UK UK Newswire Archive
Why do people hate the police?
05-05-2011 10:17
Question on website called PoliceSpecials.com which is read by serving police and y bpolice specials. Do you have anything to contribute?Note signup is free, anonmous email addresses are ok.
Dismal BNP result in Notts
05-05-2011 01:25
The fascist BNP fielded only two candidates in Nottinghamshire for yesterday's local elections. Simon 'Bob' Brindley and Bob Coyne stood in Bilborough in Nottingham and only achieved a measly 3.5% of the vote. The party failed to get it together to field any candidates in former strongholds such as Ashfield and Broxtowe.
However, over the border in Leicestershire the party gained a councillor - Cathy Duffy (East Goscote, Charnwood, by only 4 votes) although they lost two from North West Leicestershire. To the west, the BNP polled over 10% in a number of wards in Derby and Bolsover although, of course, this is well below what they need to win.
The party is in collapse nationally, losing most of its councillors and many former BNP members have jumped ship. Financial scandals, in-fighting and a dictatorial leader who refuses to give up the reins have all but finished the party. Nick Griffin is making a Hitler-style last stand in his bunker but he knows his game is up.
Met Occupation still going strong
05-05-2011 01:24
Update on London Met Occupation ( see http://wearelondonmet.wordpress.com ) :
All the support has been really really touching. Thank you for all your love and solidarity.
It is important to stress what is going on…
In case you’re unaware, the University plans to cut 70% of the courses being offered at London Met. This is a clear, ideological attack on Higher Education. The Government’s decision to cut the HE budget by 40% is having very real, and devastating effects on the ground. For somewhere like London Met that is heavily subsidised, the impact is obviously worse. People’s lives, both students and staff, are currently being turned upside-down. Hundreds of redundancies are in process.
But it’s interesting, because the courses that are being cut include History, Philosophy, Performing Arts, Languages, Trade Union Studies and Carribean Studies. Students choose to come to London Met to do these courses because of the fantastic tuition offered on these courses. They each have a long and rich tradition at this institution and it is a scandal that the University plans to axe them completely. It is our understanding that no other institution in the UK even offers Carribean Studies.
The message is very clear. London Met as we know it is changing. It will become increasingly business-orientated in its delivery of education as well as its educational offer. It will not provide the broad range of subjects to its applicants any longer. You will have a choice of 160 and that’s it. Instead of using its current diversity to contribute to the vision of being ‘Proud to be London Met’ and as a marketing tool, it’s likely that the proposed cuts will do the opposite. Deleting courses that attract students to an institution does not make any financial sense!
These cuts are therefore ideological, not logical. This is a time of real and severe crisis at London Met. It is important that people get behind this campaign and come down in person to support.
On Saturday there will be a ‘Teach-in’, a day of Alternative Education. This is the first event of its kind at London Met, and will be a key moment to co-ordinate and mobilise a national campaign. We really need to make this massive.
http://wearelondonmet.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/occupation-still-going-strong/
Frontex blocade in Belgium
05-05-2011 01:24
This is a testimony of someone who was in a blocade of a detention center in Belgium.
London Met Occupation 4th May
05-05-2011 01:24
On 4th May, London Met students began occupying part of Tower Building, in protest to the fact that 70% of courses will be cut (effectively the whole of art and humanities), student support services will be cut, mass job cuts underway, and plans to stuff students in mega-sized classes underway.
Given at London Met "57% of the university's students are from working class backgrounds and "40% of all BME students in Higher Education in the UK" study there, there is a sense why what is happening at London Met is highly ideological and proof of class/racial increased segregation/social immobility.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhqjZeWy1A&
London Video activist network: http://visionon.tv/web/vanlondon/crew
WE WON’T STAND FOR CUTS – Occupation protest song
05-05-2011 01:24
First release of the in-house music-making at the Grad Centre occupation ( CHECK IT OUT AND SPREAD FAR AND WIDE | on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWcMvOhrA7g )
Students at London Metropolitan University are occupying the Graduate Centre in opposition to the proposed closure of almost two thirds of the university. The cuts at London Met are of an absolutely devastating scale and demand a response from across our movement. We encourage everyone to rush messages of support to wearelondonmet@gmail.com and to send representatives to the teach-in on Saturday:
We Are London Met - Education not Privatisation
Saturday May 7th, 10am-4pm
Graduate Centre, London Met University, Holloway Road
Followed by social in the Rocket Bar, to celebrate the winning the London Living Wage for all workers at London Met.
