UK Education Feature Archive
A boost for video activism
20-01-2006 06:21
In London during January there was a video activism gathering consisting of skill sharing workshops, presentations, discussions such as the role of cameras on demos (how video can be used to get protesters both nicked and set free), along with feedback from the G8 video indymedia experience. Modeled on similar national gatherings in previous years, this one was organised by and took place at the rampART social centre.
The event ended with a public screening with films from Real2Reel, Revolt Video, Camcorder Gorillas and many others. There was also a premiere of Cine Rebeldes 'Latitude 36' and two films made during the gathering 'Justice For Dad' & 'The Demo Demo'.
Related links:
- Lights, Camera, Direct Action - a PDF DIY guide
- Call for regular activist shorts
- IMC-UK Video Projects Page (out of date)
Full article | 3 additions | 11 comments
Day of action as Tony Blair sets out new nuclear power policy in Nottingham
14-01-2006 09:30
Tony Blair set out new plans today for a nuclear power policy, as him and other cabinet ministers attended a Labour Party forum, at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. The conference centre is based at Nottingham University, where students jumped into action after it was leaked to Nottinghamshire Indymedia that Tony Blair was to visit the Uni. A call out for a demonstration, meeting at 10am at the Portland Building (on Notts Uni campus) was supported by a number of local campaign groups including the Students Union, Nottingham Stop the War, Nottingham Student Peace Movement, Lenton Anarchist Forum and the arts activism collective the Mischief Makers.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | photogallery
Read: report and timeline
From the newswire: Union pushes for urgent energy reform | Prime Minister visits Nottingham University :: Surveillance Operations | Prime Minister visits Nottingham University :: piccys 1 | Prime Minister visits Nottingham University :: piccys 2 | Pic's of Tony Blair visit in Nottingham | Blair hypocrisy over nukiller power | PM rallies for nuclear power in Nottingham | Blair to visit Nottingham Uni THIS Saturday
Background links: Greenpeace target climate changer Blair at Downing Street | Blair nuclear announcement scuppered | Meacher condemns pro-nuclear 'spin' | Blair Reignites Nuclear Debate - American lobbying adds to pressure | Blair must not back new nuclear power plants
Creative working the way forward - a photo report
23-12-2005 16:14
More and more artists within Nottingham seem to join the recycling art craze, as tetra-packs, plastic bages and cans are brought to new life. In the last few weeks various workshops were organised in the Sumac Centre in Forest Fields and the Old School Hall in Sneinton. The Rubbish Day Out in Sneinton was organised to raise awareness of recycling and waste issues. Here a collection of photo's from people who think creative workshops are fun and the way forward to promote environmental and social issues.
There is a creative campaigning workshop planned on Sunday 15 January 2006 from 11 am to 4 pm (with lunch break) at The Place, 2a Melrose Street, in Sherwood, Nottingham. It is all about drawing attention to your message. The Place is just off Mansfield road behind the old bus depot.
Community use for the Howard Mallett centre?
15-12-2005 19:37
Aiming at making effective community use of the soon to be empty Howard Mallett centre, a group has been set up to put forward proposals for the space.
The centre, in Cambridge’s densely populated Petersfield ward on Sturton Street, has a long history of community usage and features a gym, radio recording room, café area and further office and community rooms. However, it is soon to be vacated by current lease-holders Dawe Media and the new tenants, charity Citylife, will take a long time to carry through their plans of knocking the building down to construct a ‘social innovation incubation centre’.
The new group is connecting with people with ideas for how the space should be used, which so far include a range of community media, arts, youth, sport and soup kitchen proposals.
New group list: hmcwg@wereallneighbours.co.uk
and their website
Indymedia articles on the Howard Mallet Centre: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
World Summit On Information Society - Part II
15-11-2005 17:24
The choice of place for the second part of WSIS - Tunis - is more than hypocritical for a summit on information society: While Tunisia is catching up economically with the capitalist North, it is far from any information society if you are talking about the freedom of information (report). Furthermore - and different to 2003 - it seems almost impossible to express protest against this summit. Nevertheless some initiatives and organisations called for alternative meetings. Some Human Rights Groups take part in the "Citizens Summit on the Information Society (CSIS)". Others try to bring in their ideas within the WSIS itself.
