December 9th saw what was described in local papers as 'one of the most bizarre conferences to be held in Brighton'. What was it you may ask, The Royal Society of Toenail Clippings, Action Against Garden Gnomes, The Tories? No - it was the Direct Action Conference held by Justice? The old Bingo Hall threw open it's doors after 3 days of panicking about bailiffs, unscrewing tables and chairs, organising, getting even more unorganised and generally getting stressed out. The 600 people at the conference (CCTV provided police estimates!) were encouraged to attend other workshops/discussions than those they were involved with, to push the point across that we are all fighting together for the same cause, be it anti-roads, No live exports, Anti-CJA etc. The conference organised workshops and discussions on many things including Anarchist Black Cross on Prisoner support, youth CND on Nuclear testing, Justice? and Conscious Cinema on media tarting, and even an excellent self-defence class. But what was probably the most important
OMENS

NEWS ON LIFE AND LIBERTY

Direct Action Conference a Success

part of the day was the fact that activists from all over the country - and passing members of the public - got to talk to each other, plan future events and learn about how to organise more effectively. During the day and at the party that followed, Kamikaze radio (Brighton's local pirate radio station) carried on pissing off the authorities by broadcasting live from the venue and bringing in the local bands to play on the day. They also succeeded in attracting many local people who wouldn't normally have anything to do with direct action (or associate fun with politics!) .
For me the majority of the weeks beforehand were about meeting different people and networking more efficiently - although at the time all I could think about was how the conference was going to fall to bits and how everyone involved was going to kill each other in a very short space of time! Following on from the day and continuing in the great tradition of party and protest the former theatre saw 2,000 people partying until 10 o'clock on the Sunday morning. We started off with just one sound system and a few bands and as the message spread, more sound systems turned up, we ending up with 5 sound systems! The day after, when all sane people were recovering from the party, we were still in the hall cleaning (still off

our heads yet with the worst hangovers ever). We spent the whole day cleaning the leaving it in a better state than we found it, at one point someone even brought their hoover down. On top of broadening peoples minds, with the money donated at the party we have now got a van that is making regular trips up to Newbury and other actions, showing that we don't just talk we act. Carly Eco villager making last stand against eviction.

Hunt Sabber surrounded