COUNTER INFORMATION

Issue no 55 Winter 2000/ 2001

 

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Counter Information is a free news-sheet - 14,000 copies of the paper edition are distributed round the world. Issue no 55 went to press 5th October 2000. This online edition contains some info which we had to miss out of the paper edition due to lack of space, and also UPDATES to some articles.

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CONTENTS COUNTER INFO NO 55

FOR A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS

People should have the right to move to different parts of the world without their motives being questioned. Resistance world-wide to the racist clamp-down against asylum seekers.

STILL BURNING A NEW WORLD ORDER

Thousands beseige the fortressed meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Prague on 26 September. Plus UPDATE on Mayday 2001.

DEATH COMES RIDING ON A HORSE OF DOLLARS

People fight back against Plan Colombia and its US financed repression.

BOLIVIA'S BURNING

Workers and peasants take direct action against IMF inspired austerity measures.

INSIDE INFO

Resistance inside the prison walls, solidarity reaching through the bars...

Reports on MARK BARNSLEY - with an UPDATE, LEONARD PELTIER, SPANISH PRISONS AND MUMIA ABU JAMAL.

BOLLARDS TO COMBE

Residents in Glasgow's east end use ingenious methods to stop ruthless businessman Combe's illegal waste site. Includes UPDATE on current situation.

REPORTING ON THE EXAMINERS

Exam results are disastrously late for Scotland's school students, but what is the school system all about anyway?

THE UPSTANDING REVOLT

What was behind the fuel price "revolt" in Britain in September?

WORKERS OF McJOBS UNITE

McDonalds workers hit back, as the new McDonalds Workers Resistance paper hits the burger joints. Includes UPDATE.

WORLD TO WIN

Resistance round the globe, shorts to inspire...
including UPDATE on Glasgow swimming pool occupation.

GET INVOLVED

Contacts for the fight back

FOR A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS

For centuries, Brits have emigrated for many reasons. Though often 'economic refugees', they were allowed into Australia, the US, and all over Europe. Refugees fleeing severe economic, racial or political trouble do not receive the same welcome here, although since World War 2, migration out of Britain has been consistently higher than the numbers wanting to settle.

Economic/racial/political motives are always intertwined. People should have the right to relocate without their motives being questioned.

In July, thousands of Eastern European gypsies were judged to have no right to asylum in the UK. This was based on the case of an asylum seeker whose father was beaten to death, his brother attacked and his home ransacked. The Slovakian police did nothing. The right to seek asylum is only granted if the applicant's own state can't or won't protect its people. For the British Government, acknowledging that this is the case in Slovakia would harm international relations. It would also leave their own police and judiciary open to criticism, especially after e.g. the Stephen Lawrence case.

Restrictive immigration policy opens the way for illegal traffic in refugees, whereby criminals profit and asylum seekers die in the backs of lorries.

The Home Office's agency, the Asylum Support Service, has issued contracts to scumbag landlords to house refugees. Home Office and landlords maintain secrecy about the cost of housing and circumstances in the buildings. Resident refugees are threatened if they talk to the press, thrown out if they complain. Landlords make huge profits on accomodation that was deemed unacceptable for British citizens and is often damp, overcrowded and in sink estates where no doctors or other facilities are available. Ironically, 2000 fully trained doctors are amongst Asylum Seekers who are not allowed to work in Britain.

In the detention centres, people are held without charge, without time limit, without decent access to legal representation. These are breaches of internationally recognised human rights.

RESISTANCE

In March, action at Campsfield detention centre resulted in expensive damage to the prison's electricity supply. Campsfield houses around 200 men, mostly political refugees. It is run for profit by Group 4 on behalf of the Immigration Service.

A picket was held at Harmondsworth Detention Centre (capacity 95 detainees), conveniently just outside Heathrow Airport, on 15 July. Protesters climbed the fence and made contact with the refugees and a group of 12 visited refugees the next day. If you know the name of an asylum seeker inside, guards have to let you visit. Visitors are an important source of legal information and moral support for asylum seekers.

