NEWS: UK

CHINA TOWN TO GO?
There's a magic trick happening across the UK, from Carmarthen to Queensway. One minute there's a friendly, popular, eclectic, public space, and the next there's a shiny corporate edifice, complete with bans on political activities, soaring rents, out-of-town operators and the major retailers' shop-fronts. Camden market was to be next in line for the treatment, but currently heading up the bill is London's much-loved Chinatown.

In May 2003, the property developers Rosewheel Ltd bought the 200 year lease of Chinatown's Sandringham Building and its surrounding area. One of the busiest and most vibrant parts of Chinatown, the area's home to local shops (including a Chinese newsagent and a fishmonger) and is the site of the famous Pagoda monument, which was funded by Chinese community businesses to protect the Feng Shui of the community. Rosewheel's development plans include moving it.

Although Rosewheel claim to have 'consulted widely' with the community, community representatives say that the first residents knew of the 'redevelopment' was when they were served with a notice to quit. Rents are set to increase by as much as 500%. Tenants who, despite this, have requested the right to return after the development have been told that they are hardly in a position to compete with shops like Tesco, Next and William Hill - the target retailers the developers aim to attract.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Rosewheel Ltd feel able to act in this way. Their owner is millionaire Robert Bourne, referred to by the Guardian as a 'property magnate'. In fact, Mr Bourne is much more than a mere magnate. A former supporter of the Conservatives, to the tune of more than £40,000, he switched his allegiance to New Labour in 1998. Red Star Research (www.red-star-research.org.uk) reports that in one year alone he donated £100,000 to New Labour, and cites the party that he and his wife gave for Peter Mandelson as 'one of the most lavish occasions anyone can remember' . He is still, however, a good friend of Margaret Thatcher's PR man, Tim Bell, and her advertiser, Charles Saatchi.

'We are in fighting mood' says Chinese civil rights campaigner Jabez Lam, undaunted by the spectacle of the rich and powerful preparing to carve up yet another slice of life. 'We are being financially blackmailed, Westminster Council are washing their hands, and the politically wealthy are trying to take over, but the Chinese people have been living and working here for decades. We made this place prosperous. We live here. We are in fighting mood'.

CONTACT: www.minquan.org.uk

AIRPORT PLEDGE TAKES OFF
A pledge where people sign up to take direct action if the Goverment goes ahead with plans to expand the UK's airports has so far proved a resounding success, with more than 1300 people across the UK signing up in just over a month.

Leading transport and environmental organisations called on people to sign the pledge in response to the Government`s Aviation White Paper launched last December. It tells the Government that those who sign it are ready to take personal action to oppose runway development through taking part in demonstrations, writing letters, carrying out direct action or taking political action.

The White Paper forecast a near-trebling of passengers using UK airports over the next 30 years. It predicted there could be runways built at Stansted, Heathrow or Gatwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as significant expansion at most of the UK`s other airports.
The anti-airport expansion pledge was backed by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, People and the Planet, Rising Tide and Transport 2000, together with local protest groups HACAN ClearSkies and Swansea-based Airport No Expansion. They were joined at the end of October by the Green Party, so far the only political party opposing the expansion of the aviation sector. The environmental groups are challenging the Prime Minister to back up his recent speech on climate change with tough action to cut global emissions. Aviation is the fastest-growing contributor to global warming.
George Marshall of Rising Tide, who is administering the pledge, said: "We expect a huge number of people will sign the pledge. There is widespread anger at the Government`s aggressive plans to expand airports. It is inconceivable that people will sit back and let this happen. If the Government does not listen, I think protest, including direct action, is inevitable."

Tony Juniper, Director of Friends of the Earth, said: "The Government`s go-for-growth plans for aviation must be stopped. They completely contradict Tony Blair`s pledge to fight climate change and will cause immense damage to our countryside, our communities and our natural habitats."

TO SIGN UP:
Airport Pledge
16B Cherwell Street
Oxford
OX4 1BG
PHONE: +44 (0)1865 241097
OR: www.airportpledge.org.uk
READ THE PLEDGES: http://www.airportpledge.org.uk/read.php

'THE CORPORATION' BLASTS THROUGH THE OPPOSITION
On its opening weekend (October 29th) the film 'The Corporation' was seen by more people than all the other new films opening at the time, and had audience numbers second only to Shark Tale. Reviews were uniformly excellent. “Superb documentary giving big business a kick in the tentacles” - The Observer; “If this is the year of the documentary, this is the documentary of the year…” -The Evening Standard; "Outstanding...a terrific piece of filmmaking" - the Daily Telegraph. To receive an email letting you know when the film is playing in your area, to be informed of film-related events, and to be on the list to receive
special offers when the DVD is released next spring,

JOIN THE MAIL LIST:
http://www.hellocoolworld.com/thecorporation/maillist.cfm
Or TEL: 0207 153 4432

PRISONERS OF PROFIT
On Saturday 27th November, hundreds of people gathered outside Campsfield Removal Centre, in Kidlington, Oxford, to protest against the fact that it still exists. Refugees and migrants have been detained in Campsfield for the last eleven years. Since it opened Campsfield has been privately run by Group Four, notorious for racism, cruelty and general incompetence. For more information, see , , the CW Group 4 profile and back issues of Corporate Watch, and the Guardian.

