UK Newswire Archive
Video rushes anti-cuts #demo2011 London
29-01-2011 20:22
Here there are some video rushes of today's anti-cuts protests across central London today. There's nothing particularly thrilling in the fooage, although there were some nice moments: fireworks explosions, blocking streets throughout central London, and especially the way in which demonstrators repeatedly shut down Oxford Street, the main shopping street in the capital.
The Metropolitan Police may be regretting their over-use of so-called "kettles" (mass detention without charge on the streets) which they've used in the past, because they've bred a newer, faster model of London demonstrator. The kids in the autonomous blocs are so pissed off about being detained in one place for hours at a time that they've adopted a very fast-paced style of demonstrating, and they're splitting up and re-joining each other based on mobile phone and internet communications. Basically, they're very hard to keep up with, repeatedly changing directions and leaving cop riot vans way behind. Some of the fat bastard cops assigned to tail the demonstrators were visibly appalled at the speed with which the kids were rolling through Holborn.
Vigil for Jawaher Abu Rahmah
29-01-2011 19:22
5.00 – 6.00pm on the Centre (opposite Hippodrome) BristolA call for women all over the world to unite behind the popular resistance and the determination of Palestinian women in defence of their land, rights and dignity
Jawaher (34 years) was out in the fields on Friday, December 31 participating in the protest against the Apartheid Wall that strangles her village Bil’in in the West Bank, stealing its lands and livelihood. She had seen her brother killed in a similar protest almost two years ago when Israeli military shot him with a tear gas grenade in the chest, but this only intensified her dedication to her work with the youth that can carry on the resistance. It didn’t deter her from joining the protests. When the tear gas clouds reached her that day, she fell sick and died from the effects of the gas.
FFI http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2443.shtml
Bristol-PSC are organising this vigil as part of a day of International protest to mark the traditional commemoration on the 40th day of the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma
All welcome. FFI www.bristolpsc.info
Internet Access: Formidable tool to curb and control mass mobilizations!
29-01-2011 18:50
The Egypt Lesson: As soon as the oppressed working people start making use of the Internet - as they should - for political or even emancipatory purposes, the ruling classes respond ever so "democratically" with the suspension of free access to free information and communication.Demo arrives at Egypt Embassy
29-01-2011 18:22
After passing Millbank, the cuts demo went on all the way to the Egypt Embassy in solidarity with the people who currently fight the Egypt government. Short video.
29 Jan 2011 Millbank
29-01-2011 18:22
Short Video from Millbank, police tries to stop people getting to close to the entrance (which was boarded up anyway)
Heading down Oxford Street
29-01-2011 18:22
Shoppers on Oxford Street were today surprised when a march of about 700 protesters, many of whom masked up, suddenly appeared on Oxford Street. Traffic was blocked and a few plastic bins thrown into the road. The speedz march, supported by a mobile sound system pumping out tunes, turned up Tottenham Court Road. Somewhere on the way about half the crowd must have taken a different way, as there were only about 300 left when walking down Euston Road and turning right into Woburn Place, heading in the general direction of Piccadilly Circus.
They are still out there, haunting the city...
set 3 of london #demo2011 pics
29-01-2011 18:22
more pics from earlier
Topshop closed for the third time
Pics from london #demo2011 cuts march 1
29-01-2011 17:22
some quick pics from todays fees and cuts demonstration
more later
another set of london #demo2011 pics
29-01-2011 17:22
more pics from earlier
now breakaway groups all over the place!
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Hundreds of students chase Aaron Porter through Manchester
29-01-2011 16:42
National Union of Students President Aaron Porter was unable to speak at the rally of today’s NUS/UCU demonstration in Manchester, after hundreds of angry students chased him off the streets.Worldwide Autonomous and Intentional Community Network
29-01-2011 15:08
An explanation of some of the ideals behind the work being done to create a worldwide network of autonomous spaces...Thessaloniki 4 trial, update days #4-5
29-01-2011 14:22
Update from days #4-5 of the Court of Appeals of our four comrades in Thessaloniki, Greece. Final police witnesses gave evidence against Michalis and Simon, closing the prosecution case. The defence presented video showing Michalis and Simon and examined the arresting officers. On Tuesday 25 January, defence witness gave evidence for all four defendants, who then themselves gave testimony at the end of day 5. Background information at http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk/
For previous court reports, see:
Day 1: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6948
Day 2: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6957
Day 3: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7001
Monday 24 January 2011, 9am, Thessaloniki Courthouse.
