UK Repression Feature Archive
Leeds social centre bloom
20-10-2004 18:45
Leeds' brand new infosquat, Maelstrom, opened its doors on Thursday 21st October. It is located at the old Post Office, Hyde Park Corner, Woodhouse Street. Next week's events include talks on prison and the panopticon society, prisoner writing and card making, talk and discussion on biometrics, talk on nanotechnology, discussion on slipping through the systems cracks and much, much more! (click here for a full list).
Meanwhile, the opening of Leeds' social centre is only a few weeks away. If you want to get involved, simply contact leeds arc or pop into one of the social centre meetings: the next one is at at 7.30pm on Nov 4 @ the cafe in Holy Trinity Church, Boar Lane [map]
European Social Forum Closes with Demonstration and Actions
20-10-2004 08:59
The forum ended with a large demonstration(70-100,000) and a number of autonomous actions (Clowns actions and Pro-capitalist block). The demonstration had a clear anti-war character and attracted many people who did not attend the ESF.
Reports: [1 | 2 | 3], Pictures: [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | new 9 | new 10 | new 11 | new 12] and video [1]. A group of activists from the anti-capitalist block were detained at King's Cross train station in an attempt to prevent them from joining the march [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Global Project][Video Modem | ADSL]. They were eventually allowed to leave and when they finally arrived at Trafalgar Square some tried to get to the stage in what some describe as storming the stage. The police, possibly in cooperation with the organisers, made several arrests including an Indymedia volunteer and member of the ESF organizing body [pics]. The COBAS union condemned the local ESF organisers for this action. Solidarity actions were called and a number of Clowns invaded Charing Cross police station (Video). Those arrested, including a Greek activist, were due in court on Monday [Video]. Meanwhile for four days the IMC center catered for activists and public alike in providing a fully equiped media center and 600 capacity hall for the EFCR, Schnews Conference, parties and other events (IMC call). Indymedia also took to the streets to protest the seizure of the imc servers [pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5]. The Wombles also organised 5 Days & Nights of Anti-Authoritarian ideas and action called Beyond ESF, from which a Declaration of Europe’s Precariat came out.
The ESF organisation, and the events during the demonstration, have been the subject of a lot of controversy [In depth: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Previous: 1 | 2 | 3].
A letter condemning [2 | 3] the takeover of the ESF stage in protest against the lack of democracy of the ESF organsing process was published in the Guardian [Pics of action 1 | 2 | Video]. It accuses protesters of interrupting and anti-racist event. A coalition of anti-racism organisations replied condeming the use of the race card to stifle dissent (also IMC Lancaster statement).21st Oct Update: Read latest Guardian Letters | (2), see also Alex Callinicos blames "black Bloc". 23rd Oct: A film of the event has appeared. 27 Oct: Italian Delegation, Some Reflections on the 2004 ESF. Some also resented the lack of coverage of actual ESF events [1 | 2] on Indymedia and the mainstream media [1 | 2]
Don't hate the media - just publish on Indymedia - Upload your reports from the ESF and Autonomous Spaces events to indymedia, or to the events memory reporting database. See: All UK ESF reports | Updated Indymedia ESF Newsblast
[More: ESF daily coverage: Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Other languages: German | Dutch | Dutch and French | Català | Castellano 2 3| Hungarian | Portugese | Russian]
The IMC Server Mystery
14-10-2004 12:03
Last Thursday the FBI seized the hard disks from the web server that runs Sheffield IMC. This is likely to have been given the go ahead from Sheffield Brightside MP and Home Secretary, David Blunkett. Seven days on and neither the FBI, the Government nor the police have offered any explanation to Indymedia as to why their servers were seized. The Sheffield MP Richard Allan is planning to ask a question about this in the House of Commons on Friday, more info on his blog.
The seizure of the server has affected around 20 IMC sites around the world, including Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nantes, Marseille, Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Italy, Brazil, UK, and the global Indymedia Radio site.
Sheffield Indymedia's presence on the web was quickly reinstated due to there being backup servers, but all the other IMC sites were not so fortunate. It has taken a huge amount of work to get things in the UK running again, and the knock on effects of the server being seized are likely to be felt for a while yet. We hope that users of the Sheffield site will bear with us through this time.
Please sign the Solidarity Petition and also support the Server Appeal.
