UK Newswire Archive
Full article | 1 addition | 6 comments
EAP (EDL Splinter) Lincoln This Sat 8th
07-06-2013 12:49
EAP will be holding a demo against a proposed mosque in Lincoln.
https://www.facebook.com/events/414385301992599/
Brighton Council Strike on after overwhelming vote in favour of action
07-06-2013 11:53
GMB members employed by Brighton and Hove City Council have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action in response to Green Party plans to reduce their take home pay.11th June: Oppose Former Greek PM Papandreou and Austerity
07-06-2013 10:55
Press release from some of our Greek friends.
¡La Revolución! this Sunday
07-06-2013 10:55
Interesting day-long event this Sunday focussing on political movements in the Spanish-speaking world. They have speakers on Bolivia and Venezuela, as well as Spain.
UG#645 - Potemkin Justice (Whistleblowers & Surveillance in 21st Century USA)
07-06-2013 09:03
David Rovics to play at a venue in Brum that uses Workfare!
07-06-2013 09:00
On Monday 10th June 2013 David Rovics will be playing at the 'Kitchen Garden Cafe' in the suburbs of Kings Heath in Birmingham.The Kitchen Garden Cafe models itself as some kind of locally sourced organic ethical eatery. It's a shame it doesn't extend this consideration to how it treats it staff. The fact is this business, the deli in particular, has definitely had workfare placements. We know this from speaking to staff although the boss has been very evasive and patronising towards customers raising this as an issue.
2013 Video activist training from Camcorder Guerrillas
07-06-2013 00:55
Camcorder Guerrillas Activist Video Training 2013
Are you involved in a grassroots or community struggle?
Learn how to make short online films to boost your campaign.
Apply for a place NOW Deadline 1 July 2013
A new series of video training workshops for activists will take place in CCA over the summer. Workshops are themed around the following issues
vigil at EDFenergy HQ in victoria tonight - pics and report
06-06-2013 22:52
EDL in Nottingham on Saturday
06-06-2013 16:55
Demonstrate against the EDLThis SATURDAY 1st June, 10.30am at the WAR MEMORIAL, Trent Embankment The EDL have announced a 'commemorative march' to the War Memorial on the north bank of the Trent this Saturday. They are using the murder of Lee Rigby - which I'm sure we all condemn - as a pretext for spreading their racism. The Rigby family has now publicly stated that they oppose people like the EDL hijacking the murder to sow their hatred.
Last weekend the EDL threatened to demonstrate in the Market Square but didn't show. We should not let them go unchallenged if we're aware of such threats in advance. Around 100 turned out last Saturday continuing Nottingham's tradition of opposing racism and fascism. Let's make sure as many as possible assemble this weekend.
Celebrating 150 Years of Co-operation in Notts
06-06-2013 16:55
We are delighted to announce a series of events in the next couple of months celebrating: 150 - THE LENTON SESQUICENTENNIAL
The 30th May 1863 saw the opening of the first co-operative society in Nottingham set up on the principles of the Rochdale Pioneers.
We will be celebrating the past, present and future of co-operatives and their members' work, ideas and ideals with a series of events in June and July 2013.
These include a film screening, a historical walk and the publication of an exciting new book, adding new and fascinating facets to the rich and turbulent history of the people of Nottingham.
We will be starting with the launch of Chris Richardson's new book at the Sparrows' Nest:
'A City of Light: Socialism, Chartism and Co-operation - Nottingham 1844'.
Please see the 'City of Light' website & the Indymedia calendar for details on the book and all upcoming events.
Notts Against Workfare target Framework
06-06-2013 16:55
On Saturday 1st June the music exchange store run by the Nottingham homeless charity Framework was picketed by Notts Against Workfare. Displaying banners and handing out leaflets campaigners explained to the shoppers and passersby the shitty business Framework have got themselves involved in. Most people we talked to were disappointed that a charity which does admirable work would not make the connection between forced work, benefits sanctions and homelessness.
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Framework, having recently admitted that it is using labour from DWP Mandatory Work Schemes to supplement its voluntary apprenticeship programmes. Whilst the head honchos at Framework like chief executive Andrew Redfearn continue to act as if they shouldn't be embarrassed, staff who are further down the totum pole continue to show a combination of disgust and irritation at their employers actions.
