Bath Bomb #34 Out Now!
BBJ | 12.10.2010 23:09 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
THE BATH BOMB
@nti-copyright: copy and distribute!
Issue #34
free/donation
October 2010
"abusing authority figures and the english language since 2007 "
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Hand Made Hard Times Handed Back: yes, the Bath Bomb is now officially skint. It's a miracle you're even holding this issue in your hands, if you are. If you can find it in your pockets to make a donation, please contact us as bathbombpress[at]yahoo.co.uk. Or alternatively, for armchair activists, £15 gets you a year of Bath Bombs posted to your door – so you don't even have to leave the house – plus other possible goodies.*
*Terms and Conditions: offer subjected to social change. Your statutory, inalienable human rights are not effective
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Take A Chants On Me
Sunday the 3rd October saw 8,000 activists from across the U.K. flood in to Birmingham to protest the opening of the Tory Party Conference. With more and more people realising just how deep and devastating the Tory cuts will be, the protest marked the start of the fightback nationally. The protest was a noisy and high-spirited affair, buoyed up by some militant and inspiring speeches from community and union activists, that captured the mood of determination and solidarity that pervaded the demo. On the day, the police enforced a draconian security arrangement that prevented the protest from getting near the conference whilst the delegates cowered behind steel fencing, despite prior arrangements to allow the demo past. However, a few unlucky Tories had the smug wiped off their faces when they were caught in the open by groups of protestors, receiving a barrage of angry abuse before being hurriedly escorted back inside their hotel by police. The day ended with the police cordoning off of the 200-strong anarchist bloc for no apparent reason, while other protesters, in a display of solidarity, gathered around the police and demanded their release - which they eventually did after a number of unnecessary and heavy-handed searches and assaults. At the close of proceedings, O.T.T. police riot vans also insisted on escorting each coachload of demonstrators home.
Bath will of course be holding its own anti-cuts demo on Wednesday the 20th of October, starting at 5p.m. outside the Abbey. Whether you are a public or private sector worker, unemployed, a pensioner, student or disabled, we all have good reasons to unite against these cuts, so why not come along and bring your mates.
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Cutting The Crap
Following Monday's demo, on Wednesday 22nd September, Bath Trades Council and B.A.N. hosted 50 people to the first meeting of the Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance, welcoming regional officials from the N.U.T., G.M.B., B.&N.E.S.'s Unison branch, and from the U.C.U. at City of Bath College, where A-Level courses are to be closed, shutting off the only chance mature students have to take this course in Bath, and making it harder for them to consider going to university. In a lively discussion, veterans of the anti-poll tax movement explained that we can win, and how, while young people in their first big struggle talked about the lessons they have learned from other campaigns. More than one speaker emphasized the need for solidarity between public sector workers and the people who use public services – all of us – and the need for unity between workers in the private and public sectors. If we fight the lies that divide us, we can take on the people really responsible for the mess we are in. A collection was made and tickets sold for a coach to the Tory Conference in Birmingham.
The Alliance has been kicked off by the Trades Council and is open to anyone who wants to take part, whether from a union, political party, community organization, or no group at all. It can be contacted at: bathagainstcuts[at]yahoo.co.uk. And don't forget the mass demo in Bristol on the 23rd October, following the Con-Dem budget announcement! To be joined by activists from Bath and the surrounding area, the demo will start at Castle Park at 11a.m..
70 anti-cuts protesters also held a demo outside the council building in Swindon on Thursday the 7th October, to coincide with the full council meeting. Rather than face their constituents, LibDems and Tory Councillors slunk in through the back!
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The Kids Aren't Alright
Monday the 20th of September saw a protest outside the Guildhall in Bath, timed to coincide with the B.&N.E.S. Public Overview Scrutiny Meeting and decrying the potential closure of four local youth centres. Approximately 80 young people attended, alongside 20 UNISON workers, Trades Council members, B.A.N. affiliates and other adults involved in the local anti-cuts campaign. After half an hour or so of chanting, blowing whistles and making a happy, passionate noise, the meeting was moved to a larger room and the full group was invited in to attend.
Several children were on the agenda to speak and gave moving accounts, one in spoken word poetry, of what the youth centres had done for them. All but one cited broken homes, some with domestic abuse, and emphasised how youth centres gave them a refuge with safe adults to talk to about their problems. The centres also gave them a chance to flex their creativity and explore the skills they wanted to develop into adulthood.
Clutching the knot of his tie throughout, Ashley Ayre, the Director of Children's Services, defended their decision to look at withdrawing funding from the county's youth centres. Within his government-allocated budget of around £24.5 million, his department had had to come to the conclusion that other services were a higher priority. He emphasised that preventative services were still in place and that, balanced against the funding to protect children both in care and leaving care, the youth centres simply could not reach a similar level of priority. Crucially, he also explained that the department were losing a great deal of funding due to the new academy scheme in schools. Previously, the services a school would have used would have been funded, procured and exercised by Children's Services. Under the new scheme, academies get the money direct and can choose to 'buy back' whatever services from his department they cared to. Many of the children who formally spoke to the panel emphasised that they got a respectful pastoral care at the centres that they were unable to get at school (the word “patronising” in reference to teachers' attitudes was repeatedly used) and it seems poignantly ironic that the funding should be shifted in a way that one presumes and hopes is at least ostentatiously to 'improve' children's lives.
Councillor John Bull, of the Labour party, argued for another public consultation to take place, arguing that the previous one had been insufficient. Indeed, as one of the young speakers cited, despite a supposedly sufficient consultation, no councillors or workers had visited centres to talk to the users themselves. Mr Ayre said that an issue with carrying out another consultation was that it may prevent the department from reaching their April deadline for this financial year's cuts, forcing them to add these onto next year's. As it stands, the department must make cuts of approximately £1 million a year for five years.
A worker from the previously closed Odd Down centre argued that to close the youth centres was a false economy: in her experience, the year after their centre was shut, there was a rise in use of police services and A.S.B.O.s given out, meaning that the ostentatious cost-saving in fact played out as cost in another department. Another issue is that youth centres work in a very much preventative fashion, rather than 'picking up the pieces' after crisis. Without this proactive approach, services that do pick up the pieces will see their workload increase.
It was somewhat galling to sit and listen to these measures and counter-measures debating the immediate and future experience of local children whilst in the opulence of chandeliers and an abundance of enormous oil paintings. Pomp and circumstance is necessary to an extent as public service is a serious matter and needs the trappings to formally emphasise so in some way. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps we could flog a couple of oil paintings, have slightly smaller chandeliers and perhaps cut back on the buildings and maintenance budget a little instead?
Stop the Press: likely as a result of the demo, Children's Services met with youth workers on Tuesday the 5th this month, admitting they fund another £50,000, and now only the Batheaston centre will be closing, though they're trying to find funding elsewhere for their worker, and two others are limited to part-time.
