Category: Unnecessary Developments

THE BATH BOMB

@nti-copyright: copy and dis­trib­ute!

Issue #32

free/donation

August 2010

“Fast, aggres­sive, and it wants your sand­wich!”

Armagge­don Out­ta Here

An unpalat­able mod­ern-day truth is that human life, far from being sacred, is deemed expend­able, almost an incon­ve­nience, when the col­li­sion of pol­i­tics, pow­er and eco­nom­ics pro­vokes con­flict. Then, the big­ger the con­flict, the greater the num­ber of lives wast­ed.

This month marks an espe­cial­ly poignant anniver­sary. In 1945, U.S. Pres­i­dent Har­ry S. Tru­man took the deci­sion to drop atom­ic bombs on Japan: ‘Lit­tle Boy’ was det­o­nat­ed over Hiroshi­ma on August 6th in that year ; on August 9th, ‘Fat Man’ was explod­ed over Nagasa­ki. Both cities were near-oblit­er­at­ed.

The tens of thou­sands who died instant­ly were most­ly civil­ians. The ‘ratio­nale’ for these acts of mass slaugh­ter, if it is even pos­si­ble to dig­ni­fy them with that term, was that Hiroshi­ma and Nagasa­ki had con­sid­er­able indus­tri­al and mil­i­tary sig­nif­i­cance, and that their anni­hi­la­tion would put an end to Japan­ese prospects of ter­ri­to­r­i­al aggran­dis­e­ment , ter­mi­nat­ing their involve­ment in World War II.

The body-count from both atroc­i­ties was a trag­ic coda to the tal­ly of the total lives squan­dered in the entire six-year con­flict. The Amer­i­can pro­pa­gan­da machine sought to spin what was in effect mass mur­der into a moral and mil­i­tary ‘suc­cess’, claim­ing that if the Japan­ese had­n’t sur­ren­dered after two of their cities had thus been blown to pieces, then a land inva­sion would have undoubt­ed­ly had to be car­ried out to achieve the same effect, cost­ing the lives of thou­sands of U.S. troops.

It shows just what a moral vac­u­um the U.S. high com­mand were liv­ing in when they had to skulk behind a hypoth­e­sis to avoid cop­ping the blame for what in any­one else’s lan­guage would be inter­pret­ed as a cold-blood­ed war crime.

The bomb­ing of Hiroshi­ma and Nagasa­ki was, and still is, inde­fen­si­ble. You can nev­er ‘save’ lives by tak­ing them. We all need to be remind­ed of the hor­rors which took place in Japan in ear­ly August 1945, because the nuclear mon­ster that was unleashed upon the world then is still with us. It lurks off the British coast in the form of the Tri­dent sub­ma­rine fleet.

To tout the pow­er-plant used by these weapons-in-wait­ing, as Cameron’s gov­ern­ment is now doing, as a domes­tic ener­gy source,  shows that politi­cians con­tin­ue to bam­boo­zle the pub­lic with smoke­screens while they har­bour fan­tasies of nuk­ing their way to world dom­i­na­tion. 

To blow bil­lions on an unnec­es­sary arma­ment upgrade at a time of swinge­ing pub­lic ser­vice cuts would be laugh­able were it not such an obscen­i­ty.

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Join The Resis­tance!

Con­sid­er­ing the state’s mas­sive attack on ordi­nary peo­ple, with cuts to jobs, ser­vices, pen­sions and ben­e­fits, the time has come to fight back. We should not be expect­ed to pay for the crises caused by politi­cians and bankers. We are not all ‘in this togeth­er’ – the rich politi­cians in the Cab­i­net and the bankers with their bonus­es are not affect­ed. Mem­bers of B.A.N., along with oth­ers in the trade unions, are set­ting up an anti-cuts cam­paign in Bath, fight­ing to pro­tect every job and defend pen­sions, ser­vices and ben­e­fits from cuts. The cam­paign is open to all those affect­ed by gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy. We need to organ­ise and fight back togeth­er.

The cam­paign will be organ­is­ing a big pub­lic meet­ing at the end of Sep­tem­ber, and hopes to attract sup­port from all affect­ed groups. If you wish to get involved, con­tact johnbamphylde[at]yahoo.co.uk or phone 07908 355456.

