UK Other Press Feature Archive
SchNEWS: "You can't evict an idea"
19-11-2011 05:29
The occupy movements around the world are reaching crunch time this week as it kicks off in New York and London is served with an eviction notice from The City of London Corporation.
On November 4th, representatives from the Occupy LSX camp met with their opposite numbers from The City of London Corporation, at the corporation's request (See SchNEWS 795). During this meeting it was proposed that as long as the camp was able to clear some space for Fire Brigade access they would be allowed to remain without legal persecution until after Christmas. The next day, as this proposal was going through consensus at the camp, the corporation added no less than 12 added extras, ranging from demanding that the camp recognised itself as unlawful, that it was trespassing and preventing freedom of movement for the public, and that the corporation had the right to sue for possession of the area -- to name but a few. These extras were not announced to the press and kept as quiet as possible. Occupy LSX rejected the terms, and responded with a few demands of their own. Demands that any other Local Authority in the country would be legally obliged to fulfil, but which The City of London Corporation remain scarily exempt from. Simply, the camp asked that the corporation: 1) Publish full, year-by-year breakdowns of the City Cash account, future and historic; 2) Make the entirety of its activities subject to the Freedom of Information Act; and 3) Detail all advocacy undertaken on behalf of the banking and finance industries, since the 2008 financial crash. The Corporation doesn't have to do any of this because it is in fact a medieval hangover (officially entitled The M*ay*or and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London)which has gone unreformed for centuries -- it's a local authority whose electorate is composed almost entirely of businesses- as such it is a powerful advocate for the financial capital. [More + list of local Occupy camps]
Latest from the Newswires:
Occupy Notts Camp | Bank Buildings occupied in London | Bristol: Occupy starts hitting its stride? | Occupy Movement: where next? | Occupy Manchester Returns | Occupy The Library | Occupy Everywhere Topic
Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair 2011
17-05-2011 14:10
Sheffield's second annual anarchist book fair will be held Saturday 21st May from 10:00 - 18:00 @ Bank Street Arts, 32-40 Bank Street (A much brighter venue than last year!). There will be meetings and presentations throughout the day as well as some film screenings (a new feature for this year). There is also a a social/fund raiser in the evening 8:00 til 2:00, @ the Redhouse, 168 Solly Street.
Sheffield Indymedia will be screening the LibDem Conference protest video over lunch and also hosting an open discussion, with the Mayday Collective, from 5-6pm, about what is happening with UK Indymedia. Come along and have your say about the future of the site! See also the report and audio from the 2010 Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair.
Also the Sheffield Temporary Autonomous Arts event is on now in Sheffield, till Sunday and is being held at Unit 3, Bowdon Street, S1 4JP. It should be great, see the report of last years event.
Links: Sheffield Bookfair Website
The Fargate Speaker June/July 2010
18-06-2010 21:55
The June/July issue of the Fargate Speaker is out download and print off the PDF version and read on for the content which includes, It’s Time To Get Angry, Protest against state murders, “purple power”?, Organising in Care and Review: Four Lions.
Fargate Speaker April/May
24-04-2010 07:13
The April/may issue of the Fargate Speaker has hit the streets, download and print off the PDF version and pass it around, and read on for the content which includes, A Load of Old Ballots!, Dinner Ladies Ask For More, Save Our Sam, Anti-Racist Hero: Mark Collett, Lib Dems Save The World: A Regular Look at Sheffield's "Favourite" Political Party and Fargate Calling: A Look at Sheffield's Radical History.
New Nerve Examines Work
03-12-2008 21:08
New Nerve Magazine Examines Migration
21-06-2008 20:31
Nottingham Mule Rides Into Town
31-05-2008 10:40
Notts Indymedia have joined forces with a national free newspaper called the Mule to bring you a Nottingham edition of the paper. Most of the edition is nationally relevant news, but there is also a four-page Nottingham pullout which includes articles on the library uniforms issue, the Fossil Fools Day of action of April 1, activities by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, alternative media in the city and more.
Copies are being distributed across the city, and available from a number of locations including The Sumac Centre, the Arts Organisation, Rosy Lee's, Refugee Forum and wherever else we can get people to take them. Alternatively, it's available online here or you can email us and we'll sort out getting you a copy.
