Category: London

Lon­don

Stuck for something to do!? Uninspired & lacklustre..? The all new singing dancing EF!AU is here to lift your spirits

As if putting the boot into the genet­ics indus­try, fill­ing emp­ty spaces with joy & cre­ativ­i­ty, and fool­ing the fos­sil-heads was­n’t enough, peo­ple have been busy wash­ing lumps of coal and cov­er­ing them­selves with paint…we kid you not…all in aid of halt­ing the trash­ing of the plan­et!

Par­lia­ments have been climbed, air­port ter­mi­nals flash(mobb)ed, fields & var­i­ous oth­er sites occu­pied, build­ing stormed & block­ad­ed, pipelines block­ad­ed & destroyed…

EF! crossed tools 1As if putting the boot into the genet­ics indus­try, fill­ing emp­ty spaces with joy & cre­ativ­i­ty, and fool­ing the fos­sil-heads was­n’t enough, peo­ple have been busy wash­ing lumps of coal and cov­er­ing them­selves with paint…we kid you not…all in aid of halt­ing the trash­ing of the plan­et!

Par­lia­ments have been climbed, air­port ter­mi­nals flash(mobb)ed, fields & var­i­ous oth­er sites occu­pied, build­ing stormed & block­ad­ed, pipelines block­ad­ed & destroyed…

Throw into the mix ye oldie Reclaim the Streets, the tried and test­ed eeeeevil Mr/Ms Sab­o­tage, the launch of a new cam­paign ‘Leave it in the Ground’, plus a sum­mer-full of dates, new con­tacts list, it’s a won­der we’ve fit­ted in a brand new sexy EF! sum­mer gath­er­ing poster (front & back). Down­load the lat­est EF!AU to share with oth­ers, sub­scribe or check out some past issues. The next issue will come out at the begin­ning of August.

And of course, this year’s EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing (or fol­low the link to the left) is from Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008, if you want to plot & plan, and laugh & chat with old friends & new.

Phew, what a scorcher!

Save the Spike Surplus Scheme

The Spike Sur­plus Scheme in Peck­ham (Lon­don) is under threat from South­wark Coun­cil which has threat­ened to sell off the land. Please sign the peti­tion and help to save the only free cre­ative space in Peck­ham.

THE Spike Sur­plus Scheme is under seri­ous threat, we need help.

Spike skipThe Spike Sur­plus Scheme in Peck­ham (Lon­don) is under threat from South­wark Coun­cil which has threat­ened to sell off the land. Please sign the peti­tion and help to save the only free cre­ative space in Peck­ham.

THE Spike Sur­plus Scheme is under seri­ous threat, we need help.

For a decade we have pro­vid­ed a cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty space along­side a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den and dojo to aid the community’s well-being. Through­out the years a full range of musi­cal and cre­ative tal­ent has passed through our doors from pup­pet shows to Manu Chao. [Hun­dreds of excit­ing local musi­cian have used Spike facil­i­ties, rais­ing their pro­files through our ser­vices includ­ing advice and prod­uct. Spike has facil­i­tat­ed bands and oth­er users on their roads to suc­cess. Cours­es are free and open to all.]

Please have a look at/sign the “Save The Spike Sur­plus Scheme” peti­tion and for­ward to as many mates as pos­si­ble.

please sign/forward peti­tion at
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/paulk/

Togeth­er we can move for­ward

check out web­site
www.spikesurplus.org

or look us up under Peck­ham (his­to­ry sec­tion) in wikipedia

or myspace
myspace.com/spikesurplus

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 79, MAY 2008

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY ‘08
3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER & ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY ‘08
3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER & ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08
5) CLIMATE CAMP SPEAKERS’ TRAINING — MANCHESTER, 17.5.08
6) MAKE A NOISE! — LONDON, 31.5.08
7) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — NATIONAL, 3.6.08

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) ‘MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS’ — INTERNATIONAL, 1.5.08
2) M1 PUBLIC NUISANCE CASE DISMISSED — SHEFFIELD, 1.5.08
3) BANK OF AMERICA, DIRTY COAL PROTEST – CHARLOTTE (USA), 23.4.08
4) GREENWASH GUERILLAS PIE FRIEDMAN — NEW YORK, 21.4.08
5) ECO-RELATED ARSON IN GREECE — 21.4.08
6) KOORAGANG COMMUNITY WALK-IN — AUSTRALIA, 19.4.08
7) BELGIAN AGRO-GIANT BLOCKADE — 17.4.08
8) TARA UPDATES — IRELAND, APRIL 08
9) BIOFOOLS DAY — NATIONWIDE, 15.4.08
10) PLANE STUPID TAKE TO THE ROOF — EDINBURGH, 14.4.08
11) BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL! — TASMANIA, 14.4.08
12) COLLEGE GROVE UPDATES — AUSTRALIA, APRIL ‘08
13) CHEVRON TOXICO GOLDMAN AWARD — SAN FRANCISCO, 13.4.08
14) SUBVERTISING — NEW GROUP, APRIL ‘08
15) CARBON DETOX — NEW BOOK, APRIL ‘08
16) BRING CLIMATE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
17) PROTEST WATCH — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
18) AIRPORTWATCH BULLETIN — APRIL ‘08
19) THE BATH BOMB — APRIL ‘08
20) LONDON CRITICAL MASS, 14TH ANNIVERSARY — APRIL 08

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
Green­peace HQ, Canon­bury Vil­las, Lon­don, N1 2PN. 10am-6pm.
This sum­mer the Camp for Cli­mate Action will pitch its tents out­side Kingsnorth coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in Kent for a week of edu­ca­tion, sus­tain­able liv­ing and direct action. Every­one is invit­ed to the camp, which is now part of an inter­na­tion­al move­ment, with eight cli­mate camps on four con­ti­nents planned for this sum­mer. Togeth­er, we will show that the blind pur­suit of eco­nom­ic growth at any cost is sim­ply insane, and is
to blame for the CO2 emis­sions and ecosys­tem destruc­tion that are caus­ing cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change. Come to the gath­er­ing and get involved!
www.climatecamp.org.uk

2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY 08
Alu­mini­um smelt­ing, even when pow­ered by geot­her­mal ener­gy, emits so much green­house gas emis­sions that Ice­land now pro­duces 18 tons of CO2 equiv­a­lent per capi­ta, com­pared to the Euro­pean aver­age of 11. May 7th at 8pm — Sav­ing Ice­land will give a pre­sen­ta­tion of these issues at The Tree­house, Bak­er St. Aberys­t­wyth, and will describe the inter­na­tion­al direct action cam­paign and plans for this sum­mer’s camp in July. (There will be a num­ber of vehi­cles going from the UK to the camp.) Come and see some of the most stun­ning places of beau­ty on earth, and help pro­tect them with direct action!
May 9th — Veg­an ban­quet with live music, bar and raf­fle! The Ban­quet starts at 7pm at Old St Pauls Hall, Edin­burgh. £5 (unwaged / low income) and £7 (waged). All prof­it will go to fund­ing the Scot­tish Sav­ing Ice­land Col­lec­tive.
Email; savingicelandscotland@riseup.net to reserve your tick­ets!
More info; http://www.savingiceland.org.