More info is to fol­low in next mon­th’s issue, but here are some impor­tant dates for your diary: the next Bath Anti-Cuts Com­mit­tee meet­ing is at the Bell, Tues­day 24th August, 8pm; Sun­day 3rd Octo­ber will be a nation­al day of action out­side the Tory Par­ty Con­fer­ence in Birm­ing­ham; Wednes­day 20th Octo­ber will be the day of bud­get announce­ment; and Sat­ur­day 23rd Octo­ber will be a region­al day of action against the planned cuts.

And here are some web­sites to check out, too: http://www.righttowork.org.uk, and http://www.coalitionofresistance.wordpress.com.

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Fight And Unite!

Some anar­chists argue that the main trade unions are bureau­crat­ic, their lead­ers have sold out and they have lit­tle rel­e­vance to work­ing class peo­ple. They argue that anar­chists should form their own unions. How­ev­er, many young peo­ple find unions bor­ing and do not real­ly under­stand what they are. Oth­ers argue back that unions are still work­ers’ organ­i­sa­tions, that they could still be the force to take on the cap­i­tal­ist state, and that work­ers should join and fight with­in unions to make them more demo­c­ra­t­ic and com­bat­ive.

At the Bath Social­ist Forum meet­ing on Mon­day 30th August, at 8pm, we will be dis­cussing the way for­ward for work­ers in trades unions, pre­sent­ed by John Bam­phylde of Bath Trades Coun­cil. The fol­low­ing meet­ing, on Mon­day 27th Sep­tem­ber, will be pre­sent­ed by film-mak­er Ken Loach. The meet­ings take place at St James Wine Vaults, and all are wel­come.

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Killer Faces Unem­ploy­ment!

A dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing is to be held against P.C. Simon Har­wood on the grounds of gross mis­con­duct with regards to an attack on Ian Tom­lin­son on April 1st 2009. It is con­sid­ered like­ly the out­come will be imme­di­ate dis­missal.

I pose this ques­tion, does­n’t it seem a bit extreme to take away this man’s occu­pa­tion sim­ply for a light shove? After all, to push from behind is all part and par­cel with polic­ing a large-scale protest. Cer­tain­ly, Tom­lin­son was­n’t dead imme­di­ate­ly after the inci­dent, so why then should Mr Har­wood be sub­ject­ed to mix with the doleys and scroungers?

A few indi­vid­u­als are claim­ing the P.C. to be guilty of manslaugh­ter and hence deserves to lose his liveli­hood. These peo­ple are clear­ly revenge-bent or deranged as it is well known that there has been a long (and nat­u­ral­ly there­fore thor­ough) inves­ti­ga­tion by the C.P.S., which decid­ed there was no case. Irrefutably trust­wor­thy patho­log­i­cal evi­dence has shown the man died of nat­ur­al caus­es. Fur­ther, the video footage does­n’t even show the man hit­ting the ground, let alone gain­ing injuries. Sure­ly only one con­clu­sion can be reached, that P.C. Simon Har­wood is unde­ni­ably inno­cent.

Clear­ly, it was a high­ly volatile sit­u­a­tion and a police offi­cer can­not be blamed for get­ting a bit touchy-feely. If peo­ple get so het up about this, then with the home office more and more con­cerned about P.R., in the end we’ll have a police force too scared to catch any crim­i­nals.

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Agri-Cul­ture Shock

Tran­si­tion Bath are start­ing up a new scheme in Bathamp­ton, work­ing with the Hugh­es fam­i­ly to restore a six acre area of land to organ­ic pro­duc­tion, and hope to bring togeth­er locals to explore how this can be done. Tran­si­tion Bath are a local envi­ron­men­tal­ist group aim­ing to build a sus­tain­able future using the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty, in the face of declin­ing nat­ur­al resources and increas­ing costs. They hope to make the tran­si­tion to a low car­bon, local econ­o­my, whilst cre­at­ing pos­i­tive, self-reliant com­mu­ni­ties. This project should turn out to be the first Com­mu­ni­ty Sup­port­ed Agri­cul­ture (C.S.A.) scheme in the city – a part­ner­ship between farm­ers and the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty, pro­vid­ing mutu­al ben­e­fits for both, and recon­nect­ing peo­ple to the land. Whether you would like to grow your own, meet oth­er locals, or get involved in a project to help reduce food bills and food miles, why not come along to the end of Hol­combe Lane, near Hol­combe Farm, Bathamp­ton, at 1pm, on Sun­day the 15th August for a bar­be­cue and fruit pick. All dona­tions to Tran­si­tion Bath will be much appre­ci­at­ed. For more info, con­tact Jamie Col­ston at jamiecolston[at]gmail.com, or ring 01225 851377.

