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| Newsletter | June 2002 |
People have to be represented, at the moment they're being managed. -- Tony Benn, May 2002
There's a permanent government which is the government of industrial and financial corporations. And then every now and then we're allowed to elect men in suits (and they mostly are men) who read the script for the permanent government. -- Susan George, Seattle, November 1999
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday Happy Birthday Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
Last year the Police went in hard. Many of us knew what was going to go down and deliberately stayed away. The only change leading up to this year's Mayday is that 11 September 2001 gives the excuse for an over-the-top clamp down.
In the weeks leading up to Mayday the Radical Dairy, a squatted social centre in Stoke Newington, was raided by the cops on the pretext that drugs and electricity were being used illegally. No arrests were made but two computers were taken as 'evidence' that electricity was being smoked, and just for good measure the leccy board then dug up the road and removed the centre from the National Grid! This sort of over-the-top activity only meant one thing - May Day was soon to be upon us. It's that time of year again - when anarchists climb out of their winter gutters and threaten the very fabric of our society.
The raid on the London centre followed increased activity from the cops, which has been steadily building over the last few months. The Met Police threatened to raid any internet servers who dared host the website for this year's Mayday Festival of Alternatives while at MayDay meetings and fundraisers cops hang around outside like a bad smell snapping pictures and putting pressure on landlords of any venues that were being used. Meanwhile the corporate media have talked about the most violent May Day for decades and running battles with the cops.
Seven WOMBLES (whose dress sense makes the police break out into hot sweats and reach for their truncheons) were up in court at the beginning of May after being nicked on Hallowe'en. They were arrested while walking down Oxford Street on their way to a party, many wearing white overalls to symbolise ghosts (the original context of the white overall movement in Italy) and Hallowe'en masks. The cops involved were part of Operation Calm, an antiterrorist response to September 11th who calmly started pushing people up against shop windows, arresting them for complaining then holding them for up to 19 hours. By some amazing coincidence the trial will be going on during May Day and it looks like the judge will be Roger Davies who was in charge of all last years Mayday trials. This is the man who sent down someone for three months for throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at a cop and told a Romanian woman that he'd put their children into care if they were caught begging again. Last summer the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) uncovered secret Mayday Sentencing Guidelines that instruct Judges to hand down heavy sentences to those arrested during May Day actions. The document titled Mayhem first came to the attention of the LDMG at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court. The defence barrister asked to look at the document, but the court refused this on the grounds that it was secret!
As for the Radical Dairy - well the centre is still running thanks to generators, candles and a lot of local goodwill. The centre has proved very popular with local residents who have seen Hackney Council shut down and sell off community assets in order to try to pay off its debts. One local resident said, 'The people here have been nothing but good for the local community. This place was empty for three years, that's bad for everybody: it was unsafe and it was unhealthy. It is now clean, occupied, safe. It's used for socially constructive purposes.' One local 15-year-old girl added 'I think the Radical Dairy is a good place for the community. It's a better place for us kids to go because we can play on the decks and also learn new things like yoga and shiatsu which are fun - the police should not be bothering the people in The Radical Dairy when there is so much criminal activity happening on the streets of Hackney. We can use the computers here to do school work and use the Internet free for research.'
So, while the police are no doubt scanning the computers for links between the anti-capitalist movement and Al-Qaeda, a few local pissed off kids are wondering when they will get their homework back.
Purloined with a few alterations from SchNEWS Issue 351 Fri 26 April 2002
Mayday has been a celebration of life, renewal and pleasure since ancient times. More recently it was declared International Workers' Day to commemorate the execution of four anarchists in Chicago for their part in the struggle for an eight-hour working day. Both these aspects of Mayday were intertwined - a festival against work, want and denial, and a vision of freedom and plenty throughout the world. -- Our May Day website
After 9/11 the anti-globalisation movement was finished, or so the mass media led everyone to believe. May Day proved them wrong. Several thousand people turned up in London to listen to music and just keep wondering around. The wandering around may have seemed aimless, but it was deliberate, it kept the cops on the hop and prevented them using Section 60 to hem people in (as happened last year). The predictions of mass violence did not materialise.
The biggest demos were in France with an estimated one million protesting against the fascist Le Pen. In Australia thousands turned out in Melbourne beginning the day by blockading the entrance of the company that runs the country's immigration detention centres. In Indonesia thousands took to the streets calling for the day to be made a national holiday, higher minimum wages and a halt to subsidy cuts on fuel and electricity demanded by the International Monetary Fund. In Athens four separate demonstrations marched to the United States and Israeli embassies to protest Israeli attacks against Palestinians. In Seoul more than 10,000 people called on the government to swiftly introduce a five-day work week and to withdraw its plans to privatise state-run industries.
SchNEWS, MayWatch, Issue 352, Friday 3rd May 2002
I am extremely pleased that the two so-called independent candidates who lodged those objections to the Farnborough town centre plans and put themselves up for election have been roundly defeated. We must get on with this town centre development because otherwise Farnborough town centre would die on its feet. They [the candidates] have no legitimacy. They have failed to be elected. -- Gerald Howarth MP, election night
Knellwood a rock solid safe Tory seat: unfortunately still a rock solid safe Tory seat.
