UK Promoted Newswire Archive
Sainsburys picketed in solidarity with Gaza
20-08-2011 17:21
a picket was held in Brighton outside Kemptown Sainsburys calling for a boycott of Israeli goodsAnarchist/Antifascist Prisoner Thomas Blak Writes From Wormwood Scrubs
20-08-2011 10:47
The following communiqué is not the opinion of any group or organisation, but that of the signed person only.Report from Wandsworth ‘no to evictions’ protest
19-08-2011 20:01
Why had he just arrested a man? The best answer he could give ” he was whipping up the crowd “… his colleague added he was ‘ swearing’. In fact the gentleman in question had indeed used that dreadful and clearly very naughty F word and pointed out that capitalism was not a very good economic system. He also advised the police they had ‘ transferable skills’ and should get out while they can. It would appear he had a point as it all went down well, but did not amount to ‘whipping up the crowd’
Solidarity with Fortnum 145 court appearences
19-08-2011 17:55
A group of around 15 protesters met outside Westminster magistrate court today to show solidarity with the remaining half of the original 'Fortnum and Masions 145' arrested during the anti cuts protests in London on 26th March. They appeared in court to enter their pleas and have their court dates set. See Flicker pictures and a short Youtube video. The first half were released without charge, but we are still awaiting the outcome of todays proceedings.
Fortnum 145 is a campaign by friends and family to support the 145 people who were arrested and charged following the occupation of Fortnum and Mason on 26 March this year. The mass arrest happened amidst calls for the police to be given more rights spy on protesters. The police have even told parliament that this was an opportunity to gather intelligence about protestors. This is political policing, clear and simple.
You all know the story by now…
The F&M occupation was described by a senior police officer on the scene as ‘sensible’ and ‘non-violent’. Another description of the sit-in reads: “the perfect accompaniment to my tea and scones” – a sit-in to draw attention to the £10m/year tax-dodge by Wittington Investments, the owners of Fortnum & Mason while the rest of the country faces deep cuts to public spending and services.
After being assured that they could leave safely and unhindered, the protesters were kettled by riot police. They were then arrested one by one – some none too gently! despite the lack of resistance on the behalf of the protesters – handcuffed and flung all across London for detention. The arrestees had their clothes and property confiscated, their DNA and fingerprints taken and stored. In possible breaches of arrest protocol, the arrestees were not intereviewed and some went without food for the 23+ hours that they were held. Protesters were finally released after up to the full maximum 24 hours detention in all white tracksuits/paper suits in unfamiliar areas of London – a sizeable number of arrestees being from far outside London.
Lynne Owens, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has admitted that the arrests were made for intelligence purposes.
The arrests have been universally condemned – as ‘confusing political anger with criminality’ and ”threaten[ing] the right to peacefully protest’. A coalition of unions and NGOs released a statement of support for the protesters saying that they ‘were treated in a political and deceptive manner by the police which sends an ominous message about the right to protest’.
Tax avoiders should be on trial, not protestors who raise awareness of their scams so please come and support the second half of the remaining defendants.
Another anti-fascist sentenced
19-08-2011 16:55
Another UK anti-fascist was sentenced today (Friday August 19th). Jonathan Wood was one of seven anti-fascists convicted in June this year of having "conspired to commit violent disorder". This accusation relates to an incident in 2009 in which some anti-fascists were involved in an altercation with neo-nazis on their way to a gig organised by the fascist and openly racist promoters Blood and Honour. At Blackfriars Crown Court on Friday August 19th Jonathan was given a _____ sentence.
We are over the moon that our friend and comrade escaped prison, as this was a real possibility. Jonathan was given a non-custodial sentence for reasons relating to his personal circumstances. However, earlier this summer six of his co-defendants were jailed periods ranging from 15 to 21 months, and are worthy of our total support. Please see antifascistprisonersupportuk.wordpress.com for details on how to support these antifascist prisoners.
Smash EDO's Gaza noise demo
19-08-2011 13:49
There was a loud noise demo outside EDO/ITT this morning in response to the ongoing attacks on Gaza.EDO make components for the F16s used by Israel.
