Police attack environmental protesters in Stuttgart

On Thursday police in Stuttgart attacked demonstrators protesting about construction that they claim would cause massive environmental damage in the area. There have been a number of large protests over this in recent weeks, but this is the first to have been so heavily attacked.


Protesters were gassed, beaten and sprayed by water cannons which left, according to Taz, literally hundreds wounded. Britta Haßelmann, a Parliamentary spokesperson for the Greens condemned the attacks warning that the police actions had dangerously escalated the situation.

Dagmar Enkelmann, for the Left Party, said that after the images of so many wounded had come out that we could not continue "with business as usual". The SPD (Labour) spokesperson made a rather strange comment that I'm finding difficult to interpret where he said he felt sorry for the police, although condemned their "Rambo-politics".

Germany is currently being rocked by large scale environmental protests including over proposals to extend the use of nuclear power as well as issues like that of the 'Stuttgart 21' construction.

Pictures from Indymedia

The Million Moderate March

After what has seemed like an eon of ill tempered and bizarre politics in the US, where any crazy accusation can be leveled at the administration with a straight face at last, the middle ground has a champion. Jon Stewart (of the wonderful Daily Show) has called 'The Million Moderate March', and about time too.

Also known as the 'Rally to Restore Sanity' it's aim is to provide an antidote to the increasingly frantic rhetoric of the Tea Party right. Rightly it's aimed to bring in moderate Republicans, sick of what's happening to their party, as well as the left.

In America the national discourse can, at times, seem dominated by those who are happy to label President Obama a Nazi, Muslim or Communist in every other breath, and where plain and simple lies are becoming common currency (like the idea that the health reforms included death panels, which genuinely terrified simple minded people). Any move to create more space for real political dialogue and marginalise these voices must be welcome.

Stewart described the march on his show as "a clarion call for rationality". Their slogans wont necessarily be as slick as the right's though because they say "If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence... we couldn't. That's sort of the point."

Of course, there is a simultaneous rally in the same place. 'Keep Fear Alive' which says "America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fear -- that someone might take our Freedom and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our Fear. They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forget -- "Reason" is just one letter away from "Treason." "

The march takes place on October the 30th in Washington DC and I'm wishing it the best of luck.

Help Make History in Norwich this Summer

The Green Party could make history for a second time this year by becoming the largest party on Norwich City Council and forming a Green administration. For the last two years the Green Party has been the second-largest party at Norwich City Hall , just two seats behind Labour. Local elections delayed from May are taking place on Thursday 9 September, for a third of the City Council seats.

With your help, we could make history and see the first Green-run Council in place in a few weeks. Campaigning has already started and we are getting a good response from residents but to reach our potential we need help with:

- Leafleting and canvassing: Can you visit Norwich for a couple of days or more between now and 9 September? Help is needed at all times but particularly between 21 and 26 August and in the last week before 9 September. There is also an Action Weekend every weekend until the election. Accommodation can be provided and travel costs reimbursed if requested in advance, and you will pick up campaigning tips to take back to your local party! You can choose whether to leaflet or canvass. To offer help please contact 01603 611909 or ngpvolunteers@yahoo.co.uk.

- Donations: We are having to raise money at short notice for these unexpected elections. Can you make a donation to help us out? Cheques should be made payable to ‘Norwich Green Party’ and sent to Steven Altman, 27 Clarendon Road, Norwich , NR2 2PN.

Democracy Turfed Off

It's so long ago it gives me a little warm glow of nostalgia, but time was that New Labour tried to ban the largest demonstration in British history, all for the sake of some grass. No, no, no - not the sort Ministers stuff into their crack pipes, the grass in Hyde Park of course.

The demonstration, which eventually attracted over a million people, making it the largest mobilisation in the history of the UK, was to be cancelled because the grass issue may also mean "People can get crushed, people can break their legs - there are a lot of things that happen at this time of year and it would be very unwise of us to take such a risk" which, as an official statement, reads more like a local mafioso saying "Shop windows can get.... broken... if you're not careful."

