Home | 1st December 1995 | Issue 51

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S YER UNCOMPROMISING.

SchNEWS
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SIGNING OFF!

AS STRIKING DOLE WORKERS HIT THE STREETS...

JobCentre staff round the country yesterday walked out on indefinite strike as dole workers from as far afield as Inverness and Cornwall found common cause with the unwaged! So what's it all about, and will people still get giros? SchNEWS spoke to someone in the striking union, the CPSA, who masterminded the walkout, to put us in the picture.

"The civil service used to be a job for life." said our dole-mole, "but government changes in recent years have resulted in job insecurity and low pay." 11,000 workers have been promised that they will be joining the dole queues if the government gets its way. Some people in the employment service are even making claims for housing benefits and family credit due to financial hardship. This is the background to the strike, but the main cause of the problem is this year's pay offer - 2.5% - and the dog eat dog nightmare of performance-related pay.

"This means that pay rises are not linked to inflation but to 'performance'. Workers have to reach targets for getting people back to work and are graded A-D. If they receive a D they are sacked. In other words, the more people they hassle off the unemployment figures, the more money they get - and if they don't hassle enough people they get sacked."

"Most of us wouldn't mind getting people into work" said our man, "but most of our targets are geared towards stopping benefit, and the jobs we advertise are increasingly 'rubbish' - low-pay, no-hope jobs that offer little security and often don't have contracts."

And, of course, there is the prospect of the Job Seekers' Allowance (JSA) on the horizon too. The JSA is replacing income support and unemployment benefit in October next year. It will give the Employment Service discretionary powers to make the unemployed accept low-paid work or dead-end training schemes. It could even mean kicking people off the dole because they don't like your appearance.

This is expected to increase the already large numbers of violent incidents involving doleworkers and members of the public - nearly 8,000 between 1989 and 1994, including 1000 actual physical assaults, one involving a man wielding a samurai sword! Despite this, workers have only been given two day's training in dealing with such problems. Our man reckoned that claimants have every right to be angry about the way the system works: "Benefits are absolutely crap, they are suspended if you lose your job or are sacked and you're living on £18 a week. What amazes me is how little trouble we get."

Morale amongst workers has shot up considerably since the strike was called, despite the number of strike breakers and casual, non-unionised workers who are manning some offices. And if they lose, our man warned of "guerilla action" by workers constantly disputing the grading system.

SIGNING ON...

Giros will still be issued without the need to sign - BUT GO ANYWAY!

JOIN THE PICKET LINES!

In Brighton - Upper North Street Job Centre every weekday @ 7-10am You can really put off the people who are still working by:

• going in and asking if you have to sign on

• making pointless enquiries about useless training schemes

• demanding restarts (yeah, right)

• asking them why they aren't striking when a quarter of the jobs in the Employment Service are gonna be cut if the JSA is implemented

• asking why everything's taking so long...

SUPERQUARRY SHUTDOWN!

Earth First!'s national action to shut down Whatley Quarry in Somerset takes place this SUN/MON (3rd/4th Dec) The quarry supplies much of the stone used to build roads in the UK and is digging up the Mendip Hills. Amey Roadstone Corporation are asking for permission to double its size, which if it goes ahead the hole will be seen from the moon! This action will be massive! Bring tents, sleeping bags, blankets, torches, first aid kits, waterproofs/warm clothing, food + water. These will be a crèche & catering facilities. Meet 11am onwards @ Shepton Mallet Info Centre. More info 01935 825074. B'ton coach: 9am Sun @ St Peter's Church

LIVERPOOL 500.

Sneaky wildcat dockers on strike in Liverpool over casual labour closed down port gates using a new form of Critical Mass - without bikes! They marched round and round a major roundabout during rush hour causing complete gridlock and no lorries or cars could enter the port.

500 dockers have been on strike for nine weeks - Unions in Canada and the United States have given their full support. Drake international, the firm behind the scab labour have found it's not all plain-sailing destroying jobs and communities - their offices occupied by dockers into direct action.

Despite this growing support - and with Britain being Britain - the strikers still don't have the support of their own union! As for the Labour Party, SchNEWS enquiries revealed that the people's party's considered view on the nine week lock-out is... "We don't normally comment on industrial disputes". So what do they comment on?' Support the dockers: 0151 207 3388

.... PARIS 5,000,000!

LIBERTE! EGALITE! FRATENITE!

