South East England – Page 23

Titnore Woods threat – Tescos every little Hurts!!!

1.8.2009
Tescos & Worthing Borough Council agree to development of Titnore Woods!

Worthing Borough Council and Tescos HAVE agreed to destroy the ancient Titnore Woods,it was passed yesterday.

Words fail me but Tescos REALLY are living in the age of stupid!

Please bring canned food and rope to the protest camp and yourselves please.

1.8.2009
Tescos & Worthing Borough Council agree to development of Titnore Woods!

Worthing Borough Council and Tescos HAVE agreed to destroy the ancient Titnore Woods,it was passed yesterday.

Words fail me but Tescos REALLY are living in the age of stupid!

Please bring canned food and rope to the protest camp and yourselves please.

More Including directions to camp can be found at www.protectourwoodland.co.uk

Worthing Borough Council please hang your heads in shame those that voted this insane application through!

Latest EF! Action Update bursts forth

Car tyres deflate in the night, diggers halted in their tracks, buildings and MPs covered in slime…airports plagued by crazy golf, picnics, city gents and hostage-taking…eco-villages and other autonomous spaces sprout, as others are under threat…tree-sits, banks evicted, fake phone-masts and whaling ships sunk….it must be time for another Earth First! Action Update, bringing you a concentrated quarterly blast of inspiration and contacts to get out there and take direct action against the bastards threatening this planet and its inhabitants.

News from the front-lines – permanent protest camps old and new, and temporary gatherings in a field near you, all the dates and info you need for a summer of blistering action and torrential outpourings!

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

Successes here, across the pond and round the very other side of the world.

A report back from the Coal Caravan, plus info about the communities along its route.

Court news – what happened after protesters planned to shut a coal-fired power plant, and climbed atop a train, plus handy Security Tips for Going on Actions.

Leaving it All in the Ground – news of global fights against the mining of gold, copper, bauxite and aluminium – blockading, torching and night-time pixieing.

A View from the Trees – a story from our eco-centric cousins. And indigenous Peruvians fight on against the wholesale onslaught on our world.

And a round-up of your favourite public order situations – G20, SmashEDO and Athenian rubbish dumps!

Read, download and print it here, subscribe so you get it direct to your door, or look out for it at a climate camp near you.

If you want to be listed or get a bunch of them to distribute, please get in touch.

Share your inspirational news at EF! Action Reports, and it’ll find it’s way into your very own printed EF!AU, in good old black and white print.

Daring Action Gets Supplies To Vestas Workers Occupation

30.7.2009
A group of twenty people successfully brought vital supplies into the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight this afternoon, to the whoops and cheers of the occupying workers.

The group including workers, local supporters, and campaigners from the Climate Camp, Workers Climate Action, the Anarchist Federation and Workers Liberty split into two teams. At around 2pm, one team approached the main entrance of the factory, carrying decoy bags of food, to draw off police and security guards. While this first team was being escorted and carried bodily from the site, a second team ran through a hedge and were able to pass a large sack of supplies up to the occupying Vestas workers. The supplies were based on a wishlist provided by the occupiers, and included food, drink, and crucially a kettle with tea and coffee.

Jim Spencer, a member of the Climate Camp who took part in the action, said the Vestas management have been attempting to starve the occupiers out. After much protest, they are currently providing them with one insubstantial meal per day such as a single slice of pizza or a lone sandwich per worker. This is an utter disgrace, and so many of us camped outside have been thinking about how to get supplies in to them. It turned out that some of the factory workers and their local supporters were thinking the same way, so we all decided to work together.

Mr Spencer went on: The fact that workers, locals, environmentalists and labour campaigners are all working together reflects how important this occupation is. It’s vital to the factory workers and their families, it’s vital to the local economy, and it’s vital in the fight to avert climate disaster. The Vestas wind turbine factory must be saved.

