Press statement from Anarchist federation on Olympics

Residents in Tower Hamlets and Leytonstone were horrified when they learnt that surface to air missiles were to be positioned on their estates. The positioning of the missiles is only part of the story. as many as 16,200 security forces will be deployed in London, in addition to 17,000 troops ( more troops than the British army have in Afghanistan). A sonic weapon designed to disperse crowds by administering "head splitting pain" is ready to be deployed. Unmanned drones will be patrolling the skies over London. An aircraft carrier will be anchored nearby on the Thames in addition to other warships.

A "safe zone" will be put in place with eleven miles of electrified fence, patrolled by 55 teams of attack dogs.

This is not North Korea or the Soviet Union but London today. During the Olympics in Peking, not even the Chinese government put up such a fence or drone planes.

The 2006 Olympics Games Act means that not only the police and armed forces can use physical force to "protect" the Olympics but also private security forces. This covers anything from peaceful demonstrations, strikes, and the sale of bootleg Olympic products on the street that are not officially approved. "Brand protection teams" will patrol inside the Games to make sure that only clothes or accessories with commercial messages officially approved can be worn.

In addition people congregating on the street, a normal occurrence particularly in summer months, will be harassed,in particular local working class youth. In fact this is already happening with increased surveillance and harassment in the boroughs bordering the Olympics. Rough sleepers will be removed. The police can remove anyone "deemed in any way to be causing a nuisance".

There is no sign that this will disappear with the end of the Olympics. The police will end up more armed and arrogant than before, London and Britain will be saddled with enormous debt as a result of exorbitant Olympics spending, whole neighbourhoods will be socially cleansed and gentrified, taxes will be increased and all the security devices and cameras installed will stay in place. 

The Games are not about sport. They are about phony patriotism, brand placing, profiteering for estate agents and landlords. They are there to boost the push towards neo-liberalism, to destroy our working class neighbourhoods, to boost the power of a state that is increasingly a police state. Who is the enemy in this new Britain? It is us, the majority of the population.

The Anarchist Federation (London) will be supporting the march and events organised by the Counter Olympics Network (CON) on July 28th.

See here: counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com/

We urge everyone concerned by the impact of the OLympics to support the events and the CON

london@afed.org.uk

more than a hundred people took part in a beautifully co-ordinated action today, to deliver a 'gift to the nation' to tate modern gallery. the giant wind turbine blade was delivered in three parts and lovingly assembled in front of security and the public in the heart of the famous tate modern turbine hall. BP, the controversial sponsor of the museum, has recently announced the closure of its wind energy division.

click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission

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having signed up to the info line on the 'liberate tate' website, i received a text this morning to be at st paul's at 11am.

there i found a few dozen people who after a short wait followed three black-veiled figures towards the millenium bridge. joining us along the way were another dozen people who were carrying what looked to be a huge white blade, like the sharpened front end of some canoe boat, clearly quite heavy and several metres long.

when we arrived at tate modern, we went round to the ramp entrance and saw that two other groups had just arrived ahead of us. now there were well over a hundred people, and three giant pieces of sculpture, one of them so large and heavy that it was being wheeled on a large trolley.

tate security guards made some half-hearted attempts to stop access, and for a moment, one of them even lay down in front of the wheels of the trolley, but after some peaceful negotiation and gentle reasoning, they moved to one side, and the 'donation' continued.

at the bottom of the grand turbine hall ramp, it became clearer that the three pieces made up a 35 foot long blade from a wind turbine.

the multi-national oil behemoth, BP, is controversially one of the major sponsors of 'tate modern', and BP has recently announced it is actually closing down its wind energy division, and ramping up its oil exploitation of the arctic, and its highly dangerous and destructive tar-sands projects.

in its communiqué, 'liberate tate' speak of the tate's continuing acceptance of the poisoned 'gift' of funding from BP, despite years of protest and thousands of signatories to petitions. so the campaigning group have decided to donate a new artwork, a "gift to the nation" for consideration. the work has been lovingly restored and prepared over a period of two years after being found disused in a field in mid-wales. it was finally cut into three pieces, transported to london, prepared with moulded wooden fixings for re-assembly, and then in a secret and brilliantly organised action, brought to the museum today.

there, in the middle of the turbine hall, dozens of people held hands in a ring to protect the structure and to look after the safety of the public, while dozens more began the delicate and difficult operation to connect and re-assemble the three mammoth sections. eventually, it was ready, and first the trolley and then mounting blocks were removed, and the blade was carefully lowered to the ground in one piece. 

as it landed a huge round of applause rang out, both from participants and also from the general public who were watching from every vantage point. a few police had by now arrived, but after speaking with organisers, decided not to intervene.

as the trolley, and the crowd, made their way to the top of the ramp, there was a brief problem with some police who were trying to collect names and addresses, they claimed because of an alleged assault, but the person who made the allegation could not be found, so it soon became an untenable position, the doors were opened, and everyone left, while tate staff puzzled over what to do with the massive gift.

a little while later, a small group of tate liberators returned to provide official paperwork (including the official donation letter, additional info, a CV of previous works, and a long list of reviews and articles about their previous work). they handed this over to the duty manager and then left.

unfortunately, there were some installation works going on at the tate, so they had access to quite a lot of workmen and equipment, and they very soon got to work dismantling and removing the wind blade. within a couple of hours it appeared outside the front doors, cordoned off and hopefully waiting to be moved to a permament display position (or not).

Jubilee Diamond linked to family massacre.

Press Release issued Friday 6th July

For the fourth consecutive weekend human rights activists in London will stage a demonstration to highlight the linkage between the De Beers' Forevermark Steinmetz Jubilee Diamond put on display in the Tower of London and the massacre of 29 members of the Samouni family during the Israeli assault on Gaza in the winter of 2008/2009 (Operation Cast Lead)

The Steinmetz Foundation funded and supported a Unit of the Givati Brigade of the Israeli military during Cast Lead. The Givati Brigade was directly responsible for killing 29 members of the Samouni family when the house in which over 100 members of the family were forced to shelter was bombed by the Brigade. The Brigade prevented emergency medical teams from reaching the wounded and dying for four days.

A UN Human Rights Council investigation concluded that Israeli forces committed serious war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the three week assault that left over 1400 people dead including more than 300 children.

Demonstration have been held each weekend at the Tower of London since the Jubilee Diamond, now referred to by activists as the Samouni Blood Diamond, went  on display three weeks ago. The Samouni family issued a video appeal to Queen Elizabeth II asking for the "offensive blood diamond" to be removed.

On Saturday 7th July a demonstration will take place outside De Beers jewellery shop on Piccadilly and Bond Street. According to a spokesperson the demonstrators "by focusing attention on De Beers we hope public pressure will force them to respect the wishes of the Samouni family and remove the Samouni Blood Diamond from the Tower of London. It will also provide an opportunity to inform shoppers that the diamond market is heavily contaminated with cut and polished diamonds that fund gross human rights violations, including war crimes and that these blood diamonds are not subject to any regulation and are sold to unsuspecting consumers labelled as conflict-free diamonds.