Direct action at airports has succesfully prevented several deportations. Following French examples, on 18 July the anti-prison group CAGE leafletted passengers about to board a flight deporting a Zairean refugee. One passenger was arrested for standing up and refusing to let the flight depart. Eventually the refugee was removed from the flight at the pilot's demand. A second deportation, of Kurdish regugee Amanj Gafor, was cancelled when the Home Office heard of planned resistance. Similar actions in Belgium have led to airlines refusing to deport asylum seekers altogether.

As British Airways are still making profits on the backs of asylum seekers, demonstrations to stop the deportations are continuing.

In August, rioting asylum seekers in Australia burned down buildings and tore down fences at the remote detention centre Woomera. Days earlier demonstrations were held in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne against the camps. In June, 700 refugees escaped out of 3 camps to the town centres to protest against their geographical and political isolation.

A Nigerian refugee who raised concern about conditions at Glasgow's YMCA was quickly transferred. Within weeks, Eniola Adewale's asylum application was turned down. A campaign to support him has been stepped up. Contact Edinburgh address below.

In Edinburgh, a march to defend refugees and for equality and diversity took place 24 June. National Days of Action (29 July in England / Wales, 12 Aug in Scotland) were held against the Voucher System. Now it's refugees who get stigmatising food vouchers instead of cash, tomorrow it could be claimants! The Government has announced the system will at least be reviewed - actions are paying off: they need to be stepped up to ensure the abolition of the vouchers and the payment of full benefits to refugees.

Refugees Welcome Here, c/o Peace and Justice Centre, St. John's, Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ www.refugeecampaign.fsnet.co.uk

National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns, 110 Hampstead Rd, Birmingham B20 2QS 0121 - 554 6947 www.ncadc.org.uk

CAGE, c/o PO Box 68, Oxford OX3 1RH 07931401962

CARF, BM Box 8784, London WC1 3XX (anti racist, anti fascist mag)

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STILL BURNING A NEW WORLD ORDER

Estimated crowds of 15,000 to 20,000 people filled the streets of Prague and besieged the fortressed meeting of the IMF and the World Bank on 26 September.

Many were prevented from entering the Czech Republic at the border. 400 of the Italian collective 'Ya basta' and other activists were told their chartered train couldn't enter unless 4 people blacklisted by the FBI for their involvement with Seattle protests got off. In solidarity everyone refused this and the train moved through.

Although there was a generalised focus on opposing the economic brutality of the IMF protest motivations and tactics were varied. INPEG (a group who did much organising for the day of action) declared "We do not support the initiation of any violence against people animals or property. At the same time we support citizens democratic rights to demonstrate. We oppose any measures taken by any authorities to prevent people from exercising this right."

This contrasts with the actions of KRRS (Karnataka state Farmer's Movement) in India who have destroyed a Cargill seed unit with iron bars, burned Monsanto's fields of bio-tech cotton and trashed a Cargill office and a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. It also contrasts with the armed struggle of other communities across the world. Reformist organisations claims of acting in allegiance with non-western and other liberation struggles can be a rip-off.

Medha Patkar, an organiser in the Narmada Bachao Andolan (movement against the flooding of the Narmada Valley), says "The context of developed and developing countries is different. Those who are for reforms (will) realise over a period of time that these institutions are beyond reform. ... We're against the whole capitalist system." And so were plenty on the day of action!

TACTICS

People met beforehand in the INPEG organised convergence centre where people held mass meetings discussing tactics. People formed affinity groups to look out for each other. As a whole the gathering also divided into blue, yellow and pink blocks taking different directions (and suprising the police) on the day.

As the massed ranks of 11,000 riot police clashed with all sections of the march gas-masked, body-padded, helmeted (or not) protestors in the blue and yellow sections (mainly anarchist) pushed back the police, scaling fences and seizing batons and helmets from the police. Stones and molotov cocktails were flung with some police set alight. It looked as if the meeting might be stormed until police reinforcements arrived. Police used gas, water cannons, armed personnel carriers and brutality.

