Autonomous spaces weekend — pre-announced events (London, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham, Reading, Bristol)

ASS Ben­e­fit & More 11th ‑13th April

ASS ben­e­fit
Open access squat­ters-hous­ing-land art — pho­tog­ra­phy exhi­bi­tion
Work­shops & stalls
Cin­e­ma
Actions

ASS Ben­e­fit & More 11th ‑13th April
ASS flier
ASS ben­e­fit
Open access squat­ters-hous­ing-land art — pho­tog­ra­phy exhi­bi­tion
Work­shops & stalls
Cin­e­ma
Actions

Week­end long social centre/s event in Lon­don in occu­pied space/s to coin­cide with the Europe-wide days of action in defence of free spaces and for an anti-cap­i­tal­ist pop­u­lar cul­ture.

Var­i­ous venues still to be con­firmed, more info com­ing soon.

Advi­so­ry Ser­vice
housingmatters@hushmail.com
http://www.squatter.org.uk

——
Space Invader Crop Circle
MANCHESTER SPACE INVADERS LINE UP
Man­ches­ter Space Invaders are a col­lec­tive of autonomous groups and indi­vid­u­als work­ing togeth­er to reclaim our city…we are mobi­liz­ing to fight gen­tri­fi­ca­tion, ‘regen­er­a­tion’ and all the bor­ders that exist with­in the city. We call for all groups, indi­vid­u­als, net­works and fam­i­lies to get involved and to join in our glo­ri­ous cel­e­bra­tion of autonomous spaces…

THURS 28TH MARCH
SPACE INVADERS MEETING 6pm
SQUAT FILM NITE 7pm
Films about squat­ting: secur­ing a build­ing, evic­tion, cul­ture..
bring your own films!
Get involved in prepa­ra­tions for the days of action!
Pop­corn, veg­an cake and beer!
For loca­tion email manchesterspaceinvaders@yahoo.co.uk..

FRIDAY 11TH
SPACE INVADERS BAND NITE
The week­end will kick off from 5pm on Friday..come to the squat for food, music and help cre­ate the space…bring yer mates, art mate­ri­als and enjoy the sounds of GNOD, CASH FOR YOUR STORIES, THE AUTONOMADS, SONIC BOOMSIX..and more!
Loca­tion TBC…call for more info

SATURDAY 12TH
I BIKE MCR BIKE ART PARADE
Dress your­self and your bike up for a bike art parade..Any theme for fan­cy dress for you and your bike is welcome..why not make it cos­mic for some fun with the Space Invaders!?
Meet All Saints Park on Sat­ur­day 12th April at 2pm for a nice pic­nic in the park and to admire each oth­ers fan­ci­ly dec­o­rat­ed steeds and riders(bring some nice pic­nic food and drink)..also if you don’t get chance to bling your bike before you come, there will be oppor­tu­ni­ty and mate­ri­als to do it there… then we shall ride around the city show­ing off how grea­tour blinged-up bikes look…..ending up at the Man­ches­ter Autonomous Spaces Squat where there will be food and enter­tain­ment and all sorts of excit­ing activ­i­ty!!!
http://ibikemcr.org.uk

PARK FUN DAY…SAT 12TH
Cathe­dral Gar­dens, out­side Urbis from 1pm to 6pm..
Bring your fam­i­ly and friends, pic­nics and crafts!
Folk bands, a soundsys­tem, mag­ic tricks, street the­atre and art ses­sion!
Tran­sis­ter mad­ness with our mobile sound system…bring your portable radio!
Get cre­ative and get involved before reclaim­ing the city with No Bor­ders…

DEMONSTRATION IN DEFENCE OF AUTONOMOUS SPACES SAT 12TH
Sat­ur­day, April 12,a demon­stra­tion for FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL and IN DEFENCE OF AUTONOMOUS SPACES.Assemble at Urbis (next to Vic­to­ria Sta­tion), 5pm
Check http://www.april-12.blogspot.com/ for updates.
Across the coun­try cities are being sold to the high­est bid­ders. The dri­ve for ‘regen­er­a­tion’ is demol­ish­ing homes, mar­gin­al­is­ing com­mu­ni­ties, pri­vatis­ing pub­lic space and clos­ing down vital com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices. There has sel­dom been a time when fight­ing for autonomous spaces in Man­ches­ter has been more impor­tant.
The strug­gle for self-organ­i­sa­tion and social auton­o­my brings migrants and squat­ters into inevitable con­fronta­tion with the exist­ing social and polit­i­cal sys­tem. Self-organ­i­sa­tion does not mean liv­ing out­side of soci­ety. We want to live in it but accord­ing to our own rules. We want to eman­ci­pate our­selves from the cap­i­tal­ist process­es that gov­ern our city and our lives, with­out turn­ing our backs to soci­ety.

INFO manchesterspaceinvaders@yahoo.co.uk
http://mcraz.wordpress.com
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/

SUBSCRIBE https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/manchesterspaceinvaders

CALL 07526256932 AFTER 6TH APRIL
.….….
MORE EVENTS TBC CLOSER TO THE TIME.…if you could offer a workshop/equipment/skills/time.…get in touch and join the invaders!

manchesterspaceinvaders@yahoo.co.uk
http://mcraz.wordpress.com/

——

the Auda­cious Space free cafe & info-shop

A Cel­e­bra­tion of Free Spaces
Leeds City Cen­tre, Fri­day 11th — Sat­ur­day 12th April 2008

Part of the inter­na­tion­al week­end of action in sup­port of squats and autonomous spaces around the world (see www.april2008.squat.net for more info).

Across the world, com­mu­ni­ties are under threat as city “regen­er­a­tion schemes” favour a glam­orous , busi­ness-friend­ly envi­ron­ment over and above issues such as com­mu­ni­ty,. social hous­ing and diver­si­ty. Leeds is no excep­tion as PFIs and sim­i­lar pri­va­tised “regen­er­a­tion” pro­grammes threat­en com­mu­ni­ties across the city.

