Category: South East England

South East Eng­land

Eco village occupation in Windsor this June


On Sat­ur­day 09th June, we will be walk­ing from Syon Lane Com­mu­ni­ty Allot­ment in West Lon­don to Wind­sor.  We will be camp­ing for one night on the route. Our aim is to start a com­mu­ni­ty on a piece of dis­used land on the Crown Estate.
We plan to grow our own food, make shel­ters and live sus­tain­ably: to show an alter­na­tive to our sys­tem of cri­sis. We call for the right for every­one to be able to use the dis­used land to live on, free the yoke of debt and rent.
If you share our vision, and you are will­ing to work to achieve it, we wel­come you to join us.
Meet­up Details
Meet at Syon Lane Com­mu­ni­ty Allot­ment on Sat 09th
June from 11 a.m. We will be depart­ing at 1 p.m sharp.
 
Bring camp­ing equip­ment, warm  cloth­ing, mug, bowl, spoon and a torch. Also please bring seeds and any use­ful equip­ment if you can.
Should you wish to meet us in Wind­sor, or at some oth­er point along the jour­ney, please call the num­bers below on the day.
If  you would like to know more about this  project, please vis­it: www.diggers2012.wordpress.com or email  diggers2012@yahoo.co.uk
Alter­na­tive­ly you can call or text the fol­low­ing num­bers: 07963 475 195 / 07905 283 114 to find  out more.
Syon Lane Com­mu­ni­ty Allot­ment Direc­tions and map.
Street Address: The lane adja­cent to Plat­form 1, Syon Lane Sta­tion, Roth­bury Gar­dens, Isle­worth, Mid­dle­sex, TW7 5JG
Get­ting to the site: We are sit­u­at­ed on the long strip of land adja­cent to Plat­form 1 of Syon Lane Sta­tion, which is on the south­ern rail­way line com­ing from Lon­don Water­loo via Kew Bridge and Houn­slow.
Near­est Tube: Oster­ley – Turn left out of the sta­tion, fol­low the Great West Road until you reach Syon Lane, then turn right. Then turn right down a foot­path before you cross the rail­way bridge, it will lead you through to Roth­bury Gar­dens, and you will see our site entrance oppo­site.
Near­est bus stop:Lon­don Road – Busch Cor­ner (237/267/235) – Come up either Spur Road or Syon Lane until you reach the rail­way bridge. Then go onto Plat­form 1 and fol­low the foot­path between two met­al fences, you will see our entrance on your left.
Map link: http://g.co/maps/ga6mn

http://diggers2012.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/388997621152693/
http://london.indymedia.org/events/12282
https://twitter.com/#!/freetheland

GM wheat trial vandalised

Sun­day 20 May 2012

Sci­en­tists are assess­ing the dam­age after a GM wheat tri­al was van­dalised at the Rotham­st­ed Research cen­tre in Hert­ford­shire.

The GM tri­al, con­duct­ed by sci­en­tists from Rotham­st­ed Research in Hert­ford­shire, aims to see whether trans­genic wheat can repel aphids in the field.

Sun­day 20 May 2012

Sci­en­tists are assess­ing the dam­age after a GM wheat tri­al was van­dalised at the Rotham­st­ed Research cen­tre in Hert­ford­shire.

The GM tri­al, con­duct­ed by sci­en­tists from Rotham­st­ed Research in Hert­ford­shire, aims to see whether trans­genic wheat can repel aphids in the field.

It is under­stood that part of the exper­i­men­tal crop has been van­dalised and at least one per­son has been arrest­ed.

Details of the attack start­ed to emerge in a series of tweets by Rotham­st­ed sci­en­tist Toby Bruce on  Sun­day (20 May).

“Just heard there’s been an attack on our field tri­al, don’t know if crops were van­dalised,” he wrote. “Very sad.”

Dr Bruce is lead­ing the trans­genic wheat research project at Rotham­st­ed.

A spokesman for Rotham­st­ed said a state­ment was like­ly to be issued lat­er.

