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“This is a time of opportunity for America. We will work
to translate this moment of influence into decades of peace, prosperity,
and liberty… We will actively work to bring the hope of democracy,
development, free markets, and free trade to every corner of the
world.” From the recently published National Security Strategy
of the USA.
We couldn’t make it up if we tried, ladies and gentlemen.
Last month, the Bush Administration released its new National Security
Strategy of the United States of America. A document whose contents
list included agenda items such as the obviously ironic, “Champion
Aspirations for Human Dignity,” the arrogant, “Ignite
a New Era of Global Economic Growth through Free Markets and Free
Trade,” and the downright scary “Develop Agendas for Cooperative
Action with the Other Main Centers of Global Power.” The document
also contained gems such as:
“Today, the United States enjoys a position of unparalleled
military strength and great economic and political influence”
(and we will kill anyone and everyone who threatens this position).
“We seek to create a balance of power that favours human freedom”
(and America)
“We will defend the peace by fighting terrorists and tyrants”
(i.e. anyone who has the slightest criticism of America).
“Free trade and free markets have proven their ability to
lift whole societies out of poverty” (and into our clutches)
“The United States will work with individual nations, entire
regions, and the entire global trading community to build a world
that trades in freedom and therefore grows in prosperity” (too
much bullshit to even parody).
“Freedom is…the birthright of every person—in every
civilisation” (as long as we get to dictate ‘freedom
to do what?’).
“Today, humanity holds in its hands the opportunity to further
freedom’s triumph over all its foes. The United States welcomes
our responsibility to lead in this great mission” (and to
cash in on all the profits that come with it).
The Bush Doctrine
This idiotic new document is already being hailed as the new Bush
Doctrine. But the idiocy contains an evil little twist. Included
in the paper is a section titled ‘Prevent Our Enemies from
Threatening Us, Our Allies, and Our Friends with Weapons of Mass
Destruction’. The section basically says that the cold war
strategies of ‘containment’ (preventing the spread of
communism) and ‘deterrence’ (being so incredibly tough
that no enemy could attack you without guaranteeing their own destruction)
are no longer sufficient to guarantee US security. The US government
now thinks it must reserve the right to use its overwhelming military
might pre-emptively to attack and overthrow governments that it
suspects of attempting to acquire WMDs, harbour terrorists, or contain
any ill-will whatsoever towards the good ol’ US of A. SchNEWS
reckons that pre-emptivity (read: kicking the shit out of everyone
before they can make a peep) has always been America’s policy
(Vietnam anyone?). It’s just that now, they’ve put it
down in black and white.
And what’s the justification for this newly publicised strategy?
That the terrorists and rogue states that threaten America aren’t
motivated by a rational power-lust like the USSR was, oh no. Instead
they are of course driven by an irrational hatred of justice, liberty,
and freedom. According to the Bush Doctrine, because the new enemies
of the US are not just evil, but also mental, it can’t be assumed
that they will act as ‘responsibly’ as previous forces
of darkness have. And this, supposedly, is what justifies the Bush
Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes—rogue states’ sheer insanity.
On this basis, the Bush administration reckons that they can justify
upsetting the UN by officially tearing up the rulebook on when it’s
acceptable to bomb the shit out of people in other countries. The
problem is that no one, not the US’s allies, ‘citizens’
or even their secret service is ready to buy the argument. According
to the director of the CIA, George Tenet, there is no evidence that
the rogue state currently in Bush’s sights (Iraq) has any immediate
desire to attack Western populations. He argues, however, that the
kind of pre-emptive attack that Bush and his cronies are pushing
for “could trigger the very things [Bush] has said he’s
trying to prevent—the use of chemical or biological weapons”.
The Bush government might think they’re powerful enough to
re-write the rules to justify their ambitions, but there’s
one rule that they would do well not to forget: playing with explosives
makes you look hard, but if you don’t know how they work, they
just might blow up in your face. Tick, tick, tick…
For more ridiculous reading, see the full document at www.statewatch.org/news/2002/sep/nss.pdf
 
Crap
Arrest of the Week
For being Palestinian...