3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER and ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
Can big busi­ness save the plan­et? A series of inter­ac­tive debates on cli­mate change and cor­po­rate pow­er. Attend the live events or watch online!
Thurs­day 8 May — Can the free mar­ket stop cli­mate change? 7:30–9:30pm at Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Action Cen­tre 17–25 New Inn Yard Lon­don EC2A 3EA.
10.5.08 – ‘Will bio­fu­els help com­bat cli­mate change?’ 2:30–4:30pm Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty, Main Build­ing, Shan­don The­atre, Park Place CF10 3AT.
13.5.08 – ‘Does cli­mate change mean we should restrict avi­a­tion & tourism?’ 7:30–9:30pm, Man­ches­ter Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, Cock­croft The­atre, Sackville Street M1 3BB.
To book your free place and to reg­is­ter to watch online please go to http://www.wdm.org.uk/heat or call 020 7820 4900 for more infor­ma­tion.

4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08
Talamh Life Cen­tre, Near Glas­gow.
BB is a meet­ing place for activists to bring and share ideas, infor­ma­tion and enthu­si­asm and to cre­ate action out of inspi­ra­tion. Every­one is wel­come to par­tic­i­pate and con­tribute — big or small. There will be work­shops on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, includ­ing every­thing from cli­mate change issues, cre­ative cam­paign­ing and tran­si­tion towns to nuclear resis­tance, yoga and wood­land crafts. BB is a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion and entrance will be by dona­tion. www.bigblether.org.uk

5) CLIMATE CAMP SPEAKERS’ TRAINING — MANCHESTER, 17.5.08
If you would like to talk to peo­ple about the Cli­mate Camp and help inspire hun­dreds of peo­ple to come this year, then this train­ing is for you. The net­work­ing team in con­junc­tion with COIN (http://coinet.org.uk/) and TRAPESE (http://trapese.clearerchannel.org/) have designed a short presentation/ work­shop that any­one can give to groups inter­est­ed in com­ing to the camp.
10:30 till 5:30pm.
Con­tact; speakers@climatecamp.org.uk to book your place.

6) MAKE A NOISE! — LONDON, 31.5.08
An agen­da for colos­sal air­port expan­sion and colos­sal cli­mate change demands a colos­sal response. You’re invit­ed to a car­ni­val on Sat­ur­day 31st May, which will make its way from Hat­ton Cross Tube Sta­tion (Pic­cadil­ly Line, 12pm) to Sip­son, the vil­lage that will be wiped out if Heathrow expan­sion goes ahead. At the end, you’ll have the chance to help form a great big NO! spelt out by human bod­ies. Organ­is­ers hope to set a new world record for the biggest and loud­est NO! in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/make-a-noise-20080408

7) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — NATIONAL, 3.6.08
The food we eat con­tributes up to a third of the emis­sions poi­son­ing the plan­et. It’s time for a detox! Cli­mate action starts on your din­ner plate, at the super­mar­ket, on your allot­ment and in your back yard, at the food dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­tres, down on the farm, in your high street, at the air­port and the lor­ry park. What­ev­er your tastes, there’s some­thing for every­one on this action menu! Local food mar­kets, free food stalls, work­shops and film show­ings, street the­atre, info stalls, protests and direct action, cook­ing demon­stra­tions, allot­ment shows. Get cre­ative and get involved!
This Day of Action on Cli­mate Change has been called by the Net­work for Cli­mate Action in co-oper­a­tion with the Ris­ing Tide Net­work and the Camp for Cli­mate Action. It has been planned to coin­cide with The UN Con­fer­ence on World Food Secu­ri­ty and Cli­mate Change, which runs from 3rd to 5th June.
Please email; foodNO@SPAMdaysofclimateaction.org.uk for fur­ther info.

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) ‘MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS’ — INTERNATIONAL,
1.5.08
This day of action tar­get­ed false cap­i­tal­ist solu­tions to cli­mate chaos.
There were actions in Europe and Cana­da:
Leam­ing­ton Ris­ing Tide vis­it­ed the E.on head­quar­ters in Coven­try to expose the truth behind its green­wash and show that car­bon cap­ture is a false solu­tion to the prob­lem of cli­mate change. Peo­ple arrived at 8am to hand fliers to the work­ers, while one pro­test­er occu­pied the roof of the build­ing. The day was a great suc­cess with a fes­tive vibe and no arrests. Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide got togeth­er with Earth First for a Crit­i­cal Mass to Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion to high­light that nuclear is not a solu­tion to cli­mate change. In Lon­don, The Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny launched their enter­prise with E.on; accord­ing to the chat­ty clean­ers, “There’s no mess too big! We make coal Fos­sil Fuel Fresh!” In York peo­ple from groups across the city and both Uni­ver­si­ties took part in a ban­ner protest out­side Roy­al Bank of Scot­land’s cen­tral branch in the city. Leaflets were hand­ed out sum­maris­ing RBS’s cli­mate crimes. Mean­while, mem­bers of the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front and Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front joined forces to car­ry out an action against unnec­es­sary urban devel­op­ment in the south-west. A JCB and oth­er vehi­cles were dam­aged on a road con­struc­tion site.
Green­wash fly­ers were hand­ed out at the Green Liv­ing Show in Toron­to Cana­da, while in Paris “Biofuel=Danger” was chalked on the side of the French Agri­cul­tur­al Research insti­tute.
http://www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk/
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/276

