World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

19th-25th November

FREEDOM FOR 80 MINK (Germany)
MAXMARA PAINTED RED IN SANTIAGO (Chile)
SURPRISES AT THE UNIV. OF UTAH (USA)
FUR SHOP GLUED AND PAINTED (Sweden)
EXPLOSION BLACKENS DOORWAY AT ZOOLANDIA WAREHOUSE (Italy)
SLOGANS PAINTED ON FUR SHOPS, BUTCHERS (Russia)
COMMUNIQUE, PHOTOS RELEASED FROM FUR FARM RAID (Italy)

Ed Miliband will be at the Doncaster Climate Change Hearing today at the Bentley Pavillion, this is a chance to have your say!

We Love the Earth Centre campaigners will be there on mass to send a clear message to the Council and the press that the Earth Centre must be returned to the public!

A public meeting has been arranged to discuss the future of the site.

A group of about 45 people (latest news figure is now 57) were ambushed and abducted by about 100 armed men, according to reports. The military recovered the bodies of 13 women and eight men—some of them mutilated.

Public meeting regarding the future of the earth centre and the peoples campaign to reclaim the land and our rights to make decisions on community issues
Tuesday, 15th December 7pm at the Denaby Miners Welfare Club - see you there!

Believe it or not that's the latest message being conveyed by the Danish media this morning.

The Copenhagen Post reports that Mogens Lauridsen, deputy chief superintendent of Copenhagen Police, has made a statement on advice for protestors published on the Internet.

The advice for protestors includes an explanation of laws which the police may use against them as well as their legal rights under Danish law. Such legal guides are often published ahead of protests to inform demonstrators of the risks they may face and advice about how police may act towards them - during protests and if they are arrested. They are of particular relevance where protestors are coming from other countries where laws and police procedures differ.

The Danish police force, like all police forces, does not have an unblemished record when it comes to the treatment of protestors.

Recently a letter signed by members of several British NGOs including Friends of the Earth, Jubilee Debt Campaign and Christian Aid was sent to the Danish embassy (and published in the Guardian) highlighting concerns over the curtailing of legitimate protest around the Copenhagen climate summit after new repressive public order legislation was proposed. The legislation proposed includes an extension of pre-emptive detention from 6hours to 12 hours.

National differences in public order laws also led a mainstream NGO coalition to ask for clarification over whether its members wearing panda costumes would be arrested on the streets of Copenhagen, since in Denmark the wearing of masks (or even the assumed intention to wear a mask) can be an arrestable offence.

The people from around the world planning to protest at the Cop15 climate summit deserve to know how the police may treat them, and no civilised society should object to such information being published.

Regarding the ignition of an explosive device at the free social space “Buena Ventura” (Thessaloniki) this morning

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19

From Donegal and Clare, and Connaught and the Munster hills...... Your plea is remembered and we battle on, energised by your passion

Brian Anson (1934-2009) passed away over the weekend after being inflicted with a sudden illness, he was a Liverpudlian, who came to Ireland to do what he could to help..

A new undercover documentary film shows rarely-seen footage of separatist rebels in Indonesian-ruled Papua province, who have been fighting a low-level insurgency for more than 40 years.

From WTO to Cop15: 60 activists from the global South will travel across Europe through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Denmark. They will draw attention to the consequences neoliberal globalization and climate change have on their lives and show how to fight against them. Together with local activists, they look for alternatives to free trade and the privatisation of resources, and unite the North and South in their fights for another world.

The 23 page caravan reader introduces some of the caravan groups, their struggles and positions on the above issues:
 http://www.biopiraterie.de/fileadmin/pdf/Caravan_bulletin_09.pdf

On 16th December activists will attempt to take over the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen for a day and set the agenda. We speak to one of organisers of the various mass actions that are planned for the talks.

Dirty Electricity
 http://www.thisweek.org.uk
 http://www.mastsanity.org

The following article was written by members of the Occupied London collective for Svartur Svanur (Black Swan), Iceland’s first anarchist magazine – an Icelandic translation will appear soon in the magazine’s third issue. We are reposting the article here with the usual disclaimer that this is far from an “objective” take on the situation in the country; it is an un-shamelessly politically biased one, and this time we have opted for a slightly personal take, too. Comments, feedback etc are as always very welcome, either here on the blog or at  editorial@occupiedlondon.org. December is so close…

Earlier this month we reported that a German woman had been arrested in Holland at a mink farm. 5,000 mink had been released from the farm. Shortly after news of the first arrest came out rumours started to emerge of a second and possible third arrest.

Why the tar sands are important for anti-military campaigning

RIOTS broke out in Belgium on Friday night, November 20, over the brutal and racist treatment of prisoners by police.

"In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an overwhelming and bipartisan 43-26 vote on Thursday afternoon despite harried last-minute lobbying from top Fed officials and the surprise opposition of Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who had previously been a supporter."

Gary Sudborough, one of my favorite writers has died suddenly from a heart attack on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009.

In his memory, I’m reposting an article he wrote last year that was published on several Indymedia websites.

N30 - November the 30th, or the Monday after next - is 10 years since a coalition of protest and campaign groups shut down the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Seattle. It was successful coalition building, direct action and brought anti-globalisation into the mainstream. The WTO has struggled to achieve any new bollocks since (though it has managed to use it's existing bollocks to bad effect). Here's a hastily put together flyer/poster re the n30 climate day of action.

The council is set to sell the wasted yet wonderful earth centre, this can't happen we can't let them make this mistake, lining their greedy pockets again while destroying another beautiful community resource.