UK UK Newswire Archive
The Crude Awakening: Newsletter 3 - Blocs Revealed
30-09-2010 17:22
In this week’s newsletter…
1. Blocs revealed: Dirty Money Bloc, Building Bloc, Body Bloc
2. Sign up now!
3. Upcoming events
4. Travel and accommodation
5. South Coast video
In this week’s newsletter…
1. Blocs revealed: Dirty Money Bloc, Building Bloc, Body Bloc
2. Sign up now!
3. Upcoming events
4. Travel and accommodation
5. South Coast video
1. BLOCS REVEALED
Your day’s adventure will be shaped by what bloc you choose to join. You can get as much or as little involved in the blocs as you want – from helping to make props in the run-up to bringing or wearing something specific on the day to just turning up. So sign up now and choose your own adventure.
Dirty Money Bloc, meeting at Euston Station, 10AM
The devastating global effects of the oil industry rely on company headquarters, banks, financial services and investment right here in London. Oil lubricates our whole economy – to stop oil, we must stop this dirty business.
After demonstrating examples of their dirty trade, the workers – ever-chained to their desks, imprisoned in the world of dirty money, finance and the oil industry – will gather, all suits and smarts; cuff-links and corruption; chanting shameless slogans, their placards and banners beating the morning sky. These advocates of avarice will be poised and ready to wreak more havoc on the earth, to take a hand in, direct and fund destruction.
Bloc aim: Business as usual.
Primary bloc activity: Expect oil spills, prospecting, extraction, desk based destruction and bags of dirty money.
Who should join this bloc: People ready to hold a space and beat the oil industry at their own game whilst doing it, a healthy amount of creativity and wit won’t hurt a bit.
What you should bring: Yourself, some warm clothes, waterproofs and enough food and water to last you for the day.
Ready yourselves for a day at the office, trading floor, well or refinery. Come dressed as a banker, oil worker/prospector, or just in a boiler suit etc. with the tools of your trade…brief cases, office furniture, drilling equipment, hard hats, oil (molasses/treacle), symbolic(!) chains, bags or wads of money etc. If you have a trowel, spade or other digging device and are happy to bring it, do so.
Building Bloc, meeting at Waterloo Station, 10 AM
As long as both the flow of oil finance and the flow of the black stuff continue unchecked our treacherous course towards catastrophic climate change continues. The building block will be there to stop the oil industries flow, helping construct a cleaner future for us all.
Bloc aim: To stop the flow of oil.
Primary bloc activity: Expect to build. A fence, a ladder, a dam, a windmill perhaps. What we need is a structure, a structure big and strong enough to stop the flow of oil and help us stand our ground for a brighter future.
Who should join this bloc: People ready to be active while holding a space and ready to beat the oil industry at their own game whilst doing it. You don’t need to be a builder, just have a desire to create, agitate and to claim and hold your space.
What you’ll need: You’ll need yourself, some warm clothes, waterproofs and enough food and water to last you for the day.
As with all constructive activities we’ll need tools and materials. Wood, screws and an electric screwdriver (with a fully charged battery). Chains, locks, sand bags (empty, unless you’re very strong!) and cable ties might also be useful. Gloves might also come in handy too. Avoid anything that might be conceived as a weapon though. We all know the police like to play that trick! And remember, whatever you bring must be transportable on the tube and light enough for you to carry with you while we make our way around the city.
Body Bloc, meeting at Victoria Station, 10 AM
We are putting our bodies inside the spaces many would rather put out of their minds. Bones joined to bones becoming bodies in a world that we will turn inside out. We will interconnect our bodies, raising ourselves as giants in the moment. All you need to bring is your body. Be the body bloc.
The Stilt Group will be part of the body bloc. This time we’re thinking big, we’re thinking high, we’re thinking tall…. and we’re going as a Stilt Group.
2. SIGN UP NOW!
Choose your bloc and head on over right this minute to crudeawakening.org.uk/node/12 to sign up for it. Entering your email address will make sure you get all the juicy details running up to the 16th … but most important is your mobile number, which is needed to receive vital communication on the day.
Note: Even if you have already signed up on the website, you’ll need to do it again to get information specific to your bloc. As you might have noticed, the sign-up page has been gone for the past week or so while we sorted this out ;) We’re really sorry to make you do it again – but we’re pretty sure you’ll be glad you did!
And rest assured, your details will only be used for this action and we will never, ever pass them on to anyone else. Ever.
