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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
ISSUE 308, FRIDAY 15th June, 2001
SITA'S A PARROT
"This unelected, unaccountable multinational is holding the City to ransom." Gary Smith, GMB Official
Within a week of Labour winning the election with the promise of privatising our public services, refuse collectors in their flagship city of Brighton are getting a taste of what Blair and co have in store - sackings, attacks on working conditions and profiteering as services get poorer. Or to put it another way...
After one of the largest votes of no confidence in politicians since 1918, Blair, his town-hall-cronies-by-the-sea and their mates in multinational companies are getting a taste of what they can expect when they take on public workers and our basic services - strike action, occupation and direct action in resistance to corporations' slow destruction of our public services.
Brighton's refuse workers went to work this Monday to find that SITA - the French multinational with the contract to clean Brighton's rubbish - had imposed increased workloads that the workers knew would be impossible to deliver. One typical run would involve one driver and two others sweeping a major part of the sea front, an entire estate and a bit more for luck. As one refuse worker told SchNEWS, "What would you do if you went into work and were told you had to clean 18 miles of streets a day?"
What 11 workers did was refuse to do these impossible rounds - and they were promptly suspended. When the rest of the 160-strong GMB workforce protested against this, SITA's management sacked the lot. It was the last straw - the workforce occupied the depot. They demanded that SITA, who have cost local people an extra £1.8m a year since they took over Brighton's street cleaning, get the sack and that they get back to the job of cleaning streets - instead of increasing some company's stock market value.
SITA brought in bin lorries to a nearby industrial park where they tried to get employment agency workers to scab against the strike. It didn't work. In an unusual political alliance, local Green Party councillors emerged as the only politicians in touch with the widespread local disgust at SITA's profiteering, while supporters of the Free Party - fresh from cheerful annihilation at the polls - persuaded employment agency workers that if they scabbed they wouldn't be welcome anymore at Brighton free parties. Party politics, Jim, but not as we know it. One local activist called "Jamie" got up at 5am to lock onto one of the trucks for five hours, preventing the rest from moving. As one striker put it, "This fellow is crazy but what he has done is much appreciated".
Faced with a determined strikeforce occupying its depot with enormous local support, SITA's bullying started to crack.. Employment agencies started refusing to have anything to do with them. SITA workers in neighbouring areas suddenly developed strange, short-term illnesses when asked to scab. The local council held hours of secret meetings with SITA but couldn't come up with a way to beat the strike.
By Thursday evening, SITA and the council had caved in. All the workers were reinstated, getting full pay for the time they were on strike. SITA were given 11 weeks notice that their contract was being terminated - and that they could forget their new work practices in the meantime.
GMB official Gary Smith told SchNEWS, "SITA deliberately provoked this dispute by trying to lock members out. Unfortunately for them, the workers decided to lock themselves in. We had enormous public support from the local unemployed centre, direct action people and loads of different communities who are fed up with their services being run for profit. We should take inspiration from this fight, because it shows that when people get together we can stop privatisation in its tracks."
SITA on it
We all know that recycling is the only good thing to do with our waste, but currently in this country we only manage a meagre 8 % while other European countries recycle over half. In Canberra, Australia, they're aiming for zero waste production by 2005. Recycling makes not only environmental but also economic sense. It would reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, save energy and creates jobs- in Germany more people are employed in recycling than in steel and telecommunications. But building up a recycling scheme takes time and for short term, quick buck companies like SITA it is a simple inconvenience- cos' time is money.
Luckily not all organisations have the same approach as SITA. There are over 200 community recycling groups in this country who are constantly challenging attitudes to waste. Of the seven Beacon awards for innovation in waste management, 5 were awarded to councils who involved community recyclers. The town with the highest recycling levels in the country - Bath, has (you guessed it) community recyclers involved. Here in Brighton, the Magpie recycling co-operative has been operating for 10 years. From providing Brighton's first recycling bin in the Hanover Centre, they now provide domestic recycling for 5000 homes (using converted milk floats) and 400 businesses and pubs. They also run a furniture recycling scheme.
Bottled it
Despite the excellent record of the co-ops and community groups, they rarely get awarded the big municipal waste contracts. One of the main reasons is the way contracts are awarded - only companies with a large turnover are deemed "responsible" enough to handle a large contract. In Brighton this has meant that SITA won the contract to be in control of everything to do with waste- clean the streets, collect waste, and recycle it. From their short term view recycling doesn't make financial sense. They're bidding to run Sussex's proposed incinerators, and they'll have needed to set aside some rubbish to burn. Companies have sussed that there's no way they can loose with incinerator's cos they can sue the council if they don't get enough waste to burn. This will severely hold back recycling for the lifespan of the incinerator.
