UK UK Newswire Archive
Green Music
20-12-2011 06:28
Ugrent: Stop The Deportation Of Annet Mercy Makaik
20-12-2011 04:55
I would like to URGENTLY draw everybody's attention to a case of state-organised racism and brutality inflicted upon a refugee couple and their fourteen-month-old baby resident in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Last Saturday, Annet Mercy Makaika from Malawi, her baby Princess, and her husband Frank Wuteron from Uganda, were awoken in the night by a UK Border Agency "snatch squad" who dramatically demolished her front door then assaulted Annet so severely, taking her into custody, that she still cannot hold or feed her baby.
The charity Barnados have offered immediate assistance, and have documented details of Annet's injuries and photographs. They are also temporarily taking care of the child since Annet was badly injured by sadistic government officials acting unlawfully towards this peaceful, law-abiding asylum seeker and her family.
To appease virulent rightwing tabloid newspapers who campaign ferociously against immigration, such as the Sun, Star, Daily Mail and the Daily Express, the Home Office have stepped up their campaign of terror inflicted upon victims of human rights abuses committed worldwide, allowing their agents to use extreme force in deporting asylum seekers from the United Kingdom in a manner befitting of the abusive regimes these traumatised human beings have escaped from.
The couple are settled in Doncaster, and were enjoying the merits of family life as members of the community, when Annet was selected by government bureaucrats for immediate deportation, deliberately and inhumanely splitting the married couple without care of the consequences for Annet's safety and the welbeing of her young child.
As if that wasn't enough, the cruel and brutal means of enforcement contravenes every last vestige of international human rights law. Hardened criminals are treated less violently by the state when arrested, compared to the ordeals of asylum seekers whose peaceful presence poses absolutely no theat to the safety of this country.
The extreme brutality inflicted upon Annet in-front of her young baby, is undoubedly a reflection of the pure sadism of the snatch squad. The injuries inflicted upon her are beyond belief. The cowards stamped viciously on her arms, and knelt on her to keep her pinned to the ground, even though she was not putting up a struggle. Whatever their motivation, whether they disliked foreigners and people with darker skins, one thing is for sure, it is hard to believe the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry findings changed Home Office proceedures.
Sometimes the police are present when they present warrants of entry, but in this case, they acted alone, beating up Annet and forcibly removing the married couple naked, treating them like animals, in a way quite befitting of totalitarian regimes not a democratic Western country.
Some people will remember the Joy Gardner case, and might or might not be astonished to know racism and brutality is still alive and kicking in the Civil Service.
Legal action will be taken against the Home Office, and hopefully arrests will be made of the thuggish sadists who inflicted severe injuries on this innocent mother, but your help as concerned citizens would be very much appreciated.
Despite her shocking injuries and the South Yorkshire Constabulary taking an active interest in the case, investigating the assault by the cowboys employed to do the state's dirty work, the cold and clinical UK Border Agency machine is continuing to plough ahead with the deportation of Annet, and have informed her husband Frank that he will only see their baby again if he signs a form to renownce citizenship and leave the country himself.
In the long term, the battle will be a legal one, and will be lengthy, maybe involving the High Court and the European Court of Human Rights, and with more and more publicity for the incident, the state won't be able to brush it under the carpet. In the short term, urgent assistance is needed to ensure Annet and her baby are not rushed out of the United Kingdom before the police can conduct thorough criminal investigations.
They are booked to leave tomorrow at seven pm on a Kenya Airways flight to Malawi, and if they are allowed on-board the plane, not only will their lives be at risk on arrival at the end of their journey, any ongoing investigations against the violent actions of their UK government-employed assailants will automatically be shelved, meaning the thuggish assailants will be unleashed upon further refugees and asylum seekers.
Under international air travel regulations, the final decision to carry a passenger on-board an aircraft lies solely with the pilot, and airline bosses are free to suggest not to carry any particular passenger or otherwise, for whatever reason.
Please immediately contact Kenya Airways to seek the company's lawful intervention in this matter, so they make a moral decision not to allow their travel service to carry this brutalised asylum seeker and her child to danger.
