Category: North West England

North West Eng­land

Land is Ours autumn gathering 2011

The Land Is Ours
Autumn Gath­er­ing 2011

TLIO are host­ing a week­end gath­er­ing from Sat 8th to Sun 9th Octo­ber this year at Monk­ton Wyld Court, near Axmin­ster, Dorset. Come and enjoy a feast of inspi­ra­tional talks, open dis­cus­sions, work­shops and evening enter­tain­ment in the pleas­ant­ly eccen­tric set­ting of Monk­ton Wyld.

Talks and work­shops will include the fol­low­ing themes:

The Land Is Ours
Autumn Gath­er­ing 2011

TLIO are host­ing a week­end gath­er­ing from Sat 8th to Sun 9th Octo­ber this year at Monk­ton Wyld Court, near Axmin­ster, Dorset. Come and enjoy a feast of inspi­ra­tional talks, open dis­cus­sions, work­shops and evening enter­tain­ment in the pleas­ant­ly eccen­tric set­ting of Monk­ton Wyld.

Talks and work­shops will include the fol­low­ing themes:

• The need for land redis­tri­b­u­tion — post Peak-Oil

• Agri­cul­tur­al sub­si­dies — who for & for what?/Campaigning against Mega­farms.

• The Local­ism Bill and oth­er Plan­ning Reforms — Threats and Oppor­tu­ni­ties.

• Defend­ing pub­lic forests.

• Set­ting up land trusts, for hous­ing and land projects.

• Reclaim the Fields and Via Campesina.

• What future for direct action land cam­paigns?

Oth­er pro­pos­als for work­shops etc are wel­come.

Places are lim­it­ed so please book ear­ly. There is no fee for atten­dance, but lunch and sup­per are pro­vid­ed at £6 per meal, and bed and break­fast costs per night are £25 for a bed, £15 for a yoga mat in the main hall, or £10 camp­ing (there will be a lim­it­ed no of places half-price for the main hall and camp­ing), avail­able Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day evening. Please book in advance, by con­tact­ing

info@tlio.org.uk or 01297 561359
http://www.tlio.org.uk/TLIO-autumngathering2011

Please Note: There may be a TLIO Sum­mer Gath­er­ing hap­pen­ing in the West Coun­try area this sum­mer as well. Keep check­ing the web­site for fur­ther announce­ments

squatting stories wanted

Call­ing All Squat­ters!

Got any pos­i­tive, fun­ny or ran­dom sto­ries from your squat­ting expe­ri­ences?

We’re putting togeth­er an exhi­bi­tion and zine with pos­i­tive squat­ting sto­ries to con­tra­dict and show the oth­er side to squat­ting, to the one regur­gi­tat­ed again and again by the main­stream media.

Call­ing All Squat­ters!

Got any pos­i­tive, fun­ny or ran­dom sto­ries from your squat­ting expe­ri­ences?

We’re putting togeth­er an exhi­bi­tion and zine with pos­i­tive squat­ting sto­ries to con­tra­dict and show the oth­er side to squat­ting, to the one regur­gi­tat­ed again and again by the main­stream media.

Wher­ev­er you squat­ted, be it Brix­ton or Kur­dis­tan, or whether you squat now or you did in the 70s, any pos­i­tive sto­ries are wel­comed – the more var­ied in time & place the bet­ter. Some of the sto­ries we have so far include from after the sec­ond world war when fam­i­lies took refuge by squat­ting aban­doned army bar­racks, as so many homes had be bombed in the blitz, as well as some sto­ries of how new­ly arrived Asian fam­i­lies to Britain gave up the coun­cil hous­ing they had received to squat togeth­er in emp­ty estates to avoid the racial abuse they were suf­fer­ing.

