Posts Tagged ‘UK’
Solidarity with John Bowden in court Friday 24th June – Call-out for Solidarity Demo/Banner drops (UK)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
Solidarity with John Bowden – Long time prison resister and anti-authoritarian.
Show your support for John Bowden, a vocal writer and critic of the system we all live under, who is in Greenock Sheriff Court in Scotland, on Friday 24th June, after being accused of assault on a prison guard.
Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, John Bowden was at the forefront of the British prison struggle, leading and being involved in serious acts of resistance against the prison system, and was deeply politicised by the experience. Viewed by most prison staff as a committed and dangerous “trouble-maker”, John was often brutally punished, suffering years of brutality and prolonged solitary confinement. He has been victimised, in one way or another, ever since.
In June of last year, after hearing the evidence of an independent psychologist, the Parole Board decided that after 30 years in prison, John Bowden represented no real risk or danger to the community, and like the two men originally imprisoned with him in 1982, who were released almost 20 years ago, he should now be returned to that community. (more…)
Tags: Demo, Glasgow, Governor Paul Cawkwell, HMP Whitemoor, John Bowden, Scotland, Solidarity Action, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
New Counter-Info Project: ‘Fire On The Horizon’ (UK)
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
To begin with we are not interested in long introductions, we are against over worded texts that reek of posturing and not enough praxis!
The project ‘Fire on the Horizon’ will speak for itself, disseminating counter-info that is about & related to the conflict against the prison island. To incite, to open eyes, to reach out to free thinking minds, making the rage boil over of accomplices who are willing to awaken, to act upon their own individual desires. There is no interest in begging for consensus in order to govern the masses or adhering without critique to false promises of utopias, doctrines, ideologies that reek of any new authority. (more…)
Tags: Counter-info, UK
Posted in Autonomy
Video: 11.06.16 – Fascists march against refugees / Counter demo in Bishop Auckland, County Durham (UK)
Sunday, June 12th, 2016
Yesterday there was a far-right march and counter demonstration in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.
Tags: Antifa, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, Demo, Racism, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Bristol, Britain’s Flagship ‘Smart City’ (UK)
Thursday, June 9th, 2016
“We’re creating an environment where in a year or two, not five, the whole world will look at Bristol for the future of smart cities.”
– Dimitra Simeonidou, High Performance Networks Lab, Bristol University
The city of Bristol, south west U.K., has begun a multi-million pound experiment to create the ‘smart-city’ of the future, which would cement Bristol as a global leader in the telecommunications world. The wider area of Avon (mainly the ‘post-industrial’ estates of Bristol and Bath) already hosts the largest digital technology sector in the British Isles outside of London, and receives funding from the government as such.
City authorities and allied technological entrepreneurs are working to kit out Bristol with a city-wide ‘digital fabric’ of the very latest in sensor and connectivity technology, to make it the world’s first open ‘programmable city’. A high-speed fibre-optic network (making use of disused cable ducting owned by the council) is being combined with a new ‘city operating system’ that will power an experimental network. In the coming spring of 2016, 1,500 sensor-equipped lampposts are being launched around the city; the vast majority of Bristol will be covered in a Radio Frequency (RF) mesh. This is predicted to revolutionise the way that emergency response, traffic management and other municipal services are handled, and track certain vehicle locations, with eventual alleged trickle-down ‘benefits’ such as informing residents of parking spaces and air pollution (ahem, from those parking spaces) in an increasingly mechanised and technified environment. (more…)
Tags: Analysis, Anti-technology, Bristol, Bristol Is Open, Bristol University, CityOS, Dimitra Simeonidou, High Performance Networks Lab, IBM, Internet of Things, NEC, Paul Wilson (MD Bristol Is Open), Return Fire, Smart Cities, Technological Singularity, Toshiba, UK
Posted in Social Control
PDFs: 4 new releases from green anarchist zine Return Fire (UK)
Sunday, June 5th, 2016
Return Fire #3 : Contents (Winter 2015-2016)
Colonisation (Glossary, Return Fire #3)
Just now we’ve sent out the PDF versions of our recent releases, for downloading and printing. (For past issues, see here). To summarise, there’s the full length edition of Return Fire vol.3 (Winter 2015-2016), full of news, theory, poetry and antagonism; a companion piece consisting of our ‘glossary’ entry for the issue, on Colonisation; an imposed and print-ready version of ‘Smarter Prison?‘ as a supplement to vol.3, which we received from ‘Radical Interference’ and released for December of 2015; and lastly, we’ve uploaded one of the feature texts from vol.3, ‘The Veil Drops‘, to theanarchistlibrary.org as a separate file for reading and reproduction.
