UK Indymedia - UK Newswire Archive

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Nottingham Carnival on Friar Lane 2

16-08-2010 18:24

One of the groups involved in the parade.

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Nottingham Carnival on Friar Lane

16-08-2010 18:24

Nottingham School of Samba lead the parade.

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Nottingham Carnival: The Big Parade

16-08-2010 18:24

Nottingham Caribbean Carnival 2010 was held on the Forest Recreation Ground on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th August. The highlight of the weekend was the big parade on Sunday which drew thousands of spectators.

The parade went from Friar Lane, just outside the Castle, down towards the Market Square. Making it's way along Beastmarket Hill and up Angel Row, before turning left up Mount Street, onto Maid Marian Way and then up Derby Road. From their it turned down onto Ilkeston Road, right on Highurst Road, up to Alfreton Road before turning right at Bentick Road to enter the Forest Recreation Ground.

The event was well attended and blessed by warm - if not massively sunny - weather. There were various colourful costumes including two huge puppets of cartoon characters Poeye and Olive Oil. The various floats were generally not decorated, but did carry large, and very loud, sounds systems.

At the Forest Rec, those involved in the parade queued to display their dance routine in front of the crowds. Others drifted off to explore the various stalls (which included a display from the "Army Information Team" clearly on the circuit, having also been at last week's Riverside Festival) or fairground rides.

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Palestine Today 08 16 2010

16-08-2010 17:26

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, August 16th, 2010.

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Camp for Climate Action Coming to Edinburgh this week

16-08-2010 16:23

The Camp for Climate Action comes to Edinburgh this week, for four days of training and direct action. This year they are targetting the Royal Bank of Scotland.

PFI: Private Fuddery Incorporated

16-08-2010 16:23

Over the last three years the Scottish government has taken a principled stand against the use of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) to build new schools.

Flexible New Deal and Jobseekers aged 60 and over

16-08-2010 15:40

Flexible New Deal has replaced New Deal. It is mandatory for Jobseekers, but those aged 60+, that is have reached the age for Pension Credits, have a choice. Why therefore are they being threatened with sanctions, ie loss of benefits, if they refuse to participate?

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Benefits Who?

16-08-2010 14:53

Slowly but surely over the last few years, I've watched tolerance and understanding of mental health issues evaporate in the benefits system - not that there was much there to start with. The latest portfolio of idiots in power appear to view mental health as something that's guaranteed by the ability to earn money, and those whose mental health is poor need only to take the tablets, stop thinking about those damned problems, and just get on with earning already.

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Buy your Tickets for the CPC fringe events for some fun!

16-08-2010 14:37

dinners, parties and a pub quiz, o' how very working class of the tossers!

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RIP BNP? by 'Malatesta'

16-08-2010 14:17

Is it all over for the BNP?

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The true spirit of Anarchy

16-08-2010 12:29

We couldn’t give toss about the British Film Council for starters. All so remember, this campaign against cuts will defend six-figure salaries for doctors, head teachers, top coppers, the privatising klepto-bureaucrat class and all the other tossers directly responsible for dominating our lives.

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Join the Radical workers’ bloc at the Lib Dem conference!

16-08-2010 09:35

The Merseyside Trades Union Council have called a demonstration at the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference. This has been billed as “against coalition cuts in public jobs and services” – but we want more.

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Coallition abandons Pollution Measures - Kingsnorth back on

16-08-2010 08:58

"environmental performance standard" dropped from government manifesto on cost grounds

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Palestinian on Hunger Strike Outside of Israeli Embassy in Berlin

16-08-2010 06:49

Firas Maraghy, a Jerusalem native and current Berlin resident, has been on hunger strike in front of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin since 26 July, demanding Jerusalem residency rights for his baby daughter and the right to keep his own.

