UK Newswire Archive
Public meeting against the EDL
08-06-2012 06:55
It won't end well for the EDL...
Demonstrations on Armed Forces Day?
07-06-2012 21:17
the creeping militarisation of Britain through Armed Forces day. a soldier in an illegal and immoral war is not a heroIsrael: “this country belongs to us, to the white man”
07-06-2012 19:00
Recent anti-immigrant racist extemism in Israel only serves to demonstrate that a strictly jewish state will never exist in peace.Finsbury Square have to June 15th to appeal
07-06-2012 18:55
*** Update 7 June: The Finsbury Square occupation has been granted a stay of execution until Friday 15 June to lodge an appeal. ***
The potential forceful eviction of the Occupy London Finsbury Square camp is expected to happen in the early hours in the next few days, with residents choosing to mark the eviction with peaceful resistance. The potential eviction follows Justice Hickinbottom ruling on Friday at the High Court that Islington Borough Council has the right to repossess the public space post Jubilee Bank Holiday.
Finsbury Square eviction
The potential forceful eviction of the Occupy London Finsbury Square camp is expected to happen in the early hours in the next few days, with residents choosing to mark the eviction with peaceful resistance. The potential eviction follows Justice Hickinbottom ruling on Friday at the High Court that Islington Borough Council has the right to repossess the public space post Jubilee Bank Holiday.
Tom McCarthy, a resident at Finsbury Square said: “This camp makes a political statement about our society. Since Occupy opened the camp on 21 October, it has become a home and community for many homeless people, for whom the system has failed. In evicting this community, Islington Council – who have helped to re-home some people that have ticked certain boxes – are potentially leaving some people in a much worse position than they are already in. “We ask Islington Council to not go down the same route at the City of London Corporation – cleansing the City of homeless people is not the way forward. Helping to find real solutions is.”
Pop down, show support, bring supplies (food, bedding, cleaning stuff etc)
Whatever happens in terms of the eviction, residents plan to continue occupying.
Tamils protest the visit of Sri Lanka's President
07-06-2012 18:55
Thousands of Tamil protestors marched yesterday against the visit of the the President of Sri Lanka, visible to the Queen before lunching with the genocidal Mahinda Rajapaksa along with other heads of commonwealth states at Marlborough House in Central London. The spontaneous protestors later gathered in front of Park Lane Hilton Hotel where Rajapaksa was staying. The Queen passed human rights protestors on her way and she was joined by more than 70 guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders across the association of nations, as they arrived to angry scenes.
The chants of the demonstrators echoed around the forecourt as guests arrived, The Independent further said. Around 8,000 protestors were seen outside Marlborough House and earlier at Mansion House, which was hired by Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) for the Commonwealth Economic Forum.
While leaving the Hotel on Wednesday evening, Rajapaksa’s car had to face a rain of eggs coming from the angry protestors.
Earlier in the noon, he was welcomed with a big jeer from the crowd. His car arrived at the scene at Marlborough House bereft of the Lion Flag, for security reasons.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, hosted along with his wife by the Queen, is leaving for Rome to meet The Pope, news sources said. The Sinhala Catholic Archbishop in Colombo, Cardinal Malcom Ranjit is close to Rajapaksa and is a defender of his regime.
Rajapaksa was invited to deliver the keynote address of the Diamond Jubilee Commonwealth Economic Forum organised by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) on Wednesday. But in the last minute the CBC “after careful consideration,” cancelled his address and the session itself, fearing mass protests from Eezham Tamils in London.
Reporting on the cancellation on Wednesday, The Guardian said the tickets to the event were costing 795 pounds plus tax for each.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said it had agreed to guarantee the president's security but the CBC had "decided it was not in their interest to stage the event" because of the extent of the policing required and the likely disruption to the City of London, The Guardian reported.
The Guardian simplified the anger of Eezham Tamils in London as resulting from cases of torture and rape of Tamil asylum seekers forcefully returned to Colombo by the UK government and said that the UK government is coming under increasing pressure to revisit its policy about deportation.
But, contrary to what sections of articulating diaspora Tamils interested only in ‘negotiating’ and not leading a struggle say, the Eezham Tamils are angry at the continuation of the very State of British colonial legacy in the island and they are particularly angry with those who conduct business over genocide and criminalise States all over the world, political observers in London said.
