UK Newswire Archive
800 Protest against Israel’s massacre on the high seas in Manchester
01-06-2010 12:23
Over 800 people gathered outside the BBC in Manchester in what was an angry and determined protest. Everyone gathered was outraged by the massacre committed by the Israeli military against aid workers bound for Gaza aboard a humanitarian flotilla organised by activists, MEP’s, trade unionists and journalists from across the world.Israeli claims weapons were onboard
01-06-2010 11:56
Petition about the continuing internment of over 100,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka
01-06-2010 11:06
Petition about the continuing internment and human rights violations against over 100,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka.The Flotilla Massacre - Israeli Commandos Fired Unprovoked Into Sleeping Civilians: Eyewitnesses
01-06-2010 10:15
What really happened? Well, the Israeli story, at face value, is difficult to take seriously. The activists on board the Flotilla were not peace activists, they are "terrorists" and "terrorist sympathisers" who supposedly in PM Netanyahu's words "mobbed, beat, stabbed and maybe even shot at" Israeli soldiers who were, of course, just popping in for a nice cup of tea... or bowl of homous... or whatever.
Demo to Support the Flotilla at EDO/ITT,suppliers to the Israeli navy, Tommorrow
01-06-2010 09:07
A flotilla carrying aid and international activists to Gaza was attacked in international waters on Monday and up to twenty people were killed. The ship was intercepted illegally and taken to Ashdod where its crew are being detained. Another ship, the Rachel Corrie, is still en route towards GazaOppose Public Spending Cuts
01-06-2010 08:22
At a meeting on May 26th, Bristol Convention Of The Left agreed to work with others to hold a rally against cuts in public spending on the day of the budget in central Bristol– Tuesday June 22nd.There will be a meeting to finalise plans on Wednesday 9th June from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS2 8TN. This is opposite the end of Jamaica Street.
Map: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=BS28TN&countryCode=GB
All welcome. We will have a room on the 5th floor and will put a sign downstairs explaining how to get in.
For further information email leftconvention@gmail.com
Bristol Convention Of the Left agreed the following statement which will form the basis of publicity for the event:
The Tory/Liberal coalition government has announced the first stage of spending cuts. £6.2billion will be cut from jobs and public services in communities, transport, education and environment. On June 22nd there will be a budget which will give more details of the government's strategy for cutting the deficit. If Labour had won the general election similar cuts would have been introduced, perhaps more slowly. Politicians and the media tell us that cuts have to be made in 'the national interest', that 'we are all in this together' and that 'everyone will have to make sacrifices'.
The truth is that the last two years have seen a major crisis in the market economy, promoted and assisted by Tory and Labour governments for the past fifty years and beyond. Those who benefited most from the economy in the boom years were the rich. The gap between rich and poor has been increasing. When the crisis broke billions and billions of taxpayers money were poured into the banks to prop them up.
Those who benefited least from the boom years are now being told they must foot the bill. The government plans to make working people and their families pay for bailing out the banks and the general failure of the market economy.
When political leaders and the media say there is 'no alternative' to their policies they mean there is no alternative that they want to think about or want us to think about. We could start with a wealth tax to help cut the deficit. Then start reorganising the economy to benefit the many rather than the few.
Instead we can expect privatisation and cuts in jobs and public services. These will have an immediate impact not only on public sector workers but all those who depend on the services they provide. Pensions and welfare benefits will also come under attack. In Greece and Spain similar cuts have been met with fierce resistance.
Bristol Convention Of The Left will work with others to fight these cuts and campaign for a living wage for all. We propose to hold a rally in central Bristol on Tuesday 22nd June – the day the budget is announced.
Save Refugee and Migrant Justice Campaign
01-06-2010 07:39
http://refugee-migrant-justice.org.uk/?page_id=1206
ISMer loses eye on West Bank flotilla demo
01-06-2010 03:11
Oil Leaks in the Gulf of Mexico & Niger Delta: Double Standard World Racism
01-06-2010 02:12
In the mirror of Africa, in the darkness of the oily mess, we can already see the black future of globalization.Audio from the London Flotilla Demo 31.05.10
31-05-2010 23:44
New Coaltion, New Politics? Same stench of hypocrisy
31-05-2010 23:22
Beware the LibDemConThis newswire has been scarily quiet on the Cameron/Clegg coalition love-in, perhaps people have been too busy reaching for the sick bucket? It's not like the coalition came as a complete surprise, given our experiences of the Tories & LibDems in Bristol. Despite what may have been said during the election campaign (you didn't really believe those nasty things they said about each other surely?), these two were born for eachother - same class, same backgrounds, same politics. Well the rapid downfall of multi-millionaire south west MP David Laws gives us the ideal opportunity to demonstrate that in politics nothing has changed.