The non-com­mer­cial tri­al is being spon­sored by Biotech­nol­o­gy and Bio­log­i­cal Sci­ences Research Coun­cil.

“There was one intrud­er who has spread wheat seed on to three of the plots, but no appar­ent  dam­age,” Dr Bruce revealed. “He has been arrest­ed.”

Dr Bruce lat­er added: “Oh dear, there’s more: Dam­age to plot 7 where he has cut off the tops of quite a few of the plants and col­lect­ed the mate­r­i­al.”

It is not known at this stage who was respon­si­ble for the attack. But anti-GM activists have been plan­ning a “mass action” against the GM tri­al.

The “Take the Flour Back!” web­site urges oppo­nents to GM crops to meet one week lat­er at Rotham­st­ed, on Sun­day (27 May).

It adds: “Or take your own action in your own way, at your own time. Togeth­er we can stop this tri­al.”

The web­site includes a map show­ing the loca­tion of the GM wheat tri­al.

Ear­li­er, Rotham­st­ed sicen­tists plead­ed with anti-GM cam­paign­ers not to destroy the exper­i­men­tal plots.

An online peti­tion to muster sup­port for the sci­en­tists was signed by more than 5,000 peo­ple, includ­ing the actor and broad­cast­er Stephen Fry.

But the protest group Take The Flour Back refused to back down, vow­ing to “decon­t­a­m­i­nate” the site unless the research was halt­ed.

Take the Flour Back! anti-GM wheat action 27 May — final details

‘Take the Flour Back’ will be a nice day out in the coun­try, with pic­nics, music from Seize the Day and a decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion. It’s for any­one who feels able to pub­li­cal­ly help remove this threat and those who want to show their sup­port for them.

What to bring, action you should take before the 27th May, trans­port info and more info on the web­site — http://taketheflourback.org/

How to get there, OS map and pho­to of the new fence

OCCUPY OIL — THE SEQUEL

Tak­ing place WORLDWIDE on Tues­day 22nd May 2012

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gbXnBXoTzI

#Occu­py­Oil the Sequel: The road to SHELL is paved with bad inten­tions…

Tak­ing place WORLDWIDE on Tues­day 22nd May 2012

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gbXnBXoTzI

#Occu­py­Oil the Sequel: The road to SHELL is paved with bad inten­tions…

BLOODY MONEY: Tar Sands, Ross­port, Niger Delta

On the 8th of Feb this year Occu­py Oil held it first day of mass action.

Shell Sta­tions across the UK and indeed fur­ther afield were block­ad­ed or pick­et­ed. We are back and on the 22nd of May 2012 we are hold­ing Occu­py Oil the Sequel, Roy­al Dutch Shell will be hold­ing their AGM in The Hague with an audio-visu­al link to a satel­lite meet­ing place in Lon­don.

We are call­ing on all occu­piers, groups and indi­vid­u­als to come togeth­er and send a clear mes­sage to Shell.

NIGER DELTA

Shell Oil in the Niger Delta have done untold destruc­tion, the oil giant’s 2008 spills have wrecked liveli­hoods of 69,000 peo­ple and will take 30 years to clean up.

Guardian Arti­cle from 2011: www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/10/shell-nigerian-oil-spills-amnesty

ROSSPORT, CO MAYO, IRELAND

The Oil giant con­tin­ues to destroy the com­mu­ni­ty of Ross­port, Co Mayo Ire­land. Read more about the Shell to Sea cam­paign at www.shelltosea.com

TAR SANDS, CANADA

Roy­al Dutch Shell is one of the largest play­ers in tar sands, pro­duc­ing approx­i­mate­ly 276 000 bar­rels per day or rough­ly 20% of total exports from Alber­ta. Shell has put forth appli­ca­tions to expand its capac­i­ty through new mines and in situ projects, to a pro­ject­ed 770 000 bar­rel per day capac­i­ty. How­ev­er, strong com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance to Shell has dam­aged their rep­u­ta­tion with both share­hold­ers and the pub­lic. Indeed, Shell has been named in five law­suits relat­ed to tar sands devel­op­ments and has faced share­hold­er res­o­lu­tions demand­ing greater clar­i­ty over the risk of tar sands invest­ments.