We want to show that com­mu­ni­ties through­out our city are not pre­pared to lie down and accept this!

For this week­end we are plan­ning a squat­ted space in Leeds City Cen­tre, fea­tur­ing:

- cafe
— focus on hous­ing / squat­ting / gen­tri­fi­ca­tion
— free shop
— fam­i­ly friend­ly space: day­time cafe will be alco­hol-free & drug-free space
— oppor­tu­ni­ty to link up with oth­er com­mu­ni­ties threat­ened by the above issues

…but most impor­tant­ly the space will be open for what­ev­er you want it to be: an oppor­tu­ni­ty for films, dis­plays, art, work­shops… to get involved give us an email on leedssquat@googlemail.com or call 07526 261061.

The venue will be an easy walk from Leeds city cen­tre / train sta­tion / bus sta­tion — for loca­tion please call 07526 261061 or email leedssquat@googlemail.com
——–

Action for squats and autonomous spaces in Not­ting­ham

On Fri­day 11th and Sat­ur­day 12th of April, we are plan­ning to answer the inter­na­tion­al call out for two days of demon­stra­tion, direct action, pub­lic infor­ma­tion, street-par­ty, squat­ting etc in defence of free spaces and for an anti-cap­i­tal­ist pop­u­lar cul­ture.

Peo­ple from a num­ber of cities across the UK have already announced that tem­po­rary autonomous spaces will open for the 11th and 12th of April 2008. A group of peo­ple will open a tem­po­rary autonomous space in Not­ting­ham city cen­tre. We want this (hope­ful­ly) vibrant and pub­lic space to be an exu­ber­ant response to news of a final clo­sure of the ASBO.

By vis­i­bly tak­ing a space in the city cen­tre, we intend to raise aware­ness of squat­ting and so con­tribute to a future of squat­ting in Not­ting­ham with more long-term squats else­where in the city.

One goal for this week­end of action will be to inspire and empow­er peo­ple who have pre­vi­ous­ly been unfa­mil­iar with squat­ting. By pro­vid­ing mate­ri­als and infor­ma­tion, work­shops, squat­ters’ hand­books and by relay­ing our own expe­ri­ences, we can enable peo­ple to house them­selves with­out com­pro­mis­ing with cap­i­tal­ism. In addi­tion, we can utilise the autonomous envi­ron­ment cre­at­ed by squat­ting for oth­er needs than hous­ing. Dis­cussing cam­paigns and shar­ing knowl­edge and skills we can sup­port one anoth­er and be
empow­ered our­selves, as well as draw­ing in new peo­ple by cre­at­ing a vibrant and excit­ing place to be. This can be in the form of food, work­shops, films, art, talks — and absolute­ly any­thing you are moti­vat­ed to pro­vide.

Over the last few weeks of meet­ings we’ve made some basic logis­ti­cal deci­sions. We wel­come cre­ative, ener­getic and/or enthu­si­as­tic peo­ple, and every­one else, to help us realise and then use the space. Every Tues­day at 7pm we will have open plan­ning meet­ings to dis­cuss and plan the week­end. These meet­ings will be held at the Sumac Cen­tre, 245 Glad­stone Street, For­est Fields, Not­ting­ham.

Alter­na­tive­ly, you can con­tact us at squatnottingham@hotmail.co.uk

——

Free Social Space week­end of events in Birm­ing­ham, April 11th to 13th 2008

As part of the Europe-wide call for decen­tralised action for squats and autonomous spaces (see http://april2008.squat.net/ ), there will be a tem­po­rary free space and week­end of work­shops and events in Birm­ing­ham on the 11th to 13th of April.

CALL OUT: FREE SPACE BIRMINGHAM AND THE EUROPE-WIDE CALL OUT FOR SQUATTED SOCIAL SPACES.

Across Europe on the week­end of April 11th-13th, peo­ple will be tak­ing over build­ings and open spaces left aban­doned by state or pri­vate con­cerns. For one week­end we will be unit­ed in a fes­ti­val of resis­tance across Europe. (see http://april2008.squat.net/ )

Birm­ing­ham, UK will be respond­ing to this call and invite you to join in. We’re a group of peo­ple who have formed an autonomous vol­un­tary col­lec­tive. We have no boss­es to obey, no share­hold­ers to feed and make deci­sions by con­sen­sus, all pulling our weight.

We have cho­sen to occu­py an emp­ty build­ing in the city (close to Birm­ing­ham’s main rail sta­tions and the city cen­tre) for the week­end, hope­ful­ly to improve its neglect­ed con­di­tion and open it up for the ben­e­fit of the city of which we are a part.

We hope you can join us for this event, and invite you to join our col­lec­tive or form your own with sim­i­lar aims.

Come and learn stuff, play games and enjoy the food and com­pa­ny — or come and facil­i­tate a dis­cus­sion, play a song, sing and dance.

EVENTS:

Work­shops includ­ing: bike repair and main­te­nance, con­sen­sus deci­sion mak­ing, action against cli­mate change, dis­abil­i­ty rights and pol­i­tics, 12volt elec­tric­i­ty, LETS, per­ma­cul­ture, gueril­la gar­den­ing, intro­duc­tion to social cen­tres, hous­ing rights, DIY arts (jew­ellery mak­ing, paper mache, sculp­ture and mak­ing banners)and many more…

Demon­stra­tion against gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and for free space out­side Birm­ing­ham City Coun­cil head­quar­ters on Fri­day 11th (see next arti­cle)

Enter­tain­ment includ­ing an open mic night, film show­ings and live bands (TBC)

Free shop

Food by Birm­ing­ham Food Not Bombs

WHY SQUATTING?