Laws, the MP for Yeovil, and ex-Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has claimed at least £40,000.00 in rent expenses in recent years, and paid it to his 'landlord', who he has been in a continuous relationship with since 2001, and who is therefore his 'partner'. This breach of parliamentary rules is explained by Laws as an attempt by himself to keep his and his partner's private lives 'intensely private', hence his failure to disclose the money was paid to his partner.
Let's leave aside the hypocrisy of a man whose job was to impose cuts in public spending whilst he fiddled his own expenses. The hypocrisy of a man who claims 'privacy' whilst being a part of a ruling system that seeks out every possible private detail about the rest of us and monitors us continually day and night. The hypocrisy of a man who made millions with investment bankers JP Morgan but expects us ordinary taxpayers to bail out the finacial system he helped build up, whilst claiming every last penny out of us he can get. The hypocrisy of a man who continually lied about his sexuality and status. Instead lets look at what those other exponents of ultra-white clean politics have to say about him:
Cameron - You are are a good and honourable man.
Clegg - I have always admired his intelligence, his sense of public duty and his personal integrity.
Ashdown - I can tell you he is Mr Integrity.
Ed Balls - Having worked with David Laws over the last 3 years, I am personally very sorry about what has happened.
How can we trust the judgement of these people? Would they say the same about one of us if we got caught fiddling our benefits, such as paying £40,000.00 housing benefit to our partners? Oh no, they'd be clamouring for a benefit clampdown and prison for the lawbreakers. The fact is they believe they are above the laws and rules they expect the rest of us to abide by. They are the continual living proof that power ultimately corrupts, and that all politicans are, or will become, liars. The solution is not changing the party or parties that rule us (with a minority of backing from the electorate), but changing the very way we embrace democracy. And I'm not going down the blind alley of proportional representation either.
by one of the 34.9% of the electorate who didn't think any of the parties worthy of voting for
Vigil & Protest against Israeli attack on Gaza fleet [2]
31-05-2010 22:22
Protest Israel attacks of Gaza aid flotillaExact number of dead and wounded unclear
Fate of two Bristol people unknown at present
Bristol Protest everyday this week in Bristol 5-6pm
on the Centre (opp Hippodrome)
Bring banners placards whistles etc
How EDO MBM/ITT supplies the Israeli military
31-05-2010 22:22
fight war not warsAs the 6 Bristol EDO Decommissioners prepare for the start of their trial in Brighton/Hove on 7 June, and as Israel once again targets all and any opposition to it's proto-fascist theocracy, there is an excellent recent addition on the Smash EDO website detailing links between EDO and the Israeli military.
How EDO MBM/ITT supplies the Israeli military:
EDO components used in Iraq
EDO MBM/ ITT are a key partner in the development of Raytheon’s Paveway guided bomb programme. The Paveway bomb was the most used air weapon in the 2003 attack on Iraq. 70% of all munitions launched in the initial ‘shock and awe’ bombing were Paveway bombs. Records show EDO MBM have exported parts to the US company General Dynamics, that make the bomb bodies of the US Paveway bombs on a regular basis at least since 2006. EDO MBM currently manufacture hardbacks and ancillaries for the new generation of UK Paveway IV guided bombs as part of a global assembly line that stretches from the US to Sardinia. Since 2003, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed as a direct result of the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The guided bombs used in these immoral and illegal acts of aggression were directly and knowingly assisted by EDO MBM’s research and development of the Paveway system.
On these facts alone, EDO MBM/ITT are complicit in crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law. Any damage done to their factory by the decommissioners action in January 2009 pales into insignificance when this is taken into account. But EDO MBM’s complicity goes further still...
EDO and Israel
Since 2004 two managing directors of the company have confirmed the company owns the patents of two essential components used by the Israeli Air Force F16 aircraft called the VER-2.
