Israel keeps its promise of a 'Holocaust' in Gaza
05-03-2008 22:05
After months of inhuman siege and daily attacks, Israel last week mounted a massive offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has claimed the lives of over 100 Palestinians, including many civilians and children. Israeli officials had threatened the Palestinians with "a holocaust" if home-made rockets fired at nearby Israeli towns did not stop. As the aggression continues, so do solidarity protests throughout the world.
From the Newswire: Children gassed and shot in Gaza solidarity protests | Blockade on Gaza: Crime against humanity | The Gaza Strip's People are dying, Help us! | Palestine in darkness | Israel's policy in Gaza: at least as evil as it is self-defeating | Still no justice for October 2000 killings | Palestine society not allowed in BirminghamAudio: Indy Global Report from Bethlehem | Palestine Today & This Week in Palestine | Flashpoints
Recent solidarity protests: London: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Manchester | Sheffield: 1 | 2 | Wales
Links: International Middle East Media Centre | Palestine News Network | Electronic Intifada | End Gaza Siege | Indymedia UK's Palestine topic page
Convictions For Activists - Climate Criminals Walk Free
28-02-2008 16:19
On the 10th April 2007, 11 people walked into the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station and locked on to the coal conveyor and assorted plant there. Their objective was to take direct action to halt operations and thus to diminish the CO2 emissions of the E-on plant, the greenhouse gas thought to be largely responsible for climate change. They were all charged with aggravated trespass and throughout the court case (which lasted for 3 days), the defendants argued that yes, they did take these actions, but employed the defence of "duress of circumstances" or necessity, and pleaded not guilty.
On Monday 25th Feb, 10 defendants (one having had the charges dismissed due to lack of evidence) returned to court to receive the judgement. Judge Cooper had earlier said that he wished to compliment all the defendants on the way they had handled themselves and on the presentation of their case. However all were found guilty.
Audio: Featured in #2 'the March Show' on Riseup Radio
Features: Clean Coal On Trial | Climate Activists Bring Powerstation Operations To A Halt
On The Newswire: Ratcliffe Power station Climate Action, The Judgement | Power station 10 found guilty | Ratcliffe Power station Climate Action, The Verdict | Ratcliffe Power Station Court Case : Nottingham Magistrates [day 1] | Ratcliffe Power Station Court Case : Nottingham Magistrates [day 2] | Ratcliffe Power Station Court Case : Nottingham Magistrates [day 3]
Links: Eastside Climate Action
Hands Off Iraqi Oil!
26-02-2008 10:04
On Saturday 23rd February, a number of actions took place in the UK and Netherlands, in solidarity with the Iraqi peoples' struggle against the plunder of their oil reserves. The callout for action by the Hands Off Iraqi Oil Campaign resulted in actions in, London, Liverpool, Wrexham, Coventry, Bristol, Southend, Amsterdam and Washington [video]
In February 2007 the Iraqi cabinet approved an oil law which, if passed into law, would allow the likes of Shell, BP and Exxon to take over control of most of Iraq's oil reserves, depriving ordinary Iraqis of scores of billions of dollars. Shell and BP, with the help of the UK Government have been actively pushing for this law and these contracts since 2003.
Action reports: 1 | 2 | 3 |4 |5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Audio reports: London tour
Hands Off Iraqi Oil | Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions | Stop the Iraqi Oil Law | The Stirrer coverage | 2007 IMC article |
Reclaim Love Warms up the Heart of London
24-02-2008 19:49
Each year people are under pressure to prove their love to each other by shopping for 'love gifts' at large corporations while huge human rights abuses take place within the flower, chocolate and diamond industries.
Reclaim Love began as an annual event to bring the heart back into Love.
Full article | 1 addition | 2 comments
Wikileaks censored by US Court
24-02-2008 12:57
Transparency website Wikileaks has been muzzled with a legal injunction by a US court following the publication of leaked documents about a Swiss bank implicated in alleged money laundering. The anonymous whistleblower site, devoted to battle against corruption and censorship, published several hundred documents from a Swiss banking whistleblower purportedly showing that Bank Julius Baer and its Cayman Islands subsidiary had been involved in offshore tax evasion and money laundering by extremely wealthy and, in some cases, politically sensitive clients from the US, Europe, China and Peru. Rather than ordering the removal of specific documents, however, the San Francisco District Court ordered Wikileak's DNS registrar, Dynadot, to remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name and prevent it from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page. There have also been reports of attempts to lock down the site through Denial of Service attacks and threats to its DNS record.
From the newswire: US judge arranges summary execution of Wikileaks.org | US Court order shuts down Wikileaks.org | US court attacks web freedom, enjoins Wikileaks.org out of existence | Wikileaks and Internet Censorship: a comparative study | Full correspondence between Wikileaks and Bank Julius Baer | Reports elsewhere: IndyBay | Indymedia Ireland | About Wikileaks
The Harmondsworth Four acquitted
22-02-2008 20:50
The four migrants accused of "conspiracy to commit violent disorder" during the Harmondsworth uprising in 2006 were today found not guilty. Relying on a clearly insufficiently indoctrinated jury, the attempt to single out and punish few individuals with violent criminal convictions and long sentences has been thwarted. Of course, all four have already served one year and three months in prison, on top of varying times in immigration detention. Now they will have to resume their struggle against the immigration system, which imprisoned them for seeking refuge in the first place, and will most probably be dispersed around Britain's detention estate until their cases are 'resolved'.
