South East England – Page 18

Camp Bling back up and awaiting chainsaws – chopping on Sunday?

27.2.2010
Important Update

Cuckoo Corner tent 27.2.2010
Important Update

6pm – so far, so good at Camp Cuckoo; food donations coming in but still need more people; latest twitter updates on PPPS website below or SKIPP facebook page.

Various sources have now confirmed that the Council will be felling the trees on Priory Crescent during Sunday. The affected stretch of Priory Crescent is going to be closed to traffic between midnight and 8pm Sunday.

There will be people climbing the trees to prevent them being felled – if you feel up to it, please volunteer! We also need as many people as possible on the ground to lend support, witness the Council’s, private security and Police’s actions and so on.

Please come down to lend your support. People have been campaigning against this road widening since 1972 and it’s all coming to a head tonight.

Additional from SKIPP: Urgent notice – help needed NOW! Tree felling begins tonight in Priory Crescent, anyone who can please come down to site, your help is desperately needed, if possible please cancel what ever you are doing, it is now or never, passive or active, you can help save the trees if we act together NOW… SKIPP Committee Contact: 07799414887 – mark 07747755205 – patsy Please let us know if you can help.

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After years of patient occupation and apparent victory, Southend activists have had to reoccupy land to prevent the councils new road building scheme. Evictions are expected imminently and crew are urgently needed.

Southend Borough Council has reneged on the agreement made last April with Bling and Parklife which resulted in an agreement with the residents to vacate the site.

Local Group SKIPP has since been campaigning to prevent the revised plan from becoming a reality, last week SKIPP joined force with Parklife, and Blingers to occupy a site in Priory Crescent with a view to preventing tree felling which is due in the next few days.

This morning a source within the Council informed us, that tree felling and eviction is now imminent.

Support is urgently needed, the site is situated in Priory Crescent on land adjacent to the Cuckoo Corner Roundabout; by car head into Southend using the A127, following the town centre signs, by train the nearest station is Prittlewell on the Liverpool Street Line.

(for background please refer to: www.campbling.org / www.ppps.org.uk / on facebook search for Saxon King In Priory Park.

Limited accommodation is available on site in the form of tents, please bring warm clothing and harness/lock on gear if poss, same old things needed; people, climbing gear/lock on gear, herras fencing, scaff bar/clips, kit and donations.

On Friday a council meeting was halted for 20 minutes following protests over the new plans.

Fossil Fools Day 2010

Climate change is no laughing matter – but that doesn’t mean we can’t confront the Fossil Fuel Empire with subversive humour.

WHAT: Direct actions, practical jokes and throwing a spanner in the works to stop the fossil fools.
WHERE: Your street, town or city.
WHEN: April 1st, 2010.

Climate change is no laughing matter – but that doesn’t mean we can’t confront the Fossil Fuel Empire with subversive humour.

WHAT: Direct actions, practical jokes and throwing a spanner in the works to stop the fossil fools.
WHERE: Your street, town or city.
WHEN: April 1st, 2010.

Last December in Copenhagen, the politicians sold us out to the fossil fools, corporate lobbyists and big banks. Now we’re left with “green capitalism,” a deeply unjust carbon market and continued assaults on our communities and ecosystems. If we’re going to stop climate chaos, the only real solution is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

The stakes couldn’t be higher: destabilisation of the global climate, local communities destroyed by dirty energy extraction and combustion, devastating freak storms, droughts, floods, the list goes on …

This April 1st, join Rising Tide in some creative direct action … use the simply subversive to the downright disruptive: office occupations, banner drops, clownish parades, road blockades, spoof websites, subvertising, street theatre, leaflets, lock-ons or laugh-ins. Whatever works for you and your group.

Join us this Fossil Fools Day and hatch some harebrained schemes that will strike a blow to climate criminals everywhere!

