CRAP ARREST of the WEEK for Taking the Biscuit
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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK For taking the biscuit... The crunch came during a mid-December’s night party in Cornwall for one bunch of SchNEWS reading punks when the drum- mer in a local hardcore band was arrested for throwing chocolate digestive biscuits at the outside of the bar he’d just gigged in. His Friday 26th January 2007 Free/Donation Issue 573 mate was then arrested, beaten, CS sprayed, cuffed and locked in isolation for asking why he was being arrested, whilst another was nicked for trying to fi lm it and calling the police “F*ckers” when he couldn’t. Police overreaction perhaps? Crumbs. body. The move to the Cowley Club over A PAUSE FOR THOUGHT AS SchNEWS MAKES THE FIRST MOVE... the new year, leading to the longest break SchNEWS has ever taken has plunged us Welcome back for 2007 as SchNEWS The Cowley Club is one of a network into a bout of navel-gazing. enters its thirteen year of producing this of autonomous social centres across Britain Whereas our video collective – SchMOV- ‘ere news sheet you hold in your hand. The – and beyond – some of which arose in a IES - is new, evolving and going from new year has brought a signifi cant change wave since 2005, building up to the G8 strength to strength (there is a new DVD out for us – leading to a longer Xmas break than Summit in Scotland, while others arose this month), the newsletter and the website usual. We’ve quit the Metway, the Leveller’s from previous movements, such as Brad- are formats which settled into place years building, and moved into the Brighton’s ford’s 1 in 12 Club, which was started in ago. The fact that it’s survived is partly be- autonomous social centre, the Cowley Club. 1981, or Kebele in Bristol which started cause it’s been a popular format, and partly Thanks must go to the Levellers, who back in in the mid-nineties. These ‘legit’ social because it’s been a sustainable format on a 1994 gave Justice? (Brighton’s anti-Crimi- centres rise out of the squatter movement weekly basis for the size of the crew. But the nal Justice Act collective) an offi ce to base as veterans seek to break the eviction cycle. media world has caught up with SchNEWS their myriad of activities - from direct action Either way – whether a centre is part of the – subjects we banged on about for years like to community squats to a certain weekly new wave, or part of previous movements, globalisation, privatisation, climate change, newsletter. The band probably thought the or totally separate from these circles, these corporate crime, and the environment are raggle-taggle Justice? crew wouldn’t need centres are all about creating community now common place not only in the Guard- the offi ce for very long – and indeed Justice? spaces away from commercialisation and ian and the Indy but the Daily Mail, BBC, ran its natural course after several years - but prejudice – a place where you can nurse and Woman’s Weekly. Is SchNEWS now they ended up giving the offi ce to us for free a cup of rooibosch tea all afternoon, and fl ogging a dead hobby horse? for eight years, providing a solid base for where activities cultural and political can What’s missing from the mainstream is SchNEWS to go on to produce nearly 600 happen. For a list of autonomous social news of grass-roots resistance. People all issues in our twelve years there. centres in Britain see over the page. over the world actually struggling to make a What took us away from the Metway was change rather than waiting for politicians to the opportunity to be at Brighton’s social CAUGHT IN THE NET Likewise SchNEWS is part of a network of do it for ‘em - and especially here in the UK, centre, and closer to the hub of libertarian ac- where there is a chance for you, personally, tivity here. The Cowley Club was opened as alternative media, which has the same goals of creating an autonomous media free from to get involved and do something about it. If a co-op in 2003, and likewise has its roots in you’ve been a regular reader of SchNEWS, the local direct action milieu, and the string commercial forces. Obviously these days the network of regional Indymedia websites or if you’ve only just picked one up, how of squatted street-front cafes often under the about sending us your feedback? (Don’t ‘Anarchist Teapot’ banner. The Cowley Club is at the heart of it all, but on top of this there’s a plethora of regional or campaign worry, we haven’t quite got key demographic is a