This all flooded back to me when I saw that Boris Johnson had made these comments about the eviction of the "Democracy Village" camped outside Parliament. "I think it's wonderful that as a city we can protest. But it is nauseating what they are doing to the lawn."

Quite correctly Johnson has identified that democracy is a lovely idea, but not when it comes at the price of a nice bit of the green stuff. You need to pamper your pampas, after all. (Evening Standard has pics of the great grass massacre, here)

However, while I have little sympathy for the argument that grass has more rights than people, I am slightly more concerned about the rights of individuals to permanently rob everyone else of common land. It's not simply the uber-hierarchical model of moralising protest that Brian Haw typifies, it's also the fact that if you're opposed to, say, privatising public property, you shouldn't then claim personal ownership over common land yourself.

These protesters made the Square unusable for everyone else, and they hoped to do this on a long term or permanent basis. Is that democracy or simply giving yourself property rights over land that was held in common? Is it wrong for the State to sell off public property but ok for a self-appointed group of randoms to rock up and claim our land for themselves?

Even those poor little blades of grass were part of the common treasury until this small squad of elitists squatted on them. I'm not entirely sure I 100% approve.

I'm certainly not saying that these issues are not complex and, usually, require some sort of negotiation but I am saying that democracy is not just about everyone being allowed to do whatever they like, no matter how anti-social.

Back at you Mr Mayor

To think I voted for Sir Steve Bullock second preference at this year's Lewisham Mayoral election. Anyway, he's repaid my act of charity by branding protesters against the cuts "fucking idiots" and demanded that they "get real" - all while he was chairing a cabinet meeting. That's multi-tasking for you.

So much for Labour being the anti-cuts party. In Lewisham we're blessed with the fact that those fighting the cuts find themselves opposed to both the Liberal-Tory national coalition and the Labour council who were announcing closures before we even knew who the national government was.

Last night around one hundred protesters lobbied the council over their plans to, among other things, close five local libraries, shut down nurseries and reduce council staff. For an area where unemployment is on the rise the loss of local services and laying off workers seems completely the wrong way to go.

Hangbitch who attended the protest says that "we all know that these immediate economies are false economies. Bullock’s huge list targets people we (literally) can’t afford to target."

Meanwhile what does Sir Steve have to say about his disrespect for those who want decent public services and had hoped that this Labour council would fight to keep every job? “I think I may have left the mic on while I was making an aside.”

I'm assuming "aside" is a euphemism that we'll all be taking up soon in Lewisham. I'm pretty sure they'll be plenty of "asides" made about Sir Steve's attitude in the coming months as the council prepares the redundancy notices.

Help Norwich make history

As many of you know due to an ongoing and ridiculous saga one third of the Norwich councillors were given the boot recently and, at a date as yet unknown, there will be a kind of super citywide by-election. While this is a complete pain in the bum it's also our chance to make history.

Right now the Greens are joint largest group with Labour (nine each) and so, if we get more councillors elected this year Norwich will be the first city in history to enjoy some kind of Green dominion.

To this end I suspect some readers would like to help make that happen. Below I copy some of the text from the official appeal for helpers;

Norwich Action Weekend:

17th & 18th JULY Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th July - 10am to 6pm, at 27 Clarendon Road, Norwich NR2 2PN

Help is needed with door-knocking local residents near the city centre area, or helping to deliver some of our new ward newsletters. Please come along and support us if you can.

Refreshments are provided for helpers, with a vegetarian lunch available between 1 and 2pm.

We now hold Action Weekends on the third weekend of every month. This month we need to get a lot of door-knocking covered, and a lot of newsletters delivered, as we will very soon be facing new local elections in Norwich.

We therefore have a good chance of becoming the largest party on Norwich City Council (and the first Green council in the country) in the next couple of months - so it's an important time to get involved.

The door-knocking sessions will begin at 10am and 2pm, and it would be helpful if you could arrive near to one of these times if possible. However, if you do need to arrive at a different time, please let us know in advance and there will be someone here to welcome you and provide you with all the necessary materials and briefing.

For more information, directions, or to offer your help, please email ngpvolunteers@yahoo.co.uk or phone 01603 611909.

It would be great to see you there.

