South East England – Page 27

Heathrow runway ‘gets go-ahead’ – flashmob this Saturday

A flashmob action is planned for this coming Saturday:

Ministers have approved a controversial plan to build a third runway at Heathrow, the BBC understands.

A flashmob action is planned for this coming Saturday:

Ministers have approved a controversial plan to build a third runway at Heathrow, the BBC understands.

Despite opposition from residents, environmental campaigners and many of its own MPs, Labour is set to confirm the decision officially on Thursday.

Leading business and union figures back the project, saying it will create jobs and boost the UK’s competitiveness.

But critics have said it will irreparably damage the UK’s credentials on tackling climate change.

Labour unease

The government has long argued, in principle, that it is in favour of the scheme, subject to noise and air pollution limits, and undertakings about access and traffic congestion.

Alongside the commitment to a new runway, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is expected to announce increased investment in public transport, including a new high-speed rail link from the airport to central London.

There has been deep unease within Labour ranks about the decision, with several cabinet members reported to be unconvinced about the project and more than 50 MPs openly opposed.

In an effort to appease its critics, BBC political correspondent Jo Coburn said the government would announce new safeguards for limiting emissions with airlines using the new runway required to use the newest, least polluting aircraft.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson defended the government’s commitment to environmental concerns over Heathrow.

He said: “It’s a classic dilemma – we want to forge ahead in implementing our climate change ambitions when others are not but we don’t want to lose our economic competitiveness in the process. We want to do both these things.”

But backbench Labour MP John McDonnell, whose constituency includes the airport, said the fight against the expansion was only just “beginning” and opponents would “use every mechanism possible” including legal challenges, to stop the runway going ahead.

“If the government is not willing to listen to Parliament or the people then there is no other option but to mobilise the largest coalition of public opposition and protest to halt this disastrous proposal in its tracks,” he said.

The Conservatives say a new runway would be an “environmental disaster” and have pledged to reverse the decision should they win the next election.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said approval of the scheme would show Gordon Brown was “deaf to the concerns of his own party and millions of people living under the flight path”.

The Liberal Democrats have urged ministers to invest in high-speed rail links instead.

Asked about the decision on Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown declined to guarantee MPs a vote on the issue.

Should the government give the go-ahead, he said there would be a debate in Parliament and that the scheme would have to be granted planning permission.

This is likely to be a lengthy process, with work on a new runway unlike to be completed before 2019.

Public protests

Protests have been growing in anticipation of a decision, which was due to be made in December but was delayed amid reports of divisions within government over the issue.

About 700 homes will have to be demolished to make way for the runway, which will increase the number of flights using Heathrow from about 480,000 a year now to 702,000 by 2030.

Campaigners have bought some land earmarked for the construction of the runway in an effort to frustrate the expansion plans.

Environmental campaigners say proceeding with the new runway will leave the government’s legal commitment to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 in tatters.

“Expanding Heathrow would shatter the government’s international reputation on climate change,” said Andy Atkins, executive director of Friends of the Earth.

“We need bold and urgent action to create a low-carbon economy, not more backing for the climate-wrecking activities of the aviation industry.”

But the government believes the new runway will not violate its EU commitments on air and noise pollution, pointing out that new aircraft being built will reduce emissions significantly.

‘At risk’

Supporters of the runway say Heathrow is already operating at full capacity and the UK economy will lose business to the rest of Europe if it does not go ahead.

They point out that rival airports such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam already have at least four runways and that Heathrow is at risk of falling further behind.

Former Labour MP Lord Soley is the campaign director of Future Heathrow, which represents groups in favour of expanding the airport.

He told BBC News that Heathrow brought jobs and “prosperity” to the surrounding areas and in an “ideal world” the expansion would not be needed.

“But the ideal world doesn’t exist and it isn’t true to say that Heathrow isn’t at risk.

“It is at risk and if it continues to decline, then the consequences for west London and the Thames Valley will be very, very serious indeed,” he said.

British Airways, the largest airline at Heathrow, has said expanding the airport is the only “credible option”.

Radley Lakes saved

Following years of campaigning through legal channels, and the squatting of a building by the side of Thrupp Lake at the beginning of 2007, the Save Radley Lakes campaign is victorious – hoorah! Use the search above for old stories and photos from the campaign – stories about the recent victory and future plans are below.

Yesterday’s (17.12.08) announcement by RWE Npower brought to an end a 41 month campaign to save the last remaining Radley Lakes, Thrupp and Bullfield Lakes, from destruction by being filled with waste pulverised fuel ash (PFA) from the Didcot A Power Station.

It also brings to an end 23 years of filling of old gravel pits in Radley with power station ash, which began in 1985, when the Power Station was run by the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board and when the environment figured less highly in popular concerns. The choice back then was between landfill with general waste, commercial exploitation, or ash. Local people voted for the ash, which is probably what they would have got anyway.

The ash had been pumped into the gravel pits as a slurry via an underground pipeline. Many gravel pits were filled in this way over the intervening years and people did not seem to mind, though eyebrows were being increasingly raised, and there were objections to the filling of Lakes H and I, which had become a spectacular haven for wildfowl. In 2005, RWE npower sought permission to fill the the two remaining gravel pits. These were the oldest excavations, which had, over the half century or so of their existence, become restored into beautiful lakes and had been given names by local people.

How the Lakes Were Saved (in a nutshell)

The smaller Bullfield Lake was rescued from this fate following protests back in 2005, but the much larger and more important Thrupp Lake has remained under threat ever since, as planning, legal and other battles raged around it. As a last resort, local people even applied to have the area turned into a Town Green. This too failed, but it remains the subject of a Judicial Review, which was due to be heard in the High Court in February 2009. In February 2007, having got all necessary planning permissions and removed the protestors who’d occupied the lakeside building, npower went ahead with clearance work on the site, and many trees were destroyed. Work then had to stop until the Autumn, because of nesting birds. After carrying out some preliminary work in October 2007, npower suddenly ceased their activities on the site.

Then, in February 2008, events took an unexpected turn: npower announced an interim reprieve for Thrupp Lake. A little later, Waste Recycling Group (WRG) openly came forward with a proposal that would save Thrupp Lake for ever. It has taken until now to bring this to fruition. Planning permission was needed, technical problems had to be resolved, a commercial agreement had to be reached; then there was the question of what to do with Thrupp Lake. Many delicate negotiations, it seemed, were going on in the background, culminating in yesterday’s momentous announcement.

Triumph at Last!

To mark the occasion, the Power Station operators invited press and public into the grounds of Sandles, the house on the shore Thrupp Lake. There, Mr John Rainford, the Power Station manager, announced that, because the power station had found better and more sustainable ways of disposing of its ash, there would be no need to destroy Thrupp Lake, not now, not ever. He made it clear that RWE npower was offering The Lake to the local community as a nature conservation area and that discussions were underway with the Northmoor Trust to provide for its management. It was hoped that the house could be converted into an educational centre.