In France parallels with not just 1968 but 1789 are being made in Paris as five million people go on strike.

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S.A.S. ATTACK GYPSIES

A lack of site provision for Britain's travellers has once again led to problems being deliberately stirred up between travellers and people living near their sites. Around 15 Romany Gypsies who were parked up on some land in the Sea Mills area of Bristol found themselves at the centre of a row enflamed by a local Private Security Firm.

System & Security(SAS) are employed by local residents to patrol the Sea Mills area. In a leaflet circulated by the firm travellers stand accused of an "upsurge of crime.-. representing an extremely serious threat to public law and order which the police are ignoring". With language guaranteed to whip up race-hate - and as a side, scare people into paying the private security firm money to 'protect' them from the travellers - the gypsies are described as "a rabble of marauding tinkers who see your homes and possessions as fair game and, as some sort of giant Supermarket take-away for their criminal shopping activities."

The pamphlet urges the local council - which it describes as "a bunch of soppy, limpwristed liberals" - to use the CJA against the travellers "apart from (the Council) making the lives of this itinerant trash as comfortable as possible by providing running water, toilets and a free rubbish removal service, these jumped up mandarins are doing sweet fanny adams." The leaflet ends with a call for residents to implement a campaign of direct action!

Bowing to pressure Bristol City Council gave forms to all local residents - asking for them to note disturbances by the gypsies with descriptions of any trouble-makers.

SAS boss Andrew Burke however has been warned by the police not to take matters into his own hands and when SchNEWS rang the local constabulary we were told that they were currently "looking at private security farms and their activities." Asked about the 'upsurge of crime' a Chief Inspector told us "their was a slight increase in crime, but it couldn't necessarily be put down to the travellers."

The SchNEWS asked The Gypsy Council whether Burke could he prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. A spokesperson told us that when they've complained about similar leaflets in the past the Directory of Public Prosecutions has taken no action. "Where are the travellers supposed to go? Local residents should be asking the local authorities to find proper sites."

The Criminal Justice Act abolished the Caravan Sites Act which gave councils a legal duty to establish sites for travellers (not that many did). Lack of sites and increased harassment has led to over half of Britain's travellers going abroad in the last few years. Even traditional stopping places are being gated, blocked and ditched off (one survey in the Somerset area revealed that 72% of the traditional sites were now unusable).

Not all travellers are angels and some sites can cause problems but marginalising, whipping up fear and hate - isn't that what happened in Nazi Germany?

It is estimated that there are 210,000 acres of derelict land in Britain alone - plenty of room for Britain's travellers to live in peace.

. THE GYPSY COUNCIL 01708 868986

. FRIENDS AND FAMILIES OF TRAVELLERS 01458 832371

. TELEPHONE LEGAL ADVICE SERVICE FOR TRAVELLERS 01222 874580

SchNEWS IN LONG!

'IT'S NOT A BOMB, IT'S A DEVICE WHICH EXPLODES' The Americans are planning to secretly bypass the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty by exploding plutonium using TNT. By calling it an 'experiment' not 'a test' they are using compressed explosives so it's not technically a nuclear bomb and they can get away with it. Six 'experiments' will take place in the New Year Meanwhile the French, in cahoots with the British, just exploded their fourth in the 'series' of South Pacific tests

*** DOVER'S RETURN: 50 people were nicked as live animal export trucks were turned back for the first time in Dover. When a bill to ban live exports was debated in the House of Commons it was 'talked out' by certain MPs reading from the telephone directory. This is not democracy, it's a farce, it's an insult.

*** BUDGET NEWS: Roads Programmes battered! The roadbuilding programme was slashed by a third! It's now worth £8.2 billion - a far cry from the £23 billion 'Roads To Prosperity' plans of 1989. 77 schemes have been totally scrapped and 100 put on hold. This means that only 5 Dept. of Transport schemes are planned to start by April 1997 - including the Newbury Bypass, M66, M11 Link Road. A40 and A13. A particularly worrying trend is the announcement is 5 more privately funded Design, Build, Finance, Operate roads worth £500m in total. These generate traffic, as the private contractor gets paid per vehicle on their road!

