UK Newswire Archive
Ruling Class On The Attack Ahead Of 30th June Strikes
17-06-2011 16:14
s the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union released the result of its 30th June strike ballot on Wednesday, the vulpine Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude was all over the TV schedules, in what was clearly a pre-planned counter-offensive. Maude - whose personal wealth is estimated at £3 million - told teatime news presenters that he was concerned about "vulnerable" service users, who would be affected by the strike action. He also argued that the low turnout meant the PCS had no mandate for strike action. Though his hypocrisy is easy to see, the figures do appear to show a general dissatisfaction with the PCS leadership. And PCS is not the only union with a thin strike mandate for the 30th. The turnout was well below half in both the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) ballots. What does this mean, and how does the ruling class intend to make political capital out of these circumstances?Call out for workshops for EF! Summer Gathering 2011
17-06-2011 15:16
This year's Earth First Summer Gathering takes place in East Anglia this year, starting on the 10th of August and running for five days. With six workshops tents we have space for over 100 discussions, presentations and workshops. The spaces are filling up fast, but there is still time to book a spot. So if you've got an idea you wish to highlight, whether it's related to ecological defence or social resistance here is your chance. The gathering is attended by hundreds of individuals interested and participating in struggles around the UK and Europe.Demonstration tomorrow against genocide in Sudan
17-06-2011 10:57
PCS joins J30 strike
17-06-2011 09:34
The Public & Commercial Services Union has voted to join the J30 strike, bringing the total number of striking workers up to 750,000. This union is for civil servants including court staff and immigration officers.Join 3 days of resistance in Amsterdam
17-06-2011 08:55
Join us in the struggle against the recent ban on squatting in the netherlands and the upcoming eviction of two squats in the center of amsterdam! Prepare yourself and your friends and come down to amsterdam 2-5 july!
For half a year Holland faces a squatting ban. Since that time, squatting
has continued and squatting surely won’t stop in the future. The
government’s reaction to squatting has changed though. In some cities,
governments turn a blind eye, but in others they maintain a strict law and
order policy. Politicians in Amsterdam and Utrecht for example, stated
before the ban that they would turn a blind eye when the law was put in
effect. It proved to be a complete lie: squatters in both cities now face
severe repression to new squatting actions. Squatters in both cities are
on an almost war like situation with the authorities. But also some other
cities are aggressive towards new squatting actions. The symbolic molotov
cocktail through the windows of squatters led to an explosive athmosphere
straight away. There were physical confrontations on demonstrations in
Amsterdam and Nijmegen. Consequently, almost all of the 20 squats squatted
in Amsterdam after the ban have been evicted, together with a number of
squats squatted before the ban.
Currently, the government of Amsterdam and its prosecutor are trying to
evict Schijnheilig from its current base for the third time. Through the
years, Schijnheilig has become a nationally and internationally well known
and well respected cultural centre in which more than 1500 artists,
musicians, painters, students, poets have performed. The former school on
the Passeerdersgracht 23 in which Schijnheilig is based, knows a history
of emptiness and speculation and was empty for 10 years before it got
squatted. It was just rotting away before. This sad history will be its
future again after the coming eviction wave. Well: the government wants to
put in a so called anti-squatter; 1 person that will temporarily inhabit
the place, without having any renters rights. Schijnheilig strongly
opposes such deals where people give up their long fought renters right,
just to have a cheap place temporarily, hereby replacing an incredibly
lively cultural centre in which hundreds of people enjoy cultural
experience every week. This is a frontal attack on non-commercial cultural
expression, and a stimulation on practices that hollow out renters rights
which are long fought for by our parents.
The Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 35 squat is another one on the eviction wave
list. And this too is a sad example of the pervert effect of the dreadful
squatting ban. It has been squatted 2001, after being empty and rot away
for 20 years. In the 9 years it has been squatted it changed owners 9
times, all of which are speculators. While these speculators filled their
already well filled pockets, the squatters revived the building and lived
in it ever since. They created living space in a city which knows great
housing shortage. But while the thoroughly corrupt mafia speculators are
being rewarded with more profitable projects and bonuses, squatters are
declared criminal and face eviction. Meanwhile, the owners of the place
don’t even have a planning permission: Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 35 is bound
to face a long emptiness again. This is how it goes in Amsterdam, this is
how Amsterdam conforms itself to a trend in which a political and
economical elite aggressively attacks squatters, renters, misfits and
everyone who might affect their profits.