Conference delegates were reported to be alarmed and agitated as they struggled to hear each other above the firing. Delegates were successfully blockaded in their hotels and an opera event was cancelled.

Over 859 people were arrested and subjected to varying degrees of police terror whilst imprisoned. People were bruised, had bones and teeth broken, denied translation rights, water and food, systematically deprived of sleep, kept isolated in the dark for days, handcuffed so they bled, handcuffed standing for hours, sexually and racially insulted, harassed and assaulted, beaten continuously (e.g. for over 30 minutes), flung in the boot of a van, strip-searched, made witness to violence against others and one woman's spine was broken after she 'fell' from a first floor window.

The convergence centre was shut on 27 september and people were scattered about the city. 20 stood in a busy tourist square and blew whistles with signs hung around their necks saying "arrest me". Gradually they attracted a crowd of 200 and moved on gathering to be 1,500 in order to blockade the interior ministry for the immediate release of all prisoners.

On 25 September 40 Czech neo-nazis had marched under heavy police protection 'against the IMF and the left'. Some of them were later given access to police cells in order to hurt and intimidate prisoners. We need to clarify our differences to right wing antiglobalizers. In the words of Peoples Global Action "We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings."

See www.ainfos.ca & http://uk.indymedia.org * Prague prisoner solidarity still desperately needed - 0208 292 2094. Cheques to Prague Prisoner Support via Reclaim the Streets, PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY

DEATH COMES RIDING ON A HORSE OF DOLLARS

BILL CLINTON'S visit to Cartagena (Colombia) on 31 August, to seal Plan Colombia, lead thousands of students, workers, indigenous communities and other people to take over the streets to demonstrate and strike against the new measures of the Plan.

Plan Colombia in fact includes, as one of its strategies, a military component that not only fails to resolve the narco-traffic problem, but also endangers the efforts to build peace, increases illicit crop production, violates the Amazon ecosystem, aggravates the humanitarian and human rights crisis, multiplies the problem of forced displacement, and worsens the social crisis with fiscal adjustment policies. In its social component, the Plan is limited to attending to some of the tangential causes and effects of the conflict.

In early August 700,000 people struck against the austerity measures and record unemployment imposed by the Colombian government. 15,000 workers marched through the capital Bogotá.

On 29 August dozens of students forced their way into the main offices of the five-countries Andean Parliament in Bogotá where they detained 20 employees plus, Ruben Velez Nunez, Ecuadorian legislator and parliamentary secretary-general.

On 31 August thousands of workers joined the students of the National University of Bogotá. During the street battles between students, workers and police, 3 people were murdered and many injured. In other main cities of the country similar events took place.

At the beginning of September, anti-riot police went to the U'wa community in Cubara to evict all civilians present in a 500 metre radius surrounding the exploratory well site of Gibraltar. The purpose of this eviction is to help Occidental Petroleum bring machinery to the new drill site. On 22 September the Colombian Embassy in London was picketed in solidarity with the U'wa people.

On 16 Sept. paramilitaries murdered 4 and kidnapped 16 people from the Embera-Katio indigenous community.

BOLIVIA'S BURNING

THE CORRUPT politics of the Bolivian government meets the interests of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but imposes austerity on the Bolivian people, eg through the new Water Tax.

This has triggered spontaneous workers and peasants direct actions, without the direction of any party or union. Groups of peasants have destroyed a coffee field and factory, set offices of a Shell subsidiary on fire after an oil leakage damaged the peasants' field, and taken over a local Council office.

In April the government imposed martial law. Police carried out raids all around the country. 55 peasants were kidnapped and tortured by the army. The army occupied Sucre University. 5 people were murdered by state forces and 35 shot and wounded.