3. UPCOMING EVENTS
If you have been itching to get involved and get prepared then read on and come along to one or more of the following events….
BRIGHTON
*30 September. Crude Awakening Information and Film night, 6.30-8pm @ The Cowley Club, 12 London Road. Come and find out more details and practical info about the action and how you can get involved in the most exciting oil resistance event this Autumn! Short films on the theme of direct action and the oil industry
Hosted by The Climate Camp South Coast Collective. Followed by delicious food at 8pm.
LONDON
*29 September. London planning meeting. 7PM – 9PM, LARC (London Action Resource Centre), 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 1ES. Meet other people who will be there on the day, plan and co-ordinate publicity and outreach, suggest and discuss different possible scenarios for the action, check in on progress on legal, media, visuals and other preparations needed for the action.
*1 October. Catapult Party Fundraiser. 9PM till late. Secret venue! Dancing, groovey tunes and a whole load of fun and games to warm up in style for the Crude Awakening. Get there early for a hula hoop workshop from 9pm. Suggested donation (on the door): £10 waged, £5 unwaged, or whatever you can afford. All proceeds will go towards activists who got into a spot of bother last year. We’re running the bar too, so every beer you drink will be for a good cause. Secret venue, sign-up here to get details by text nearer the time: tiny.cc/thenightbefore. More info: www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?...
*2-3 October. London preparation weekend extravaganza, open to all. Organised by London Climate Camp. Venue: Passing Clouds, 1 Richmond Rd., E8 4AA. passingclouds.org
-Saturday 2 October, 10 AM – 4.30PM. Meet friendly faces, have a cup tea, find out more and get prepared and trained.
Workshops including: How to move in a big group; role play and training
Introduction to direct action (morning), practical ideas for holding a space (afternoon), and teach-in about oil and the oil economy. With short films and lots of energy! Bring a fluro-vest if you have one.
-Sunday 3 October, 11AM – 4PM. Day of creative making things: banners, props, puppets, costumes, fun with molasses and the like. For people who want to make the day beautiful. BRING YOUR OWN MATERIALS. There will be some stuff to share – but those fabric off-cuts, bits of ribbon and garden cane that you have been hording can find a good home here. Anyone interested in forming the Crude Awakening rapid response close formation bicycle squadron to deliver molasses across the city, bring your bike, especially if it has panniers. (But we have to be really careful to leave the place spick and span!)
*2-3 October, 10 AM – 6PM. Stilt making workshop for the stilt bloc. Venue to be announced very soon – check the website. We’re thinking big, we’re thinking high, we’re thinking tall…. and we’re going as a Stilt Bloc. This is a skill share weekend to build stilts and learn how to walk on them. It’s free and lunch is included. And even if you don’t want to be up high, each stilt walker will need a buddy staying on the ground so there’s a place for everyone, young and old, big or small, high or low…… we need you at this weekend too! Oh and its MEXICAN DAY OF THE DEAD theme….. More info and please RSVP so we know number: stilt.bloc@gmail.com
*Weekend of 8-9 October. London Rabble Rouser_ Mass Capture the Flag. It’s a 3-way showdown between the three blocs – who will carry the day? Day, time, meeting point TBC.
MANCHESTER
*30 September. Cool Runnings’ Crude Awakening. 7PM, Manchester Met Students Union (The Second Floor Project). Catch up on what happened at Climate Camp in Edinburgh this summer as well as how you can get involved in the Crude Awakening. With guest speakers, discussions and video footage followed by DJs late into the night. www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=16381693...!
*9 October. Public ‘dis’order training. 12 noon – 6PM. Manchester Students Union. Prepare for the Crude Awakening by doing your own action! Learn why and how to do mass direct action with workshops and affinity group building.
4. TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATION
If you’re coming from the North, get yourself booked on transport leaving from Manchester. DEPARTS: Saturday 16th October at 6am. Returns: Saturday very late evening. To book your ticket email: manchester [@] climatecamp.org.uk
Plan to stay overnight in London on Saturday night if you can, ideally with a mate. If you need help finding accommodation, email london@climatecamp.org.uk.
5. NEW VIDEO
Courtesy of our friends at South Coast Climate Camp Idea Lab… should get you thinking!
http://blip.tv/file/4158517
That's all till next week... don't forget to sign up to your bloc!
http://www.crudeawakening.org.uk/
Local Protests Force BNP to Drop Planned moved to Stroud
30-09-2010 13:22
Looks like the local opposition to the BNP's plans has worked - the BNP had planed to open a 'communications centre' in the South West, in Stroud - but not now. Wonder where the next unlock place will be?Finally - some NIMBY behaviour I can get behind!!
