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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
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WAKE UP! It's yer WE DON'T GIVE A XXXX
Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
ISSUE 271, FRIDAY
18th August, 2000
And the winner of the Gold Medal for the 50 metre sweeping-the-dirt-under-the-carpet race is. Sydney. The Gold Medal for the biggest Olympic Greenwash ever goes to. Sydney. The Gold Medal for the biggest Aboriginal peoples' protest of the year goes to. er Sydney. Other events this year in the Games will include the four day dash from the S11* kick-off in Melbourne to the Games opening ceremony protest, and the 100 metre dash for people covered in company logos.
The arrival of a major sports event is supposed to help local economies - but typically it's the opposite and the community suffers: In the lead-up to the games rent prices in Sydney have soared, as have homeless figures: in the past year high rents, evictions and gentrification have forced the homeless numbers up to 35,000 in Sydney, a fourfold increase since the city was awarded the Olympics in 1993. An Aboriginal community who lived near the new stadium site have been evicted and found themselves on the outskirts of the city.
A set of laws specific to the Olympics have been brought in, making activities such as public assembly, busking, or the giving out of flyers, stickers or other unauthorised material banned within certain areas. Sound systems including PA's or even megaphones will be banned. CCTV cameras are everywhere - some with face recognition software in them. There is to be a 25,000+ security force in place for the games - this includes all types of police and some 'legally empowered' civilians (Temporary Enforcement Officers) who will have virtually as much power as a police officer.
The Olympic organisers are trying to divide the Aboriginals by employing black security workers, to deal with Aboriginal protests. The very same people used as scabs and bouncers in a recent dock dispute (see SchNEWS 163) .
Meanwhile a senior Sydney policeman has warned protestors from the Olympic Impact Coalition - a group campaigning against the social costs of the games - that 'silence is a form of violence' and that police officers '...due to minimal exposure to command situations involving non-violent activists, may act inappropriately...' !
Going for gold circles - on a black and red flag - will be the planned celebrations and protests of the Aboriginal peoples: A group of Aboriginals began the 1800 km walk on the 10th of June from Lake Eyre in central Australia to Sydney stopping along to the way at various places including the site of the new Beverly Uranium Mine where brothers and sisters fought a losing battle for their land. 'We will celebrate and affirm our obligation as carers of the country' said a spokesperson.
On the 14th July - National Aboriginal Day - a tent embassy was set up at Queen Victoria Park in Sydney with the involvement of the local Gadigal people. This is an extension of the Canberra tent embassy which has been going for 28 years and which remains an important part of the continuing Aboriginal struggle for rights. (check out www.graffitihalloffame.com) This week the local council are threatening to evict the tents.
Coming together on the opening ceremony an Aboriginal-led march will arrive at the Olympic stadium. Part of the 'Protest 2000' campaign, this march will bring to the attention of the world's media the plight of indigenous people worldwide with 500 Aboriginal groups plus guests from other peoples including Maoris, Zulus and Canadian-American Cree and Mohawks. For the duration of the games there will be a camp as near to the action as possible - with space for thousands.
All this comes after the march in June this year where 300,000 people - the biggest demo in Australian history - marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge supporting the issues of Aboriginal reconciliation.
The Olympic Games will be held at Homebush Bay, a disused industrial site subject to years of unregulated waste dumping with heavy metals, asbestos, chemical wastes including dioxins and pesticides under the surface. Some efforts have been made to contain these chemicals, but in many parts of the complex, gases and toxins are free to seep up through the soil. "Beneath the fine landscaping of the Olympic site lies one of Australia's worst toxic waste dumps. It will be covered by a metre of dirt and a mountain of PR." Sharon Beder, Canberra Times, 23/9/99 Yet this Olympics has been declared the 'most green ever.'
On the famous Bondi Beach a Volleyball stadium is being built. Local Aboriginal Councillor Dominic WY Kanak explained to SchNEWS 'while the Federal Court ruled that the Darug Traditional Owner's 'Native Title' to Bondi Beach still stands, the Olympics Minister Michael Knight said he would 'get back to them' about that before illegally overruling the law and authorising the building of the stadium on the beach.'
Companies kind enough to lend their money and name to the Games this year will be: McDonalds, Coca-Cola, IBM, Murdoch's News Ltd, General Motors, Nike, Shell and some dodgy Aussie companies as well.
The greenest Olympics ever? Luckily that's in safe hands: One of the green guidelines of the Games was that all drinks refrigerators must be HFC free - but unfortunately Coke are the suppliers of drinks and fridges for the games and none of theirs' are HFC-free. McMuck are doing their bit with some lip-smacking enviro- lip service - they're going to be wrapping the half-a-million burgers they plan to sell in recycled paper - so there! Certain brands of sportswear have bought the 'rights' to appear everywhere, and this means that the Olympic Committee is 'policing' so that the right ones are on the billboards, t-shirts, and written in the sky - to the exclusion of their competitors of course - and apparently during the Games authorities will have the power to exclude spectators with 'inappropriate' attire.
