COMMON PEOPLE?

AS SCHNEWS REPORTS BACK FROM THE CLIMATE CAMP AT BLACKHEATH

After the famous scuffling of Kingsnorth camp last year (see SchNEWS 641) and the attacks on the Bishops gate gathering at the G20 (see SchNEWS 672), the 2009 Camp for Climate Action on Blackheath Common in South London was almost suspiciously cop-free, despite the best efforts of extremist pro-police factions within the camp to invite them on site.

On Wednesday 26th August, groups of campers converged on the common from different meet-up points in London to occupy the site, which was swiftly enclosed in security fencing and covered with tents and marquees. The complex consensus decision making process of organising the camp ran pretty smoothly – perhaps it’s more suited to day-to-day camp business than to planning mass actions as in previous years. The camp was divided into neighbourhoods with their own kitchens and daily meetings that sent two ‘spokes’ to carry the neighbourhoods’ decisions to a general site meeting.

The main contentious subject was people from the police liaison group wanting to invite the police on site, even after the police said they didn’t need to and camp consensus had already been made against it (on the other hand wearing a black hoody and mumbling the words to Harry Roberts when yer too pissed to stand up doesn’t a revolution make either).

With the absence of mass action and police hassle, the atmosphere was more relaxed than in previous years, with the emphasis on the organisation of the site as an experimental autonomous community, workshops, a series of smaller actions, and planning for the ‘Swoop’ mass action in October, as well as preparation for the climate summit in Copenhagen coming up in December.

OVER THE HEDGE

It would be an understatement to describe the policing as hands-off. Even the invasion of the hallowed capitalist ground of Canary Wharf was only observed from a safe distance by a handful of sulky goons from the Met. Campers were prevented from invading the Canary Wharf building itself by an unbreachable line of journalists, then moved on to a demo outside Barclays Bank, funders of arms trade and climate criminals. The march was joined by an extremely drunk hedge funder who insisted on standing at the front shouting, “I’m right here with you guys... what is it you believe in?” He was invited back to the camp but wandered off during a lengthy consensus meeting about whether to continue pointlessly blocking three cars on a minor road. Nice one JH, hope your boss doesn’t see the photos!

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Despite this year’s Climate Camp’s focus on equipping its supporters with the knowledge and the skills to perform direct action in the future, rather than mobilising the entire camp to act during the week, many autonomous affinity groups and neighbourhoods took it upon themselves to venture out into the city of London and target some of the biggest climate criminals.

One of the lucky recipients was every 4x4 driver’s best friend, BP. The company is one of the biggest businesses involved in the extraction of oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada (See SchNEWS 644). It takes up to 5 litres of water to produce 1 litre of usable petrol from the tar sands and the extraction process can produce up to five times as much CO2 as regular oil.

Increasing rates of rare cancers and respiratory diseases have been reported among the native peoples living alongside the river, as well as high levels of arsenic and other metals found in the groundwater due to leaking from the toxic ‘tailing ponds’ produced as a waste product from the process. These ponds are so large they can be seen from space and the impact on the local ecosystem is disastrous.

On Tuesday (1st) the protest march started outside the National Portrait Gallery, which BP has been financing as part of a ‘greenwash’ strategy in an attempt to clean up its image. Campaigners then moved to the Canadian embassy which seems to have little concern over climate change, pulling out of the Kyoto treaty and acting all-systems-go for tar sands extraction. Before moving on to Shell’s London headquarters the march arrived at BP’s main office and managed to give them a taste of what it was like to have your doorstep polluted by oil, and fittingly, as the protesters finished up at Shell, the ‘S’ from their sign spontaneously dropped from the building, leaving it reading “Hell Centre”. The bricks and mortar obviously have more of a conscience than the planks sitting inside.

Aside from this action other groups organised themselves to demonstrate against other worthy targets. Monday (31st) kicked off the action with a flashmob at City Airport against the proposed expansion, and saw a protest outside HM Treasury.

As well as the tar sands gathering, on 1st September activists from the camp met at Endelman PR, the company responsible for the greenwashing campaign of E.On, one of the biggest enthusiasts for building new coal fired power stations in the UK. Another group blockaded RBS and managed to gain entrance and superglue themselves inside the mega-bank’s offices.