Local campaigner Keith Parkins stood in Knellwood. At 590 votes, and bearing in mind this to be a safe Tory seat and that he stood with no party backing, he came in a respectable fifth, beating the LibDems and Labour. In other wards 590 votes would have seen him elected.
All in all the Rushmoor results were a disaster for democracy and a bloody disaster for the local community. Conservatives 25, Liberal Democrats 10, Labour 5, Independents 1. With this increased majority the Tories are going to ram through unwanted developments against the wishes of the local community.
Before the Knellwood results were known, Keith Parkins was interviewed just before midnight on national radio (BBC Radio 5 Live) following Peter Mandelson to discus the need for Independents. Ex-Tory Minister Steve Norris followed calling it a cheap shot for calling the local Tories out of touch. Not the view of the people on the streets.
Would a stick in a bucket be of more use than your local councillor? Looking at the average Rushmoor councillor a stick in a bucket would be of far more use. Asked on BBC Radio 5 Live website the overwhelming vote was for a stick in a bucket.
Poor marks for the local press. Alan Franklin did his best and gave some coverage in the Surrey-Hants Star, but for anyone reading the Farnborough News they'd have been hard pushed to know there were local elections taking place. It is not as though there were not any real issues: Farnborough Airport, Farnborough town centre, Cove Brook flooding, siltation of Fleet Pond, unwanted speculative development etc.
Poor marks to local pressure groups. As far as know BVFoE did nothing, but that is normal. FARA put out an information pack to their own members but did nothing else. The retailers who have been complaining bitterly about their ill-treatment did nothing to influence the outcome of the election or do anything to raise the profile of the terrible state of the town centre.
The Tories may have won a victory but we got them rattled. In Knellwood they were going round with with fear in their eyes. They were not fighting to win, they were fighting to stop a collapse of their vote. The sustained attacks on Keith Parkins, the fact that Gerald Howarth MP got wheeled out, was a sign of their desperation. A further sign was the scurrilous, libellous leaflet Knellwood Tories issued attacking Independents as a bunch of liars, a claim they were unable to substantiate.
We now have a year until the next local election. We must expose every mistake the Tories make to render them unelectable come May 2003.
Blair is now talking of bringing in compulsory voting. Why do they not recognise that people do not vote because they do not like the shits on offer?
Someone took a strong dislike to Keith Parkins. Two days after polling day a 3x3 piece of timber was hurled through his front window late on Saturday night. It is lucky it did not strike anyone on the side of the head as they would have been killed. It looks as though he was deliberately targeted as a warning rather than a random piece of senseless violence.
Gwilym Anthony, one of the three Independents standing in Knellwood, who at 558 votes also narrowly missed getting elected, had a bad stroke after the election campaign and ended up in Frimley Park Hospital. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy and we wish him a speedy recovery.
Stop Press: Gwilym is in a stroke rehabilitation unit at Farnham Hospital.
As of 2 June 2002 there will be a minimum œ10-00 charge for using the railcard. This means it will no longer be of use to obtain a discounted fare for local journeys eg North Camp to Guildford or Reading, Aldershot or Farnborough to Waterloo (not even incl a Day travel Card).
The rail companies have kept this closely under wraps. Enquiries to local stations, guards on trains has revealed nothing. There has been no publicity, no consultation.
Existing railcard holders will still get their discount after 10am in the morning. Maybe, we don't know, it may be possible to buy a railcard before 2 June 2002 and still get a discount.
Liar Byers put his job on the line when he said the measure of his performance would be an increase in passenger numbers. Please complain to Byers and to the rail regulators.
Also complain to:
Terry Worrall (Director and General Manager) Thames Trains Venture House 37 Blagrave Street Reading RG1 1PZ tel 0118 908 3678 fax 0118 957 9006 web http://www.thamestrains.co.uk South West Trains Friars Bridge Court 41-45 Blackfiars Road London SE1 8NZ web www.swtrains.co.uk web www.southwesttrains.co.uk
State that you want a copy of your letter passed to the rail regulators and to the Rail Passenger User Group.
Why not try a Rising Tide Railcard?
Recycling: We fail miserably in our recycling efforts, especially compared with our continental neighbours. What we fail to recycle and reuse ends in landfill and incinerators. An appalling legacy for future generations. -- Keith Parkins, May 2002 local election leaflet
These latest figures highlight once again just how pathetic the UK is at recycling. Unless local authorities are required to provide every household with doorstep recycling, we will continue to languish near the bottom of the European recycling league. Landfill sites are filling up and incineration is deeply unpopular. It's about time the Government took this issue seriously. -- Karine Pellaumail, FoE Waste Campaigner
I want to see every local authority offering doorstep recycling. -- Tony Blair, October 2001
As far as we are aware (and we stand corrected if wrong) Keith Parkins (Ind, Knellwood) was the only candidate in last month's local election to raise recycling and he compared our abysmal performance with that of the continent.