Representatives of the community, Jenny Standen, chairman of Radley Parish Council, and Basil Crowley, chairman of Save Radley Lakes, expressed their satisfaction and delight, thanking npower for their magnanimity and looking forward to working with them in restoring the area to create something to be really proud of. Both expressed gratitude to all the people who had supported the campaign and whose support and tireless efforts had helped bring this about.

With the late December afternoon sunshine casting long shadows across the vestiges of Sandles’ lawn, a jubilant party atmosphere prevailed. Champagne flowed, hands were shaken, cameras clicked and, in a touch of surreality, a man in a frog suit played a solo trombone fanfare at the lakeside to herald the lake’s salvation.

Where the Ash Will Go

The ash that was to have gone into Thrupp Lake will now go to Waste Recycling Group’s Sutton Courtenay landfill site next to the power station where it will be used for engineering, capping and landscaping of the landfill operations. Surplus ash will be stockpiled in a planned new storage facility, which received planning permission back in July, and will maintain WRG’s essential supply of ash after 2015 when the power station will have closed. Because the power station and the waste site are immediately adjacent, the ash can be transported directly across the fence and put into the stockpile, which is not far from the power station boundary. At no time will this ash be transported on public roads, which means there will be no adverse impact on the residents of Sutton Courtenay. Indeed, it will remove the need to import over half a million tonnes of substitute materials after 2015, which would have had an impact!

http://www.saveradleylakes.org.uk/
http://www.radleyvillage.org.uk/news/News0009.htm

Titnore Woods battle goes on! Upcoming events & update

DETERMINED eco-protesters in Worthing are facing up to the hardest challenge yet in their two and a half year occupation of threatened woodland.

The freezing temperatures and stormy conditions mean life is currently no picnic for the hardy protesters camped out in Titnore Woods, West Durrington, in a last-ditch bid to try and stop a new housing estate and Tesco megastore from being built over green fields and ancient woodland.

And grateful local supporters are organising a pre-Christmas stall in the town centre to bring festive cheer to the tree-house dwellers, who moved onto the site back in May 2006.

They will be collecting provisions for the protesters under the title “A Hamper for a Camper” at Holder’s Corner, Montague Street, Worthing, on Saturday December 20, from 11am.

It wasn’t an easy option when the team of eco-heroes sneaked onto the threatened ancient woodland off Titnore Lane at the crack of dawn on a May bank holiday and started building their tree homes before anyone knew what was happening.

Most people assumed they’d be kicked off again straight away, but the days turned to weeks turned to months turned to years and they’re still there!

The final planning application isn’t even through yet – they had to rethink part of it – and you can still object, writing to the Worthing Borough Council planning department at Portland House, Richmond Road, Worthing and quoting WB/04/00040/OUT.

But, sadly, Worthing campaigners against the development have already discovered through years of campaigning, letter-writing, petition-raising and large, peaceful, demonstrations that money and power don’t listen to the little people who know the difference between right and wrong.

We live in a world where even if police commit murder or theft they can get completely off the hook.

We live in a world where politicians can lie through their teeth, start wars that kill hundreds of thousands of people, and get away with it. We live in a world that is being choked to death by the blind greed of capitalism and yet we are told there is no other option.

The Titnore campers are part of that bigger picture – they have the guts to physically put themselves on the line and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Please support them in any way you can – food, supplies, a friendly visit.

There are tough times ahead and we all need to be there for each other.

* 1990s road protester Jim Hindle will be giving a talk at 8pm on Thursday January 29 upstairs at The Rest in Bath Place, Worthing. All welcome.

Climate Rush at Heathrow 12th January

On Monday 12th January 2009 at 7pm the Climate Rush will hit Heathrow. We will arrive in Edwardian dress (under a big coat!) with hampers of food to have our ‘Dinner at Domestic Departures’. This will be an action against the construction of the third runway and the unsustainable use of short-haul, national flights.

When the string quartet plays its first note we will reveal our dress and share our food. Ours will be the first peaceful sit-in of the environmental movement. Hundreds will join us and together we will make history. We have waited too long and been misled too many times. It is time for us to take control and to lead social change.

After a hugely successful storming of Parliament, The Climate Rush is back in town!

Any day now the government will announce its plans to expand Heathrow and no amount of marching or letter-writing will make them stop. Sipson Village will be demolished. Millions of Londoners will find themselves under new flight-paths. The UK will continue to lag behind the rest of Europe and the world as it misses climate target after climate target.

It is time to take our future into our own hands. It is time to take action.

You and all of your friends, networks and neighbours are cordially invited to our ‘Dinner at Domestic Departures’, 7pm on Monday 12th January at Heathrow Airport Terminal One. Join ‘The Climate Rush’, ‘Climate Action Now’, ‘The Women’s Environmental Network’ and Caroline Lucas MEP as we celebrate the UK public’s commitment to beating climate change.

www.climaterush.co.uk

Plane Stupid protest shuts Stansted Airport

8.12.2008
Over fifty young protesters from the climate action group Plane Stupid have this morning shut down Stansted Airport by camping on the runway and surrounding themselves with fortified security fencing.

The peaceful protest began at 3.15am this morning (Monday) whilst the runway was temporarily closed for maintenance work. Plane Stupid aims to prevent the scheduled reopening of the runway at 5am. The group intends to maintain its blockade for as long as possible, preventing the release of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

10:20am update: The Press Association reports that 57 people have been arrested, and 56 Ryanair flights cancelled.

8:10am update: At least 39 people have been arrested and the runway
re-opened. BAA are claiming that 21 flights have been cancelled. Every
minute the airport emits around 4 tonnes of CO2.

6:00am update: BAA have confirmed that the first flights out of the airport have been delayed. The average flight out of Stansted has a climate impact equivalent to 41.58 tonnes of CO2.

One young woman, Lily, aged 21 said:

“We’re here because our parents’ generation has failed us and its now down to young people to stop climate change by whatever peaceful means we have left. We’re afraid of what the police might do to us, we’re afraid of going to jail but nothing scares us as much as the threat of runaway climate change. We’ve thought through the consequences of what we’re doing here but we’re determined to stop as many tonnes of CO2 as we can.”

The young campaigners have raised a banner reading ‘CLIMATE EMERGENCY’. Wearing high visibility vests which have the message “Please DO something” printed on them, they chose this day for the peaceful trespass as they knew the runway was closed for maintenance works and no flights were due to take off or land for two hours after they arrived.

Tilly, 21, said:

“We all grew up listening to Blair and Brown talking about the urgent need to slash emissions, but nothing ever happened. Even now politicians from our parents’ generation are in Poland holding talks about talks, but still nobody’s actually doing anything. The scientists tell us we’ve got about seven years to make emissions peak then drop, and if we fail it will be the people on this runway, and our children, who’ll live with the consequences. That’s why I’m doing this.”

The campaigners chose to close Stansted after the government approved the expansion of capacity at the airport by ten million passengers a year. Aviation is Britain’s fastest growing source of emissions, already amounting to at least 13% of our country’s climate impact. With plans for new runways across the UK, including at Heathrow and Stansted, experts from the Tyndall Centre for climate research say Labour’s aviation policy alone will scupper any chance the UK has of hitting its climate targets.

