UK Newswire Archive
Lawless Libya - A country in chaos
15-04-2012 17:07
Yaara Bou Melhem gets rare access to see what life is really like in Libya after Gaddafi was deposed by NATO backed reactionary forces against the wishes of the Libyan masses.Hands Off The Middle East! Public Meeting
15-04-2012 16:55
Nottingham Stop the War Coalition have called a Public Meeting entitled Hands Off The Middle East!
Speakers : Alan Simpson, Ex-MP for Nottingham South and a long-time anti-war campaigner
Ali Alizadeh, Iranian Opposition Activist
Fadi Al-Dairi, From Hand in Hand for Syria
Tuesday, 24 April at 7pm (note the early start!) in The Mechanics Institute, 3 North Sherwood Street (off Shakespeare Street, by the Central Fire Station).
You are welcome to join the discussion.
Intervention in the Middle East has been a disaster.
The death toll of British Soldiers in Afghanistan recently climbed past 400 and continues to climb. If, after 10 years, a country has not been "liberated" the "liberators" must be doing something wrong!
Sooner or later, the United States and its sycophantic supporter, Britain, will have to accept defeat - as they had to in Iraq. How many more lives, British and Afghani, are they going to waste first?
The United States is always tempted to use its overwhelming military strength (it spends as much on arms as the rest of the world put together) to try to make up for its relative economic decline. The current economic crisis doesn't help.
This means that the target is shifting to Iran and Syria. There are continual calls for intervention in Syria and the war of words with Iran continually threatens to boil over into a war of aircraft carriers and bombs in the Straits of Hormuz.
The main result of the failed war in Iraq has been to strengthen the influence of Iran in the area - and the United States doesn't like it!
This Public meeting has been called to argue against any more disastrous interventions. You are welcome to join in: Hands Off The Middle East!
Nottingham Stop the War Coalition
Website: www.nottmagainstwar.org.uk
John Shemeld (Nottingham Coordinator, Stop the War Coalition)
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Anti-war war protestors face trial & ASBO
15-04-2012 14:44
Two anti-war protestors will go on trial in London on Fri 20th April for action at Downing Street last October to mark 10th Anniversary of Afghanistan - both also face ASBOSt. Andrews Queers show O'Brien their backsides
15-04-2012 13:28
St. Andrews students protest O'Brien sermon at St. Salvators Church. Following O'Brien's recent comments his invitation to deliver a sermon was criticised by the Student Association and the LGBT Society organised a demonstration. Autonomous queers acted of their own accord and walked out of the sermon in protest.First Declaration of the Hambach jungle
15-04-2012 13:26
A part of the Hambach forest has been squatted in order to save it from the excavators send by the giantic energy coperation RWE digging up the coal.
Alongside a cultural happening/fair in the woods (Waldfest) „Wald statt Kohle“ Forest, not coal! the squatting commences. Even though the
Under the slogan „Forest, not coal!“ („Wald, statt Kohle“) a festivity is celebrated in the forest. Alongside that happening the squatting has started, though both activities remain independet of each other.
At the „Waldfest“ people from different groups meet up forming a broad coalition to get active in saving the Hambach Forest and stopping the extraction as well as the production of energy out of the fossil coal.
Hambach forest, near Cologne, shall be completly destroyed making space for the largest digged out hole in Europe „Hambacher Tagebau“ according to the plans of RWE.
During the festivity people get the chance of taking responsibility by godfathering their special tree thus protecting the trees their way(s).
By squatting we are also taking over responsibility godfathering our trees, protecting them our own way.
State anti-anarchist repression, revolutionary solidarity (Italy)
15-04-2012 12:54
Letter from Culmine blog editorial group on the March 29 raids against anarchists, including these comrades // letter from Tomo, one of the arrested anarchists // "Personal Inferno: For a Clearing of Solidarity" message from Edizioni Cerbero – Maurizio de Monte and Federico Buono - to comrades of Culmine and ParoleArmata // letter from the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / FAI-IRF prisoners cell (Greece) to Culmine and ParoleArmata concerning the recent raids // solidarity letter from Conspiracion Acrata editorial collective (Mexico) to Culmine and other arrested comrades // Words from 325 for Culmine, Parole Armate and the others //The Act of Voting Will Co-Opt Dreams of Real Democracy
14-04-2012 21:09
Reasons to come to Brighton this week
14-04-2012 20:36
https://network23.org/snob/), the world's greatest free anarcho newsheet ( http://www.schnews.org.uk) and much more. However this week there are even more reasons to head south with bikes, fascists & punk all vying for your attention.
