In this issue (16th Feb 2004), the Spark burns brightly about
Depleted Uranium weapons near Leamington?, the regressive nature
of council tax, community renewable energy, a new left-of-Labour
political party, and the full magnitude of climate change.
renewable energy, a new left-of-Labour political party, and the
full magnitude of climate change.

(SORRY - Event listings will be back in Spark 5)

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A LOCAL CHERNOBYL?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Article by Rhisiart Gwilym

Leaking sources in this Midlands region are telling a terrifying
tale.

The whisper is that somewhere hereabouts depleted uranium
munitions are made or completed in a secure secret factory
facility.  Eventually they are flown out of Britain to one of
the USuk empire's ongoing colonial wars, by secret night-flights
from Coventry airport.

Chances are that one of Britain's major arms dumps, at Kineton
in South Warwickshire, is in the loop too, storing the criminal
munitions until needed. DM Kineton has its own dedicated
military rail-link directly to Coventry.

So say the whispers. Spark asks: what if they're true?

* What price an accident?

What if accident, terrorist attack, or just bog-standard human
carelessness lets a cloud of uranium dust loose, here in the
English Midlands? What if it already has?
You'll have to dig about a bit on the Net to find the answers.
The deafening silence from the British mainstream,
hand-in-glove-with-power media is carefully not giving them to
us. (Answers? They're not even admitting the existence of the
questions!)

What would happen is a slightly smaller version of the huge
crime against humanity which the USuk aggressor war-criminals
occupying Iraq have let loose against the entire Iraqi civilian
population - and, incidentally, against their own expendable,
cannon-fodder rank-and-file military personnel, too.

The imperial occupiers refuse steadfastly to allow the
International Atomic Energy Agency into Iraq, to monitor,
advise, and help the Iraqis to deal with the horrifying upsurge
of radiation sicknesses now afflicting them. Why?

Why this obdurate refusal of a genuine humanitarian
intervention? Scared of what the IAEA might tell the world?
Scared it can't be gagged-and-spun?

If - dream it! - the imperialist gangsters in Washington and
Whitehall are ever brought before the International Criminal
Court at Den Haag, the charges they would face would be under
the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg Principles:
international law treaties to which both Britain and the US are
- nominally - signatories.

The USuk invaders of Iraq made reckless use of many tons of
depleted uranium munitions. Since then, they have refused to
admit the seriousness of what they have done, and to begin the
clear up.

* DU use is a major war-crime

There is a strong prima facie case that this deliberate,
countrywide contamination of Iraq, and - inevitably - its
neighbours, is a major war-crime. It may even be in the most
serious category of all, which is deemed to contain all the
lesser ones: crimes against humanity.

At the end of WWII, at the tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo,
people were hung for such crimes. (Victors' 'justice', of
course: none of the people responsible for fire-bombing hundreds
of thousands of helpless civilians in Dresden, Tokyo and
elsewhere, or for nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki whilst the
Japanese where actually offering surrender, were even tried.)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Picture insert

 17 Jan:-  Local protestors expose possible storage of illegal
Depleted Uranium weaponry at Kineton military base, highlighting
lethal contaminative effect of these weapons on the people of
Iraq, and the risk of experiencing radioactive fallout in our
own back yard.
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For these reasons, the antiwar campaigners Warwickshire Weapons
Inspectors continue to act against the illegal munitions
believed to be passing through DM Kineton. The picture is of a
recent blockade of its main gate, during the Britain-wide day of
action called by the 'Reclaim The Bases' movement.

WWI state in their Media Release that an escape of DU from
Kineton, into the countryside of this grossly-overcrowded
island, could render large areas of the Midlands subject to
compulsory mass evacuation, and create a no-go area like the
Chernobyl region, which would have to remain in force for
decades or even centuries.

-- For more info see:-
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium:- http://www.cadu.org.uk/

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COUNCIL TAX: TOO REGRESSIVE!

Warwick District Council is to raise council tax levels by 24%
in a move it claims is necessary to combat overspending and to
pay for new areas of responsibility.

The increase of services provided by local government over the
past few years - including CCTV cameras, recycling and internet
services - led last February to the district council announcing
a #350,000 overspend. They claim that the choice is a simple one
- cut services or raise council tax. Meanwwhile Whitehall
(responding to popular pressure against the rises) has moved to
cap rises in the tax at 5%.
The introduction of council taxes in 1993 was a response to the
widespread rioting and popular revolt against the poll tax.
However its increasing importance in the finances of local
government has led many to contemplate just how fair the council
tax system really is.

Council tax is levied on the value of the property in which you
live. It has 8 different bands and within Warwick district
council, bills range from #700 for the lowest bracket of homes
(those worth less than #40,000) to as much as #1600 for homes
worth up to #120,000 and reaching a ceiling at #2200 for anyone
living in homes worth #320,000 or more.

