UK Feature Archive
G20 policing caused man's death: police coverup and media lies
02-04-2009 09:29
See Indymedia London for G20 reports, timelines and features.
On Wednesday 1st April during a demonstration against the G20 in London, thousands of protestors were trapped inside a police cordon (kettled) where they were baton charged and crushed by the police. Ian Tomlinson, who appears to have been a passer-by, died during this demonstration outside the Bank of England. The police started a coverup immediately, claiming police and medics had been prevented from attending to him, although eyewitnesses reported seeing Ian Tomlinson being attacked by police shortly before his death. The corporate media parroted these police lies even though eyewitness accounts contradicted this [statement | video]. Now a video has surfaced clearly showing Ian was viciously assaulted by riot police from behind and violently pushed to the ground. Riot police and members of the Forward Intelligence Team looked on as a protestor attended to him. Minutes after moving away, Mr. Tomlinson collapsed in a nearby alley and died shortly afterwards.
An assembly and a procession has been called for this Saturday 11th April assembling at Bethnal Green Police Station at 11:30 am to demand a public enquiry. A procession will move off at midday to arrive at the Bank of England around 1 pm. Another protest has also been called for Saturday 18th April at 12 noon in Redditch, the Home Secretary's constituency town. A demonstration calling for an end to state murders has been called in Edinburgh
Anyone with information they believe may help clarify the circumstances surrounding his death should, as soon as possible, write a full statement and contact the Climate Camp Legal Team: legal [at] climatecamp [dot] org [dot] uk
N.B. If you have previously left any important legal information on an answering machine or sent to a different email address and nobody got back to you, please try again using the email address above
Eyewitness accounts: Witnesses Statement: Death at G20 | Video: Interview with two Eyewitnesses of G20 Death
Reports: IMC - about the death | Death At The Hands Of Capital | G20 protests video shows perfect example of police tactics
Solidarity and Remembrance: New Zealand Solidarity Demo Against Police Brutality | Helsinki is supporting NO G20 | Vigil today ongoing at Bank of England | G20 Protest London - Memorial for the Dead | Photos - 2nd April memorial demo London
Indymedia G20 Reporting
01-04-2009 22:16
For G20 feature coverage and reporting timeline of events see:
G20 Direct Action: April 1st
G20 April 2nd: Raids and Remembrance
March 28th: 40,000 on Put People First March
29-03-2009 15:11
A march for Jobs, Justice and Climate headed across London on Saturday 28th as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20 ahead of the summit taking place on April 2nd. About 40,000 people braved the cold weather from 11am until 5pm and marched from Victoria Embankment via Westminster to Hyde Park for a rally.
Timeline of march (and international reports)
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Video | Audio |
YouTube: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Anarchist Rally Speeches |
Flickr: [pool] 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Report your news about the G20 and help Indymedia to cover the event.
Dispatch: 07588 479 039 also see: list of G20 protests
Days of Action: G20 London Summit
25-03-2009 15:11
The G20 group (or G22) will be meeting at the Excel Center, London, on April 2nd 2009. The main aim of this summit is to discuss how to re-build confidence in the financial markets and “re-stabilise” the world economy given the current financial crisis. The meeting will be composed of finance ministers from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the World Bank.
Callouts: Reclaim The Streets | Climate Camp | Summer Of Rage | Bristol Dissent | Fossil Fools Day | G20 maps (easily printable versions)
Links: G20 Meltdown | Climate Camp G20 | Manchester G20 | Put People First | We Won't Pay For Their Crisis | Stop the War Coalition | Palestine Solidarity Campaign | The British Muslim Initiative | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament | What is the G20? | Indymedia UK G20 topic page
G20 Melbourne Summit 2006: A first communiqué from two uncitizens of Arterial Bloc (Video) | Payback: 100 Melbourne Police violently attack | V for victory | Photos
Parliamentary scrutiny of political policing
24-03-2009 11:46
![Police display a warning before attacking protesters (Photo: Tash [alan lodge])](/icon/2009/02/422684.jpg){kind=icon}
With only ten days to go before the massive protests against the G20 summit taking place in London, the Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Human Rights accused British police of being heavy-handed, misusing counter-terrorism laws and anti-social behavior legislation when dealing with demonstrators.