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INSIDE INFO

MARK BARNSLEY

IN 1994 Mark Barnsley was fitted-up with a 12 year prison sentence for defending himself after being attacked and beaten up by 15 drunken students. He has fought this injustice for more than 6 years, rather than keep quiet and go for parole. Mark had a long previous history of radical political activism, which had made him the target of police harassment in the past. Prison authorities have treated him with brutality and harassment, constantly moving him from prison to prison. For more info and details of a new booklet about Mark's case contact: Justice for M. Barnsley-PO Box 381, Huddersfield, HD1 3XX, UK or barnsleycampaign@hotmail.com

UPDATE
Mark's address: Mark Barnsley is no longer at HMP Frankland. He was moved at 5.30am on Thursday, February 1st, 2001. Mark is now at: HMP Wakefield, 5 Love Lane, Wakefield, WF2 9AG, England.

LEONARD PELTIER

LEONARD PELTIER, a Native American activist, was jailed 24 years ago for the murders of two FBI agents, even though there was absolutely no proof of his guilt. A United States Parole Commission Examiner, who refused to read a medical report on Leonard's health, denied Leonard's application for parole last June 12th. The report showed that Leonard's health is deteriorating and has been not treated appropriately by prison medical staff. For more info, www.lpsg.co.org

SPANISH PRISONS

EARLY THIS year Spanish prisoners at the "FIES" isolation units had co-ordinated actions inside and outside the prisons to demand their rights. Prisoners were denied entry to the prison courtyard, beaten up with steel bars, left naked and handcuffed to their bed for days and their correspondence interfered with. The actions taken by the Prisoners went from distributing propaganda to hunger strikes. Support groups have been very active especially in Barcelona. More info contact, AAPEL, Blasco Garai, 2 &endash; 08004 Barcelona, Spain.

MUMIA MUST LIVE!

JUDGE JOHN who will be hearing Mumia's appeal in the federal court, officially refused to accept into the court record all four of the amicus briefs filed in support of Mumia's defence. There is now a "Writ of Mandamus" to demand that Judge John accept the briefs. Contact the legal observers at 651-649-4579(US) or download a version from http://www.refuseandresist.org/mumia/091500joinder.pdf

For more info on Mumia contact International Concerned Family and Friends of MAJ, P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 Contact Mumia at- Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburgh, PA 15370

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BOLLARDS TO COMBE

RUTHLESS BUSINESSMAN William Combe has been trying for 18 months to operate a polluting illegal waste site in Gartocher Terrace in Glasgow's East End. He's backed by the might of Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police.

But the local residents refuse to give in, devising ever more ingenious methods of direct action to protect their and their children's health. In August residents constructed their own bollards in the street. These DIY traffic calming measures allowed cars to pass - but prevented the passage of Combe's big skip lorries.

The police and Council, ever eager to assist in the poisoning of the working class in the pursuit of profit, ordered the bollards be removed. The residents refused. After a week, the Council Roads Department ripped up the bollards.

On 17 August supporters of Gartocher residents distributed a leaflet outside a Glasgow City Council meeting asking some pertinent questions : "Why did Council Planning Committee Convenor Ronald Davey and Councillor Jim Coleman push through residential planning premission for a site that is obviously industrial?"

"Why did Council planning Department official Phil Gelthorpe warn Combe of a Council inspection of the site so that he could remove his skips? Why is Gelthorpe appearing as a character witness in a court case where Combe is charged with harassing a Gartocher Terrace resident?"

A blow of solidarity against Combe was struck when 150 participated in a moving street carnival through the local area on 27 May. Shettleston police station was beseiged, and demonstrators stormed Combe's Gartocher Terrace compound. Fencing was dismantled, the ventilation improved in his industrial units, and his CCTV cameras creatively re-designed with large stones.

Another mass action of support may soon be needed. In late September Combe was threatening that in early November he would bring in a 70 foot low loader artic with a 11 and a half foot wide JCB! A resident told us "He's no getting in - and that's it."

Contact The Residents on 07979 836223.