These are the figures
Switzerland 52% (98) Swiss Environment Agency
Netherlands 46% (98) 60%by 2000 Dutch Environment Ministry
Austria 49.7% (00) Austrian Environment Agency
Germany 48% (96) Resource Recovery Forum Warmer Bulletin
Norway 40% (00) Statistics Norway
Sweden 34% (97) Resource Recovery Forum Warmer Bulletin
USA 31.5% (98) 35% by 2005 Biocycle annual nationwide survey
Finland 30% (97) ETSU for DTI
Canada 29% (97) ETSU for DTI
Denmark 31% (96) 40-50%by 2000 Danish Environmental Protection Agency
France 12% (93) Resource Recovery Forum Warmer Bulletin
Spain 20% (97) Resource Recovery Forum Warmer Bulletin
Italy 13% (97) Resource Recovery Forum Warmer Bulletin
England 12% (00/01) 30% by 2010 DEFRA
Scotland 6.9% (00/01) Scottish Accounts Commission
Northern Ireland 5% (98/99) 25% by 2010 NI Waste Management Strategy
Wales 4.7% (98/99) National Assembly for Wales
In Rushmoor we have doorstep collection but it's not good enough. Many households put nothing out other than an overflowing wheelie bin. We need periodic education as to what we can and should be putting out. We also need concerted efforts to put pressure on the supermarkets to stop the waste at source.
Bad as the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor is in most things, and its recycling record is not good, it is way ahead of many other local authorities. Guildford has only just started doorstep collection of recyclable material, too many local authorities still lack doorstep collection.
EDM 186 calls on the government to legislate to force all local authorities to carry out doorstep collection. Has your MP signed EDM 186?
... the United States government succeeded in dislodging Robert Watson, the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr Watson had been pressing member nations to take the threat of global warming seriously, to the annoyance of the oil company ExxonMobil. Last year it sent a memo to the White House requesting that he be shoved. -- George Monbiot
The fossil fuel industry and the US Government will be celebrating their success in kicking out Bob Watson, an experienced scientist who understood that urgent action is needed to tackle global climate change. -- Kate Hampton, FoE International Climate Co-ordinator
The Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been ousted following a campaign orchestrated by Esso and the Bush administration. Robert Watson, an eminent US scientist who was replaced by engineer and economist Rajenda Pachauri from India following a 57-49 vote by IPCC members, had consistently warned governments of the dangers of climate change.
As Chair of the IPCC, Bob Watson was responsible for disseminating information contained in global scientific assessments. The last IPCC report contained stark warnings about human interference with the climate that policy makers could no longer ignore. This created problems for both Esso and the Bush administration, which have led strong campaigns against international action on global warming. This was highlighted recently when a memo from Exxon to the White House calling for Bob Watson to be opposed was leaked to the media.
The IPCC ballot was secret but it is understood that a number of developing countries also supported Pachauri over Watson. Rich countries have a responsibility to provide funding to improve climate impacts science in the South but have so far not delivered. Bob Watson may have also paid the price for this failure.
Exxon is well known for destroying the climate, polluting the oceans. It is now being charged with killing whales. More on this next month.
If they are moving toward a violent solution, encouraging the military toward violence, then they are playing with fire. The business sector continues to criticise us. So why don't they do something to help this country, like bringing back the $120 billion they keep in banks overseas? -- Tarek William Saab, Head of Venezuela's Foreign Policy Committee
There isn't a single political person in Latin America who does not believe that the CIA was involved in some form, and in the same way, as it was in Chile. Those responsible for Latin America in the state department are the most extremist, off-the-wall team - 7 out of the top 12 officials in the Latin American department are Cuban-Americans. -- Larry Birns, Director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs.
No one wants to be in the same room as President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela these days, much less stand next to him. He is a dead man walking. It's not so much a case of if he gets assassinated it's just a matter of when. -- Greg Palast
The Venezuelan people stuck two fingers up at the US and reinstated President Hugo Chavez, less than 48 hours after a US backed coup had overthrown him. Chavez, who led his own failed coup in 1992, was overthrown by a military junta following violence at an anti-Chevez demonstration. The coup had all the hallmarks of a classic CIA-backed plot with misinformation, black propaganda and agent provocateurs casually shooting demonstrators, creating a situation of fear and panic which would allow the military to step in, overthrow the president and bring calm back to the country. Unconvinced? A cable sent from the CIA to its station chief in Chile during the overthrow of Salvador Allende read: 'Re: Coup. Activities to include propaganda, black operations, disinformation, or anything else your imagination can conjure...' The coup began with an Anti-Chavez demonstration with over 150,000 people gathered in E Caracas; the wealthy homeland of his opponents, in support of striking oil workers. When the protestors decided to march on the presidential palace word got out to Chavez supporters who mobilised to stop the march. Violent clashes broke out during which gunmen casually fired from rooftops and bridges into the crowd killing at least 14 people and wounding over 100 more.
Anti-Chavez supporters claim it was the Chavez supporters who started firing at them yet eyewitnesses have said the shooting began from a roadway overpass controlled by the anti-Chavez Metropolitan Police, and the first to be killed were pro-Chavez demonstrators. Confirmation of the eyewitness reports came from the secretary of health for metropolitan Caracas, who reported that of those who died 'the most serious wounds were in the cranium and cheek... they appeared to be shots from above'. According to the military they intervened to stop further bloodshed. When confronted over the shootings Chavez resigned and handed the presidency over to the junta. No resignation note has been produced. With the Junta in command the presidency went to Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry and organiser of the oil strike. He immediately operated like a dictator dismissing the entire Congress and Supreme Court, abolishing the constitution and the right to fire any elected state or municipal leader.
