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| 16th June
1995 | Issue
27
Justice? Brighton's Campaign in Defiance of the Criminal
Injustice Act
SchNEWS
CJA ARRESTOMETER
Hunt Sabs 151
Road Protestors 50
Footie Fans 45
Environmentalists 25
Travellers# 11
Tree Defenders 11
No Live Exports* 3
Fascist Printers 2
Peace Campaigners 1
* at least 500 arrested under the 1986 Public Order Act this
year
# not including grief and harassment
TRUST TURN TRAITORS
NATIONAL TRUST THREATEN
TO TAKE TRAVELLERS HOMES
For the second time in
as many months the National Trust (NT) are evicting travellers.
They want the land in order to restore some old engine rooms despite
the fact that the small group of travellers have lived peace fully
on the cliffs of West Cornwall at Kenedjack for four years. They
face eviction this coming Monday.
The Trust brought the
land in February and are using their own by-laws which are even
more draconian than those of the Criminal Justice Act (CJA).
They tried to evict the
travellers last week. However locals blocked access to the sea-cliffs
using land rovers and the site occupants refused to move. The occupants
have now been informed that thepolice will be present in force on
Monday and their homes will be seized and subject to a 14 day destruction
order if they don't go.
SchNEWS spoke to the
Trust who told us "Why should land be unlawfully occupied
by one group of people - It should be for everybody to enjoy,
not just one section of the community?' Asked as to where these
people should go, the NT spokesman replied "I don't want
to sound callous but that really isn't our problem."
A spokesperson for Friends
and Families of Travellers said: "It's ironic that an organisation
whose roots are based around a land rights campaign at the start
of this century, should turn from liberators to oppressors. The
Trust brought the land knowing that the people had lived there for
many years and yet has proceeded to evict. The NT seems to be putting
their own policies before that of the futures of human beings."
What's more beautiful
- a home with a family and kids, or a renovated shell of an engine
room?
Ring up Cornwall, National
Trust and tell them what you think 01208 74281.
Friends and Families
of Travellers, 01458 832371
Oxfordshire County Council
have voted to endorse key demands made by the Land Is Ours campaign.
The Campaign was launched at the end of April with a week-long occupation
of land in Surrey triggering similar events around the country.
The campaigns three main aims are land for homes, land for livelihoods
and land for life.
100th DAY OF SHAME
Over 200 people pledged
themselves to be arrested last Tuesday to stop the 100th shipment
of live animal export lorries going thru' Brightlingsea. Protesters
sat in the road Gandhi-stylee singing "We Shall Overcome"
& "All Things Bright and Beautiful" stopping the lorries
for near1y an hour. In all 67 peop1e were arrested.
Due to this Essex police
have refused to let less than 4 lorries enter the town at one time.
On Thursday the exporter tried to bring 3 lorries in and the police
turned them back. Hurrah! - Shoreham's had it - next Brightlingsea
- then onto Dover boys and girls.
* Mahatma Gandhi was
the leading figure in the Indian Independence movement in the 1930s
& 40s advocating nonviolent action.
NUCLEAR TOUR
OnAugust 6th 1945 the
USA dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and 3 days later, one on
Nagasaki. Japanese estimates are that - well over 210,000 people
in those cities died within four months of the bomb being dropped.
Since then another 90,000 have died from the after-effects, and
even today, over 100,000 people continue to receive medical
attention. Determined that nuclear weapons must never be used again,
the HIBASUKA travel the world campaigning for nuclear disarmament.
Hear the Hibakusha - survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki tell their
story on a nation-wide tour from the 27th June - 16th July. For
more information on when they'll be in your area ring Yorkshire
CND on 01274 730 795.
INSIDE SchNEWS
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL a
former Black Panther and supporter of the radical green group MOVE,
has been in prison in Philadelphia, America for over 13 years, accused
of murdering a policeman. There is no forensic evidence linking
him to the crime, and numerous witnesses identified another man
as the killer. Mumia has been framed for his political beliefs as
he is widely recognised as a powerful African-American advocate
of green ideas and action. The death warrant has been signed just
on the eve of Mumia's attorneys filing a petition for a new trial.
HIS EXECUTION IS SET FOR 10:00PM THURSDAY AUGUST 17th 1995.
