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Occupy Cardiff is Back! Get on down there.

20-11-2011 23:58

support from passing traffic at the junction
I saw Clayton Blizzard doing his stuff at a pub in Bristol last night and was inspired to action.  http://claytonblizzard.com/. Economics 101 (The Natal Lottery) did it for me: "Change doesn't trickle down to us; it rises up like dust so stamp your feet!"

So I diverted a bit on my journey back up north and spent a few hours this afternoon at the new Occupy Cardiff site outside the Unite/PCS union offices, Transport House, 1 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11.

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Protest at Nuclear New Build conference

19-11-2011 20:55

Six members and supporters of Kick Nuclear gathered outside the Nuclear New Build Forum, taking place at 1 Whitehall Place, Westminster early on Thursday morning (17 November). They called on the nuclear industry bigwigs attending the conference to abandon their plans to build new nuclear power stations and instead concentrate on safer and more sustainable alternatives instead, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.

More images here: http://tinyurl.com/KN17Nov11pics

The event notice read:

No More Fukushimas! No More Chernobyls! No More Nuclear Greenwash! Green Solutions Now!

Join Kick Nuclear as we tell nuclear cheerleaders EDF - found guilty this week by a French court of spying on Greenpeace - and all their nuclear industry and pro-nuclear government cronies to EDF-off. We don't want their radiation and greenwash spewing out all over these isles, and their tonnes of radioactive waste and defunct reactors left behind for future generations to have to deal with.

French nuclear energy giant EDF Energy is leading the charge of the nuclear white elephants in the UK, with its plans for new nukiller reactors at five sites in England, starting with Hinkley Point in Somerset. We have to stop them.

Better active today than radioactive tomorrow!

All images Copyright (c) 2011 Kick Nuclear, but may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial use if credited. For larger, high resolution versions, please e-mail.

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Occupy Notts Camp: selection from 5th week

19-11-2011 00:55

Friday 18th November 2011 [day whatever]

The camp is still there and continues to grow.......



They have re-arranged the geography a bit, to accomdate more campers.

Further .... the christmas market and assorted attactions have started to fill the Square [6 fucking weeks before christmas].  

Personally, I'm one of the 'Ba humbug' school of xmas appreciators!

 

Nottingham Occupation: Saturday Day 15 

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2129

 

Nottingham Occupation: Tuesday Day 18

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2132

 

Nottingham Occupy Notttingham: 4th week & onwards ....

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2148

 

Nottingham Occupy Notttingham: Still there [4th Feature]

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2147

 

Nottingham Cheese for nought! at the Occupation

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2149

____________________________________________

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>



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Occupy London ‘repossesses’ multi-million pound bank offices

18-11-2011 18:34

Occupy London has taken over a huge abandoned office block in the borough of Hackney belonging to the investment bank UBS in a move it describes as a ‘public repossession.’ London, UK. 18/11/2011

Main story on demotix
 http://www.demotix.com/news/930660/occupy-london-repossesses-multi-million-pound-bank-offices

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This Week in Palestine week 46 2011

18-11-2011 17:03

Audio
Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, from November 12 to the 18th 2011.

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Let’s Not Forget the UK Antifascist Prisoners

18-11-2011 12:42

There are five comrades behind bars in need of support.

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Occupy Manchester Returns

18-11-2011 02:55

Occupy Manchester will shortly return, at a new location in the city centre.

In fact, Occupy Manchester never did really go away, it just quietly relocated. It was originally at Albert Square, then soon afterwards it set up camp at the Peace Gardens in front of the town hall. The campers were forced to move from there late in October because they were getting too much hassle from homeless people with alcohol and drug issues. They went to Spinningfields, a safer but quieter location but with few people walking through except the office and court staff who work in the neighbourhood. Now that they have been served with an injunction for Spinningfields, the campers have asked the Quakers if they can camp on the front lawn of the Friends Meeting House on Mount Street. The Quakers may agree, and say they are treating it as a request for a 'room booking', although the 'room' will be outdoors. If agreement is reached, the occupation will have a licence to occupy the space, which will make it somewhat more difficult for the police or city authority to move them on, and it will be a more publicly visible location which would make leafletting and holding public debates easier.

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Game On? “Protest the Drone Wars” demo, 16 November, Kensington

17-11-2011 21:52

Chris Cole, Drone Wars UK
Gaming enthusiasts are often accused of having a distorted perception of reality and blurring the distinction between the virtual and the real. But what if your military day job consists of doing what seems like playing a computer game, while picking off real targets? Where bombs guided by you from a safe distance really “splat” kids on the streets of Kabul, Gaza and Mogadishu? Welcome to the very real world of drone warfare.

