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| Newsletter | December 2000 |
It will have a huge impact on the locality and yet the way in which it is being decided is totally undemocratic. -- Lord Chichester
Article six guarantees a fair hearing in front of an independent and impartial tribunal established by law for anyone whose rights are threatened by a proposal such as this. -- Simon Ricketts, lawyer acting for Sting
Sting is challenging an expansion of flying by DERA and MoD, the manner in which this is being pushed through, and the impact upon the local environment.
Unfortunately although the situation is near identical this is at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, not Farnborough, Hampshire. Ironically Boscombe Down is where all the military flying at Farnborough relocated to.
The gripe that Sting and his neighbours, including the Earl and Countess of Chichester and the Countess of Iveagh, have with MoD, is that they plan to relocate the RAF strategic tanker fleet and troop carrying aircraft from Brize Norton to Boscombe Down. The number of flights will increase from 40,000 to 50,000 a year.
MoD have acted as judge and jury, and denied the local residents their right to a fair hearing. MoD have decided they wish to increase the number of flights. They have then, using their own special powers, granted themselves the increase. The local authority have been merely notified.
A similar situation has arisen in Farnborough. MoD wish to see a massive increase in flying at Farnborough. They wish to see the trees lopped in Farnborough, massive deforestation and environmental destruction at the Church Crookham end. Using their special powers MoD have gone ahead. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
There are differences. It is stretching incredulity to breaking point to suggest we have a military operation at Farnborough. MoD are abusing their powers to aid a civilian operator. Even were the matter referred to the local planning authority, it is difficult to believe the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor would do anything other than fall over backwards to accommodate the applicant - the more money is involved, the greater the willingness.
Sting and his affected neighbours are taking action under the recent Human Rights Act. Their rights under Article 6 to a fair hearing by an impartial tribunal have been denied.
The company can't even claim the expansion will bring economic benefits to the area: their directors told me that a business airport runs on very few people since most users drive direct to their planes and don't even use the departure lounge. They envisage hardly any extra jobs being created. -- Caroline Lucas MEP
We are getting very good coverage in the media. In addition to what we mentioned last month (BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000) we have been featured in The Daily Telegraph (unfortunately tucked away in the Travel Section and missed by most people) and on Meridian TV local news (Monday 20 November 2000). We are also being featured regularly by SchNEWS. Well done everyone involved.
In addition to above the Farnborough News had an excellent piece by Matt Burrows ('Disaster zone?, Friday 1 December 2000) that highlighted the environmental destruction that is taking place at the Church Crookham end of the runway and hit at all the key points - habitat destruction, loss of rare wildlife, inappropriate use of MoD powers for a civilian airport etc. Points we have been raising for some time and we are pleased these are now getting wider recognition. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
The MoD claim that the work will enhance the wildlife value of the site and turn it into heathland is not true. The area, open pine woodland, is already heathland. Heathland is a mixture of bog, grassland, heather, open woodland depending upon soil type and drainage conditions. The clear cutting will open up the area, which within a few short years will be impenetrable thicket. Examples can be seen near Ash Vale and Mytchett. English Nature have gone along with these lies and as in too many cases have once again shown themselves to be a useless body for wildlife protection. To maintain as open heather would require grazing. MoD claim the work is needed to make the airfield safe. But if not safe then why no restrictions on flying? If not safe for 80 tonne aircraft then why permit 80 tonne aircraft? Why are MoD using their powers to facilitate a civilian operation? Has anyone seen a military flight since the Airshow last July? As at Boscombe Downs, where Sting and his neighbours are taking action against MoD and DERA, there is a clear breach of Article 6 of the Human Rights Act, the right to a fair hearing by an impartial tribunal. Though as we saw with the Rushmoor planning approval of TAG, the likelihood of a fair hearing before the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor is nil. A public inquiry is called for.
We in the West are quick to condemn the Indonesian peasants whose slash and burn is destroying the rainforest and the corrupt officials who turn a blind eye to industrialised clearcutting. But what is the difference between them and the greedy bastards who are cutting down the trees around Church Crookham?
The Countryside and Wildlife Bill managed to get through the last session of parliament by a pip-squeak. We need to make use of this as a matter of urgency to stop the work that is happening at the Church Crookham end of the runway.
After throwing it out twice, the House of Lords finally conceded and let the bill to privatise Nats go through. It seems no lessons have been learnt from the privatisation of British Rail. If you thought the skies over Farnborough were not safe under TAG, they just got a whole lot less safe.
TAG are looking to expand the level of flying fivefold. Currently they are up to around 15,000 movements a year. They wish to see 80,000. As they approach the 28,000 Rushmoor graciously gave them (and their planning application only speaks of an initial 25,000, with application for more at 20,000) TAG will put in a planning application for 80,000 or request a modification to the local plan.
The inspector has yet to give an opinion. The reason for this is that although the various airports are seemingly being dealt with on a piecemeal basis there is in reality an underlying plan. What happens at Farnborough has a bearing on T5, hence the delay in a report being published.
Meanwhile BAA have jumped the gun and demolition of old cottages has gone ahead. Quick action, a site occupation and a spot listing by English Heritage, may save the remainder.
Article 6 provides for a fair hearing before an impartial tribunal.
Neither in consideration of the local plan nor determination of the TAG planning application was there a fair hearing by Rushmoor. The whole process was biased towards TAG. [see BVEJ newsletters passim and BVEJ briefings and BVEJ urgent actions]
MoD have abused their special powers and given themselves the go-ahead for the work to facilitate the operation of the airfield.
MoD financially benefit from the airfield developments. MoD are part of government. DETR officials 'told' Rushmoor to ignore the planning inquiry recommendations. John Prescott refused to call-in the local plan. John Prescott refused to call-in the TAG planning application. John Prescott is part of the same government that wishes to benefit from airfield development. John Prescott is head of DETR.
It is not possible to obtain a fair hearing from Prescott because the government has a vested interest (financial and executive) in the airfield development. Not only does the government benefit from the airfield development, it has been actively pushing that development.
Rushmoor chose to ignore the planning inspector's recommendations on the Local Plan. The inspector is by law impartial. Rushmoor on the other hand have shown themselves anything but impartial. No reasons were given for ignoring the planning inspector's recommendations and Rushmoor went so far as to ignore their own barrister's advice on the need to call a second public inquiry to enable a fair and impartial hearing. [BVEJ newsletters passim, BVEJ briefing #0001 7 July 2000]
A developer can appeal a planning decision and call for a public inquiry. The local community cannot. We are the only European country with this one-sided system of appeal.
The manner in which the old Post Office site was pushed through planning (the developers had to be kept happy) was a breach of Article 6. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000]
Article 8 provides for quiet enjoyment of ones property.
All those in the flight path will be denied quiet enjoyment of their property. Those affected by the development of the old Post Office site will be denied their human rights to quiet enjoyment.
Ones property is not necessarily ones home or property. It can be the environment or locality one enjoys, eg the area being deforested at the Church Crookham end of the runway.
It is illegal for a public body not to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. Rushmoor is a public body. Rushmoor as a planning authority has to show that it has complied with human rights legislation when determining planning applications. It has singularly failed to show such compliance.
The Scottish courts ruled July of last year that in Scotland the planning system breaches the European Convention on Human Rights. DETR and local authorities have had two years to get their act together. They have done nothing.
At the end of last month 300 to 3,000 (depends whose figures you believe) demonstrators turned out for a mass rally in Stoke Park to oppose the Slyfield Incinerator.
Guildford Borough Council has heavily criticised Surrey County Council for their excessive secrecy.
The decision on the Surrey incinerators may not take place until after the May local elections. Three incinerators are planned for Surrey. This gives the opportunity to kick out of office those councillors who are not prepared to act for local people.
Recycling in Surrey is now at 17%, still not good enough but up on last year's figure of 12%. Surrey are still dismissing recycling as a viable alternative to incineration. The contract for waste disposal was placed before Surrey had a waste disposal contract in place. Minds appear to have been made up. Surrey has received over 10,000 objections.
In evidence to a Commons Select Committee the Environment Agency admitted that not enough is known of the dangers posed to the population by the new generation of incinerators.
At least 8 of the more than 100 proposed new incinerators will be financed under the PFI scam.
If you have not already done so it is not too late to oppose the Slyfield Incinerator on the edge of Guildford, one of three planned for Surrey.
Guildford Anti-Incinerator Network now has a web site.