Main UK IMC Story | Glogal FBI / Legal page | EFF Indymedia Page | The Register: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Activist Imprisoned for Shouting
10-10-2004 13:39
On Friday 1st October Andrew Davies received an unexpected 28 day custodial sentence and also an indefinite Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) after a trial at Burton-upon-Trent magistrates. Andy was arrested under Section 4a Public Order Act ("intentionally causing harrasment, alarm or distress") for standing and shouting outside a worker's house of Newchurch Guinea Pig farm, where thousands of guinea pigs are bred for the vivisection industry.
Shocked as he was he at the severity of the sentence (essentially for having an argument with Newchurch Farm worker on the validity of animal experimentation) he is in good spirits and awaits your letters.
New Prisoner Andrew Davies- solidarity now! | Vegan prisoner support group | Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
Vanunu 18th Anniversary
30-09-2004 00:20
it is exactly 18 years and i am free and strong as i was 18 years ago
- Mordechai Vanunu
Today (30 September) is the 18th anniversary of Mordechai Vanunu's kidnap by Israeli security forces.
Vanunu was a subordinate technician at the Dimona nuclear plant when he blew the whistle on Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons programme. Following his conscience, and believing the programme threatened another holocaust, he delivered photographic evidence of historic magnitude to the Sunday Times [the original article].
He was then lured to Italy from where Israel's secret police abducted him to Israel, in grave violation of internnational law. He was sentenced as a spy to 18 years in prison. The first 11 1/2 years, he spent in solitary confinement.
Free Cesar Zelada Campaign (jailed in Bolivia)
24-09-2004 11:49
previous updates: 2004-9-29 | 2004-10-6 | 2004-10-8
Cesar Zelada is a well known student activist in Peru. He is also a member of the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista, a left wing group, and the organiser of the Hands off Venezuela campaign in Peru.
He was in Bolivia as part of a delegation of Peruvian student activists invited by the Youth wing of the Bolivian Workers' Union (COB - the Bolivian TUC) to show solidarity with the struggle of the Peruvian students, particularly those at the Oruro Technical University.
He was arrested on September 14th, in the capital La Paz. He was strip searched and handcuffed by the PTJ police and then questioned without having access to a lawyer. He is being kept in jail in the San Pedro Penal, in La Paz. When making the case against him at the hearing, the prosecutor alleged that he was in possession of explosives, had lied about his address in Bolivia and was carrying "Marxist propaganda" with the aim of "subversion".
Argentinia: occupied self-managed factory Zanon again threatened with eviction
28-08-2004 18:21
For every eviction...
27-08-2004 03:15
TODAY (Tues) Eviction alert and demo 9am at Nursey Social Centre Birmingham
Recently there has been a spate of stories about social centres and evictions. At 5.30am 25th August, around 40 police and 30 bailiffs smashed down the front door of the Ex-Grand Banks in north London. This high profile centre had proven to be one of the most successful squatted community projects for some time, despite occasional police harrassment of people attending meetings there (see video). On Saturday 4th there was a street party in protest against the eviction.
Use Your Loaf, an ex-bakery on Deptford High Street which had been occupied as a centre for social solidarity since summer 2002, has also now been evicted after managing to resist eviction a week before.
...Another Occupation!
Meanwhile, in Birmingham, a disused nursey has just been occupied. In Arms Reach, a squat just off Oxford Street in central London, provided a one-off week-long series of workshops, films and gigs. Back in north London, the AUTONOMOUS LAB in Chalk Farm Road, having already resisted eviction at the beginning of August, have now expanded into a second vaccant shop front!
There are plenty of other successful projects nationally and internationally as well: read on for more details...
Pinochet stripped of immunity
26-08-2004 20:57
Stop Ethnic Cleansing
19-08-2004 11:03
Links: [Traveller Support][East Anglia Social Forum]
Calls for rally at Paynes Lane, 22nd August: [1][2]
Israel condemned by NUJ for treatment of independent journalist, Ewa Jasiewicz
17-08-2004 22:00
UPDATES:
Journalist Ewa Jasciewicz now held in detention for over 14 days as Israeli court fiasco continues.
19 AUGUST: Ewa is to be released from jail, but has still been forbidden by the IDF from entering Palestine.20 AUGUST: Ewa remains locked up until at least Sunday, following an appeal by the Israeli Government [reports: 1 | 2 ]
The National Union of Journalists has condemned the Israeli Government for its treatment of journalist Ewa Jasiewicz, who was detained whilst entering Israel last week and remains in prison.