Activists from all round the country will converge on Sydney for these historic actions, including one group of activists who are riding bikes 4000 kms from Perth. Many will stop in Melbourne on Sept. 11th for the southern equivalent to Prague - the meeting of the World Economic Forum. Guess what - they're calling it S11.
See: www.realgames.org, www.samcentre.org, www.sydney.indymedia.org.
- S11 The World Economic Forum - a multinational knees-up where assorted execs and politicans wine and dine whilst bringing the world to an end - is having its Asia-Pacific Summit in Melbourne from September 11 - 15th. In response there will be a 'kaleidoscope of actions, conferences, workshops, music, united in opposition to corporate globalisation and the WEF' for a week starting on Sept. 7th. See www.s11.org
For complimenting a police officer on his toupé. At last weekends Smokey Bears picnic police were only able to make three arrests for possession of cannabis. They did however manage to haul in a large quantity of Oxo cubes, which we hope they will use to make some lovely veggie slop! In order to justify their presence they had to arrest somebody for commenting on an officers ill fitting toupé. * In the fight against growing the weed Mexican authorities have resorted to the aerial spraying of marijuana crops. In Chihahua federal authorities doused an indian village killing a two year old girl and leaving 320 others suffering from sickness rashes and respiratory problems. * Nearly a quarter of America's prisoners are serving sentences for non-violent drug related crimes. That's around 460,000 people.
At a mass meeting yesterday over 600 hospital workers covering four hospitals in the Dudley area voted to continue industrial action to stop their jobs being transferred to a private company. Summit Healthcare want to build a new 'superhospital' under the Private Finance Iniative (see SchNEWS 219) - so super, 70 beds will be lost.
The Private Finance Iniative (PFI) is an interesting little scam where corporations manage to get their grubby mits on more of our public services. Privitisation by the back door you might call it. The British Medical Journal have called the PFI "perfidious * financial idiocy that could destroy the NHS", but then what do they know.
Unlike the NHS the companies involved want to make a profit, and understandably staff at the four Dudley Hospitals are worried about worse pay and conditions if Summit Healthcare take over. As Mark New, Unison branch secretary told SchNEWS "we're on strike to keep our members jobs in the health service." Any new staff joining if Summit Healthcare get the contract will have worse pay and conditions.
So just who are Summit Healthcare? Well, SchNEWS spent the best part of an afternoon trying to find out; one hospital press officer telling us the company had told everyone to keep quiet about them.But yer super soaraway SchNEWS can exclusively reveal (well, maybe not exclusive but it sounds good) that the consortium are made up of McAlpine - the building firm; Siemens - the electronics firm who managed to bugger up the passport and immigration computer systems; Building and Property and the Royal Bank of Scotland - names synomonous with healthcare who will obviously have their workers and patients best interests at heart. In fact Building and Property have already taken over Cumberland Infamary in Carlise - where there 're-structuring' has already led to 40 cleaners getting the sack.
- This Saturday (19) there's a march in support of the strikers. Assemble 11am outside Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley
- Donations and letters of support. Cheques to Unison Dudley Group of Hospitals, Union offices, Wordsley Hospital, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY8 5QX Fax 01384 244350
- Perhaps we can see why the PFI is so popular with corporations. At the University College Hospital in London a private consortium will build a hospital worth about £200 million. The taxpayer will then have to fork out £30 million annually for the next 32 year. Which makes a tidy sum of £960 million thank you very much.
- The Crawley Hospital Campaign are standing a candidate at a forthcoming by-election. "We want this by-election to be a referendum on the governments decision to slash services at Crawley Hospital. Local people will have the chance to show how they feel about the decision. A vote for the Crawley Hospital Campaign will be a positive vote in favour of a new hospital in Crawley."
- This isn't the first time hospital campaigners have stood in local elections, Health Concern-Save Kidderminster Hospital now have 19 councillors and are the largest group on their council!
- "Deficits before patients" is a report showing what a disaster the new PFI hospital has been for Worcester with a 35% cutback in acute beds throughout the county. The report is by Allyson Pollock from the School of Public Policy, University College London.
- There's a Save Health Services public meeting on Tuesday 5 Sept 7.45pm at the West Green Community Centre, West Green Drive, Crawley with speakers from Kidderminster - Health Concern, London Health Emergency and Dudley Hospital Workers Tel 01293 548150
SCHNEWS VOCAB WATCH
Perfidious = Breach of faith, treachery.
SchNEWS in brief
- Cheeky protestors climbed onto the roof of a McDonald's in Bristol last Sunday, unfurling a banner and cooking veggie burgers on the roof lowering them down on a rope to be given away free to shoppers. They were there 3 hours before the stock of veggie burgers ran out.
- Jean Chretien, Canada's head of government became the latest lucky person to receive the honour of being pied. Chretien was chosen for his services in helping to push the biotech industry round the world. The pie-thrower was nicked and bailed for court later this month. One onlooker commented, "I think the pie-thrower should receive a trophy instead of handcuffs.