Last December Global Witness withdrew from the international diamond regulatory system know as the Kimberley Process (KP) after it failed to broaden the definition of a "conflict diamond" to include diamonds that fund human rights violations by government forces. In June, an intercessional meeting of the KP ended without reaching agreement on a proposal to ban rough diamonds that fund human rights violations by government forces associated with the mining sector but excluding cut and polished diamonds that fund human rights violations by rogue governments.

The public can have no confidence in the Kimberley Process system of self-regulation by vested interests who refuses to ban the trade in all blood diamonds.

With the Olympics now only three weeks away, protests against Olympic sponsor BP are escalating. Today dozens of BP logos across London were sabotaged, including the UK’s most prestigious billboard site at Cromwell Road. Around the capital, protesters hit petrol stations, BP-sponsored cultural institutions and advertising hoardings, protesting against one of the world’s most environmentally destructive companies being a major sponsor of the London Olympics. Signs were splattered with oil and BP’s tagline ‘Fuelling the Future’ was subvertised with the URL ‘f-ingthefuture.org.uk’.

BP has continuously been slammed for its systematic disregard for the environment, human rights and worker safety, including its failure to clean up after the Gulf of Mexico disaster of 2010, its decision to enter the devastating Canadian tar sands, and its plans to drill for Arctic oil. This criticism has increased dramatically since BP was announced ‘Sustainability Partner’ of the London 2012 games, and today’s protests follow a series of recent actions targeting BP’s Olympic sponsorship:
* On the eve of BP’s AGM in April, protest group CAMSOL posed online as LOCOG and announced BP had been dropped as Sustainability Partner.
* In April, the UK Tar Sands Network nominated BP in the Greenwash Gold campaign as ‘worst Olympic sponsor’.
* Since April, the Reclaim Shakespeare Company has been invading Shakespearean performances across the country to protest against BP’s sponsorship of the Cultural Olympiad.
* Last week, acclaimed actor Mark Rylance spoke out against BP’s sponsorship of the Games, revealing he had questioned his own involvement in the Opening Ceremony.

One of those taking part in the action, Brendan Pierce, said, “BP is paying tens of millions of pounds to clean up its tarnished image, in what could well be the most expensive use of propaganda in history. But with even its own business projections preparing for a six degree temperature rise, BP knows it is damning us to a future of runaway climate change.”

Another activist, Deborah Dudley, said “Reports suggest that BP’s sponsorship of the Olympics has been highly effective at laundering its filthy image, so we’re revealing the dirt behind the glossy branding. I’m proud to be taking direct action as part of a worldwide movement for climate justice. I encourage others to get involved.”

A website, f-ingthefuture.org.uk, shows pictures of the action and outlines the problems with BP’s sponsorship of the Olympics.

For more information, interviews and high-resolution photos, email: f.ingthefuture@gmail.com 

What the website says:

-------------------------------------------

Why shouldn’t BP sponsor the Olympics?

BP’s green logo is plastered all over the Olympics. The company is ‘Official Fuel and Gas Provider’ and also sponsor of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival.

Worst of all BP is ‘Sustainability Partner’. That’s right, the organisers of the Olympics have decided to allow BP, one of the dirtiest companies on earth, the opportunity to rebrand itself as socially responsible and take an active role in proposing how society should approach climate change.

Do you remember images of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s deep-sea Macondo well back in 2010, coating the ocean and its inhabitants? Have you heard of BP’s plans in the tar sands, the world’s second largest oil deposits after Saudi Arabia, that can only be extracted by using four times as much greenhouse gas and have been labelled the most destructive project on earth? Have you heard about BP’s deals to extract oil from the depths of the pristine Arctic, despite the potential risk of a catastrophic spill even harder to clean up than the Gulf?

Do you think BP has earned the right to be ‘Sustainability Partner’ to the London 2012 Olympics?

Does BP have the right to have any association whatsoever with the Games, whose founding statement speaks of ‘universal fundamental ethical principles’, whose 2011 Charter declares that the Games should be ‘promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity’, and require ‘mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play’?

Do you think oil and sport shouldn’t mix?

Do you sometimes have the feeling that wherever you turn these days, advertising has intruded a little further, uninvited, into your personal space?

BP is a corporation that feeds off injustice and the destruction of the natural world that we and countless other species rely on. That destruction comes most threateningly from the current brutal destabilisation of the world’s climate.

BP is deeply embedded in British society – our energy, our pensions, our investments, our culture… It pumps serious money and effort into keeping things this way. Marketing works. Shiny advertisements around the capital do change the way people perceive a company. By sponsoring activities like the Cultural Olympiad, the London 2012 Festival, the World Shakespeare Festival and the Games themselves, BP is able to continue its catastrophic, though increasingly profitable, operations. That’s why we had to act.

Remember, if you see any ‘improved’ BP advertisements, please take a photo and email them to f.ingthefuture@gmail.com – and don’t worry, we won’t assume that you have any responsibility for them!

Here are a few more things you can do:

• Take action for climate justice! See Rising Tide UK and Climate Justice Collective for ways to get involved.
• Learn more about BP’s enormous environmental and human rights atrocities. Start with tar sands.
• Move your money away from banks and other institutions who will lend it to fossil fuel-based projects
• Harness your creativity to a more caring, conscious future, possibly by contributing to Art Not Oil‘s ‘Cutural or Vultural 2012?’ gallery.
• Be part of a movement for real, deep, positive and lasting social and ecological change: http://www.occupyuk.info, http://occupylsx.org
• Cut your carbon! Cut out short-haul flights, minimize car use, minimize your meat consumption, insulate your house. There are plenty of things you can do…but whatever you do, try to challenge the overarching mindset and system that’s allowng this insanity to happen!

(NB. These links are not connected to us, we just like ‘em!)

Defend our Right to Protest: The Olympics and Beyond - A reportback from the public meeting

Tuesday Harmony Hall, Walthamstow 7-9:30pm.

About 85 people attended.

We watched abut 15 minutes of Ophelia Coutures film about the marsh "Beginning". http://vimeo.com/44412983

The introduction by the chair was a brief history of the Save Leyton Marsh campaign and the legal and police repression experienced, as well as the repression suffered by students, trade unionists, activists and black and asian working class communities in recent years. She also mentioned the Olympic dispersal order zones in Stratford and in Leytonstone, as well as the use of injunctions in the run up to to the Olympics, against striking bus drivers and traveller families in Hackney.