Return Fire vol.3
A continuation of our project to bring incisive anarchic content from around to world to an anglophone readership. New editorial content, reprints of things we’ve found useful, artwork, action listings, foraging information, the usual.
There’s a few previously-untranslated articles in this issue. For example, one is an extract from the latest cover story of Italy’s eco-insurrectionary periodical Terra Selvaggia, on ‘The Advance of Urbanisation’ and, simultaneously, cracks opening in the concrete which we could utilise… Annie Archet meanwhile tells a life-story of evading identity, in Portrait of the Invisible Woman in Front of Her Mirror. To name
some out of the texts we’ve assembled from selections of pre-existing ones, David King looks at the reductionist and patriarchal implications of modern reproductive technologies in “Into Her Inner Chambers”, and Nicola Gai speaks to acting within ‘The Maximum That Our Abilities Allow’ (from his contribution to the founding issue of the Croce Nera Anarchica).
(more…)
Tags: Analysis, PDF, Return Fire, UK, Zine
Posted in Library
21 July – London demo against the brutal Close Supervision Centres – Letter by Kevan Thakrar (UK)
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
From a comrade of ABC Brighton:
A secret world exists within the high security prison estate in England, known as the Close Supervision Centre (CSC) system. The dehumanisation of CSC prisoners begins at a very early stage, in the official justification for the creation of the CSC system, which focuses on the need to contain a new breed of unmanageable and unpredictable risks. It continues with the creation of classificatory categories of ‘dangerousness’ which objectify prisoners and make more of the category and less of the human in them, and it is reinforced by the tightly controlled and highly regulated routines.
In addition to isolation and extremely restricted movements, prisoners’ in-cell belongings are carefully regulated and subjected to relentless scrutiny and inspection. (more…)
Tags: Close Supervision Centre CSC, Demo, HMP Wakefield, Kevan Thakrar, Letter, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Fight the Nazis in Bristol – 4 June (UK)
Monday, May 30th, 2016
Tags: Antifa, Bristol, Demo, Neo-Nazis, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Come and fight nazis in Dover and Brighton (UK)
Friday, May 27th, 2016
From Rabble: Fascist scum are attempting get-togethers in the coming weeks in the seaside towns of Dover and Brighton. On Saturday 28 May, neonazis are planning not just another daytime stumble around Dover town, but also a Blood and Honour gig in the evening. The weekend after, on 4 June, there is a planned march by the “South Coast Resistance” in Brighton. See anti-fascist call-outs below for further details. May they drown in the seas of their own tears.
No Nazis in Dover – oppose the Nazi South East Alliance and Blood and Honour gig – Saturday 28 May, Dover
From Kent Anti-Racism Network
The Nazi South East Alliance are coming to Dover on 28 May to spread their message of hate towards refugees, people of colour, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews and other minorities. Their world view envisages an all-white Britain. They plan to hold a demonstration in Dover during the day and hold a Rock Against Immigration (Blood and Honour) – Nazi gig in the evening. Blood and Honour is a Combat 18 organisation – whose rallying cry is ‘Aryan Unity’.They have been involved in murder, gun-running and terrorism. Despite the South East Alliance claiming they’re coming to Dover for ‘ordinary people’ they are instead aiming to promote an extremely violent Nazi programme – similar to the murderous policies of Hitler.
