UK Feature Archive
SchNEWS 745: Serious Organised Crime
28-10-2010 22:49
The six defendants in the second SHAC trial were hammered with vicious sentences this week. The harshest sentence was the six years handed down to 53 year old Sarah Whitehead. Sentences for the other defendants Tom Harris. Nicole Vosper, Jason Mullan, Nicola Tapping and Alfie Fitzpatrick ranged from a two year suspended sentence for the youngest, Alfie, to three and a half years for Nicole Vosper. All the defendants also copped lengthy ASBOs, which will prevent them from any further participation in animal rights activism.
On the Newswire:
In SchNEWS: 581 | 586 | 616 | 630 | 652 | 660 | 663 | 666 | 667 | 688 | 738
Links: www.shac.net | www.schac7.com |
Mark Kennedy/Stone exposed as undercover cop
24-10-2010 09:44
Mark Kennedy AKA Mark Stone, who lived in Nottingham, has been exposed as having worked as an undercover police officer and this has been confirmed by Nottingham Indymedia and endorsed by other activist groups.
From 2000 to at least the end of 2009, Mark Kennedy was a well-known face in the local activist community and was actively involved in various environmental, animal rights, anti-capitalist and anti-fascist groups and campaigns.
Investigations into his identity revealed evidence that he has been a police officer and a face-to-face confession has confirmed this. The people involved in confronting Mark and getting his confession from him make clear that for security reasons no more information can be made public at this stage.
Activist Security Advice: Infiltrators, Informers and Grasses how, why and what to do if your group is targeted (PDF) from activistsecurity.org | Informants, Infiltrators & Provocateurs from security.resist.ca
Related Infiltration Articles: Heathrow Protesters Uncover Spy Plot | Indymedia and British Intelligence Services | Police caught on tape trying to recruit protester as spy | Antifa Statement on Police Informant Matthew Gibbons | NZ: The beauty of hindsight - police informant caught after 10 years | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK's violent activists | Observer exposes police spy in the Socialist Party
Full article | 1 addition | 1 comment
G4S guards accused of killing deportee
23-10-2010 15:23
Three G4S security guards are accused of causing the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who died during his forcible deportation on a British Airways flight to Angola on 12th October. Eye witnesses told the Guardian how the 46-year-old man was being "heavily restrained by security guards and had complained of breathing problems before he collapsed." The three men have since been questioned by police and bailed until December pending further inquires.
In response to the government's deafening silence, on 15th October activists from South London plastered the area from Elephant and Castle to Peckham with posters holding witness statements and other info about Jimmy's murder.
From the Newswire: Group 4 murder Angolan migrant during deportation | Unacceptable death of Jimmy Mubenga | Jimmy Mubenga posters in South London | Dover detainees demand 'proper investigation' | The Angolan death on BA77 at Heathrow
SchNEWS 744: To The Manor Osbourne
21-10-2010 21:36
Thousands have marched, a government department has been broken into, and a Scottish branch of Lloyds TSB has been occupied by pissed-off pensioners...It must be the (OK, somewhat quiet compared to France) start of the anti-cuts revolt!
Crude Awakening Blockade
19-10-2010 06:30
On Saturday 16th October, Climate campaigners gave the Oil Industry a Crude Awakening, taking direct action against the industry for its role in exacerbating climate change, as well as its devastating impact on local communities and environments around the world. Three blocs starting from three different places, one mass action - "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty".
SchNEWS 743: Leicester Is More
14-10-2010 21:05
A thousand EDL supporters rampaged through the streets of Leicester on Saturday (9th), attacking locals, anti-fascists and police.
On the Newswire: 1
SchNEWS 742: ITT's Hammertime
07-10-2010 18:31
Brighton's Smash EDO campaign are holding a mass demo at EDO/ITT on Wednesday 13th October. Anti arms trade campaigners plan to lay seige to EDO/ITT and shut them down for the day.