Send him letters of support:
Mumia Abu-Jarnal, AM8335, SCI Green, 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy, Waynesburg,
Pennsylvania, PA 15370 USA.
You can also write to
the Governor demanding a retrial: Governor Tom Ridge, Main Capitol
Building, Room 225, Harrisburg, PA 17210, USA. British contact:
0181 519 9228
JIM CHAMBERS: has
now been inside 128 days for alleged criminal damage to a road construction
site. Write to him at PV 2504, HMP Pentonville, Caledonian Road,
London, N7 8'IT.
CHRIS. COLE also
at Pentonville for six months for breaking an injunction against
British Aerospace PB 0538.
crap arrests of the
week
* For filming
Shamrock Farms (the largest importer of primates for vivisection
in Europe). The arresting copper felt that this could have 'intimidated'
people working there!
* Women found guilty
under Section 5 of the Public OrderAct (threatening and offensive
behaviour) for blowing whistle in coppers ear at Shorehain!
* Cartoon Kate
arrested at the Critical Mass cycle-action in Brighton for 'unlawful
obstruction of the highway' - on a moving bike! She wasn't obstructing
anyone until the copper stopped her! Another women was arrested
at the action for walking in the road!
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BATTLE OF ORGREAVE
"...when the
shields parted it was the police support units with riot gear, drawn
truncheons and short shields who emerged. They seemed little interested
in 'taking prisoners' and rather more interested in injuring...
Men lay around unconscious or semi-conscious with vicious wounds
on their bodies, more often than not with bloody gashes on the backs
of their heads..."
18th June 1984 is an
anniversary that will never be forgotten by those who took part
in or supported the 84/85 Miners Strike. It was the date
when, 100 days into the miners strike, eight thousand police including
riot and mounted police, launched the most ferocious attack on the
6,000 miners who were picketing the Orgreave Coking Plant near Sheffield.
At least 59 miners were injured, some seriously, as they
were batonned by police on the ground and from horseback. Miners
leader, Arthur Scargill was knocked unconscious with a police riot
shield. Although both newspapers and TV had plenty of footage of
the police attacking pickets and of miners with broken legs and
arms, with blood streaming from their heads, they chose to report
the events at Orgreave as a riot by the miners.
The Miners Strike saw
a level of military-style policing that was at that time unprecedented
in an industrial dispute. Throughout out the strike pit villages
were occupied by police, pickets were turned back by police roadblocks,
pickets met mass assault and arrest. By the end of the strike 11,000
miners had been arrested and 152 gaoled. This police repression
was part of a strategy coordinated by the Cabinet, personally overseen
by Thatcher and aimed at destroying the miners organisation.
Thatcher called the miners
'the enemy within'. They were the most militant wing of a trade
union movement and they hail inflicted humiliating defeats on the
Conservative government in 1972 and 1974. When the Thatcher government
came to office in 1979 the Conservatives were determined to destroy
their power once and for all. The miners, particularly under the
leadership of an avowed socialist like Arthur Scargill, were seen
as the greatest threat to the Tory policies of privatisation, unemployment
and low wages.
There is a mass of evidence
that while the police were being used as the visible force against
the miners, other shadowy forces were in operation. Staff at GCHQ,
the governments surveillance centre have said that Thatcher personally
authorised a 'Get Scargill' campaign both during and after the strike,
aimed at destroying him 'politically and socially'. This was run
by MI5, GCHQ and the Special Branch. The MI5 campaign was organised
by Stella Rimington.
Orgreave was just one
episode in the battle between the miners and the state. The Orgreave
pickets who were charged with riot were all acquitted in court and
later awarded half a million pounds compensation by the police.
That the miners and their
families fought on for a year in the face of these powerful enemies
is a tribute to their courage, their organisation ability and their
solidarity. If they had won not only would there still be a coal
industry and mining jobs and communities but the whole political
landscape of Britain would be different A blow would have been struck
against the worshippers of market forces both in and out of the
Tory Party. When the NUM funds were confiscated it was money collected
on the streets, often by the Women Against Pit Closures, that kept
the miners and their families going. It was certainly not the Labour
Party or the Trade Union Congress who refused to give them political
or industrial support. That is why we should remember Orgreave and
its lessons. This year the few remaining pits were privatised. Today
there are less than 7,000 miners. In 1984 there were nearly 200,000.