ENDS

For interviews with someone onsite, call 07932 096677
To contact the Climate Camp media team:
phone: 07040 900 905 (or 07772 861 099 or 07932 096 677)
email: press@climatecamp.org.uk

Flotilla / vigil against nuclear power, Bradwell, Essex – Sun 9 August

Sunday, 9th August 2009 – from 14.00 to 16.00 hrs
join a peaceful summer vigil in the Blackwater Estuary

The future of the Blackwater Estuary should concern everyone. Any despoiling of this unique facility will take away the opportunity for its enjoyment for many generations to come.

Sunday, 9th August 2009 – from 14.00 to 16.00 hrs
join a peaceful summer vigil in the Blackwater Estuary

The future of the Blackwater Estuary should concern everyone. Any despoiling of this unique facility will take away the opportunity for its enjoyment for many generations to come.

This does not apply just to “the waterfolk”, but to all who enjoy outdoor pursuits and activities around the Estuary, such as local residents, fishermen, birdwatchers, ramblers and walkers, wildfowlers and for those who just like the “open and peaceful space of the Estuary”.

If we are not vigilant, the Estuary, as we like it, could be irretrievably ruined for the future.

The intention is to attract recreational and commercial users of the estuary and its surroundings to join a PEACEFUL VIGIL at Bradwell in protest against the development of a proposed new nuclear power station (possibly more than one) and the associated high level radioactive waste dump.

Watercraft –

anchor/float about off the beach to include yachts, motorboats, dinghies, kayaks canoes and “whatever” between 14.00 and 16.00 hrs

Show your participation by displaying flags/banners, if afloat – from the rigging – make these up out of old bedsheets or something similar. Just display anything to show your protest!

Walkers, birdwatchers and beachcombers –

make it an outing – bring family and friends and enjoy a picnic or barbecue on the beach in front of the old station.

If you unable to get afloat or visit Bradwell, a group will be meeting for a picnic from 1.30 onwards on West Mersea beach, close to St Peter’s Steps, and just a short walk down Coast Road from West Mersea Church. – Don’t forget to bring a sunshade if it’s a sunny day, especially if you are bringing any children!

DIRECTIONS: If coming by rail and/or bus, the two-hourly West Mersea bus 67 leaves the North Station bus stop from 8.10am onwards on the south side of the bridge. So for example if you get the one which leaves North Station at 12.10pm, Colchester High Street at about 12.15pm, and the bus station at 12.20pm it gets to Mersea near the church at 12.50pm.

Don’t forget there are special bargain bus fares on Sundays. The bus returns at 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm and 11pm so you can make a day of it. Cut your carbon footprint and leave your car at home for a change perhaps if you would normally travel by car???

There is free car parking behind the library if there are any spaces, or you can park along various roads including St Peter’s Road – go past the church and it’s to the right off Coast Road.

We want to highlight:

* Environmental damage to the Estuary foreshore, wildlife, pleasure and commercial fishing and local oyster industries
* Potential restriction on access for recreational use to the Estuary and its foreshore
* Long term on site storage of highly radioactive waste
* Increased health risks to surrounding population resulting from toxic waste and from the lack of long term evacuation plans for the surrounding areas
* Negative Visual impact of the new facility and the retention of the former station

Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG)
http://www.banng.org.uk

Cambridge Activists slow down Tesco’s Building work

22.07.2009
Cambridge activists sabotage machinery in a bid to slow down the building work of a new Tescos’s on Mill Road

Last night local activists sabotaged a digger being used by Tesco’s who have started work on a new store on Mill Road in Cambridge. A selection of glues was used to disable machinery and doorlocks. Reports from an eyewitness saw the digger being transported away this morning.

Tesco’s, true to form are using heavy handed techniques. They have announced opening dates, commenced works without having the necessary permissions to do so. They have no delivery access and do not have an alcohol license. This is designed to intimidate local campaigners and the council.

Last nights action was not aimed at workers from the hire company or the people working on the site but to send a strong message to Tescos.

One activist said:
“we’ve no quarrel with the people being paid to work on the site, they’re just doing a job and we understand their need to get paid for their jobs.HOWEVER we publicly invite them to help us to give them a well earned break, by letting us know how we can best slow down the work!”

