earthfirst – Page 276

Call to organise a German climate camp 2008. Plus new climate camp 2007 photo galleries, video (& links to news compilations)

Call to prepare and organise a climate camp in Germany!

1) The idea
2) How the idea emerged and how where we can go from here
3) Why organise a climate camp?
4) Communication

Call to prepare and organise a climate camp in Germany!

1) The idea
2) How the idea emerged and how where we can go from here
3) Why organise a climate camp?
4) Communication

1. The Idea

Following the model established by the Camp for Climate Action in the UK, which was held for the second time this year, we want to initiate the process of organising a Climate-Action Camp in Germany in 2008. Just like in the UK we want to create links between the exchange of knowledge (in workshops), self-organised living (in the camp) that minimises our ecological footprint, networking and direct action.

The last two camps in the UK specifically targeted particular installations, against which direct or thematically appropriate actions were organised. Last year’s target was the UK’s largest coal-fired power station, while this year the camp drew attention to the aviation industry and the expansion of London’s Heathrow airport. Whether we should also choose such focal points in Germany should be discussed at the preparatory meetings.

2. How the idea emerged and how where we can go from here

This email and initial call emerged from this year’s Camp for Climate Action in the UK, when several German-speaking people met there who had all, independently of each other, had the idea of organising such a camp in Germany. We hope to use a first planning meeting either on the last weekend in October or the first weekend in November (26.-28.10. / 2.-4.11) somewhere in the geographical centre of Germany to decide how to go on from here. If you want to attend the meeting, go to http://www.doodle.de/yu8vxh39em9zh7s7 and enter your preferred date – we can then select the most suitable date (provided it doesn’t clash with local organisation). Both date and location should be agreed on by the end of September.

3. Why organise a Climate-Action Camp

Climate chaos is a reality. And there’s not much time left to limit the damage. Which is exactly why we can’t simply jump into knee-jerk activism that simply reproduces the causes of the problem. Rather, we need to take profound direct action, without of course excluding people. We also need grounded analyses of the fundamental structures that serve to highlight the urgent need for social transformation and can communicate information about the underlying causes to a wider audience.

Climate Change is not only an ecological problem, but also a question of the distribution of its consequences. It thus also poses social questions. This is why we need immediate and direct action. Of course, we also need to discuss many other questions, for example the following (a first rough list compiled by us in the camp):

– How can we act effectively?
– What does a carbon-neutral life look like? What kind of utopias do we need? Which alternatives can we live already now?
– Why are the media suddenly interested in the issue of climate change? Which interests are pushing this? Are these interests also our own?
– Do we trust states and businesses to save us? Or do we create our own solutions?
– How do we judge the climate change policies pursued until now by environmental NGOs? What are their effects?
– Is it possible to protect the climate in the context of the current socio-economic system? Or is there a need for radical social change?
– Who profits from climate change? And what does that mean for our actions?

A climate camp could pursue these and many other questions, inspire people to think and act politico-ecologically, it could be a space for experimentation, think-tank and a space to network further common actions. Of course, we’d first have to decide:

– What could a climate camp in Germany look like?
– How could it be organised?
– Who would join?

4. Communication

Info:
Website of the UK Camp for Climate Action:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/

Indymedia reports:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2007/climatecamp/

Website of the UK-based Network for Climate Action
http://www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk

Reports on Indymedia Germany:
http://de.indymedia.org/2007/09/193563.shtml

For future communication sign up to our email list
http://lists.trilos.net/mailman/listinfo/klimacamp

We are also working on setting up some sort of internet-presence. Details to be decided at our first meeting.
http://www.klimacamp.org/

If you want to get in touch with us directly, let us know via the mailing list. We are from different parts of Germany (e.g. Freiburg, Berlin, Wendland region, Bremen) and can maybe travel to where you are to report back from the Camp with fotos and movies (as motivation in the run-up to the first organisational gathering).

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Camp for Climate Action 2007 video – the insider’s view

A 30 minute film of the climate camp has been edited from material shot on camp by indymedia type media activists working with the climate camp.

