The Bath Bomb
Issue #10
free/donation
May 08

Shock As 200 Shoppers Freeze Solid In Town Centre!

Last weekend saw a break from the banality of the familiar
shop-till-you-drop routine of town centre. A couple of hundred people, using
Facebook, organised a flash mob in which people milling around town would
freeze at a given time, and stay that way for five minutes before, at
another signal, continuing on as normal. Bath Bomb sent a reporter into
town to see what the fuss was about, and the results proved pretty
impressive. Two hundred people, frozen in mid sandwich, conversation and dance
blocked a large area of the city centre while confused onlookers
laughed and speculated. At one point, a miserable shopper laden with bag
upon bag of disposable culture walked past moaning to her daughter that
the frozen mob was 'probably just a bunch of protesters'. My reaction had
been that this was more an arty style event than a protest, but the
miserable woman straining under tonnes of plastic got me thinking.
Whether intentionally or not, this was a protest, and a very meaningful one.
The message was that town is ours, the streets are our playground - the
staging ground for fun, adventure and frivolity. The frozen masses
briefly wrested town from those neon gods of consumerism who would see our
town centre reduced to nothing more than a means to get to shops, buy
things, then go home again. The freeze event gave us a brief glimpse of
how we can transform and re-imagine our surroundings, turn the banal
into the beautiful and do something with our town more important, fun
and interesting than more f**king shopping! So let's take a leaf out of
the book of our frozen comrades and start using town as a place for
meeting, frolicking, sharing and creating. Who needs capitalism, when we've
got imagination?!

The End Of The Beginning Of Something Special In Chippenham

Remember last month we brought you news of a new squat in Chippenham?
We are sad to report that the building is now back in the hands of its
lawful owner - a man who has let the place rot while living miles away
for over 25 years. During the brief history of The 78 as the building
became known, it provided a glimpse of what a fair society could look
like. As well as providing a home for some, the space was a communal
meeting place, organic garden and a centre of learning, co-operation and
fun. Before the eviction, The 78 was in the process of organising
gardening workshops, a free shop, free child day care for young parents and a
weekly vegan cafe. The building itself was considerably renovated by the
occupiers and neighbours (who were entirely supportive and glad that
space was no longer wasted ) agreed that it has never looked nicer!
Still, the eviction is not the end - everyone who went to the place was
inspired by the passion, dedication and commitment to equality and the
environment showed by the occupiers. Where one liberated space falls,
another springs up and we can't wait to see what the future holds for
Chippenham. In its short history, The 78 succeeded in winning hearts and
minds of people who would otherwise have negative views of squatters,
radicalised and inspired a community and brought together strangers who are
now friends, comrades and partners in liberation and adventure. The 78
is dead, long live The 79!

Top Shop Sweat Shop Stitch Up

A 17-strong coalition of students from Hayesfield Ethical Group and
Bath Uni's One World Society, as well as the usual rent-a-mob from B.A.N.,
endured the sunshine and soulless concrete on Wednesday the 24th
April, to demonstrate outside Top Shop's use of sweatshop labour. Indeed,
the vast majority of UK high street fashion gets rich from the
exploitation of desperate workers in the global South, but the Arcadia Group, of
which Top Shop is the leading brand, is highly influential. Whereas
owner Philip Green made the record books in 2005 for netting the biggest
share dividend in history, $1.2 billion, workers in Cambodia are
coerced into involuntary overtime work below any living wage, suffering
shocking health and safety, physical/verbal abuse from management, daily
strip-searches, and are barred from unionisation. Women are often refused
employment if pregnant, and if they do become so, are still forced to
do standing work in uncomfortable temperatures, until they quit. To add
insult to injury, workers often contract bladder infections from lack
of access to drinking water or toilet use. Demonstrators leafleted and
held banners airing Topshop's dirty laundry, asking customers to
persuade their favourite brand to genuinely change its ways: like it or not,
these fashion cartels have the power to change industry conditions for
better as well as worse, if only they'd stop spouting empty PRomises for
one second.

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

I'm not going to make this any more complicated than it needs to be -
for most women to go about their daily lives feeling like their natural
form, their unadulterated bodies, are at least wrong, at worst
disgusting, is in itself wrong and disgusting. It's not just women, although
presently they do seem to fare worse, a significant proportion of us
have problems these days feeling inadequate and ugly, as if we need to
change our appearance constantly, daily, to be acceptable or even to look
stunning - it is our duty to look as fabulous as we can at whatever
cost. You've got women in their 60s with designer vaginas matching that
of a 16 year old, 16 year olds having cosmetic surgery when they're
barely grown yet and 10 year olds being taken to salons to have their legs
waxed.