With the newly imposed president sipping champagne in the presidential palace the US Ambassador visited to give the coup the US's blessing. At the same time neighbouring Latin American countries condemned the coup and refused to recognise the illegitimate, un-elected president. Worse still Venezuela was not going to sit there and allow a govt to be imposed on them by the US and so set about getting their real and democratically elected president back. Protests broke out through Venezuela. The middle-ranking members of the military influenced by the demos and the international response changed their mind about the coup, had the 5 senior members of the junta arrested, forced Carmona to resign and handed the presidency over to Chavez's vice president who then handed it back to Chavez - the 3rd president in 3 days!
So what had President Hugo Chavez done to cause the US to mount a coup against him? The background and what led up to the US corporate sponsored coup shows it was no spontaneous event.
Three years ago Chavez was elected president of the fourth largest oil producer in the world. On a tide of public support he won with the biggest majority in four decades. The population of Venezuela were eager for drastic change. They wanted a government that would rid them of corruption and redirect the country's oil wealth from the pockets of multinationals and towards the poor of Venezuela. In Venezuela 80% of a population of 24 million live in poverty.
Chavez set about changing the Constitution. Out went the prescribed Washington model of elections and political parties, and in came a participatory democracy with an emphasis on popular assemblies, social movements and continuous referendums. As a result Venezuela's new constitution now includes guarantees for indigenous, and women's rights, free healthcare and education up to university level.
To reduce corruption Chavez restructured the courts and the legal system. In a country where the prisons are amongst the most dilapidated and dangerous in the world he met with prisoners and convinced them to hand over their weapons while promising to look at the prison conditions and the injustices of their sentences.
He also introduced two new laws that brought him to the edge of his demise and the country to the brink of a right-wing coup. Firstly, he increased the tax paid on oil exports from 16% to 30% and passed a new energy law that requires 51% government participation in all oil ventures.
Secondly he introduced a land reform bill. The bill makes it possible for the government to take land that has remained unproductive for 2 years and re-distribute it to the poor. Within the law there is a provision that extends credit to any private farmer who wants to make his land productive rather than lose it. The bill is broad and does not differentiate between farm, private and church land.
These two laws have prompted small but powerful sections from the unions, middle class, rich, media, high ranking military officers and the Catholic Church inside Venezuela to call for Chavez's resignation. In the words of investigative journalist Greg Palast 'the Church says the meek will inherit the earth, but not while they are alive.'
The right-wing opposition are using tactics similar to those used to oust Salvador Allende in Chile during the early 1970s. The rich are being used to create a feeling of chaos and paint a picture of Chavez as the 'dictator'. The military will then be encouraged to mount a coup seemingly for the sake of the country.
Criticisms of Chavez's reforms outside of Venezuela have come from financial institutions, governments, and the CIA. The IMF is even willing to bankroll an interim government according to James Petras, professor at the State University of New York. He believes the IMF and other financial institutions are creating an economic crisis to oust Chavez. He says, 'There is no economic crisis. The economic problems facing Chavez have always been there; they are problems that Chavez inherited. Venezuela is an oil rich country that pays its debts and follows IMF guidelines etc.'
George Tenent, head of the CIA and Colin Powell, US Secretary of State have both been critical of Chavez. They claim that he is undercutting American foreign policy by opposing US counter-narcotics aid to Colombia, providing oil to Cuba and giving political support to guerrillas and anti-government forces in neighbouring Colombia.
While Chavez has a long history of 'irritating' the US by attacking its foreign policy he has been careful not to allow himself to become involved in the civil war in Colombia. Chavez declared Venezuela neutral and has helped in the release of hostages from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and helped the Colombian government during the peace talks.
Chavez has a vision for a new world order 'Rather than accepting the imposition of models and economic policies, what we should do is march in the direction of a system of international relations based on equality and mutual respect' he says.
Sounds like there's a leader who's not prepared to sell his people up the river and go along with what neo-liberalism forces on his country, for a change. When four high ranking army officers called for him to be overthrown, each one was interviewed by a joint civilian and military team and released the next day. Imagine if that had happened in the UK or in the US - the officers would have been charged with treason and thrown in prison.
James Petras, believes that 'Chavez is an extremely moderate politician who is being hammered for not allowing drug-surveillance flights over Venezuela, being opposed to Plan Colombia and working with OPEC.' [SchNEWS 273]
Perhaps the most important figure in the foreign-sponsored destabilisation campaign is Alfredo Peña, the Mayor of Caracas and critic of Chavez. Peña has been visiting Washington recently meeting with the World Bank and the state department and is being groomed to replace Chavez.
The irony of all this is that the backer of the coming coup, the US, is under the administration of a president who stole the presidency in a coup detat.
Never one to miss an opportunity at winding up the US Chavez:
Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Exposing the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons and High Finance Fraudsters, Pluto Press, 2002
Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, Verso
[SchNEWS 345, SchNEWS 351]
On Sunday, the US government will launch an international coup. It has been planned for a month. It will be executed quietly, and most of us won't know what is happening until it's too late. It is seeking to overthrow 60 years of multilateralism, in favour of a global regime built on force. -- George Monbiot
But once America sees that other nations will submit to its demands, it will continue to bend the treaties to suit itself until the entire framework of international law collapses. More dangerous by far than US isolationism is the unilateral demolition of the world's agreements, forcing every nation to live by its own rules. -- George Monbiot
The Pentagon asked the CIA to investigate Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, in the hope of undermining his credibility. When the CIA failed to discover any evidence of wrongdoing, the deputy defence secretary is reported to have 'hit the ceiling'.
