Category: Squatting / Free Spaces / Protest Sites

The Basement Fire / Flood Update. WE NEED YOU!

The Base­ment is a social cen­tre in Cen­tral Man­ches­ter with a veg­an cafe, activist library, book­shop, com­put­er hub and exhi­bi­tion space. We have been bad­ly affect­ed by the mas­sive fire on Mon­day and we are appeal­ing for help so we can get back open again as soon as pos­si­ble.

The Base­ment is a social cen­tre in Cen­tral Man­ches­ter with a veg­an cafe, activist library, book­shop, com­put­er hub and exhi­bi­tion space. We have been bad­ly affect­ed by the mas­sive fire on Mon­day and we are appeal­ing for help so we can get back open again as soon as pos­si­ble.

The Base­ment Social Cen­tre in Man­ches­ter was bad­ly dam­aged in the huge fire which start­ed on Dale Street on Mon­day morn­ing. It is now closed for essen­tial repairs but we hope to open again in the near future, In the mean­time apolo­gies to all our user groups, cus­tomers and friends.

Luck­i­ly we did not go up in flames; how­ev­er we have suf­fered smoke dam­age and more sig­nif­i­cant­ly severe flood dam­age from our sprin­kler sys­tem

Some of us were able to briefly go in and sal­vage impor­tant items; the scene that greet­ed us was grim but rather less apoc­a­lyp­tic than we first feared. There were pud­dles of water rather than the 2 metres we were warned about but many books, leaflets and art works are well beyond repair. Ceil­ing tiles have come down and we can not yet be sure how bad­ly affect­ed the IT hub and kitchen are.

We are not cur­rent­ly able to gain access to start the clean up or even ful­ly assess the dam­age, this is because the area is still deemed unsafe until adja­cent build­ings are demol­ished. Lat­est reports sug­gest we will be able to get in some­time next week. This is incred­i­bly frus­trat­ing and obvi­ous­ly damp things will fes­ter so we are fac­ing a huge chal­lenge,

When we are able to start we would be huge­ly grate­ful for any help with the clean up. Its going to be a mas­sive task and the more vol­un­teers the bet­ter. We will also need finan­cial sup­port because although we do have some insur­ance it will not cov­er all our loss­es. Exten­sive ren­o­va­tion and restock­ing will be nec­es­sary and we real­ly do need you.

We have all been touched by many mes­sages of sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port we have received. Thank you every­body. Cheers also to the Fire Brigade who have been ace.

We now ask that you think about turn­ing kind words into action. We have a new web­site which includes a place to reg­is­ter offers of prac­ti­cal help and also an online dona­tion facil­i­ty. Any con­tri­bu­tions you can make, phys­i­cal or finan­cial will be much appre­ci­at­ed.

Please go to http://thebasement.clearerchannel.org/new/

The Base­ment will rise, phoenix like, and be stronger and more glo­ri­ous – but we will need the help of our friends and sup­port­ers to do so

Love and under­wa­ter kiss­es

The Base­ment Col­lec­tive
mustsocial@yahoo.co.uk

Squaf: Sheffield Squat Café and Social Centre

Open­ing tonight, 1st May 2007, for a lim­it­ed time only (depend­ing on input), is a new squat­ted social cen­tre and café in the for­mer Tramway pub on Lon­don Road, Sheffield. The first event is a Open Mic Night from 8pm, oth­er planned events include:

Squaf logoOpen­ing tonight, 1st May 2007, for a lim­it­ed time only (depend­ing on input), is a new squat­ted social cen­tre and café in the for­mer Tramway pub on Lon­don Road, Sheffield. The first event is a Open Mic Night from 8pm, oth­er planned events include:

# Café
# Freeshop
# Bike Work­shops
# Gigs
# Work­shops
# Wom­en’s day
# Dis­cus­sions
# Bar-B-Qs’

For more info see the SQUAF web site: http://www.squaf.aktivix.org/

End of the line for coal: Protestors blockade coal trains, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

Press release: Save hap­py Val­ley Christchurch
Sun­day 29th April 2007

Save Hap­py Val­ley mem­bers have locked onto the train tracks near Christchurch to call for an end to new coal mines in New Zealand. Oth­er mem­bers have hung a twen­ty-two metre ban­ner – ‘Sol­id Ener­gy: Govt Spon­sored Cli­mate Chaos – along two of the coal wag­ons. They are on Kirk Road, Tem­ple­ton.

“Cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mat­ic events are already occur­ring; cli­mate change is hap­pen­ing now,” said Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son. “Ear­li­er this year New Zealand final­ly reached the end of the line for coal fired pow­er sta­tions. It must also be the end of the line for coal min­ing.”

Two activists are locked onto the tracks, while a fur­ther twen­ty are on the tracks by the train. Save Hap­py Val­ley works for the pro­tec­tion of Hap­py Val­ley, pro­posed site of Sol­id Ener­gy’s next open­cast mine on the West Coast of the South Island. The group also cam­paigns for a just and swift tran­si­tion away from coal min­ing.

“Sol­id Ener­gy is ever increas­ing its pro­duc­tion, leav­ing dec­i­mat­ed ecosys­tems and water­ways in its wake. Already, they are respon­si­ble for annu­al car­bon diox­ide emis­sions approx­i­mate­ly equiv­a­lent to New Zealand’s entire trans­port fleet. Say­ing “no” to new coal mines would be an easy first step in actu­al­ly address­ing cli­mate change,” said Simon Rid­del, one of the activists locked to the tracks.

“The world’s cli­mate is becom­ing increas­ing­ly unpre­dictable and human-induced green­house gas emis­sions are evi­dent­ly respon­si­ble. The fos­sil fuel indus­try is a pre­ventable cause,” said Gre­go­ry Curline, the sec­ond activist ‘on the line.’

“Half of the coal extract­ed is sent off shore, gen­er­at­ing emis­sions out­side of our Kyoto Pro­to­col oblig­a­tions. How­ev­er, New Zealand is respon­si­ble for the coal it exports. The Gov­ern­ment must pull its state owned enter­prise back under con­trol,” said Mr Jury.

// ENDS

Media Con­tact
Gra­ham Jury, Save Hap­py Val­ley Christchurch spokesper­son, 0273070448

Notes
In March 2007, Mighty Riv­er Pow­er, anoth­er SOE, announced that it had dis­card­ed its plans to turn Mars­den B into an oper­a­tional coal fired pow­er sta­tion.

http://savehappyvalley.org.nz

Cambridge Climate Camp meetup

Hey all. There will be a meet­ing on Sat May 5 at 7pm for any­one in Cam­bridge and East Anglia gen­er­al­ly who is inter­est­ed in going to the Camp for Cli­mate Action on August 14–21, 2007. Peo­ple who were at last year’s camp will talk about what it was like, and we will have a chance to get to know each-oth­er and talk about going as a group to the cli­mate camp.

Hey all. There will be a meet­ing on Sat May 5 at 7pm for any­one in Cam­bridge and East Anglia gen­er­al­ly who is inter­est­ed in going to the Camp for Cli­mate Action on August 14–21, 2007. Peo­ple who were at last year’s camp will talk about what it was like, and we will have a chance to get to know each-oth­er and talk about going as a group to the cli­mate camp.

The meet­ing is in the McCrum Sem­i­nar room in Cor­pus Christi Col­lege. The direc­tions to Cor­pus are here: www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/about/directions.htm To get to the McCrum Sem­i­nar room, head to the McCrum lec­ture the­atre off Benet St (marked on the map — its next to the Eagle pub); but turn right in front of the lec­ture the­atre, up some stairs. Direct­ly ahead are some more steps going down to the left, go down those into a pas­sage­way and the McCrum Sem­i­nar room is to the right.

The Camp for Cli­mate Action (www.climatecamp.org.uk) is a week-long event that will include work­shops about cli­mate change and oth­er top­ics, enter­tain­ment, alter­na­tive tech­nol­o­gy, low-tech liv­ing, and direct action against some of the indus­tri­al pol­luters that cause cli­mate change.

Please invite any­one who might be inter­est­ed.

cambridge@lists.riseup.net
http://www.cambridgeaction.net

new north london occupied social centre

the old mountview the­atre school site in crouch end is open­ing its doors to the pub­lic on sun­day the 29th april after being aban­doned by the dra­ma school now based in wood green. the new social cen­tre ben­e­fits from a small the­atre, which can be con­vert­ed for cin­e­ma nights, as well as exhi­bi­tion space, large work­shop spaces, a bar and kitchen, and res­i­den­tial area.

