Trolleybus to return to Nottingham?
21 Jan 2007
Nottingham used to run a vast network of trolleybusses. The first trolley was introduced in 1927 and in 1930 it had the largest fleet in the country. The last trolley bus operated in Nottingham until June 1966. Recently a new book was launched on the history of Nottingham’s Trolleybusses, and it does raise the question if bringing them back might become the way forward in making our public transport system ready in the face of climate catastrophy. Some cities in Europe are upgrading their trolley bus networks and some are even planning the construction of new ones. With Britain having such as vast history on the ‘old trolley’, wouldn’t it be worth looking into the possibility of returning to this potential zero-emission way of transport?

Resistance Builds up Against Welsh Gas Pipeline
19 Jan 2007
National Grid is attempting to construct a high pressure, high volume gas pipeline right across South Wales to connect two new liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals at Milford Haven with the existing national gas distribution network at Tirley, Gloucestershire. Local people have campaigned against the project on environmental, ecological and safety grounds, as well as complaining about the lack of proper consultation. The ‘official’ routes for their many objections having been exhausted, protesters launched a campaign of direct action against the pipeline at the end of last year, with several protest camps set up along the proposed route [Reports: 1 | 2].January has seen new camps and more direct action, which have successfully held up construction work at various points along the pipeline route. Activists from across the country are supporting local efforts to protect the beautiful Welsh countryside from this impending environmental disaster.Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Photos: 1 | Video: 1.

Crucial Evidence ‘Mislaid’ in Genoa G8 Diaz Trial
17 Jan 2007
On Wednesday, 17 January 2007, it emerged that important evidence against the police officers who raided the Diaz school has been ‘mislaid’ by the police. The evidence concerned is two ‘Molotov cocktails’ which were supposedly found during the raid back in 2001, and were then used by police to justify the raid. It later transpired that they had in fact been planted in the Diaz building by police. The two bottles should have been produced in court yesterday during the questioning of police officer Donnini, who was in charge of the unit that transported the bottles.On Thursday the 19th, however, Judge Barroni said the trial will continue with other evidence as the search for the missing evidence progresses. All other charges against the various high-ranking police officers still stand.Links: Witnesses Give Evidence in Genoa Diaz Trial | G8: Genoa: Police on Trial for Brutal Diaz Raid | Police, Lies, and Video Tape | UK IMC Genova Topicpage

Resistance At The Fence And Beyond
16 Jan 2007
From 6-8 June 2007 the G8 summit 2007 will take place in a hotel in Heiligendamm next to Rostock at the Baltic Sea, Germany. 6 month before the resistace is taking shape: Several alliances prepare carawans, blockades and other forms of direct action.Last August about 1000 people allready gathered close to Heiligendamm in a first protest camp for 10 days. Since then numerous direct actions all over Germany. 4 numbers of a newsletter have been released in more than 8 languages. More than 400 people from NGOs to anti-authoritarian groups attended the second “G8 Action Conference” in Rostock while hundreds of people gathered at several dissent+x network meetings.Activists sucessfully used the Nuclear Waste Transport in November as a start into the protest season.In the UK the mobilisation starts with an Info night in London and a first UK-wide meeting in Nottingham on January 28th. Dissent! Belgium started with an action week in gent last december. The international mobilisation will continue with a gathering in Warsaw, Poland from February 10-11th.Freedom of movement will become one of the main issues of the protest (First Call | working group at Action Conference Other issues will be global agriculture ( working group at Action Conference | Calls ) and anti-militarism (Call).Meanwhile the authorities, who want to secure the summit with at least 16.000 police raided several places in munich while starting to build the 13km long fence around the hotel.Websites: dissentnetwork.org | g8-2007.de | Revolutionary Alliance | Action Conference | Newsletter: News From The Fields And Beyond | Convergence Center Hamburg | Camp 2006 | NGO Mobilisation | gipfelsoli | moving europe | outofaction (de) | NoLager | Topic on de.indymedia.og | Dissent! UK | Wombles/G8 | input paper: Antiracist Perspectives in regard to G-8 Summit 2007

Tackle Guantanamo Shackles
16 Jan 2007
Some 70-80 people gathered today in Perry Barr, Birmingham, in front of Hiatt, a UK company that makes shackles and other torture equipment, to ‘celebrate’ the 5th anniversary of the notorious US-run prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where 10 British residents and 400 other prisoners are held illegally. The protest was part of a UK-wide day of action and was called by the Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign, Reprieve, Save Omar Campaign and Amnesty International.call-out | press release | photo report | videoPrevious protests: 2005 demo: tackle the shackles | June 2006 vigil | Airport vigil | Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign and police at Starbucks | petition | public meeting

Monday Love Continues..
14 Jan 2007
MONDAY LOVE is a free weekly film & music night at The Good Ship on Kilburn High Road, NW6.Every Monday, Monday Love brings a heady mix of conscious cinema and live music to The Good Ship, welcoming those who still believe in something more than money and fear.. to watch, listen, chat and chill.

