Destroy and Save
At least 600 civilians were killed in the last attack on Fallujah,
and Professor Edward Herman reckons that “we can be fairly
certain that the town will be destroyed and that civilian casualties
will be very heavy. Fallujah must be destroyed in order to save
it from control by a resistance to the U.S.-invasion/occupation
and U.S. control, as was the case with Ben Tre in Vietnam, about
whose destruction the famous phrase “We had to destroy the
town in order to save it” was coined by a U.S. officer implementing
the destruction. Then, as now the U.S. right to invade and destroy
in order to shape the politics of a distant country was taken as
a given by the media and intellectuals.”
“In both cases there was this ready willingness to use advanced
weaponry on relatively defenseless peoples, with heavy civilian
casualties entirely acceptable, and of course kept under the rug
as much as possible, with media assistance. There were no body counts
of civilians in Vietnam, and U.S. leaders like Colin Powell and
General Tommy Franks have been explicit that such counts, as regards
Iraqi civilians, are not an interesting subject and in fact “We
don’t do body counts” said Franks.”
This is because as Mark Curtis points out “Iraqis are regarded
as “unpeople” whose deaths matter little in the pursuit
of western power; the major block on committing atrocities is the
fear of being exposed and ministers will do all they can to cover
them up. The public is the major threat to their strategy, which
explains why they resort to public deception campaigns.”
But we can try to stop the attacks. As Jo Wilding, another eyewitness
to the last attack whose ambulance was hit by American snipers said
“Millions of us demonstrated against the war and, as a result,
civilian casualties were reduced because of all the attention. We
need to be out on the streets again, in every country, protesting
against the invasion of Falluja and the ongoing killing.”
* Demos and vigils against the attacks have been taking place across
the country. Check out www.indymedia.org.uk
for others planned. (Worthing demo this Saturday 2pm Montague Place)
* Angry at the ongoing carnage in Iraq? Want to take part in or
organise some direct action or civil disobedience but lack the confidence,
skills or knowledge? Get along to a workshop this Sunday 11am -
4pm, 7a Rampart Street, London E1 2LA (nearest tube Whitechapel)
0845 458 2564
* 13 - 21 Nov., Justice for Iraq’s detainees: A Speaking Tour
by Peggy Gish from the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ Iraq Project.
For dates www.voices.netuxo.co.uk/detainees.html
* 18 Nov. Eyewitness Iraq: Stories of occupation and solidarity
7.30pm, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road. With Peggy Gish, Jo
Wilding and Philip Pritchard (who spent a few months in prison after
trying to disarm B52 bombers).
* Mark Curtis’ new book, Unpeople: Britain’s Secret Human
Rights Abuses (Vintage) www.markcurtis.info
* Rahul Mahajan is author of ‘Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S.
Power in Iraq and Beyond’ www.empirenotes.org
FLOG IT
Two anti war protestors will be in court later this month challenging
the corporate pillage of Iraq. Ewa Jasiewicz and Pennie Quinton
were nicked for “aggravated trespass” after protesting
against the Iraq Procurement Conference held in London in April.
Windrush Communications, who organised the Conference, which they
boasted would “discuss the wide range of economic opportunities
available... following the awarding of up to $18.4 billion in contracts
from the US Congress.”
The two will argue that it was the conference that was in fact
illegal, under the Hague Regulations of 1907 and Geneva Conventions
1949. The US-led provisional authority was breaking international
law by flogging off state assets, raising the prospect that contracts
signed now by foreign investors could be scrapped by a future Iraqi
government.
In a leaked memo last year UK Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith
advised Prime Minister Blair that in his view, “the imposition
of major structural economic reforms would not be authorised under
international law.”
As Ewa put it “It’s as simple as this. Iraq is not America’s
to sell. It is up to the people of Iraq to decide, finally, theirs’
and their county’s destiny - political, social and economic.
Everything right now is being done to prevent that from happening.”
Their trial will be held at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on
November 23-24 10.30am. A lively support picket will take place
on both days, starting at 9am. For more up to date information contact
Ewa Jasiewicz: freelance@mailworks.org
07749 421 576 or their solicitor, Rhiannon Jones at Bindman and
Partners, 020 7833 4433 r.jones@bindmans.com
More info: www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/11/09/3388857
* 24 Nov, ‘Making a killing: the Corporate Invasion of Iraq’
with author Noami Klein. Friends House, Euston Road, London 6.30pm
£5 waged/£3 unwaged
 
Crap Arrest of the Week
For having work tools in your car!
At a recent demo against the IMF in Sussex a man was arrested for
having a pruning saw in his car. Thing was the man in question happened
to be a tree surgeon so it’s a bit like nicking a plumber for
having a wrench.
LIFE OF BRIAN
“The fact is the Government doesn’t want people to
hear what I’m saying and to see the pictures of tortured and
bombed innocent children which I have on display here.” - Brian
Haw, peace protester.
In the upcoming Queen’s speech the government is to bring
in an organised crime bill to deal with things like drug dealing,
money laundering, people trafficking, firearms and one person holding
banners in Parliament Square.
