UK Newswire Archive
KFC protest
01-11-2010 15:31
Yesterday another protest was organised in support a KFC suspended for not accepting free labour.
The article below, with explanation of the situation, is from a previous thread. the pics are from yesterdays protest.
Bristol Coalition Against Poverty
01-11-2010 15:22
Does Bristol Need A Coalition Against Poverty?Open Meeting of East Bristol Debtors Alliance
All Welcome
On the Agenda this Thursday 4th November;
Towards a Bristol Coalition Against Poverty
What is a 'Living Wage'?
Fighting the Benefit Cuts
We also offer practical help with those with Benefit and Debt problems
We would welcome any suggestions on how to set up an effective Bristol Coalition Against Poverty, and issues we should address.
East Bristol Debtors Alliance now also meets 1st Thursdays of every month at the Smiling Chair on Stokes Croft 7-9.
This is opposite the Free Shop on Stokes Croft up from the Full Moon
Life is too short to be controlled - The Return
01-11-2010 14:22
Following a call from London NoBorders, a second 'Life Is Too Short To Be Controlled' [pics 1 | 2 | 3 | vids 1 | 2 | 3] demonstration started in Piccadilly Circus this afternoon. Around sixty people gathered to "connect two locations in London which are symbolic places of both the border regime and surveillance". After a couple of speeches, people started marching through central London streets all the way to St Pancras Station. The march entered the station and eventually made its way to the Eurostar check-in desks and internal border control. A group of people managed to go throgh the check in, which provoked a quick, and quite freaked-out, response from the security personnel. See all reports...
After a while people decided to leave the terminal in a group, at which point the Transport Police turned up. One protestor got arrested. Also the cops tried to go after the person with the sound system, but a legally clued up cyclist made them stick to their own laws.
The sound-sytem kept playing tunes for the whole journey and the crowd stuck together throughout, even though several cars - specially taxi-drivers - tried to drive through the demonstration several times. Police weren't on sight for the whole time.
London Critical Mass Halloween ride.
01-11-2010 14:22
The light rain didn't seem to deter the usual large numbers attending, though there were not many drerssed up for Halloween this time. The financial district was visited. Something to do with the Cuts maybe?
After a brief visit to Parliament Square, where there seemed to be a lot more tents on pavements than usual, the ride homed in on the financial district. I wonder why? There was joyful circling inside an expensive looking shopping mall and there were several circuits of Paternoster Square, where the London Stock Exchange is based. The corking of junctions by volunteers throughout the ride was excellent, as usual.
To start with the ride was painfully slow, due to the congestion and road narrowing caused by numerous roadworks. Cyclists using mobile phones didn't help either as the distraction seemed to affect their steering ability, especially while texting..Repeated hooting from over impatient drivers was greeted with jeering laughter and shrieks from very many happy riders.
Over the years London CM participants seemed to have been replaced. There used to be quite a lot of political activists, as well as riders from local cycling groups. Most of the groups advertised the CM ride but no longer do. Now there are lots of participants whose first language doesn't seemed to be English and Time Out regularly advertises CM rides but the London Cycling Campaign has stopped doing it. Maybe London CM has become more of a tourist attraction than a protest, though it still remains am enthusiastic celebration of cycling and still attracts large numbers.
There are very few problems with the police since London CM won its Law Lords case against them in 2008. Previously the ride was accompanied and controlled by about 20 cycle police and a police van, who were oddly missing every Christmas/New Year period. They used to order cycle sound systems turned off within the SOCPA zone and block the front of the ride at junctions. There is still very occasional ticketing of individual riders though, mainly for ignoring red lights.
London CM seems quite capable of looking after itself, despite incidents where riders are deliberately rammed at slow speeds by crazed drivers, which the police seem to ignore.
http://criticalmasslondon.org.uk/
life drawing
01-11-2010 14:22
the better food co-7pmLife drawing with Clodagh Scott
Next week's freeskill is Life Drawing, with Clodagh Scott. All abilities welcome, please bring paper or sketch books, something to lean on and a selection of pens, pencils or charcoal-whichever you'd like to draw with. All models will be clothed!
We've got a great program of freeskilling evenings lined up for November and December. Please see the attached poster, and circulate far and wide.