Your sto­ries don’t have to be this extreme though, any­thing that is pos­i­tive, fun­ny or in some way a suc­cess of man­ag­ing to stick it up to the land­lords or a suc­cess­ful use of squat­ting for a protest or cam­paign, is very much wel­comed. The sto­ries don’t have to be your own expe­ri­ences but can be ones of friends, or ones you’ve heard, just so long as they are true.

Any good pic­tures you might have that can accom­pa­ny the sto­ries would be bril­liant too. Also, if you have pic­tures of trans­for­ma­tions you’ve made turn­ing a destroyed build­ing into a beau­ti­ful home, they would also be real­ly appre­ci­at­ed. Of course you can be com­plete­ly anony­mous from any­thing you con­tribute.

Email sto­ries & stuff to homemade@lorax.org.uk

Many thanks!

The Camp at the End of the Runway, Manchester, 27–29 May

Fri­day 27 May, 5.30pm to Sun­day 29 May at 8.30pm
The Woods, Near Man­ches­ter Air­port

Man­ches­ter Air­port is plan­ning to press ahead with its expan­sion plans, demol­ish­ing local homes and green spaces, and dou­bling air freight capac­i­ty. Come and spend a week­end in the woods, get­ting to know the area and local res­i­dents, and learn­ing more about the cam­paign against expan­sion.

Fri­day 27 May, 5.30pm to Sun­day 29 May at 8.30pm
The Woods, Near Man­ches­ter Air­port

Man­ches­ter Air­port is plan­ning to press ahead with its expan­sion plans, demol­ish­ing local homes and green spaces, and dou­bling air freight capac­i­ty. Come and spend a week­end in the woods, get­ting to know the area and local res­i­dents, and learn­ing more about the cam­paign against expan­sion.

Meet 5.30pm at Pic­cadil­ly Sta­tion 27th May, or at 6pm out­side Man­ches­ter Cen­tral Library for Crit­i­cal Mass. We will go straight to the camp from Crit­i­cal Mass.

Plans for the week­end include: Walk and Cycle Car­a­van to look at sites of cam­paign­ing sig­nif­i­cance such as Arthur’s Wood, the World Freight Cen­tre, Hasty Lane, and the sites of the 2nd Run­way Protest Camp; Pix­ie Pic­nic; Aware­ness Rais­ing and much more besides.

Alter­nate meet time: 11am Heald Green Sta­tion Sat 28th May for the walk and cycle car­a­van.

Some hot (veg­an) food will be pro­vid­ed, but the week­end won’t be ful­ly catered. Bring enough food to be self-suf­fi­cient, and a lit­tle extra to share. Cater for your own dietary require­ments.

What else to bring:
Bike (walk­ers wel­come too, but cycling will be eas­i­er)
Dec­o­ra­tions for your bike
Camp­ing Kit
Food (see above)

See you there
manchesterairportontrial@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=222153411131342

Common Ground For Climate Action, 4–5 June 2011

Com­mon Ground for Cli­mate Action (the meet­ing after CC Space for Change)

A meet­ing facil­i­tat­ed by the Rhi­zome Col­lec­tive

DATE: 10:30am 4th June – 5:30pm 5th June
VENUE: Grow Heathrow, Sip­son, West Lon­don

Who is this meet­ing for?

Peo­ple who:
— have pre­vi­ous­ly been involved in organ­is­ing CFCA or oth­er rad­i­cal grass­roots cli­mate action
AND

Com­mon Ground for Cli­mate Action (the meet­ing after CC Space for Change)

A meet­ing facil­i­tat­ed by the Rhi­zome Col­lec­tive

DATE: 10:30am 4th June – 5:30pm 5th June
VENUE: Grow Heathrow, Sip­son, West Lon­don

Who is this meet­ing for?

Peo­ple who:
— have pre­vi­ous­ly been involved in organ­is­ing CFCA or oth­er rad­i­cal grass­roots cli­mate action
AND
— have ener­gy to pos­i­tive­ly explore options and strate­gies for
co-ordi­nat­ing nation­al­ly into the future.