Save Vestas – Defend Jobs, Save the Planet – Support the Occupation – UPDATE below: arrests, cops starving them out…

Workers at the Vestas Wind Turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have JUST NOW occupied their factory. They are fighting for 600 jobs and the future of the planet. They need help now.

PLEASE TEXT AND CALL EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

Workers at the Vestas Wind Turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have JUST NOW occupied their factory. They are fighting for 600 jobs and the future of the planet. They need help now.

PLEASE TEXT AND CALL EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

There is a large picket of support starting outside the factory. This will be crucial in giving people confidence inside. We want hundreds of people by morning.
If you are not working, come now, by car, bus or train.
If you are on the South Coast and working, come for the night and go to work exhausted and proud.

If you can’t come, call up friends and offer to pay the fare or petrol money for someone else to come down. Or part of the fare.
Don’t just call the environmental and union activists you know. Call your friends and ask them who they know. Call your brother’s friends or your children’s friends. Text everyone. Get your friends calling and texting.

WE WANT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE NOW. SAVE THE JOBS – SAVE THE PLANET.

The workers want Gordon Brown to step in as if it was a troubled bank and save the jobs and keep making wind turbine blades. They gave the bankers trillions. They say they care about climate change. He has talked about creating 40,000 “Green Jobs”, the first step should be protecting these 600.

The workers will need solidarity – donations of money, food and other assistance. In the first instance please send messages of solidarity to savevestas@gmail.com

We will suggest other forms of solidarity soon. Do this now. Reach for your phone.

—-

How to get there, and more info at:

http://savevestas.wordpress.com/

—-

A protester claims the 30 demonstrators at a sit-in at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have been told they will be sacked.

Danish company Vestas Windsystems plans to make 625 workers redundant at the end of July, despite rising profits.

One of the protesters, who occupied the Newport site on Monday, said managers gave them until 2230 BST on Tuesday to end their action or face the sack.

Vestas said consultation on the site was on-going and would not comment.

The worker, who did not want to be named, said: “We have been told we will be sacked.

“We were given the choice to leave by 2230 BST last night and keep our redundancy package and walk out with no charges.

“Obviously we have stayed in. We didn’t want it to come to this.

“We want the company to explore the possibility of the government taking the site over and improving the redundancy package.”

The campaigners have called on Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, to travel to the island and speak to them.

Luke, one of the protesters, said: “We’re prepared to stay here for as long as it takes.”

About 200 workers staged a protest outside the factory on Tuesday after being turned away when they arrived for work.

They were also joined by climate change protesters who are supporting them.

Police said Vestas has started legal action to gain an injunction which would remove the protesters.

The company said the factory was being closed next week due to reduced demand for wind turbines in northern Europe

—-

Update, 22nd July: ARRESTS AT VESTAS + FOOD IN

At 5.10am this morning, a climate activist at the protest outside the Vestas plant attempted to take a bag of food to the occupying workers by means of a rope which the workers had lowered from the balcony. The activist was grabbed by 5 police officers and arrested. On his release he obtained the police report of his arrest, which stated that the reason for his arrest was that, as his bringing food to the occupiers had the stated intention of prolonging the protest, it was facilitating a breach of the peace – clearly ludicrous as the police have themselves admitted that the protest is not breaching the peace.

At 1248, a large number of protestors walked through the line of police holding food in their hands which they threw up to the balcony. The police pushed some of the protestors and attempted to obstruct the line but did not offer substantial resistance. One protestor was harassed by a security guard, and asked a police officer, whose number was 24266, if he intended to do anything about it; the officer said he didn’t. Another protestor saw a police officer grabbing the arm of an activist as he attempted to throw food to the balcony – the activist told the police officer that this constituted harassment, the police officer took no notice.

A second climate activist was arrested and taken through the front doors of the factory. Later, a sergeant whose number was 3027 came out and said that no-one had been arrested for carrying food, but that one activist had been arrested for assault. Other protestors present have commented that as the activist in question, who has not given permission for his name to be released, is a christian pacifist, this seems unlikely.

