UK Newswire Archive
trafalgar square occupation ongoing tonight
03-04-2011 02:38
dozens of people helped create an autonomous zone in trafalgar square this evening, pitching eleven tents and establishing a planned 24-hour occupation to campaign agains government cuts and to show solidarity with arrestees at last week's protests
the 'occupation for the alternative' was called by activists angered by the police action to clear trafalgar square last saturday after it was occupied during the evening of the TUC march. that night, some people were injured and others arrested, as hundreds of police in full riot gear swept across the square and kettled protestors (http://london.indymedia.org/articles/8542).
the facebook call-out asked for people to come to trafalgar square at 18.30 tonight, and set up tents for a peaceful occupation lasting 24 hours. among the groups supporting the call-out was the really free school which organised a programme of workshops and events for the evening.
as a large ground sheet, some carpets and around a dozen tents were established at 6.30, trafalgar sq 'heritage wardens' asked for police assistance to enforce bye-laws preventing such goings-on. one van-full of police watched the tents being pitched, but i heard them say they couldn't act until their commander turned up. meanwhile wardens filmed the camp set-up. later, some protestors claimed they had seen members of police forward intelligence teams in plain clothes among the crowd of passers-by and observers.
by the time senior officers arrived the camp was well established, and meetings and programmed events underway. police retained a small presence keeping an eye the occupation, and a message was relayed that as long as things didn't 'get out of hand' or involve criminal damage, then the camp would probably be allowed to continue.
around a hundred indians passed through and danced with flags and candles on the plinth in celebration of their cricket victory against sri lanka. some came across to the camp and there were exchanges of solidarity.
as the night drew on, people used chalk to plaster the pavements with political slogans, and black duct tape was used to create mock graffiti 'lawful rebellion' logos. pairs of police passed through occasionally as speeches were made, and wardens observed too. some activists took on litter duty, making sure their presence in the square wasn't causing any detritus.
i don't really visit the square other than when protests are on, so not sure if it's always like this, but i noticed both last week and this that all the streetlights in the square area were off on both occasions. have seen this before during last year's student protests. the darkness makes it hard to film and photograph, and gives the police an advantage when they swoop in under cover of darkness. perhaps it's simply an eco-drive and the lights are always off - can anyone confirm?
latest reports from the camp at 1am tell of plain clothes police around the camp collecting evidence, but all is calm, and the occupation is solid. supporters are welcome overnight and throughout the day tomorrow. there is talk of building this as a weekly event, building to a longer occupation when the time is right.
more info at http://occupytrafalgarsquare.wordpress.com/
Operation Brontide: Met target anticuts protesters
03-04-2011 01:33
Police are calling for information on people whos images they obtained from 'a range of sources, including CCTV' during anticuts protests on the 26th of march.I for one reckon I saw ed milliband and boris johnson throwing a breeze block through the windows at the ritz and will be sure to explain this, at length, on the phone. I hope other upstanding citizens will follow suit.
Stapleford Community Farm
03-04-2011 00:54
A War is a War is a War and It Ain't Gonna Be Cheap
03-04-2011 00:31
If you ask liberal talking heads like Ed Schultz and other Nattering Nabobs of Progressivism, who would support Dick Cheney if he was a Democrat, they'll tell you, "Well, this is a cheaper war, a Democrat war and besides, it's not a war."Ian Tomlinson Inquest...PC Simon Harwood Gives Evidence On Monday.
02-04-2011 21:05
Please support if able.Bangor Against The Cuts Protest
02-04-2011 19:28
"North Wales Against Cuts, Bangor" marched though the
city centre today, Saturday April 2nd, to protest against the government's cuts to
public services.
NATO’s fascist war
02-04-2011 19:20
Not even the fascist leaders of Germany and Italy were so blatantly shameless regarding the Spanish Civil War unleashed in 1936, an event that maybe a lot of people have been recalling over these past days.
Expoed: International network of bogus film festivals
02-04-2011 18:35
An investigation by Undercurrents has led to Hollywood actor Micheal Sheen to resign as vice president of an international film festival. We expose how a company is taking cash from struggling filmmakers.
Bristol Indymedia:This Land Is Our Land – Presented By The Warren James Group
02-04-2011 18:22
£4/3/no one turned away through lack of funds
We have just seen a massive U turn by this government as a result of huge ground swell of public opinion against the proposed sell off of the Forestry Commission Estate. In the autumn of 2010, the campaign kicked off in the Forest of Dean with a huge public meeting in Cinderford which was attended by over 500 people and a rally in Speech House attended by 3000 people.
