Home | Friday 10th February 2006 | Issue 531

WAKE UP!! ITS YER SEE YOU IN COURT...

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Story Links:
Missile Defiance | Crap Arrest of the Week | Hold The Front Page | Positive SchNEWS | SchNEWS in Brief | Franco My Dear... | Lack of Incite | ...and finally...

MISSILE DEFIANCE

VICTORY AS EDO INJUNCTION TRIAL MISFIRES

Another blow struck for free speech in Sussex. The nasty little stitch up between Sussex Police, arms dealers EDO MBM and protest bashing lawyer Timothy Lawson Cruttenden (see SchNEWS 492, 471) to crush dissent has started to unravel.

EDO MBM, who manufacture parts for the Paveway bomb system and are involved in the manufacture of unmanned combat air vehicles, much loved by the US and Israeli militaries for targeted assassinations, are now ducking for cover as the legal bombshells go off in their own faces.

Back in March 2005 the arms dealers, urged on by Kerry Cox of Sussex Police, applied for an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act which would have limited the regular pickets of the factory to ten silent protesters on a Thursday afternoon (See SchNEWS 492). No doubt they were assured by Britain’s self professed leading expert Timothy Lawson Cruttenden (TLC) that this would soon put paid to the pesky protesters. The injunction, by its definition of ‘protester’, initially applied to everyone on the planet. Although the judge refused to impose limits on numbers it confined protesters to a narrow grass verge opposite the factory. It also prevented them from filming. This was vigorously enforced by a combination of private security and heavy policing. Private security goons abused their immunity from video in a series of provocative actions. Over thirty arrests have been made at the factory since court proceedings began last March and two protesters were remanded to HMP Lewes for alleged breaches of the injunction.

Despite the prospect of hefty legal bills, the fourteen individuals named on the injunction mounted a vigorous defence. In shades of the Mclibel Trial (See SchNEWS 79 & 485), the case has proved an embarrassing PR fiasco for the US-owned bomb manufacturers. A two-day hearing saw their fat being pulled out of the fire by the Attorney General as they were accused of war crimes (See SchNEWS 521). Then MBM MD David Jones ‘retired’ on 31st December. TLC has repeatedly attempted to delay a full hearing of all the issues, perhaps because many of the allegations made against activists (such as shining lasers into the eyes of employees) were so spurious that they would not stand up in court.

UTTER CONTEMPT

As the case began to turn sour, TLC resorted to bizarre intimidatory tactics, such as revealing his knowledge in an email of a protester’s private phone numbers and his dubious acquisition of one prominent activists private diary, which had been ‘anonymously left’ at his office. His level of information on individuals, which included access to statements from a number of police forces from criminal cases which hadn’t yet been to court, pointed to high level and highly improper contacts within the police. In fact when a judge ordered him to reveal details of correspondence between the corporation, the police and himself, he refused on the grounds that EDO ran a paperless office while his was ‘full of papers’. SchNEWS reckons it’s not just papers TLC’s full of. This refusal brought a warning from the Judge that he had ‘grave concerns’ about TLC’s conduct and advising him to seek legal representation to defend himself from allegations of professional misconduct.

Ordered to seek mediation with the defendants, executives from the US parent company EDO Corp flew in to broker a deal. The first thing to go was the definition of protester, meaning that legal restrictions on demos at the factory no longer apply to anyone else but those named. Next the company agreed that if the seven legal-aid defendants agreed not to assault EDO employees then they would drop the proceedings against them. As legal aid would have been withdrawn anyway if they refused, they accepted and left EDO to pick up the two hundred grand legal bill. The other defendants are fighting on to expose EDO’s machinations in open court.

In another twist last week, three people were acquitted in Brighton Magistrates of holding an illegal assembly of …er three people outside the factory in March last year. The case collapsed because the police wanted to hide their operational decisions during ‘Operation Kirk’ behind a Public Interest Immunity certificate. According to their press release this was because ‘the prosecution were asked to disclose specific details in relation to operational tactics and sensitive information used to brief police officers. As a result the prosecution took the decision to not disclose the details and took the preferred option to offer no evidence in this case…’ Yer ever cynical SchNEWS can’t help but wonder how many of those ‘operational tactics’ were discussed in EDO’s boardroom, which might make the information very ‘sensitive’ indeed. But we're sure it's all on the level.

MASONIC BODGE

Spokesman for SMASH EDO Andrew Beckett told SchNEWS, “We always knew that this attack on our rights was politically motivated and involved high level co-operation between the police, the lawyers and the arms dealers - but to have it becoming public knowledge is amazing. The collapse of the injunction is a major victory for civil rights and the peace movement. We will now be fully able to express our disgust at the presence of a bomb manufacturer in the middle of our community. We will be here until EDO isn’t.”

EDO EVENTS

Feb 14th 4-6 Outside EDO MBM ‘Naming the Dead’. The names of civilians killed in the invasion of Iraq will be read outside the factory.