Security have started putting up a fence around the site, with protestors outside attempting to get a second food-carrying walk-in past the police before its completion. There are currently around 50 protestors outside the factory, over 30 of them Vestas workers, and sources say they expect numbers to increase drastically around 6pm when the protest starts.

Cambridge Social Centre – evicted & more info

18th July 2009
Last night a large number of police with several vehicles, riot gear, and dogs evicted the newly opened social centre, on the pretext of fire safety. There were no arrests. The public meeting called for tonight will go ahead in a reduced format outside the bingo hall.

Last night the 20 occupants of the old bingo hall were evicted by around 50 police including tactical units with riot gear, under the pretext of fire regulations. Ironically, the police interrupted a meeting that had just secured 5 fire extinguishers and was discussing the opening up of the remaining fire exits in preparation for the planned public launch tomorrow.

The police initially said that they would not take action on the squatted building, as squatting is a civil matter between occupants and building owner. However, the squatters gained a higher profile through local media and outreach work, promoting anti-capitalism and social change, and organising a public meeting and music event that was anticipated to draw large numbers of people. Following this, the police threatened the occupiers over two days, and finally moved to protect property and the status quo, using any possible excuse.

The fire officer who accompanied the police said that the occupiers would have to immediately remove the metal grills covering fire doors to make the building safe. This was planned for the following morning, and the occupiers and fire warden agreed that this could happen immediately, however the police accompanying the fire officer made it clear that this would immediately lead to arrests for criminal damage. It was obvious from the huge number of police in attendance that the outcome was already set, and that the only result the police would tolerate was eviction. Given the recent reputation of police actions against political protesters, the occupiers left for the own safety rather than keep the doors secured.

A statement from the occupiers said:

“We expect that this building in the centre of our city will remain empty for an indefinite amount of time, as has the previous social centre site on Mill Road, owned by Tesco, and an increasing number of properties in the area. At the same time, artists, musicians, community groups and local people struggle to find spaces to meet, socialise and put on events.

We believe that local communities, rather than wealthy interests, should determine what the buildings and spaces in the local area are used for. We will be going ahead with the planned public meeting at 7.30 pm, in the street outside the bingo hall, where we will be discussing the repression we have faced, free spaces, and our plans for the future.”

cambridgefreespaces@listst.riseup.net
http://cambridgefreespaces.wordpress.com

—–

17.7.09
Cambridge BINGO! Social Centre

Update on what’s going on at the occupied Bingo Hall Social Centre, Hobson Street, Cambridge.

Cambridge Social Centre opens in old Gala Bingo Hall!

Members of the Cambridge Action Network have occupied the old Gala bingo hall on Hobson Street, behind Waterstones book shop. The centre is now open to the public to use for events such as films, music, workshops, art, discussions and meetings. Everyone is welcome (during reasonable waking hours!)

We’re currently working to clean the space up, make it nice, and get hold of furniture, and we’d love you to join us. We organise by consensus – no-one is in charge, and everyone involved has an equal say. This is everyone’s space – let’s make it brilliant!

We’ve done this because we believe that local communities should have control of local spaces, and be able to use them for whatever they see fit. Empty, unused buildings are a disgrace in a society where getting access to space is so difficult. A direct example of this is in Mill Road, where a lively social centre was closed by Tesco last year, leaving an empty building ever since.

There will be an official opening event on Saturday 18th July at 7.30 pm, where you are invited to come along, enjoy the new social centre, and see how you can use the space and get involved.

There will be a open mic event in the evening showcasing local acts. Bring your own refreshments. Come on down!

Want to put on events or get involved? Get in touch in person or:

phone: 01223 356630

web: www.cambridgefreespaces.wordpress.com

email: cambridgefreespaces@lists.riseup.net

UPCOMING EVENTS from 17th JULY 2009:

Daily (most days): 5.30pm POLITICAL DISCUSSION TIME – topics are decided daily by those present with some radical/social/political issues suggested in the diary already.