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Ooooh Betty, The Council's Done A Whoopsy On The Workers
John Betty, a director at B.&N.E.S. Council, has had his £160,000 pay packet increased by £22,000, as well as being awarded an annual bonus of £34,000, and expenses of £4,200. The pay increase and bonuses alone are enough to pay for the annual employment of three frontline public servants - people whose jobs are being slashed by the very same council who has awarded Betty his extra cash. 2010 has also seen the numbers of B.&N.E.S. managers with a salary above £50,000 shoot up from 106 to 120. The Taxpayers Alliance has also released figures showing that the top seven at B.&N.E.S. enjoy pay packets ranging between £167,000 and £108,000, all but two of whom received a pay increase this year. We have heard much rhetoric from the council about cuts to services being inevitable. In light of these recent pay increases and decadent salaries, it is apparent that what they mean is “cuts are inevitable, if we at the top are to continue living in luxury”. If the 120 highest earners in B.&N.E.S., who rack up an annual salary of £8,000,000 between them (not including expenses or bonuses) took a voluntary 10% pay deduction – a small price to pay, compared to the misery ordinary people are being put through – enough money would be saved to retain at least forty of the staff who are being kicked out of their jobs in the coming year. It's good to see where the local high and mighties' priorities lie.
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Molotov For Beginners
You go months and months without a terror plot to give you a good larf, then two turn up in quick succession. First was the Muslim-inspired plot to kill the Poop, and the latest is a planned Mumbai-style series of commando attacks against Britain, France and Germany. Allegedly. If you believe all you read that's spewed out by Murdoch/Harmsworth Muckrakers Inc., that is. Both 'plots', of course, are pure bollocks, as you might already have guessed, designed to keep you gibbering as the U.K. Stasi rip away any shreds of civil liberties you have left, in the name of combating the bullshit threat of 'terror'.
What they didn't credit is that we're already on to their squalid scam, and have been since at least 2003, when U.K. mainland security donkers cooked up a 'ricin plot', which had no ricin nor plot, to give Tony B. Liar an excuse for invading Iraq. A bunch of Kurds were fingered by the plod in 2004 for supposedly plotting to blow up Old Trafford football ground. This turned out to be as unlikely as the claim that they were all members of Al Quaeda. Then there was the 'airline' plot in 2006, involving apparent plans to blow up passenger planes in mid-air using liquid explosives. This collapsed when it came to trial in 2008, as the jury failed to convict on conspiracy to murder by blowing up aircraft.
Whitehall spooks have played the 'terror plot' card once too often. It's not 'terrorists' we need protecting from; it's government fakers desperately in need of new clichés.
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Cute, Without The 'E'
Oh, how our hearts bled for embattled director of local children's services Ashley Ayre (with his £125,000 salary) when he poured his heart out to the Chron about the tough decisions in front of him. “I don't want to make any cuts!” sobbed a teary-eyed Ayre, speaking of his plan to slash 40% of Bath's youth centres. Defending his brutal cuts, which will see young and vulnerable people turfed out onto the streets, Ayre stated “I'd prefer to take money out of youth services rather than our children in care service budget.”
Well bully for you old chum, except in reality, we don't need to cut either! Here at Bath Bomb Towers, we'd rather he took money out of the pockets of the rich, tax-dodging scum and financial speculators that got us into this mess in the first place, and left our kids alone. It's funny how the government have told us to brace for cuts immediately, but minor reforms to the banking system to reduce (reduce, not stop) corruption and bonuses don't have to be implemented until 2019! The Tories are resolutely defending their class interests – maybe it's about time we started defending ours! The idea that we need to gang together to pay for these cuts (spirit of the 40's and all that) is rubbish. Cracking down on the top corporate tax avoiders would bring in £123 billion, pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq a further £136.5 billion, restoring the corporate taxation level to pre-1997 levels £18 billion, taxing the rich 60% £27.5 billion per year, scrapping Trident billions more, and so on. A tax collector was in some paper the other day (yes folks, there are other papers out there) saying that staff cuts in his department meant that massive amounts of tax (mainly from the super rich and big companies) remained uncollected!
There is the money out there to pay for this deficit, but lets not forget that these cuts are also just the Tories doing what they do best – finding any pretext to slash our public services and hand it all over to shady private investors (and why not, since privatization has worked so well in the past?). I heard a really great quote the other day, which is quite pertinent for our times: “how come they only call it class war when the poor fight back?” Make no mistake, the Con-Dems are launching an aggressive class war, we have no option but to fight back.
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Bath Activist Network are 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 and greens, and people who just want to change Bath for the better. For details on meetings, demos, or just to get in touch, e-mail bathactivistnet[at]yahoo.co.uk, or see our website: http://www.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com
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UPCOMING EVENTS
drawing classes: 'Remembering the Present', Mondays & Tuesdays, Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol, http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info
London Road Food Co-op, Wednesdays, 5-7p.m., Riverside Community Centre, London Road, http://www.londonroadfoodcoop.blogspot.com
exhibition: 'Remembering the Present', Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, 11a.m.-3p.m., Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol, http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info
Bathampton Community Growers workday, Thursdays, 10a.m.-dusk, Mill Lane, Bathampton, e-mail thelostplot[at]googlemail.com/ tel Chris 07792 444628
Bathampton Community Supported Agriculture project: fruit picking, Thursdays and Sundays, 10a.m.-2p.m., FFI e-mail
csa@transitionbath.org; www.bathamptoncsa.wordpress.com
Bath Stop The War Coalition vigil, Saturdays, 11.30a.m.-12.30, Bath Abbey Courtyard
Bradford-On-Avon peace vigil, Saturdays, 11.30a.m.-12.30, by the peace statue opposite Westbury Gardens by the Town Bridge, Bradford-On-Avon
exhibition: 'Remembering the Present', Saturdays, 12-4p.m., Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol, http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info
Recycle Your Sundays, Sundays, 10.30a.m., starts Abbey Churchyard, the regular series of sociable, easy-paced cycle rides, http://www.bathrys.org.uk/ tel Hazel 01225 469199
Bath Green Drinks, Wednesday 13th October, 8p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove Street
Bath Activist Network meeting, Thursday 14th October, 7.30-9p.m., downstairs at the Hobgoblin, St James Parade, http://ww.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com
talk: 'Sustainable Agriculture in Cuba - holding on in a changing future?', Friday 15th October, 7p.m., The Council House, College Green, Bristol, http://www.cosg.org.uk
demo: 'The Crude Awakening', Saturday 16th October, 10a.m., London, FFI and to sign up for text alerts at http://www.crudeawakening.org.uk
anti-Noah's Ark Zoo Farm/Wurzels (!) demo, Saturday 16th October, 5p.m., http://bristolanimalrights.org.uk
No Borders South Wales punk benefit gig, Saturday 16th October, 7p.m., Six Feet Under, Newport, feat. The Oppressed, No Choice, Kilnaboy, Tighten Up & The D Teez; £5 entry
Broadlands Community Orchard Apple Day, Sunday 17th October, 12-4.30p.m., Broadlands Orchard, Box Road, Bathford, feat. live music from Pink Froot & Padleigh Hillbillies, and apple juice pressing, apple bobbing, childrens activities, orchard guided walk, & campfire cooking! £3 suggested donation; htp://www.broadlandsorchardshare.org.uk
film: 'Paths of Pain', Tuesday 19th October, 7.30p.m., Colston Hall, Bristol; as part of the 'Unchosen' Bristol Film Festival, http://www.unchosen.org.uk
Bristol S.W.P. Public Rally 'Can Marxism Make Sense of a World in Turmoil?', Tuesday 19th October, 7.30p.m., Malcolm X Centre, City Road, Bristol
Anti-cuts demo, Wednesday 20th October, meet 5p.m., outside the Abbey
talk: 'Europe's Carfree Neighbourhoods - Could we Do it in Bristol', Wednesday 20th October, 7.30p.m., Cornubia pub, Bristol, http://www.carfreebristol.org.uk.
