George Fox Six Campus Activism at the Crossroads

On Monday 26th September, the trial of six activists commenced at Lancaster Magistrates Court. The three day trial arising out of an action that took place at Lancaster University in September 2004 where protestors had gone into the George Fox building at the university to hand out leaflets and talk to people at the "Corporate Venturing" Conference - a networking meeting for multinational corporations. Speakers at the conference were drawn from controversial arms manufacturer BAE Systems, Shell and other companies the six say have 'long histories of human rights
abuses and environmental destruction'. Police attended and told the protestors they were doing nothing wrong, but some months later they received summonses through the post. For the first day in court there were loads of people there in support of the students, banners, press and coverage by BBC radio 4. During the first day the prosecution said that freedom of speech needs to be upheld for corporate entities too!

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/323879.html)

2. The Middlesex university story

In another story concerning freedom of speach at a university, President of Middlesex University Students Union, Keith Shilson, found himself indefinitely suspended and forcibly removed from the Hendon campus by private security guards. The incident occured after the student union had refused to give in to demands that they cancel a debate with a representative of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation which faces being proscribed under new legislation propoed by Tony Blair. They had insisted that the principle of free speech was at stake but with pressure applied from the highest levels the dabate was eventually cancelled.

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/323992.html)

Audio  http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6945.php

3. Terror Suspect David Mery

Another victim of the erosion of civil liberties accelerated by the
co-called 'war on terror' recently was London technology journalist, David Mery, a fench national living in UK for the last 12 years. In July 2005, just one week after the police shot an killed an innocent man mistaken for a suicide bomber, David was stopped and searched by police using anti-terrorism legislation. They said he had been acting suspisiously because he wore a coat which they said was ‘too warm for the season’ and carried a bulky rucksac. Even after the bomb squad had checked his bag and found only a laptop, David was arrested and taken to a police station were
they took samples of his DNA. His home was searched and computer equipment and documents seized before he was released without charge, but without his possesions.

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324347.html)

interview with David Mery
 http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6963.php

4. The Basra-gate incident

Assumptions about the source of terrorism was put under the stoplight last week when two British servicemen were captured, dressed as Arabs after shooting at a Iraqi police in Basra. Local authorities claimed the civilian car they were driving contained weapons and explosives. The incident drew parallels with a similar incidents in Northern Ireland. In Basra however, the British army were quick to snatch back the captured men, smashing down the walls of the police jail with tanks in the process.

interview with ex MI5 agent, David Shayler
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324348.html

5. Antiwar matches in London and around the world

The unrest in Basra last week added to the arguments of the tens of thousands of people took part in an anti-war demonstration in London on Saturday 24th. Organised by Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslism Association of Britian, the march called for troops to pull out of Iraq as well as protesting against the ongoing erosion of civil liberties. From Stockwell in south london and Whitechapel in the East, two feeder marches joined the main march at Parliament Square then took two hours to reach Hyde Park for a rally. While the organisers claimed 100,000 people had taken part, predicatably
the police said it was just 10,000.

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324377.html)

Audio - eyewitness account from Iraq by an Iraqi doctor
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2005/09/324273.mp3
speech from John Pilger
 http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6971.php

6. Protests elsewhere

In the US hundreds of thousands marched against the iraq war and US military spending priorities in what activists say was a important illustration of the changing mood in America. Organisers said over 300,000 people joined the march on Washington. People also marched in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in many other towns and cities across the US.

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324377.html)

A couple of days after the march, members of activist affinity groups organized through the War Resisters League attempted to nonviolently block the entrance to the Pentagon. They aimed to encourage workers not to participate in the war machine. Frida Berrigan of the War Resisters League said, "Forty of us were arrested this morning for shutting down two entrances to the Pentagon. ... This was the largest arrest at the Pentagon
since the beginning of the 'War on Terrorism.'"

(source:  http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/130436/index.php)

Actions continued in the afternoon with a mass sit-down in front of the White House. Over 350 people were arrested one-by-one and placed in police vans. Famed 'peace mum', Cindy Sheehan was one of those arrested.

7. IMF/WB protests in Washington

Also in Washington, the 'Adopt an Intersection' campaign called for
"coordinated direct action" to prevent delegates of the World Bank and IMF from getting to their meetings on September 25.

Starting at 4am, affinity groups gathered at different intersections near the hotel and blocked the flow of buses and vans to the meetings, which were to take place at the IMF and World Bank headquarters eight blocks away. To accomplish their aim, some garbed as "neo-clowns" and stood in the road; others draped rope or erected physical barricades. Meanwhile, a larger group of activists jammed the sidewalk outside the hotel and
heckled delegates when they tried to walk to the meetings.

(source:  http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/130384/index.php)

Police communicated to the activists that so long as they allowed
emergency vehicles through they would take no action. One person was hit by a 4x4 and while splayed accross the bonnet of the vehicle, was driven at high speeds for eight blocks!

(source  http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/130416/index.php)

8. Rita and Katrina aftermath

The US oil industry got off lightly after Hurricane Rita veered off from a direct strike on Houston before making landfall. As storm and flood damage along the Gulf coast is being assessed.

could use chunks from the Rita Special on
 http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6967.php
which contains some nice stuff

Meanwhile climate change deniers have been quick to assure American consumers that the storms are not evidence of global warming. Director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, said this period of heightened hurricane activity that could last another decade or two insisted that the increased activity is due to natural fluctuations driven by the Atlantic Ocean itself and not enhanced substantially by global warming.

(source:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324093.html)