- There's a demo against our old mates Balfour Beatty (SchNEWS 266) to protest about their involvement in the Ilisu dam construction on 1st September. Meet Crombie Rd., Aberdeen 7.45 am outside their offices to leaflet workers grampianearthfirst@hotmail.com PO Box 248, Aberdeen, AB25 1JE
- Bombing People is not always beautiful a play set during the Cuban Missile Crisis will be showing from 22 Aug- 10 September at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London. Tickets £12/10 Tel: 020 72872875
- Jean Chretien, Canada's head of government became the latest lucky person to receive the honour of being pied. Chretien was chosen for his services in helping to push the biotech industry round the world. The pie-thrower was nicked and bailed for court later this month. One onlooker commented, "I think the pie-thrower should receive a trophy instead of handcuffs."
- Campaigners from Friends of the Earth Netherlands urgently need your help! They own a small plot of land next to Schipol Airport which is now under threat from devolopers wishing to build a fifth runway ( calling it an environmental runway) FoE are now planning to move onto the land to ensure that it is protected 24 hours but they need more people. www.milieudefensie.nl/airtravel
- From the 23-27 August is the World Voices Festival looking at 'alternative sustainable solutions'. Green & Away, Gloucestershire. 020-7372-7117. www.worldvoices.org
- The bank holiday weekend is also The Free Range Weekend near Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire. A Gathering 'for mutual education and planning examine how small groups of people can 'plug-in' to power structures and use them, as well as discussions on the new Terrorism and the RIP Act. email timshaw@gn.apc.org
- On Bank holiday Monday its the Colchester Free Festival, Castle Park, Colchester, Essex. 3 music stages, green area and childrens theatre 01206 547505 www.go-n8tive.com/colfreefest.
- On the same day is the Sutton Green Fair, Carshalton, Surrey Carshalton Park, Ruskin Road, Tel: 020 8647 9201
Vincent Bethell from the Freedom To Be Yourself Campaign has been wholeheartedly pursuing his naked crusade. Earlier in the month he announced his intentions to remove all his clothes and remain that way until nakedness is legalised (see SchnEWS 268) and since then the campaign have been roaming the streets of London naked. Their first escapade lasted a mere half hour before the police arrived and arrested the group of 12. In court the next day Vincent refused to put on his clothes, left court that way and was promptly arrested again. Appearing in court the following day, once again Vincent was naked, left court naked and was arrested again!So does he think he's made his point now? Apparently not. A spokesperson from the campaign stated that "Vincent will be leaving his clothes off indefinitely until nakedness is legalised." As SchNEWS went to press he was due back in court. www.geocities.com/thehumanmind/
Simon Jones
On 24th April 1998, 24 year old Simon Jones was sent to work for Euromin at Shoreham docks by the employment agency Personnel Selection. Despite the job he was doing being one of the most highly skilled in the country Simon received no training. Hours after starting work he was dead, his head crushed by the grab of a crane.
Simon was a victim of the growing casual labour workforce. Sadly his case is not an isolated incident. Behind the glossy front of employment agencies lies a world of workplace deaths, injuries and exploitation.
The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, formed by his friends and family decided that enough was enough and rather than waiting for justice, got out there to seek it for themselves. Two years later, and the mixture of consistent lobbying, raising of awareness and direct action has seen Simon's name come to be associated with all that's wrong with casualisation. Despite a High Court ruling ordering the Crown Prosecution Service to reconsider their decision not to prosecute Euromin, nothing has been done.
"1st September would have seen Simon celebrating his 27th birthday if he hadn't been killed by the profits-before-everything economy he hated so much. Simon always enjoyed a good party. Let's give him one."
Meet 1pm, steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Transport from Brighton, tickets available from the Peace and Environment Centre £3/£1 concessions.
Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, PO Box 2600, Brighton BN2 2DX, 01273 685913, www.simonjones.org.uk
Residents of Toronto, angered by the excessive noise and pollution generated by the annual Molson Indy Car Race decided to take matters into their own hands by making even more noise! Armed with a bicycle, amplifiers, speakers and a tape of the roar of last year's race, the noisy protest made its way into the city centre where largely sympathetic passers by were given ear plugs and leaflets.
From here they decided to get right to the source of their problem and headed off to the Mayor Mel Lastman's house which unsurprisingly was situated in the affluent suburbs far away from all sounds of the race. Unfortunately the man himself didn't appear to be around, although his wife appeared briefly before being whisked away by her chauffeur. Local residents and neighbours were understanding of the protest apart from one man who felt that it was a bit unfair, "You shouldn't pick on Mel," he said, "He's done so much for the city." How about being a really radical mayor and organising some eco-friendly events? www.IndyOut.com
Here are some queries posted on a Sydney Olympics web-site from prospective international visitors:
- Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK) A: Yes but only on your feet.
- Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany) A: Yes to the first question, and yes to the udder.
- Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK) A: Why bother? Use your fingers like the rest of us...
- Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA) A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.
- Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
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Last updated 18th August 2000
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