Mayor of Amsterdam Van der Laan clearly chooses side of the interest of
mafia, speculators and money in general, over the interest of the people
he is suppose to govern. Let this be very clear: the choice he makes to
favour the interest of money over the interest of people, makes this
struggle inseparable from struggles in Greece, in Berlin, against general
cuts, and all other struggles against this rotten system. This system
tries to squeezes us, to rule us, to conquer us: but we say to here and
further. We won’t let them make us homeless without resistance. This is a
call-out to resist these unjust practices. Resistance they’ll face, we
won’t let them conquer us: sowing eviction means harvesting resistance!
Therefore this call-out; come to Amsterdam for our struggle, from the 2nd
of july to the 5th of july, JOIN US in our resistance!
The 2nd of july is the kick off of a long weekend full of actions,
parties, workshops, movies, lectures and, of course resistance. There is
food everyday and an abundance of sleeping places in one of the many
squats . On the 2nd of july there are peoples kitchens, and a party slash
fundraiser in Schijnheilig. Sunday the 3rd will see many workshops, as
well as movies, peoples kitchens, and in the evening a big demonstration.
Monday the 4th there are more workshops and peoples kitchens, while we
prepare for resistance for the eviction wave the day after. Tuesday the
5th will be the day of the eviction wave. You’ll have the opportunity to
join resistance in of the multiple sites of resistance, which will keep us
busy at least until the evening. Keep yourself updated on our website for
further and more detailed information. In the meantime, talk to your
friends, call your work and arrange your trip to Amsterdam, to join us in
our struggle! Because it’s needed more than ever!!
Squatting continues!
SQUATTING GOES WILD!
Refugee Week - World Over Concert
17-06-2011 03:02
A World Music Concert celebrating Sheffield - Britain's first City of SanctuaryStop deportations to Iraq!
16-06-2011 23:21
J30 - Medway education against strike action
16-06-2011 22:50
Medway Adult Learning's position on the strikesCrippling anti-austerity strike action in the Czech Republic today
16-06-2011 18:46
Today in the Czech Republic a national transport strike has shut down almost all public transport in Prague and most across the rest of the country. For the first time in history the Prague Metro was shut down. The strike was called to mount pressure on an unpopular coalition government forcing through an austerity programme that, for the transport workers, would have meant a rise in the retirement age, taxation and welfare limitations.Plans for Britain's Largest Beagle Farm Stopped
16-06-2011 18:18
OFFICIAL NAVA STATEMENT: PERMISSION REFUSED FOR HUMBERSIDE BEAGLE FARMgeeks in a field
16-06-2011 17:55
Every year a bunch of geeks travel to the lovely Wye Valley from all over UK, and trudge up the 80 meter climb to Highbury Farm. There they camp out for a long weekend, running workshops and presentations during the day and sitting around the fire drinking cider at night, or enjoying the eclectic Raveoke and accoustic sets on the open stage. The whole set up is called BarnCamp, the main workshop space is a barn, which also includes the bar, food serving area and washing up corner, and is organised by the hacktivist@s of Hacktionlab.
If you also want to polish your tech skills, check out the Internet privacy (anonymity, security…) workshop this Sunday, June 19, starting at 11:00 at LARC!
See also: (incomplete) list of sessions | session notes | media page, list of posts about BarnCamp2011 | Pics on Flickr: ludwig van standard lamp | churchofpunk | chickarama | Reports: Bristol Wireless | Charlie Harvey | Mike Harris | Video: Sunset timelaps photography | ravin’ geeks | Audio: Luddites, technology, sustainability | CatalysRadio started broadcasting from Barncamp, check out their stream!
This year saw an increase in ladies participating, both in attendance and running sessions. (And last years rule of women being discouraged from doing the dishes didn’t return). This year saw less involved geekery, maybe due to the geek gag, which was aimed at ensuring everyone could participate and meant to not use jargon or acronyms, but to explain things in clear terms.