UK Tar Sands Net­work: www.no-tar-sands.org

It’s time to make a stand. On 22nd of May 2012 we will occu­py petrol sta­tions across the GLOBE. We call on activists to organ­ise your­selves into affin­i­ty groups and join this action world-wide. Make ban­ners, get sound sys­tems and pick tar­gets. As the date approach­es we can co-ordi­nate actions for max­i­mum impact. Let’s send anoth­er shot in our war against the glob­al elites.

E‑MAIL: info@occupyoil.co.uk
TWITTER: @OccupyOil, hash­tag #Occu­py­Oil
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/events/230582443683609
WEB: www.occupyoil.co.uk

Take the Flour Back! Mass action against GM wheat — meetup point announced

Take the flour back!
Sun­day 27th May 2012
 
Pub­lic day of action against the Rotham­st­ed genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied wheat tri­al.
 
Meet-up point: Rotham­st­ed Park, Harp­en­den, Herts (30 mins from Lon­don by train) 12 noon on 27th May. At 1.30pm we’ll take a 20 minute stroll on pub­lic foot­paths to the tri­al site.

Fre­quent trains run from Lon­don to Harp­en­den – the jour­ney takes 30 mins from St Pan­cras. A ten minute walk from Harp­en­den Sta­tion gets you to the park. Direc­tions avail­able at the sta­tion.

Check back to our web­site for legal brief­in­gs near­er the time.

 
—-
 
Bak­ers, farm­ers, grow­ers, allot­ment hold­ers, sci­en­tists, bee­keep­ers, and peo­ple who eat food are turn­ing out to voice their oppo­si­tion to GM crops com­ing back to the UK.
 
Meet Sun­day 27th May, at 12 noon, in Rotham­st­ed, Harp­en­den, Herts. Or take your own action in your own way, at your own time. Togeth­er we can stop this tri­al.
 
Cow genes on toast any­one? No thanks!
 
 
What’s up with the tri­al?
 
It could be dan­ger­ous.
This tri­al is test­ing a brand-new syn­thet­i­cal­ly-con­struct­ed ‘fake’ gene that is ‘most sim­i­lar to one found in a cow’. This is a con­cern­ing use of syn­thet­ic genes and of ani­mal genes in plants.
 
It’s not want­ed.
Even the USA has aban­doned attempts to com­mer­cialise GM wheat because there is no mar­ket for it. Biotech com­pa­ny BASF recent­ly backed out of Europe because no-one want­ed to buy GM food.
 
Once it flow­ers, it’s here to stay.
The tri­al is hap­pen­ing in the open air, mean­ing that when it starts to flower it can cross con­t­a­m­i­nate oth­er wheat crops and wild grass­es. This is a real threat. In Cana­da there is no organ­ic oilseed rape left because all the farms have been cross-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with GM rape­seed.
 
For more info near­er the time, go to www.taketheflourback.org or con­tact us at info [AT] taketheflourback.org

Latest Updates from Protect the Wilderness & Reclaim the Fields

The Pro­tect the Wilder­ness cam­paign attend­ed a court hear­ing on Mon­day 5th brought by Glouces­ter­shire Coun­ty Coun­cil. This morn­ing, the Judge gave pos­ses­sion to the coun­cil. An evic­tion is very like­ly in the imme­di­ate days.

The Pro­tect the Wilder­ness cam­paign attend­ed a court hear­ing on Mon­day 5th brought by Glouces­ter­shire Coun­ty Coun­cil. This morn­ing, the Judge gave pos­ses­sion to the coun­cil. An evic­tion is very like­ly in the imme­di­ate days.

How­ev­er Pro­tect the Wilder­ness would like to con­firm that the Reclaim the Fields Gath­er­ing hap­pen­ing this week will still be going ahead with a whole three days of work­shops, activ­i­ties and actions as pre­vi­ous­ly adver­tised.