Anoth­er exam­ple of the link between eth­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, the com­mu­ni­ty and the food we eat, has been going on down at the River­side Youth Cen­tre on Lon­don Road since 2001. The Lon­don Road Food Co-op is a vol­un­teer-run, not-for-prof­it mem­bers’ co-oper­a­tive, open­ing Wednes­days from 4–7pm at the end of the lane behind the for­mer Porter Butt pub. Mem­ber­ship is afford­able and paid annu­al­ly on a slid­ing vol­un­tary scale between £3 and £10, and mem­bers get access to a whole host of organ­ic, fair­ly trad­ed and veg­an-friend­ly whole­foods and gro­ceries, with­out the price mark-up you will see in oth­er stores. In the past the co-op has also oper­at­ed a week­ly veg, fruit, egg and bread scheme, which it hopes to revive. In the mean­time, though, this is a great lit­tle friend­ly project, and is keen to attract mem­bers and vol­un­teers. If you do want to find out more, why not pop along, or give them a call on 07837 784715?

http://www.transitionbath.org

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Food Fayre Thought

Lazi­ly aping our arti­cle from last month, in case you did­n’t catch it, Sat­ur­day the 4th Sep­tem­ber will mark the day of the sec­ond annu­al Bath Veg­an Fayre! Run­ning from 12 mid­day til 4pm down­stairs at Man­vers Street Bap­tist Church, free entry, expect hours of free veg­an savoury and sweet delights, as well as a sprin­kling of talks and con­ver­sa­tion, with a (non-dairy) creamy after-taste of nutri­tion­al and eth­i­cal info. In a deli­cious dash of déjà vu, there will also be a ben­e­fit gig at the Hob­gob­lin on Fri­day 27th August, from 8pm, fea­tur­ing bands and D.J.s, £3 entry. Helpers for both would be much appre­ci­at­ed! E‑mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk, or ring 07717 130954 for fur­ther info. And again, don’t for­get Bris­tol’s grass­roots veg­an fayre/fair, tak­ing place on Sat­ur­day 30th Octo­ber in a venue near you.

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GOT A STORY? WANT TO RECEIVE THE BATH BOMB BY EMAIL? HOPING TO SUE? Con­tact us by e‑mailing bathbombpress[at]yahoo.co.uk. Large print e‑versions avail­able on request. And for more info on any of our sto­ries, check out http://www.thebathbomb.blogspot.com

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Lon­don Road Food Co-op, Wednes­days, 4–7pm, River­side Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Lon­don Road, http://www.londonroadfoodcoop.blogspot.com

Bathamp­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Grow­ers work­day, Thurs­days, 10am-dusk, Mill Lane, Bathamp­ton, e‑mail thelostplot[at]googlemail.com/ tel Chris 07792 444628

Bath Stop The War Coali­tion vig­il, Sat­ur­days, 11.30am-12.30, Bath Abbey Court­yard

Brad­ford-On-Avon peace vig­il, Sat­ur­days, 11.30am-12.30, by the peace stat­ue oppo­site West­bury Gar­dens by the Town Bridge, Brad­ford-On-Avon

Recy­cle Your Sun­days, Sun­days, 10.30am, starts Abbey Church­yard, the reg­u­lar series of socia­ble, easy-paced cycle rides, http://www.bathrys.org.uk/ tel Hazel 01225 469199

Bathamp­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Sup­port­ed Agri­cul­ture bar­be­cue & fruit pick, Sun­day 15th August, 1pm, Hol­combe Lane, Bathamp­ton, e‑mail jamiecolston[at]gmail.com/ tel Jamie 01225 851377 FFI

Region­al hunt sabo­teurs get togeth­er, Sun­day 15th August, 1pm, Bris­tol Downs

