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Rough Music 19 - July/August 2008What's In This Issue: CITY ACADEMY SCHEME GIVEN POOR MARKS BY ROUGH MUSIC’S EXAMINATION BOARD... So it’s official - at a Council meeting last week councillors voted in favour of closing Falmer High School to make way for a City Academy. There will now be a six week ‘consultation period’ before a statutory notice can be made to close the school can be made on 1 September. Call us suspicious but it must have taken some planning to make sure that the consultation period conveniently coincides with the school’s summer holidays. After years of under investment, and being constantly told that their school is crap (by Hanoverites and The Argus), things have been changing at Falmer High School in the past five years. Thanks to the commitment of the teachers results have improved from 21% A-C grades in 2001 to 37% 2006. It has become the second best school in Brighton for improving children’s educational level from when arrive until when they leave. But with crumbling buildings and exam results that still fall behind the national average, staff, parents and pupils at the school are now being bribed to agree to become one of New Labour’s flagship Academies, (or else there won’t be any more money coming your way in the near future and we could even close you down!). City Academies are another Labour scheme to hand over our public services to private investors. But the investors themselves only have to stump up £2 million (this doesn’t even have to be in hard cash, but can be ‘in-kind’ contributions), the government then stumps up the rest of the cash (about £28million in this case to build the school), and also pays the running costs. In this cosy business arrangement the school is taken out of control of the Local Education Authority and handed over to the business sponsor who gets to appoint the headteacher and the governing body and can set their own admission arrangements and salary levels. They do not need to follow the National Curriculum and can decide what the children will learn! Some academies run by Christian fundamentalists have even had the theory of evolution taken out of the science curriculum! Although both Labour and the Tories are in favour of the academy it is not a foregone conclusion. There is a growing campaign to stop it. Academies elsewhere have been stopped by local people. Most famously at Wembley Park where a massive campaign saw teachers, parents and pupils occupying the site of a proposed academy (www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk) - causing the sponsor to do a runner. IN ROD WE TRUST Back in Brighton we’ve got greedy local businessman Rod Aldridge. Once a Sussex Council civil servant – in 1984 he saw which way the Thatcherite wind was blowing and set up outsourcing firm Capita, which specialises in tedious office work e.g. Payrolls, pensions, payments. Capita is a parasitic business that makes cash by running services (usually very badly) for local and central government. It has been fined on numerous occasions for cocking-up government contracts, most famously the failure to run Criminal Records Bureau checks on new teacher’s at the start of the school year in 2003, when it was fined £2 million. In 2006 Rod resigned as Chairman when it was revealed he bunged the Labour Party £1 million at the same time Capita were applying for a load more government contracts. No wonder he wants the chance to brainwash a generation of youngsters in the joys of global capitalism. Now as a reformed ‘social entrepreneur’ he wants all those disadvantaged young kids to be given the chance to make their mark (or is that him some more dollars?). And the curriculum at the proposed new academy will specialise in ‘Entrepreneurship’ or maybe that should be ‘Corruption, Incompetence and Surveillance’. Capita are one of the major contractors in the increasingly sinister world of school surveillance and data management. The current head of Falmer School has already stated that the proposed new Academy will most likely have a biometric data collection systems, which will scan and store students fingerprints, which they will then need to access services. No prizes for guessing who’ll be providing the system... So do we need to book our toddlers places in the Falmer Academy now before the rush? Here’s a few things to think about... Falmer High School is on a beautiful site, and although the buildings are old, the school has numerous sports halls and fields, many of which are used by local community groups. The proposed Falmer Academy will have only ONE sports hall which is surprising as one of their ‘specialisms’ will be sport. The proposed Academy is smaller than the site of the current school and Brighton Council can dispose