Tackle the Shackles, Close Guantanamo
13 Jan 2007
To mark the 5th anniversary of the transportation of the first prisoners to the US concentration camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a series of demonstrations took place around the world.In London, Amnesty International organised a protest [Photos | Slide show | Video] and a vigil [Photos] outside the US embassy. Another vigil also took place in solidarity with 90 anti-Guantanamo US activists that were arrested in an occupation of the U.S. Federal Court House in Washington DC [Report | Photos]In Birmingham around 80 people gathered in front of Hiatt, a UK company that makes shackles and other torture equipment used by the US military in Guantánamo Bay over the last 5 years [Report and Photos]. In Edinburgh a protest outside the US Consulate, and a meeting in the Scottish Parliament took place [Report and Photos]For further reports and background information see the National Guantanamo Coalition website, and AI’s Close Guntanamo section.

Now Look Here, Sonae!
9 Jan 2007
Only two players have been produced by the Liverpool FC youth academy since they moved to Kirkby in 1998. That’s a shocking record! It can’t just be a coincidence that the academy is located near to a chipboard factory that pumps out tonnes of cancer-causing chemicals every year. A school, public playing fields and houses are also easily within range of Sonae’s pollution. The company have been in and out of Huyton Magistrates Court, but tiny fines and official indifference have left them free to cause all the death and disease they like.

Nottingham City Council Recycling .. .... Bottom of the Class again!
2 Jan 2007
In a recycling rate league table just released by the Government, Nottingham City Council came an embarrassing 339th out of 393 local authorities, with a combined recycling and composting rate of just 18.6 per cent for 2004-05. Nottingham’s Recycling rate is less that 3 per cent higher than the worst performing authority in the UK, Tower Hamlets. But it doesn’t have to be this way, if next door neibours Rushcliffe can achieved the second highest rate just short of 50 per cent why can’t Nottingham?

Left in the Desert: Hundreds of Refugees Arrested and Deported from Morocco
1 Jan 2007
Over 250 Sub-Saharan Africans have been arrested by the Moroccan authorities in raids that took place in different quarters of Rabat on December 23rd, 2006. Among the arrested were women and children refugees and asylum seekers. Six buses, accompanied by the army, then carried them to Oujda on the Algerian borders. At about 11pm, the buses crossed the border at 3 different points and the migrants were left in the middle of nowhere [see below for details]. Blockades by the Special Police prevented supporters from Oujda to reach the deportees and their mobile phones did not work, so they could not be contacted. There are fears that these arrests are only the beginning of a mass deportation campaign to Algeria, or even into the desert, similar to what happened in September-October 2005.On December 25, two more buses arrived in Oujda, at the police station, with Sub-Saharan Africans from Nador (another town in Morocco). This only confirms that the ‘operation’ was nation-wide and pre-planned by the authorities, during a time when most of the activists were on holiday.Reports: en & fr | fr with en summary [pdf] | es | fr | de | it | Attac Morocco statement [fr] | CEAR statement [pdf] | press release by the president of EU Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee [fr, pdf]Related: Worldwide Protests Against Migration Controls | EU/Morocco: Deportation to Death [de] | European Caravan Against the Fence | Stop the Mediterranean recolonization! | Week-long Actions Against the Greek-Bulgarian Border | Links: Estrecho Indymedia | No Racism

Ipswich Reclaims the Night
29 Dec 2006
Five sex workers from Ipswich have been murdered in ten days. The leader of the County Council, Jeremy Pembroke, has urged women not to go out alone. But as a response local people are organising a “Reclaim the Night” event to assert their freedom to go out at night (Press Release).So on Friday the 29th of December, almost 300 people gathered outside Ipswich Town Hall, with candles on the steps. After two speakers there was a walk down to Handford Road (the red light district). In an adjacent park a minutes silence was observed and five white roses were laid in an adjacent park to commemorate those murdered. Chants ranged from “We’re marching for the right, to walk alone at night” to “We don’t need protection, we need a revolution”.More: Announcement of Reclaim the Night Ipswich | photos | more photos | blog report | EASF reportHerstory of Reclaim the Night | Reclaim the Night marches in 2006: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Reclaim the Night marches, 2005

