World Culture Feature Archive

Egyptian dissidents (along with the masses) celebrated on Friday as Hosni Mubarak finally threw in the towel after the mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and across the country, refused to abate (and presumably the Americans finally ordered him to load up the plane with gold and go in an attempt to ensure the power structures – and thus their influence – didn't collapse completely). But the Egyptian revolution is not yet won as the military have stepped in, repressed protest and threatened to declare martial law.

From the Newswire:
Libyan solidarity in London | Algerians take to the streets
Bahrain: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Egypt: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

In SchNEWS: 758 | 757 | 756

Read first-hand reports from Egypt at Cairo Rising | Occupied Cairo | 3arabawy | Game Over Mubarak

Last week (see SchNEWS 753) we covered the protests against the sell-off of the Forest of Dean. But the implications of the Public Bodies Bill for the Forestry Commission  go a lot further than that.  Essentially the Tory’s are planning (in time-honoured fashion) to flog off the family silver and privatise forests up and down the country. The sale is intended to raise £2bn - less than half of one years tax avoidance by Vodafone.

Links: www.saveourforests.co.uk | www.facebook.com/Save-Britians-Forests | www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests | www.saveourforests.co.uk/map-of-forests-up-for-sale | www.handsoffourforest.org

Local campaigns we know about: Staffordshire | Exeter | Nottinghamshire | East Anglia | Gloucestershire

In SchNEWS:SchNEWS 753

Thousands have marched, a government department has been broken into, and a Scottish branch of Lloyds TSB has been occupied by pissed-off pensioners...It must be the (OK, somewhat quiet compared to France) start of the anti-cuts revolt!

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

A thousand EDL supporters rampaged through the streets of Leicester on Saturday (9th), attacking locals, anti-fascists and police.

On the Newswire: 1

Brighton's Smash EDO campaign are holding a mass demo at EDO/ITT on Wednesday 13th October. Anti arms trade campaigners plan to lay seige to EDO/ITT and shut them down for the day.

Info for the Day:: The meeting place for the demo is Wild Park Cafe (directions here) at 10am on Wednesday, but people are being asked to arrive on the evening of the 12th. Convergence space will be available. There will be a meeting about the demo at 7pm at the Cowley Club on Tuesday 12th. There will be a timeline on Indymedia and a twitter feed: @smash_edo

Local contacts for ITT's Hammertime: Birmingham - hammertime-brum [at] riseup.net | Bristol - bristolagainstarmstrade [at] gmail.com | Cambridge - hammertime-cambridge [at] riseup.net | Cardiff - val.swain [at] yahoo.co.uk | Cornwall - kernowaction [at] gmail.com | London - hammertimelondon [at] dsei.org | Manchester - info [at] targetbrimar.org.uk | Notts - alex.dable [at] ntlworld.com | Swansea - d [at] undercurrents.org

Previous features:They Think It's All Over ...ITT Is Now | Smash EDO Solidarity in Nottingham | Hammer Time: The EDO Decommissioners go on trial | Indymedia Coverage of Remember Gaza | Anti Militarists take on Barclays | Support the EDO Decommissioners | Mayday! Mayday! | EDO Smashed | Anti-Arms Protesters Shut ITT | Smash EDO Carnival Against the Arm Trade - Timeline | Carnival Against the Arms Trade | Marie Vesco RIP | On the Verge - The Film They Tried to Ban | Singers Arrested Outside Arms Factory | Smash EDO Action Camp: Shut down the Brighton bomb builders | Lebanon War protesters - Not Guilty! | EDO CORP: 2006 Alternative Report | 2007 Is The Year To Shut EDO Down | EDO MBM Injunction crumbles | EDO MBM desperate to stop protests as resistance increases | Smash EDO Take On The Law | Harassment Law Used Against Anti-War Campaigners | Campaign to Smash Edo | Arms company shut down

Links: ITT's Hammertime demo page| Smash EDO |Target Brimar| Decommisioners

No Borders Camp 2010 in Brussels kicks off this Saturday (25th) til the 3rd October, so get yourself to the continent to make a start on creating a world where no one is illegal. Among the objectives of the camp are the denouncing of European migration policy; showing the links between this policy and the structures of capitalism and repression; the blocking of Brussels' deportation system and the organisation of an autonomous safe space for the voices of migrants and activists to be heard.

