UK Newswire Archive
Ghonim Calls for End to Protests, Strikes to Bring Stability?
15-02-2011 16:34
"Perhaps this young man is sincere. But it is certain that he is “class bound” in his thinking. He is an executive. Not an unemployed factory worker or wet nurse. For the Egyptian revolution to produce the profound changes so needed in our world those elements of Egyptian society must take the lead. Otherwise the U.S., Israel, and ruling classes the world over win. And that was not the intention and will not be the result of this heroic struggle. Stay tuned. Get involved. The Egyptian people have declared that they will remain vigilant. We must do so with them."Int Student Call for 24-26th March Days of Action
15-02-2011 16:30
Paris – Saint-Denis Meeting, 11-13 February 2011
Common Statement
We, the student and precarious workers of Europe, Tunisia, Japan, the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina, met in Paris over the weekend of the 11th-13th of February, 2011 to discuss and organize a common network based on our common struggles. Students from Maghreb and Gambia tried to come but France refused them entry. We claim the free circulation of peoples as well as the free circulation of struggles.
In fact, over the last few years our movement has assumed Europe as the space of conflicts against the corporatization of the university and precariousness. This meeting in Paris and the revolutionary movements across the Mediterranean allow us to take an important step towards a new Europe against austerity and the revolts in Maghreb.
We are a generation who lives precariousness as a permanent condition: the university is no longer an elevator of upward social mobility but rather a factory of precariousness. Nor is the university a closed community: our struggles for welfare, work and the free circulation of knowledge and people don’t stop at its gates.
Our need for a common network is based on our struggles against the Bologna Process and against the education cuts Europe is using as a response to the crisis.
Since the state and private interests collaborate in the corporatization process of the university, our struggles don’t have the aim of defending the status quo. Governments bail out banks and cut education. We want to make our own university – a university that lives in our experiences of autonomous education, alternative research and free schools. It is a free university, run by students, precarious workers and migrants, a university without borders.
This weekend we have shared and discussed out different languages and common practices of conflict: demonstrations, occupations and metropolitan strikes. We have created and improved our common claims: free access to the university against increasing fees and costs of education, new welfare and common rights against debt and the financialization of our lives, and for an education based on cooperation against competition and hierarchies.
Based on this common statement:
• We call for common and transnational days of action on the 24th-25th-26th of March, 2011: against banks, debt system and austerity measures, for free education and free circulation of people and knowledge.
• We will create a common journal of struggles and an autonomous media of communication.
We will promote a great caravan and meeting in Tunisia because the struggles in Maghreb are the struggles we are fighting here.
We will meet again in London in June.
We will be part of the G8 counter-summit in Dijon, June 5-7.
Fighting and cooperating, this is our Paris Common!
http://reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/for-a-new-europe-university-struggles-against-austerity-2
http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/
http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/for-a-new-europe-university-struggles-against-austerity/
SRG employs corporate spy to monitor Coal Action Scotland
15-02-2011 16:20
Corporate spies have been monitoring environmental activist groups on behalf of companies across the UK. While not surprising in the slightest, it is interesting to note that the Scottish Resource Group has been employing their services.Palestine Today 02 15 2011
15-02-2011 16:00
Press release – 'Babies not Bombs' say Arms Trade
15-02-2011 15:22
A press release ahead of London CAAT's protest at the Baby Show on Saturday
London Campaign Against Arms Trade (London CAAT) and East London Against the Arms Fair (ELAAF) members will be descending on this weekend's Baby Show to highlight the show's links with the arms trade.
The owners of this show are Clarion Events, who also own the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair, a biennial event that takes place in east London, where countries with dubious human rights records are invited to buy the latest weapons. They also own six other arms fairs.
Most visitors won't know of the link between the Baby Show and the arms trade. The two groups aims to inform them of this link.
London CAAT member Sarah Reader said "the involvement of Clarion Events in the arms trade is deplorable and they should immediately sell their portfolio of arms fairs as well as stopping their role in the organisation of the DSEi arms fair. Organising a family-friendly event such as the Baby Show is grossly incompatible with running an arms fair".
A spokesperson for ELAAF said "ELAAF members have been protesting against the arms fair since it came to our area in 2001 and we will continue to do so until it is cancelled. We do not want such a destructive and harmful event on our doorstep and the fact that Clarion Events also run shows for babies and their parents is particularly offensive".
ELAAF will be at the show from 2pm till 5pm on Saturday 19th February. London CAAT will be there from 11am till 1pm on Sunday 20th February. The show takes place at the ExCel exhibition centre.
ENDS
Notes
1. London CAAT was established in late 2006 to peacefully protest against local elements of the arms trade. They have targeted a number of Clarion Events since they purchased the DSEi arms fair.