New photo galleries by various people from this year’s camp

And the handy compilations of news, photos, audio & video on this site:

Climate Camp Land Occupied & directions
Camp for Climate Action – all the info you need to get there with the right stuff, take action & do workshops
Camp for Climate Action up & running – workshops, eco-infrastructure, litter pick & Bicycology day out, plus assorted photos
Direct actions stations – climate camp
Police actions & (counter-)surveillance at the climate camp; FITwatch
24 hours of climate direct action (mass & affinity group actions spread like wildfire); plus video/audio clips

and news of the US climate convergences & actions on the West Coast and in the South East

Anti-City Academy Teachers Take To The Trees

Saturday 8 August, 2007: For six months teachers have squatted the sports ground on Forty Lane in Wembley, North West London, to protest against a privatised City Academy school being built on the site.

The council threatened to evict them and the sports ground leaseholders if they did not leave. So in true fighting fashion, the teachers, with some advice from Heathrow Airport Climate Camp erected tree platforms right under the noses of the authorities and took to the branches on Friday night.

Saturday saw a very loud protest on the ground and from the trees, informing local people of what it means to send your children to a City Academy.

City Academy’s, for those not in the know, are funded by wealthy business people, who get a say in what is and is not being taught.

Other City Academy’s have eradicated any sign of Darwinism and evolution from the classroom, only teaching creationism. Other Academy’s have designed the education program to suit their corporate interests, training children for jobs, not educating them, cutting out activities like art, music and other creative outlets.

One Academy, as one of the teachers told me, does has after-school activities though – a fully working Call Centre, where children as young as 11-years can learn the joys of working your proverbials off in probably the most pitiful form of employment known to the human race.

The protest lasted the weekend, the teachers enduring vicious abuse from the England fans, who descended on Wembley for the England-Israel football match. They could be heard for miles yelling, “Who’s that wanker in the tree” while throwing tomatoes and eggs at the teachers.

But the teachers endured, several giving it back and getting the last laugh when the England fans turned on the Israeli’s with the now historically recorded chant of, “Take you Islam and shove it up your ass.”

Football fan intelligence on parade.

Needless to say, many of the football fans did not grasp the fact that the teachers were trying to save the football pitches for the local children.

Academy Schools do not like play areas for their kids. The proposed Academy at Wembley has no space for play or outside activities.

But as the sun set that Saturday evening, the irony set in. There we were. Sat under the lit-up Wembley Stadium archway, following a national football game, drinking with teachers who were trying to save the last sports ground in the area from becoming breeze-block, concrete and glass. And mass profit for some private investor.

For more information or to support the campaign and oppose all City Academy’s and the rapid privatisation of the UK schooling system, see: http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk

Tara SOS – WARRIORS and SUPPLIES URGENTLY NEEDED!!! & recent videos & photos of protests

Friends Of Tara,

Urgent call for support at Lismullin Henge. Contractors have moved in heavy machinery onto Archaeology site to divert the Sacred Gabhra River. SOS. Your help needed now.

Friends Of Tara,

Urgent call for support at Lismullin Henge. Contractors have moved in heavy machinery onto Archaeology site to divert the Sacred Gabhra River. SOS. Your help needed now.

Thankyou.

Vigil Ph : 0861758557

This is an emergency callout from the tara front line at Rath Lugh. We are desperate for more people onsite. There are currently ONLY 20 PEOPLE trying to stop work all over the Tara Skryne valley plus the contractors are now trying to divert the Sacred Gabhra River. There is machinery either side of the Lismullen Henge. If you are unable to make it up in person then please contribute by sending up some of the following supplies that are badly needed.

-6mm and 12mm polyprop rope
-Appropriate wood for tree houses and signs
-Tarp and Canvis Material
-Cement
-Sand
-Sleeping bags and blankets
-Climbing equipment / harness etc
-Chains and clips
-Head Torches
-Second hand Bikes
-Sealable containers

You can call the vigil phone for directions to Rathlugh or to arrange for a drop off of supplies to site.
Please network this callout.