The demonstrators in London burnt the Sri Lankan Constitution along with the effigy of Mahinda Rajapaksa in front of the Marlborough House.
The Queen ‘appeared to fleetingly shake hands’ with him in receiving guests at the reception, both The Independent and The Guardian reports said on Her Majesty receiving Rajapaksa.
The head of the Commonwealth of Nations has become a captive of the so-called International Community of Establishments, said old-generation Eezham Tamils, who recollected the scene of the Queen removing her gloves and shaking hands with her teacher, C. Suntheralingam, even when the then Prime Minister of Ceylon, Sir John Kotelawala, was waiting to receive her in the parliament house at Galle Face in Colombo in 1953.
According to The Guardian, Rajapaksa was seated on the table directly to the Queen's left with Babli Sharma, wife of the Commonwealth secretary general Kamalesh Sharma an Indian national; the Namibian president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, and his wife; and New Zealand' prime minister, John Key, and his wife.
Palestine Place & Anti G4S Demo
07-06-2012 17:45
FemCells Women-Only Gig Tomorrow!
07-06-2012 13:13
Will Brendan Barnett’s Lies Take Him To Wembley?
07-06-2012 11:54
http://leedsabc.org/another-attempt-to-sabotage-john-bowdens-parole-by-prison-hired-social-worker/ , http://leedsabc.org/update-from-john-bowden-about-lies-written-by-prison-hired-social -worker-2/ , http://leedsabc.org/support-for-john-bowden/ , http://leedsabc.org/corrupt-social-workers-attempt-to-rid-themselves-of-prisoner-john-bowden/ , http://leedsabc.org/end-lies-and-corruption-in-edinburgh-criminal-justice- services/ , http://leedsabc.org/lying-prison-social-worker-invited-to-audition-for-pinocchio/, http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/06/496617/html Previous Pinocchio posts:
http://leedsabc.org/lying-prison-social-worker-invited-to-audition-for-pinocchio/, http://leedsabc.org/lying-prison-social-worker-has-future-career-prospects-dashed/
Queen made to view protest before dining with Rajapaksa
07-06-2012 11:51
Sickened by Muslim Council of Britain's Letter to the Queen
07-06-2012 07:16
http://mswithacause.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/sickened-by-muslim-council-of-britains.html
Video Highlights: Frank Barat, International Law and Palestine
07-06-2012 01:56
Highlights from the 6th June meeting at Palestine Place, a reclaimed building in central London hosting 2 weeks of events for Palestine.These highlights are taken from the Palestine and International Law talk given by Israeli-born solicitor and founder of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Daniel Machover and Frank Barat of the Russell Tribunal
Sussex Police and the Green Party heap praise on Smash EDO
07-06-2012 01:09
Love, peace and mutual understanding spread throughout BrightonIsraeli group Boycott From Within endorse Smash EDO
06-06-2012 23:05
Boycott from Within have endorsed Smash EDO and the summer of resistance.News from Palestine Place
06-06-2012 20:55
Palestine Place is now up and running in our Grays Inn home and has hosted a wide range of events, seeing in excess of 150 people over the weekend. A succesful footbal action through the streets of London in support of Hunger striker Mahmoud Sarsak happened yesterday (for more details see http://palestineplace.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/mahmoud-sarsak-demo-in-pictures/) and our event tonight on International law and Palestine, with free Palestinian food on offer for all visitors was attended by more than fifty people. We are still in need of lots of tat, and ideas so get down here if you fancy it. Tomorrow Palestine Place has pledged it's support for a coalition of protest against notorius security company G4S
TOMORROW: Palestine Place to join coalition of protesters opposing notorious security giant G4S
Where: London Stock Exchange, Paternoster Square, London EC4M 7LS
When: 12.30PM onwards
Contact: Zaneta on 07927 189671 or Hilary 07756 977167 or phone 07448 613383
This Thursday (June 7) a coalition of protestors will demonstrate against the private security company G4S as its Annual General Meeting takes place, calling for an end to the firm’s involvement in human rights abuses around the world.
The multinational security firm – which lost its contract to deport people from the UK last September after 773 complaints of abuse were made against it – will be opposed in the heart of the City by a number of networks collectively involved in organising a lively protest to voice disgust at the company’s record.