[BVEJ newsletters passim, BVEJ Briefing 10 October 2000, BVEJ Urgent Action 10 October 2000]
When the British got BSE it was a British problem. When the Portuguese got BSE it was a Portuguese problem. When the French got BSE it became a European problem.
In the last year over 100 cases of BSE have been detected in France. A threefold increase over the previous year. In France beef has been removed from school meals, restaurants are refusing to serve French beef, the market for beef has collapsed. Several countries are refusing to import French beef. Britain is the exception. Quisling Tony Blair would rather heed his European masters than act on behalf of the British people
Banned since the outbreak of BSE, the unsavoury practice of feeding animal remains to cattle is still practised in Europe. There should be a ban on the movement of cattle and beef between European countries.
The French decision to ban the feeding of bone meal to cattle (already banned in the UK) has created an immediate shortfall of 1 million tonnes of protein, likely to be met by soya but too late for this year's US soya crop. An EU ban would cause a worldwide supply crisis of soya, guaranteeing that GM soya would be used in animal feed.
The French have quietly buried their BSE carcasses rather than declare, hence BSE in France is known as JCB. Rising feed prices and falling beef prices is likely to lead to a dramatic rise in declared cases of BSE as the compensation package will suddenly appear attractive.
French beef enters the UK via the backdoor of Ireland labelled as 'Irish Beef'.
To be on the safe side only buy locally produced beef at a Farmers Market or buy organic beef. Or avoid beef and other meat altogether and go veggie.
It is costing us the taxpayers £85,000 in expenses for the clowns that serve as Rushmoor councillors. It would not be so bad if we got value for money or they were acting for the local community, but to add insult to injury, we are paying this money for them to act against our interests, to collude with big business to the detriment of the local community. As we have seen with Farnborough Airport and the town centre, and as BVFoE have so ably put across, Rushmoor puts the private profit of outside developers before the interests of the local community (BVEJ newsletters passim).
A classic example is Councillor Don Cappleman. Cappleman received a 'bill' from FoE for global warming. He thought this was a real bill. In many ways it was, we all pay the cost of global warming. [Farnborough News Friday 10 November 2000]
If Cappleman is not capable of distinguishing one bill from another, maybe he is incapable of noticing that large parts of the country are under water, maybe he has not noticed that it is incompetents like him who have approved building on flood plains that has made the situation worse. Maybe he has not noticed that the Environment Agency has warned of increasing frequency of abnormal weather conditions, of increased risk of flooding, that the south is now so waterlogged we can expect flooding until the spring, or the criticism the Environment Agency has levelled at the building on flood plains.
It is Cappleman and his cronies who have given the go-ahead for major developments in Rushmoor, all of which will lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe he does not know that aviation is the fastest growing contributor of greenhouse gases, that aviation is exempt from Kyoto, that aviation will negate the gains in other sectors.
When the Earth has friends like Cappleman, the bills for global warming will be considerably higher than the one that landed on his doormat.
When the Death Star of the WTO exploded with the protests in Seattle, GATS was the hatchpod in which Darth Vader made his escape. -- Robert Newman
Without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreement... -- David Hartridge, Director of WTO Services Division
Two years ago civil society destroyed MAI, last year at Seattle protesters caused the WTO talks to collapse and stopped a new round. We now have GATS on the agenda.
GATS, General Agreement on Trade in Services, is intended to force countries, particularly poor southern countries, to open up their service sectors to big business. This is a one way process, once signed up there is no get out clause.
A recent example was in Bolivia, where the water industry under World Bank pressure was sold off on the cheap to London-based International Water Ltd. Water prices were hiked, home collection of water made illegal. The net result was riots, and the government was forced to take the water industry back into state ownership. Under GATS, the state would not have been able to take the water industry back into public ownership.
Under GATS the service sector, primarily in public ownership, is to be opened up for private profit. This 'right' of big business to profiteer at our expense is to be protected. Big business, particularly the US private health care sector, has its greedy eyes on Europe's lucrative public health sector. Tony Blair claims the Health Service is safe under New Labour, not under GATS it ain't.
GATS was agreed within the WTO in 1994. It currently only applies to telecomms and finance, but with the collapse of MAI there is pressure to expand it to all other service sectors. As we reported last month, the EU wishes to take over these negotiations on our behalf (BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000).
GATS is being used to force through the WTO backdoor the worst excesses of MAI. GATS threatens national sovereignty by forcing private access to services regardless of the environmental or social consequences.
GATS will allow big business unfettered access to key public services in developing countries, to the detriment of the poor and the environment.
Uncontrolled tourism damages fragile areas. Under GATS, governments will have no powers to control the spread of tourism.
GATS will restrict the ability of governments to regulate. It would not be possible to stop the building of the Slyfield Incinerator. Metalclad, a US waste management company, wished to build a toxic waste disposal facility in the Mexican state of San Luis Potos. Strong opposition by the local community forced a halt to the project. The Mexican government were sued under NAFTA and forced to pay out $17 million in compensation. The only difference under GATS is that Mexico would have faced WTO imposed trade sanctions.
GATS will enable global corporations to roam the planet buying up anything they want as their protected right - libraries, post offices, water, education, hospitals, transport - nothing will be safe from their capricious demands. If governments, once they have signed up to GATS, attempt to intervene, they will face crippling trade sanctions as we have already seen under WTO trade rules.
If GATS is allowed to go ahead the ability to pay will govern who has access to basic services in the future. In Bolivia, privatised water cost a third of the average wage. In Puerto Rico, poor communities are denied access to water whilst American military bases and luxury tourist resorts have unlimited supplies. Under GATS civil society will lose the ability to regulate the service sector. EU is pushing hard to open up the water industry in developing countries to big business exploitation.
The FT commenting at the time on the defeat of MAI:
Operating from around the world via web sites, they have condemned the proposed agreement as a secret conspiracy to ensure global domination by multinational companies, and mobilised an international movement of grassroots resistance.
In the same article the WTO was quoted as saying: 'The NGOs have tasted blood. They'll be back for more.'
Last month, WDM, to a packed invited audience of over a thousand people, launched its anti-GATS campaign. We stopped MAI, we caused the WTO talks to collapse, we can stop GATS.
The continuing attacks on brands like Nike, Shell and McDonald's not only reflect genuine indignations at sweatshops, oil spills and corporate censorship, they also reflect how large the antagonistic audience has become. -- Naomi Klein
Globalisation is not about trade, not even about the free trade of neo-liberalism, it is about the rights of global corporations to have special protection, the rights of global corporations to subvert the political process. Increasingly global corporations are the political process.
Citizens must increasingly go after global corporations, not because we don't like their products, and we don't, but because this is where the political power lies. There is no point in having access to parliamentarians, greater openness, if everything is done via the back door of WTO and EU.
Global corporations are like a malign cancerous growth on the body of the planet. They are eating everything in the planet in the name of profit and uncontrolled growth. Unions were destroyed to maximise profits, sweatshop labour with no rights is exploited. The public sector is being devoured. Corporations are now on the last leg to global domination, eating up and destroying small and medium size enterprises.
It is this global cancerous growth that has to be protected by all manner of pseudo-legalistic rights which is what globalisation is really about.
The protests have already rattled the confidence of both political and business leaders, who spent most of the two days debating how to sell the public the benefits of freer trade. -- Edward Alden, Financial Times
The message has got through to big business that civil society does not want neo-liberal free trade. But they have only half got the message, they do not know what to do with it. They think a bit of spin will solve the problem. It won't, the problems are deep seated and no amount of liberal applications of greenwash will make the problems go away. What we are calling for is a complete dismantling of the present system and its replacement by Fair Trade.
The recent meeting in Cincinnati of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue took place as protesters and police did battle in the street. The norm for high powered trade meetings, the need to hide behind police barriers, though a first for TABD.
More than 100 police in riot gear, some on horseback, ringed the hotel to protect the trade delegates from coming into contact with protesters. 47 protesters were arrested for what was mainly a peaceful protest.
Street protests whenever big business meets to discuss global domination has rattled business and political leaders. No longer can they push forward their agenda without a strong challenge. Without public confidence big business can no longer peddle its unwanted wares. A loss of credibility is setting in.
The Transatlantic Business Dialogue is the most prestigious of the tribal gatherings. Big business is on the ropes.