The fate of the miners and their communities remains a symbol of
how vicious and determined are the rulers of this country. But the
miners strike is also a symbol of struggle against mighty odds,
a struggle that we must continue to wage if we are to have a future.
'If you go in one
demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people
in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained
pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things,
people that keep lessons from the last time and doing it better
the next time." Noam Chomsky.
SchNEWS In Brief
Critical Mass Report.
Last Saturday over 100 cyclists shut down Brighton in a protest
against the car economy. Local police tried to set up road-blocks,
but they were unable to stop the action. Eventually they arrested
4 cyclists for minor road-traffic offences. The cyclists responded
by riding into the foyer of the police station before being thrown
out. Unlike the police, fellow cyclists and pedestrians supported
the action. Like us, they are angry at cyclists being knocked off
their bikes, with pedestrians being run over, and all of us choking
on car fumes. Critical Mass is another front in our war against
the car economy and we hope to link it with other issues like 'Reclaim
the Streets' and direct action against road-building. JOIN US ON
THE NEXT CYCLE ACTION: Saturday St July, 12:30pm, St. Peters Church
Brighton.
*** On another
level, people overheard police communication with CCTV (Closed Circuit
TV) controllers, monitoring the movement of people involved in the
action. Another example of CCTV being used to monitor our movements
and not, as they state, to deal with crime.
*** Mahwhinny, Secretary
of State for Transport has closed the consultative part of his Great
Transport Debate in Oxford without meeting any of the groups involved
in the high profile direct action protests against road-building.
It was groups such as the No M 11 Campaign, Third Battle of Newbury
and Road Alert who prompted the need for a national transport debate
and their exclusion confirms the nature of this debate as simply
a public relations exercise.
*** The last house
standing on the route of the M11 Link Road in East London with its
20 foot tower has been tipped off to be evicted next Tuesday. Ring
the action hot-line 0181 989 8741. Meanwhile down in Kent a 30 foot
tower totters on the roof of a house standing in the way of the
Thanet Way extension. Eviction could be anytime 01227 770 835. On
Saturday there's a rally and pageant beginning at the 'Gorrel Tank'
in Whitstable. Meet at 12 noon and walk along part of the route.
Party And Protest
SUN 18th Camden Green
Fayre 0171 722 3710
SUN 18th Picnic + rally
against M66 at Daisy Nook, Near Droyleeden 0161 627 4862
SUN 18th The UK Solar
Energy Society Sun Day 0121 459 1248
MON 19th Trial of anti-fascists
nicked at Welling Demo 10am Maidstone Crown Court.
TUE 20th Car-free Day
in Bath. Avon Gorge Earth First! 01374 953160
21st - 22nd CJA Gathering
and celebration at Stonehenge
WED 21st Beagle Solstice
Overnight Vigil at Consort Vivisection Breeders 0121 680 2833
THUR 22nd Global Future
Exhibition on ecology + human rights Olympia, London 01675 443066
23th - 25th Small gathering
at Glastonbury....
SAT 24th Gay Pride Festival,
Victoria Park, London
SAT 24th Merseyside National
Music Free Day 0151 694 1595
SAT 24th Gorsedd of Bards
of Caer Abyri. Free. 01424 716687
SAT 24th National
Action for Refugee Detainees 0186 724452
24th - 2nd JULY Unicorn
'Meditation Intensive' Camp, Cornwall 01256 893369
SUN 25th CND Conference
in London 0171 700 2393
SUN 25th Jubilee Family
Rambling Day Ramblers Association 0171 582 6878
MON 26th Sanctions Dusters!
action against sanctions on Iran + Libya. 11am St. James Park Underground
0171 607 2302
WED 28th Meeting on how
to beat the CJA. Leamington Spa Pump Rooms 01926 56217
FRI 30th National Day
of Gridlock - more action to reclaim our streets back. For inspiration
call 0171 254 2290
REMEMBER JULY 7th - Large
anti-CJA, Free Festival/Party somewhere in southern/middle England.
Make sure you're there.
and Finally...
Next weeks SchNEWS will
be produced and read out on site at Glastonbury in the Green Field.
So come and say hello. People will still be in the Justice? office
so ring us with your stories and they will be passed on to us. However
won't be able to print up and distribute copies properly till the
Tuesday after - so subscribers etc. expect delays!
To subscribe to 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 prince albert, trafalgar st
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