Hunt Sabs punk benefit gig, Thursday 21st October, 7p.m., Winchester Arms pub, Taunton, feat. Sickwax, King Tuts Revenge, Room 4 1 More & Hacksaw, £3 entry, http://www.myspace.com/anonpromo
talk: 'What’s the Blogging Story?', Friday 22nd October, 7p.m., the Watershed, Bristol, £7/£5 entry,
http://newsfutures.co.uk/category/event
March and rally against the Tory cuts, Saturday 23rd October, meet 11a.m., Castle Park, Bristol
Transition Talks: 'Food Co-ops and Organic Buying Groups', Tuesday 23rd November, FFI e-mail alison@sustainweb.org; http://www.transitionbath.org/events
Stop Nuclear Power Network national gathering, Saturday 23rd October-Sunday 24th October, venue T.B.C. Bristol, http://www.stophinkley.org
London Anarchist Bookfair, Saturday 23rd October, 10a.m.-7p.m., Queen Mary's, University of London, Mile End Road, London, http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk
anti-foie gras demo, Sunday 24th October, 2-3p.m., location T.B.C.; e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk
Transition Bath Social, Monday 25th October, 7.15p.m., the Love Lounge/ back room of the Bell, Walcot Street; bring food to share; http://www.transitionbath.org
Bath Cycling Campaign meeting, Monday 25th October, 7.30p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove
Street, http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk
Bath Hunt Saboteurs meeting, Monday 25th October, 8-9p.m, The Bell, tel Justin 07854 062336
Bath Socialist Forum meeting, Monday 25th October, 8p.m., upstairs St James Wine Vaults
Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance meeting, Tuesday 26th October, 8p.m., the Bell, Walcot Street
photography exhibition: 'Against the wall', Tuesday 26th-Saturday 30th October, 1p.m., the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol, http://emporium37.wordpress.com
short films, 'Unchosen' Bristol Film Festival, Tuesday 26th October, 7.30p.m., Hall 2, Colston Hall, Bristol, £2 entry; feat. 'Bristol Bike Project', 'Echoes', 'Brazil's Child Prostitutes', http://www.unchosen.org.uk
FreeBus Public Meeting, Wednesday 27th October, 7.30p.m., Hamilton House, Bristol, http://www.freebus.org.uk
Critical Mass Bike Ride, Saturday 30th October, meet 1p.m., Kingsmead Square, http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk
Bristol Free Vegan Food Fair, Saturday 30th October, 12-5p.m., Broadmead Baptist Church, Union Street, Bristol, BS1 3HY, http://www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/veganfoodfair
photography exhibition: 'The Art of Resistance in Palestine', Saturday 30th October, 6p.m., the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol
Bath Animal Action info stall, Sunday 31st October, 2-4p.m., Stall Street, e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk; http:///www.bathanimalaction.blogsppot.com
The Freeze Peach Halloween Festival, Sunday 31st October, 2p.m.-12, Metropolis, Stokes Croft, Bristol; feat. Capac, The Scribes, Aye Aye, Inspector Dread, Danny Kelly & DJ's; http://www.freezepeach.co.uk
Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance demo, Wednesday 3rd November, time T.B.C., outside Guildhall, Bath
Bath Activist Network meeting, Thursday 4th November, 7.30-9p.m., downstairs at the Hobgoblin, St James Parade, http://ww.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com
Wiltshire Trades Council History Day, Saturday 6th November, 10-2.30p.m., St. Margaret's Hall, Bradford-on-Avon
Bath Animal Action & Bath Hunt Saboteurs meeting, Monday 8th November, 8-9p.m., The Bell, Walcot Street, e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk; http://www.bathanimalaction.blogspot.com
Gaia Cabaret, Tuesday 9th November, 7.30p.m. top floor United Reformed Church Building, 7 Grove Street, £5/£3 entry; http://tinyurl.com/28tkd8y
Bath Green Drinks, Wednesday 10th November, 8p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove Street
Bath FreeShop, Saturday 13th November, 12-3p.m., outside the Pump Rooms, Stall Street
National Anti Fur March, Saturday 13th November, meet 12 midday, Belgrave Square, London, www.caft.org.uk/furmarch
Coalition of the Resistance Conference, Saturday 27th November, London, more details tbc
Camp for Climate Action Australia, Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th December, Bayswater Power Station, http://www.climatecamp.org.au
Climate Camp Aotearoa, Thursday 16th to Tuesday 21st December, Wellington New Zealand, http://www.climatecamp.org.nz/node/51
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Bullet(s) In The Head(Lines)
* Anti-nuclear campaigners from the Stop Nuclear Power Network blockaded the road into Hinkley Point on the Somerset coast, the site of two planned nuclear reactors, at 7a.m. on the morning of Monday October 4th, using a cunning combo of chains and badger costumes. Other campaigners painted graffiti anti-nuclear messages at a street art competition in Williton, West Somerset. If E.D.F. Energy's reactor goes ahead, not only will there be up to 17 million years of radioactive waste and leak risks to contest with, but local wildlife will also be up shit creek – the company hopes to bulldoze and dynamite 435 acres of green fields, before even securing planning permission. In the company's flawed community 'consultation', they refused to even ask whether a new power station should even be built or not, and to keep local councils informed
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
http://stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr100813.htm
http://boycottedf.org.uk
http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell-nuclear.html
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/index.php?menu=english&sousmenu=presse&page=index#
* After kicking out 1,200 workers since the end of 2008, Bath-based boom-and-bust opportunists Helphire, and their verbose boss Martin Ward, was bragging in the local press recently about the company's £13.9 million profits this year, 'thanking' his former staff. For the over-worked, un-unionised ones that remain, bonuses are next to impossible to achieve, and conditions barely scratch legal; but, still, at least the directors are still winning new bonuses
* Friends of Culverhay have recently begun a campaign to stop the closure of Culverhay secondary school at Rush Hill, which serves deprived areas of the city like Twerton, Whiteway and Southdown. The school has an Ofsted rating of 'good' and is one of the best improving schools for student results in the UK. A decision is expected in late November, after a consultation running between October 14th and 29th – rumour has it that Bath Spa Uni are after the site, and have seeded one of their own governors, Chris Watt, on the board
www.bathnes.gov.uk/culverhayconsultation
* Bristol Airport has had its £150m expansion plans green-lighted by North Somerset Council, subject to various conditions, despite the site's infringement on protected green belt. Campaigners are calling for a public inquiry, and are hoping to mount a legal challenge, after the government's failure to intervene – surprise, surprise. Building work may begin as early as next year
http://www.nobristolairportexpansion.co.uk
* At its annual conference, the T.U.C. (Trades Union Congress) has called for coordinated protest and industrial action to combat the cuts. Various union leaders, including Bob Crow of the R.M.T., have called for general strikes and civil disobedience
* Over 4,000 protested outside the Lib-Dem Party Conference in Liverpool, demanding an end to their complicity in the savage Con-Dem program of job and service cuts. The protest sets the stage for a season of anger at the coalition government
* Cracks in the Con-Dem coalition are widening, with a recent survey revealing that almost 90% of Conservative M.P.s felt that the balance of employment law had shifted too far towards the employee, but 70% of Liberal Democrats disagreed. Almost two thirds of Tories were in favour of appointing a full-time Trade Minister to "bang the drum" for British companies overseas, but half of LibDems disagreed. 70% of Nick Clegg's party wanted spending on infrastructure to increase, compared with less than a third of Conservatives