For any­one attend­ing:

    *You will be fed, warm, com­fort­able & inspired!
    *You will be able to camp safe­ly in the for­est, please bring a tent & bed­ding if pos­si­ble oth­er­wise there is a large com­mu­nal yurt pro­vid­ed with bed­ding & blan­kets avail­able
    *There will be enough food for every­one
    *There will be a fire-pit & warm spaces to be

And final­ly, you will be free to choose your involve­ment with the evic­tion & any sol­i­dar­i­ty need­ed with the Wilder­ness Cen­tre. There are safe spaces as well as oppor­tu­ni­ties to become involved in defend­ing the space — it is com­plete­ly your choice! This is a great chance to learn about your rights and see the results of our work here at the wilder­ness cen­tre.

So please join Pro­tect the Wilder­ness & Reclaim the Fields in cel­e­brat­ing our shared strug­gles for access­ing land to grow food for our com­mu­ni­ties & to live land-based lives.

As a reminder, here is a taster of what will be hap­pen­ing the next few days:

     *Intro­duc­tions to land rights, Reclaim the Fields UK & Euro­pean con­stel­la­tions, Seed Sov­er­eign­ty, WWOLF (woof­ing with teeth) and Reclaim the Field Trips
    *Work­shops includ­ing com­post­ing gen­der, occu­py­ing land, pro­tect­ing bee pop­u­la­tions, food sov­er­eign­ty and more.
    *Skill­shares, guer­ril­la gar­den­ing, music & feast­ing!

For more infor­ma­tion about the gath­er­ing please see:
http://www.reclaimthefields.org.uk/spring-gathering-2012/

More info about the Wilder­ness Cen­tre: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-the-Wilderness-Centre-Forest-of-Dean/321890141176064

Who to con­tact if need­ed: 07811 726 372

Direc­tions: Bus/train to Glouces­ter then get the 24/24a to Mitcheldean (takes about 30 mins) get off when you see the church (near the hair­dressers) and ask some­one for direc­tions or notice oth­er RTFers. Oth­er­wise call the num­ber above & you will be col­lect­ed.

Resis­tance is Fer­tile!

Take the Flour Back — a mass action against Genetically Modified wheat

Take the flour back!
Sunday 27th May 2012

Public day of action against the Rothamsted genetically modified wheat trial.

 

Take the flour back!
Sunday 27th May 2012

Public day of action against the Rothamsted genetically modified wheat trial.

 

Bak­ers, farm­ers, grow­ers, allot­ment hold­ers, sci­en­tists, bee­keep­ers, and peo­ple who eat food are turn­ing out to voice their oppo­si­tion to GM crops com­ing back to the UK.
Meet Sun­day 27th May, at 12 noon, in Rotham­st­ed, Harp­en­den, Herts. Or take your own action in your own way, at your own time. Togeth­er we can stop this tri­al.

Cow genes on toast anyone? No thanks!

What’s up with the tri­al?

It could be dangerous

This tri­al is test­ing a brand-new syn­thet­i­cal­ly-con­struct­ed ‘fake’ gene that is ‘most sim­i­lar to one found in a cow’. This is the first use of syn­thet­ic genes in the UK, and a con­cern­ing use of ani­mal genes in plants.

It’s not wanted

Even Amer­i­ca has aban­doned attempts to com­mer­cialise GM wheat because there is no mar­ket for it. Biotech com­pa­ny BASF recent­ly backed out of Europe because no-one want­ed to buy GM food.

Once it flowers, it’s here to stay

The tri­al is hap­pen­ing in the open air, mean­ing that when it starts to flower it can cross con­t­a­m­i­nate oth­er wheat crops and wild grass­es. This is a real threat. In Cana­da there is no organ­ic oilseed rape left because all the farms have been cross-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with GM rape.

Reclaim the Fields Spring Gathering 2012 — details & updates

@ The Wilder­ness Cen­tre, Mitcheldean, For­est of Dean, Glouces­ter­shire, GL17 0HA

The first Reclaim the Fields Gath­er­ing of the year will be tak­ing place this March at the Wilder­ness Cen­tre in the For­est of Dean.