A suggested letter of complaint follows:
Also, please forward this message to as many people as possible, including concerned MPs and MEPs, to make sure OUR VOICES CANNOT BE IGNORED!!!
Facebook and Twitter are our friends. Use them to publicise the case ASAP!!!
Yours Desperately,
A Concerned Citizen!
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PLEASE E-MAIL TO: Sam Okwulehie, Group Area Manager at Kenya Airways: contact@kenya-airways.com
And also phone them on: on 02087597366, 02082831800 or fax: 02087455027
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Subject: ANNET MERCY MAKAIKA - URGENT
For the attention of Sam Okwulehie - Group Area Manager - Kenya Airways
FLIGHT NUMBER KQ101, 20 December, 2011: ANNET MERCY MAKAIKA AND PRINCESS ABIGAIL WUTERON: HOME OFFICE REF: M1419630/2
Dear Sam Okwulehie
I am writing to urge you not to carry Annet Mercy Makaika and Princess Abigail (14 months old baby) on your Flight no. 101 leaving at 7pm on 20th December, 2011 from Heathrow Airport to Malawi.
Annet Mercy Makaika has been badly injured when she was forcibly taken during a dawn raid and has serious bruising on her body, especially on her hands, and cannot even hold or feed the baby because her arms were stepped on and knelt on. She and her 14 months old baby have been separated from her husband Frank Wuteron. The baby needs her father and UKBA wants to deport the baby leaving her Ugandan father behind. This amounts to a serious human rights violation and taking her on your flight would certainly not reflect well on your company. I have heard that Barnados has taken pictures of Annet's injuries which are stark evidence of UKBA's brutality during the process of enforced removal. I do hope that you will give consideration to this request and to the many others that you will receive.
I understand that the decision about whether to take a passenger lies solely with the airline and the pilot and urge you not to take these vulnerable people doing so automatically damages the reputation of your company which for some reasons complies with UKBA in deporting asylum seekers.
Yours sincerely
************
Name:
Address:
Date:
Bank of Ideas wins right to appeal
19-12-2011 20:55
Occupy London has been given at least three more weeks use of its repossessed Bank of Ideas space.
Protesters have been squatting in a disused USB building on Sun Street in Hackney, London, since November 18. They took it over in an act of "public repossession" and renamed the office block the Bank of Ideas. Since taking over, groups have used the space for art, activism, films, health, and political discussions and workshops.
Representatives from the Bank of Ideas appeared in the High Court today to seek permission to appeal the injunction and possession order sought by the UBS investment bank, that was granted on November 18 by the High Court.
The protesters were seeking to appeal the short notice they were given over the initial court appearance when the injunction and possession order were granted. This was done at a special night hearing, conducted over the phone between UBS lawyers and Mrs Justice Proudman on November 18. The occupy protesters were given less than 45 minutes notice by text message of the hearing, and were not told when or when it would take place.
Today, Lord Justice Lloyd gave protesters permission to appeal after January 11, when the courts will reopen after the festive season.
Lawyer Stephen Knafler QC representing the Bank of Ideas told the judge today "there was no notice at all there was to be a hearing and how the defendants could take part in it."
He said there was no reason for the claimants to breach normal judicial processes to get an injunction.
He said UBS' claims of health and safety concerns were unfounded.
Occupiers at the hearing were pleased with the result and applauded the judge, and exchanged high-fives and hugs between them.
The Bank of Ideas is now calling for more people to get involved to make it have "the best workshops and talks in town."
Cash-Rich City Freezes Pay For Workers
19-12-2011 20:55
As the City of London Corporation announces a pay-freeze for the most poorly paid workers in the Square Mile, publishing their City Cash Accounts is more necessary than ever.
As Christmas approaches, the City of London Corporation has announced it is to freeze wages for the most poorly paid workers in the city, claiming it as a necessary measure to help plug the gap left by central government cuts in spending and a result of the current "economic crisis".
