Issue 17 - May/June 1999
FACE UP TO THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
WHAT sort of world would you
rather live in? A world where we can all get on with our own private lives
in dignity and freedom, where respect and humanity are the keys to a decent
society? Or a world where everyone of us is treated like a potential criminal,
logged and checked wherever we go, tracked step by step by legions of security
cameras throughout the whole of our lives? This isn't a hypothetical question.
This is the very real choice facing our society as we stand on the
threshold of a new Millennium. Under the noses of a trusting public, the
powers-that-be have quietly been putting together the high-tech tools of a
police state that makes Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany look like Sunday
afternoon tea at the vicarage. Earlier this year Tony Blair himself boasted
that he was imposing a "harsh and authoritarian" regime on Britain
(The Observer, Jan 10). The pace of tyranny certainly seems to be
quickening at the moment, along with all the profit-making (out of our
pockets, yet again) for Big Brother's best mates in the business
community. Revealed the Worthing Advertiser on April 28: "BT
CCTV has announced it has won a contract worth nearly £350,000 to
further expand the existing CCTV network in Sussex. After the expansion,
costing approximately £1 million, 270 cameras will operate in 26 towns
throughout West Sussex, including Shoreham, Worthing and Lancing" BT
corporate slimeball Vic Williams cooed: "It must be a great comfort to the
Sussex community knowing that so much of their area is covered by the friendly
eye of CCTV". Presumably it would be a "great comfort" to Sick Vic
if his boss at BT stood looking over his shoulder all day at work or his
mother-in-law followed him down the pub at the weekend to keep a "friendly
eye" on what he was getting up to!
In protest at all this, The Pork-Bolter is staging a double
celebrationary Big Brother's Birthday bash. The date of Saturday
June 26 marks both the 96th birthday on June 25 of the late great
George Orwell, whose warnings in Nineteen Eighty-Four are still
being ignored today, and the third birthday, on July 1, of Worthing's very own
CCTV system. This year we are focussing on the way the police state is
building up a secret computer database of all our faces so it can
automatically track us via CCTV. Were you consulted about this? Are they
allowed to keep such information without your permission? What would happen if
we copyrighted our own faces to stop them? Let's find out! Paint your face
with a © or make a © mask or just turn up and join the fun!
WE WIN THE ELECTION - AGAIN!
MORE ballot success! And only apathy
stopped The Pork-Bolter from notching up a record-breaking score
in May's local council elections. It seems that some of you people just
couldn't be bothered to make the effort and help our Boycott the Ballots
campaign, thus depriving us of the emotional satisfaction of seeing 70% of
Worthing Voters stay away from the polls in disgust. We still won by a mile,
though, with the final score standing at PORK-BOLTER 69%, ALL THE POLITICAL
PARTIES 31%. Many thanks to all of you who actually got off your political
backsides and stayed at home. Incidentally, our statistics department tells us
that of 77,157 eligible voters in Worthing, only 12,992 voted for the Tory
"winners". This means they will be controlling the town with the backing of
just 16.8% of the electorate, one in six, while five out of six (that's 83.2%)
didn't bote for them. Perhaps they'd like to bear that in mind ... Meanwhile,
could the Lib Dems have perhaps now learnt that if they want people to vote
for them as a real alternative to the Tories, they are going to have to
demonstrate that they do not, in fact, represent exactly the same
corrupt attitudes? (fat chance!)
IS MR CHAPMAN FEELING ALRIGHT?
WHAT a strange man David Chapman is.
While it is generally accepted that the main political parties in this country
have moved closer together than ever before, with little difference between
New labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems, ex-Mayor Chapman sees it differently.
He justified his pre-election switch from the Lib Dems to the Tories by
announcing that his former colleagues (the ones who privatised Worthing's
council housing, want to sell off the Sompting Gap to business, etc) were
getting too left wing! Nationally, he is uneasy about the Lib Dems
being too close to that wild revolutionary Tony "Bomber" Blair. And he
explained to the Worthing Herald (April 22): "The 'leftward'
shift, I believe, has now been reflected on a local level, with the local
Liberal Democrats harbouring increasinly more "left wing" elements, who could
not find elector support if they stood as socialists." Mr Chapman clearly has
problems with his lefts and rights and The Pork-Bolter is
worried that he might put himself at risk while crossing busy roads on his way
to the Town Hall or the Masonic Hall*. We would appeal to anyone spotting Mr
Chapman hovering on the kerbside to hold the poor confused fellow's hand and
lead him gently across to the other side before he does himself a tragic
mischief!