There is a long tra­di­tion and his­to­ry of squat­ting in the British Isles, dat­ing from at least the 14th cen­tu­ry, as peo­ple occu­pied land pre­vi­ous­ly worked and occu­pied in com­mon. The mania for enclos­ing land as pri­vate has always been resist­ed. The Dig­gers, lev­ellers and oth­ers in the tur­bu­lent peri­od of the 17th cen­tu­ry occu­pied land for com­mon use.

The prac­tice of occu­py­ing build­ings became pop­u­lar amongst de-mobilised sol­diers in the 20th cen­tu­ry. Return­ing home from the Great and Sec­ond World wars, find­ing none of the promised ‘homes fit for heroes’, squat­ting emp­ty build­ings was a com­mon method of grow­ing viable homes in the cracks and emp­ty matri­ces of post-war Britain.

More recent­ly, squat­ting enjoyed a revival in the 1960s and 70s against the dis­as­trous hous­ing and archi­tec­tur­al poli­cies of the time. And in the last ten years there has been a revival of squat­ting to answer the need for social space as well as hous­ing need. Today squat­ting acts as a bul­wark against and alter­na­tive to gen­tri­fi­ca­tion — the growth of exclu­sive hous­ing for the rich, push­ing out the poor. This is what’s hap­pen­ing in Dig­beth.

Squats are por­tals into oth­er soci­eties. Places where real alter­na­tives can be grown and autonomous col­lec­tive ways of organ­is­ing and liv­ing found free of red tape, in places oth­er­wise left emp­ty and wast­ed.

There’s noth­ing ‘dirty’ about squat­ting. On the con­trary, the prac­tice cleans up after the waste and dis-ease pro­duced by cap­i­tal­is­tic author­i­tar­i­an­ism, trans­form­ing wast­ed space into lib­er­at­ed space. Thus many peo­ple pre­fer the term ‘free space’ as an alter­na­tive to ‘squat’.

WHY SOCIAL CENTRES?

A viable social cen­tre can be squat­ted (occu­pied), or facil­i­tat­ed through bureau­crat­ic means such as rent­ing or pur­chase. In recent years there has been a growth in social cen­tres across Britain, from Man­ches­ter to Bris­tol, Lon­don to Leeds, Glas­gow to Not­ting­ham and in Birm­ing­ham too.

In cre­at­ing a short term occu­pied social cen­tre we hope to cre­ate a free space for the ben­e­fit of the city. The only real lim­it on what can hap­pen in a social cen­tre is the imag­i­na­tion. Since we respect the integri­ty of the build­ing and don’t trash it (unlike its ‘own­ers’) we can as a col­lec­tive open it for pos­i­tive com­mu­ni­ty projects. Social Cen­tres can and have been used for: film screen­ings, healthy food and drink, libraries of books and infor­ma­tion exchange (includ­ing free inter­net access), freeshops (the free exchange of goods) and all man­ner of creative/artistic projects,
and polit­i­cal organ­is­ing around local and glob­al issues.

In these times, when coun­cils are clos­ing and pri­vatis­ing pub­lic facil­i­ties hard won by our fore­bears, social cen­tres are an invalu­able part of soci­ety today, ful­fill­ing an increas­ing­ly ignored need.

Free Space Col­lec­tive
freespacebrum@riseup.net
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/birmingham_social_centre

Details of what’s on in Brum:

The venue will be with­in a short walk of the Cus­tard Fac­to­ry and of Moor Street Sta­tion — email freespacebrum@riseup.net or phone 07527580190 for exact loca­tion details.

FRIDAY 11TH APRIL:

10.00am (approx): Venue opens

11am — 1.30pm (approx): Ban­ner and prop mak­ing for demo (see below)

2pm: “Stop Sell­ing Off Our City” demo out­side Coun­cil House (see http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2008/04/395252.html )

5pm (approx): Return to tem­po­rary social cen­tre

6pm: Talk on pub­lic sec­tor pri­vati­sa­tion and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion, fol­lowed by din­ner cour­tesy of Birm­ing­ham Food Not Bombs

8pm onwards: Acoustic open mic night — all singers, poets, musi­cians and per­for­mance artists wel­come…

SATURDAY 12TH APRIL:

11am — 1pm:
Work­shop A: Intro­duc­tion to Social Cen­tres
Work­shop B: Bike repair and main­te­nance (pos­si­bly ongo­ing for rest of Sat)
Work­shop C: Jew­ellery mak­ing

1–2pm: Lunch

2–4pm:
Work­shop A: Talk by Mex­i­can activist on the Zap­atista move­ment
Work­shop B: Local Exchange Trad­ing Schemes (LETS)
Work­shop C: T‑shirt print­ing

4–6pm:
Work­shop A: Talk on the UK dis­abil­i­ty rights move­ment
Work­shop B: 12Volt elec­tric­i­ty
Work­shop C: Art from recy­cled mate­ri­als

6–7pm: Din­ner by Birm­ing­ham Food Not Bombs

7–9pm:
Work­shop A: Squat­ting and land rights
Work­shop B: Pales­tine sol­i­dar­i­ty
Work­shop C: Poi/fire spin­ning

9pm onwards: evening enter­tain­ment TBC

SUNDAY 13TH APRIL:

11am — 1pm:
Work­shop A: Per­ma­cul­ture and Tran­si­tion Towns
Work­shop B: Rock­et stoves (DIY wood burn­ing stoves)
Work­shop C: Face mas­sage

1–2pm: Lunch

2–4pm:
Work­shop A: Intro­duc­tion to co-oper­a­tives (Rad­i­cal Routes)
Work­shop B: Cli­mate change activism, includ­ing the Camp for Cli­mate Action
Work­shop C: Poet­ry

4–6pm:
Work­shop A: Con­sen­sus deci­sion mak­ing
Work­shop B: Sten­cil art
Work­shop C: Gueril­la gar­den­ing

6–7pm: Din­ner by Birm­ing­ham Food Not Bombs

7–9pm: “What Next?” The future of free social spaces in Birm­ing­ham — dis­cus­sion, all wel­come to par­tic­i­pate and make sug­ges­tions!