Caroline Day spoke for Save Leyton Marsh. She spoke passionately about the history of the campaign and how the struggle there was a microcosm and macrocosm of the struggle against the Olympics. She spoke about the legal repression on anti-Olympic campaigners, how local councils/ODA etc aren't accountable to anyone except the corporate interests and how they treat local people with contempt and the importance of protest and solidarity. Caroline spoke of her love of the marshes, how much people love and need the marshes and the importance of green space in urban areas. She also spoke out against the corporate sponsers of the Olympics, asking us not to forget the victims of the Bhopal disaster and urged solidarity with Simon Moore, as well as all those criminalised because of protest.

Defend the Right to Protest activist Alfie Meadows: spoke about his experiences of protest, the police and police violence at the tuition fees demonstrations last year and the extreme police violence he and many students and protesters experienced and ensuing legal repression that resulted in 20 students going to prison. He spoke of the importance of collective and practical support such as helping those arrested and defense campaigns and how people are more likely to get a positive outcome if they have strong support networks. He also spoke about the necessity of showing solidarity with families of those who have died in custody, such as Sean Rigg and also in support workers who take industrial action. He described the Olympics as a "Spectacle of Wealth and Privilege" which provides an opportunity to protest austerity, capitalism and its impact on everyday life.

Brian Richardson, solicitor and author of Tell It Like It Is: How Our Schools Fail Black Children, questioned why the Olympics was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to regenerate the East End and asked what the actual "Legacy" be: Westfield, full of shops no-one can afford and the migrant communites who had helped build the stadiums and who are a fundamental part of the fabric of the East End, being pushed out so that some rich people could come and watch some sport.? He also spoke about Olympic Myths, the myth that the Olympics is something pure, when actually it is an "orgy of nationalism, politics and commercialism". He spoke of the importance of collective organisation and solidarity, as well as the importance of protest against the Olympics and its connection to Austerity, poverty and class divides.

Kevin Blowe spoke about Newham Monitoring Project, the Network for Police Monitoring and also the Save Wanstead Flats campaign. He spoke of the necessity of monitoring the police. Newham Monitoring Project has already trained 100 community legal observers for the Olympics and may be doing more trainings in July. He spoke about the Dispersal Order Zones in Stratford for the whole summer and its effect on young people. The Dispersal Order Zone will also be in place during Ramadan, meaning Muslim people moving around these areas breaking their fast could be vulnerable to dispersal. He desribed how often legal processes are intended to suck an individuals or group/campaigns energy and time, also plans for 24-hour fast-track courts for over the Olympic period and its possible implications for protesters and local people.

Simon Moore spoke about his 2 year Olympic ASBO, his experiences of the struggle to Save Leyton Marsh and in particular his very positive experiences of community there.

All present recognised ASBOs against protesting as a dangerous precendent and a tool of repression that we will probably be increasingly used in the crackdown against dissent. Caroline Day read out the Solidarity with Simon Moore Statement which she asked as many people as possible to sign and we all held up our "We are Simon Moore" signs in a simple but visible act of solidarity with Simon.

There were lots of great contributions from the floor from the wide range of people present, including experiences of arrest and the judicial processes, of holding sustained and successful strike action, as well as of police violence against striking workers, the experiences and lessons of the Save Leyton Marsh campaign, the importance of resistance in defense of community and against the cuts.

The key messages seemed to be the importance of community action, organisation and solidarity and collective action. Clear connections were made between the Olympics and Austerity, poverty, oppression, expolitation with the necessity to defend the right to protest and assemble freely a clear priority. Community responses to repression need to include legal observing and police monitoring, as well as practical support and solidarity to people facing arrest/trial/prison etc in the form of legal defence funds, defence campaigns and prisoner support.

£70 was raised for the Save Leyton Marsh campaign, lots of signatures went on the petition. People were told about the Save Leyton Marsh Comedy Fundraiser on the 31st July and also the plans for the reinstatement celebrations in October and a request for people to get involved doing workshops, music etc

Their was a call-out for support and solidarity at the Stop the Missiles demo on Saturday. (PROTEST: Called by Stop the Olympic Missiles - www.stoptheolympicmissiles.org .Saturday 30th June. Assemble 1pm at Wennington Green, Mile End Park, London E3 5SN)

Their was a call-out for support, solidarity and for lots of people to attend the Counter Olympic Network Demo on July 28th. (NO LIMOS! NO LOGOS! NO LAUNCHERS! 12 noon, Saturday 28 July. Assemble Mile End Park, East London. March to Victoria Park for People's Games for All. A family-friendly protest)..

Their was a call-out for support and solidarity on the 18th of August, when the EDL plan to march through the borough. We are Waltham Forest are co-ordinating resistance against the fascist group promoting division and hatred in our community.

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting, particularly the fantastic speakers and big thanks to Bill and all who contributed to making the meeting happen. We are hoping that we will be able to organise some legal observing training in the borough as soon as possible and also the distribution of basic legal information. Please get in touch if this is something that you would be interested in or are able to contribute too.

The meeting was livestreamed by Obi from Occupy and the video can be watched here http://bambuser.com/v/2782940. Big thanks to Obi from all at SLM.

Links: saveleytonmarsh.wordpress.com

http://www.nmp.org.uk/

http://networkforpolicemonitoring.org.uk/

http://counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com/

http://wearewalthamforest.wordpress.com/

http://stoptheolympicmissiles.org/

http://www.blowe.org.uk/

http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/justice-for-alfie-meadows-stop-criminalising-protest/

Four members of the group Climate Siren, which included Occupy London supporters, chained themselves to Buckingham Palace gates on Saturday 23 June to highlight the biggest threat to our planet, climate change. The activists were there for over 4 hours and the stunt attracted national and international media attention. Their banners included a quote from Prince Charles that the ‘doomsday clock of climate change was ticking ever faster towards midnight,’ and called for 10% annual emissions reductions.

The action was timed to coincide with the end of the Rio+20 Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, which as predicted failed to deliver any binding agreement to put humanity on a path of true sustainability and peace. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on our elected officials to save the planet and the Rio +20 agenda was dominated by corporate interests bent on preventing any deviation from business as usual which will threaten their profits. People power is our only hope for saving the planet and all its inhabitants.

Climate Siren – we salute you!

Londoners marked International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention Against Torture with a vigil outside the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, on 26 June. A simple and effective message was put across in many languages: "No to Torture"!

Always one step ahead, weeks before the Olympic Games kick off, the London Guantánamo Campaign (LGC) brought a display of international spirit to the heart of the capital with a multilingual "No to Torture" vigil in Trafalgar Square to mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and the twenty fifth anniversary of the United Nations Convention Against Torture becoming law on 26 June 1987. Around 50 people joined in, holding up banners in over 30 different languages with one simple message, "NO TO TORTURE". We were joined by anti-war campaigners from the Stop The War Coalition, human rights activists from Amnesty International, the Free Mumia Campaign, Free Bradley Manning, Hands off Somalia and Baloch activists.