WANT MORE? Fossil Fools Day also marks the launch of the BP Tar Sands Fortnight of Shame: a two-week campaign culminating in actions surrounding BP’s AGM on April 15th. The goal? To stop BP from going into the Canadian Tar Sands – the biggest, dirtiest fossil fuel project on earth. Find out more: Tar Sands in Focus.. And a word to BP: be afraid… be very afraid.

NEED A HAND? If you would like ideas for actions, graphics for leaflets or websites, advice on dealing with the press, etc., send us an email and we’ll do our best to help out: info@risingtide.org.uk

For more information see: Fossil Fools Day.

In the words of that master of pranks: “That’s All Folks”.

Hundreds blockade nuclear bomb factory

15th Feb 2010

15th Feb 2010
Update: Approximately 800 protesters blockaded the base, with a large police and FIT/EG surveillance presence. 26 arrests were reported, mainly for obstruction of a public highway. The blockade caused a huge backlog of traffic, many of which were workers trying to get to work at AWE, and failing due to blocked gates. Mainstream media coverage.

Campaigners call for disarmament of Trident and abolition of nuclear weapons

An estimated eight hundred campaigners from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and a number of other countries have joined a blockade of every gate of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. [1] The blockade started at 7am.

Individuals present at the blockade, which is aimed at halting construction of multi-billion pound facilities for research and development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, [2] include Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jody Williams, from Vermont, USA and Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, from Belfast, Northern Ireland (both Jody and Máiread were locked on using tubes). [3] Also present are the Catholic bishop of Brentwood, Thomas McMahon; the Anglican bishops Stephen Cottrell (Reading), Mike Hill (Bristol) and Peter Price (Bath and Wells); Jill Evans MEP, Vice President of Plaid Cymru and chair of CND Cymru (Wales); and Kate Hudson, chair of CND.

All gates have been blockaded, with a large number of people locked-on using tubes. In particular, several women are locked-on at the main gate exit, one of whom is in a wheel chair. Police are currently cutting people out of their lock-ons. Five arrests have been made to this point, with more expected over the course of the day.

Brian Larkin, a Trident Ploughshares (TP) activist who travelled from Helensburgh, Scotland, said: “This is the biggest blockade of Aldermaston in years and comes at a time when even major political parties are questioning the logic of spending up to £97 billion [4] on useless weapons. It demonstrates the depth and breadth of determined civil society opposition to Trident and its planned replacement. [5] Although the government now seems to have delayed the next phase of Trident replacement until after the general election, the ongoing construction of facilities at the AWE for the design, development and manufacture of new nuclear warheads is illegal and immoral and will only lead to further proliferation of nuclear weapons.”

Angie Zelter, co-founder of TP, who travelled from Knighton, Wales, added: “In May, world governments will meet to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); [6] but this program of modernisation of UK nuclear weapons violates the treaty and could lead to a disastrous failure of the Review Conference. Over forty years ago, when it signed up to the treaty, the UK made a deal to negotiate multilateral nuclear disarmament in exchange for states without nuclear weapons agreeing not to obtain them.[7] Not only have we failed to keep that promise but now we are preparing to build a new generation of nuclear weapons. If the government wants to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons it should get rid of its own nuclear weapons first. We are calling on the UK to abide by its agreement to achieve nuclear disarmament – that means taking Trident off patrol, halting all work and preparations for any new generation of nuclear weapons and using the AWE only for disarmament and verification.”

Sarah Lasenby, a TP activist who travelled from Oxford, added: “The time has come for the UK to disarm its nuclear weapons. Instead of building a new generation, the government should go to the upcoming NPT Review Conference in New York and commit to negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to abolish nuclear weapons worldwide.” [8]

Each of the gates to the nuclear weapons site is themed: Scotland, Wales, England, internationals [9], cyclists and environmentalists, faith groups, women and students. Choirs, medical professionals, academics and politicians are also present.

Media contacts: Daniel Viesnik 07506 234 091; Brian Larkin 07768 312 676; Angie Zelter 07835 354 652

Images from the blockade: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cnduk

Updates:
http://twitter.com/TridentPlough
http://blockawe.blogspot.com

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. The Aldermaston Big Blockade was initiated by Trident Ploughshares and supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) (AWPC) and various other groups.