*** HOPE STREET: In a court case that lasted a month and cost a mere £250.000! 9 people were found guilty of breach of the peace and fined a massive £50 each! Two others had their cases 'not proven' over actions last May during Climate Action Day when people blocked off Hope St in Glasgow, Europe's most polluted road. Trusty video evidence once again showed the police to not be telling the truth, the whole truth and anything but the truth

*** RECLAIM THE STREETS: Following the success of the recent street party in Manchester, Reclaim The Streets are planning a Christmas panto, based loosely on 'Aladdin' and with an all-star cast. The panto will again highlight the potential of city streets once they are cleared of cars (hiss hiss boo boo) and given back to the people (Hooray). More help needed making mince pies and the back end of a horse 0161 232 1598

*** Leeds are also getting in on the act with a street party planned for Saturday 16th December 12 noon in the City Centre 0113 262 9365 - and a little birdy (OUR GREAT LEADER) tells us there will be a Reclaim The Streets in Brighton on 21st December and an anti-road Action next Fri Dec 8th 2pm @ St Peter's Church

*** Work could soon begin on the M66 through Daisy Nook Country Park, Greater Manchester. It's taken security 4 days to put a portakabin and some fencing on site! Protestors camping in tree-houses, benders and vehicles at the protest camp are expecting eviction soon, More people urgently needed- along with saws and polyprop! 0161 628 4727

*** People of Worcester are being asked to take part in a die-in at the local train station in a protest against nuclear trains. They aim to visit the local Labour Party to give 'em some grief over the party's new found support for Trident. Meet 12 noon Elgar Stature, Worcester Sat 9th Dec

***. 'Criminal Justice' by the Banner Theatre Company goes on tour from this Fri (1st). The play uses real-life stories to show the abuse of power the CJA allows, mixing traditional storytelling skills with state-of-the-art technology, electronic and acoustic music. 0121 440 0480 if you want to know if the play is in your area...

INSIDE SchNEWS

After nearly four years of police investigations and court hearings, Animal Liberation Front (ALF) press officer Robin Webb is to stand trial at Winchester Crown Court. He has been charged with breaching the obscure and rarely used Section 38 of the 1986 Public Order Act. He passing on information to the press about a claim that battery eggs in a supermarket had been contaminated. The offence carries a sentence of 10 years and the judge has imposed a press blackout.

Robin became ALF press officer in October 1991 and his job was to explain to the media why some people break the law to help animals. Since then, he has been arrested 7 times, and has spent a total of almost 7 months in prison on remand. His bail conditions have included not leaving his home town, attending a police station every day, not making any public statements and not attending any animal related events.

His house has been searched by Kent, Staffordshire, Hampshire. Lothian and Borders. Met Police forces and the Anti Terrorist Squad. 2 ansaphones, 6 typewriters, a fax machine, all address books, diaries and stationary, account and bank books and all the press office merchandise have been confiscated.

A flyer sent to the SchNEWS said "All this adds up to a blatant attempt by the authorities to suppress free speech where animal rights is concerned. Robin is being stitched up with the police will try to portray him as an isolated and dangerous extremist. The press will not be allowed to even mention the case. Anyone publicising the result of the trial will be liable to prosecution and imprisonment. Don't let them get away from it. Show your solidarity by turning up on the opening day of the trial, Monday 4th December."

If you can help with costs send cheques/PS's payable to: Robin Webb Defence Fund, c/ BM 4400, London, WC1 3XX.

and Finally

Last week's Budget was seen by many as the government's last desperate attempt to bribe "middle England" into voting for them at the next election - and gave a glimpse into the nightmare world of what bribing this paranoid, privileged group means for the rest of us. We got promised 5,000 extra police over the next three years. 10,000 extra close circuit TVs, housing benefit cuts for under 25s, 75% insulation grant cuts for pensioners and £5bn cuts in social security spending each year by the year 2000. They also plan to scrap inheritance tax. This will cost the government £1.6 billion (the equivalent of 3p off income tax). The families who own the 5,000 most wealthy estates will be at average £160,000 better off! We're used to these handouts for the rich, increased state powers and attacks on the poor but we thought the Conservatives were firm believers in the forget-it-all-for an-instant philosophy of getting pissed to escape the horror of it all. Only for some it seems. They reduced the price of a bottle of whisky by 27p - while increasing the price of strong cider by 8p. Now who could they be trying to get at..

DISCLAIMER

The SchNEWS warns all readers not to attend any illegal gatherings or take part in any criminal activities. Always stay within the law. In fact please just sit in, watch tv and go on endless Xmas shopping sprees filling your house and lives with endless consumer crap... you will then feel content. Honest.

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