* Income not considered

There are basic fundamental problems with the way this tax is
calculated. First off, income is entirely irrelevant to how much
people pay. If your next door neighbour earns twice as much as
you, they pay exactly the same as you do, which makes it a much
lower proportion of their income. Whilst a bill of #1500 is a
great deal to someone earning #15,000 a year (around 10% of
their income), it's much less important to someone earning twice
that. Whilst some poorer families will receive council tax
benefit (means tested, obviously), a massive amount of working
people will struggle to meet the council tax demand. Meanwhile,
their richer neighbours wonder what all the fuss is about.

This is not just theory; in practice the poorest 10% of people
pay four times the proportion of their income into council tax
than the richest 10%. Remembering, of course, that even if they
were paying the same proportion of their income, it would still
be harder for families in and around the poverty line than those
more comfortably off.

Furthermore, the system takes no account of just who is living
in a property. Your home is worth so much and therefore you pay
so much. This completely ignores the differing financial
situations of all sorts of people. It makes no distinction
between those renting and those who own their homes.

Among working people, those renting will almost certainly live
in a home that they could not afford to buy (which is why
they're renting in the first place) and yet the council tax
expects them to pay as much as someone who can buy their home.
Neither does it take into account those that have worked all
their lives to buy their homes only to retire and see their
income subside to a level that is well below that which they
earned during their working life. Whilst council tax might once
have been relevant to their earnings it ceases to be affordable
when they retire.

* Pensioners hit hard

Some pensioners are eligible for council tax benefit, although
around 1/3 of those eligible do not claim that assistance
because of the convoluted and demeaning means testing system.
The poorest 20% of pensioners are paying 6 times the proportion
of their income that the richest 20% of the working population
are paying.

The tide though, is turning against council tax. A group of
around 2000 protestors, mainly pensioners and people from other
vulnerable sections of our society, descended on Downing Street
in January to present a 35,000 strong petition to the
government, clutching 'axe the tax' banners and calling on the
government to 'scrap it, not cap it'.

The fight against council tax is crucial in fighting off this
government's Tory agenda. Taxes should be met fairly by everyone
in our society based on their ability to pay, not on a flat rate
which punishes the poor and limits what the rich contribute.

-- The campaign against council tax is ledd by a non-party
organisation 'Is it fair', which organised the protest at
Downing Street. To get involved visit www.isitfair.co.uk

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LOCAL ACTION ON RENEWABLE ENERGY

Event review

"Bright Ideas: A community event on renewable energy for Warwick
District" January 24th, 2004, Sikh Community Centre, 1 Mill
Street

This event was organised by Action21, an organisation which
(with support from the local council) aims to promote
ecologically sustainable development in the Warwick District
area. Taking the grave threat of human-induced climate change as
its motivation, the intention was to promote the development of
renewable energy schemes (and energy conservation schemes) in
Warwick District itself.

* 'Localisation' crucial

For me, the implicit acknowledgement that energy systems should
be localised (i.e. production brought closer to consumption) was
absolutely critical. The problem of rural resistance to
large-scale wind-farm development, for example, can be at least
partially addressed by urban consumers taking more
responsibility for the energy they consume.

Following an introduction by Action 21 Sustainability Officer
Jenny Sansom, the crowd of approximately 30 people was addressed
by four speakers, each taking a slightly different angle.
Stephan Harrison, a scientist from Oxford University, quickly
explained the origins of the scientific consensus behind
human-induced climate change.

* 10% renewables by 2010?

Richard Davies (of Marches Energy Agency) gave a gloomy account
of the UK's disappointing progress towards having 10% of energy
generation from renewable technologies by 2010; the figure
currently stands at a feeble 3%.

Next, David Julien (of WEEAC) explained that domestic energy
consumption accounts for 30% of total UK consumption and that
the average home could (and should!) cut its annual energy bill
from approximately #600 to #200 by taking appropriate
energy-saving measures.

Finally, Ian Preston of Community Action for Energy (CAfE)
explained how his organisation was helping to co-ordinate
co-operative networking between communities embarking on
grassroots energy initiatives. He demonstrated the wide range of
community-level technologies that are now available and
increasingly in use, such as small-scale wind power,
micro-hydro, solar (heating and electricity generation), biomass
and combined-heat-&-power (CHP).

Following the speakers there was a period of informal discussion
and at the end of the event questionnaires were collected which
had asked attendees for ideas on possible local renewable energy
projects. Usefully, these gave examples of projects elsewhere in
the UK that might be of a scale suitable for Warwick District.

I asked Jenny Sansom what she thought about the view, held by
some radicals, that such community-led projects are an
inadequate response to a systemic problem and/or rather too
close to the concept of private enterprise. She made the point
(with which I agree) that we all use energy, and we urgently
need it to be produced sustainably, so would we rather have our
energy expenditure go to private behemoths such as Powergen, or
have it re-circulate in the local economy...?

* No spoon-feeding - get active!