Free access to knowledge for everybody is not the goal of WSIS, and the summit organizers' plan is to concentrate on governmental and corporate use of information and communication technologies. This approach fits the choice of place. Yet, the summit does not only give legitimacy to a repressive regime, its focus also ignores the social and technological situation in the Magrebh region. The majority of people in this part of the world do not have access to communication tools and the authoritarian regimes in the region are reliable allies to the european governments in supressing freedom of movement.
Update 16 November:It is reported that Tunesia is blocking unofficial websites related to the WSIS. People said that they could not access Websites as wsisblogs.org or the CSIS Website from hotels or other places outside the official media centre. ( study on Tunesian internet filtering ). Furthermore there were reports of repressiv actions by Tunesian authorities against groups claiming freedom of speech in the days before the conference started.
2005:'Tunisia and WSIS' dedicated page of the WSIS CS Human Rights Caucus| CSIS Website | IP Justice | from the region(fr):tunezine |nawaat | reveiltunisien | Wikipedia On WSIS | IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group | Some Blogs: one | two | three | four | five (de) |
2003: Feature on the WSIS 2003 at Indymedia UK | World Forum on Communication Rights in Geneva 2003 | Some IMC UK articles on 2003:one | two | three | four | five
Amity Night 2
06-11-2005 15:36
Amity Night 2 is an evening of live music and art to bring communities together, to raise money for a small Palestinian village and the Pakistan Eartquake appeal. Saturday November 12th 2005, 7.45pm-11.00pm, at The Malt Cross. A night of musical entertainment featuring Mecca 2 Medina, Fat Digester and many more... Nottingham Amity is a voluntary organistation which aims to bring communities together.
Links: Nottingham Amity | The Malt Cross | Short video of previous Amity Night
Protests as arms dealers attend careersfair
18-10-2005 14:57
The last two days saw the AIESEC careers fair taking place at Nottingham University. The Portland Building, where the Students Union is based was full of businesses promoting their oppertunities for the under and post-graduates. People within the university informed the students attending the fair about some exhibitors: 'the problem is, they supply arms to countries with appalling human rights records'.
Arms manufacturers such as Caterpillar, BAE systems and Rolls Royce exhibiting at the fair were targeted because of their non-commitment to ethical responsiblity and the way in which they 'lie about the truth'. The protest, organised by NSPM, took place on both days of the fair. The Student Environmental and Ethical Network (SEEN) is organising an ethical careersfair later in November.
19/10/05: Students at Leeds University succesfully shut down BAe stall at the AIESEC careersfair at Leeds Uni.
Links: Nottingham Student Peace Movement (NSPM) | Environmental and Social Justice Committee | Student Environmental and Ethical Network | Stop Caterpillar :: Violations of Human Rights | Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) | The Ethical Student | AIESEC Nottingham Careers Fair | Environmental and Social Justice Committee | Previous article about NSPM
Mark Curtis to talk at the University
06-10-2005 11:18
Campaigner, historian, author of 'Unpeople' and 'Web of Deceit', and former director of the World Development Movement; Mark Curtis, will give a talk at Nottingham University on Tue 18th Oct. The talk, entitled 'Government Propaganda and the Reality of UK Foreign Policy' will be at 5pm in the Portland Building, room B9. All are welcome, and the event is free. The talk is promoted by Nottingham Student Peace Movement.