"The right to protest is a fundamental democratic right and one that the state and police have a duty to protect and facilitate," said Andrew Dismore, Labour MP for Hendon and chair of the committee.
After a year of inquiry, the seventy-page report raised serious concerns about the police forces ability to distinguish appropriate use of the powers they are given. The committee complained that police have been routinely using "legal powers not designed to deal with protests such as anti-social behaviour legislation and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997."
The report was particularly damning regarding the police's abuse of stop-and-search powers to intimidate, unjustifiable seizures of personal property, and improper detention and containment of protesters. The committee's chairman said: "The state must not impose restrictions unless it is necessary, and proportionate, to do so. That is a high threshold. The presumption is in favour of protest without state interference."
Related Indymedia Posts: Police 'turn themselves in' over abuse of power claims | Report into police tactics at Kingsnorth released | Video of police tactics at Kingsnorth | Summer of rage? It's a figment of febrile imaginations | Senior police officer warns of “summer of rage” | Protest against police state | Britain 2009 (are we in a police state?) | Climate Camp Cops feel the heat | Over Policing | Police maintaining special database | Whole TV series on this issue
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Anti-deportation campaigners blockade Tinsley House immigration prison
20-03-2009 00:00
Early in the morning of 17th March, about 20 anti-deportation campaigners blockaded Tinsley House detention centre at Gatwick airport, where some Iraqi refugees due for deportation were being held. Using D-locks and superglue, the aim of the protest was to try and prevent the deportees being taken from the detention centre to Stanstead airport, where a special charter flight to Iraqi Kurdistan was scheduled that afternoon. The blockade was violently removed by police after about 6 hours and Tinsley deportees, along with some 50 others brought from Campsfield and Dover detention centres, were put on the flight, which landed in Sulaimaniyya around 10pm. Nine protesters, including the six locked and glued to the gate, were arrested under Section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (failure to leave land after a warning) and taken to Crawley police station. They were released on conditional bail later that night and are due in court on 30th March.
Tinsley House IRC blockaded by protesters | Tinsley House blockade ends with arrests and deportees taken to airport | pix | video
Update: Seven of those arrested pleaded guilty to the charge of 'aggravated trespass' on 30 March 2009. The other two pleaded not guilty and are due in court again soon.
Links: Stop Deportation Network
Related: Flying people to torture and death | Hunger strike in Campsfield as deportee takes his own life in Iraq | Dozens of Iraqi Kurds deported.. again | No Deportations to Unsafe Iraq
Abolish All Immigration Prisons
17-03-2009 21:17
On Tuesday morning, 20 anti-deportation campaigners blocked access to the Tinsley House immigration detention centre near Gatwick airport. Activists used d-locks and superglue to blockade the entrance gate for several hours. The action aimed to prevent the forced deportation on a charter flight of approximately 50 Iraqi refugees from the UK.
Groups affiliated to the UK No Borders network are now calling for demonstrations against immigration detention on Saturday 21st March. A protest march will lead from Bedford to the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, which was half destroyed by fire in 2002, following an uprising ignited by the ill-treatment of a sick woman by guards. Transport is available from London. Solidarity demonstrations are planned in Manchester and Edinburgh. The demonstration in Manchester will be going to the newly-expanded ‘Pennine House’ detention facility at the airport. The campaign to close this prison has achieved a high profile recently after the invasion of Phil Woolas’s offices and an intervention during a speech by Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese. In Edinburgh, campaigners will picket the private security company G4S. G4S profits from running immigration prisons in the UK, including Brook House, Dungavel near Glasgow and Pennine House.