We're forever grateful to the Better Food Company for letting us use their cafe space each week. A member of their staff stays on to allow us to be there, and we can all show our thanks by arriving on time to enable a prompt start at 7pm, and then finishing before 9pm, leaving them in peace. (The cafe is open until just before 7pm, so we can also show our support by being tempted by a cuppa beforehand!)
Freeskilling be taking a break over Christmas and resuming on 4 January 2011. To share your skill, please contact the Freeskilling team at freeskilling@gmail.com
If you ever have any feedback-please do contact us on this e-mail address-we'd liove to hear your thoughts!
All the best for Winter,
Freeskilling team
Solidarity with the Devonport Blockaders - Vigil in Wrexham
01-11-2010 14:22
Four members of Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum held a vigil in Wrexham this morning to coincide with, and in solidarity with, those blockading Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth. As the vigil was held on one of the main routes into Wrexham during the busy morning rush hour, many hundreds of vehicles passed by, and hundreds of flyers explaining the action were handed out to pedestrians.WREXHAM VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY WITH TRIDENT PLOUGHSHARES* ANTI-NUCLEAR BLOCKADE AT PLYMOUTH
Solidarity with anti-nuclear blockaders
We are here today to stand in solidarity with all those who have travelled from near and far to Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth to carry out acts of nonviolent civil resistance to the preparations for nuclear war which take place there. Britain's immoral and illegal Trident nuclear weapons, ready to be fired at any time, are carried on Vanguard nuclear submarines, and these vessels are maintained, refitted and upgraded at the dockyard.
Radiation risks to the people of Plymouth
Current nuclear activity at the site has already led to radioactive contamination of the environment and increased levels of cancers among the local population. There are now plans to create a nuclear dump at the dockyard, cutting up highly radioactive nuclear submarine reactors right next to the homes of a quarter of a million Plymouth residents. If this is allowed to go ahead, it will greatly increase the risks to local people.
What's wrong with Trident?
Trident is an indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction. Its purpose is not to destroy military targets, but to devastate a wide area and kill or maim large numbers of civilians, as happened when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Trident is also hugely expensive. The government continues to spend vast sums of money on Trident and to plan for its replacement while cutting important public services and jobs on grounds of cost.
Why is Trident illegal?
On 8th July 1996, the International Court of Justice gave an advisory opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons. The Court concluded that: "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law" (para 2E) and "states must never make civilians the object of attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets" (para 78).
It is clear that the use of Trident would result in a massive number of casualties across a wide area, mainly civilian. The use or threat of using such weapons is therefore illegal and would be likely to breach the following Declarations and Conventions: Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868; Hague Convention, 1907; Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; Geneva Conventions, 1949; The Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977.
* Trident Ploughshares is a campaign to disarm Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system in a nonviolent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner. It opposes all nuclear weapons and rejects violence as a means of resolving conflict.
Bookfair 2010 - Chat about Neurdiversity
01-11-2010 03:39
A Chat with Paul & Luke at the 28th Anarchist Bookfair on the subject of Neurodiversity and Anarchy and how neurdiversity can benefit the anarchist movement. Neurdiversity includes such medical 'handicaps' such as 'ADHD', 'Asperger’s syndrome', 'Autism' and other 'brain differences'.
Bookfair 2010 - Anarchist Cartoonist Donald Rooum
01-11-2010 03:39
London Indymedia caught up with long time anarchist and cartoonist Donald Rooum to discuss his work with Freedom, Peace News and his Wildcat creation, and the things he enjoys about this years 28th Anarchist Bookfair in Mile End, London.
Shut down vodafone (again!)
01-11-2010 03:38
Last saturday a group of activists shut down the central bristol vodafone store in protest at their tax dodging ways, this was one of over 20 stores successfully targeted around the country.Lets do it again!
This is a great way to spread the belief that these cuts are truely unnessacary, and that we are definately not 'in this together' since whilst we pay with our services and our tax bills the richest in society pay nothing.
Although there has been some debate about the accuracy of the initial reporting (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/467056.html for example), it appears pretty conclusive that they (like most of their corporate peers) have been tax dodging to quite a large extent. They owe us at the very least around £1billiion, and the Indian government are chasing them for around £2.5billion in unpaid tax there!
So, whilst we don't want to get too reptative we think we should make the most of the public concionsness of the vodafone actions, and build on last saturdays sucesses by having a public picket of thier shop again this saturday.