Daniel, 24, said:

“We fully appreciate the scale of what we’ve done here today and we know many people will struggle to understand why we’ve done it, but the Arctic ice cap is disappearing, the seas are rising and our last chance to save our future is vanishing. With people taking more flights in Britain than anywhere else on earth, we have a unique responsibility to tackle emissions from flying.”

Intruder enters E.ON power station and switches off 2% of UK supplies

Police have begun an investigation after protesters broke into one of Britain’s biggest power stations last week [28th November 2008] and cut almost 2 per cent of the country’s electricity supplies.

Up to 500 megawatts of generating capacity was lost from the national network for about four hours after the incident at Kingsnorth coal and oil-fired power station in Kent, The Times has learnt. An intruder scaled an electric fence, entered a secure area and switched off one of four turbines supplying London and the South East.

E.ON, the German power group that operates the plant, is understood to suspect that some of its own staff or contracted employees were involved in the incident last Friday night.

According to figures from National Grid, total UK electricity demand at the time was about 33,000 megawatts – meaning that 500 megawatts represented more than 1.5 per cent of the total, enough to power a city the size of Bristol.

The protesters, who have not been caught despite much of the episode being caught on CCTV, climbed an electric security fence that was not working at the time. Having switched off Unit Two, they left through an entrance that only employees would have been familiar with. They also managed to go through a complex procedure at a control panel inside one of the turbine halls to turn the machinery off.

Kent police are involved in the investigation. E.ON has ordered an internal investigation, and is examining its own security procedures.

E.ON has become a key target for climate change protesters because Kingsnorth has been earmarked for construction of Britain’s first new coal-fired power station in decades. The plant, which has a total generating capacity of 1,960 megawatts, making it one of Britain’s biggest power stations, is to be retired from service soon and E.ON wants to build a £2 billion coal replacement, which environmentalists say would lock in the emission of many millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases for decades to come.

Protest messages were also left strewn across the turbine hall during the incident.

An E.ON spokesman confirmed that an incident had taken place in which the site was entered illegally and equipment was tampered with. “While we are respectful of people’s right to peaceful and lawful protest, this was clearly neither of those and could have had very serious implications, not least because of the potential for serious injury or worse. Thankfully, our site team responded very quickly and professionally to ensure that the situation was brought under control.

“We have launched an investigation and are working closely with the police on their inquiries. Kingsnorth power station remains operational.”

E.ON has defended its plans for a coal-fired plant at Kingsnorth by saying that it would be fitted with equipment designed to strip out carbon dioxide for safe storage.

So-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) remains an experimental technology that has not yet been demonstrated on a commercial scale anywhere in the world.

— from The Times newspaper.

— or the below from BBC News; pick & mix the facts you prefer:

Intruder shuts down power turbine

A turbine at a power station in Kent where climate change campaigners have been holding a series of protests was shut down by an intruder.

Energy company E.On said it believed whoever shut down the turbine must have had specialist knowledge to carry out the “potentially deadly” sabotage.

The shut-down happened on the night of 28 November during two days of action by the Camp for Climate Action group.

However, no organisation or individual has claimed it turned off the turbine.

“We don’t know whether it was a protester or not,” said E.On spokesman Jonathan Smith.

“But they gained access to the site, tampered with a pretty specific board and managed to turn off unit two.

“It is completely unacceptable. If you ignore the fact they have broken into our site, what they were doing was potentially dangerous, potentially deadly even.”

Targeted offices

He said engineers located the problem quickly and turned the turbine back on.

Customers were not affected by the shutdown because the shortfall was made up by other suppliers to the National Grid.

During the two days of action, Camp for Climate Action protesters targeted E.ON offices in London and across England.

It followed a week-long Climate Camp near Kingsnorth power station on the Hoo peninsular in August.

The current Kingsnorth power station is due to close in 2015 and E.ON wants to replace it with two new coal units, which it claims will be 20% cleaner.

Mr Smith said police were investigating the shutdown.

He said Kingsnorth was probably the most secure coal-fired power station in the UK.

“Security at Kingsnorth is extremely high,” he said.

“We are looking at security and working with police to make sure this can’t happen again.”

— from The Guardian newspaper:

“It was extremely odd indeed, quite creepy. We have never known anything like this at all, but it shows that if people want to do something badly enough they will find a way,” said Emily Highmore, a spokeswoman for E.On.

Yesterday the full story emerged of what happened. “It was about 10pm, very dark indeed,” said Highmore. “It looks from the CCTV like he came in via a very remote part of the site by the sea wall and got over the double layer of fences.”

The intruder then crossed a car park and walked to an unlocked door. But instead of going to the power station’s main control room, where about eight people would have been working, he headed for its main turbine hall, where no one would have been working at that time.

Within minutes, says E.On, “he had tampered with some equipment” – believed to be a computer at a control panel – “and tripped unit 2, one of the station’s giant 500MW turbines”.

“This caused the unit to go offline,” she added. “It was running at full 500MW load and the noise it would have made as it shut itself down is just incredible. CCTV shows that he then just walked out, and went back over the fence.

“It could be that no one has taken responsibility because they were so frightened by the noise it would have made. It’s probably taken them a week just to get over the shock.”

“He left a banner but it was a real DIY job. It was really scrappy. This was an old bedsheet with writing done out of gaffer tape. It was very crude,” said Highmore

“People at the station are gobsmacked,” she added. “This is a different league to protesters chaining themselves to equipment. It’s someone treating a power station as an adventure playground. You have to be trained to work here. People do not just wander about on their own. He could have killed himself. We do not have a problem with public protest but this was reckless. Whoever it was has crossed a line they should not have gone over. Power stations are dangerous places.”

(full article)

protests against the roll-out of the ID card scheme & database

Against the imposition of ID cards on Non-EU students and marriage visa holders.

This is not the first time foreign nationals or migrants have been used as guinea pigs to test a law or technology. Examples include the Asylum Registration Cards (ARC), which is a similar card that asylum seekers have been required to carry since 2002. Once migrants have been used as a ‘road test’ for the widely opposed ID scheme, the government will start on the rest of us. From 2010 on, the government predicts that one million cards will be handed out every year.

For more background information on how this ‘drip drip’ approach to imposing biometric ID cards relates to migration management and the Home Office’s points system read:

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3147
http://nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/2008/11/defy-id-cards-no-one-is-illegal.html

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27th November 2008
This evening approximately 13 activists from No Borders North East handed out 200 anti-ID card leaflets to shoppers in Central Newcastle. Banners and placards were also held, and a very positive response was given from the public.

Tuesday saw the introduction of Identity Cards for non-EU citizens. No Borders views this as yet another attempt to victimize an often voiceless group, and so has orchestrated a series of protests this week throughout the country.

http://www.noborders.org.uk

…..

This morning, during the peak rush hour time of 7.30 – 9.00 am, 4 activists from No Borders North East performed an anti-i.d card banner drop from a bridge over one of the city’s busiest inner motorways. The largest banner read “No To ID Cards, Freedom For All!” and was accompanied by a smaller No Borders banner.

The reaction from the drivers below was overwhelmingly positive, with many honking horns, waving and giving thumbs up.