2) M1 PUBLIC NUISANCE CASE DISMISSED — SHEFFIELD, 1.5.08
Sev­en cli­mate camp activists opposed to the widen­ing of the M1 had the case against them dis­missed from Sheffield Crown Court. The Judge resound­ing­ly reject­ed the pros­e­cu­tion’s argu­ment that the hang­ing of ban­ners over the motor­way could con­sti­tute a pub­lic nui­sance.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20611

3) BANK OF AMERICA, DIRTY COAL PROTEST – CHARLOTTE (USA), 23.4.08
Activists with Asheville Ris­ing Tide, Rain­for­est Action Net­work, and Croatan Earth First! hit the streets of Char­lotte to protest at Bank of America’s annu­al share­hold­ers meet­ing. Bank of Amer­i­ca has seen an esca­lat­ing lev­el of protest in the past year for its fund­ing of the coal indus­try.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/04/23/asheville-rising-tide-confronts-bank-of-america-shareholders/

4) GREENWASH GUERILLAS PIE FRIEDMAN — NEW YORK, 21.4.08
Thomas Fried­man, the author and NY Times colum­nist, was invit­ed to Brown Uni­ver­si­ty to give a keynote speech on Earth Day, before a packed audi­to­ri­um. His talk about how cor­po­rate envi­ron­men­tal­ism can restore Amer­i­ca to its “nat­ur­al place in the glob­al order” was inter­rupt­ed with a sur­prise vis­it from the Green­wash Guer­ril­las. After splat­ter­ing him with two green cream pies they threw leaflets to the crowd explain­ing their action.
http://greenwashguerrillas.wordpress.com/
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/04/22/greenwash-guerrillas-pie-thomas-friedman-on-earth-day/

5) ECO-RELATED ARSON IN GREECE — 21.4.08
Eco-relat­ed arson against the min­istry of devel­op­ment offices in Athens was car­ried out in protest against the plans to build new pow­er plants using coal. “When cap­i­tal­ism is self-declared envi­ron­ment friend­ly, it is only to mea­sure and man­age the symp­toms of the cri­sis it pro­duced itself.”
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/

6) KOORAGANG COMMUNITY WALK-IN — AUSTRALIA, 19.4.08
A crowd of around 50 pro­test­ers walked onto the con­struc­tion site for a new coal ter­mi­nal on Koor­a­gang Island in New­cas­tle. They stopped work at the site in protest against the expan­sion of the coal indus­try and its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change. Georgina Woods, spokesper­son for Ris­ing Tide New­cas­tle said, “His­tor­i­cal­ly, ordi­nary peo­ple have achieved extra­or­di­nary things by tak­ing direct action to pre­vent immoral or
unsup­port­able actions…Many of us here today have nev­er done any­thing like this before, but we are doing it now, because we may not get anoth­er chance.” 16 of the pro­test­ers were arrest­ed and charged with tres­pass. More com­mu­ni­ty direct action against coal exports will take place in July this year.
http://www.risingtide.org.au/communitywalkin

7) BELGIAN AGRO-GIANT BLOCKADE — 17.4.08
In Bel­guim thir­ty activists blocked the gates of the Cargill fac­to­ry in Ghent.
This action was tak­en to high­light the agro-giant’s involve­ment in every­thing from bio­fu­els to soy mono­cul­ture, GMO to pesticides…The action began at around 6h30 in the morn­ing and last­ed until after 5 p.m. Dur­ing all that time, not one truck with soy could enter or leave the firm.
http://www.aseed.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=552&Itemid=211

8) TARA UPDATES — IRELAND, APRIL 08
On Thurs­day 17th April there was a peace­ful evic­tion of the Rath Lugh Camp. Four Pro­tec­tors who were on site were told by Gar­dai that they had to gath­er up their belong­ings and leave. This was not done in an aggres­sive man­ner and was com­plied with by the Pro­tec­tors.
http://www.tarapixie.net/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20557
Tara trip report — A group from Brighton went over to Ire­land recent­ly to sup­port the Irish pro­test­ers attempts to halt the work on the M3 Motor­way.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20502

9) BIOFOOLS DAY — NATIONWIDE, 15.4.08
From April 15th, all petrol fore­courts will be required by law to sell only fuel which is blend­ed with 2.5% agro­fu­el. Cor­po­ra­tions like Tesco are already jump­ing on the new “green” band­wag­on, speak­ing lit­tle of the greater emis­sions, dis­place­ment, pover­ty and hunger that will be left in its path. The only answer to the ener­gy cri­sis is a big shift in the way in which we live, trav­el and eat.
Nation­wide protest includ­ed; Aberdeen, Bolton, Chel­tenham, Leeds, Man­ches­ter, Not­ting­ham, Nor­wich and hun­dreds out­side Down­ing Street in Lon­don.
Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide and Espa­cio Bris­tol-Colom­bia were joined by oth­ers to inform the pub­lic about this issue at Tesco in East­ville, Bris­tol. A group of bio­fu­el activists made a colour­ful ban­ner and fly­er tour of Brighton city cen­tre and Sus­sex Uni­ver­si­ty. Agro-fuels pro­test­ers dis­abled the fuel pumps of two BP fill­ing sta­tions in Edin­burgh. Also in Scot­land, five mem­bers of the Edin­burgh Clown Army were detained for ques­tion­ing at a peace­ful and enter­tain­ing bio­fu­els protest in Brunts­field, and in Glas­gow a bio­fool ban­ner was hung.
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20546

10) PLANE STUPID TAKES TO THE ROOF — EDINBURGH, 14.4.08
Two envi­ron­men­tal activists from the cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid Scot­land, climbed onto the roof of the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment in Edin­burgh to protest against plans for expan­sion of Scot­tish air­ports. They unfurled a large ban­ner which car­ried a par­o­dy of the Trainspot­ting design, “Choose Life.” The ban­ner read, “Plane Stop­ping: Choose the future. Say no to air­port expan­sion.”
http://www.planestupid.com/?q=content/plane-stupid-scotland-occupy-roof-scottish-parliament

11) BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL! — TASMANIA, 14.4.08
Activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened have wel­comed a 6 metre tall Peter Gar­rett (MP and singer from Mid­night Oil) to the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley. Activists took the ‘giant Gar­rett’ on a tour of coupe FO42F which is due to be burnt in the imme­di­ate future to high­light their con­cerns about the con­tin­ued log­ging and burn­ing of some of Tasmania’s most car­bon dense forests.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20536

