UK Newswire Archive
This week's 9/11 anniversary: Vital questions UK mainstream media will not ask
09-09-2012 20:44
Blogger Gari Sullivan interviewed about what's really going on in Syria
Demo Against New Coal 22nd Sept
09-09-2012 19:04
Come to Derbyshire to join the Hilltop Action Group on a Demo March, Saturday 22nd September. Beginning at 10.30 am from the Royal Oak car park, Tupton, on the A61 (postcode S42 6LA).Please come along to show your opposition to open cast mining.Bring your family, dog, a picnic, banners and placards.
Freedom under the law at Runnymede?
09-09-2012 18:55
Diggers2012 and ‘Persons Unknown’ (meaning anyone in the known universe) have been served with court papers. Despite the fact that there are no tents, structures or other items on their land, The National Trust is seeking an order for possession and an injunction prohibiting trespassing from a large area of land (over 200 acres) including parts of the ‘Runnymede’ and ‘Ankerwycke’ Estates (which is managed by the National Trust). The case will be heard in Slough County Court this Thursday, 13th September at 12 Noon.
Freedom under law at Runnymede?
We currently have no tents or structures on any National Trust land. Our Eco-village is situated on the disused land on the ex-Brunel university Runnymede campus owned by a private housing developer. As such the possession order requiring vacant possession of the land where the NT claim seems pointless. We have no tents on the piece of land that the NT are referring to. What carries greater ramifications is the fact that the NT are also requesting a ‘perpetual final injunction’ (meaning forever) to prevent Diggers2012 and ‘Persons Unknown’ from ‘trespassing further on the Runnymede Estate and the National Trust’s land at Ankerwycke’. The Runnymede Estate is home to the Magna Carta monument, marking the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215. Consequently Runnymede is regarded as the birthplace of modern democracy. If granted this injunction would allow the National Trust to use ‘reasonable force’ to remove anyone deemed to be trespassing on or around the historic site of the Magna Carta. This is ironic when considering the association of this location with ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality and freedom under law.
One reason the witness on behalf of the NT gives for requesting an injunction concerns an extract from our website from minutes of a ‘Diggers discussion’ that took place at the Magna Carta Memorial on Saturday 30th June 2012 (page viewable here). The witness statement states: ”On their website, the Defendants have set out plans for a three year occupation campaign to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta.” What the minutes actually said was: ”strategic planning to build over the next three years towards 2015 and creating a massive event for the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta (which has inspired ‘democracy’ and civil rights across the world).” This was an idea to create a grass roots gathering at the Runnymede site in 2015 to celebrate the idea of freedom and civil liberties. It contained no specific reference to use of tents or occupation.
One only has to glimpse at the website setup by the Magna Carta Trustto see that the authorities wish to shape the commemoration of the sealing of the Magna Carta in their image. The website states: ”The 800th anniversary of the sealing af Magna Carta will be a commemoration of national and international significance… a large number of high-profile events are being planned.” Last year it was announced the Queen has agreed to become patron of the Magna Carta Trust for the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15th June 2015. Perhaps the prospect of a rabble of common people turning up at the same time as dignitaries to commemorate the same event has irked the authorities and lead to this legal action. Whatever the reason, the effect of such an injunction if authorized will be to grant the National Trust the power to forcibly remove anyone who they do not want on the land at Runnymede forever.
In the Magna Carta Lecture which took place this year at Royal Holloway University, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, defined law as ”as all those protocols that stop society being run exclusively in the interests of whatever group happens to be dominant at any
moment, and that thus guarantee fairness and redress independently of status or power.” Here in Runnymede, where the notion of modern law, justice and equality are said to have sprung from, you could be forgiven for thinking that the law may reflect Rowan William’s definition. And yet the reverse appears to be true. Instead we find a minority of land owning elites hold almost total power of over access to the thing whose life we all depend on: the land.
Those of us here at Runnymede Eco-Village have become quite used to breaking the laws as a by-product of simply trying to live on disused land in a low impact and harmless way. We will carry on doing what we think is just as the primary guide over and above these laws. Stay tuned 8)
The Diggers Festival, old ideas reclaimed
09-09-2012 13:19
Wigan has taken a long time to acknowledge Gerrard Winstanley; 361 years to be exact. The borough held the first Diggers Festival to celebrate his life and ideas only in 2011. The second Diggers festival was held this weekend, an eclectic mix of historic re-enactment, commemoration, and celebration of old and new socialist ideals.A honest letter from the MoD and Faslane exercises in futility
09-09-2012 11:28
Uncharacteristically honest Ministry of Defence letters winged their way to the thousands of residents next to the Faslane Naval Base this week to accompany their Emergency Response Excercise to an unrealistically optimistic nuclear accident.From Truth to Action, Stopping the Repression
09-09-2012 07:04
CALL TO ACTION
“Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas:
Freedom and Justice for San Marcos Avilés and Francisco Sántiz López”
http://sanmarcosaviles.wordpress.com/
Chiapas community threatened with attack
09-09-2012 06:59
Aricle published in the UK in Peace News September 2012 | Issue 2549Zapatistas call for international solidarity
EDL return to Walthamstow Oct 27
08-09-2012 22:07
http://twitpic.com/asioh3
Nottingham MP's vehicle sabotaged
08-09-2012 18:30
In May the Labour MPs wife, Labour councillor Jo White, was sent a dead bird through the post. In August, MP John Mann for Bassetlaw in North Notts nearly crashed his car after anonymous sabotage of his car. A car wheel nearly fell off after it was loosened and the hub cap was screwed back on to hide the sabotage.
The number of people pissed off enough by the politicians to make an attempt on one of their lives is uncountable.
BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19354209
Chiswick 'peace' fair features fur stall
08-09-2012 07:51
'this is a peace fair, nothing to do with animal rights' says organiserCardiff ATOS Office Blockaded
07-09-2012 23:10
CARDIFF DISABLED PROTESTERS BLOCK DWP AND ATOS STAFF LEAVING WORK
Protect Chapetown Residents
07-09-2012 10:21
SchNEWS: Brought to Book
06-09-2012 23:39
North London library closed by cuts, opened by squattersFaslane Peace Camp interrupt Nuclear "Defence" Seminar
06-09-2012 21:04
06/09/12: Anti-nuclear protestors delivered an emotive message to the "next generation" of nuclear weapons engineers at a down-played Nuclear weapons seminar in a hotel in Clydebank todayThe Constitution Unit - 'constitutional change'. Who controls it?
06-09-2012 20:58
The Constitution Unit describes itself as ‘The UK's leading research body on constitutional change’. It was also said by Ben Rogers of Prospect Magazine: as 'preparing the ground for a hung parliament and enabling the creation of a coalition government...’child protection conference skegness
06-09-2012 17:58
2012 suncastle skegness england
Fracking on trial verdict
06-09-2012 14:43
An environmental activist who climbed a drilling rig in a protest against fracking in December last year was today found guilty under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act at Preston Magistrates Court. She was ordered to pay a £250 fine and £750 costs.The UK-based National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts Declares its Support for San
06-09-2012 12:47
“Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas:Freedom and Justice for San Marcos Avilés and Francisco Sántiz López”
http://sanmarcosavilesen.wordpress.com/