Capitalist Crisis Creates "shortfall in waste" in Sheffield.
05-12-2012 15:16
Gaza solidarity
22-11-2012 11:34
Israel launched a new offensive on the people of Gaza last week which claimed the lives of 162 Palestinians. Four Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died as a result of retaliatory rocket attacks.
As of 20th November 23% of Palestinian casualties were children. The youngest victim of the recent Israeli aggression is 11-month-old Omar Al Mashharrawi.
Hundreds of solidarity demonstrations have been held globally and a national demonstration is planned in London on Saturday 24th November. On Friday 16th November a demonstration was held in Birmingham and another is planned for Thursday 22nd outside the BBC offices to protest biased reporting. In Brighton on Saturday 17th November activists locked on to the Ecostream store, a shop owned by an Israeli company that has its main manufacturing facility in the West Bank settlement of Mishor Adumim. Later on a hundred strong crowd marched to the store and held a noisy demonstration outside the shop. On Monday 19th a phone and twitter blockade of the company was held.
The same day in Wrexham activists picketed Barclays Bank in protest at Barclays investments in companies supplying weapons to Israel.
On Tuesday 20th a group of solidarity activists occupied G4S headquarters over the company's contracts with the Israeli prison service as well as providing equipment and services to Israeli military checkpoints and maintaining contracts with businesses working in Israel's settlements.
The 'Don't Dance with Israeli Apartheid' campaign held demonstrations against London performances of the Israeli state sponsored Batsheva dance troupe at Sadlers Wells on the 19th-21st November as part of a coordinated international campaign. There were also protests both inside and outside of the Birmingham performances at the Hippodrome on the 14-15th November coinciding with the start of the latest Gaza massacre.
Palestinians in the West Bank have also been demonstrating in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Gaza, only to be met with typical Israeli oppression. On Saturday, 31-year-old Rushdi Tamimi was shot by an IDF soldier at a protest in the village of Nabi Saleh. He died of his wounds in hospital on Monday around the time news surfaced that Hamdi Mohammad Jawwad Al-Falah, 22, was killed after being shot four times during a demonstration in the Bir al-Mahjar neighborhood in western Hebron. A baby also died in hospital on Monday after an Israeli tear gas canister landed in his bedroom in Qalandia refugee camp.
A ceasefire was reached on Wednesday 21st of November. However, the conflict is likely to continue if Israel does not end its siege of Gaza and attempts to control the Gazan economy. The need for solidarity with the people of Palestine struggling against Israeli militarism, apartheid and occupation has never been greater.
Upcoming events: Thursday 22nd November - Gaza solidarity demo in Brighton at the Old Steine at 5pm and Die In on the BBC Steps at the Mailbox in Birmingham 6pm-7pm| 23rd/24th November - Don't Dance with Israeli apartheid demos in Plymouth| Hebden Bridge Gaza solidarity demo - meet at the Central Intersection at 5pm| 24th November - Mass Gaza Solidarity demo in London| Sunday 25th - Demo at Ecostream, Western Rd, Brighton, 1-3pm
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Anarchist movement grows in Cardiff after month of resistance
31-10-2012 23:29
The month began with the successful eviction resistance of the squatted social centre Gremlin Alley on October 4th, when bailiffs turned up faced with a barricaded building and a supportive crowd outside, eventually realising they had no hope of gaining access. The gremlins occupying the centre spent the rest of the day having a black bloc style party on the roof, while supporters partied to a local band who turned up to play, and cops kept their distance but remained present for most of the day. A communique followed the next day, expressing solidarity with imprisoned squatter Alex Haigh and the Cuts Cafe crew in London who were raided by TSG on the same evening. A video commmunique was then released the following week, in English and Welsh, explaining the reason for resisting, as well as expressing general disgust for the state and the increased criminalisation of homeless.
After a busy two weeks improving barricades by gremlins and supporters, the first attempt to deport the Saleh family occured on Thursday 18th, with their home being raided by UKBA officers and two activists being arrested for obstruction. While solidarity was shown for the activists at Cardiff Bay police station, others made an attempt to block the detainees coach on the motorway sliproad, followed by a successful communications blockade of Egypt Air’s telephone lines and their facebook page. The family avoided deportation that day due to a security mix-up, and were instead taken to Cedars detention centre in West Sussex. By the morning, Friday 18th, UKBA offices in Cardiff had its windows smashed – no doubt in response to the attempted deportation, signifying more resistance to come.