* A new joint T.U.C./C.N.D. report recently revealed the extent of defence industry jobs that will be lost to make way for the £76 billion Trident nuclear missile system replacement, if it goes ahead: the cuts to surface ships, aircraft, armoured vehicles and R.A.F. bases will destroy far more jobs than the Cold War program would ever bring in. Instead the marine engineers could be re-trained towards developing wave and tidal energy systems, for stronger job security
http://www.cnduk.org/tridentjobs
* Back of the N.E.T.(C.U.): the police too are under the knife, with a 25% funding cut and new officers being asked to volunteer their first 18 months training, rather than get paid. But we're not sorry to hear about the departure of N.E.T.C.U. - the 'National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit' which victimised environmentalists and sent down several animal rights activists, for such dangerous crimes as setting up websites. Faced with this, did the Police Federation take up the unions' motto of “Solidarity Forever”? Did they fuck. Instead they tried to ban the march on the Tory Conference. Maybe they're just sore cos they threw away their right to strike back in '19? Scabs
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/09/463925.html
* French workers launched their second General Strike in a month, with more planned for the coming weeks. The days of action saw many services brought to a standstill and nearly three million workers taking to the streets. The actions (which opinion polls show have the backing of the majority in France) are a response to austerity measures and Sarkozy's policy of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62
* Israeli naval commandoes violently seized another activist aid ship on September 28th, with the vessel 'Irene' being stopped 20 miles from Gaza. The crew was made up of Israeli Jews involved in 'Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis' and former I.D.F. pilots. Although Israel described their seizure as peaceful, at least one passenger was tasered in this latest act of piracy. Oh, how we at the Bath Bomb long for the days of Blackbeard and 'Black Sam' Bellamy!
http://www.jewishboattogaza.org
http://www.israeli-oc
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Out Of Arms Reach
October marks the end of Sick Season, the six months of U.K. arms fairs dressed up as 'airshows', 'air days', or 'military tattoos' , comprising some 80 or so country-wide open-air forces' propaganda stunts which are sold to the gullible as public family entertainment. At each one there are killing machines of all kinds for adults and kids to drool over, whether cockpit-open on the ground or screaming overhead.
Red Arrows, anyone? This lot have long been a glossy slab of R.A.F. P.R. to normalise and glorify weapons of death, as they innocuously loop the loop in their standard Hawk combat jets, the like of which are a bombing-run must-have in warzones worldwide.
The Southwest is disfigured by the s(l)ick stunts at Kemble in June, and Yeovilton and Fairford in July. Worst of the lot is probably the Farnborough boys' toys outing, when they tack on a throwaway weekend of aerial frivolity after five euphemistically-monikered 'trade days', when tinpot dictatorships from all over the globe send their minions in to openly buy and sell the latest air-attack hardware.
As a sop to public morality, Fairford majors on its involvement with the R.A.F. Charitable Trust, which you might be forgiven for believing has as its primary objective the rehab of injured, shell-shocked or otherwise traumatised ex-servicemen. Minor digging on its website, however, reveals its intention to be to “....promote recruitment to....the R.A.F.”, a theme expanded on elsewhere in nauseating drivel like this: “At the heart of the Trust is its commitment to young people, to initiate and develop within them an enthusiasm for aviation and consequently generate a desire within them to join...” Nowt to do wi' me – they said it in their own words.
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Put The Benefit Thieves To Work!
“Why not,” simpered a smug David Cameron from billboards across the country “cut benefits for those who refuse to work?” Well, for the first and only time here at B.B. H.Q., we agree with you Davey: lets punish the parasites that leech from society without putting anything back in. Me and David are of course talking about that arch parasite, the Queen, and her family of wastrels. Showing how in touch she is with the average person, the Queen (well, more likely, one of her skivvies) has applied for a couple of extra million from the Community Energy Fund to top up the existing millions that the taxpayer already pays for her to keep toasty warm. 'Er majesty has had her request declined by the government, and was informed via a toady, apologetic letter informing her that her money (originally earmarked for unimportant things like schools, hospitals and care homes for the elderly) would not be forthcoming for the sole reason that awarding it might attract “probable adverse press coverage” (didn't stop us: Hah!). The mere fact that the palace felt that, during this difficult period in which hundreds of the country's poorest pensioners freeze to death over winter, the Queen deserved yet more of our taxes, shows the sheer contempt and arrogance with which the ruling class still view us plebs. You want some of our fuel allowance, you pampered parasite, you can come down here and work for it like the rest of us! But no, as the biggest dole scrounger in the country, Queenie sees it has her divine right to sit on her skivvy-wiped arse, demanding that the rest of us pay for her lavish lifestyle. Still, as we wouldn't want to see anyone shivering through the frosty season, us kind souls in cosy Bath Bomb Towers have come up with a practical idea for keeping the queen, her repulsive hubby and all of her degenerate ilk, snugly warm this winter. Well, it's not quite our idea. We borrowed it from the Russians. And it involves petrol.
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It's Just Not Sport, Old Bean
Saturday 2nd October saw the Bath Hunt Saboteurs out with their shiny new Landie, teaming up with Bristol, South Wales and Ross groups, to pay the Ledbury Fox Hounds hunt a visit. Obviously, since the ban has been in place, nobody hunts with hounds any more, so the jolly gentry must have been out in the ungodly a.m., training this season's young foxhounds to get a taste for... I don't know, country air? Stiff tipples? Certainly not fox cub. The sabs ran rings around the hunt, calling away and playing with the hounds all day long, prompting the huntsman's age-old greeting of “You blow that fucking horn again and I'll shove it up your arse!” Bad show, what? Once Ledbury packed up, the sabs disturbed and shut down some other shooters for a couple hours until the plod arrived – even though they don't have the resources to police hunt crime, apparently. The next week, sabs successfully stopped the Monmouthshire hunt from making kills, too! If you have a taste to get involved with more of the same over the coming months, ring Bath Hunt Saboteurs on 07854 062336, or come along to their meetings at the Bell, the second and fourth Monday of the month, at 8pm.
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SO DESPERATE, WE SAY IT TWICE: yes, the Bath Bomb is now officially skint. It's a miracle you're even holding this issue in your hands, if you are. If you can find it in your pockets to make a donation, please contact us as bathbombpress[at]yahoo.co.uk. Or alternatively, for armchair activists, £15 gets you a year of Bath Bombs posted to your door – so you don't even have to leave the house – plus other possible goodies.*
*Terms and Conditions: offer subjected to social change. Your statutory, inalienable human rights are not effective
*
And now, to the disclaimer: as anyone is free to contribute, the opinions expressed in each article are not necessarily reflective of all contributors. Naturally, any right-wing or corporate bullshit will be binned and spat upon. Needless to say, the opinions of the author of this disclaimer do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other contributor.