Today sees the start of the ID card scheme, with non-EU citizens applying for, or renewing visas for study or marriage, being made to carry a card and have their details put on the Government’s database. Immigration law already gives the Home Office powers it would like to exert over everybody. Under a cloud of anti-immigration hysteria the government is increasing it’s social control and attempting to usher in unprecedented powers of surveillance over the whole population.

The police came along while we were doing it, but didnt seem to have any problem with it. Interestingly however, they said that an anarchist symbol can be deemed offensive and thus removable under a public order act (?!). We told them that our No Borders banner with a large anarchist symbol wasn’t in fact anarchist related, and they believed us for some reason…. 😉
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Yorkshire Activists blockade Sheffield Border Agency Centre

1.12.2008
At 8am this morning a group of Yorkshire activists blockaded the Sheffield Border Agency Interrogation Centre at Vulcan House using bicycle locks and superglue to attach themselves to both entrances. The group are there in response to the introduction of compulsory ID cards for non-EU people on student or marriage visas. They are displaying two banners, one reads “My identity is not your property” and the other “Nothing to hide? Everything to fear! Defy ID!”

Some applicants have been turned away by the Border Agency staff but many were supportive of the actions the group has taken. Speaking to a blockader, one applicant said that by introducing compulsory ID cards, the government have shown that “they just want to control people”. Border Agency staff have called the police to remove the protesters but at the time of sending (10:30am) the protesters are still in place.

An activist from Bradford (who is currently superglued to two others in front of the main entrance) said “The government are trying to introduce ID cards through the back door, targeting some of the most vulnerable people in the country.” A Sheffield activist added “If we want to save the people of Great Britain from ID cards, we must act now!”

Government legislation has meant that, since 25^th November, foreign spouses and non-EU students who apply for, or renew, visas will be forced to attend an interrogation and be issued with an ID card that will hold their name, photograph, nationality and immigration status, along with a biometric chip that will hold their fingerprints and digital image. The details will be held indefinitely on the UK Identity Service database. Delays meant that the Sheffield Border Agency Centre only began interrogations from today (1^st December).

Update – 11 activists were arrested (significantly more than were thought to be locked on) after holding the blockade for more than three hours. All released with with verbal cautions.

—

Identity Cards Protest, Lunar House, Croydon

26.11.2008
On the corner of George Street in Croydon, London, a November sun was warming the shoppers and office workers on their lunch breaks, but a few hundred metres north on Wellesley Road a biting Siberian wind seared the demonstrators outside Lunar House. It seemed appropriate that such a freezing blast should surround the UK headquarters of the Border and Immigration Agency and indeed be generated by its twenty stories of the grim early 1970s office complex. After all its raison d’être is to give would-be immigrants and asylum seeks an extremely cold reception.

Its bleak anonymity is also a warning of things to come for all of us in a Brave New Britain of state surveillance and control whose infrastructure is increasingly with us through security cameras, the interception mobile phone signals and electronic communications and the planned introduction of universal ID cards.

The picket, called by London NoBorders http://london.noborders.org.uk and NO2ID http://www.no2id.net/, marked the start of Biometric ID cards, which are being issued from today, 25 November 2008, to all non-EU students and spouses applying for, or renewing visas for study or marriage. The cards will have a photograph with name, date of birth, nationality, immigration status and biometric details, including fingerprints and digital facial image will be stored on a chip on the card as well as being held indefinitely on the UK Identity Service database.

Soon all foreign nationals in the UK will be required to have these cards, which will be rolled out to other groups including students who want a student loan by 2010. And from 2011 you will need to get one – and have your details on that database – if you want to renew or get a passport.

What worries many of us is not just the use to which our own government and security services might make of such data – linking to face recognition software working on images from security cameras and mobile phone data would enable our every move to be tracked – but the certainty that it will get into other hands – such as those of our US friends in the CIA, as well as criminal and commercial organisations who will have their own ideas about how such all-pervasive data might be used.

Among those at today’s demonstration was David Mery http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html a man who has achieved a small personal victory against the juggernaut database state.

Mery was stopped by police entering Southwark tube station on 28 July for being “calm on arrival, almost too calm” and having a largish rucksack and a strong French accent. It was three weeks after the London bombing – and – perhaps luckily for him, six days after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. This time at least the police didn’t shoot first and ask questions later, but his treatment in the months and years following the event can most favourably be described as Kafkaesque. He finally (or at least probably) succeeded in having both his fingerprints and DNA record removed from the police databases, but it took over two years of fighting. His blog http://gizmonaut.net/ and articles are essential reading for anyone who wonders why civil liberties are important.

—

Leeds NO2ID have burnt a mock ID card in protest at the introduction of the ID card scheme for foreign nationals

Video – video/quicktime 13M

Around 20 activists braved the freezing temperatures and rain to gather in Leeds last night on the eve of the introduction of ID cards for foreign nationals.

The protest was made my burning a mock ID card in public.

The Protest passed off peacefully without the presence of West Yorkshire Police.

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Liverpool anti-ID picket: No One Is Illegal

20 students and No Borders/anti-ID campaigners from Manchester made their way to Liverpool on 25th November, the day that the government introduced ID cards for non-EU nationals living in the UK. There they joined a group of 30 Merseyside activists outside Reliance House to protest at the introduction of compulsory ID cards for international students and non-EU spouses on that day.

Reliance House is where interviewing, photographing and fingerprinting will take place from 4th December before being issued with a biometric ID card. It is also Liverpool’s reporting centre where those seeking asylum have to ‘sign in’ on a regular basis while their claims are being processed. If their claims fail they can be held, without prior notice, in the immigration detention facility in the same building for up to 7 days.

It is thus imperative to make the connection between ID cards and the assault on the rights of non-EU nationals wanting to live, work and study in the UK. People from Manchester No Borders had brought along placards and banners proclaiming that “no one is illegal”. Where the state reinforces the division between legal and ‘illegal’ people our solidarity must extend to those most affected by the scheme.

Some mention in the news:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/11/25/protests-in-city-over-id-cards-100252-22330184/
http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.2470740.0.Protests_as_first_ID_card_scheme_launched_in_Britain.php
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/11/26/protesters-say-no-to-introduction-of-id-cards-for-foreign-students-64375-22341365/

(During the picket of Reliance House, some first contact was made with individual No Border activists from Liverpool, Merseyside and North Wales. If you are from this region and want to get active in a No Borders group, please email us, so we can get you in touch)

manchesternoborders@riseup.net
http://www.manchesternoborders.org.uk

—

Over 60 people attended our protest against the introduction of Biometric ID Cards for non-EU students and spouses on Tuesday. The demonstration was held for a couple of hours at midday outside the Cardiff office of the UK Border Agency at 31-33 Newport Road. People the government is forcing to carry ID cards will have to attend this centre for interrogation, photographing and fingerprinting.

We displayed banners, held placards, waved giant mock ID cards and distributed 600 copies of this leaflet – the reaction from passers by was completely supportive. Many people used their lunchbreak to join the protest for a short while before returning to work or study. This protest was part of a nationwide day of action outside UKBA centres by No Borders Network who, along with Defy ID, NO2ID and other groups, held protests in Croydon, Liverpool, Glasgow, Solihull, and Newcastle. Though many of these protests around the country got into local newspapers, Welsh media coverage has been minimal.