SITA on my face
SITA's failure to provide a good service is an important kick in the teeth to the privatisation of public services. The GMB, the union representing the sacked binmen are keen to explore the possibility in setting up a workers co-op to take over Brighton's waste contract. This will be owned by the workers and run for the benefit of the people of Brighton. If this did happen they would be the first co-op running an entire municipal refuse service in this country. As one Magpie worker told SchNEWS "The possibility of a workers' co-op running the contract instead of one big waste company opens up some very exciting opportunities to create a social enterprise with some very different approaches to our waste strategy."
This whole scenario is nothing new. In France when it became evident that multinationals
were more interesting in recycling taxpayer's money than people's waste, local
referendums were held and they were kicked out in favour of the original community
groups.
* Magpie 01273 688022
* Community Recycling Network www.crn.org.uk
CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK
For making a mess of the carpet! 17 people were arrested and charged with 'public violence against the floor and carpeting' during a 'bloodbath' inside the Dutch parliament building.
The demonstrators aided with bottles of ketchup and chilli sauce, were protesting against plans to let America use Dutch airbases in their so called war on drugs in Colombia (see SchNEWS 273).
For the full story check out www.squat.net/cineak
Imagine another double issue of SchNEWS with details for June and July from our Party & Protest site in the middle pages... Well that's what there is this week. Were we willing to copy it all into this page for the web, bearing in mind that it's there already? Nope. So you'll have to use your imagination. Or alternatively check out the pdf, print it out, copy it up and give it to all yer mates.
Party Briefs
- For a complete list of festivals get Festival Eye, now available for £3 (cheques to Festival Eye) + A4 addressed envelope from Distribution @ Festival Eye, BCM 2002, London, WC1N 3XX.
- Brighton sound system Ground Zero were in court this week to face the music after the Woodingdean party on the Downs a couple of weeks back when two cop cars were turned over (SchNEWS 305) In the end they got their system back but were fined £500 with £75 costs - so watch out for benefit gigs and remember to dig deep. Meanwhile Sussex police are reportedly £70,000 out of pocket, for the cost of trial and wrecked cars, while all free parties around the City are paying by having parties stopped.
- Brighton Soundsytems unite and un-plug for the Solstice gathering Burning Of The Rigs on the beach/Madiera Drive, Brighton. 21 June 8pm, with acoustic sounds from Marmoset, members of Headmix plus fire performers, drums and more. All performers welcome. After party in Concorde 2 - free party DJ'S Take Control - 11pm-3am. *DSG have released the POTWOW EP from the Studio 284 stable. So if you know any POTWOWs (prisoners of the war on weed), you'll be happy to know that a percentage of all sales goes to the cause. Details 01273-572277, studio284@junglelink.co.uk
More Crap Arrests
Last October, 20 young men tooled up with baseball bats, knives and other weapons entered Broomfield School and viciously attacked a 14 year old black student, who was hospitalised. Later that day students from the same school saw the attackers on the bus, and 'did the right thing' by telling the police, who then kindly laid into the students and arrested 3 of them instead of the attackers!! The three are in court 25th June, Lordship Lane Magistrates Court, London. More info Movement for Justice 07957 696636
FEELING CROSS
The first votes of election day were cast not in a ballot box, but in a field of genetically modified (GM) Oilseed Rape. In the early hours campaigners cut an 'X' shaped swathe through the controversial GM crop currently growing at Munlochy on the Black Isle, Inverness. All over the country GM crops continue to be mysteriously trashed. Six out of 13 oil seed rape trials have been destroyed by night-time pixies and mother-nature has destroyed another two. The remaining five sites may not provide enough data for pharmaceutical giant Aventis to introduce the crop as a commercial variety, possibly delaying this by a year. SchNEWS spoke to one of the pixies who told us "Opinion polls have shown time and again that the public doesn't want these crops polluting the environment. Government and businesses won't listen, so the only thing to do is destroy the crops". It's not just in Britain that pixies are active, in Belgium three trials have recently been destroyed.