Best wishes,

Ben Duffy
Norwich Green Party

Keep the door to PR open

The door to proportional representation is not yet shut. While quite a few commentators are talking about how they'll vote in a referendum whose question is not yet set I happen to think that's a bit premature. The bill has not yet been written, nor has it gone through the process of amendment and voting. We don't know what is going to happen.

No one gives a toss about Alternative Voting, and if Proportional Representation was on the ballot the vast majority of those voting for reform would vote for PR over AV any day. It's one thing to accept a "miserable little compromise" has taken place, it's quite another to quit pushing before the battle for PR is lost.

I've no illusions about the Parliamentary. But if we're to keep PR on the agenda, not just for the Commons but also for the House of Lords we need to keep MPs aware that there are millions who want it. I've no idea how a referendum would go, but I do know that PR is the preferred system to replace FPTP for millions in this country.

Today I sent this letter to my MP, Joan Ruddock, and I think it would be a good idea if others were to write to their local MPs too.

Dear Joan Ruddock,

while I'm very happy to see that electoral reform is finally on the agenda for the House of Commons I'm far from happy that the coalition government wants to push for Alternative Voting (AV) as an attempt to head off a system of proportional representation.

AV, just like First Past The Post, leaves millions of people unrepresented and millions more massively under-represented. A truly democratic system would allow for every vote to count equally and for every party with significant support to have a voice in Parliament.

As yet the bill is not written and I'm writing to you to ask that you try to ensure that Proportional Representation is not taken off the agenda. The people should have the option of choosing PR rather than being given a non-choice between two systems that entrench the unfairness of our electoral system.

I'm sure the majority of MPs are fully aware that there is a mood for fundamental democratic reform, and that they are also aware that there has never been any public pressure for AV, this is simply a dodgy Tory stitch-up to prevent the public being allowed to choose a fairer electoral system.

There is still time to ensure that the case for PR is at least heard in Parliament and I'd like to ask you to help ensure that it is.

Yours,

Jim Jepps

If you do write and get an interesting response - let me know!

Saturday's national demonstration

Tomorrow there will be a national demonstration against the actions of the Israeli government called by a number of anti-war, Muslim and solidarity organisations. If you can get to it, I'd encourage you to attend.

The actions against the blockade busting flotilla are widely seen as a crime and this is a moment of opportunity to help lift the sanctions against Gaza and free all of those unjustly imprisoned by the Israeli state.

London:
Assemble at 1.30 pm outside Downing Street and the demonstration will head to the Israeli embassy.

Edinburgh:
Assemble at 2pm at the Mound.

There are probably other local demos across the country (and also internationally, like the Paris demo which starts at the Place de la Bastille saturday 3pm) for those who cannot make the event in London. Leave a comment if you want to let people know about it.

It's important that we keep up international solidarity in order to ensure that Israel pulls its head back in. Yesterday in the Israeli Parliament one Arab MP, Haneen Zuabi, was attacked on Parliament floor and has recieved numerous death threats for her support for the flotilla.

I'll try to keep up with tracking some of the local events so feel free to keep me up to date so I can big up your events. You might also like to encourage your MP to sign EDM 127 on the flotilla attack.

Protest Israel's Pirate State: this Saturday

This Saturday in London there is a national demonstration called by Stop the War, CND, PCS and others to protest against the actions of the Israeli state in their attack on the aid convey yesterday. There has been an incredible surge of protests across the world and on every continent against the murderous actions of the Israeli commandos.

Assemble: 1.30 pm at Downing Street and the march will go to the Israeli embassy.

Despite the usual thick skinned claims from the Israeli government many of its friends are finding it difficult to defend this action. For instance Harry Place, a blog pretty much dedicated to attacking the left and defending Israel, does its best to defend the actions but has to admit that;

"there were disastrous and self-defeating strategic and tactical failures on the Israeli side. Once again, the Israeli government has failed to grasp that just because they may have the right to do something doesn’t mean it’s always wise to do it. Allowing the ships to dock in Gaza, unload their cargo and be on their way– as the Israelis have done in the recent past– might have provided some minimal aid and comfort to Hamas, but nothing like the propaganda coup that yesterday’s events did.... Almost everything Israel does these days seems plodding and obvious and designed to make it look like the villain."