This protest appears to be just the start of resistance to ID Cards, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) has threatened industrial action if the government goes ahead with it’s plan to impose ID cards on airport workers next year. Tens of thousands of people have signed up to NO2ID’s pledge not to register for a card, even if that means going to prison. No Borders South Wales will be protesting outside the Border agency again, on Wednesday 10th December when the Cardiff office will start to register people, join us if you can.

“These new ID cards are not only a repressive measure against non-EU students and spouses, they are the first shot in an attack against everyone’s liberty. In targeting a largely voiceless migrant group, who have the least chance to complain and the most to lose, the government is following a familiar path of repressive regimes throughout history. Immigration law already gives the Home Office powers it would like to exert over everybody. By resisting the repression of migrants, we defend the freedom of everyone!“

For links to leaflet, video and other stuff, see http://noborderswales.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/cardiff-protest-against-id-cards/
—

Solihull protest against the imposition of biometric ID cards on migrants

26.11.2008
Yesterday Noborders Birmingham protested against the imposition of biometric ID cards at the UK Border Agency Office in Solihull. They were met by a puzzling disproportionate police response at Dominion Court, 41 Station Road, Solihull – around 12 police officers, including 3 police vans and an evidence gatherer. This may have something to do with the policing of a previous protest around the corner at Sandford House, the home office reporting centre, where hundreds of Congolese demonstrators facing mass deportation occupied the main road http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2007/04/368076.html

A banner proclaiming ‘Freedom of Movement for All’ was held by the entrance of the UK Borders Agency Office. The police offered to ‘facilitate’ our protest by a seemingly polite offer to arrange for a metal barrier to hang our banner from. However, we realised that the six foot high hedge in front of the building would make our protest invisible to almost everyone, so instead we hung our banner by the main road and distributed around 600 leaflets to some very interested members of the public.

Following a concerned report from a dedicated community police officer earlier in the day, two equally committed council workers from the environmental and health department at Solihull Council turned up in their lunch hour to ensure that the literature being distributed was of a political, rather than commercial, nature and thus would not run afoul of local bye-laws on littering/flyering (no one seemed quite sure). This follows several other incidents known to us in central Birmingham where council officials have attempted to apply similar bye-laws (with accompanying threats of fines and court appearances) to dissuade people from handing out political literature. It has been noted before that the parliamentary legislation which serves as the basis of these bye-laws specifically exempted materials of a political nature. The council workers also showed some interest in the banner, raising concern over the manner of its attachment to some local shrubs and something else about private property, but in the end they seemed to decide that neither the public nor the shrubs were at any risk (potential, real, or otherwise) and returned to what remained of their lunch hour.

Two students from Pakistan informed us that they had to book an appointment to begin the biometric ID card process and they couldn’t return home until this had been completed. They claimed today they were told by staff that they would be required to give blood samples and have iris scans for their biometric cards so if they committed any ‘crimes’ in the UK they could be identified immediately. It appears that the private company contracted to the tune of £5.6 billion, and entrusted with sensitive biometric data, are already doing their best to impress upon applicants that ID cards will be effective at ‘fighting crime’. Liberty, the civil liberties and human rights organisation, have already expressed concern about the Government’s ability to safeguard individual’s intimate details on the National Identity Register after Government departments last year lost 30 million pieces of personal data, including those of 25 million child benefit claimants. ‘We have ID cards in our country but they aren’t biometric’ said one of the students. ‘It feels very discriminatory that we are being targeted first. Why aren’t they processing UK nationals first?’ The international students also pointed out that this was costing them a great deal of money. Not only did they have to pay exorbitant fees for their courses but on top of that they have to pay £300 for their visas and now they have to pay for their biometric ID cards and they are only permitted to work 20 hours a week. They also added that these measures would serve to put overseas students off studying here citing Australia as a more welcoming alternative.

The use of foreign nationals as guinea pigs for the more widespread introduction of ID cards is a strategy to run a testbed for the technology on people without a voice. It has become apparent that the government is likely to pick off certain sections of the community in Britain one at a time. This divide and rule strategy has been used throughout history, most notably by the Nazi regime in Germany.

When the British government came for the migrants,
I remained silent;
I was not a migrant.

When they came for the airline workers,
I remained silent;
I was not an airline worker.

When they came for the convicts,
I did not speak out;
I was not a convict.

When they came for the health workers,
I did not speak out;
I was not a health worker.

When they came for the students,
I did not speak out;
I was not a student.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

noborders-brum @ riseup.net

—

http://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/

—

Also in the news:

ID ‘reading’ machines on Canada and Mexico borders
‘Smart’ CCTV in Portsmouth

E.ON protests & actions – London (x3), Bristol, Norwich, Coventry (x2), Nottingham, Brighton & Kingsnorth

Pix-&-Vidz of E.ON F.OFF, Pall Mall, London – 28 Nov 08

Pix-&-Vidz of E.ON F.OFF, Pall Mall, London – 28 Nov 08

Greenwash Guerillas London Brigade, Detection Platoon #1, pay a protest-oriented visit to the London Office of filthy climate criminal corporation E.ON UK to confront a Short-Sighted Fat Cat and PR Pushers plugging ‘Clean Coal’ bullplop.

Climate Camp: How to make an E.ON F.OFF placard
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jbqngfkMZmU
Very useful and generally applicable method for placard & banner production using a projected image

Telling E.ON to Take its ‘Clean Coal’ Greenwash & F.OFF

At a time when the global climate crisis demands clean, renewable, energy generation solutions, a German energy transnational corporation called E.ON want to build a new filthy big coal powered electricity generating station [1] at Kingsnorth in north Kent [2]. All indications are that the UK ‘New’ Labour government will give them the go ahead, despite the fact that their own Environmental Audit Committee has recently called coal a ‘last resort, even with CCS’; where CCS = Carbon Capture & Storage, an unproven pipedream technology that won’t be available for 20 years at the earliest (or so says Alistair Darling, the industry itself and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

So building on the recent Mass Action Victory which scuppered E.ON’s UK graduate recruitment plan [3], a bevy of climate crisis protesters targeted E.ON UK’s London office at 100 Pall Mall [4] from 8:00 this morning. This is one of a number of decentralised protest actions arising from a call to ‘Take Back the Power’ through ’48 Hours of Action against E.ON and New Coal’ over Fri 28 and Sat 29 Nov 08 by:
▪ E.ON F.OFF – http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk
▪ Camp for Climate Action – http://climatecamp.org.uk
▪ Rising Tide – http://risingtide.org.uk
▪ Plane Stupid – http://www.planestupid.com
▪ Campaign against Climate Change – http://www.campaigncc.org

Footnotes

[1] E.ON’s proposed new filthy big coal powered electricity generating station – it will emit between 6 and 8 million tons of CO2 every year (equivalent to the annual emissions of Malawi’s 13 million people or more CO2 than Heathrow’s third runway would burn) source – http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/why.html

[2] Kingsnorth in north Kent – http://tinyurl.com/KingsnorthCoal-map

[3] See ‘Mass Action Victory Scuppers E.ON’s UK Recruitment Plan’ – http://tinyurl.com/MAV-13-Nov-08

[4] E.ON UK’s London office at 100 Pall Mall – http://tinyurl.com/EON-LDN-map

All these photos and video clips are ‘CopyLeft’
This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos you find here, under the following license:
> Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
> http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
> Accreditation: tim.dalinian.jones@googlemail.com

NB: These pix are edited and downsized versions (up to 640x640px, 0.39Mpx, 324 to 728 KB) for onscreen display. If you would like the free, edited, full-sized versions (up to 3072x2304px, 7.1Mpx, 1.0 to 2.9 MB) for print, poster, placard, banner, etc, please email your request to tim.dalinian.jones [at] googlemail.com quoting the picture title(s) you’d like.