The US Ambassador to the UN in Vienna failed, for the first time ever, to attend a meeting of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The US government has succeeded in dislodging Robert Watson, the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr Watson had been pressing member nations to take the threat of global warming seriously, to the consternation ExxonMobil. Last year ExxonMobil sent a memo to the White House requesting that Watson be removed.
Following a week of arm-twisting and secret meetings, the United States government forced the departure of Jose Bustani, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This is the first time that the head of an international organisation has been dismissed during his term in office.
The forced removal of Jose Bustani is the first time a UN official has been removed in this way. It makes all UN officials vulnerable to US bullying. Hans Blix and Jose Bustani were obstacles in the way of the renewed bombing of Iraq. Unfinished family business left over from Bush snr.
Treaties and international agreements and co-operation are treated with the same disdain: America's unilateral abandonment of the antiballistic missile treaty, its successful sabotage of the Biological Weapons Convention and its rejection of the Kyoto protocol on climate change, the UN treaty on gun running and the international criminal court.
Nothing new. Noam Chomsky comprehensively documents the US disdain for international agreements in his collection of essays Rogue State (a more comprehensive but dated arguments in Deterring Democracy). If you have brute force then use it, why be restrained by international bodies? With the collapse of the Soviet Union there is now no restraining force on the US. We tend to blame it all on Bush jnr, but as Chomsky documents there is a long history of this behaviour. The only difference under Bush is that it has become more blatant.
Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, Verso
Noam Chomsky, Rogue State, Pluto
George Monbiot, A War Against the Peacemaker, The Guardian, 16 April 2002
George Monbiot, Diplomatic Impunity, The Guardian, 23 April 2002
AMEC, the company that wants to build the Yusufeli dam in Turkey held its AGM at the Portland Hotel, London. This time though the activist shareholders outnumbered the non-activist shareholders, so armed with a share each, whistles and red cards they messed up the proceedings. The plan was to have 3 different noise demos throughout the morning - so that everyone wouldn't be thrown out at once - and to ask some quality questions from the floor.
The first noise demo started after about 20 minutes leading to a dozen people being thrown out. Another happened about half an hour later and led to more being forcibly evicted by the now pissed off security. Each resolution was easily voted down by the activists which meant the company would have to conduct a poll after the meeting. Questions were raised about not only the Yusufeli Dam, but also the Chalillo Dam in Belize and the Bingley and Birmingham bypasses. One shareholder who had nothing to do with the protest stood up to berate the board for dragging the company into this sort of situation. These sort of demos serve as a warning to other companies that grassroots movements won't take environmental destruction lying down.
[BVEJ newsletters passim]
Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less. New age travellers? Not in this age! Not in any age! -- John Major, 1992
It was ten years ago last month when Castlemorton Common became home to the largest free festival this country had seen since the Stonehenge celebrations in the early eighties.
Travellers heading for the Avon Free Festival found themselves up against Avon and Somerset Police's all-new fun-stopping information-gathering 'Operation Nomad' with 'dedicated resources' to gather intelligence in respect of the movement of itinerants and travellers and deal with minor acts of trespass. So people found themselves across the border heading for the picturesque Malvern valley where a truly amazing free festival sprung up with around forty thousand people partying for seven days and nights.
The Free Festival scene had been happening up and down the country since the early 70's, and this new explosion was a fusion of old style traveller culture and weekend ravers attracted to the soundsystems of DIY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and a host of others. One leaflet at the time explained 'To be at one of these gatherings is to feel a surge of energy; to feel a people free from the restrictions of rip-off clubs, crap pubs, dumb shit security, money-mad promoters.' Of course the authorities didn't exactly share this view and with the press whipping itself up into a frenzy ('Hordes of Marauding Locusts' and 'These Foul Pests must be Controlled' being a couple of classic headlines) - new laws we were warned, were just around the corner.
The authorities in particular seemed to be going gung-ho for a group of people who had pushed the free party boundaries for the past two years - Spiral Tribe. 13 people were nicked and put on trial for 'conspiracy to cause a public nuisance' with the judge promising two years in prison if they were found guilty. Thankfully they weren't despite a trial that lasted four and a half months and cost the taxpayer £4 million.
As a result of the free festival scene, mixing with the first stirrings of the road protest movement at Twyford Down and the M11, the Tory Home Secretary ranted about getting 'Tough on rapists, tough on armed robbers and tough on squatters' a hotch-potch of a Bill was introduced into parliament - the most draconian ever to be aimed at alternative British culture. It's name - the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (which SchNEWS was a part response to, but that's another story).
Fast forward 10 years. This year's Welsh Green Gathering has been cancelled for the second year running - thanks to objections once again from the cops. Last year Dyfed Powys police objected on the grounds that festival land would be contaminated with 'human waste, diesel and cannabis.' This year the gathering, in the planning since June last year, was to take place in Margam Country Park, South Wales and all seemed to be going well. Until the Detective Inspector of Port Talbot police stuck his oar in and said he feared serious public disorder so £60,000 to police the crowd of just four thousand had to be coughed up. The Council, fearing a riot, cancelled the booking.