Meet up either at castle park at 1pm, or outside the vodafone store in central broadmead at 1.30pm.
(Vodafone are at the pedestrianised 'cross roads'/openspace in broadmead, by one corner of the galleries, opposite BHS).
There will be a few placards, and some general anti-vodafone/anti-cuts leafles, we encourage others to bring thier own but request this is kept as a 'non sectarian' protest, ie you don't use it to promote your specific group (just the general anti-cuts movement).
Lets show the capatalists that they can't get away with it!
See link for report of the last action:
Bookfair 2010 - Croatian Anarchist
01-11-2010 01:22
Chat with a member of an anarchist collective from Zagreb, Croatia, visiting the 28th Anarchist Bookfair in London, 2010.
Bookfair 2010 - Interview with Bookfair Collective
01-11-2010 01:22
Short Interview with member from the organising group of the Anarchist Bookfair, on this years event, the bookfairs future, and the London Anarchist Bookfairs growing impotance in the anarchist calendar.
Zero Carbon by 2030
31-10-2010 22:57
Protestors Occupy Vodafone store in Birmingham
31-10-2010 22:24
Several protesters entered the Vodafone store in Birmingham New Street on Saturday, 30th October and chained themselves together to protest Vodafone's £6 Billion Tax Avoidance.Police were called to the scene, entered the store and evicted them by force, pulling them out on to the street.
The police officers attempted to prevent this video from being recorded by falsely claiming that it was forbidden to film the events that took place.
They threatened the cameraman with confiscation of the footage, but the video eventually was captured and leaked to the internet.
Life is too short to be controlled
31-10-2010 22:23
Related reports from IMC-London wires:
- Life is too short ... one demo is not enough!
- Piccadilly Circus: CCTV controlling your life
- Life is too short - pics and report
- Demo Connecting Border Regime & Surveillance: pics
Videos:
New IRC channel for vegans!
31-10-2010 20:37
IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is a real-time conversational system. On IRC there are 'virtual rooms' where people chat. Channel # vegan was registered with the IRC Indymedia network and is dedicated to all vegans, as well as people interested in animal rights or natural food.Notts Cuts Watch #3
31-10-2010 20:25
An (incomplete) overview of how the age of austerity has affected Notinghamshire over the last week or so. Culled from various local media outlets, so don't blame me for some of the dodgy analysis.
Ashfield District Council
It was reported to a meeting of the Ashfield District Council Cabinet (main decision-making body) that if grants from Westminster are slashed in line with predictions, the council’s bank-balance would be decimated.
Within five years, it would go from more than £3 million in the black to £17 million in the red at current spending levels.
Minimum savings of £1.4 million a year must be made to achieve a balanced budget by 2015. This is from a predicted spend of between £19 million and £20 million.
It is almost inevitable that services will be cut and jobs will be lost.
Ashfield must cut £1.4 million a year ……or face ruin, Hucknall Dispatch
Campaigning
(1) Monday’s Notts SOS planning meeting was very well attended with 30 participants in all. As well as the three major Nottingham demonstrations last week, and our interventions at the City Council consultation, Notts SOS were pleased to hear from a new campaign in Lincoln that had held an anti-cuts meeting and march. The attack on welfare claimants in the Spending Review was highlighted. Sub-groups were formed to put together publicity, handle communications, and collect funds. A Nottingham demonstration was proposed for Saturday, November 20th.
(2) A new association is being set up to organise benefit claimants in Nottingham, to represent our interests and fight the cuts in welfare being perpetrated by the current government: Nottingham Claimants’ Union. Anyone living in the area who claims a benefit – including housing/council tax benefit, working tax credits, child support etc. as well as JSA and medical benefits – is entitled to join.
Nottingham Claimants’ Union, Nottingham Indymedia
Criminal justice
The Senior Presiding Judge, Lord Justice Goldring favours closing Newark Magistrates’ Court, it can be revealed.
Earlier this year, the Ministry for Justice earmarked 103 courts in England and Wales it believes it can do without, therefore saving £15.3m a year in running costs and trimming £211/2m from the maintenance bill.
On the cuts list are Newark, Worksop and Retford magistrates’ courts.
This would leave just Mansfield and Nottingham with Newark cases tried in the city.