Trident Ploughshares is a campaign to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapon system in a nonviolent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner.
Website: http://www.tridentploughshares.org

CND website: http://www.cnduk.org
AWPC website: http://www.aldermaston.net

Blockades of AWE Aldermaston took place most recently in October 2008 and June 2009.

2. The Ministry of Defence’s planning application for a new enriched uranium handling and storage facility at AWE Aldermaston, Project Pegasus, was approved by West Berkshire council on Wednesday 10 February 2010, despite receiving over 1400 letters of objection. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/berkshire/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8509000/8509099.stm

Campaigners say the new facility will be used to build a new generation of nuclear warheads, which they say breaches the UK’s legal obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [see note 7].

For information on all facilities under development or planned at the AWE, see: http://www.aldermaston.net/awe

3. Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 jointly with the campaign she worked for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jody_Williams

Máiread Corrigan-Maguire was awarded the prize in 1976 jointly with Betty Williams for their work to end violence in Northern Ireland.
http://en.wikipedia..org/wiki/Mairead_Corrigan

4. See report from Greenpeace, In the Firing Line (September 2009): http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/reports/firing-line-hidden-costs-supercarrier-project-and-replacing-trident

5. In an ICM poll for the Guardian published on 13 July 2009, 54% of respondents indicated that they wanted to see Britain abandon its nuclear weapons and not replace its Trident system. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/13/icm-poll-nuclear-weapons

6. The next five-yearly Review Conference of the NPT is due to take place 3-28 May 2010 in New York. For background information on the NPT and the Review Conference, see: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org

7. Article VI of the NPT, ratified by both the UK and the US, stipulates: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”
http://www.un.org/en/conf/npt/2005/npttreaty.html

8. For further information on the international campaign for the NPT Review Conference to commit to negotiations toward a Nuclear Weapons Convention, see: http://www.icanw.org

9. In addition to the hundreds of UK people who have participated in the blockade, there are people from Belgium, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland in attendance at Aldermaston.

media@tridentploughshares.org
http://blockawe.blogspot.com/

Tar Sands protests (Brighton & London)

Climate Camp Invades BP Petrol Stations Over Tar Sands

Climate Camp Invades BP Petrol Stations Over Tar Sands
On Saturday 13th February activists from the South Coast neighbourhood of the Camp for Climate Action invaded the three BP petrol stations in Brighton, on the Lewes Rd, Ditchling Rd and London Rd, to protest at BP’s plans to invest in the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada. Moving by bicycle 8 activists carried a banner reading ‘Tar Sands Oil Is Blood Oil’. They handed out information on the Canadian tar sands and BP’s plans to invest in it to customers and urged them to boycott BP.

Many of BP’s customers where shocked to hear about BP’s proposed involvement in one of the dirtiest businesses on earth, especially in the light of its past attend to project a green image, and in some cases left immediately left to get their fuel somewhere else. This action is the start of a campaign, which is hoped will spread across the UK. A one of the Brighton activists said: “We hope that other concerned local people across the UK will follow our example and begin putting the pressure on BP in their areas. Tar sands are an appalling example of placing insane greed ahead of the whole planet and everyone on it.”

Tar sands are deposits of tar, sand and clay under the forests of Alberta in western Canada. Tar sands extraction is an ecological disaster, sometimes referred to as ‘The biggest environmental crime in history’. Oil produced from tar sands is the filthiest most carbon intensive oil (over 3 times as much CO2 to produce as conventional oil). The Athabasca tar sands operations are the largest single industrial emitter of CO2 on the planet. Enough natural gas is used every day extracting this oil to heat 3.2 million Canadian homes.