Here's the article:
The BNP has just announced that it is scrapping plans to move its national media office to a unit on the Salmon Springs trading estate near Stroud following opposition.
This statement was sent to the SNJ this morning.
"The local economy in Stroud and Painswick has been deprived of many thousands of pounds of ancillary business and a number of jobs after the British National Party announced that it was going to seek office accommodation elsewhere following protests organised by the local far left anti-democratic Socialist Party, Nick Griffin MEP has announced.
“Previously, the BNP had announced its intention of moving its national media department to a unit on the Salmon Springs Trading Estate between Stroud and Painswick."
The statement then goes on to refer to the Say No To The BNP protest meeting due to be held tonight, Wednesday, at the Space.
The statement continues: “The BNP is a recognised political party for which a million people have voted. We have five national offices across the country, and have many other accommodation possibilities open to us where we are welcomed by democratically-minded people.
"It is no problem to us, but is a blow to the local economy because all the office supplies, rates and taxes and ancillary business which employees in the area would bring, have now been lost to Stroud and Painswick."
The Say No To The BNP protest meeting is still going ahead at 7.30pm at the Space, Lansdown, Stroud tonight, Wednesday. Organisers fear the party may look for another location for its media operation in the Five Valleys.
The Crude Awakening: Newsletter 3 - Blocs Revealved!
30-09-2010 13:14
In this week’s newsletter…1. Blocs revealed: Dirty Money Bloc, Building Bloc, Body Bloc 2. Sign up now!
3. Upcoming events 4. Travel and accommodation 5. South Coast video
Siempre Antifascista 2010
30-09-2010 13:03
Violence, murders and pogroms: These expressions of a right-wing attitude, which has long been officially believed defeated, are flourishing.
Violence against Sinti and Roma, anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia is accepted silently by major parts of our society and the state.
Join us on 10/10/10 for the Edinburgh 350 Work Party!
30-09-2010 12:08
Returning human rights defenders beaten at Western Saharan airport
30-09-2010 12:03
The Global Poverty Project comes to the Edinburgh World Justice Festival
30-09-2010 11:59
Manchester Cyclogeddon Festival
30-09-2010 11:11
A week long festival to celebrate the bicycle through a variety of FREE events and activitiesFrom Sunday 24th October to Sunday 31st October Events shall be open to everyone in Manchester with the aim to give cyclists skills and confidence to ride a bike as a form of transport. BUT! also to have loads of fun on bikes too.
New Aldermaston nuclear W.M.D. facility rubber-stamped
30-09-2010 11:00
Risk of another Chernobyl disaster with new EPR nuclear reactor design
30-09-2010 10:38
The French Nuclear Phase-Out Network (Réseau Sortir du Nucléaire) has received new confidential internal documents belonging to French utility EDF that show that flaws in the Areva EPR nuclear reactor design, the same type due to be built by EDF at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk, could lead to a Chernobyl-type disaster.4th Objection to Minorca Opencast Application
30-09-2010 10:24
This press release explains MOPG's 4th set of Objections which criticises UK Coal's assessment of the alleged economic and social benefits associated with the proposed Minorca Surface Mines and makes the claim that our campaign has extracted an extra £1m of proposed local 'benefits'. This represents the price UK is willing to pay rather than answer our objections.
PR 82 30/9/10
ANOTHER SET OF OBJECTIONS COMPLETLY IGNORED BY UK COAL
UK Coal was asked by Leicestershire County Council to address the impact that the Minorca Surface Mine would have on the local community and the local economy. They duly included a ‘Socio – Economic’ assessment of the expected impact that this mine would have in their 2009 submission.
The Minorca Opencast Protest Group, in their first submission of objections in September 2009, argued that this part of the application did not provide evidence to support their conclusions from their own Socio- Economic assessment.
In answer to UK Coal’s Socio – Economic assessment MOPG concluded that:
1) “Using essentially brown field sites as a baseline to compare with Minorca an essentially greenfield site is inappropriate. In the former situation economic and amenity value can be added to the land on restoration as a consequence of working the coal. This is not the case with Minorca. These arguments should be disregarded.”
2) ”The economic benefit claimed by allowing this development we have shown to be exaggerated. Therefore the economic multiplier effects, claimed as a consequence in the Socio-Economic Assessment, are over stated.”