cafe/bookshop by day, a pub and gig focus groups in mind). E-mail us and release venue at night, and is the centre of a whirl of specifi c websites, publications, independent video crews and more. the bees in your bonnet, or go one step fur- countless groups, meetings, screenings, open ther and get involved, particularly if you’re days, jumble sales and gatherings. The work of video crews like Glasgow’s Camcorder Guerillas (or SchMOVIES) in Brighton. And wherever you are, please Just as SchNEWS is run entirely by an continue to send your stories into us, and unpaid (and unemployable) crew, all roles feeds into free online distribution points like ClearerChannel, while at the grass roots if SchNEWS isn’t the right thing for your at the Cowley Club, from cooking, cleaning, town, start your own newsletter, or see what’s bar and admin are undertaken by volunteers. level we fi nd that there is still a healthy amount of highly localised free newslet- in your area. And if the food in your social Both projects show what people can do centre isn’t quite to your taste, well don’t just when they cooperate, and put the building ters around the country such as Gagged in South Wales, or Gay Bishop in Reading, moan, get involved with the kitchen crew! of a better community - and a sustainable In fact this extends to everything:– if world - as a higher priority than doing the or Brighton’s virtually fact free Rough Music - proving that the web can’t reach what you see around you is beyond the pale sort of jobs which only reward you with new don’t just sit in a pub moaning about it, get cars and fl at-screen TVs. the places a piece of paper still can. Again, this is no new phenomena – it serves a need off your arse and do something about it. ONE FOOT IN THE RAVE? which has always been there - and what we If not you, who? If not now, when? Do-it- Alternative media and the co-op movement have now carries on from the FIN’s (Free yourself. That’s the one constant thing we in Britain are just pieces in a larger jigsaw of Information Network) zines produced on a have been banging on about for 12 years creating a sustainable and egalitarian future regional basis which were a popular format and, whatever else, will continue to do so. – in the here and now – and not waiting for in the years between the anarch-punk zines a utopian revolution which isn’t gonna hap- of the eighties, and now the web. pen. Both show that these types of project Which brings us to the next point... can, and in fact must be, embedded in the SchNEWS has survived by growing with community on a long term, cross-genera- the political networks it is part of – and tional and multi-racial basis – proving that the technologies (it was around before anarchism is for life, not just for yer two mainstream use of the web). It has (tried post-degree year’s dole-drums. This move- to) stay relevant by keeping involved in ment is inhabited – and inhibited at times - these movements, and has always been by some hard cases here for the long haul. open to feedback and participation by any- WE ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE Here’s a list of Social Centres around the country Bradford: 1in12 Club, 21-23 Albion St, Brad- London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate ford, BD1 2LY. Set up in 1981 as a centre for St, London E1 1ES. Tel 020 7377 9088 Web: the low waged and unemployed and still going www.londonarc.org Email:info@londonarc. on strong. Tel 01274 734160 Web www.1in12. org Collectively-run building providing space go-legend.net email [email protected] and resources for people and groups working Coventry Peace House, 311 Stoney Stanton on self-organised, non-hierarchical projects for Rd, CV6 5DS, Tel 02476663031 Web www. radical social change. covpeacehouse.org.uk Email covpeace@gn. London (East): The RampART Creative Centre apc.org A housing co-operative and a peace and SOCIAL CENTRES GATHERING environmental centre connected to local activist and Social Space, 15-17 Rampart Street , E1 2LA, is a large occupied building in East London, hosting Jan 27th – a space for discussion, practical networks. Works directly with local asylum seek- workshops, sharing ideas, skills & experience ers, and has a bike recycling project. cultural and political events, community cinema, exhibitions, alternative media production, benefi t followed by MAYHEM Cabaret & Cocktails. Brighton: Cowley Club,12 London Road, gigs, discussions, meetings and workshops and At the 1in12 Club, Albion Street, off Fulton Brighton BN1 4JA Tel 01273 696104 Web www.