No 39, September 2001
The Great Housing Rip-Off
NEW statistics have
exposed the shameful extent of the housing scandal in Worthing and West
Sussex. Despite decades of allowing greedy property developers to build all
over our countryside - with even more to come in Titnore Lane, Durrington,
despite outraged local opposition - we are still being cheated out of the
right of a roof over our heads. Figures from the National Housing
Federation show that an income of £46,793 is needed to get a 95
per cent mortgage on an average priced home in West Sussex. Obviously this is
way beyond what most individuals, or even working couples, earn around here -
have a look at the job ads in the local papers for the pitiful reality of
low-wage Worthing. Even the authorities are getting worried by this huge gap -
but only because it affects nurses and teachers and others it needs to operate
its system and look after the rich. It is so telling that the state only cares
about people in their economic role as "key workers", not as human beings in
need of a home for themselves and their families. So why isn’t more
housebuilding providing the solution? Because the new homes are being built
for profit, not as a service. Developers prefer to lure in executive London
commuters and second home owners to lucrative posh developments rather than
provide local families with the homes they need. And with Worthing’s own
council housing cynically privatised by the borough council three years ago,
we are all at the mercy of businesses who know that shelter is, along with
food, the one product we have no choice in paying for even if we have to work
ourselves into the grave to do so. Quality of life in Business-Run Britain?
Don’t make us laugh!
Thumbs down for freedom
IT just gets scarier all the
time... Not only can you not walk around Worthing town centre without
being monitored by the Sussex Police State, but now you can’t even go
and look something up in Worthing Library without Big Brother peering over
your shoulder. Yep, believe it or not, the newly refurbished reference section
in Richmond Road is equipped with CCTV cameras. So don’t research
anything the all-seeing all-knowing authorities wouldn’t approve of...
Here’s another one. A new trial scheme being inflicted on Worthing will
mean shops may demand a thumbprint from you when you go to spend your
hard-earned dosh on their goods. Reported the Worthing Guardian
on August 10: "Police have supplied 70 Thumbprint ID Scheme kits free to
Worthing Shopwatch members - and now the stores may at their discretion ask
customers to supply a print of their thumb which will be recorded on the back
of the cheque or credit card sales voucher for reference." Note, the
initiative comes from the Government via the police rather than from the shops
themselves, the supposed "victims" of the "crimes" the measure is supposed to
be stopping. While the state is always happy to amass data on its number one
enemy, the public, shops may not be so happy with the result on trade. As
police told the Worthing Guardian: "We hope it will put people off coming
to Worthing." (sorry, forgot a bit "...with cheque and credit card
fraud in mind.")
Joint effort simply spliffing
WORTHING’S first ever
Big Smoke, held on Bank Holiday Monday at the "Field of Dope",
Beach House Green, has been hailed a big success. Said an unofficial
organiser: "More than 100 people turned up - and yes we could be bothered to
count them - despite fairly low-key publicity in advance. The sun was shining,
we all made some new friends and had a chilled time. There was a "Guess the
Weight of the Dope Cake" competition which went down a treat. Best of all, we
had no hassle at all. This has definitely got to be an annual event now, so
put it in your diary - same place, on August Bank Holiday Monday 2002. And
we’ll make it bigger and more spectacular now we know there’s the
enthusiasm for it locally and people are going to show up!
Porky Pie’s Top Tip of the Month!
HOW TO HOW TO GET A
HOME IN SUSSEX
- Act like a complete banker and get rich.
- Work flat out for 80 hours a week to pay for a 0.5-bedroom studio bijou
bedsit timeshare.
- Squat your local MP’s second home.
Benefit gig
The Ego-Warriors are proud to present... the
porkbolter gig fund-raiser for the Cowley Club (Brighton social centre) and
The Pork-Bolter 8PM THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2001 @ The Lounge Bar, Bath Place,
Worthing (by back door of Woolworth’s, was Frog Pond). Punk band Becomes
the Water of Death + SUPPORT ACTS, DJs FREE ENTRY!
Tell McBlair to burger off!