3) “ Evidence about the success in changes in local employment MOPG argues, are due to the regeneration strategies implemented in the local area which have been aimed at restructuring the local economy away from being coal based and not with working alongside coal.”
4) “That UK Coal’s interpretation of Government Guidance on the preference that should be given to applications that would restore derelict land or stabilise unstable ground do not apply to the Minorca Application and should be disregarded.”
5) “That UK Coal’s interpretation of Government Guidance that is used to support their claims on the need for this coal, their ‘mutually supportive ‘ argument and their ‘blending’ argument are proved to have been incorrect interpretations of Government Guidance and should be disregarded.”
However UK Coal has again completely ignored these objections in their new 2010 submission. Therefore MOPG is resubmitting these objections and adding these two updates.
“MOPG would argue that it is essential that a Minerals Company honours its obligations to restore an ex mineral site as soon as possible after its original use has expired to avoid blighting the local neighbourhood. In the case of the Lounge site near Ashby, also owned by UK Coal plc this is not the case. Its use as a mineral site ended in 2004 and it should have been restored in 2005. However, despite a Public Inquiry and the serving of an Enforcement Notice UK Coal were, earlier this year, proving to be less than co-operative in working with Leicestershire County Council to restore a site which the Company advertise as a ‘brown field’ site. Site restoration will now not start until 2011, six years after it should have been completed. If the same pattern of events was to occur on the proposed Minorca site after the coal had been extracted, which is much closer to residential areas and houses that the Lounge site is it would blight the area for many years. The evidence provided by this Company’s own intransigence over not restoring the Lounge site, shows that this risk is only too real.”
and
“MOPG now have further evidence to support our claim in Point 3 that changes in local employment have been driven by the development of a successful regeneration strategy aimed at restructuring the local economy away from being coal based and not with working alongside coal. This came with the publication of the 2010 Annual Report of the National Forest Company. This report claimed that since the inception of the National Forest as part of this economic regeneration exercise it had created over 4,400 tourist related jobs, 10% since 2003 and that this initiative benefited the local economy to the tune of £287m per annum. The development of a new opencast mine on a green field site in a rural part of the National Forest will not, in the short to medium term in the light of this evidence about the success of the regeneration strategy pursued so far, contribute further economic benefit, Rather MOPG contend it will, in the short to medium term threaten the success of this regeneration strategy.”
Steve Leary for MOPG said
“On its own this application would run counter to all the effort that has been put into this area over the last 20 years to develop a sustainable local non coal based economy. MOPG proved in its first set of submission documents how weak UK Coal’s case was on this issue. Their response has been twofold. Firstly to totally ignore our arguments, a ploy which they are very adroit at using on all the objections MOPG has raised, thereby hoping that no one else will notice the strength of our arguments.
Their second response has been to try a silence any opposition by offering a huge ‘bribe’ (the word of the individual promoting the petition in favour of restoring the Ashby Canal) worth over £1.28m to ‘drown out’ any opposition to their plans.
MOPG has been, it seems, too successful at opposing UK Coal’s Planning Application for its own good. The amount of money being offered is, in UK Coal’s words, ‘unprecedented’. They were afraid that our campaign would be successful at preventing this application so rather than submit new evidence that would prove us wrong in our analysis, they have put this money on the table to help engineer a lobby in favour of the application. This sum of money is equal to £1.14 per tonne of coal extracted rather than the normal 10p tonne that is on offer elsewhere, at the proposed Lodge House Extension in Derbyshire for example. MOPG can rightfully claim that it has made UK Coal so afraid that its application would be rejected that it has upped its offer by at least £1,000,000 – that is the minimum size of the ‘bribe’.
Local residents who have been stalwartly opposing this application now face the prospect of being exploited on all fronts if this application goes through. Their efforts to oppose the application have now resulted in this attempt to buy support rather than deal with our objections. They will suffer planning blight for an unknown number of years by UK Coal and gain no credit from having, by their own efforts, created this sum of money in the first place if this planning application is accepted by Leicestershire County Council on October 15th.