Links: Tinsley House blockade | Photos 1 | Phil Woolas Detention | Custard Pie
Storm the Banks
06-03-2009 12:55
Climate Rush activists gathered outside RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), Thursday 5th March to protest the incredible multi million pound pay out to Fred (the shred) Goodwin, former RBS Chief Executive, and more importantly, the banks continuing role in funding the climate changing industries of coal, gas and oil. Posting the largest losses in British corporate history, RBS lost £24.1 billion in 2008 and has since had billions of pounds of taxpayers' money pumped into it. Already the largest bailout to date, the government has agreed to inject a further £13 billion on top of the £20 billion already given, and to make a further £6 billion available. While the tax payer now owns at least 70% of its shares, the bank continues to operate as a private company,
On the same day as the Climate Rush demo outside RBS, the Bank of England reduced the base interest rate to 0.5% and announced the printing of £100 billion pounds of new cash to inject into the stalled economy. Next month, the G20 leaders (G22 to be more precise) will arrive in London to discuss further ways to get the poor to bail out the rich. Various groups are mobilizing to protest against the summit which the police are co-promoting as part of a 'summer of rage'.
The G20 Meltdown group say they're going to reclaim the City, 'thrusting into the very belly of the beast', with a four pronged assault on the Bank of England at noon on 1st April. That afternoon, as part of a series of actions leading up to the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen, the Camp for Climate Action aim to expose how the discredited market mechanisms are being sold as a solution to climate change and are planning a climate camp in the city close the the Carbon Trading Exchange.
Links : Climate Rush target RBS Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | LCAP occupies RBS | Quantitive Easing | Corporate Undead | Image From The Future | Bristol Dissent g20 Call Out | Climate Camp hits the city | Press Complaint over G20 article | RBS boss pension | Arrogance of Capitalism | Environmental silver lining? | Climate chaos meets economic chaos | Bash a Billionaire | Doubt of global financial crisis? | Origins of the Credit Crunch | Summer of rage? | Demand for energy falling | Climate Crimes Delayed | Dissident Island Economic Special | "Pro-Capitalist" Mobilisation Video
Aviation expansion grounded
04-03-2009 12:07
UPDATE: Lord Peter Mandelson, the unelected Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and key player in the Heathrow expansion plan, attacked with green custard.
Plane Stupid Scotland activists shut down Aberdeen airport by setting up a golf course on the taxiway and surrounding themselves with security fencing whilst another group occupied the roof of the terminal with a banner reading, “Nae Trump Games with Climate Change”. The 3am action prevented the scheduled reopening of the runway at 5am. After almost six hours the protesters voluntarily unlocked themselves when police claimed the taxiway was needed by an emergency helicopter. Eleven people, including local residents, were arrested.
Donald Trump backs Aberdeen airports expansion (where his super-rich pals will arrive to play golf on his controversial golf course). BAA obviously welcome Trump's involvement and need powerful friends right now. They are under presure from the Competition Commision and a down turn in the aviation industry is threatening expansion plans. Plans for a new runway at Stansted (blockaded by Plane Stupid last December) now looks likely to be postponed for at least two years and the airport will be put on the market without planning permission in place.
Despite government rhetoric about cutting CO2 emissions, there are expansion plans for 34 regional airports in the UK. Last month Plane Stupid activists interrupted a public meeting during a speech by Ed Miliband the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, unveiling a banner highlighting the hypocritical actions of the government in relation to aviation and climate change. Back in January Plane Stupid activists chained themselves to the entrance of Southampton airport and erected tents at the main entrance in a bid turn the regional airport into a climate refugee camp (they were in court yesterday and fined between £175 and £600 each).
Links: Greening of Mandelson | Aberdeen action 1 2 | Plane Stupid actions last month Southampton, Brighton | Stansted blockade 2008 | aviation and recession | airport expansion 1 2 | Stansted rumors | previous featureHome Secretary Blatantly Ignores Unfavorable Court Decision
04-03-2009 11:28
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, appears to have declared war on the government’s own secret terror court, overruling decisions made by judges in the Special Immigration Appeals Court (SIAC). In what can only be described as an act of executive fiat, two men who attended a hearing at the SIAC were driven away from the court, expecting to return home, as ordered by the SIAC judges, but were, instead, delivered to Belmarsh prison, where they were joined by three other men, who had been seized in raids on their homes.