A healthy backlash is beginning to grow. For example, the live journal
site 'fuck shaving', and on recent body image shows I've seen not one,
but two women living their lives perfectly happily, with full on
natural beards. I am fascinated - to me, they don't look ugly, or wrong, or
disgusting. They don't even look like men. They just look like
themselves. So, I beg of you society, can't we just be us? This may seem
like a simple thing on paper, but it is a huge step to take (or maybe
lots of little ones.) But it is such a worthwhile step to take and I
feel the world would be better off for it, changing many things, not just
how we feel about ourselves when we look in the mirror. Cause this
image stuff ain't just vanity - it really does deeply affect, and even
destroy, lives.

Mayday! Mayday! The Ducks Are Revolting!

And now for our obligatory foie gras campaign update: we've recently
heard that good old Christophe at The Pinch, the French restaurant in St
Margaret's Buildings formerly known as Le Petit Cochon, has decided to
brave the storm of controversy and put the 'delicacy of despair' back
on the menu. When will they learn? Meanwhile, we received this
anonymous report: "In the early hours of the 2nd May, in anger at Bistro Number
5's continued sale of foie gras, Animal Liberation Front volunteers
d-locked their front entrance, costing them hours of lost revenue for the
following day. It's high time they re-evaluated whether profiting from
animal abuse really is good business!" If you feel moved to let the
management of either of these outlets know your feelings on force-feeding
and animal torture, here's their contact details - The Pinch tel:
01225 421251,  info@thepinch.biz and Bistro Number 5 tel: 01225 444 499,
fax: 01225318 668  chrome@globalnet.co.uk /ym/Compose?To= chrome@globalnet.co.uk&YY=10755&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b.

And remember, The Bath Bomb in
no way condones repeated phone calls or threatening behaviour, and
neither does it condone spreading these companies' details to every spammer
or junk mail list you can think of.

Government gets F- As Teachers Strike

There were impressive marches and rallies in towns and cities across
Britain on Thursday 24th April. More than 2000 striking teachers,
lecturers and civil service workers from across Bristol, Bath,
Gloucestershire and Somerset joined a lively and noisy march which brought traffic to
a halt in Bristol. This march was supported by members of Bath
Activist Network. This action occurred to a background of an economic crisis
where the poor are being forced to bail out the rich. Taxpayers are
expected to pay £100 billion to Northern Rock, when in a time honoured
fashion, the man who oversaw the collapse of his bank, walked off with a
£750,000 pay off. The response of politicians to this crisis is for
new labour Brown to abolish the 10p tax law, hitting the poorer workers
the most and for the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, this week, to
call for greater control of trades unions as a matter of urgency. With
almost everything rising in price, the media warns of a 'summer of
discontent' here and abroad. This means through riots, strikes and days of
actions, workers and the poor are taking control of their own lives
and not relying on politicians and bosses to sort out their problems.
This growing spirit of resistance must be supported by all those who wish
to build a more just society. If you're fired up about these issues,
come to Bubbling Under on Sunday 18th May, 1-4 as usual at the porter
cellar bar on George Street, where there will be a free showing of 'The
Gama Strike: A Victory For All Workers.' This is a film about migrant
workers in the Irish Republic who were supported by local workers to
fight back against slave conditions.

Free Your Time-www.myfreethyme.com

Why buy when the best things in life are free? Credit cards, student
loans and debt are the vices that trap us into this consumer culture.
Man made money and money made man: mad. Media brainwashes us into
thinking that if we work harder, earn more money and buy more things then we
will be accepted. Excessive consumerism is ruining both the air we
breathe and the ground we walk on. All we need is an awareness of what
we can contribute to a society of freethinkers that is simple and
rewarding to become part of.

So, the website, www.myfreethyme.com, was set up with this ethos in
mind, with a mission to discover alternative ways of living which help
preserve the planet, inspire trust and keep change in your pocket
jingling. The possibilities are endless from Freecycle, grow-your-own and
nettle munching, to bin diving, couchsurfing and woofing, the ultimate aim
being to create a nurturing eco-space rather than a money grabbing
metropolis. There are many communities which function on human
compassion, not on money; the aim is to get these voices heard and known about.
As a student at Bath Spa University, I was amazed at how little the
general student population knows about the ways of free living. I was
inspired by reading about the Free Economy walker, Mark Boyle, and his
attempt to get to Gandhi's birthplace without a penny in his pocket. Though
angry that most of the newspapers ridiculed his journey and didn't
focus on the philosophy behind it, it led me to become part of the
FreeEconomy landshare/skillshare community (justfortheloveofit.org) and I
realised this was something worth shouting about.

