RESISTANCE IN THE RACE PRISON
In June, at Campsfield House Immigration Detention Centre near Oxford, a hunger strike involving up to 40 people took place, lasting a week. During that week there were two suicide attempts, said to have resulted in deportations and transfers to prison wings such as Rochester.
However, two Russians later managed to escape altogether from Campsfield – much to the embarrassment of Group 4. Reports are confused, but it seems like the daring escape succeeded through some combination of an open door, a flat roof, and the scaling of a fence. Messages from well-wishers abound. The National Coalition Against Deportation said: “May they stay free for ever, find work, health and happiness, and never fall foul of the police or immigration officials”.
On a less cheerful note, two other Campsfield inmates were seriously injured while climbing over the prison fence on September 20th. One severely lacerated his legs on the razor wire, while the other suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary in a critical condition.
There is a demo at noon on the last Saturday of every month at Campsfield, contact: 01865 558145.
URGENT - Urban Regeneration and Greenfield Environment Network
Large volume housebuilders continue to ravage the countryside and use up vast areas of land with unnecessary and destructive housing developments. The URGENT conference in July 1999, held at Ruskin College, Oxford, included workshops on low-impact housing and other positive approaches to meeting housing need without destroying the environment. Practical support was offered on how to stop corporate housebuilders. Network members agreed to step up the pressure with more mass campaigns and solidarity actions, increasing the focus on big developers such as Persimmon Homes, Berkeley and Bryant.
In September the House Builders Federation (HBF) - chief villains of the piece - were paid a surprise visit at their annual golf tournament in Chepstow. Peaceful land-rights activists from The Land Is Ours erected a low-impact eco-dwelling (a tent) at the 18th hole in protest at the fact that new HBF Chief Executive Stuart Hill used to be the Chief Executive of HM Land Registry (very convenient). HBF has been "helping" local authorities draw up "land availability studies" for some years now … giving the housebuilders a rather large advantage over local people when it comes to deciding how land will be used.
Other network activities have included a North West Week of Action on Empty Homes, sites have been squatted in Hockley (Essex) and elsewhere, while a special mention must go to the Rational Trust for their systematic occupation of threatened areas of land.
Contact details on Contacts Page.
GLOW IN THE DARK PRODUCTS TO HIT SHELVES
The Low Level Radiation Campaign (LLRC) is gearing up to resist new European legislation aiming to deregulate the disposal of nuclear waste. Under Council Directive 96/29/Euratom, contaminated materials below ‘Clearance levels’ will be deregulated, and will go for recycling, reuse or disposal. That means that bits of old nuclear plant could turn up in any consumer product. Cars, saucepans, toys, tins… nobody will know what is radioactive and what is not, and officials will not track or monitor this contaminated waste.
As old reactors and bomb factories are scrapped, the nuclear industry is looking to get rid of millions of tonnes of contaminated metals and concrete. The LLRC is urging the government to apply the precautionary principle as already indicated by existing laws on radiation exposure, and not to allow the clearance of contaminated materials in the UK. This is not impossible - all EU member states have discretionary power to set tighter standards than the Directive and the campaign asks for people to write to Michael Meacher or their local MP calling for them to do so. With another round of talks due this autumn, action is as vital as ever.
LLRC contacts.
ALL QUIET ON THE WEST WOOD FRONT
West Wood in Lyminge Forest, Kent, the scene of a stand-off between protesters and the Rank Corporation, still remains intact as a result of over two years of tree and tunnel residence.
Rank had planned to turn the 440 acres of ancient woodland into a ‘holiday’ complex, complete with service station, supermarkets, 4000-space car park and accommodation for their (consistently low-paid) staff (see CW1). Rank’s option to buy is valid for a limited period only and may expire soon. Protesters are waiting to hear whether Rank has been given an extension of a year, which will mean the camp stays. If not, Lyminge protestors will be celebrating a well-won victory.
The stalwart forest frontliners have maintained a steady presence and sussed approach to digging in and holding out. They could do with some sorted reinforcements for the final stage of this very worthwhile battle. Anyone who wishes to visit the protest site dubbed ‘The Last Resort’, is more than welcome - there are plenty of spare benders and spaces by the fireside. Stay for a day, or for as long as it takes. For info call 01227 709616.
PENAN NOMADS STOP LOGGERS IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA.
After years of campaigning, the semi-nomadic Penan tribe of Sarawak have won an unprecedented victory over the logging company threatening their rainforest home.
In the late 1980s, the Malaysian government introduced laws criminalising the obstruction of logging activities. Since then hundreds of Penan people have been arrested and imprisoned for blockading the loggers. Many received long jail terms.
In January 1999, two Penan communities were summoned by police after setting up a blockade to obstruct logging company Lajung Lumber S. Bhd., which had reneged on its agreement to stop logging in their forest without permission. Astonishingly, the District Officer ruled in the Penan’s favour: the company was ordered to leave the area and to compensate the Penan people.