Pre-Gath­er­ing Help need­ed:

@ The Wilder­ness Cen­tre, Mitcheldean, For­est of Dean, Glouces­ter­shire, GL17 0HA

The first Reclaim the Fields Gath­er­ing of the year will be tak­ing place this March at the Wilder­ness Cen­tre in the For­est of Dean.

Pre-Gath­er­ing Help need­ed:

Any­one inter­est­ed in help­ing out with the running/ set­ting up of the event, should come to the Wilder­ness asap. If you’re inter­est­ed in giv­ing a talk, or demon­strat­ing a skill — get in con­tact, or just show up and arrange to use one of the “spaces” avail­able with one of the Pro­tect The Wilder­ness Crew.

The pro­vi­sion­al timetable includes:

Thurs­day 8th:

*Intro­duc­tion to Reclaim the Fields — where we’ve come from and recent action, includ­ing feed­back from the Euro­pean Gath­er­ing.
* Wilder­ness Cen­tre intro­duc­tion & house­keep­ing
*Open Intro­duc­tions; intro­duce your self & your projects & con­tin­ue net­work­ing with our notice­board

The remain­der of the day is designed around open spaces, giv­ing peo­ple a chance to work & com­mu­ni­cate around these sug­ges­tions so far:

*WWOLF (woof­ing with teeth) and Reclaim the Field Trips
*Seed Sov­er­eign­ty & grow­er-to-grow­er seed dis­tri­b­u­tion net­works
*Car­rots ses­sion e.g. RTF inter­nal structure/sharing work­loads
*Using the food sov­er­eign­ty prin­ci­ples as a strate­gic frame­work — (in a UK con­text)
*How to organ­ise & main­tain effec­tive land occu­pa­tions
*Com­post­ing gen­der
*Plan­ning for Inter­na­tion­al Peas­ants Day of Strug­gle on April 17th
*Legal options for access­ing land
*Pro­tect­ing bee pop­u­la­tions

Fri­day 9th:

*Ses­sion on gen­er­al Reclaim the Fields strat­e­gy and focus­es for 2012
Work­shops and talks:
*An intro­duc­tion to land rights
*His­to­ry of Land rights strug­gles in the For­est of Dean

Fol­lowed by a con­sen­sus based gueril­la gar­den­ing action… remains open to sug­ges­tions!
(ideas so far…)
*Food for­est, in an aban­doned quar­ry
*Care home for the elder­ly
* Clear-felled Forestry land
* Vic­to­ri­an walled gar­den

Sat­ur­day 10th:

Pro­tect The Wilder­ness open skill-share day!
Seed swap, Com­mu­ni­ty bring and share.
Gar­den­ing the organ­ic com­mu­ni­ty gar­den, and walled gar­den.
Music and feast­ing!

Not for­get­ting gar­den­ing, char­coal burn­ing, bak­ing in the cob oven, seed­bomb mak­ing, cob­bing the round-house, and chop­ping wood through-out!

£5 sug­gest­ed dona­tion per day, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Items to bring:
Warm clothes, two sets (if you mind being mud­dy)
bed­ding, camp­ing mats
tools for g‑gardening [spades, forks, mat­tocks, bill­hooks]
Instru­ments, danc­ing shoes,
seeds for seed­bombs,
home-grown veg, pick­les, jams, whole foods

More info about the Wilder­ness Cen­tre: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-the-Wilderness-Centre-Forest-of-Dean/321890141176064
Who to con­tact for more infor­ma­tion: use the RTF UK email list or email frankynecklace@yahoo.co.uk

Gourds work be done,

Pro­tect The Wilder­ness,
Reclaim the Fields!

Reclaim the Fields Spring Gathering 2012

The first Reclaim the Fields Gath­er­ing of the year will be tak­ing place this March at the Wilder­ness Cen­tre in the For­est of Dean.

The pro­vi­sion­al timetable includes work­shops on:

The first Reclaim the Fields Gath­er­ing of the year will be tak­ing place this March at the Wilder­ness Cen­tre in the For­est of Dean.

