A-Infos (en) SchNEWS 205, 19 March 1999

["SchNEWS" <schnews@gn.apc.org>]

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WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S YER SICK AS A CARROT... SchNEWS
Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
HERBAL HIGHS
"Unless a much bigger international coalition can be formed … to save
health freedom - we will see it stripped from us as the drug companies play
a game called 'boiling the frog slowly'"
- John Hammell (The Life Extension Foundation)

Imagine walking into your local health food shop to get some herbal
remedies or vitamin supplements. Well, if certain people get their way you
won't be able to.

The Government has been secretly working on a proposal that would give the
Medicines Control Agency (MCA) sweeping new powers to classify health
products as medicines. Don't be surprised if you don't know anything about
this. The government's consultation period wasn't exactly extensive with
only a few weeks for objectors to put their side. When SchNEWS decided to
have a ring around to find out what people involved with health and
medicine reckoned to the proposal, most didn't know what the hell we were
talking about (nothing new there then).

Thanks to Britain's membership of the European Union (EU), the only
criteria the MCA needs to apply are:

   * Can the product alter physiological function?
   * Is it being used for medicinal purposes?

Seeing as anything you eat or drink has an effect on your body, this covers
everything.

Previously a product had to be either unsafe for human consumption, or else
its manufacturer had to make false medicinal claims before it could be
banned. In theory, under the new EU regulations, even glucose, coffee and
brandy could be classified as medicinal. This back-door plan will mean that
if small businesses want to license a product they will have to fork out
between #80 000, for a single-ingredient product, and #2 million, for a
multi-ingredient product in order for them to go through testing
procedures. Everything from cancer chemotherapy drugs to simple vitamin
preparations would be treated the same.

"Clearly this is but yet the latest stage of a concerted effort by the
powerful pharmaceutical industry to halt the growing interest in
'alternative' medicine"
- Ann Wills (British Anti-Vivisection Association)

By restricting what nutritional supplements people can take, the government
is telling us that we don't know our own bodies and aren't sussed enough to
make decisions about our own health. As Penny Viner of the Health Food
Manufacturers Association points out "This proposal will achieve the
situation whereby the MCA will be acting as policeman, judge and jury
without any checks and balances"

So who the hell are the MCA? They are a QUANGO, funded by taxpayers and run
by people appointed by ministers. By 1996 a third of public expenditure
(#50billion) and three quarters of civil servants had been quangoed. It's
hard to find the status of quangos: they can be Non-Departmental Public
Bodies, Next Steps Executive Agencies, private companies, government
departments, trusts, public companies, or a mixture of any of these. They
can refuse to answer any questions over the phone by hiding behind their
protected status and are only in the phone book under their supervising
department's name. So here you are: the MCA's phone number is 0171 273
0392.

So is SchNEWS getting its herbal knickers in a twist? To see what will soon
happen here we only have to look across the pond to Canada and America
where supplements have been withdrawn following similar pressures from the
multinational drug companies.

According to Christopher Whitehouse of Consumers for Health Choice "The
implications are much more serious... It is not the law that has changed,
but that the MCA is saying that it is going to be the most ruthless
regulator in Europe"

Oh dear - someone pass us a cup of Camomile tea.

Society for Promotion of Nutritional Therapy
P.O.Box 47, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 8ZX
Web: http://visitweb.com/spnt

Consumers for Health Choice
9 Old Queen St, London SW1H 9JA

What Doctors Don't Tell You
4 Wallace Rd, London N1 2BR
Web: http://www.wddty.co.uk

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REVOLTING STUDENTS

Three Colleges and Universities in London have been occupied over the past
couple of weeks, as students grew militant in the face of chronic
underfunding . Funnily enough Tony Blair's promise to make education a top
priority hasn't materialised for students. Not content with continuing
phasing out grants, New Labour introduced tuition fees. However, when
students started getting expelled for not doling out over #1000 a year in
fees, they reacted. At Goldsmith's College in South London, 8 were expelled
for non-payment, so they staged a week long occupation, ending only when
the College gave in and re-instated the students from Easter.