of the remainder of the land as they see fit - current front runner is a 1,000 place over flow car park for the Falmer Stadium - and just by coincidence Rod Aldridge also sits on the board of the Albion football club! The synergy is overwhelming – the original man who put forward Falmer Academy plans and then pulled out was one John Aisbitt – also a director of Brighton football club (and coincidentally another big donor to Neo Labour’s general election fund - see RM #13). FOR ROD’S SAKE Rod has promised that the Falmer Academy will conform with the Brighton and Hove admissions system for secondary schools. But as the school is only really accountable to himself, and academies can choose up to 10% of their children, why should we believe him?. Experience at other academies shows that they have exclusion rates nearly four times higher than the national average. When Rod went live on-line at The Argus Newspaper last week, he totally ignored questions about the academies potential for expelling kids, and refused to say exactly what happened with his Labour party donation. The people of Moulsecoomb at the moment have little choice but to send their kids to Falmer School, but an Academy is not the only option, and crumbling school buildings isn’t the thing that makes a school crap. The government will be funding major school rebuilding under it’s ‘Building Schools for a Future Programme’, which may reach Brighton in 1-3 years after the work begins on the academy. All in all it seems that academies are a shocking attempt to privatise the state schooling system. In their defence those in favour argue that they improve schools, however in a recent government list of 638 failing schools 26 of the so those that are ‘failing’ are Academies. With only 83 Academies currently open they have a higher failure rate than state maintained schools. As one father told RM “If there’s £28 million just hanging around to be invested in education in Brighton let’s have it without any of the strings attached. This is just a government bribe to get us to accept sub-standard education just to benefit local businessmen who gave them massive donations. Falmer doesn’t need the gimmick of an academy - it needs real investment in its children”
MARTIAL LAWObviously Sussex Cops are gonna be none too happy about recent scenes at the premises of the city’s favourite bomb-builders EDO MBM. The Carnival against the Arms Trade (aka. Red Wednesday) on 4th June saw a determined crowd of around 600 push through police lines to literally smash EDO. Frustrated in their attempts to shut down protests against the arms dealers, Sussex police are wheeling out the big guns. According to documents seen by RM, one Chief Superintendent Dick Barton is now leading the Sussex police battle against the Smash EDO campaign. But just who is Dick Barton? The winter 2008 edition of The Police Superintendent (the official magazine of the Police Superintendents Association, stupid) reports ‘Chief Superintendent Dick Barton has been awarded the Iraq Reconstruction Service Medal at a ceremony at Sussex Police Headquarters. Dick was the UK Chief Police Advisor in Iraq between March 2006 and March 2007. Based in Basra, Dick made frequent trips to Baghdad and surrounding provinces, with up to 120 UK police advisors in the country.” Dick admits to feeling “privileged...to have spent a year in the heart of our military machine” - so expect some truly impartial policing. Well, following on from the rip-roaring success of bringing law and order to the streets of Iraq, Dick’s about to be unleashed on local peace campaigners on Home Farm Rd. According to the April 2008 minutes, the Sussex Police Force executive board welcomed CS Barton back from Iraq and reported ‘Chief Superintendent Barton. ACPO TAM secondment to Ops Department overseeing changes to the regional CTIU and Gold Command of investigation into offences against EDO MBM’ - To spell out that gobbeldegook ACPO TAM = Association of Chief Police Officers – Terrorism and Allied Matters committee. CTIU is the Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit. So now they’ve been officially shoved into the terrorism bracket, are the city’s stalwart peace campaigners gonna find themselves locked up for 42-days? Or will the iron-hard persistence of the campaign see Dick heading back to the Middle East for a bit of peace and quiet? Place yer bets now... * And talking of EDO... According to US Govt records on 14 May this year Brighton arms makers EDO were awarded a manufacturing contract by the United States Air Force for 2,638 Electrical Connectors for the American A-10 Thunderbolt II military jet used for ‘close air support’ operations in Iraq. All items were required on or before 30 June. Press spokesman for the campaign Andrew Beckett told RM, “This demonstrates EDO’s continuing complicity in the Iraq conflict. They are still profiting directly from the carnage caused by the illegal occupation of Iraq.” www.smashedo.org.uk DOUBLE DECKEDCongratulations to Brighton Bus drivers who, through standing together in a show of working class solidarity, have won their pay dispute with Go-Ahead who own Brighton and Hove Bus Co. Originally they were offered a below inflation pay rise as the company said that was all they could afford. But this was taking the piss as management had awarded themselves a 16% pay rise with a £5 million post-tax profit for shareholders. Not