@nti-copyright: copy and distribute!
Issue #34
free/donation
October 2010
"abusing authority figures and the english language since 2007 "
*
Hand Made Hard Times Handed Back: yes, the Bath Bomb is now officially skint. It's a miracle you're even holding this issue in your hands, if you are. If you can find it in your pockets to make a donation, please contact us as bathbombpress[at]yahoo.co.uk. Or alternatively, for armchair activists, £15 gets you a year of Bath Bombs posted to your door – so you don't even have to leave the house – plus other possible goodies.*
*Terms and Conditions: offer subjected to social change. Your statutory, inalienable human rights are not effective
*
Take A Chants On Me
Sunday the 3rd October saw 8,000 activists from across the U.K. flood in to Birmingham to protest the opening of the Tory Party Conference. With more and more people realising just how deep and devastating the Tory cuts will be, the protest marked the start of the fightback nationally. The protest was a noisy and high-spirited affair, buoyed up by some militant and inspiring speeches from community and union activists, that captured the mood of determination and solidarity that pervaded the demo. On the day, the police enforced a draconian security arrangement that prevented the protest from getting near the conference whilst the delegates cowered behind steel fencing, despite prior arrangements to allow the demo past. However, a few unlucky Tories had the smug wiped off their faces when they were caught in the open by groups of protestors, receiving a barrage of angry abuse before being hurriedly escorted back inside their hotel by police. The day ended with the police cordoning off of the 200-strong anarchist bloc for no apparent reason, while other protesters, in a display of solidarity, gathered around the police and demanded their release - which they eventually did after a number of unnecessary and heavy-handed searches and assaults. At the close of proceedings, O.T.T. police riot vans also insisted on escorting each coachload of demonstrators home.
Bath will of course be holding its own anti-cuts demo on Wednesday the 20th of October, starting at 5p.m. outside the Abbey. Whether you are a public or private sector worker, unemployed, a pensioner, student or disabled, we all have good reasons to unite against these cuts, so why not come along and bring your mates.
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Cutting The Crap
Following Monday's demo, on Wednesday 22nd September, Bath Trades Council and B.A.N. hosted 50 people to the first meeting of the Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance, welcoming regional officials from the N.U.T., G.M.B., B.&N.E.S.'s Unison branch, and from the U.C.U. at City of Bath College, where A-Level courses are to be closed, shutting off the only chance mature students have to take this course in Bath, and making it harder for them to consider going to university. In a lively discussion, veterans of the anti-poll tax movement explained that we can win, and how, while young people in their first big struggle talked about the lessons they have learned from other campaigns. More than one speaker emphasized the need for solidarity between public sector workers and the people who use public services – all of us – and the need for unity between workers in the private and public sectors. If we fight the lies that divide us, we can take on the people really responsible for the mess we are in. A collection was made and tickets sold for a coach to the Tory Conference in Birmingham.
The Alliance has been kicked off by the Trades Council and is open to anyone who wants to take part, whether from a union, political party, community organization, or no group at all. It can be contacted at: bathagainstcuts[at]yahoo.co.uk. And don't forget the mass demo in Bristol on the 23rd October, following the Con-Dem budget announcement! To be joined by activists from Bath and the surrounding area, the demo will start at Castle Park at 11a.m..
70 anti-cuts protesters also held a demo outside the council building in Swindon on Thursday the 7th October, to coincide with the full council meeting. Rather than face their constituents, LibDems and Tory Councillors slunk in through the back!
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The Kids Aren't Alright
Monday the 20th of September saw a protest outside the Guildhall in Bath, timed to coincide with the B.&N.E.S. Public Overview Scrutiny Meeting and decrying the potential closure of four local youth centres. Approximately 80 young people attended, alongside 20 UNISON workers, Trades Council members, B.A.N. affiliates and other adults involved in the local anti-cuts campaign. After half an hour or so of chanting, blowing whistles and making a happy, passionate noise, the meeting was moved to a larger room and the full group was invited in to attend.
Several children were on the agenda to speak and gave moving accounts, one in spoken word poetry, of what the youth centres had done for them. All but one cited broken homes, some with domestic abuse, and emphasised how youth centres gave them a refuge with safe adults to talk to about their problems. The centres also gave them a chance to flex their creativity and explore the skills they wanted to develop into adulthood.
Clutching the knot of his tie throughout, Ashley Ayre, the Director of Children's Services, defended their decision to look at withdrawing funding from the county's youth centres. Within his government-allocated budget of around £24.5 million, his department had had to come to the conclusion that other services were a higher priority. He emphasised that preventative services were still in place and that, balanced against the funding to protect children both in care and leaving care, the youth centres simply could not reach a similar level of priority. Crucially, he also explained that the department were losing a great deal of funding due to the new academy scheme in schools. Previously, the services a school would have used would have been funded, procured and exercised by Children's Services. Under the new scheme, academies get the money direct and can choose to 'buy back' whatever services from his department they cared to. Many of the children who formally spoke to the panel emphasised that they got a respectful pastoral care at the centres that they were unable to get at school (the word “patronising” in reference to teachers' attitudes was repeatedly used) and it seems poignantly ironic that the funding should be shifted in a way that one presumes and hopes is at least ostentatiously to 'improve' children's lives.
Councillor John Bull, of the Labour party, argued for another public consultation to take place, arguing that the previous one had been insufficient. Indeed, as one of the young speakers cited, despite a supposedly sufficient consultation, no councillors or workers had visited centres to talk to the users themselves. Mr Ayre said that an issue with carrying out another consultation was that it may prevent the department from reaching their April deadline for this financial year's cuts, forcing them to add these onto next year's. As it stands, the department must make cuts of approximately £1 million a year for five years.
A worker from the previously closed Odd Down centre argued that to close the youth centres was a false economy: in her experience, the year after their centre was shut, there was a rise in use of police services and A.S.B.O.s given out, meaning that the ostentatious cost-saving in fact played out as cost in another department. Another issue is that youth centres work in a very much preventative fashion, rather than 'picking up the pieces' after crisis. Without this proactive approach, services that do pick up the pieces will see their workload increase.
It was somewhat galling to sit and listen to these measures and counter-measures debating the immediate and future experience of local children whilst in the opulence of chandeliers and an abundance of enormous oil paintings. Pomp and circumstance is necessary to an extent as public service is a serious matter and needs the trappings to formally emphasise so in some way. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps we could flog a couple of oil paintings, have slightly smaller chandeliers and perhaps cut back on the buildings and maintenance budget a little instead?
Stop the Press: likely as a result of the demo, Children's Services met with youth workers on Tuesday the 5th this month, admitting they fund another £50,000, and now only the Batheaston centre will be closing, though they're trying to find funding elsewhere for their worker, and two others are limited to part-time.