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Events in London this week

15-08-2010 21:22

Every week in London you can see film, music, talks, workshops and organisational meetings, a myriad of ways for everyone to get involved and engage with a radical london that you may only ever otherwise hear about when the G20 comes to town, or in subtle subvertising campaigns as you pass through London's daily avenues of corporate control.

Look to the right of London Indymedia front page and you will find many events listed from all sorts of radical, non-corporate, social promoters.

This Monday, with WIKI leaks about to leak more war files, it might be a good chance to get a global catch up with a film screening of 'Big Noise Dispatches 6' at Pogo Cafe in Hackney. From the makers of 'Fourth World War', Big Noise Films have spent the last 15 years putting cameras on the ground on the other side of the military and media machine, and Since 2004 Pogo Cafe has been providing delicious vegan food and space for positive alternatives to the unyielding dominance of mainstream capitalist culture.
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On Tuesday over at LARC, 'What does it mean to grow up?' a real one off event that promises to be fun and thought provoking, "What does it mean to be socially responsible? How does age affect how we understand our relationship to politics? Are activists that don't remember their history doomed to repeat it? And what exactly does it mean to 'grow up'?". LARC is a collectively run building providing space and resources, include meeting-space, library, shared offices, a roofgarden, banner and prop-making space and an action information area.
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Wednesday evening is a night for 'Beautiful South', a fundraiser in Brixton's 'gloriously lowdown, coolfuck venue', The Windmill, with a load of live music and DJs, for the launch of a brand new autonomous free-of-charge south London newspaper. We can't wait!
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Thursday, what looks to be another interesting discussion, back up to Hackney at 195 Mare st, 'Debate on subtle discrimination in Squats', hmmm....! All summer 195 Mare St collective has been offering a community resource in the second oldest house in Hackney and a Grade II listed building.
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Friday is party night at 'The Red & Black Club' at LARC, a social event, once a month, for anarchists, libertarians and radicals to socialise, meet, drink, plot and conspire in a relaxed atmosphere and good humour.
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And if your still in the mood on Saturday, the 'No Sweat Fest' all dayer, at 195 Mare St, Hackney, brings what is in all reality a mini music festival! check out the list of acts, does 195 Mare St have the space for them all? Well, it was originally a mansion for rich merchants in 1699, the year of its construction, and most recently a bank! so maybe it does have a room or two....
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And after all the partying, why not join our comrades for some Sunday tea with the queen!

What ever you do, where ever you are, enjoy your week, and keep London Indymedia up-to-date with your reports, reviews, and views. In solidarity with all our struggles. See you on the streets!

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The labour movement must mobilise against the EDL in Bradford!

15-08-2010 21:19

Hope not Hate have put out a statement opposing any counter demonstration against the EDL in Bradford on the 28th of August. This call has been backed by Yorkshire and the Humber TUC and some other trade unionists.
This is the Bradford United Against Racism groups response.

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Derby Animal Rights 1st demo

15-08-2010 19:24

Derby Animal Rights had thier 1st demonstration Friday night

the demonstration resulted in our 1st victory

The demo took place at the Cathedral Quater Hotel over the presence of foie gras over thier menu

10 minuites into the demo the head chef came out to say that they will no longer serve foie gras

our next meeting is 9pm wednesday 18th August at the Bridge Inn, feel free to come along.

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Anarchist Call Out: CPC Birmingham

15-08-2010 18:06

ORGANISE NOW! WITH ONLY A FEW MONTHS UNTIL THE TORY SCUM MEET IN BIRMINGHAM FOR THEIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE WE MUST NOT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY PASS.

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Protest at Planning Inquiry for Biofuel Power Station

15-08-2010 17:59

10 -13th August, Bristol Council Chambers

Members of Bristol Friends of the Earth, Action for Sustainable Energy for Bristol (ACSEB), Campaign against Climate Change, Newport Against Biofuels (NAB), Food Not Fuel, Greenpeace and Biofuelwatch joined local residents to form a 40 strong banner protest against a proposed biofuel power station in Bristol

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Men Confronting Patriachy

15-08-2010 16:24

Men confronting Patriachy group. First meeting at the Sumac starting at 7:30pm on the 31st of August.