Tory blogger Iain Dale says;

"whatever propensities I have to support Israel, the key point which makes me critical of this incident is this. If a peace flotilla had been making its way to the Iranian coast and it had been boarded by the Revolutionary Guard and people had been shot dead, I and many other supporters of Israel would be spitting blood in outrage. So that's why I can't man the barricades and automatically jump to Israel's defence here. Sometimes Israel makes life very difficult for even its most ardent supporters."

Worst of all we have this from the Telegraph's executive foreign editor, a man who Israel should be able to rely on in even the worst crisis;

"Israel has developed a worrying habit of conducting itself in a way that even its friends find hard to defend... Israel’s inept handling of the affair, which has resulted with the deaths of as many as 19 people, it has turned it into a national disaster. There were many methods the Israeli military could have used to prevent the flotilla reaching Gaza without loss of life. But they used a tactic that was bound to cause provocation, and are now paying the cost."

When even Israel's friends are casting doubt over their actions you know there is an opportunity to help gain some justice for the Palestinian people.

Freedom Flottilla Attacked

The attack on the freedom flotilla delivering aid to Gaza is completely unwarranted and disgraceful. Reports of the number of dead and wounded vary but we're talking about at least a dozen killed and thirty seriously wounded by the Isreali Navy.

Israel made the ludicrous claim that the peaceniks opened fire on them and attacked them with baseball bats, which is why so many of them had to been killed. This is not credible. These murders, in international waters, are all in aid of ensuring that Gaza remains impoverished and denied medical equipment and other aid.

Words fail me. International protests and condemnation has already begun, but nothing yet from the UK government.



There will be protests today in;

London, Downing Street, 2pm

Aberdeen - St Nicholas Square, 5pm
Banff - Low Street, Council Buildings, 5pm
Brighton, Churchill Square, 6pm
Bristol, Centre (opposite the Hippodrome) starting at 3pm
Birmingham City Centre Waterstones 4pm
Cambridge, outside Guildhall, 2pm
Cardiff - Queen Street at Nye Bevan statue 3pm
Dundee - City Square, 5pm
Edinburgh - Foot of the Mound, 5pm
Glasgow - George Square, 5pm
Inverness - Townhouse, 5pm
Manchester outside the BBC on Oxford Rd, 5pm
Moffat - 2 Holm Street, 5pm
York St Sampsons Square, 2pm

Please do let me know of any I've missed.

BA-union negotiations disrupted by direct action

The BBC and the Telegraph report that the union negotiations between the UNITE union and BA management have been disrupted by protesters coming from the Right to Work conference. The BBC have particularly exciting footage which shows quite a few people I recognise from the SWP and at least three of them are employees of that organisation.

Now, I might be taking a wild stab in the dark here but there didn't seem to be a single BA worker among the protesters who'd decided to break up the union's negotiations. If anyone is going to make the decision to occupy their union's negotiations with management it should be the BA workers themselves, and not just one of them but collectively making that decision.

I have absolutely no idea what this is meant to achieve apart from making the strike more complicated for those workers who are already on the receiving end of abuse from media and management alike.

Derek Simpson, one of the union's negotiators tweeted that "Unite totally and absolutely condems [sic] the demonstrators who disrupted the talks at ACAS no member of cabin crew were involved". Now, whatever you think of him that seems to be a perfectly justified position to me.

Unsurprisingly Socialist Worker have a report up already where they unintentionally make clear that no BA worker asked them to disrupt their negotiations and that their key (or should that be only) purpose was in "demanding that activists build solidarity for the BA workers and hold collections to support the strikes."

So that's all about activists demanding things of other activists then without any involvement from the workers who are actually on strike and whose livelihoods are concerned. I don't think this is very cool, in fact I'd say it was the wrong way to help cabin crew win their dispute.

Message from No2ID

Before we get all weepy about the Labour defeat it's worth remembering that not everything they got up to was bona fide. No, there was the odd occasion when solid lefties were apprehensive about their behaviour. A murder here, a child detention there - you know the sort of thing.