Crouch Hill social centre 1the old mountview the­atre school site in crouch end is open­ing its doors to the pub­lic on sun­day the 29th april after being aban­doned by the dra­ma school now based in wood green. the new social cen­tre ben­e­fits from a small the­atre, which can be con­vert­ed for cin­e­ma nights, as well as exhi­bi­tion space, large work­shop spaces, a bar and kitchen, and res­i­den­tial area.

the launch par­ty for this excit­ing new art com­mu­ni­ty starts at 5pm on sun­day and will be a show­case of tal­ent fea­tur­ing an art exhi­bi­tion, live art, cabaret, bands, and film. there will be a wide range of music with a con­firmed line-up of hip-hop, folk, elec­tro, and indy. full details to fol­low.

there will be food and drink and entry is by dona­tion.

mem­bers of project 142 and the 491 gallery are among the organ­is­ers of this new com­mu­ni­ty which will be called “project 104” as it is sit­u­at­ed at 104 crouch hill, lon­don n8.

future usage and events are still in the plan­ning stage — ideas are wel­come

near­est tube is fins­bury park, from where you can walk 15 mins up stroud green road and over crouch hill. or catch the w7 bus from the wells ter­race exit of the tube sta­tion. project 104 is just over the brow of the hill about halfway down on the right.
crouch hill sil­ver­link sta­tion is a short walk away too (turn right out of sta­tion and walk over the hill).

call 07903 297199 for more info

New Titnore Woods Phone

The phone num­ber to con­tact the Tit­nore Woods protest camp has changed. The new num­ber for the camp is 07913 534083. The old one no longer works. Please pass the new num­ber around.

We are camped in Tit­nore Woods near Wor­thing to resist a large Tesco and hous­ing devel­op­ment project. It would destroy some of the last remain­ing ancient wood­land in Sus­sex, if it goes ahead. Vis­i­tors and dona­tions are wel­come.

The phone num­ber to con­tact the Tit­nore Woods protest camp has changed. The new num­ber for the camp is 07913 534083. The old one no longer works. Please pass the new num­ber around.

We are camped in Tit­nore Woods near Wor­thing to resist a large Tesco and hous­ing devel­op­ment project. It would destroy some of the last remain­ing ancient wood­land in Sus­sex, if it goes ahead. Vis­i­tors and dona­tions are wel­come.

Reclaim Power — 15min film version online

In the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. With over one hun­dred work­shops on a wide range of top­ics, the 10 day camp was a space of col­lec­tive learn­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing and tak­ing direct action on the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The gath­er­ing that showed prac­ti­cal low ener­gy solu­tions in action, cul­mi­nat­ed in a day of protest and mass direct action in an attempt to shut down Drax.

In the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. With over one hun­dred work­shops on a wide range of top­ics, the 10 day camp was a space of col­lec­tive learn­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing and tak­ing direct action on the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The gath­er­ing that showed prac­ti­cal low ener­gy solu­tions in action, cul­mi­nat­ed in a day of protest and mass direct action in an attempt to shut down Drax.

You can down­load this 15 min ver­sion of the film ‘Reclaim Pow­er — voic­es from the camp for cli­mate action’ here:

http://video.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/821.shtml

order the mul­ti­lin­gual DVD 62 min + sev­er­al extras — or this 15 min ver­sion in DVD qual­i­ty here: orders@cinerebelde.org or networking@climatecamp.org.uk

More infor­ma­tion about the camp 2007: http://climatecamp.org.uk

You are wel­come to post or link up this 15 min clip on your web­sites. Please include a link to cine rebelde: http://www.cinerebelde.org/site.php3?id_rubrique=166〈=en

Bath Climate Camp evicted — BUT THE DEMOS ARE STILL HAPPENING!

19.04.2007
Bath Cli­mate Camp was today evict­ed by a stu­pid­ly large num­ber of cops, part of a stu­pid­ly large police oper­a­tion involv­ing ran­dom stop and search­es at the train sta­tion and on the streets — The rea­son for the evic­tion? Sec­tion 63 of the CJB — we were appar­ent­ly using the demo as a pre­text for a free par­ty!

19.04.2007
Bath Cli­mate Camp was today evict­ed by a stu­pid­ly large num­ber of cops, part of a stu­pid­ly large police oper­a­tion involv­ing ran­dom stop and search­es at the train sta­tion and on the streets — The rea­son for the evic­tion? Sec­tion 63 of the CJB — we were appar­ent­ly using the demo as a pre­text for a free par­ty!