Related articles: Gremlin Alley EVICTION RESISTANCE happening now (UPDATE - 3pm) | Communique :: The Gremlins are still resisting in Cardiff | Video Communique from the Gremlins | Timeline of anti-deportation resistance in support of the Saleh family | Shroukie’s family LATEST: coach blocked for 5 hours, fingers crossed ... | Prisoner Art Tour Launch Night This Friday in Cardiff | Legal Training Evening @ Red & Black Umbrella | Red & Black Umbrella 1 Year Anniversary Halloween Bash + Gig!
Links: Gremlin Alley Social Centre | No Borders South Wales on Saleh Family | NCADC on Saleh Family | Save Mrs S and Her Two Children @ 38 Degrees | Save the Saleh Family | Cardiff Anarchist Black Cross | Cardiff Defendant Solidarity | Red & Black Umbrella
October 20th Anti-Austerity Demonstration
24-10-2012 11:07
Saturday’s October 20th "March for a future that works" demonstration organised by the TUC saw over 150,000 out on the streets of London to protest the government's cuts and austerity measures. It's been almost a year since the TUC leadership tried to look like they were actively opposing the cuts and well over a year since the last big demo. The organisers sent out a somewhat mixed message by first calling for a general strike but then allowing Ed Miliband a platform to announce he'll carry on cutting where the Tories leave off if elected.
The demonstration also saw hundreds of black bloc and Boycott Workfare activists target Oxford Street stores that use workfare and tax avoidance, whilst DPAC activists successfully blockaded Park Lane.
On the Newswire: October 20: The view from Oxford Circus | #Oct20 150,000 on TUC demo PHOTOS | unions cuts march and london anti-workfare actions - pics & report | Oct20: we got work to do ... | March For A Future That Works
Previous Features: SchNEWS: One Strike and You're Out? | "You Can Shove Your Rubber Bullets Up Your Arse!": 'Total Policing' of N9 Demos | Anti-cuts protesters take over London | March 26th - All out against the cuts
Plebs protest at Conservative Party Conference
11-10-2012 22:38
The Conservative Party Conference came to Birmingham this week and was met with almost daily protests from angry plebs. But whilst the protests where going on outside, inside the class warfare was turned up a notch after it was announced that a further £10billion will be cut from welfare and that the government plan on scrapping workers rights in exchange for offering them "shares" by their employer. These rights such as protection from unlawful dismissal, flexible working time and maternity leave have been won by workers struggling hard over the past 100 years for a decent standard of living. To add salt to the wound, the announcement delivered by George Osborne came with the Orwellian Doublespeak "workers of the world unite". Well if that’s what he wants …
On the Newswire: Welcome The Tories To Birmingham | Lobby Tory Conference re Ballymurphy Massacre | Picket the Bigots - Tory Party Conference | Badger Cull Tory Conference | Hunt Saboteurs protest against badger cull at Tory Party Conference | Remploy Demonstration At Tory Party Conference – 8:30am Wednesday | Tory Conference Demo | Badger Cull Campaigners to Target Conservative Party Conference | Sacked Remploy Workers Demonstrate For Their Jobs
Week of Action to Ground the Drones
01-10-2012 18:45
To coincide with International Keep Space for Peace Week (from 6th - 13th October) the Drone Campaign Network is calling a week of action on the growing use of drones.
While over seventy countries now possess drones, so far only the UK, the US and Israel are known to have used armed drones. The UK has launched over 300 drones strikes in Afghanistan but there is little public information about these strikes. Israel regularly launches drone attacks in Gaza and the US has been using drones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. It is suspected, but not confirmed that US drones have also undertaken strikes in Mali and Philippines this year.
