UK Promoted Newswire Archive
Block Atos and occupy Dept of Work and Pensions
31-08-2012 20:55
400 protestors joined Paralympic ceremony performers, Dpac and UK Uncut at their "Closing Atos Ceremony" outside the Atos HQ in Paton Square, Euston today. Later 12 activists, both abled and disabled occupied and locked on at the Department of Work and Pensions and other held banners outside protesting against next April's disability cuts and the Atos tests.
No Justice for Rachel Corrie
31-08-2012 11:03
To no-one's surprise the Israeli courts whitewashed the death of Rachel Corrie this week. Rachel was killed in Gaza in 2003 defending Palestinian homes against the Israeli Defence Force's D9 armoured bulldozers.
Britain’s Socialist Workers Party & Socialist Party back extradition of Assange
27-08-2012 21:34
Britain’s largest pseudo-left groups have lined up behind the demand that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be extradited to Sweden.Tenants & Homeless seize abandoned council house
27-08-2012 10:49
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2012/08/499134.html and the council’s lack of action to create badly needed new homes seized one of Birmingham’s 11,000[4] empty properties. The group calling themselves Birmingham Tenants and Homeless Action Group issued a statement on their website[1] condemning the City Council for failing to take action to help the growing homeless population of Birmingham, which has risen by 25%[2] since 2009.
Diggers2012: The Journey Continues…
22-08-2012 15:57
Kingsley Burrell March for Justice, Sat 18th
19-08-2012 23:36
A year after the death of Kingsley Burrell no one has been charged and his body has still not been released to his grieving family for burial and a full inquest has yet to be held.
Police arresting homeless in Birmingham
19-08-2012 19:39
Today activists from Birmingham Food not Bombs saw a dramatic decrease inthe number of homeless people attending the weekly food distribution
outside the Radision hotel on Holloway circus roundabout. Turnout dropping
from 30-40 people to less than 10 within an week.
Open letter to Ecotricity regarding its meter reading contract with G4S
17-08-2012 13:45
Dear Ecotricity,
We are writing to you regarding your contract with G4S Utility Services, which provides you with meter reading services.
Remembering Hiroshima, Bradley Manning and all victims of war
08-08-2012 18:53
Full article | 1 addition | 1 comment
Banner drop and police attack against activists in Calais
08-08-2012 12:42
There were 5 arrests and one injury
Good Energy ditches G4S over ethical concerns
07-08-2012 01:11
Good Energy has decided to drop G4S as its meter reading contractor following complaints from customers that its contract with the notorious security giant flies in the face of its ethical policy.Protest against logging in Lenton
05-08-2012 20:55
Protests have begun against Nottingham City Council’s plans for extensive felling of trees in Lenton. On Friday a small demonstration against the logging was held which attracted the attention of City Council staff and PCSOs. The council is planning to cut down 84 lime trees because of “aphid mess, falling branches and loss of light”, but the protestors say it is really a money saving strategy. They are planning to meet at the entrance to Nottingham Castle at 8am on Monday for another demonstration.
Newswire: Lenton Tree Felling | Logging in Lenton
Oven Ready Humans
04-08-2012 22:55
Earlier today, activists from Derby Animal Rights engaged with Saturday shoppers outside the Guildhall meat and fish market in the centre of Derby, discussing the controversial issue of animal agriculture. In addition to an information stall, two activists were naked, wrapped in meat packaging and labelled up as "oven ready humans", drawing attention to the often overlooked reality that trays of sanitized and unrecognisable flesh in a shop chiller were once living, feeling individuals. There was a blood spattered butcher wielding a cleaver to highlight the inherent violence of the industry and a hard hitting narrative delivered over a megaphone.
Week 7, Runnymede Eco-Village.
03-08-2012 16:55
Its been 7 weeks since we arrived on the disused land at the ex-Brunel university, Runnymede Campus. Since then we have been busy building an eco-village community based on sustainable methods. This is our latest regular report.
olympic critical mass - report and pics
29-07-2012 22:55
for more than a year, the critical mass bicycle ride has had minimal or no policing. that all changed on friday, with a massive police operation in place and draconian conditions imposed to try and prevent riders from entering any part of north london. despite the deployment of police from several forces alongside the met, and even a fly-by from a lynx armed forces helicopter, hundreds of cyclists defied the ban, out-witted the police, and cycled as far as the olympic village, causing far less disruption than that caused by police trying to enforce their potentially unlawful ban.