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http://www.thebathbomb.blogspot.com *
Ooooh Betty, The Council's Done A Whoopsy On The Workers
John Betty, a director at B.&N.E.S. Council, has had his £160,000 pay packet increased by £22,000, as well as being awarded an annual bonus of £34,000, and expenses of £4,200. The pay increase and bonuses alone are enough to pay for the annual employment of three frontline public servants - people whose jobs are being slashed by the very same council who has awarded Betty his extra cash. 2010 has also seen the numbers of B.&N.E.S. managers with a salary above £50,000 shoot up from 106 to 120. The Taxpayers Alliance has also released figures showing that the top seven at B.&N.E.S. enjoy pay packets ranging between £167,000 and £108,000, all but two of whom received a pay increase this year. We have heard much rhetoric from the council about cuts to services being inevitable. In light of these recent pay increases and decadent salaries, it is apparent that what they mean is “cuts are inevitable, if we at the top are to continue living in luxury”. If the 120 highest earners in B.&N.E.S., who rack up an annual salary of £8,000,000 between them (not including expenses or bonuses) took a voluntary 10% pay deduction – a small price to pay, compared to the misery ordinary people are being put through – enough money would be saved to retain at least forty of the staff who are being kicked out of their jobs in the coming year. It's good to see where the local high and mighties' priorities lie.
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Molotov For Beginners
You go months and months without a terror plot to give you a good larf, then two turn up in quick succession. First was the Muslim-inspired plot to kill the Poop, and the latest is a planned Mumbai-style series of commando attacks against Britain, France and Germany. Allegedly. If you believe all you read that's spewed out by Murdoch/Harmsworth Muckrakers Inc., that is. Both 'plots', of course, are pure bollocks, as you might already have guessed, designed to keep you gibbering as the U.K. Stasi rip away any shreds of civil liberties you have left, in the name of combating the bullshit threat of 'terror'.
What they didn't credit is that we're already on to their squalid scam, and have been since at least 2003, when U.K. mainland security donkers cooked up a 'ricin plot', which had no ricin nor plot, to give Tony B. Liar an excuse for invading Iraq. A bunch of Kurds were fingered by the plod in 2004 for supposedly plotting to blow up Old Trafford football ground. This turned out to be as unlikely as the claim that they were all members of Al Quaeda. Then there was the 'airline' plot in 2006, involving apparent plans to blow up passenger planes in mid-air using liquid explosives. This collapsed when it came to trial in 2008, as the jury failed to convict on conspiracy to murder by blowing up aircraft.
Whitehall spooks have played the 'terror plot' card once too often. It's not 'terrorists' we need protecting from; it's government fakers desperately in need of new clichés.
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Cute, Without The 'E'
Oh, how our hearts bled for embattled director of local children's services Ashley Ayre (with his £125,000 salary) when he poured his heart out to the Chron about the tough decisions in front of him. “I don't want to make any cuts!” sobbed a teary-eyed Ayre, speaking of his plan to slash 40% of Bath's youth centres. Defending his brutal cuts, which will see young and vulnerable people turfed out onto the streets, Ayre stated “I'd prefer to take money out of youth services rather than our children in care service budget.”
Well bully for you old chum, except in reality, we don't need to cut either! Here at Bath Bomb Towers, we'd rather he took money out of the pockets of the rich, tax-dodging scum and financial speculators that got us into this mess in the first place, and left our kids alone. It's funny how the government have told us to brace for cuts immediately, but minor reforms to the banking system to reduce (reduce, not stop) corruption and bonuses don't have to be implemented until 2019! The Tories are resolutely defending their class interests – maybe it's about time we started defending ours! The idea that we need to gang together to pay for these cuts (spirit of the 40's and all that) is rubbish. Cracking down on the top corporate tax avoiders would bring in £123 billion, pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq a further £136.5 billion, restoring the corporate taxation level to pre-1997 levels £18 billion, taxing the rich 60% £27.5 billion per year, scrapping Trident billions more, and so on. A tax collector was in some paper the other day (yes folks, there are other papers out there) saying that staff cuts in his department meant that massive amounts of tax (mainly from the super rich and big companies) remained uncollected!
There is the money out there to pay for this deficit, but lets not forget that these cuts are also just the Tories doing what they do best – finding any pretext to slash our public services and hand it all over to shady private investors (and why not, since privatization has worked so well in the past?). I heard a really great quote the other day, which is quite pertinent for our times: “how come they only call it class war when the poor fight back?” Make no mistake, the Con-Dems are launching an aggressive class war, we have no option but to fight back.
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Bath Activist Network are 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 and greens, and people who just want to change Bath for the better. For details on meetings, demos, or just to get in touch, e-mail bathactivistnet[at]yahoo.co.uk, or see our website:
http://www.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com *
UPCOMING EVENTS
drawing classes: 'Remembering the Present', Mondays & Tuesdays, Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol,
http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info London Road Food Co-op, Wednesdays, 5-7p.m., Riverside Community Centre, London Road,
http://www.londonroadfoodcoop.blogspot.com exhibition: 'Remembering the Present', Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, 11a.m.-3p.m., Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol,
http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info Bathampton Community Growers workday, Thursdays, 10a.m.-dusk, Mill Lane, Bathampton, e-mail thelostplot[at]googlemail.com/ tel Chris 07792 444628
Bathampton Community Supported Agriculture project: fruit picking, Thursdays and Sundays, 10a.m.-2p.m., FFI e-mail
csa@transitionbath.org; www.bathamptoncsa.wordpress.com Bath Stop The War Coalition vigil, Saturdays, 11.30a.m.-12.30, Bath Abbey Courtyard
Bradford-On-Avon peace vigil, Saturdays, 11.30a.m.-12.30, by the peace statue opposite Westbury Gardens by the Town Bridge, Bradford-On-Avon
exhibition: 'Remembering the Present', Saturdays, 12-4p.m., Stokes Croft Museum, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol,
http://www.stokescroftmuseum.info Recycle Your Sundays, Sundays, 10.30a.m., starts Abbey Churchyard, the regular series of sociable, easy-paced cycle rides,
http://www.bathrys.org.uk/ tel Hazel 01225 469199 Bath Green Drinks, Wednesday 13th October, 8p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove Street
Bath Activist Network meeting, Thursday 14th October, 7.30-9p.m., downstairs at the Hobgoblin, St James Parade,
http://ww.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com talk: 'Sustainable Agriculture in Cuba - holding on in a changing future?', Friday 15th October, 7p.m., The Council House, College Green, Bristol,
http://www.cosg.org.uk demo: 'The Crude Awakening', Saturday 16th October, 10a.m., London, FFI and to sign up for text alerts at
http://www.crudeawakening.org.uk anti-Noah's Ark Zoo Farm/Wurzels (!) demo, Saturday 16th October, 5p.m.,
http://bristolanimalrights.org.uk No Borders South Wales punk benefit gig, Saturday 16th October, 7p.m., Six Feet Under, Newport, feat. The Oppressed, No Choice, Kilnaboy, Tighten Up & The D Teez; £5 entry
Broadlands Community Orchard Apple Day, Sunday 17th October, 12-4.30p.m., Broadlands Orchard, Box Road, Bathford, feat. live music from Pink Froot & Padleigh Hillbillies, and apple juice pressing, apple bobbing, childrens activities, orchard guided walk, & campfire cooking! £3 suggested donation; htp://www.broadlandsorchardshare.org.uk