All work­shops sub­ject to time change or can­cel­la­tion depend­ing on num­ber of peo­ple inter­est­ed.
——–

Autonomous Space Events in Read­ing! Com­mon Ground to be Reopened!

As part of the glob­al days of action for squats and autonomous spaces (see http://april2008.squat.net for two (maybe three!) events will take place in Read­ing, Berks.

FRIDAY 11TH APRIL:

* Free Cafe Event*

Read­ing Grass­roots Action will hold a free cafe event in a pri­va­tised area of the river­side in the Town Cen­tre. The action will aim to tem­porar­i­ly reclaim some space in the town cen­tre, pub­li­cise fur­ther events and organ­i­sa­tion and spread infor­ma­tion on sev­er­al linked up strug­gles from the autonomous spaces move­ments to the Zap­atis­tas and from com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens to Star­bucks work­ers. Hope­ful­ly a film will be shown illus­trat­ing the glob­al resis­tance against empire and good free food and Zap­atista cof­fee will be giv­en out.

SATURDAY 12TH APRIL:

* Com­mon Ground Squat­ted Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den will be Re-Opened!*

Com­mon Ground — a squat­ted com­mu­ni­ty gar­den in Kates­grove area of Read­ing — was closed down by Read­ing Bor­ough Coun­cil in Octo­ber 07, fol­low­ing two pre­vi­ous­ly unsuc­sess­ful evic­tion dates.

But on Sat 12th April, it will once again by opened to the pub­lic!

- Free Entry from 1pm!

- Free BBQ (trad & veg­an options) from 3pm!

- Live Acoustic Music from 5pm!

Fea­tur­ing:

* Neil Suther­land — Pos­i­tive folk-punk in the vein of Bil­ly Bragg.
* Clay­ton Bliz­zard — Acoustic hip hop — lyri­cal genius!
* Smoky Bas­tard — Irish style folk-punk in vein of Flog­ging Molly/Pogues/Dropkicks
* Kel­ly Kemp — Coun­try style folk-punk from ex-vocal­ist of No Com­ply
* Nao­mi Hates Humans — Soul­ful folk-punk melodies
* Sam Rus­so — “Boss mad sounds!”

LOCATION:

Entrance is through the alley­way, next to ex-Wom­ens Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre, Sil­ver Street, Read­ing, RG2. It’s two mins from town cen­tre, just up Lon­don Street from Glob­al Cafe/Great Expec­ta­tions.

Q: “But wont the cops stop us?!”

A: “Nev­er fear, Plan B is here!”

If the mis­er­able coun­cil and moody cop­pers stop us, we’ll go cheer them up…

… by mov­ing the entire event out­side their offices!

So, if you can’t find us at Com­mon Ground, ring 07757280546 on the day for lat­est info!

Hope to see ya then!

P.S. We’ve even heard rumour of a free par­ty in town that night, so keep yer ears to the dirty Read­ing ground.…..

katesgrovegarden(AT)yahoo.co.uk
http://www.rgacollective.org.uk

——–
Bristol autonomous weekend flier front
Bris­tol: with the Broad­mead Expan­sion and its spillover into St Pauls and Old Mar­ket that is dis­plac­ing our local com­mu­ni­ties, the time is now to take mat­ters into our own hands and reclaim our pub­lic spaces.

For more info call: 07528 953 230 / 07591 631 230

FRIDAY 11th
— day­time: Come help cre­ate the space
— evening: Film night from 7pm

SATURDAY 12th
— Car­ni­val Parade start­ing from Albany Green St. Pauls at 11am.
— Art Exhi­bi­tion open all day
— Cabaret/Open mic, live music

REPAIR NOT REDEVELOP

Yup­pie flats are not part of a sus­tain­able future and are push­ing social hous­ing out of the city cen­tre. Resist the dis­place­ment of local peo­ple and join the parade!

Come One, Come All!
Take back our pub­lic space – If this moti­vates you spread the Word!

Inter­na­tion­al Days of Action for Squats and Autonomous Pub­lic Spaces have been called for on the 11th and 12th of April 2008. http://april2008.squat.net:8080/. Diverse groups of enraged cre­atives from Prague to New Zealand will be tak­ing things into their own hands: reclaim­ing spaces for art, hous­ing, work­shops, dis­cus­sions, talks, films, food, swap-shops, music, per­for­mances & open mics to name but the bare essen­tials.

Whilst their motives are local­ly spe­cif­ic, these autonomous actions are drawn togeth­er inter­na­tion­al­ly by com­mon threads: indig­na­tion at the impend­ing grip that cor­po­rate expan­sion has on our cities; dimin­ish­ing social hous­ing; ‘stream­lined’ rents; the homogeni­sa­tion of the high street with cor­po­rate chains; the seg­re­ga­tion of cities along the lines of wealth and pow­er…

Here in Bris­tol we will be reclaim­ing a pri­vate space and breath­ing life back into it momen­tar­i­ly for a pub­lic week­end of cel­e­bra­tion. As a rup­ture with the march of high speed com­mer­cial exis­tence, we will show films, parade through the streets, open space for art and work­shops, cook and eat food, lis­ten to music and live a lit­tle. Whether you’re a lock break­ing spe­cial­ist, poet, painter or film-mak­er and would like to get involved — or if you just want to come have a look at what can be done with love and shoe­string — come along!