With its display of one simple message in over 30 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Indonesian, Swahili, Finnish, Greek, Russian, Hebrew and others, the action was a hit with tourists and passers-by who engaged with its simple message and stopped to check if their own language was included and to see how many they read and/or identify. Lots of people stopped to talk to the activists and expressed their support. That torture is always wrong and illegal is quite obvious to ordinary people; unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the politicians who sign the very instruments that ban it.

The purpose of this quiet and dignified vigil was to mark this date and this anniversary and show solidarity with victims of torture the world over, most of who suffer in silence and terribly, long after the immediate physical and psychological terror has ended. 

London politicians Sarah Ludford MEP and Jeremy Corbyn MP gave their apologies for not being able to attend. Green MEP Jean Lambert made the following statement on the twenty-fifth anniversary about the work of the European parliament on torture investigation:

"The claims that British intelligence services have not been complicit in torture or rendition are continuing to crumble. Indeed, the recent scrapping of the Gibson Inquiry is further proof that successive UK governments are attempting to sweep the ugly matter under the carpet in the vain hope that it will magically disappear.

"In the European Parliament, we will often criticise third-country regimes for subjecting citizens to physical and mental acts of torture; where authorities that should protect individuals are complicit in crimes against them. Yet, those regimes use the behaviour of governments such as our own and the US to combat that criticism. 

"The Parliament inquiry into alleged complicity in torture, led by Greens/EFA MEP Helene Flautre, is beginning to shine a light on the role played by Member States in exposing terrorism suspects to illegal treatment.  Poland must also be given credit for breaking its silence over claims that a ‘secret' CIA prison camp was operating within its borders.  There is no doubt that this process of self-examination will be painful, but we must be clear - only be adopting a zero tolerance approach both at home and abroad can we put an end to torture for good."

Joy Hurcombe, the chair of the Save Shaker Aamer, made the following statement on this anniversary:

"June 26th, is the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture to remind the world that torture is a crime against humanity in international law. For over ten years, British resident Shaker Aamer has been imprisoned without charge or trial in Guantanamo, where he is routinely tortured. A recent shocking report from his US lawyer has been forwarded to David Cameron. This states that Shaker Aamer remains in solitary confinement, suffering daily beatings and abuse. He is deprived of sleep, medication and basic necessities including toilet paper, cup and comb. The UK and US Government could also mark the day by ending the ordeal of our victim of torture. By doing nothing, both countries are guilty of state-sponsored torture."

Please join us at our next action - a lunchtime demo (12-2pm) outside the US Embassy in Mayfair - on US Independence Day, Wednesday 4th July, where we revert to our more usual orange and black attire (not mandatory).

Media on this event:

http://www.demotix.com/news/1301071/no-torture-vigil-london

http://www.demotix.com/news/1301327/international-day-support-victims-torture-marked-london

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.428885783818930.96880.114010671973111

Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign wrote the following article about the anniversary:

http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/no-torture-porn-in-court-please-were-british/

Andy Worthington wrote the following article:

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2012/06/26/on-25th-anniversary-of-un-convention-against-torture-khalid-sheikh-mohammeds-lawyers-submit-case-to-rapporteur/

Report by Aisha Maniar, all images © London Guantánamo Campaign

Press Release from Counter Olympics Network

COUNTER OLYMPICS NETWORK - 24 June 2012 - for immediate release

WHOSE GAMES? WHOSE CITY?

CRITICS OF LONDON OLYMPICS ANNOUNCE LARGE SCALE EVENT TO COINCIDE WITH FIRST SATURDAY OF GAMES

The Counter Olympics Network (CON)[1] announces a march and rally in London's East End on Saturday 28 July, assembling in Mile End Park (near Mile End tube station) at 12 noon, and marching to Victoria Park for a family friendly People's Games for All which will include speeches, entertainment, "alternative games", and children's events.

Already more than 30 organisations officially support the event, with more coming on board all the time[2]. They include anti corporate campaigns, civil liberties groups, local trades councils, green groups, anti
militarists, community groups, other anti Olympics campaigns, disability activists, and others. It will be an event which symbolically "reclaims" the Games, a party to which everyone is invited. It will present a truer and more optimistic vision of Britain than the officially promoted one of a militarised and austerity ridden country that is content to be hijacked by millionaire politicians and their corporate friends[3].

The Counter Olympics Network links people and organisations critical of some or many aspects of the 2012 Games. Issues of concern include: - the corporate takeover of the Games (with sponsors that profit from sweatshops, poison local people, pollute the planet, and so much more); - the eviction of local people from their homes and businesses to make way for the Olympic sites, and prioritising the interests of global
corporations at the expense of small businesses;
- the privatisation of public space;
- the introduction of repressive policing and surveillance in conjunction with the Games, and the use of the Games to promote acceptance of the militarisation of society (in particular - siting missile launchers on domestic roofs in East London, employing 42,000 private security staff on top of the vast police and military presence, increasing stop and search powers which target and alienate local young people, placing warships on the Thames and at Weymouth, and introducing preventive detention and ASBOs to intimidate peaceful anti-Olympics protesters);
- the threat to both the lives and livelihoods of Londoners caused by the VIP Lanes for dignitaries on London roads;
- the encouragement of nationalism, in contradiction to the supposed spirit of the Olympics;
- the sanctioning of gender apartheid in Olympic teams;
- the "body fascism" mentality in elite sport;
- the hypocrisy of a Paralympics sponsor, ATOS, which is also responsible for wrongly removing welfare payments from tens of thousands of people with disabilities;
- the multi-billion-pound expenditure, much of it on temporary facilities, and most of it unnecessary at a time of supposed austerity.

CON helps to provide a co-ordinated voice for a wide range of groups which share the desire to provide a counterbalance to the overblown mainstream pro Olympics propaganda. CON is also concerned that the Orwellian security apparatus and regressive legislation put in place to protect brands, privilege, and privatised public space won't all disappear after the Games.

CON supporter Julian Cheyne said today, "The 2012 Olympics have turned into a corporate festival of world security, consuming billions of our money to increase private profits, while the elderly, disabled, sick, unemployed, young people and other groups are punished for a crisis caused by the finance industry. To stand by silently would imply we consent to this; and we do not. If you are as fed up with all of this as we are, come and join our Counter Olympics gathering on 28th July."

NOTES:

1) For further background on the Counter Olympics Network, see
http://counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com.