12) COLLEGE GROVE UPDATES — AUSTRALIA, APRIL 08
29 April 2008 — Activists have set up a new camp in the Col­lege Grove for­est area that is due to be destroyed in the next stage of devel­op­ment.
http://www.globalwarmingfg.com/
14 April 2008 — Col­lege Grove pro­test­ers stop machines for the day:
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20535
10 April — Police Vio­lence at treesit action in Col­lege Grove, Bun­bury, Aus­tralia. Two activists were arrest­ed with one tak­en to hos­pi­tal after a force­ful and vio­lent push by WA Police. A spokes for the Com­mu­ni­ty Inde­pen­dent Activists (CIA) group says it was the “most vio­lent dis­play by police in 15 years of for­est activism.”
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20531

13) CHEVRON TOXICO GOLDMAN AWARD — SAN FRANCISCO, 13.4.08
Two cam­paign­ers who have spear­head­ed a land­mark class-action law­suit against Chevron in Ecuador have been award­ed the Gold­man Prize, the world’s most pres­ti­gious envi­ron­men­tal hon­or, for their efforts to make the com­pa­ny clean up what experts believe is the world’s worst oil-relat­ed dis­as­ter. The Gold­man Prize Comes two weeks after these dam­ages were esti­mat­ed at up to $16 Bil­lion. Chevron Tox­i­co is the inter­na­tion­al cam­paign to hold Chevron­Tex­a­co account­able for its tox­ic con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the Ecuado­ri­an Ama­zon.
http://www.amazonwatch.org/

14) SUBVERTISING — NEW GROUP, APRIL ‘08
A new group want to set up a cli­mate-focused nation­al sub­ver­tis­ing net­work where every­one has a role and where peo­ple are well sup­port­ed. If you would like to get involved, see http://www.myspace.com/subvertising

15) CARBON DETOX — NEW BOOK, APRIL ‘08
A new book by George Mar­shall of COIN. Mark Lynas,author of Six Degrees, says:
“Buy this book and thrust it into the hands of some­one who still does­n’t believe in the cli­mate cri­sis. No oth­er book goes fur­ther in address­ing peo­ple’s denial and their resis­tance to change.”
http://www.carbondetox.org/

16) BRING CLIMATE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
A cam­paign to estab­lish a legal process in the UK and abroad to facil­i­tate the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters and key busi­ness lead­ers whose poli­cies and activ­i­ties con­tribute to the mass loss of life which cli­mate change is cer­tain to now cause.
www.climatecriminals.co.uk

17) PROTEST WATCH — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
A new site which aims to become a com­pre­hen­sive resource for any­body inter­est­ed in active­ly protest­ing in the UK.
http://www.protestwatch.org.uk/

18) AIRPORTWATCH BULLETIN — APRIL ‘08
Air­port­Watch updates for April. See;
http://www.aef.org.uk/downloads//AirportWatch_bulletin_April2008.pdf

19) ‘THE BATH BOMB’ — APRIL 08
Anti-copy­right: copy and dis­trib­ute! Issue #9 free/donation. See;
http://www.myspace.com/bathbomb

20) LONDON CRITICAL MASS, 14TH ANNIVERSARY — APRIL ‘08
For ride reports/info. see;
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20584
http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/main.html

———-

Please send any­thing you’d like includ­ed in this news sheet to:
newssheet@risingtide.org.uk

To view pre­vi­ous edi­tions of the Ris­ing Tide News Sheet, vis­it the News Sheet Archive at http://risingtide.org.uk/newssheet

This News Sheet was brought to you by Ris­ing Tide, a grass­roots net­work of groups and indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to tak­ing action and build­ing a move­ment against cli­mate change.

For more infor­ma­tion…
email: info@risingtide.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)845 458 8923 / +44 (0)7708 794665
Address: 62 Fieldgate St, Lon­don, E1 1ES
Web site: http://risingtide.org.uk

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London InterACTIVE diners club / radical assembly — 14th May

This week sees the sec­ond Inter­ac­tive Din­ers Club, an ini­tia­tive relaunched for the 21st cen­tu­ry. Those who expe­ri­enced the orig­i­nal pre Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Act Inter­ac­tive Din­ers Clubs in the ear­ly nineties, the RTS meet­ings of the mid 90’s, or the late 90’s Lon­don Under­ground meet­ings etc. will know what kind of thing to expect.

This week sees the sec­ond Inter­ac­tive Din­ers Club, an ini­tia­tive relaunched for the 21st cen­tu­ry. Those who expe­ri­enced the orig­i­nal pre Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Act Inter­ac­tive Din­ers Clubs in the ear­ly nineties, the RTS meet­ings of the mid 90’s, or the late 90’s Lon­don Under­ground meet­ings etc. will know what kind of thing to expect. The idea is to inspire and re-ener­gise each oth­er, form new links, strength­en old alliances, share skills and resources, raise aware­ness and get peo­ple involved.

This is a social and net­work­ing event for activists and cam­paign­ers in Lon­don (or beyond). It’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty to net­work with oth­er activists, speak about cam­paigns you are involved in and learn about oth­er projects tak­ing place. It takes the form of a go-round where every­body present gets to intro­duce them­selves and the cam­paigns or projects they are involved in. Food is then served and every­one gets to chat, plot and con­spire.

It takes place on WED 14TH MAY, 7pm at the new squat­ted social cen­tre in Shored­itch. The address is 6 Bowl Court, off Plough Yard which is next to the Drunk­en Mon­key at the junc­tion of Great East­ern Street and Shored­itch High Street. Near­est tubes are Old Street and Liv­er­pool Street.

Please bring (veg­an) food to share along with leaflets, fly­ers, posters etc for upcom­ing events.

It is hoped that these assem­blies will hap­pen every month at dif­fer­ent autonomous spaces around Lon­don. Please net­work this wide­ly to make it hap­pen.

Date: 14th May 2008
Time: 7pm
Address: 6 Bowl Court, EC2A 3LJ
Tubes: Old St or Liv­er­pool St

Sucessful street party, London [& videos]

1.05.2008
The Space Hijack­ers May­day street par­ty is being held in Shep­herd Mar­ket, May­fair.

Mayday '08 maypoleMayday '08 stocksMayday FITwatch1.05.2008
The Space Hijack­ers May­day street par­ty is being held in Shep­herd Mar­ket, May­fair.

Lots of fun had by all despite heavy police pres­ence. Sev­er­al sound sys­tems. Danc­ing. Act­ing. Booz­ing. May­pole.