The car­ni­val pro­ces­sion will make its way through Bris­tol on Sat­ur­day 12th. We will assem­ble at Albany Green, St Pauls at 11am for the start of the parade – bring friends and fam­i­ly, whis­tles and horns, ped­al pow­er and music. By tak­ing back our streets we’ll show our com­mu­ni­ties are fed up with the odi­ous creep­ing hand of shiny rede­vel­op­ment. And in prepa­ra­tion: come cre­ate cos­tumes, ban­ners and car­ni­val trim­mings at work­shops in the space the day before, Fri­day 11th.

This open invi­ta­tion is a call out to com­mu­ni­ties and indi­vid­u­als of all skills and inter­ests that can help make these days as vis­i­ble as pos­si­ble- take action in OUR city! Come join to raise aware­ness that there is an alter­na­tive, and resist the aggres­sive pri­vate expan­sion into our pub­lic spaces.

http://april2008.squat.net/index.php/category/english/lang-pref/en
Bristol autonomous weekend flier back

More Bris­tol details: Save Stokes Croft

Sat­ur­day 12th April: Protest Against Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion of Cen­tral Bris­tol

11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls and 2.00pm Broad­mead (Cen­tre)

Bris­tol is under­go­ing mas­sive attacks on our free spaces and cul­ture by prop­er­ty devel­op­ers and their friends in the City Coun­cil. Across the city green spaces, pubs, clubs and ameni­ties are being closed and sold off with lit­tle con­sul­ta­tion with the com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed.

So if you oppose the…

* Threat of clo­sure of the clubs and pubs on Stokes Croft (Clock­work, Lako­ta, Blue Moun­tain, Junc­tion)
* The threat­ened sell off of Cas­tle Park to the devel­op­ers
* The loss of play­ing fields and green spaces city-wide
* The ‘pri­vate streets’ of Cabot Cir­cus
* The dis­per­sion orders on Col­lege Green
* The removal of the Bris­tol-Bath cycle path
* The loss of pubs and meet­ing spaces in our com­mu­ni­ties

On Sat­ur­day 12th April there will be street protests against the gen­tri­fi­ca­tion of Cen­tral Bris­tol. There will be two meet­ing points:

11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls: Join the ‘Bris­tol Space Inva­sion’ Car­ni­val Parade as part of a europe wide week­end of action against the pri­vati­sa­tion of pub­lic space

Join­ing with…

2.00am Broad­mead (Cen­tre): ‘Save Stokes Croft from Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion’ par­ty parade going to Col­lege Green

After the parades come along to Bris­tol Space Inva­sion Autonomous Zone fea­tur­ing Art, per­for­mance, cin­e­ma, open-mic and live music — ALL FOR FREE! — Call 07528 953 230 or 07591 631 230 on the day for details of pre­cise loca­tion.

Please show your oppo­si­tion to the destruc­tion of our places, spaces and cul­ture, before its too late.

See you there.…

Save Stokes Croft and Bris­tol Space Inva­sion

5 years of war! Stop the Nanotech and Biotech War Profiteers!

Click here to join the action, join us on March 19th, 2008.

This Nano-Vir­tu­al-Sit-In is being per­formed on the 5th anniver­sary of the war on Iraq. We have cho­sen biotech and nan­otech cor­po­ra­tions and orga­ni­za­tions as our tar­gets, because their sci­ence is dri­ven by the war and dri­ves the war.

http://bang.calit2.net/5yearsofwar/

Click here to join the action, join us on March 19th, 2008.

This Nano-Vir­tu­al-Sit-In is being per­formed on the 5th anniver­sary of the war on Iraq. We have cho­sen biotech and nan­otech cor­po­ra­tions and orga­ni­za­tions as our tar­gets, because their sci­ence is dri­ven by the war and dri­ves the war.

http://bang.calit2.net/5yearsofwar/

Spirit of Freedom (March 2008) — Earth Liberation Prisoners

Spir­it of Free­dom
(March 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing
words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!”
(For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Spir­it of Free­dom
(March 2008)
Pro­duced by
EARTH LIBERATION PRISONERS SUPPORT NETWORK

“The whole expe­ri­ence has been tough, but all the kind and strength­en­ing
words and wise thoughts from strangers made it much eas­i­er!”
(For­mer Swedish Ani­mal Rights Pris­on­er)

Wel­come to the March 2008 edi­tion of Spir­it of Free­dom. First off in this
Edi­to­r­i­al ELP would like to apol­o­gise about an error we have made in our
pris­on­er list­ing. We wrote that the Amer­i­can Eco-Defence pris­on­er Grant
Barnes spray-paint­ed the let­ters ELF onto one of the vehi­cles he set fire
to. Grant has asked for a cor­rec­tion, point­ing out he spray-paint­ed the
let­ters ELF onto all of the vehi­cles he set fire to. Sec­ond­ly as peo­ple may
be aware, the Amer­i­can envi­ron­men­tal pris­on­er, Eric McDavid, is cur­rent­ly
held on remand await­ing his sen­tenc­ing hav­ing been found guilty of hav­ing
the inten­tion to destroy the prop­er­ty of the US Foresty Ser­vice, etc. (note:
he nev­er actu­al­ly destroyed or set fire to any­thing). Eric’s sen­tenc­ing is
con­stant­ly being put back and back and we urge every­one to sup­port him as we
recog­nise this con­stant delay in his sen­tenc­ing will be a very stress­ful
time for Eric. Remem­ber, no mat­ter where you are in the world, sup­port the
eco-pris­on­ers and no com­pro­mise in defence of Moth­er Earth!