Links: Mark Curtis website | Nottingham Student Peace Movement | Previous Indymedia coverage: Mark Curtis on the G8 (audio) | How the G8 Lied To The World On Aid | Web of Deceit book review
George Fox 6: Campus Activism at the Crossroads
21-09-2005 23:00
On Monday 26th September, the trial of the George Fox 6 commences at Lancaster Magistrates Court. Six student activists face charges in a three day trial arising out of an action that took place at Lancaster University in September 2004 where protestors had gone into the George Fox building at the university to hand out leaflets and talk to people at the "Corporate Venturing" Conference - a networking meeting for multinational corporations. Speakers at the conference were drawn from controversial arms manufacturer BAE Systems, Shell and other companies the six say have 'long histories of human rights abuses and environmental destruction'. Police attended and told the protestors they were doing nothing wrong, but some months later they received summonses through the post. The defendants are seeking support at the trial.
[ GF6 Support Group | Action at corporate conference | Call for support | Interview with defendant during trial lunch break - 1.2Mb ]
Caracas Youth Festival Starts
09-08-2005 04:54
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.
AUDIO: "Voices from Africa" Conference - G8 - Migrants - Aid, Trade, Debt - HIV
31-05-2005 16:28
There were excellent presentations and speeches by the usual suspects - Patrick Harvie, Tommy Sheridan, Aamer Anwar, representatives from Oxfam and G8 alternatives - but the most succesful aspect to the conference, what made it really striking, was the African speakers.
The conference was held at Caledonian University - Glasgow - 23rd April 2005.
Paul's travel reports from and about the Middle East
19-05-2005 09:21
"The media today in fact is reporting that it’s a success and they’ve called off the operation and killed I think 125 insurgents and detained however many more but the reality is what I’ve learned from the ground from NGOs operating and from making phone calls into that area the whole thing is like a mini Fallujah – they didn’t let people leave the city, there’s probably hundreds of civilians casualties and many, many homes destroyed and many displaced people and of course none of this is being reported in the mainstream media. It typifies the whole situation in Iraq.”
Paul O'Hanlon travels around the Middle East, and sends regular political updates to Indymedia.
After participating in the Cairo conference [1 | 2 ] from March 24th to March 27th 2005 in which the relationship of Israel and Palestine was discussed, he moved on to the Egypt/Israeli border at Taba/Eilat before passing along further to Jordan.
From there his next report was filed from Amman, where he primarily researched the human rights and political situation. Reporting about a local demonstration in front of the US embassy and meeting Robert Fisk in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 days later, he travelled along to Istanbul, where he was denied a visa to Syria. Then he accounted his time spent at the border imigration and after a long wait, search and questioning actually in the West Bank and Israel. His latest update from Amman, Jordan, features an interview with the independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who spent a lot of time as an unembedded journalist in Iraq and reports about a "Mini Fallujah" situation of "Operation Matador (near the Syrian border)".
Environmental Rock in Southampton
12-05-2005 09:00
Birmingham Social Centre Reclaimed for Community
09-03-2005 00:51
After resisting three eviction attempts [video] [pics] the Collective have agreed to move on to pastures new on the condition that the building be returned to social use by the council. The Collective felt, along with local people, that the building should not be left empty again. Birmingham City Council has finally arranged for the RITE Project (which works with young people excluded from the education system) to use the building until 2006. The building is then due to be demolished, pending a public enquiry, as part of the controversial Bristol Road expansion. The Collective are keen to point out that the social use of the building would not be on the council agenda if they had not taken Direct Action, highlighting the misuse of public buildings by local authorities.
Meanwhile the fight in London to return St. George's Theatre in Tuffnel Park to community use contines [see Latest Updates].
See also Indymedia Free Spaces Section
Rage Against Hallam
11-02-2005 22:47
Join the televised rally at 6pm on the 14th Feb at The National Centre For Popular Music, when Hallam will be re-opening the centre as a students union. The NCPM was built from lottery funding it is considered by some that its true ownership is that of the people.
The National Centre for Popular Music (NCPM) was built over five years ago as a visitor attraction centre for Sheffield using over £18 million of public money. The original project failed for various reasons and for a number of years this iconic building has been abandoned largely empty and unused at the heart of Sheffield's Cultural Industries Quarter — an area in which Sheffield's creative and digital industries are concentrated.