Tar sands extraction involves the wholesale destruction of vast tracts of ancient forest over an area the size of England and Wales and the use of huge amounts of water that is left so contaminated that it must be stored in giant ponds. The toxic tailings ponds are so vast they can be seen from space. Leaks for these ponds are poisoning local rivers and the indigenous peoples that live there. The rush to extract oil from tar sands is also trampling on the rights of the local indigenous peoples.

While the tar sands are in Canada, much of the financing is coming from UK companies. BP which once tried to rebrand itself as `Beyond Petroleum’ to give itself a green image is planning on investing $10billion in the Sunrise Project a tar sands extraction project in Alberta. This week a number BP’s shareholders have started a revolt and are pressuring BP to stop. Other UK companies that are involved in tar sands include Shell, RBS and Barcalys.

Photos:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4354992582_a300eeb4fb_b_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4354252823_1123bd6cd9_b_d.jpg

Tar sands info:
http://www.ienearth.org/tarsandsinfo.html

Press:
BP faces protest over oil sands development
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7018483.ece
Shareholder group calls on BP to rethink oil sands project
http://business.scotsman.com/business/Shareholder-group-calls-on-BP.6050650.jp

Contact:
E-mail: southcoast@climatecamp.org.uk
Web: http://climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/local-groups/south-coast

—

Tar Sands banner London Oil-ympics Come To Trafalgar Square
On Saturday, 13 February at 12 noon, UK and Canadian environmental activists opened the ‘Oil-ympics’ at Canada House in Trafalgar Square. The event, timed to coincide with the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, highlighted the role of British companies in the single biggest industrial project on earth, the Canadian Tar Sands (1).

The Oil-ympics event saw activists divided into three teams: BP, Shell and RBS, all ready to ‘Race to the Tar Sands’. Traditional winter sports were subverted to illustrate the irony of Canada portraying the Vancouver Winter Olympics as an event which celebrates Canadian indigenous culture and environmental sustainability, while in the neighbouring province of Alberta, Canadian First Nations are finding that their lands, communities and health are being devastated by the Tar Sands (2).

BP received special attention after it recently unveiled plans to embark on its first Tar Sands extraction project. BP had previously sold its potential stake in Alberta in 1999, when BP’s chief executive at the time, Lord Browne, deemed Tar Sands extraction to be economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. However, BP’s new chief executive, Tony Hayward, is now set to make BP a major player in the Tar Sands with a partnership with Canada’s Husky Energy – a venture that is facing sharp criticism from BP’s own shareholders (3, 4).

Alice Hargreaves, of the UK Tar Sands Network, said: “BP has been trying to prove that they are ‘Beyond Petroleum’ for years, but with their entry into the Tar Sands project, we can see the truth: Beyond Petroleum is nothing more than a Broken Promise.(5) BP shareholders are rebelling over this betrayal, and so are we. Over the next two months, we’ll be putting the pressure on to make sure BP get the message – stay out of the Tar Sands!”

Shell has been singled out as it is already a major operator in the Tar Sands, and RBS as it is the 7th biggest global investor in the Tar Sands. (6)

tarsandsinfocus@gmail.com

http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/

(1) Deposits of Tar Sands are spread out over 54,000 square miles of prime forest in northern Alberta, an area the size of England and Wales combined. Producing crude oil from the Tar Sands generates up to five times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling: see

Environment Canada, 2007, National Inventory Report Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada 1990–2005, http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/inventory_report/2006_report/som-sum_eng.cfm

(2) This action is in solidarity with Canadian First Nations who have called for a moratorium on the Tar Sands. For more information see the Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html

(3) BP has entered a joint venture with Husky Energy to develop a Tar Sands facility which will be capable of producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of Husky’s Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epicentre of the Tar Sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies plan to invest $10 billion in the project, making BP a major player in Tar Sands extraction. The final investment decision will be made in the next few months.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7038865

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aGw2sL7JwHG8

(4) A coalition of shareholders has tabled a resolution for BP’s AGM on April 15 highlighting the environmental and social risks of Tar Sands extraction. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7018483.ece