A battle won, but not the war, as logging companies are still active in the Penan rainforest, even though international law recognises their right to their land. However, this ruling does suggest that both the local struggle and the international campaign, in which Survival played a part, are paying off. Recognition of the Penan’s rights now seems increasingly possible. Survival’s contact details on Contacts Page
CAMEO - MAST RAIDERS
The Campaign Against Masts in East Oxford took off with a fun and fluffy family day launch in July. Local residents, parents and workers joined community activists in voicing their outrage at the siting of an Orange transmitter in a residential area, just a ‘phone’s throw away from a primary school. They also manage to prevent erection of the new transmitter with a car blockade.
Mobile phone companies were granted special powers, akin to compulsory purchase, by the government under the 1984 Telecommunications Act. CAMEO is calling for the ‘precautionary principle’ to be used to protect human health, as it is in over a third of Scottish Councils, and in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy and others.
If you are concerned about what CAMEO warn could be ‘an environmental health hazard that makes BSE look like a picnic’, tune in to www.cameo.freeisp.co.uk
Update… Protests against masts are springing up in nearby areas - Chalgrove, Witney, Long Crendon, and Haddenham.
TIME TO EASE UP, FARMER BROWN
To the jubilation of the many objectors to the repugnant practice of breeding cats for experiments, Hillgrove Farm closed its gates for business on August 12th. More than 800 cats and kittens were removed to an RSPCA holding centre in a middle-of-the-night operation. Christopher Brown, 61, owner of the controversial centre, made his sudden and most welcome move to retire after 30 years in the business.
The Home Office-licensed breeding centre has cost the public purse large: one of the main focuses for animal rights protests over the last couple of years it has cost over £2 million pounds in policing. Since 1987 more than 350 people have been arrested, with 21 locked away for public order offences.
In the long and sometimes frenzied struggle, it has got to be said that at times it got ugly. Mr Brown and his family were reported to have been personally endangered and physically attacked. For the cats and kittens that made it out, loving homes await as record numbers of prospective adopters have called the RSPCA hotline.
ADDED CLOUT
CLOUT is a community-based organisation fighting landfill pollution. It was formed following a highly successful lobby of parliament on 12th January 1999. At least 25 landfill action groups attended that lobby - a total of around 100 delegates. It was clear from the strength of feeling at the meeting that there was a need for a standing organisation to represent the interests of anti-landfill groups across the country.
The CLOUT objectives are:
1. to achieve changes in the law to prevent landfills causing damage to health and human rights, and 2. to provide support and resources to local action groups campaigning against specific sites.
They’ve produced a handy info pack. Contact: 44 Bridgenorth Road, Stourton, Stourbridge D47 6RT Tel: 01384 877020, 07957 132723
ZUT ALORS! FRENCH FARMERS’ ACTIONS
If McDonalds thought they had it bad here after the McLibel case, the French have really got the junk food corporation worried. In September McDonalds took out full page ads in French newspapers saying “Born in the USA, made in France” in a lame attempt to claim the buns and burgers kept French farmers in McWork.
Sheep farmer Jose Bové was released on £10,000 bail on 7th Sept, paid by supporters after he helped trash a McDonalds in Milau. He has become a national hero, with the prime minister amongst his many sympathisers. His trial is set for January. McDonalds was selected by radical farmers union Confederation Paysanne as a symbol of US imperialism after the World Trade Organisation ruled against EU efforts to exclude homone-contaminated beef imports from the US.
TIME FOR TOBIN!
Up to 2 trillion dollars changes hands every day on world currency markets - with only 5% necessary for financing trade in goods and services. The rest is speculation: banks and investment corporations in London and Wall Street gambling with people’s lives. In response, War on Want is calling for the introduction of the Tobin Tax - a small charge on currency transactions. This would discourage speculation, calming the markets to help prevent such crises as have recently occurred in Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil. Additionally, a tax of just 0.25% would raise five times what developing countries get in international aid.
The tax would promote stability, whilst funding anti-poverty programmes on a massive scale. It was first proposed by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin in 1972. The UN has since raised the issue but was slapped down by the US Congress. The Canadian government now leads the international campaign, and the tax is supported by the Finnish government, international trade unions, the Party of European Socialists and a growing number of politicians, economists, NGOs and academics from around the world.
War On Want urges people to rally support for the tax through their MPs and MEPs, and by letting Gordon Brown know they support the idea.
Electronic Disturbance Theatre
The Electronic Disturbance Theatre (EDT) is a small group of cyber activists and artists developing the theory and practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience. Until now the group has focused its electronic actions against the Mexican and U.S. governments to draw attention to the war being waged against the Zapatistas and others in Mexico. But ECD tactics have potential application by a range of political and artistic movements. The Electronic Disturbance Theatre has produced an ECD device called Floodnet, URL-based software used to flood and block an opponent’s web site.
Using the Floodnet device EDT have blockaded President Zedillo’s, the White House’ and Mexico’s Secretaria de Gobernacion’s web-sites, on April 10th, May 10th and June 10th respectively. They have since engaged in on-line battles with the Pentagon. Their next project – SWARM – is under development. "We will continue to develop tools, tactics and theory for the development of HTML activism and the larger umbrella of hacktivism," said Ricardo Dominguez of EDT. More at www.nyu.edu/projects/wray/ecd.html.