Er, public disorder at a Green Gathering? Maybe if you count people overdosing on lentil flapjacks or being trapped in dozens of deadly dream catchers or perhaps a pack of pedal-powered powder peddlers pelting police with a barrage of crystals. In fact, the event was going to be so riotous members of the Welsh National Assembly were planning to take part in green forums and the Centre For Alternative Technology along with other such axe-wielding maniacs were to busy themselves at the event promoting sustainable living. Not to mention the festival helping to restore the park and converting to solar power the presently disused road-train.
The Welsh Green Gathering is now seriously out of pocket and threatening to sue the Council. Organisers reckon the decision was linked to a yearlong direct action campaign against an incinerator in Swansea. The incinerator has been given the green light. Green Party spokesman Martin Shrewsbury commented 'Port Talbot council are supporting an incinerator to poison us all and cancelling a festival about alternative sustainable energy.'
Glastonbury has now gone to the Mean Fiddler dogs, with licensing regulations stating that the same sort of surveillance techniques ironically first used against travellers ten years ago now will now be used at this year's event. So it's watch towers and CCTV and infra-red cameras for gatecrashers and ticket holders alike.
So what are we gonna do about it? Isn't it time to rediscover the free festival spirit? Perhaps keeping our shit together and looking after each other at Stonehenge again this year can be a start to build on. As Tash, a free festival veteran, told SchNEWS 'People nowadays expect to pay their money and for everything to be provided. In the old festival days, people had to do things for themselves such as sorting out the infrastructure such as toilets and welfare.'
Of course, the state has now all the laws it wants to deal with any unregulated fun, so we've got to be cunning and we've got to be organised. But if we are to once again break away from the bureaucrats, cops and corporate leeches then what other alternative is there?
As we predicted (BVEJ newsletters passim), Carbon Trading has less to do with CO2 reduction and more to do with yet another profit opportunity for Big Business. This has been confirmed at recent business conferences with Shell executives waxing lyrically about the profits to be made and one conference blatantly entitled Profiting from Opportunities Presented by the Kyoto Mechanism.
The œ300 a head delegates have not had it all their own way. Recent conferences have been infiltrated by Pie In the Sky leafleting and lecturing on Emissions Trading? Pie in the Sky!
The U'wa tribe of Colombia were celebrating last month, after it was announced at the Occidental Petroleum AGM that the company were giving up drilling oil on their ancestral land. According to Occidental, after spending $16 billion on exploration drilling they have decided there is no oil at that particular site. When Occidental's plans became clear in the early 90's, the U'wa became a symbol of resistance to oil exploration. Using tactics ranging from blockades at the drill site, lawsuits, shareholder resolutions and non-violent civil disobedience, the U'wa along with activists in over twenty countries have confronted Occidental and its major shareholders.
The U'wa at one point threatened a mass suicide if and when Oxy moved in to their mountains. The tribal leaders said that many would throw themselves off a high cliff in an act of mass ritual suicide. In a statement they said 'the U’wa way of life is not negotiable' - an alien concept to corporations who believe that everything ultimately has a price. Unsurprisingly Occidental responded with the might of the US backed Colombian military who have violently repressed them and their supporters, killing activists and U'wa children in the evictions. Perez, President of the U'wa Traditional Authority said about the struggle, 'the blood spilled will not go unpunished' It will be a bittersweet memory that will remain in the minds of those who participated in the most difficult moments of this process.'
Occidental also finds itself centre stage in the growing scandal around the Bush administration's military aid proposal to hand over $98 million of US taxpayers' money to defend the companies Cano Limon oil pipeline in Colombia, which runs through traditional U'wa land. Operations have been suspended since February because of intensive guerrilla attacks. This pipeline shows how oil drilling destroys an area - an estimated 1.7 million barrels of crude oil has been spilled since 1986, deforestation has occurred with forests cleared for oil exploration, production and roads, opening the forest to outsiders. The oil brought violence, with the Colombian military, leftist FARC guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers battling over resources.
The U'wa are still threatened by another oil company, Repsol. As Kevin Koenig, from Amazon Watch said 'this is an important victory and a real milestone in the larger struggle to win recognition and respect for indigenous peoples rights around the world. Unfortunately, until we address our society's addiction to fossil fuels by transitioning to renewable energy sources, the world's remaining pristine ecosystems and traditional cultures will continue to be threatened by unscrupulous oil corporations.'
More about the connection between the oil industry, threats to indigenous populations and global climate change at
[BVEJ newsletters passim]
After an independence struggle that lasted for 24 years and claimed 200,000 lives, East Timor became an independent state last month. Just how independent it is though is pretty hard to figure out, considering that their currency is the US dollar, and that most donor countries won't fund the new state unless the money goes through the World Bank. They've also been forced to sign away their oil and gas reserves, the most valuable national resource, to Australia. Australia negotiated a deal with Timor over the oil in which Timor stands to get 90% of the profits on resources taken from a joint Australian/Timor area. Sound good? Take a closer look at the fine print and you find that the richest oil and gas reserves are outside this area and so will be taken over by Australia. So Timor is getting 90% profits of bugger all while Australia gets to take resources from within what should be Timor's maritime boundaries. This may have had something to do with the fact that it was the UN and not the East Timorese Government negotiated the deal. All that Mari Alkatiri, the Timorese prime minister, got to do was sign. Most Timorese don't even know their new nation's resources have already been signed away.