Officer #15 arrested Michalis and alleged that he was carrying a bag containing 3 molotovs, 4 masks and a powerful slingshot. He stated that he had seen Michalis throw many molotovs over a period of 30 minutes. He couldn't remember if Michalis was wearing gloves, or if he was wearing a mask. He didn't know what happened to the bag after Michalis was handed over to the arrest team.
The defence noted that it was strange that Michalis could not be seen wearing a mask in the video footage presented at the first trial, but that he had four gas masks in his bag: why would he have done that? Officer #15 either didn't know or couldn't remember the answer to a very large number of questions, and was the sole prosecution against Michalis.
Next, a defence witness was called for Fernando: they had been together in the demonstration, only losing Fernando in the clouds of tear gas. He said Fernando had not thrown anything, neither stones nor molotovs, and had not been carrying any type of rucksack with him, just a plastic carrier bag with some water. He said that in Spain, if a demonstration was becoming violent and illegal, the police would use megaphones to warn people to disperse or face the consequences. This does not happen in Greece and subsequently they did not understand the risks they were running. He gave evidence of how Fernando was a hard worker and active citizen in Spain, and that Fernando had lost his job there in order to be at this trial.
The next four police witnesses (Officers #16 - 19) were all giving evidence against Simon, and all said pretty much the same things: they could clearly identify Simon because of the orange arm padding he wore, that he threw only one molotov, that he was wearing the blue rucksack on his back and carrying the black one with his left arm. They all said they didn't beat Simon and didn't know how he had come to be injured. They had all given evidence after reviewing the video and the photos five months after the initial arrest. Officer #18 made an interesting remark: that his squad had been running around the city when they took Simon with them (who, by their own testimony, was handcuffed, soaked in petrol, carrying a bag full of molotovs). They had all admitted that there were continuing confrontations in this 2-3 hour period. Officer #19 could remember smelling petrol from one of the bags after Simon 'had fallen over', even though he was wearing a gas mask.
This was the end of the prosecution evidence.
After a break, a more entire sequence of video of Michalis was presented, and showed that, just after the point of arrest, no policeman near him was carrying the alleged rucksack, and that there were none on the street in view, as the camera makes a full 360 degree pan around the scene. Michalis' arresting officer (Officer #15) had testified in the first trial and at this trial that he had the rucksack in his hand from the arrest to the point where he placed Michalis in the arrest car. No such rucksack could be seen, and was never subsequently identified, or presented in evidence to the court.
The police witnesses against Simon were shown the video where cops are placing bags all around Simon. One sequence was interesting - a black rucksack, obviously leaking a large amount of fluid (petrol?) is placed next to Simon. None of the cops present said they were that policeman. The cops maintained that the safest place to store the bags they found in the street was all around Simon.
After this, several trolleys of large cardboard boxes containing a variety of rucksacks were wheeled into court. Police officer #6 had stated that the bags being delivered to the police station had been labeled with the arrestee's names. None of the bags had any form of label or identification on them.
The last witness of the day was for the defence of Kastro: she was a worker's union organiser who knew Kastro from his role in helping immigrant workers' organisations in Crete. She had been at the main square from 5.30 until 6.30 and testified that there were no confrontations between police or people in the square at that time. The police had testified that Kastro was throwing molotovs at them during this period. She had seen Kastro near the stage around this time. She had passed through the square the following day and had not seen any scorch marks where the police had alleged that Kastro had been throwing molotovs at them.
The day ended 14.45 GMT+2.
Tuesday 25 January 2011, 9am, Thessaloniki Courthouse.
(Day 5: for clarity, the information below has been put in a simpler order to help readers make sense of it: in reality, the day was disjointed with first one witness for one defendant, then for another defendant, then for another, then a break, then back to the first defendant etc. )
Two witnesses were called for the defence of Michalis. They had been with him on the day of the demonstration and testified that he had not been wearing a rucksack, as they could see him clearly from behind. Neither had seen him thrown anything, and had lost him in the gas clouds. Both testimonies were dealt with in 10 minutes each.
Three witnesses for Kastro were called. The first knew Kastro from Crete for many years, and testified on Kastro's personality, and that he had not taken a rucksack that morning when he left their shared flat. He was asked if it was possible that Kastro would have taken his residence permit with him and left it in a rucksack - the witness replied that Kastro did not have a residence permit. Kastro had applied for a permit in 1997 and had been rejected. This alleged document was anyway not included on the list of possession's made by the arresting officer.