This meet­ing is NOT:
— A place to revis­it the deci­sion to pause nation­al cli­mate camp
activ­i­ties in 2011 (though we will talk about the var­i­ous reac­tions to that deci­sion)
— A place to talk about what to do with Cli­mate Camp resources (this will need to be lat­er on)

We will be:
— Learn­ing about and explor­ing our com­mon ground in three key areas:
* What is hap­pen­ing in the wider world?
* Where do we fit?
* What future impact could we have?
— Explor­ing ways to man­age dis­agree­ment, live with dif­fer­ence, and build trust

ARE YOU COMING?
If you’re inter­est­ed in com­ing please email
spaceforchange@climatecamp.org.uk (by 26 May if pos­si­ble for plan­ning).
Fol­low this link for lots more infor­ma­tion about the back­ground to the meet­ing, as well as venue details and the agen­da so far:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/events/2011/06/04/common-ground-for-climate-action

KITCHEN CO-ORDINATORS NEEDED
We are in urgent need of kitchen co-ordi­na­tors, if you think you can do this then please con­tact spaceforchange@climatecamp.org.uk ASAP

SATURDAY NIGHT SOCIAL
If you would be inter­est­ed in organ­is­ing some live music or a social for this event, then please email spaceforchange@climatecamp.org.uk

WHO ELSE IS COMING?
Please for­ward this mes­sage to any­one you think would be inter­est­ed in com­ing

The first Green and Black Cross Network Gathering

Lon­don June 18th 11–6 Fol­lowed by a social. Venue TBC

Sup­port is attack!

Green and Black Cross were set up after the Mill­bank demon­stra­tion of Novem­ber last year through iden­ti­fy­ing a need for the type of sup­port that had been devel­oped in the Cli­mate Move­ment. Since then we have sup­port­ed hun­dreds of peo­ple from many back­grounds in their rebel­lions and protests.

Lon­don June 18th 11–6 Fol­lowed by a social. Venue TBC

Sup­port is attack!

Green and Black Cross were set up after the Mill­bank demon­stra­tion of Novem­ber last year through iden­ti­fy­ing a need for the type of sup­port that had been devel­oped in the Cli­mate Move­ment. Since then we have sup­port­ed hun­dreds of peo­ple from many back­grounds in their rebel­lions and protests.
From a legal sup­port hot­line to tire­less legal observers on the streets, brave action medics to a kitchen team smug­gling flap­jacks behind police lines. Our empha­sis on sup­port is to allow the poten­tial for fur­ther rebel­lion, for peo­ple to rise up and in doing so take con­trol of the direc­tion of their lives and spread a rela­tion­ship of sol­i­dar­i­ty and mutu­al aid.

It’s time to get involved!

At Lon­don we’ve devel­oped work­ing groups around forms of sup­port includ­ing Legal, Kitchens, Medics, Toi­lets and Rad­i­cal Child Care. We want not only to strength­en these groups in the region but also to expand a sup­port net­work. If you’re from Man­ches­ter and you’ve been legal observ­ing on demon­stra­tions, if your from Leeds and you’re think­ing about pro­vid­ing food at pick­et lines, if you live in Bris­tol and you want to be there when pro­tes­tors get injured, where ever you live and you are think­ing about get­ting involved – come! Share skills, swap sto­ries and find out more. The day will be split between intro­duc­tions to the project, ques­tions and debate on the Green and Black Cross net­work struc­ture, work­ing group time to share and devel­op our prac­tices and end­ing the day with a social event.

Why Lon­don? Unfor­tu­nate­ly GBC is present­ly Lon­don based. We aim to bring about a hor­i­zon­tal net­work that con­tains region­al auton­o­my. To do this though we want to share where we’re at so far and to make this pos­si­ble to organ­ise we’ve called the gath­er­ing in the big smoke.