The Advertiser understands that Lord Justice Goldring favours closing both Worksop and Retford courts too.
Newark County Court, which shares the magistrates’ court complex on Magnus Street, would also disappear. Fifty four county courts in England and Wales are threatened.
Newark Magistrates’ Court closure favoured, Newark Advertiser
Forestry
FORMER Notts MP Paddy Tipping has raised fears that tracts of Sherwood Forest may be sold off as the Government seeks to raise cash to lower the UK’s budget deficit.
Meanwhile, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which takes ultimate responsibility for forestry issues refused to confirm or deny rumours of a sell-off.
It said plans would be released soon.
Reports suggested Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman would imminently announce plans to sell off about half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission by 2020.
The parts of Sherwood Forest owned by the commission include the 1,335-hectare Sherwood Pines Forest Park – the largest tract of forest open to the public in the East Midlands.
However, Sherwood Forest Country Park, which includes a nature reserve and the world-famous Major Oak, will not be included in the Government’s plans as it is not managed by the Forestry Commission.
Fears parts of Sherwood Forest may be sold off, Nottingham Post
Health
(1) A public meeting is set to be held in Southwell over changes to services at Newark Hospital.
Southwell Town Council has agreed to organise a venue for the meeting and will support calls by the Save Newark Hospital Campaign for an independent review over the changes.
The council will write to the MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, and health minister Mr Simon Burns to inform them of its support for a review.
The decisions were taken after two members of the Save Newark Hospital Campaign spoke to councillors about the issue.
Campaign secretary Mr Paul Baggaley and chairman Mr Francis Towndrow outlined concerns about plans for the hospital as part of NHS Nottinghamshire County’s Newark Healthcare Review.
From April no more blue light ambulances will go to Newark as the town’s A & E is changed to a minor injuries unit plus.
Backing for hospital campaign, Newark Advertiser
(2) THE family of a severely autistic six-year-old are angry that a service which helps him communicate has been cut by the NHS.
Notts Community Health say it will only provide speech and language therapy services for children with autism until the age of six.
Notts Community Health, which provides health services in the community outside the city, says it wants to focus on “early intervention” for younger autistic children.
In a letter to Mrs Scothern’s MP Vernon Coaker, managing director Eleri de Gilbert said it faced an £11 million funding gap this year.
She said officials “had to make some tough decisions based on tough choices”.
Anger over cuts to speech therapy service for autistic children, Nottingham Post
Housing
THOUSANDS of council house residents in the city may not get the new kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems they were promised.
The Government’s Spending Review last Wednesday said £2.1bn would be available to continue the Decent Homes programme nationally. It has now emerged councils will have to reapply for funding from this pot – and Nottingham could potentially be left without a penny.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “It is about taking a fresh look at what needs to be done and making a fresh set of allocations.”
Council house residents may not get improvements, Government has revealed, Nottingham Post
Nottingham City Council
(1) A boy with Asperger’s syndrome has sent a video message to David Cameron asking for a disabled children’s club to be spared from spending cuts.
Mark Torr, 10, from Nottingham, is a member of Cool Kids, a project which organises meetings and trips and also publishes a quarterly magazine.
But the scheme is to stop in March next year after it lost £40,000 funding as part of wider cuts.
Boy with Aspergers asks PM to spare children’s club, BBC Nottingham
(2) NOTTINGHAM City Council is still fighting legal battles to get millions of pounds back from Icelandic banks.
The council invested £41.6 million in three Icelandic banks before the country’s financial system collapsed in October 2008.
It has since joined forces with other authorities through the Local Government Association to battle for the money to be paid back.
Heritable Bank has returned more than £7 million so far, but held £15.6 million of Nottingham taxpayers’ money when it collapsed.
Nottingham City Council is only expected to have £35.93 million returned, which is a loss of £5.67 million.
The city council was the second most exposed authority in the country, with 20 per cent of investments tied up in Iceland. The £5.67 million which the council is expected to lose would be enough to employ about 120 social care workers on its maximum salary.
It would also pay for more than four new adventure parks, like the Ridge Adventure Playground near the Bestwood Estate.
Nottingham recovers £7m from Icelandic bank – but legal battle continues for £26m, Nottingham Post
Only £34.6 million still owing!, Nottingham is Crap
Nottinghamshire County Council
(1) AN AUTISM group in Hucknall has warned that among £75 million worth of savings given the green light by Notts County Council, there is a cut that will have a “devastating impact” on vulnerable children.