March 1st Victory Demo - With all restrictions removed on protest outside the factory this is gonna be a big one.

* See www.smashedo.org.uk

CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK

For walking in your own front door

A Brighton squatter was arrested this week under the innovative ‘being in an enclosed space’ legislation. Brighton plod were up to their usual tricks of forcibly entering squats to arrest all the inhabitants for abstracting electricity. When the squatter returned to find his front door smashed in he was arrested ‘for being in an enclosed space’and removed from the premises. When outside he was de-arrested and forced to watch as the premises were boarded up. Another man who was arrested for nicking leccy was released five hours later without charge. In a burst of Minority Report style crime busting his tools were confiscated on the grounds that they might be used to commit criminal damage at some unspecified point in the future. Eagle eyed - Inspector Nev Kemp told Source Magazine “We have found squats to be a source of illegality in the past- sometimes we find a stolen bicycle there”.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

Appearing on the SchNEWS radar this week was Project Censored, a US university media research group which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters and compares it to mainstream output. From this they compile an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country’s major national news media.

What is perhaps not that surprising, given the UK’s slavish following of US trends, is that if we sample the top 5, it sounds just like home…

1. Bush (read Blair) administration moves to eliminate open government (terror laws, exemptions on FOI anyone?)
2. Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death Toll
3. Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage
4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
5. U.S. (and by proxy us) uses Tsunami to military Advantage in Southeast Asia (positioning against that other seldom mentioned spectre, China.) For the full rundown and articles introducing some of the stories, see www.projectcensored.org/censored_2006

Positive SchNEWS

A Devon couple who live in a Mongolian-style yurt have won their appeal to stay in their home. Marcus Tribe and Sarah Harvey have lived largely self-sustained in their eco-friendly hut for the past six years, on the seven-acre site they own at Nomansland, near Tiverton.

Last December, meddling Mid Devon District Council ordered them to demolish the hut for not meeting planning regulations - but backed by the local community, they appealed and have now won the right to live as they choose. As Bob Charlton of the parish council said, “Perhaps they don’t fit a household stereotype in the normal way, but their sustainable way of living is something that should be looked at much more closely... we should be learning from them, as opposed to telling them to go away.”

SchNEWS in brief

• Don’t forget the Seedy Sunday community seed swap this Sunday (12th) the Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove 10am-5pm www.seedysunday.org There’s one also happening in Bristol on Sunday at the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens building, the Greenhouse, Hereford St (next to Bedminster Train station)
• ETC Group report on how the top 10 seed corporations now control half the world’s commercial seed sales, with Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta leading the pack. www.etcgroup.org
• Meeting “Iraq 3 Years on; how many more must die?” with Peter Brierley - who lost his son in Iraq - and speakers from Smash EDO and Omar Deghayes campaign, Weds 15th, 8pm, Friends Meeting House, Ship St Brigthon.
• Protest against government deregulation of the workforce, putting workers at risk with ‘capitalist friendly’ safety cuts, at 9-10.30am on Feb 14th outside the Health and Safety Executive headquarters, Rose Court, London. Organised by Hazards Campaign, 0161 636 7557, www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/docs/valentine.htm
• Last week about 30 Israeli activists from Israeli Anarchists Against The Wall plus 20 Palestinian activists held a demo outside the highest court of Israeli “justice” in Jerusalem, for the hearing of a petition by villagers from Bil’in against an Israeli fence which robs their land.
• The Aubonne Bridge Case (See SchNEWS 459 & 408/409) Feb 13-15th sees the prosecution of two Swiss police accused of causing serious injuries to two protesting climbers, by cutting their safety-lines, at the G8 summit at Evian in May 2003. There will be a weekend of events leading up to demonstrations during the trial. For a full timetable see www.aubonnebridge.net
• Set your dials to Radio 4A 101.4 FM or log on at www.radio4a.org.uk and catch the all new Rough Music radio show on Sunday 1pm.

FRANCO MY DEAR, I DON’T GIVE A DAMN

OUR BARCELONA CORRESPONDENT WRITES...

Whoever told you that being a “cool”, “trendy” europunk squatter in Barcelona was a barrel of laughs lied. It might be the middle of winter, but last Saturday morning (4th) the pigs in Barcelona turned up the heat, leaving in their wake an all-too-familiar tale of state violence, repression, mistruths and scapegoats.

It all started with a special party. Special because it’s location was a squatted house in the city centre, in a barrio that’s already seen years of police repression, rampant, greed-inspired gentrification, and racism against a largely immigrant population. But this barrio has also seen something else – an inspiring, ongoing struggle against the above by an unlikely mixture of renters, squatters, people young and old, foreigners and Catalans alike.

But this party wasn’t special only because of the neighbourhood in which it was held, but also because of the squat in which it was held - “Anarko Penya Cultural” - which for the past four years has been controlled by a mafia-style boss who used the name “Anarko” for his own personal projects - selling crack, throwing huge commercial raves, and, it has been rumoured, to pass on information to police about the activities of the other, more political elements of the barrio.