2) The current list of (35) groups and organisations supporting the event is: ALARM
Athletes Against Dow Chemical's Olympic Sponsorship
BADHOC
Blacklist Support Group
Brent Trades Council
Coalition of Resistance
Counterfire
Defend the Right to Protest
Disabled People Against Cuts
Drop Dow Now
East London Against Arms Fairs
G4S Campaign
Games Monitor
Hackney Green Party
Hackney Trades Council
Hackney Woodcraft Folk
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Haringey Trades Council
Islington Trades Council
Jewish Socialist Group
Lewisham People Before Profit
Lewisham Stop the War
Lewisham Trades Council
London Green Party
London Mining Network
Netpol
Occupy London
Our Olympics
Save Leyton Marsh Campaign
Space Hijackers
Stop the Olympic Missiles
Thurrock Heckler
UK Tar Sands Network
Waltham Forest Trades Council
Youth Fight For Jobs

3) Some of the major corporations behind the Olympics, whose activities CON supporters oppose, are BP, DOW Chemicals, McDonald's, Cadburys, ATOS, Coca Cola, G4S, EDF, and Rio Tinto. See the official London 2012 website (http://www.london2012.com/about-us/the-people-delivering-the-games/olympic-partners) for a full list of official Olympic sponsors. See also the article "London 2012 Olympics' shameful corporate sponsors" on the website of Games Monitor, a prominent CON supporter
(http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/node/1609).

4) For press enquiries, contact Julian Cheyne (by phone on 020-3560 4064 or 07988 401216, or by e-mail on juliancheyne@yahoo.co.uk) who can also put journalists in touch with experts on many of the specific issues of concern. Note that he is not usually available in the mornings but messages can be left on the landline or by email.

5) Besides the main CON website
(http://counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com), there is also:
CON's Facebook presence
(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Counter-Olympics-Network/392140590828714); and a Facebook page for the 28 July event
(https://www.facebook.com/events/291553350941427).
You can follow CON on Twitter (@counterolympics);
and also share news about the 28 July event on Twitter (#ProtestJuly28).

No limos! No logos! No launchers!

Several hundred people joined a demonstration outside Downing Street on Saturday afternoon calling for an end to the extradition of British citizens to the United States under the one-sided Extradition Act 2003.

Several hundred people joined a demonstration outside Downing Street on the afternoon of Saturday 23 June calling for an end to the extradition of British citizens to the United States under the one-sided Extradition Act 2003. Supporters of Babar Ahmad, Richard O'Dwyer, Talha Ahsan, Gary McKinnon and their families came together to stop these extraditions to the US, where prisoner conditions are not compatible with human rights standards on this side of the Atlantic, and in many cases are tantamount to torture (extended solitary confinement, supermax prisons, etc.) and for the men to be tried in the UK if there is sufficient valid evidence for prosecutions to be brought against them.

Several of the men involved have been fighting extradition for many years now and in the case of Babar Ahmad, Talha Ahsan and others, are being held in prison without charge pending the outcome of their appeals. Speakers included Brent Kent, MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, solicitor Louise Christian, David Bermingham of the Natwest 3 who was extradited under this same law, Daud Abdullah from the British Muslim Initiative and family members. A message of support from Caroline Lucas MP was read out. Speakers called for the Extradition Act2003  to be scrapped and for allegations against British citizens to be tried in Britain. Many criticised the severity of both the American "justice" and prison systems. Particular criticism was made of some members of the current government, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who had spoken out strongly against the Act when they were in opposition but are now the architects of any extraditions of these men and other British citizens.

A letter was handed in by family members and a delegation following the demonstration. A parliamentary meeting on this issue was held on Wednesday 20 June.

Just yesterday, Wikileaks founder Jimmy Wales started a petition in support of Richard O'Dwyer, which you can sign here: http://www.change.org/petitions/ukhomeoffice-stop-the-extradition-of-richard-o-dwyer-to-the-usa-saverichard

And Jimmy Wale's reasons for it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/richard-o-dwyer-my-petition

A film tour on the extradition of Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan kicked off on Friday 22 and is currently travelling around the country in June and July: https://www.facebook.com/ExtraditionFilm During the film tour, the organisers are asking people to send the letter attachments below to Keir Starmer, Theresa May and Dominic Grieve concerning the extradition of Talha Ahsan.

Find out more about their cases:

www.wearebabarahmad.org

www.freetalhaahsan.org

http://www.friends-extradited.org/citizens/richard_odwyer

http://www.friends-extradited.org/citizens/gary_mckinnon

 ©  Aisha Maniar

http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/

On Saturday 23 June over a hundred people attended a demonstration organised by the IWW Cleaners' Branch in front of the John Lewis flagship store on Oxford Street. John Lewis prides themselves in caring for the well-being of their employees and sharing the profits of the company with them. Unfortunately, through outsourcing the company frees itself from this commitment with its cleaning staff.

Employed through a contractor, the cleaners are on the minimum legal wage of £6.08 per hour. They are threatened with 50% of redundancies with the remaining staff potentially covering all additional work. The workers cannot tolerate this. They demand the London Living Wage of £8.30 per hour. They say 'no' to redundancies and 'no' to increase in their workload. The protest on Saturday was called to make these demands as well as making the public aware of the dismal work conditions prevailing for cleaners in this company that so prides itself of its corporate responsibility.

A crowd of workers as well as people in solidarity turned up and made a lot of noise in front of the store for  two hours. There were speeches from the members of the IWW Cleaners Branch, representatives of other IWW branches, other unions including PCS and RMT, and a Labour MP John McDonnell.

The strength of the union is the strength of the workers coming together to put pressure on the bosses. Today's demonstration, with its large crowd and energetic atmosphere was a great show of strength. The workers are balloting for strike action at John Lewis and will continue with weekly demonstrations until their demands are met.

reposted from IWW site - see link below:

"We face a hostile corporate assault on public spaces, art and communities. A large space in central London has been liberated for a one-day event: talks, debates, art, screenings, music and celebration." So said activists; Bread and Circuses, as they temporarily squatted A five storey house belonging to Anish Kapoor at Lincoln's Inn Field, that he bought in 2009 and left empty. It was brought to life for the weekend as part of an Unofficial unolympic protest highlighting Kapors connection to the Olympic sculpture he made of corporate steel.

The action was taken by a group calling themsleves 'Bread and Circuses' hoping to raise the issue of the government using the Olypics as "a smokescreen to take our minds off austerity measures, the global economic crisis and the commodification and privatisation of everything, even art". 

Their site adds; "This event will take place from 4pm on Friday June 22nd in a beautiful space that has been left to ruin since 2009. Its owner is one of the wealthiest artists in the world and designer of London’s favourite mega-structure, the meccano on crack ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower. Apparently “public art”, it costs £15 to visit. This is a publicly funded piece of PR for a corporation guilty of various crimes, just like the Olympics. It is an example of how corporate power invades every aspect of our lives from sports to arts.

Boris Johnson said of the tower “Of course some people will say we are nuts – in the depths of a recession – to be building Britain’s biggest ever piece of public art.”

An evening of music and laughter was had by all.

The recent coup against Paraguay's democratically elected president is not only a blow to democracy, but an attack against the working and poor population that supported and elected President Fernando Lugo, whom they see as a bulwark against the wealthy elite who've dominated the country for decades.  