(5) http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/bpbrokenpromises/

(6) For Shell Investments see http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/pdfs-members/economic-justice/shells-big-dirty-secret/view?searchterm=shell%27s%20big%20dirty%20secret

For RBS investments see http://understory.ran.org/2010/01/31/banks-ranked-and-spanked-on-tar-sands/

UK Tar Sands Network
tarsandsinfocus@googlemail.com
http://www.tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com

Brighton RBS painted – the lines are drawn

Communique from the Fine Line Art Collective (FLAC)
Date: 3rd Feb 2010
Address: Old Steine, Brighton
Tel: 01273 821118

In the small hours of this morning the Brighton branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland fell foul of a FLAC attack.

We claim full credit for the free public art installation of a fat red and black line of gloss paint on the floor across the doorway of the bank.

Communique from the Fine Line Art Collective (FLAC)
Date: 3rd Feb 2010
Address: Old Steine, Brighton
Tel: 01273 821118

In the small hours of this morning the Brighton branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland fell foul of a FLAC attack.

We claim full credit for the free public art installation of a fat red and black line of gloss paint on the floor across the doorway of the bank.

The black paint signifies RBS oil investments and the red paint, the lives that will be lost to climate change.

Black paint was applied to the cash point to create the impression of oil oozing from the unstoppable money machine. This illustrates the
filthy nature of this banks activities. We also proved we CAN stop a small cog in the machine. When we want to.

FLAC – the Fine Line Arts Collective – has used this publicly owned space – bought with tax payers money – to pose the question: “Where do we draw the line?”

Today FLAC members drew the line at RBS because…

RBS has financed companies involved in tar sands extraction to the tune of £8.3 billion. RBS is the UK’s biggest financier of one of the dirtiest projects on Earth.

This is destroying the Canadian wilderness, forcing the indigenous people off their lands and creating the biggest C02 emitter in the world.

FLAC says: “RBS deserves to take some flack for that.And don’t get us started on Chairman Sir Fred’s £16 million pension, not to mention the bankers’ £1million plus bonuses.

“We all have to draw the line somewhere. We draw the line at RBS using our money to destroy our planet and our future for private gain. Where do you draw the line?”

Artists notes.

FLAC used gloss paint for this action to signify the permanence of the bank’s destructive activities.

FLAC members hope other artists will feel inspired to draw a line at their own local branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Or indeed any other bank that consistently invests in human suffering and ultimately our demise.

Or draw your line wherever your sense of outrage deems fit.

The new EF! Action Update – bursting onto the seams…

In the Spring edition of the EF! Action Update, see how King Coal is being confronted – chimneys climbed, conveyors locked-on to, mines invaded, machinery occupied, ecotage, and more.

Marvel at the Mainshill strategy of continuous action, look with awe at the range of tactics they used in the many months before eviction…and then think about what you can do, with who, where and when.

“If not you, who? If not now, when?”

The Mainshill feature includes an action timeline, local community links and ideas for the future.

The Nuclear New Build CONsultation is over on 22nd February – read about what happens next, who’s involved, and an anti-nuclear camp in April.

“in the end we just need rebellion. Everywhere.” – what was your response to the Copenhagen climate chaos, whether you went or stayed at home?

Be inspired by an interview with “D Lock,our mystery digger diving activist” – get out there, bicycle lock in hand. In January, one person so-armed brought a whole coal terminal to a halt for many hours.

And from across the seas, read about our brothers and sisters struggling against high-speed train destruction in Italy, high-voltage power lines in Catalonia, and whale hunting on the High Seas.

And if you don’t get high on all that, try not to be inspired by conferences blockaded, dams delayed, earth-trashing machinery sabotaged, trees hugged, architects imposted, genetics roofed, biomess biomassed and much more.