The pro­vi­sion­al timetable includes work­shops on:

*How to organ­ise & main­tain effec­tive land occu­pa­tions
*An intro­duc­tion to land rights
*Com­post­ing gen­der
*Legal options for access­ing land
*Learn­ing from Peas­ant Strug­gles in the Glob­al South
*Using the food sov­er­eign­ty prin­ci­ples as a strate­gic frame­work

There will also be feed­back from the Euro­pean Reclaim the Field Gath­er­ings & con­stel­la­tion as well as space for work­ing group ses­sions around:

*Seed Sov­er­eign­ty
*WWOLF (woof­ing with teeth) and Reclaim the Field Trips
*Plan­ning for Inter­na­tion­al Peas­ants Day of Strug­gle on April 17th

Some guer­ril­la-gar­den­ing type actions are also planned through­out. Sat­ur­day 10th is the Wilder­ness Cen­tre’s pub­lic open day so there will also be prac­ti­cal skills-shar­ing work­shops.

When: Accom­mo­da­tion is avail­able from the evening of Wednes­day 7th. Oth­er­wise the gath­er­ing is two full days Thurs­day & Fri­day 8–9th March. The For­est always wel­comes vis­i­tors so arrange with them if you want to stay & help out before hand.
Where: Wilder­ness Cen­tre, For­est of Dean. Direc­tions are here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-the-Wilderness-Centre-Forest-of-Dean/321890141176064
Who to con­tact for more infor­ma­tion: use the RTF UK email list or email frankynecklace@yahoo.co.uk

What to bring: Sleep­ing bags, blan­kets, mats, own set of cut­lery & bowl if pos­si­ble. There is indoor sleep­ing space and room for tents out­side. Any home grown food to share & also seeds to swap.

Food will be a min­i­mum of £5 dona­tion per day. Any oth­er dona­tions are wel­come

More sug­ges­tions for work­shops, ses­sions & oth­er activ­i­ties are always wel­come, this is our con­stel­la­tion & gath­er­ing to make things hap­pen.

About:

Reclaim the Fields is a con­stel­la­tion of peo­ple and col­lec­tive projects will­ing to go back to the land and reas­sume the con­trol over food pro­duc­tion. We are deter­mined to cre­ate alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal­ism through coop­er­a­tive, col­lec­tive, autonomous, real needs ori­ent­ed small scale pro­duc­tion and ini­tia­tives, putting the­o­ry into prac­tice and link­ing local prac­ti­cal action with glob­al polit­i­cal strug­gles.
You can find more about us, our strug­gles & more resources such as down­load­able zines here: www.reclaimthefields.org.uk

Winter Warm-up round-up — Fuel Poverty Action protests

Fri­day update: an excit­ing start to the Fuel Pover­ty Action Week­end of Win­ter Warm-ups…Hundreds of peo­ple across the coun­try came out of their cold homes to get warm at the build­ings of insti­tu­tions that have a hand in cre­at­ing fuel pover­ty, to chal­lenge the Big Six’s monop­oly and the government’s com­plic­i­ty.  Lon­don — Leeds — Swin­don — Man­ches­ter:

Fri­day update: an excit­ing start to the Fuel Pover­ty Action Week­end of Win­ter Warm-ups…Hundreds of peo­ple across the coun­try came out of their cold homes to get warm at the build­ings of insti­tu­tions that have a hand in cre­at­ing fuel pover­ty, to chal­lenge the Big Six’s monop­oly and the government’s com­plic­i­ty.  Lon­don — Leeds — Swin­don — Man­ches­ter: read more

Sat­ur­day update: Cam­bridge

Mon­day update: six activists have bar­ri­cad­ed them­selves into meet­ing rooms on two floors of British Gas offices in Staines, Mid­dle­sex, as part of the ‘Win­ter Warm-Up’ week­end called by the cam­paign group Fuel Pover­ty Action. British Gas is being tar­get­ed as one of the Big Six ener­gy com­pa­nies mak­ing prof­its out of ris­ing ener­gy bills.  Read more. 

Update — faced with a threat­en­ing police pres­ence, the occu­piers of the British Gas offices have now decid­ed to leave on their own terms.