Happy New SOCPA
26 Dec 2006
The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) is a major piece of legislation, which established the Serious Organised Crime Agency, an FBI-like agency to tackle “serious organised crime”, as it says on the box.People-trafficking, drug wholesaling, violent armed robbery, torture, extortion and murder, is the kind of thing that might spring to mind. The bill, however, was used as an opportunity to deal with issues that might not be considered so serious. It introduced us to ASBO’s, for example; outlawed animal activists’ “interference with contractual arrangements” and, most pertinently, the right to protest in designated areas without prior permission.Below is a comprehensive ‘diary’, put together by IMC UK activists, of events related to SOCPA since it came into force on 1 August, 2005. See also the SOCPA topic page for full coverage.

Feminist Health Gathering January 2007 Leeds
19 Dec 2006
A weekend long gathering, looking at health in the broadest sense from a feminist angle will take place in Leeds jan 19th – 21st 2007.There are going to be loads of exciting and inspiring workshops including diy gynaecology, female ejaculation, mental health, queer health, first aid, self defence, autonomous health, working in the nhs, future after the NHS and alternatives too. For a full list of workshops see the website. There will also be social events – still to be decided, films, speed dating, gig or cabaret!!!For further information see the original callout for help

Court rejects ASBOS for airport activists
17 Dec 2006
On Friday, Loughborough Magistrates Court rejected calls from the Crown Prosecution Service to slap ASBOs on the 24 Plane Stupid activists who they described as “highly organised extremists” that were arrested in connection with the shut down of Nottingham East Midlands short haul airport in September. In an apparent move aimed to avoid having the case heard by a jury, the charge of public nuisance was dropped, as was the charge relating to an alleged breach of the aviation and security act.Plane Stupid lawyer, Mike Schwarz, described the action to the court as a “classic piece of civil disobedience” and reminded the court that “Tony Blair himself has described climate change as the greatest threat facing mankind.” Campaigner for Plane Stupid, Ellen Rickford, said, “The same day that we learn the government is pushing ahead with its airport expansion proposals, they try to use ASBOs to stamp out peaceful protest. Well, it seems their plans for that were as doomed as the aviation industry.”Feature articles: Protesters occupy runway at East Midlands Airport | Plane Stupid’s Day of ActionOn the newswire: Court rejects ASBOS for airport activists | Climate activists shut airport in taxiway occupationLinks: Plane Stupid website | East Midlands Airport (EMA) website | Climate Chaos topic page | Indymedia Climate | Wikipedia on Climate Change

Ipswich will Reclaim the Night
16 Dec 2006
Five sex workers from Ipswich have been murdered in ten days. The leader of the County Council, Jeremy Pembroke, has urged women not to go out alone. But as a response local people are organising a “Reclaim the Night” event to assert their freedom to go out at night. The event will take place on the 29th December, starting at 7pm outside Ipswich Town Hall. The organisers are inviting both women and men to join them in showing their “love and solidarity for the friends and families of the murdered women and all the people of Ipswich”.People are expected to come from all over the country to show their support. Coaches are being organised from Birmingham, Cambridge (details tbc) and maybe even Scotland.Links: [ Announcement of Reclaim the Night Ipswich | Reclaim the Night marches, 2005 | Herstory of Reclaim the Night ]Reclaim the Night marches in 2006: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

Animal Rights wronged
16 Dec 2006
The animal rights movement has been extensively vilified in press, radio,TV and even by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The general claim is made that animal rights demonstrators use methods which are too extreme. Demonstrators might argue though that recent legislation which seeks to criminalise common law behaviour leaves them no other option. Also, State sanctioned animal cruelty and its means of protection are even more extreme.On December 19th Robert Cogswell and Mel Broughton are facing possible imprisonment, ‘not for what they have done but for what they have said’.In recent years the animal rights movement has had a number of successes in the UK, in its attempts to minimise animal suffering but this has provoked Goliath responses from government, corporations, police and the mainstream media. Of those successes was a ban on fur farming in 2003. Then there was the capitulation of Cambridge University in 2004 and its plans for a primate lab, despite strong backing for the lab from leading members of the government. The ban on fox hunting and the closure of the Newchurch Guinea Pig farm in 2005, following hundreds of demos. Finally, animal testing on cosmetics is slowly being brought to a close now. This still leaves other animal labs and their suppliers, food retailers and factory farming to mention a few. UK stores are allowed to sell fur from countries which skin animals alive and there are videos to show it. Despite the government ban on hunting, it still goes on while police continue to turn a blind eye to the hunters but not to the hunt sabs.

