Someone’s done a nice job of compiling a range of accounts and comments on the actions around the March for the Alternative on March 26th – have a browse!

http://march26.posterous.com/

Mayday, traditionally a day for workers’ self organisation and grassroots agitation, is being celebrated in Brighton with a street party and protest on Saturday the 30th April. Location and more details will be announced nearer the time. Meanwhile an excellent free zine has been produced with contributions about Mayday and resistance from a wide range of participating groups including Brighton Anarchist Black Cross, Southcoast Climate Camp, No Borders, Brighton Squatters Network, Queer Mutiny, students and more.

As their call out proclaims:

Our lives are under attack.
Our future is being sacrificed to increase the power of an elite.

The bankers’ crisis is being used as an excuse to push through a far-right agenda of vicious cuts – cuts which will hurt the poorest and line the pockets of the rich. The NHS, Education and Welfare systems are being stripped back while the bankers are being paid million pound bonuses.

Their only answer to the disaster is more of the same, capitalism with the gloves off. More wars, more ecological devastation and we’re being asked to pay for it.

We are being robbed blind – it’s time to reclaim what is ours.

More details and the free zine download can be found here: http://brightonmayday.wordpress.com/

We will be using twitter to send out updates from the TUC demostration on Saturday. Follow us, re tweet us, love us!

http://www.twitter.com/lasthours

We will be tabling at this events this spring.

Sunday 20th February 2011
Brighton Zine Fest

Sunday 17th April 2011

London Zine Symposium

Saturday 7th May 2011

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair

A couple of us have been involved in putting together an analytical piece about the student protests for the US anarchist collective CrimethInc.

It’s been way too long in the making but somehow through illness, redundancies, house moves, holidays, book editing and all the other things that life throws up it’s come out.

You can read it here

‘On 15th and 16th January we are calling a gathering for all networks and individuals that are oppositional, non hierarchical and opposed not only to the cuts, but to capitalism itself.’

This is the call for a weekend gathering to discuss anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian resistance to the government cuts.

It’s only through linking our struggles that we can truly fight back and this gathering offers a specifically anti-statist come together and organise.

More information at http://networkxuk.wordpress.com

We got our hands on a few copies of the new book from Freedom Press titled Beating the Fascists: The Untold History of Anti Fascist Action You can find it in the shop now.

If you’re using twitter to communicate your actions tomorrow please tweet us @lasthours or use the hash tag #nocuts .

We are creating a map of occupations below (blue pointers)

View November 24th 2010 – Student Protests in a larger map

Last night BBC radio 4 broadcast a discussion about the use of direct action in a ‘democratic’ society. You can listen to the show here.

Firstly it is worth noting that these types of discussions are usually very one sided. The student protests that smashed up the Tory HQ has caused a social shift where the theory of direct action, and indeed violence, has to be recognised and given some legitimacy by mainstream media. Up until this point the mainstream media has taken a hard-line stance against these sort of acts; now the discussion is back in the public domain. This can be put down to the larger public’s change in attitude and a recognition that current political and social institutions don’t represent us. What were once considered the only legitimate means of social change do not work and other means are required.
Read more…

Anyone who is familiar with Last Hours will know we have supported FITwatch, a group set up to monitor police Forward Intelligence Teams at protests.

FITwatch has been targeted by police after the Millbank protests last Wednesday for offering advice to those in attendance at the protest about how to deal with the possibility of arrest.

The sites host was contacted by police requesting that the entire FITwatch site be removed for ‘attempting to pervert the course of justice’. It is not yet clear if a court order had been obtained.

As the fallout of this attack on legal and support infrastructure plays out you can follow on Twitter via the hash-tag #Fitwatch.

Addition 17th November: We’ve just heard that Fitwatch is back up and running. Visit http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/ for all the information that the Metropolitan Police didn’t want you to see!