SchNEWS
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2009) |
Circulation 2,000 per issue on paper, 11,000 by email | | |
Website | SchNEWS.org, SchNEWS at archive.org |
---|
SchNEWS was a free weekly publication from Brighton, England,[1] which ran from November 1994 until September 2014. The main focus was environmental and social issues/struggles in the UK – but also internationally – with an emphasis on direct action protest,[2] and autonomous political struggles outside formalised political parties.
As well as the free weekly double-sided
SchNEWS was run entirely by unpaid volunteers, and existed financially by donation from readers and subscribers, rather than through regular funding channels.
The strapline and motto of SchNEWS was "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 the newspaper The Guardian.[3]
History
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. 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 version of SchNEWS was a pilot issue created by David M. Berry and Gibby Zobel in Luther Street, Brighton, was published on 16 November 1994, being one side of A4. It had a very small print run and featured 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[citation needed] 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, outlasting the anti-CJB cause and Justice? itself.
It went on to cover the
While the final editions of SchNEWS look very similar to the initial issues – two sides of A4 crammed with text – its subject matter and readership was transformed by the rise of the internet. While its first five years saw SchNEWS as the newsletter for the British direct action movement, and mostly distributed in paper form, in 2000 it joined Indymedia and other alternative media on the internet to reach an international audience, and the content broadened accordingly. It found a niche[citation needed] on the internet specialising in what it originally did; that is, covering grass-roots social and environmental struggles in the UK.
SchNEWS was a non-commercial enterprise and carries no advertising,
Started in 2004, SchMOVIES was the film-making side of SchNEWS. SchMOVIES mostly produced short films featuring many of the same protests and issues that the newsletter did, and films are free to download. There have been two 'feature length' films – SchNEWS at Ten ...the movie (2005),
The website, from which the majority of readers now read SchNEWS, contains an archive of contact lists and back issues, as well as 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.
The team behind SchNEWS ended regular publication in September 2014.[10]
See also
- Brighton Voice – Alternative news in Brighton 1973–1989
References
- ^ Davies, Simon (1 September 1998). "Caution: police using imagination". The Independent. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7453-2637-5.
- ^ Bellos, Alex (8 August 1996). "Action marks move beyond 'single issue' campaigning". The Guardian (London, UK), p.5
- ^ Nuthall, Keith (30 June 1996). "Newbury fight goes on – by bogus call and fax". The Independent. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ Brooks, Libby (17 April 2008). "Ten years on, the echoes of Simon's death are deafening". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ Bazargan, Darius (14 July 2001). "Global protests breed new media". BBC. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ McCormick, Neil (21 February 1998). "Money: don't you hate it?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ "SchNEWS Merchandise – Direct action, demonstrations, protest, climate change, anti-war, G8". Schnews.org.uk. 21 October 2011. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- ^ Beckett, Andrew (23 February 2009). "Decommissioning the arms trade". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ "AND FINALLY ....the last word from SchNEWS". SchNEWS. 26 September 2014. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.