Info for the Day:: The meeting place for the demo is Wild Park Cafe (directions here) at 10am on Wednesday, but people are being asked to arrive on the evening of the 12th. Convergence space will be available. There will be a meeting about the demo at 7pm at the Cowley Club on Tuesday 12th. There will be a timeline on Indymedia and a twitter feed: @smash_edo
Local contacts for ITT's Hammertime: Birmingham - hammertime-brum [at] riseup.net | Bristol - bristolagainstarmstrade [at] gmail.com | Cambridge - hammertime-cambridge [at] riseup.net | Cardiff - val.swain [at] yahoo.co.uk | Cornwall - kernowaction [at] gmail.com | London - hammertimelondon [at] dsei.org | Manchester - info [at] targetbrimar.org.uk | Notts - alex.dable [at] ntlworld.com | Swansea - d [at] undercurrents.org
Previous features:They Think It's All Over ...ITT Is Now | Smash EDO Solidarity in Nottingham | Hammer Time: The EDO Decommissioners go on trial | Indymedia Coverage of Remember Gaza | Anti Militarists take on Barclays | Support the EDO Decommissioners | Mayday! Mayday! | EDO Smashed | Anti-Arms Protesters Shut ITT | Smash EDO Carnival Against the Arm Trade - Timeline | Carnival Against the Arms Trade | Marie Vesco RIP | On the Verge - The Film They Tried to Ban | Singers Arrested Outside Arms Factory | Smash EDO Action Camp: Shut down the Brighton bomb builders | Lebanon War protesters - Not Guilty! | EDO CORP: 2006 Alternative Report | 2007 Is The Year To Shut EDO Down | EDO MBM Injunction crumbles | EDO MBM desperate to stop protests as resistance increases | Smash EDO Take On The Law | Harassment Law Used Against Anti-War Campaigners | Campaign to Smash Edo | Arms company shut down
Links: ITT's Hammertime demo page| Smash EDO |Target Brimar| Decommisioners
SchNEWS 740: No Borders Camp, Brussels
23-09-2010 21:40
No Borders Camp 2010 in Brussels kicks off this Saturday (25th) til the 3rd October, so get yourself to the continent to make a start on creating a world where no one is illegal. Among the objectives of the camp are the denouncing of European migration policy; showing the links between this policy and the structures of capitalism and repression; the blocking of Brussels' deportation system and the organisation of an autonomous safe space for the voices of migrants and activists to be heard.
On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
In SchNEWS:1Links:www.noborderbxl.eu.org
Confront the Tory Con in Birmingham
20-09-2010 22:27
On Sunday 3rd October the Tory Party Conference begins in Birmingham. The Right to Work Campaign which is supported by a variety of trade union groups has called a national mobilisation against the conference. An autonomous direct action bloc was soon announced by a group known as No CPC who have posted a comprehensive list of venue targets.
Various possibilities to disrupt fringe events have also been announced, Class War have called for people to cheer their team on at the Tory Party Conference 'pub quiz' taking place in the evening of the mobilisation, and CPC have now announced a Reclaim the Streets Party.
On Tuesday 24th August a delegation from the Right To Work campaign met with West Midlands police to discuss the route of the organised protest march outside the Tory party conference on Sunday 3rd October. West Midlands police stated that they were happy for RtW to march past the conference centre and confirmed that centenary square, the square directly in front of the conference centre, would not be a “sterile zone”. Not surprisingly, on 2nd September the police reneged on the proposed route citing 'security reasons'..
Links: No CPC | RtWC | Fliers & Posters | Transport to mobilisation | Twittter updates
SchNEWS 739: Tesco Check-Out
16-09-2010 19:01
In fantastic victory for the local community, Tesco have withdrawn their involvement from the Lewes Road Community Garden development plans.
On the Newswire:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Resistance to "Factory of Death" continues
10-09-2010 22:50
On Monday several actions took place against the government's nuclear weapons and their plans to develop new ones. The focus was AWE Aldermaston, the military base near Reading where these weapons are developed and maintained.
Activists from Trident Ploughshares had been holding an "Aldermaston Summer Gathering" for several days sharing information and leafletting nearby villages. Co-inciding with this, folks from the Catholic Worker movement were holding a "Faith and Resistance" retreat in Oxford celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first Ploughshares action.
As the day began around twenty TP folks blockaded one of the main gates into the base, including four who "locked-on" with arm tubes. They left without any arrests after successfully blockading for two hours.
Soon afterwards, 3 of the Catholic Workers cut through the perimeter fence and broke into the base, "opening it for disarmament", while others carried out a vigil at the gates of the base. They were arrested, held until evening, charged with criminal damage, and may also face SOCPA charges.
[ Report of TP gathering ] [ Reports of CW gathering: 1 | 2 ] [ Actions: 1 | 2 ]
[ Trident Ploughshares | Catholic Worker | Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp ]
[ Coverage elsewhere: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]
SchNEWS: Caravandals - Hovefields Gypsy Site Eviction
10-09-2010 03:08
The Hovefields Gypsy/Traveller site in Essex has been evicted this week. At the time of writing, a group of these families are still on the road without anywhere to stop, having been also evicted from two other sites they tried to move on to, all within 24 hours. In fact it is illegal for them to stop anywhere as a group, as they are more than six live-in vehicles.
SchNEWS 737: EDL in Bradford - Out Of Their League
03-09-2010 02:10
A report of the English Defence League rally in Bradford last Saturday (August 28th) - which was followed by the English Nationalist Alliance attempting to march on Brighton the following Monday (30th). Neither were successful for the far-right, and met with anti-fascist resistance. Is this beginning of the end for the EDL - where can they go from here?