Daily (most days): 7:30pm PUBLIC MEETING – to discuss the space/use of the space/arising issues

Friday, 17th July – after the public meeting – OPEN JAMMING SESSION

Saturday, 18th July – after the public meeting – OPEN POETRY & ACCOUSTIC MUSIC/LIVE BANDS (donations at the door for climate camp)

AND MUCH MORE COMING SOON…

New Cambridge Social Centre Opened

Occupy Cambridge is proud to announce the opening of the new cambridge social centre.

Occupy Cambridge, a (rather brilliant) group of squatters, anarchists, revolutionists, land rights types and general social misfits, last night “reclaimed” the disused bingo hall on hobson street .

The building will now be used as a social centre of some kind, although this is very much a blank canvas.

Occupy Cambridge is proud to announce the opening of the new cambridge social centre.

The building will now be used as a social centre of some kind, although this is very much a blank canvas.

It a large space and is kitted out well for film showings.

The building is the old bingo hall on hobson street cambridge.
Come down and visit.

any questions contact us on 07779051894
—
There was a cinema on the site of the old Gala Bingo Hall on Hobson Street from 1921 called The Central Cinema(it was rebuilt in 1930 to give the current building probably after a fire). The first talkie in Cambridge was screened at The Central Cinema in 1929 and that talkie was “The Broadway Melody”
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3656/2200/1600/talkie.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broadway_Melody .
By 1972 (this date is disputed), the then Odeon, was shut down and converted into a bingo hall.

Protest against climate change denier Nigel Lawson on Friday!

Here is the text of a leaflet to be handed out at the venue, St John’s Chapel, St John’s Road. Meet there at 5.30pm (talk starts 6pm).

CLIMATE change is today pretty much universally recognised to be very real and to be very dangerous.

Here is the text of a leaflet to be handed out at the venue, St John’s Chapel, St John’s Road. Meet there at 5.30pm (talk starts 6pm).

CLIMATE change is today pretty much universally recognised to be very real and to be very dangerous.
There are still a few organisations that are holding out against this inconvenient truth in different ways. ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, is continuing to fund researchers who cast doubt on global warming, despite public promises to cut support for climate-change sceptics, reported The Daily Telegraph on July 2.
The British police also continue to treat demanding action on climate change as a crime, brutally attacking protesters whenever they get the chance, such as at Kingsnorth power station last summer and the City of London in April this year.
Lining up beside these forces is Nigel Lawson, invited by Chichester Festivities to put across the views expressed in his book An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming.
So why has a former financial journalist and Chancellor waded into this rather specialist field of debate?
As Graham Steward noted in The Spectator: “Would we take seriously an appraisal of his time as Chancellor of Exchequer written by someone whose only expertise was in oceanography?”
Others found Lawson’s arguments less than convincing.
Robert Watson, the former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and now chief scientist to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, accused Lawson of selective quotation and not understanding “the current scientific and economic debate”. He also wrote in a letter to The Telegraph: “Lord Lawson’s perspective that the UK and Europe are over-reacting to the threat of human-induced climate change is substantially wrong and ignores a significant body of scientific, technological and economic evidence.”
Robin McKie in The Guardian wrote of Lawson’s book: “Although it claims to demolish the cause of global warming, it simply piles up scientific howlers… What really grates is Lawson’s conviction that most of the world’s climatologists, meteorologists, atmospheric physicists, Arctic experts, and biologists, as well as several Nobel Prize winners, are all stupid, misguided and wrong in thinking man-made global warming is real…
“It is breathtaking arrogance, to say the least, although Lawson is not alone in displaying it… These Grumpy Old Deniers feel their lifestyles are threatened by greenies and so reject the entire concept of global warming. ‘With the collapse of Marxism, those who dislike capitalism have been obliged to find a new creed,’ says Lawson.’ For many of them, green is the new red.’ In short, global warming is a commie plot.”
It is clear that Lawson’s position on climate change is political rather than scientific in origin. His position is that he accepts the IPCC’s conclusion that we can expect to see a warming of between 3.2ºF (1.8ºC) and 7.2ºF (4ºC) by the end of this century. But he argues that this would not necessarily be the disaster requiring an immediate cut in carbon emissions – just the message that the Big Business polluters want to hear!
This connection is hardly a surprise coming from Lawson. He was a key proponent of the Thatcher Government’s privatization policy. During his tenure at the Department of Energy he set the course for the later privatizations of the gas and electricity industries and on his return to the Treasury he worked closely with the Department of Trade and Industry in privatizing British Airways, British Telecom, and British Gas.
He also has a background in propaganda, having penned a 1972 report on Subversion in British Industry for the right-wing Institute for the Study of Conflict. He has attended Bilderberg conferences alongside leading bankers and other rulers of the capitalist world and is a non-executive director of N M Rothschild & Sons as well as chairman of the Central European Trust which boasts of co-managing “the largest private equity fund in Central Europe” and chairman of Oxford Investment Partners, which proposes a “multi-asset, unconstrained, investment approach.”
Lawson and the world he represents object to any challenge to the power of high finance and the unsustainable greed of global capitalism – his motives in launching his crusade on climate change are dubious to say the least.
This is a man with an agenda and you can be sure that the interests of the environment and humanity do not feature on it.