Although the police sur­round­ed the rev­ellers in Shep­herd Mar­ket they did­n’t stop indi­vid­u­als com­ing and going and I did­n’t see any arrests.

—-

Orig­i­nal call-out:
Mayday '08 street party flier
May­day Meet­ing Point — 1708 revis­it­ed

Come and join us for a cel­e­bra­tion and re-enact­ment of the state’s oppres­sion of the tra­di­tion­al May Fayre in May­fair. A col­lab­o­ra­tion between Space Hijack­ers and The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police Play­ers.…

MAYDAY MEETING POINTS

1) Space Hijack­ers, Peas­ants, Aris­toc­ra­cy, Per­form­ers, Mer­chants, Ped­dlers, Strum­pets and Vir­gins Meet in Green Park by Green Park tube, we will then head off to the May Fayre at 2:03pm prompt­ly

2) Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police, Fools, Sol­diers and Vagabonds Meet out­side Bond Street tube sta­tion, we will then head off to the May Fayre at 2:34 prompt­ly

Please note it is very impor­tant you do not join the wrong meet­ing point, oth­er­wise you will look like a total fool!

Call this num­ber for live updates of where we will be — 07513335777

Things to bring:

Musi­cal Instru­ments, Corsets, Hay, Farm Ani­mals, Food to share, Drinks, Manure, Stocks, May­poles, Venet­ian Masks, Mum­mers, Police, Flags, Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Fer­vour, Bar­ri­cades, Mead, Babies and Roy­al­ty

x x x x x

May­day 2008 is the 300th anniver­sary of the last free May­day before the Grand Jury sup­pres­sion of the tra­di­tion­al May Fayre in cen­tral Lon­don; a riotous, rau­cous cel­e­bra­tion of fer­til­i­ty and free­dom. From the 1st of May each year, and for up to two weeks after­wards, the peo­ple stopped work­ing, reject­ed their nor­mal rou­tines then danced, drank, laughed and made love in the streets, jeer­ing at the con­trol­ling fig­ures of the Church and State, and turn­ing every­thing they could upside down.

It was known as such “a nurs­ery of vice and debauch­ery”, that after 1708 the author­i­ties, hav­ing had enough of this dan­ger­ous free­dom and sub­ver­sion, shut it down. Although there were some attempts at reviv­ing it, the creep­ing spec­tre of gen­tri­fi­ca­tion made sure it could­n’t con­tin­ue, as the area of the fayre was grad­u­al­ly built over with palaces and play­grounds for the rich.

To com­mem­o­rate this sig­nif­i­cant anniver­sary, and the still thriv­ing tra­di­tion of over the top state con­trol, the Space Hijack­ers and the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police proud­ly present a col­lab­o­ra­tive re-enact­ment of the end of this tra­di­tion­al May Fayre. Our mod­ern-day inter­pre­ta­tion of the cycle of upris­ing and sup­pres­sion is in keep­ing with the attempt­ed repres­sion of par­ties, protests and gath­er­ings enact­ed by the state through­out the ages.

In act one, the Space Hijack­ers will be invit­ing peo­ple to join a may­day street par­ty in it’s tra­di­tion­al home, with music, bands, food and rev­el­ry. This will be lat­er fol­lowed by the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police Play­ers, who will be re-enact­ing a clas­sic clamp­ing down on civ­il lib­er­ties and free­dom of the peo­ple.

All are wel­come to this cel­e­bra­tion, bring food, bands, mead, rum, cod­pieces, bales of hay, 18th cen­tu­ry pros­ti­tutes, music, laugh­ter, wonky teeth, corsets, bus­tles, spit roasts and vir­gins danc­ing around poles.

The exact loca­tion of the fayre is still a close­ly guard­ed secret, how­ev­er it will be revealed clos­er to the date here on our web­site.

STUFF YOU SHOULD TO KNOW

COSTUME IDEAS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1700–1750_in_fashion

http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/pics/1700a.shtml

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/round/18th_century_men/formal_wool/index.html

http://www.freewebs.com/fashionmuseum/1700.htm

MAYDAY HISTORY:

http://libcom.org/library/a‑history-of-mayday

http://www.urban75.org/mayday02/history.html

http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/grub/mayfair.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/news/may/mayday/mayday_history.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robin_Goodfellow

–

http://www.spacehijackers.org

—

Watch this video or this one.

Mayday Mayday: Invasion of the climate snatchers…: day of climate action [updated again; video added]

1.5.2008
Lon­don: at 07.45 this morn­ing E.ON offices on Pall Mall were tar­get­ed by the new upstart Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny as part of a nation­al­ly co-ordi­nat­ed Day of Cli­mate Action against False Cap­i­tal­ist Solu­tions.

Eon coal cleaning protest1.5.2008
Lon­don: at 07.45 this morn­ing E.ON offices on Pall Mall were tar­get­ed by the new upstart Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny as part of a nation­al­ly co-ordi­nat­ed Day of Cli­mate Action against False Cap­i­tal­ist Solu­tions.

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

FOR ONSITE INTERVIEWS AND UPDATES CONTACT : 07790 430 620

The Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny launched their enter­prise with E.ON as their first cus­tomer. Accord­ing to the chat­ty clean­ers, “There’s no mess too big! We make coal Fos­sil Fuel Fresh ™”.

The cli­mate activists tar­get­ed E.ON for their pro­mo­tion of ‘false cap­i­tal­ist solu­tions’ to cli­mate change. E.ON is exploit­ing the idea of a future Car­bon Cap­ture and Stor­age sys­tem to jus­ti­fy build­ing a new coal fired pow­er sta­tion at Kingsnorth — where the utopia of low-impact liv­ing // edu­ca­tion // high-impact direct action that is the Cli­mate Camp will spring up this August.

CCS requires up to 40% more coal per unit of elec­tric­i­ty than coal gen­er­a­tion with­out CCS. So more coal needs to be burnt; increas­ing the over­all pol­lu­tion caused. It also neglects to address the wider prob­lems of over con­sump­tion or deal with coal’s oth­er social and envi­ron­men­tal impacts.

The Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny can be con­tact­ed on 07790 430 620 for onsite inter­views and updates.

www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk 07880 937511 for nation­al updates

www.climatecamp.org.uk

Video: Coal Clean­ers at E.ON — video/mp4 29M
=========

RBS Ban­ner Protest in York

Peo­ple from groups across the city and both Uni­ver­si­ties took part in a ban­ner protest out­side Roy­al Bank of Scot­land’s cen­tral branch in the city. Leaflets were hand­ed out sumaris­ing RBS’s cli­mate crimes.