Protests against the growing use of drones have taken place in Pakistan and Yemen and protests have been growing in the UK and the US over the past year. [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]
On the newswire: Ground the Drones Week of Action announcement | Drones Week of Action events listings | The faceless face of military drones at Menwith Hill: 9 October | Veterans for Peace action at General Atomics | Terrorist drones come to Lincolnshire – drones peace walk | Drones and Thrones – A London Diary
Links: Drone Campaign Network | Drone Wars UK | TBIJ Covert War on Terror
Campaigners mobilising to fight 'hundreds of new roads'
25-09-2012 19:08
Campaigners are hoping to kick-start opposition to 'hundreds of new roads' with actions in Twyford Down and Hastings this weekend.
Government and local councils are planning to spend billions of pounds on dozens of new roads over the next few years, and new 'growth' funds and devolved spending powers for local councils threaten to add hundreds more disastrous projects to this list.
In the 1990s, what was in effect a popular uprising [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] brought Tory plans for ‘the greatest road-building programme since the Romans’ to a screeching halt.
Could this weekend's actions be the beginning of a new upsurge of anti-roads protests?
On the newswire: Local residents camp & rally against Bexhill-Hastings link road | Twyford anniversary action | Stop the Road! Rally & Camp | Parking the car … for good | Bikes alive bike blockade at King's Cross | Video of Bikes Alive! Protest | Climate Rush give cake to Sustrans | 'bikes alive' action at kings x tomorrow | No to Road Building | Tenth anniversary of the siege of Wanstonia M11 link rd | Pics from Arundel 2nd bypass protest march
Links: Combe Haven Defenders | Hastings Alliance | Campaign for Better Transport | Bicycology
Homeless campaigners squat council house
30-08-2012 15:33
Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group have occupied an abandoned council house with the intention of handing it over to a homeless person. They've contacted the council and demanded that they put the property back into use as low cost social housing and then do the same with the other nearly 12,000 empty properties around the city. Otherwise they have said that despite changes to the law on squatting they will continue with occupations of the other empty properties with the intention of handing them over to the homeless. With 11,924 empty properties, the highest rate of homelessness in the country and an estimate by city planners that Birmingham is currently short of 11,000 affordable homes, putting the abandoned houses back into use is the only logical step
Previous Features: Birmingham's Homeless Crises
On the newswire: Tenants & Homeless seize abandoned council house | Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group - What we are doing | Squatting sleepover! Homeless but not helpless! | Police arresting homeless in Birmingham | First eviction protest for B.E.R.N | VIDEO Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network first eviction protest | Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network meeting | Food not Bombs every Sunday at Holloway Circus | VIDEO FNB in Victoria Square
Links: Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group | Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network | Birmingham Food not Bombs
Birmingham's Homeless Crises
17-08-2012 14:20
Update 19/8/12: Police arresting homeless in Birmingham
On the Newswire: Brum FnB at the Birmingham Social Centre | First eviction protest for B.E.R.N | BERN BABY BERN fundraiser for Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network | Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network meeting | Food is a right not a privilege – statement of solidarity | Food not Bombs every Sunday at Holloway Circus | Birmingham Food Not Bombs is back
Videos: Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network first eviction protest | FNB in Victoria Square
Links: Brum Food not Bombs | Birmingham Eviction Resistance Network
Police arrest 182 at Olympics critical mass in London
05-08-2012 20:43
While the London 2012 Olympic open ceremony was underway on Friday 27th July, there was a massive police and military operation underway, which included the use of CS gas, to contain and eventually arrest 182 London critical mass cyclists. The cyclists were held in a police kettle for two hours, handcuffed in buses for three hours and held in a police cell from six hours to two days. Out of 182 cyclists, only 3 have been charged with any offence. However, all have bail conditions imposed on them until September 18th 2012 restricting their freedom to move, assemble, associate and live their lives. Some groups have issued advice that the bail conditions may breach Articles 10 & 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. They point out that "breaching bail conditions is not a criminal offence."
A petition for justice for the 182 has been launched with the following demands:
- All bail conditions should be discharged
- All data including DNA, fingerprint, addresses etc taken from those cyclists should be removed from all paper and comupter records of police & other agencies.
- An independent review of the police behaviour on Friday 27th July should be conducted as a matter of urgency.
Articles: Olympic critical mass - report and pics | Arrests in Critical Mass during Olympics ceremony | Mass Arrest | Critcal mass | SchNEWS: Mass Arrest of the Week