film: 'Paths of Pain', Tuesday 19th October, 7.30p.m., Colston Hall, Bristol; as part of the 'Unchosen' Bristol Film Festival,
http://www.unchosen.org.uk Bristol S.W.P. Public Rally 'Can Marxism Make Sense of a World in Turmoil?', Tuesday 19th October, 7.30p.m., Malcolm X Centre, City Road, Bristol
Anti-cuts demo, Wednesday 20th October, meet 5p.m., outside the Abbey
talk: 'Europe's Carfree Neighbourhoods - Could we Do it in Bristol', Wednesday 20th October, 7.30p.m., Cornubia pub, Bristol,
http://www.carfreebristol.org.uk. Hunt Sabs punk benefit gig, Thursday 21st October, 7p.m., Winchester Arms pub, Taunton, feat. Sickwax, King Tuts Revenge, Room 4 1 More & Hacksaw, £3 entry,
http://www.myspace.com/anonpromo talk: 'What’s the Blogging Story?', Friday 22nd October, 7p.m., the Watershed, Bristol, £7/£5 entry,
http://newsfutures.co.uk/category/event March and rally against the Tory cuts, Saturday 23rd October, meet 11a.m., Castle Park, Bristol
Transition Talks: 'Food Co-ops and Organic Buying Groups', Tuesday 23rd November, FFI e-mail
alison@sustainweb.org; http://www.transitionbath.org/events Stop Nuclear Power Network national gathering, Saturday 23rd October-Sunday 24th October, venue T.B.C. Bristol,
http://www.stophinkley.org London Anarchist Bookfair, Saturday 23rd October, 10a.m.-7p.m., Queen Mary's, University of London, Mile End Road, London,
http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk anti-foie gras demo, Sunday 24th October, 2-3p.m., location T.B.C.; e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk
Transition Bath Social, Monday 25th October, 7.15p.m., the Love Lounge/ back room of the Bell, Walcot Street; bring food to share;
http://www.transitionbath.org Bath Cycling Campaign meeting, Monday 25th October, 7.30p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove
Street,
http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk Bath Hunt Saboteurs meeting, Monday 25th October, 8-9p.m, The Bell, tel Justin 07854 062336
Bath Socialist Forum meeting, Monday 25th October, 8p.m., upstairs St James Wine Vaults
Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance meeting, Tuesday 26th October, 8p.m., the Bell, Walcot Street
photography exhibition: 'Against the wall', Tuesday 26th-Saturday 30th October, 1p.m., the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol,
http://emporium37.wordpress.com short films, 'Unchosen' Bristol Film Festival, Tuesday 26th October, 7.30p.m., Hall 2, Colston Hall, Bristol, £2 entry; feat. 'Bristol Bike Project', 'Echoes', 'Brazil's Child Prostitutes',
http://www.unchosen.org.uk FreeBus Public Meeting, Wednesday 27th October, 7.30p.m., Hamilton House, Bristol,
http://www.freebus.org.uk Critical Mass Bike Ride, Saturday 30th October, meet 1p.m., Kingsmead Square,
http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk Bristol Free Vegan Food Fair, Saturday 30th October, 12-5p.m., Broadmead Baptist Church, Union Street, Bristol, BS1 3HY,
http://www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/veganfoodfair photography exhibition: 'The Art of Resistance in Palestine', Saturday 30th October, 6p.m., the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol
Bath Animal Action info stall, Sunday 31st October, 2-4p.m., Stall Street, e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk; http:///www.bathanimalaction.blogsppot.com
The Freeze Peach Halloween Festival, Sunday 31st October, 2p.m.-12, Metropolis, Stokes Croft, Bristol; feat. Capac, The Scribes, Aye Aye, Inspector Dread, Danny Kelly & DJ's;
http://www.freezepeach.co.uk Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance demo, Wednesday 3rd November, time T.B.C., outside Guildhall, Bath
Bath Activist Network meeting, Thursday 4th November, 7.30-9p.m., downstairs at the Hobgoblin, St James Parade,
http://ww.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com Wiltshire Trades Council History Day, Saturday 6th November, 10-2.30p.m., St. Margaret's Hall, Bradford-on-Avon
Bath Animal Action & Bath Hunt Saboteurs meeting, Monday 8th November, 8-9p.m., The Bell, Walcot Street, e-mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk;
http://www.bathanimalaction.blogspot.com Gaia Cabaret, Tuesday 9th November, 7.30p.m. top floor United Reformed Church Building, 7 Grove Street, £5/£3 entry;
http://tinyurl.com/28tkd8y Bath Green Drinks, Wednesday 10th November, 8p.m., the Rising Sun, Grove Street
Bath FreeShop, Saturday 13th November, 12-3p.m., outside the Pump Rooms, Stall Street
National Anti Fur March, Saturday 13th November, meet 12 midday, Belgrave Square, London, www.caft.org.uk/furmarch
Coalition of the Resistance Conference, Saturday 27th November, London, more details tbc
Camp for Climate Action Australia, Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th December, Bayswater Power Station,
http://www.climatecamp.org.au Climate Camp Aotearoa, Thursday 16th to Tuesday 21st December, Wellington New Zealand,
http://www.climatecamp.org.nz/node/51 *
Bullet(s) In The Head(Lines)
* Anti-nuclear campaigners from the Stop Nuclear Power Network blockaded the road into Hinkley Point on the Somerset coast, the site of two planned nuclear reactors, at 7a.m. on the morning of Monday October 4th, using a cunning combo of chains and badger costumes. Other campaigners painted graffiti anti-nuclear messages at a street art competition in Williton, West Somerset. If E.D.F. Energy's reactor goes ahead, not only will there be up to 17 million years of radioactive waste and leak risks to contest with, but local wildlife will also be up shit creek – the company hopes to bulldoze and dynamite 435 acres of green fields, before even securing planning permission. In the company's flawed community 'consultation', they refused to even ask whether a new power station should even be built or not, and to keep local councils informed
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net http://stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr100813.htm http://boycottedf.org.uk http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell-nuclear.html http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/index.php?menu=english&sousmenu=presse&page=index# * After kicking out 1,200 workers since the end of 2008, Bath-based boom-and-bust opportunists Helphire, and their verbose boss Martin Ward, was bragging in the local press recently about the company's £13.9 million profits this year, 'thanking' his former staff. For the over-worked, un-unionised ones that remain, bonuses are next to impossible to achieve, and conditions barely scratch legal; but, still, at least the directors are still winning new bonuses
* Friends of Culverhay have recently begun a campaign to stop the closure of Culverhay secondary school at Rush Hill, which serves deprived areas of the city like Twerton, Whiteway and Southdown. The school has an Ofsted rating of 'good' and is one of the best improving schools for student results in the UK. A decision is expected in late November, after a consultation running between October 14th and 29th – rumour has it that Bath Spa Uni are after the site, and have seeded one of their own governors, Chris Watt, on the board
www.bathnes.gov.uk/culverhayconsultation
* Bristol Airport has had its £150m expansion plans green-lighted by North Somerset Council, subject to various conditions, despite the site's infringement on protected green belt. Campaigners are calling for a public inquiry, and are hoping to mount a legal challenge, after the government's failure to intervene – surprise, surprise. Building work may begin as early as next year
http://www.nobristolairportexpansion.co.uk * At its annual conference, the T.U.C. (Trades Union Congress) has called for coordinated protest and industrial action to combat the cuts. Various union leaders, including Bob Crow of the R.M.T., have called for general strikes and civil disobedience
* Over 4,000 protested outside the Lib-Dem Party Conference in Liverpool, demanding an end to their complicity in the savage Con-Dem program of job and service cuts. The protest sets the stage for a season of anger at the coalition government