The U.S. mainstream media and politicians are not calling the events in Paraguay a coup, since the president is being "legally impeached" by the elite-dominated Paraguayan Congress. But as economist Mark Weisbrot explains in the Guardian:

"The Congress of Paraguay is trying to oust the president, Fernando Lugo, by means of an impeachment proceeding for which he was given less than 24 hours to prepare and only two hours to present a defense. It appears that a decision to convict him has already been written...The main trigger for the impeachment is an armed clash between peasants fighting for land rights with police...But this violent confrontation is merely a pretext, as it is clear that the president had no responsibility for what happened. Nor have Lugo's opponents presented any evidence for their charges in today's ‘trial.’ President Lugo proposed an investigation into the incident; the opposition was not interested, preferring their rigged judicial proceedings."

What was the real reason the right-wing Paraguay Senate wanted to expel their democratically elected president? Another article by the Guardian makes this clear:

"The president was also tried on four other charges: that he improperly allowed leftist parties to hold a political meeting in an army base in 2009; that he allowed about 3,000 squatters [landless peasants] to illegally invade a large Brazilian-owned soybean farm; that his government failed to capture members of a [leftist] guerrilla group, the Paraguayan People's Army... and that he signed an international [leftist] protocol without properly submitting it to congress for approval."

The article adds that the president's former political allies were "...upset after he gave a majority of cabinet ministry posts to leftist allies, and handed a minority to the moderates...The political split had become sharply clear as Lugo publicly acknowledged recently that he would support leftist candidates in future elections."

It's obvious that the President's real crimes are that he chose to ally himself more closely with Paraguay's left, which in reality means the working and poor masses of the country, who, like other Latin American countries, choose socialism as their form of political expression. 

Although Paraguay's elite lost control of the presidency when Lugo was elected, they used their stranglehold over the Senate to reverse the gains made by Paraguay's poor. This is similar to the situation in Egypt: when the old regime of the wealthy elite lost their president/dictator, they used their control of the judiciary in an attempt to reverse the gains of the revolution. 

Is it fair to blame the Obama administration for the recent coup in Paraguay? Yes, but it takes an introductory lesson on U.S. - Latin American relations to understand why. Paraguay's right wing - a tiny wealthy elite - has a long-standing relationship with the United States, which has backed dictatorships for decades in the country - a common pattern in most Latin American countries. 

The United States promotes the interests of the wealthy of these mostly-poor countries, and in turn, these elite-run countries are obedient to the pro-corporate foreign policy of the United States (The Open Veins of Latin America is an excellent book that outlines the history).

Paraguay's elite is incapable of acting so boldly without first consulting the United States, since neighboring countries are overwhelmingly hostile to such an act because they fear a U.S.-backed coup in their own countries. 

Paraguay's elite has only the military for internal support, which for decades has been funded and trained by the United States. President Lugo did not fully sever the U.S. military's links to his country. According to Wikipedia, "The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provides technical assistance and training to help modernize and professionalize the [Paraguay]military..."

In short, it is not remotely possible for Paraguay's elite to act without assurance from the United States that it would continue to receive U.S. political and financial support; the elite now needs a steady flow of guns and tanks to defend itself from the poor of Paraguay. 

The Latin American countries surrounding Paraguay denounced the events as they unfolded and made an emergency trip to the country in an attempt to stop them. What was the Obama administration's response? Business Week explains:

"As Paraguay’s Senate conducted the impeachment trial, the U.S. State Department had said that it was watching the situation closely."

“We understand that Paraguay’s Senate has voted to impeach President Lugo,” said Darla Jordan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs...“We urge all Paraguayans to act peacefully, with calm and responsibility, in the spirit of Paraguay’s democratic principles.”

Obama might as well have said: "We support the right-wing coup against the elected president of Paraguay.” Watching a crime against democracy happen - even if it is "watched closely" - and failing to denounce it makes one complicit in the act. The State Department's carefully crafted words are meant to give implicit support to the new illegal regime in Paraguay. 

Obama acted as he did because Lugo turned left, away from corporate interests, towards Paraguay's poor. Lugo had also more closely aligned himself with regional governments which had worked towards economic independence from the United States. Most importantly perhaps is that, in 2009, President Lugo forbid the building of a planned U.S. military base in Paraguay. 

What was the response of Paraguay's working and poor people to their new dictatorship? They amassed outside of the Congress and were attacked by riot police and water cannons. It is unlikely that they will sit on their hands during this episode, since President Lugo had raised their hopes of having a more humane existence. 

President Lugo has unfortunately given his opponents an advantage by accepting the rulings that he himself called a coup, allowing himself to be replaced by a Senate-appointed president. But Paraguay's working and poor people will act with more boldness, in line with the social movements across Latin America that have struck heavy blows against the power of their wealthy elite.

Smash EDO is a grassroots response to the EDO MBM factory in Mouslecoomb's complicity in war crimes - a banner under which people opposed to those crimes can rally. Towards that end Smash EDO is currently organising a Summer of Resistance against EDO MBM.

Over the past few months Brighton and Hove Conservative Party (B&HCP) and, in particular, Robert Nemeth, Deputy Chairman (political) of B&HCP and manager of the office of Mike Weatherley, Tory MP for Hove, have engaged in a smear campaign which has attempted to label our campaign as anti-Semitic.

The Egyptian revolution's fight for life has reached a critical stage. 

The massive energy that toppled Egypt's hated dictator seems to have hit a wall after Egypt's Supreme Court dissolved parliament in what many are calling a "coup.” The military then took further action to consolidate itself, putting a halt to their fake steps towards democracy. According to the New York Times:

"... the generals had shuttered the parliament and locked out its members, taken over legislative authority even after the election of a president, and unveiled a new interim constitution protecting their power and privilege. They also named their own 100-member panel to draft a permanent charter [constitution]."  

The recent winner of the presidential election, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, now must operate within the narrow confines allowed by the military, which has seized all legislative power and nearly all real executive power. Martial law remains in effect. The new president has found himself surrounded by military officials who will not allow him to make a single independent decision.  

How could this happen? 

What the Egyptian revolution has thus far failed to do was to destroy the real basis of the old regime's power, ensuring that the regime would re-consolidate itself. The dictator was toppled, yes, but the institutions that upheld the regime are still in place; the state structures accustomed to a totalitarianism that serves the wealthy elite have finally made their intentions open to the public, now feeling confident that their positions are invulnerable to the revolution.  

Consequently, the dictator's inner circle responsible for approving the killing of over 900 innocent protesters will not be imprisoned, nor will the ruthless police chiefs who carried out the orders. This is because the judiciary of the country was appointed by the old regime, and are using every power at their disposal - and creating new ones in the process - to turn the wheel of history backwards to pre-revolution Egypt.  

After the dictator-appointed judiciary dissolved parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohammed Morsi, downplayed the event, accepting the decision.  