Action update: 1
Cambridge University Debates Full Fees
28-11-2004 23:53
The University of Cambridge has now made policy to charge the full amount of fees (around £3000 per year) starting in 2006. A debate followed in the Senate house, where it was (mildly) criticised by accedemics and the student union.
A report from the Council on the arrangements for University Composition Fees from 2006-07 is available along with some discussion here.
Highlights of the discussion (probably also happening in a University near you) can be read by clicking the Full Story link...
Community Radio Needs You
25-05-2004 08:52
The community radio movement has grown worldwide over the last 30 years establishing a new tier of broadcasting that is challenging the traditional public and commercial sectors.
But just as community radio in the UK is starting to finally get a foothold, intense lobbying from the commercial sector to restrict community radio could limit its growth and even possibly kill it at birth.
Anniversary of the MST and EZLN
18-05-2004 11:04
Anniversary: 20th birthday of the MST and EZLN in the university of Sao Paulo (USP)
Uni Teachers & Students Demonstrate Over Pay and Fees
28-02-2004 14:36
Meanwhile, at Essex University in Colchester, students occupied the boardroom of university boss Ivor Crewe, a high-profile advocate of fees, and called for a protest movement that can "force a shift in society's priorities, away from warfare and greed and towards satisfying human welfare and need." Occupations have also occurred at Oxford University and in Sheffield, where the Town Hall was taken over by students. Direct actions against threatened closures of the chemistry, philosophy, development studies, sociology and anthropology departments at Swansea University are planned for the 10th of March.
[Video: Cambridge AUT & CUSU pickets] [Cambridge AUT Ballot on Industrial Action] [How to Occupy Your University]
Top-up fees and the university system in the UK are usually discussed as if Britain was a lone island of turmoil in a wider ocean of calm worldwide. Within the mainstream press, there has been little recognition that a systematic, consistent set of structural reforms is being implemented around the globe by proponents of what might be called a "neoliberal", "marketized" approach to education. Here is a sampling of what is going on in:
[Argentina] [Australia] [Canada] [Germany] [Pakistan] [Russia]
Oxford Students Occupy Examination School in Protest of Top-Up Fees
27-01-2004 02:25
Update (27 January 10:30am): Examination School is still occupied by students. Many students left this morning to join the protest in London, while others stayed in Examination School. The University decided to cancel all lectures for today. Students emailed all lecturers and asked them to go ahead with their lectures anyway, but the ones who came were refused entry by the security guards. However the students organized an alternative lecture about top-up fees that will take place at 11am. The next student meeting in Examination School is at 1pm. Join the occupation!
At 4h30pm on Monday 26 January around 50 students of Oxford University, Brookes University and Ruskin College occupied the Examination School of Oxford University in protest to the top-up fees and to fees in total. They demand that the University opposes the government top-up fees bill. They also demand that the University reverses its stance of support for fees as there is strong evidence that many in Oxford also support full privatisation of the University.
Many other students joined the occupation later (there was more than 100 students around midnight), and the occupation is still going on overnight, especially after Tony Benn visited in solidarity! Anyone can come and go. The University may decide to cancel lectures tomorrow morning, but students encourage lecturers to give their lectures anyway. Students also decided to host their own teach-ins, with students presenting the case against top-up fees and the marketisation of education. Others will join the protest in London to express the viewpoint of Oxford students. Everyone is welcome to the teach-ins in the Examination School, and the more people is in occupation the more scope there will be for discussion and debate. Everyone who turns up will have an equal say in what is decided to do and how to proceed... come along and make your contribution!
Reports: [1] [2] | Reports and pictures: [1] [2] | Video | Solidarity statement from German students
Parliament backs fees - by 5 votes | Student pays fees in pound coins
OSAN (Oxford Student Activist Network) | OUSU (Oxford University Student Union)