*This is not an inspired guess. The Worthing Guardian, on April 22,
reported this mayoral connection, complete with photo of nice Mr Chapman with
friendly local Freemasons.
 |
MAYORCARE
plc
Imagine waking one morning and finding you could no longer tell left
from right. You no longer know where you belong, what you believe. This
happened to David. Poor David. He needs your help. Now. A small donation
would go a long way to an annual Pork-Bolter subscription. And sad David's
political vision could be fully restored. |
VIDEO THAT TV DIDN'T DARE SHOW
A VIDEO treat is being laid on for the
public by The Pork-Bolter, in conjunction with Worthing Friends of the Earth
and The Anarchist Teapot, on Tuesday June 1 from 7.30pm, upstairs at
Paiges on Worthing seafront. We will be screening McLibel: Two Worlds
Collide, a true story of free speech versus corporate greed. The TV
channels won't show it, so this is a unique chance to find out the
truth for yourself and enjoy a bit of socialising afterwards. Hope to see
you there!
PORKY PIE'S TIP OF THE MONTH
How to stop neo-fascist bombers
massacring innocent people for their own twisted political ends!
COUNCIL REALLY MEANS BUSINESS!
HAS anyone else noticed how the meaning
of the word democracy is being slowly but surely changed to suit the
purposes of the small group of unpleasant people who run this country? Didn't
it use to mean something like "rule by the people" and suggest that every
individual was allowed an equal say in the way his or her community is
organised? Not anymore it doesn't. We now seem to have been tricked
into accepting that democracy somehow always has to be tied in with the
demands of The Business Community. for instance, there was a charming
story in The West Sussex County Times on April 2 under the
reassuring heading "Planners bid to cut costs". In somewhat smaller print we
find out what all this is really about: "The county council hopes to have
better and more widespread input from the business community into its
strategic plan, which sets the framework for development in the county and
contains policies on key issues such as housing, business, transport,
conservation, recreation, tourism and mineral working". Asking businesses for
input on key issues such as "business"! Who could possibly imagine what side
of the debate they would tend to support? Hmmmmm. Well, actually, you don't
have to imagine anything because the same newspaper gave us a good indication
a few weeks later, on April 30, in another up-beat sounding article
enthusiastically headed "County's soaring economy". Here we are treated to the
input, on planning issues, of one of the leading lights of the local Business
Community, Ken Caldwell, chief executive of the quango Sussex Enterprise. He
is quoted as saying: "For the sixth consecutive year the Sussex economy has
outperformed the national average. If the Sussex economy is to successfully
recover growth rates some serious constraints will have to be tackled
urgently, most notably the inadequate transport infrastructure for
businesses along the south coast". Well, well, well, what a surprise! The
A27 again. To be built across the South Downs, no doubt! Everyone knows the
Business Community could not give a pork sausage about the countryside or the
way of life in sussex. They don't care a rasher of bacon for anything except
filling their own snouts in the trough of multi-million pound profits. For
them, planning policies are, as Caldwell admits, just "constraints" in the way
of their personal wealth-accumulating mission. Asking for their "input"
into planning affairs is like asking the Paedophile Society for "input" into
deciding the age of consent. Beside that, why should businessmen have any
extra "input" anyway? As individuals, they already have a vote, like the rest
of us. One person, one vote. That's what democracy's supposed to be isn't it?
Or are we living in a society in which, like in George Orwell's Animal Farm,
"some animals are more equal than others". And in this case the top dogs
are the greedy and ruthless fat cats of the so-called Business Community.
THE CHAMBER OF CORRUPTION?
WE Piggy People try to keep you abreast of
the ways in which local businesses act as if they own not just the town of
Worthing, but all the inhabitants too. But if you want a broader picture as to
what these legalised crooks get up to, we can heartily recommend the
authoritative magazine Corporate Watch
(£3 from Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RQ). In a packed
44-page Spring 99 issue, this top-class read exposes the International
Chamber of Commerce ("perhaps more appropriately known as the
International Chamber of Corruption"), probes the oil industry, takes a
very close look at Group 4 Ltd and much more stuff. Among the
contributing writers is Dave Morris, well known as one of the McLibel
defendants.
SNOWBALL SPLATS MUTANT-MONGERS
A PORKIE contingent went over to
Brighton in April to help with a genetiX snowball action
highlighting the horrific threats posed by Genetically Modified food,
still not banned in this country despite overwhelming public concern.