Wednesday (2nd) saw campaigners get into the Dept. for Energy and Climate Change, blocking the entrance with a canoe while others delivered a message to E.On letting them know that their Ratcliffe power station had been named for the action in October. An organisation distinguishing themselves from Climate Camp called Don’t Build Kingsnorth hung a banner and went inside the buildings of Laing O’Rourke, to hand out leaflets and talk to staff. This mob is one of the construction companies bidding for the contract to build the controversial coal-fired energy plant.

CLASS ACT?

So was Climate Camp London 2009 a success? Many of the more direct action focused campaigners felt frustrated with the separation of action planning from workshops on education and training, and the postponing of mass action until October. Climate Camp seems to have gained a serious foothold in mainstream media culture, a huge turnaround from the victimisation and violence protesters have suffered in previous years. Is it the case that this is a positive development as more people learn about the issues and public becomes more radical, or does it represent a softening of Climate Camp’s stance?

What remains to be seen is whether the newcomers this year will have been inspired enough by the process to pull their fingers out and move for direct action in the coming months.

The biggest danger Climate Camp now faces is that it will turn into a purely intellectual exercise, and anyone who has been involved with the more serious side of the campaign knows that climate chaos protests are not all about painting banners and making straw bale benches. Ultimately the point of direct action is that when intellectualism fails, (and it has up until now, think governments refusing to put policy in line with scientific recommendations), it's about getting in there and fighting back, to make life difficult for those at the top. We don't want to get too middle class now do we..?

* See www.climatecamp.org.uk/

Keywords: bp, camp for climate action, climate change, london, shell, tar sands

 

FACTORY FINISH

One of Argentina’s oldest and largest workers co-ops, the ceramics factory previously called Zanon, now known as Fabricas Sin Patrones (FaSinPat) – Workers Without Bosses - won a a key legal ownership battle last month as the country’s workers continue to lead the way in the resistance to the havoc wreaked by the global financial crisis.

While the national government continues to refuse to draft a national law of expropriation for Argentina’s 250 worker-run businesses, which employ 13,000 people, each factory has had to struggle individually for their legal rights with the local legislature. And so it was outside of the chamber of deputies in provincial Neuquén, in Patagonia, that the FaSinPat workers gathered with hundreds of supporters to wait for the results of the debate inside. The final vote, 26 in favour to 9 against, handed ownership and legal control of the factory over to the workers with creditors to be paid off by the state.

The result was the cumulation of eight years of struggle, which began in 2001 when Zanon’s owners – who had received millions in government subsidies and foreign loans, money which rapidly disappeared – sacked the entire workforce without severance pay and owing months of back pay. Over 250 of those workers set up a camp outside the site and spent four months picketing the factory and blocking roads. After gaining entry to the factory following a court ruling that permitted the workers to sell off remaining stock, the workers voted to restart the business as a co-operative (see SchNEWS 530). The factory now employs 470 people.

In subsequent years, as the business grew alongside the supportive network of worker run businesses, the co-op successfully defended itself against a number of attempted police evictions and sustained intimidation and abuse as they battled for legal ownership of the factory.

Throughout the struggle, the co-op, like many other ‘recovered businesses’, has maintained that it is a part of a wider struggle for social justice, and has been heavily involved in community projects, social movements and other workers struggles.
The co-op retained its commitment even through the legalisation process. Many members of the legislature attempted to attach the condition for passing the bill that the workers would “guarantee a pact for social peace”. Smelling the sulphur wafting off this particular Faustian pact, the offer was rejected outright. One worker was quoted as saying, “The capitalists are constantly declaring war with tariff increases, by privatising public companies and with firings. Faced with this, the workers must defend themselves, and the workers at Zanon commit to defending ourselves, in the street, however we have to.”

The Vestas protests of recent months has been one of the first recent British campaigns to successfully combine workers struggles with wider social issues. In Argentina, the thriving co-op movement, which has seen around 20 new occupations since 2008, has not only shown the way by realising long ago that these issues are inextricably linked, they have also shown that this combination is a practical and workable model for action. “This is a battle against individualism, against everything that those above impose upon us” one Zanon worker said. “Here inside the factory we are fighting for a new human being.”