“We are going to inherit the earth . There is not the slightest doubt about that. We Are not afraid of ruins. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.” – Durruti

To download the latest EF!AU for printing, go to http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/efau/actionupdate_feb10print.pdf

To read the latest EF!AU online, go to http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/efau/actionupdate_feb10.pdf

climate camp ‘where next?’ regional gatherings and reader

PROPOSALS FOR 2010 SO FAR

We’ve got a new discussion board up on the Climate Camp website with all the proposals for the regional gatherings received so far, plus some other useful texts from the Where Next? discussions. Join the discussion here:

http://discussion.climatecamp.org.uk

REGIONAL GATHERINGS IN JANUARY

PROPOSALS FOR 2010 SO FAR

http://discussion.climatecamp.org.uk

REGIONAL GATHERINGS IN JANUARY

Here are the latest confirmed details of our regional gatherings in January…

(More details as we have them will be posted at:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/national-gatherings/next)

—

Climate Camp Reader

Dysophia and Shift Magazine have joined forces to put together a Climate Camp Reader, “Criticism without Critique”, published in January 2010. This reader hopes to encourage and faciliate debates at the next climate camp gatherings. To download it follow this link:
http://dysophia.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cca_reader.pdf
The editorial is posted below:

Editorial

In January & February 2010, the Camp for Climate Action will go through a period of introspection as it works out where it shall go next. While in some ways the Camp has been a success, it has also come under a barrage of criticism from some quarters within the radical movements that spawned it.

To help this debate we have put together a set of resources and relevant articles to inform and spark discussion relating to this criticism. Our bias is obvious, though the opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. Whether you agree with them or not, we believe they are worth taking on board. We hope at least that you feel confident answering their challenges, rather than just dismissing them.

Now is the time for the Camp to examine its politics in more depth, to work out just what it stands for. This is a cross-roads in its development, to continue down a path of ever increasing liberal, reformist approach, or to be the noisy radical, pointing out all the white elephants in the climate change debate. The future of the movement around the camp is being shaped here. The decisions being made now will have profound impacts on who is and who is not involved in the future.

The Camp for Climate Action grew out of the radical anarchist and environmental movements, a synthesis of the organisational skills developed at the Anti-G8 protest camp at Stirling, and the ecological direct action movements such as Earth First! The perception that emerges from these criticisms is this has been lost along the way.

We accept that this booklet makes challenging reading and that we offer little in the way of solutions. These, we believe, must come from within the camp itself. However, it is apparent that there is a need for two things. Firstly, a greater visibility for the anarchist roots within the day to day life of the CCA process and proposals. Secondly, and just as important, a more open and explicit critique of capitalism and how it is the root cause of climate change.

If we do neither out of fear of a mainstream media backlash, then we are reduced to being another NGO. Yet, the power of the Camp has always been the promise of a genuine alternative action in the face of prevarication and obstruction from governments and corporations – now is the time to spell that critique out and use it to build real alternatives, not legitimising the system we complain of. It was the strength of the Camp’s founding critiques that gave it the boldness its subsequent successes have rested on.

Ultimately, the message of the Camp is a very radical one – that radical social change is needed, especially if we are to tackle of the root causes of climate change. The answer is not to water down our actions and our messages, but to be bolder than ever. That is the excitement and power that gives the Camp its life.

To download the reader follow this link:
http://dysophia.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cca_reader.pdf

http://dysophia.wordpress.com/
http://www.shiftmag.co.uk/

Cowley Club Bookshop Talks 2010

The Cowley Bookshop Collective are proud to present a series of author talks for 2010:

_______________________________________
All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
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Friday 8 January
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Clive Bloom (Violent London) talks about his research into Edwardian anarchism.

The Cowley Bookshop Collective are proud to present a series of author talks for 2010:

_______________________________________
All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
***************************************

_____________
Friday 8 January
*************

Clive Bloom (Violent London) talks about his research into Edwardian anarchism.