—-

On Friday 28th November London Rising Tide visited the FA Headquarters to protest about E-on’s strive for new coal in the UK.

The FA cup is sponsored by E.on and a full team of Rising Tiders turned out to play football in T shirts bearing the names of the government’s proposed new coal fired powerstations.

Yellow and Red cards explaining the facts about dirty coal were handed out to staff leaving the headquarters and passing public.

london@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.londonrisingtide.org.uk/

—-

Students spoof natwest ads – 48hrs action on coal

In the 48 hours of action against e.on and new coal, South London students affliated with People and Planet use their photoshops skills and sense of fun to target Natwest’s investment in climate change.

Natwest, part of RBS, were given shiney new posters boasting their investment habbits to customers. We had a smashin time putting them up so print some out and have fun to. Also lots of stickering and fun with the space hijackers topshop swap shop – good day!

see www.oyalbankofscotland.com

—-

Bristol Rising Tide and activists from in and around Bristol had a day of shenanigans directed at the Royal Bank of Scotland, E-on and new coal.

The day started with a banner drop on one of the flyovers crossing the M32 motorway running into the city centre. Over lunchtime the main RBS branch in the city centre was picketed, with activists handing out forged £20 banknotes (see below) to passers-by and customers only to have an ‘RBS bank robber’ steal them back to give to E-on and the coal industry (see photo). A mock bank statemate was also distributed showing RBS’s investment in coal around the world set against the taxpayer funded bail out of the bank. The picket moved on to an E-on ‘Family Football’ event in the Broadmead shopping centre (see photo). Mid afternoon saw over 50 activists gathering in the city centre for a reclaim the streets party. The party, with mobile sound system roamed the city centre forcing the city centre branch of NatWest to close early and leaving the RBS branch unusable after a very messy cake fight!

http://risingtide.org.uk/bristol

—-

Norwich RT Spoof E.on Stall

29.11.2008
Today six activists from Norwich Rising Tide set up a spoof E.on stall on the Royal Bank of Scotland’s doorstep (RBS is one of E.on’s core sources of funding).

The spoof (despite all materials reading E.on F.off – including a table cloth, banner, t-shirts, leaflets, badges and stickers) fooled many of the public. Passers-by said things like “we don’t want to hear anything about E.on” and “I’m not a fan of E.on” (it really was amazing how hostile people were to E.on). Once they were informed that we were revealing the truth about E.on and Coal most then took a leaflet and badge.

In total we gave out 400 leaflets and undertook a questionnaire on behalf of E.on.
Results showed that …

50% of people didn’t know that E.on plans to build a new coal fired power station – they do now.
90% of people didn’t know that RBS will part funding it – again we made sure to inform them of this fact.
Lastly, 100% of people said they thought that coal fired power stations should be shut down and replaced with renewable energy sources.

We’ll pass on our findings to E.on as soon as possible!

norwich@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/norwich

—-

On Friday morning, Warwick University People and Planet held a demonstration at the UK headquarters of E-ON in Coventry. This was part of the national 48 hours against E-ON. The demonstration was attended by around 30 people, including a number from Coventry university and Leamington Rising Tide. The group left central campus at around midday and marched to E-ON HQ, chanting and drumming. The action was colourful and lively; entertainment included some carbon capture theatre and singing (see below). We also leafleted employees walking past. Spirits were high and strengthened by the knowledge of the other actions to come in the national 48 hours of actions.

Grace Kelly, EON

E.ON: I want to talk to you!
Protestor: The last time we talk, Mr E.ON, I reduced you to tears! I promise you, it might well happen again!

**Verse 1**

E.ON: Do I attract you?
Do I pollute you with my CO2?
Am I too dirty?
Am I too mirky?
Don’t I like what you like?

Protestor: You could be wholesome
But you’re still loathsome
I should stop being so shy

E.ON: Why don’t you like me?
Why don’t you like me?
Why are you making me cry?

**Pre-chorus**

Protestor: We tried to keep it all pretty,
Just a little banner or two,
But when your plans are so shitty,
There’s nothing else I could do!

**Chorus**

E.ON: I can be Brown
I can be blue
I can pollu-ute the sky
I can be hurtful
I can burn people!
I can burn anything I like!

Protestor: You gotta be green
Gotta be clean
Gotta be everything more!

E.ON: Why don’t you like me?

Why don’t you like me?

Protestor: Why don’t you walk out the door!

**Verse 2**

E.ON: How can I help it
How can I help it
How could I stop burning coal?
Coal is my baby
My little lady
I like to get in it’s hole.
Why don’t you buy me
Why don’t you buy me
Why don’t you buy CCS?
When old coal over
I’ll been much bolder
And still pollute nothing less.

**Pre-Chorus**

Protestor: We tried to keep it all pretty,
Just a little banner or two,
But when your plans are so shitty,
There’s nothing else I could do!

**Chorus**

E.ON: I can be Brown
I can be blue
I can pollu-ute the sky
I can be hurtful
I can burn people!
I can burn anything I like!

Protestor: You gotta be green
Gotta be clean
Gotta be everything more!

E.ON: Why don’t you like me?
Why don’t you like me?

Protestor: Why don’t you walk out the door!

**Bridge**

Protestor: Say what you want to satisfy yourself
But you only want what rich investors say that you should want
(should want)

**Chorus**

—-
1 December 2008
E-ON HQ occupied

Shortly after 9am two mini buses packed with Santas arrived outside their headquarters and a score of festive protesters armed with sacks of coal poured in to the building.

For a good half hour they toured the offices, really scoring a bullseye when they inadvertently crashed the boardroom where a full scale meeting was in progress. Even after security managed to clear the upper floors the huge reception area was occupied until well into the afternoon.

Outside security goons and police created a cordon and refused entry to dozens of visitors. Clearly a good number of meetings were postponed as a result.

The mood soured slightly towards the end and extra grumpy police were summoned to kill the festive spirit. After some jostling the spectre of Scrooge emerged and four were arrested, charges not known.

—-

Yesterday (1st December), activists from across the country staged the third demonstration against e.on’s headquarters in Coventry in eight days. Graham, e.on’s security boss for the day, bemoans the impact on the company…

Yesterday, activists from across the country staged the third demonstration against e.on’s headquarters in Coventry in eight days. Graham, e.on’s security boss for the day, bemoans the impact on the company.