In the West we have mature markets. We are already consuming everything that we are able to consume. You cannot drive two cars at the same time. So we have a slow growth economy ... to the East of us, we have around a hundred million people with sophisticated tastes who lack the items we are already consuming. They need these items. -- Zymunt Tyszkkiewicz, Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederation of Europe
The choice is clear: either we have an EU which sees itself as nothing more than a giant supermarket of potentially 500 million consumers; or we adopt a bolder, more ambitious vision of a Europe of genuine stability and co-operation, based on the rebuilding of sustainable local economies both East and West, and throughout the world. -- Caroline Lucas MEP
The Treaty of Nice is about greater European integration (as laid down in the Treaties of Rome, Maastricht etc), loss of veto, more powers to the Commission, in preparation for enlargement and taking in the former Soviet Bloc. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000]
Enlargement is not about bringing democracy to Central and Eastern Europe, it is about opening up new markets for big business, part and parcel of globalisation. As with victims of globalisation across the world the people of the former Soviet Bloc are seeing a worsening of their living conditions, deteriorating environmental and social conditions.
One year on since Seattle, we are seeing the naked brutality of globalisation on our own doorstep. The EU are wanting to take over key negotiations on GATS within WTO leaving national parliaments as powerless as parish councils. We must not overlook the big business, trade driven agenda that is at the heart of the EU. [BVEJ briefing #0013 Treaty of Nice 17 November 2000]
On the opening day of IGC 2000 police were in pitched battle with demonstrators. Not quite the scale of Seattle a year ago, but at least civil society is waking up to the fact that the EU stands for big business and globalisation. The rallying cry of the protesters was 'the earth is not for sale'.
The Germans are quite open about why they want enlargement. Apart from new markets for their goods they see the people of the East as a source of cheap labour. The Fourth Reich marches ever closer.
Looking further ahead IGC 2004 is likely to lead to further integration.
Criticism has come from Denis Healey (former Defence Secretary), Lord Carrington (former Foreign Secretary and past Secretary-General of Nato), US Defence Secretary William Cohen, senior US and British military.
Most of the criticism has focused on the damage to Nato.
The force will lack the air power of Nato, the heavy lifting capacity of Nato, intelligence and surveillance available to Nato.
Tony and his cronies speak with forked tongues. They say that all that is being formed is a rapid reaction force. At the moment yes, long term no. The force is the forerunner of a European Army under EU control. That is what is being discussed and planned for in Europe. Nato is nominally under national control. The European Army will be under European control.
Robin 'wots ethics' Cook has talked of EU success in former-Yugoslavia. It was EU meddling that triggered the meltdown of Yugoslavia.
One of the driving forces for the European Army is the European Defence Industry. An opportunity for modernisation and standardisation, not just with the existing member states, but all those waiting to join.
The European Army is to defend European interests, ie an army for the euro. How long will it be before the European Army is deployed to put down dissent in a European country? The European Army will put Europe on a collision course with the US and China.
Railtrack have offered the rail operating companies £150 million in compensation for delays. The rail operators are offering the travelling public, and then only if you have a season ticket, £50 million in compensation.
Midland Mainline are offering its customers who were on the 9 hour journey from London to Nottingham, a journey that normally takes a couple of hours, and part of which was not even by train but by dirty bus, a measly £100 each in compensation.
Stagecoach (operators of South West Trains) have seen their profits plummet, and the next half-year profits are expected to be even lower. City rumours are that Stagecoach may take advantage of the low share price and take the company back into private ownership.
The EU is offering to pour nearly £1 billion into the Tube. Only it won't go to the present Tube, but to the companies who are wanting a slice of the Tube. The companies, including Balfour Beatty, are finding they are unable to raise the money on the commercial markets. Once again the PFI scam is exposed, rather than bringing private money into the public sector, it is milking the public sector for all it is worth.
Gerald Corbett has finally left Railtrack to three cheers all round and a very generous payoff to Corbett. Railtrack is now in the less capable hands of someone with even less railway experience than Corbett.
Emergency train timetables have been issued for the Christmas period and these contain as much fiction as a Harry Potter book, indeed you will probably need all of Harry Potter's magical skills if you hope to reach your final destination.
Our favourite rogue company Balfour Beatty looks set to lose their Railtrack maintenance contract following the Hatfield crash.
After throwing it out twice, the House of Lords finally conceded and let the bill to privatise Nats go through. It seems no lessons have been learnt from the privatisation of British Rail. If you thought the skies over Farnborough were not safe under TAG, they just got a whole lot less safe.
Quieter Skies Campaign campaign for, well quieter skies. Their main concern is Gatwick, but we feel they should be taking on board Farnborough.
They have had some success, including meetings with government and senior airline personnel, including the chairman of Virgin and BA. The have the support of local MP Virginia Bottomley (member for SW Surrey).
Quieter Skies Campaign are hoping to hold a public meeting early in the New Year, possibly Dunsfold Village Hall, to which they hope to invite Virginia Bottomley, Gatwick and Air Traffic Control. They want feedback as to interest and likely numbers who may wish to attend.
Quieter Skies Campaign Rose Cottage Pear Tree Green Dunsfold Godalming Surrey GU8 4LS 01483 200919
Passengers on a flight from Newcastle to Paris were instructed by the pilot to all move to the front of the plane to stabilise the aircraft. Gill Airways, flight AF5105, Fokker 100.
Environmental Law Centre operates like a local law centre but with a difference. It specialises in Human Rights as these relate to Health and the Environment. ELC has on call specialists in the fields of law, medicine and science. It can offer training, support, advice and mediation.
As the people of Farnborough have found, even when local expertise is on hand, it is an uphill battle fighting the abuse of power by big business and local and national government in the pocket of developers. ELC has been established to help people redress that imbalance.
ELC believes it is possible to make a difference. That no one should suffer. By working together we can all help to improve our lives, health and our environment. ELC needs volunteers, especially those with time and expertise.
ELC produces a newsletter called HELP.
ELC was founded by Kartar Badsha. Thanks to the hard work of Kartar Badsha and his family, ELC was able to hold a highly successful conference on Millennium Law and Human Rights: Environmental Injustice = Human Rights Violations, at Conway Hall last month.
ELC needs supporters. You can help, by volunteering with the offer of expertise and by becoming a supporter at an annual subscription of £25 (£5 unemployed/low income).
The Countryside and Wildlife Bill and the Warm Homes Bill both managed to get through the last session of parliament by a pip-squeak. It shows what can be achieved when everyone works together to lobby parliament hard. Something like 5.5 million homes will now by law have to be insulated.
After throwing it out twice, the House of Lords finally conceded and let the bill to privatise Nats go through. It seems no lessons have been learnt from the privatisation of British Rail. If you thought the skies over Farnborough were not safe under TAG, they just got a whole lot less safe.
In the new session of parliament Jack Boot Straw is attempting once again to restrict the right to trial by jury. It was thrown out in the last session and has to be thrown out in this.
Positive measures in the new legislative session include a ban on fox-hunting with dogs, a ban on cigarette advertising and tighter controls on arms exports, though whether any of these measures will make it onto the statute book before the May general election is another matter.
Chardon LL is the GM maize currently undergoing hearings to obtain a National Seed Listing. Once listed any farmer growing this GM forage maize does not need to make any notification that he is growing a GM crop, cf GM crop trials. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000]
Chardon LL is the property of Aventis. Aventis was a major sponsor at this autumn's New Labour party conference.
The Member for TAG, MoD and BAE Systems has always claimed he has no vested interest in TAG, even though he never hesitates to heavily promote their interests at the expense of the interests of his constituents who he was elected to represent. His declaration of members interests shows no benefit of any kind received from TAG.
Who we wonder pays for his trips from the City of London Airport to Farnborough Airport? Who we wonder pays his landing fees at Farnborough?
For perverse reasons known only to himself the Fat Engine Controller has pushed through the privatisation of Nats.
Tony Blair, Labour DTI spokesman, 1987:
Public utilities, like Telecom and gas and essential industries such as British Airways and Rolls-Royce were sold off by the Tories in the closest thing, postwar, to political corruption. What we all owned was taken away, flogged off at a cheap price to win votes and the proceeds used to fund tax cuts. In fact it was a unique form of corruption, since we were bribed with our own money.
Tony Blair, July 1994:
We have got to end this insane notion that everything has got to be shoved into the private sector.
Tony Blair, Labour Party Conference, 1 October 1996, promised delegates:
a unified system of railways with a publicly owned, publicly accountable BR at its core.