For recent videos & photos of protests, check out http://livevideo.com/tarapixie

Global Actions Against Heavy Industry

12.09.2007 – Today, people in South Africa, Iceland, Trinidad, Denmark and America are protesting against heavy industrialisation. This is the first coordinated event of a new and growing global movement that began at the 2007 Saving Iceland protest camp in Ölfus, Iceland. The common target of these protests against heavy industry is the aluminium industry, in particular the corporations Alcan/Rio-Tinto and Alcoa.

South Africa, around 250 people have marched on Alcan’s headquaters in Johanasburg to protest against Alcan’s preferential energy treatment, ahead of a population of which 30% have no access to electricity. Alcan is to be provided with coal and nuclear powered energy for a new smelter in the Eastern Cape that will consume as much electricity as half of Cape Town, at some of the lowest tarriffs in the world. Today the entrance to the Alcan HQ was blocked for one and a half hours with no one comming in or out.

The organisation Earthlife Africa Jhb, whose member Lerato Maregele attended the Saving Iceland 2007 Conference and protest camp, are taking part in the demonstration and have the following demands: First, Alcan and Eskom, the national power company, fully disclose all the details of their deal, including the actual price of electricity sold. Second, that Eskom allocate a basic lifeline of 100kwh per month to every South African.

Iceland, despite terrible winds and rain today, there have been protests outside the government offices in Reykjavik and a gathering along the islands next proposed dam route, along the river Thjorsa (Þjórsá) at 3pm GMT. Also, the Icelandic Minister for the Environment, Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, was visited at her home this morning to have a friendly chat with activists and receive a letter asking her to clear up her seemingly contradictory green opinions.

The Icelandic government is trying to rush through the construction of numerous new and expanded aluminium smelters to bring the islands total aluminium output up to three million tonnes per year. These hydro and geothermal powered heavy industry projects have been condemned by environmental scientists and lobbying groups. Three dam reservoirs are to be created along the Thjorsa river, where protesters have gathered, to power a new Alcoa smelter near the northern town of Husavik, or an expansion of the Alcan plant in Hafnarfjordur which was vetoed in a local referendum.

“Unemployment in Iceland is 0.9%. So this destruction is only based on the greed of Landsvirkjun [the national power company] and has no economical logic. We are here to show support with the local farmers who are fighting against Landsvirkjun to defend their land and our land.”
– Saving Iceland activist Siggi Hardarson.

Trinidad, activists are remembering the first anniversary of an action in which people confronted plans for an Alcoa smelter in the rural town of Chatam; whilst lawyers are regrouping ahead of a legal battle against the Environmental Management Authority, representing heavy industry, that will be pivotal in the islands development.

“September 12 2006 was the day that activists confronted tractors and police on Foodcrop Road and this day will forever live in the hearts and minds of activists in
Trinidad and Tobago as a crucial moment of our fight for environmental and
social justice.”
– Attillah Springer, Rights Action Group

Pressure from grassroots actions such as this persuaded Prime Minister Patrick Manning to drop plans to build the Alcoa smelter in Chatam. Confronted by four cases against themselves, the EMA, whose two main stakeholders are NEC and the aluminium corporation Alutrint, were significantly turned down by the Judge in their plea that three NGO’s – RAG, PURE and Smelta Karavan should not be able to bring action against them. This important ruling recognises that the issue of heavy industrialisation is to Trinidad national, not merely local. The people Vs EMA continues on Thursday 13th September.

Denmark, at 6pm CEST (4pm GMT) this evening a crowd will march to the Icelandic embassy and the Greenland’s Representation Office with a banner that reads “Global Struggle Against Heavy Industry”. Talks will be given on the global fight against heavy industry and the movement of resistance. Alcoa is in the planning stage of a smelter project in Greenland whilst the prime minister Hans Enoksen is presently in New York to seek loans to finance the hydropower project.

In Australia, residents in the West have acquired the support of US Attorney Erin Brockovitch in a legal battle against Alcoa. The corporation intends to double the output of its operations in the region whilst residents of the nearby town Yarloop are demanding that Alcoa relocate them. They claim that they are “living in a toxic bubble” and that their health has dramatically suffered due to Alcoa’s work.