Palestine Place, a newly reclaimed space in central London hosting two weeks of workshops and discussions in support of Palestine, has endorsed the demonstration because of G4S’s involvement in human rights abuses in occupied Palestine.
G4S is contracted to provide equipment to the Israeli prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners, including child prisoners, are illegally held. More than 1,600 Palestinian political prisoners recently held a mass hunger strike and several remain on hunger strike.
Activists have produced an alternative annual report detailing G4S’s record including the death of Jimmy Mubenga, its running of prisons, probation services and welfare services in Britain.
Despite its abysmal record, G4S was recently awarded contracts to provide security for the Olympic Games, house asylum seekers in South Yorkshire and to take over parts of 10 UK police forces.
Ends
== Notes for editors ==
*More information on G4S’s involvement in deporting asylum seekers, profiting from Israeli apartheid and more, please see ‘Many Reasons to Stop G4S’ http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4343
*Palestinian political prisoners have been – and are – on hunger strike in protest against appalling conditions, barbaric interrogation techniques and being held without charge or trial under Israel’s system of administrative detention.
*Jimmy Mubenga was an Angolan asylum seeker who died after being ‘restrained’ by G4S guards during deportation from the UK. More info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/jimmy-mubenga
* The protest has been endorsed by the following groups: Boycott Israel Network, Corporate Watch, Croydon Migrant Solidarity, Defend the Right to Protest, Friends of al-Aqsa, International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, No Borders London, No One is Illegal, Palestine Place, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group, Stop Deportation Network, Yorkshire Region Plus No to G4S Campaign
*Palestine Place is a newly reclaimed space in central London hosting two weeks of workshops, discussion and action in support of Palestine. It is located at 24 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8HP.
WEBSITE: palestineplace.wordpress.com
FACEBOOK: Palestine Place
TWITTER: @palestineplace
EMAIL: palestineplace@riseup.net
Imagining a world without EDO: Smash EDO Summer of Resistance week six
06-06-2012 20:16
Palestine Plce to join Coalition of Protesters opposing G4S
06-06-2012 19:28
Activist across london from groups including No Borders, will tomorrow converge on Paternoster square for a demonstration against the G4S agm, and Palestine Place has pledged it's support.In US, Republicans Through Voting Machine Fraud Stole A Governor Recall Election
06-06-2012 17:58
voting machine fraud in the USMarie Vesco - 4th anniversary
06-06-2012 16:55
For the fourth year after the death of Marie Vesco, her family and friends visited the site on the A23 where she was killed, to put flowers and a picture on her at the site, and to remember her.
They also had the chance to inform a few cyclists about the cycle path that runs parallel to the road. The cyclists were riding along the very spot where Marie got killed. They had followed the signs trying to reach the cycle path, but said signs only led them back North.
On the 4th of June 2008, Marie Vesco was cycling in a group of ten to a demonstration against the Arms Fair in Brighton, when she was killed by two cars whose drivers were not respecting the highway code. None of them was charged or faced with prosecution.
After a faulty investigation which included the loss of video footage of the cyclists, taken by police minutes before the crash, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was not enough evidence to prosecute any of the drivers.
The family had only six months after the crash to initiate private court action, but they were not notified of this fact in time and vital information they needed to initiate such action was not made available to them until six months and one day after the crash. Furthermore, they were required to pay approximately a £1000 for access to the police report.
At the inquest, the fact that both drivers were in breach of a number of the highway code rules at the time of the crash, was dismissed (“all drivers do that”). More attention was given to the cyclists' unfamiliarity with the road (“did you not check your route on the internet before heading off?” than on the car drivers' lack of due care.
During the months that followed the crash, friends and family of Marie tirelessly campaigned for proper signage for cyclists from Crawley to Brighton, and also on the A23, to direct them to available alternatives. With the cost of signage for cyclists not being covered by tax revenues, as signage of cars is, it took more than a year for the relevant authorities to put up the requested signs.
On the first anniversary, in 2009, friends and family of Marie placed a ghost bike at the site of the crash. It was removed by the local authorities a day later on “security grounds”.