Last Friday nearly a hundred soldiers surrounded Iraq Burin - a
small village near Nablus city. They were ‘looking for terrorists’
and ‘suspicious Palestinian men.’ For five hours 3 houses
were repeatedly hit with rockets and bullets, families were evicted
from their homes, belongings were smashed, and 16 men were arrested,
tied up, driven 25 km to Huwara military base, interrogated, and
then released. “Sorry,” said the Israeli Defence Force.
“We made a mistake.”
War
BRIEFS
- Last week 160 people shut down the gates of US Air Base Lakenheath
in Suffolk where about 30 US nuclear war heads are kept. www.lakenheathaction.org
- Some Americans don’t agree with Bush!! Last weekend 87,000
protestors took to the streets across America to protest against
war on Iraq. www.indymedia.org
- An anti-war group has squatted the former Brighton Peace Centre
in Gardner St. Open day Saturday 12th, check it out!
- Demo outside Menwith Hill Spy Base. Sat 12th, 12 - 4 pm, 01943
466405 www.caab.org.uk
- Whose Terror? Speakers from three countries facing “War
on Terror” state terror--Palestine, Iraq, and Columbia. Sat
12th 2pm Friends Meeting House, Ship St, Brighton.
- Films against economic sanctions and war on Iraq. Sat 12th from
2.30pm, Rio Cinema, Kingsland High St., Dalston, London. £4/£2.50
0845 458 2564 voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
- Threat of War and Future of the Kurds public meeting. Tue 15th
7pm, Committee Room 10, House of Commons, Westminster, SW1. 020
7435 4547 Liberation@btinternet.com
- Why is the Anti-War movement ignoring Saddam’s crimes?
With Peter Tatchell. Tue 15th 7:30pm, Upstairs Bar, Rugby Tavern,
19 Great James Street, London. www.newhumanist.org.uk
- Don’t Attack Iraq March & Rally, Sat 19th 11.30am George
Square, Glasgow. 0141 423 1222 scnd@banthebomb.org
- One SchNEWS reader has been getting their anti-war message across
by adorning bank notes with anti war messages - not a bad idea.
- National day of action against the war, 31st October, see www.stopwar.org.uk
020 7053 2155. In Brighton, a critical mass is planned, meet 3pm,
University of Sussex. At 5:30pm there’s an action planned,
meet at the War Memorial, Old Steine.
- Stop the War, Stop the City. Meet on the day after war is announced
against Iraq. 5:30pm in Churchill Square, Brighton. Bring pots
and pans!!
LULA-LA
LAND
Yer on-the-ball SchNEWS is in downtown Sao Paulo this week to give
you the lowdown on the man they call Lula (“The Squid”
in English, it’s short for Luiz Inacio da Silva).
This week, Brazil’s Workers Party (PT), led by Lula, won an
unprecedented 4-2 victory against the US-backed government team
in the first round of the Massively Important Presidential Championships
of Latin America. The PT almost doubled their seats in the Senate,
and at the final whistle, with 46.4 percent of the vote to his nearest
rival Jose Serra’s 23.2 percent, Lula was just short of outright
victory. In the second and final leg, to be played on October 27th,
the scores are back to 0-0 with everything to play for.
In Brazil, Lula is as recognisable a name as Pele or Ronaldo. He
became famous as the leader of illegal metalworker strikes that
helped bring an end to the military dictatorship in the mid-1970s.
He has run for president and lost three times since becoming co-founder,
in 1980, of the Workers Party.
GOOOOAAAAL!!! Lula opposes the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
which he calls Bush’s ‘Annexation of Latin America.’
He opposes Plan Columbia. He opposes sanctions on Cuba. He has the
support of the landless movement in Brazil, Movimento Sem Terra
He promises to end endemic corruption by getting people not aligned
to politics or business in on the budget-making decisions.
There’s talk of an axis between Lula, Castro and Hugo Chavez
in Venezula, who foiled another attempted coup this week, timed
to coincide with the Brazilian elections. With strong left gains
in neighbouring Bolivia and Paraguay and elections in Argentina
next March, Latin America’s face could be unrecognisable from
just 12 months ago, a complete rejection of the US-led free market
reforms.
But however good all this may sound, Lula still may be foul. Because
of his previous campaign defeats, Lula has changed much of his lefty
tune this time around and many in the Workers Party are angry but,
for the moment, are keeping schtum.