ProtectTheWilderness street party Bristol 17th April Appeal of the Peasants
14-04-2012 20:36
Recent anarchist-insurrectionary attacks (global)
14-04-2012 19:20
Use citizen-led democracy to VETO nuclear power!
14-04-2012 18:57
"Making Nonviolent Revolution": July 2012 Speaking Tour With George Lakey
14-04-2012 16:14
Liverpool Against the Cuts' Workfare Walk of Shame - Sat 28th April
14-04-2012 12:23
Join Liverpool Against the Cuts on a direct-action Workfare Walk of Shame through Liverpool City Centre, stopping off at companies that use unpaid workers from Workfare schemes.Book now for Peace News Summer Camp 2012!
14-04-2012 10:57
Protesters dragged out of BP AGM
13-04-2012 18:55
BP’s Annual General Meeting yesterday was once again an uncomfortable experience for the Board. They were confronted by questions on oil spills, tar sands, Olympic sponsorship and interplanetary escape pods, before nine people “died” in protest at the company’s contribution to climate change and human rights abuses, and were removed bodily from the room by security guards.
Early in the meeting Bryan Parras, representing devastated communities on the Gulf Coast, began to explain how the financial and health impacts of BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill were still having a huge effect on people and livelihoods, and that BP’s supposed compensation fund was not reaching those who needed it. However, he was interrupted partway through his question by the BP Chair, Carl-Henric Svanberg, and told to hurry up. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Parras said:“Last year, I was barred from this meeting by BP’s security, along with other community representatives. While I was glad to be allowed in this year, I was insulted that the Chair tried to cut me off, and that the Board then completely ignored my question and instead reeled off their prepared PR spin.”
Derrick Evans, from the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, also commented: “It was good to be able to meet with the BP Board member Ian Davis, who is the Chairman of the Gulf of Mexico Committee and so has responsibility for ensuring that BP is keeping its promises to the people of the Gulf Coast. However, we were disappointed to learn that he knew nothing about the problems we are facing on the ground. He has now agreed to visit affected communities and see for himself what’s really happening, and so we look forward to helping him to fulfill that promise.”
As the meeting progressed, BP refused to acknowledge questions about whether tar sands extraction could be classified as “Ecocide”[1] and about the measures they were taking to lobby against the EU’s proposed Fuel Quality Directive [2], which would restrict the import of highly polluting fuels such as tar sands oil. Clayton Thomas-Muller, a tar sands campaigner from the Indigenous Environmental Network, asked a question about a crucial legal challenge that has been launched by the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation in Canada. If successful, this could make tar sands extraction illegal across large swathes of the country, including the leases owned by BP. Once again, the Chair simply ignored the question and made some unrelated comments in reply.
One question that did receive a response was about Olympic sponsorship. Although Iain Conn, the Chief Executive for Refining and Marketing, declined to give an exact figure for the company’s lavish sponsorship deal, he did say that BP had written a business case for Olympic sponsorship “going through exactly the same processes as we would for any investment”. He said that the aim of their role as Oil and Gas Partner, sponsor of the Cultural Olympiad and Sustainability Partner was “brand protection and connection with customers and society”, and to “enhance their relationship with strategic commercial partners”, and that the company’s expectations were being met in these areas. These comments confirm that these kinds of sponsorship deals bring significant returns to the company and are all about the bottom line.
Other questioners pointed out that the business plan laid out in BP’s Annual Report was based on fossil fuels still providing 80% of the world’s energy in 2030 – a scenario that would result in runaway climate change and global disaster on a massive scale. The meeting then took a slightly bizarre turn when a shareholder told the Chair that “if you’re planning for this level of social collapse then presumably BP must be building some kind of interplanetary escape pod in a secret bunker somewhere, for the Board and major shareholders”.