At the same party conference, shadow transport minister Andrew Smith vowed to keep Nats in public hands:
The Tories have dreamed up a crazy scheme to privatise the air! They want to flog off the national air traffic control service! ... Let me warn the transport secretary: Labour will do everything to block this sell-off. Our air is not for sale.
Gordon Brown, when the Tories were in power:
Privatisation has been a costly experience whose benefits have been at best dubious. The losers have been the taxpayers, the winners undisputably the big institutions in the City and the top management of private companies.
The Fat Engine Controller claims he puts safety first.
For a description of 'the closest thing, postwar, to political corruption' since New Labour came to power, read George Monbiot's excellent book, Captive State.
If we are serious about global warming, and the recent flooding has given us a foretaste of what's to come, then we have to reduce our greenhouse emissions by at least 60%. We cannot rely upon governments, we have to look at what we can do as individuals in our own personal lives and within our businesses. Each and everyone of us has to reduce our own contributions by at least 60%.
Cut back on travel. A trip to Rio uses as much carbon per passenger as 230 train journeys between Oxford and London. A trip to Australia uses even more. A train journey uses less fuel than a car trip. Bikes use less than trains. Walking uses least. If you must use a car, convert to LPG.
Oppose damaging developments, especially any development that increases car trips. Oppose all airport developments. Aviation is the fastest growing contributor of greenhouse gases. Oppose all new road schemes. Road schemes increase the mobility of goods.
Stop environmental destruction. Mature ecosystems are carbon sinks.
Increase energy conservation. Loft insulation, hot water insulation give very fast paybacks. Replace when warn out existing appliances with energy efficient appliances. Clapped out gas boilers should be replaced with condensing boilers. If you are a private tenant do you have a valid gas certificate? It is a criminal offence to lease a property without a valid gas certificate. Get it checked out. Carbon monoxide kills.
Buy local produce. Shop at farmers markets. Refuse to buy out-of-season produce shipped from halfway around the world. Ask the supermarket to source locally.
Recycle everything. No more landfill, no more incineration.
The average Brit creates in a year 8 tonnes of carbon emissions. The world average is around 4 tonnes per person per year. For the average African 1.2 tonnes per year. The population of Britain (c 60 million) emits as much carbon as 700 million Africans.
FoE managed to construct a wall of sandbags, but it was quickly cleared for 'business as usual.'
Aussies are not the brightest the human race has to offer. They wanted anything taller than 15 cm to be classed as a carbon sink. Next summer let your lawn grow a bit. You may even be able to get the US to pay you in exchange for your carbon credits.
Before the conference Climate Voice was created with the ambitious target of collecting 10 million messages for the conference. When the conference opened they were able to hand in 11 million messages.
The conference ended in disaster. The US and others wanted to offset the planting of forests (carbon sinks) against their CO2 reductions. This was not acceptable, and the British should not have tried to push through a compromise. Sinks should be in addition to reductions in emissions. And in any case the proposed reductions were woefully inadequate. Deep cuts of at least 60% are required. [see BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000 for a discussion of carbon sources and sinks]
John Prescott attacked the French for the failure of the conference. It was not the fault of the French, it was the Americans who were at fault. Prescott should have been attacking the Americans for the failure to reach an agreement, not colluding with them. Were the American proposals to have been agreed, the final result would have been so compromised as to have been worthless.
The US had 150 delegates lodged at the luxury Bel Air Hotel. Mozambique had three delegates sharing a dormitory at the local youth hostel.
In general countries that have built big dams have paid a high cost to secure benefits while the people affected have paid a high and often unnecessary price. It has not been equitable or efficient. We are not in the business of moral or religious condemnation, we are trying to point out that shortcomings are not automatic and can be avoided. -- Kader Asmal, chairman World Commission on Dams
We have not made a recommendation specifically about Ilisu ... but it does not take much intelligence to see Ilisu does not meet the guidelines for new dams. -- Kader Asmal, chairman World Commission on Dams
We have being saying for some time that large-scale dams are bad - bad for the environment, bad for local communities, bad for fisheries, bad for agriculture, bad for health, bad for human rights. The World Commission on Dams agrees with us.
Too many of the world's 45,000 big dams have cost too much, have been late, have damaged the poor and the environment, and have failed to deliver the goods on water supply, irrigation and electricity generation. The main beneficiaries have been Western construction companies, who have added to the debt burden of poor countries with no tangible benefits.
The number of people displaced worldwide, mainly in India and China, are estimated at between 40 and 80 million. Cost overruns have averaged 50%. Schemes to alleviate flooding have made the situation worse. Half the world's wetlands have been lost. Fish and bird species have been driven into extinction.
Where we disagree with the commission is their view that it is the way these projects are implemented whereas we would argue that it is the very nature of the projects themselves.
The Ilisu Dam project, which Secretary of State Stephen Byers is 'minded' to approve, fails to meet the commission's guidelines on several grounds - it will flood the Kurdish homelands without proper consultation or resettlement, destroy important archaeological sites, damage the environment, spread disease and ferment Middle East discord.
[see BVEJ newsletters passim for reports on Ilisu and large dams]
Shell has a skeleton in the closet and it's not Nigerian it's English! In 1968 at Shell's Thornton Research Centre, Cheshire a bit of a disaster happened while playing with nuclear fuels and after a hasty clean-up much of the radioactive waste is still there. It was hushed up. Shell say it didn't happen and issued a 'Narrative' about it in fact being an incident involving low radiation 'Cobalt-60' material. They're calling their story a 'Narrative' because the last thing they want is their story going up against the truth in court and the publicity that would follow.
Researcher John Dyer has spent twelve years bringing this bogey into the open and his web-site on this issue has brought another can-o-worms out about libel on the internet. Visit www.nuclearcrimes.com to read that the 1968 incident has even caused deformed births, and that Carlton Television made a documentary about it in 1993 which at the last minute was 'dropped' thru' fear of a legal battle with Shell. Now Shell are again using lawyers - this time to close the website. Instead of directly threatening the publishers of the material, Nuclearcrimes, they're bullying the 'internet host' Easynet (also host to SchNEWS) into switching off the offending site or suffer the consequences. This comes after a legal precedent was recently established during the Godfrey libel case when an internet host who knowingly left allegedly defamatory information on one of their sites were then in turn made liable for the defamation. Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Internet Policy Research (www.fipr.org) told SchNEWS 'the judgement in (this) case, by effectively deeming that Internet hosts are publishers, allows powerful interests to bully websites into self-censorship merely by alleging defamation. Reform of legislation is needed to prevent stifling of free speech.' Under threat nuclearcrimes may have to move hosts again - possibly outside the UK (see RIP Act in SchNEWS 269).
This could be the shape of things to come for free information on the internet: If someone doesn't like something that's been said about them on the net and the publishers aren't budging they can go upwards to the hosts and internet service providers transmitting the article until there's one part of the chain willing to do the right thing and press the 'off' button.
[purloined from SchNEWS 285]
SchNEWS note that this legal harassment was happening post the Godfrey libel case, in fact it was happening before. Rather than go after the originators of a story (who may be only too happy to stand by their story) and risk the truth coming out in court, the ISPs are targeted. The ISPs have little interest in the dispute, and even less inclination to check, but could find themselves stuck in the middle of expensive litigation not of their choosing. Thus they choose the easy option and pull the plug.
A reform of the law is needed, first to protect free speech and second to redefine ISPs as common carriers. The telephones service is a common carrier. BT are not prosecuted for 'defamatory' material that may travel down its cables.
The moral of the underlying story is that if you host a controversial site, mirror the site and host outside the country.
It's ambitious and provocative. Can it work? Certainly worth a serious try. -- Noam Chomsky
Two of the biggest problems facing the planet today are international competitiveness and the corresponding race to the bottom.
If workers try to claim better conditions, or more likely today attempt to halt the deterioration in their existing conditions, they are told their jobs will be relocated overseas. This is no idle threat, in the US, under NAFTA, jobs are being lost to Mexico, and as part of the brinkmanship companies will often park removal lorries outside the plants during crucial negotiations. The Third World fares little better, when sweatshops workers try to obtain better conditions, if beatings don't work, the companies relocate to another more friendly part of the world. Governments fare little better either. When they try to raise taxes, impose environmental and social conditions, the companies relocate, and increasingly run to the WTO for a ruling in their favour.