Want to get involved soon­er but need some skills and or infor­ma­tion? GBC has set up a project to offer info/skill shares for groups who want to be trained up in a par­tic­u­lar sup­port role. We can offer skill shares in your rea. Get in touch with GBC@riseup.net.

We’re trans­form­ing rela­tion­ships, we’re fight­ing destruc­tion. Get involved with GBC and make way for the move­ment! For more info and pos­si­bil­i­ties of crash space email GBC@Riseup.net

Full details — fol­low the link in the Action Dates & Gath­er­ings link, to the left

In the spirit of Gerrard Winstanley; a shout out for help from a neighbouring allotment group. Are you free on Saturday?

On St. George’s Day, Sat­ur­day 23rd April, 2011 we start­ed a Green rev­o­lu­tion in Ash­ton-under-lyne, Tame­side, in the tra­di­tion of Eng­lish rad­i­cal group The dig­gers who dur­ing the peri­od of the Eng­lish Com­mon­wealth, in 1649 reclaimed the com­mon land of St. George’s Hill from the Lords of the Manor by dig­ging and cul­ti­vat­ing it.

On St. George’s Day, Sat­ur­day 23rd April, 2011 we start­ed a Green rev­o­lu­tion in Ash­ton-under-lyne, Tame­side, in the tra­di­tion of Eng­lish rad­i­cal group The dig­gers who dur­ing the peri­od of the Eng­lish Com­mon­wealth, in 1649 reclaimed the com­mon land of St. George’s Hill from the Lords of the Manor by dig­ging and cul­ti­vat­ing it.

After years of delay by Tame­side Coun­cil prospec­tive allot­ment hold­ers in Ash­ton have now organ­ised our­selves to take over con­trol of the land on Ash­ton Moss that had been allo­cat­ed for the replace­ment allot­ments, sup­port­ed by sym­pa­thet­ic
vol­un­teers we came togeth­er in a day of action to reclaim the allot­ments from Cord­ing­leys who have neglect­ed and mis­man­aged the land.

Back­ground

In 1996 at the time of the devel­op­ment of the M60 Motor­way, Ash­ton Moss allot­ment sites were tak­en out of use and the land was giv­en by Tame­side Coun­cil to local estate Agents, Cord­ing­leys, to devel­op for busi­ness and leisure use, the con­tract includ­ed pro­vid­ing alter­na­tive allot­ment sites

Peo­ple on the Coun­cil’s allot­ment wait­ing list who were promised plots on the site are still wait­ing, although the allot­ment site was
devel­oped by Cord­ing­leys over 7 years ago, we have now been told that the site is not due to be hand­ed over in the near future.

Ash­ton Allot­ment Action now intend to take direct action to start
cul­ti­vat­ing the allot­ments as a mat­ter of urgency. Because the land has not been cul­ti­vat­ed, since it was devel­oped it has now become over­run with weeds, prin­ci­pal­ly Soft Rush which needs to be cleared before we can start grow­ing fruit and veg­eta­bles. We intend to clear the weeds from a part of the site and to the plant seeds or seedlings.

Reg­u­lar Sat­ur­day Action days

We invit­ing every­one to come along to our action days and help us, every Sat­ur­day from 10.00 am

Please come along and sup­port our action days, come when you want and stay as long as you want, please bring your own hand tools, food and drink

The allot­ments are locat­ed on Moss Lane, which is a rough track
run­ning from a junc­tion of Lord Shel­don Way, left turn from
Droylsden/Manchester, right turn from Ash­ton.