Useful links:
www.transitionchichester.org
www.climatecamp.org.uk
www.earthfirst.org.uk
www.greenpeace.org.uk
www.greenpartywestsussex.co.uk
www.schnews.org.uk
www.indymedia.org.uk
www.resurgence.org
www.eco-action.org/porkbolter

Anti-airport bomb hoaxer jailed

6th July 2009
An anti-airport protester who sent a series of bomb hoaxes and threats to Gatwick Airport in West Sussex over five-years has been jailed.

Gary Collins, from Crawley, took direct action against aircraft noise after suffering from noise disturbance as a young child, Lewes Crown Court heard.

6th July 2009
An anti-airport protester who sent a series of bomb hoaxes and threats to Gatwick Airport in West Sussex over five-years has been jailed.

Gary Collins, from Crawley, took direct action against aircraft noise after suffering from noise disturbance as a young child, Lewes Crown Court heard.

He admitted 34 counts of communicating false information and three counts of sending hoax noxious substances.

The 57-year-old was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Judge Michael Lawson QC told Collins he remained a danger, and said: “Airports are particularly vulnerable to that sort of attack because they are responsible for the safety of thousands of people at any one time.

“Therefore, members of the staff, the police and other enforcement agencies are responsible for investigating every one of those warnings.”

He added: “You, in your interview with the probation service, indicated that it was deliberate and that you were not sorry for what you had done.

“You were sorry that you got caught and that if you could do it again without being caught, you would.”

The court heard his campaign was carried out during the London terror attacks in 2005, during heightened security at airports in 2006, and the attack at Glasgow Airport in 2007.

Prosecuting, Dale Sullivan said his letters and packages were sent marked as anthrax or biological material.

Others stated there were bombs in aircraft toilets or buildings.

‘Airport fixation’

Mr Sullivan said: “The impact on [airport operator] BAA was a serious one as they were not threats they could simply brush off.”

Defence counsel Andrew Stephens said Collins had little to do with his family and had only ever had sporadic periods of employment.

He said: “He fixated upon Gatwick Airport. He suffers from noise, noise at Gatwick in particular became too much for him to bear.

“He should have sought other avenues, like petitioning his MP. He chose to take a direct stance.

“Although an extremely long-standing campaign, it was a naive and unsophisticated campaign.”

He added: “This is a 57-year-old man who has led a difficult life, a life which from the very outset has gone against him.”

After the hearing, Det Sgt Steve Luxford said the term reflected “the severity and potential impact this had on the airport”.

He said the threats continued during a time of significant terrorist activity.

“This was a long-running campaign by an individual against the running of Gatwick Airport with an intention to disrupt and terrorise people,” he added.