UK Newswire Archive
The EDL, Preston & The Police
28-11-2010 09:33
The EDL caused the usual ruckus in Preston and Nuneaton yesterday whilst this week the police claim they are not a right wing extremist group.A brief history of “kettling” and why The Police Riot.
28-11-2010 05:13
Following the events of the least few weeks we need to take time to re read:DAYX2 - 35+ PROTESTS ACROSS UK
28-11-2010 02:18
35+ PROTESTS AGAINST TORY CUTS, FEES AND ABOLITION OF EMA HAVE ALREADY BEEN CALLED FOR THIS TUESDAY'S NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION.NUJ, PCS AND RMT ALL NOW WORKING OR SUPPORTING THE STUDENTS AND VICE VERSA.
MANY UNIVERSITIES STILL OCCUPIED.
KEEP MONITORING
http://anticuts.org.uk/?page_id=1258 FOR UPDATES.
Buy Nothing Day Interviews
28-11-2010 01:22
Interviews with passing non-shoppers during Buy Nothing Day 2010 in Bradford.
For more information on this event see http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/1108
Ireland protests: 50,000 in Dublin just now
28-11-2010 00:53
Slide show of 50,000 protesting in Dublin today.
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2010/11/27/now-do-we-have-your-attention-bailout-protest-slide-show/ How To Break The Kettle: An Illustrated Scientific Guide
28-11-2010 00:34
Oxford antiCuts protestors close Vodaphone and Ban
28-11-2010 00:23
An estimated 600 anti-cuts protestors are currently active in Oxford. Reports are that Vodaphone, Lloyds TSB and Barclays have been subject to occupations and closures.
photos and an article here http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2010/11/468927.html
some more photos here http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/11/468907.html
Birmingham Education Strike! 30/11/10 Day X2
27-11-2010 22:47
Solidarity Picket and The Occupation Continues...
27-11-2010 22:13
A brief history of "kettling"
27-11-2010 20:56
Israeli bulldozers demolishing houses in Palestine
27-11-2010 20:23
In the last few days, with a wave of demolitions, Israeli bulldozers have spread destruction and despair in the villages across the West Bank: in Qarawat Bani Hassan near Salfeet, in al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, in Hizma, near Jerusalem, in Khirbet Yarza, east of Tubas, and in the South Hebron Hills.
see the original to watch the video and the photos.
Mysterious "laptop documents". Using fake intelligence to justify war on Iran
27-11-2010 19:37
A recent article by investigative reporter Gareth Porter confirms unequivocally that the mysterious laptop documents are fake.
We are dealing with a clear case of fake intelligence comparable to that presented by Colin Powell in February 2003 on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The fake intelligence presented to the UN Security Council was used as a justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Will the US antiwar movement confront Washington's plans to wage a pre-emptive nuclear war against Iran based on fake intelligence?
Report on Today's Oxford Anti-cuts demo
27-11-2010 18:56
BS comes to Nottinghamshire
27-11-2010 18:23
David Cameron has promoted the “Big Society” as an alternative to the “big state.” If we are to believe his "vision," independent groups, volunteers and cooperatives will take over many of the functions currently provided by government.
In and of itself, this doesn't sound like the worst idea in the world. Unfortunately, it is widely - and in all likelihood accurately - viewed as a transparent propaganda campaign to hide the damage being done by massive public sector cuts.
The exercise is particularly galling given the fact that among the areas being cuts is funding to existing voluntary organisations actually doing the work Cameron claims to support. In Nottinghamshire, housing charity Framework is facing a reduction of as much as 70% of its budget.
When the "Big Society Network" tried to hold a series of public meetings to promote the initiative, they were taken aback by the angry response and only held one meeting before pulling the plug.
The government has made much of the network's supposed independence, insisting that it isn't a government led propaganda exercise. However, Freedom of Information requests by the Guardian revealed that five civil servants from the Communities and Local Government department have been seconded to the Big Society Network since June for varying lengths of time. Up to 24 September this had cost £24,000.
Locally, workers at Nottinghamshire County Council were surprised when on November 1st the “Corporate Director” of the Communities Department (which covers libraries, sport, country parks and highways) appeared to announce on the intranet that he was leaving with immediate effect.
That he was going was not a great surprise, the new council structure unveiled in September, essentially abolished the Communities department, stopping some of its services and splitting any remaining functions across the remaining four departments.
With one less “Corporate Director” in the new-look council it had always be assumed that Malynn (appointed to the £118,469 a year role in late-2008) would be leaving, but this was never stated explicitly and the go ahead for restructuring is supposed to wait until the completion of three-month’s statutory consultation.
The speed of Malynn’s departure and the announcement that “service directors will work to their new respective CLT member” (i.e. the head of their department in the new structure) confirmed, as many staff had suspected, that the decision to go ahead was a foregone conclusion and the consultation a sham.
The reason for the speed of Malynn’s exit emerged on November 4th when it was announced that he “will be working directly to [Chief Executive] Mick Burrows on a strategic project on Big Society and locality-based budgeting until his departure from the authority.”
Exactly what he is doing has been kept relatively quiet, but on November 22nd, a survey appeared on the intranet to get staff to talk about what they did to contribute to the Big Society. Apparently, they don't think the public is ready for this yet and have not posted anything on the council's website.
Far from being an alternative to the "big state," the Big Society looks like an extension of the state in new forms; a realignment of capitalism which seeks to drive up profit by getting us to work for nothing, overseen by state-appointed overseers. It should not be a great surprise that Tory libertarianism only goes so far. Anybody who thinks the Age of Austerity is going to free us from the impositions of the state is likely to be disappointed.