Tory MP Mark Harper was invited to speak at both these events to present his case, but refused. A number of organisations have been working together, uniting people from all political persuasions and utilizing a raft of different protest techniques. Right across the country communities have been organising to resist the sell off of their woodlands and have started to come together and to act in solidarity.
In the Forest, Harper recently gave only 24 hours notice to speak at a small venue in Coleford to introduce the consultation process and to present his proposals to give part of the Forest to a charity and sell the rest off. The meeting was packed inside and out, where about 300 demonstrators chanted slogans all night such as Hands off our Forest and Tunis – Egypt- Forest of Dean. Inside he was ridiculed by speeches from children to old age
pensioners. He refused to speak to the people outside which caused great outrage and not surprisingly people were very angry when he tried to sneak out the back with full police protection.
In the Telegraph, Harper accused the Foresters of behaving like a “baying mob.” Other papers have described the U turn as a victory by middle England and the Tory Shires. This meeting will look the reality of these events and the politics of how a whole community united around a single issue and won. The night includes speakers from the Warren James group and short films of the protests and actions.
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Prospects of a radiant future: From Chernobyl to Fukushima
02-04-2011 15:47
It is beyond doubt that both, Chernobyl and now Fukushima with their respective, nefarious crisis mismanagements and their criminal disinformation campaigns, have paved the way for a radiant future. But we will not exactly be beaming with joy.Trial of Egyptian pacifist Maikel Nabil Sanad for "insulting the military"
02-04-2011 15:12
War Resisters' International observer in CairoIn the case of the detained Egyptian pacifist and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad, who is being tried on charged of "insulting the military by spreading false information" and "disturbing public security" [1], War Resisters' International has now sent an observer to Cairo, to attend the hearing at the military court on Sunday, 3 April 2011.
Protest Outside The Daily Mail – Stop the Defamation – Stop the Lies - April 14
02-04-2011 14:09
Thursday, April 14 · 2:00pm – 5:00pmDaily Mail Headquarters, Young Street (off Kensington High Street), London W8 5TT
As part of the third National Day of Action Against Benefit Cuts a protest has been called outside the Daily Mail’s head office in Kensington on 14th April 2011.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161556473898500
HIV Positive Victim of Sex Trafficking and rape fa
02-04-2011 13:22
Felicia Adjei, a vulnerable woman who was trafficked into the UK and brutally exploited in forced prostitution is facing removal to Ghana TONIGHT, 1 April 2011 on Virgin Airlines Flight VS657 at 10.20pm from Heathrow Airport. She is currently waiting in an immigration detention centre.
Felicia comes from a very poor family who lived in a rural village and experienced extensive physical abuse from her father as a young girl. Eight years ago her father sent her to the UK. She thought she would study or work and send money home to support her family. She thought her father's friends had arranged legal paperwork. She had no idea what she was about to experience. Felicia was held in a house for nearly three years. During this time men came to the house at least 3 times per week and forced her to have sex. Sometimes she was given drugs in her food. She began refusing to eat or drink but she was forced to do so with violence. Sometimes she wasn't drugged and was physically forced to have sex with men using various sex toys that she has never seen before in her country. Sometimes she would not see the person raping her because she was drugged. If she struggled then she was beaten up by the men. She would often bleed heavily when she was forced to have sex and suffered with severe stomach pains but was never allowed to get any medical treatment. Felicia was not paid for the work she was forced into. As a result of this trauma she is now living with HIV and became pregnant due to rape.
Felicia has only just begun to recover from the things that happened to her. She cannot recover if she is forced to return to Ghana. Not only are the relevant services not in place but the social stigma and pressures she will experience will prevent her from recovering and may endanger her life. Felicia is afraid to return to Ghana because she became pregnant out of marriage. This is considered taboo in her small village. She remembers when a young woman from the village became pregnant after being raped. The young woman was insulted and physically abused for years. The young woman became very depressed and later committed suicide. Felicia is frightened that the same thing will happen to her and does not want her life to end in this way.
Felicia is also HIV positive. People in Ghana will see this as dishonour to the family. Attitudes in Ghana towards people with HIV are such that that Felicia will face only rejection, physical abuse, and insult and will be shunned and treated as an outcast. Felicia believes returning to Ghana will have a detrimental effect not only on her mental health, but her life will also be at risk.