Earlier today I received a message from the campaign group No2ID which rightly celebrates the culmination of years of campaigning on their part.

Dear supporter,

After six hard years of campaigning, the publication of the Conservative &
Liberal Democrats coalition agreement [1] is a moment to pause and celebrate
what we have achieved so far. NO2ID's success is a tribute to each and every
person who has fought to change the hearts and minds of their friends,
family and colleagues, local and national media, politicians, parties and
government - and to everyone who has given so generously in money to allow
us to run an office, send mailings, and produce briefings and leaflets.

Guy Herbert, our General Secretary, and I would like to express our deepest
gratitude for everyone's continued support and hard work, particularly the
dozens who have volunteered in some way to keep all the invisible parts of a
national campaign running. But I'm afraid we cannot afford to be complacent:
NO2ID's work is far from done.

The database state has insinuated itself into far too many aspects of our
everyday lives for it to simply wither and die, even were some of its more
visible tendrils to be lopped off or pruned back. Even during the election,
despite the parties now in government being skeptical about it, Connecting
for Health was pushing forward with its vast plan [2] to nationalise and
centralise all medical records in England.

The new government's commitment to "a full programme of measures to reverse
the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and
roll back state intrusion" is reason to be cautiously optimistic. But the
promised repeals and reforms MUST be worked out in detail, if they are to
have the necessary effect. Pressure MUST be maintained for them to be
enacted... and properly enforced.

Don't imagine for a moment that Whitehall will give up its pet projects,
empires or agendas without a fight - battles for which we know it has been
preparing for years. Nor should we expect the political, commercial and
media proponents of database state initiatives to stand quietly by. The
official obsession with identity and information-sharing, the very idea that
"personal information is the lifeblood of government" still remains.

Stopping the database state is not just a matter of scrapping a few
high-profile databases - as welcome as this will be. It means changing the
culture of showing "ID" at every turn [3], embedding proper protections in
law, in institutions and technology, and achieving real control over our own
information. The nature of the campaign, too, may change, as it becomes even
more a matter of education and forming public policy and less of organising
direct resistance.

The new government says it will take the first steps towards protecting our
privacy and autonomy, and needs to be held to that. Rolling back the
database state will involve further long and difficult battles, but what we
have proved is that - working together - this is a war that very definitely
CAN be won.

Phil Booth, National Coordinator, NO2ID

Mark Thomas wins pay out from police

Just noticed that Mark Thomas has won over a grand off the police after he was stopped and searched for looking "over confident" after speaking at an anti-arms trade rally. According to the Guardian;

"The Met paid £1,200 for "falsely imprisoning" Thomas for 12 minutes. He said: "£100 a minute is slightly more than my usual rate. If over-confidence is a reason for a stop-and-search Jonathan Ross should never leave his house.""

Nice. I also note that "The officer who carried out the search had received "formal words of advice"." I can't be the only one wondering what they words might have been...

Save Anselme Noumbiwa

Anselme Noumbiwa has been detained on 14 April 2010 and is in great danger of being deported on a so-called “charter flight” to Cameroon on Wednesday 21 April 2010.We cannot rely on the Icelandic ash to keep him in the relative safety of Colnbrook Detention Centre forever.

He should not be detained or deported because he is still waiting for the medico-legal report of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Torture Victims to submit as evidence for his claim for asylum. As always the government is in unseemly haste to remove someone before they have had the chance to have a proper hearing.

Anselme fled Cameroon in 2006 because on the death of his father, the village Chief, he was expected to 'marry' his father's wives. He suffered brutal treatment at the hands of the village notables when he would not adhere to tribal traditions, preferring instead to identify himself with Christian ethics.

The Home Office has accepted his story, but he was told that he could relocate within Cameroon and would be safe. This is not the case, as the influence of powerful members of his tribe reaches beyond the area where he lived. If he is sent back to Cameroon, he will be in mortal danger. He must be allowed to stay in the UK.