Further actions may be taking place, we shall send updates out as soon as we get them.

savingiceland [at] riseup.net
http://www.savingiceland.org

Direct Action News From Greece

news from nowhere – http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/

DIRECT ACTION NEWS FROM GREECE

-English: Providing an open database on sabotage-vandalism-rioting and other fine popular arts that blossom throughout the ruins of our post-industrial society. Send your own reports at directactiongr@yahoo.gr

news from nowhere – http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/

DIRECT ACTION NEWS FROM GREECE

An attemp to cover-publicise-translate all direct action news, away from the mass media mediation.

http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/

Nearly 30 Months of Neglect: Sparkbrook Social Centre Remains Abandoned

The Cottage of Content social house at 147 Kyrwicks Lane, Sparkbrook has had a turbulent past two years. Following an eviction, criminal damage, an occupation and attempted restoration, followed by another eviction, the building continues to rot on the corner of Montpellier Street, with Birmingham City Council seemingly oblivious to its presence or its potential.

The story of the Sparkbrook social house and community space goes back to April 2005, when on the 11th of that month, Birmingham City Council served an eviction notice on the then occupiers, a Yemeni cultural and social group, who used only part of the building for weekly meetings, English lessons and a variety of other beneficial activities serving the Sparkbrook community, specifically the Yemenis. The notice was served, the occupants evicted, and this key social space was subsequently boarded up in May of 2005.

From that point Birmingham Property Services – the in-house property branch of Birmingham City Council – deemed the property surplus and hoped to auction the space off to the highest bidder. The public space was due to be auctioned on the 19th of July 2006, over a year after it was originally declared surplus. However, prior to this intended sale of public land, then-councillor Hardeman suggested a review of the property and its uses before it’s auction. This review came to nothing, and the auction was still to go ahead as planed.

Regarding the threat of this social building being sold to private developers for profit, a group of enthusiastic activists gained entry to the Cottage on July the 9th, 2006. Their intention was to restore the Cottage back to being an asset to the local community, and in the 69 days their occupation lasted, the collective redecorated the interior, tidied the exterior, repaired plumbing, some wiring and arranged for public meetings to debate the future of this community space.

As a first-hand witness, the work the Cottage collective did in changing the building into a disused run-down shack to a viable and enjoyable community space was both productive and inspirational. Several music nights were organized; a barbeque party went ahead and a modest collection of books were collected, free for anyone in the community to borrow, so long as they returned them. More critically, however, was the campaign started by the collective and endorsed by local residents to save the Cottage of Content.

The City Council issued an eviction notice, and the collective were summoned to Birmingham Priory Courts on the 24th of August 2006. Judge Savage noted that the Council’s claim to the land was in fact was too extensive than it should have been, and informed the Council that they only owned a part of the property in question. Judge Savage however took no interest or sympathy in the Cottage of Content’s case, its possible sale to the private sector, nor the will of the community and the collective to restore it to a rightful public community space. The eviction notice was served, and the occupation ended on September the 15th, 2006. The occupiers who had done so much to the building for the community were forcibly evicted. Following this the council again secured the building from entry and left it to stand for a further nine months.

Twenty-seven months will soon have past from when the prime piece of public real-estate was boarded up back in May 2005. So much has happened to 147 Kyrwicks lane, but regarding the Council nothing much seems to have been done at all. Following enquiries regarding the current state of the property, the Council’s plans and if it is for sale, this particular journalist is still awaiting a reply, almost a week after initially filing my Freedom of Information request.

When returning to the Cottage after almost a year since I covered the occupation and eviction, I found the place in a sorry state. Offensive graffiti scrawled across the sides of the building, evidence of various arson attempts by bored youths, broken glass littered everywhere amongst other things, and a severely unkempt garden that lay testament to the neglect this building suffers from people in high places.

In photographing the building in disrepair I came across three Asian youths local to Sparkbrook, sitting on the benches in the overgrown garden of the Cottage. I took the opportunity to ask them if they knew anything about the building.

