The Rougher Guide To Guatemala Mind the Gap WAKE UP!! FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE TAPE, IT'S YER... One roaming SchNEWS reporter in Latin Meanwhile just down the hill, less than three This week the Pine Gap 4 begun their two week America writes... minutes walk away, lies ‘tourist town’. It is full Supreme Court trial in Alice Springs, charged “The incredibly touristy Guatemalan town of of Westerners hanging around with their Lonely with breaking into the Pine Gap secret US/NSA/ San Pedro La Laguna is a world of parallels. At Planets, blissfully unaware of what is happen- CIA spy base in central Australia for a Citizen’s the top of the hill away from the lakeside sits ing in the local population as they smoke their Inspection in December 2005. the Escuela Ofi cial Humberto Corzo Guzmán, incredibly cheap weed and wait for the next Pine Gap, run by less than friendly US military a local free school that has been educating the Hollywood movie to play in one of the many corporation Raytheon, is an important node of the indigenous Mayan children of the area for hun- Western-owned bars. satellite system used by the US for operations such dreds of years. Since October last year, a group La Municipalidad, represented by a nice old as the bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan. The four of parents and teachers have been occupying the chap called Antonio Chavajay Yojcom has done Christian anti-war campaigners face seven year Friday 1st June 2007Free/Do na tion Issue 590 school in order to prevent the local government what all modern-thinking governments do and is sentences, after the Attorney General Philip Rud- (la Municipalidad) tearing it down to build a 3- in the process of suing the parents and teachers dock consented to the fi rst-ever use of the cold-war storey supermarket… something the farmers of occupying the school. Yojcom is also claiming Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952. In a CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK the area really need! that the local people and the government have pre-trial hearing, the Crown prosecutor applied for Local bureaucrats, the kind old souls, have been been harangued by violence from the squatters the bail conditions of the defendants to be changed, very generous and built the children a new ‘urban’ putting the four under house arrest and barring For decorating gum... who have taken up arms and are using explosives, PIG IGNORANCE school in a completely different town in the mid- them from going within 1½ miles of Pine Gap – to CHARGES DROPPED AS OXFORD COPS ACCIDENTLY TAPE THEMSELVES One artistic Londoner has been livening up dle of the countryside. Consequently most of the whilst keeping their own children as hostages. stop them being involved in protests during the the streets of capital recently by handpaint- children cannot attend the school because their All that can be said about this is that having trial, including a demo at the base itself. Fourteen campaigners against the Oxford (see SchNEWS 581) could be implemented ing pieces of discarded chewing gum. 80% parents cannot afford the transport costs. To add visited the school on numerous occasions and This comes after fi ve were arrested during a Animal lab, charged with various public against SPEAK. They talk about “waging a of the multi-billion dollar sales in the UK injury to insult, in December last year, 150 men being invited to participate in the Mothers’ Day blockade of the remote desert base in October order offences, walked free on May 30th dirty war” against Mel Broughton, the main celebrations, I didn’t know hostages could look end up on the pavement of course. And if armed with mallets, rocks and machetes turned 2006, at a protest marking an earlier stage of the after revelations of a police stitch-up. Dur- spokesman of the SPEAK campaign, and you’re one of the 28 million Brits hood- up to and attempted to ‘remove’ the squatters with so happy or move so freely about town...” trial. For more see www.pinegap6.org ing the trial, a transcript of a dictaphone tape the “need to persecute him”. For more information or to give messages of winked into thinking there’s any health or violence - while destroying the infrastructure of recorded by the cop’s Tactical Advisor on With these revelations the judge at social benefi ts from chewing a worthless the building. Now there are no windows, the roof support and fi nd out where you can send equip- Positive SchNEWS the day was presented as evidence by the Bicester magistrates acquitted all the defend- is badly damaged and much of the equipment ment such as paper and pens, or donate