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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as the mass assembled from around 6pm on the south bank under waterloo bridge, there was already a FIT team, several 'police liaison officers' including chief inspector sonia davis from hackney's counter-terrorist operations office, a dozen or more cycle cops, and a couple of dozen uniformed police including a contingent from south yorkshire police.
numbers at first seemed lower than normal, but by 7 had built up to several hundred.
as an armed forces lynx helicopter hovered overhead, the police drove a large range rover vehicle into the crowd to make indecipherable announcements over a poor loudspeaker system, while officers mingled with the cyclists handing out their section 12 warning letters.
soon after 7, with some chants of "whose streets, our streets", the cyclists set off, and began their customary loop around the imax cinema and onto waterloo bridge. there, police ran across the road, blocking the procession, and a large police van parked across the carriageway.
arguments ensued, including the fact that police were overstepping their own conditions by not allowing bikes onto the bridge, considering that it was actually south of the river!
after several minutes, with the bridge closure creating far more "disruption to the life of the community" than the critical mass would normally cause, much of the mass moved on east. however, some remained, continuing their pressure on police, and eventually the bridge was reopened to traffic, and a few cyclists did get across.
there were more serious confrontations at blackfriars bridge, including an altercation with a transport officer (4125) who so lost control that a police medic had to restrain him at one point! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz1HNoK6UBs AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfftgb4KOlE&feature=youtu.be).
several hundred cyclists waited at london bridge, while police deployed vans and TSG officers at the south side of the bridge. there, there were more serious confrontations, and some TSG officers appeared intent on violence. suddenly, police were trying to clear a path for a large black 4x4 with tinted reflective windows designed to prevent photography. peering in, people realised the driver (with a minder) was none other than david beckham, on his way to the olympic opening ceremony.
police became quite violent towards cyclists in the path of the vehicle, but with so many cycles in such little road space it was actually hard to move even for those who felt they wanted to comply. after several minutes of inching forward, some of the front cyclists moved away and the car slowly set off down tooley street. as police ran to catch up, the front bikes stopped again, slowing beckham's progress, but seeing an opportunity, in a rather dangerous move he accelerated, skidding off to the right, narrowly missing a pedestrian and a cyclist, then sped through a red light and drove on east.
by now, the mass had split somewhat, with some having set off back west, and another group heading to try tower bridge. there, police once again blocked the route with vehicles and bodies, causing massive traffic disruption once more, and further disruption to the life of the community. however, as numbers in the cycle group had diminished here, some were allowed across the bridge in ones and twos on foot.
by now, with small numbers making it over at various points, a sizeable group began riding north of the river in defiance of the police orders, by the time it was heading east along bethnal green road (without causing anything more than the usual fleeting traffic jam), it numbered at least a couple of hundred.
despite the thousands of troops and combined uk police forces along with helicopters and undercover surveillance deployed in london, this group of cyclists continued east, apparently followed by one sole police van containing three officers, which was having difficulty overtaking the mass.
more police started appearing along roman road, and the mass turned south by mile end park, and then east again towards the bow fly-over and to within a stone's throw of the olympic stadium. just before the fly-over, the police attempted a cordon forcing the cyclists north past bow quarter, but concerned they were heading into a possible police kettle they decided to ride around and through the cordon and continue east. numbers were dwindling, but still around one hundred.
it was close to 9pm and the authorities were finally mobilising and closing in. i counted 30 police vans, with many TSG, sirens blazing, bringing up the rear of the cyclists, and a group of sixty or seventy were finally cordoned at the junction with warton road, a further couple of dozen making it on towards stratford station, where they too were held.
outside the cordons, other arrests took place. one young muslim man was rear-handcuffed, and despite telling police he'd been fasting all day, was made to sit in the road for nearly half an hour without any water. he kept explaining his predicament, and was also physically sick in the road. clearly in great discomfort, he was still refused help, and when someone tried to give him some liquid an officer violently intervened, spilling the juice on the ground. another girl tried to take details and enquire after his condition and police then arrested her, also using rear cuffs.
within the kettle, no food, drink or toilet arrangements were provided, and people sat or stood around on the concrete for around 90 minutes before a slow process began of handcuffing or cable-tieing each person, photographing them, and escorting them on to one of three single decker buses that had arrived. as the first bus filled with police and arrestees, the second was used for bicycles, pretty much thrown in on top of each other, and the third bus for the rest of the detainees.
meanwhile, the group held at stratford had been loaded into some vans, with others escorted in handcuffs on foot, and they passed by the kettle west towards the fly-over. they'd been told they were being taken to charing cross police station, but presumably some more transport was on its way, although i'm not sure how long they were walked for.
it has emerged that in all, 182 people were arrested that night, the majority under suspicion of having knowingly breached the section 12 conditions imposed on critical mass, but some for other public order offences and alleged assaults elsewhere along the route. some were taken to charing cross, but many found themselves in edmonton or in croydon. there were no toilet facilities provided on the buses and the arrestees were aboard these in handcuffs for hours, then made to sit on concrete for a further three hours, before finally being given something to drink.