Journalist and author Andy Worthington notes that the whole operation was clearly planned by the Home Secretary in advance. "Even though she had informed neither the men’s lawyers nor the SIAC judges." The first the lawyers heard about it was when one of the men’s wives rang, inquiring why he had not yet returned home. He adds; "the Home Secretary has acted in a manner that would have pleased King John, in those days before England's nobles forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, establishing for the first time that the king had no right to imprison his subjects except upon the lawful judgment of his peers or the law of the land."
On The Newswire: Jacqui Smith versus Justice Mitting | Home Secretary ignores Court decision, kidnaps bailed men and imprisons them in Belmarsh | Revealed: flawed intelligence exposes the scandal of Belmarsh detainees | Invisible Barriers: Detention without Trial/Social Housing Policy in the UK Today
Previous Features: Hundreds Join Demo for Academic Freedom and Against Deportation | Anger Over "Terror Arrests" at Nottingham University | The Global War of Terror | The Racist 'War on Terror' | Terror profiling nets innocents
Links: National Guantanamo Coalition | Cageprisoners | 100 Days to Close Guantánamo and End Torture | The Campaign against Criminalising Communities | Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) | Reprieve | Andy Worthington | Indymedia Topic Pages: Terror War | Guantanamo
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New Coal Digs In
02-03-2009 12:46
Climate Rush tackled more climate criminals last week when the UK coal industry got together for their annual 'coal awards'. In a protest timed to coincide with the UK Coal hosted awards, around 15 climate activists paid a visit to their Doncaster headquarters, dressed in Edwardian style complete with red sashes with the words 'No New Coal' written across them. A banner reading 'Leave it in the Ground' was suspended across the entrance.
In London, the dirty coal pushers shied away from confrontation with the modern day climate suffregette movement, abandoning their booking at the plush Landmark Hotel and scuttling off to Lords cricket grounds instead. At the hotel, around a hundred activists rushed inside through a fire exit and began an alternative awards ceremony to highlight the ecological damage that the coal industry is inflicting on the environment. After being ejected from the hotel, a couple more attempts were made to gain entry and one arrest was made before the alternate awards continued outside. The Landmark hotel management were less than happy about the righteous fury brought down on them by the climate criminals promised not to accept bookings from such damaging industries again.
Coal represent 50% of the electricity production in the UK and its greatest contribution to CO2 emissions so the coal industry has seen increasing attention from activists in the UK (and beyond). Last month activists and local resident disrupted work at the Rosewell open-cast coal mine in Midlothian, operated by Scottish Coal , and another protest stopped work at UK Coal owned Shipley open cast coal mine in Derbyshire. In the US capitol on Monday, 2,500 protesters blockaded the gates of a coal fired power plant for almost five hours.
Campaigns : Climate Rush | Coal Action Edinburgh | No New Coal | Capitol Climate Action | Coal Caravan
Newswire reports : Coal Rush 1 | 2 | 3 | Doncaster 1 2 | Rosewell | Shipley | USA 1 2
Previous Climate Rush actions : 'climate suffragettes' smash gov windows | chained to parliament | Heathrow 1 2 | Manchester 1 2 | Parliament 1 2
SHAC Shakedown City Investors
01-03-2009 22:25
On Friday 27th February around 300 campaigners from around the country, and from around the world, traveled for a loud and vibrant march and demonstration in the capital against the financial supporters of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest and most exposed vivisection laboratory in Europe.
With HLS’ share price now the lowest in four years, the unjust incarceration of SHAC campaigners and the latest footage of monkeys being abused inside HLS’ labs, angry, passionate and determined campaigners gathered at the Bank of England – the only bank in the world providing HLS with banking facilities. The day of action aimed to publicly show financial investors that anti-vivisectionists will not tolerate puppies being thrown around, monkeys being cut open alive and other innocent animals suffering in silence. The protest was part of a global week of action organised by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), with actions so far reported in London (1 | 2 | 3), Somerset, Cambridge, Netherlands, Italy, Chile, Sweden, Poland, (1 | 2) France and Russia (Videos: 1 | 2).
First stop was HLS’ largest shareholder Barclays, which saw an impromptu banner drop from the bridge directly above the bank. Activists then moved onto more HLS and NYSE Euronext shareholders (1 | 2), the only stock exchange in the world listing the company after dropping them in 2000 and postponing their listing in 2005. Huntingdon are currently $83 million dollars in debt, without a commercial bank or insurance company in the world prepared to deal with them.