The government is once again using the cover of “organised
crime” to crack down on people’s right to protest. A clause
in the upcoming bill will mean protests near parliament will be
time limited and will need a specific permit. This is being brought
in to deal with Brian Haw, an anti war protester who has been camped
out in Parliament Square for over three years - existing laws have
failed to remove him and an injunction from Westminster City Council
failed. Peter Hain MP said that they need legislation to deal with
“long-term demonstrations”.
Speaker of the Commons Michael Martin said “I myself have
exercised these rights to protest and would defend to the last the
rights of others to so do, including in Parliament Square.”
Sounds like he supports Brian - funnily enough he doesn’t.
He said legislation was needed to protect parliament’s “unique
position” and make sure MPs are “free from harassment”.
The harassment Brian has caused is displaying pictures of Iraqi
children killed by the US/UK occupying forces and the use of a megaphone,
Brian says “My only crime is to have a megaphone – it’s
absurd, barking mad.” But not as barking mad as Tory MP Sir
George Young who reckons Brian is a security threat – apparently
terrorists could hide behind the peace protester’s banners
and “pick us off as we arrive at or leave the House”.
Er, right.
Other measures to “crackdown on crime” that the government
have been talking about are extending police powers of arrest, search
warrants to extend to any property a suspect has access to and allowing
entry on more than one occasion with no time limits, drug testing
of anybody arrested, allowing the use of covert taking of fingerprints
and DNA for “speculative searches”. There may also be
new clauses to deal with “animal rights extremism” which
will tighten up the harassment laws even more.
All this is being introduced to deal with “organised crime”
at a time when crime figures are going down. It looks like the organised
crime bill has more to do with curbing effective protest than tackling
crime. More about Brian Haw’s protest: www.parliament-square.org.uk
* Another injunction under the Harassment Act has been gained against
peaceful campaigners which will do nothing to stop harassment. Oxford
University has gained an injunction against SPEAK who are campaigning
against a new vivisection lab being built (or not built as no work
has happened for 16 weeks after the last building firm pulled out).
Merely publishing and distributing well-informed material, in which
animal experiments are described and referenced, could from now
on be illegal. Such a move would deny the public access to information
to which they are entitled.
Oxford University has consistently said it is acting in best scientific
interests, but declined to take part in a debate organized by SPEAK
with pro and anti vivisectionists talking. The campaign against
the Oxford lab continues: SPEAK - www.speakcampaigns.org.uk
0845 3307985.
Deadline
A 23 year old French environmental activist was killed this week
by a train transporting nuclear waste from France to Germany. Sebastien
Briat had his leg severed by the train whilst he was chained to
the track, and died before reaching hospital. Earlier in the day,
the train had been delayed for two hours while police cut free two
other protesters who had chained themselves to another section of
the track.
Opposition to the cargo has been growing and actions have sprouted
across France and Germany, from the establishment of resistance
camps in south Germany, to farmers driving their tractors on the
track.
* See www.indymedia.org for
more info.
Dredgeful
Sharks at the government have come up with another typically imaginative
way of fast forwarding us all toward environmental collapse: they
want to marine quarry the seabed of the Median Deep, halfway between
the Sussex coast and northern France. Then they want to dump the
dredged seabed onto areas of the south east of England and build
hundreds of thousands of houses on greenbelt land.
The plans have caused outrage among fishermen on both sides of
the Channel and among environmentalists, who say the government
risk breaking EU laws designed to protect fragile seabed habitats.
The good news is that residents of Sussex are not taking this lying
down. The latest in a series of actions against the dredging saw
pixies use bike locks to close the Newhaven Swing Bridge on the
A259 in East Sussex, blocking the exit of the Hanson dredging ship
the ARCO Dart at high tide on Sunday. The bridge was due to open
at 9pm but was closed for an hour and a half while the ships crew
struggled to remove the locks and eventually had to call in the
fire service. www.eco-action.org/sos/
Mad Car Disease
Anti-roads campaigners had thought they had seen off the Hastings
Bypass, but now part of the route has been resurrected as the Bexhill
Link Road. This scheme has some of the worst environmental aspects
of the original scheme – it will cut through ancient woodland
and the tranquil Combe Haven Valley, it will also drive out wetland
bird species – redshank, snipe and lapwing - and other prized
wildlife. Also included in the “development” would be
1,100 houses and an out-of-town business park.
* There’s a route walk 21st Nov, meet 10.15am outside Brighton
station, or 11.45am outside St Leonard’s Station (Warrior Square)
07966 952018
Banned Band Naked
Seize The Day thought that their chance to break into the mainstream
had come when they won the most public votes in the 2003 BBC Radio
3 awards.
Their humorous political songs gained twice as many votes as any
other band. However, as the BBC awards ceremony approached, Seize
the Day were mysteriously disqualified and the award was given to
a little known band from Slovenia.