none were allowed to leave with their bicycles, instead being told the bikes were in charlton and that they'd have to phone to arrange retrieval. the first bikes have been returned today.
it seems that all were given bail conditions which ban them from cycling in newham, or going near any olympic venues or routes, and of attempting to interfere with the passage of olympic paricipants.
legal background
last year, in may, the metropolitan police lost an appeal in the high court which finally established that the mass is a 'commonly or customarily held procession' as described in the public order act, and so, exempt from prior notification as required by section 11 of that act. however, this does not exempt it from possible use of section 12 or (theoretically) 13.
section 13 allows the possibility of a ban (signed by the secretary of state) where police can show a real risk of serious disorder - highly improbable for CM.
however, section 12, allowing the imposition of conditions, has a lower threshold, including the slightly open "risk of serious disruption to the life of the community", and this is what was used on friday.
in order to comply with human rights legislation, it is important that any conditions applied are proportionate and necessary.
since the police have shown themselves keen to control the critical mass previously, the fact that they haven't used section 12 before would suggest they were not over-optimistic about its likelihood of being upheld in the courts.
however, with the "special circumstances" of the olympics, they might have a stronger case for this particular ride. but conditions banning the ride from the whole of north london and beyond would seem to be quite an excessive interpretation of "proportionate or necessary" and might form the basis of a legal challenge for the cyclists detained on friday if they face court or later decide to challenge the police via compensation claims or judicial reviews later on.
also, given that the ride always takes place on the last friday of the month means that the police had five years to plan for this, and yet the letter handed out to cyclists gave no detail on how the police had arrived at the belief there would be serious disruption.
when the law was drafted, there were concerns and warnings that the new extension of power should be used carefully and that the police should weigh up whether by imposing conditions based on avoiding serious disruption, they might be causing a more serious problem of serious disorder in response to their actions. this may well have been the case on friday, both because the police caused far more disruption to the community themselves by closing off london bridges to all traffic for significant periods of time, and also because their actions significantly increased the incidents of scuffles and other disorder throughout the evening (unlikely to have occured had the mass gone ahead as normal).
the kettling of cyclists without food or water, their prolonged detention in handcuffs aboard the buses without toilet facilities, and further detention on concrete floors with little or no food or water, were all serious contraventions of the authorities' duty of care.
section 12 of the public order act used to be a 'non-arrestable' offence, only requiring a verified name and address for delivery of a fine. in 2005, the SOCPA act made most offences arrestable under certain prescribed conditions, and the one given to suspects on friday/saturday was "in order to allow the prompt and efficient investigation of the offence or of the conduct of the person in question". however, no-one has reported being interviewed, so it is very hard to see what "investigation" the police carried out before releasing people, and this alone may be grounds for challenge and compensation.
as of sunday night, only three people have actually been charged with offences.
Banner drop on Snowdon summit marks 2nd anniversary of release of the Afghan War Diaries
26-07-2012 20:03
Exactly two years after the WikiLeaks release of the Afghan War Diaries, Wednesday 25 July 2012, banners were unfurled at the summit of Snowdon to mark the anniversary.
New Report Documents ‘Total Policing’ Clampdown On Freedom To Protest
25-07-2012 21:38
A detailed new report launched today by the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) highlights how promises made by the police to ‘adapt to protest’ after 2009′s G20 demonstrations in London have been forgotten in a remarkably short space of time and a far more intolerant ‘total policing’ style response to protesters has developed in the UK.
Interview with Rizwaan Sabir
23-07-2012 08:55
On Sunday 15th July, the Observer revealed that West Midlands police officers had "made up" evidence against a University of Nottingham student in 2008. Rizwaan Sabir was wrongfully accused of "collecting information of a kind to provide practical assistance to a person committing an act of terrorism" after coming into possession of a document for his PhD proposal. An internal West Midlands police report has now concluded that investigating detectives fabricated key evidence in the case against him. Nottingham Indymedia (NI) contacted Rizwaan (RS) to ask him for further comments about the latest revelations in his case.
NI: Why do you think that the police fabricated evidence against you?
RS: Evidence was manufactured against me because the police were trying to justify their actions by giving the impression that I was somehow connected to terrorism. What people don’t understand - unless confronted directly by the police - is that when police undertake a counter-terrorism operation, they are involving themselves in deeply politicised policing and with such policing pressures comes an expectation to produce results that support and reinforce political agendas. In order to prove themselves, police simply invented evidence in my case. The question we must all therefore ask is - how many people have been charged as terrorists on the basis of falsified evidence? One must remember that the Observer revelations only emerged after 4 years of intense investigation and questions into the Nottingham case. In the vast majority of cases, however, where people are arrested as suspected terrorists and released without charge or are eventually acquitted – how do we know the police haven’t simply made up information to bring a case against them? I think it’s important for lawyers and those that have been subjected to false imprisonment to work together in figuring out whether evidence has been manufactured in their case too. An independent investigation into the Nottingham case, and similar cases, will allow this understanding to be formed, which will, one hopes, allow for a more proportionate and progressive series of anti-terror measures to be implemented.