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

In SchNEWS:1

Links:www.noborderbxl.eu.org

In fantastic victory for the local community, Tesco have withdrawn their involvement from the Lewes Road Community Garden development plans.

On the Newswire:1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

In SchNEWS: 738 | 732 | 729 | 727 | 680

Links: www.lewesroadcommunitygarden.org

Yet another independent festival has been cancelled after a concerted campaign by bureaucrats, nimbys and the fun police.

The Grassroots Feastival is a small volunteer run event due to take place in Cambridgeshire in early September. Organisers had lined up three days of revelry, running from poetry to Drum 'n' Bass and culminating in a communal banquet replete with juggling waiters.

The Feastival faced determined opposition from the very start. According to one of the organisers, Mooney, when the application process began in January the council made it clear they would do all they could to stop the festival taking place. Martin Ford from the police licensing board went one step further and told organisers, “I'd rather put pins in my eyes than have this festival in my county.”

Links: www.thegrassrootsfeastival.co.uk

“After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. Today they gave us no hope. This experience has broken our family apart. The DPP has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought. This is no justice - everyone has failed us.” - Ian Tomlinson's son Paul King.

Ian Tomlinson, a 47 year old news-vendor was killed at the G20 protests in April 2009. His family have waited until now to find out what action the justice system was going to take. The Director of Public Prosecution Keir Starmer stated today (Thurs) that there would be no charges brought against any police officers involved in the death of Ian Tomlinson. This astonishingly bare faced whitewash prompted the director of INQUEST Deborah Coles to say “The eyes of the world will be looking on with incredulity as yet again a police officer is not facing any criminal charges after what is one of the most clear-cut and graphic examples of police violence that has led to death. This decision is a shameful indictment of the way police criminality is investigated and demonstrates a culture of impunity when police officers break the law. It follows a pattern of cases that reveal an unwillingness to treat deaths arising from the use of force by police as potential homicides”

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3

Family Campaign Fighting Fund | Picket of DPP 30/7

In SchNEWS: 508 | 647)

Links: www.inquest.org.uk | www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk

The Africa House squat in Calais is to be evicted next Wednesday (9th). After a herd of 20 CRS vans circled the squat scoping the site on Wednesday morning (2nd), they deposited an eviction notice with those present, informing the migrants they had a week to hit the streets. The building - home to Eritrean, Sudanese and Ethiopian migrants, many of whom had already seen previous squats and camps destroyed - has been marked for demolition.

This Saturday (15th) people will be protesting at various places around central London to give the new 'stable, national interest' coalition a warm welcome.

SchNEWS gives a round-up of all the events taking place over the weekend to get your action-hungry teeth stuck into.

AS PROPOSED IMF SOLUTION SPARKS RESISTANCE...

Greece is further troubled as government officials get ready to announce IMF imposed wage cuts that will resonate across the country’s entire public sector. Emergency demonstrations were held across the country (Thursday 29th April) in protest against the cuts by grass-roots trade unions, leftist and anarchist organisations.

On the Newsire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

In SchNEWS: 720 | 711 | 662 | 659

Links: IMF on Greece | Greek Indymedia

Ten years have passed since the first Indymedia site came to life in November 30th 1999. Media activists came together for the first time during the amazing anti-WTO summit protests that took place in Seattle (US), kick starting the emergence of a global 'movement of movements' that has spent this decade struggling against neoliberalism, war and environmental destruction.

August 1st 2009 sees the official launch of Northern Indymedia by the alt-media monkeys of IMC Northern England. Having revived the dormant IMC Leeds/Bradford and merged with IMC York, the collective is officially launching their new site as a news resource for all those seeking a better world in the grim north and beyond. 9 Months of hard work are culminating in the public unveiling of the new site at Hyde Park Unity Day in Leeds, where there will be a solar powered "Be the Media" centre provided by the collective. The pitch will also include members of the Climate Camp Yorkshire neighbourhood who are helping to launch "The Great Climate Swoop" on the same day. Full coverage of all the goings on will be put up on the new site:

http://northern-indymedia.org

Links: New site of IMC Northern England | Join our mailing list | Collaboration tools on Crabgrass | IRC Chat room | New IMC form submitted | Letter sent to IMC York proposing merge | Letter sent out to local groups in the North of England | Northern IMC at Glastonbury 2009

On April 6 the Olympic torch was to be paraded through the streets of London in what Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell described as a celebration of the "Olympic spirit." Protesters angered by recent Chinese repression in Tibet sought to undermine this Chinese propaganda exercise. As it made its way through London, the flame was greeted by a wave of protest.

