UK Indymedia - UK Newswire Archive

Ministry blocks anti-tar sands law so we block DfT

28-11-2011 20:55

This morning, 50 activists blockaded the Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrance. Why? Because our government is trying to scupper EU legislation that will block tar sands oil - the dirtiest, most polluting form of oil there is - from being sold at UK petrol pumps. Mining for tar sands is wrecking the Canadian boreal forest, destroying the homelands of indigenous people, and accelerating dangerous climate change. So why then is the Department for Transport trying to sabotage legislation that would block tar sands oil from European petrol pumps? Looks like they’ve been lobbied hard by the Canadian government and big oil. Now it’s your turn to lobby.

The tar sands deposits of heavy oil mixed with clay and sand lie below the surface of the Canadian wilderness. To extract the tar, oil companies destroy the Canadian boreal forest, gouge out hundreds of metres of top soil, and turn the landscape into a gaping black pit. Two tonnes of earth has to be dug up and processed to produce each barrel of bitumen.

Worst of all, tar sands oil creates three times the emissions per barrel that you would get from normal crude.

On any rational assessment of what's happening to the climate, there's no way tar sands make any sense. Blocking tar sands oil from European forecourts would reduce the carbon impact of European fuels by six per cent.

Next week, officials will meet from across Europe to approve the plan that would prevent tar sands oil from ending up at the pumps. If the proposal goes ahead it would deal a major blow to oil industry plans to expand the Canada’s tar sands open cast mining operations.

Right now the vote could go either way because of the UK-led diplomatic effort to scupper it. That’s why we need your help to put pressure on the department to stop its attempts to block the legislation.

Please join the lobby for legislation to block tar sands from Europe and write to Nick Clegg* today.
* http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=18&ea.campaign.id=12858

Update: Greenpeace activists have also visited British embassies across Europe, including those in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm and Berlin. They've been delivering letters to the ambassadors, protesting about the UK's isolated stance on the legislation that could block tar sands from being sold and used in Europe.

Update: 16 arrests have now been reported.

Full article

BBC Radio Nottingham Interview

28-11-2011 18:55

BBC Radio Nottingham interview.

I will be on BBC Radio Nottingham on Tuesday 29th of November 2011 from 7:30am.

I will be talking about what happened to me last Monday regarding the police seizure of my camcorder tape while filming an arrest.

Peace out

Lewis

Full article

Italy: more NO TAV protests planned for December

28-11-2011 18:46

More initiatives being planned by the NO TAV movement against a high speed rail line being built in the Susa Valley (Piedmont).

Full article

Occupy your university – Aberdeen chapter

28-11-2011 17:26

Aberdeen Defend Education Campaign have occupied the University management offices demanding that the university principal commit to the following three points:

• To do what he can to stop lecturers and staff losing their jobs. This should include issuing a public statement in opposition to changes to the USS pension scheme and arguing publicly and within Universities Scotland against any and all cuts to Further and Higher Education budgets.
• To refuse any raises or bonuses offered to him by court and to encourage all other members of the senior management team to do the same. Further, the principal must commit to donating the money the University paid on his behalf in rent and council tax last year to the student hardship fund.
• To publicly condemn the coalition government’s agenda of cuts and privatisation of Further and Higher Education institutions as counter-productive, damaging and fundamentally opposed to the idea of public education as a beacon of the progressive values that should underpin our society.

Full article | 1 addition | 1 comment

Solidarity Federation: Wage theft victory in South London

28-11-2011 16:14

A pub worker and South London Solidarity Federation have together won 6 weeks - over £700 - in stolen wages after a campaign of direct action and threatening pickets of a London pub.

Full article

463 Years After The Ketts Rebellion...

28-11-2011 15:16

Still the property of humanity is being progressively enclosed. Finally the right to residential squatting is taken as well, and the Dale Farm eviction went successfully for the coppers rather than the people. Where are those fighting back and preparing armies to resist these enclosures as our ancestors did?

Full article

UWE Occupation

28-11-2011 15:12

UWE Occupation - Today occupation has began of the UWE St. Matthias Campus, we're hear to show opposition to cuts and to support the N30 strikes.