Bath Cycling Cam­paign meet­ing, Mon­day 16th August, 7.30pm, Ris­ing Sun, Grove Street, http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk

Cli­mate Camp Ire­land, Thurs­day 16th to Mon­day 20th August, Vic­to­ria Bridge, Coun­ty Tyrone, http://www.climatecamp.ie

Que­bec Cli­mate Action Camp, Wednes­day 18th August to Sun­day 22nd August, http://www,climateactionmontreal.wordpress.com/climatecam

Fam­i­ly Fun Day – Out­door Cook­ing work­shop, Thurs­day 19th August, 12–3pm, Broad­lands Orchard, Box Road, Bath­ford, £15 per fam­i­ly (suit­able for over 7s), book­ing essen­tial: http://www.bathford.net/broadlands.php

Camp for Cli­mate Action UK, Thurs­day 19th August to Tues­day 24th August, Edin­burgh, http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions

talk: ‘The Venus Project’, Sat­ur­day 21st August, 1–5pm, Vic­to­ria Rooms — The Audi­to­ri­um Uni­ver­si­ty of Bris­tol, Queens Road, Clifton, Bris­tol, BS8 1SA, £16.02 entry; http://thevpinbristol.eventbrite.com

Cli­mate Camp Ger­many, Sat­ur­day 21st August to Sun­day 29th August, Erke­lenz- Borschemich, http://www.klimacamp2010.de

film: ‘The War Game’, Sun­day 22nd August, 2.30pm, the Arnolfi­ni, Bris­tol; http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/films/details/716

Bath Hunt Sabo­teurs meet­ing, Mon­day 23rd August, 8–9pm, The Bell, tel Justin 07854 062336

Bath Anti-Cuts Com­mit­tee meet­ing, Tues­day 24th August, 8pm, The Bell, Wal­cot Street

Bath Stop the War meet­ing, Wednes­day 25th August, 7.30pm, Friends Meet­ing House, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG; http://www.bathstopwar.org.uk

Fam­i­ly Fun Day – Build Your Own Pond work­shop, Thurs­day 26th August, 12–3pm, Broad­lands Orchard, Box Road, Bath­ford, £15 per fam­i­ly (suit­able for over 7s), book­ing essen­tial: http://www.bathford.net/broadlands.php

Bath Veg­an Fayre ben­e­fit gig, Fri­day 27th August, 8–11pm, Hob­gob­lin, St James Parade; more details tbc

Bath Stop The War Coali­tion vig­il: vote with your mon­ey against Tri­dent, Sat­ur­day 28th August, 11.30am-12.30, Bath Abbey Court­yard, oth­er Bath human rights/trade & development/ justice/trades union organ­i­sa­tions are invit­ed to sup­port Crit­i­cal Mass Bike Ride, Sat­ur­day 28th August, 1pm, Kingsmead Square, http://www.bathcyclingcampaign.org.uk

Cli­mate Jus­tice Action meet­ing at the Nether­lands Earth First! Gath­er­ing, Sat­ur­day 28th August to Sun­day 29th August, Utrecht, http://www.climate-justice-action.org

Bath Ani­mal Action info stall, Sun­day 29th August, 2–4pm, Stall Street, e‑mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk

Tran­si­tion Bath Social, Mon­day 30th August, 7.15pm, the Love Lounge/ back room of the Bell, Wal­cot Street; bring food to share; http://www.transitionbath.org

Bath Social­ist Forum meet­ing, Mon­day 30th August, 8pm, upstairs St James Wine Vaults, pre­sent­ed by John Bamphylde/Bath Trades Coun­cil

one year part-time ‘Prac­ti­cal Sus­tain­abil­i­ty’ course, starts Sep­tem­ber 2010, Bris­tol; explor­ing per­ma­cul­ture design, organ­ic hor­ti­cul­ture, wood­land man­age­ment, green build­ing, eco­log­i­cal inter­ac­tions, ener­gy, group dynam­ics, re-local­i­sa­tion, cre­at­ing change, com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment and more; http://www.shiftbristol.org.uk

Bath Activist Net­work meet­ing, Thurs­day 2nd Sep­tem­ber, 7.30–9pm, down­stairs at The Hob­gob­lin, St James Parade, http://www.bathactivistnetwork.blogspot.com