But the demos will go on as planned, and crash space is avail­able -
*Fri­day — office hours — Demo at Land and Marine HQ near the A4 on Low­er Bris­tol Rd
*sat­ur­day, par­ty against petrol — meet 12 noon at Bath Abbey

If you were think­ing of com­ing along, please still do, to show the cops that their bul­ly­ing tac­tics won’t stop our resis­tance!

(less) Hap­py Camper x

bathclimatecamp@yahoo.co.uk

The Mutatoes Are Coming !!! And Cambridge GM site location/walk report. And Rampart events

Every­thing you ever want­ed to know about Franken­spuds, but were afraid to ask.
@ ram­pART (www.rampart.co.nr) this Tues­day (17th), 8pm
16 ram­part street, lon­don E1 2LA

Films and dis­cus­sion on GM crops tri­als in the UK and the pre­vi­ous­ly sucess­ful cam­paign to stop them. Plus update on the biotech indus­tries lat­est attempts to push this shit down our throats.

GM potato headEvery­thing you ever want­ed to know about Franken­spuds, but were afraid to ask.
@ ram­pART (www.rampart.co.nr) this Tues­day (17th), 8pm
16 ram­part street, lon­don E1 2LA

Films and dis­cus­sion on GM crops tri­als in the UK and the pre­vi­ous­ly sucess­ful cam­paign to stop them. Plus update on the biotech indus­tries lat­est attempts to push this shit down our throats.

This month a con­tro­ver­sial exper­i­men­tal genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied pota­to crop is due to be plant­ed in the UK by the Ger­man chem­i­cal giant BASF (off­shoot of the infa­mous AG Far­ben). The tri­als are the first GM crops to enter British soil in near­ly 3 years, after pub­lic oppo­si­tion forced a u‑turn in gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate plans for patent­ed crops.

The pota­to tri­als are a poor­ly dis­guised test of pub­lic oppo­si­tion, so to make sure that oppo­si­tion is ade­quate­ly expressed, a nation­al ral­ly is tak­ing place on Sat 21st April. Come along, learn about the his­to­ry of the anti-GM cam­paign and find out about trans­port from Lon­don. For more info, con­tact rally@mutatoes.org (0113 262 9365) or check out the web­site www.mutatoes.org

——————————————

Here is an aer­i­al view of the site of the forth­com­ing GM pota­toes tri­als in Cam­bridge:
cambridge GM spud aerial view

Defra have pub­lished the 6 fig­ure grid ref­er­ence for the GM Pota­to tri­al site near Cam­bridge.
It is: TL430627
You can see the Defra doc­u­ment here — http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/regulation/pdf/trials.pdf

——————————————
Cambridge GM walk
We protest­ed against Gm pota­toes

We had around 60 demon­stra­tors tramp­ing over the NIAB fields to oppose the new GM pota­to crop tri­al just out­side of Cam­bridge.

We received a lot of media atten­tion and it was a fun day out for all the fam­i­ly includ­ing nation­al speak­ers, coun­try walks, shout­ing and all round­ed off with deli­cious pota­to soup… oh! and don’t for­get the pirate trike sound sys­tem!

——————————————

More ram­pART news and events…

» Thurs­day Cin­e­ma (19th April), from 8pm sharp

> Regen­er­a­tion Game (75min), by Mike Lane, an activist and film­mak­er from Liv­er­pool

We live in a city that has third world con­di­tions in many of our com­mu­ni­ties and in this day and age, in the 21st cen­tu­ry, that is fun­da­men­tal­ly wrong. This doc­u­men­tary film is about ordi­nary peo­ple like our­selves, peo­ple who had their lives adverse­ly affect­ed by our civic lead­ers with­in the Liv­er­pool city coun­cil, and by var­i­ous local and cen­tral gov­ern­ment agen­cies and rich prop­er­ty devel­op­ers. It is also about peo­ple and how they empow­er them­selves, how they stood up and said no, about local democ­ra­cy or the lack of it. Com­mu­ni­ty activists always knew that regen­er­a­tion fund­ing would be redi­rect­ed away from Liv­er­pool poor areas and put into the pock­ets of the rich.