being fools they decided to hold out for a better pay deal and threatened to strike
for six Mondays in a row. In face of a determined work force who weren’t
going to take any crap management caved in and offered a pay deal at of at least
the rate of inflation. (RM now expects bus fares to rise from their already
staggeringly expensive levels as the company are sure to not want the pay deal
hitting company profits...) GEHRY CONTRARYBRIGHTON DEVELOPMENT HITS ROCKS So it seems that Frank ‘Wibboly Wobbly’ Gehry has done a bunk from the £300m King Alfred scheme for yet more yuppified luxury apartment blocks, restaurants and shops. This leaves the plans in about as crumpled a state as his planned towers. Josh Arghiros boss of the Karis ING developers must have choked on his Chablis as Frank Gehry dropped his bombshell in a cosy Radio 4 chit-chat. Gehry said “We did have some work in Brighton. It got all confused. We’re not doing it.” Bit of a change from the Karis website where you can still see the following Josh tosh: “This outstanding scheme has been designed by Frank Gehry, one of the world’s greatest living architects, and has been hailed as ‘one of the most significant developments in Britain for the last thirty years’” Not any more it ain’t and RM can hardly contain itself – yet another Brighton development to go to the dogs. The marina, the 360i viewing tower at West Pier, Black Rock… they’re all come to a credit-crunching, bulldozer-munching halt. We go along with Peacehaven’s Derek A Coles comments in our rival publication the Evening Anus (also on the skids – voluntary redundancies all round boys!*) “Forget all the rubbish about ‘being good for Brighton’ and ‘our economy depends on these developments.’ The watchword for developers is profit and if it isn’t there, they will go looking for some other bunch to flash their cash at. My fingers are firmly crossed that we will have seen the end of ‘celebrity’ developments.” A job awaits you at your soaraway, recession-proof RM, Mr Coles; we couldn’t’ve put it better ourselves... * Yes apparently, according to rumours washing up on RM’s patch of Brighon beach, it’s tighten yer belts time at local corporate rag, The Argus. Owners Newsquest International have been suffering from falling advertising revenues, even despite (as we told you in RM #18) buying up local alternative ‘Rocks’ magazine only to swiftly close it (and ban the founder from even using the name to continue on the web) - presumably hoping to snap up all its advertisers. But it’s obviously not worked out that way, and they’ve been forced to trash the pisspoor ‘Argus Lite’ commuter freebie for lack of revenue. The word is that the whole operation would run a lot more smoothly if they got rid of non-essential personnel such as journalists. Sounds like a hatchet wielding job then for a new top man recently appointed as Argus chief editor, one ‘Mad’ Frankie Taggert. But no fear, The Argus’s rigorous hounding of those in power and investigations into council sleaze will surely continue – unaffected by the fact that Frankie’s identical twin Mike has just been appointed to head up the council’s PR department. Keep all that bad news in family lads! SAW POINTLooking every bit like dodgy wideboys, Anston House developers, Bridgetown Properties had their day in court last month. Up for destroying eight mature ancient trees (although they’re only being done for five) on the Preston Road site, they swaggered into Brighton Magistrates’ confident of a slap on the wrist. What they hadn’t bargained for – and RM was a bit surprised itself – was the tough stance from Brighton Council. The trees all with Tree Preservation Orders were cut down to make way for a £10.5m office development and car park. Brighton Council are unhappy with the paltry £20,000 per tree fine which magistrates could hand out went for the jugular and opted for legislation under the Town and Country Planning laws. This means that Timothy Harding, the Hove-based boss of Bridgetown,
and Clifford Wake from Memetco the sub-contractors who carried out the eco-cide
will now face a crown court hearing where they can be fined an unlimited sum.