Public Order and Freedom of Expression
15 Dec 2006
On Wednesday 6th December, Professor Sir David Williams came to Nottingham to talk about ‘Public Order and Freedom of Expression’. His lecture at Trent University covered “both the traditional law and principles relating to freedom of assembly and with the impact of new legislation and new responses with regard, for instance, to anti-terrorism, to race and religion, and to new forms of protest. It will involve an inquiry into many pressing issues of legal, political and social concern”.Audio: Recording of the lecture and questions – mp3 21MLinks: Public Order and Freedom of Expression: Lecture at Nttm Trent University | NTU website on lectureArticles related to the ‘Right to Protest’: Victory For Fairford Coach Campaigners | Sack Parliament! | Peace Camp Set to Defy Ban | Another SOCPA travesty | Parliament Sq. Protest Trashed by Police

Victory For Fairford Coach Campaigners
12 Dec 2006
Campaigners have won a massive legal battle after they proved that the police violated their rights to protest when around 120 peace protestors were prevented from reaching USAF/RAF Fairford on the 22nd of March 2003. Three coaches full of protesters were first stopped and searched, then forcibly returned to London under police escort. At the start of the war with Iraq, Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire (and the B-52 bomber planes that were flying from it) had become a focus for anti-war protest and direct action.The High Court and Court of Appeal had already ruled that the police acted unlawfully in detaining protesters on the coaches. But on Wednesday 13th Dec, in a judgement that has implications beyond the Fairford case, Law Lords ruled that the police also violated the right to freedom of expression and lawful assembly. See campaign Press Release.Original coverage on Indymedia UK: Pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video: 1 | 2July 03: Civil Liberties and Anti-war Protest Policing | Aug 03: Judicial Review Granted | Feb 04: High Court Victory [ruling] | Dec 04: Court of Appeal Outcome [ruling]Links: Fairford Coach Action Campaign | Full judgement from the Lords | We fought the law and… eh… we won? Fairford coaches appeal victory

Which Way The War Blows
11 Dec 2006
The reinvigoration of anti-militarism campaigns, with a renewed focus on direct and confrontational actions, continued this week as the first in a series of open public meetings were held in London and New York, building on calls (UK | US) to mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the war on Iraq (Monday, 19th March, 2007) with a “Global Day of Action for Iraq and Beyond”.In reaction to this, the Stop the War Coalition has called for Tuesday, 20th March 2007, to be “National Troops Out Day”, with an afternoon demonstration in Central London ending with a mass die-in and Troops Out rally in Parliament Square, in place of their now traditional Embankment-to-Hyde Park march. Despite this nod to civil disobedience, past events suggest everything will be tightly stage-managed and agreed with the police in advance (reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4).Campaigns advocating and organising anti-militarist action include: Block the Builders | Campaign Against the Arms Trade | Counter Recruitment UK | Iraq Occupation Focus | Smash EDO | State of Emergency | Stop Arming Israel

Smashing time at EDO
10 Dec 2006
A ‘MASKED Ball’ was held by Smash EDO to celebrate the discontinuance of EDO Rugged Systems, one of the businesses operating out of the controversial weapons firm in Home Farm Road, Brighton.The campaign group has campaigned for over three years for the closure of EDO MBM, which supplies weapons to the Israeli military for their assault on the Palestinians and for the US/UK led occupation of Iraq.EDO MBM, a wholly owned unit of the US EDO Corporation, has performed dismally in 2006.

Deaths in Custody
5 Dec 2006
The very mention of custody deaths brings to mind nasty foreign repressive regimes but these deaths happen in Britain too, on average one a week in police custody alone. Then there are the deaths in prisons and immigration centres and of children in prison. Many of these deaths are questionable. Moreover, someone who is arrested may be totally innocent of any crime, they are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty anyway.The suicide rate is much greater in custody, as much as 18 times more than the UK average for young males, and a disproportionately large number of deaths of black people occur, especially as a result of “the excessive use of force by functionaries of the state”, according to the group Inquest. On the other hand, deaths can also occur as a result of deliberate police inaction.There is a lack of transparency in investigations into deaths in custody and long delays before inquests, up to five years in some cases, and a lack of accountability after juries return ‘unlawful killing’ verdicts. Of those verdicts since 1990, which the group Inquest is aware of, 18 police officers were prosecuted but all were acquitted. As far as is known, no police officer has ever been brought to justice for such killings.Links: Call out for the annual march | Video of 2006 demo | 2006 photos Real2Reel, Marc Vallée | 2005 (photo report) | 2003 (photos&audio) | Ireland 2006 part 1, part 2.

