UK Indymedia | DSEi freepaper looking good

Within about 24 hours of placing a call out for help in putting together a one-off free newspaper for the DSEi mobilisations, things are looking good for the project to go ahead...

Already there have been pledges amounting to around half the likely cost and there have been six people volunteer to help with distributing the paper door-to-door in the Canning Town and Custom house during the vist week of September.

A rough outline of the content has been drawn up and at least half the text is now available (althought still requires a great deal of editing).

But help is still needed.

Many more people will be needed to distribute the paper, please to volunteer if you will be in the area during the first week of September.

Donations towards costs are still essential. Currently we are bugeting on producing 8 pages with blank ink only and a print run of 5,000. If money is available we maybe able to use colour on at least the front and back page and either increase the print run or the number of pages if necessary.

If you live in the area then perhaps you could speak to local businesses about the possibility of placing paid adverts in the paper to help cover the printing cost. A one-off paper of this type being delivered door-to-door represents a good place to advertise - especially as there probably wan't be many other adverts.

We also need local views about the arms trade, the exhibition and protests opposing it for the leters page. If you can think of anyone who might like to contribute please let them know.

We'd also welcome suggestion for a name for the paper. Infact we welcome any suggestions or comments about the project.

email

print2paper@gmail.com

So how do I go about making a donation, got a bank account?

I wish you all the luck with this and I am sorry I can't be there to help.

A previous post a couple of days ago on a public meeting in the area showed up some issues that are going to be relevant to you. The Excel centre (where DSEI is held) draws much of its workforce from the local area and the people get a bonus when big shows are on and opportunities for overtime. In addition the organisers (Speargroup) were very sneaky the last time and "bought" lost of local support by buying all their odds and ends in local shops and employing casual labour for things like rubbish collection.

I saw this when we protested the Farnborough Air Show, rather than gaining any local support we received a lot of hostility from local people who saw the show as a big pay day.

Is this sort of blanket coverage actually all that desirable? There's been a few of these one off newspapers that have been dished out in a rather patronising fashion in a 'local' or 'working class' area. Large sums of (London) money were wasted down here in Brighton in producing a one off parody of our local council rag The Leader called hilariously No Leaders in which the unwitting citizens of Whitehawk were suddenly introduced to the the leaden prose of John Jordan et al. "You see Mr Prole the problem is international capitalism (and the state) - now join your local EF? group and start trashing GM crops". I suspect most of them went straight in the bin.

Why should the people of Canning Town be any more concerned about the arms trade than those any where else in the country?

Brian, you're right.

I was at the protests in 2003 and most of the locals didn't give a toss. These papers will go straight in the bin. What a waste of time and money. O and by the way before someone gives me the usual crap about "at least we're doing something" no you're not. If you want to do something join a lock on and stop these bastards at the gates.

5,000 newspapers is not blanket coverage! The money would be better spent on leaflets advertising and explaining the anti-arms fair action, and advertisments for the action in magazines and newspapers!

Let's all remember this is a working class area and they're not too bright so let's have a nice stunner on page 3, lots of football stories and a couple of articles on Posh and Becks.

> So how do I go about making a donation, got a bank account?

Best email

print2paper@gmail.com to discuss the best way to make a donation. There is no specific bank account for the project but we can probably use the account of long term alt media projects in London or perhaps make an arrangement with CAAT or Disarm DSEi.

> The Excel centre (where DSEI is held) draws much of its workforce from the local area and the people get
> a bonus when big shows are on and opportunities for overtime. In addition the organisers (Speargroup)
> were very sneaky the last time and "bought" lost of local support by buying all their odds and ends in
> local shops and employing casual labour for things like rubbish collection.

This is no doubt true and an issue that needs addressing. CAAT is apparently going to supply an article that attempts to refute claims that DSEi is in fact a big contributor to the local economy. They should also be a more general piece refuting claims that the arms industry is a major employeer and throwing in the fact that supports of the slave trade used the same arguements.

> There's been a few of these one off newspapers that have been dished out in a rather patronising fashion
> in a 'local' or 'working class' area. Large sums of (London) money were wasted down here in Brighton in
> producing a one off parody of our local council rag The Leader called hilariously No Leaders in which
> the unwitting citizens of Whitehawk were suddenly introduced to the the leaden prose of John Jordan et al.
> "You see Mr Prole the problem is international capitalism (and the state) - now join your local EF? group
> and start trashing GM crops". I suspect most of them went straight in the bin.

Well, perhaps most of them did go straight in the bin, but you have no way to know. Like leafleting, it is almost impossible to know whether you are having any effect. However, in my experience, a small percentage hit home and do change peoples perspectives. I used to be involved in London Greenpeace (no relation to Greenpeace UK Ltd.) and dealt with corispondence from people who had been randomly handly What's Wrong With McDonald's leaflets in the street and ended up inspired to get involved in all kinds of campaigns, both local and global.

If it's patronising for us to try to communicate our plans and motivations, then just how patronising is the normal content of the mainstream media, full of the latest Big Brother story and ten ways to have better sex?

Addmitedly, many one-off papers attempts to be ironic have relied to heavily on the in jokes of protest culture and have perhaps failed to make the intended impression.

The DSEi freesheet is not intended to put forward a witty parody but simply bring together much of the information that has been made available in leaflets and on the web and deliver it to the people who will be effected by the protests that will take place in their neighborhoods. It is an attempt to explain the motivations and rational behind what will happen in order to try to mitigate against anger if possible and invite involvement.

> Why should the people of Canning Town be any more concerned about the
> arms trade than those any where else in the country?

Well, probably because every two years the government dump the worlds largest arms fair on their doorstep and thousands of protesters descend on the area and if anyone can stop future arms fairs at ExCel, it is the locals.

Leafleting/info around Canning Town is a exactly the right tactic.

I was at DSEI two years ago, and the locals didn't know what we were doing there, as a rule.

Working class people in East London needs schools, hospitals, housing - all the things the New Labour govt tells them there's no money for. A big theme in our local agitation should therefore be the annual $420m govt subsidy to the arms trade. CAAT have document this in various places, including here:

http://www.caat.org.uk/information/publications/other/intro-briefing-0901.php

I reckon that thousands of people who live round Excel, whose daily lives are going to be disrupted by the arms fairs' security operation will be pretty displeased to hear that the govt also gives nearly half a billion of their taxes to the fat cat death merchants every year.

Lets get them out on the streets - only mass action can shut down DSEI.

"There is no specific bank account for the project "

How very convenient !

"I was at DSEI two years ago, and the locals didn't know what we were doing"

They weren't alone !

It is very important that the locals know why people are protesting in their neighbourhood.

Sean,

Don't be patronising - the locals know why people are protesting, it's just that most of them dont care or agree with the protests. These are working class people with low incomes, DSEI to them means money and like many working class people they are very supportive of the military.

You're a very dubious local, "local" and what you are saying is tosh about people supporting the military. working class people (have you met one?) always cheer when people/protestors get one over the filth here.

Who on earth are you to call me 'dubious' ? What are you, psycic or something?

There is a big difference between cheering when anyone gets on over on the police, and giving a damm about a few precious student demos. Its "tosh" eh? It's clear you dont often get anywhere near us working class 'east end cheeky chappies'.

Contrary to what was said above, most of us round here do know what youre protesting about, we just dont agree with you. You can keep your leaflets or free papers, save your money, and you can keep your misguided protests too - just stay out of our neighbourhood - go back to the 'shires and pick on animal testers or something.

Events at Excel like DSEi bring money in, the costs of policing takes money out of OUR pockets - do us all a favour and GET LOST wasters.

DSEi freepaper looking good

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