Personally, I was quite surprised to find that no concrete
proposals for the area were proposed at the event. However, it
has since dawned on me that the initiative, which is at an
embryonic stage, needs community input and support to ensure its
feasibility, and that the meeting was a first step in harvesting
ideas and enthusiasm. In other words - GET INVOLVED!!

More info:-
http://www.action21.co.uk
http://www.est.co.uk/cafe

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CRASH, BURN, EXTINGUISH

Comment by concerned reader

Spark 3's article on the lunacy of air-travel expansion is dead
right as far as it goes. But that's not far enough. What we're
facing here is not just a vague ecological nuisance: a bit more
drought or stormy weather, a few more thousand people killed far
away in poor countries.

Briefly and bluntly: We probably, our young people and children
certainly, are heading into one of the worst global catastrophes
in the whole span of life on Earth. Not in the sweet by and by.
Not soon. Already underway now, and accelerating remorselessly
every year.

The oil industry barons are already quietly discussing amongst
themselves the fact that Peak Oil is already here: Some time in
about the next five years, and maybe already, world demand and
world supply of cheap, easily accessible oil and gas will begin
to separate, one still going mindlessly up, the other
relentlessly down.

And there's nothing anyone can do about it, because there's
almost no more cheap, quick and easy oil or gas left, and what
is left is shrinking ever faster, with no big new fields left to
find. So say the oil industry experts themselves.

Meanwhile, we've already burnt into the atmosphere a huge flood
of fossil carbon. This, and the last pools still left - which,
with utter, idiot fecklessness we propose now to burn also in
one last suicidal splurge - has begun a horrifying process of
climate catastrophe. This will kill off about a fifth to a
quarter of all the Earth's life-web, even if we slam on all the
brakes at once right now, and even more if, as seems likely, we
can�t bring ourselves to stop till the tank runs dry.

The end of the oil, for a global economy which has made itself
utterly dependent on this one energy source, means a high risk
of the collapse of human civilisation.

But climate meltdown could unleash the methane hydrates now
sequestered under the polar seas, as happened in the near-fatal
mass extinction which ended the Permian Era, quarter of a
billion years ago. If that happens, and if it's just a bit worse
than last time, Earth could be sterilised, like Mars and Venus.

Puts our piffling little local grouses into perspective, doesn't
it?

More info: Monbiot, July 2003 article: 'Shadow of Extinction',
www.monbiot.com & Peak Oil articles on 'From The Wilderness'
site www.fromthewilderness.com

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RESPECT - THE UNITY COALITION

By Rhisiart Gwilym...again :)

A new political river is trying to break out from underground
and flow broadly in Britain.

It has begun open public meetings, and Britain-wide conventions
to haul itself into existence. One meeting has already happened
in Coventry, on 23rd January 2004. A West Mids. regional
convention is scheduled for 1pm on Saturday 6 March, at Carr
Lane Community Centre in central Birmingham.

Before the end of March, there will be around twenty such public
gatherings across England, with the Scottish Socialist Party
(SSP) - already holding seats in the Scottish Parliament -
carrying the RESPECT flag north of that border.

Already, there is a smell of something biggish going on. The
meeting at Coventry University Sports Hall was a bit ragged, but
drew an unusually large, and unusually mixed, crowd. The
'National' Convention the following Sunday drew an equally mixed
crowd of 1400.

RESPECT is an acronym of the key strands of the Coalition's
purpose: Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment,
Community, and Trade Unionism.

The founders - amongst them George Galloway, Ken Loach, the
radical film-maker, George Monbiot, environmental and political
writer, Salma Yaqoob, chair of  Birmingham Stop The War
Coalition, John Rees and Lindsey German, co-founders of the
Britain-wide Stop The War Coalition, socialist barrister Nick
Wrack, union leaders Bob Crow and Mark Serwotka  - proclaim
that: -

"There is a crisis of representation, a democratic deficit, at
the heart of
politics in Britain. We aim to offer a solution to that crisis."

They cite two key facts to support this insight: - Britain
recently saw
its biggest ever political demonstration, opposing the USuk
aggression against Iraq. Yet recent Britain-wide elections have
produced the lowest turnouts
since records began: - voters not apathetic, but disillusioned
about any honest will amongst parliamentarians to serve them.

Despite the predictable barrage of criticisms from other
left/radical parties, RESPECT seems to have made a promising
start. Already the venerable rail union RMT has been ejected by
New Labour.The Scottish RMT has already re-affiliated to the
SSP, and the southern half is now being wooed by RESPECT.

If/when the marriage happens, it will put an almighty gale up
New
Labour. Unions give substantial dues to their affiliated
political parties. RESPECT's aim of raising a million pounds to
contest all seats in the June 10th Euro and London Regional
elections will begin to look realistic, and - as they say it
will be - a vote of no confidence in Blairism.

More Info:- http://www.respectcoalition.org/

NOTE:- A lot of radicals don't share RG's optimistic view of RESPECT -
see the Spark website for links to critical articles, and local
comment!