Clive Bloom is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Middlesex University. He has written many books on popular culture, cultural history and literary criticism, regularly appears on radio and television and contributes to a number of national newspapers. His next book, entitled Gothic Histories will be published in April 2010.
http://www.clivebloom.com/

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Wednesday 13 January
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Stevphen Shukaitis (Constituent Imagination) and Jack Z. Bratich (Conspiracy Panics) have a discussion entitled An Affective Weather Report

Event flyer (3.4 MB pdf) – http://mujinga.net/AffectiveWeatherReport.pdf

Stevphen Shukaitis is an editor at Autonomedia and lecturer at the University of Essex. He is the author of Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (Autonomedia, 2009) and editor with Erika Biddle and David Graeber of Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective Theorization (AK Press, 2007). His research focuses on the emergence of collective imagination in social movements and the changing compositions of cultural and artistic labor.
http://stevphen.mahost.org/

Jack Z. Bratich is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. He is also a zine librarian at ABC No Rio in New York City. Jack uses critical cultural studies to analyze the politics of popular culture. He studies media culture as an intersection of power, knowledge, and subjectivity. He is co-editor, along with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, of Foucault, Cultural Studies and Governmentality (SUNY 2003).
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/jbratich/index.html

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Sunday 17 January – SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION (Check Cowley club website)
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John Zerzan (Elements of Refusal) talks on The roots of the crisis and the need for a new paradigm.

American philosopher John Zerzan’s thesis is simple: civilization is pathological, and needs to be dismantled. Zerzan’s radical critique of civilization, laid out in books such as Elements Of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive (1994), and Running On Emptiness (2002) draws on anthropological research to argue that domestication of nature and domestication of humans go hand in hand. And this is accomplished primarily through technology.
This is the first appearance by John Z in the UK since 2003. A one-off event.
http://www.johnzerzan.net/

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Thursday 4 February
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John Barker (Bending the Bars) talks about his experiences of the Angry Brigade.

Between 1970 and 1972 the Angry Brigade, strongly influenced by anarchism and the Situationists, launched a bombing campaign which targeted banks, embassies and the homes of Tory MPs. In total, 25 bombings were attributed to them by the police. The damage done by the bombings was mostly limited to property damage although one person was slightly injured. A group of anarchists from North East London, the ‘Stoke Newington Eight’, were prosecuted for carrying out bombings as the Angry Brigade in one of the longest criminal trials of English history (it lasted from 30 May to 6 December 1972).
John Barker was one of those imprisoned. John went to prison in 1971, and stayed there for seven long years. Bending The Bars is a collection of stories written then, and published together for the first time in 2007. This evening John will be discussing his experience of imprisonment, and answering questions on the Brigade’s outlook and actions.

Book review by Stewart Home – http://www.metamute.org/en/node/6241

_______________________________________
All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
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More to come!

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INFO
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Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2344061033&ref=ts&gid=59207379965

Cowley Books
12 London Road
Brighton
BN1 4JA

cowleybooks@gmail.com
http://www.cowleyclub.org.uk/

Tree felled despite protesters underneath & protection agreement

23 December 2009
A MAJESTIC 350-year-old oak tree in Steep was chopped down just hours after a deal was struck to save it.

Shocked villagers looked on in horror as contractors reneged on an agreement to save the landmark oak, which has stood in Ashford Chace since the time of Oliver Cromwell, by clambering up into the highest branches and hacking it down last Tuesday afternoon.

23 December 2009
A MAJESTIC 350-year-old oak tree in Steep was chopped down just hours after a deal was struck to save it.

Protestors standing underneath the canopy were forced to take cover when it became clear tree surgeons had no regard for their safety, as parts of the tree came crashing to the ground.

Police were called amid confrontational scenes between villagers and contractors, before the residents were forced to watch helplessly as the oak was systematically dismantled.

Ashford Hangers Preservation Society tree warden Drake Hocking said: “They started off carefully and slowly and then sometime in the middle of the day they changed tack and started butchering it.
“They did not stop.
“It was tragic and the village is now in shock.”

The oak tree is situated on the Hangers Way and forms part of the right of way for a new four-bedroom house, built by Rolls Royce’s head of human resources Avery Duff and wife Elfrida of Empshott Green.