* Cracks in the Con-Dem coalition are widening, with a recent survey revealing that almost 90% of Conservative M.P.s felt that the balance of employment law had shifted too far towards the employee, but 70% of Liberal Democrats disagreed. Almost two thirds of Tories were in favour of appointing a full-time Trade Minister to "bang the drum" for British companies overseas, but half of LibDems disagreed. 70% of Nick Clegg's party wanted spending on infrastructure to increase, compared with less than a third of Conservatives
* A new joint T.U.C./C.N.D. report recently revealed the extent of defence industry jobs that will be lost to make way for the £76 billion Trident nuclear missile system replacement, if it goes ahead: the cuts to surface ships, aircraft, armoured vehicles and R.A.F. bases will destroy far more jobs than the Cold War program would ever bring in. Instead the marine engineers could be re-trained towards developing wave and tidal energy systems, for stronger job security
http://www.cnduk.org/tridentjobs * Back of the N.E.T.(C.U.): the police too are under the knife, with a 25% funding cut and new officers being asked to volunteer their first 18 months training, rather than get paid. But we're not sorry to hear about the departure of N.E.T.C.U. - the 'National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit' which victimised environmentalists and sent down several animal rights activists, for such dangerous crimes as setting up websites. Faced with this, did the Police Federation take up the unions' motto of “Solidarity Forever”? Did they fuck. Instead they tried to ban the march on the Tory Conference. Maybe they're just sore cos they threw away their right to strike back in '19? Scabs
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/09/463925.html * French workers launched their second General Strike in a month, with more planned for the coming weeks. The days of action saw many services brought to a standstill and nearly three million workers taking to the streets. The actions (which opinion polls show have the backing of the majority in France) are a response to austerity measures and Sarkozy's policy of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62
* Israeli naval commandoes violently seized another activist aid ship on September 28th, with the vessel 'Irene' being stopped 20 miles from Gaza. The crew was made up of Israeli Jews involved in 'Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis' and former I.D.F. pilots. Although Israel described their seizure as peaceful, at least one passenger was tasered in this latest act of piracy. Oh, how we at the Bath Bomb long for the days of Blackbeard and 'Black Sam' Bellamy!
http://www.jewishboattogaza.org http://www.israeli-oc *
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Out Of Arms Reach
October marks the end of Sick Season, the six months of U.K. arms fairs dressed up as 'airshows', 'air days', or 'military tattoos' , comprising some 80 or so country-wide open-air forces' propaganda stunts which are sold to the gullible as public family entertainment. At each one there are killing machines of all kinds for adults and kids to drool over, whether cockpit-open on the ground or screaming overhead.
Red Arrows, anyone? This lot have long been a glossy slab of R.A.F. P.R. to normalise and glorify weapons of death, as they innocuously loop the loop in their standard Hawk combat jets, the like of which are a bombing-run must-have in warzones worldwide.
The Southwest is disfigured by the s(l)ick stunts at Kemble in June, and Yeovilton and Fairford in July. Worst of the lot is probably the Farnborough boys' toys outing, when they tack on a throwaway weekend of aerial frivolity after five euphemistically-monikered 'trade days', when tinpot dictatorships from all over the globe send their minions in to openly buy and sell the latest air-attack hardware.
As a sop to public morality, Fairford majors on its involvement with the R.A.F. Charitable Trust, which you might be forgiven for believing has as its primary objective the rehab of injured, shell-shocked or otherwise traumatised ex-servicemen. Minor digging on its website, however, reveals its intention to be to “....promote recruitment to....the R.A.F.”, a theme expanded on elsewhere in nauseating drivel like this: “At the heart of the Trust is its commitment to young people, to initiate and develop within them an enthusiasm for aviation and consequently generate a desire within them to join...” Nowt to do wi' me – they said it in their own words.
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Put The Benefit Thieves To Work!
“Why not,” simpered a smug David Cameron from billboards across the country “cut benefits for those who refuse to work?” Well, for the first and only time here at B.B. H.Q., we agree with you Davey: lets punish the parasites that leech from society without putting anything back in. Me and David are of course talking about that arch parasite, the Queen, and her family of wastrels. Showing how in touch she is with the average person, the Queen (well, more likely, one of her skivvies) has applied for a couple of extra million from the Community Energy Fund to top up the existing millions that the taxpayer already pays for her to keep toasty warm. 'Er majesty has had her request declined by the government, and was informed via a toady, apologetic letter informing her that her money (originally earmarked for unimportant things like schools, hospitals and care homes for the elderly) would not be forthcoming for the sole reason that awarding it might attract “probable adverse press coverage” (didn't stop us: Hah!). The mere fact that the palace felt that, during this difficult period in which hundreds of the country's poorest pensioners freeze to death over winter, the Queen deserved yet more of our taxes, shows the sheer contempt and arrogance with which the ruling class still view us plebs. You want some of our fuel allowance, you pampered parasite, you can come down here and work for it like the rest of us! But no, as the biggest dole scrounger in the country, Queenie sees it has her divine right to sit on her skivvy-wiped arse, demanding that the rest of us pay for her lavish lifestyle. Still, as we wouldn't want to see anyone shivering through the frosty season, us kind souls in cosy Bath Bomb Towers have come up with a practical idea for keeping the queen, her repulsive hubby and all of her degenerate ilk, snugly warm this winter. Well, it's not quite our idea. We borrowed it from the Russians. And it involves petrol.
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It's Just Not Sport, Old Bean
Saturday 2nd October saw the Bath Hunt Saboteurs out with their shiny new Landie, teaming up with Bristol, South Wales and Ross groups, to pay the Ledbury Fox Hounds hunt a visit. Obviously, since the ban has been in place, nobody hunts with hounds any more, so the jolly gentry must have been out in the ungodly a.m., training this season's young foxhounds to get a taste for... I don't know, country air? Stiff tipples? Certainly not fox cub. The sabs ran rings around the hunt, calling away and playing with the hounds all day long, prompting the huntsman's age-old greeting of “You blow that fucking horn again and I'll shove it up your arse!” Bad show, what? Once Ledbury packed up, the sabs disturbed and shut down some other shooters for a couple hours until the plod arrived – even though they don't have the resources to police hunt crime, apparently. The next week, sabs successfully stopped the Monmouthshire hunt from making kills, too! If you have a taste to get involved with more of the same over the coming months, ring Bath Hunt Saboteurs on 07854 062336, or come along to their meetings at the Bell, the second and fourth Monday of the month, at 8pm.
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SO DESPERATE, WE SAY IT TWICE: yes, the Bath Bomb is now officially skint. It's a miracle you're even holding this issue in your hands, if you are. If you can find it in your pockets to make a donation, please contact us as bathbombpress[at]yahoo.co.uk. Or alternatively, for armchair activists, £15 gets you a year of Bath Bombs posted to your door – so you don't even have to leave the house – plus other possible goodies.*
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And now, to the disclaimer: as anyone is free to contribute, the opinions expressed in each article are not necessarily reflective of all contributors. Naturally, any right-wing or corporate bullshit will be binned and spat upon. Needless to say, the opinions of the author of this disclaimer do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other contributor.
BBJ