US: http://www.ecstasy.org/
JUNE 18TH
CARNIVAL AGAINST CAPITAL
"The roar of profit and plunder will be replaced by the sounds and rhythms of party and pleasure as a massive carnival of resistance snakes its way through the square mile."
Transport from Brighton leaves 9 am. Tickets: Peace Centre Gardner St. £4
There's a prop making day for the carnival this Sunday(13)at Brighton Unemployed Centre off Carlton Hill 12 noon - 6 pm. Everyone welcome - bring materials if you can.
The June 18th legal group now have a web-site: http://www.blagged.freeserve.co.uk/j18law/
SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT!
The army, navy, RAF and royal marines, British Nuclear Fuels, British Aerospace, Defence Evaluation Research Association, Ferranti, Glaxo Wellcome, SchNEWS, John Lewis, McDonald's, Rolls Royce.Yep, all of them except SchNEWS are dodgy enterprises who take an active role in killing people, animals or the planet. What's more, they will all be participating in the "Manchester Graduate Recruitment Fair" run by the universities and The Guardian. So, if you're interested in clarifying the options for job-seekers to promote more ethical employment, there'll be a large demo outside the main entrance on Thursday 24 June 9:45am.
- A recent careers fair in Norwich saw the Huntingdon Life Sciences (vivisectionists extradionaires) stall occupied and the company's propoganda replaced with leaflets explaining the true nature of the company's work.
MORE PRIVATISATION BY THE BACK DOOR…
"Council housing was originally championed as a method of providing decent affordable housing to millions of people. Local councils were accountable through elections and could use cheap rates of interest available to local authorities to finance investment programs, squeezing out the profiteers who were making so much money out of people's desperate housing needs"- Defend Council Housing
In March this year New Labour, following in Thatcher's foot-steps announced plans to privatise over 140,000 council houses over the coming year, thus continuing a policy that has seen 250,000 council homes sold over the past 10 years.
Of course, tenants have to be balloted first to see if they want a change in landlord - but unless there is a strong tenants group opposed to the sell-off, aggressive sales techniques such as glossy pamphlets, paid door to door canvassers and the promise of doing up run-down estates puts the pressure on people to switch.
The Tories hated council houses(rents have increased by over 50% in the last ten years). and building came to a standstill. Councils weren't even allowed to spend the money they received from selling their houses! To cap it all in the past 10 years over £8 billion has been taxed from council rents, thus starving councils of the cash to spend on carrying out desperately needed repairs. And whereas housing associations are able to borrow money to invest in decaying stock - local councils can't.
So does it matter who your landlord is? The people behind Defend Council Housing (DCH) obviously think so "Rents are higher in the private sector and in housing associations and tenants have much less security. " Even the Housing Corporation - the housing associations' own governing body - have slammed Associations for deteriorating tenant services!
Defend Council Housing are having a National Conference on Saturday 19th June at the Friends Meeting House, Mount St., Manchester City Centre
Contact them at DCH, c/o Haggerston Community Centre, Haggerston Rd., London E8 4JA Tel 0171 254 2312
- Are you concerned about proposals for 4.4 million new homes in England over the next two decades? The fact that all the homes being built in the countryside seem to be executive homes?-Then you need to get along to The Urban Regeneration and Greenfied Environment Network (URGENT) Conference on Sustainable Housing Sunday 10th July 10 am - 9 pm Ruskin College, Walton St., Oxford
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE
The Government is telling us that killing people at a distance is sorted behaviour, but deciding to take care of our health isn't. So next time you feel a bit rough and think some herbs used for thousands of years might help, don't bother going down to a health food shop and getting some supplements! As reported in SchNEWS 205, a Govt proposal will attempt to reclassify herbal remedies and vitamin/mineral supplements as medicines, potentially putting loads of small businesses out on their collective ears and paving the path to a toxic corporate future. For those balanced individuals whose ears can still hear what's going on there's a March for the Freedom To Choose on Sunday 20th June, 11.45 am from Hyde Park (Cumberland Gate) to Trafalgar Square. Coaches from Brighton leave at 8.30 am from St. Peter's Church, tickets £5. 01273 276648/0171 385 0012. if you feel like some direct action, 22nd June , 6 pm Jubilee Room, Houses of Parliament, Consumers For Health Choice are lobbying 200 MPs at a meeting not open to the public.SCHNEWS IN BRIEF
- Gill Emerson, featured in a recent crap arrest after being nicked for sitting on a wall during a visit by Prince Charles, beaten up in a cell, given a broken nose, sprayed with CS Gas then charged for criminal damage to a police camcorder, has had her case thrown out of court.
- The Porkbolter - Worthings premier monthly news-sheet - are claiming victory at last months local elections with their Don't Vote campaign. The final score was Pork-bolter 69%, All the political parties 31% "many thanks to all of you who actually got off your back-sides and stayed at home." The Tories now control the town with the backing of just 16.8% of the electorate! For copies of their excellent newsletter send an SAE to PO Box 4144, Worthing, BN14 7NZ http://www.worthing.eco-action.org/porkbolter/
- Naughty students occupied the National Union of Students HQ this week to demand that they support a campaign for non-payment of tuition fees. An NUS spokesman told SchNEWS they were against students paying tuition fees, but - eh, refused to support students who didn't pay them! This was because it was apparently against the law, (although he couldn't think of which law it was against), and not what students wanted (because they all can't wait to cough up an extra grand a year). Nice to see the NUS is sticking up for students' interests with such clear, well thought out policies.