During World War Two, the Nazis exterminated millions of Jews. Many more millions lost their lives fighting to keep the world free from fascism. This is the tradition that the South East Alliance and Combat 18 stand in. (more…)
Tags: Antifa, Brighton, Demo, Dover, Neo-Nazis, Racism, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Thousands protest around the world against immigration detention centres
Wednesday, May 11th, 2016
#ShutThemDown
OVER 20 SIMULTANEOUS PROTESTS THROUGHOUT THE UK AND AROUND THE WORLD TO END IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRES
THOUSANDS OF ACTIVISTS TOOK PART IN A COORDINATED TRANSNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH DETAINEES; 190 DETAINEES ON HUNGER STRIKE IN HARMONDSWORTH DETENTION CENTRES
A coalition of groups from the UK and around the world joined today (Saturday 7 May) a mass simultaneous protest in 15 detention centres, calling to end immigration detention centres. An international coalition joined forces with groups from all around the UK as well as groups from the US, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Iceland, N. Ireland, Belgium, France and Italy. In the UK, thousands took part in the protest in solidarity with the 30,000 adults and children in detention. Protesters held demonstrations at St Pancras train station, held noise demonstration in various detention centres, flew kites so detainees can see them beyond the high walls, danced, sang songs and called for the immediate release of those held against their will without judicial oversight, a time limit, or adequate access to legal support, translation, and healthcare. (more…)
Tags: #ShutThemDown, Belgium, Deportation, France, G4S, GEO, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Migrant Struggle, Netherlands, Racism, Serco, Spain, Sweden, UK, US
Posted in No Borders
7 May : Transnational Day of Solidarity with People in Detention + Protest against Detention Centres
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
The last few years have seen an immense rise in protests inside and outside of detention centres. On Saturday May 7th, simultaneous demonstrations will be held around the UK and beyond, to protest against the existence of immigration detention centres and show solidarity with the 30,000 adults and children who are being detained against their will under the Immigration Act every year in the UK – without judicial oversight, a time limit, or adequate access to legal support, translation, and healthcare. We will come together with people inside detention to demand the closure of all detention centres and an end to border and migration controls!
May 7th is part of a wider transnational campaign to shut down detention centres and end the inherently abusive and violent system of immigration detention that criminalises, detains, and imprisons people simply because they have chosen or been forced to migrate. Actions also take place in solidarity with wider struggles against borders and migration controls and with people who are living in detention without walls, from Calais to Idomeni. So far actions have been planned across the UK and in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Iceland. (more…)
Tags: Anti-Fascist, Demo, France, G4S, GEO, Germany, Holland, Iceland, International Day of Solidarity with People in Detention, International Solidarity, Migrant Struggle, Racism, Serco, Sweden, UK
Posted in No Borders
Anti-Fascist 0161 Festival – Manchester (UK)
Friday, April 22nd, 2016
The 0161 Festival takes place on 29th April to the 1st May 2016 at the Moston Miners Community Centre in Manchester, UK.
0161 Festival interviews – 29th April – 1st May 2016. Manchester, UK from 0161.
Tags: Anti-Fascist, Antifa, Manchester, Racism, Solidarity Event, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Letters from Kevan Thakrar from the isolation units of England (UK)
Monday, April 18th, 2016
From a comrade of ABC Brighton:
March 17
A secret world exists within the high security prison estate in England, known as the Close Supervision Centre (CSC) system. It is notorious amongst the few who know of it, a place only the most unfortunate men ever see. Reports of serious mistreatment and torture are routine from the victims detained within the CSC, but almost nothing is ever done about the biggest demonstration of inhumanity to take place in this country.