In May 2004 it was announced that Global Solutions Limited (GSL), the section of Group 4 that runs Campsfield, was to be bought by two venture capital companies, Englefield Capital and Electra Partners Europe, meaning that there will be an even greater focus than usual on making money out of the detention facilities it manages. GSL is especially proud of its work in the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnership (PPP) sectors - ie work with government bodies on privatising (or 'outsourcing') public services such as schools, hospitals and prisons. The company operates prisons and detention centres, among other services, in Britain, Australia and South Africa.

Campsfield's eleventh anniversary comes just after the Home Office has given the go-ahead to another detention centre in Oxfordshire, just outside Bicester. This one will be the first of a controversial new scheme of 'accommodation centres', where asylum seekers will be kept while their claims are processed. The centre is supposed to be run along the lines of an open prison, although it sounds as though its location will make it very difficult for inmates to go anywhere else. It will have the capacity to accommodate 750 men, women and children. GSL has been given a ten-year contract to run the new centre, which will be built by Carillion. Carillion was created by enthusiastic road-builder Tarmac in 1999. It shares with GSL a history of investment in PFI/PPP schemes (see Corporte Watch's profile on the UK construction industry), and is listed on GSL's website as a 'partner'.

The New Labour government is a keen advocate of PFI/PPPs, continuing where the Tories left off in outsourcing as many public services as possible to private companies. Aside from the fact that these prisons shouldn't exist at all, privatising them leaves the prisoners particularly vulnerable to abuse, as Group 4/GSL's experiences at Campsfield and Yarl's Wood have shown. And as soon running prisons becomes a profit-making activity, it is in someone's interests that as many people as possible are in them. This is evident from the American experience, where prison privatisation has already gone much further than it has here and one advocate is quoted saying: 'It's like a hotel with a guaranteed occupancy'.
In the UK, one of the ways in which detainees are affected by the many layers of bureaucracy between the Home Office and various private companies is that they are moved around between prisons, making it hard for them to maintain contact with friends, family members and lawyers, as well as being generally exhausting. By law the Immigration Service is allowed to move detainees between centres at very short notice and for no particular reason, and their legal representatives are not always told where they have been moved to, making bail applications and appeals against removal even more difficult.

Campsfield seems to have a particularly high turnover of people at the moment. One source described an incident in which someone was moved from Campsfield to Dungavel (detention centre in Scotland run by Premier Detention Services) and back the next day. There have also been reports concerning GSL's definition of 'appropriate force' exerted on detainees who resist removal, including someone who claimed to have had an arm and a leg broken.

The Bicester Refugee Support group was campaigning against the building of the centre. Now that it looks certain to go ahead, the group is focusing on promoting the rights of asylum seekers and looking for ways to support them when they arrive, working with Asylum Welcome (<http://www.asylum-welcome.supanet.com/>)
www.bicesterrefugeesupport.org.uk <http://www.bicesterrefugeesupport.org.uk/>
There are monthly demos outside Campsfield detention centre on the last Saturday of every month, see www.closecampsfield.org.uk <http://www.closecampsfield.org.uk/>
On 25th September 2004, 1105 people were detained in this country under the Immigration Act of 2000. Times they had spent in detention ranged from just days to over a year . Campsfield has the capacity to hold 180 inmates. The Home Office currently has plans to expand it to hold 300.

GSL is involved in running other prisons and detention centres including Yarls Wood, Oakington, Tinsley House, and HMP Altcourse. Look out for a new profile on the company coming soon to the Corporate Watch website. In the meantime, our favourite quote from GSL Australia: 'Mandatory detention is not imprisonment.'

`As soon as I saw it was a prison, I was very, very sad and depressed. I couldn't believe that they put me there. You don't know what will happen to you next. You just live like an animal. You just wait. You don't know about tomorrow, or after tomorrow.' (former Campsfield detainee, Radio 4, 20/10/94)
An article about the UK exporting PFI/PPP ideas to other countries: <http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/10/19/exploitation-on-tap/>
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) works with detained migrants. <http://www.biduk.org/index.htm>