"It is my duty as the future president of Egypt, God willing, to separate between the state's authorities and accept the rulings [?!] " 

The Brotherhood has vowed to respect "the law,” when the law is merely the military's guns combined with a sock-puppet Supreme Court. The bizarre response of Mr. Morsi is not only a symptom of the Brotherhood's political cowardice, but proof of its collusion with dictators; the Brotherhood is desperately attempting to integrate itself into the ruling spectrum of Egypt's pro-capitalist politics, having accommodated itself to the old regime long enough to eat its crumbs. The new president finds himself in a situation from which any honest person would instantly resign.  

Thankfully the Brotherhood's half-hearted "opposition" has been mostly exposed to any half-conscious Egyptian. This fact is proved by the results of the first round of the presidential election: the Brotherhood received half the votes it received from the months-earlier parliamentary election.

Also, during the first round of the presidential election, the largest cities in Egypt voted for the 3rd place candidate, a Nasserite "socialist,” who more closely resembles the striving of the average working person in Egypt. The more recent actions of the Brotherhood have further exposed their leadership for what they are: an unwitting prop for the military to remain in power.  

Those who started the revolution and drove out the dictator are still in the process of funneling their revolutionary energy into an organizational form capable of destroying the political and economic power of the rich on which the old regime rests. 

Once the revolutionaries re-establish themselves, they'll surely have learned that, in order to push the revolution forward the entire state apparatus of the previous regime must be shattered, especially the military elite, police, and judiciary, who are using their institutional power to strike blows against the revolution. 

Equally important is the economic base of the state's power, which also needs to be taken from those who currently control it. Many of Egypt's big businesses are powerful because of their direct connections with the military, and are often owned by generals and their government friends. 

The Los Angeles Times recently explained:

If the military's wealth isn't nationalized - and much of its wealth comes from recent privatizations of public utilities - the money will continue to fuel the power of dictators.  

To reach these goals the revolutionary working people of Egypt need to act independently in massive numbers, as they did at the revolution's beginning. However, this independence needs to be organized enough to fully displace the existing powers of Egypt; the demands of "Mubarak must go" need to be replaced by new demands that address the deeper military and economic ties of the old regime.  

To help give voice and organization to these demands, a revolutionary constituent assembly will likely remain a popular and necessary demand, so that a really democratic constitution can be created with the active participation of all working people. The demand for a constituent assembly has proved to be a revolutionary demand throughout the Latin American revolution, whose situations were very similar to Egypt's today. 

Saturday 16th June 2012, our event, Building Hope, proved to be a great opportunity to meet our supporters, old and new- including members of the public in the Brick Lane area, to what was to be an intimate gathering to champion human rights and the issues behind our work.

The evening started with the screening of our documentaries on our Bangladesh Street Children project and Ala Kachuu project in Kyrgyzstan. This allowed for more in depth discussion to why there is a need to voice such issues, like the abuses marginalised children face on the streets in Bangladesh and the severe detriment to women’s human rights in Kyrgyzstan. Several members of the audience were visibly moved during our film 'Building Hope', particularly by the graphic scenes of drug taking and of 13 year old 'Ameena' chained up and prostituted by her ‘mother’.

As part of the Ala Kachuu project and following a recent trip to Kyrgyzstan, our film 'Right to Choose' and also television advertisement to be aired on Kyrgyz national tv 'Demand Change, Say No' were shown. Though the scenes of kidnapping were quite shocking, audience members found hope in the women's right, despite community pressure to say 'no to ala kachuu'!

Following the screenings, the floor was opened to questions and members of the audience probed the Directors Mabrur and Rahima on a wide range of issues, including government involvement, project staffing and costings, sustainability and challenges. Given the difficulties that NGOs face, dealing with funds in Bangladesh, the audience were particularly pleased to know that one hundred per cent of all donations go straight to the project. One supporter was more inclined to support based on the long term goals of Restless Being project work; ''I appreciate that your projects are more than just fundraising, they're about changing ideas and providing consistent and permanent change, I suppose that's why building hope is so important''.

With recent events in Burma, Restless Beings used this opportunity to raise awareness of the stateless and persecuted Rohingya community, facing oppression at the hands of the state of Burma. The complex issues surrounding the Rohingyas evokes strong passions amongst many and it is at such times that their voices need to be heard, and their plight acknowledged by the international community. Many guests were surprised at the extent of the brutality that the Rohingyas face- one likening it to the film District 9- certainly being labelled by the UN to be the most persecuted community in the world puts it into perspective somewhat. Be it on facebook or twitter we urge you to spread the plight of the Rohingyas and to condemn the atrocities.

The evening concluded with dinner and a chance for supporters to network with members of Restless Beings and many took this opportunity to get involved and donate to the projects. Over £500 was raised through donations and standing orders.

Building Hope continues with YOUR support!

Stay Restless & Voice the Voiceless

*Love, Light & Lollipops*

www.restlessbeings.org

London – Over sixty protestors united in response to the horrific abuse of human rights against the Rohingyas outside the Embassy of Mayanmar on Wednesday, 13 June.

Both in English and Burmese, protestors chanted ‘Free Free Rohingya’ and ‘Peaceful coexistence in Arakan!’ amidst speeches made by members and supporters. The Rohingya community and their supporters from across the UK united at the protest against the persecution of Rohingya in Mayanmar also known as Burma.

The Burmese Rohingya Organisation (BROUK) launched the protest which was supported by Restless Beings to expose the treatment of Rohingya people in Mayanmar during recent ethnic clashes in the country. This ethnic clash sparked violence between the Rohingya and Rakhine over the past week in the Western State of Arakan, Mayanmar.

Maung Tun Khin, a speaker at the event, who is President of BROUK, said he has been receiving harrowing reports of attacks on the Rohingya people who are living in Arakan claiming that up to 1,000 Rohingya have already been killed. He recently received one such call from a friend whose home was set on fire and Tun Khin recalled what was described to him.

People come to my place with a big crowd, and authorities are also with them together, and they put petrol and put the place on fire. I was able to leave luckily but the places are still burning. Please raise your voice to the international community to save our lives.

Despite these harrowing reports, hundreds of Rohingyas fleeing in boats from the violence to Bangladesh are being turned back. Many Rohingya refugees also live in Bangladesh where they are denied citizenship.

Rashed, a protestor at the event, asked for peace for the Rohingya in Bangladesh and for the country to provide refuge for Rohingyas fleeing violence in Mayanmar. Rashed, who preferred not to share his last name, is a Rohingya who was living in Bangladesh with his family until 2009. After he came to the UK, a crackdown by Bangladesh’s government on the Rohingyas changed his life.  “I was in Bangladesh and came here in 2009… In 2010, January, there [was] a crackdown at that time. My father and mother went [missing.]… I don’t know if they are arrested in Bangladesh or deported in Mayanmar. It’s still two years, I’m waiting for my father and mother’s news. As well as my brother who is in Malaysia…I don’t know if he is alive or not,” said Rashed, 23. “It’s a very stressful and in limbo situation for us.”