If you are com­ing by car, it could be advis­able to park at the leisure park and walk over the round­about and motor­way bridge, where you will find a foot­path lead­ing to the allot­ments

Ash­ton Moss Allot­ment site co-ordi­nates
OS X (East­ings) 392221
OS Y (Nor­things) 399178
Near­est Post Code OL7 9LA
Lat (WGS84) N53:29:21 (53.489254)
Long (WGS84) W2:07:07 (-2.118708)

Please view our video of the 23/04/11 Action day http://you.tube/8X0qjO_UxkQ

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion and direc­tions con­tact Nigel 07709056079

For his­to­ry buffs, the Dig­gers’ pam­phlet online:
http://www.bilderberg.org/land/poor.htm

http://ashtonallotmentaction.wordpress.com/

A banquet of possibilities…the 12th OKasional cafe is on it’s way

March 21, 2011

We are hold­ing reg­u­lar meet­ings in the next few weeks before we open up again in a new loca­tion, so get in touch to find out when and where our next meet up is. It’s a prop­er ban­quet of pos­si­bil­i­ties so come share your ideas and enthu­si­asm, join a work­ing group, and get involved.

March 21, 2011

We are hold­ing reg­u­lar meet­ings in the next few weeks before we open up again in a new loca­tion, so get in touch to find out when and where our next meet up is. It’s a prop­er ban­quet of pos­si­bil­i­ties so come share your ideas and enthu­si­asm, join a work­ing group, and get involved.

We are tak­ing book­ings for work­shops already begin­ning on the 11th of April so hit us up with your pro­pos­als…

give us a shout at our email mcrokcafe@gmail.com

OK-UPY & DEFY.X
http://okcafe.wordpress.com

The Climate Renegades are GO GO GO!

At a time when cuts and aus­ter­i­ty are grab­bing the head­lines, the need for action on cli­mate change has nev­er been greater. Floods, heat­waves, ener­gy short­ages, ris­ing food prices – these are just the start if we don’t take action now.

At a time when cuts and aus­ter­i­ty are grab­bing the head­lines, the need for action on cli­mate change has nev­er been greater. Floods, heat­waves, ener­gy short­ages, ris­ing food prices – these are just the start if we don’t take action now.

This sum­mer the Cli­mate Rene­gades will tour the coun­try to sup­port grass-root and com­mu­ni­ty strug­gles, both embry­on­ic and estab­lished, based upon local needs and wish­es. Are you part of a local cam­paign against cuts and/or cli­mate change that wants to do some­thing big this sum­mer? Or per­haps you are some­one who has skills to offer? If so, read on…

We are a roam­ing col­lec­tive of expe­ri­enced envi­ron­men­tal activists with skills to share. We are look­ing to hold events that raise aware­ness of the need for action on cli­mate jus­tice, enable inde­pen­dence from a con­strict­ing eco­nom­ic sys­tem, and empow­er com­mu­ni­ties under threat. These events will cre­ate a space for col­lec­tive cre­ativ­i­ty and free expres­sion, will pro­mote and utilise non-vio­lent direct action as a viable tac­tic for inspir­ing rad­i­cal change, and will act as space for a free exchange of skills, knowl­edge and ideas.

Cli­mate Rene­gades is one of a few projects that came out of the Camp for Cli­mate Action’s Space for Change gath­er­ing.

We wish to pro­mote pro­gres­sive change from peo­ple com­ing togeth­er with­in and across com­mu­ni­ties in the face of dom­i­nant pow­ers, to con­front prob­lems and take their fate into their own hands. Through a diver­si­ty of tac­tics we wish to sup­port this change.

We find repres­sion and abuse of social strug­gles by con­cen­trat­ed pow­er – be that state, big busi­ness or ‘rev­o­lu­tion­ary’ Polit­i­cal par­ties. For this rea­son, we share a tra­di­tion and com­mit­ment to active anti-hier­ar­chy and col­lec­tive deci­sion mak­ing.

Cli­mate Rene­gades is not envis­aged to form a move­ment or a mod­el for future years. Our role is one of facil­i­tat­ing and devel­op­ing the strength of cam­paigns, enabling the vision­ing of com­mon solu­tions and high­light­ing the impor­tance of envi­ron­men­tal strug­gles in this time of forced aus­ter­i­ty.

