UK UK Newswire Archive
Reclaim The Streets, London, 1996, M41
26-04-2011 17:22
Reclaim the Streets in London, 1996. A free festival on the M41 motorway in West London - July 96
Big changes are coming to Indymedia UK
26-04-2011 17:22
On 1st May 2011 Indymedia UK will give birth to two new projects. The Indymedia UK website will be archived, it will stay were it is now, but you won’t be able to publish news. In its place there will be two distinct projects: Mayday will provide a non-regional site with open publishing and Be The Media will present the best of radical news across the regions, including Bristol, Northern, Nottingham and London.
BeTheMedia | Find out more about the history of Indymedia: article | video | pics | i - the film
Indymedia UK has been covering radical news for 11 years. During this time, hundreds of volunteers have put their passion and skills into the project, volunteering their media, stories, organising skills and technical know how. For many of us it has been one of the most amazing projects we ever participated in but now we are moving on.
The new aggregator site: Be The Media is currently bringing you the best of Indymedia coverage, but we plan to expand. The site is still under development, so check back for changes. We also plan to include radical news from all over the web, not limited to Indymedia websites. We are sad to see the end of Indymedia UK and we are excited to be working on bethemedia.org.uk while continuing our local sites; Bristol, Northern, London and Nottingham Indymedia.
Local Collectives
While Indymedia UK started out with one collective maintaining the UK site, the anti war protests 2003 kickstarted collectives all over the island. Bristol set up their own website, and Scotland, Manchester, London started regional sections on the UK site. Soon Sheffield and Leeds joined in, followed by Oxford and Cambridge…
Indymedia was a hub for social justice news. But recently activity and participation in local collectives has decreased. Many regional sites need volunteers. At the same time there has been refreshed interest in other regions. Imc Northern England was set up in 2009, Nottingham set up a new site, and some local collectives have been growing and getting more active again.
As the article From Indymedia UK to the United Kollektives from 2004 says: “We realised that a uk wide project would need a decentralised structure, both technically and socially.” Today we are taking the next step of decentralisation, and are proud to present the new and shiny Indymedia Syndication Site! Everything you post to an Indymedia site, will be pulled together to get a good overview of social justice news, while at the same time strengthening the autonomy and independence of local collectives to focus on reporting that is relevant to their communities.
Indymedia still needs you! Be it reporting from the street, moderating the website, writing features, setting up a radio show, organising film screening, helping out with web design or other technical things… Find out how to get involved with you local collective or get in touch with the nearest group to set up a new one!
Why Indymedia
When Indymedia started, blogs did not exist and only few political groups had the skills and resources to set up their own website. But in the age of blogs and abundant services that allow anyone to publish on the internet, why does Indymedia matter? Isn’t Indymedia a dinosaur in the spheres of the internet, that can’t keep up with all the new services like facebook and twitter etc…?
Indymedia is a collective projects in many ways. There is the global network of Indymedia collectives. There are the editorial collectives running each site and organising events and coverage, producing films and print papers and much more. And there are the websites that are a collective effort by everyone who ever published anything, many many more people than have ever attended an Indymedia meeting.
It is true, everyone can set up their own blog nowadays. But if you have ever tried to do this, you know how hard it can be to maintain one. Or to get people to look at it. Also, most of those services are hosted by corporations. No matter how much love you put into your blog, how many followers you have on twitter and how many people said they will come to your facebook event: The corporations behind those services not only know where you are updating it from, and who is looking at your stuff, and might easily hand over that information to anyone who asks. But they can also lock you out and shut you down in an instant. And if you are unlucky, you risk loosing years of work, with no possibility to address this.
Not only does Indymedia still provide one service, that you don’t get anywhere else on the web: anonymous posting. It also allows you to get in touch with the editorial collective directly, and address any grievances that you may have. Decisions are made not with profit in mind, but on a consensus basis. And we have learned from all the server seizures Indymedia has suffered over the years and always keep backups.
Another important advantage of Indymedia is that it often works well as a contextualised archive of not only campaigns and mobilisations, but also of the social movements themselves. In an era where info flows through the internet in a very fast and fragmented manner, Indymedia manages to collect reports, photos, audio and video together in the form of thematic documents – features or pages – which are then easily retrievable for future reference.
On a blog, you can control the content. On Indymedia you will always see your posts in the midst of stuff that may be not so exciting for you, or you even disagree with. But also you will always come across other random stuff that you didn’t know about. Your posts will be embedded in a mesh of reports about social justice, and contextualised in a wider struggle. They won’t sit isolated and only attract people who are already interested in what you care about. Someone may go looking for information about something else entirely, and come across your post.
Indymedia is so much more than just yet another website on the ever expanding universe of the internet. It’s not just a website. It’s a constantly evolving project requiring continued effort on the part of a global network of enthusiastic and passionate media-producers and other supporters of radical media – including a large number of technically-gifted geeks who volunteer their time to ensure that your personal information and identity remain safe and secure from malicious meddling by corporations and law-enforcement institutions attempting to squash political dissent. And not simply for paranoia’s sake – we’ve recently witnessed this very thing happening – check-out information on the Fitwatch website shut-down or the disappearing twitter accounts.