UPDATE

Combe's bid to bring in the giant JCB was thwarted by the mobilisation of the residents, accompanied by some supporters. On 6th November 2000, the day he had threatened to bring in the JCB, Combe drove up and down the Terrace, saw the residents ready for him - and the artic and JCB never appeared.

The latest news (late March 2001) is that Combe's lorries have not run along the street for several months, though he still owns the Gartocher Terrace site. The residents are maintaining their vigilance, till the rubbish rat leaves for good.

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REPORTING ON THE EXAMINERS

In Scotland in August controversey raged over the exam result fiasco. A school student in Scotland writes:

Thousands of students have been angered by the comedy of errors by the SQA, the quango responsible for Scottish exams. This has prompted some to call on the Minister of Education, Sam Galbraith, to resign and for the SQA to be made accountable - i.e. to those lackeys in Parliament.

But such criticisms ignore the nature of the exam system, and the whole compulsory schooling system of which it's part. The school system is a tool of capitalism, ensuring pupils are taught what will make them useful for business rather than what they need to know for themselves. You learn what they say is true, what they say is important - what will be in the exam - rather than what you feel you should know.

The exam system falsely exults the academic as somehow superior to other work. Those who fail this charlatan's test of merit are pushed towards a life of poverty whilst such punishment is justified under the lie that they just couldn't have worked hard enough at school. As one of those angry Higher students I would dearly love to see Mr. Galbraith go. However the most important thing is that I want to see a time when people learn and work for their own benefit, without want.

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THE UPSTANDING REVOLT

To paraphrase : never have so many watched so few do so little with such effect.

A determined group of haulage contractors, backed by pressure groups such as Farmers in Action, created the impression that an anti-government rebellion was underway in September. Now a 60 day ultimatum threatens the Labour Government as the opportunist Tories rise in the polls.

The example of French government capitulation to lorry drivers and farmers led to copy-cat actions in Britain, Belgium, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. The restriction in production by the oil-producing countries in OPEC led to sharp rises in fuel.

The traffic go-slows gave way to blockades of the fuel depots. The haulage contractor demands for special dispensation for their industry and rural communities became intertwined with consumer resentment over indirect taxation policy.

'Mysteriously', the police who had mobilised aginst the miners in 1985, and now have much greater powers, found themselves 'unable' to protect tanker drivers aginst 'intimidation'. Faced with complicity of Oil compaines dragging their feet, and instructing their tanker drivers not to venture out, police inaction and a concerted media campaign, the government was made to look powerless.

Eventually, as the conspiracy became clearer, the Government highlighted the effects on the health service, passive support from motorists began to evaporate and the supply was resumed with blockades suspended. The Oil companies, appearing largely blameless up till then, then hiked up the price of fuel!

The media portrayed the event as an orderly crisis led by upstanding citizens. The rebellion was framed totally in terms of the National Interest as consumers and the interests of business. With 'the silent majortiy' adopting the narrow focus as 'motorists', environmental imperatives, such as controlling green-house emissions and promoting efficient public transport to reduce vehicle usage, have been set back.

It is appealing to witness Blair and Brown's yuppie Government in disarray. But direct action within a framework of Nationalism and small business interests works to the detriment of class consciousness. It undermines an awareness that the planet's climate and environment is being steadily destroyed by allegiance to selfish, profit-driven blinkered motives.

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WORKERS OF McJOBS UNITE!

Mc DONALDS has come to be as closely associated with low pay and poor working conditions as it has with hamburgers. If 'Big Mac' has entered our language then so have terms such as 'McJobs' and 'McDonaldization'.

For McDonalds employees, the problems endemic to the job are exaggerated by the company's idiotic rules and imbecilic propaganda. So it's no surprise that many of us informally resist the company in whatever way we can.

McDonalds Workers' Resistance (MWR) has been formed by a group of McDonalds workers who want to take resistance to the company a stage further. We believe that if we can only realise our collective power then there is nothing we can't win, and we think we can do this best without leaders or hierarchies but by working at a local level to begin to control our working lives.