Lead singer Theo Simon believes that the BBC wouldn’t risk
giving a showcase to musicians who sang about stopping war while
the Government was dropping bombs on Baghdad. Theo Simon said, ‘There’s
a belief in the music industry that protest music isn’t popular
and never will be again, but the reality is that there’s a
wider audience for it. The number of votes that we’ve received
shows that’.
Seize the Day protested during the awards ceremony. Holding up
signs declaring ‘BBC COVER UP’ the trio stood naked in
front of the BBC cameras, politicians, and top musicians.
The band will play in Swansea on November 19 as part of the BEYONDTV
5th Video Activist Documentary Festival
Nov 19-20 Tachwedd 2004, Patti Pavilion, Oystermouth Road, Swansea,
Pafiliwn Patti, Ffordd Ystumllwydiarth, Abertaw www.undercurrents.org/beyondtv
Union U-Turn
Workers at Kings Cross Channel Tunnel Rail Link site have forced
contractors Laing O’Rourke to negotiate with the GMB union
over a new contract dubbed the ‘contrick’ by the workers
(see SchNEWS 471).
The Joint Sites Committee (JSC) has been organising unofficial
resistance to the ‘contract’, which proposes cutting the
basic rate of pay in half, after workers were told to sign them
by the construction union UCATT. Yesterday, The JSC organized a
sit-in protest against the deal agreed between Laing O’Rourke
and UCATT. The ex-general secretary of UCATT, George Brumwell has
also agreed to talk to Laing O’Rourke to renegotiate the deal;
he’s ‘reconsidered his position’, after signing the
original ‘contract’ and trying to convince workers it
was a good deal.
Workers’ representatives are calling for a national ballot
of all Laing O’Rourke workers to reject the deal. If there
is going to be a new contract - they are demanding no cut in take
home pay, no discretionary bonus scheme, full holiday and sick pay,
a pension scheme, and redundancy pay.
Workers at other Laing O’Rourkes sites are also resisting
the contrick and have also been visited by the JSC.
* More info: Steve Hedley - 07985-438301
Positive SchNEWS
The Green Dragon Woodland Project Co-op collects and sells secondhand
books to raise money for regenerating British woodland habitat.
After only 2 years of life the project has recycled tons of unwanted
books and with the funds turned them back into living trees. Check
out their new expansive and very interesting website at: www.greendragonwoods.org.uk
SchNEWS in brief
- Brighton’s premier pirate Radio 4A will be broadcasting
this weekend 101.4 FM www.radio4a.org.uk
- Resisting ID Cards meeting next Tuesday (16) at Friends
Meeting House, Mount St., 7.30pm organized by Manchester Anarchist
Group www.af-north.org
- Maelstrom is a new info squat in Leeds at the old Post
Office, Hyde Park Corner, Woodhouse Street. For events www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/
- There’s a couple of talks at Brighton’s Cowley
Club (12 London Road) next week: On Monday (15) Corporate
Watch will be talking about the film ‘The Corporation’
- and how we can fight back against the multinationals. Starts
7pm. On Thursday (18) community publishers Queenspark Books
will be talking about their work 6pm.
- The next Scottish Dissent meeting will take place in
Perth, on the 20th November, from 2pm till 5pm at the Twa Tams
on Scott St. disabled access, no dogs, email: dogend123@hotmail.com
...and finally...
People might remember the stickers from a few years back proclaiming
“Avoid Hunger – Loot Tescos”; well 200 Italian anarchists
did that last week in the Panorama hypermarket outside Rome. After
cheekily asking the manager for a 70% discount, which was unsurprisingly
refused, the masked up proletarian shoppers swarmed the store shouting
“Free shopping for all” while filling up trolleys full
of goodies, overcoming the security and then distributing it to
crowd outside! No one was nicked on the day probably because lots
of cops had to deal with a 10,000 strong demo about the rising cost
of living since the Euro was introduced, cuts in state benefits,
and the cost of the war in Iraq.
* Don’t forget No Shopping Day on 27th November www.adbusters.org
Disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all readers that whilst Batman is a fictional
character, supervillains do really exist ... Honest!
SchNEWS
Annuals
OUT NOW!!! 'SCHNEWS
AT TEN' - A Decade of Party & Protest- £9 inc p&p
- Peace de
Resistance - issues 351-401. £7 inc p&p
- SchNEWS of
the World - isues 300 - 250. £4
inc p&p.
- SchNEWS and
SQUALL’s YEARBOOK 2001. £4
inc p&p.
- The SchQUALL
book Sold out - Sorry
- SchNEWS Survival
Guide issues 151 - 200 and a whole lot more £2.00 inc. p&p
- SchNEWS Annual
issues 101 - 150 and a whole lot more £2.00 inc. p&p
- SchNEWS Round
Sold out - Sorry
In the UK you
can get SchNEWS Annual, Survival Handbook, Yearbook 2001 and SchNEWS
of the World for just £15 inc p&p.
(US Postage
£6.00 for individual books, £13 for above offer).
In addition to
50 issues of SchNEWS, each book contains articles, photos, cartoons,
subverts, a “yellow pages” list of contacts, comedy etc.
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.
|