We’d thought we had seen the end of the protests. The 48 hours of action that had been called was annoying enough, but that would be it. We’d taken down the Harris fencing around our headquarters and were waiting for just another days work running and planning to build coal-fired power stations. Before we knew it two van loads of people dressed in Santa Clause costumes with “e.on f.off” emblazoned on them, were unloading coal, scrambling on our building and generally running amok.

Just before 9am yesterday morning, about 15 managed to get inside the building bringing, they say, presents of coal, because apparently e.on has been very naughty this year – because we want to build a new coal fired power station in Kingsnorth and continuing to contribute to climate change. Outrageous. We are a decent, respectable company. Some managed to get to a boardroom meeting and dish out a lump of coal to all sitting there. Others got scarily close to the CEO’s office. Others engaged with staff on the large open plan office that made their voices heard by all. It took us a good hour to clear the pesky Santas from the building.

Meanwhile there was one unsuccessful attempt to scale part of the roof, but at the revolving doors at the main entrance, two were able to get up and hold up a banner. Several of those in the foyer glued onto side doors, while yet another Santa, found himself in the middle of the revolving doors, also glued on in the midst of a pile of coal bags with “Co2 al” printed on them. Later yet another Santa glued themselves to a barrier.

Some claimed to have be bringing the mystical solution of “carbon capture and storage” – coal left as it is.

We had to lock the entire building down, forbid staff from leaving, and turned away loads of visitors that were arriving, it being a busy day for us. This despite us having already introduced various security measures such as new turnstiles – maybe next time we’ll have them locked so the protestors cannot simply walk through them to the open office.

I can tell you that e.on are deeply unhappy at being made a fool of so comprehensively yet again. On the day that Lord Turner released his report that the government would fail dramatically to reach its CO2 reduction targets if e.on are allowed to build a new power station at Kingsnorth before controversial carbon capture and storage technologies have been developed. The protests made Radio 4 headline news at mid-day, much of the local media and other press. There were at least four cameras from mainstream media while a number of other independent photojournalists were also there to make sure it was properly covered. The bosses are not happy, and the protestors got some good images.

My staff, from Initial Rentokil, were not enthusiastic about how they had been made to look like bumbling idiots. They need to calm down a bit and stop kneeling on people’s necks because they have been defied. Some of them were not helping their bosses by being rude to the BBC cameraman and other media. They strutted up and down like lost penguins, trying to shove people around and shoving cameras in to the faces of the Santa Clauses – though they all got waves back. We had to seem important by telling staff in the canteen that they were not allowed to look at the protestors – the top brass were getting jumpy by then.

Some of my security need to think as well, it seems. Wasn’t the brightest thing to say that protestors were fine to stay at the main door. Nor was telling the protestors on the roof of the door that they could not attach the banner to the wall because e.on would not be able to get it down.

If all that was not enough bumbling, in a deft movement, the Santa Claus’s realised that the staff had not locked the revolving door and used the fact to get a half-dozen back in to the building were they ran around singing altered Christmas hymn about no new coal. Loads of more images for the waiting press, including them congo’ing through our main foyer.

Eventually they released themselves, and proceeded to leave. West Midlands police were there, and had kept a pretty useless, low profile throughout the day. Now, at the request of our boss they decided to do something. They were very low on numbers and clearly were not up for removing the actual protest, despite the fact the protestors were clearly peaceful and mostly singing their silly songs. The police tried to form a line to stop them leave but their public order training was woefully bad and kept letting them escape through despite the fact they were carrying sacks of coal.

A number were seized and arrested; though some were let go because the police were little better than our security guards in terms of knowing what they were doing. Four ended up going to the cells, of which two have been released. They rest sailed away.

All in all, quite a bad day for us here at e.on. We’re going to have to rethink our entire security plan, having been comprehensively embarrassed. The bosses are fuming at having e.on’s reputation yet again dragged through the mud, and it is clear that the campaign against us is not going to fade away.

By the way, there is a load of email addresses for our various companies at http://www.eon.com/en/infoservice/3027.jsp

Hopefully we’ll not see more protestors soon.

Another report, photos of police cordoning Father Christmases, and videos
—-

As part of 48 hours of nationwide action against E.ON, called for by the Camp for Climate Action, Rising Tide, Plane Stupid and Campaign against Climate Change, Nottingham students called a demonstration outside E.ON’s city centre offices (Mount St, NG1 6PG)

They met at 11.45 in front of the the town hall in Market Square on Friday 27th Nov. Then moved over to the offices at 12pm to flyer and protest about E.ON’s plans to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, a venture that will wreck any serious plans to cut carbon emissions and protect the planet and its’ population from the most disastrous effects of climate change.

The policing and security arrangements seemed a little excessive to me, to manage 10 students and fluffy toy!

Why target EON and Kingsnorth?

The proposed power station will emit between 6 and 8 million tons of CO2 every year, and is just the first in a plan to build up to seven new coal fired power stations. This will wreck the UK’s chances of meeting its own target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

Climate change isn’t about warmer summers, here in the UK. It’s about serious changes that will cost millions of people (particularly those that are the worst off and living precariously) their livelihoods and lives. If we can stop E.ON, other companies will be discouraged from risking similar plans, and we will send the strong message that the energy crisis needs to be tackled positively, implementing the solutions that will get us off fossil fuels.

E.ON’s proposed new big coal powered electricity generating station – it will emit between 6 and 8 million tons of CO2 every year (equivalent to the annual emissions of Malawi’s 13 million people or more CO2 than Heathrow’s third runway would burn) source – http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/why.html

Kingsnorth in north Kent – http://tinyurl.com/KingsnorthCoal-map

For photos of the FIT surveillance again in Nottingham, see also https://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413951.html

and ….. earlier Nottingham action on the subject:

Nottingham Spring into Action :: Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/04/367714.html
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/04/367736.html
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/04/367757.html

‘Clean’ Coal On Trial [Feature] inc Ratcliffe case court reports
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/01/389386.html

Fossil Fools Blockade E.On Offices in Nottingham : Pictures 1
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/04/395382.html

Fossil Fools Blockade E.On Offices in Nottingham : Pictures 2
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/04/395403.html

Fossil Fools Blockade E.On Offices Surveillance and Specialist Equipment
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/04/395429.html

—-

Brighton – 28th
In Response the the 48 hours of action against Eon and new coal Brighton activists staged 2 actions over the 48 hours. The first action on Friday 28th Activists staged a demonstration outside the Royal Bank of Scotland with a large banner saying ‘RBS and EON fund Climate chaos’ With some subversive cleaning ladies attempting to Clean some coal but strangely to no avail – (Illustrating the unfeesability of ‘clean coal’). There was also alternative ‘banking advice’being offered to passers by, letting them know about RBS and its investments in EON and the building of a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.