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Thurs­day 2nd to Fri­day 3rd Sep­tem­ber, St Wer­burgh’s City Farm, Boil­ing Wells, Bris­tol, BS2 9YJ, 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Bath Veg­an Fayre, Sat­ur­day 4th Sep­tem­ber, 12–4pm, Man­vers Street Bap­tist Church, free entry

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sat­ur­day 4th Sep­tem­ber, St Wer­burgh’s City Farm, Boil­ing Wells, Bris­tol, BS2 9YJ, 2.30pm & 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sun­day 5th Sep­tem­ber, St Wer­burgh’s City Farm, Boil­ing Wells, Bris­tol, BS2 9YJ, 2.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Bath Green Drinks, Wednes­day 8th Sep­tem­ber, 8.30pm, the Ris­ing Sun, Grove Street

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Thurs­day 9th to Fri­day 10th Sep­tem­ber, Hamp­ton Row Allot­ments, Bath­wick, 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Bris­tol Anar­chist Book­fair, Sat­ur­day 11th Sep­tem­ber, 10.30–6pm, Hamil­ton House, 80 Stokes Croft, Bris­tol; e‑mail bristolanarchistbookfair[at]riseup.net; http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sat­ur­day 11th Sep­tem­ber, Hamp­ton Row Allot­ments, Bath­wick, 2.30pm & 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sun­day 12th Sep­tem­ber, Hamp­ton Row Allot­ments, Bath­wick, 2.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Bath Ani­mal Action meet­ing, Mon­day 13th Sep­tem­ber, 8–9pm, The Bell, Wal­cot Street, e‑mail bathanimalaction[at]yahoo.co.uk

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Thurs­day 16th to Fri­day 17th Sep­tem­ber, Pease­down St John Com­mu­ni­ty Farm, Dunker­ton Hill, BA2 8PJ, 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sat­ur­day 18th Sep­tem­ber, Pease­down St John Com­mu­ni­ty Farm, Dunker­ton Hill, BA2 8PJ, 2.30pm & 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Region­al South West Ani­mal Rights Coali­tion meet­ing, Sun­day 19th Sep­tem­ber, 12–5pm, The Fac­to­ry, Cave Street, cen­tral Bris­tol

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues),

Sun­day 19th Sep­tem­ber, Pease­down St John Com­mu­ni­ty Farm, Dunker­ton Hill, BA2 8PJ, 2.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Thurs­day 23rd to Fri­day 24th Sep­tem­ber, Bloom­field Allot­ments, Bear Flat, 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sat­ur­day 25th Sep­tem­ber, Bloom­field Allot­ments, Bear Flat, 2.30pm & 7.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Kil­ter the­atre : ‘Roots: Replant­ed’ (per­for­mance about food secu­ri­ty issues), Sun­day 26th Sep­tem­ber, Bloom­field Allot­ments, Bear Flat, 2.30pm, £9 (£7 con­ces­sions), tel 01225 386777 to book, http://www.kiltertheatre.org

Bath Social­ist Forum meet­ing, Mon­day 27th Sep­tem­ber, 8pm, upstairs St James Wine Vaults, pre­sent­ed by Ken Loach

No Bor­ders Camp Bel­gium, Wednes­day 29th Sep­tem­ber to Sun­day 3rd Octo­ber, Brus­sels, http://www.noborderbxl.eu.org/?lang=en

Nation­al March for Farmed Ani­mals, Sat­ur­day 2nd Octo­ber, 12pm start, Cavendish Square, Lon­don

anti-Tory demon­stra­tion, Sun­day 3rd Octo­ber, Tory Par­ty Con­fer­ence, Birm­ing­ham more details tbc

Legal fees ben­e­fit punk gig: ‘SUBVERT 2010 — A Fes­ti­val Of Resis­tance’, Fri­day 8th to Sun­day 10th Octo­ber, Bris­tol, feat Hel­lkrush­er, Rui­dosa Immu­ni­di­cia, War All The Time, Ignosy, The Wankys, The Extin­guish­ers & Bul­letrid­den, as well as veg­an cafés/ stalls/ films/ work­shops & pic­nic; more details tbc

Region­al day of action against the cuts, Sat­ur­day 23rd Octo­ber

Bris­tol Free Veg­an Food Fair, Sat­ur­day 30th Octo­ber, 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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The Only Good Boss Is A Dead Boss?