In order to excuse this torture chamber, the dehumanization of CSC prisoners begins at a very early stage of official justifications for the creation of the CSC system, which focus on the need to contain a new breed of unmanageable and unpredictable risks. It continues with the creation of classificatory categories of ‘dangerousness’ which objectify prisoners and make more of the category and less of the human in them, and it is reinforced by the tightly controlled and highly regulated routines in CSC’s, treating prisoners as highly dangerous creatures, capable of superhuman acts of violence – not quite human and in need of the extreme oppression the CSC provides.
When it comes to the ‘worst of the worst’, isolation is wrongly seen as a necessity but insufficient measure by prison management. In addition to isolation and extremely restricted movements, prisoner in-cell provisions and their belongings are carefully regulated and subjected to relentless scrutiny and inspection. (more…)
Tags: Close Supervision Centre CSC, Demo, Isolation, Kevan Thakrar, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Dover: Report from demo against neo-nazis (UK)
Friday, April 8th, 2016
From AFN:
Today, anti-fascists from across the country stood in solidarity with locals from around Dover to oppose neo-nazis and assorted far-right rejects who descended on the town, once more openly flying fascist flags and seig heiling.
The AFN had organised coaches from across the country, with groups traveling from Brighton, Berkshire, Oxford, Bristol, Portsmouth and London amongst others. London2Calais also organised transport, as did the UAF. We were met in Dover by a large contingent of locals organised by the Kent Anti-Racism Network.
All in all, around 350 antifascists gathered around a KARN aid convoy to Calais, which, after being filled with donations from locals, was to be sent to the port. (more…)
Tags: Antifa, Demo, Dover, Migrant Struggle, Neo-Nazis, Racism, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Dover: Demo against Neo-Nazi groups – April 2 (UK)
Tuesday, March 29th, 2016
Anti-fascist demo called by Kent Anti-Racist Network to counter violent neo-nazi and far-right nationalist groups who are making a demo themselves in the town.
Stop the Nazis marching – Dover 2 April, 11am
The neo-Nazi South East Alliance (SEA) and others have announced a ‘Unity’ march through Dover on Saturday 2 April.
These groups left a trail of violence and vandalism in the town when they last marched on January 30. They are seig-heiling Hitler-loving neo-Nazis that try whip up hatred and intolerance. They have no support in the town, but bring their hatred to our community, pretending to care about locals and lorry drivers. They are the British equivalent of the groups in Europe that are attacking and murdering migrants. (more…)
Tags: Antifa, Demo, Dover, Migrant Struggle, Neo-Nazis, Racism, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Glasgow: British-Pakistani man murdered by an Islamic-fascist (UK)
Tuesday, March 29th, 2016
“Unconditional real love for all mankind” Asad Shah
A “popular, well respected and much loved” Ahmadiyya Muslim man, Asad Shah, who ran a local shop in the Shawlands area of Glasgow was murdered 9pm, 24th March, hours after posting messages of peaceful tolerance online and giving out chocolate Easter eggs to his customers. Asad was brutally stabbed to death and had his head stamped on in front of his own brother outside his shop, by a 32 year old sectarian Islamist fanatic who had travelled 200 miles from Bradford to slay Asad. One man from the gym next to Asad’s shop, was also injured during the attack on Asad. Afterwards there was a big outpouring of grief and respect for Asad, with a gathering in the street, tribute of flowers laid and call for unity. More than £87,000 has been raised to support the family of Asad.
Asad belonged to the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith which faces sectarian bigotry from many reactionary and orthodox Muslims and has suffered violence at their hands in those countries. Asad was known to create his own Christmas cards each year for his friends and customers and was very beloved in the community.
“Asad was a humble, gentle man – he did not deserve this. He was also a very social man, always laughing. A real gentleman.” Sister of Asad Shah
Tags: Ahmadiyya Muslim faith, Asad Shah, Glasgow, Islamism, Scotland, UK
Posted in Anti-Fascist