Oaxaca Uprising Continues as the Zapatista Other Campaign Ends
4 Dec 2006
“We are on the eve of either a great uprising or a civil war,” the EZLN’s Delegate Zero stated recently, referring to the current situation in Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Whilst the 45,000km-long Other Campaign tour around “the forgotten corners of Mexico”, which the Zapatistas started on 1 January, 2006, ends in Mexico City, the repression in Oaxaca is worsening by the day. And this is why the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is now calling for a global wave of active solidarity with the people of Oaxaca, to culminate with a “worldwide day of action” on 22 December to “say and to demonstrate that the people of Oaxaca are not alone” [Full communique | APPO’s response]. Closer to home, the Network of UK Zapatista Solidarity Groups has called for a national week of solidarity actions to take place from 9 to 17 December, 2006.Meanwhile, the popular uprising continues in and around Oaxaca city, and so do the illegal detentions of leaders of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), which have increased in the last few days, forcing many people into hiding. APPO is a grassroots movement organising for popular democracy, and it is currently at the centre of the Mexican government’s latest wave of repression, which has already resulted in mass illegal arrests [Flavio Sosa’s arrest | more] and the ‘disappearance’ of up to 100 people [APPO Communique | APPO activist interview | Eyewitness report].At the same time, there is also a concerted effort by the Mexican government to try to silence any independent media that is reporting the truth on what is happening in Oaxaca. Following the murder of Indymedia videographer Bradley Will, who was shot dead by paramilitaries whilst documenting an APPO barricade on the 25th of October, the attacks against international and national independent media have continued. Two documentary filmmakers and a translator were illegally detained on 3 December while they were eating at a restaurant in Oaxacxa city centre.Oscar Beard is an independent journalist from London currently travelling in the southern estates of Mexico. He has regularly contributed text, video and photo reports to the Indymedia newswire. See a list of his reports from Mexico.More Info: IMC-UK Oaxaca Uprising Section | Narco News| IMC-Mexico (es) | IMC-Chiapas (es-en) | CML (es) | La Jornada (es)

Buy Nothing Day mischief
3 Dec 2006
On Saturday 25th November a host of anti-consumerist actions went off across Oxford shopping centre. The day started with an info-stall, big-brand-bowling and anti-capitalist christmas carols. A congregation of shop-worshippers did the rounds, while another group left subverted till receipts in interesting locations. As evening fell Breach of the Peace samba band reclaimed Cornmarket to the cry of ‘stop shopping, start living’, merging beautifully with a local Faslane 365 anti-nuke group who were out and about doing a series of die-ins. Finally a ‘merry band of Oxford pixies’ reported having cheekily relabelled goods in several chainstores. Meanwhile many other events took place across the UK. [ reports: Samba and die-in | Shop worshippers | Relabellers ] [ related: BoP samba | Faslane 365 | UK feature | radical carols ]

Accept people’s terrorism fears, says Rai
3 Dec 2006
A PRAGMATIC approach to building opposition to the US/UK “war on terror” was suggested by Sussex anti-war activist and author Milan Rai at a meeting in Worthing. He told the Worthing Alliance at The Rest in Bath Place on Thursday November 30 that it was important to accept people’s fears of terrorism and to build on their understandable desire to keep themselves and their families safe.

Campaign against racism in Lincoln is gaining ground
2 Dec 2006
Over 100 people took part in a demonstration in Lincoln on Saturday (2nd Dec) to voice their anger over the not guilty verdict given recently against Nick Griffin and Mark Collett on charges of inciting racial hatred as well as recent local press reports suggesting that the BNP are intending to stand a number of candidates in next years local council elections. Despite this increase in attention on the BNP the LARF (Lincoln Against Racism and Fascism) campaign is gaining ground with more and more people expressing support, especially young people.Links: Stop the BNP! | Unite Against Fascism | Lincoln organises against the far rightArticles: Lincoln LARFs at the BNP (photos) | Demo Against the BNP Activities in Lincoln on Saturday 2nd Dec | Lincoln BNP member in court !