UK UK Newswire Archive
ARK Academy Public Meetings
13-10-2011 08:48
I live in South Birmingham and am a parent of two primary school-aged children. On 10th October 2010, I attended a public consultation meeting at Kings Norton High School on the proposal to turn it into an ARK academy school. I have to say that it was far worse than I had actually imagined it would be!I had thought that, whilst academies would be a form of privatisation, there would be enough safeguards in place and enough self-restraint by the people running the academies for it to avoid being too radically different from schools as they are currently run. Having heard from the people pushing this academy agenda I now think that is quite naive.
The 1-hour public ‘consultation’ meeting basically consisted of a 30 minutes of an incredibly one-sided sales-pitch given by 4 academy fundamentalists, followed by an attempt to shut down any form of criticism that came from the floor. The academy fundamentalists consisted of the ARK project director, the chair of the governors of Kings Norton High School, the Head Teacher of Kings Norton High School, and another head teacher from an existing ARK school in Birmingham.
Gary DS Memorial Benefit Saturday 15th Oct Hackney
13-10-2011 07:44
As some of you know Gary DS, his daughter Caisie, ex partner Kath, and friend Tallie died in a tragic accident on 1st August this year. His daughter Josie was seriously injured.Trade agreement threatens your internet freedom
13-10-2011 02:48
A new trade agreement poses a threat to free speech online. Help stop ACTA now and tell the European Parliament to vote "NO!"See the full story at
http://indymedia.org.au/2011/10/13/a-new-trade-agreement-poses-a-threat-to-free-speech-online-help-stop-acta-now-and-tell-th Dale Farm: An End to the Legal Process? A Call to the Baricades!
13-10-2011 01:56
Ongoing bombardment of Sirte by NATO
12-10-2011 22:31
World Repair
12-10-2011 21:54
Revisiting some past thoughts as the inevitable global revolution begins ...Justice system fails Dale Farm community
12-10-2011 20:55
The High Court has rejected the Dale Farm residents’ application for a judicial review, threatening 83 families with homelessness. This paves the way for Basildon Council to pursue an eviction which will leave Dale Farm as a patchwork of concrete and fences, along with a few isolated residential plots. Lawyers for the Dale Farm residents will appeal the decision.
Dale Farm resident, Kathleen McCarthy, said, “Travellers have always faced persecution under the law – we hoped that this time would be different, but it seems like the High Court cares more about planning regulations than our human rights. I can’t believe they would carry on with this senseless eviction, that will separate families and tear apart a community, just to make Dale Farm into a scrapyard again.”
The Dale Farm community has repeatedly offered to negotiate with the Council to find a positive solution. Basildon Council has turned down a number of alternatives to eviction, including the offer of free land for alternative sites from the Homes and Communities Agency. [1] Dale Farm residents are calling on Basildon Council to notify them of an eviction date.
Lily Hayes, a Dale Farm supporter, said “This isn’t about planning regulations, it’s about prejudice. Basildon Council and the government don’t care about the welfare of this community – instead, they are intent on clearing them out of Basildon and willing to spend £22 million in the process. Today, the law has failed the Dale Farm community, leaving them at the mercy of the Tory’s confrontational eviction strategy.”
Upon leaving the court, Travellers and supporters announced the launch of the Traveller Solidarity Network that will bring together people to resist eviction and fight for the recognition of Traveller’s rights. [1]
[1] http://travellersolidarity.org/
Students To March On The City | Nov 9 [NCAFC]
12-10-2011 20:25
National demonstration will go to the City, rather than to Parliament
Students plan to derail the government’s HE white paper
Demonstration a key date in the autumn of resistance, ahead of the November 30th strike action
Remembering the June the 18th 1999 City of London carnival against capitalism
12-10-2011 18:57
Over 12 years ago back on June the 18th 1999 there was a massive carnival against capitalism in the City of London similar to the planned occupy the stock exchange event this Saturday the 15th of October.Quick Dale Farm Update.
12-10-2011 17:15
Planning regulations must be upheld, no ifs, no buts.
No official stay on Eviction - but looks to be Monday.
LUC @ Tory Conference
12-10-2011 16:55
This is a personal account and is not the necessarily the views of anyone else who associates with LUC.
A few folk from LUC went up to Manchester for the first day of the Scummy Party Conference (bet you know which one) along with another thirty-odd thousand people to show a visible opposition the Tory party cuts.
We joined the feeder march as it moved along the main road. Mainly full of youth it was a lively mix of people with varying political and non-political beliefs. Anarchists made up a decent sized proportion collecting around the many Red and Blacks.
Forward Intelligence Teams, as always, were wearing out the springs on their posh new equipment happily snapping anyone looking as radical as a toddler or custard pie thrower. The photo-shy amongst us masked up which prompted some curiosity from a union member as for the need for creating a ‘bad’ media image, as if a mask itself causes trouble to occur.