Music to the ears of former residents of the Preston Road tree camp, evicted after
its six month residency in January (RM
#16)...This one’s for you guys! FRACA-CCINOAS STARBUCKS CHOKES ON THE DREGS When Starbucks bought the old Sussex Stationers site in St. James Street earlier this year many people who live near or use the street got all hot and bothered. Cyber-savvy Jon Barrenchea came to the rescue with a Facebook group which quickly notched up 1,800 members resulting in 427 letters of objection to the planning application to turn what was a retail shop (class A1) into a mixed use (class A3). Unable to ignore this level of opposition the council refused Starbucks planning permission on May 21st stating that “The proposal would therefore undermine [...] and the vitality and viability of the centre”. A few days later they opened anyway. In response, coffee lovers, Starbucks haters and various assorted loons (some with teapots on their heads and some from the Green Party) began weekly protests outside the store and local and national media quickly became interested in the campaign. For the first few demos, 70 people turned up and the protests have since continued with about 20 people turning up each week. For the first few weeks it seemed that most customers were Starbucks employees and friends of the staff many of whom seem to turn up each week. Our own PC McDonald turned up for the first few demos and was once spotted drinking latte in the shop before the demo started. If Starbucks coffee wasn’t so shit this might be seen as bribing a police officer. Most people supporting the campaign object to the process of ‘canibalisation’ frequently employed by Starbucks to drive out local traders. This will change the character of the street and will go the way of the North Laine. In a surreal bid to appeal the decision forced upon the council it was reported in The Argus that Starbucks has claimed ‘it is not a coffee shop’. While connoisseurs would agree, this means in practice that Starbucks have to prove that their take-out sales exceed their other sales in order to appeal the decision. Quite how rigorous the proof needs to be remains to be seen and it’s not hard to predict that the outcome might be influenced by some creative accounting. In the meantime they continue to operate an A3 business in any case. There have been unconfirmed reports (from various crusty-types) of the poor dears having their locks super-glued and graffiti appearing only to be quickly removed. One girl was thrown out for trying to pin a leaflet about the protest to their ‘Community (take no) Noticeboard’ inside the shop. It has been reported that the Planning dept have recommended planning permission but because of the scale of local opposition the council dare not give it. Because of the high profile campaign St. James Street Starbucks have been the focus of other protests no doubt leaving them feeling slightly besieged and paranoid. On June 26th they were picketed by Brighton Against Guantanamo as part of the International Day Against Torture - protesting the existence of a Starbucks outlet at Gitmo. And on July 5th they were picketed by Syndicalists protesting against the sacking of union activists by Starbucks in Spain and the US in a world day of action called by the CNT. Meanwhile in the US, Starbucks have recently announced the closure of 600 of its stores due to the economic downturn but worryingly have stated their intention to concentrate on expansion in Europe and have said they will open another 100 in the UK this year. Campaigners have vowed to continue and say that the campaign will intensify if Starbucks continue to flout local planning law. One campaigner said “Up to now, even though Starbucks have been bending the law we’ve been playing it by the book but if the council fall for their tricks then the gloves will come off...” * On Saturday 28th May Brighton Plod visited every political stall in Brighton (Starbucks picket, Brighton STW and PSC) and asked for peoples’ names and addresses (unfortunately some complied). Could this be connected to the fact that they were called by Starbucks to deal with the Brighton against Guantanamo demo two days earlier? Seven police turned up once the picket had finished to deal with the chalked grafitti on the pavement. People who arrived late to the picket were questioned and hassled. Or maybe it was connected to the previous evening’s Critical
Mass bikeride held in honour of Marie Vasco. Thirteen cyclists who cycled up to
the empty EDO factory at 7pm were shocked to find the place swarming with cops.
At least forty in full view with many others in nearby vans. A real victory for
police intelligence!
