UK Globalisation Feature Archive
Export Credits Guarantee Department Occupied
02-09-2003 09:54
At least five people, some from London Rising Tide barricaded themselves into Brown's office and, in the spirit of participatory democracy, attempted to open a constructive dialogue with ECGD staff over the Baku-Ceyhan project.
A banner reading 'Exporting Corruption, Guaranteeing Destruction' was unfurled, but security guards for ECGD office building Exchange Tower and police refused to allow any protest to take place (including the leafletting of local shops) on Exchange Tower's private property.
In recent years the Export Credits Guarantee Department has come under increasing fire for using public money to subsidise the arms trade, for supporting projects enmeshed in gross corruption, and for failing to carry out sufficient research into the benefits of the projects it supports for local people.
Colombia: Mass demonstration and massive repression.
29-08-2003 16:00
At the demonstration and from then on, repression in Colombia has increased, consisting of mass arrests of trade unionists, community and social workers and assassination attempts [AI statement].
As the conflict intensified, Juan Carlos Benavides, a journalist at the community radio Manantial Stereo in Putumayo, was murdered on the 22nd of August at a road-block set up by the guerrilla organization FARC.
"Juan Carlos was a well known community communicator in the region, always trying to support community participation and social journalism. He was an active member of the CRIS campaign, coordinated in Colombia by the local NGO Planeta Paz." From a statement of the campaign Communication Rights in the Information Society.
WTO Cancun summit - Zapatista call for "rebellion and resistance"
28-08-2003 16:46
"Make ourselves children of rebellion and resistance", declare the Zapatistas.
More wasteful summits?
25-08-2003 13:09
One year on, the complete failure of the Johannesburg Earth Summit is obvious. But should activists therefore give up on UN Summits altogether? Daniel Mittler of Friends of the Earth Germany doesn´t think so.
When I got on a plane one year ago to attend the biggest ever UN Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, I was under no illusion that this Summit would have any chance of being a giant step for mankind. It had become all too obvious in the long and ardeous preperatory process - involving some 8 weeks of day and night meetings of bureaucrats from all over the world - that there was no desire by those who call themselves our leaders, to address the root causes of global inequality and unsustainable development.
Inhabitants of Narmada Valley Fighting for Proper Rehabilitation
23-08-2003 18:42
The Sardar Sarovar Dam on the lower Narmada River is just one of 30 projected large dams of India`s Narmada mega-dam project, an area prone to earthquakes. In May 2003, three Indian federal states had given clearance to increase the height of the dam to 100 meters, which caused the submergence of several villages and devastation of standing crops, after monsoon rains started at the end of July. The clearance was given inspite of a legally binding Supreme Court Order and the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award, which had stipulated the previous resettlement of all project-affected persons. But at least 13 500 families suffering from the present monsoon floods are still waiting to be resettled. So far they haven’t been granted any compensation for the destruction of their property. The inhabitants of Chimalkhedi village in Maharashtra resisted Police Forces, who attacked and forcefully evicted them, arresting 74 plus 40 temporarily. 20 houses of this hamlet were also demolished.
VW evicts camp of homeless workers in Brasil
19-08-2003 13:20
The terrain was public land donated in the 50s by federal government to corporations to "create jobs". It has been an unused land for four years and Volkswagen workers are on strike caused by job cuts in the factory.
Meanwhile up to 7000 persons - including about 2000 children, were in the camp.
Negotiations with the city council and the company's representation have failed, a court decided the eviction. Yet the workers want to show resistance.
Here is a translation of a personal report posted on Imc Brasil about the eviction of the camp.
ZAPATISTAS PUT AUTONOMY INTO PRACTICE
15-08-2003 22:08
The last few weeks have seen the Zapatistas issue several communiques of major importance.
“It is possible to govern and to govern ourselves without the parasite that calls itself government.”
general strike in Chile
15-08-2003 08:39
But, although the CUT has a high level of support particular in the area of transport, the resonance was not quite overwhelming.
A translation of an article about a demonstration in Santiago de Chile from Indymedia Chile + Indymedia Germany.
Repression against the Noborder Camp in Cologne, Germany
09-08-2003 16:48
The Noborder Camps have reached Germany. From 31st of July till 10th of august, the city of Cologne was "Out of Controll."
Many of the camps successfull activities to highlight institutional racism, worldwide and local oppression and opposing organised neonazis would have gone unnoticed, but the police repression on Saturday caused an international outcry and drew attention to the camp [pics 1,2,pics on IMC Istanbul,feature on Global IMC, feature on Italy IMC,IMC Poland, IMC Sweden,IMC Athens,IMC Paris,IMC Lille,collection of videoclips, see also Statewatch Report].