Flyer: http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/LonMetTeachInA5_...
Draft Programme: http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/We-Are-London-Me...
This event is FREE and OPEN to all the community but PLEASE register in advance, by emailing su@londonmet.ac.uk
For more info http://www.wearelondonmet.wordpress.com
DEMONSTRATE ON MAY 11 AT MOORGATE CAMPUS LONDON OR IN YOUR TOWN OR CITY
Iranian Hungerstrikers take protest to Home Office
05-05-2011 01:24
Six Iranian pro-democracy activists who have been refused asylum in the UK despite overwhelming evidence of brutal torture for their beliefs will take their protest to the Home Office tomorrow afternoon as they reach day 32 of their hunger strike. Four of the six men, including a 17-year old boy, have sewn their lips shut, saying they fear far worse if forcibly returned to Iran.
- Iranian pro-democracy activists refused asylum in UK reach day 32 of hunger strike against deportation - Some of the men have become seriously ill, unable to walk and urinating blood - Joined by supporters, they will take their protest to the Home Office in Westminster tommorrow from 2pm
Six Iranian pro-democracy activists who have been refused asylum in the UK
despite overwhelming evidence of brutal torture for their beliefs
will take their protest to the Home Office tomorrow afternoon as they
reach day 32 of their hunger strike. Four of the six men, including a
17-year old boy, have sewn their lips shut, saying they fear far worse if
forcibly returned to Iran.
They will be leaving their protest camps outside UKBA's headquarters in
Croydon and Amnesty International's offices Clerkenwell, and will march
with supporters from Parliament Square at 2pm to the Home Office in
Westminster. They invite journalists to attend.
Activists Ahmad Sadeghi Pour, Morteza Bayat, Keyvan Bahari, Kiarash
Bahari, Mahyar Meyari and Mehran Meyari were tortured and imprisoned for
their involvement in protests against the Iranian regime. Yet powerful
evidence of this treatment, including torture wounds and newspaper
clippings identifying them as dissidents, was ignored, which the men and
their supporters say is sympomatic of a systematic policy of disbelief at
the UK Border Agency to keep the numbers of those granted leave to remain
low.
Yet the men also wish to highlight the contradiction in government policy
on the issue of democracy in Iran; while government rhetoric indicates a
support for the democracy movement in that country, according to the Home
Office 1,645 Iranian asylum applicants were refused leave to remain from a
total of 1,870 applications last year.
online petition here:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-6-uk-hunger-strikers-from-deportation/sign.html#se
FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-the-Iranian-Hunger-Strikers/206206719410578
London Metropolitan University occupied
05-05-2011 01:24
by reelnews
The most savage cuts in the country are planned at London Met, with around 400 courses being cut and hundreds of jobs going. This is the planned future for education: asset stripping in preparation for privatisation. But this is also the way to fight back, as students occupy and workers prepare for strike action...
more info at http://wearelondonmet.wordpress.com/
70% of courses cut- London Metropolitan University Occupied
04-05-2011 22:38
The Graduate Centre of Holloway Road Campus is currently occupied by students in protest against Vice- Chancellor Malcolm Gillies’ decision to axe 70% of courses- including Performing Arts, Philosophy and History. Gillies’ decision came as a shock a couple of weeks ago.Genetic Modification by Royal Approval
04-05-2011 22:22
In the madness of recent weeks, this one certainly seems to have slippered on by, at least until now.Climate, Media and Learning
04-05-2011 22:16
The Mound - Brighton's Latest Guerilla Garden
04-05-2011 21:45
Connexions Strike Birmingham
04-05-2011 21:05
Four dead in Ohio
04-05-2011 19:28
Four student were killed forty years ago today, for protesting against the Vietnam war.London Met Students Occupy to Defend Courses
04-05-2011 19:05
UNISON and UCU are encouraged to learn that as of this lunchtime someof our students - in particular, Performing Arts students, have
occupied the Graduate Centre at London Met in protest against the
massive cuts to courses proposed by London Met management.
They, like us, believe these massive cuts to our course portfolio -
the loss of Performing Arts, Philosophy, History, Caribbean Studies,
Trade Union Studies, .... will irreparably damage local working class
student education and the very essence of our university.