Top HLS Investors Dump Shares
25-02-2009 22:11
Just days before the SHAC global week of action kicked off and two weeks after Huntingdon Life Sciences' vivisection laboratories were exposed for the seventh time in ten years, revealing shocking undercover footage, HLS shareholders have sold 15% of the company (ticker symbol LSR). As a result the percentage of LSR stock held by institutions fell further from 20.1% to 17.7%, leaving them below the minimum listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange, a major target in the campaign to close down HLS.
Wells Fargo, who were one of LSR's top five institutional investors has sold all their 147,511 shares and the Bank of New York Mellon, previously third largest investor, sold most of their LSR stock dumping 149,157 shares. BNY Mellon now only have 26,634 remaining of the original 175,791 shares, with Turner Investment Partners Inc also selling their 56,880 stock.
The announcement was made the day before Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists reported they had slashed car tryes at the home of BNY's Business Analyst in Hampshire, whilst other covert cells targeted HLS associates in solidarity with political prisoners, including the UK SHAC 7. Protests also took place at BNY and Wells Fargo's offices and executive's homes, as part of a three-month campaign based primarily in London [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] (England) and New York City (USA) [ 1 | 2 ].
HLS have been suffering from a serious lack of investment since December 2007, with over a dozen corporations selling all their shares in LSR. Their share price as of February 25th is $5.78, the lowest since their high of nearly $40 in September 2008. With an unstable share price, activists continue to increase the pressure against HLS shareholders, particularly largest investor Barclays.
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How do you know that Indymedia does not keep logs?
19-02-2009 00:00
Indymedia UK (IMC-UK) is a network of activists who provide an open publishing platform. We are part of the wider Indymedia Network that started in Seattle during the protests against the WTO in November 1999, and the UK site was one of the first to join the network in early 2000. In common with all Indymedia Centres (IMCs) around the world, as designated in the (draft) Principles of Unity, IMC-UK does not log IP addresses - as detailed on the security page. Moreover, following on from previous requests by governmental authorities for logs, IMC-UK and many other Indymedia sites (e.g. the global website, www.indymedia.org) do not retain any logs related to the website. These facts are documented on our open mailing lists and on the open IMC documentation site, docs.indymedia.org. (here for example).
In the rest of this article, we provide some advice on how to improve the measures you take when publishing on the website if you want to do so anonymously. We also outline some legal procedures that could potentially be used to attack Indymedia and the right to free expression, as well as describing some of the technical points in more detail.
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Hosting Indymedia Servers is Illegal?
12-02-2009 18:30
This Monday (9 February 2009), Kent Police arrested a man in Sheffield under the Serious Crime Act 2007 in relation to the recent Indymedia server seizure. His home was raided, all computer equipment and related papers taken. He was released after eight hours. The person had neither technical, administrative nor editorial access to the Indymedia UK website. He was only associated to the project by hosting its server.
The arrest took place under Section 44-46 of the Serious Crime Act, which was passed into law on 1st October 2008 to combat serious international crime like drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and armed robbery. Sections 44-46 refer to “encouraging or assisting offences”.
Kent police claim that they are after the IP address of the poster of two anonymous comments to a report about a recent animal liberation court case, which included personal details of the Judge. The IP address of the poster is not stored as Indymedia does not log IP addresses. This was acknowledged by British Transport Police in 2005, after the Bristol IMC server seizure.
For the police to arrest the person who happened to sign the contract for server hosting, is sheer intimidation, in light of Indymedia’s openly stated policy of no IP logging.
With the implementation of the EU Data Retention Directive in March 2009, the UK government attempts to turn every internet service provider in the country into part of the law enforcement apparatus. This legislation will provide a legal basis to track, intimidate, harass, and arrest people who are doing valuable and necessary work for social change, for example as peace activists, campaigners for economic and social justice or against police brutality.