Full article | 1 addition | 2 comments
Huntington Lane Coal Site under eviction!
19-08-2011 12:41
Shell Demo in solidarity with Rossport resistance
18-08-2011 20:55
Thursday 18th August 2011
At 6pm on Thursday evening, people gathered outside the Shell petrol station on the Carlton Road, Nottingham.
This protest was an act of solidarity with all those who are fighting against the building of Shell's destructive gas pipeline in Rossport, Ireland. Following over 10 years of battling with the local community, work began on laying the pipeline a few weeks ago, and people are continually blockading to delay Shell
The police responded with a couple of officers arriving with 5 minutes from the banners being unfurled!
To the amazement of those present, the filling station staff then closed down and put barriers across the entrances. They did this on direction from mangement, apparently in the name of health & safety.
In about equal measure, drivers were upset at not being able to fill up .... and the number of people hooting support and taking leaflets.
Just up the road, the police had placed a sign saying that there was a police operation in progress and to excuse any incovenience that might be caused. Gosh ..... all a bit OTT.
additionally ..... there is now an oil-spill emergency in the North Sea.
The flow of oil from the worst spill in UK waters in the past decade, at one of Shell's North Sea platforms, has been "greatly reduced" but not yet stopped completely, the government said on Monday.
Conservationists warned that the leak could harm bird life in the area, at a delicate time in their development, as the oil company worked to minimise the damage.
Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said: "We know oil of any amount, if in the wrong place, at the wrong time, can have a devastating impact on marine life. Currently thousands of young auks – razorbills, puffins and guillemots – are flightless and dispersing widely in the North Sea during late summer. So they could be at serious risk if contaminated by this spill."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/15/north-sea-oil-spill
I note about a week ago, the Shell PR dept were pushing the line that the spill was not at all significant. No, not at all!! Then, more recently, it has transmogrified into the most serious spill in the North Sea in last 15 years.
Oh ... then of course there are the many spills in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. Plenty to complain about I think.
for more info ... email NSN@riseup.net
Rossport Solidarity Camp
http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org
____________________________________________
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>
Demo outside of Wandsworth council leaders house
18-08-2011 18:55
Only one week after the riots, the media and politicians have been trying to out do each other on how draconian they can be to placate the 'hatemail' readers of midlle England. Wandsworth council have served a single-parent family with an eviction notice after the tenant's son was charged in court over disturbances during the recent troubles, its aim is not justice but revenge. Housing Solidarity has started a campaign to stop this happeneing and today a demonstration has been held outside the house of the Council leader of 25 people showing their distaste for this vindictive act. Also present are 10 police and a camera crew. People are chanting "one two three four, evict the tories not the poor..." and a letter is being delivered to a house St. Ann's hill.
more later
Palestine Today 08 17 2011
17-08-2011 17:08
Full article | 2 additions | 1 comment
Rotten Fruit delivered to Apax Partners, investor in Israeli agribusiness
16-08-2011 16:08
In memory of Simon Levin (see
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/07/481974.html)
Full article | 1 addition | 9 comments
Oxford social centre - photos and first events!
15-08-2011 23:47
Palestine Today 08 15 2011
15-08-2011 15:13
new Oxford social centre survives first round of police bullying
14-08-2011 20:34
An empty industrial workshop in East Oxford has been squatted by a group planning to use it for community and social events, an organising base for local radicals and living space too.Notts Uncut: Tour of Tax Avoiders
14-08-2011 01:55
Saturday August 13, 2011
In the aftermath of the riots in Nottingham, folks from Notts Uncut resumed their usual Saturday afternoon activities.
Protesting outside Vodafone in Clumber Street, the shop closed its shutter. Outside protesters exhorted them to mitigate the cuts by paying their fair share of taxes.
Then onto the NatWest Bank in Market Square, the bank closed its doors after people entered, chanting slogans. There were a couple of proper coppers in the bank with them, but inspite of the recent events, there were still 10 PCSO's available to stand about outside and another half-dozen still cruising around the square. Oh.... and the recent addition of a Nottinghsmshire Police detective to monitor the situation.