The spe­cif­ic exam­ples looked at in this doc­u­men­tary are:

1) How the coun­cil has col­lud­ed with local land devel­op­ers in order to take away from the peo­ple of Liv­er­pool coun­cil hous­ing and land in order to providecheap land for the devel­op­ers so they can build hous­es for sale.

2) The coun­cil togeth­er with prop­er­ty devel­op­ers is steal­ing prop­er­ty from home own­ers through com­pul­so­ry pur­chase orders sup­pos­ed­ly to enable the widen­ing of the Edge Lane cor­ri­dor.

3) the attempt of coun­cil togeth­er with prop­er­ty devel­op­ers to destroy a busi­ness in the heart of Liv­er­pool in order to help one of the Britain’s rich­est man, the Duke of West­min­ster, to become rich­er.

> The Bat­tle of Broad­way Mar­ket (60min), a doc­u­men­tary by Emi­ly James

At the end of Novem­ber 2005 an occup­tion was start­ed by local res­i­dents at 34 Broad­way Mar­ket to pre­vent it being knocked down for lux­u­ry flats. Over the next few months sup­port mul­ti­plied and the news trav­elled around the world. It’s a sto­ry that brings in cor­rupt prop­er­ty devel­op­ers, an incom­petant coun­cil, ram­pant gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and the ques­tion of just what sort of com­mu­ni­ty we want in 21st cen­tu­ry Lon­don.

» OTHER NEWS

> ram­pART anniver­sary post­poned

We’re sor­ry to have to annouce that the ram­pART anniver­sary events we were plan­ning for next month have now been post­poned as there is a real­ly bad clash with a very inter­est­ing (and quite sim­i­lar) sound­ing event tak­ing place in a squat­ted space else­where in Lon­don.

We’re hop­ing to find new dates in June for the anniver­sary after the G8 — details next week hope­ful­ly.

Check out the ‘com­pe­ti­tion’ on www.randomartists.org
Tem­po­rary Autonomous Art:london
Free Entry — Wed 16th Sat­ur­day 19th May
Info lines 07050 614804 / 07092 805720

» COMING SOON

> Barcelona Pirate Uni­ver­sary

Com­ing next week (prob­a­bly Thurs­day 26th but TBC)… a pre­sen­ta­tion from Pirat Uni­ver­si­ty, an open space, free and exper­i­men­tal edu­ca­tion project based in an autono­mus squat­ed space in Barcelona. Some of the activ­i­ties include ‘the noth­ing work­shop’, pirat his­to­ry and uncon­sious hack­ing, sex­u­al recy­cled toys work­shop, open­source sewing­work­shop, alter­na­tive med­i­cine, pirate TV and oth­ers. (for more infor­ma­tion www.universitatpirata.org)

They will also be pre­sent­ing info and films about oth­er grass­roots projects tak­ing place in Barcelona.

Details in next newslet­ter.

» WISH LIST

Help. We still need a nice big fuse box / con­sumer unit.

Disrupt Shell’s Annual General Meeting!

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Notice is here­by giv­en that the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Roy­al Dutch Shell plc will be held at Cir­custhe­ater, Cir­cusstraat, The Hague, The Nether­lands at 11.00 am (Dutch time) on Tues­day May 15, 2007, with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place at Novo­tel Lon­don-West Hotel and Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom at 10.00 am (UK time).

Dear All,

The date for the Shell AGM has been recent­ly announced. It is the 15th of May. As with last year the AGM will be held in the Hague with a video link up in Lon­don. The link up in Lon­don will be at the Novo­tel Lon­don West Hotel and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, 1 Short­lands, Ham­mer­smith, at 10 am UK time.

Shell to Sea is call­ing for Sol­i­dar­i­ty protests at the AGM. On the ground in Erris resis­tance con­tin­ues to Shel­l’s pro­posed refin­ery. Peat removal began at the start of April and since then there have been five group tres­pass­es onto the site shut­ting down work tem­porar­i­ly. We are cur­rent­ly in the midst of the EPA oral hear­ing for the IPPC (inte­great­ed pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol) license which is to grant Shell a license to pol­lute. Num­bers of Gar­dai in the area remain high.

Now more than ever we need to send Shell a mes­sage that this project is not accept­able and that 100 years is enough! We are hop­ing to send a del­e­ga­tion from Ire­land to the Hague to protest direct­ly. All protests at the Lon­don video link up would be warm­ly appre­ci­at­ed.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty