Stand Up For Your Rights

Comedians, Mark Thomas and Rob Newman perform two major benefits

1st March 2000

Comedy and cause meet in a powerful concoction of belly laughs and serious issue as comic warriors Mark Tomas and Rob Newman take part in two big benefit events this month.

On Wednesday March 1 you can catch the two formidable frolicers on stage at the Red Rose Club, Seven Sisters Road, London; just five minutes from Finsbury Park Tube. In between their acts will be the excellent 'Rattle in Seattle' film, a highly rated collaboration between a SchNEWS cameraman and SQUALL's own writer/presenter Si Mitchell, filmed in the thick of the recent anti-WTO demos in Seattle. The night is a benefit for the hard-working Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) a voluntary organisation who follow up those arrested during UK demonstrations. The LDMG have their hands full at present with people arrested and charged following the massive J18 demonstration in the City of London last year. Doors open at 8pm and there are concession prices for the hard of earning. Tickets are only on sale at the door.

Thomas and Newman will also be appearing on stage in Brighton with fellow comic, Jo Brand, on March 10 in a benefit for the Simon Jones Anti-Casualisation Campaign. Simon was killed on April 24 1998, on his first day as a casual worker at Shoreham Dock. After being sent to work in a cargo hold with just a few minutes training, Simon - who had written for schNEWS and supported the Liverpool dockers in their fight against casualisation - was crushed by a crane grab. A date has finally been set for the judicial review hearing into the failure of the Crown Prosectuion Service to prosecute Euromin and its manager, James Martell, for their part in the death of Simon Jones. The hearing starts on Thursday March 16 in the High Court, The Strand, London at 10am. There will be an overnight candlelit vigil outside the High Court from 8pm on the evening of Wednesday March 15.

The benefit event for the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign starts at 8.30pm at Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Brighton. Tickets weighing in at £10/£6 concessions are available on the night or bookable by credit card on 01273 709 709.