At University College London (UCL), things were a bit more full on. Over
300 students occupied buildings in protest at the planned expulsion of
non-payers. The occupation started at 1 pm on Thursday, UCL issued a Court
summons by 9pm and the case was in Court the next morning. By 6pm that
evening the bailiffs (who were paid triple time) turned up with sledge
hammers. This eviction may be related to the fact that Mikhail Gorbachev
was due to speak in one of the buildings occupied!

The students' union at UCL covered the college with posters disowning the
occupation and wanted to liaise with the management. A student from UCL
said " the Union's procedures are official, but not democratic.What have
they done to secure the future of those who cannot pay?" The student
welfare officer at UCL was even seen having a pint in the bar while
students were being dragged out!

Meanwhile, over 100 students at Camberwell School of Art have been in
occupation for over a week to protest against the lack of resources and
increasing risk to students' welfare from dodgy Health and Safety
practices. Management are refusing to reply to their demands until they
concede. They are due in Court at 10am , Friday,.

Contact the occupation: 07930 662 416

Campaign for Free Education
PO Box 22615, London N4 1WT. Tel: 0958 556 756
Web: http://members.xoom.com/nus_cfe/

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STOP PRESS

As SchNEWS went to press, students at UCL had sacked their executive
officers after a vote of no confidence.

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THE EXXON FILES

It was just past midnight on March 24th, 1989, when the oil tanker Exxon
Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in the icy waters of Prince William Sound.
Nearly 11 million gallons of crude leaked into the water, blackening 1,500
miles of the magnificent Gulf of Alaska coastline. 250,000 seabirds, 2,800
sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles and as many as 22 killer
whales were killed.

Ten years on from the most damaging oil spill in history, and the effects
of the Valdez continue. According to a recent report by the state-run Oil
Spill Trustee Council, which monitors the effects of the tanker accident,
of the 28 species listed in the report, only two - the bald eagle and the
river otter -are considered "fully recovered" a decade later.

However, another disaster soon followed that had nothing to do with the
choking black mass that coated the pristine arctic wilderness. The Valdez
disaster has become in the text-books of the public relations companies, a
prime example of how not to handle the press and public. Forget the
oil-spill, what Exxon needed was some green-wash.

"It is easier and less costly to change the way people think about reality
than it is to change reality"
- Morris Wolfe, PR consultant

Green-wash is the term used for corporations who make a big song and dance
about chatting to mainstream environmental groups, spend millions on
adverts telling the world how green they are, while behind the scenes doing
everything they can to oppose any laws which might harm their profits. This
is commonly known as having your cake and eating it, or what John Stauber,
of PR Watch magazine calls the "good cop/bad cop" approach.

The father of greenwash, E. Bruce Harrison, is a strong advocate for
corporate-environmental 'partnerships'. "It's smart on two levels: it
avoids legal problems, and it widens your options," he wrote in the 1993
book 'Going Green: How to Communicate Your Company's Environmental
Commitment.' In chapters with titles like "Mental Greening: The Habit of
Thinking Like a Good Guy' and 'What to Do When You're Attacked by an
Activist Group,' he suggests that companies meet with citizens who
criticise them, listen but reveal little information, and research their
opponents, even if it means hiring private detectives to spy on them.

So while the Valdez oil spill continues to pollute the gulf of Alaska,
Exxon continue to drag their feet in paying $5 billion damages to the
30,000 Alaskans affected by their recklessness. Meanwhile, the company's
vice president for environment and safety reckons that while the oil spill
was unfortunate, exhaustive studies by the company and so-called
independent scientists had found no long-term harm. Strange then that the
Oil Spill Trustee Council have discovered that oil spills cause a hundred
times more damage than previously thought and oil pollution of less than
one part per billion is sufficient to killmarine life. Salmon and herring
with half-formed tails, twisted spines and grossly distended stomachs are
still being caught in Alaska's Prince William Sound. 'There are still
patches of heavy oil pollution out there, and traces of these are still
killing fish,' said Dr Bruce Wright of the US National Maritime Fisheries
Service in Alaska. 'It is not the local impact that is the real problem,'
says Wright. 'Our work indicates that even microscopic amounts of oil that
get into any stream or bay are going to kill fish. This is a problem for
the whole world.'

Swilling out a tank of diesel fuel or an outboard engine will have deadly
consequences, he added. 'Even rain falling on car parks will flush oil that
has leaked from engines and carry it into drains and then into streams and
bays. Marine life will be killed off even if only tiny traces of oil are
present.'

