UK UK Newswire Archive
Don't Pay Council Tax Stall
07-04-2013 16:55
Street camapigning for withholding Council Tax payments
People responded positively to the ‘Oppose Cuts, Don’t Pay Council Tax’ campaigning stall held at Bulwell on Saturday, 6th. April. Around two hundred leaflets were handed out and there was little dissent. Contact details were gathered from people interested in further action on this issue.
Many people in Bulwell on low incomes already are not paying Council Tax because they can’t afford it. Some have been summonsed to court for non-payment. (These people should be supported by pickets at the Magistrates’ Courts.)
There is widespread awareness of the incoming bedroom tax and much opposition to it. Some passers-by recalled the successful Anti-Poll Tax Campaign and as a result are seriously considering withholding Council tax payments. (Leaflets were available which spelt out the consequences of not paying.) If you are liable for Council Tax then as an individual you can take action now by cancelling your payments.
This was an encouraging start to the campaign and there will be a follow-up stall at Hyson Green (near the market) at 11.00 on Saturday, 13th. April. Come along and help get some effective opposition to the cuts off the ground.
You bet, they die! Grand National demo: Nottingham
07-04-2013 16:55
Saturday 6th April saw a dozen Nottingham activists stage a peaceful protest outside Ladbrokes betting shop in Nottingham city centre, to raise public awareness about the dark side of the Grand National, and also the wider horse and greyhound racing industries. The message was that there is no such thing as a harmless flutter, as if you bet on animal racing then you are literally betting with their lives.
Campaigners were out with banners, placards and visual displays to make sure that the message reached as many passers-by as possible. One activist was dressed in a dead horse costume splattered with blood, a very shocking image designed to have a real emotional impact on the public, and to help them make connections between the bets they place and the tragic consequences this can have for horses.
The Grand National is a deliberately hazardous race for 'excitement' and entertainment value. Since 2000, 22 horses have died on the Grand National course and, over the course of the three-day meeting, 38 horses have been killed in that same period.This year two horses sadly died in the run-up to the big race, Battlefront and Little Josh, despite changes that were meant to improve the safety of the course.
Aside from the Grand National, hundreds of beautiful animals are raced to death on British tracks each year, die in training, or are killed because they are no longer profitable. Thousands more are killed on top of this because they don't make the grade. There is an awful lot of needless suffering and exploitation going on purely for human entertainment.
On the day of the demo the betting shop staff had little to say to protesters. The response from the public walking past the demo was incredibly positive. Hundreds of people stopped to sign a copy of Animal Aid's 'Ban the Grand National' petition and to offer support for the demo. Campaigners noted that the response was even more positive than last year's demo and that far fewer people were going into the betting shop that in previous years. The implication is that the message is getting across and that people are seeing through the glamorous facade of the Grand National to the ruthless exploitation and careless disregard for horses lives that lurks beneath the surface.
You can find out lots of information about the dark side of the horse racing industry over on Animal Aid's website:
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/horse/
They also run a race horse death watch page, detailing the fatalities on British racetracks since 2007:
http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/
If you'd like to join Nottingham Animal Rights in their regular campaigns against animal suffering then the next fortnightly meeting is on Thursday 18th April from 8pm at the Broadway Cinema, Mezz Bar on the first floor, in Notthingham city centre,
Open letter on the future of the peace camp
07-04-2013 10:55
Open letter on the future of Faslane Peace Camp
Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore
07-04-2013 06:34
Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.Nazi "Infidels" to march on Brighton, 21st April 2013
07-04-2013 01:17
Golden Dawn thrown into the sea by Anarchists
06-04-2013 23:02
Golden Dawn get drunk, make Nazi salutes, attack immigrants & locals, then get thrown into the sea by AnarchistsCeltic fans rally in George Square
06-04-2013 22:23
BarnCamp 2013 rural skillsharing gathering
06-04-2013 20:20
Mass Movement Of Monsanto Boycott Growing
06-04-2013 20:19
the worldwide Monsanto boycott
Earth First Summer Gathering: 7th-11th August 2013
06-04-2013 10:00
This year's the Summer Gathering will be in the Hastings area near the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road campaign. It will run from the evening of Wednesday 7th August and finish on Sunday 11th August.Occupy Nottingham Returns
06-04-2013 08:55
Friday 5 April 2013
Having spent 6 months camping in the Market Square, and then moving out after threat of eviction .... they're back.