"With living costs soaring across the capital, London's low paid need all the help they can get", Trade Union Council Regional Secretary for London, Megan Dobney said a month ago. Yet in the City of London - the richest local authority in the United Kingdom, the doors have been closed on any further discussion of an equitable pay rise for staff.
Unions had originally asked for an increase of 2.5% to protect their members from the current collapse in living standards across the Capital and to reflect the high levels of inflation which have made London the 18th most expensive city in the world, at the same time that wages for the poorest have been eroded to unsustainable levels.
However, the City refused the unions' request in a rapacious act - offering a one-off payment of £250, which for a billionaire entity that has evolved over the centuries into a zone of almost total financial freedom seems at best miserly and at worst downright cruel. And it's hardly Big Society stuff either Mr Cameron, if you're listening (not that the Prime Minister is likely to play the role of Jacob Marley to the Corporation any time soon).
Indeed, the one-off payment on offer for some of the lowliest paid employees in the City represents an increase of just five pounds a week - which for some of the Capital's poorest families doesn't even reflect the price of a week's prepaid electricity. Factor in all the other issues in the local economy such as Mayor Boris Johnson's 50% increase in bus fares and the additional cost for families (who as a result of the government's housing policy have been forced further away from inner city workplaces) and workers have been left tightening their belts to the point of suffocation.
Surely even the most privileged of us would acknowledge that a one-off payment of a few pounds a week for workers who are already earning below the bread-line is cold comfort for those struggling to make ends meet as a consequence of this Tory-led government's austerity measures?
Yet whilst the local authority has sought to pass the buck for leaving wage earners short, guests at the Lord Mayors banquet in the Mansion House this year shared no such concerns with the cleaners tidying up after them - tucking into extravagant delicacies such as filet of beef and vintage Chablis and toasting the destabilising financial markets with debauched extravagance as they dined the night away in the company of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Although the Greater London Authority (not to be confused with the Square Mile itself) claims on its website that ‘nearly all major banks in London pay the London Living Wage', this does not apply to the City of London as a local authority or to its contracted workers. All this despite the existence of the city's multi-billion pound City Cash Account (which it refuses to publish and exempts from Freedom of Information requests) and despite official recognition by the GLA that Londoners paid less than £8.30 an hour end up living below the poverty line.
In stark contrast with the GLA (where more than 3,000 employees receive the 'living wage') cleaning staff employed under contract from the Corporation are left almost destitute. In fact, the sole contribution that the foremost financial centre in the world has made to the poorest people in the Capital is an audacious attempt to blame them for what it describes as a "lack of financial literacy" - effectively accusing the poorest of themselves being responsible for the hardship that millions in London endure, rather than the financial service industries who wrecked the economy in the first place.
Maybe that comes as no surprise, but from an institution that has demonstrated the most disturbing levels of financial ‘illiteracy' ever since the big bang of the 1980s, isn't this an example of hypocrisy at its most patronising as well as being a false statement? After all, the entire country is still paying the price for the City's most recent failures. If the middle is being ‘squeezed' then those on the rungs beneath them are simply being kicked into the City's long grass and trampled all over.
In fact, the whole issue of Corporation underpay is such a cause for concern, that in an early day motion tabled by Labour back bencher John McDonnell in September this year the City was urged to raise the wages of its cleaners to above subsistence levels. However, in an act of Dickensian penny-pinching they refused, despite research conducted by Queen Mary University of London, which has estimated that the London Living Wage has lifted almost 10,000 workers from poverty since its introduction in 2005.
It's no surprise then either that the Corporation turned down the Unions' request for fair pay for wage earners. The only reason Boris Johnson supports the 'living wage', which was introduced by his predecessor Ken Livingstone, is because he realised Londoners would kick him out of City Hall if he didn't - a scenario that is unlikely to occur in the undemocratic City of London, where close-fisted corporations have voting rights over local residents and where those who work the hardest are sent straight to the treadmill while those at the top laugh all the way to the bank.
