Click here for the bigger picture

SchNEWS

Story Links: Dial M For Malignant | Crap Arrest Of The Week | The Aluminati | Going Native | Bling A Bottle | SchNEWS in Brief |  ...and finally...

Dial M For Malignant

R mobils th nxt 2bacco?

People living near mobile phone masts “are effectively involuntary subjects in a mass experiment” - Dr Gerald Hyland, a board member of the International Institute of Biophysics.

When, in April 1994, CEOs of the leading US cigarette manufacturers testified under oath that they, “do not believe smoking causes death or that smoking is addictive”, they set a new benchmark for corporate honesty. They may have had their backs against the wall, but the message was received loud and clear in every boardroom on earth – they'd gotten away with it...

With more mobile phones in the UK than people, and one in ten seriously addicted, are mobiles the new 'tobacco'? For years the mobile phone industry’s tag line has been ‘There is no evidence that radiation from mobile phones and masts is harmful.’ But then neither is there 'evidence' that smoking causes cancer – only an irrefutable correlation between smoking and lung cancer.

While companies talk of thousands of studies which 'prove that current wireless technology is safe’, in 1993 a research team under Dr. George Carlo - overseen by Harvard university - was given $28.5 million by the mobile phone industry to research the health effects of the technology.

After realising that all previous studies were based on data from microwave oven tests, which all happily concluded that 'if the power isn’t high enough to cook the food, then it's safe to have your head in there while it’s on', Dr Carlo got down to doing his own tests, which proved something else: That human cells do react to the microwave signals from mobile phones and, thinking themselves under attack, take steps to increase defences. The cell membranes harden, which inhibits their normal processes and leads to extra waste in the form of free radicals - effectively composed of poisons which damage the affected cells and more importantly, damage their DNA. It is a well established fact that DNA damage can lead to cancer.

Click here for the bigger picture

According to a court submission by an independent research physicist, writing the Police Federation report on the new Tetra emergency services communications, “There is a plethora of extensive, well researched documents highlighting illnesses caused by microwave sickness around the world. These papers (in their thousands) highlight the illnesses caused by low level (below thermal) microwaves as arrhythmia, heart attack, cell death, diseases of the blood, interference to bone marrow, brain tumours, DNA damage, altered calcium level in cells, reduction in night-time melatonin, suppression of the immune system, arthritis, rheumatism, skin problems, lymphatic diseases, vaginal discharge, vascular system disease, tinnitus, leukaemia, childhood cancer..."

These cheerful little radiation waves are not only produced by mobile phones but by nearly every 'wireless' device on the market. But if the masses heard more about this they might not be so quick to sign up and chat or surf their day away. So what has the industry done to protect their profits?

Pay As U Glow

Well, the pattern is tried and tested. It took decades before it became accepted that tobacco was a major source of ill health. One would be naive indeed to think that the mobile companies haven’t already boned up on the tactics and are ready to wheel them out as needed.

First lesson leaned is to deny everything and spend huge sums sponsoring ‘research’ that suggests otherwise. Check! Plenty of sympathetic puff pieces all round in the big news media to follow... Check! Sponsor more universities and research facilities to make sure you can apply pressure and stop the more controversial studies before they get published. Check!

With a pyramid of vested interests, the mobile firms seem to have everyone in their pockets. The World Health Organisation provided them with one of their best argument-winners with its apparent lack of interest in the matter. Coincidentally, only recently Mike Repacholi, head of their Electromagnetic Field department (and the inaugural chairman of ICNIRP - International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) left under a cloud after it emerged he received hundreds of thousand of dollars from...the mobile phone industry.
The phones themselves, of course, are not the only health problem (not to mention issues about how they are manufactured – see SchNEWS 407). Anyone can decide not to eat McDonald's or not to smoke - or use a mobile - but the masts that provide the infrastructure are everywhere, with 35,000 base stations already across the country. They don't discriminate as they continually pump out their microwave radiation 24 hours a day.

Click here for the bigger picture

The government’s official guidelines to councils are so artfully ambiguous that it took two court cases to decide that councils cannot use health grounds to refuse a mast. In the ‘Skelt vs Orange’ 2003 case, the judge was about to rule that health effects should be a concern when the government (fighting the case for Orange) conceded the case with full costs which, while seeming some kind of 'victory' at the time, prevented a ruling which could be cited later as a precedent. Then in 2004, in the Harrogate case, the government was apparently fighting the case for local residents against the operator. The government barrister then made a poor case and failed to mention any evidence of health risks that hadn't already been dismissed. The ruling went in favour of the masts and this is now the case that is cited in all other court hearings on the issue.
The government, who got a cool £22.5 billion from the mobile industry in 3G licence fees (and made the companies promise to provide at least 80% national coverage in return), defend themselves using the NRPB – ‘National Radiological Protection Board’ - who state that current exposures are well inside the ICNIRP guidelines, and that they are following the precautionary principle. These guidelines turn out to come from research on... the heating effect of radiation in microwave ovens. And this ‘safe’ level is set at 3,300 units in Britain - compared to 100 units in Poland, 10 units in Italy and Russia and 6 units in parts of Canada. And allowing untold phone masts to remain next to children’s bedrooms, while busily installing more, is apparently following some sort of profitability, er, I mean precautionary principle.