TONY BLAIR is quite happy for
greedy multinational corporations to exploit children to make even more
profits. That’s the only conclusion that can be drawn from the
revelation (The Guardian, August 30) that McDonald’s is to
sponsor part of the Labour Party conference in Brighton, only weeks after it
was convicted and fined for child labour offences in Camberley, Surrey
(The Guardian, August 1). But then it’s hardly news that
Mr Tony is in the pockets of the corporations. Safe with another huge majority
for another four or five years, Mr Tony is rapidly dropping all pretence at
being a caring, democratic-minded Man of the People and is showing himself to
be one of the leading enforcers of the global business dictatorship for which
Margaret Thatcher did such splendid work in the 1980s. The latest chilling
example of the new openly capitalist Mr Tony came, appropriately enough in
The Times - a perfect symbol of how the old British
establishment is now one and the same as the dollar dynasties typified by its
media monopolist owner Rupert Murdoch. It reported (July 31) a speech in
Brazil in which Blair called for "reform" of the EU before Britain would join
the Euro. But this is not a "reform" of the type that involves a better deal
for Europe’s citizens, less money wasted on the EU gravy train, greater
accountability or democracy or anything worthwhile like that. Oh no, this is
"reform" in the old Thatcherite sense of the word, as is plain to see by
Blair’s choice of words. For instance, he wants "economic reform"
involving dropping of trade restrictions (unpopular with greedy
multinational corporations), reforms "to modernise Europe, increase
employment and promote growth" (more privatisation, bigger profits for big
business). The report lists Blair’s key aims as "opening up European
monopolies to greater competition" (eg: from US multinationals using cheap
Third World labour), "cutting the cost of investment" (cutting wages),
"increasing employment through labour markets" (forcing people off the dole
and into very low-paid work) and "boosting innovation in industries such as
biotechnology" (ensuring the EU cannot halt the advance of the
Americans’ Genetically Modified food conspiracy, despite massive public
opposition across Europe). We would like to say that Tony Blair has
sold his soul to Big Business - but it was probably genetically engineered by
them in the first place! * Several protests against New Labour and its
capitalist agenda are being staged in Brighton during the party’s
forthcoming conference. Most interesting are plans to "Gatecrash
Labour’s Party" - meet at The Level at 1pm on Sunday September 30.
For more details phone 01273 298192 or e-mail gatecrashing2001@yahoo.com
Hastings - a correction
IT’S not often we have the
chance to be happy about anything announced by the Government and now it seems
our euphoria last month over the apparent scrapping of the Hastings bypass may
have been premature. Said an article by Ros Coward in The
Guardian (August 17): "Hastings itself will soon be included in
another study: the much wider south coast multi-modal study, covering
Southampton to Margate. Campaigners always feared the ultimate game plan is
for a south coast motorway; this study might revive it." More info on the
SCAR website - http://www.scar-uk.fsnet.co.uk
Spread the SchNEWS
ANYONE who has seen a copy of
Brighton’s weekly radical newsletter SchNEWS must have noticed the
incredible way in which they cram so much information on to two sides of A4
paper. So imagine the amount of stuff they have managed to pack into the 300
pages of the SchNEWS Squall Yearbook 2001. Here we have not only
more than a year’s worth of SchNEWSes under one cover, but loads and
loads more stuff from the on-line Squall news service and other contributors.
Where can you start? There’s photos of all the big protests and some of
the smaller ones, cartoons, a massive contacts list, stuff on hunt sabbing,
outwitting the police, GM crops, peace camps, Mad Pride, the World Bank,
surveillance society, the Bilderbergers (the secret elite of world
capitalist leaders exposed by Jon Ronson on TV earlier this year - also check
out www.bilderberg.org), bio-diesel, Zapatistas, Indian farmers, West
Papua, road building, Star Wars... sorry ran out of space. The book costs
£7 (plus £1.50 p+p) from "Justice?", c/o on the fiddle, PO Box
2600, Brighton, E Sussex BN2 2DX or buy it at Brighton Peace Centre in Gardner
St.