“Yes, we knew there was an occupation and we attended one of the meetings, but before long the Council threw them out, and boarded the place back up again, so it was short lived” explains Akbar, 22, who has lived in Sparkbrook all his life.

When asked about the potential of the building for his neighbourhood, Akbar enthused: “There is just so much you can do! For instance I know a lot of young mothers who would love the opportunity of day-care for their children, which would give them the time to work more. This building could provide that.”

Akram, Akbar’s friend, commented on its current state: “It’s a disgrace, I mean look at it. The younger kids try to break into the place and smoke weed or do damage to the inside, because there’s nothing else to do here for the younger youth.”

Akbar agreed: “I’ve even seen a prostitute use that place one time, climbed in through one of the open windows with what I’m guessing was a client. But that was rare, that doesn’t happen all the time. The little kids however, they are always trying to break in, to smoke weed and mess about inside. There’s nothing else for them to do.”

Akbar continues: “In its current state it [the Cottage] is just a magnet for undesirables, you understand? People go here to do things in secret because they know no one will bother them”. “Even though the police have been called here a few times” says Akram, “about the noise and damage, local youth still get into trouble in there”.

“I didn’t have a chance to see much of the work the activists did” continues Akram, referring to the occupation in 2006, “but without a doubt the building would have been in a better state than this – at least it was providing something to the community. This is just a run-down relic of neglect, like they [the Council] have forgotten about it completely”.

Akram may not be far off the truth. Almost 30 months ago the Cottage of Content provided a small but useful and appreciated service to the locals of Sparkbrook. For 24 of those 30 months it has been a “magnet for undesirables”. For the remainder, during the occupation, strides were made in re-establishing the building as a free-for-all community resource. If the Council chose to give the community a chance to handle its own property, who knows what services could be offered, and what potential could be fulfilled at the Cottage of Content?

Notes for editor:

BCC put social space up for auction:
http://www.bondwolfe.net/docs/NEW%20LO-RES%20CATALOGUE.pdf

Start of Occupation:
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/346958.html

Cottage of Content Events [during occupation]:
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/347378.html

Court Case:
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/348962.html
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/349118.html

Post-Eviction:
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/351346.html

GM Actions in France (13/9/2007)

EXTRACT: many actions… were organised in France this Spring and Summer:

Field clearings, symbolic clearings that deposited GMO plants in front of police stations or Monsanto offices, pollination of GM fields with non-GM pollen, occupation of official plant protection offices, experiments showing the reality of contaminations …

EXTRACT: many actions… were organised in France this Spring and Summer:

—

Message from Guy Kastler, Reseau Semences Paysannes (Peasant Seeds Network)
11 September 2007
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

The official registry of the French Ministry for Agriculture only indicates the total surface of GMO cultivations in each region.

Greenpeace has shed light on the existence of a GMO parcel of land that the Ministry’s registry failed to publish. Thereby Greenpeace has demonstrated the government’s incapability in ensuring public information, surveillance on GMOs and coexistence.

This action made a lot of noise as Greenpeace has good communication services. But this is only one among the many actions that were organised in France this Spring and Summer:

We (REseau Semences Paysannes) are currently preparing the second stage (mid-October) of the moratorium – I (Guy) will keep you updated and soon send you infos about it.

Greenpeace discovers an illegal GM field, files a suit and calls for an immediate moratorium on open-field cultivation

Press release – source not indicated), September 5th, 2007

Bezeril (Gers), France

Starting this morning at 9h30, Greenpeace activists mark an illegal GM corn field with red food colorant: this field is not published on the public registry of the Agriculture Ministry, as current rules in force would require.

According to the official registry, the Samatan region is supposed to be totally GM free. Through this action, Greenpeace demonstrates that GM corn cultivations are uncontrollable – in terms of contamination, toxicity and legality. The Government must immediately impose a moratorium on open-field cultivations.

“We have come to denounce a crime and to file a suit with the State Attorney of Auch,” declares Magali Ringoot, Greenpeace GMO campaigner. “We are asking Government Authorities to ascertain the infraction, to open an inquiry and to proceed with an immediate preventive harvest.”