* See http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2052/1

Keywords: argentina, fabricas sin patrones, vestas, workers co-operative, workers struggles, zanon

 

HERCULEAN TASK

While we’ve lately had our attention on the immigration hell close to home in Calais (see SchNEWS 686), the imposition of fortress Europe has led to the development of similar, and even worse, situations across the continent. Last week saw a No Borders camp descend on the Lesvos in an attempt to raise awareness of the plight of people detained in the Greeks island’s refugee detention facility.

Activists from all over Europe converged on the picturesque Aegean island, hoping to help clean out Europe’s dirty stables, Camp Pagani. In a converted warehouse originally designed to hold 250, over 1,200 people (200 or so of them being unaccompanied children) have been rounded up and herded in to be kept like cattle - all for daring to seek a better life.

Migrants attempting to enter Greece have been confronted with the armed pit-bulls of the shadowy Europe-wide border agency, the nattily corporately-named Frontex (see SchNEWS 676). Patrols continue to sweep the surrounding coast looking for any new boats full of desperate people, even as the space to imprison them is at bursting point.
Earlier in August, 160 incarcerated parentless-children went on hunger strike to demand their immediate freedom. All of them, some under 10, were detained in just one room, sharing one toilet and with many sleeping on the floor (video footage available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP2yT6EjBXo). These inhuman conditions had been withstood for months at a time, not to mention that detention of minors is of course illegal under Greek and International law.

The children were joined by over 900 other detainees demanding release and tension was rising as No Borders hit town. Their camp was welcomed by locals, especially the Bineio Squat, which provided a media centre and a meeting and recreational space. It was used as a platform to launch over a week’s worth of actions, including a rooftop occupation and a harbour boating critical mass which managed to drive a Frontex ship back out to the open sea.

Renewed protests a few days after the arrival of No Borders activists may have contributed to the release of some 250 detainees (told to get out of Fortress Europe within 30 days or else) shortly after – although it was no time for over celebrating as conditions remain dire and a new supply of inmates is never far from the gates.

The camp wound up earlier this week but, with 47 more minors going on hunger strike last Wednesday (26th), 4 also refusing water and with no medical support or hope in sight, it remains crucial to keep up the pressure on the authorities. No Borders have announced that they will return in 2010 and every year till Pagani is closed for good.

* See http://lesvos09.antira.info

Keywords: asylum seekers, direct action, fortress europe, frontex, greece, hunger strike, lesvos, no borders, refugees

 

CIRCUS FREAKS

Last issue (SchNEWS 688) reported on the ongoing tour of the animal abusing circus, Zippos. The campaign has continued this week with activists picketing the show in Southsea.

Activists leafleted passers-by and broadcast evidence of Zippos’ abuse through megaphones, including the comments of then artistic director of Zippos, David Hibling, claiming he saw nothing cruel in the infamous 1998 Chipperfield’s Circus footage (which included animals being beaten round the face with a metal pole) and stating that he would do the same himself.

* See http://www.sarconline.co.uk for more

Keywords: animal rights, zippos circus

 

HILL FOUGHT

Last Wednesday (26th August), Hilaire Purbrick was evicted from his second camp on a site at the Whitehawk Hill allotments in Brighton. The week before the council had got an injunction against Hilaire, and he was told to be off the site by midnight last Tuesday. On Wednesday morning they gave him three hours to gather his belongings before bailiffs and contractors with diggers trashed the encampment and gardens.

Hilaire had been on this current site for six weeks, after a similar eviction of his camp on another part of the allotment site, where he’d been working – and for the majority of the time living – since 1993. Having taken a group of allotments which were initially in disrepair and subject to flytipping and vandalism due to it being next to the poor estates of Whitehawk, Hilaire and friends went about the process of reinstating the fences, and eventually setting up a gardeners association to manage the allotments and help promote allotments and self-growing to the broader community. Hilaire began living on the site, to confront those who were flytipping and causing problems.

The council has increasingly stepped down harder against Hilaire, and an injunction was taken out against him in 2002, but after leaving the site for nearly a year, he returned and continued work with the eight allotments, including building a 15ft wide storage chamber 20ft under the ground. Because of this chamber, the eviction of the site this June turned into an international news story after media from as far as Russia came to write stories about the ‘Caveman Of Brighton’, who was evicted from his cave because it didn’t have a fire exit!