On the Saturday 29th
A stampede of endangered animals decended on Brighton Town centre handing out flyers to raise awareness about EON and its plans to build at Kingsnorth. In the middle of the large shopping centre forecourt the animals staged a dramatic ‘die-in’. With bewildered shoppers and security guards crowding round this tragic scene, Mother earth herself addressed the crowd and explained what might happen to the animal kingdom and the human one if EON and other Coal hungry companies were allowed to have their way and wreak climate havoc!

—-

Kingsnorth action coverage – “Intruder enters E.ON power station and switches off 2% of UK supplies”

TopShop SwapShop (London), Buy Nothing Day action (+ Steal Something Day) + Leeds + Liverpool + Bristol

Ladies and Gentlemen we are proud to announce the restyling fashion mash-up event of the year!

TOPSHOP SWAPSHOP
2pm Sat 29th November – Topshop Oxford Street
Credit Crunch!

Ladies and Gentlemen we are proud to announce the restyling fashion mash-up event of the year!

TOPSHOP SWAPSHOP
2pm Sat 29th November – Topshop Oxford Street
Credit Crunch!

In the light of the current economic crisis and the outrage over the sweatshop conditions that most high street brands make their clothes in, the swapshop is your chance to re-vamp your wardrobe with a free conscience! Leaping away from the drudgery of big corporate fashion with it’s dodgy business practices and spend spend spend attitude, the Topshop swapshop takes fashion back to it’s roots.

Simply turn up at TOPSHOP on Oxford Street wearing an outfit you wish to upgrade, then on the stroke of 2, marvel as hundreds of fashion moguls offer to trade your clothes with you.

Fancy that girls jumper? Why not offer to swap your belt for it?
That boy’s hat is to die for, how about a trade for your jeans?
Nice skirt, fancy trading my t-shirt for it?

After a hectic re-working of your look you can then walk proudly back onto the streets of London town with a new wardrobe and not having spent a single penny.

You can buy lots of clothes but you can’t buy style.

Please spread far and wide…

DISCLAIMER:

The above event is in no way supported or condoned by TopShop. Any similarity to any brand living or dead is merely coincidental.

http://www.spacehijackers.org

============

Steal Something Day, a shameless 24-hour stealing spree! a critique of BND and call to action, recycled from previous years for your entertainment

============

Buy Nothing Day Leeds

In Briggate this Saturday (29th of Nov) there will be a Buy Nothing extravaganza. We will have Christmas carols telling people of the woes of shopping, there will be hot tea and coffee to help ex-shoppers readjust to there new found happiness, and ideas of presents that do not involve consumerism. From
11am – till dark we will be asking people to question consumerism and join us in buying nothing!

Last year was a major success and BND strikes again. Please bake cakes, bring food and anything you would like to give away. There will be a free shop, music and tables. Bring anything down to join in the party!
Leeds BND

============

Liverpool

next to nowhere is proud to present an opportunity for all the liverpool activists to join together in a spirit of togetherness, openness & communication.

i guess we can all agree that over-consumption is a very bad thing & i reckon that most of us see capitalism as the root of the sickness that is infesting our society. yes?
anyone a racist? no? oh my, we seem to have something in common after all!

well, on saturday 29th november it’s time to put your mutual aid where your mouth is.

at 11am maybe meet & greet nick griffin (bnp) who could be pleasuring our city with his presence in his bid to become mep for the north west of england. he’s called for the party faithful to gather in protest at thearrest of several members last week. are we really going to let this happen?
meet at the top of church street at 10am.

afterwards, from 12pm, the social centre shall be transformed into an oasis of anti-capitalism.

we’ll have:
a fabulous free-shop full of quality free goodies,
free tea n’ coffee,
vegan cafe (donations only),
open mic, film, performance, spoken word…

now, i know that some people are a bit scared of actually getting involved in next to nowhere, prefering to discuss the shortcomings of the booking policy from a safe distance. just to be clear, and restate the bottom line of next to nowhere from its constitution – everyone is welcome to get involved at the social centre provided that they are willing to work in a non-hierarchical way through consensus.

‘actions speak louder than words’ – please can people work together in mutual support to help make this world a better place and take on the evils which are fucking up our world or say nothing and stop this on-going criticism from the sidelines, whilst doing nothing at nowhere.

who knows, the open-mic forum could even provide an opportunity for people to express their feelings about the social centre, in a non-hierarchical way of course!
or, we could just have a good old-fashioned knees up…

together, let’s start to dance on the graves of multi-national corporations!

feistyfingers[at]yahoo.co.uk
http://www.liverpoolsocialcentre.org

============

Buy Nothing Day 2008 – Freeshop in Broadmead, Bristol

Free shop, live music, circus skills and face painting? UWE students from the People and Planet society are going to be taking part in a ‘buy nothing day’ and will be running a free shop on Saturday, brightening up the cold, grey, wintry streets of Bristol city centre.

To recapture some of that lost Christmas Spirit (the giving that is, not the spending!) we’ll be giving away clothes, bric-a-brac and plenty more little gems for you to get your mitts on as well as bringing a little sunshine to the often not-so-happy shoppers of Bristol. If you have anything you want to get rid of, bring it along!

We’re looking for volunteers to help inform and entertain (musicians, circus entertainers, etc) so if your game bring your unicycle down and get involved! It kicks off at 11am and will be running till 4pm, so Pop down to our marquee in-between the Galleries and Cabot Circus (Just down from Ann Summers!).

For more info e-mail Lisa at lisatozer@hotmail.com

I’ll see you there!

A report from the No Borders network gathering

A report from No Borders gathering in Newcastle

On 9 & 10 November a gathering of No Borders activists was held in Newcastle with groups and individuals from Brighton, Bristol, South Wales, London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow taking part. Altogether, about 50-60 people attended.

A report from No Borders gathering in Newcastle

Saturday began with report backs from local groups, giving us an impression of the activity of the No Borders network. Opposition against ID cards and the IOM, and actions against deportation airlines and immigration snatch squads, are as much part of the No Borders agenda as is solidarity with detainees, deportees and migrant workers. It was obvious that the volume and variety of actions is one of the strengths of the network which has helped it to continue to develop and grow without losing momentum.

The international dimension of the network was stressed when people told of large-scale blockades of a detention centre in Belgium, of Hamburg airport to stop deportations, and of the attempt to dismantle a detention centre in Denmark. People felt it is increasingly important to continue developing info and action-sharing networks with people across Europe and elsewhere. UK No Borders activists are making connections with campaigners in Northern France to highlight the situation of hundreds of refugees trapped in Calais.

Discussions also developed around the idea of organizing a bigger No Borders event in the future that would include actions and info-sharing.

On Sunday, the need to develop No Borders politics was stressed in a discussion on ‘who are our allies’. At a local level, whilst working on some issues in coalition with groups and organisations that differ in character, No Borders has a firmly anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian stance. Over all, the network reiterated its explicit anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian position, and a group formed to work on publicity that offers an easily accessible guide to No Borders politics. This could take the form of written publications and media projects such as the development of a film.

All in all, sharing information and stories was an inspiring experience and by strengthening communications and network-wide tactics, people across the UK will continue to develop their ideas and inspire each other to take action against borders and to promote freedom of movement for all.

The next gathering is proposed for February/March 2009 in Bristol
www.noborders.org.uk