As UK Coal has not dealt with this set of objections, not those already published to do with traffic, economic viability / saleability and air quality / dust, MOPG has no choice but to continue to object as these specific objections, along with others that we have yet to publish, have not been answered and no amount of money will buy our silence and no amount of money will make our objections invalid.“
This is the fourth of MOPG’s objections published so far. You can read the rest at:
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/measham/mopgs-2010-set-of-objections-to.html
The Minorca Surface Mine Application is due to be heard at a meeting of Leicestershire County Council’s Development Control and Regulatory Board on Friday October 15th
END
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PRESS RELEASE CONTACT:
STEVE LEARY, SPOKESPERSON, MOPG
tel 05601 767981, email steve46leary@googlemail.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MOPG PLEASE GO TO:
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/measham/minorca-protest.html
Another Set of Objections ignored by UK Coal
30-09-2010 10:02
This press release explains MOPG's 4th set of Objections which criticises UK Coal's assessment of the alleged economic and social benefits associated with the proposed Minorca Surface Mines and makes the claim that our campaign has extracted an extra £1m of proposed local 'benefits'. This represents the price UK is willing to pay rather than answer our objections.Smash EDO to lay siege to Brighton Weapons Factory
30-09-2010 08:29
For more info contact: Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh, Smash EDO campaign Tel: 07526557436 E-mail:
smashedopress@riseup.net Website: www.smashedo.org.uk
A Little Less Talk, A Little More Action?
30-09-2010 02:35
The latest meeting of the Convention of the Left took place in Manchester at the weekend, within yards of the barricades around the Labour Party conference. The Convention's first meeting was in 2008, also in Manchester. Its purpose was, and is, to unite all factions on the Left. I have not attended any of the previous conferences but they do not seem to have achieved much more than enable Left activists to talk to each other (or make speeches at each other) for a number of hours without anybody falling out over sectarian differences. But this latest conference had a more focussed theme. Faced with a government that has declared its intention to make cuts in public services and the welfare state that will destroy the living standards of the working class, the only topic was: how do we stop this?
The Freeze Peach Halloween Festival
29-09-2010 23:22
An Exhibition of Creativity, Music, Art & PerformanceSunday, 31st October (2pm-12am) Freeze Peach descend on Metropolis, Stokes Croft, Bristol with a Halloween party to whet the apetites of many a discerning music fan.
By day, a hub of creativity, by night this will be a Halloween Party to remember.
Featuring:
Capac - Live electronica representing the sound of Liverpool's leftfield "mesmerising" Huw Stephens, BBC Radio One
The Scribes - Hard-hitting anthemic hip-hop from Bristol heavyweights
Aye Aye - Hispanic infused, moody, psychedelic post-rock
Inspector Dread - Dub tainted Slick Blues, with interesting side effects
Danny Kelly - Haunting acoustic act
+ DJ's, live visuals, art, special guests and much, much more...
Tickets available from:
Bristol Ticket Shop - bristolticketshop.co.uk
Metropolis - metropolisbristol.co.uk
or email - enquiries@freezepeach.co.uk
www.freezepeach.co.uk
Sunday, 31st October (2pm-12am) Freeze Peach descend on Metropolis, Stokes Croft, Bristol with a Halloween party to whet the apetites of many a discerning music fan.
By day, a hub of creativity, by night this will be a Halloween Party to remember.
Featuring:
Capac - Live electronica representing the sound of Liverpool's leftfield "mesmerising" Huw Stephens, BBC Radio One
The Scribes - Hard-hitting anthemic hip-hop from Bristol heavyweights
Aye Aye - Hispanic infused, moody, psychedelic post-rock
Inspector Dread - Dub tainted Slick Blues, with interesting side effects
Danny Kelly - Haunting acoustic act
+ DJ's, live visuals, art, special guests and much, much more...
Tickets available from:
Bristol Ticket Shop - bristolticketshop.co.uk
Metropolis - metropolisbristol.co.uk
or email - enquiries@freezepeach.co.uk
www.freezepeach.co.uk
The Netherlands: Squatting prohibition
29-09-2010 22:36
'Death Squad' Killings: Soldier Blames Leader
29-09-2010 21:27
A US soldier accused of being part of a "death squad" which randomly killed Afghan civilians for sport has appeared in court as videotape emerged of him blaming his superior for the atrocities.The men are said to have shot their victims ..........
Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces
29-09-2010 21:24
http://garizo.blogspot.com/2010/09/statistics-on-palestinians-in-custody.html
Smash EDO Announce location of ITT's Hammertime
29-09-2010 21:23
Smash EDO have announced that the ITT's Hammertime mass demo will be meeting at 10am on October 13th at the Wild Park Cafe in Mouslecomb, Brighton to besiege EDO/ITT