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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 324, FRIDAY 28th September, 2001
CARD TRICK
"There is always an issue of the moment which government seize to introduce an ID card. Governments seek control, they seek power." - Simon Davies, Privacy International.
With the threat of war hanging in the air, Bush, Blair and their cronies have wasted no time in threatening to undermine the very democracies they claim to be protecting. An opinion poll conducted in the glare of media scare stories found 70% of people would be willing to see some reduction in civil liberties and increased security in Britain. So, coming your way soon: ID cards, increased DNA profiling, even more CCTV cameras and a general crackdown on anyone who dares question the glorious war effort. And while they are proclaiming to be on the side of 'freedom and democracy' the new Human Rights Act looks likely to be 'modernised' pretty soon to get rid of some of our, er, human rights!
Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has made a firm commitment to the idea of introducing compulsory ID cards as part of the fight against terrorism. But SchNEWS doesn't see how one card could stop someone strapping Semtex to themselves, walking into a shopping centre and blowing themselves up. As Liberty says: "There is no evidence to suggest that introducing national ID cards will help the fight against terrorism... Those who carry out terrorist attacks are often chosen because they are unknown to the police. ID cards only help you track people if you know who you are looking for, if you are certain they cannot possibly be carrying plausible fake papers, and if you stop them".
ID cards will inevitably lead to greater discrimination against minorities and a massive intrusion into our privacy for the rest of us. Not only that, but the government favours 'citizens cards' with health, tax, criminal and social security records. If you lose your card or have a problem/dispute with one agency, it would affect your dealings with all the others. And, what if the information on your card is wrong? The police have admitted that their national computer has errors of between 20% and 30%. As Simon Davies from Privacy International points out "A person cannot function without the ID card. In time the card will be required for gaining access to a building, getting swimming club membership, buying goods, renting a house, buying a travelcard. We can expect the card in Britain to become an internal passport."
But ID cards are just the tip of the repression iceberg. Politicians across the USA and Europe are rushing through new "Anti-Terrorist" laws. Last week European Union ministers drew up proposals to remove data protection and privacy directives and introduce knee-jerk oppressive laws: Every phone-call made, email sent and website you visit will be known to the police. They may introduce Europe-wide arrest warrants along with a list of presumed terrorists and expand the concept of terrorism to include the right to protest and civil disobedience.
Not to be outdone the UK is going even further. As if last year's brand spanking new Terrorism Act wasn't enough (SchNEWS 268) New Labour want another one including giving the police powers to arrest people not for any crime they've committed but solely for interrogation purposes! "Look Sarge, Asian man with a long beard." "Yes Constable, lets bring him in."
The Real Terrorists?
While the FBI have named amongst others Reclaim The Streets, Carnival Against Capital and the Animal Liberation Front as a terrorist threat, the US "intelligence" agencies including the notorious CIA are preparing to return to their Cold War tactics of bomb, bug and corrupt. So let's get this straight: people blocking traffic, dancing in the street or rescuing animals are terrorists while the US secret services are.well, here's some of their recent highlights:
*1951: CIA helps overthrow the democratic government in Guatemala, then backs new regimes who murder more than 100,000 Guatemalans over the next 40 years.
*1965: CIA provokes a coup in Indonesia leading to General Suharto taking power. In following weeks a half to one million people are murdered by death squads using lists provided by US State Department.
*1973: US sponsor a coup in Chile against the democratic government of Salvador Allende and help murder another 30,000 people, including US citizens.
*1984: World Court declares the US government a war criminal for placing mines in harbours in Nicaragua in the 1980s, a war which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people.
*1989: US invades Panama, over 4,000 people are killed and they arrest President Manuel Noriega, one time CIA agent turned enemy (sound familiar?).
*1998: US bombs a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan claiming it was linked to bin Laden. The attack deprived Sudan of desperately needed medical drugs. The CIA later admits that information linking the plant to Osama bin Laden was probably incorrect.
Introducing measures like ID cards won't stop the kind of terrorism seen on September 11th. It will, however, give governments a good excuse to clamp down even further on the world-wide anti-capitalist movements. All of course in the name of protecting our liberty and freedom.
* Burn yer ID card! Check out www.optional-identity-uk.cjb.net
* The US National Security Agency Echelon system can intercept all email, telephone and fax communications in Europe. Jam Echelon Day, October 21st, see http://cipherwar.com/echelon
* An independent tribunal has accepted that a blanket ban on releasing information held by MI5 introduced by Jack Straw, the former home secretary, is unlawful under the Data Protection Act. In future, the 300,000 people whom MI5 have files on, will be able to apply to see their files, but 'sensitive information' will still be held back, how much use is that?
* More info on these and other related stories, issues etc see: www.statewatch.org , www.privacyinternational.org.