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Palestine Today 11 17 2011

17-11-2011 14:22

Audio
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday November 17, 2011

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13 December: Oxford Census Refuser's court hearing in Reading

17-11-2011 13:25

Deborah Glass Woodin of Oxford, green activist, mother of two and widow of Mike Woodin  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Woodin, is due in Reading Magistrates Court on Tuesday 13 December at 10am for refusing to complete the 2011 Census.

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Occupy London solidarity with Occupy Wall Street (at US Embassy)

16-11-2011 17:06

US citizens from Occupy London went along to the US Embassy yesterday to protest the eviction of Occupy Wall Street folk from Zucotti Park/Liberty Square.

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Antifascist Prisoner Thomas Blak Released - But Deported

16-11-2011 15:49

Thomas Blak is the first of the six UK antifascists to be released, but he has been deported.

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Palestine Today 11 16 2011

16-11-2011 14:34

Audio
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday November 16, 2011

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Shout!

16-11-2011 11:34

An account of my arrest for shouting "NO MORE WAR!" during the 2 minute silence at the cenotaph war memorial on Remembrance Sunday. 

SHOUT!
 
Michael Dickinson
 
Last Thursday, carrying a coffee back to my tent in Parliament Square in London after my morning visit to the public toilets in Green Park for ablutions, I noticed a line of metal fences along the pavement around Westminster Abbey, and a large crowd of mostly aged people in various kinds of military attire congregating in the grounds where thousands of small wooden crosses bearing names and red paper poppies had been planted in the mown lawn, a Field of Remembrance to commemorate those who died fighting in wars for their country.  I learned from one of the numerous luminous-lemon-jacketed policemen that the Queen's husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was about to arrive to lay a cross of his own.  Deciding to wait among the smallish crowd of mostly curious camera-weilding tourists to witness the event, I noticed a strange curved shape among the plywood Poppy Factory crosses a young Chinese woman was selling from a tray at the gate, and she showed it to me.  It was in the shape of a Muslim crescent, minus poppy.  She also showed me other shapes - one in a Jewish star, one like an hourglass for Sikhs, and one like a lollipop stick for 'No Faith'.
 
Police started to move people away from the Abbey so I went over the road to Parliament Square where I got a good view of the arrival of the Duke in his insignia-crested Rolls and his greeting of the clerics and dignitaries.  Then it was the two minute silence to remember the war dead.  Traffic came to a halt and the air was pregnant with silence.  Suddenly a trembling indignation came over me.  I felt that silence was an inappropriate way to commemorate those gassed, maimed, crippled, killed, and driven mad by armed conflict, both in the past and today.  Instead I felt like shouting "No More War!" at the top of my voice.  But I didn't.  I was afraid that I might swiftly find myself in police custody on a charge of 'breach of the peace'.  The silence ended, the chatting began again and the traffic resumed its incessant roar.  I had missed my chance.  Disappointed at my funk, I went back to my tent and finished my coffee in a pensive mood.  I still had another chance.  The official Day of Armistice was on the morrow, the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2011, and the 2 minute silence would begin at 11am at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. 
 
Next morning as the hour approached I walked along the Victoria Embankment next to the Thames, and came into Whitehall from the direction of Trafalgar Square.  I couldn't have cut it finer.   There was quite a crowd standing to attention around the cenotaph memorial and the last post was being sounded by a bugler prior to Big Ben's striking of the eleventh hour signalling the beginning of the 2 minute silence.  I got as near as I could and stopped about twenty yards from a quartet of lemon jacketed policemen.  One of them stared at me intently as though he knew I was going to do something.  Looking behind me I saw a group of uniformed soldiers standing to attention.  Running away would be useless.  I decided to play it cool.  The bell gonged eleven times and the silence began.  I counted ten slowly and then opened my mouth and shouted at the top of my voice in the direction of the cenotaph.
 
"NO MORE WAR!"
 
Several heads in the crowd turned.  I shouted again. 
 
"NO MORE WAR!"
 
I wanted to say it three times, but I was suddenly approached swiftly by the policemen. 
 
"You are entitled to your opinion," said one, "But this is not the time or place."
 
I turned and walked away past the soldiers and up towards Trafalgar Square, free, feeling quite proud of myself.  No newspaper reported the incident.
 