- On Wednesday 3rd of June a group of activists squatted the building previously known as Bishopston Community Centre, in solidarity with the previous community workers who were forced to leave after a long battle with their religious owners. The church want to turn the space into - another church. There's all sorts of activities happening. Tel. 0117 9444401
- Party in protest against UCI Cinemas outside the Empire Cinema Leicester Square, London WC2 on June 18th at 6pm This is the company who want to build the multiscreen shopping car-park nightmare at Crystal Palace (SchNEWS 203)
- GM whistle-blower Dr Pusztai will be one of the special guests at a debate on GM farm animal feed @The Oxford Union, St Michael Street, Oxford.8.30pm, Mon June 14th Tel: 01865 513224 http://millennium-debate.org/
- Camden Green Fair is on Sunday 20th June 12 - 6 pm at Kilburn Grange Park
Tel 0171 911 0959
- Brighton Urban Design and Development (BUDD) the people who organised the protests against the Sainsburys superstore in Brighton, are holding a public meeting to find out what people want on the station site. It's at St.Peters Memorial Hall, London Rd on Thursday June 17th 7.30 pm Tel 01273 681166
- There's also a public meeting on the Fur Trade on June 18th at the Woodlands Centre, Woodlands Ave., Rustington 7.30 pm
- Haringey Against Privatisation have organised a public meeting about the councils plans to privitise the schools in the area under the Private Finance Initiative (SchNEWS 210) It's on Wed. 16th June at the Sixth Form Centre, White Hart Lane Secondary School, N22 7.45 pm Tel 0181 211 0558
- The London to Stonehenge Walk will arrive in Winchester on 18th June. If you want to join them on their way to the stones for the solstice call 07979 013795
- A GM oil-seed rape trial was destroyed this week by sneaky Wiltshire landowner Capt. Fred Barker. The hunstman was growing the crop for Agrevo with 8 organic farms within a six-mile radius, there's even an organic plot on his own farm. With the Soil Association threatening to revoke his and the surrounding farms' organic growers licenses, legal actions would have flown. If only more farmers opted for an easy life.
INSIDE SCHNEWS SPECIAL
"The flowers are all dying in the heat. They desperately need help."These were the emotional words from Johnathan Aitken's mum as she revealed that she had to sell the story of her son's fall from grace so that she could pay for a water sprinkler system at her house in Ibiza. SchNEWS is greatly saddened to report the deplorable incarceration of the former Tory hot-shot. The once proud minister who secured arms deals with Saudi royals was given 18 months free accommodation courtesy of HM govt. (will he declare it as an interest?) this week. It all began when he promised to use the sword of truth to expose the terrible lies that the Guardian printed, concerning who paid his hotel bills in Paris. There was just one teensy problem- they were right, so his libel case against them collapsed, and he got done for perverting the course of justice, for amongst other things, getting his teenage daughter to lie to cover for him. So poor little Johnny ended up getting shafted by his own sword. SchNEWS feel it is wrong to gloat over the man's demise, and are organising an appeal to help raise money for his mum's sprinkler system. You can also write to him at Belmarsh prison, where he is currently residing, but he will soon be moved to Ford Prison. Please send only genuine letters of condolence, and definitely not anything along the lines of, "you deserve everything you got you tory bastard!"
Please donate generously to the Johnathan Aitken golden shower campaign., we may also be organising trips to visit him if there is enough demand.
WILD IN THE CITY
Typical , a bit of wilderness manages to flourish inoffensively in an inner-city park in Liverpool for long enough that even the Council recognise the informal footpath that has become a right of way. Then suddenly it's sold off for development. Who needs owls, foxes, rabbits, pipistrel bats and other wildlife not to mention many different species of trees when you can have two three-storey blocks of luxury flats, a new road and a car park? Determined to make the council think again, local residents have moved into the area occupying the trees. This area has few wild spaces, yet lots of empty buildings and waste land. So why was planning permission given on this site? The Council's own Nature Conservation Strategy states that " the aim will be to provide the people of Liverpool with a network of wildlife sites throughout the city which are an accessible part of their everyday lives- and provide a living educational facility". How exactly do they suppose that this planning permission will achieve that aim?Friends of Princes Park 0403 176 279
AND FINALLY
Curators at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Sydney, Australia, have had a hard time curbing one of their exhibits' sexual appetites, "We were finding that every time we went past Bill Clinton, his zipper was undone," says manager Vicky Brown. The wax reproductions "are very accessible, unlike the real President" she said (that's not what we've heard!) "People tend to get up close to get their photographs taken." The wax museum staff has therefore sewn the President's zipper shut. Shame they can't do that to the real thing and maybe sew up his mouth too while they're at it and do us all a real favour!DISCLAIMER
SchNEWS warns all readers not to attend any illegal gatherings or take part in any criminal activities. Always stay within the law. In fact, please just sit in , watch t.v and go on endless shopping sprees filling your houses and lives with endless consumer crap.......you will then feel content. Honest.Subscribe to SchNEWS: Send us first class stamps (e.g. 20 for the next 20 issues) or donations (cheques payable to "Justice?"). Or £15 for a year's subscription, or the SchNEWS supporter's rate, £1 a week. Ask for "original" if you plan to copy and distribute. SchNEWS is post-free to prisoners. You can also pick SchNEWS up at the Brighton Peace and Environment Centre at 43 Gardner Street, Brighton.
SchNEWS, PO Box 2600, Brighton, BN2 2DX, England
Phone/Fax (call before faxing): 01273 685913
Email: schnews@brighton.co.uk
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Last updated 17 June 1999
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