Notts Against Workfare campaigner Cameron Frazer says "actions against Framework will continue as we seek to highlight their disgraceful abuse of members of the working class."
Benefits claimants placed on the Work Programme face benefit sanctions and ultimately the loss of their homes if they do not participate in unpaid labour. Oxfam, Shelter, the homeless charity SHP, Sense and the PDSA have all refused to participate in these government schemes because they feel that Workfare exacerbates social exclusion and penalises the poorest in society.
Framework has a training and employment side project called EVE Works, which delivers the Work Programme as a subcontractor to A4e in Nottinghamshire. Framework has also set up a wholly owned community interest company (CIC) called EVE Trades to deliver and manage its social enterprise activities. Mandatory work activity is used in the businesses and participants are referred to as "volunteers", despite the fact that they are obliged to participate or risk losing their benefits.
In some cases Framework has ended paid apprenticeships for participants, such as those offered under its Paint It project, and replaced them with mandatory unpaid Workfare placements. Campaigners claim that this is in order for Framework to provide itself with “free labour” and reduce its costs. These changes have been introduced since the charity warned 200 members of staff that they could face redundancy in 2011 and introduced extensive wage cuts.
Framework has admitted that it has taken on more than 2,000 people on the Work Programme but claims not to have made any money through the scheme in spite of the fact that providers are paid hundreds of pounds for each participant they take on.
In fact a minimum, no strings payment of £400 is made to workfare contractors for every claimant placed on the Work Programme. If the claimant goes on to find work and remains off benefits this can payment can rise to up to £4,400 after 18 months. At the most conservative end of the estimate, over £800,000 has changed hands for forcing these claimants into Workfare. 1.
According to Nottingham Against Workfare campaigner Mikhail Goldman, “Workfare is not simply exploitative – if allowed to continue, it will exacerbate housing problems for the poorest and most vulnerable in society hugely.”
“Shamefully, Framework claims that the Work Programme benefits the unemployed and will reduce homelessness. We intend to show them that they are wrong.”
“The work programme” - DWP (figure 3) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file
Bedroom Tax Demo, Speaker's Corner
06-06-2013 16:55
1.00pm on Saturday 1st June at Speaker's Corner, Nottingham
Video of some of the speeches at the protest.
Speaker's Corner, Nottingham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU5lkV4nlIQ
The Notts Bedroom Tax Campaign was founded on Saturday 16th March at the first rally against the Bedroom Tax in Nottingham.
Since then we have created a Facebook group and this website, met a couple of times to plan, leafleted one area (the Meadows) and had our first public meeting there.
Our aim is to defeat the tax in our area by whatever means are necessary. Petition, rally, appeal letter, eviction prevention – however far it goes, we will stop it.
We need to organise everyone in Nottingham and surrounding areas who is affected by the Bedroom Tax – and everyone who isn’t affected but who sympathises and wants to add their name and energy to the fight. We need to get into every social housing estate and inform every householder that they are not alone, and they will not have to lose their home – that it’s possible to defeat the tax, if we all work together.
We need people to plan, talk to their neighbours, argue with their friends, speak to the media, leaflet, look for advice, publicise, provide testimony, organise meetings, print flyers, design posters, turn up to rallies, contact their representatives, volunteer to block bailiffs, run stalls, write reports.
The Bedroom tax is outrageous. The one thing that would be more outrageous is if we let it pass.
This website is intended to collect in one place all relevant information for people fighting the Bedroom Tax in Nottingham. Event details, write-ups, planning, graphical and other materials, links to media articles, links to other campaigns and sources of help, advice and guidance, people’s stories. Come here to find it, and to provide it. If you want to add to the website please ask to be made an author using the contact email below. In the meantime if you are not an author you can still comment on a post or page, preferably this one, and if the content is worth posting in its own right an admin will copy the text into its own post for you.
We have the following sections: What We Can Do details a plan of action; Events tells you what’s happening and when; Materials and Multimedia gather graphical, photo, audio and video bits and pieces; Media Coverage provides links to mainstream media news articles.