DODGY KEEPER!!! Despite being locked-up and having his 1970s rallies
buzzed by army choppers, Lula has made friends with the military,
suggesting the signing of nuclear non-proliferation treaties was
wrong. He is also supporting a move by Embraer, Brazil’s massive
aircraft maker, to develop a serious fighter jet and missile programme.
OVER THE BAR!! Despite previously fighting on a platform of defaulting
on Brazil’s crippling $260bn debt - more than half of
what the country produces in a year - he now says they’ll
pay up. (But some people think he’ll still default) Lula also
says he’ll work with the IMF and honour the new record-breaking
$30bn loan. Lula has also attracted a few dodgy new geezers including
his vice president and running mate, Jose Alencar, a textile baron
worth $500M, from the centre-right Liberal Party. Seeing which way
the wind is blowing, other business leaders have also backed Lula.
SchNEWS fought through the crowds last week at Lula’s final
emotional rally at the metalworkers union in the industrial suburbs
of Sao Paulo, where he worked as a lathe operator and transformed
the 100,000-strong union. “Everything that we have done until
now hasn’t been done to gain the Presidency, that is just a
consequence,” he told the crowds. “The most symbolic thing
about me winning is that we will prove to anybody the truth of something
that I said in 1979, which is that nobody will ever again be able
to doubt the working classes.” Does Lula deserve a Red Card?
You make the call!
DAFT
TAFT
We thought that full-scale global war and U.S.-instigated regime
changes the world over would be enough to keep George Dub’ya
busy, but no. Now Georgie has to take aim at unions as well. For
the past two weeks, in 29 major docks up and down the American west
coast, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has
been locked out by their bosses over contract disputes that have
been raging since last June. The meanie bosses, the Pacific Maritime
Association (PMA), want to sack a large number of dockers and attack
workers’ rights. Understandably, the ILWU have been threatening
to strike and recently did a work “slowdown,” which lead
to the lockout.
Enter our old friend George. Deciding that the union shouldn’t
be allowed to use the lockout time to work out a better contract
with PMA, as the whole dispute was costing the US economy billions
of dollars, Bush decided to call in the draconian Taft-Hartley Act.
The Daft Act was passed in 1947 as an anti-union law. It commands
both the employers and the union to return back to work under the
conditions of the old contract for 80 days. The act goes on to call
for fines and prison sentences for those violating the terms of
the contract (i.e. striking or engaging in slow-downs). This part
of the bill is aimed at workers and effectively breaks the back
of the union for the 80-day period, leaving them open to whatever
the abusive bosses can come up with, with no real way to fight back.
The 80 days of the Taft-Hartley injunction also gets PMA through
the peak shipping season and to the slowest time of the year, thus
relieving them of any urgency to bargain once the 80 days are over.
PMA loved the government intervention, but labour unions were furious
that the president had once again acted in the interests of big
business. “PMA will start alleging supposed slowdowns straightaway.
Taft-Hartley gives them 80 days of free shots at the union and we
expect the employers will be dragging us to court daily, trying
to bankrupt the union and throw our leaders in jail,” said
ILWU president James Spinosa. “No one should be surprised by
the turn of these events,” Spinosa said. “Bush has always
actively sided with employers against workers. This collusion between
the government and the employers was planned well in advance.”
www.labournet.net or http://sf.indymedia.org
Inside
SchNEWS
A new Zine is now avaliable to support Jeff ‘Free’ Luers,
the US anarchist prisoner serving an amazing 22 years for burning
a few cars. The zine called ‘Let’s Get Free’- includes
writings for, by and about ‘Free’. It’s available
for a donation of $5. Proceeds of the sale will (after paying copy
costs) go to Jeff Luers directly. From NA-ELPSN, POB 50082, Eugene,
OR 97405 USA. naelpsn@tao.ca
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk/prisoners/fc/freezine.html
Positive
SchNEWS
Radical Routes is a network of over 50 small co-operatives who
work together to support collective ownership of houses and buildings
for groups working for radical social change. It also aids small
worker controlled businesses involved in socially useful work, supports
and promotes de-schooling and home education, and helps facilitate
the development of radical clubs and social centres. Radical Routes
members meet four times a year. The next gathering is Manchester
26th-27th October. On the 26th there’s an afternoon of discussions
open to non-members who want to find out more about co-ops and the
work of Radical Routes. Bridge 5 Mill, 22a Beswick St., Ancoats,
Manchester www.radicalroutes.org.uk
info@radicalroutes.org.uk
0161 224 4846
SchNEWS
in brief
- SchNEWS nearly 8th Birthday Party, with LSDS, Miss C
MC & Mama, Harry Diezel, Judge Trev and Jelly, 7-11pm, 14th,
Albert Pub, Brighton.
