UK Newswire Archive
Forests rally on Saturday
13-05-2011 06:42
THREE key speakers will address a West Sussex protest against privatisation of woodland. Worthing Keep Our Forests Public is staging a rally and walk from Whiteways car park on the A29 near Amberley and Arundel at 12 noon on Saturday May 14. Map reference TQ 001 107, 2.25 miles south west of Amberley railway station.Week of Action Against Office Angels
13-05-2011 06:31
Since March, the Solidarity Federation (SF) has been involved in supporting a victimised former Office Angels temporary worker. Dan worked for Office Angels in Wimbledon for three days in December of last year. He was assured by the company that the lack of a time-sheet would 'not be a problem'. However, Office Angels are refusing to pay him the wages he is owed - falsely claiming he only worked for one day, despite Dan sitting next to the manager on one of the days for which he is yet to be paid!
Calling language checkers and translators!
12-05-2011 23:05
Just Do It, the upcoming documentary about environmental direct action from director Emily James needs your help. We want as many people as possible - the world over - to see this film. We're doing foreign language subtitles for the DVD to make it accessible to as many different people as we can. So far our quest for translators and language checkers has been incredibly fruitful. But we're now running very close to the deadline, and are missing some vital checkers. Please help!Picket of ATOS and Office Angels
12-05-2011 21:55
Monday saw people answering the hastily arranged call out from the Nottingham Anarchist Federation in support of a week of action against Office Angels and ATOS Origins.
Follow the link for a report back and links to leaflets distributed on the day.
http://nottsblackarrow.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/207/
Osama and the ghosts of September 11: “Proof that Obama is lying”
12-05-2011 21:18
If the United States of America does not immediately announce a massive drawdown in Afghanistan, the world will keep asking questions about OBL because our lives will be getting worse, not better, by the day. And every time Mr. Obama opens his mouth about 9-11, he pours more gasoline into the pool and asks for another box of matches.
It was not my choice. Barack Obama has placed 9-11 back on the table again. Mainstream media, of course, can't say Jack Diddly about this theater of the absurd, even though they’ve been cornered into asking a few pseudo-hardball questions. They are, after all, criminally culpable for the endorsement and concealment of something they damn well knew was a lie, murder, and high treason ten years ago.
A bunch of Atos-sers are occupied!
12-05-2011 20:04
Despite there being many sucessful appeals against these decisions (currently a 40% success rate), this company is still being subcontracted by the government to carry out its nefarious deeds.
Their name is Atos, and they currently reside at 24 Hills Road, Cambridge, although they seem to be ashamed to admit it, as there are no signs outside for them, only two for "Jobcentre Plus", presumably the official smokescreen Atos are hiding behind.
Picket of Atos Glasgow May 12th
12-05-2011 19:49
Over a dozen claimants and supporters managed to get our message out about Atos, that 'They Rob From The Poor To Give To The Rich' to hundreds of shoppers and people going home from work outside the Atos offices at 45 Gordon Street in the centre of Glasgow between 5pm and 6pm. Banners proclaimed that 'Atos Are Making The Sick Pay Por The Greedy Bankers Debt.Urgent: Stop IBC's Primate Shipment to USA
12-05-2011 19:38
AMERIJET STOPPED, SO WILL IBC!FUKUSHIMA Poison Released
12-05-2011 17:27
Picket against Atos, against privatising benefits!
12-05-2011 16:55
LEEDS - 12 May 2011. As part of a national Week of Action Against Atos Origin, pickets were held today in front of Atos's headquarters in Leeds. This is part of a growing campaign to raise awareness about the privatisation of the benefit system, in particular the role that Atos is playing to kick disabled people off of benefits - an assault that has already led to several claimants dying waiting for their appeals.
After picketing in front of Atos's headquarters, people moved to picket the offices of Best, another company involved in the privatisation of the benefit system for the profit of a few.
A transcript of the leaflet handed out is below:
ATOS ORIGIN: VICTIMISING CLAIMANTS
Atos Origin is a multinational corporation that the government is paying £500 million to carry out "work capability assessments" for everyone on incapacity benefit. The computerised tick-box test assesses people with terminal illnesses and severe mental conditions as fit for work. It's a badly disguised attempt to cut as many people's benefits as possible.
CUTS HURT
Atos Origin is being paid millions to do the government's dirty work. So far, over 40% of appeals against the test's results have been successful. But people are dying waiting for their appeals to be processed. What Atos is doing amounts to an attack on benefitsclaimants, including severely ill and disabled people.
UNFAIR WELFARE
The welfare reforms of the coalition government are part of the new "work programme," a continuation of the blair government's "welfare to work" programme. Its real purpose is to cut people's benefits to force them to go on Job Seeker's Allowance which is cheaper for the government because it's less money, resulting in people losing a third of their income or more.