To laughter from around the room, he went on to ask where the pod would be sent (“The Moon, Mars or somewhere deep below the Earth’s surface?”), and whether tickets were available for purchase. When the Chair refused to respond, a total of nine UK Tar Sands Network protestors were noisily “killed by climate change”, dying in various locations around the conference hall, and had to be carried or dragged out by security.
There was also a colourful protest outside with music, speeches and leafleting of shareholders. The events at the AGM have now been heavily covered in the mainstream media, with several key points coming through strongly: the Deepwater oil disaster has NOT been cleaned up, and BP are under fire for their role in the tar sands and climate change (as well as high executive pay).
The UK Tar Sands Network are planning future interventions and actions, including at Shell's AGM in London and the Hague on May 22nd. Contact for more information and to get involved!
[1] Ecocide is a potential new crime against peace which is gathering momentum in the environmental law community. See http://www.eradicatingecocide.com
[2] The Fuel Quality Directive aims to reduce emissions from transport fuels in Europe by 6% by 2020. See www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/ceta/#FQD
Dawn raided family due to be deported tomorrow 1pm
13-04-2012 18:17
Radical Anthropology Talks
13-04-2012 15:06
Alan Meale should not speak on May Day
13-04-2012 14:55
May Day is an international day of celebration and commemoration of working class struggle. This year, a Nottingham May Day march and rally is being organised by Notts Trades Council. The organisation has invited Sir Alan Meale, MP for Mansfield since 1987, to speak at the rally.
May Day is an international day of celebration and commemoration of working class struggle. This year, a Nottingham May Day march and rally is being organised by Notts Trades Council. The organisation has invited Sir Alan Meale, MP for Mansfield since 1987, to speak at the rally.
It takes a very short memory to forget the Labour Party imposing their brand of neoliberal capitalism on the working class. Neoliberalism leads us to ever more precarious working practices and decreasing wages, in tandem with the rolling out of huge personal debt to keep up our consumption levels. Alongside this we saw massive increases in executive pay under Labour, increases in prison building, the rolling back of welfare and asylum provision and the associated demonisation of their recipients. Labour embraced the process of privatising every part of the public sphere. Most recently we see one of Labour's policies, workfare, being seized upon as a flagship Tory policy. Labour were also more than happy to export this model abroad via the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The same government also completely failed to repeal some of the most restrictive anti trade union laws in the EU. The Trades Council, being a council made up of representatives of trade unions, putting this man on a platform to speak has all the logic of turkeys putting the owner of the local slaughterhouse up there. Unlike many of us, trades unionists included, when was the last time Sir Alan Meale worried about paying his rent? When did Sir Alan Meale forgo a trip to the pub because he was skint? When was the last time Sir Alan Meale borrowed £20 to see him through till pay day? Having someone on the salary of an MP with the associated expenses and perks lecture us on the ills of austerity is a joke.
Some Labour MPs have supported working class struggles, against the wishes of their party. Alan Meale is not one of these. Sir Alan is loyal to the New Labour project and voted in favour of the Iraq war and against subsequent investigation of it, was strongly in favour of draconian anti-terror legislation and the authoritarian ID cards scheme, and voted strongly for making the asylum system tougher and more punitive. He has also treated the working class with contempt by claiming £13,000 in expenses for gardening and £7,000 for redecorating his home whilst many of his constituents struggle to make ends meet. "Sir" Alan Meale got his knighthood because of his political contribution. He has demonstrated himself to be an opportunist politician who has not hesitated to sell-out the working class to further his career prospects.
Representatives of Notts Trades Council say that they are inviting a broad range of speakers from the labour movement to make the event "inclusive". We think that inviting Meale is guaranteed to alienate the working class people he has betrayed time and time again over the course of his political career. Indeed, some local campaigns have refused the invitation to speak on the same platform as him at May Day. Therefore we urge the Notts Trades Council to withdraw its invitation to Meale and not to give a platform to the anti-working class politics he represents.
Autonomous Nottingham and Anarchist Federation (Nottingham).