An idea whose time has come and of which we will hear more in the future is the Simultaneous Policy. We attack the global corporations simultaneously in all countries. That way, like criminals on the run, they have no place left to hide. People and governments, instead of competing with each other in a race to the bottom, which no one can win, do the obvious and cooperate in the fight against global business.
In many ways, schools and universities remain our culture's most tangible embodiment of public space and collective responsibility ... they are the one place where young people can see a genuine public life being lived ... the argument against transforming education into a brand-extension exercise is much the same as the one for national parks and nature reserves: these quasi-sacred spaces remind us that unbranded space is still possible. -- Naomi Klein
Too many people think that the running of schools by private enterprise will turn every grotty little back street comprehensive into a model Eton or Winchester, it won't. The fees for running the school are only the beginning, the big money comes from franchising, sponsorship and other sleazy deals.
For big business, access beyond the school gate is the Holy Grail, all that marketing potential just sitting around as a captive audience waiting to be exploited.
In the US, private education TV channels make their money from advertising. The rate is prime time, often double that of regular TV channels.
McDonald's, Pizza Hut and others get the franchise to run the school canteen. There will often be clauses that prevent generic burgers and pizzas being sold elsewhere on the school grounds as unfair competition.
Big business is infiltrating the teaching material. Instead of science, learn how to design a Nike trainer. Instead of English, learn how to design a Coke marketing campaign.
At one school, that took it's Coke campaign very seriously, with all the kids required to wear Coke t-shirts, one rebel who turned up in a Pepsi t-shirt was disciplined and sent home.
It is not only marketing opportunities that are on offer. The schools offer research opportunities to see where the kids are heading so that big business can lie in wait. US schools are given their own web browsers so that every click and link traversed can be stored and analysed, with demographic details down to age, sex and school studies.
Free speech is one of the first casualties. Secret clauses prevent anything detrimental to the sponsors being said on campus. At Kent State (where state troopers killed students who dared protest the Vietnam War), Amnesty International were denied funding for a platform for a Nigerian human rights campaigner who was going to make critical comments on Coca-Cola's support for the since ousted Nigerian regime. At Toronto York University, students who distributed leaflets critical of tobacco sponsorship were arrested by the police and removed from their own campus.
Under GATS, big business will have a right to these rich pickings.
Last September Midland Expressway Limited announced they had finally got the funding to construct the unwanted Birmingham Northern Relief Road.
BNRR, if constructed, will be Britain's first private toll motorway, yet another PFI scam. 10,000 objections, 27 miles of greenbelt, two SSSIs.
The contractors are the usual corporate criminals, Carillion, Alfred McAlpine, Amec, and not content with genocide against the Kurds our old friends Balfour Beatty.
In opposition John Prescott and other New Labour mouthpieces opposed BNRR. Now in power and in bed with big business New Labour are pushing the scheme as though it was their big idea.
Midland Expressway Limited are dependent upon external finance. This is coming from Bank of America and Abbey National. Without external finance MEL will collapse.
Abbey National customers are being urged to write to Abbey National to pull the plug on MEL. If Abbey National refuse to play ball, then boycott Abbey National and move accounts to another High Street clone.
Lord Tugendhat (chairman) Ian Harley (chief executive) Abbey National plc Abbey House Baker St London NW1 6XL
A day of action is being organised against Abbey National. Shareholders are being asked to create a stink at AGMs. Balfour Beatty shareholders may wish to combine any action with the Ilisu Dam campaign.
[see George Monbiot's excellent book Captive State for coverage of New Labour sell-out on BNRR and past copies of BVEJ newsletters for coverage of Balfour Beatty including a corporate profile in BVEJ newsletter #0003 August 2000]
As we go to press various banks are in the process of trying to bid for Abbey National. This gives further opportunities to throw a spanner in the works of BNRR.
How far did you have to go for your breakfast this morning? Or perhaps the question should be how far did your breakfast travel to get to you? A report out this week from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) highlights the fact that efforts to reduce global warming at this weeks Hague conference will all be in vain unless we halt the growth of global trade by air. Air travel is now the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions - the principal cause of climate change. But these emissions do not figure in any of the plans to cut greenhouse gases. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims that at current rates carbon dioxide emissions from aviation will grow tenfold by 2050.
This weeks NEF report claims that unless this growth is controlled it will cancel out any benefits that may be agreed in The Hague. The report identifies the needless transportation of food as one of the main reasons for increases in air travel.
Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? Even a simple meal has travelled the globe before it arrives on your plate, with potatoes from Egypt, apples from New Zealand, and beans from Kenya. Aircraft fuel isn't taxed and costs just 17 pence a litre, making these multinational meals cheaper than food produced in our own country, affecting not only the climate but also this country's farming industry.
Here's just a few examples of crops that we could grow ourselves, yet insist on flying in from around the world. Apples now come from New Zealand and South Africa causing 600 times more nitrogen oxide pollution than if we grew them at home. Over the last 30 years 60% of our apple orchards have been destroyed, and although there are 2,300 apple varieties and 550 pear varieties in the National Fruit Collection, just two apple and three pear varieties now dominate UK orchards.
Most of Europe's orange juice comes from Brazil. Demand for orange juice has doubled in the last decade, yet in this country there is a richer source of vitamin C that grows every where - rosehips. During the Second World War when it was impossible to get oranges, children were given days off school to go and pick rosehips - by 1943 450 tonnes were picked a year. (For ways on cooking and preparing them see Richard Mabey's book Food for free, which tells you all the free nosh you can get in the UK)
The fuelled up farmers and lorry drivers who've been moaning about fuel costs have missed the key point that fuel is used very inefficiently. One supermarket chain lands its fish at Aberdeen and trucks it down to Cornwall to be smoked. Vegetables being sold in two superstores on the outskirts of Evesham in Worcestershire were grown just one mile from the town. But before they reached the shelves they had been trucked to Hereford, then to Dyfed, then to a distribution depot in Manchester, from where they were sent back to Evesham. A quarter of our road traffic is now transporting food.
When was the last time you saw persimmons, quinces, damsons, or bullaces on the shelves of your local Sainsburys? Forget kiwi fruits, mangoes, and other exotic imports there are dozens of traditional English fruit varieties which are just as nice but are seldom in the shops. Here's your handy SchNEWS guide on how to turn food miles into food smiles by buying and growing your own local food.
For more info on where food comes from check out The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long Distance Food Transport £10.00 and Food Miles Action Pack: A Guide to Thinking Globally and Eating Locally £5, both available from Sustain, 0207 83711228. For weird and wonderful food get Plants For A Future by Ken Fern, from PFAF Permanent Publications, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0NG.
We plucked most of these ideas from two ace websites:
[purloined from SchNEWS 283, most of the organisations mentioned by SchNEWS have featured in previous BVEJ newsletters, use the search engine on the home page for more information]
For decades Turkey has been able to engage in a brutal policy of ethnic cleansing against the Kurds. A policy in which it has been aided and abetted by US, Germany and UK.
Turkey is one of the major recipients of US military aid and military equipment. US arms supplies to Turkey rose sharply in 1984. US arms deliveries to Turkey peaked in 1997, exceeding the entire period 1950-83.
In the spring of the last few years Turkey has mounted major invasions (involving as many as 10,000 troops) of northern Iraq, the same area that is protected by the US-UK no-fly zone.
By 1999, 2-3 million Kurds had been displaced from their homes, 3,500 villages destroyed (several times as many as in Kosovo under Nato 'humanitarian' bombing), tens of thousands killed.
Human rights groups, including a Turkish parliamentary group, have reported on the widespread abuse of human rights in Turkey, including the systematic use of rape and torture.
With no sense of irony, US Secretary of Defence William Cohen addressing a meeting of the American-Turkish Council praised Turkey for their part in the humanitarian bombing of Yugoslavia. At the same meeting Cohen announced that Turkey would be invited to co-produce the new Joint Strike Aircraft. Turkey already co-produces F-16s, and produces a large amount of Western military equipment under licence.
The construction of the Ilisu Dam is part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing against the Kurds. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
The strategic military alliance between Turkey and Israel (formed under US patronage) is the major destabilising force in the Middle East.
Turkey is seen as a staunch Nato ally, a primary candidate for EU membership, a prime holiday destination for British tourists.
The Adam and Eve Pub located in the old historic part of Lincoln has been serving ale for quite a few centuries. This historic pub is now under threat. If a private school has its way it will soon be filled with their snotty nosed pupils.