A Forum with discussions and workshops was accompanying the noborder camp. [invitation,program]
The next noborder actions are announced for Sept.11-14th when anti-rascist activists will be gathering in Nuremberg and Fürth.
For more information about the police repression and the activities at and of the camp, please read the entire feature.
In the run up to DSEi 2003.
08-08-2003 12:35
Six activists gained entry to the Smiths Aerospace production plane in Wolverhampton on Thursday and climbed to the roof of the two storey office unit at the front of the factory. They stayed on the roof throughout the afternoon. At the same time another group of activists carried out a makeshift ‘weapons inspection’ gaining entrance to sensitive production areas.
Roof Top Protest at Smiths Aerospace - West Midlands
2003: The summer of Resistance Camping
07-08-2003 22:57
Coca-Cola - Stop the Violence
07-08-2003 14:52
Ecuadorian Goverment adopts 'new' oil policy to expand drillling in the Amazon.
05-08-2003 16:38
Summer of Resistance Europe 2001
29-07-2003 22:00
Timeline and reports from Summer of Resistance actions in Genoa, July 2001Documentary Film: Jeremy Hardy vs. Israeli Army on tour in Scotland
27-07-2003 14:39
Jeremy Hardy v. The Israeli Army is a feature documentary about the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine as experienced through the eyes of British comedian Jeremy Hardy.
Leila Sansour, the filmmaker with a degree in philosophy, grew up in Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank and will present the film in Glasgow on Sunday and Monday, the 28th at the Glasgow Film Theatre and in Edinburgh from Monday to Thursday in the Edinburgh Filmhouse.
Each screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmaker.
New EU Constitution threatens free education
24-07-2003 18:03
However, a new threat looms because the EC merely proposed to drop public services such as public health and education from the GATS negotiations, but now such propstitions can be vetoed by any single EU member state if the new EU constitiution goes through unamended.
GATS has long since been a controverisial issue, with many groups like the student envionmental, trade justice and human rights network People and Planet, War on Want, Friends of the Earth, and the World Development Movementall opposing this WTO agreement that could bring misery and poverty for millions, if not billons of people worldwide.
Past Indymedia articles explaining GATS and about actions against the GATS:1 2 3
International Union 'Boycotts' Global Day of Action Against Killer Coke
21-07-2003 13:45
This Tuesday, July 22, sees the launch of a global campaign to boycott Coca Cola products in solidarity with Colombian trade unionists. Last year, 184 Colombia unionists were assassinated by paramilitaries just for being trade unionists. Over 4000 have been murdered since 1986. The boycott has been called by SINALTRAINAL, a Colombian foodworkers union currently suing two Colombian-based Coca-Cola bottlers - Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages - in US courts over their alleged role in the murder of trade unionists by right-wing paramilitaries. Coca Cola itself is not facing the lawsuit after a March 31 ruling dismissed them from the action, although this could still be reversed.
However, the global boycott has already been undermined by the stunning news that the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), which claims to represent the majority of Coca Cola workers worldwide, does NOT support the boycott and is calling on the international labour rights movement to reject it.
Background / Take Action / Colombian updates
London protest: 6pm, tonight, Piccadilly Circus
On July 22, six protesters brought the Coca-Cola processing plant to a standstill. 11 people were arrested, but were later released without charge, after they have cost Coca-Cola at least £30,000 in lost revenue. The protestors say that they will continue their occupation of the Coke plant until "Coke issue a statement guaranteeing the physical safety of their workforce, and to respect their workers’ right to belong to a trade union." Read on...Urgent Action Honduras: Murder and Arrest of Peasant Activists
21-07-2003 03:22
The National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC) in Honduras, Central America asks for urgent support for their communities after 2 activists are murdered and 30 detained in two separate attacks July 16 and July 17th.World Economic Forum In Ireland - CANCELLED!!
17-07-2003 14:08
The WEF propose to merge it with the next Davos (switzerland) Summit in January 2004, which will be during Ireland's presidency of the EU. The official reason given is that the WEFs Global Competitiveness Report will be published after the Dublin summit, in November, and since the Summit was set to focus on European Competitiveness, it would be better to wait until after the report has been published. It remains to be seen where the WEFs 2004 European Economic Summit will be held.
For more info see post on Irish Indymedia (see also corporate media articles)
However, the first "Irish Social Forum" is still scheduled to take place as planned.
Autonomista Interview
14-07-2003 09:39
The tour was organised by the Argentina Autonomist Project (AAP), an group which seeks to educate people around the world about the struggles in Argentina.
I met up with Graciela at the Glasgow event, to find out more...