They intend to turn the site where the oak tree stood into a straight tarmac drive for their property.

The tree was considered rotten by East Hampshire District Council’s arbocultural team, so was not protected by a tree preservation order.

Mr Hocking explained an agreement had been thrashed out on Monday evening with the Duff’s contractors Pegasus Builders, which stated it would only remove about a third of the tree.

However, the promise was broken within 24 hours.

“It appears the Duff’s architect went over the head of the contractor and insisted the tree should be cut,” he said.

Kate Burke, of Ashford Chace, said: “It is shocking, absolutely shocking.
“I am so upset about it and the way the situation has been handled.
“I cannot understand how some people can have such disregard for the countryside.
“If it had been a different owner or a different arbicultural officer at the council then I think the outcome would have been very different.”

She added when she went to inspect the tree after it was felled, the rot inside was only the size of her cupped hands.

“As a proportion of the whole circumference of the tree, it was nothing,” Mrs Burke said.
“It is so, so sad.”

Another angered resident, Jessica Pocock, said: “I think I can speak for all those present when I say that we have all been truly shaken and appalled by the crass and disdainful attitude displayed to to the people of Steep, many of whom tried to negotiate with the Duffs for over two years, and to the magnificent oak tree, which has been felled for no good reason.

“We did consider taking up a stance again to try and prevent the work being done, but in truth, we have no chance of stopping such ruthless behaviour, and the strain of the last few days has been considerable.”

On Monday a sign was placed beside the tree which quoted the famous war poet Edward Thomas, who lived in Steep 100 years ago.

It read: “In the sun and in the snow, there are no more sins to be sinned on the dead oak tree bough.”

Avery Duff was unavailable for comment when The Post went to press.

Save Titnore Woods!

With the threat of development on Titnore Woods, one of the two remaining semi-ancient woodlands left on the West Sussex coastal plain fast approaching, now is the time to rise up and resist the destruction of our natural environment by corporate greed.

West Durrington Consortium, which consists of Persimmon Homes, Taylor Wimpy and Heron Homes could be given the go ahead to build a 1250 home development and a road in the new year. Previously 875 homes where to be built, so clearly their eyes are seeing more pound signs as they envision more clearance of the precious land. The project is estimated to cost over 3 billion pounds to build and take 6 years to complete which is utter madness when Worthing is reported to have over 1000 empty buildings! If planning permission is granted West Durrington will no longer home a semi- ancient woodland with it’s rich diversity in rare species, flora and fauna or it’s surrounding farmland but a massive housing development, road, a giant Tesco and possibly 2 schools and a health centre.

Already the destruction is evident when you visit Titnore. Just across the field from the protest site the eye sore that will be Tesco is well under way and is due to open in February/March 2010. West Sussex County Council gave permission on December 9th 2009 to close the public footpath reaching Tinore woods from Fullbeck Avenue. No persons are allowed to use this right of way to visit the woods now as it is viewed as a public safety hazard until the West Durrington Consortium project is completed. Also trees and bushes have been cleared here, although none are of the semi ancient woods this is still a haunting reminder that construction is imminent.

On Thursday January 28th 2010 at 6pm the West Durrington Consortium will meet at Worthing Borough Council’s Control Committee to push for permission to begin development. If they win then it’s full steam ahead for the bulldozers and a very sad day for the hard working folk of Camp Titnore who have occupied the woods in resistance of the destruction for the last 3 and a half years, and also for the local Worthing residents who strongly oppose the plans and wish to see their ancient woodland left standing.

To show that you oppose their plans to tear down an irreplaceable natural space come and join the counter demo at 5.30pm outside Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing on January 28th 2010.
Please visit Camp Titnore. Enjoy its beauty, help to build new defences and walkways. Donations of wood, nails, polyprop and corrugated iron would be much appreciated.

Camp Titnore needs you!

See Titnore contact links for directions and so on