24/11 Demo Roundup + Analysis
27-11-2010 18:22
What REALLY happened on Wednesday in Whitehall? A whole generation of london kids got a crash course in protest politics.
Wednesday wasn't a great victory for the aims of this political movement - I very much doubt there's a government U-turn coming on any time soon. But something else did happen, and it might just be a game-changer. A good number, maybe half of the people protesting in Whitehall were underage - sixthformers to skiving twelve year olds who'd walked out of school, looking for a march, some shouting and maybe to change the world. What they got was a sharp lesson in media manipulation, police thuggery and the politics of protest.
For many it was their first demonstration - and it was a rough one. Cordonned off with no access to food water or toilets for many hours on one of the coldest days of the year, the police were unsympathetic to a level that even surprised me (two portaloos eventually arrived, but you had to fight your way through the crowd for them - similarly a few dozen bottles of water). But instead of anger, the kids were smart and well-behaved. They huddled to keep warm, chanted, danced to drum and bass on a giant sountsystem someone had brought along and even tried to intervene when a few people began attacking That Police Van you'll all have heard about - photos are spreading of schoolgirls encircling the van, making a human shield as even they could understand that it was a photo op for the right-wing media. Those kids were brave, and completely understood the situation - the powers than be are willing to use every dirty trick in the book. Later, some of them questioned the police about it - the answers they got are laughable, and they did laugh.
As darkness fell and the cold became worse, bonfires began - eventually about a dozen small ones and one large. Sitting or standing round them, people talked - about what to do next, and about what had happened. All the placards and litter went on the bonfire - after notebook pages and free papers we ran out of things to burn. The soundsystem moved from dubstep to the beatles and T-Rex - has anything ever looked less threatening than a frozen crowd swaying and singing Hey Jude?
As Edd Mustill says in his excellent blog, "An eight-hour kettle gives you plenty of time to think and talk, believe me". He's not kidding. Bits of information, rumours, ideas, spread through the crowd the whole time. Not long after the kettle began, everyone knew that the news was reporting "police are slowly dispersing the protestors" - totally untrue. They knew that as evening drew on an emergency counter-protest was being called for our release - and that the various police were telling different stories about why we were being held in the first place. Everyone knew, for example, that the police were livid about being humiliated at Millbank two weeks ago, and weren't taking any chances today. Some police said we were being held in one place so all the criminal damage (hah) would be focussed in one place instead of spread round the city - we heard that heavy-handed dispersal of a group in Trafalgar Square (policehorses vs children? Nice) had inspired a couple of broken windows. Some police suggested that the protest was being made as unpleasant as possible to dissuade the kids from doing it again - "if they're going to demonstrate, then we'll give them the real demonstration experience, cold, boring and miserable", a particularly honest copper told me.
Fundamentally, this is what those young people took away with them. They took away the knowledge that in these situations, the police are agents of the enemy. They are willing to hurt you, they are willing to trick you, and they won't have any compassion. These kids will have spread the word to their classmates when they returned to school about freezing cold, thirst, and being shoved about by lines of riot police. About parents who arived at about 6pm, after night fell, pleading for the release of their children. About kids whose parents didn't know where they were, and couldn't get home. These young people are the ones who will have gone home and told their families that the TV reports are wrong, that the newspapers are lying. With any luck, they'll remember not to believe everything they read, everything they hear.
The idea of putting them off protest has backfired spectacularly. This insulting and inhumane treatment of children, this massive indefensible overreaction, has radicalized and educated a generation of ordinary London youth. Next time they'll be back, with thermoses full of soup, winter coats, and a lot to say. I'm delighted.
Jenny Bloom, vampyra1990[at]hotmail.com
Written Thursday 25th November 2010
CROSS POSTED TO MY PERSONAL BLOG AND FACEBOOK: http://vampyrasinkwell.livejournal.com/ http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=594641608
EDD MUSTILL: http://thegreatunrest.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/seeing-by-the-fires-of-whitehall/
Circus to Palestine and Gaza
27-11-2010 17:22
Recent Reports From Palestine and GazaWednesday 1st of December – Easton Community Centre 6.30pm
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),
Article 31, recognizes
‘the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage
in play and recreational activities appropriate to the
age of the child and to participate freely in cultural
life and the arts.’
In September 2010 two clowns from Bristol went to
Palestine to spread smiles and laughter and to give children
who live under occupation and in intense conditions the
chance to play and be children.
These clowns performed throughout the West Bank
and eventually made it in to the gaza strip. They did 75 shows
in 7 weeks in refugee camps, UNWRA schools, streets and parks.
Performing to over 80,000 children.
In West bank they faced soldiers throwing tear gas got refused
entrance through a checkpoint and heard horrific stories of
many human rights violations.
After getting through the Rafah border into Gaza they drank tea
in the vip lounge with hamas officials, went to the crisp tunnel
and saw the destruction and devestation caused by the israeli
offensive.
They invite you to a reflective talk about the journey they made,
the people they met, the experiences they had and a detailed
report on the humantarian crisis that Palestinians suffer
each day
Tea & biscuits at the Cambridge Occupation
27-11-2010 17:13
Day of action against fees & cuts
27-11-2010 16:22
Second day of action against fees & cuts - BristolMeet College Green 11am
EVERYONE TRY TO WEAR BLACK SO WE ALL LOOK LIKE A TEAM!
STARTS AT 11.. AND FINISHES WHEN IT FINISHES
WE NEED TO CONTINUE THE CAMPAIGN - KEEP UP THE PRESSURE STUDENT STRIKE! ON TUESDAY 30th NOVEMBER!
first they came for FITwatch, then
27-11-2010 15:49
Cops making proposals to be able more easily to shut down sites they don't like, without oversight.