NI: West Midlands police say that no action will be taken against the officers who made up evidence against you. Do you have any comment on that?
RS: Police are hardly ever willing to take action against their own. The entire struggle with this case, and I’m sure many others, is based on forcing accountability into policing, especially counter-terrorism policing, which is unnecessarily non-transparent and downright counter-productive. Since the Observer revelations, various meetings and discussions have taken place, and continue to take place, between the police, members of the legal profession and individuals who are well versed with counter-terrorism policing in the UK. When and if I can share any further information with you, I will do so.
NI: You've alluded to the fact that there are others accused of terrorism who are in a worse situation than you. Can you give more details?
RS: When I say others are in a far worse situation, I mean that there is no real way for an individual that has been subjected to arrest and charge (or prosecution as a terrorist) to fight in a legal structure that reinforces the power and authority of the State at every step. If you then bring in the revelation that has come to surface through my case that the police are simply inventing evidence to secure charges against innocent people, we find that people are in a terrible position. Considering that almost half of the terrorist convictions in the UK are connected to people merely possessing information that the police and law claim is criminal to possess; irrespective of whether that information is in the possession of somebody out of curiosity, for research purposes or because an individual has a desire to use that information for a violent purpose means that the police will paint a profile of a person, sometimes through falsified evidence, to convince a jury that they are guilty of being a terrorist. Unless these individuals are able to fight their cases from prison and are able to convince their legal representatives and political campaigners to help them investigate their case, they will most likely never be able to clear their names. This puts them in a far worse position than I was.
NI: An atmosphere of suspicion towards Muslims seems to have characterised your case. Do you think that there is institutional Islamophobia within the police and Home Office?
RS: The short answer is yes. It is no secret that the entire counter-terrorism structure in the UK is almost fully geared towards addressing the alleged threat of international terrorism, a by-word reserved for political violence used by Muslims against UK and Western interests. The UK’s approach to confronting this issue is to some extent based on the theoretical and practical structures of counter-insurgency warfare. Such a model views Muslims as having an innate potential to support political violence against British & Western interests which is why the police’s actions and responses target the entire Muslim community, whether it’s through stop and search, intelligence/information gathering programmes such as Operation ‘Rich Picture’ and the Prevent programme. On occasions, this targeting will take the form of financing community projects, co-opting members of the Muslim community by issuing honours, for example, or through sinister acts such as gathering intelligence on the lawful political and religious views of Muslims, such as myself. The point is that if an entire community is suspected of potentially becoming terrorists, then the policies and practices of the UK’s policing and security agencies will be based to a large degree on racial/religious profiling, or more simply, stereotyping. When such approaches are being used, ‘institutional Islamophobia’ is an inevitable outcome.
NI: In your recent Ceasefire article you've written about the importance of knowing your rights. How has knowing your rights helped you in this case?
RS: Knowing your rights is one of the most important ways in which people can defend and protect themselves against the police. If you don’t know your rights, the police can take away your rights without you ever knowing that your rights have been taken away. This means that you are defenceless when you are a suspect. The first step to ensuring that you’re safe and secure from the excesses of the State is by knowing what you are entitled to do, say and what you are not obliged to do and say. Knowing my rights has ensured – on ‘some’ occasions - that the police have not been able to get away with abuse, or a misuse of their power/authority. Your rights are given to you in order to protect you from State/police intrusion so use them if you’re dealing with the police and other agencies of the State. But before you can use them, you must know them. Learning is therefore priority number one.
NI: You're currently studying for a PhD at the University of Bath. What are you researching?
RS: Almost all of the government’s policies towards Muslims since 9/11 and especially 7/7 have been based around security and counter-terrorism, so the best way to simplify what I’m researching is to say that I’m researching UK counter-terrorism policies & practices which are targeted (rather specifically) at the UK’s Muslim population, and by their very nature, beyond.
NI: Thanks for your time. We wish you all the best with your research.
The Most Dangerous Armed Gang IN The Country
22-07-2012 12:38
A mini-rant from a few FITwatchers - not necessarily representative of the views of the organisation as whole.
SchNEWs: Bristol Fashion
19-07-2012 23:22
EDL outnumbered in the Wild South West
How low can the EDL's fortunes plummet? “We won't be coming back to Bristol any time soon” said Michael Bayliss, the up 'til now unheard of South West regional organiser for the EDL. That comment followed a dismal turn-out of around 300 to what had been billed by the League as a national demo.