Open sources and statements by directors of the company prove that the Zero Retention Force Arming Unit and the Ejector Release Unit (ERU) 151 are both used in the VER-2 bomb rack. In 1990, Flight International reported that the Lucas Western ‘Zero Retention Force Arming Unit’ had ‘already been fitted to Tornados, Israeli F-16s, Australian F-111s, USAF F-15Es and USN A-6s and A-7s’. Between 2003 and 2007 EDO MBM advertised on its Brighton website that it was ‘actively manufacturing’ the EDO MBM Zero Retention Force Arming Unit.
Read the rest of the article, including some sources and links here http://www.smashedo.org.uk/How%20EDO%20Supplies%20the%2...y.htm
Support the Bristol Decommissioners (and the 3 fellow defendants from Brighton) - join the court picket from 9am on 7 June, or DIY in whatever way you wish closer to home. Check http://decommissioners.co.uk/
Israeli strike on Freedom Flotilla to Gaza is part of a broader military agenda
31-05-2010 22:05
While these naval deployments were underway in the Persian Gulf, Israel was also involved in war games in the Mediterraean. The war game codenamed "MINOAS 2010" was carried out at a Greek air base in Souda Bay, on the island of Crete.
Also, in the wake of the decision directed against Israel's nuclear weapons under the auspices of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the White House reaffirmed not only its support to Israel, but also to Israel's nuclear weapons capabilities. The statement issued one day before the raid on the flotilla points to US support of "Israel's strategic and deterrence capabilities, which also include the launching of a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Iran.
Bristol protests flotilla massacre
31-05-2010 21:24
Today (Monday 31st May) people came out in force to protest Israeli's massacre of participants in the aid flotilla to Gaza.Protesters used banners, placards and leaflets to publicise the ongoing suffering of Gazans as well as the recent massacre.
The demonstration moved through Bristol to blockade Tescos and Marks and Spencers, two of the most significant supporters of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, who the protesters said used stolen land to grow food to sell as Israeli produce.
More than 100 people turned up to an impromptu demonstration in Bristol city centre today to protest Israel’s deadly attack on a flotilla taking urgent supplies to the citizens of Gaza.
The initial demonstration took place opposite the Hippodrome theatre on Sunday afternoon. Despite the fact that the demonstration was organised via text message and web sites only hours before its start, the attendance was impressive.
The protestors brought placards, banners and leaflets to highlight the plight of Gazans suffering under the Israeli blockade, which the aid flotilla aimed to help alleviate.
The mixed array of anti-war protestors, anarchists, Palestinians and Muslims drew a significant interest from passers-by and judging by the horns from passing vehicles were very much welcomed by Bristolians. On protestor said “I haven’t seen this much support for a Palestine demo from ordinary people for ages”.
After more than an hour outside the hippodrome the demonstrators listened to speeches from a number of activists and ordinary people. One man had travelled up Taunton and told the demo how Jews, Muslims and Christians had coexisted peacefully in the Middle-East and elsewhere in the Arab world for centuries, but that the establishment of Israel 60 years ago had challenged this coexistence.
Another speaker reminded the crowd that much of what is labelled and sold in Tescos and Marks and Spencers as “Israeli produce” is actually illegally produced by Israeli companies on stolen Palestinian land, and as such contravenes international law.
Thereafter the protesters decided to undertake an impromptu march to Broadmead to protest against Marks and Spencers and Tescos, two significant supporters of the Israeli occupation and theft of Palestinian land.
A number of anarchist protestors entered the shops aiming to confiscate illegal produce but despite the complete lack of police presence there was no damage done to people or property. Protestors blockaded Tescos and Marks and Spencers on Broadmead, making their way to the first floor of the latter.
At the time of writing there was no significant disorder or damage.
Crystal Palace Fans plan protests against Lloyds bank to save club
31-05-2010 21:20
Football fans unite to save clubManchester protesters try to storm BBC
31-05-2010 21:05
PROTESTERS demonstrating against the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship have attempted to storm the BBC in ManchesterExeter Protest against Israeli attack on aid flotilla
31-05-2010 20:50
Protest in Exeter city centre. Tuesday 1st June, 4pm Bedford Square (outside vodafone on the high street)Israel's attack on Gaza aid convoy: A horrendous moment of truth for US policy
31-05-2010 20:34
Sounds on the Downs returns on June 9th!
31-05-2010 20:32
Nottingham's only 100% renewably powered greenfields festival returns on the 9th June from 1-9pm.