Then onto another Phil Green business, TopShop in Lister Gate. Some shoppers in need of some urgent clothes did remonstrate with those protesting, and heated discussions ensued. A passing zebra was also press-ganged into the event :-) I thought it had a cute smile.
Onwards to Boots in the Broadmarsh were some lept under the shutters as they were being closed. After a bit of pushing and shoving, police assisted in their removal.
Notts Uncut said:
"Notts Uncut will be coming together again to remind the tax avoiding banks and corporations based in Nottingham that we haven't gone away and we haven't forgotten what they're up to.
While the Con-Dem government is getting increasingly cut-happy, telling us that there is no money for homeless shelters and women's refuges, that we can't afford to give charities government grants, that students must pay £9000 a year for degree courses, that people living on the breadline must survive on less and less there is a select group of people who are not suffering from the cuts - the bankers and corporate fat cats. While ordinary people are suffering these people are still paying multi million pounds worth of bonuses and avoiding billions of pounds worth of tax. Let's get out there and make sure the government and their super wealthy tax dodging mates know that we're onto them!!"
Notts Uncut
http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
nottsuncutaction@gmail.com
Notts Save or Services
http://nottssos.org.uk
*****
earlier events:
Cuts Protest @ Vodafone, Boots, NatWest, TopShop.
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/1106
Notts UK Uncut occupied Lloyds TSB Bank Nottingham
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/1105
Nottingham Cuts campaigners @ HSBC Vodafone Virgin & the rest
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/1922
Nottingham Street party against business, banks, service cuts
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/1933
____________________________________________
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>
2000 joined unity march "give our kids a future"
13-08-2011 21:55
around 2000 people joined an assembly in dalston this afternoon, before marching north to tottenham for a rally outside the town hall
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
----
the event was called by the 'north london unity assembly' which brought together more than 70 local community leaders and groups under the banner "give our kids a future".
crowds assembled at gilet square in dalston, where they heard from an array of speakers. links were made between austerity cuts, deprivation, inflexible narrow education, poor employment prospects and other ills of capitalism. some speakers highlighted the hypocricy of MPs calling for the sternest response to riots, while walking free from the expenses scandals. others highlighted the billions lost to bankers who truly looted the country, and yet are still pocketing their unfeasible bonuses. the excessive use of stop and search by police was blamed for alienating young people, and of course the IPCC was castigated for its total lack of independence, with hundreds of deaths at police hands and not one single conviction, and the lies unravelling over the death of mark duggan.
as the march walked the four mile route up to tottenham, police (mostly from outside forces) provided a low key accompaniment, but half a dozen riot vans were never far away in the back streets. whether through bad planning or a more sinister motive, vehicles were allowed through as the march travelled through the one-way high street in stoke newington, mingling with the crowd further up the road.
although the gathering was generally very good-natured and peaceful, some people questioned why a female police officer was videoing the crowd - her response was that she was only doing her job.
at the final rally outside the tottenham town hall, there was an open microphone, giving dozens of people the opportunity to address the crowd for two minutes each. again, the police screwed up allowing some vehicles to come up the road and through the crowd, until one speaker shamed them into joining legal observers who were trying to redirect the traffic around the demo.
when i left at around 4.30, there were still a few hundred people listening to speakers
Anti Cuts Demo at a Nottingham Job Centre
12-08-2011 21:55
Friday 12th August 2011,
At 2pm assorted trade unionists, claimants, UK Uncut activists and anarchists gathered outside the Parliament Street Job Centre in Nottingham.
The Anti Cuts Demo had been called by Notts Uncut to coincide with a visit of Baroness (Tina) Stowell, conservative peer of Beeston, to the city job centre. They wanted to express their opposition in the face of massive cuts to welfare and particular victimisation of disabled and ill claimants.
However, standing about for 2 hours, she didn't turn up!! Then to 'managage the situation' .... about 7 PC were in attendance, a police PSU, assorted other uniformed officers and cars passed by .... oh and and a Nottinghgamshire Police Chief Inspector. The job centre manager in his best suit waiting to greet and the usual G4S security staff hovering about the door.