In fact it looks like things may only get worse for Aventis and their mates, as the 'Justice system' appears to be unable to make most charges against GM protesters stick. Many charges are dropped and even if they go to court, juries often find them not guilty of criminal damage. This week seven GM campaigners were cleared by magistrates for aggravated trespass. They successfully argued that as no other people were present in the field the action was not "aggravated". Soon the authorities are gonna run out of laws they can use - hopefully leading to a decriminalisation of crop trashing.
* For a list of all UK test sites including which ones have been destroyed, visit www.geneticsaction.org.uk/testsites If there's a test site near you, contact GEN on 020 76900626. For a guide to night-time gardening, contact TOGG on 01803 840098
* Protest March against GM crops being grown in Wivenhoe, Essex. Meet noon, 23rd June, Wivenhoe station. mclarke@essex.ac.uk
Inside SchNEWS
This week American environmental activist Jeffrey Luers (a.k.a. Free) was sentenced to 22 years, 8 months in jail in Eugene, Oregon. Accused of attempted arson over a year ago, Free admitted setting fire to several Sport Utility Vehicles at Romania Chevrolet, saying during the trial he did so out of frustration over the environmental destruction that cars (especially gas-guzzling SUVs) wreak. But in his statement to the court, Free also emphasised the care he took to ensure that no one would be injured in the fires, "It cannot be said that I am unfeeling or uncaring. My heart is filled with love and compassion. I fight to protect life... not to take it. Forty-thousand species go extinct each year, yet we continue to pollute and exploit the natural world... All I ask is that you believe the sincerity of my words, and that you believe that my actions, whether or not you believe them to be misguided, stem from the love I have in my heart." An appeal is underway, but activists everywhere are still shocked by the severity of the sentence - 22 years is longer than many murderers and rapists receive. Craig Marshall (a.k.a Critter), who was arrested with Free, accepted a 5 1/2-year sentence for his role in the fire as part of a plea bargain last November. Send letters for both Free and Critter to: c/o the Legal Defense Committee at FCLDC, P.O. Box 50263, Eugene, OR 97404, USA. For more info visit www.efn.org/~eugpeace/freecritter
SchNEWS in Brief
- The Wombats (White Overall Mobile Buffer Against Truncheon Strikes) have arrived! These are the down-under cousins of the Wombles formed in response to police violence at the S11 protests last year. wombats@disinfo.net
- All good Wombles should read Bodyhammer: Tactics and Self-Defence for the Modern Protester. 22 pages about shields, helmets, body armour and self-defence tactics for street protests. Download it at www.devo.com/sarin/shieldbook.pdf
- RIP Old Mick former resident of Claremont Road. A brave and fierce East End man with a great love of the mother. A teacher, storyteller, schemer and visionary who, when his geezer gave up was ready to go into the next big mission with eyes shining.
- Slovakian anarchists held their second street party in Bratislava to protest against the massive road building programme, while the once-impressive public transport network rapidly deteriorates www.streetparty.sk
- www.ruralfutures.org is a website for a discussion of rural issues that tries to get away from the "angry farmers and foxhunters" characterisation of the countryside.
- Oldham East Labour MP Phil Woolas wants all claimants to sign on the electoral register or lose all benefits, he's also in favour of DNA testing the whole country! To protest at this nine people visited the local Labour Party HQ and eight were nicked to prevent a breach of the peace - making criticisms and asking awkward questions apparently isn't peaceful.
- The Map of Activities on Transport Europe is now accompanied by an updated booklet called 'Freeway for a free market?' a guide to 'whatever you would want to know about the European transport situation'. From: Car busters, Kratka 26, 100 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic. email: carbusters@ecn.cz
- Liberty has written to the Metropolitan Police threatening legal action on behalf of hundreds of people unlawfully detained by the police at the May Day protests
- In South Korea 55,000 workers from 126 unions are on 'indefinite strike' including airline pilots who have stopped most airline's flights, and hospital workers. Protestor blockades managed to stop cops taking 14 union leaders of South Korean Air into custody. Workers are demanding that their 44-hour, six-day week be reduced and that working conditions for temporary workers improve.
Mersey-less Treatment
Ten refugees from Liverpool are on hunger strike in protest over their barbaric treatment within the British asylum system. The protest has been sparked by a combination of delays in the asylum process and appalling conditions in the flats where the group live, owned by a private company contracted by the government - Landmark Liverpool Ltd. Press reports last year showed residents living in damp, overcrowded, filthy accommodation. Residents have reported that the landlady threatened to have them 'sent back' if they complained to the press. "We came to this country to seek refuge from persecution," said one of the refugees, "instead we have been treated like animals." E-mail messages of support to: landmark_hungerstrike@hotmail.com or call 07801 554918 for more details.