Well, not with the camp you understand.
But members hope to regularly be about in the Square and Speakers Corner, to continue the dialogue with the public about the cuts, horrible bankers, workfare ..... oh, and the all rest!
They say:
"We are displaying solidarity with the thousands of other occupations across the globe.
Our aim was, and still is, through peaceful protest; highlight corporate and individual greed, inequality, war, tyranny, corruption, persecution, suffering, & hardship around the the globe, and here in Nottingham.
Join Us! Show you disagree with a world run by banks, are annoyed with the lack of concern for environmental issues or pick any number of things that are wrong with the world today. Stand for change!"
Please drop by and support their efforts if you can.
Occupy Nottingham: the end of the beginning? [Feature with collected links of the progress]
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2549
Collected Occupy Piccys:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tash/sets/72157628985609873/
Occupy Love https://www.facebook.com/occupy.love.35
Occupy Nottingham http://facebook.com/occupy.nottingham
Twitter http://twitter.com/occupynottm
http://occupii.org/group/occupy-nottingham
____________________________________________
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>
A Further PCS National Walkout/Strike
05-04-2013 18:55
Friday 5 April 2013, Nottingham
As part of their rolling days of action, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) walked out of the Station Street Job Centre, Nottingham at 1pm today.
Their actions designed to highlight their concerns over pay, pensions and the governments continued austerity measures. As part of continuing protest, the walk out is to be taken together with other national and sector-specific strikes and protests over the next three months.
I understand that PCS members, working at HM Revenue and Customs, will also be taking action on Monday 8th April.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:
“These walkouts, following our strike on budget day, are part of an ongoing campaign of industrial action and protests to put pressure on a government that is refusing to even talk to us.
“Civil and public servants are working harder than ever to provide the services we all rely on but, instead of rewarding them, the government is imposing cuts to their pay, raiding their pensions and trying to rip up their basic working conditions.
“We have asked for talks but ministers and senior officials have refused, so we are taking action to oppose and shine a light on what are deeply unfair and unnecessary cuts to the living standards of hard-working public servants.”
Nottingham PCS Strike & Demo in Nottingham
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/5479
PCS protests at changes to working conditions
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/3305
Nottingham Labour MP's response to Workfare
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/5520
Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
http://www.pcs.org.uk
Weekend of action starts on 5 April
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/55F34F0B-1DA3-4C01-9F000054956E8DEF
PCS Briefing Next National Action / half-day strike .pdf
http://www.pcs.org.uk/download.cfm?docid=8765C7D9-2A7C-420F-89C6AE7598CD818E
____________________________________________
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>
Dramatisation of 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthrop
05-04-2013 16:55
Stephen Lowe's dramatisation of Robert Tressell's novel is a gross distortion of the original text.
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My home town is Hastings (aka Mugsborough) where Robert Tressell’s novel is set in the early nineteen hundreds and when young I was acquainted with some people who had known Bob Noonan (Tressell’s real name) including Harry Green, Tressell’s apprentice, who appears as ‘Bert’ in the novel.
Back in the nineteen eighties I saw a performance of Stephen Lowe’s adaptation for the stage and was rather surprised at the liberties he had taken with the story line of the original. The main character ‘Owen’ (obviously closely modelled on Tressell himself) is a committed activist in the Social Democratic Federation, the original Marxist political organisation in Britain. Accordingly, Owen is very hostile towards the recently formed Labour Party which he sees as reformist and accommodating to capitalism – no change then.
Thus, I was rather surprised that towards the end of Stephen Lowe’s dramatisation Owen undergoes a sudden conversion to becoming a Labour Party supporter. This is not artistic licence but a crude falsification of the spirit of the original work. Read the book if you don’t believe me. I see that a new production of Lowe’s dramatization is being hawked around to try to raise funds for the Labour Party. Please show some respect for that great working class fighter and artist Robert Tressell and avoid this travesty like the plague.
UG#628 - Asking Forbidden Questions (Why Do People Put Up With Capitalism?)
05-04-2013 02:39
Islington meeting wants no bedroom tax evictions
04-04-2013 20:38