The Minster School, a private school closely linked to Lincoln Cathedral, wishes to buy the Adam and Eve and turn it into part of the school. This change of use requires planning consent.
Please write to the Head of Planning, Lincoln City Council, objecting to the proposed change of use.
Too many old pubs have been lost, to be replaced by plastic theme pubs which are about as authentic as the foreign sounding lagers they serve.
This is the ludicrous claim made by Rushmoor councillor Roland Dibbs, a local politician who makes George W Bush look intelligent. [letters, Farnborough News, Friday 17 November 2000]
'The rundown of Queensmead started over ten years ago...' True, but not for the reasons stated by Dibbs. At the time planning permission was granted for ASDA and Princess Mead, and out-of-town retail followed not long after. All had a detrimental effect upon the retail viability of the town centre.
The collapse in confidence in the town centre happened a couple of years ago and coincided with the takeover by the current Arab owners. Local retailers are being slowly forced out. Once the number of shops falls below a core number collapse soon follows. This is what we are now seeing in Farnborough. The few remaining retailers are being forced onto short term insecure leases to make their removal easy. Not the way to run a viable business.
Dibbs claims there has been widespread consultation, though it begs the question with who as local traders have never seen either Dibbs or anyone else. It would be a novelty to local traders to be consulted.
Dibbs does though answer the question for us. The consultation has been between Rushmoor and the developers. It appears there has been 'constant contact with the owners to ensure all details of the plans are in place before being brought to the development and management committee for consideration', ie rubber-stamping. The public, the local traders, the local residents, none are part of this process. People who don't know if they will have a business, people who may lose their homes, people whose lives are being destroyed, all are deliberately excluded.
Dibbs finds it 'inconceivable' that the owners would not consult with their tenants. Maybe if he had actually gone and talked to a few people he would have discovered that the 'inconceivable' is actually what is happening. Not only are the local traders not consulted, they are deliberately kept in the dark. Their understandable requests for information are ignored.
Dibbs claims the shops were boarded up to stop vandalism. Had he ever troubled to make enquiries in the area he would have found there has not been a problem with vandalism. The shops were boarded up to make the town look even more derelict than it actually is, and thus drive more retailers out of business. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
Dibbs notes that plans for the old Post Office site have been approved, and the unwanted cinema complex will go through soon. No mention of the strong opposition to the cinema complex, the detrimental impact the development of the old Post Office site will cause or the shenanigans that took place at the planning meeting that granted approval. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
Dibbs writes, not as an individual councillor offering his views, but as chairman of the Planning and Transportation Committee. As he appears to be speaking on behalf of the committee in his official capacity as chairman, he will no doubt be able to point to the relevant minutes that indicate when this position was agreed.
Dibbs is also ex-oficio member of the Development Management Committee. As such he cannot prejudge a planning application but has to consider each and every application as it is placed before the committee solely on its merits. In his final paragraph Dibbs writes:
I firmly believe, therefore, that when the development is completed we shall have a town centre of which we can all be proud.
No doubt the Ombudsman will be interested to learn that the 'official' position has already been decided.
To add insult to injury, for working with private developers against the local community, putting private profit before local people, Dibbs and his fellow councillors receive £85,000 in expenses.
We have been going on some time about the deplorable state of Farnborough town centre and the reasons why (BVEJ newsletters passim). We are pleased to see that the Farnborough News has now taken up the issue (Farnborough Mail, Tuesday 28 November 2000).
Under the heading 'Pre Christmas rush in Farnborough ...', a front page photo showed a wet and empty town centre. Apart from the lunchtime rush to the local deli, this is the norm for Farnborough. On a Saturday some traders only manage to take £50 if they are lucky.
The accompanying front page article 'Traders of the lost arcade' by Matt Burrows said it all.
Simon Rutter, who the Arabs employ to manage the town centre, claims it is unfair to blame him if traders don't know what is going on, that it is due to factors beyond his control if traders cannot be relocated.
If we can't blame Rutter for the mismanagement of the town centre who then do we blame? Were Rutter up to the job he would be consulting with local traders and their customers as to how they wish to see the town centre develop. This has not happened. Traders cannot even get simple answers to their growing concerns as to what is happening.
Local traders are suffering the worst as they have no other shops to cross subsidise the mounting loses from remaining in Farnborough. Big name stores are also feeling the pinch. How much longer will stores like Dixons remain in Farnborough when they see their customers falling off every week?
It is easy to blame the Arab owners but Rushmoor are equally to blame. Rushmoor should be working with the local traders and community to determine what is best for Farnborough. They have not. Rushmoor have been working with the property developers to determine what is best for the property developers. The eyesore that is proposed for the old Post Office site will tower over the adjacent properties. It could be one floor lower. This though would mean fewer shoebox flats, less profits for the developers, and on these grounds alone one floor less was rejected. The multiplex cinema is not wanted and will do nothing to regenerate the town centre. Local traders have yet to see a single person from Rushmoor enquire about their wellbeing, apart from Independent Councillor Patrick Kirby who has taken the trouble to talk to local traders, walk the streets with them and listen to their concerns.
Between the Arab owners and Rushmoor Borough Council they have done a very good job of destroying a once thriving shopping centre and driving many local businesses into bankruptcy.
The massive corruption in Doncaster town hall is now well known. The man who did sterling work to uncover the corruption has set up Council Watch.
Council Watch is now operating in several local authorities but alas not around here. We and the recently formed residents association have done our best to monitor Rushmoor (BVFoE have at times done their bit too), but we need a Council Watch to look at what Rushmoor is up to.
This task is going to be made ever more difficult in the near future because as we predicted Rushmoor are going to move to secret committee sessions. The press, the public, and other councillors will be excluded from these sessions. At the very least this is going to be a recipe for maladministration, at worse corruption. [BVEJ newsletter #0004 September 2000]
These forests are a global treasure and a legacy to the planet. I want to be home with my family. But I'm prepared to spend a year of my remaining life in jail for the 'crime' of defending these ancient forests from the corporate clearcutters. -- Betty Krawczyk
72-year old great-grandmother Betty Krawczyk has been sentenced to one year in gaol without parole. Her 'crime' was to stand in front of a logging lorry.
In British Columbia old growth forest is being logged. The Elaho Valley contains trees a thousand years old. It is home to grizzly bears.
The Elaho Valley is being logged by International Forest Products (Interfor). The taxpayer foots the bill to clear up the mess, to clean up the polluted salmon streams. The taxpayer pays to put the protesters on trial. The taxpayer pays to keep them in gaol.
Betty has asked people the world over to write to the chief executive of Interfor and the prime minister of British Columbia to stop logging ancient forests and to stop criminalising protesters.
Betty is banged up in Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women, 900 Fraser Park Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5J 5H1, inmate number 03793924.
Interfor Ujjal Dosangjh 3,500 Dunsmuir Street Prime Minister Vancouver PO Box 9041 Victoria V8W 9E1 Canada
For the best of the contemporary music scene we don't look to radio, even less MTV, we look to the alternative music scene where real musicians are playing real music.
Seize the Day, It's your life ... it's our world, Wildwood Acoustic WILDCD 19801
To find something like Seize the Day, brilliant lyrics with a message, we probably have to go back to Bob Dylan in the 60s. But don't fall into the trap of thinking Seize the Day are folk, as that would be to confine them to an undeserved ghetto. Their music is probably best described as a blend of protest, rock and folk, though to be fair it defies categorisation.
Their debut album It's your life ... it's our world (Wildwood Acoustic WILDCD 19801) is not just brilliant musically, it has the rare attribute of being well recorded, and if that wasn't enough, the lyrics are brilliant too. Lead vocalist and song writer Shannon Smy rates as one of the best female vocalists around today.
Many of their songs are parodies. 'Motorway Song' (Simon) is a parody of a Rolling Stones number, many, like 'Bigger, Better, Brighter' (Simon) and 'Designer Kidz' (Simon) are parodies of old English folk songs. Each song has a story to tell.
Shannon Smy was upset by the atrocities in East Timor and the export of BAe (Beyond All ethics: Still supplying repressive regimes!) Hawk ground attack aircraft to Indonesia. She could have written a letter, not being too good at letters she wrote a song instead, 'With My Hammer ...' (Smy). 'With My Hammer ...' is about greed, the occupation of and atrocities in East Timor, the export of BAe Hawk ground attack aircraft, and the bravery of a few women who made their way into a BAe factory and disabled a Hawk destined for export to Indonesia (and no doubt active service in East Timor). A more detailed account can be found in John Pilger's excellent Hidden Agendas. Recent live performances have added rain sticks to the percussion, making the song even better.