As we go to press India and Pakistan are on the brink of all out war, possibly the world's first nuclear war. Ironically the first nuclear exchange could occur on the anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War.
Contrary to their public utterances Blair and his ministers have not been lobbying for peace. They have been using the tensions as an opportunity to sell more arms to both sides.
The only distraction of the hightened tension is that it is focusing attention on the œ1 billion sale of Hawk jets to India. Calls for an arms embargo could scupper this lucrative deal for BAE Systems. It has also turned the spotlight on attempts by the MoD to sell unwanted Sea Harriers to India.
A complete arms embargo on both India and Pakistan should be brought in with immediate effect.
The money he was getting was danger money. As far as I am concerned my son was murdered. -- Mrs Mungovan
Michael Mungovan had only been working on the railways for three days when he was sent to work unsupervised near Vauxhall station in south London. He was securing a section of track when he stepped into the path of a train travelling at 50 mph. The 22 year old student died instantly.
During a two week inquest that ended last month, the jury was told that Mr Mungovan did not have a valid track safety card, his colleague on the day of the accident did not have the relevant supervision skills and the experienced worker who Michael had been assigned to work with was suspended at the time. The jury at the inquest decided that Michael was 'unlawfully killed' and the police will now be reopening a criminal investigation.
The death of Michael mirrors that of Simon Jones, who was sent to work as a docker with no training and killed within two hours. Michael had been in a classroom for only one and a half days training and given just half a day on a rural single line before being sent to work on one of the busiest junctions in the country. His death once again highlights the hazards of untrained casual workers being given dangerous jobs with little training. Jobs that not so long ago would have been done by a highly skilled railway union workforce.
In a submission to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee last year, the RMT rail union said that the number of permanent staff employed on the tracks had fallen from 31,000 before privatisation to between 15,000 and 19,000. The union's former general secretary, Jimmy Knapp, told MPs that many of them were being replaced by casual workers recruited in pubs and clubs. 'There are now 100,000 individuals that have got personal track safety certificates. Who these people are I would not know, and who looks after them and sees that they are doing the right things I would not know, but that is a staggering figure.'
Michael was employed by temp agency McGinley Recruitment Services, who in turn were being used as subcontractors by Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance Ltd, who were in turn paid to maintain the line for Railtrack - an illustration of the long chain of command now operating on the railways. As for the devastated family, they said in a statement that privatisation of the railways had led to a 'low regard for human life'.
The Transport Select Committee attacked Railtrack's recruitment practices because it doesn't actually employ the gangs of engineers who keep the railways running, nor does it train them. No, that's left to companies like Balfour Beatty and Jarvis who at the weekend blamed saboteurs for the recent Potters Bar rail crash where seven people died.
Just six days before Potters Bar, Jarvis were successfully prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for 'unsafe practice during railway maintenance work.' They were fined £7,000 for nearly running over several track workers, with the HSE railway inspector commenting, 'The company's failure led to people who were not competent being expected to do jobs they were not able to properly discharge.' Not that this is the first time Jarvis has been in the dock.
In July 1999 they were fined £7,000 after a worker lost an eye because they had failed to carry out a proper risk assessment and had too few staff working on the track. A year later they were fined £500,000 after two separate train derailments because it 'failed to check the track before trains were allowed to run, exposing employees and passengers to risk of injury.' In October 2000, 41 year old Mark Meadowcroft was killed by a train while working for Jarvis. Still, forgetting about all that, Railtrack's replacement, Network Rail, has appointed Jarvis as a 'technical adviser' on safety issues!
As for Balfour Beatty, not only have they been found guilty by the HSE on numerous occasions for causing the death and serious injury of its workers, but they are also the proud winners of a record £1.2 million fine after part of the tunnel they were building on the rail link to Heathrow airport 'collapsed'. And we're sure readers will be pleased to know that both Jarvis and Balfour Beatty are part of the consortiums wanting to take over the London Underground.
So what will happen now? The Crown Prosecution Service has announced a new investigation into the Paddington rail crash with a view to bringing corporate manslaughter charges. And hours before last month's verdict, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers promised to examine the role of contractors and sub-contractors who work on railway maintenance. 'A new relationship is needed - one based on best value, not lowest cost, providing a quality maintenance and renewal programme for railway track that puts the interests of the travelling public first.' Nice words - but surely private companies are always going to be in it for the money and cut costs to make a few extra bucks. As Colin Chalmers from the Simon Jones campaign told SchNEWS 'Profits are all these companies and their directors think about. If getting untrained students to do dangerous jobs makes more money than employing skilled workers, they'll do it. Casualisation kills - but it's good for dodgy companies' profits. These companies will only stop when we kick up enough fuss and make sure that directors start going to jail.'