With Christmas fast approaching and many workers simply unable to budget appropriately from their meagre wage packets - with declining living standards and living costs that spiral each day - the City's 'great wage refusal' is surely a massive indictment of 21st century capitalism.
The Ghosts of 'Christmas Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come' are surely due to come knocking on the doors of the Mansion House in the next week but it's doubtful the Lord Mayor would distinguish them from the protestors camped outside St Pauls Cathedral, let alone pay attention to them.
So this festive season, say a prayer for the City workers who will struggle to put food on the table next year as a result of the Corporation's greed. It's time for them to publish the City Cash Accounts in full. Jacob Marley - The City of London needs you more than ever.
'Merry Christmas one and all'.
Cultural organisations continue to brown nose BP
19-12-2011 20:06
British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Opera House and Tate continue to accept dirty money.Full article | 1 addition | 13 comments
Bring the movement back to life
19-12-2011 18:09
A plea for smaller groups to come together and put an end to the murder!Council Plans To Evict Over 25 People At Christmas.
19-12-2011 18:09
Please,come aroundOde to Rioting
19-12-2011 17:49
tell you what I don’t want to sit back
cause I wanna join them
Criminalisation of protest in Notingham
19-12-2011 16:55
On Saturday December 17th, Notts Uncut participated in the UK Uncut “Christmas Special,” visiting the usual tax dodging companies. Notts Police took an unusually confrontational attitude asking for people’s details, imposing conditions on the protest. Once person was arrested after she asked for clarification of the instructions, while another was arrested after remonstrating with the police about the initial arrest. A third arrest took place that evening for allegedly refusing to leave Bridewell Police Station where supporters were waiting for the arrestees.
On the newswire: Arrests at Uncut demo: Topshop & Bridewell Pol Stn | Criminalisation of protest in Notts | Notts Uncut Arrests | 2 Arrested at Uncut demo: Topshop, Nottingham
Almost as soon as demonstrators arrived at the meeting point outside Boots, police were confrontational, asking people for their names, addresses and dates of birth (which they are not obliged to give).
The police then sought to impose conditions on the protest under Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. Protesters were told that they could not go within 20 yards of specified stores. When one demonstrator, unfamiliar with imperial measurements asked what this was in metric she was arrested for refusing to comply with the s.14 directions.
Her husband then tried to remonstrate with the police and was arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. He was then manhandled into the back of a police van.
A call-out was made for supporters to go to Bridewell Police Station where they were taken. A local vicar and the 11 year old son of the arrestees were denied entry to enquire about their wellbeing.
Some supporters stayed at the police station to wait for the arrestees, while others went back to continue protesting. Additional supporters turned up throughout the afternoon and early-evening response to the call-out.
The first arrestee was released shortly after 4pm, but there was an extended delay before the second was let out. The group went into the reception (which they were no longer prevented from doing) to warm up while they waited.
After some time Inspector D. Sharp appeared with a number of other officers and demanded that people leave. He alleged that they were "intimidating" people going about their lawful business (presumably implying that waiting in a reception does not constitute "lawful business").
Sharp was asked by a number of people present what the legal basis of his demands was, however he refused to give one and arrested one of the supporters.
All of the protesters had been released by about 9pm. The two arrested at the protest have been bailed to return in the new year, but not charged. Their bail conditions include legally dubious restrictions on their right to protest.
This is a major escalation of Nottinghamshire Police's handling of protesters. Notts Uncut demonstrations have become a semi-regular occurence in Nottingham. Traditionally police locally have had a very hands-off approach to the protest.
The attempt to criminalise solidarity, arresting those waiting for their friends, is a particularly worrying development.
The protest was coordinated nationally with others, as part of the UK Uncut "Christmas Special" timed to coincide with the busiest shopping day of the year. There were also six arrests in London, where Topshop was protected by riot police.
Regular Uncut participants noted that the police officers assigned to the protest did not include any of the familiar faces from previous demonstrations.