Kastro's second witness was a doctor who had seen Kastro around 6pm at the Venizelos statue (not, as according to the police, in a mob chucking molotovs at them). He said that he had many discussions with Kastro at the anti-racist festival held in Thessaloniki a week before the EU demonstration and did not think he was in any way a violent person, and he didn't recall Kastro having a rucksack with him. Kastro's last witness was a professor from the university who knew Kastro from Crete, who testified that Kastro was not a violent person, but was hard-working and had perhaps been victimised due to his immigrant status. Again, these witnesses were dealt with very quickly.
There was a 2 hour sequence where documents supporting each defendant were presented to the judges, such as work and character references, letters of solidarity and concern from various social, political and human rights organisations. One interesting document was a newspaper report from Spain on how some demonstrators had successfully sued the Barcelona police for planting bags of molotovs on them at the earlier EU summit demonstrations in 2002.
Also, the reasoning for dropping the charges against each defendant - originally made in February 2004 - were read to the court. After the charges were reinstated and brought to trial in 2008, dissenting minority reports were made (ie, by those on the panel of 3 judges and 4 jurors who believed the defendants to be innocent but who had been out-voted in the deliberations) and were read out for each defendant. These minority reports outlined many of the recurring features that would arise in appeal trial: contradictions between officers, doubts about identification, lack of evidence, lack of detail, problems with initial arrest statements etc.
The last 3 witnesses called were for Simon. The first knew Simon for many years from London, and testified that the demonstration culture in the UK did not include either tear gas or the use of molotovs, and that it was not in Simon's character to act in such a way as alleged by the police. The last two had been with Simon on the demonstration up until only minutes before his arrest, and both stated that Simon had only one rucksack, a blue one with some clothes and some water. They knew this as they had all checked they had enough water before heading off. They both testified to feeling trapped in clouds of gas as the demonstration was cut up into smaller parts by charging police on all sides. Again, these witnesses were dealt with very quickly.
Then it was finally the turn of the defendants to give their evidence. Michalis' lawyer spoke on his behalf (Michalis is on remand for another offence) against the criminalisation of those who identify themselves as anarchists. All three defendants in court rejected the charges against them. It was near the end of the day and the judges and jury were clearly wilting in the afternoon sunshine pouring through the windows. After a few questions from the prosecutor and the senior judge, the defendants testimony was completed and court closed for the day. It all seemed to have ended too quickly, almost as if the defendants' evidence was irrelevant.
The next day, Wednesday 26 January 2011, would hear the prosecutor's accusations, followed by the defence lawyers' summing up. Result was expected for that afternoon...
Court ended at 15.15 GMT+2
++ Spread the word
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Join and share the facebook page at:
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Solidarity for the Thessaloniki 4!
http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk/
Films on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheThessaloniki4
Thessaloniki 4 trial, update day #6
29-01-2011 14:22
Update from day #6 of the Court of Appeals of our four comrades in Thessaloniki, Greece. The prosecutor explained the basis of the laws under which the four defendants are accused and his opinion on which charges should be pursued. Defence lawyers gave their summing up of the cases. The plan was for the trial to end today... Background information at http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk
For previous court reports, see:
Day 1: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6948
Day 2: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6957
Day 3: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7001
Days 4-5: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7102
Wednesday 26 January 2011, 9am, Thessaloniki Courthouse.
With the prosecution having been completed and the defence witnesses rather hastily examined, it was now the job of the prosecutor to outline the reasoning of the laws being used to charge the defendants.
The charges were: causing explosions with the intent to endanger human life, possession of materials or devices designed to cause explosions. The point here is that possession can be proven even if the explosives were in your possession for a second. Causing explosions was intricately linked to possession, ie, you had to possess in order to cause, though they stood as separate charges. Combining the act of possession and causation created the offence of 'Distinguished riot'.
So far so good. Or bad, depending on how you look at it.
He outlined what had happened in Genoa in 2001, and the expectation of trouble at the June 2003 EU summit in Thessaloniki. The 'Black Bloc' was expected to be present, and would be prepared, armed with a variety of weapons with the intent to endanger life and property in defiance of authority. In the event, shops, cars and offices were attacked, damaged or burnt. 8 police were injured.
For Michalis, he demanded that he be convicted of causing continuous explosions - more serious than causing a single explosion. He could not believe that policeman today could be either mistaken in identification or be lying: if the cops had wanted to fabricate evidence they would have used more than one police witness against Michalis. He concluded that the decision of the first trial was correct and that Michalis should be convicted of causing continuous explosions, possession of explosives and distinguished riot.
For Kastro, he said that he had thrown 10 molotovs, though without endangering life. In that sense, the causation charge was dropped but he demanded prosecution for possession of explosives, and of distinguished riot.