Newswire: New free newspaper for Nottingham?
Previous Features: Alternative Media Blossoms in Nottingham
Links: The Mule
Full article | 1 addition | 24 comments
Indymedia UK Facing Legal Censorship… again!
06-10-2007 07:25
Indymedia UK has been issued with a takedown notice [10th of September & 21st of September] from lawyers acting for Alisher Usmanov. The notice served to Indymedia charged Indymedia with publishing allegedly libellous accusations about Usmanov, one of the richest men in Russia, recently linked to a possible hostile takeover of Arsenal FC.
The author of the posting, Craig Murray, is a former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan and claims to have inside knowledge of the businessman’s allegedly illegal dealings. Murray was sacked by the UK government for exposing the Uzbek government’s use of torture to attain ‘intelligence’ information, and for exposing and criticising UK-US support for a vicious dictator in pursuit of resources.
Murray’s allegations are that Usmanov “is a criminal”, “a gangster and racketeer”. Allegations of criminality seem partly to have been inferred from his connections to “Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov”. However, Murray also suggested that Usmanov has a criminal past, having been charged with “various offences” in the Soviet Union.
Usmanov’s lawyers minded Murray that Usmanov was pardoned, and all charges against him were removed from police records. However, in response to what seems an inaccurate statement from Usmanov’s lawyers, Murray alleged that "Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke 'Gorbachev', a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue". Furthermore, Murray implies that the pardon was spurious because the real source was the Dictator of Uzbekistan, Islom Karimov.
Karimov himself is an unsavoury character. On completing his investigation into allegations of torture in Karimov’s Uzbekistan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur noted that the use of torture was ‘pervasive and persistent’. He also reported that he had ‘no doubt that the system of torture is condoned, if not encouraged, at the level of the heads of the places of detention where it takes place or of the chief investigators’
Though evidence to support Murray’s allegations has not yet been presented directly to Indymedia UK (but has been collected in his book "Murder in Samarkand"), the Daily Mail informs us that, ‘[r]eports years ago claimed Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service was monitoring him for alleged links — never proven — to suspected mafia figures.' More recently, the allegations have been repeated by Tom Wise MEP in the European Parliament
Indymedia UK is now waiting for Usmanov’s lawyers to confirm exactly what information posted on the web site is defamatory, and it looks like they have resolved to remove any defamatory material. Indymedia, as with other small non-commercial media groups, has very limited options available to them due to the UK’s archaic and elitist libel laws.
Indymedia hopes, however, to avoid the forms of complete censorship that other web hosts have pursued.
For further information on this case, see Bloggerheads | Chicken Yoghurt | Moscow Times.
For further information on Murray’s research on UK-US (at least tacit) support for terrorism in Uzbekistan, see
Legality, Morality and the War on Terror: [ video | audio | report ].
No to Torture - former British ambassador to Uzbekistan speaks out against UK/US torture collaboration [ audio 1 | audio 2 | report ]
Full article | 6 additions | 14 comments
Imperial Disinformation: The Guardian's Iran/Iraq Coverage
28-05-2007 09:20
On 22nd May, 2007, the front page of The Guardian was taken up by pro-war propaganda, designed to prepare public opinion to accept that war with Iran is an inevitable next step in the Anglo-American 'war on terror'. Simon Tisdall's high-profile piece claimed that Iran has secret plans to do nothing less than wage war on, and defeat, American and British forces in Iraq by August.
Last February, Indymedia UK published a feature on MI6 Iran disinformation being run by The Telegraph and the BBC [ 1 | 2 ], "the British mainstream media are now reflexively boosting the US claim that Iran presents a threat to the West". The feature also contains more details about the looming war and what it's really about.
Guardian Disinfo Newswire Articles: Guardian promotes Bush administration war propaganda against Iran | Pentagon Propaganda Occupies the Guardian's Front Page | Guardian at the Gates: Surging Toward War With Iran | The Grauniad: An Unlimited Conduit for US-UK's War Propaganda | CASMII Strongly Criticises the Guardian for Anti-Iranian Article