Demonstrators disrupted the torch's journey along the thirty one mile route. There were attempts to seize the torch, extinguish the flame and to prevent it making its way through the city with 37 people being arrested. Although Tibet was the main focus of protests, attention was also drawn to Chinese support for Sudanese atrocities in Darfur and Burma's brutal military dictatorship.

Video: Video of the attempted Olympic flame grab!

Photos: Olympic Relay Free Tibet Rally | Olympic torch protests in London - pics | Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay, London April 6, 2008 | Olympic Torch Relay: Heated Arguments in Trafalgar Square | Chinese Torture Torch Relay Shames Olympic Ideals | Police compete in olympic farce | Olympic Torch Chased off the Streets, pics from Fleet Street | Torch Protest hits Whitechapel

Also on the Newswire: Torch Went Out in London Too! | Olympic torch relay protest timeline | Tibet Protest Great, But.... | "Freedom wins" says the Sun | Tibetan Freedom Torch Rally | 36 people arrested so far during the Olympic torch relay in London | Police Manhandle Press at Tibet Demonstration | Brilliant pro Tibet protest ongoing in London today

Links: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (official site) | Free Tibet Campaign | Students for a Free Tibet

Like in previous years, precarious in Europe and beyond have chosen the first of May to take the streets. On Mayday, casual and flexible workers, immigrants, unemployed, temp-workers, part-timers, are stepping out of invisibility: L@s precari@s se rebelan! (The precarious are rebelling). They are demanding new social rights, or, as in the South of Spain, "the right to have rights" in the first place. In some cities, the precari@s march with the trade unions. In others, they set up their own Maydays. Who are "the precarious?" Here is a description from Barcelona EuroMayday Manifesto 2004:

"We are the precarious, the flexible, the temporary, the mobile. We’re the people that live on a tightrope, in a precarious balance, we’re the restructured and outsourced, those who lack a stable job, and those who are overexploited; those who pay a mortgage or a rent that strangles us. We’re forced to buy and sell our ability to love and care. We’re just like you: contortionists of flexibility."

Mayday Mayday 2007!: Barcelona | Berlin | Birmingham | Bristol | Ghent | Glasgow | Hamburg [Video] | Hanau | Helsinki | Japan | Leon | Liverpool | London block, Camberwell and dancing in the city | Madrid | Malaga | Milan | Napoli | Nottingham | Liege | Lisbon | Nottingham | Sheffield | Switzerland | Thessaloniki | Tuebingen | Vienna | Wolverhampton

Portals and Collections: Euromayday Network | Mayday Sur | theagitator blog | videos: precariadotube | precarity-map

Regional Mayday Features in: IMC-Nottinghamshire | IMC-Liverpool | IMC-London

Over the weekend of 3-4 Feb 2007, actions up and down the country and beyond targeted dangerous 'greenwash' being desperately pushed by corporations and politicians. The actions came in the wake of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Friday, which warned of world temperature rises of over 6C by the end of the century. The report indicated that a 4 degree rise would mean a 10% loss in global food production due to draught, flooding, water shortages. While the world slowly wakes up to the magnitude of climate chaos, Shell and Exxon Mobil last week announced record breaking profits. With the figures laid out so clearly, the nauseating hypocrisy spouted by corporations and politicians has spurred action from Paris to Aberdeen.

Links Press release for oil spill action | action report, photos & video | another video | Shell sponsorship background
Other actions Glasgow | Edinburgh | Plane Stupid | Greenpeace
Coming up Protest against ESSO, 9th Feb | Spring into Action
Climate Camp 2006 indymedia page | website | 2007 Camp 14-21st August | next organising meeting 17-18th Feb

Oxford activists Hamish Campbell and Richard Hering from Undercurrents have kick-started a radical TV station called OfflineTV. It uses the revolutionary new peer-to-peer open source project Democracy Player.