* Check out other acts of US terrorism at www.thirdworldtraveler.com/
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WHILE YOU WEREN'T LOOKING... While the corporate media are telling us to unite behind "our boys" the Government is quietly slipping through some dodgy stuff:
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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK
For refusing to remove a plastic pigs nose in court! Pig Headed Gordon Palmer was jailed when he wore the snout to protest at his treatment by cops as he faced a criminal damage charge. Palmer was asked to take it off three times in court but refused, preferring to be sentenced to 14 days for contempt of court -or maybe he just wanted to get on the front page of SchNEWS!
Another Brick in the Wall
As New Labour marches full steam ahead, privatising the parts even the Tories didn't dare to reach, a relatively new corporate beast has emerged: the public-sector outsourcing* firm. It lies in wait ready to snap up contracts anywhere it can, from education to hospitals, prisons to defence. And you can see why - the outsourced education market alone is already worth £2.5 billion with Neo Labours recent white paper on education indicating that up to 300 failing schools could be handed over to the private sector.
In January 2000, Cambridge Education Associates (CEA) became the first company in the country to get a piece of the outsourcing action taking over all seventy of Islingtons' schools, in a seven-year deal worth a potential £130 million. When SchNEWS asked them at the time why they were getting involved in education they told us it was because "we care."
Within a few months they announced that one of those schools they "cared" so much about - Angel Primary - would have to close because of poor results and surplus places. Despite the fact that 'surplus' places would vanish if the Council cut class sizes from 30 to 25. Despite the fact that results were improving, despite a campaign by teachers, pupils and parents and an independent panel refusing to endorse the closure plans, the school adjudicator said tough - the school must close.
CEA's parent company are civil engineers Mott Macdonald (involved in such prestigious projects like the Newbury Bypass and the road destruction at Twyford Down). Of course closing down Angel has nothing to do with the value of its site, right next to the Business Design Centre and a proposed shopping and entertainment development in the borough's fashionable commercial centre. In fact just three days after closure was finally announced, the Business Design Centre was given permission to nearly double its number of visitors.
One local resident told SchNEWS "CEA's parent company Mott MacDonald are responsible for the design of channel tunnel terminal at nearby Kings Cross St. Pancras - a small diversion under Copenhagen St to Angel school would provide a direct rail link to the Business Centre. The playground could also be converted to a lorry park which the Centre needs when it hosts major events - this is a guess but am I right?" As Esther Gonzalez, whose son goes to Angel points out "The plan has nothing to do with the education at the school and everything to do with the value of the site."
At the beginning of the month CEA were fined £300,000 by Islington Council for failing to reach performance targets. Corporations are slowly taking over Britain's schools so they can make them into profit making businesses instead. In their pursuit of strategic moneymaking, it's not just our schools they're interested in. SchNEWS can't think of a company better suited to educating our children than SERCO plc. which also invests in and manages atomic weapons establishments (such as Aldermaston) and radar facilities at Fylingdales (Fylingdales base on the North York Moors is essential for the Star Wars programme). SERCO will manage the biotechnology programme for the UK's Department of Trade and Industry. They part own the Premier Custodial Group which built and now runs prisons and young offenders institutions such as Kilmarnock, Nottingham and Medomsley secure training centre. On top of this they manage prisoner tagging and monitoring systems, police number plate identifying technology, speed cams, the new national traffic control centre (which collates info from coils embedded under roads) and one hospital... so they would be in a good position to monitor us all rather effectively should we be made to use ID cards. To tell them what you think, call: 01932 755900.
* Gatecrash Labour's Party this Sunday. Labour's annual conference starts in Brighton. Surrounded by a security cordon and hundreds of cops, against a background of imminent war, the government will make decisions behind closed doors. Those who oppose their agenda of creeping privatisation, the criminalisation of asylum seekers, the UK subsidised arms trade, and the outlawing of protest are invited to crash their party. Meet 1pm at the Level in Brighton. For more information contact: gatecrashing@yahoo.com or call 01273 298192 Website: www.new-labour.com
SCHNEWS VOCAB WATCH * Neo-Labour calls it 'outsourcing', SchNEWS will stick with privatisation.
Inn Joke
Sick of the McPub and the closure of many traditional locals in order to sell of the land for development, regular boozers, sorry readers of Schnews will be celebrating after a groundbreaking decision in the European Court of Appeal. Courage was forcing publicians to buy barrels of beer from them which were costing up to £100 more than they could get the barrels on the open market. 800 publicians took the company to court, some went on rent strike, and all suffered evictions and bankruptcies for their trouble. The European ruling overturns a previous decision by the English Court of Appeal which had said that if publicians signed a contract - even if it was illegal - it was binding! Each individual case will now have to be reconsidered and although many landlords have lost their pubs, it does demonstrate that sometimes if you stand up to the corporate bastards, you can get a result! Mine's a pint Micky!!!