GLAD 2 B MAD
On June 20th the first ever Mad Pride took place in London. As recipients of the profit-based products of the pharmaceutical industry (the global equivalent of your local smack-dealer), this diverse community celebrated their differences, as well as the things that make us all the same. In defiance of the stigma imposed on people with mental health difficulties, the event was aimed at reclaiming the word ‘mad’.
People who attended the event described it as ‘mind-boggling’, and happily described the joyous effects of peer and self-respect which it inspired. A positive and well-needed move for solidarity, ‘norms’ were welcome, and poetry and songs united the crowd. Hopefully it is the first of many such events, so stand up and say it loud: ‘I’m a fruitcake and I’m proud!’
NESTLE BRANDED A LIAR!
Nestle’s Chief Executive, Peter Brabeck, flew into London recently hoping to limit damage from an embarrassing ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which upheld all complaints brought by Baby Milk Action against a Nestle advert placed in the Oxford Independent in 1996. Marketing Week (11th Feb) called the ruling “a damning verdict on Nestle, which effectively brands the global corporation a liar, in so far as it has claimed to have marketed infant formula products ethically”.
The ASA considered evidence from Baby Milk Action and Nestle for nearly two years - one of the longest investigations in its history. Nestle’s advert claimed that it marketed infant formula ethically and responsibly both before and after the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes was introduced in 1981.
Nestle controls about 40% of the world baby milk market, and is responsible for more violations of the marketing requirements than any other company. As a result it is the target of a consumer boycott in 18 countries.
Nestle and other baby food companies with a presence in Europe are to be investigated at a public hearing at the European Parliament. In January 1999 the parliament adopted a resolution calling for the adoption of a code of conduct aimed at implementing international conventions and standards such as the WHO marketing code.
At Nestle’s shareholder meeting on 3rd June, Mr Brabeck claimed that the ASA ruling referred only to Nestle’s activities before the babymilk marketing code was introduced. Baby Milk Action is now considering legal action against Mr Brabeck for misleading shareholders. It is also calling for the full text of the ruling to be distributed to all shareholders so they can read it for themselves.
According to UNICEF, reversing the decline in breastfeeding could save the lives of 1.5 million infants who die around the world every year. Where water is unsafe, a bottle-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarrhoea than a breastfed child.
REMEMBER, IF YOU BOYCOTT NESTLE - WRITE AND LET THEM KNOW.
THE CASE AGAINST PERSIMMON
On April 28th, activists from the Campaign Against Stevenage Expansion and other URGENT network members attended the AGM of Persimmon, one of the largest house-building companies in the country. Persimmon are behind plans to trash Hertfordshire’s green belt with 10,000 new homes. The Mayfair Hotel, where the AGM was held, took exception to the clothing of some of the protesters and tried to turn them away, although the company hadn’t notified its shareholders of any particular dress code. One campaigner was sent through the trades entrance to avoid upsetting guests. She was wearing combat trousers. Jeepers - Kate Moss wears them…
Since the protest had been well publicised, with free shares offered in the URGENT newsletter, the AGM was packed with security. Once inside, the local campaigners applied pressure by asking chairman Duncan Davidson all sorts of sticky questions about the company’s environmental track record. Top marks to Persimmon though for their greenwash attempts - the destruction of the Green Belt land West of Stevenage is now known as “Garden City 21”!? Persimmon even echoed the URGENT slogan - ‘Wrong Houses in the Wrong Places’ in their report, with a quotation from the chairman reading: “Building the right houses in the right locations enables Persimmon to provide real customer satisfaction”.
With the proposals still at the planning stage, campaigners are getting organised early. There are plans to step up the protest if the company goes ahead to destroy an area of unspoiled countryside 1 mile wide by 2.5 miles long. Persimmon are under pressure from campaigners elsewhere in the country over numerous other unwanted greenfield developments and in connection with their clear-up operations on contaminated brownfield land.
Contacts: CASE c/o Dyes farm, Langley, nr. Hitchin, Herts SG4 7PQ. http://www.case.org.uk
The Trouble with Tarmac
Seven activists caused a stink at Tarmac’s Extraordinary General Meeting of 8th July. Fed up with the usual "greenwash", the activists came armed with bottles full of comfrey and nettle plant feed – an appallingly smelly liquid. Before the meeting started, they rushed the stage and drenched it, the Directors' Table and posh chairs with the stuff. The rest was poured all over the hall floor, before they were ejected by security.
Meanwhile in the lobby, Tarmac's Chairman, Sir John Banham, was spotted and had a jug of milk poured over his head. The meeting was delayed for half an hour, the chairman humiliated and the Directors had to sit in slurry throughout their meeting.
Less than a fortnight later an Earth First! team attempted to shut down Tarmac’s Middleton Stoney quarry, in the Peak District. Although the action was prevented by an enormous police presence, activists changed their plans and instead occupied the Tarmac site at Manchester Airport, in solidarity with striking workers. The workers there are on strike, picketing against Tarmac, for sacking their safety officer after he tried to improve conditions at one of the sites where over 300 men have only 3 loos between them.