2. East London Against Arms Fairs was established when the DSEi arms fair came to ExCeL in 2001 and regularly hold musical protests asking for the cancellation of the fair.
3. Defence and Security Equipment International (formerly Defence Systems and Equipment International), or DSEi, is one of the world's biggest arms fairs and has been held in the ExCel centre in East London's Docklands since 1999. The most recent DSEi arms fair took place in September 2009 - the next is scheduled for 13-16 September 2011. DSEi receives major financial, logistical and political support from the UK government, most notably through UK Trade & Investment Defence and Security Organisation. Columbia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were invited to DSEi 2009, the same year they appeared on the list of countries of concern in the Foreign Office's annual report on Human Rights.
4. Clarion Events brought DSEi and two other arms fair in May 2008. They have since brought a number of other arms fairs and have joined the Defence Manufacturers Association. They also run a wide range of events such as the Baby Show and the Spirit of Summer Fair.
5. For further information please contact CAAT's media assistant Ian Pocock on 07535 992123 or email ian.pocock@caat.org.uk or visit http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/armsfairs/. ELAAF can be contacted at elaaf@hotmail.co.uk or on 07513 792705.
Preparing for anti-cuts protests on 26th of March – a personal rallying call
15-02-2011 14:57
I'm an individual. I belong to and represent no organisation. I have no authority and don't want it. This is just commentary, suggestion, a discussion starter. I'm an individual who has been to many protests and have often been left questioning their effectiveness. We need effective protest right now and that's what this is about. It is also about taking things further than the TUC will want to take things in March.National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts – Day 3
15-02-2011 13:53
The 3rd National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts has been called for April 14th 2011.Who was responsible for the looting during the Cairo uprising?
15-02-2011 13:46
(see below for interview)
Anti- GM Protestors Target Oxford Tesco
15-02-2011 12:40
[Oxford] This morning, as part of a nationwide day of action on genetically modified (GM) products in UK supermarkets, two groups of protesters entered Tesco’s on Cowley Road in Oxford to warn customers who might be unwittingly buying GM products.Chants call for regime change as Bahrain kills second protestor
15-02-2011 12:33
HLS Unmasked 2011: Investigative report into HLS' shocking experiments
15-02-2011 12:33
Full article | 1 addition | 2 comments
Manchester Advice To Close In June!
15-02-2011 12:26
Manchester City Council are closing their Welfare Rights Advice Centre.The Trials of Pinar Selek
15-02-2011 11:25
Pinar Selek, Turkish feminist and antimilitarist writer and activist, framed on a charge of terrorism, has been the subject of an unresolved legal process for twelve years. On 9 February 2011 she was acquitted for the third time in an Istanbul court. Next day the prosecution appealed for the third time to the Supreme Court to over-rule the finding.This is not justice but judicial bullying.The Common Purpose.
15-02-2011 10:53
A sinister organisation which is operating at highlevels in all sections of the UK today. It is powerful in government, both central and local.The efforts to keep it out of the public eye appear to be successful.
Blackbird Leys - three days left to stop the council...
15-02-2011 08:29
If you live in Blackbird Leys, or anywhere else in Oxford, you have just two days to lodge an objection to a Planning Application from the Council to itself for a new swimming pool.Oxford City Council is pressing ahead with its scheme to close down two leisure centres (Temple Cowley Pools & Fitness Centre, and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool) and build a brand new pool in Blackbird Leys next to the existing Leisure Centre. The existing centres could be refurbished and improved for £3m, while a new 25m pool will have a capital cost of over £9m. Does this make financial sense or offer value for money when there are cuts to frontline services happening across the city?
Irish Political Prisoners Tortured Aagain In Occupied Ireland
15-02-2011 07:40
West London anti-cuts meeting on 16 February
15-02-2011 07:34
West London Anti-racism Alliance Fight the Cuts (WLARA) is calling on everybody who is free on Wednesday 16 February evening to support the anti-cuts public meeting.Chiapas/Zapatista News February 2011
15-02-2011 01:08
Mass non-payment of electricity billsAction in support of migrants
Police harass journalists in San Cristóbal de las Casas
Prisoners huger strike in Motozintla Prison
Demonstration against femicide
The General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army expresses sadness and regret at the death of Bishop Samuel Ruiz García.
Met pays £117000 in G20 compensation
15-02-2011 00:27
FOI by Daily Mirror exposes compensation payments to G20 protesters to dateWoman facing trial in Essex for rescuing food from becoming landfill!
14-02-2011 22:05
As reported by the Essex Chronicle, The Telegraph and Daily Mail (hmm..); A girl in Essex is facing court on the 16th after being threatened with the use of a battering ram at her house, being handcuffed and led away and having her house searched. Many of us are aware of the horrendous amount of food getting thrown away each day. Now is the time to speak up!