SchNEWS in brief
- Anti-War Demos in your area: see Party & Protest section on the SchNEWS website
- 'Monopolise Resistance - how Globalise Resistance would hijack revolt' is a new SchNEWS booklet. See it on our website or send two first class stamps + sae for a copy
- If you'd like to get involved in writing SchNEWS, help with the website or the mail-out come to a SchNEWS training day - call to book your place
- SchNUSIC: 18 tracks, 70 minutes. 'Music and culture to unite the underground'. £7 inc.postage from the SchNEWS address. www.dirtysquatters.com
- Stop Star Wars Demo, 13 October at Menwith Hill 10am-4pm Contact Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) www.caab.org.uk.
Inside SchNEWS
Stuart Durkin is 5 years into a 13 years sentence - for streaking through the Vatican! He's looking for communication with the outside world, so get scribbling: 2A,Casa Circondariale, Mamma Gialla, Via S Salvatore 14/B, KM 1800 Cap, 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
Unhappy Anniversary
"America's name is literally stamped on to the missiles fired by Israel into Palestinian buildings in Gaza and the West Bank. Only four weeks ago, I identified one of them as an AGM 114-D air-to-ground rocket made by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin at their factory in Florida, the state where some of the suiciders trained to fly." - Robert Fisk, Middle East Commentator
On the 28th September of last year, Ariel Sharon, the then Israeli opposition leader, along with 1000 fully armed troops from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) went to 'guard' Jerusalem's Haram-al-Sharif Mosque by the golden Dome of the Rock. The 28th September is a significant date for Palestinians because it marks the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres, which took place in Lebanon in 1982 (see SchNEWS 279). Ariel Sharon was the one who ordered that massacre of hundreds of people so its not surprising that turning up to Islam's third holiest shrine with his henchmen in tow on this anniversary was the flash point that started the present Intifada. Since then 673 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF with up to 28,000 injured and this figure rises everyday. Some, like Mohammed al-Durrah a 12 year old boy who was shot dead while trying to hide behind his dad on the second day of the uprising, have remained a potent reminder of the terror experienced by Palestinians on a daily basis. Others, however, are only statistics now that people around the world have become used to the regular killings.
So how is this ethnic cleansing allowed to go on? Well America funds Israel to the tune of £3 billion a year to keep its well-armed friend in the hostile Middle East, so they look the other way when the Israeli State is accused of acts of terrorism. On September 13th, while the world had its attention on the USA, the IDF invaded the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with tanks and bulldozers, shelling apartment blocks, offices and shops. And a government spokesman said at the time, "This is the strong beating the weak" At the moment there is an American imposed cease fire in Israel/Palestine, but without any visible concessions to the Palestinians it is unlikely to last. Fisk is outraged, "we are supposed to hold our tongues, even when Ariel Sharon - a man whose name will always be associated with the massacre at Sabra and Shatila - announces that Israel also wishes to join the battle against 'world terror.''' More info: www.gush-shalom.org or www.indymedia.il.org
Friendly Fire?
The Israeli army are trying to get the M16 A3 assualt rifle declared a non-lethal weapon to allow its use on the civilian population for 'riot control'. Thousands of Palestinians have become permanently crippled from bullet wounds suffered during stone-throwing protests, mostly due to the fragmenting bullets fired by M16s. The ammunition often breaks into tiny pieces after initial penetration, ripping up muscles and nerves and causing multiple internal injuries.
...and finally...
The annual Blaggers' Guide to the Labour Party Conference is out, and for those of you who want a good drink/debate and some free food here's some of the highlights. 'Politics and progress: democracy, civil society and political renewal.' Sound boring? Not at all! Home Secretary David Blunkett will be at this Sunday Telegraph/Demos event agonising over taking away more of our rights. Come and put your point of view (if having a point of view is still legal by then). 'The globalisation debate - can capitalism be regulated?' A right old ding-dong between Clare Short, Geore Monbiot and some geezer from BP/Rio Tinto. Out favourtie tho' is 'Building a sustainable aviation policy' by the Airport Operators Association. Er, might we suggest not flying? To find out when and where these and other talks are taking place get your copies from the Brighton Peace Centre.
disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all readers going through an identity crisis, there's
now a card for every occasion. 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
- The SchQUALL book at only £6.50 inc postage. (US Postage £4.00 for individual books, £13 for all four).
- SchNEWS and SQUALL's YEARBOOK 2001. 300 pages of adventures from the direct action frontline. £7 + £1.50 p&p. You can order the book from a bookshop or your library, quote the ISBN 09529748 4 3.
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, subverts, a “yellow pages” list of contacts, comedy etc. All the above books are available from the Brighton Peace Centre, saving postage yer tight gits.
Subscribe to SchNEWS: Send 1st Class stamps (e.g. 10 for next 9 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?). Or £15 for a year's subscription, or the SchNEWS supporter's rate, £1 a week. Ask for "originals" 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
Web: http://www.schnews.org.uk/
and http://www.schnews.com
Last updated 28th September, 2001
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