ECO-DEFENCE PRISONERS

Tre Arrow, CS# 05850722, Van­cou­ver Island Region­al Cor­rec­tion Cen­ter, 4216
Wilkin­son Rd., Vic­to­ria, BC, V8Z 5B2, Cana­da. On remand accused of
involve­ment with an arson on log­ging trucks and an arson on vehi­cles owned
by a sand & grav­el com­pa­ny. Both arsons occurred in the USA. Tre is
fight­ing his extra­di­tion to the USA.

Grant Barnes #137563, San Car­los Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty, PO Box 3, Pueblo, CO
81002, USA. Serv­ing 12 years for set­ting fire to a num­ber of SUV vehi­cles.
The let­ters ELF were spray paint­ed onto all of the vehi­cles.

Nathan Block, #36359–086, FCI Lom­poc, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion, 3600
Guard Road, Lom­poc, CA 93436, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF
arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship.
Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

Vagge­lis Botzatzis, Komo­ti­ni Juridi­cal Prison (“Dikastikes Fylakes
Komo­ti­nis”), T.K. 69100, Greece. On remand accused of set­ting fire to two
com­pa­ny cars owned by a energy/power com­pa­ny. It is believed that the
per­son or per­sons unknown who car­ried out the arson did so in protest at the
destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and in sup­port of two work­ers who
died at the pow­er plant. Vagge­lis is also accused of set­ting fire to a bank
and start­ing a fire inside a car yard.

Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land. Serv­ing 18
years. 1) Ten years for using explo­sives to destroy elec­tric­i­ty pylons
lead­ing from nuclear pow­er sta­tions. 2) Eight years for the mur­der of a
Swiss Board­er Guard whilst on the run. In ’02 Mar­co com­plet­ed a 12-year
sen­tence in Italy for destroy­ing elec­tric­i­ty pylons in Italy.

Daniele Casali­ni, Casa Cir­con­dar­i­ale, Via Burla 59, 43100 Par­ma, Italy. Il
Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of using explo­sives to dam­age an
elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear ener­gy.

Rod Coro­n­a­do — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Ibai Eder­ra, Car­cel de Pam­plona, C/San Roque. Apdo. 250, 31080 — Iruñez -
Pam­plona, Navar­ra (España), Spain. Serv­ing just under 5 years for
sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Francesco Gioia, C.C. Sol­lic­ciano, Via Giro­lamo Min­ervi­ni 2/R, 50142 Firen­ze
Sol­lic­ciano (FI), Italy. Il Sil­vestre activist await­ing tri­al accused of
using explo­sives to dam­age an elec­tric­i­ty pylon in protest at nuclear
ener­gy.

Jef­frey Luers, #1306729, Lane Coun­ty Adult Cor­rec­tions, 101 West 5th Ave,
Eugene, OR 97401–2695, USA. Serv­ing 10 years for arson on a SUV deal­er­ship
& the attempt­ed arson of an oil truck. The orig­i­nal sen­tence was 22 years &
8 months, but was reduced on appeal.

Eric McDavid X‑2972521 4E 231A, Sacra­men­to Coun­ty Main Jail, 651 “I” Street,
Sacra­men­to, CA 95814, USA. Await­ing sen­tenc­ing hav­ing been found guilty of
plan­ning to destroy the prop­er­ty of the U.S. Forestry Ser­vice, mobile phone
masts and pow­er plants.

Daniel McGowan #63794–053, Unit I, FCI Sand­stone, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al
Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072, USA. Serv­ing 7 years for an
ELF arson against a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an old growth
log­ging cor­po­ra­tion. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

Jonathan Paul — See details in Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers List.

Julio Vil­lanue­va, C.P. Pri­sion De Pam­plona, 31080, Iruna (Navar­ra), Spain.
Serv­ing just under 5 years for sab­o­tag­ing machin­ery at the con­tro­ver­sial
Itoiz dam con­struc­tion site.

Joy­an­na Zach­er, #36360–086, FCI Dublin, 5700 8th St.- Camp Parks- Unit F,
Dublin, CA 94568, USA. Serv­ing 7 years & 8 months for an ELF arson against
a Poplar Tree Farm and an ELF arson against an SUV deal­er­ship. Also
admit­ted her role in an ELF/ALF con­spir­a­cy.

ANIMAL LIBERATION PRISONERS

Jon Able­white TB4885, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA,
Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied
guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Gregg Avery TA7450, HMP Win­ches­ter, Rom­sey Road, Win­ches­ter, SO22 5DF,
Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to his
involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Natasha Avery NR8987, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx. TW15
3JZ, Eng­land. Jailed for breach­ing her parole con­di­tions imposed on her for
telling a fox hunt­ing mur­der­ing scum what she thought of them. Also await­ing tri­al accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Nathan Block — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Mel Broughton TN9138, HMP Wood­hill, Tat­ten­hoe Street, Mil­ton Keynes, Bucks
MK4 4DA, Eng­land. On remand accused of involve­ment with an arson and
black­mail cam­paign against an Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty vivi­sec­tion estab­lish­ment.

Jacob Con­roy #93501–011, FCI Vic­torville Medi­um I Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al
Insti­tu­tion, P.O. Box 5300, Ade­lan­to, CA 92301, USA. Serv­ing 48 months
impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Rod Coro­n­a­do, Voice of the Earth, PO Box 732, Tuc­son, AZ 85702, USA. Due to
be sen­tenced to one-year impris­on­ment after Rod informed peo­ple how to make
an incen­di­ary device dur­ing a speech at an ani­mal rights gath­er­ing.

Don­ald Cur­rie A3660AA, HMP Parkhurst, New­port, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX,
Eng­land. Serv­ing an Inde­ter­mi­nate Sen­tence, of not less than six actu­al
years, for car­ry­ing out arsons against tar­gets asso­ci­at­ed the vivi­sec­tion
indus­try includ­ing HLS.