Seize the Day don't just sing about the woes of the world, they are on the street with the rest of us. Shannon joined the women on the picket line at the Liverpool Dock strike. Theo climbed the trees with the Newbury Bypass protesters. Last year they were out on the streets of Seattle getting gassed with the rest of us. Later they played a concert at the Key Arena, to an audience bigger than Wembley.
Impossible to find in High Street record stores. Undoubtedly their anti-globalisation, anti-exploitation, anti-big business stance does not endear them to the media moguls who control the entertainment business.
A slightly different format this month. With Christmas fast approaching, plenty of ideas for Christmas presents, something to spend those book tokens on afterwards.
For still more ideas try
Paul Hawken, Amory B Lovins & L Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, 1999
The limiting factors in today's society, is not money, it is natural and human resources. If we look at the natural world around us, we don't see piles of stinking toxic waste, natural systems are sustainable systems. The starting point of today's economics should be to emulate and integrate with these natural systems. This is the starting point for Natural Capitalism.
Natural systems are economical and efficient with their resource management. Our man-made systems should therefore be the same. Natural materials are the best materials.
Natural Capitalism puts these ideas into effect with real world examples: leasing companies operating in symbiotic relationship, use of natural materials, a hypercar that uses less raw materials and energy more efficiently, a house that is a passive energy collector. Thousand of real world examples that exhibit best practise and are more profitable than the conventional business models.
George Monbiot, Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, Macmillan, 2000
The struggle between people and corporations will be the defining battle of the twenty-first century. If the corporations win, liberal democracy will come to an end.
Individual councillors with political ambitions ... discover quickly that the more wealthy and powerful allies they can enlist, the better they are likely to do. While local authorities can help make property developers a great deal of money, the developers, in turn, can render favours of various kinds, financial and political, to local authorities.
The ills of globalisation are well documented, global corporations taking over the world. We see the symptoms of the disease, a red rash, red blotches as the hated and despised McDonald's appears everywhere. George Monbiot looks at a difference aspect of the disease, the insidious stranglehold and corrupting influence globalisation and big business now has on democracy.
The first tale in the book The Skye Bridge Mystery has a theme not unfamiliar to the good folks of Farnborough. A bridge was built. The local people ripped off. As the people dug they found all manner of procedures had not been followed. But unlike BVFoE, who, when Prescott said no meekly caved in, the canny Islanders vowed to fight. They mount legal challenges, carry out monthly demos and protests which in one way or another block the bridge. Anything and everything to make life as impossible as possible for the owners of the bridge.
As the people of Farnborough have discovered, when a global corporation wants its way, the normal rules count for nothing, local democracy counts for nothing. As Monbiot shows, it doesn't have to be so, but unless we fight now, it will be too late.
The next two chapters are even more pertinent to Farnborough. One chapter deals with Southampton and how the city council lied, fell over backwards to ingratiate themselves with developers, even though the development was contrary to the wishes of the local community and the recently agreed local plan. The next chapter deals with DETR and how planning consent is for sale. The experience of Farnborough is unfortunately by no means unique.
At the same time as this book was published, Andrew Rawnsley, a fellow hack and presenter of one of the worst news and current affairs programmes produced by the BBC, published a book that reran some old tales: Formula 1 cash for access to the Labour Party, oops, donation, Brown's tantrums. All old hat and yet the media had a field day, and yet not a mention, not a murmur, of the far more sinister uncoverings by Monbiot. Why? The media is owned by the very same corporations who have a stranglehold on democracy.
George Monbiot has a regular column in The Guardian.
Belen Balanya et al, Corporate Europe Inc, Pluto Press, 2000
Relatively few Europeans are aware of the systematic way in which transnational corporations, through bodies like the ERT, have succeeded in influencing a wide range of EU policies.
No one likes the European superstate. Across Europe, Germans, French, Spanish, Tenerifans, Danes, even the Brits are all opposed to autocratic, undemocratic rule from Europe - faceless bureaucrats dictating every aspect of our lives. They would be even less happy if they realised the extent to which big business is the power behind the throne.
One of the main driving forces is the European Roundtable of Industrialists. ERT is an association of around 45 of Europe's biggest companies - companies like Shell, BP, BT, BAT, Unilever Philips, Siemens, ICI, GKN, Fiat, Bayer, Nestle, Airbus Industrie, Daimler-Benz, Norsk Hydro, Erricson, Nokia, Hoffmann-La Roche, etc. ERT has unprecedented EU access and is the main driving force behind the European project.
The largest transport infrastructure project ever Trans-European Network - roads, bridges, tunnels, high speed rail links, airport expansion - was the brain child of ERT. First ERT published Missing Links (1984), then Missing Networks (1991). Trans-European Network is incorporated into the Maastricht Treaty. ERT are now pushing for the transport links to be blasted through the Alps and Pyrenees into Eastern Europe. When ERT argued for more funding for Trans-European Network, billions of dollars of extra funding was immediately found. Trans-European Network has only one function, unrestricted movement of goods within Europe. Trans-European Network is unsustainable on CO2 emissions alone.
Switzerland has proved to be a bottle-neck to East-West flow of goods. The Swiss have said no to increase in cross border freight. The EU showing its true colours has threatened to suspend or block several treaties with Switzerland, the Dutch Transport Minister even threatened to bar Swissair from landing in Holland.
A spawn of ERT is the Association for Monetary Union of Europe. It is AMUE that has been the driving force behind the euro. AMUE claims to have organised over 1,000 conferences and seminars since 1989, more than half during the crucial period 1996-1998. AMUE are also pushing for a Common EU Security and Foreign Policy to protect European business interests.
The authors of Corporate Europe Inc are all researchers for Corporate Europe Observatory, an NGO that monitors the activities of big business across Europe.
merrick, Battle for the Trees, godhaven ink, 1996
A very moving personal account from one of the Newbury Bypass activists. The same old story with which we are all too familiar, a corrupt local authority in the pockets of the developers, English Nature failing to carry out its statutory duty to protect vulnerable habits ...
What comes across very well is the sense of camaraderie of those involved - the ups and downs, the joy and the pain.
No mention of BVFoE and their involvement in the opposition to the Newbury Bypass.
According to The Sunday Times, local eco-warriors (BVFoE ?) are planning to turn Farnborough into the next Newbury.
In case of difficulty obtaining this excellent book, order direct from the publisher:
godhaven ink PO Box hp94 Godhaven Leeds LS6 1YJ
Noam Chomsky, Rogue States, Pluto, 2000
During the Cold War, US and its junior partner UK, patrolled the world preserving world peace and allowing us to sleep safe in our beds knowing we were safe from the scourge of Communism.
With the fall of the Berlin War and the collapse of the Communist states we have been able to see that there was no such threat. The US has now had to develop a new rationale for acting as the world's peace keepers. We now face new threats: drugs, rogue states, international terrorism. Humanitarian intervention is the new watch word. Our military strategies have changed from strategic forces to rapid reaction forces, though we still retain a nuclear force as the ultimate deterrent.
In Colombia we have massive military intervention to combat the drugs menace, in Kosovo humanitarian intervention, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Iraq are suitable rogue states. Bombing of Iraq proves an ideal punch bag for prime-time TV. Bombing a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan is justified on the grounds of combatting terrorism aimed at the US. Star Wars II is justified as North Korea, a country that can barely feed itself, may launch a nuclear attack on the US.
The two enlightened states, US and UK, are now, since the end of the Cold War, free to engage in their historic mission of bringing, by force if necessary, freedom, justice and human rights to the people of the world. The Cold War was a temporary interruption of this historic mission.
The use of force and a blockade that is much tighter than the one against Iraq was justified on the grounds that Cuba was an outpost of the Evil Empire. It is now justified on the US's new found concern for freedom and democracy
Rogue States is the ideal follow on to Deterring Democracy. It summarises much of that material then extends it further. A collection of essays on rogue states, East Timor, Kosovo, Project Columbia, Cuba, Latin America, Jubilee 2000, human rights, the power of corporations and their international institutions.
Classic Chomsky.
Jeremy Leggett, The Carbon War: Dispatches from the End of the Oil Century, Allen Lane, 1999
Last month we saw the Climate Convention in The Hague, held to flesh out the details of Kyoto.