- SchNEWS exculsive: we’re the first to announce that Noam
Chomsky speaks at St.Pauls Cathedral, 9th December as a benefit
for the Kurdish Human Rights Project. Tickets £15/£8
will be snapped up quick, get yours from Hannah 020 7287 2772
- Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Foreign Minister, well known
fascist, and director of police operations at last years Genoa
protests, is speaking in London on the 22nd. He’d love to
see you!! Meet 8am onwards outside Claridge’s Hotel, 53 Brook
Street, London, W1
- The offices of SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty)
were raided again by police last Friday. Five computers were confiscated
and two people nicked. SHAC desperately need donations to replace
the stolen property. Four other SHAC protestors, including a 70-year-old
woman, have also been arrested in Kent and are on remand. SHAC,
c/o Lynn Sawyer, 6 Boat Lane, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 4BP.
0845 458 0630 www.shac.net/resources.html
- Sat 12th is a silent demo in Cambridge against the University’s
proposed primate research lab. Noon, Guildhall, Market Square
01223 311828 info@x-cape.org.uk
- 1000 students are expected for next months Shared Planet
Conference, speakers including Mark Thomas and George Monbiot
are hoping to inspire students to start campaigning for a better
world. 2-3 Nov. Warwick University Arts Centre. £16 (incl.
accommodation) www.peopleandplanet.org/sharedplanet
- There’s a European Social Consulta which aims to
build activist networks across Europe in Barcelona, 19th-20th
October. Info www.europeanconsulta.org
encuentro@consultaeuropea.org
- 18th October is Media Democracy Day, a day dedicated
to the promotion of independent media. Events in London see www.mediademocracyday.org.uk
- Special Screening of McLibel Two Worlds Collide film,
8pm 16th October, Cinematheque, Middle Street, Brighton.
...and
finally...
What would you do if you’d got yourself a nice countryside
pad with a sea view, but your neighbours, whose land your house
is built on, keep making extensions that are reducing the price
of your property? You could maybe move house, become more tolerant,
or maybe even kill your neighbours!!
This last option may seem extreme, but for a family of badgers
in Saltdean, East Sussex this is exactly what’s going to happen.
Residents in houses that were built on top of a badger sett have
complained that the badgers subterranean extensions are undermining
their foundations. And rather than look for alternative ways to
cope with this problem, the Animal Welfare Minister, Elliot Morley,
has granted a licence for the family of badgers to be killed under
the 1992 Protection of Badger Act (Ummm). SchNEWS would like to
suggest that a load of property developers out there be culled instead.
This Saturday there’s a demonstration against the slaughter
of the badgers at Saxon Close, Saltdean 10am- noon. www.geocities.com/wildlifeambulance/index.html
* The culling of badgers by the government in their long drawn
out attempt to prove a link between badgers and the spread of TB
in cattle is restarting in two areas of the UK. To get involved
in stopping the culls contact 07773 572970 (Devon) or 07811 629846
(Derbyshire) www.badger-killers.co.uk
Disclaimer
The SchNEWS Doctrine warns all readers that we reserve the right
to pre-emptively use our weapon of mass distraction against any
bush-shit. Honest.
SchNEWS Annuals
SchNEWS Round
issues 51 - 100 £4.00 inc. postage. - Nearly sold out...
SchNEWS Annual issues 101 - 150 £4.00 inc. postage.
SchNEWS Survival Guide issues 151 - 200 and a whole lot more £4.00
inc. postage
The SchQUALL book at only £7 + £1.50 p&p. (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.
SchNEWS Of The World issues 301 - 350. 300
more 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 6X
If you can help distribute the new book by taking a few boxes from
Brighton or East London round the country, call the office and ask
for John, Thanks.
In addition
to 50 issues of SchNEWS, each book contains articles, photos, cartoons,
subverts, a “yellow pages” list of contacts, comedy etc.
Subscribe
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