The present intimidation of the open publishing alternative news platform Indymedia will have serious implications for anyone running a server in the UK which allows user contributions – blogs, social networking sites, wikis. This is an attempt to close down sites that respect the privacy of their contributors, pure and simple.
Victory for wildcat strikers
12-02-2009 18:12
Thousands of workers in the construction industry who walked out in solidarity with workers at the Lindsey oil refinery run by Total in Killingholme, Lincolnshire, have won a significant victory. Strikers at Lindsey voted to accept a deal drawn up by union officials and the companies involved in the dispute and end their unofficial industrial action on Thursday 5th February.
The government and media have been keen to present this as a nationalist or even "racist" dispute and the ever-opportunistic BNP made efforts to capitalise on the struggle. Certainly there have been reactionary elements within the strike and the "British jobs for British workers" slogan, which echoes Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is unerringly reminiscent of the far-right. Nevertheless, the politics of the strike were complicated and at Langage Power Station near Plymouth, Polish workers joined strikers.
Regional Feature: Workers walk out at Staythorpe
Newswire: Strikes in oil refineries and power stations | British jobs for British workers - Green jobs for Green workers? | Oil and Power strikes: News, Resouces and analysis | Wildcat strikes in Newark | Today's wildcat strikes in the UK oil and now nuke business | Wildcat strikes - an open letter to the anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement | A 'Racist' Strike? | BNP activists agitating at wildcat strikes
Links: ConstructionWorkerUk | Unite the Union | Indymedia UK Workers Movements topic page
The Whale Wars - Sea Shepherd Returns From Antarctica
07-02-2009 15:59
The flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the M/Y Steve Irwin, is heading back from the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary where it has been on patrol to enforce international conservation regulations in protection of the area's great whales. Since its departure from Brisbane, Australia on December 4th, the ship and its crew have been involved in various confrontations with a Japanese Whaling Fleet, which continues to operate a commercial whale hunt in the area illegally.
On December 26th, the Steve Irwin confronted the Japanese vessel Kaiko Maru. The ships collided and Sea Shepherd crew deployed butyric acid on its decks. From 1st February the whaling operation was shut down for 8 days straight with both sides of the conflict accusing each other of dangerous manoeuvres and tactics. On February 6th, the Steve Irwin collided with a harpoon ship twice, when it tried to block the ship from offloading a dead whale onto the factory ship Nisshin Maru. As part of an international crew of volunteers, 3 activists from the UK worked onboard the Sea Shepherd vessel during the campaign which was dubbed operation Musashi.
Photos: Photo Report – Onboard Sea Shepherd Operation Musashi | Videos: Ramming the Japanese whaling ship - Sea Shepherd | Sea Shepherd collides with whaling harpoon ship (Indybay)
On The Newswire: Sea Shepherd Forced To Leave Killing Grounds In Antarctica | Ramming the Japanese whaling ship, onboard the Steve Irwin | Sea Shepherd blames acoustic weapon attack for Ramming Whaling ship | Japanese Whalers Playing Dangerous Games in the Ross Sea | Sound weapons used against protestors | Whalers harassed by Sea Shepherd in Australian Antarctic waters | Whalers flee Sea Shepherd in Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
Previous Features: Japan issues arrest warrant for Nottingham activist | Arrests As International Whaling Commission Fails To Protect Whales | Nottingham Activist Returns From Whale Saving Mission In Antartica | Sea Shepherd activists injured as Japanese military open fire | Activists Held Hostage By Japanese Whalers In Southern Ocean | Whalers use Public Relations to twist the truth
Links: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | Institute For Cetacean Research (Japanese pro-whaling PR) | Ocean Defence Topic page
Resistance Against the Illegal Sale of Israeli settlement products in the UK
05-02-2009 20:37
This week activists have responded to an international callout for actions against the import of Valentine's day flowers.
On Saturday activists gathered at Carmel-Agrexco, Middlesex, to picket the main supply point for Israeli imports into the UK.
