UK UK Newswire Archive
Anti-Olympic Meeting, Mile End Park, London, May 2nd.
30-04-2012 20:54
7pm at the Occupy Mile End camp, wednesday may 2nd.all invited.
Anti-Fascist OAPs Attacked by Far Right
30-04-2012 20:27
Is the Parole Board deciding on the continued detention of life sentence prisone
30-04-2012 16:22
Periodically reviewing life sentences by the Parole Board is a process required by law and such reviews, known as Tribunals, are intended to assess the current level of risk presented by life-sentence prisoners at the expiry of Tariff point of their sentence; Tariffs are the minimum length of time trial judges specify a lifer should spend in prison to satisfy the interests of retribution and punishment. Once the tariff point has been reached or exceeded by the lifer then the Parole Board has a legal duty to review and make an informed decision on the lifer's continued imprisonment.
Barclays: Divest from Israel and the Arms Trade - picket of Barclays 27/4/12
30-04-2012 11:23
SmashEDO:A few words on sensationalist journalism,protest bans and the local rag
30-04-2012 09:21
Those who regularly follow the news in Brighton inevitably come across the inane ramblings of Brighton’s very own tabloid rag The Argus.Finding out about the Armed Forces in Schools
30-04-2012 08:31
Over at ForcesWatch we're building up a picture of the way the Armed Forces engage with schools - to help us do this we've launch a survey for parents, teachers and school students.Smash EDO Press Release - The Summer of Resistance begins on May 1st
30-04-2012 08:21
Smash EDO gear up to Summer of ResistanceSmash EDO, the Brighton based campaign to close down arms manufacturer EDO MBM (a part of US corporation ITT Exelis), has been building up to the start of our summer campaign. The Summer of Resistance is billed to start on Tuesday 1st May with a noise demonstration at the factory.
Tottenham Court Road suspect a BNP candidate
30-04-2012 06:49
Michael Green, 48, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was arrested on Friday after the incident, during which parts of central London were evacuated.
His alleged offences include possession of a weapon for the discharge of a noxious liquid/gas or electrical incapacitating device.
Green is also accused of false imprisonment, making a bomb hoax, causing criminal damage and recklessly endangering life.
U.S Special Forces Unconventional Warfare Manual TC 18 01
29-04-2012 20:49
‘The intent of U.S. unconventional warfare efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish U.S. strategic objectives.’Is Anders Breivik part of much wider neo-Nazi terror network linked to the EDL?
29-04-2012 13:02
Friday Drivetime - BCfm's weekly politics show.
At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers
For all the shows back to Easter 2009 visit the Friday Drivetime archive page.
London Radical Events Listings
29-04-2012 11:34
successful and effective de blacklist amsterdam // stressfaktor berlin : - to draw together
as many of the political, academic and social activity of London’s (sometimes, often or by
definition) radical hubs into a single document to use at your disposal.
The Co-Op will “no longer engage with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements”.
29-04-2012 10:01
The Co-op’s decision, notified to campaigners in a statement, will immediately impact four suppliers, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin, Israel’s largest agricultural export company. Mehadrin sources produce from illegal settlements, including Beqa’ot in the Occupied Jordan Valley. During interviews with researchers, Palestinian workers in the settlement said they earn as little as €11 per day. Grapes and dates packaged in the settlement were all labelled ‘Produce of Israel’.
World Day
29-04-2012 00:55
Today in Birmingham, thousands of animal rights protesters (including groups from both Derby and Nottingham) gathered to march as part of World Day for Animals In Laboratories.
Today in Birmingham, thousands of animal rights protesters (including groups from both Derby and Nottingham) gathered to march as part of World Day for Animals In Laboratories.
On average every 8 seconds an animal is killed in a UK vivisection laboratory, some having been put through about as much suffering as it is possible to put a feeling creature through,
If you think this is an exaggeration, consider that according to home office statistics 60% of all laboratory procedures are carried out with NO ANAESTHETIC WHATSOEVER..
As a result of high profile actions like the Birmingham march, the public is beginning to suspect the harrowing extent of the vivisection industry and ever more ordinary people are asking the question: how necessary is animal research?
Tellingly, the animal rights lobby has consistently demanded an independent judicial enquiry into the SCIENTIFIC VALIDITY of animal experiments, whereas the pro-vivisection lobby campaign to prevent such an inquiry.
It is also worth noting that 98% of human diseases cannot be reproduced in laboratory animals, and that NO SCIENTIFIC QUALIFICATIONS are required to work as a vivisector.
Unfortunately there is a significant economic incentive for drug companies to avoid the risk of prosecution for adverse drug reactions by sacrificing dogs, rats, monkeys, cats, etc. in barbaric experiments, rather than investing in tissue culture, in-vitro testing, microdosing, computer modelling and a whole raft of other alternative technologies that have been shown to be more reliable at predicting human physiological responses.
In the modern marketplace of the vivisectors and faceless pharmaceutical corporations, life is tragically cheap.
Images:
1:
A significant contribution to the day's mass protest was made by DERBY ANIMAL RIGHTS who caught the attention and sympathies of hundreds of passing shoppers with their stark display of a large rabbit in a cage surrounded but pretend vivisectors. One individual in particular seemed much moved. If only the grown-ups in parliament shared his compassion..
2:
Another shot from the Derby display, before a well earned samosa and cuppa from the ever reliable VEGGIES of Nottingham!
Criminal neglect at Leyton Marsh
28-04-2012 20:55
The Olympic Delivery Authority, Waltham Forest Council, Lea Valley Regional Park Authority and Nussli AG put the building site workers and community at risk to save face.