Photo taken from truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com because I’m in it
With a slow pace the feeder moved forward linking in with the larger union presence. Approaching the Manchester City Hall a fragment broke off to occupy the cobbled square. Calling themselves Occupy Manchester, the group slash collection of groups, aimed to create a space in which debate and free assembly can take place. Occupations being a very much activist past time the main procession took little interest and continued along the pre-planned route. This seems to be the flaw in the growing occupations movement across the States and the UK, although they can gain media attention they do not incorporate the mass of people which cannot attend and therefore don’t manage to spread the word of radical politics. Demands upon the elite lack any backbone and aid in reinforcing the occupation as an unorganised lobbying group or simply a stunt. The focus on a certain geographical setting, whilst creating a brand ‘Occupy Manchester’ and helping to focus worthy interest leaves a vacuum after its departure of self-organised structure which has the possibility of seriously confronting the Jack the Rippers in Parliament.
I left the square during the beginning of the assembly and slipped down the sides of the march as it squeezed through the bottle necks created by the anti car bomb barricades. Further ahead I reached a group of more mature unionists holding PCS banners aloft. As they passed the conference building no opportunities were missed to throw abuse at the cowards hiding behind the pale curtains. All around me screams of ‘scum’ were hurled across the barricades. Real, authentic class anger is definitely in the atmosphere which is simply being stifled by weak union leadership which has no real interest in that of the working class. Those people there wanted direct confrontation with the people cutting their grand kids futures and ending their chance of a comfortable retirement. However, it’s the union leadership which is ironically, but sadly historically, keeping the politicians and capitalists safe from the baying masses by not taking action beyond symbolism. Leaders would like to portray the older generation as rudderless biddies more concerned with tea, biscuits and flower arrangements, but they’ve lived through Thatcher. They know firsthand what’s in store.
The march finished in the park, with speeches of fighting the Tory government, labour battles and so on.
By and large, it was a positive day seeing the presence of so many people all opposed to the new austerity measures but raises the undeniable need for strong community grass-roots organising. The stuntism of Occupy Manchester, the symbolic marches and the one day strikes cannot replace the slow growing spread of radical ideas and alternatives. Anarchists must begin to create an atmosphere within their own neighbourhood of an alternative by communicating in all forms and all places with people usually cut off from our clicky circles. Time may be tight, and this process is the slowest of them all, it will take decades in fact, but it will form a base so strong and organised that people will believe revolution is possible and the rest will take its course.
Blackfriar's flashride
12-10-2011 16:55
LCC is finally showing some spirit and organised it's second Flashride to highlight tfl's and the mayor of London's failure to accomodate pedestrians and cyclists in the redesign of Blackfriars bridge.
From: 05:45pm 12 Oct 2011
To: 06:45pm 12 Oct 2011
It's a dangerous death trap and the powers that be actively decided not to address it, in order to avoid upsetting car drivers.
- http://road.cc/content/news/45058-lcc-hopes-thousands-will-attend-blackfriars-bridge-flashride-12-october
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qSApiMaQnA&feature=youtu.be
- http://lcc.org.uk/events/blackfriars-protest-flashride-3
- and, a plan on how to do it better: http://lcc.org.uk/pages/people-friendly-blackfriars
- live broadcast during the ride (and video archive after) http://bambuser.com/channel/cyclecast
#OccupyLSX Callout – Let’s do this!
12-10-2011 16:48
Occupy the London Stock Exchange
15th October
12pm
St Paul’s Cathedral
The Abuse Of Mentally Ill Prisoners Held In Close Supervision Centres
12-10-2011 16:23
Prison doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists are currently complicit in the abuse and psychological torture of mentally ill prisoners held in a brutal jail control-unit at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes.LUC @ Tory Conference
12-10-2011 15:45
This is a personal account and is not the necessarily the views of anyone else who associates with LUC.arse for art's sake - full moon at parliament
12-10-2011 14:55
performance artist/activist karen barnes staged another in her unusual series of protest performance events. yesterday afternoon, just a few hours before this month's full moon, she and a group of friends/supporters performed a full moon of their own outside parliament
a year on from her first public parliamentary moon, karen returned to the scene yesterday for another irreverent performance to parliament.
you can find full details of last year's event, and the rationale behind the series here
last year's event fell on a lunar new moon - this year's was on the full moon
earlier this year in march, karen performed a series of events outside parliament, then sent her 'ermyarse' postcards to every mp and peer in may, and finally yesterday gathered a small group together for the moon.
yesterday's performance was complicated by the fact that a large protest group (many of them muslim) appeared shortly before the appointed time to hold a rally against injustice in bangladesh, but the mooners moved to the rear of st stephen's green in respect for the protest and the moon continued without incident.
karen had notified the police for authorisation, as she did last year. however, it is now no longer a legal obligation to do so in the area around parliament as the relevant clauses in the notorious SOCPA legislation were repealed as part of the 'police and social resonsibility act 2011' which came into force a few weeks ago. more on that in a separate article coming soon.
for more info on the ER my arse project, see karen's website
The Impact of Occupy Wall Street: Some Early Indicators
12-10-2011 14:30
A quote well-known among activists, variously attributed to Gandhi or US labor leader Nicholas Klein, says that “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” In the space of just the past several weeks, it’s possible to discern the first three steps of this progression in the response of the US political, economic, and media elite to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. This fact should be a great source of encouragement for all those brave and dedicated individuals who have helped build this movement.