B&NES Coun­cil has man­aged to well and tru­ly shit on its work­ers once again through its recent adver­tise­ment of a new job role to fill. After cut­ting loose 70 staff in the last cou­ple months, and plan­ning at least anoth­er 300 job loss­es in the near future, the cre­ation of the new Head of Prop­er­ty post, with its wage pack­et of between £71,166 and £76,638 per year, tells those for­mer employ­ees exact­ly what the coun­cil thinks of them. The cre­ation of this man­age­r­i­al role could only hap­pen once the rank and file, who actu­al­ly do the work rather than just fan­ny around sack­ing peo­ple, had been let go. Set to man­age (i.e. leave them all board­ed up for years then flog) the coun­cil’s port­fo­lio of 1,000 build­ings, many in retail, worth more than £500 mil­lion, this has left union offi­cials furi­ous with the coun­cil chiefs. But here at the Bath Bomb, con­sid­er­ing the cal­i­bre of inhu­man slith­er­ings and evo­lu­tion­ary dead-ends infest­ing the rest of B&NES’s Prop­er­ty Ser­vices depart­ment, we won­der what sort of two-faced rep­til­ian abom­i­na­tion they’ll dredge up to fill that role, and which car­ni­val freak show will soon be miss­ing its star attrac­tion?

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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Gull War Syn­drome

There’s an epi­dem­ic going on! You may or may not have heard about the killer seag­ulls roam­ing the streets of bath. Or, EVEN WORSE the mur­der­ous fox­es patrolling EVERY CITY IN THE UK!!! look­ing for pets and chil­dren to eat. The nation­al press have brave­ly sol­diered on to warn the gen­er­al pub­lic of these men­aces, one Bath pho­tog­ra­ph­er took his life in his hands to get a pic­ture of the gull men­ace close up.

Bath land­lords are feel­ing the need to join brave vig­i­lante groups to oil the eggs and stop the demon spawn escap­ing. Unfor­tu­nate­ly these brave souls have neglect­ed to think about why wild ani­mals would chose to move into urban areas.

The only rea­son that wildlife can sur­vive in cities is our atti­tude to waste. Pigeons, gulls and fox­es all sur­vive on the dis­gust­ing amount of food waste scat­tered all over. ‘Gull pre­ven­tion mea­sures’ in one part of Bath sim­ply move the prob­lem to the next street. If home­own­ers, land­lords and the coun­cil made a con­cert­ed effort to get rid of the birds they could do so eas­i­ly. All it takes is to clean up our waste.

The dis­pos­able cul­ture we live in means that a huge amount is thrown out, a lack of ade­quate recy­cling facil­i­ties (along with pure lazi­ness on many peo­ples part) means that waste is left on our streets for days before being col­lect­ed. Along with ani­mals being able to sur­vive on all of this, it also pos­es risks to them. The fact that food waste, when not com­post­ed, is mixed in with oth­er rub­bish means that ani­mals are at risk of chok­ing, poi­son­ing, and numer­ous oth­er hor­ri­ble deaths — lead­ing to the sight of rot­ting corpses on our streets. Sure­ly not good for the tourists?

In order to ensure humans are kept away from this dan­ger­ous wildlife entire­ly, we need to make our cities unin­hab­it­able to these men­aces. Clean­ing up after your­self – rather than toss­ing the blame at any old scape­goat – should do it.

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From Our Unclothed Cor­re­spon­dent

“On Sun­day 13th June, I took part in the first prop­er ‘Bris­tol World Naked Bike Ride’, to protest against oil depen­den­cy, in favour of curb­ing car cul­ture and to have car- free Sun­days in the city and a cel­e­bra­tion of body free­dom. By rid­ing nude, pro­test­ers demon­strate the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of cyclists on the busy streets. It also feels good and lib­er­at­ing.

We met at the Full Moon pub, Stokes Croft, Bris­tol at 12 noon, and it was a love­ly hot sun­ny day so peo­ple start­ed strip­ping off before­hand in the beer gar­den, as you had to stay dressed inside the pub.