If the action was unim­pres­sive in and of itself, then the fact we’ve final­ly bro­ken the iner­tia around actions in York was prob­a­bly a suc­cess in itself. The rain man­aged to hold off (only just) and even the pass­ing cops had noth­ing what­so­ev­er to say on the mat­ter.

The action was held today because, well, its May­day and its the day of action against False Cap­i­tal­ist Solu­tions, of which invest­ment in new oil is per­haps the dimmest idea of the lot!

=========
Canada greenwash flier
Green Liv­ing show Inspect­ed in Cana­da

Green Liv­ing show inspect­ed and green­wash fly­ers hand­ed out yes­ter­day in Toron­to Cana­da.

For pic­tures of the stalls on dis­play with green­wash stick­ers, vis­it here

=========

Urban devel­op­ment sab­o­taged

The Earth and its inhab­i­tants are being raped of their nat­ur­al resources by the Cor­po­rate-State Com­plex. This is why for the Day of Cli­mate Action we sab­o­taged this smooth oper­a­tion in the ear­ly hours of April XX

Mem­bers of the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front and Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front joined forces to car­ry out an action against unnec­es­sary urban devel­op­ment in the south-west. Eco­teurs broke into the con­struc­tion site that is build­ing yet anoth­er bridge for the trans­port of motor­ized vehi­cles. A 4x4 was found, paintstripped, all sides com­plete­ly scarred, tyres dam­aged, whilst a truck and JCB had logos removed and sides stripped. The flawed con­cept of “build­ing our way out of con­ges­tion” will no longer be tol­er­at­ed at the expense of the rivers wildlife and £8 mil­lion of tax pay­ers mon­ey spent on this project.

No Com­pro­mise in Defence of Moth­er Earth.

=========

INRA — French agri­cul­tur­al research — chalked about bio­fu­els

The words AGRO-CARBURANTS = DANGER were chalked on the side of the French Agri­cul­tur­al Research insti­tute, as were var­i­ous cars through­out Paris.

=========

Sizewell May­day Crit­i­cal Mass

In sup­port of the May­day Cli­mate Action Day, some peo­ple from Ris­ing Tide and Earth First got togeth­er this Sat­ur­day for a Crit­i­cal Mass to Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion to high­light that nuclear is not a solu­tion to cli­mate change.

We turned up at the meet­ing point – a train sta­tion in the tiny Suf­folk vil­lage of Sax­mund­ham – to be greet­ed by 15 police offi­cers includ­ing some FIT from Lon­don. As we set out on a love­ly sun­ny ride through the coun­try­side, the extent of the over-the-top police oper­a­tion became clear as we passed sev­er­al unmarked cars full of FIT pho­tog­ra­phers, the entrance to Sizewell guard­ed by anoth­er twen­ty cops, and a fur­ther ten con­gre­gat­ed at our end-point on Sizewell beach. All told we reck­on there were fifty cops on hand to police our fun fam­i­ly day out to Sizewell. It was a great crit­i­cal mass, a good time was had by all, and the local press seemed as bemused as we were by the ridicu­lous­ness of the police oper­a­tion. Won­der if there are any red faces in police intel­li­gence this week­end?

Why Sizewell on May­day week­end?
This demo was part of a nation­al week­end of action against false solu­tions to cli­mate change. As cli­mate change ris­es up the polit­i­cal agen­da, a huge num­ber of tech­no-fix­es are form­ing a new eco­nom­ic sec­tor: from bio­fu­els to nuclear pow­er, car­bon-trad­ing to hydro­gen fuel cells, dump­ing urine in the ocean to car­bon cap­ture and stor­age. Every­where cor­po­ra­tions are seek­ing the elu­sive elixir which allows us to con­tin­ue busi­ness as usu­al. All of these tech­nolo­gies are a dis­trac­tion from the real solu­tions: a mas­sive reduc­tion in our con­sump­tion and the end to eco­nom­ic growth.

Let’s chal­lenge these false solu­tions to cli­mate chaos and show the real solu­tion: far-reach­ing social change.

http://www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk

=========
E-on Coventry protest
On May 1st, Leam­ing­ton Ris­ing Tide vis­it­ed the E.on head­quar­ters at West­wood Busi­ness Park in Coven­try to expose the truth behind E.on’s green­wash and show that car­bon cap­ture is a false solu­tion to the prob­lem of cli­mate change.

E.on are plan­ning to build a £1.5 bn exten­sion to their coal fired plant in Kingsnorth. They jus­ti­fy this on the grounds that it will be ‘car­bon cap­ture ready’ even though the tech­nol­o­gy for car­bon cap­ture has yet to be invent­ed and even when it does exist it will emit more pol­lu­tants try­ing to cap­ture and store the car­bon than if they just left the emis­sions unchecked. To protest against this, Leam­ing­ton Ris­ing Tide arrived at 8am to hand fliers to the work­ers.

Ban­ners were erect­ed read­ing “POLLUTE.ON NO MORE GREEN WASH”. There was jug­gling and a pic­nic out­side the doors of the build­ing as the pro­tes­tors wait­ed for a march of stu­dents from War­wick Uni­ver­si­ty Peo­ple and Plan­et to arrive at 1.30. The marchers came with a repli­ca mod­el of the coal pow­er sta­tion and a game of ‘catch the car­bon’ with bal­loons and nets. The pro­test­ers gath­ered out­side the build­ing and then the sign out­side was paint­ed green to sym­bol­ise the e.ons green­wash and one pro­test­er occu­pied the roof of the build­ing. The day was a great suc­cess with a pos­i­tive, fes­tive vibe and no arrests.

London Critical Mass 14th Anniversary ride

Ear­ly in the ride police blocked the front at traf­fic lights and pre­vent­ed move­ment, even when the lights were green.

London 14th anniversary Critical MassEar­ly in the ride police blocked the front at traf­fic lights and pre­vent­ed move­ment, even when the lights were green. This is a famil­iar tac­tic which is done to com­press the ride into as small a space as pos­si­ble, with offi­cers and a van at the back has­sling strag­glers to keep up, which slows things down and holds up traf­fic as well as mak­ing cycling dif­fi­cult.