Lots of campaigns and groups have their own blogs nowadays. But a lot of them don’t keep backups. So the campaign is over, the group is dissolved, the person maintaining the blog disappears, or the police have the site taken down. What happens then? A whole strand of the history of social movements disappears. The writing, reports, the information and the artwork disappears and becomes inaccessible. Anyone should aim to not only use internet for the short span of the present, but also for the future.
Indymedia has facilitated and championed citizen, grass-roots reporting for over 10 years and is unique in its web presence. It links together the myriad of ever-constant political analysis, campaigns and direct-action groups via news and information. In demonstrating an overview of social justice movements, it allows networks and other links to forge, both in reality and in people’s minds. The Indymedia project has always pushed a political envelope in a journalistic sense – encouraging its users to look beyond an alienated and fragmented, single-issue focused reportage of radical resistance.
More info on corporate social networking | Indymedia and the Enclosure of the Internet | Tech tools for activists
History
The first time UK protests were reported live on the web was the June 18 protests 1999 (archived version 1 and version 2) in London. At the time, there weren’t any blogs, twitter or facebook, and there was no Indymedia. There wasn’t any wireless internet either. So a ‘media centre’ was set up in the offices of one of the few friendly internet providers at the time, and reports were manually uploaded to the site as they were coming in from the City, across London Bridge and into the offices at the other side of the river brought by a network of carriers.
Half a year later, people set up the first Independent Media Centre for the Anti WTO protests in Seattle. They introduced something new on the Internet: on the website, you could go to an online form, and post your own articles. Up to that time, the internet had very much been a place were you could find information, but sharing information required some technical knowledge. Any city could set up their own indymedia site. The UK was one of the first to join the global network of Independent Media Centres. If memory serves, it was the third Imc to start, and the first not based in the US.
Indymedia UK made its first public appearance during the RTS’s Guerrilla Gardening protests of Mayday 2000. Visible at the centre of the demonstration as bike-powered computers were set up at Parliament Square allowing people in the action to type their reports unmediated for the first time. Then, the articles written by you were carried to a publishing hub in the basement of the Foundry pub where a Media Centre had been set up consisting of several computers, a dispatch telephone number where people could call in reports from the actions, and a single dial-up connection powered by a very long telephone cable extension plugged to a single phone socket. Believe it or not, this was ground-breaking technology at the time!
All my cartoons in support of the brave Syrian people
26-04-2011 16:13
As civilian protesters marching for freedom and democracy are mown down in their hundreds by the pan-arab fascist Ba'athist regime, here are all my cartoons on the subject.Palestine Today 04 26 2011
26-04-2011 16:13
Workers’ Memorial Day Thursday 28th April 2011
26-04-2011 13:51
Workers' Memorial Day is to remember all those killed at or by work, & to strengthen our resolve to reduce risks and protect people from injury in the workplace.Online Petition: Fair pay for Royal cleaners
26-04-2011 13:49
Cleaners working for the Royal Household in London are paid £6.45 per hour even though the London Living Wage is set at £7.85. Cleaners in the House of Commons and House of Lords are paid at the rate of the London Living wage.Offmarket new Access Codes
26-04-2011 12:22
OffMarket has moved to a new location just 5 doors away from the old place. The new address is 121 Lower Clapton Road, Hackney, E5 OPN. Here are the access codes for our new building.
Accesibility and Access Codes
#Doors#
Reading Room Door: 189cm x 79cm
Door leading to Kitchen and Toilet: 189cm x 79cm
Toilet Door: 189cm x 79cm
Doorless Doorway leading to Kitchen and Toilet: 201cm x 85cm
Stairs Archway: 206cm x 96cm
Front Door: 201cm x 98cm
#Stairs#
Narrowest Point: 92cm
Height of Stairs: 21cm
#PUBLIC TRANSPORT#
One bus-stop is 70 feet from our front door (via a zebra crossing, in a side street). Bus 242 stops here en route to Homerton Hospital.
Another bus-stop is on our street but on the other side (via a zebra crossing), 20 feet from our front door. Buses 48, 55, 106, 253, and 254 all stop here en route to Cambridge Heath.
Finally there is a bus-stop on our side of the street, 130 feet from our front door. Buses 38, 48, 55, 106, 253, 254, 425 and 488 all stop here en route to Clapton Roundabout.
The zebra crossing is 6 feet from our front door.
Nearest train stations are Clapton and Hackney Central, each are at least 15 minutes walk or a short bus ride to our front door.
#ENTRANCES#
Main entrance is a shop front door, with a 13cm high step. Please see below for further details.
#DOORS#
Front door step is 10cm high. Front door is 79cm wide and 201cm high, and opens into the shop.
This takes you straight into the main space. A smaller room, used as a reading room, to the rear is accessed through a door which is 79cm wide and 189cm high.
Also at the rear is a door leading to both the kitchen and toilet which is 79cm wide and 189cm high.