He told SchNEWS, “I could see that there was a proper job to be done here, healing the land – and if you want to heal it you have to get intimate with it. To be here you have to engage in the real things in life – real friendships, real work, and healing the land is real – it’s a subtle feeling of unity with the land and it’s something that brings you great joy. You’re sharing the land with magpies and badgers. I can’t think of a happier place that has been destroyed today. People would wonder over here, and immediately got what was going on. They would be lost in their imagination, and kids who might otherwise have been pestering would suddenly stop nagging and just start joining in.”

While some on the Hill support what he’s doing but don’t think people should be living there, Hilaire’s story represents both the broader struggle for those wanting to live a low-impact, off-the-grid life - and the difficulties of doing this in Britain, and the issue of autonomously managing a heritage site away from the clutches of government and institutions.

As he sat in his loaded-up van contemplating driving off from Whitehawk Hill, Hilaire told SchNEWS “This is gone, but all the knowledge that I’ve gained will come with me and will help build something better.”

Keywords: allotments, brighton, hilaire purbrick, squatting, whitehawk hill

 

INSIDE SCHNEWS

34 years ago Leonard Peltier was convicted on dubious evidence of the murder of two FBI agents following confrontations between the authorities and Native Americans organising to defend their rights (see SchNEWS 292).

Late last month, Leonard, who has serious health problems, had his parole refused following his first hearing for fifteen years. He is not eligible for another parole hearing until 2024, by which time he will be just short of his 80th birthday. His family and friends continue to fight on his behalf.

For more information about Leonard Peltier see www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

Keywords: leonard peltier, political prisoners

 

DSEI-ING WITH DEATH

AS BANKERS RUN SCARED FROM INVESTING IN ANIMAL TORTURE...

It’s that time of year again when delegates from 40 different countries, including some of the world’s leading human rights abusers, come to view the wares of 1352 exhibitors from around the world at the biennial Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) – the world’s largest arms fair.

Over a million people have died since the US/UK invasion of Iraq. 1,400 Palestinian civilians were killed during the Israeli attack on Gaza in January 2009. The exhibitors at DSEi are the very people who supplied the weapons that made January’s massacre possible. They are making huge profits from these conflicts – the devastation in Gaza was facilitated by UK arms sales of over £27 million in 2008.

Disarm DSEi have been mobilising against the biannual fair since it moved to Docklands in 1999. On September 11th 2001, hundreds of protesters gathered for a ‘Fiesta of Life’ outside DSEi as the twin towers fell (see SchNEWS 322). In 2003, activists locked on to DLR trains forcing delegates to travel by bus to the eXcel centre (SchNEWS 422). In 2005, a mass demo marched on the exhibition while blockades stopped traffic (SchNEWS 511) and in 2007 protesters invaded the concourse of eXcel during DSEi’s press photo call (SchNEWS 602). However, the Met have rolled out some of their most repressive policing against anti-DSEi protests. In 2005 police used section 44 of the Terrorism Act to harrass and search activists bound for the fair, in 2007 the Met besieged the convergence centre and made dozens of spurious arrests.

It’s incredibly easy for the police to lock down the area around eXcel and contain activists. That’s why this year, on Tuesday September 8th, Disarm DSEi are taking their protest to The City of London, the financial heart of the global arms trade.
And it’s likely that The Met, fresh from their propaganda offensive at the Camp for Climate Action, won’t want a rerun of the G20 scuppering their new community policing image.
 
The target of Tuesday’s mass action will be the banks and investors financing DSEi and the international arms trade. Barclays is the largest UK investor in the global arms trade with £7.3 billion worth of shares in the international arms trade. Barclays also financed the purchase of Clarion, the owners of the DSEi arms fair, by investment company VSS. RBS is the biggest financier of the global arms trade having loaned £44.6 billion in the last ten years.

Disarm DSEi are calling for people to join together to resist these institutions, expose the devastation they cause, and hold them to account for their complicity in the ethnic cleansing and genocide facilitated by the global arms trade:

* Tuesday 8th September – Battle the Banks, Annihilate the investors, Disarm DSEi – 12 noon, City of London – Meeting place to be announced on Saturday 5th September on www.dsei.org and www.indymedia.org.uk. Updates on twitter (@dsei.org)

Disarm DSEi are also calling for groups around the UK and beyond to take action against the exhibitors at DSEi. A map has been created showing thousands of company premises across the UK. Type your postcode into http://www.dsei.org/exhibitor-map to find exhibitors in your area.