It is possible, that this ridiculously heavy-handed response was a one-off, driven centrally. However, Saturday's policing should viewed in the context of the arrest of the 'Atos Two', which catalysed the formation of the Nottingham Defence Campaign. In that case, one of the arresting officers admitted, "There's been too much of this sort of thing going on and we've been told to crackdown."
We should not be surprised by any of this. We live in a class society in which the police's primary function is, and always has been, to protect the interests of the bosses. As the imposition of "austerity" heightens class conflict, we can only expect this bias to become more explicit.
In short, we need to assume Saturday's policing is typical of what we can expect Nottinghamshire Police in the future and plan accordingly. To this end Nottingham Defence Campaign, along with others, will be organising a meeting early in the new year to plan a coordinated response.
Palestine Today 12 19 2011
19-12-2011 16:01
Arrests at Uncut demo: Topshop & Bridewell Pol Stn
19-12-2011 14:55
Saturday 17 December 2011
UPDATED
After meeting outside Boots in Parliament Street, Uncut protesters proceeded to a number of their usual locations.
Calling at Miss Selfridge, they entered the store and a couple of people had their details taken and were issued with a 'stop and search form'. It seemed that no search was in fact conducted though.
On to Vodafone in Clumber Street and accompanied by a number of police officers. The police say that because of an alleged "serious disruption to the life of the community" [shopping!] and "intimidating people from going about their lawful business" the sargeant [1554] in charge informed people that he was making a direction under section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 that protestors should move 20 yards from the store entrance and not use a megaphone.
Remaining there for a few minutes more .... people continued from Vodafone and onto TopShop in Lister Gate. At 2.00pm, same police officers following on issued a similar direction there. Some people argued that these restrictions infringed their human rights and their rights to protest. One lady asked a question, didn't move fast enough and was promptly arrested. Another, querried this arrest and was himself arrested. Their young 11 year old son was then left in care of others.
Both were quite disabled with mobility issues and had to be assisted / helped [one shoved] into the police van sent to pick them up.
A demonstration was then held outside of the Bridewell Police Station in their support.
People were not allowed to visit in the police station, I assume while they were being processed. Then, a local vicar and their son was similarly refused when again wishing to cheak on their welfare.
Some protestors returned to outside of Topshop and continued their action.
Later in the evening, I also understand a further arrest of a supporter had been made at the Bridewell Police Station for refusing to leave. Again, while simply asking about the earlier arrests. [I guess for waiting, in the waiting area].
It might be noted that it is now over a year since Notts Uncut protests on these issue have been happening. Yes, of course they have been monitored by police, CPO's and private security companies. However, I didn't observe anything that happened on Saturday, that hadn't happened on so many occasions before. You might therefore conclude that they are becoming a sufficient pain in highlighing the tax issues of these companies. Also, of course, this being the busiest weekend before christmas, and the shopping and economic imperitave being so vital.
All released by later in the evening, bailed to appear in January 2012.
Notts Uncut Arrests
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2272
Criminalisation of protest in Notts
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2273
2 Arrested at Uncut demo: Topshop [Breaking]
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2271
Nottingham Uncut: First Birthday Tour
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2167
Notts Uncut
http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
nottsuncutaction@gmail.com
Notts Save or Services
http://nottssos.org.uk
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Web: http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>
Why I and many others choose to protest against the London 2012 Olympics!
19-12-2011 13:27
A short article upon which I explain (angrily) the reasons behind the opposition to the Olympic Games, not an attack on the participants but an attack on the corporations making billions out of it and getting away with evil crimes in the process!Anti-fascist prisoners: send letters for Xmas
19-12-2011 12:55
Being locked up is grim at the best of times, being locked up over Christmas, away from friends and family, is always going to be an especially difficult time, so we urge all decent anarchists and radicals to send a letter, messages of support, of just a few lines to the five anti-fascist prisoners still inside to let them know they are not forgotten during this time.