The ride head­ed off about 1pm, most of the cyclists were naked includ­ing myself, some were body-paint­ed, oth­ers had small cos­tumes on, it’s a clothes-option­al protest, but the more that are nude the bet­ter. There was no police pres­ence.

Spec­ta­tors lined  some of the route cheer­ing and enjoy­ing the event which went through Broad­mead, Cas­tle Green, the Cen­tre, Bald­win St, Old Mar­ket and Col­lege Green, where we stopped for a pho­to call before head­ing back to the Full Moon where many remained naked out­side until leav­ing late after­noon.

The protest was a great suc­cess, with good pho­tos on Bris­tol Indy­media, and the local press. The World Naked Bike Ride is an inter­na­tion­al event and this year there were rides in Lon­don, Brighton, Southamp­ton, York, Sheffield and­Man­ches­ter, it’s grow­ing. It’s also show­ing that there is noth­ing wrong with the human body and being a free spir­it.”

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Hit­ting The Books

Con­tin­u­ing with the cur­rent plug­ging craze, the Bris­tol Anar­chist Book­fair fol­lows hot on the Bath Veg­an Fayre’s heels, on Sat­ur­day 11th Sep­tem­ber. There is a def­i­nite growth of anar­chist and alter­na­tive book­fairs hap­pen­ing through the U.K. and abroad, which shows both increased co-oper­a­tion between dif­fer­ent anar­chist trends, and a grow­ing inter­est in find­ing an alter­na­tive to the fail­ures of cap­i­tal – not too sur­pris­ing, con­sid­er­ing the state our econ­o­my and plan­et is in! The event will fea­ture two floors of stalls, work­shops, books, zines, mer­chan­dise, and talks, plus a rad­i­cal his­to­ry zone, film room, creche and veg­an café. Tak­ing place at Hamil­ton House, 80 Stokes Croft in Bris­tol, from 10.30am to 6pm, the fair (they obvi­ous­ly did­n’t quite have the gump­tion to go with ‘fayre’) is free and acces­si­ble to all, and is guar­an­teed to open both eyes and wal­lets.

http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org

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Don’t Think We’re Alone Now

For our Bris­tol read­ers, ‘The Auton­o­mist’, Bris­tol’s new rad­i­cal news sheet and direc­to­ry, is out now: get it online at http://www.bristolautonomist.blogspot.com!

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I Would Have Got Away With It Too, If It Was­n’t For You Hedd­lu Kids

The long-await­ed Welsh Cli­mate Camp/Climate Camp Cym­ru went into action on Fri­day 13th of this month, focus­ing once more on the pol­lut­ing evils of the coal extrac­tion indus­try, and set up near the Selar and Nant-Helen (due for expan­sion) open­cast coal mines, in Glyn-Neath in South Wales. Both mines are owned by Celtic Ener­gy. The Selar mine itself destroyed a Site of Spe­cial Sci­en­tif­ic Inter­est (SSSI) back in the 1990s, for added eco­cide – trash­ing vital marsh this­tles, and fail­ing to rehome the colony of rare marsh frit­il­lary but­ter­flies. For the camp itself, as with pre­vi­ous camps, a pos­i­tive agen­da of decen­tralised, renew­able pow­er sys­tems, com­mu­nal liv­ing, eco-action plan­ning and skill­share work­shops were all on the cards.

How­ev­er, the Welsh police put paid to all that the next day, pre­ma­ture­ly evict­ing the site and 30 or so activists present, draw­ing on a mas­sive out­lay of mount­ed police and at least 15 riot vans full. Maybe Fri­day the 13th was­n’t such a good day after all?

On relat­ed news, the 13 remain­ing defen­dants of April’s Ffos-y-fran coal train block­ade were con­di­tion­al­ly dis­charged at Merthyr Tyd­fil Crown Court on the Fri­day; the oth­er five had their charges dropped in July. A life­long restrain­ing order bar­ring them from the vicin­i­ty of Aberthaw Pow­er Sta­tion and the Ffos-y-fran mine hangs round their necks. They were greet­ed out­side court by more mount­ed police, two riot vans and the flash­es of BBC and ITV pho­tog­ra­phers. Ahh, the price of fame.

http://www.bristol.indymedia.org.uk/article/693181

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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.