MWR has no membership or office bearers and because of the companies obsession with stamping out all who oppose it, we can't be open about our involvement with the group. This has not stopped us from scoring small but encouraging victories, for example, some of us finally received unpaid bonuses, some of which dated back years.

Our methods involve sabotage and disobedience with 'working to rule' being especially effective, but we also encourage employees to know and enforce those few rights which they do have.

Another aim is to counter McDonalds indoctrinating propaganda and as part of this we've produced a workers' paper called McSues (McNews being the company's rag). Although MWR was originally concentrated at one store in Glasgow, we've made contact with like minded employees, working locally and in England, and hope that McSues will act as a catalyst, encouraging more employees to take the step from hating the company, to fighting it.

We see our struggle against McDonalds as being about more than winning ourselves a slightly higher wage (important though such victories are). Rather, we see direct action which aims to give us some control over our working conditions as an integral part of the long process of collectively regaining sovereignty over our lives.

McDonalds is the epitome of triumphalist capitalism, arrogant and contemptuous of those who oppose it. It may soon be surprised - the workers united are more possible than they can powerfully imagine!

UPDATE

McDonalds Workers Resistance, PO Box 3828, Glasgow G41 1YU, SCOTLAND.
Write for copies of McSues to distribute to McDonalds workers in your area.

View McSues online at http://www.mcspotlight.org/

WORLD TO WIN

RECLAIMING AULD REEKIE

THE mid-summer Edinburgh street party was a huge success. 1000 people defied police and reclaimed streets all over the city centre for over 4 hours on 17 June.

Despite a front page article in the local press urging the police not to permit any disruption, and despite the deployment of horses and several van loads of polis, people by-passed police lines and took over Princes St., the city's main throughfare. Drummers and a pedal driven sound system played, a giant puppet cavorted, and there was dancing in the streets.

As a leaflet for the day put it, "for once our space will be our space, collectively controlled for our pleasure, not ruled by the few for their profit...."

www.reshape.org.uk

ACTIVELY SEEKING ENJOYMENT

UNEMPLOYED people from Bristol Benefits Action Group took over a Labour Party office in Bristol and transformed it into an Enjoyment Zone as part of the 23 March 2000 European Day of Action against Workfare.

Following similar anti workfare actionsthe previous December, the occupation highlighted how greedy work-pimps like Reed and Manpower, involved in the New Deal and Employment Zones, are profiting from the privatisation of the Benefits system.

Alongside the music, food, games and party poppers was a stunning performance from BBAG's very own cross-dressing lap dancer . "I'd rather be a slave to sex than a slave to work", he declared.

BBAG, Box 77, 82 Colston St., Bristol.

DENOUNCING THE BAMS

CLAIMANTS picketed the British Medical Association's AGM on 26 June to oppose their collusion with Doctors participating in the Government Benefits Agency Medical Services examinations. These examinations are biased to try and deny claimants disability benefits.

In March Brighton Against Benefit Cuts and Incapacity Action picketed the Benefits Agency Medical Services offices in Brighton. The demonstrators, some in bloody bandages and wheelchairs, denounced the BAMS through a megaphone.The demo followed the BAMS cutting off benefits to local ex-postman Jack Watson, despite his suffering two heart attacks.

Incapacity Action 01227 276159 Brighton Against Benefit Cuts 01273 540717

Leaflet on government medical examinations from Edinburgh Claimants, c/o 17 W.Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA. See the leaflet at www.autonomous.org.uk/ec/

GAY PRIDE DEFIES POPE

200,000 took over the streets of Rome on 8 July for the World Gay Pride march and festival. Gays and straights came together to defy attempts to stop the event by the Vatican, enraged at the alternative to its own 'Year 2000' celebrations.

Anarchists, autonomists, workplace activists in COBAS, and anti clerical activists marched in a 30,000 strong section, proclaiming "Against Papal power, take anti clerical direct action."