Protestors like Rashed were at the event alongside groups such as the Bradford Rohingya Community (BRCUK) and the Burmese Muslim Association. Rahima Begum, co-director of Restless Beings, spoke to the crowd and urged more people to become aware of the situation in Mayanmar. The Rohingya have been part of Restless Being’s projects for two years and Restless Beings is working closely with BROUK and Tun Khin to raise awareness of their plight.

Begum asked politicians in the West to put pressure on the government of Mayanmar so they grant equal rights to the Rohingya people.

Protestors also urged action from the international community for the Rohingya people and asked for greater awareness of the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Mayanmar. “We want to see an international independent inquiry in these cases where innocent people have been killed by Rakhine extremists. The violence is still going on in some places. The government needs to provide aid,” said Tun Khin.

While fighting continues between the two ethnic groups in some parts of Mayanmar, the fight has found a new battle ground on Twitter. In recent days, a Twitter campaign led by pro-Rakhine supporters has been attacking supporters of the Rohingya people. Rohingya supporters believe that the dehumanisation of Rohingya people should not be a way to legitimise the ethnic cleansing of the group.

Although the clashes in Mayanmar have been set off by recent events in the past few weeks, the Rohingya people have actually had a troubled and deep-rooted history in Mayanmar for many years.

The Rohingya have yet to be recognised as citizens of Mayanmar and the UN states they are one of the most persecuted communities in the world. According to Reuters, “The Buddhist-majority Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.”

For the Rohingya people, their very existence is a source of conflict and contempt in Mayanmar and surrounding countries but it will not continue if more people unite against their persecution.

To join the movement in support of the Rohingya people, sign this petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/the-un-stop-the-mass-massacre-in-arakan-burma-we-say-no-to-war

From the 5th till 10th of July in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, ASEED will organize a 6 days long camp. The camp will involve workshops, trainings, discussions, and action, for good ecological initiatives, an alternative food chain, alternatives to industrial farming, and against gentech and meat industry, and more.. 
Do you know where your food comes from? Do you want to take food in your own hands and make the food chain shorter between the farmers and consumers? Do you also want to know more about the struggle against GMOs and industrial farming that is dominated by big companies? Do you want to organize actions against the meat industry and the imports of animal feed? But you are also interested in producing your own food on a sustainable, climate neutral, autonomous and social way? Are you not afraid of getting your hands dirty in a workshop? All of these and more will be covered during the camp. We invite activists, slow-foodies, farmers, gardeners, students, animal friends and people who want to learn and share skills on sustainable agriculture to come to the camp. Mark your agendas and join in! 

Last year the first Agriculture Action Camp in The Netherlands took place in the Flevopolder with 70 participants camping on an organic farm for three days. We had a program full of workshops and discussions, and two actions close to the camp against GM crops and soy greenwashing. The participants opted for a replay, so here comes the second camp once again with an interesting programme of workshops, trainings, action and nice atmosphere.

Hello everybody, 
We are getting closer to the date it is all going to start, the location will be in the 
city of Den Bosch (or ‘s Hertogenbosch) in and around a squatted community garden project 
Graafse Hof in a residential area in the East of the city. The workshop program is 
getting more and more concrete. Confirmed are amongst other things: GMO update by 
Greenpeace, GMO field liberation movements by FLM Belgium (more contributions/examples 
from similar movements in other countries welcome!!), introduction into different forms 
of sustainable agriculture systems (biodynamic, agroecology, permaculture), seed saving, 
worm composting, getting to know your gardening tools, action trainings by Vredesactie, 
tractor driving, talks with and working with farmers, food sovereignty: what does it 
mean, European movement, concrete examples, and more to come. The program starts on 
Thursday 5th in the evening and goes on till Monday 9th July. 

Give a Workshop? 
Want to come and give a workshop yourself? Great! We are in particularly interested to 
hear about reclaim the fields land occupation actions, or similar campaigns/initiatives 
going on, as well as the Reclaim the fields movement in general. Also looking for 
someone who can tell more about the European Campaign for Seed Sovereignty. But anything 
relevant, you’re welcome to propose. 

Info stall @ mini alternative agro fair on Saturday 7 July, 13.00? 
Saturday we want to focus on getting more mainstream people to participate in the camp. 
The workshops are more introductory and their will be a small fair. Want to have stall to 
spread materials from your project or action group? Let us know. 

Networking @ Worldcafe on Saturday 7 July, 20.00 
Saturdaynight we will turn a tent into a nice cafe, where everyone can come to exchange 
ideas and examples. Organisations, Initiatives and Individuals have the opportunity for 
reservating a table, where people can sit around to have informal conversations. Want to 
have a table your project/initiative/campaign? read more here: 
 http://landbouwactiekamp.contrast.org/?page_id=181 

Action 
Monday July 9 will have a focus on doing one or more actions. Possible targets/topics are 
mentioned in the call out from before. The camp will decide collectively what it will 
become at the beginning of the weekend. 

Finances & travel costs reimbursements 
We have some funding for the camp but not enough to cover all costs, so we would ask a 
participants for a contribution of 7,50 if you come 1 day, less per day if you stay 
longer (see the website under practicalities). 
We have some limited possibilities to (partially) cover travel costs from people coming 
from abroad, AND coming on the 4th of July (help build up) and/or stay till 11th (help 
break down). Let us know if you want to come, and travel costs are an issue. If you can 
travel on one of these dates, we can probably reimburse (some) costs. 

Want to reserve a workshop slot, info stall or worldcafe table, or just know more about 
the camp, contact us via  landbouwactiekamp@aseed.net. 

We still need people to; 
-make the kids program and organize the kids area in the camp 
-help us with the infrastructure preparations of the camp, & be there on the 4th to set up the camp, 
-translation and editing texts,(NL, ENG, DE mainly) 
-help us out with program content, 
-facilitate workshops, translation during the workshops etc.. 

Cheers and hope to see some of you @ Den Bosch. 

ASEED

The family of Ian Tomlinson arrived in court today to hear the case against the police officer, PC Simon Harwood, who was seen to attack him face charges for no reason. THis all happened during the demonstartion against the G20 who were meeting in London in April 2009. The court heard the excuses the police made for why they were hitting people over the head so often which would have been laughable if it weren't so tragic.

The court was shown CCTV of the day that flatly countered the statements of the policeman, who claimed the protesters were surrounding him and he had to defend himself. Anyone who has seen the footage can see this is bogus, he was lashing out at anyone that looked like a protester.

The trail is set to continue for weeks, more to come...

In line with ideas of de-growth and transition towns, on Saturday 16th of June took place a public event where people were invited to bring devices for repair.

People from many generations turned up and the space was buzzing for four hours, who were all helped by four repair heroes offering their skills in computer and electronics.

Printers, laptops, a mobile and a rather stylish digital clock were repaired.

More events like this are planned in different parts of London, or get in touch and/or organise your own!

Click for more detailed reports, pictures and more information.