There is a doorless doorway to the kitchen and the toilet which is 85cm wide and 207cm high. However this entry is obstructed by the kitchen sink and is at its narrowest is only 72cm wide.
The door to the toilet is 79cm wide and 189cm high. The toilet is 220cm from this door, which opens into the toilet room. The toilet seat is 40cm high. The light switch is in the external corridor and is 134cm high. There is a small sink on the left of the toilet, 230cm from the door and is 81cm high.
#INSIDE BUILDING#
We are entirely on the ground floor of the building. There are steps leading to the basement which is not used, as well as the step at the front door.
#ROOM DIMENSIONS#
The main room at the front is 520cm x 1000cm. The reading room is 193cm x 495cm. The toilet room is 265cm x 212cm. The kitchen (excluding cupboards) is 157cm x 71cm.
#FLOOR SURFACES#
There is a central laminated floor leading through the main room which is otherwise carpeted, there is carpet in the reading room and in the kitchen with linoleum flooring in the toilet.
#LIGHTING#
Lighting is currently patchy but quite bright, via florescent and bulb lights in the ceiling.
There are large, shop-front style, windows at the front of the building/main room. The reading room is lit by bright florescent lights The kitchen is lit by a bulb light. The toilet has a large window which allows some light, but is also lit by a bulb.
Anti-nuclear camp / Chernobyl 25th anniversary at Sizewell - pics
26-04-2011 11:42
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net staged a four-day anti-nuclear camp on the beach beside Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, eastern England from 22-25 April 2011. Campers marked the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the world's worst ever nuclear accident, on 26 April 1986, and sent out a clear message: 'No' to nuclear greenwash, 'Yes' to sustainable alternatives. More images here:
http://tinyurl.com/62j3qc6 All images Copyright (c) 2011 Stop Nuclear Power Network. They may be reproduced free of charge if credited to Stop Nuclear Power Network. For high resolution versions, please e-mail.
US Struggles To Contain 'Arab Spring'
26-04-2011 11:27
Cut Cake Not Services Guerrilla Picnic
26-04-2011 11:20
A group of local Telford residents will be hosting a guerrilla picnic themed 'Cake Not Cuts' at the Telford Town Park Amphitheatre on Monday 1st May from midday onwards.Toby Young, the EDL and the Rally Against Debt
26-04-2011 11:12
A nasty little bunch of right-wing chancers are organising a Rally Against Debt to show public "support" for public service cuts, scheduled for 11am to 2pm at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London, May 14 -Clegg visiting Bristol 26/04/11
26-04-2011 10:56
Unconfirmed reports of Nick Clegg visiting Bristol today, see below for detsGlasgow May Day: Carnival Against Cuts
26-04-2011 10:22
Glasgow, May 1st, 2011: International Workers' Day
Social Centre Plus
26-04-2011 10:22
Local residents who occupied the old Job Centre on Deptford High Street with the aim of "converting it into an anti-cuts space for the community" have responded to a legally binding eviction order for this Tuesday by announcing a series of events, culminating in a "mass meeting of anti-cuts activists" the night before. The collective - who go by the name of Social Centre Plus - also plan to bring the local community together against the government's budget cuts, with spoken word concerts, children's days, film showings and market day cafés.
Members of the Social Centre Plus collective were in Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday 30th March to hear the Judge accept the argument of Paul Jackson from Victory Land, the owners of the site on 122 Deptford High Street, and rubber-stamped an order that allows Jackson and bailiffs to forcefully evict the occupation. "They've notified us that they'll arrive this Tuesday morning," Nasser Khan said. "So we've got a raft of activities to keep us busy in the meantime, and we're calling on the local community to come down and participate. It's your space, so we want to hear your ideas!"
When asked what the SCP Collective had planned for after the eviction, Khan replied that they hadn't discussed the issue. "What's important now is that we all work together to use the space as an effective space to counter the brutal cuts being implemented both by the Tories and Lib Dems in Westminster, and the Labourites running Lewisham Council," Khan continued.
YOUTUBE(11 mins) CatholicWorkers Blockade DowningSt for Brad Manning-End the War
26-04-2011 09:26
11 minute edited youtube video of 3 Catholic Workers40 min "Free Bradley Manning" Good Friday blockade, stand off and arrest
at 10 Downing Street, London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pFCQthlxgg
Smash EDO Press Release - For Immediate Release
26-04-2011 08:59
Anti Arms Trade campaigners shut down arms factory in solidarity with Gaza
For details contact Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh on 07526557436 or
smashedopress@riseup.net Follow updates on Twitter (with more photos): @smash_edo
Early this morning three activists locked themselves to the Brighton arms
factory EDO/ITT, in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Mayor rides to Reach Fair
26-04-2011 08:25
The Mayor of Cambridge will cycle the 12 miles from the Guildhall Cambridge to the village of Reach to open the historic 800 year old fair. She'll be riding with an expected 500 other riders who will set off from 9:30am on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May. It is the first time a mayor has done the journey on a bike to open the fair."Beyond Borders", May 21st
26-04-2011 08:17