Please urgently fax the Home Secretary your support for Anselme to have his removal cancelled. Always quote the Home Office reference number N1126839. You can download the model letter here

Send by fax or email to: Alan Johnson MP (Home Secretary)
Fax: 020 8760 3132 (00 44 20 8760 3132 if you are faxing from outside UK)

Email:

• UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
• CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
• Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

For updates you can follow him on twitter (from the detention centre) or visit the NCADC website.

Taxing speculation Robin Hood stylee

It's nice to see the Tobin Tax doing the rounds again, this time re-branded as the Robin Hood Tax. Although, to be fair, the organisers claim it's not the same thing at all, because Tobin wanted a way to slow down the rate of international financial speculation and the Robin Hood-ites just wants to redistribute some of the proceeds.

This Robin Hood Tax is the very simple idea that by raising a tiny tax (a puny 0.05%) on bankers' speculative transactions we would raise a phenomenal amount of revenue which could be put to good uses - nurses, international development, and the like. The hundreds of billions a year this tax raised could do an enormous amount of good rather than simply feeding the fires of the financial casino.

Mark Thomas was ranting about this idea tonight on Radio Four, Patrick Harvie MSP is raising the idea in the Scottish Parliament and even the gorgeous Bill Nighy is on board.

I think the idea of a micro tax on speculation is perfectly winnable, although rather than see it as a purely revenue raising technique I'd like to see that money raised specifically for international development so it doesn't just go into the nuclear weapons pot or the tax breaks for the rich silo. But no one listens to me anyway, grumble, grumble.

The more popular we can make the idea of the redistribution of wealth and a sustainable economy the better. This campaign is definitely part of that.

The campaign video is rather enjoyable, although I'll be honest and confess that I'd listen to Bill Nighy read out the phone book and still be perfectly happy. Obviously this youtube clip has a better political message than the phone book and so is much more worthy of your time.



Hilarious update: It seems that Goldman Sachs may have been up to some dirty games if this report in the Guardian is anything to be believed.

Pieces of skin trump pieces of paper

The invasion of Iraq was wrong, whether or not it was illegal. The fact that the UN refused to endorse the war with a second, clearer, resolution was an inconvenience to those who were determined to destroy the country and one they retrospectively decided was no barrier as the first resolution that they had previously thought inadequate did in fact give them carte blanche to obliterate hundreds of thousands of lives.

By refusing to pass the second resolution the UN made it clear they did not endorse the war that we all knew was, by this time, inevitable. However, even if they had passed that resolution it would not have made the suffering any the less acute, nor the injustice any less bald.

Tony Blair is giving evidence to the inquiry tomorrow (Friday) and the Stop the War Coalition is organising a welcome party for him starting at 8 am.

Assemble at:

Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Broad
Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE

Check out the website for their timetable of events although I'd recommend getting there early as the Metropolitan Police's idea of the right to peaceful protest and ours is not entirely contiguous.

Sadly this inquiry will bring no real reassessment of our foreign policy priorities from the government, opposition or the press, even as the Afghan 'President' cheerfully informs the world that he expects UK forces to stay in the country for another fifteen years.

This particular lie, that bit of spin, this specific distortion of the truth become the day to day fodder of a media that seems oblivious to the wider logic that set us on the course to war not on any given day but over decades. In my opinion we should be challenging the global imbalance of power and wealth in a system built on profit over need.

Camden: for community facilities not corporate monolithes

I don't know what has got into the Camden New Journal. I've been extremely impressed with it when I've had the chance to read it, but this week they printed a clearly deranged letter from someone protesting against a new development in Somers Town.

Now this development is actually very unpopular and, due to a recent consultation in the area I happen to know a number of local residents wrote in on the subject. However, the CNJ chose to print just one letter on the subject (from NW6, well out of the area) from someone who, from the letter, appears to have mental health problems.

I'm in no way suggesting that the CNJ is obliged to take sides in any way, it's just for a normally very high quality paper it seems to have taken a conscious decision to represent the local opposition to the developers with a single letter that none of them could possibly agree with. I'll show you;

"So London’s lab-land is to get another vivisection laboratory. The “cathedral of science” we are told (December 10) will cost £520million... and what will be the reason for the existence of this exciting project? Bogus medical research, that is, thousands of animals being poisoned and cut up by an army of people pretending they are doing vital life-saving, cures for cancer etc.