Lau­ren Gaz­zo­la #93497–011, FCI Dan­bury, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion,
Route #37Danbury, CT 06811, USA. Serv­ing 54 months impris­on­ment for help­ing
organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Sarah Gis­borne, LT5393, HMP Down­view, Sut­ton Lane, Sut­ton, Sur­rey, SM2 5PD,
Eng­land. Serv­ing 5½ years for con­spir­a­cy to cause crim­i­nal dam­age fol­low­ing
the dam­ag­ing of 8 vehi­cles owned by peo­ple linked to Hunt­ing­don Life
Sci­ence.

Joshua Harp­er #29429–086, FCI Sheri­dan Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion,
P.O. Box 5000, Sheri­dan, OR 97378 USA. Serv­ing 36 months impris­on­ment for
help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Kevin Kjon­aas #93502–011, FCI Sand­stone, PO Box 1000, Sand­stone, MN 55072
USA. Serv­ing 72 months impris­on­ment for help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA
cam­paign.

Daniel McGowan — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

Heather Nichol­son VM4859, HMP Bronze­field, Woodthor­pe Road, Ash­ford, Mid­dx.
TW15 3JZ, Eng­land. On remand accused of con­spir­a­cy to black­mail, in
rela­tion to her involve­ment with the SHAC cam­paign.

Jonathan Paul, #07167–085, FCI Phoenix, Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion,
37910 N 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA. Sen­tenced to 51 months for an
ALF arson on a horse meat plant. Also admit­ted his role in an ELF/ALF
con­spir­a­cy.

John Smith TB4887, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA,
Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied
guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Andrew Stepan­ian #26399–050, FCI But­ner Medi­um II Fed­er­al Cor­rec­tion­al
Insti­tu­tion, PO Box 1500, But­ner, NC 27509 USA. Serv­ing 36 months for
help­ing organ­ise the SHAC-USA cam­paign.

Ker­ry Whit­burn TB4886, HMP Lowd­ham Grange, Lowd­ham, Not­ting­ham, NG14 7DA,
Eng­land. Serv­ing 12 years for attempt­ing to black­mail a farmer who sup­plied
guinea pigs for vivi­sec­tion.

Gabriel Vil­leneuve #HUL03299801, 500, de la Faune, Case Postale 87130,
Québec, Québec, G1G 5E4, Can­da. Held on remand accused of breach­ing pro­ba­tion con­di­tions by alleged­ly attend­ing an ani­mal rights protest, even though he nev­er actu­al­ly went to the protest!

Joy­an­na Zach­er — See details in Eco Defence Pris­on­ers List.

PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS

Helen Wood­son, 03231–045, FMC Car­swell — Admin. Max. Unit, POB 27137, Ft.
Worth, TX 76127, USA. Serv­ing 8 years 10 months for actions that focused on the inter­re­la­tion­ship of war & the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. The actions includ­ed pour­ing red paint over the secu­ri­ty desk of a fed­er­al court and mak­ing threat­en­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Pre­vi­ous­ly Helen had served 20½ years for: 1) Using a ham­mer to dis­arm a nuclear mis­sile silo. 2) Burn­ing $25,000 on the floor of a bank whilst denounc­ing war, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion & eco­nom­ic injus­tice. 3) Mail­ing warn­ing let­ters with bul­lets attached to Gov­ern­ment & cor­po­rate offi­cials.

THE LECCE FIVE
The Lec­ce Five have been charged with “sub­ver­sive asso­ci­a­tion” accused of dam­ag­ing Esso petrol pumps to oppose the War on Iraq; sab­o­tag­ing the cash
machines of a bank which funds an immi­gra­tion cen­tre; and tar­get­ing the multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny Benet­ton in sup­port of Mapuche land rights activists in Chile. All of the defen­dants are cur­rent­ly either under house arrest or released on bail.

ANTIFA PRISONERS

Lasan­dra Bur­well W063658, Ohio Refor­ma­to­ry for Women, 1479 Collins Ave.
Marysville, OH 43040, USA. Serv­ing 5 years for tak­ing part in an anti-fas­cist demon­stra­tion that turned into a riot.

Vah­tang Devitlidze, ul. Libbedo­va 42, UO 68/2, otryad 14, briga­da 142, g. Hagyshen­sk, Krasnodarskiy Kray, 352680 Rus­sia. Serv­ing 2½ years for stab­bing a neo-nazi in the leg whilst defend­ing him­self from attack.

Augustin Kraus, Vazeb­ni veznice, PP‑1, Lit­o­merice, 41 201, Czech Repub­lic.
Serv­ing 14 months for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in attacks against local neo-nazis. His charge was “bod­i­ly harm”. He speaks Czech, Slo­vak and Pol­ish. You can also write him short post­cards in Eng­lish.

Fabio Milan, C.C. via Pianez­za 300, 10151 Tori­no, Italy. On remand accused of fight­ing with the police after an anti-fas­cist protest.

Andrea Neff, Bnr: 746/07/2, Jus­tizvol­lzugsanstalt fur Frauen in Berlin, Arkonas­trasse 56, 13189 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 14 months for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ty.

Chris­t­ian Süm­mer­mann, Bnr: 441/08/5, JVA Plötzensee, Lehrter­str. 61, 10557 Berlin, Ger­many. Serv­ing 40 months for breach­ing the peace whilst serv­ing a sus­pend­ed sen­tence issued for anti-fas­cist activ­i­ties.

Tomasz Wiloszews­ki, Zak­lad Karny, Orze­chowa 5, 98–200 Sier­adz, Poland.
Serv­ing 15 years for acci­den­tal­ly killing a neo-nazi whilst defend­ing him­self.

OTHER PRISONERS

Olga Alek­san­drov­na Nevskaya, UU163/5, 7 Otryad, pos. Dzerzhin­skiy, Mozhaysk 140090 Moskovskaya oblast, Rus­sia. Eco-activist serv­ing 6 years for arson, crim­i­nal dam­age and caus­ing explo­sions in protest at the war in Chech­nya. Due for release in 2009.