I am patriarchal. I carry the patriarchy in my back pocket, and use it when it’s needed. Sometimes I’m conscious of this, but most of the time I’m not. When I am conscious of it I am disgusted with myself, in the same way I am disgusted with myself when I pull out my passport at the border control. When I am not conscious of using it I am failing to live up to the ideals that I hold most dear. The ideals that say that I need to be vigilant, identify and then challenge power and authority in all its forms. If I don’t even recognise my own use of power than how will I be able to combat and destroy it in its other forms. So, when I sit in another meeting and watch myself or other men dominate the proceedings uncritically and without thought then I once more feed into a system based upon domination and violence. A system which cannot be separated from others violent systems within this culture, those that relate to border control, wage slavery, ecological destruction, prisons and surveillance, to name only a few. All of which should be fought against constantly and continuously, and it’s not as if I don’t want to smash patriarchy. Just as my experiences have led to me believe that we must destroy all other aspects of capitalism and it’s culture, so do my experiences tell me that the patriarchy should be ground down until it no longer exists. I have seen my mother beaten and raped by male members of her family and stayed close to those men, I’ve seen my friends live through abusive relationships because the society from which they can’t escape has told them that they have no other choice. I’ve witnessed my sisters learning to value themselves on the basis of how their looks correspond with those that the dominant culture position as beautiful, because they are taught that it is the only value they have, their confidence and ability to exercise agency having been shaped by their gender. And I’ve seen roles and skills determined by patriarchy.(DDDDDDDDDDDDDD) But at the same time I don’t fight the patriarchy within myself with nearly the same energy and consciousness as I fight against other aspects of this system. I want to, but somehow, perhaps because it has been so ingrained in me due to the culture of which I am a part. I still find myself playing the male defined role in my relationships with women and men, sometimes I’m called on it, sometimes I catch myself and stop, but its often it played out without anyone saying a thing.

Maybe it’s because it’s too easy to forget that the patriarchy is as much a mediating and destructive factor in men’s lives as it is women (and every other gender), all the examples above highlight the corrosiveness that patriarchy has on women’s lives. But it is important to remember that a) the two genders construct is not unbiased, it is used in order to create and enforce a hierarchy, through defining each gender as a set prescribed thing which is then naturalised, and b) the patriarchy has had a role in limiting my capacity as a human being.

In the most basic sense it has encouraged me to repress my willingness to give and receive emotional warmth and support, it has pushed me towards aggression, and defined me as someone who should control and dominate others around me, thus taking away from me opportunities to listen, learn and develop my capacities as human being. The patriarchy limits my tendencies to accept tenderness and pushed down my willingness to show love and care. It has told me that these are characteristics which belong to another gender, and that to allow them into myself would be unnatural. Needless to say the processes and mechanisms which the patriarchy uses are complex and multifarious. I am not trying to describe it as a single monolithic creature hell bent on controlling us, it works in tandem with other processes of this civilizations culture, and it is reproduced by us all. And it’s this reproduction which must be challenged, taken head on with a full heart and desperate passion, because if we do not confront the patriarchy within us and around us we will continue to feed into the culture of domination and destruction which is rapidly ripping this world apart.

The task of smashing the patriarchy cannot be undertaken alone, it is not a self-improvement programme, it is something that we must collectively organise around within our communities. It is something which we not have the skills or the language to do yet, therefore we must create the language and build those skills together. Men confronting patriarchy groups are just one tool that may help us do this, at the very least it can be a starting place, a space to begin to share experiences and ideas we have. There’s going to be a meeting at the Sumac on Wednesday the 1st of September, and from their we’ll decide where and how we can proceed.

The full version of this article will be in some future issue of Affinity.