Info anarchist weekly Umanita Nova fat@inrete.it

FAIR FARES = FREE FARES

RAILWAY PASSENGERS took direct action for "free transport for all" in the Rhone Alps area of France on 6 May. 20 passengers travelled from Lyon to Chambery for free, a picnic was hold in Chambery station, a train was blockaded and a reduced of 11% of the normal cost was negotiated for the return journey.

The actions were organised by several C.N.T. collectives and other local anarchists.

Info Combat Syndicaliste (CNT)

POST RESTRAINT

A 10 hour blockade of the Vancouver distribution depot of right-wing daily, the National Post by Canadian trade unionists and anti-mass media activists on May 1st stopped local circulation.

DINO DIRECT

Demonstrators dressed as dinosaurs cycled through Calgary, Canada in June at the World Petroleum Congress pointing out how global ecological damage is linked to continuing car use & fuel abuse.

PLEASANT ACTION

3,500 Postal workers at Mt. Pleasant Sorting Office in London aided by solidarity action from 400 postal; workers who unload mail at Heathrow airport stopped delivery of mail in the City of London on 31st August. The protest is a 'warning shot' against Royal Mail plans including moving the international mail sorting to a new plant in Berkshire.

SIMON JONES

On 1st September, 70 demonstrators including the family of Simon Jones killed in an 'industrial accident' on his first day at Shoreham Docks in Sussex, marched to the Crown Prosecution Service demanding that the company, Euromin, be brought to Court. Each year around 283 workers are killed at work. One friend of Simon was arrested during the demo when the police forced the protest on to the pavement www.simonjones.org.uk

DUDLEY MORE

600 mostly women NHS workers in Dudley, West Midlands, stepped up strike action on 3rd Sept. with a week long stoppage, against plans to transfer their jobs to a private firm Summit Healthcare under Labour's Private Finance Initiative [PFI]

CODE RED

300,000 workers in 18 Russian cities from the Baltic to the Pacific protested on 17th May against a new Labour Code removing workers' rights and enforcing a 56 hour working week! The resistance is greatest in Kalingrad near Poland and amongst dockers in coastal siberia.

BROKEN PROMISES

School pupils in Aberdeenshire coastal villages continue to resist the imposition of charges for bussing to Banff Academy. When the MacDuff school closed 30 years ago free bussing was promised to defuse protests.

IF IT WASNAE FOR THE WIMMIN

The latest example of resilient determined action against employers is from Huntingdon, near Cambridge, where 11 women at Forframe have stood out for a decent wage rise against their boss Mr Perl. The workers picketed Boots where their frames sell for 130 times what they are paid for each picture frame & enlisted the support of ex-miners in a demonstration outside Perl's mansion.

MAN OF STRAW

A demonstration against a 5 mile exclusion zone against a traditional gypsy horse fair was held on 9th Sept.. The traditional fair held for more than 400 years at Horsmonden in Kent has been banned by Home Secretary, Jack Straw, using the Criminal Justice Act to prevent people gathering on the common. [see Schnews 8-9-00] Meanwhile an unofficial gypsy site in Plymouth has been relocated after being invaded by sheriff officers and the land, including trees, uprooted on the instructions of the National Trust!

NO SWEAT!

During the Democratic Party Convention in Los Angeles on 17th August thousands of local residents and workers joined anarchists in a march through the garment district where workers cheered from upper-storey windows. The march was then joined by antimilitarist protesters against the U.S. Navy bombing of Vieques in Puerto Rico.

CANADIAN PIE

Jean Chretien the first Minister in the Canadian Government received a pie in his face in early August to reward him for his support of the bio-tech industry destroying planet earth.

WALKING BUS

Parents in Maidenhead and St. Albans have both set up groups of parents to act as pedestrian 'drivers' of walking schoolkids fed up with their kids individually having to brave congested traffic in local streets.