Stun guns for public
"IN a bid to halt the rising tide of
police violence, members of the public are to be issued with a new
high-voltage laser device. The new gun will enable citizens to prevent the
police from gunning them down in the streets or in their beds for no apparent
reason. The laser works by disabling an armed policeman at a range of 25.4
metres, without causing him any damage for which he could then claim millions
of pounds of compensation from the taxpayer." (from Private Eye no
1034, August 10-23)
Lancing FC v Capitalism
A NEW source of anti-capitalist
subversion has emerged in the Worthing area - the Lancing Football Club
Matchday Programme. In its edition for the August 11 game v Worthing
United it listed some highly amusing examples of where global big business has
fallen foul of the language barrier. "When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the
Chinese market, to their horror they discover that their slogan
‘finger lickin’ good’ came out as ‘eat your
fingers off’. General Motors had a perplexing problem when they
introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, They finally realised that in
Spanish ‘no va’ means ‘it won’t
go’. Things weren’t any better for Ford when they introduced
the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales go nowhere, the company learned that
‘Pinto’ is Brazilian Portuguese slang for ‘tiny
male genitals’. "
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
RUMOUR has reached us that West Worthing MP
Peter Bottomley’s home in Ambrose Place, Worthing, has
gone on the market. Thankfully this should not cause too much disruption for
Bumley, a leading chum of Lord Archer, as this is not his only
home and he has wisely avoided spending too much time in his
constituency. But what, if true, would it say about his future after the next
election? Meanwhile, Worthing’s other MP, Tim Loughton,
continues to reside at a safe distance in Burgess Hill.
* * *
A BIG mobilisation is being staged against the DSEi arms fair in London
Docklands on Tuesday September 11. Transport from Brighton at 9am to
the Fiesta for Life Against Death costs £4 in advance from the Peace
Centre in Gardner St. Phone 01273 298192 for details or go to
www.disarm-trade.org. Find out how it went at the next meeting hosted by
Worthing eco-action, scheduled for Tuesday October 2 at
7.45pm at the Downview pub, opposite West Worthing station. Then on
Thursday September 20 there is our very own benefit gig (see above).
* * *
We are always hearing from Worthing Borough Council about its
commitment to "greening" the borough. So it was a shock to see a current
leaflet on the West Sussex Vegetated Shingle Project, an important
coastal scheme. This boasts support from West Sussex County Council,
Chichester District Council, Arun District Council, Adur District
Council and... what? No mention of Worthing? Meanwhile English Nature
has issued figures on the provision of Local Nature Reserves by local
councils. Scores: Chichester 8, Mid-Sussex 4,
Adur 3, Arun 2, Horsham 2,
Crawley 2, Worthing... 0. Can this really be true
of our caring eco-friendly council?
* * *
INFO sheet eroding empire (56a Crampton St, London SE17 3AE)
reports that an anti-vivisection demo on September 21 "needs 500 people
dressed as primates to die on the pavement." Surely all they need to do is
call in the cops...
* * *
NERVOUS times for education chiefs as the date of planned
anti-CCTV mass mid-morning walk-out from Worthing schools draws
closer. The proposed action for Friday September 28 comes as a response to a
similar action at Tanbridge House School, Horsham (see issue 38) where pupils
became sick of constant surveillance.
* * *
BRIGHTON Permaculture Trust, committed to sustainable
development, is holding a weekend introductory course in Permaculture Design
for Eco-Living at the Phoenix Centre, Brighton, on October 13 and 14. Contact
Fran on 01273 381686, courses@brightonpermaculture.co.uk or go to
www.brightonpermaculture.co.uk
Warning - don’t complain!
EXPERTS from the
Ministry of Contentment say people’s health can be
endangered by listening to criticism of Government policies.They warn:
"Exposure to negative stimuli such as anxiety over low wage levels, high
housing costs, unfulfilling jobs, deteriorating environment or loss of privacy
and freedom can have a disastrous impact on a humanoid unit’s well-being
and, more importantly, productivity. Our message is simple - be happy and
don’t ever complain about ANYTHING or you will contract a horribly
painful disease and die a lingering and agonising death. And come out in
spots."
Tune in to Pig Brother - subscribe!
THE PORK-BOLTER is an
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and finally ...
Let ‘em know that enough is enough!
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