a bit by-product of the petro-chemical business of cash to pay the teachers, write (in Spanish The Common Ground Community Garden defence. The hour-long tape conclusively ants, except two who were given absolute doused in sugar and aspartame... wise up! inside the school has been trashed, but the parents in Reading was formed when a few anarchists shows that Thames Valley Police are con- discharges. She refused to accept that the and teachers held their ground. preferably) to [email protected] Despite having just finished a piece squatted a former Women’s Information Centre spiring with Oxford University to smash the offi cers comments had been just ‘banter’- the at the request of his local Fortis Green six month’s ago, after it had its funds cut and the campaign (OK, hardly a surprise but to hear proffered excuse. One senior police offi cer Safer Neighbourhood police team, the SchNEWS In Brief - UK RESISTANCE ROUND-UP council-owned building in the Katesgrove area of it from the horse’s mouth...!) under cross examination even attempted to budding Michelangelo was just settling Reading was left derelict for fi ve years. The charges related to a legal demo against excuse the behaviour by putting it down to down to recreate St Paul’s Cathedral on ** Nine people from fi ve countries found them- stay at the camp, even just for a weekend. The call The ‘Common Ground crew moved in and the Oxford University arcane Encaenia cer- one offi cer having come from Liverpool and selves nicked on Tuesday (29th) at Faslane cleared up, landscaped the area and repaired the another unsightly bit of grey sludge when has gone out for non-violent direct action against emony last year. Those arrested, including another’s because he was an “ex-squaddie”. he attracted the attention of two City of Naval Nuclear Base. They’d been taking part fi rms involved in the scheme, such as Tesco, building, adding children’s play area, decking and in the ‘Footprints for Peace Interfaith Peace Heron Group, Bryant Homes/Taylor Woodrow more, mostly from reclaimed materials. They campaign spokesman Mel Broughton, were Outside court, Mel Broughton said: “I London cops. After initially declining their Walk’ after walking to the Scottish base from and Persimmon Homes. More information call welcomed the public last Saturday to an Open Day barred from the city centre am extremely an- invitation to move on, he was summarily Dublin via Coulport nuclear weapons depot. 07913 534083 or see www.protectourwoodland. – despite a council injunction banning the event. for an entire year. Five were “We’re going to prosecute gry and disturbed nicked, dragged of to the cells for seven Cops moved in after they blocked the entrance co.uk or www.eco-action.org/porkbolter When the Open Day was announced with arrested on the day and a about what has been hours and was injured trying to refuse a to the base, an action that is part of the ongoing publicity in the local community, the council further eleven in raids on the sh*t out of them.” revealed...I think DNA sample. year long Faslane365 blockades (see SchNEWS ** Trebanos National Grid have given the Bre- imposed the injunction, to which the squatters their homes. The four week Commander Shead, anyone in the coun- It remains to be been whether he will be 589). Web www.faslane365.org con protest camp a landowners notice to leave immediately distributed a further 500 letters tell- trial has highlighted a delib- Thames Valley Police try who believes able to chew up Police in the courts if they the site in south Wales immediately. They now ing people it was still going ahead regardless! On try to do him for criminal damage (what was the day, two Polish security guards came down erate and sinister policy by you have a right to ** Actions in defi ance of the Serious Organised need to take the camp to court to be able to serve Thames Valley Police (TVP), code-named protest and a right to free speech should be he damaging? A piece of previous criminal Crime and Police Act (See SchNEWS 583) them with an eviction notice which will then al- to serve the injunction but, sick of being ignored, damage. Clever you see!) or whether all the continue. From 23rd - 28th June there will be a low the camp to be removed by the police eviction they retreated and sat in their car. The day was ‘Operation Rumble’ to intimidate and harass very, very concerned.” a success and the centre continues to be open to legal campaigners who support the main anti- For more on the SPEAK campaign media publicity will eventually lead to him “War is Still the Issue” Peace Camp in Parlia- teams. More people are needed at the camp to get getting doubleminted..