This month it’s going, going, gong for Argus photographer Simon Dack, awarded the coveted wankers corner for services to journalism... To be fair (not usually RM’s style) The Argus coverage of the Carnival Against the Arms Trade was pretty reasonable – except for the bizarre ‘eyewitness’ account of one Simon Dack. Argus photographer Simon ‘Is it cos I am’ Dack wrote his gripping front-line fairy-tale of the Smash EDO demo on June 4th, to tie in nicely with the papers, “Riot in Brighton” cut out ‘n’ keep souvenir special. “I look around. A protestor dressed in a black hoodie and with a dark mask rummages in a rucksack. He is goaded on on as he pulls rocks from the bag. Silently and deliberately he hurls missiles towards the police, narrowly missing officers and police.” Scary stuff Simon – but where’s the proof? You’re a photographer aren’t you? They say the camera never lies but maybe the cameraman does. Even a blow from a police baton is refreshingly straightforward compared to the below-the-belt tactics of the corrupt Argus. As a small, independent publication, without corporate advertising money, RM can’t spread the truth to hundreds of thousands of people like Dack can - but we can call him a corrupt, lying, lazy, treacherous wanker..! SPOOKED OUT
Surprisingly even the outwardly cuddly public body (inwardly quango snouts-in-the-trough – see RM #7,8 & 9), set up to regenerate areas of Brighton ‘eb4u’, decided it had good reason to check up on poor people 35 times - but for what reasons is kept a secret. Meanwhile ‘waste enforcement’ generated 13 surveillance operations, while protection of a child only generated good cause for spying once in the last 7 years. The Council declined to give further details that might ‘compromise future operations if the nature of the activities were disclosed’. Here’s a full breakdown of the bureaucrats spying operations: Housing Benefit - 103; Housing Management - 43; eb4u - 35; Waste Enforcement - 13; Trading Standards - 11; Cultural Services - 2; Community Safety Team - 1; Adult Protection - 1; Child Protection - 1 * Seems like everyone can be
a spy these days. US Intelligence has reportely now outsources over half their
entire $60billion annual operation to private corporation who do the spying for
them. Brighton’s own ITT/EDO Corp are a major player in the US intel-business,
providing everything from spy satellites to data mining services. ANOTHER LONDON RD IS POSSIBLEMore info has come to light concerning the double-dealings surrounding the proposed ‘regeneration’ of London Rd. St James’s Investments have already bought up the west side of London Road from York Hill (between the Branch Tavern and “Richer Sounds”) up to Preston Circus, all of Circus Parade (the row of shops at the bottom of New England Road, below the viaduct (where Rayment cycles and “The Black Chapatti” are) and Vantage Point. This done deal was revealed by representatives of the company at a public meeting hosted by the ‘Another London Rd’ group on 9th June. They have stated in a e-mail to campaigners “Ninety per cent of local people are in favour of regenerating London Road town centre” - Well that’s ninety percent of the 700 people who ventured into the ‘Bright New London Road’ public consultation event a month ago” (24th-26th April in Circus Parade). Well people might be in favour of regeneration (actually yer RM is quite fond of the mish-mash of charity shops and small businesses which make up the pleasingly non-corporate London Rd) – but how many were aware of who St James’s paymasters are? This ‘public consultation event’ was in effect a public relations scam. St J’s work all over the country on behalf of Tesco and in the consultation amazingly failed to mention that central to any proposals would be a massive new Tesco (30,000 square feet) and a car park - and that any other redevelopment, including the promised space for small retailers (70,000 sq. feet) would be conditional on the Tesco being there! A member of the London Rd Insurgency (as they’re probably not called) told RM, “We very much suspect that they have been in dialogue with the Council on the quiet for a long time. New England House still belongs to the Council, but it is rumoured that the redevelopment, if it happened, would involve not only the sale and demolition of that, but also of Mayflower Square, the little row of houses opposite St. Bart’s Church in Ann Street.” St J’s publicity is full of the usual bullshit - they “aspire to develop… a completely revitalized shopping experience…a unique, high-quality scheme…exciting and forward-looking sustainability techniques…the top retail experts [are] working on the project” and, worryingly: “St.James’s has employed top transport consultants, Colin Buchanan, to work with the city council on some exciting and radical new options for changing the road systems and improving the traffic issues which are problematic in this area and are partially responsible for its decline.” This looks like a bit of a give-away in more senses than one. It suggests that they’ve been chatting away to the council for ages. And that any revamped road system would prioritise Tesco’s commercial interests over the wider community interest. The resistance to Tescopoly is growing
– Another London Rd is holding a Community Planning Event: July 22nd
7-9pm Calvary Church, Viaduct Rd. They also plan to picket St James Investments
next next public relations exercise on 17th, 18th, and 19th July at 11 Vantage
Point, Circus Parade. “Another London Road” The regular stall on other
weeks, is Sat 10am-4pm opposite Somerfield.