Following the Harrogate ruling, few councils will stand up to the operators and many that have find their decisions overturned on appeal, forcing them to pay costs as well - something the phone barons must enjoy reminding other councils about.

So, with government in bed with the operators, the ‘independent’ research facilities, protection boards and the media all bought off and silent, and with local councils’ hands all but tied, mobile phones have become the new symbol of hide- all-the-risks and seek-maximum-profits. Symbols not of our trendy coolness and social influence, but of our submission. And so many people’s health will suffer regardless of whether they go mobile or not. Roll over tobacco and get that 20 texts a day habit..

For more, start at www.tetrawatch.net and www.mastsanity.org

CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK

For wanting take-away food...

Two foraging dumpster divers* were recently sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and were hit with a fine for 'stealing' food that had been thrown out by a fruit shop in Colorado, US. This in a country that wastes an estimated 43 million kilos of food every year!

* SchNEWS vocab watch: Dumpster diving, or ‘skipping’ as it’s known here, is the act of reclaiming edible food that has been thrown away by shops. Extra thanks to supermarkets who take the time to spoil their waste by opening or covering in bleach etc. Well, perish anyone getting it free...

THE ALUMINATI

Presumably fed up with their icy reception in Iceland (See SchNEWS 506), our favourite aluminium company, Alcoa, are now getting heated resistance in the sunnier climes of Trinidad & Tobago. As we reported (in SchNEWS 512), they are planning another giant smelting plant, somehow having 'convinced' the government it would be a great thing for the island (perhaps promising them a free supply of tin-pots?). Glossing over the associated health risks and pollution to the fragile island eco-system, think about all the cash and jobs it will bring! Oh, except that it's a 100% owned Alcoa investment and all the workers in the plant are going to be... er, Chinese.

Using familiar tactics, Alcoa's goons haven't waited for official permission and public consultations before getting down to business in the Cedros Penninsula, Trinidad. Well, the company had publicly promised 'no construction' would start until official clearances had been given – but they didn't say anything about destruction of course...

This week they have established an intimidating presence in the agricultural lands of Chatham, moving people and equipment in, all under heavy police guard naturally. They were faced with a human blockade of around 80 residents, mainly women and children. One baby was nearly run over by a tractor when his father fell during the melee, and four protesters were arrested.

* For more on Alcoa resistance see www.nosmeltertnt.com and www.savingiceland.org

GOING NATIVE

Nyoongar aboriginals in Western Australia (WA) are celebrating a landmark Federal Court decision this week. The ruling grants them 'native title' – acknowledging that they are in fact the traditional owners of a UK-sized area of south-west WA which includes the city of Perth and other main population centres. This comes after several other native title claims in other parts of the country failed on the grounds that aboriginal groups couldn't 'prove' a traditional connection to the land, but now the Nyoongar victory could lead to more native title claims in urban areas, including one by Melbourne's traditional owners, the Wurundjeri people.

Native title does not mean that suddenly all the land gets handed back to the people it was stolen from (of course!) - as private and some leasehold land is exempt - but it will lead to native title claims to thousands of pieces of 'undeveloped' land, including state forests, Crown land, and reserves. It gives the Nyoongar people access and rights to carry out traditional activities including fishing, camping and maintaining sacred sites in this huge area, and gives them a role in the management of national parks and state forests.

This is a major breakthrough, building on the landmark 'Mabo' High Court decision in 1992 which for the first time acknowledged that when the British invaded Australia, their declaration of 'terra nullius' (land belonging to no one) was false, and that the Meriam people in Queensland had 'Native Title' to land on which they could prove their ancestors lived prior to colonisation. The following year the Native Title Act was introduced, opening the door to more claims, which was met with a racist media backlash of the “Is my backyard safe from an Aboriginal land claim?” type and a 1998 amendment protected farmers to some extent in native title claims.