The five were part of an anti-fascist mobilisation against a neo-Nazi Blood and Honour gig held in South London in 2009. An incident happened on Welling train station that saw two neo-Nazis confronted by one anti-fascist who challenged the politics of the pair in a physical manner sending one to the floor. The police went on to arrest 23 anti-fascists for the incident. In total 13 stood trial for ‘conspiracy to commit violent disorder’ despite there being no evidence of a conspiracy. Of the 23 original arrests, three charges were dropped before coming to trial, 13 were found not guilty and seven found guilty of which five are still serving out their prison sentences of between 15 and 21 months.
Anti-fascist prisoner addresses:
Andy Baker A5768CE
HMP Highpoint
Stradishall
Newmarket
Suffolk CB8 9YG
Sean Cregan A5769CE
HMP Coldingley
Shaftesbury Rd
Bisley
Woking
Surrey GU24 9EX
Phil De Souza A5766CE
HMP Elmley
Church Road
Eastchurch
Sheerness
Kent ME12 4DZ
Ravinder Gill A5770CE
HMP Wayland
Griston
Thetford
Norfolk IP25 6RL
Austen Jackson A5729CE
HMP Stocken
Stocken Hall Road
Stretton
Nr. Oakham
Rutland LE15 7RD
» Useful guide on writing to prisoners: http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/writing.html
http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/
Direct action against migration prisons in Brussels
19-12-2011 12:25
Students ask Johnson and Johnson what their christmas present be?...
19-12-2011 11:59
Anti-fascist prisoners update: send letters for Christmas
19-12-2011 11:53
Solidarity with Bradley Manning at U.S. Embassy
19-12-2011 10:55
Bradley Manning's Military Tribunal Article 32 (pre-military trial hearing) began a Ft. Meade Maryland on Friday Dec 18th.,continued through the weekend and continues into this week. A callout for solidarity action on Bradley' 24th. birthday - Saturday Dec 17th. was answered in 40+ locations throughout the United States and around the world. In London 60 folks gathered in solidarity with Bradley outside the U.S. embassy.
The London gathering heard solidarity statements read from human rights and gay activist Peter Tatchell and recently released British military resister Michael Lyons. Keynote speeches were made by Ben Griffin from "Veterans for Peace", Naomi Colvin from "UK Friends of Bradley Manning" and Ciaron O'Reilly from the "London Catholic Worker". An open platform followed which included speeches by folks from Occupy London SX, "Pay Day", "Global Women's Strike", a British Iraq War veteran, "Pirate Party", "Queer Friends of Bradley Manning", "Oxford Catholic Worker", an Iraqi exile among others.
UPDATES: ON BRADLEY MANNING
VIDEOS
- Messages to Bradley as 60 folks gather in solidarity outside the U.S. Embassy in London (1 min 24 secs)
- Anti-War activist/ former U.S. political prisoner Ciaron O'Reilly (3 mins 5 secs)
- Iraqi man offers support to Bradley Manning (25 secs)
PHOTOGRAPHS
http://www.demotix.com/news/973293/bradley-mannings-campaigners-protest-outside-american-embassy
http://www.demotix.com/news/972799/free-bradley-manning-demonstration-outside-us-embassy
http://www.demotix.com/news/972235/supporters-bradley-manning-gather-outside-us-embassy
http://www.demotix.com/news/971908/protests-us-embassy-london-bradley-manning-trial-takes-place
http://www.demotix.com/news/971841/bradley-manning-24th-birthday-solidarity-protest-london
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grey-photography/6526832467/in/photostream/
http://www.citizenside.com/en/photos/politics/2011-12-17/47205/london-supporters-of-bradley-manning-gather-outside-the-us-embassy.html
Swindon Anarchists target tax dodgers
19-12-2011 09:05
London - Report/Vids/Photos - Solidarity with Bradley Manning outside U.S. Embas
19-12-2011 08:41
Bradley Manning's Military Tribunal Article 32 (pre-military trial hearing) began a Ft. Meade Maryland on Friday Dec 18th.,continued through the weekend and continues into this week. A callout for solidarity action on Bradley' 24th. birthday - Saturday Dec 17th. was answered in 40+ locations throughout the United States and around the world. In London 60 folks gathered in solidarity with Bradley outside the U.S. embassy.