Kyoto was too little, too late. Jeremy Leggett was a participant in or an observer at, on behalf of Greenpeace, nearly all the meetings leading up to Kyoto.
The Carbon War is an account of the politics that led up to Kyoto, neatly mixed with some of the factors of global warming. Although nominally negotiations between sovereign states, the real players were big business. Leggett gives an interesting account of the US delegate being given a tongue wagging by big business lobbyists and its easy to see who was really calling the shots.
If anyone is in any doubt who is running the world, Leggett leaves us in no doubt. Although nominally about global warming and climate change, The Carbon War is worth reading as a detailed case study of how big business has taken over the running of the world.
Jeremy Leggett is interesting in his own right. He was a well-respected geologist at Imperial College, a consultant to all the major oil companies, then he realised one day that there was no way we could extract all the known reserves of oil, not that is if we wish to avoid a global climatic catastrophe, let alone search for more. He then resigned his post and went to work for Greenpeace. He is now the man behind the solar energy company, Solar Century.
Naomi Klein, No Logo, Flamingo, 2000
Walk down any street and you are accosted by humanoid billboards, dumb teenagers displaying brand name logos.
Once upon a time the more reputable companies took a pride in the production of reliable, quality products. Not any more. Now the big corporations sell a brand name, a logo, what lies behind is irrelevant.
If the product is an irrelevance, then how it is produced must be irrelevant too. This in part explains the relocation to sweat shop factories for brand name products, it is not just a drive for the cheapest production.
Brand name companies spend a lot on promoting their image, they want their name to be seen everywhere. The one place they are absent from is the sweatshop factories, as Naomi Klein found when she visited Cavite, a Philippine Export Processing Zone.
Naomi Klein takes us on an in-depth guide of the brand names, the sweat shop conditions that lay behind them, and the growing consumer resistance led by street activists who are prepared to take action to stop the corporations.
We have book stores that mount readings, discussion groups, but be careful what you say else your tour will be cancelled. In the US more than the UK the town square or common is a place were dissent can take place. Far less likely in the privatised space of shopping mall, where security guards are employed to evict all those who aren't there to buy into the shallow life experience on offer.
In Cavite Naomi Klein describes six girls who live in a concrete cell, four sleep on the bunk, two to a bed, the other two on mats on the floor. The two in the top bunk make CD drives for Aztec, Apple and IBM, the two girls in the bottom bunk sew clothing for GAP.
Naomi Klein goes beyond the brand names and their sweatshops, she looks at the McJobs culture, where Starbucks has a 'just in time' workforce. Microsoft is one of the world's most despised companies. It is not just the arrogant manner in which it treats its customers or its crap software, it's the manner in which it treats its non-workforce, in all but name Microsoft employees. They design the crap, work at the Redmond campus, but are not Microsoft employees to guarantee they take no advantage of the legendary company perks reserved for the privileged few. With a 'workforce' that hates and despises it, small wonder bug-ridden crap slips out the door.
Job insecurity used only to be experienced during periods of high unemployment, it is now the norm for the 'good times'. Global corporations could once hide behind job creation and a reliable pay check to deflect criticism on human rights, environmental degradation, but not any more. The obscene executive salaries only adds to the sense of disgust. A vast pool of people no longer feel any company loyalty. They are putting their creative talents to more productive uses, aiding civil society, biting the corporate hand that may have once fed them.
Naomi Klein recognises that the current post-modernist activism is anti-corporatism, those environmental groups who fail to recognise this simple fact, who campaign on single issues and fail to join the dots will deservedly be left behind.
This is an impressive tour de force of today's corporate world, a case that is brilliantly argued. Ironically published by Murdoch and recently promoted by the Charing Cross Road branch of Borders.
William Blum, Rogue State, Common Courage Press, 2000
Former US State Department staffer William Blum takes the same premise as Noam Chomksy and looks at it from a different angle.
William Blum takes Bill Clinton's definition of a rogue state and applies it to the United Sates. When we look at the number of crimes committed by the US, which Blum documents in great detail, whether against other countries or against its own citizens, then we quickly see that the activities of Iraq, Libya and all the usual suspects are as nothing compared with the activities of the US. State terrorism, then let's look at the US record in Central and Latin America. Chemical and biological warfare, go to Indo-china, against its own citizens, the US is in the lead right up to the present day.
An excellent compliment to Chomsky's book of similar title. Also worth reading is Blum's previous book on the CIA.
Dr A Adoko, The Most Corrupt British Judges, London Truth Publishers, 2000
How many corrupt English judges would we expect to find? Is one too many or too few?
Dr A Adoko, originally a refugee from Uganda, and one time President of the Uganda Law Society, was until recently a member of the bar. He still does occasionally appear as an advocate before the courts.
More than one corrupt judge would be one too many. Dr A Adoko names several. A copy of this book was forwarded to the Lord Chancellor, a deathly silence followed. A copy of the book was forwarded to the Metropolitan Police, but no action followed.
Maybe Dr A Adoko is a rogue trying to blacken the name of the legal system. Curiously no action has been taken against Dr A Adoko. But no publisher has dared to touch this book, no bookshop will sell it. Those who have tried have been warned off. When Yahoo made mention of the book, they were quickly put in their place. The press have been served with a D-notice to keep them quiet.
If Dr A Adoko is right, then why no action? If Dr A Adoko is wrong, then why have the accused taken no steps to clear their names?
A tale of one Black barrister's fight against injustice within the English predominantly White legal establishment. Why are they so keen to silence him?
In case of difficulty obtaining this unusual book, order direct from the publisher:
London Truth Publishers 10 Sloane House Roland Way London SE17 2JT
BOCM Pauls
BOCM Pauls will not take any action regarding the general area of GM materials which would place its own customers and the UK livestock industry at an economic disadvantage relative to competition from abroad. -- BOCM Pauls policy statement on GMOs
We may have pushed GM food off the supermarkets shelves but it has not gone away. GMOs are now finding their way into the food chain via the back door of animal feed.
BOCM Pauls are the largest manufactures of animal feed in the UK. This means they probably use more genetically modified (GM) crop material than any other company in the country. BOCM Pauls controls over a quarter of the UK manufactured animal feed market. Globally, over half of GM crop material goes into animal feed. BOCM Pauls uses GM ingredients in most of its products. The most commonly used are soya and maize, though they also use others such as oil seed rape meal. They also use GM micro ingredients, such as vitamin B12 and amino-acids. Animal feed is an essential market for GM products. Agro-biotech companies like AgrEvo and Monsanto depend on animal feed companies for their profits, if we hit the animal feed market hard we cut off a major source of income for the biotech companies.
BOCM Pauls produces in excess of 2 million tonnes of animal feed a year, mainly pig, sheep and cattle feeds. They are also involved in 'pig production'.
In evidence to the BSE inquiry BOCM Pauls admitted that it produced cattle feed containing meat and bone meal from other cattle, the mechanism by which BSE is believed to be transmitted through herds, and thence to humans.
BOCM Pauls is wholly owned by its managers. They bought the company in November 1998 for £69 million. They borrowed the money from Electra Fleming, the private equity group and Rabobank International, the biggest agricultural bank in Europe. In 1997 BOCM Pauls employed 1,627 people, had a turnover of £525 million, with pre-tax losses of £80 million.
BOCM Pauls has plants across the country, one of which is located in Alton - Country Mill, Mill Lane, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2QS Tel 01420 541212/593100, Customer Services 01420 243861 Fax 01420 541168, Operations Manager Mike Whiting, 01420 593120. The Alton Mill produces compound pig and poultry feed. Last June direct action and site occupation shut the plant down for the day (BVEJ newsletter #0003 August 2000). More recently there has been action against BOCM Pauls plants across the country.
The BOCM Pauls web site includes convenient maps detailing how to get to many of its sites.
BOCM Pauls has co-sponsored a 12 minute 'educational', ie read propaganda, video designed to answer teenagers' questions about beef. The three main messages of the video are that beef production is kind, safe and it's good for you! The video is available free to secondary schools.
BOCM Pauls' subsidiary, Unitrition International Ltd, has a crushing facility at Selby which was listed as one of two possible facilities to be used by John K King and Son for the crushing of GM oil seed rape from a national seed list trial (application (97/R28/3).
BOCM Pauls is a member of UKASTA (United Kingdom Agricultural Supply Trade Association). UKASTA represents the industry and is heavily involved in lobbying the government.
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