On the second anniversary, a two-day bike ride remembered Marie and served as an audit of the signs that Marie's family and friends had been campaigning for. The family wanted to see for themselves the flashy bike lane the local authorities had showed them pictures of, only to discover that the new paving they had seen in pictures was present in only a few metres of the route. The rest of it consisted mainly of on-road routes, pavements and horse trails advertised as practicable from May to September where, in wet spots, were hard to negotiate even in June.
On the third anniversary, the family had to replace the picture of Marie they had put up on a lamp post on the A23 where she was killed, which seemed to have been removed, alongside a poster of RoadPeace, organisation that has greatly helped Marie's friend and family in their ordeal.
This year, as well as putting a new picture and flowers at the lamp post, a small garden was initiated, with compost to which Marie had contributed when she lived in London.
The presence of cyclists who found no option but to end up on the A23 after trying to use alternative routes proves that the routes and signage for a safe cycle journey in the area still leaves much to be desired.
From the site, family and friends left, to exchange presents, to tour Europe.
Here are some of her friends' tributes: blog, poem, dialogue site.
And a cyclists' obituary.
More pictures in network23
April/ May sorta Critical Mass ride report
06-06-2012 14:55
The ride last Friday (25th May 12) was pretty huge. The first ride of the summer always seems to go like this. So, last month - April - was rainy and grim and only a few hundred turned out. The April ride was semi-highjacked by a greenwash political group distributing pink high viz vests. It was also directed by solidarity with an anti-abortion protest. It was basically kind of square party. Not many sound systems and it was just a little trog around the centre of town. No issue. Politeness. A little bit of getting lost due to the protest at the clinic. But this May ride was kind of huge. That meant there was a range of differing people. People who wanted to fast, others slow. Some were there to party, others protest. When the ride is this big the group mind breaks down. The ride will stretch out over very long distances. When there is a problem at the back it is not always noticed. I was in the middle of the pack going down Charing Cross Road and started racing ahead to find the vanguard. When found it was agreed to loop back around. We had gone most the way down Tottenham court road and looped back down Gower onto Shaftesbury avenue to find the mass. As we did so we found packs of pigs charging down the street in the direction we headed down Shaftesbury. They were a little snobby, but we were legion! They had no chance. Once we got back to Cambridge Circus we discovered the dregs of the rearguard, miserable and oppressed by the fist of The Man. It would flatter us to think that the reinforcements changed the game. Our reinforcements were greater than theirs! They turned tail, we gathered our people and headed back north. If you look at the video carefully you can see how few people are there. Question, what happened to the middle guard? Because after this incident it all seemed to disappear. Where did the majority of the number go? I heard rumor that the cause of the incident was a beer can thrown at the latter day Norman Baron on his horse in the middle of the city. Is this just gossip? Possibly. Failed to get accurate intel due to other riders 'rescuing' me when I spoke to the filth. Which shows A-OK community spirit, but leaves mystery alive. Please also watch the video and notice the pretentious Gestapo officer stepping out of the crowd. Please notice his boring and spotless white trainers. Notice his nerdiness. On the whole this was an excellent ride, all sound systems out, good vibes going on. High Vibrations. However, we had the typical summer problem - it is difficult to cork the road for 15 minutes. When the ride is wintery and small it is easy to get around without issue. But in this summer situation it is much more noisome. Especially when large gaps develop and the road is being corked for an empty space. Too many 'free riders' - that is people who are taking and not giving to the mass. I especially enjoyed our early forays which took us north up to Euston road, etc. and along up towards the Westway! This month our primary vanguard consisted of very eager racing cyclists who were charging ahead on the clear roads. The effect was that the A404/501 was all ours! Wicked cool. The mass dissented with the plan to go as far as possible on the freeway and we cut through into Westbourne Park and Ladbrooke Grove. Most excellent! We did some great outreach into the cadres of ordinary Londoners and got many good responses for future reinforcements. I love going to the neighbourhoods, it's awesome. People on the doorstep, folk leaning out of the pub. A magical moment of weirdness to behold. Then we looped about, headed along the North and East sides of the park, down Grosvenor Place, onto Parliament square, Whitehall, Trafalgar square etc. What can I say? Lame! The 12 year old French school kid tours enjoyed it. But, like, whatever. After the altercation the mass went down Oxford Street, a bike raise at the circus. Still several hundred strong. About 10pm. Bored. Going.https://london.indymedia.org/other_medias/12312