On Sunday morning I was awoken by a dog sniffing outside my tent.  I looked out and found it was on a lead held by a young policewoman who explained that they were doing a security check in the area before the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.  Another one?  But this was the special one, to be attended by Her Majesty and the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and Military Dignities.  I thanked her for the information and she went on her way with the sniffing white labrador (named Sunny).  "So," I asked myself, as I sat on the kerb of the fenced-off lawn watching the crowds in civilian and army dress arriving for the ceremony, all with poppies pinned to their breasts, while a policeman crawled inside my tent and rummaged for bombs, "Are you going to do the shout again?"  Definitely!  (I had just been reading about the sale of arms to Israel by UK warmongerers.)  And this time I would shout three times.  But where?  There was a lot of people around.  I'd be safe doing it in St James' Park but felt the sound not might reach the cenotaph.  I went for a walk along the Embankment parallel to Whitehall but there were too many police vans parked along it.  I decided to go back to Parliament Square.
 
Big Ben was just striking when I reached my tent.  People were already standing to attention in the traffickless street.  The last gong sounded.  I counted slowly up to ten and then raised my hands to the sides of my mouth and cupped them.
 
"NO MORE WAR!" I bellowed three times, with a brief pause in between.  Then I crawled into my tent and lay down.  It was dead quiet for a while, and then a policewoman peered into the opening.  She said there had been a complaint, and could I explain my action.  I said that I had been speaking for those killed in armed conflict, and that God had told me to do it.  Another couple of policemen arrived and they told me to come out.  I did so and was tightly handcuffed behind my back and escorted across the road into the grounds of the Houses of Parliament where we waited for thirty minutes behind the black bars of the gate for a police van to arrive.  A passing politician coming in from the ceremony glared at me and snorted "Disrespect for the dead!"
 
"It wasn't disrespect!" I replied indignantly, unheeded.
 
The van arrived and I was bundled into the little cell cage at the back.  The two plastic seats had recently been washed and were still wet, and I perched precariously on the edge of one as we wheeled through the streets across town to Marylebone Police Station.  There the handcuffs were removed and I was also relieved of my shoes and trousers (both having strings for tying which could be used for hanging myself).  Instead they gave me a pair of long johns and canvas slip-on shoes to wear, and after having the inside of my mouth swabbed for a DNA sample, my fingerprints and mugshots taken, I was shown to a cell.  A policewoman gave me a cup of tea and a chicken supreme and rice packed lunch that she had heated in a microwave oven.  After I'd eaten I lay and waited for the arrival of a lawyer from Biden's Solicitors, who help people arrested in political demonstrations.
 
When she arrived we talked in the room before the taped interview to be conducted by detectives.  She advised me to say "No Comment" to most questions when asked, but I found this difficult and generally replied honestly and straightforwardly to what was put.  The officers said that I might be charged with a Public Order crime or for demonstrating without permission.  They withdrew for discussion and I was returned to my cell.  When they let me out an hour or so later I was informed that I was being charged with 'use of threatening, abusive or insulting words/disorderly within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby CONTRARY TO SECTION 5 (1) AND (6) OF THE PUBLIC ORDER ACT 1986.
 
I am due to appear in Westminster Magistrates Court at 181 Marylebone Road on 23rd of November at 10 am.  In the meantime, on condition of bail I must sign in every day at a police station in Charing Cross in case I fail to surrender to custody.  However, I have decided to attend the hearing on the prescribed day and I will stick to the answer I gave the police when they read me the charge.  "In my opinion I was not threatening, abusive or insulting." 
 
It is we, the people, who are under threat from the military machine.
 
"NO MORE WAR!"   
 
 
 
Michael Dickinson can be contacted at michaelyabanji@gmail.com

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Palestine Today 11 15 2011

15-11-2011 16:55

Audio
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday November 15, 2011

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Billy Bragg at Occupy Sheffield

15-11-2011 13:37

Audio
Billy Bragg spoke and sung a few songs at Occupy Sheffield on 14th November 2011.

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Smash EDO Talk at Occupy Sheffield

15-11-2011 10:28

Audio
On Monday 14th November, campaigners from Brighton came to talk at Occupy Sheffield about the campaign against the arms trade with Israel, and specifically the campaign to shut down the EDO factory, which supplies parts used against civilians in Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Police use unprovoked force against peaceful Occupy London

15-11-2011 08:36

Repressive policing of Occupy London direct action at Guildhall at Lord Mayor's Banquet.

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Prosecution of F&M 145 protesters falls apart

15-11-2011 00:36

Today my trial for a two hour UKuncut sit-in at Fortnum & Mason ended far faster than anyone estimated. The trial was scheduled to end on the November 30th, however a thin prosecution case was over in just 2 and half days.