One of the controversial items rubberstamped was the reduction of support for youngsters with special educational needs, which will realise a saving of £3.2 million.
Now the Indigo Kids organisation, which was launched two years ago to support families of children with autism, says the move will hurt those who most need the support.
A petition has been launched, with the backing of Indigo Kids, through the countywide Parents And Carers Together (PACT) organisation.
‘Devastating’ changes feared by autism mums in wake of cuts, Hucknall Dispatch
(2) BURGLARS will prosper if plans to save money by switching off street lights in Hucknall and the rest of Nottinghamshire at night go ahead, it has been claimed.
Notts County Council has given the go-ahead for the scheme which, it says, will slash bills by £1 million and cut carbon emissions and light pollution.
But opponents of the Conservative-controlled county council have slammed the idea.
Liberal Democrats in Ashfield have launched a petition campaign and have been collecting signatures in Hucknall.
Anger mounts over lights switch-off, Hucknall Dispatch
Policing
Nottinghamshire police force will merge its four county divisions into two in a move to cut costs.Council house residents may not get improvements, Government has revealed
The police authority has agreed to the move despite concerns about the impact on rural areas.
The restructuring will save money in management posts as the force aims to cut up to £56m in the next four years.
Nottinghamshire police to merge divisions to cut costs, BBC Nottingham
Private sector
TIME is being called on a Retford family business after more than 60 years of trading in the town.
Customers have descended on Watson Furnishing’s Carolgate store in numbers since it announced its impending closure.
But it has come too late to sustain the independent business which has been badly hit by the economic downturn.
The recession has been blamed for a decrease in buyers and the family-run company took the tough decision to cease trading.
Long-standing furniture shop Watson’s is forced to close under recession pressure, Retford Times
Roads
(1) Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced on Tuesday that an upgrade to the road will not take place until after the next General Election.
It means there could be another five-year wait for any work to be carried out – and even then there is no guarantee that a post-election Government will approve the scheme.
The decision to delay comes after a review of what transport improvement schemes the Coalition Government could afford, given deep cuts recently made to public spending.
Fury after A453 widening scheme delayed for years, Nottingham Post
(2) Hucknall’s jinxed inner bypass, complete with town-centre pedestrianisation, is on the verge of being buried in a landslide of billions of pounds worth of cuts.
Among the announcements as part of the spending review was a 21% (£2.6 billion) reduction in the transport budget as part of overall moves to save £81 billion in the coming four years.
It means the £10 million promised by Whitehall towards the long-awaited £13 million bypass is in jeopardy.
Experts believe the money will not be stumped up, which would leave the scheme as one of Nottinghamshire’s most high-profile victims of the cuts
Bypass could be major victim of cuts, Hucknall Dispatch
Transport
The Government was not providing hard cash to build the tram extension, but £530m of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits.
This is why money granted in PFI credits is only drawn once the capital project in question, the tram extension, is completed.
In Nottingham, the extension won’t be operating until at least 2014 and then the money will be drip-fed to the city over 23 years.
But the Coalition’s Spending Review document is only a plan for Government expenditure – or lack of it – up to 2015, by which time only a miniscule proportion, if any, of the PFI credits will have been handed over.
The real beauty of the spin is this – the money for the tram was initially allocated by the previous government, most of it will be paid out by the next government and yet it is this Government that takes credit for the investment at a time when it is cutting.
Joseph Watts: Why I’m in awe of the Government’s PR, Nottingham Post
Quick report of the Brighton Anti Vodafone action
31-10-2010 19:08
On Saturday 30th October over a thousand people attended the Stop the Cuts march in Brighton - 2 Vodafone Stores were targetedNationwide shut down of Vodafone stores
31-10-2010 19:03
21 Vodafone stores across the country closed. Vodafone claim their unpaid £6 billion tax is an urban myth. Vodafone claim they always pay their taxes. £7 billion cuts in benefits to the poor. £6 billion unpaid tax by Vodafone. We can all do the sums and we do not like the resultSolidarity Vigil in Wrexham, Wales
31-10-2010 18:59
For anyone in or near North Wales who can't get to Devonport for the blockade in the morning, there will be a solidarity vigil in Wrexham.