SELECT PARTICIPATION

1,000 angry youth rioted against repressive Quebec City police in February 'protecting' a meeting of Parti Quebecois politicians & hand-picked youth.

LILLE ALIGHT

Following the unprovoked killing of Riad Hamlaoui in Lille on 18th April riots erupted in working class suburbs with molotov cocktails replying to Police teargas. 71 young people were arrested over consecutive nights of rioting which included trying to set two police stations alight and iron bars injured riot police.

WOODEN SPOON

Mexico City women celebrated international housework day by 'downing tools' and banging wooden spoons on pots and pans in street demos involving employees, housewives and some of the 1.7 million domestic maids to Mexico's upper class.

DAM BEATTY

A campaign to expose the fact that 25,000 seek eviction in kurdish Turkey to make way for the Ilisu Dam funded potentially by £200 million from the British Government. 50 members of the campaign stripped off to their T shirts at the AGM of Balfour Beatty in May and were evicted by Group 4 heavies.

COMPANY POLICY

The AGM of Rio Tinto Zinc was disrupted on 12th May by protesters highlighting the destruction of the Kelian community in Indonesia [partizans@gn.apc.org ]

MAST MENACE

Residents at Burnage, Manchester have successively taken direct action against an Orange mast near their homes [see Direct Action numbers 15&16]

BREAKING BORDERS

A camp organised by Polish anarchists violated border regulations where Poland meets Ukraine & Slovakia in July. A demonstration was held at the Lutowiski crossing.

GLASGOW POOL OCCUPIED

With no consultation of the users and folks on the Southside of Glasgow, the Glasgow City Council has ordered the closure of Govanhill swimming pool. On 21st March 2001 members of the community occupied the building, and as at 10 April the occupation was still going strong. Glasgow's Govanhill Pool: Southside Against Closure say "We can stand up to the council and keep our Swimming Pool open."
Come down to the pool in Calder St., contact, see http://crowd.to/saveourpool

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* 5th May group POB 2474, London, N8 (Turkish/Kurdish @'s) * 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton St., London SE17 * Anarchist Trade Union Network, BOX EMAB, 88 Abbey Street, Derby, DE22 3SQ. Grrp7763 at aol.com * Black Flag, BM Hurricane, London WC1 3XX (@ mag) * Class War, PO Box 467, London E8 3QX * Direct Action, PO Box 29, SW PDO, Manchester M15 5HW (Solidarity Fed mag) (also Education Worker Network address) * Federation Anarchiste, 145 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, France *Haringey Solidarity Group,Box 2474, London N8. 020 8374 5027 hsg@clara.net *Industrial Workers of the World, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB *Kate Sharpley Library, BM Hurricane, London WC1 3XX *Kommunist Kranti, Majdoor Library, Autopin Jhuggi, Faridabad-121001, India *Lancaster Anarchist Group, c/o The Basement, 78A Penny Street, Lancaster *London Greenpeace, 5 Caledonian Rd., London N1 *Movement Against the Monarchy, POB 14672, London E9 5UQ *NUM Advice Centre www.minersadvice.co.uk *Reclaim the Streets, PO Box 9656, London N4 4 JY, 020 7281 4621 *S26 Collective, PO Box 9417, Birmingham B13 9WA s26brum@hotmail.com * S.Herts Sol.Fed PO Box 493, St. Albans, AL1 5TW * Umanita Nova, C.so Palermo 46, 10152, Torino, Italy (@ weekly) Distros:* Active BM Active, London WCIN 3XX *AK PO Box 12766, Edinburgh EH8 9YE Write for listing. Thanks to Anarchist Graphics, Box 5, 167 Fawcett Rd, Southsea, Hants PO4

* THE AGITATOR pamphlet - excellent source for addresses of groups and centres in Britain, Ireland and round the world - £1 + 30p p&p from Haringey Solidarity Group PO Box 2474, London N8. The pamphlet is being gradually put on the Web at Haringey Solidarity Group's site http://hsg.cupboard.org

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