CHURCH IN THE LURCHLondon Road is one step closer to the yuppie utopia that the council has visioned for the area. The 88 London Road squat came to an end after police performed a early morning siege on what was Brighton’s new radical social centre. The squatted social centre which was opened for the squatting days of action in April was forcibly evicted on the 3rd July . The squat first successfully resisted eviction on the 12th May after they barricaded themselves inside the disused church building and climbed up onto the roof. At 7 o’clock in the morning the squatters woke up to police bursting through the door using a battering ram. RM spoke to one hooded youth who explained “The police stormed in along with specialist bailiffs and quickly removed every body in sight. Unluckily for some two sleepy squatters had been sleeping inside a cargo net high in the rafters and refused to come down when asked to”. Bailiffs hired a temporary scaffold tower. “It still took them three hours to get them out. But not before one of the cheeky squatters came up with the thoughtful idea of treating the coppers to a drink of piss from high up in the net making them the only pissheads in the squat!” our scruffy ne’erdowell informed us. The dramatic scenes included what has been said to be over fifty police including one of our best mates at RM Sergeant “Sunshine” Avery and also to our amusement the shamefully stereotypical pig lookalike Chris (Chris is a police photographer from the FIT (Forward Intelligence Team – political police whose role is to intimidate protesters) who took great delight in photographing newly homeless ex-squatters. Once the squatters were removed Safe Estates from Hertfordshire went about boarding up the church with thick sheets of steel attached into the wall by huge bolts making it extremely difficult for any cold squatters to get back in. Locals have also told the squatters that two security guards are now living inside the building. “Are Sussex police and the Methodist church really aware they are possibly creating rough sleepers and the new generation of the infamous Special Brew Level Crew if they carry on evicting every squat that pops up? So what’s next for the squatters of Brighton? Keep your eyes out for the next squat coming next door to you.” * For more
see www.myspace.com/88londonroadsquat CAR-A-BUNGA!This one’s got Council’s destroy-the-environment committee chairman Geoffrey Theobald’s greasy dabs all over it... The council’s anti-car policy which stopped owners of new flats from getting parking permits has been scrapped. One of the few sensible things the previous
Labour-run council did in a bid to cut congestion (although RM has long
called for a car-free centre of town) – but now the Tories say they want
a ‘more balanced approach’. But don’t let that worry you coz with all the added wonga from all that extra driving in and out of town, Geoffrey and chums will be able to work on a far, far greater flagship environment policy – dolling up the bandstand down by the seafront. As ever, you couldn’t make it up – or if you did it would sound too ridiculous....
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Rough
Music has uncovered the extent to which Brighton and Hove Council is prepared
to go to to spy on its own citizens. According to a Freedom of Information Act
disclosure last month, Brighton and Hove council has conducted 220 Directed Surveillance
operations since 2001, when the law came into force. Most of these (103) were
carried out by the Housing Benefit section - checking up on poor people, followed
by (43) Housing Management - checking up on... poor people.