For more info, e‑mail us or check out our Face­book group!

climaterenegades@riseup.net
http://www.facebook.com/help/?mail_sent#!group.php?gid=116697736256

After Space for Change

The ‘dis­cus­sion space’ on crab­grass is the place to share com­ments, con­cerns and ideas about the decision(s) made at Space for Change. Here’s how:

1) Go to https://we.riseup.net/discussion_space.
2) Click ‘log in’ at the top right cor­ner
3) Once logged in, select ‘join group’
4) And you’re in!

The ‘dis­cus­sion space’ on crab­grass is the place to share com­ments, con­cerns and ideas about the decision(s) made at Space for Change. Here’s how:

1) Go to https://we.riseup.net/discussion_space.
2) Click ‘log in’ at the top right cor­ner
3) Once logged in, select ‘join group’
4) And you’re in!

If you don’t already have a crab­grass user­name and pass­word you can quick­ly get one by going to https://we.riseup.net and select­ing ‘new account’.

3) INTERIM WORKING GROUPS — get involved!

The fol­low­ing inter­im work­ing groups were set up at Space for Change:

- Tat and Dosh: to max­imise the use­ful­ness of our mate­r­i­al resources
— Com­mu­ni­ca­tions: to address ongo­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions and media issues. To learn from and doc­u­ment our expe­ri­ences
— New struc­tures: to inves­ti­gate new organ­i­sa­tion­al forms, struc­tures and tac­tics for pos­si­ble next exper­i­ments.
— Next meet­ing: to organ­ise a meet­ing in the next 2–3 months to share ideas about these next exper­i­ments

They each have Crab­grass pages that can be found by putting the fol­low­ing after https://we.riseup.net/
tat_dosh
com­mu­ni­ca­tions
new_structures
next_meeting

Then click ‘request to join group’.

All of these groups are part of the inter­im Crab­grass Net­work ‘After Space for Change’ which you can join here:
https://we.riseup.net/after_space_for_change. Hav­ing groups be part of a net­work is use­ful to be able to see what oth­er groups are doing.

You can either join the whole net­work or just one of the work­ing groups.

If Crab­grass is a bit strange to you, check out the help pages here:
https://we.riseup.net/crabgrass

4) METAMORPHOSIS STATEMENT

In case you missed the state­ment com­ing out of Space for Change at Monk­ton Wyld, it can be read on the Cli­mate Camp web­site here:
www.climatecamp.org.uk/2011-statement

Day of Action against Extraction, April 19/April 20 — 2011

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are under attack from extrac­tive indus­tries that poi­son our fam­i­lies, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosys­tems we cher­ish. The BP oil spill was unfor­tu­nate­ly just one of an end­less string of dis­as­ters born of an eco­nom­ic sys­tem that must end­less­ly con­sume the Earth’s resources.

Extrac­tion is the act of tak­ing with­out giv­ing any­thing back. Extrac­tion takes work­ers lives so cor­po­ra­tions can make a few more bucks.
Extrac­tion takes clean water and air and gives us black­ened oceans and a cli­mate in chaos. Extrac­tion takes the nat­ur­al wealth of com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems and leaves behind pover­ty and eco­log­i­cal waste­lands.

For a sta­ble cli­mate, clean air and water, we must stop the extrac­tion of fos­sil fuels and oth­er “resources.” From the tar sands of Alber­ta to the Gulf Coast, peo­ple are fight­ing back against the extrac­tive indus­tries that have declared war on our plan­et. Ris­ing Tide is call­ing for a day of direct action against extrac­tion on the 1 year anniver­sary of the BP oil spill. On April 20th take it to the point of pro­duc­tion.
Shut down a well site, occu­py a mine, take over an office, block­ade a bank. Nobody’s com­mu­ni­ty should be a sac­ri­fice zone. For cli­mate jus­tice and a live­able plan­et.

Ris­ing Tide (North Amer­i­ca)