During the party at the Anarko Penya, for some unknown reason, the police decided they weren’t in the mood this time around. After making their presence heavily felt in the barrio all evening, they came to Anarko Penya at 6am on Saturday morning (4th) to put a stop to things. Unsurprisingly, they waded in with typical brutality and the whole thing kicked off big time. At some point one of the cops was seriously injured (rumour was he’d died, but now it appears he’s in a coma) and when this happened, the other cops flipped out even more, calling for reinforcements and closing down the entire area, arresting and beating the shit out of anyone who looked like a squatter.

There had been another squat party going on nearby, so a lot of people were on the streets at 6am that morning: people on their way home, or on their way to another party. They had no idea what was about to happen to them. They simply walked by Anarko Penya and got swept up in the whole thing, terribly beaten, arrested, and now charged with the attempted murder of a policeman. It happens that fast and was totally unexpected.

There are other parts to the story that would almost be funny, if they weren’t so fucked up. Of the nine persons arrested that night (three charged with “attempted homicide”, six others facing lesser but still serious charges), two were not even arrested anywhere NEAR the city centre. These two had had bicycle accidents in totally different parts of the city on Friday night, and had gone to hospital to be treated. Early Saturday morning, the police did a sweep of all local hospitals and arrested these two people based on their injuries and the fact that they look like squatters. Moral of the story: don’t fall off your bike in Barcelona if you look like a squatter, unless you relish the idea of facing a long jail sentence.

Then “known facts”, “confirmed information” and “eyewitness testimony” about the event began to stray wildy. Directly afterwards, the police, the mayor and the press were all reporting that the cop had been injured by a flowerpot thrown from a balcony of Anarko Penya. Then suddenly the flowerpot became a stone. And then the stone had NOT been thrown from a balcony of the Anarko Penya at all, but had been thrown by people on the street. And so after three rapid, head-spinning changes, we have the new, sanitised “official version” - which ensures that the police’s favourite neighbourhood informers can walk free, and helps them, and the local council, to cover up any unsavoury facts (such as their possible ongoing relationship to the drug mafia in Anarko Penya), which could have been uncovered with a more in-depth investigation. The official version provides the police with easily accessible, ready at hand “criminals” who they can send down without bothering anybody powerful or influential.

And lastly, and maybe most importantly, the official version is a cover-up which allows the police and local government to screw the lives of three people who they view as part of a movement that has been fighting against gentrification and police repression in the barrio for years. The worry is that the ‘official version’ smokescreen will get used to justify further repressions, violence, and evictions...

* For more information, write to libertadpresxs4f@hotmail.com or visit http://barcelona.indymedia.org

* To donate use this bank account: La Caixa, Account number: 2100-3002-01-2105267123, IBAN: ES66, BIC/SWIFT: CaixesBBXXX

LACK OF INCITE

The editor of the Pravozashchita newspaper in Russia has been found guilty of inciting ethnic hatred in his coverage of the Chechnyan conflict.

Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, was given a two-year suspended jail term. The charges relate to statements by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, published by the paper two years ago. Dmitriyevsky insists the charges are in retaliation for his reporting of rights abuses.

His paper, part of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, is seen as one of the few independent sources of information about events in the troubled republic. The paper is critical of the Kremlin’s policies in Chechnya. Russian prosecutors said the statements by Maskhadov - shot dead in March 2005 - and Akhmed Zakayev were aimed at fementing racial and ethnic hatred.

Campaigners believe his trial is part of a clampdown on the work of NGOs. The For Human Rights group told the AP news agency the verdict was “a continuation of the shameful practice of false accusations against human rights defenders and active opponents of the war in Chechnya”. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law giving the authorities wide powers to monitor the activities and finances of NGOs. The authorities have already tried to close down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, accusing it of tax evasion.

...and finally...

Pen mightier than sword shock

click here for larger image

An emergency meeting of the Security Council has been called for next Tuesday, to discuss a clear and present threat to humanity. No trivial matter like nuclear war, an escalating industrial-military complex or continued oppression of the masses; a dark new power is emerging: cartoons. A new world order is taking shape, with Europe taking the lead. Previously neutral Denmark has been secretly stockpiling satirical material and testing it on unsuspecting religious fundamentalists. Copenhagen and Paris refused to comment on the satirical capability of their Weapons of Mass Derision but it is believed they are capable of starting fires as far away as Beirut or Tashkent. It is feared that the crisis could escalate from pockets of graphic violence, to an all out inky Armageddon. The US is particularly concerned, because as spokesman Hanna Barbara admitted, due to a lack of vital element irony, they haven’t got the offensive capabilities required for global domination. They are also extremely concerned with the ominous build up of molten manga occurring in East Asia Meanwhile, here as SchNEWS, we’re awaiting a team of crack UN(FUNNY) inspectors to check our archives for weapons grade satire.

Disclaimer
SchNEWS warns all bomb builders, don't get trigger happy coz it'll blow up in yer faces...Honest!

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