OfflineTV is innovative because it brings together a number of tried and tested technologies (P2P, RSS, broadband) to make a really user-friendly internet TV interface. It has the capacity to scale from hundreds to thousands and hundreds of thousands viewers in full-screen quality. The other crucial thing is the content: the best of politically radical underground video on direct action, social justice, and the environment. This version is now beta-testing.

Two channels are already up and running :

OfflineTV – a quality-controlled screening of the best of what’s out there in radical cyberspace.

News from the Balkans - the first regional network of what will hopefully be many similar networks around the world. NfB gives a radical voice to this region which is so mis-reported by the corporate media. This project is being launched out of the video workshops in the EYFA Art and Activism caravan, but we hope to create a permanent network of radical film makers posting regular reports.

To watch these channels, download Democracy Player

Then search for Undercurrents inside Democracy Player and subscribe to each channel.

And calling all video activists: if you’ve got a funky report about anything anywhere, post it to the Scratch Channel

The French city of Strasbourg became a 'free party area' on Saturday 15 April, when around 3000 people gathered for the "European Alternatives Resistance" Sound-System Parade [Flyers]. The protest was called by Free 4 Euroalternatives, a loose coalition of sound systems, free party and festival organisers, squats and people from around Europe.

The parade was a show of defiance to the increasing levels of repression against non-commercial and autonomous forms of culture, and in particular to protest about last summer's brutal attack by Czech police against the Czechtek tekno festival. This event was widely considered as the 'breaking point', when police in riot gear steamed into dancing people with baton charges and tear gas attacks. As a result, two people died and over 50 were seriously injured. [See Czech Teknival attack feature]

The demonstration passed peacefully with people dancing to music played by several mobile sound systems, and it ended with different parties across Strasbourg. Some of the banners read "Nothing Stops People Who Dance", "Free Party! Free People!", "Respect Our Rights" and "Against Police Brutality". One of the organisers said: "We chose Strasbourg because the city accommodates several European institutions, in particular the European Court of the humans right, to which we intend to immediately address a letter after the demonstration".

Photos and Czech TV news report
Photo Galleries 1 | 2 | 3

Project "Freedom for Mother Earth" was started this year on October 12th, when indigenous communities occupied idle farms in Cauca, southwest Colombia, accusing the far-right government of breaking promises to provide them with land. The State responded by refusing to negotiate until they leave and for over a week now have been attacking the occupied El Japio farm with hundreds of troops and at least ten tanks. 16 year-old Belisario Camallo Guetoto was killed on November 10th and many more have been wounded and arrested. Solidarity emails have been called for to help prevent further violent attacks.

12th October is traditionally celebrated in Colombia as "Columbus Day," but has been renamed "Day of Indigenous Resistance" by social movements across the continent. This year there were massive mobilisations across the country against President Uribe and his proposed "Free Trade" agreements, and solidarity actions also happened internationally, including a picket in London. Naomi Klein recently wrote about the Cauca indigenous communities (who reject both sides of Colombia's long-running civil war), describing the land occupations and how they are protected by the Indigenous Guard, who "patrol their territory armed only with sticks."

Updated info (in Spanish) | Colombian Embassy contact info

Over 17,000 young international activists have gathered in Caracas for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, which begins today (Monday 8th August). Several groups in the UK, including Hands Off Venezuela, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Justice for Colombia and New Generation, as well as various communist groups, have between them sent over 100 delegates. Everyone from Europe is being housed at a newly-completed village, half an hour south of the Venezuelan capital, except for the organisers from the World Federation of Democratic Youth who have been staying at the Hilton Hotel (which is now run as a co-op). The festival is seen as an excellent opportunity to build solidarity with Venezuela's peaceful and democratic revolution.

In 1992 in San Francisco cyclists started riding together monthly to assert themselves as traffic in a ride that became known as Critical Mass. Since then Critical Mass has spread to over 300 cities around the world and become a common feature of protest culture.