Seeing these things in action can inspire change, and who better to
help out than the Bath Activist Network. As part of the Big Green Week
bonanza, a live Freecyle stall was set up at the SU and welcomed with many
a "What? Free? No fee?" squawks of glee as the skint students rummaged
and browsed. In a university where they charge 15p for a sachet of
tomato sauce and 30p for hot water, the general reaction was welcome shock
mixed with curiosity and many a student-friendly bargain picked up.
All in all, it went gloriously well. If you have
any free living stories, feel free and let me know at
 thegreensofa@yahoo.com , I'd love to hear them.
Bath FreeShop is outside Holland and Barratts the second Saturday of every month if you've got
some a hankering to get rid of some stuff then join us for some free
Earl Grey tea.

Green Space Invaders Evaded

Congratulations are due to the residents of Twerton and surrounds,
who've just fought off plans to destroy green space near the much-loved
Bath City Farm, flooding the Council with over 1,000 objections. Somer
Housing, well-known for its commitment to selling off needed social
housing to unscrupulous private landlords on the cheap, whinged about the
foiling of their ploy to build 30 houses on the 1.6 contested acres
between Cotswold View, The Hollow and the City Farm: where they no doubt
would have done the same. Bath City Farm is manned by dedicated volunteers
and provides woodcraft skills, interaction with the natural world and
meaningful leisure to local youths, and need the land to both progress
their work and provide residential allotments.

Boris Johnson - Mayor Or Maniac?

Boris Johnson says he's a feminist. Actually he's sexist. And the
worst kind of sexist. He thinks that by stating he's a feminist and
saying a few pro-women things, that when he begins one of his ridiculously
misguided rants about men and women and the education system, people
will say, well, he can't be sexist, the man says he's a feminist. Truth
is, as far as this writer's concerned anyway, as long as we carry on
gender stereotyping, this idiotic tug of war that is the perpetual see saw
of men on top, women on top, men on top, will continue - with
casualties on both sides (domestic violence against either sex, rape, misogyny,
hatred of men, unfair pay at work and general disharmony and fighting
against rather than helping each other.)

Boris Johnson may be entertaining, he comes off like a character from a
comedy show, and maybe that's a nice change next to some rather boring
politicians, but is this the kind of figurehead we want as mayor of
London? He's out of touch, outspoken and seems so harmless. But it
seems to me, to let someone like this have such a position of power is a
very dangerous thing. When are people going to wake up to the mockery
our governmental system has become, from the jibes and jeers of the
commons, to the buffoonery of Mr Johnson himself, and choose something
different? (ps - NOT the BNP.) As for Boris - do us a favour, give the man
some bells and a funny hat and call a numpty a numpty.

SHAC Attack

On Saturday 26th April, a contingent from bath went to Horsham, west
sussex, for the National Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty demos against
Norvartis, a company that tests on primates and supplies the notorious
vivisection lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences. The protest started at Horsham
park and around 500 people marched through the centre of Horsham to
suburbia where the animal abusing company is located. After a few
speeches some of the protesters understandably got upset and started shaking
the fences. The companies body guards (police) soon stopped this
however, after a brief struggle. All in all a good day, and we went back to
the park where legendary vegan caterer Veggies provided vegan burgers
and cake. It seems Norvartis UK got off lightly, the Spanish HQ having
been vandalised at a recent demo in Barcelona.

EVENTS

Monday nights Bath Hunt Sabs Meeting, 8pm, Bell
Wednesdays 4-7pm London Rd Food Co-op, Riverside Community Centre
Saturdays 11.30am-12.30 Bath Stop The War Vigil, Abbey Courtyard
12th May, 7.45pm Greenpeace meeting, Stillpoint, Broad Street
14th May, 8.30pm Bath Green Drinks, upstairs, the Rummer
17th May, from 6pm Punk benefit gig, The Junction, Stokes Croft,
Bristol
18th May, 1-4pm Bubbling Under, Poter Cellar Bar, George Street
21st May Smash EDO phone/email blockade-see www.smashedo.org.uk
29th May, from 7.30pm Talk by chair of CND, Friends Meeting House, York
Street
31st May-1 June Bristol Vegan Fayre, The Waterside, Bristol
2 June, 8pm Friends of the Earth meeting, Stillpoint, Broad St
3 June, 12-3pm There is such a thing as a free lunch stall, Queen Sq
And now, to the disclaimer: As anyone is free to contribute, the
opinions expressed in each article are not necessarily reflective of each
contributor. Naturally, any right-wing or corporate bullshit will be
binned and spat on. Needless to say, the opinions of the author of this
disclaimer does not necessarily represent the views of any other
contributor...

For further info on any of our stories see www.myspace.com/bathbomb

Q: Who Are Bath Activist Network? A: A local umbrella group campaigning
on issues as diverse as development, environmentalism, anti-war,
animal rights, workers' rights and more. Helping to produce The Bath Bomb,
we are open to anyone, and our members range from trade unionists to
anarchists, liberals to greens, and people who just want to change Bath
for the better. For details on meetings, demos, or just to get in
touch, ring us on 07949 611912, email  bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk , or see
our website: www.myspace.com/bathactivistnetwork

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