Protesters removed (without paying) contaminated foodstuff from
Safeways in central Brighton. Nobody was charged (in either sense of the
word). One of the activists, Rowan Tilly, is also named in an injunction
which sinister GM-giant Monsanto is now going to have to contest in a full
court hearing, leaving it liable to a McLibel-style public relations disaster!
We've got 'em on the run!
BUREAU-PRATS & THE LETTER OF THE LAW
HOW about this for a
bureaucratic Catch 22 situation? A homeless young Worthing couple with a baby
told us how they were forced to squat an empty flat because the council would
not house them all together as a family. Fortunately, the owner is happy for
them to stay on as tenants, and will draw up a tenancy agreement, if the
couple can get a letter from the council confirming they will be given housing
benefit. The council, however, will only provide this if the couple can
produce a tenancy agreement. Which is of course, what they need the letter for
...
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON JUNE 18?
FRIDAY June 18, 1999, is an important
date in the worldwide struggle to stop the whole planet being completely taken
over by greedy big business. Timed to coincide with the G8 conference in
Cologne, Germany, the international happening will see protests against all
aspects of corporate nastiness taking place in financial centres in dozens of
countries, including the City of London. Local groups or bunches of friends
are being encouraged to do their own thing and the June 18 co-ordinating group
for round here is Brighton: phone 01273-698192 or e-mail brightonj18@lycosmail.com. There is
also a massive Reclaim the Streets carnival, meeting at
Liverpool Street station in London at 12 noon.
PORK SCRATCHINGS
THE UNDEMOCRATIC bureacratic monster that is the
European Union is hardly very popular on these shores. But just across
the Channel in Normandy they have thir objection too - with an interesting
twist. The journal Le Libertaire (25 rue Dume-D'Aplemont, 76600
Le Havre) complains in its May issue that "not a single initiative or decision
comes out of Brussels without getting the approval of Washington - or London,
which comes down to the same thing." It says that since the days of Mrs
Thatcher, Britain has acted as a US proxy in the EU. "One could even add,
without too much exaggeration, that Great Britain no longer exists as an
independent nation, it is so deeply integrated into the economy and politics
of the USA." Strangely enough, much the same conclusion is reached in
Issue 2 of Culture Vulture (£1 stamps/PO from Box 39, 82
Colston St, Bristol, BS1 5BB), which focuses on the US-UK Special
Relationship, complete with a very useful book list for further reading.
* * *
WONDERING why Rupert Murdoch's Sky is giving away its Digital TV boxes?
Private Eye reported on April 2 on the mysterious £160
charge levied on any customer who dares to disconnect their "digibox" from
their phone line for any length of time! This turns out to be because the box
makes secret phone calls in the middle of the night, sending details of your
viewing habits to Sky's computer banks and then on to all those nice junk mail
firms who pay good money for this privacy-busting data. Comments to the Eye:
"Sky digital subscribers continue to transmit more useful info from their
TV sets than they receive through them."
* * *
FIRST Worthing council shut down the Dome cinema because they
said it was unsafe (which it turned out not to be), then they pulled
the plug on most live theatre at town venues. With the money-men
and their Multiplex waiting in the wings, a letter-writer to the
Worthing Herald (May 6) suspected a "hidden agenda". What is
going on here? Is a Domegate scandal about to engulf Worthing?
* * *
AN OFFICIAL BOMB WARNING - The Ministry of Truth would like to point out that
the views expressed in the Pork-Bolter are not shared by NATO or
the World Bank and as such constitute an ongoing threat to global unity,
peace and economic growth. We therefore consider anyone reading this
unauthorised newsletter to be a legitimate target for humanitarian
military action and we reserve the right to launch precision airstrikes
against any single one of you at any time we fancy and without ever saying
sorry. You are advised to put down this newsletter at once and report back to
your TV sets for coercive emotional manipulation.
* * *
KEEP UP WITH OUR PIG TALE - If you want to be sure of getting a copy of Issue
18, simply send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To get the next six
issues send a donation of at least £2 to cover costs. Copies of back
issues are still available. Cheques/postal orders made payable to The
Pork-Bolter. email subscriptions also available. Drop us a line:
porkbolter@.eco-action.org or
PO Box 4144, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 7NZ. website: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter
and finally ... SWITCH OFF YOUR TELLY AND COME AND WATCH OUR VIDEO!