* At the end of June, the government will be opening a new asylum-seekers detention centre at Harmondsworth. This new prison will house 550 refugees - how hospitable! Picket 30th June, noon-2pm, Colnbrook bypass (A4 north of Heathrow). Close Down Harmondsworth Campaign 07960 309457.
* In Bedford Yarlswood Detention Centre is about to hold 900 refugees. There's a metting on the 7 July at 22 Chaucer Road,Bedford. Tel 07767-414714 eginn@arrowuk.com
Talk Ain't Cheap
"The police and its thug friends have made a complete mockery of every value and principle that this nation has been struggling to establish in the last three years, along with the sacrifices that have gone with this struggle. With a single stroke, the raid in Sawangan has simply turned back the clock on the nation." Jakarta Post Editorial.
Last Friday a conference near Jakarta, Indonesia, on "fighting neo-liberalism in the Asia-Pacific region" was violently broken up by 100 armed police plus a posse of machete-wielding right-wing militia thugs. Police took 40 participants into custody for 24 hours without charge, removed passports, and threatened fines and deportation. This left the militia free to attack the remaining Indonesian participants, injuring several and hospitalising two, one critically, as well as stealing conference computers, and personal belongings of delegates.
When the delegates - including many Australians - were released without charge, and passports returned, the Director General for Immigration claimed that the police 'acted on their own', and declared the visas and conference legitimate. The Australian government - maintaining a 32 year 'special relationship' with dodgy Indonesian regimes, fobbed the fiasco off as a "visa misunderstanding".
Budiman Sudjatmiko, organiser of the conference, must have had a sense of deja-vu: the former student radical, sentenced to 13 years jail for subversion in 1996 under the Suharto regime, was only released in 1999. Local police still treat him as a 'communist threat' and last month his parents' home was bombed. The timing of this vicious attack raises the possibility of police collusion with the gangs, and a re-emergence of the sort of alliance between right-wing terror groups and the military which featured in East Timor. www.asiet.org.au
INTERFERENCE INTERFERED WITH
On Election Day Interference FM broadcast to Bristol for a few hours before being busted. Members of the Radio-communication Agency spotted the transmitter on the roof of a house and arrived with lots of police. This is the second time that Interference has been busted, while other pirate radios have an easier life often broadcasting for many days. The reason Interference was busted was since the morning it was spitting rage on the waves about the election and encouraging citizens not to vote. The confiscation of transmitter and stereo has been a big blow for this collective. Show solidarity and send contributions to Interference FM, Box 6, 82 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5LR.
...and finally...
New York cops bit off a bit more than they bargained for when they raided a medical marijuana club, and arrested two people for selling pot. Feeling a bit chuffed with themselves after a good days work, and finding themselves a bit peckish, they gobbled down 50 cookies that they'd confiscated. "By the end of the evening they were all red eyed and giggly" said one of the defendants. A week later all the charges against the two were dropped - looks like they may have got themselves some new customers. www.hightimes.com
disclaimer
SchNEWS doesn't SITA on the fence when it somes to literally rubbish puns. Bin there, dump that. Honest.
Cor-blimley-they’re-practically-giving-them-away book offer SchNEWS Round issues 51 - 100 £4.50 inc. postage. SchNEWS Annual issues 101 - 150 £4.50 inc. postage. SchNEWS Survival Guide issues 151 - 200 and a whole lot more £5.50 inc. postage (US Postage £4.00 for individual books, £13 for all four). The SchQUALL book at only £6.50 inc postage. In the UK you can get 2, 3, 4 & 5 for £20 inc. postage. In addition to 50 issues of SchNEWS, each book contains articles, photos, cartoons, a “yellow pages” list of contacts, comedy etc. All the above books are available from the Brighton Peace Centre, saving postage yer tight gits. SchNEWS and SQUALL's YEARBOOK 2001 is out soon. 280 pages of adventures from the direct action frontline. With issues 251-300 of SchNEWS, the best of SQUALL, lots of photos, cartoons, subverts and a comprehensive contacts database. Copies of Yearbook 2001 can be ordered from SchNEWS for £7 + £1.50 p&p. You can order the book from a bookshop or your library, quote the ISBN 09529748 4 3. Available from the beginning of June.
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Last updated 15th June 2001
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