According to the United Nations:
... the government of Ghana lack[s] shelter facilities for victims of sex trafficking. With the interior ministers approval a trafficking victim may remain permanently in Ghana if deemed to be in the victim's best interest though no victims were given such residency during the last year. There was no formal referral process to transfer victims in protective custody to other facilities.[1]
For these reasons it is critical that Felicia is not removed from the UK but is allowed to continue her recovery in a safe and supportive environment. The Poppy Project is calling on the government to suspend the orders to remove Felicia, to release her from the detention centre and to allow her to return to the specialist shelter where she has been supported.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
See attached for sample model letters
1) Contact the airline: Felicia is set to be removed on Virgin Airlines Flight VS657 London (LHR) to Accra (ACC) at 10.20pm 1st April.
Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive
Virgin Atlantic Office, Crawley Business Quarter,
Manor Royal, RH10 9NU
Email: steve.ridgway@fly.virgin.com (CEO)
Phone: 0844 811 0000/ 0844 209 7777 or by fax 0844 209 8708 (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/customerrelations/generalenquiries/index.jsp)
2) Write to the Home Secretary
Rt. Hon Theresa May, MP
Secretary of State for the Home Office,
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF
Fax: 020 7035 4745
Emails:
mayt@parliament.uk
Emails: Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
Save Our NHS Demo, Standard Court
02-04-2011 00:23
12 -2pm.
As part of the 'All Together for the NHS Day', health service workers gathered in the courtyard outside of the Standard Court offices, Nottingham.
As part of the 'All Together for the NHS Day', health service workers gathered in the courtyard outside of the Standard Court offices, Nottingham.
Unison organised a lunch time demonstration against the planned cuts which are putting many jobs within Nottingham City NHS at risk. Commissioning staff and Community Mental Health Workers are currently at risk of redudancy.
NHS
Courtyard Outside
1 Standard Court,
Park Row,
Nottingham,
NG1 6GN
In the TUC Press Release, they say:
All Together for the NHS
The government is imposing huge changes on the NHS. These plans – set out in the Health and Social Care Bill currently going through Parliament – will change our National Health Service beyond recognition.
The speed and scale of these changes is massive. Patients and staff will be the losers.
They will mean big cuts in health spending. Before the election David Cameron said:
"I will cut the deficit, not the NHS" yet the cost of this reorganisation could be up to£3 billion. At the same time the government is demanding £20 billion in "efficiency savings" which only ministers believe can be achieved without affecting patients. This is being taken from patient care and leading to job losses – including clinical staff – across the NHS. Waiting times are already on the increase.
Opening up the NHS to private profit. The Health Bill opens up the prospect of far more NHS services being organised and delivered by private companies. Taxpayers’money destined for NHS patients will be diverted into shareholder profits.
NHS patients will be pushed to the back of the queue. The Bill takes the cap off the amount hospitals can earn from private patients – so NHS patients risk being pushed to the back of the queue for care.
It means competition, not co-operation. The Government wants to run the NHS through competition between different health providers and market forces. Bureaucracy, lawyers and contracts will replace co-operation and joint planning.It will create a huge postcode lottery. Under the proposals, the care patients can expect will vary from place to place, increasing costs and health inequalities and hurting vulnerable people the most.
No-one voted for this: before the election we were told there would be no more top-down reorganisations of the NHS. Now the health service faces the biggest upheaval since its creation – so big that NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson said they could be “seen from space”.
The NHS is working: Public satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time high. Doctors, nurses, midwives, support staff, patients groups and more have all spoken out about the dangers of these changes.
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/files/nhs-keypoints.pdf
False Economy
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/nhs
All Together for the NHS flyer – PDF
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/files/nhs-flyer.pdf
Notts Save Our Services
http://nottssos.org.uk
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Web: http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>
Leeds "Free City Bus" Ceases To Be Free
02-04-2011 00:22
People in the city of Leeds have had to face another in a long series of service cuts today. The "Free City Bus" that used to transport all-comers around the city centre has begun to refuse rides to people without eligible tickets or money.
Drop the charges against the UK Uncut protesters
02-04-2011 00:22
Drop the charges against the UK Uncut protesters
Tomorrow The Drop the Charges campaign will be meeting beside Bristol Hippodrome at 1'oclock and walking over to protest outside New Bridewell Police station on Rupert Street from 2pm - 4pm. The purpose of the demonstration is to show our support for the UK Uncut protesters arrested for peacefully occupying Fortnum & Mason´s last weekend and to call for their immediate release.
So please join and bring banners to show your solidarity for the defendants! Full article.
| Drop the charges against the UK Uncut protesters | UK Uncut | Mark Steele on UK Uncut (independent) |An understanding of cognitive dissonance
02-04-2011 00:00
A brief understanding of the social struggles that lie ahead and the people of the fightIan Tomlinson's inquest - Steve Discombe:Scum cop
01-04-2011 21:41