To celebrate 10 years of critical mass, over 800 cyclists took to the streets in London last year with a bike samba band, live guitar from a rickshaw, multiple sound systems, mad bikes the like of which have to be seen to be believed. It was massive, and it happened again on Friday April 29. At least 500 cyclists, rollerbladers and skateboards joined the 11th Annivesary in London [photos 1, 2, 3, report]. There will also critical masses in Glasgow, Liverpool and Nottingham [photos] - and probably other cities around the country as well.

On Saturday 30th April there was a successful mass "against climate change, pollution and the G8" in Worthing, Sussex. Meanwhile, in Sheffield on June 11th and the 15th there are more rides to coincide with an anti-war demo and the G8 meeting of Justice and Interior Ministers in Sheffield taking place 15th/17th.

At the end of Fashion Week in Milan, anti-precarity activists pulled off an ambitious spoof against the fashion industry and the mainstream media. The scene was set earlier in the week when protesters targeted the a cat walk show by Prada and issued a statement that there would be further protests and that the fashion show by the controversial japanese designer Serpica Naro. On Thursday another show was disrupted when eight women breached security and took over the cat walk and issued further statements over the microphone before being kicked out. Milans police contacted the press agent of Serpica Naro and warned them of the threats being made to disrupt her show which was schedualed to take place on saturday evening. The media ran a few stories and the agent for Serpica Naro was interviewed about the prospect of protests by anti-precarity activists.

Reports: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] Photos: [ 1 | 2 ] | Video |

“The art world belongs to everybody. It is not just for the illuminated that have access to the so-called temples of art. It’s like the history made by the people and now it is up to us to make worlds where many worlds fit, to paint them, to sing them, to write poems to the free men and women and to sing and sing. Let the words and the music and the poems and the colours announce that art belongs to everybody and is for everybody, like this world, like these dreams, like freedom!”. Gustavo C. P.


[Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group | Glasgow Zapatista Solidarity Group | Indy UK Zapatista section | IMC Chiapas | Indy Scotland ]

On 7 October 2001, the US and UK began air attacks on Afghanistan. At that time, so soon after 11 September, there was some support for military action (1). On 7 December 2001, Kandahar, the last Taleban stronghold, fell prompting those in the West to declare the war to be won. (2).

But what was the end result of this war? Certainly Osama Bin Laden wasn't captured, though some Al-Qaeda infrastructure may have been destroyed. In the immediate aftermath of the war, it appeared that the UK and US' most obvious achievement had been the overthrowing of the Taliban - harbourers of Bin Laden, supporters of Al-Qaeda and oppressors of the local Afganistan population. So what did this mean for the people of Afghanistan?

A caravan of artists, media activists, scientists and technicians from all over the world is presently gathering in Andalucia in the South of Spain. The Euro-African project will cross the Straits of Gibraltar in December, and move south along the west-coast of Africa [map], reclaiming the Straits as a bridge, not a boundary. The Caravan describes itself as "a sound system, a circus, a mobile cinema and a stage for theatre and performance". It is constantly open for everyone who wants to participate.

news about the tour | german version

The 20th of July will mark the second anniversary of the murder of Carlo Guilani by the Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police force) during the protests against the G8 summit of Genoa 2001. In those remarkable days, where Berlusconi's goverment gave orders to stop protesters by "whatever force necessary", the independent media centre was brutally attacked by police, resulting with the arrests, tortures, assaults and beatings into coma of many protesters.

Since the end of July, the squat of Lelas Karayanni 37 has been confronted with a local and state repression as the chancellors of the university commissioned police to cut off the water and electricity supplies into the occupied building, and threaten a violent eviction refuse they to leave. L. K. 37 was bequeathed to the University, under the proviso it is used to house homeless and poor students. Despite that, it was abandoned since 1960, until April of 1988, when it was occupied by a collective of young students, workers and jobless, who transformed it into a place for housing and self-organisation. L.K. 37, through open assemblies, publications and social interventions became a workshop and base for radical criticism against housing issue in Athens.

The repression seems to be one of the initial casualties that seem to co-inside with speculative business enterprises earmarked for the "Olympic Games 2004". In another case the Students' House in Ilisia suburb has been occupied for more than two months as the rectors' council demanded all students must leave in order to use it for the journalists' accommodation during the Olympics, the students have refused.

[ Full report | athens.indymedia | L.K.37 page ]