Today the Support the Harmondsworth Four Campaign held a protest outside Sodexho's London headquarters. There had been a solidarity protest outside the court every Monday [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5].Background: letter from two of the Harmondsworth 4 to Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! | 'Report of the Investigation into the disturbances at Harmondsworth and Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centres', Robert Whalley | Chief Inspectors of Prison Report on Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre
Japanese G8 Info Tour Comes to UK
19-02-2008 19:37
The next G8 2008 summit will take place from the 7th to the 9th of July in Hokkaido, Japan. The heads of the world's more powerful states will gather at Toya Lake in the nothern Japanese island, to push further an agenda of world-wide neo-liberal reforms that result in spreading poverty, violence, hatred, segregation, as well as social and environmental destruction across the globe.
The Japanese based network of anti-authoritarians and anarchists No! G8 Action was formed in May 2007, right before the G8 summit 2007 in northern Germany. Japanese activists got involved in the protests with the intention to network with and learn from the experiences of the European anti-G8 movement. As a result they began to prepare their own projects "hoping to bring Japanese and East Asian impetus into the stage of the global anti-capitalist struggle."
Now, the 'No! G8 Action' network, in collaboration with the German Dissent! info group, and together with groups and activists across Europe, have organised an european wide tour that will stop in over 30 cities in 14 different countries, including the UK. From the 22nd to the 28th of February, Japanese activists will visit Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham and London [See tour dates and locations]
Related links: Call for Anti-G8 Action July 2008 | Statement of the Anti-G8 Summit Hokkaido | G8 2008: Latest Info-Tour and Planning Updates | Japanese Government to Keep 'Hooligans' Away from Summit | Anti-repression Protest at the Italian Embassy in Tokyo | A short history of the G8... | The G8: A Study in Power (or why people should protest)
See also: NO! G8 Action | Japan G8 Media Network | IMC-Japan | G8 Action Network (jp) | Hokkaido G8 Summit Citizen Forum (jp) | Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum
International Actions against Israeli Apartheid
16-02-2008 18:22
The period leading up to Valentine’s day saw actions against Israeli apartheid taking place in the USA, England and Belgium. A week of action had been called against the import of Israeli flowers for Valentine’s Day. The call to action was against Carmel-Agrexco, the 50% state owned Israeli export company, and in support of a boycott of apartheid Israel.
On Friday 9th February Belgian activists blocked trucks at Agrexco’s depot in Liege, On Monday in Hayes, Middlesex, Activists blocked the entrances and exits of Agrexco’s UK headquarters. Some activists opted for another Valentine’s day target, the Israeli diamond trade: In London Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods picketed Lev Leviev’s new store while activists from Adalah in the US targeted Levievs’ New York branch. Leviev, an international diamond merchant, is responsible for developing illegal settlements on Palestinian land near the West Bank Villages of Bil In and Jayouss. His New York store has been targeted for several months by anti-apartheid activists.
Reports: Report of the Belgian Carmel-Agrexco action | Photos| Videos - 1 2 3 4 5 | Report of the London Carmel-Agrexco Action - 1 2
Previous: Original call to action against Agrexco | Previous Actions against Carmel-Agrexco 1 2 3 4 | London Pickett of Lev Leviev’s Store (+ Video) | Report of the US Picket (+ Video | Pictures)
Demonstrations and protests continue against Edinburgh Council's 'Caltongate' gentrification
14-02-2008 11:11
The hotly contested 'Caltongate' gentrification plan has been approved by city councillors on Wednesday, in a meeting that lasted over 10 hours. The two listed buildings will be demolished. Save Our Old Town protesters were present inside the meeting, and there was a demonstration outside the City Chambers all day. Campaigners vow to continue the struggle against this development, and plan to provoke a public enquiry.
[ full report | photos of demonstration | Save Our Old Town website | Independent Republic of Canongate | alternative strategy proposal by community forum | background article ]
Other older gentrification features: [ Edinburgh Tenants vote No to Stock Transfer | Save Meadowbank Stadium | Glasgow Resident Network takes to the streets | Midlothian council's destructive development plans | ACE under threat | Demolition Threat in Glasgow | Save the Cameo ]
Full article | 2 additions | 12 comments
'No Justice, No Peace, We Are The Police!'
28-01-2008 19:24
On 23rd January, the police federation marched through London. Class War, Fit Watch and the Space Hijackers were there to tell them where to stick their pay rise.
Fit Watch delayed the front of the march and handed out Section 14 notices, while Class War ensured all of the marching cops knew they were not supported.
Meanwhile, the cops showed their true allegiances by allowing a BNP leader to walk at the front of the march, whilst arresting a fit watcher, for trying to join the front of the march.
Links: Class War | Fit Watch | Animal Rights Cop Watch | Netcu Watch | Space Hijackers