For Fernando, both the possession and use of explosives was not proven due to doubts about identification and the unreliability of the police witnesses. He requested that all charges against Fernando be dropped.
For Simon, he was satisfied that he had caused one single explosion with intent to endanger life (in the first trial it had been continuous explosions), that the possession of 7 molotovs was proven by 9 witnesses against him, and he could not believe that 9 cops would all be lying. He concluded that he may well have been beaten, but these two charges combined created the third charge of distinguished riot.
After a break, 5 of the lawyers made their closing speeches in favour of their clients and as part of the broader picture that united all the cases. However, as the clock ticked towards 15.00, Bakkellas, the lawyer for Simon, asked that he delay his summing up as there would not be time before the usual end of court business at 15.30. The judges wanted him to go ahead and run over if necessary, and there was a certain amount of shouting. Also, the clerk of the court pointed out that she didn't want it to overrun as she was not going to be paid overtime.
One of the three judges was already booked for another trial Thursday, and Friday was going to be another strike day for the lawyers' union. So the presentation of Bakkellas' summing up was delayed to be heard on Monday morning, 31 January 2011. The judges would then retire to deliberate and hopefully deliver their verdict later that day.
Court ended 15.30 GMT+2
++ Spread the word
Please link to the Campaign's website on your web sites, forums, blogs, facebook profiles etc, tell friends and family and help to spread the word.
Join and share the facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-For-Simon-Chapman-and-the-Thessaloniki-4/113450595384764
or join and share the facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150278698345263
Solidarity for the Thessaloniki 4!
http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk/
Films on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheThessaloniki4
UG#536 - Beyond Hierarchy (Anarchist Audiocollage)
29-01-2011 14:16
Portsmouth Vodaphone action this Sunday
29-01-2011 13:29
A protest outside Vodaphone in Portsmouth has been called for sunday 1pm.WikiLeaks exposes US complicity in murder, torture, by Egyptian government and m
29-01-2011 12:22
"The cables demonstrate the courage of the Egyptian demonstrators in the face of the brutality of the Mubarak regime, as WikiLeaks editor Maria Luisa Rivera notes in introducing them. “As an Internet blackout imposed by the state covers the country, every citizen and grassroots organization will now be exposed to arbitrary police forces,” she writes. “As secret documents from US prove, during the demonstrations today, authorities might use physical threats, legal threats and extraordinary laws such the Emergency Law as an excuse to persecute and prosecute activists during the pacific demonstrations taking place in Cairo and other cities.”She continues, “Excessive use of force by police during the protests [has already] led to arbitrary executions and detentions in a vast array of abuses, a situation that is known and acknowledged in the past by US diplomats based in Egypt. It is important to bear in mind the long record of police abuse and torture by Egyptian police forces.”
Make the whole world aware of the slimy role the US has played in Egypt. The US will try to distance itself from this regime. But one of the reasons it is so hated is precisely because of it’s close ties to US imperialism. Spread these notes widely, everywhere."
Bristol Indymedia's position on IP logging
29-01-2011 11:22
Following the publication of the story about government gateway 303 publishing to UK Indymedia, we feel it is timely to make our position clear on the issues that have arisen.
Note first that the Schnews article contained a number of inaccuracies and assumptions. We believe thatthis article provides a more measured and accurate account of the situation. The revelations about UK indymedia's anti abuse measures have caused some concern amongst activists that IP address information was being collected.
Whilst BIMC operates on a totally different software platform to UK Indymedia, the Oscailt software platform that we use, does have similar anti abuse measures built in. However we have elected to disable those features. Amongst other measures we use the software mod-removeip to do this. We encourage all other IMC collectives to make use of this software. We are confident that our server cannot provide IP information to anyone. Indeed when the Police seized our old server specifically to look for IP data they were not able to find any such data, and confirmed this in writing. However given the way the internet works, we do not control the routers and network hardware between you and our server. We would therefore recommend using TOR when posting sensitive information. We also suggest that all activists read Tech Tools for activists.
Whilst a article about the posting to UK IMC from Gateway 303 was being actively worked on by UK IMC activists, and we believe that it would have been published, it was proving difficult to reach consensus. This is an example of an increasingly frequent situation that has arisen within the UK Network over the past few years: a lack of consensus that has resulted in inaction. In order to give people with different positions the autonomy to continue with their own projects, a decision was made at a UK Network meeting at the end of last year, to the separate the UK Network into two distinct projects. We think this was the right decision and we hope to see good things emerging from both projects.