A lot of session had a very direct focus on media production, with some amazing results, they inlcuded: The Drupal CMS, setting people up with their own copy of the bethemedia.org.uk site in order to take the next steps with the radical news aggregator; running anonymous blogging services using the Wordpress CMS, e.g. network23.org; setting up a 24 hour activist radio, using Sourcefabric’s Airtime CMS, catalystradio.org launched on Saturday evening and has been broadcasting full time since; translating Foodsoft, a software that helps set up and run food coops, an intro and feedback session on OpenConsent, a tool that aims to help with consensus decision making for distributed groups that need to make decisions outside of physical meetings.
The introduction to geomapping on Openstreetmap, and open and non corporate alternative to google maps, was a bit hampered by the rain, which discouraged people from going out and mapping the local area properly. A presentation on fractals, and how to display them using canvas tags in html5 required quite a bit of maths. We were introduced to TAILS, a live CD/stick bootable Linux distro, that puts security above all else, and to Bitcoins, which might just be the currency of the future.
Another working group played with VoIP on Android phones using Serval, a temporary, self-organising, wifi mesh network. It is used to make peer to peer telephone calls using Wifi connections, which can be encyrpted for secure communication.
And yet another hands on workshop helped people install Thunderbird and Enigmail and set up email encryption on their laptops. We also looked at Diaspora, the open source, distributed alternative to facebook.
There also was a presentation on the Ecological and Social Costs of IT Hardware (, talk starts at about 30 minutes, and a selected bibliography) – get us thinking about the sustainability and impact of all the cool toys we are using.
Edl march in middelsbourgh
16-06-2011 17:18
The idiots of the english defence league are planning to march though middelsbourgh on the 9th of july
Palestine Today 06 16 2011
16-06-2011 13:48
Birmingham: Welcome party for Nick Clegg – 29th June
16-06-2011 10:36
The Local Government Association is holding a conference[1] in Birmingham on the 28th-30th June.The local government conference is at the ICC in Birmingham from the 28th-30th June, coinciding with the strike actions.
Delegates from local councils around the country will attend to hear keynote speakers such as Nick Clegg, Andrew Lansley, Eric Pickles and Ed Miliband.
Final details are to be arranged, particularly in co-ordinating with workers striking on the 29th and 30th.
We are going to be leafletting delegates to the event on the 29th, probably from around 8:30am before welcoming Nick Clegg to the venue where he will speak.
We may leaflet other days, but that is not yet decided.
Lettre de Mme Maigret à Jean-Paul Sartre
16-06-2011 10:11
My English’s not improved yet. We have experienced" notre Gauche Proletarienne" and Maoism and we suffer know Chinese impact You are demanding yet facts, because world is to far from death. Dear, here is my experience for that Known as “Spanish [r]evolution.USA: Turn Off That Camera! Filming The Police At Work
16-06-2011 10:01
Dashboard cams in police cars are ubiquitous. Yet police are pushing back against Americans capturing them at work on cell phone cameras. Arresting people filming arrests. Is that right?
You see police arresting someone. Maybe it looks right and by the book. Maybe it doesn’t.
You pull out your cell phone and start to record. To make a video. And the next thing you know, you are arrested. The video-making bystander, in handcuffs. Facing charges.
It’s happening all around the country. Cell phones and their cameras are now everywhere. Police often don’t like to be recorded doing their work. It’s not always pretty.
But in the era of the citizen journalist, should making a video mean an arrest? Who’s the watchdog then?
This hour On Point: the battle over citizens videoing police.
- Tom Ashbrook
Rizal 150: Celebrating The Filipino National Hero
16-06-2011 09:55
JOSE RIZAL : RE-DISCOVERING THE REVOLUTIONARY FILIPINO HERO IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM
BY E. SAN JUAN, Jr.
Full article | 1 addition | 5 comments
Former undercover cop’s media circus is just a big show
16-06-2011 09:02
Yesterday morning BBC Radio Five Live demonstrated, once again, the utter futility of interviewing former undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. Mr Kennedy is a man who has carved out a career as a professional liar. Pouring his heart out to Victoria Derbyshire, he apparently deeply regrets the endless lies he had to tell in his former role. However, he seems to show no sign of giving untruths a rest.
When asked whether he ever acted as an agent provocateur, Kennedy claimed he had “never encouraged anyone to do anything they weren’t already going to do”, and that he only ever came in at a very late stage to planned direct actions.
However, in the case of the 114 people arrested for conspiring to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in April 2009, we know this to be far from the truth.