UK Indymedia

A Good Week Stopping Open-Cast Coal Mining in Derbyshire

20-11-2008 20:43

The long-running campaign against Lodge House open-cast coal mine, near Shipley in Derbyshire hit a peak the other week, with 3 independent actions in the same week.

Local action groups, dispirited after central government overruled the local planning refusal of permission, have started getting active again. This follows Earth First!'s Leave it in the Ground campaign earlier in the summer - a mass trespass followed by two noise demos outside UK Coal's Yorkshire HQ, plus the squatting of the farm house. Bodge House was finally evicted - during the Camp for Climate Action - though it took the forces of darkness 9 days.

More recently there was another Picnic in the Park trespass, a handful of EF!ers stopped work one afternoon, and locals held a demo at the entrance to the site.

Leave it in the Ground EF! campaign | Derby EF! campaign blog | Local action group | Coal Action Network

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E.ON withdraws from careers fairs due to persistent protests

12-11-2008 18:54

E.ON has withdrawn from University Careers Fairs run by AIESEC following a string of protests around the country. E.ON did not show up at Birmingham today (12th Nov). The protesters object to E.ON wanting to develop new coal fired power stations, such as at Kingsnorth - the target of this summers Climate Camp. However E.ON cannot avoid the protests by avoiding careers fairs - expect more fun during 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal on the 28/29 November.

Students have visited careers fairs to protest about the presence of parts of the arms and fossil fuel industries. Climate chaos related companies targeted include RBS (the oil and gas bank), BP and Shell. The arms industry representatives include the Army, B.Ae, Qinetiq and Rolls Royce. Careers fairs have been targeted in Aston, Birmingham ( 2 ), Bristol, Cambridge ( 2 | 3 ), Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester ( 2 | 3 ), Nottingham ( 2 | 3 ), Oxford ( 2 ), Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick and York. More reports are available from People and Planet.

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Solidarity Actions in the West Bank, Gaza and the UK

29-10-2008 20:40

On 29th October 2008, the 60th anniversary of massacres in the Palestinian villages of Safsaf, al-Dawayima and Kafr Qasim, British activists were aboard the Dignity which sailed into Gaza. The boat which set sail from Cyprus the day before, was the second succesful attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to break the siege of Gaza, which has been imposed since last year. Carrying a contingent of doctors and medicines ,including cough mixtures which are no longer available in Gaza, the activists are set to meet up with fellow activists who have been in Gaza since the first sailing in August 2008.

In the West Bank, a delegation from the Brighton Tubas Region Friendship and Solidarity Group had arrived in the Tubas Region of the Occupied West Bank a week earlier. Reports sent home from the delegation record incidents such as attacks by Settlers, continued land theft, and enforced water shortages. The group which aims to highlight Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the region, raise awareness about life under occupation and create practical solidarity links between grassroots organisations in Brighton and Tubas region, is currently assisting with the olive harvest at the village of Al Masra.

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10th Annual United Families & Friends Remembrance Procession

28-10-2008 11:39

On Saturday 25th October 2008,several hundred people attended the 10th Annual United Families & Friends Remembrance procession which was led by many family members of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prison and 'secure' mental health facilities.

In customary tradition the procession made its way in dignified silence from Trafalgar Square down Whitehall to Downing Street in dutiful respect to those who mourn the loss of loved ones and to invoke their memory and the collective injustices that their deaths represent. In the past year 182 such deaths have been recorded recorded, and a banner carried in the march listed over 2500 who have died.

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Aldermaston AWE is blockaded

27-10-2008 16:38

Some 300 activists turned out for the Big Blockade of Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment. Organised by Trident Ploughshares and supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Block the Builders and the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp, the blockade was an attempt to disrupt work on existing Trident nuclear warheads and the facilities that will enable the development of their successors at Britain’s nuclear weapons research laboratory.

More than 30 people were arrested. Several people mounted a tripod which blocked the A340 for two hours; several others, who were locked together with arm tubes, blockaded the construction gate for five hours. People came from far and wide for the blockade - there were representatives from Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Scotland, Wales, Bradford and Plymouth, as well as a Buddhist monk and nun who walked to Aldermaston from London.

The blockade of Aldermaston comes in the wake of several other campaigns against arms manufacturers in the UK. In Brighton, on 15th October, a mass protest took place against EDO MBM/ITT. Meanwhile, last week in Bristol, a number of protesters mounted a roof-top protest against Raytheon. Two of the protesters stayed on the roof for some 38 hours.

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The New Indymedia London Website Ready For Action!

16-10-2008 20:08

It is now almost five years since Indymedia London came to life as part of the United Kollectives network of IMC's throughout the UK. Now, in 2008, things have moved on; the reality in the streets is very different from that of 2003, and so there has also been a change in the way people experience the internet. The kollective in London has been working hard for the last few months to adapt Indymedia London to these new realitie