The website address is https://nottsbedroomtax.wordpress.com/
We also have a Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/433271280090704/
Our email address is bedtaxnotts@yahoo.co.uk
We have a Twitter account: @BedTaxNotts
Website contact email is nottsbedroomtax@gmail.com
GET INVOLVED!
http://nottsbedroomtax.wordpress.com
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Web: http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>
I hear voices from the borders
06-06-2013 16:55
As legislation on migration becomes more and more restrictive, resistance to an inhuman system is well and alive in the City of Calais, northern France. Continue reading to find out more about Dublin II, police repression, migrant-led struggles and how to provide practical support.
I hear voices from the borders
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood", states the first Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. The spaces where it is perhaps most strikingly visible that this does not apply in practice are the borders of nation states.
The history of the most well-off countries' border policy is a history of more and more enforcement of restrictions on the freedom of movement of those who are in need of help and safety. International agreements like Dublin I and Dublin II make this inequality tangible: once an asylum seeker who entered the European Union travelled from one state territory to another, just like a European citizen is granted the right to travel, s_he most certainly looses the chance to get asylum in the whole European area where the Dublin agreements apply.
Nation states engage in a bargaining in which migrants, displaced people and refugees who have often survived war and human rights violations become an exchange currency. In an attempt to share a grasp of the safety enjoyed by many European citizens those who are most in need of it are kept at distance in camps or institutionally assigned to places. Meanwhile the walls of Fortress Europe are getting thicker and thicker through new International agreements.
Authors, social movements and organisations came up with various responses to this development. They demand the right to come and stay for all, write about the right to a World Passport, organise No Border Camps, ... One could stay at home and reason about the common ownership of the earth that existed before nation states emerged, and the ethics of cosmopolitanism or one could get out there and engage with the borders of Fortress Europe and work towards these goals.
The city of Calais, northern France, has become a symbol for the struggle for Freedom of Movement. Migrants who are in Calais are often subject to police violence as the group Calais Migrant Solidarity reports in a recent dossiert:
repression in Calais is systematic, involving actors from bottom to top, from minor officials and frontline police to the highest authorities, whether they actively participate or merely look away in silence. Brutality and harassment in Calais are deliberate weapons used in the service of French, British and European immigration policy. The idea is a simple one; drive refugees away from the border by making their lives unbearable.
A group of people in Nottingham has come together to confront the situation at the border and show their support for migrants. The activists focus their work around setting up a mobile kitchen in order to provide food to migrants in a time period where most of the charities are on summer holidays. The aim is not only to provide practical help, but also to develop more links between similar existing organisations and individuals, to investigate and let other people know the situation of the migrants at the border between the continent and the UK, and the politics which cause the situation.
Let's not forget that, as the refugees currently on hunger strike put it:
The inviolable essence of freedom and equality, which build the foundation for our human co-existence, consists of the equal and inalienable human rights and the recognition of our innate dignity. However, there are places in the world today where the rulers in politics and the economy have created extremely inequal, inhuman and injust conditions for pursuing their economic, political and military interests while at the same time ignoring essential rights and needs of the population.
If you want to join the group or give your support by coming to the fundraiser on the 8th of June, click here for more information.
Stop the Badger Cull
06-06-2013 16:55
Veggies Catering Campaign attended the National March Against the Badger Cull on 1st June 2013.
See the special report, with info, links & contacts for you to get involved to Stop The Cull
Only people power and direct action will stop the cull now. If you can, get to the cull zones. If you can't, please support your local hunt sab group.
On Wednesday 5th June at 4.30pm the Government crushed a proposal to Stop the Cull.
By 4.50pm another 20,000 Stop the Badger Cull fliers were on their way.
Now we need you to help distribute them nationwide.
Read all about it at our stop-the-badger-cull feature.
On Saturday 8th Nottingham Animal Rights will be raising support for Nottingham and Derby Hunt Sabs to help get them out into the fields to Stop the Badger Cull.
Featuring Face painting, Lush soap, Samosas for Social Change, Veggies Cake and Cookies.
Find us in the Market Square from Noon.
Birmingham's Turkish community show solidarity for the protests in Turkey
06-06-2013 16:39
30 EDL outside Old Bailey today - probably there again tomorrow
06-06-2013 12:57
Approximately 30 EDL were demonstrating outside the Old Bailey today for the sentencing of the men accused of planning to attack an EDL rally in Dewsbury last year. Unfortunately no anti-fascists opposing them.UNITED WE STAND! "Hands off Syria / Iran "
06-06-2013 12:09