Since last March, GM cultivations – that is of MON810 maize, the only GM crop authorised in France – must compulsorily be declared at the Ministry of Agriculture in order for them to be inventoried by region on a public registry (accessible at: http://ogm.gouv.fr).

The deadline for declarations was May 15th, 2007.

“Regarding open-field GM cultivations, France is currently in a total legal vacuum: the decrees issued last March make no mention in terms of liability, information transparency or the obligation to inform one’s neighbours – not even on the distances to keep between GM and non-GM fields,” an indignant Arnaud Apoteker reports, Greenpeace GMO campaigner. “The Government is totally incapable of making sure the rules it has established are kept, that is the obligation to declare one’s GMO parcel of land.”

It was possible to detect this illegal field thanks to the marking work carried out on the terrain by Greenpeace’s “field detectives”. “By marking this illegal field with red colour, our goal is not to attack the field owner, but to put an end to this enormous hypocrisy that keeps repeating that GMO are controllable in open fields,” continues Magali Ringoot. “GMOs are not controllable: on the one hand, because GMOs contaminate the environment, and on the other, because one would need to place a police person in each field to know where GMOs are planted exactly.”

“This summer, under the pretext of not wanting to reconsider the decisions taken before the elections, the government allowed the cultivation of over 20’000 hectares of GM maize. Result: the ill-ease in the countryside grew and the climate of trust necessary to prepare the traditional government-CSOs meeting on environmental issues (Grenelle de l’environnement) was spoiled too,” notes Arnaud Apoteker. “Given the massive public opposition, new emerging scientific analyses showing toxicity risks and this latest evidence that GMOs are not controllable, it would be absurd if the Government did not immediately decree a moratorium on open-field cultivations, even before the traditional Grenelle meeting.”

Furthermore, at the European Union level, France is increasingly isolated. Italy, Greece, Poland, Austria and Hungary have already banned open-field GM cultivation on their territories. Apart from Spain, France is the only European country today with large scale GM cultivations. In Romania, Greenpeace activists are today blocking access to an illegal GM soy field. Romania banned open-field GM soy cultivation in February 2006, after granting authorisation for eight years.

Cycle to Recycle: A Radley Lakes Protest 15 September 2007

You are invited to join cyclists from across Oxfordshire in a bicycle ride in support of the campaign to Save Radley Lakes next Saturday. Cyclists in Oxford are invited to congregate in Broad Street, Oxford City (OX1 3AS) outside the Oxford Campus Store, at 12.00 midday on Saturday 15 September. The cyclists will proceed toward Radley Lakes. Cyclists from the Abingdon area will group at Radley railway station (OX14 3AE; adjacent to the Bowyers Arms) for 1.00pm. The whole party will then go forward to Abingdon passing through Radley Lakes.

Further information at saveradleylakes.org.uk and cpreoxon.org.uk

It Costa Nothing! Reclaiming the Cowley Road, Oxford

10.09.2007
Increasingly annoyed with the growing number of chains and instead of whinging about the state of our society, a group of intrepid activists decided to do something about it…

Gentrification is crap leaflet – application/pdf 87K

Shouting,“Who says you can’t get something for nothing”, the small gang set up ‘shop’ outside the new Costa coffee. Handing out free coffee, tea, vegan cake and (hastily made) leaflets on the current state of the Cowley Road, passers by stopped to chat, chew and slurp.

HOMOGENISATION AND RENTS RISES

According to new economics foundation (nef):
“The homogenisation of high streets is also not a benign or inevitable product of ‘progress’:
* Loss of diversity ultimately leads to a loss of true choice for consumers as well as a loss of local character
* Replacement of locally owned outlets by retail multiples can damage the local economy as profits drain out of the area to remote corporate headquarters and local employment is destroyed
* The many people who now wish to return to local, high street shopping may find that their distinctive local shops have been replaced by “micro-format” supermarket or chain branches” http://neweconomics.org/gen/clonetown.aspx

And it’s not just cloning that’s wrenching the heart out of East Oxford, thanks to the rate rise on the Cowley Road, small shops have gone out of business. Coopers, the newsagents and a family run business for 15 years – closed recently. The ‘Plain Traders’ are also feeling the squeeze, with Bead Games, over 20 years old, considering shutting up shop too. Here big business benefits from its huge revenues; moving in and making the whole world a blander place. As well as challenging the cloning, capitalism needs dismantling too! Starting with free cake is a small step in the right direction!