Sev­er­al rid­ers deep man­aged to com­plete­ly encir­cled Par­lia­ment Square and per­form at least three or four cir­cuits before police put a stop to it and divert­ed the ride into White­hall. Beyond Down­ing Street, and well out of earshot of Par­lia­ment, some­one turned their cycle sound sys­tem on and was quick­ly made to turn it off again by one of the police who then attract­ed shouts and crit­i­cism from near­by rid­ers. A short dis­tance up the road it was defi­ant­ly turned on again before leav­ing the zone just before enter­ing Trafal­gar Square. Cur­rent­ly the law on sound sys­tems with­in the SOCPA exclu­sion zone around Par­lia­ment is under review but this does­n’t stop the cycle police try­ing to spoil the fun, despite there being no ban out­side of the zone or on car sound sys­tems with­in the zone. Through­out the ride sev­er­al indi­vid­ual rid­ers were picked on and argued with by the cycle police, who num­ber 25+ on every ride, except the one in Decem­ber which just hap­pens to coin­cide with Christ­mas and New Year cel­e­bra­tions.

Police aside, the April ride was well attend­ed and good fun but the usu­al com­mem­o­ra­tive anniver­sary t‑shirts were sad­ly missed this time. Iron­i­cal­ly, towards the end of the ride it was held up for a while in Shaftes­bury Avenue by the usu­al Fri­day evening motorised traf­fic con­ges­tion. Crit­i­cal Mass is often blamed for hold­ing up traf­fic but they are not the only ones doing so on enter­tain­ment evening out­ings, nev­er­the­less they are much more strin­gent­ly policed.

http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/
http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/socpasounds.html

Video of ride.

1 May Day of Climate Action ‑only one week to go!

1 MAY: DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION
Inva­sion of the cli­mate snatch­ers!

Only one week to go!
We’ll keep it short: con­tacts, resources and ideas for action, and pub­lic actions.

If you need any info or sup­port email us!
E: mayday@daysofclimateaction.org.uk
W: http://www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk/mayday.html

Bacton FFD 11 MAY: DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION
Inva­sion of the cli­mate snatch­ers!

Only one week to go!
We’ll keep it short: con­tacts, resources and ideas for action, and pub­lic actions.

If you need any info or sup­port email us!
E: mayday@daysofclimateaction.org.uk
W: http://www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk/mayday.html

For more info and back­ground about the day of action please see the bot­tom of the post­ing.

TELL US WHAT YOU GET UP TO — email us or phone us on the day (07880 937511) as soon as your action is under­way so we can list it on the web­site include it in the nation­al press release about the day, and the actions round-up the next day. Our actions are so much more pow­er­ful when they are seen on masse!

RESOURCES
Lots of infor­ma­tion for action/explaining the issues has gone up on our web­site in the last few days. Check it out and pick your favourite cli­mate red her­ring: from agro­fu­els to nuclear pow­er, car­bon-trad­ing to hydro­gen fuel cells, car­bon cap­ture and stor­age, genet­ic engi­neer­ing to nan­otech­nol­o­gy. Uncov­er these tech­no-fix­es for what they are: a dis­trac­tion from the root cause of cli­mate change and a means to car­ry on the sta­tus quo of end­less eco­nom­ic growth and the exploita­tion of peo­ple and plan­et.
http://daysofclimateaction.org.uk/mayday.html

There’s also a local press release that you can adapt
http://daysofclimateaction.org.uk/mayday_actionresources.html

15 ideas for action for last-minute action plan­ners! At
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/fossilfoolsday/resources

IDEAS FOR ACTION

There are many pos­si­bil­i­ties, from direct action, pub­lic­i­ty stunts, talks and work­shops to stalls. Whether you’re in a group or whether there’s just one or two of you, there are lots of things you can do to raise the vital issues.

Some ideas to get you start­ed!

TAKE DIRECT ACTION. Occu­py the offices of you local car­bon off­set­ting com­pa­ny; Block­ade your local bio­fu­els refin­ery; Vis­it your local nuclear pow­er sta­tion or take your cows and veg to a car­bon trad­er and set up a real mar­ket ; Protest at your local Uni­ver­si­ty’s GM and Nano-tech depart­ments; Protest at your local Tesco petrol sta­tion against bio­fu­els

SPREAD THE WORD. Hang ban­ners in pub­lic places; Hold talks, work­shops and film nights about the issues; Leaflet town on your cho­sen issue; Free Give­away stalls; Pro­duce and dis­trib­ute local-based guide on alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal­ism, co-ops, alter­na­tive economies, free shops etc. Co-organ­ise events with union mem­bers to dis­cuss the issues around employ­ment and cli­mate change; Write arti­cles and let­ters for papers and web­sites.

For inspi­ra­tion check out the write-up of the actions on Fos­sil Fools Day
— Tru­ly amaz­ing!
http://www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org/category/front-page/

PUBLIC ACTIONS
Although lots of peo­ple are keep­ing their plans under wraps, this pub­lic demos have been announced (If you know of a pub­licly announced action, let us know and we’ll list it on the web­site):

Crit­i­cal Mass and Demo at Sizewell Nuclear Pow­er Sta­tion
Sat­ur­day 3rd May, meet at 12 noon at Sax­mund­ham train sta­tion for a Crit­i­cal Mass bike ride to Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion.
If you don’t have a bike, get to Sax­mund­ham sta­tion any­way and we’ll get you to the pow­er sta­tion.
Why Sizewell on this day?

See also the Camp for Cli­mate Action (www.climatecamp.org.uk), Net­work for
Cli­mate Action (www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk) and Cli­mate Indy­media
(www.climateimc.org)

http://www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk/mayday.html

Why take action on 1 May?

May 1st, inter­na­tion­al work­ers day, has tra­di­tion­al­ly been a day to chal­lenge the cap­i­tal­ist sys­tem and a cel­e­bra­tion of sol­i­dar­i­ty and work­ers’ strug­gle for a more just social sys­tem.

On this day we are call­ing on peo­ple to make the link between cap­i­tal­ism, eco­nom­ic growth, cli­mate change and social strug­gle.

As cli­mate change is start­ing to hit peo­ple around the world, a huge num­ber of tech­no-fix­es are form­ing a new eco­nom­ic sec­tor: from bio­fu­els to nuclear pow­er, car­bon-trad­ing to hydro­gen fuel cells, car­bon cap­ture and stor­age. Every­where cor­po­ra­tions are seek­ing the elu­sive elixir which allows us to con­tin­ue busi­ness as usu­al. All this whilst our plan­et is burn­ing and peo­ple are loos­ing their homes, their live­ly­hoods and their lives to cli­mate chaos.