'The Valdez disaster provided us with a perfect laboratory. We are able to
compare fish that were born in polluted parts of the Sound with those born
in areas unaffected by oil,' said Wright.

The scientists' study suggests that no coastal region can ever be protected
from oil pollution. In plain English this means that 'green' and 'oil
company' are two words that can never be compatible.

   * Joseph J. Hazelwood, skipper of the Valdez when it crashed is finally
     returning to Alaska to begin a community service program, picking up
     litter on the streets of Anchorage.

   * International Day of Action against Exxon-Mobil Wednesday 24th March.
     Contact Friends of the Earth 0171 490 1555

   * Read 'Global Spin' - the corporate assualt on environmentalism by
     Sharon Beder (Green Books)

   * Corporate Watch Issue 8 out now, digging the dirt on your favourite
     multinationals. Essential. #3 + 50p+p
     PO Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd., OX4 1RQ Web: http://www.oneworld.org/cw

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COURT IN A MAIZE

The two women charged with 'conspiracy to cause criminal damage'are
appearing in Plymouth Crown Court on 29th March 9.30am. They are defending
themselves over the trashing of a genetically modified site which they
admit to, but say it was in the public interest. The mutant maize was
growing next to an organic farm and near bee hives so cross-pollination
could easily occur. A large demo is expected. Get down there! Contact 07970
873643

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SCHNEWS IN BRIEF

   * The Crossroads Women's Centre, are hosting Sans -Papiers, immigrants
     without papers third anniversary celebration, on Friday 26 March at
     7pm, with big screen footage of recent protests around Europe. The
     centre is at 230a Kentish Town Road NW5 Tel: 0171 482 2496

   * Get on down to the Guilford Technival on 4th April at Maltings Bridge
     Sq Farnham. Six room festival featuring acts from Megadog and
     Pendragon. Tickets #6.80 adv. Box office 01252 726234

   * If you're interested in permaculture design then get in touch with
     Naturewise who do working weekend courses.Call 0171-281 3765

   * Free permaculture courses if you're on benefits in mid Wales. Contact
     01970 832044

   * Brighton and Hove Wood Recycling Project is open at Regent Street,
     Brighton, selling timber saved from landfill - 01273 570500

   * Culture Vulture is a wicked little 'zine that rips out the still
     beating heart of consumerism and feeds it to the dogs. Get it from
     CattleProd, Box 39, 82 Colston St BS1 5BB or on the web at
     http://www.gn.apc.org/cattleprod

   * Last week the Wild Greens, the direct action youth wing of the Green
     Party jumped the fence at the Crop and Food Research Centre near
     Christchurch, New Zealand destroying an experimental G.M.potato crop &
     ruining the $200,000 research project. The experiment involved mixing
     the genes of potatoes with genetic material from toads and silkworms
     to make the potatoes rot resistant. Web: http://www.econation.org.nz/

   * Protest at a genetic crop site near Edinburgh on Sunday 28th March
     Contact Fife Earth First! 01334 477411

   * Next meeting of the Inter-Continental Caravan is on 24th March at
     Strike, Top floor, 11-29 Fashion St, London E3 at 7 pm

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AND FINALLY

The Queen Mum could be in for a bit of an eye-opener this summer, if plans
for a mass dis-robing outside Buckingham Palace take place. Organiser
Vincent Bethel reckons that "Society is mentally ill" and forcing people to
hide their body's isn't helping.

"It is a fact that humans have genitals" (can't argue with that one)

"Would you like to live in a healthy world, a healthy environment, among
healthy happy human beings?" (well, yeah that sounds good)

"Theoretical humanism is a misnomer, theoretical humanitarianism is a
paradox, theoretical love is utterly prepostrous." (eh, you've lost us)

Now SchNEWS isn't against people getting their kit off if they want, but
maybe well stick with the beach. Still if you want to 'protest naked for
the right to be naked in public' on June 8th contact 208 Foleshill Rd.,
Coventry, CV1 4JH

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DISCLAIMER

SchNEWS warns all readers to remember to keep on swallowing the corporate
truth pills while chanting "profits are good, profits are god", then you
will feel content. Honest.

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