See Photos And Reports 1| 2| 3|and original press release On Thursday morning a group of fifteen women blockaded the warehouse again to prevent the transport of flowers to British supermarkets Links : Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign | Palestine Solidarity Campaign | Who Profits |
Previous Actions: Carmel Agrexco's Depot Shut Down in Commemoration of the Nakba | Fortress Carmel Agrexco breached by Peace Activists | Video - Carmel Agrexco protest during Camp for Climate Action | Weekend of Action Against Carmel Agrexco | Activists Blockade Carmel-Agrexco's UK Headquarters for the Third Time | International Actions against Israeli Apartheid| Solidarity Actions in the West Bank, Gaza and the UK
Obama, Guantánamo and the “War on Terror”
01-02-2009 15:53
Update: Binyam Mohamed/UK involvement in torture
Former Guantánamo prisoners including Moazzam Begg and Chris Arendt, a former guard, are completing a UK speaking tour to “mark seven years of unlawful detention, abuse and torture”. The tour, organised by Cage Prisoners started in London on 11th January 2009, exactly seven years after the first transfers to the prison torture camp at Guantánamo Bay at date which was marked in London by a weekend of actions. Sami al-Haj, a former Guantánamo prisoner and Al Jazeera journalist was due to be one of the speakers but instead he joined a Free Gaza boat which was fired on and didn’t make it. By the Sheffield meeting, held on the date of Obama’s inauguration, he had been replaced by Omar Deghayes another former Guantánamo prisoner. In Liverpool the meeting “was held on the same day as the US president signed an order to close Guantanamo. Moazzam Begg was not impressed, and commented that Barack Obama spoke about ‘outlawing torture’ as though he himself had just decided to make it illegal: “It has ALWAYS been illegal, at least in any civilised country”" Further reports can be found on the tour blog.
Tour Reports: London (audio) | Bristol | Sheffield (audio: 1 | 2) | Liverpool | Guantánamo Voices Tour Blog
Campaigns: Cageprisoners | The National Guantánamo Coalition | 100 Days to Close Guantánamo and End Torture | The Campaign against Criminalising Communities | Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) | Reprieve | Andy Worthington
Background: Andy Worthington on Antiwar Radio: Obama, Guantánamo and Torture (audio) | SchNews: [ Inside Guantanamo | Omar Deghayes Speaks to SchNews ] Seven Years of Guantánamo Bay: London Actions | Guantánamo - Obama could do better | Binyam’s Story: From Ladbroke Grove to GTMO | The Rendition Monolgues | Moazzam Begg and Andy Worthington on Human Rights in The War on Terror | Can Human Rights Survive the "War on Terror"? | Guantánamo Bay: The Case of Omar Deghayes | Craig Murray: Legality, Morality and the War on Terror
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Police Seize UK Indymedia Server (Again)
23-01-2009 00:09
On 22 January 2009 an Indymedia server was seized by the Police in Manchester. This was related to postings about the recent Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial.
Kent Police had e-mailed imc-uk-contact in the morning requesting that personal information about the Judge from the recent SHAC trial in the UK be removed from the site. However this information had already been quickly removed in line with IMC UK policy. The e-mail also requested information relating to the poster be retained. Indymedia as an open posting news service does not log such information about its sources.
The machine was handed to the Police by the management of UK Grid, a Manchester based colocation facility, without a warrant being shown. It is believed that a warrant for this one server may exist and have been issued by a Chief Inspector. As the server was a mirror of the site, it can be concluded that the validity of the seizure wasn't checked, and the police attacked Indymedia infrastructure in the UK.
Other sites that have been affected as a result of this seizure include London Indymedia, the global Indymedia documentation project server, la Soja Mata – an anti-GM soya campaign focusing on South American development, Transition Sheffield and a Canadian campaign against the 2010 olympics.
For details see Indymedia Uk Server Seizure Info Page and Press Release #1
Indymedia Coverage: IMC Athens | IMC Barcelona [en] | IMC Brasil | IMC Germany | Indybay | IMC Ireland | IMC Nantes [fr] | IMC New York | IMC Poland | IMC Switzerland [it]
Other Coverage: The Register | SchNews | Gulli [de] | Annalist [de] | heise online [de] | slashdot | Global Integrity Commons
Previous Seizures: FBI seizure, London | British Transport Police seizure, Bristol 2005