All of these tech­nolo­gies are a dis­trac­tion from the root cause of cli­mate change: an eco­nom­ic sys­tem based on end­less eco­nom­ic growth not only at the cost of the envi­ron­ment we live in but also based on an exploita­tive social sys­tem.

Many of these tech­nofix­es are also direct­ly coun­ter­pro­duc­tive to stop­ping cli­mate chaos and pose new threats to peo­ple’s live­ly­hoods and the sur­vival of the plan­et.

Agro­fu­els expan­sion is dire­cly respon­si­ble for sub­sis­tence farm­ers being cleared of their land, food short­ages and enor­mous price ris­es, whilst doing noth­ing to reduce green­house gas emis­sions.

Nuclear pow­er is her­ald­ed as a green fuel, but the envi­ron­men­tal haz­ards of ura­ni­um extrac­tion, radi­a­tion leaks dur­ing use and stor­age, the dan­ger of melt-down and fatal appli­ca­tions in war­fare are as dan­ger­ous as they have always been.

Sci­en­tists promise genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered won­der plants to cope with cli­mate changes, but peo­ple in third world coun­tries have yet to see any ben­e­fits and fight against the patent­ing of the genes of tra­di­tion­al­ly used plants, whilst multi­na­tion­als are lin­ing their pock­ets.

The real solu­tion to cli­mate change must be a mas­sive reduc­tion in our con­sump­tion, the end to eco­nom­ic growth and a soci­ety based on equal­i­ty and mutu­al aid.

Tech­nofix­es are not the answer to cli­mate change — what we need is far reach­ing social and eco­nom­ic change!

Do you want to kiss it better?

Do you want to kiss it bet­ter?

Do you want to kiss it bet­ter is a char­i­ty comics anthol­o­gy to raise mon­ey for the world land trust (http://www.worldlandtrust.org) to assist in their work to pre­serve the world’s most bio­log­i­cal­ly impor­tant and threat­ened lands

Do Yo Want To Kiss It Better - CoverDo you want to kiss it bet­ter?

Do you want to kiss it bet­ter is a char­i­ty comics anthol­o­gy to raise mon­ey for the world land trust (http://www.worldlandtrust.org) to assist in their work to pre­serve the world’s most bio­log­i­cal­ly impor­tant and threat­ened lands

The work in Green was all con­tributed with the inten­tion of mak­ing peo­ple think about goes on around them & all prof­its from the sale of the com­ic will go towards their projects.

It is 40 pages cov­er to cov­er, 35 pages of strip art. Print­ed on 100% recy­cled paper with inks based on veg­etable oil from a press pow­ered by wind tur­bines. It Fea­tures a colour cov­er from Phil Cor­bett & work from Leonie O,Moore, shi­ro, Scroobius pip, Rufus Day­g­lo, The King Blues, and many oth­er tal­ent­ed artists & writ­ers.

please have a look at:

http://doyouwanttokissitbetter.110mb.com
www.myspace.com/doyouwanttokissitbetter

Hackney Social Centre Under Threat of Eviction!

The Hack­ney Social Cen­tre (231 Low­er Clap­ton Road, Hack­ney) is now wait­ing for High Court Bailiffs, sched­uled to arrive at the prop­er­ty at 9:00 AM this Mon­day, April 21, 2008.

Hackney squatThe Hack­ney Social Cen­tre (231 Low­er Clap­ton Road, Hack­ney) is now wait­ing for High Court Bailiffs, sched­uled to arrive at the prop­er­ty at 9:00 AM this Mon­day, April 21, 2008. Any­one able to stand with us to meet the bailiffs and defend the space is asked to gath­er out­side the Social Cen­tre at 8:00 AM on Mon­day Morn­ing.

In March, Howun Estates — the prop­er­ty devel­op­ers who had left the build­ing emp­ty after buy­ing it in 2007 as a pre-Olympic Games “invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ty” — was award­ed an Order of Pos­ses­sion by Judge Man­ners (her real name!) at the Gee Street Coun­ty Court and sub­se­quent­ly secured the War­rant of Poses­sion need­ed to evict the Social Cen­tre.

Coun­ty Court Bailiffs were booked for the social cen­tre’s evic­tion Mon­day 21 April 2008 at 10:20 am. How­ev­er, res­i­dents of the Social Cen­tre were awok­en at 9:30 am this Fri­day morn­ing (18 April 2008) by two alleged rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the courts and two police escorts, who informed the res­i­dents that a High Court evic­tion was now sched­uled for Mon­day at 9:00 am.

It seems as if Howun Estates has moved ahead and esca­lat­ed the evic­tion threat by send­ing the noto­ri­ous­ly aggres­sive High Court bailiffs for the first evic­tion, dra­mat­i­cal­ly ahead of the typ­i­cal sched­ule, which usu­al­ly begins with Coun­ty Court bailiffs. This move fol­lows sev­er­al suc­cess­ful resis­tances to Coun­ty Court evic­tion attempts in Hack­ney last week.

Ear­ly last week both a res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty and anoth­er autonomous space were effec­tive­ly resist­ed, though police pres­ence was high and police intim­i­da­tion ram­pant. At the attempt­ed evic­tion of the res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty, one resister was threat­ened with pep­per spray, and anoth­er was assault­ed by a police offi­cer who threat­ened her and twist­ed her wrist.

The last-minute announce­ment that High Court bailiffs are now sched­uled for the Social Cen­tre’s evic­tion is seen by many Social Cen­tre res­i­dents and sup­port­ers as an aggres­sive, esca­la­tion tac­tic, and a response to last week’s suc­cess­ful evic­tion resis­tances.

** Please gath­er in front of the Hack­ney Social Cen­tre (231 Low­er Clap­ton Road, Hack­ney) at 8:00 AM. The aggres­sion of greedy prop­er­ty devel­op­ers and the police who serve and pro­tect them must not be allowed to exist behind closed doors. The resis­tance to this evic­tion must be pub­lic. **

It is a well-known fact that the police read both the Hack­ney Social Cen­tre web­site and Indy­media UK. A police pres­ence is expect­ed at the evic­tion. Come pre­pared.