SchNEWS

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SchNEWS is a free weekly publication from Brighton, England, which has been running since November 1994. The main focus is environmental and social issues/struggles in the UK – but also internationally – with an emphasis on direct action protest, and autonomous political struggles outside formalised political parties. The politics of its writers are predominantly anarchist.

As well as the free weekly double-sided A4 news-sheet and website, SchNEWS also regularly produces short films (called SchMOVIES), and has self-published a series of books — mostly annuals featuring compilations of SchNEWS issues. The group also does live political satire shows, the most recent being national tours in 2004 and 2005, and since its inception has held free-information stalls and marquees at major UK festivals, free parties and other events.

SchNEWS is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, and exists financially by donation through the generosity of readers and subscribers. It does not receive any money through normal funding channels.

The strapline and motto of SchNEWS is "information for action" — giving the reader the necessary information and contacts, so they can become pro-actively involved in political issues. It was once dubbed "the national newsletter of the protest movement" by mainstream British newspaper The Guardian.^[1]

[edit] History

On The Verge - the Smash EDO campaign film, produced by SchMOVIES, out on dvd in April 2008

SchNEWS arose in 1994 in Brighton out of the then campaign against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 called Justice?. One of the focal points of this campaign was the squatting of an old courthouse in central Brighton in September 1994, from which began live "newsreading performances", amongst other demonstrations, direct action protests, events, talks, parties and more. After the eviction of the courthouse, one of the newsreaders and another activist involved began a newsletter, initially meant to act as a collective memory for the groups formed under the Justice? banner. The original working name was "The SchNEWSPAPER" which was the form of the dummy-run version that featured the first headline "Man sits down in park". The first true version of SchNEWS was a pilot issue cobbled together in Luther Street, Brighton, published on November 16, 1994, which was one side of an A4 sheet, and had a very small print run, featuring the headline "Big Brother CCTV installed in Brighton".

The live news reading, called SchLIVE, continued from this initial point, and once the news-sheet was running it became a performed version of it. SchLIVE was a weekly event at various venues around Brighton, culminating in a national tour in 1996.

SchNEWS quickly built up a national readership, gaining popularity for presenting its news in a concise, witty and jargon-free language. While its initial focus was resistance to the Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), it quickly moved onto other relevant social and environmental struggles in the UK and abroad, in fact outlasting the anti-CJB cause and Justice? itself.

It went on to cover the protests against the building of the M11 motorway link road in London, the anti-Newbury Bypass protests in Berkshire and the actions of Reclaim the Streets. It has also reported on labour issues such as the Liverpool Dockers' Strike of 1995-97, fights against the privatisation of public services, racism, climate change and genetic engineering. Some of those involved were also part of the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign which SchNEWS championed. Later the focus turned to more international issues such as neo-liberalism and more recently the anti-war movement.

While current editions of SchNEWS look very similar to the initial issues – two sides of A4 crammed with text – its subject matter and readership has been transformed by the rise of the internet, which wasn't ubiquitous in 1994 when it started. While its first five years saw SchNEWS as the newsletter for the British direct action movement, and mostly distributed in paper form, since 2000 it has joined Indymedia and other alternative media on the internet to reach an international audience, and the content has broadened accordingly. It has found a niche on the internet specialising in what it originally did; that is, covering grass-roots social and environmental struggles in the UK. And it still appears on the free information racks at social centres, bookshops and community spaces across the UK.

[edit] SchNEWS today

Exact weekly readership figures are unknown. The paper generally prints around 2,000 copies, though more are printed for big festivals and demonstrations. Of these it is claimed that 650 are posted out to subscribers, bookshops and prisoners. There are also over 11,000 email subscribers and their website receives around 70,000 visits a month. Further distribution takes place in the form of encouragement for readers to photocopy and distribute the newspaper by every available means.

SchNEWS is a non-commercial enterprise and carries no advertising, it is written and edited by a small group of volunteers. It relies on the revenue it brings in from subscriptions, benefit gigs and donations. Its office space was for eight years donated by music group The Levellers, although it has recently moved to premises within an alternative social enterprise, The Cowley Club, in central Brighton, with the rent covered by regular donations. Internet capacity is donated by a local non-profit collective.

SchNEWS aims to collect its stories "directly from those involved" and claims that this exclusivity sometimes results in its stories being picked up by major international news services.^{[citation needed]}

SchNEWS is published into the public domain.

Subscription to SchNEWS is free via email, either in plain text or PDF form, while paper copies are sent to subscribers for the cost of postage.

Since 2004, SchMOVIES has become the film-making side of SchNEWS, and is produced in the same office. Mostly it produces short films featuring many of the same protests and issues that the newsletter does, and films are free to download from the SchMOVIES homepage. There have been two 'feature length' SchMOVIES - SchNEWS At Ten ...the movie in 2005, and On The Verge - the Smash EDO campaign film which has built up notoriety due to having its premiere screening in Brighton in March 2008 pulled due to underhand police intervention.

The website, from which the majority of readers now read SchNEWS, has become a large archive containing an extensive contacts lists and all back issues, as well as being a repository for films and satirical graphics. The most well used part of the site is the Party & Protest listings, covering demonstrations, events, meetings, screenings, benefit gigs and festivals.

[edit] Criticisms

SchNEWS has been criticised by others within activist and political movements for what is perceived as sectarianism. An example of this sectarianism is the newspaper's coverage of events organised by groups including the Stop the War Coalition, which the subject organisation believes to be negative (or unreasonably low) coverage. The publishers claim that it is not sectarian, but would rather be part of a network of autonomous groups – such as those who came together for the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland – than umbrella groups linked to political parties.^{[citation needed]}

They have also been criticised ^[2] for promoting ^{[3] [4]}the Anarchist Heretics Fair, an event organised by National-Anarchists. The SchNEWS response to this point is "An errant event accidentally got onto our 'Party & Protest' listings page - in 1999. To criticise us for one posting way back when is petty, and Party & Protest continues to be the most thorough events listings of its kind in the country."

[edit] References

1. ^ Bellos, Alex (Aug. 8, 1996). "Action marks move beyond 'single issue' campaigning". The Guardian (London, UK), p.5
2. ^ The Stewart Home Society
3. ^ SchNEWS issue 242, 17th December 1999
4. ^ SchNEWS issue 254, 7th April 2000

[edit] External links

• SchNEWS
• About SchNEWS
• Party & Protest Guide
• SchNEWS Online Contacts List
• SchMOVIES