[BVEJ newsleters passim]
All the trees were removed carefully to minimise disturbance to the ground so as to encourage the regeneration of heathland species. -- TAG figurehead Donald Spiers
The government is being very bullish about the expansion of aviation in the South East. They are talking of a tripling of air traffic in the next 30 years. A doubling of traffic in the next 20 years would require four new Heathrows or eight more Gatwicks. The same old discredited predict and provide. Expansion in the southeast would not leave Farnborough untouched. Government minister John Spellar has refused to rule out ripping up any legal agreements there may be in force to control airport expansion. So much for the worthless legal agreement between TAG and Rushmoor that the Tories laid so much store on during the May local elections (TAG monitor noise, pollution etc, Rushmoor has never showed the willingness to enforce).
Over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend an airliner took off in Nigeria and crashed within minutes of take-off on a densely populated residential area. Sound familiar? If you live in Farnborough you have no need to worry as TAG and the local Tories have assured us it's safe.
A spate of letters have appeared in the local press telling us airports are good for the environement!
Since the winter and spring more devastation has taken place on the heathland to the west of Farnborough Airport. The area near Gelvert Stream that had seen acres of felling of trees has now had the ground scraped bare and the topsoil dumped into parallel ridges. The area opposite Eelmoor Flash has seen hundreds more acres of trees and bushes felled, grubbed up and cleared.
Culverts have been placed under the road where Cove Brook leaves the northern perimeter of the airfield. This will more than double the peak flow rate of water off the airfield. Why, if TAG are as claimed, reducing the rate of run-off?
It is quite clear that the company wants to make progress, but they have been inhibited by these unelected objectors. -- Gerald Howarth MP
Councillors and officers alike are and have been making a concerted effort to speed up the development of the town centre. -- Tory wannabe councillors Roland Dibbs, Paul Taylor & Stefan Stoneman, May 2002 election leaflet
Whinge, whinge, whinge - that is the sound of Farnborough retailers. Yes, they are having a hard time, but do any of them get off their backsides and do anything? The answer is no.
The people we feel most sorry for are the Asians who have just opened a store in Kingsmead. On their first day of opening they took nothing. But why did they do no market research? Did they not see the town is dead? Could they not see the few retailers left had no customers?
One Saturday, and it was the Saturday of the most recent Farmers Market, the florist in Kingsmead took 90p. Sainsbury's in Kingsmead is the worst performing store in the country. Their average take per customer is a little over £6-00, a corner shop could do better. Sainsbury's lease runs out in October and it is not likely to be renewed.
Election time, an opportune moment to make the town centre an election issue. What did the retailers do? Nothing. They couldn't even be bothered to make the effort to talk to the press.
If you can't make the effort to help yourself you can't expect anyone else to do it for you.
It's now an open secret that Rushmoor are expected to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders on behalf of KPI to force out the residents of Firgrove Court (earmarked for destruction for a car park).
Gerald Howarth MP has shown where his loyalties lie by coming out strongly in favour of KPI and attacking local residents for trying to safeguard their town centre. Gerald Howarth falls over backwards to act for KPI (a seat on the board, money for Tory party funds?), whereas pleas for help from local retailers are ignored. An own gaol for the Tories at election time especially as it coincided with a Tory Knellwood leaflet backing the developers. It only served to emphasise the message being put out by the Independents that Tories were acting for developers whereas they were acting for the community. Having gone to the press attacking Keith Parkins over the town centre, Gerald Howarth then whinged because he came across as a complete prat.
Stanley Kalms, boss of Dixons is now taking a direct personal interest in what is happening in Farnborough and he don't like what he is hearing. Staff at the local branch have been out photographing the street scene to show it is not their mismanagement but the problems caused by KPI. The local Dixons is one of the worst performers in the group.
Cliff Mogg, Town Centre Ballot Battle, Surrey-Hants Star, Thurs 25 April 2002
Stop Press: The worm has turned. The local retailers, the few that are left, have got together to fight KPI.
Does Rushmoor need a Mayor? The answer loud and clear is no.
If Rushmoor was an old historic town like Guildford or Lincoln, where the post of Mayor stretched back centuries there would be some arguments for retaining the Mayor but it does not apply in Rushmoor.
All we get is a prat arsing around every week with his phizog in the paper. The worst offenders have been Charles Choudhary and David Clifford.
To transport the Mayor around costs £20,000 per annum, ten times the cost of comparable sized boroughs. The total cost of running the Mayoral office is nigh on £100,000 per annum.
The only useful function performed by the Mayor is presiding over council meetings. A Presiding Officer could be appointed for that function.
Knellwood Independents, together with Labour Stalwart Mike Roberts, are calling on Rushmoor to Ditch the Mayor.
We have been so busy that we almost overlooked that we have been going for two years. Hard to believe, at least we find it hard to believe. We have almost gone under several times and our web site has gone under (now almost rebuilt). A lot of the things we would have liked to have done we have not managed the resources. It has always been our ambition to have a printed newsletter available locally with on-line version for local printing. So far we have not even been able to get our newsletter out in pdf.
The newsletter is not all we do. We have a resource base, sadly rather dated. We were producing briefings and urgent actions, but again lack of resources has forced us to scale back. Primary effort is newsletter production and that leaves little energy for anything else, even our web site has had to remain in an unconstructed state.
Our reason for existence was a group of people coming together and bemoaning the lack of an environmental group in the Blackwater Valley. We decided to do something about it.
Since our formation we are pleased to say clones have appeared across the country, radical newspapers prepared to tell the truth.
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