Tasers in Nottingham and elsewhere
25-08-2010 21:45
Tasers are becoming an increasingly prominent tool in the arsenal of police in Nottinghamshire and elsewhere. This should raise important questions, regardless of whether you accept the anarchist critique of the police as a tool of state control, view them as a necessary evil or actually regard the boys in blue as good for society. However, these questions do not seem to be asked. Despite a number of high profile incidents when tasers have been deployed, we continue to creep towards a situation where police are routinely armed without any public debate on whether this is actually what we want or not.
Climate Camp: Breaking the Bank
20-08-2010 05:55
The Camp for Climate Action is happening now on a site right next to the Gogarburn Headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland near Edinburgh. RBS is one of the world's largest investors in oil, gas and coal and recipient of a £50 billion bailout from public funds. Climate Campers secured the site on Wednesday night in advance of the announced 'swoop' and the camp is now well underway. Everyone is invited to join in four days of training and direct action from 21-24 August.
Reports on the newswire: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Photos: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Other camp links: | Website | Call-out | Twitter | Directions | Timeline |
Climate Camp Cymru
14-08-2010 04:41
Evicted Climate Camp Cymru now on new site
Climate Camp Cymru, which was due to continue until Tuesday 17 August at Glyn-Neath in South Wales, was evicted by the police on its second day (Saturday 14th) over alleged complaints about possible damage to the site chosen by the campers, a Roman Hill Fort. The camp was re-established by Sunday 15th on a new site on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea. On Tuesday, the last day of the camp, activists invaded Nant Helen opencast coal mine.
PFI Turns Into Ongoing PR Disaster for Barclays
12-08-2010 22:24
Having spent £25m on the branding rights to London's new cycle hire scheme, the bright sparks in the Barclays marketing department have started a dialogue with the public which could last for several years. The scheme is part of a private finance initiative providing thousands of rental bikes in return for painting London's roadways in the bank's corporate colours.
Only minutes after the bank unveiled the bikes-for-rent in partnership with the city's Conservative administration, situationist guerrilla teams struck in the night to add their own mobile advertising messages under the Barclays logo. One of the messages, "Funding depleted uranium birth defects in Iraq", was particularly timely. New studies suggest that the ongoing genetic damage caused by the U.S. attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 may be worse than that caused by the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 65 years ago.
Barclays was also targeted in Cambridge on Friday 30th July 2010.
Nottingham Pride 2010
12-08-2010 22:24
Nottingham Pride continues to go from success to success, this year's event was for the first time held at the Forest Recreation Ground, a step-up from the Arboretum where it has been held previously. Following on from last year, the event was preceded by a well-attended march. Encouragingly this year, there was an explicitly political fringe event, with a number of speakers including prominent gay rights activist Peter Tatchell.
On the newswire: Nottingham Pride: more than a walk in the park? | Nottingham Pride 2010 | Nottingham Pride - Political Speakers | Nttm Gay Pride now underway on Forest Rec Ground | Nottingham's Gay Pride Parade | Anti-gay Bollocks, stickers appearing in town
Previous Coverage: Pride 2009 | 'My Big Gay' LGBT Nottingham photo | Pride 2008: 1 | 2 | Nottingham Gay Rainbow Heritage Exhibition | Pride 2007: 1 | 2 | Pride 2006: 1 | 2 | Pride 2005: 1 | 2 | Pride 2004
Dissident Island Radio's 3rd anniversary
11-08-2010 22:49
Mostly from London Action Resource Centre the capital's most cheeky radio crew have netcasted a lively radio show every other Friday for the past three years.
On Dissident Island's third birthday, the crew brought a nice mixed bag of happenings from the UK and beyond.
In the History corner this week we have Martyn Everett discussing the life and work of revolutionary Frechwoman Louise Michel.
We hear about the upcoming anniversary of Sean Rigg's death in police custody as well as some of the inspirational and defiant speeches from last week's vigil for Ian Tomlinson.
Finishing off the talking we had an exclusive follow up with members of the Belgrade 6 on their acquittal. Ronin rolled up to the studio at around 10 to help us celebrate our birthday in style - raise a toast to three years of radical radio!
Check it - click here to download (132 mb),
SchNEWS 734: Grassroots Struggle
05-08-2010 22:14
Yet another independent festival has been cancelled after a concerted campaign by bureaucrats, nimbys and the fun police.
The Grassroots Feastival is a small volunteer run event due to take place in Cambridgeshire in early September. Organisers had lined up three days of revelry, running from poetry to Drum 'n' Bass and culminating in a communal banquet replete with juggling waiters.
The Feastival faced determined opposition from the very start. According to one of the organisers, Mooney, when the application process began in January the council made it clear they would do all they could to stop the festival taking place. Martin Ford from the police licensing board went one step further and told organisers, “I'd rather put pins in my eyes than have this festival in my county.”