Ewa's appeal against deportation from Israel will be heard on Thursday, August 19th.
[ Telephone call from Ewa | Background on Baha | Ewa on Iraq | The "Intifada of the Empty Stomach"]
International solidarity with the people in Venezuela
16-08-2004 01:39
On the 15th of august, the International Day of Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, protesters took to the streets and meadows of Edinburgh to inform the public about the importance of the co-inciding referendum on the president in Venezuela in the struggle against neoliberalism, privatisation, exploitation and globalised trade competition.
In the distributed leaflet, the activists state, that they will support a Global Day of Action on October 12th, 2004. [reports and pictures: 1 | 2 | call | video]
Other international solidarity events happened in London during the week before the referendum [report] in the RampArt social centre, [video], protests took place in support of the Bolivarian Revolution in front of the embassy in The Hague, Stockholm, London [report | pics | video], Amsterdam [1|2], Mexico, Dominican Republic.
Campaign groups call for emergency vigil
13-08-2004 16:07
Campaign groups "Voices in the Wilderness" and "Iraq Occupation Focus" call for an emergency vigil at 10 Downing Street in Central London on Sunday, 15 th of August, Noon -2 pm to protest against the latest military attacks in Iraq. Densely-populated Iraqi cities are under fire from US-UK forces. On Thursday, more than 75 Iraqis were killed in the US bombardment of Kut. British troops have killed at least twenty in their assault on Amara.
The attack on Najaf, led by US warplanes, has been condemned by public opinion across Iraq. Sixteen members of Najaf's 30 member provincial council have resigned in protest at the assault.
In the last 48 hours, hundreds of civilians have been killed by occupying forces in the cities of Najaf, Kut, Sadr City, Sammara, Nasiriya, Amara, Basra, Ramadi and elsewhere.
Native Americans protest at Scottish Power annual shareholder meeting for river restoration
29-07-2004 14:26
A broad umbrella group of 26 people from various environmental, academic and economical organisations and members from four Native American tribes, travelled to Scotland from Southern Oregon and Northern California to lobby, protest at and negotiate with Scottish Power, the parent company of PacifiCorp, which is responsible for the negative impacts of several dams on the Klamath River, its water quality, salmon population, surrounding environment and neighbouring communities.
Previous reports:
[ pictures of protest at Scottish Power's annual shareholders meeting | call to write protest letters | reply to consumer boycott | Klamath river support delegation in Scotland | U.S. Court Rules in Favor Of Hoopa Valley, Yurok Tribes! | Native Americans, Enviros, and Fishermen Battle Scottish Power | Myth and facts about the Klamath River dams ]
Audio reports:
[ interview with scientist | interview with Klamath Tribe | interview with sociologist | Interview with commercial fisherman | interview with Yurok tribe | Environmental Racism Conference 1 | Environmental Racism Conference, Eugene, January 2004 ]
Zapatista child brutally attacked
17-07-2004 10:40
The zapatista "Committee of Good Government" for the Morelia zone has denounced a brutal attack on a zapatista child in the municipality of Chilon, Chiapas, Mexico.Justice for Palestine: tear down the Apartheid Wall!
07-07-2004 13:08
While the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, prepares to give its advisory opinion on the Apartheid Wall on July 9th, the Wall in Palestine continues to destroy lives and lands at an ever-increasing pace. Four months of court deliberations have prompted international political immobility, but Palestinian resistance is growing. Whole villages have risen up to stop the Apartheid Wall and the devastating repression of the Israeli Occupation.
In light of the upcoming opinion from the ICJ, the Israeli government is trying to manipulate the truth and disguise the colonial foundation of its racist apartheid policy. The occupation forces have depicted a decision by their own High Court to move 30km of the Apartheid Wall as a Palestinian “victory”, but Palestinians see how, on the contrary, this decision validates Israel’s claim that the Wall is solely a security measure and how it states that the Wall can be built on Palestinian land.
Latest News on the Apartheid Wall at StopTheWall.org | Background info on the ICJ | video, audio, photo and info from: europe@stopthewall.org
Whoop Whoop - it's da Sound of da Police
29-06-2004 14:35
At 7am, Friday 25th June, 10 protesters arrived at Caterpillar's offices in Solihull to bring to the attention of the staff the UN warning that the sale of bulldozers to Israel may implicate the company in human rights violations.