CLAIMANTS UNDER ATTACK
The press are always ready to smear people on welfare as "benefits scroungers," but the reality for people scraping by on the dole or incapacity benefit is very different. Benefits claimants shouldn't have to pay the cost of a financial crisis they didn't cause.
www.afed.org.uk
leeds@af-north.org
Kennedy (et al) - German MP calls for Investigations+Information
12-05-2011 14:59
from German MP Andrej Hunko (die Linke) today:
http://www.andrej-hunko.de/presse/530-international-infiltration-of-protest-movements-to-be-investigated
Palestine Today 05 12 2011
12-05-2011 14:37
Call-Out For Solidarity With Greek Struggle, May 13-15
12-05-2011 14:12
Bristol to Benghazi
12-05-2011 13:55
An anarchist from Bristol travels to Benghazi to join the Libyan Peoples Revolution and help what ever way he can...This is part 1 of his story so far...
As you can guess from the title I'm writing to you from Benghazi "Free Libya". I left Bristol about 20 days ago and flew to Cairo, ominously on a one way ticket. My plan was simple to join the Libyan Peoples Revolution and help what ever way I could (they don't like the words rebel or rebellion they call themselves 'revolutionaries')
My motives for joining are fairly anarcho-simple; join the revolution and help topple a dictator, an under equipped peoples militia against a totalitarian regime, a people sick of an underdeveloped neglected with a mega rich family ruling it from lavish palaces and in a small way for an adventure and excitement something you only seem to get in small amounts when it kicks off a riot or demo. I've been from Genoa to Copenhagen, Greece to Scotland and about half the European capitals in-between with the bloc and street medics in the last ten years, fighting for social change and not getting it. So when I looked at Libya and it ordinary people succeeding in liberating its second largest city (Benghazi) and then half the country there was no where else i wanted to be.
Getting there was the easy bit , I got an over night bus from Cairo to Saluum in the far West ($10) and a taxi the last 12 km to the border post. That was where it started to get real , there are about 250+ people living in the border complex carpark stuck in between Libya and Egypt all under plastic tents and tarps they are all migrant workers who left Libya when the fighting started none of them have money to go home or visas to enter Egypt. The guys I talked to were Ethiopian Christians who cant or wont go back to Ethiopia because of religious persecution they all like Libya and its people and want to go back there to live and work, apparently the money is quite good. Everyone at the border area were quite friendly, tents have been handed out,showers and toilets work (but they would remind you of ones at a squat party)
They jack free electricity off of lamp posts. The IOM (International Organisation of Migrants) hands food three times a day, the Red Cross register everyone and carry out health care clinics .But when I passed through some of the people had been there for two months with out a doubt they are still there right now. Couldn’t hardly keep from nervous laughter as I approached the Libyan side of the border, what exactly was I going to tell them? Beyond a passport I had nothing,no contacts in Libya, no one to meet me, no letter of introduction, no contract of employment. I decided at all costs not to lie because lies have a way of tripping you up later on . So I said I was a humanitarian volunteer hoping to imply that I was some sort of aid worker which I suppose I am. The production of an Irish passport seemed to calm them. They weren’t suspicious or hostile just mystified. They stamped my passport and wished me luck! So this is it, up till now it was all just theory, where to go? how to get in? Buying maps, packing bags, the torture of the two weeks notice I had to give at work. But I had done it, I got a lift to the next city Tobruk 180km away for $20. Sat in the front seat laughing , laughing at the mission ahead, laughing at the self doubt of the last three weeks, just happy to be doing it not thinking it.
I texted my main man in Bristol to keep him informed of what i was doing, before I left I bought two identical maps leaving one with him just so I would have some one in Bristol keeping an eye on me . Within 40km of the border vodafone reception gave up, that took the smile off my face.
I got dropped off at a posh hotel on the edge of Tobruk, it was going to get dark soon so I booked in ($80), big hotels are good for information , money exchange, fixers and interpretors .The next morning I changed Dollars to Dinar and got a taxi to Benghazi. Please note that there is no way to withdraw cash in this country no banks open, no cash machines working, Western Union has suspended all operations no one will accept credit or debit cards, if you don't have it in your pocket when you cross the border, your screwed.
I got to Benghazi after a 6 hour journey in a taxi, it cost me $105 which is about 3 times that of a bus but it went direct, saving me 10 hours travel time and it dropped me right to a hotel, bear in mind I have a 24 kilo rucksack (half of it is tools). He drops me at another posh hotel (my last) . This hotel is crawling with corporate media, satellite dishes on the lawn, journo only internet, Government press conference every two days etc.,I book in ($80) drop my bags and head into town to have a look around (and find a cheaper place to stay)....
(Image: Benghazi Media Centre) Original ArticleDemo Against Santander (Brighton branch) - Fri 13 May 4pm -6.30pm
12-05-2011 13:53
Meet outside Santander on 56 Western Road.Santander invests in cluster bombs.
Cluster bombs are brightly-coloured lethal bomblets which can be mistaken for toys by children. In Libya, Spanish versions have rained down on unarmed residents of Misrata.
Rescue speaks out on cruelty to greyhounds
12-05-2011 13:32
Behind annually figures for greyhounds adopted lies another story; one that demonstrates a blatant disregard for the welfare of racing dogs on the part of their trainers and owners.