Full article

Ministry blocks anti-tar sands law, so we block ministry's front door

28-11-2011 14:40

This morning, 50 activists blockaded the Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrance. Why? Because our government is trying to scupper EU legislation that will block tar sands oil - the dirtiest, most polluting form of oil there is - from being sold at UK petrol pumps.

Mining for tar sands is wrecking the Canadian boreal forest, destroying the homelands of indigenous people, and accelerating dangerous climate change.

So why then is the Department for Transport trying to sabotage legislation that would block tar sands oil from European petrol pumps? Looks like they’ve been lobbied hard by the Canadian government and big oil. Now it’s your turn to lobby.

Please write to Nick Clegg*: he needs to tell the ministry to stop standing in the way of green legislation. It's time Clegg acted on the green credentials he keeps talking about.
*

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=18&ea.campaign.id=12858

Full article

Palestine Today 11 28 2011

28-11-2011 14:33

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday November 28, 2011.

Full article | 4 comments

Chile: Text for the call to solidarity – Long live the Conspiracy Cells of Fire

28-11-2011 14:11

http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/post/2011/11/28/chile-text-for-the-call-to-solidarity-long-live-the-conspiracy-of-cells-of-fire/

Full article

Protest at Top Gear Live's links to the arms trade

28-11-2011 12:55

A report on London Campaign Against Arms Trade's protest at Top Gear Live, ExCeL Centre

As part of a campaign against Clarion Events' ownership of the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair (DSEi), Saturday saw London Campaign Against Arms Trade (London CAAT) carry out a protest at Clarion's latest show, Top Gear Live, which took place this Saturday at the ExCeL Centre in London. Top Gear is the BBC's phenomenally successful motoring show.

Demonstrators masked as the three presenters of the show (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May) engaged with the public on the issue of Clarion's involvement in the arms trade. A number of passers-by were sympathetic to our cause and a couple were as vehemently opposed to the arms trade as London CAAT are.

London CAAT member Rose Shawyer said "the BBC has a worldwide reputation for producing quality programming that is in complete contrast with the sordid image of the arms trade. This reputation is being sullied by its continued dealings with Clarion Events. They should stop their involvement with Clarion Events".

The last DSEi was in September of this year and saw countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia invited to buy the latest weapons. The UK government continues to sell weapons to countries involved in the Arab Spring, with Egypt and Bahrain recently receiving weapons and dual-use equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Full article | 1 comment

Concerns about Taser use in police force under scrutiny over recent death

28-11-2011 12:17

The police force currently under investigation over a Taser-related death is one of the most prolific users of ‘repeat-Tasering’ in the country, despite concerns that repeated use of the stun-guns present a significant risk to life.

A Bureau investigation into Taser use by the police has found that Cumbria Constabulary has used repeat-tasering, where an individual is subjected to repeated or prolonged electric shocks, 12 times since November 2010. This is more instances than recorded by the Metropolitan Police, despite Cumbria Constabulary having a much smaller population to police.

Cumbria has been under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission since August, when bodybuilder Dale Burns, 27, died after being electrocuted at least three times at his home in Barrow. At least one individual has been repeat-tasered by Cumbria Constabulary since the incident.

Full article | 1 addition | 4 comments

Dec. 5th. Solidarity with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks High Court London

28-11-2011 12:02

An anti-war solidarity vigil will be held outside the High Court, The Strand, London on Monday Dec 5th against the extradition of Julian Assange. The vigil is organised by Veterans for

http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/ and London Cathoic Worker

http://londoncatholicworker.org/
The vigil will start at 8.30 a.m. Updates and more info Phone/Text 079 392 90576

Full article | 1 comment

White working class areas in Birmingham feel 'alienated'

28-11-2011 11:11

According to research just published white working class white communities in Birmingham feel alienated, disenfranchised and last in line for resources such as social housing, felt disconnected from the political process and that their voices were not heard.

Full article

A success: the tour America banned

28-11-2011 11:09

It was the tour the authorities tried to stop. Dan Glass, the Plane Stupid activist who had superglued himself to Gordon Brown in protest against a third runway at Heathrow, never got a visa to visit America. His fellow speaker, John Stewart, who had chaired the coalition against the third runway, was sent packing back to London when he landed at JFK Airport.

Full article