The WA state govt is to appeal the decision, with Deputy Premier Eric Ripper telling parliament that “...there had been too much disruption to Nyoongar society for it to have survived in any meaningful way, and so its native title claim was invalid.” In fact it's amazing that the Nyoongar society has survived at all, given the programme of genocide which was inflicted on them. It's estimated that at the time Captain Fremantle sailed up the Swan River to begin the colonial centre of Perth in 1829, the Nyoongar population was in the tens of thousands, who were then systematically wiped out by violence, imprisonment and European diseases such as measles. The genocide continued with the Native Welfare Act, which from 1890 to as late as 1958 included two concentration camps which held a third of the aboriginal population, and the forced removal of the children into camps which has become known as the 'stolen generation'.

* For more see www.perth.indymedia.org

Bling a Bottle

Best birthday wishes go out to Camp Bling in Southend, Essex, who are celebrating a full year of occupation this Saturday 23rd Sept (See SchNEWS 514). The camp will be holding an 'open house' from 2.00pm till late, to thank the public for their amazing support over the past 12 months.

The latest news of the 870 metre road-widening project is that estimated costs have spiralled to £25 million – excluding security and eviction – making it the most expensive stretch of road ever planned. Naturally, the estimate at the time of contract tendering was a more palatable £3.5 million – just a small margin of error then...

To date over 25,000 signatures and letters have been collected in opposition. Just sixteen local people were found in favour of the scheme during public consultation, and a recent newspaper poll shows the majority still against the road. The campaign continues to actually make that count…

* More at www.dragonnetwork.org/campaigns/bling

SchNEWS in Brief

• Ireland's thriving anti-Shell Direct Action Camp continues to protect the Mayo coastline from depletion by the Big Oil monster. The Camp, re-established at the start of summer, has successfully blocked Shell from constructing their ever-so-safe pipeline and kept the issue high on the States agenda. As always, visitors and support welcome. See www.struggle.ws/rsc
• The Animal Liberation Front continue their attacks on Oxford university and it's associates. Vodaphone installations were burnt down in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands last week. The University are in the process of building a monkey torture lab. See www.directaction.info
• A partial victory for protesters at Titnore Woods (See SchNEWS 558) this week. The council have announced that after 'further consideration' there is no need to undertake part of the road plan, leading to the saving of 200 trees. The next step is to keep up the pressure and save the woods where the camp is - to this end a Mass Mobilisation has been called for Saturday October 7th. Meet 2pm outside Durrington railway station on main South Coast line (two stops west of Worthing) to head en masse for the woods. ** Also, food donations for the camp can now be made in central Worthing, thanks to Down to Earth healthfood shop, at 175 Montague Street (towards Rowlands Road, nearly opposite the Co-op), open from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday. ** For more see www.protectourwoodland.co.uk
• SmashEDO protesters locked on at EDO's factory again this week – shutting the place down – and EDO eventually had to cut a new gate in their fence to get staff in! [For footage see www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies] ** On 26th Sept there is a Phone Blockade of the arms dealers. Call them on (dial 141 first to withhold your number) 01273 810500 (or 810501/502/503 etc) and tell them what you think about them profiting from murder. ** Sunday 8th Oct sees a Direct Action Training Day, 1pm at the Friends Meeting House, Ship St. ** And don't forget the regular Noise Demos, every Wednesday 4-6pm, at the EDO factory, Home Farm road, Brighton. ** For more see www.smashedo.org.uk

...and finally...

As the nights start drawing in (whatever that means), how can we fill those long evenings with wholesome fun? Worry no more, 'War on Terror, the Boardgame' is about to be released. Previously just a violent hobby for greedy imperialists, now everyone can join in!

Players liberate the world while bickering over control of oil, funding and fighting terrorism, forcing regime changes and discovering those elusive WMDs. All the time alliances waver: old enemies become friends and allies turn bad guys with one casual flick of the Axis of Evil spinner. Each set includes Suicide Bomber cards, Dirty Bombs, Nuclear Weapons, piles of 'World Bank of Capitalism' cash and a balaclava with the word “Evil” stitched across the forehead. A perfectly tasteless gift for a the perfectly tasteless christmas season. While the 30 quid price tag may be a bit steep, it's certainly cheaper than the billions spent on the War on Terror™, the geo-political game for the world's ruling elite.

As the maker says, “Some people suggest that turning the War on Terror into a board game is a tad insensitive. I always reply that starting a war is insensitive; a board game is just fun for all the family.” For more see www.waronterrortheboardgame.com

Disclaimer

SchNEWS advises all readers - the revolution will not be bluetoothed. Honest.

SchMOVIES

Download free short films produced by SchNEWS, or order a copy of the new SchMOVIES 2005 DVD only £6 incl. p&p. Click Here for more info

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 Sold out - Sorry
• SchNEWS Annual issues Sold out - Sorry

(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.

SchNEWS, PO Box 2600, Brighton, BN2 0EF, England
Phone: +44 (0)1273 685913
email: schnews@brighton.co.uk

@nti copyright - information for action - copy and distribute!