A mock military checkpoint was set up and inevitably, it wasn't long before the local police arrived. The noise level started getting slightly louder than that of the passing traffic which seemed to agitate the police. When one protestor then tried to present a 'Home-wrecker of the Year' award a particularly nasty policeman grabbed the award, violently smashed it on the ground and arrested an individual.
On leaving the site the protesters were followed by a police car and were pulled over and given a thorough vehicle inspection. Eight protesters, undetered, returned to the Caterkiller site at 2pm for a noise protest. After 30 minutes the noise got slightly louder as police arrived and almost immediately arrested all protesters. All eight were charged with causing alarm, distress and harassment.
Fighting the Criminalisation of Social Movements
28-06-2004 07:33
Genoa Diaz Proceedings Start
The preliminary hearings have begun around the 29 Italian policemen and officers who face charges related to the brutal night time raid on the Diaz school (pics) in Genoa, Italy during the Anti-G8 demonstrations there in 2001, where scores of people were beaten, many left unconscious and hospitalised, before later being tortured in Bolzaneto detention centre.
The hearings went ahead despite appeals by the Police to stop or postpone the proceedings, citing the fact that a key witness, the Policeman who had found the molotov cocktails on the friday before the raid, is in a coma after what some have called a 'suspicious' car accident. The Police also tried to instigate a "judicial review" of one of the charges with the hope of delaying the trial - the judge insisted however that the proceedings would continue.
See:
Genoa Diaz Court Case - Quick Update - Saturday 26th June
Genoa Justice Court Cases Start - Report and Press Conference Statement
First Hearing of the Diaz Trial Report - 27th June [Pics]
A counter-investigation has begun, led by a group from Italian Indymedia.
[more info in Italian | English translation]
For more see Indymedia Italy
Aubonne Bridge Court Case
Coinciding with the beginning of the Genoa court cases in Italy, in Lausanne, Switzerland, the activists Martin Shaw, Gesine Wenzel and Olivier stood trial on Monday 28 of June charged with blockading the road and endangering life, in what has been known as the Aubonne Bridge case.
The background of this prosecution starts at the anti G8 summit protests In Evian (Switzerland) of June 2003 . During the demonstrations and blockades that took place in several Swiss cities, an international affinity group blockaded the motorway in order to stop an official delegation from reaching the G8 in Evian. Two climbers suspended themselves from a single rope being stretched across one of the motorway's bridges. The police eventually turned up at the action, and in a very ruthless manner a police officer proceeded to cut the rope and sent Martin plummeting 20 metres into a shallow, rocky stream beneath the bridge, whilst Gesine was saved by the quick reflexes of her support team who managed to grab a hold of the rope.
Watch Aubonne Bridge Action Video
[see archive pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | video | collected reports]
Following a call by the Aubonne Bridge Campaign , around 100 activists from all over Europe came to support Martin, Gesine and Olivier last Monday. Banners were unfurled outside the court, food was cooked for lunch whilst a sound system put some flavour to the solidarity action. At some point, a theatre group performed outside the court house entertaining the crowd that could not get into the packed public gallery. Although the activists were finally found guilty of "blocking the public way and endangering life'", Martin Shaw will not face any sentence, whilst Gesine Wenzel and Olivier were given a 10 and 20 day suspended sentences.
[Photos 1 | 2]
Press release 30 June from the Aubonne Bridge campaign.
See earlier Street Theatre Pictures [1 | 2]
More information: IMC-Switzerland
Brutal murder of a leading Zapatista in Zona Norte, Chiapas
10-06-2004 16:50
http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/06/85327.shtml http://www.chiapas.ch
G8 Repression : June Court Cases
10-06-2004 11:27
At the same time in Switzerland the court case against four people from the Aubonne Bridge action at the 2003 G8 Summit in Evian will begin. UK climber and activist Martin Shaw was cut from the climbing rope he was dangling from by police, falling over 20m onto a riverbed and sustaining very serious injuries [see pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | video | collected reports]. While the policeman who cut the ropes remains on duty, ironically, the four protesters, including Martin and the other climber, have all been charged with blocking the traffic and endangering human life! Alongside a European anti-repression meeting will take place on 26-27th June, to promote wider awareness as to the many different cases of repression that have happened recently and to discuss proposals and strategies for creating a stronger and more effective anti-repression network in Europe.
For more see: www.aubonnebridge.net | Indymedia Switzerland