If there is a will there is a way. That’s the story of the Marsh. The community has been betrayed; the environment, workforce on the building site and Marsh users put at risk. All this to save face from as the Judge in the recent court action put it “fear of embarrassment.” Prizing the perception of the various players involved above integrity and truth. That’s the bigger story to this local community struggle that has reached international eyes and ears. Threats of litigation, arrests, unverified unaccountable conclusions, contradictions, an ODA solicitor posing as press, financial bullying, the breaking of contractual obligations, military surveillance and the list goes on
The trust of the local community surrounding Leyton Marsh has been broken. It has taken three and a half months for the news of the lead and asbestos contaminated soil to break into the national media. This is in spite of reports in the various players documentation and in spite of the local campaign group voicing it since its inception. Every journalist that visited the site was informed and press releases were sent to local and national news outlets. Letters have been sent to councillors, MPs and other pertinent institutions. Some correspondences were ignored and other responses were revealing.
The various players in this ballooning disgrace have forgotten that the local community contribute to their wages and as the collected evidence suggests the contributions they pay in good faith are getting wasted and being used to intimidate them and brush them aside. That is surely an insult if ever there was one and one that everyone should pay heed too. All that is required by the local community is a legally accountable exit strategy timetable so when the ODA hands the land back the area is in the same condition they found it, in addition to the satisfactory treatment and safe disposal of the contaminated soil. Both of these have been requested and still members of the local community are waiting.
Mark Sorrell (Program manager of the ODA) sent a recent email citing the risks of the tons of contaminated soil as “negligible” and is of the opinion that the best way of getting rid of the asbestos concrete was to hand pick it out. He claimed that this was off the back of a Environmental Agency Advice.
It is worth noting the Judge in the recent ruling to renew the injunction sort by the ODA solicitors described the persons unknown and named defendants concerns “as reasonable and justified.” With regards to Waltham Forest Council they have broken the communities trust, as the Olympic Delivery Authority, Lea Valley Regional Park Authority and Nussli AG have done, they knew beforehand the true requirements needed to build the basketball training facility. The Council knew they would not be able to sanction the building on the Marshes if they had had to do an environmental impact assessment, so they decided to take the easier less accountable option.
Digging two feet into the ground for foundations does not constitute a temporary structure and of course the ODA and contractors were granted retrospective planning permission. As a result they have unearthed tons of old World War Two rubble contaminated with asbestos and lead, putting many people at risk including the imported workforce that are on site day after day. It even raised the concerns of British Waterways which has insisted on protective steps to be taken to prevent rain runoff from the contaminated soil affecting the nearby river.
If we are to get to the bottom of this we need a truly independent soil auditor to carry out the tests or better still an auditor chosen by the deceitful four and one by the community. Let’s see if they match. This is a matter of public interest. It will also mean we can respond accordingly. Perhaps the ODA’s Mark Sorrell would like to speak in person to the local community and explain to them what he means by this being the greenest Olympics ever, how building a temporary multi million pound structure is value for money and what exactly he means by legacy? Perhaps these players instead of hiding behind officialdom, lawyers and the police would have a public consultation and present the community with legal iron cast assurances. I’m sure people would respect that and forgive them for their intimidation and the risks they have subjected the community too.
It’s never nice to point fingers and I’m sure any business man in Mark Sorrell's position would have handled it in the same way, It’s also worth remembering these things take many people to pull of successfully. Recently the project has enlisted the help of Atkin consultants that "support our clients by cutting through complexity to deliver results" and Capita who have their fingers in so many pies it's difficult to know what it is they are getting enlisted for. It is true that this particular project needs all the support it can get because they certainly are not getting it from the community.
I would even go as far as saying that the institution that is most at fault here is the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority. They courted the ODA offering the space as if it was there’s to give, despite the environmental impacts on the rare wild life to be found in and next to the grounds. They know this area to be well used and treasured by the community. Simply put they sold them out ignoring the fact they are paid to be custodians of this metropolitan open land through the community’s council tax. Recently they had a feasibility meeting about extending the ice rink to a five thousand seated stadium. As long suspected Save Leyton Marshes suspicions have been confirmed that the temporary basketball training facility will pave the way for further building works spoiling this land forever. Like the libraries there are few places that are open to all and embrace everyone rich or poor, old or young. The Marshes do just that. There are still things in this life that are sacred.
Canada supplied drones to Libyan rebels
28-04-2012 18:40
While the UN embargo was clearly aimed at preventing the delivery of weapons both to Gadhafi and those fighting him, NATO looked the other way when it came to the rebels. Hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and arms breezed through the blockade, exposing what critics say was Canada and NATO’s real motive during the Libyan war — regime change under the guise of protecting civilians.Birmingham Says No to Racist Scumbag Cllr. John Lines' Mayoral Appointment
28-04-2012 17:51
The Second City Doesn't Deserve a Violent Racist as it's First Citizen
About a dozen members of West Midlands No Borders were met with enthusiasm and interest today, as they staged an info picket outside of the Birmingham City Council house. Their presence confronted the racist violence of soon-to-be-Mayor, Councillor John Lines, and the benefactors of Lines’ privatisation of Asylum Seeker housing, global security company G4S.
Large banners spanning the entrance of the Council House that read: “No To Racist Scumbag Mayor Lines” and “G4S will screw you 2” were the backdrop as passers-by stopped, despite the cold rain, to express their support.
“I wish I had a picture of this” said one passerby, “he really is a racist!”
Catholic Priest living rent free as Anglican Community member
28-04-2012 10:34
A Brother in an Anglican Religious Community who has converted to Roman Catholicism continues to remain a brother in that Anglican Community and to live completely rent free in property bought for him and owned by that Community, despite being now a working member of a church which rejects Anglican beliefs and despite the Anglican community being in financial difficulties.