After the first hour and growing impatient, a rang the local Conservative Office who knew nothing, other than the visit was planned. I was invited to ring Conservative Central Office about it ... but I couldn't really be bothered!
Anyway, with this amount of staff diverted from their duties to 'facilitate' this tory knob's visit, I imagine a Conservative Party official would like to apoligise for not telling anyone about her absence / change of plans.
But hold on, this is what responsible folks would do ..... innit?
Another report of the event: No welfare cuts! And no Tory Baronesses either!
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/1993
Back to the object ....
In thier leaflet "Welfare: an alternative vision," the Public and Commercial Services Union PSC conclude:
Just as the welfare state emerged as a consequence of strong trade union and women’s movements, so the attacks on the welfare state occurred in a period of defeat for these movements from the 1980s onwards.
It is no coincidence that inequality and poverty have increased since the 1980s as trade union rights and the welfare state came under attack.
The unemployed today, just over 2.5 million in early 2011, are paying the price for that decade of ‘rolling back the state’. Until the late 1970s, the welfare state played a key role in making Britain a more equal society. Since then that process has gone into reverse and inequality has risen under the governments of Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown.
British society has changed in many ways since the Beveridge report and the foundation of the welfare state in the 1940s; there have been major transformations in social attitudes, household composition, and in the jobs people do and the hours they work.
But some things are timeless: unemployment, retirement, disability and illness remain major causes of poverty, and affect everyone.
We must rebuild a welfare state to give people the rights they need to live life with dignity in the 21st century.
What we need
A welfare state that ensures everyone has a decent standard of living free from poverty
A government that commits to full employment
A welfare system based on need not moral judgements
A government that acknowledges and respects the work of dedicated DWP staff
To end low pay that leaves people dependent on means-tested benefits.
PCS Welfare reform
http://pcs.org.uk/welfare
Welfare: an alternative vision [PDF]
http://www.pcs.org.uk/download.cfm?docid=195B90B7-93BA-4319-BE10C4B8762B1670
Notts Save or Services
http://nottssos.org.uk
____________________________________________
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>
No welfare cuts! And no Tory Baronesses either!
12-08-2011 16:55
After it was leaked to anti-cuts campaigners that Tory Baroness Stowell of Beeston would be visiting Parliament Street JobCentre today, a picket was held from 2-4pm. Claimants, anarchists, PCS members and UK Uncut activists made sure that Baroness Stowell, a representative of a welfare slashing government, was not welcome in town. Despite a police presence, including a Chief Inspector, the Baroness decided to call off her visit.
Other claimants coming to sign on were very supportive of the picket and a few stopped to chat for some time about their disgust with the government's cuts agenda. "It's no suprise people are rioting" said one young lad. There were a fair few hoots of support from passing motorists as well. JobCentre security looked a bit nervous and a police van was parked down the road. Even the manager spent a bit of time on the door today.
According to Tory Minister Eric Pickles, 40,000 families will be made homeless by the government's cap on housing benefit. Meanwhile, the reassessment of millions of people's incapacity benefit has caused untold suffering for them and has even resulted in suicides. The march towards workfare, where job seekers will lose their benefits unless they take on compulsory full-time work, continues unchecked. There seem to be no limits to how hard the government is willing to squeeze those on benefits, probably because the right wing press are foaming at the mouth to punish us harder. It's no surprise that the latest reactionary e-petition calls for those caught in the riots to have benefits denied to them for life, even though the majority of them have work or are in education.
So a no show for Baroness Stowell but apparently Nick Clegg was in town today to inspect the damage at Canning Circus police station (as a convicted arsonist himself, I'm sure he's an expert!) I'm sure our group would have had a word or two for him if he'd bothered to pop by.
Riots: viewed from Oxford
11-08-2011 19:55
At the time of writing, there have been no riots in Oxford*. However, what's been going on over the last few days is clearly not just isolated local events. Here's a round up of what some Oxford-based bloggers have made of things …