“…TOTALLY AGREE”

And people passing by concurred; some of the feedback we received included:
* “Good on you, I visit Oxford once a year and it’s heart-breaking what’s happening to East Oxford”
* “We’ve just written stuff about gentrification for our A levels, we feel dead guilty because we’re meeting some mates in Costa”
* “Wow, this cake is delicious. I totally agree with what you’re doing. I mean, do we really need another coffee shop? Do we really need another George & Danvers?”
* “In Jericho we’ve started to call it New Deli, coz there’s delicatessen after delicatessen after delicatessen.”
* “You doing this to piss off Costa? Fuckin’ nice one!”

It’d be well cool to see other people taking the initiative: free sandwiches freshly made outside the Subway (remember, it still doesn’t have planning permission), sound systems outside the new Carling Academy. Use your imagination; reclaim your world!

As for Costa, we’ll be back there next Saturday, maybe upping the ante a bit too. Meet 1pm at the OARC (1st floor of the East Oxford Community Centre) and we’ll go from there.

http://neweconomics.org/gen/m1_1_i4_renewal.aspx

Location of the Gatwick No Border Camp disclosed – 20-23rd September

The organisers of the Gatwick Area No Border Camp have announced the location of their camp site. The rented field is located near the village of Salfords, Surrey, which lies approximately 3 miles south of Redhill on the A23 road that runs between London to Brighton. The site is close to both the M23 and Salfords Train Station.

The protest camp, to be held between the 20th and 23rd of this month, is part of a campaign to stop the building of a new detention centre at Gatwick Airport. The four days of action will see demonstrations in Crawley, Croydon and Gatwick, as well as numerous workshops and activities on various migration- and detention-related issues.

A spokeswoman from No Borders UK, the network organising the protest camp, said, “We were lucky to find the land in time. We have paid the rent and sent a Temporary Event Notice to the local authorities and are in the process of arranging other logistics.”

Police have reportedly been going around calling on farmers in the Salfords area, including the owner of the camp site, asking if they were letting the No Border Camp use their land. “They have apparently been trying hard to stop this camp,” Lisa Morgan added. “This is simply a violation of people’s right to protest and assembly.”

Camp organisers today called on local residents and handed them a letter informing them of the camp and inviting them to take part. The letter, which contained details about the camp, its aims and programme, said “We expect the media and local authorities to distort the truth and present us as ‘troublemakers’. Come and see for yourselves and take part in our activities, and see why we are here and what we want to achieve. It is not our intention to cause any disruption or disturbance for the local communities or businesses.”

A new purpose-built immigration detention centre is planned at Gatwick Airport as part of the government’s five-year strategy for asylum and immigration. The prison, to be called Brook House, is due to open in 2008 and will have a total capacity of 426 places for male and female detainees. It is being developed by BAA Lynton on behalf of the Airport Property Partnership. BAA Lynton had developed the existing centre at Gatwick, Tinsley House, in a similar way. The government has already seen the ‘benefits’ of locating ‘removal centres’ close to airports, with operations at Colnbrook and Harmondsworth, near Heathrow, and Tinsley House at Gatwick.

There are 10 so-called Immigration Removal Centres in the UK. Seven are run by private companies contracted by the Home Office’s Border and Immigration Agency (previously the Immigration and Nationality Directorate), while three are run by the Prison Service. As of July 2007, these prisons have a total capacity of 2,506. However, the Labour government, which inherited 700 places when it took office in 1997, is aiming for a total of 4,000 places. In addition, there are many so-called Short-term Holding Facilities at many ports and airports throughout the country as well as at a number of Immigration Reporting Centres.

Website: http://noborders.org.uk
Mailinglist: https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/gatwick07