More anti DSEi events:

7th September:

UK Defence Conference, QE2 Centre, Parliament Square. Noise demo to meet and greet the arms dealers from 8am (this conference is being organised by ITT, owners of EDO MBM – see www.smashedo.org.uk)

Fourth Plinth Flash Mob against the the arms fair. “Never mind the art. Disarm the arms trade!” Meet 8:40am, St-Martin-in-the-Field chruch steps. Wear black and something you don’t mind getting dusty!

Workshops at convergence space, including legal briefing and public order policing information. See www.dsei.org for location.

Public meeting, 6pm, at convergence space for 8th September action in City of London ** East London Against the Arms Trade (ELAAF) silent candlelit vigil for the victims of the arms trade. 6:30pm at Royal Victoria DLR station. 

8th September:

12 noon, mass protest against investors in the arms trade and DSEi in the City of London – Location to be announced 5th September. ** End the DSEi arms fair, Close UKTI DSO. 12 noon at the Excel Centre, then 1pm at UK Trade & Investment. Organised by Campaign Against Arms Trade.

9th September:

Automonous actions against the arms fair.

10th September:

Action against the DSEi exhibitors dinner, Central London. Details to be released at www.dsei.org.

11th September:

ELAAF memorial procession. Meet at junction of Victoria Dock Road and Freemasons Road, 2pm.

Keywords: anti-war, arms trade, barclays, direct action, dsei, gaza

 

BRUM PUNCH

After the kicking they got in Birmingham on 8th August (See SchNEWS 687) the English Defence League are now firmly on the back foot. After boasting of their football hooligan connections they’re now calling off their series of planned demos and are crying out for police protection. A planned demo on 29th August at Harrow mosque was called off at short notice, perhaps through fear of re-run of events in Brum.

The next outing planned by the EDL is back in Brum on the 5th but this time there’s a crucial difference. The event has been totally co-ordinated with police and the “anti-Islamists” are asking all those who attend their demo to “respect the police on this. We are due to meet in Broad Street in Birmingham City Centre. The Police will direct us to various public houses in Broad Street where we will be asked to wait until further instruction.” Says it all really dunnit? Their permitted demo (starting at 12.30) will consist of a mile long march and a twenty-five minute long rally but West Midlands Police reserve the right to change the above without notice.

As if cowering behind police lines in Brum wasn’t enough, the luckless dimwits are also planning a 9/11 commemoration in Harrow on September 11th, and one on 10th October in Manchester City centre. There will be counter demonstrators. More info: www.hopenothate.org.uk

Keywords: anti-fascists, birmingham, english defence league

 

ARM-A-GEDDON MYSELF SOME OF THAT

Welcome to the scary near future of war ladies and genocidal men. An Isreali firm is now offering for sale its “Jumper” robo missile pack – the latest in high convenience unmanned self-powered death machines, all provided in a handy carrying case. That’ll piss of the Americans, late to market with their own ‘Netfires’ version of the same thing.

The idea of such weapons is simple. A large, festival toilet style contains several vertically-launched missiles, along with its own communications and power. Light enough to be dropped off by jeep or dropped off from above, it then boots up its sat nav connection and awaits firing orders.

Whether or not this development will lead to a Terminator-style scenario with increasingly AI-endowed robot weapons eventually turning against their makers, in the nearer future it greatly opens up the chances of affordable missile deployment to a whole new range of groups, not to mention the use the established military powers can make of ‘em. More maiming and killing all round! And that as they say, is all good for business...

Keywords: arms industry, israel aerospace industries

 

AND FINALLY

In 2006 EDO MBM came up a cropper after the High Court turned down their application for an injunction to control protests outside the factory, costing the arms producing giant a million bucks in legal expenses (See SchNEWS 531). Recent internal minutes from Sussex Police in January 2009 show the intention of an enthusiastic new Acting Chief Executive for Brighton and Hove Council to push for a dispersal order around the factory site. The document also gives away that Judith ‘So’ Macho, the Assistant Director Public Safety at Sussex Police, is to measure noise levels at the regular Wednesday protests in anticipation of no-noise measures being implemented.

One of the grave concerns listed in the minutes however are ‘that officers may be swayed by single issue people at meetings.’ surely the police can’t be worried about their officers thinking for themselves and agreeing with protesters..?

Keywords: brighton, direct action, smash edo, sussex police