"The reality? It’s a job-creation game. The animals will be sacrificed; only rodents will be used. Tell that to the marines.

"Putting a drug into an animal in the pretence that it will tell us how that drug will act in the human body is nonsense. Anyone who believes such a thing is either a criminal or deranged. Also veterinary research does not truly tell us how animal diseases develop in the wild.

"So you want to be healthy? Stop eating meat. Avoid aspartame. Give up cows’ milk and never accept any more vaccines.

"Vaccines do NOT protect against any disease.

"But try to be kind to doctors. They have been conditioned only to prescribe synthetic drugs."

Now, I've the greatest possible respect for people who have specific arguments against the utility of animal testing but the idea that vaccines do not protect against any disease, well, to say it was a fringe idea would be to insult fringe ideas. It's blatant nonsense of the strangest kind and the CNJ knows this. So why print this letter over other, more representative, ones?

Camden Green Party put a far more rational case, for example here, here and here. That case is based on the community concerns that this space should be used for housing and community facilities. The consortium propose building a tower block right next to this residential area that will be far higher than the neighbouring St. Pancras station and British Library, literally blocking out the light for those who live beneath it's shadow.

Now it seems to me that the letters sent to the CNJ that this land should be used for the good of the local community and not to ruin local residents' quality of life seem far stronger arguments to print than some balls about rejecting vaccines. What a curious editorial decision.

Take the music back

Sick of the way the charts are dictated by those with the financial clout to shove anemic crap down our throats? Tired of how the race for Christmas Number One is just another way of advancing consumerism without content? Want to see a world where music isn't simply about 'units sold' but represents something deeper.

Well here is the grassroots campaign for you - thwart Simon Cowell's army of evil robots and give Rage Against the Machine the top spot this Winterval. I was initially unsure about this campaign but the more arguments I heard against it the more convinced I became that this was something worth backing, particularly as it led me to digging out my RATM CD's and leaping round the room in a most unladylike fashion.

This Radio Five interview with the band is interesting, not least because they cut the band off half way through the song because it contained the words "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" - well, duh!

When asked about Cowell the band responded that "Simon is an interesting character who seems to have profited greatly from humiliating people on television. We see this [campaign] as a necessary break with his control."

After expressing how privileged they felt about being chosen as the anti-corporate anthem by the grass roots they rounded off the discussion by saying that it shows that whether it's a "small matter like who's the top of the charts, or bigger matters like war and peace and economic inequality, when people band together and make their voices heard they can completely overturn the system as it is."

Good stuff. You have until the end of Saturday 19th December (at 23:59pm) to buy your copy, which you can do for 69 pence here. Don't bulk buy - it wont count! The organisers of the campaign have also asked people to make a donation of a pound to Sony, sorry I mean Shelter, when you buy your RATM which you can do by clicking here.

The Wave: tens of thousands against climate change

I think it was the largest anti-climate change demo I've ever been on today. It was extremely jolly and noisy, with plenty of people with faces painted, in silly costumes and oh so many musical instruments.

Despite wearing my usual sensible gear (warm dark hat and warm dark coat) I didn't begrudge the carnival atmosphere for a change.

I met up with lots of pals, had some excellent Japanese food in the middle (to stave off the cold, of course) and filmed yet more video footage which I'm attempting to edit.


I see Stuart was taking pics, Liam reports, and I'm eagerly awaiting the other blog updates from my regular reading list of thousands; Camden Green Party has posted a picture of me, as has Green Ladywell. Crafty Green Poet gives some numbers. Indymedia has created a feature.

Update: Random Blowe, Save Vestas, Third Estate. Brussels demo. Adrian Windisch also has a pic of me, as does the Green Party itself. Plus Joseph, Ruscombe Green, Matt Selwood, Wilson.

New Video from Plane Stupid

New video out from Plane Stupid. What do you think?

Warning: it's a little bit graphic.

Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.

It's very well made, although I'm not a great fan of polar bears as the defining icon of climate change. Perhaps a video with African children falling out of the sky is too strong even for this lot, which is fair enough.