Mau­ra Mich­lle Lun­gar­l­li, book­ing # 1167062, Cen­tu­ry Region­al Deten­tion Facil­i­ty (CRDF), 11705 South Alame­da Street, Lyn­wood, CA 90262, USA. Well known ani­mal rights Lau­ra Lun­gar­l­li held on remand accused of activ­i­ty uncon­nect­ed to ani­mal rights. (Please note the prison offi­cials have made a spelling mis­take with her name which must be repli­cat­ed on her let­ters of sup­port).

Kevin Olliff, book­ing #1167029, Ter­mi­nal Annex, P.O. Box #86164, Los Ange­les, CA 90086–0164, USA. Ani­mal rights activist held on remand accused of activ­i­ty uncon­nect­ed to ani­mal rights. Co-defen­dant of Lau­ra Lun­gar­l­li.

Fran Thomp­son, #1090915 HU 1C, WERDCC, PO Box 300, Van­dalia, MO 63382, USA.
Serv­ing Life for killing, in self-defence, a stalk­er who had bro­ken into her home. Before her impris­on­ment Fran was an eco, ani­mal & anti-nuke cam­paign­er.

MOVE
MOVE is an eco-rev­o­lu­tion­ary group who car­ried out protests in defence of all life. There are cur­rent­ly eight MOVE activists in prison each serv­ing 100 years after been framed for the mur­der of a cop in 1979. 9th defen­dant, Mer­le Africa, died in prison in 1998.

Deb­bie Simms Africa (006307), Janet Hol­loway Africa (006308) and Janine Philips Africa (006309) all at: SCI Cam­bridge Springs, 451 Fuller­ton Ave, Cam­bridge Springs, PA 16403–1238, USA.

Michael Davis Africa (AM4973) and Charles Simms Africa (AM4975) both at SCI Grater­ford, PO Box 244, Grater­ford, PA 19426–0244, USA.

Edward Good­man Africa (AM4974), SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932, USA.

William Philips Africa (AM4984) and Del­bert Orr Africa (AM4985) both at SCI Dal­las Draw­er K, Dal­las, PA 18612, USA.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCI Greene, 175 Progress Dri­ve, Way­nes­burg PA 15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, for­mer Black Pan­ther and vocal sup­port­er of MOVE, was framed for the mur­der of a cop. He was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death but is cur­rent­ly await­ing re-sen­tenc­ing fol­low­ing a court hear­ing in 2001.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE
Some peo­ple list­ed in this newslet­ter have car­ried out vio­lent actions. ‘Spir­it of Free­dom’ does not con­done vio­lence. But we are also against cen­sor­ship & believe peo­ple can decide for them­selves who they wish to sup­port.

ABOUT E.L.P. SUPPORT NETWORK
ELP is an inter­na­tion­al eco-pris­on­er sup­port net­work found­ed, in Britain, in 1993 to sup­port jailed eco-activists. We sup­port the pris­on­ers by pro­duc­ing var­i­ous reg­u­lar pris­on­er lists:

Spir­it of Free­dom is ELP’s inter­na­tion­al month­ly pris­on­er list­ing which is cir­cu­lat­ed by e‑mail.

Urgent ELP! Bul­letin is an e‑mail ser­vice that dis­trib­utes the names of any new eco-pris­on­er as soon as ELP gets their details. For more info e‑mail ELP4321@hotmail.com

On-Line Newslet­ters — ELP has a num­ber of web­sites that pro­vide news, pris­on­er lists and addi­tion­al info about ELP & the pris­on­ers.

Eng­lish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Greek lan­guage ELP Web­site
http://greekelp.blogspot.com

North Amer­i­can ELP Web­site
www.ecoprisoners.org

Turk­ish lan­guage ELP Web­site
www.geocities.com/yesilanarsi/elp.htm

ELP Extra is an e‑mail group that cir­cu­lates the details of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, ELP learns about, who do not fall with­in the remit for sup­port by ELP. To sub­scribe to the list e‑mail ELP4321@Hotmail.com

Aus­tralian ELP.SN is our Aus­tralian con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp4321@hotmail.com

Bel­gium ELP.SN is our Bel­gium con­tact. For more info e‑mail elp_bel@hotmail.com

Ger­man ELP.SN is a pris­on­er led ini­tia­tive run by eco-pris­on­er Mar­co Camenisch. For more info con­tact Mar­co Camenisch, Post­fach 3143, CH-8105 Regens­dorf, Switzer­land.

Greek ELP.SN is our Greek con­tact. For more info e‑mail greekelp@yahoo.gr

North Amer­i­can ELP is our North Amer­i­can con­tact. For more infor­ma­tion e‑mail naelpsn@mutualaid.org

Turkey ELP.SN is our Turk­ish con­tact. For more info e‑mail yesilanarsi@yahoo.com

Earth First! summer gathering date change & contact details

The dates of the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing have been changed, to work bet­ter with oth­er events hap­pen­ing over the sum­mer such as the Sav­ing Ice­land protest camp and the Camp for Cli­mate Action.

The new dates are Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008.

This should give us all the space to recov­er & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

Rabbit with spanner & Earth First!The dates of the EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing have been changed, to work bet­ter with oth­er events hap­pen­ing over the sum­mer such as the Sav­ing Ice­land protest camp and the Camp for Cli­mate Action.

The new dates are Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008.

This should give us all the space to recov­er & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

The new con­tact details for the EF!SG col­lec­tive is summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk

You can down­load pub­lic­i­ty — 2 posters & leaflet all in one: (front & back)

Watch this space for more info near­er the time.

Aldermaston — camp is NOT closing & surround the base, 24th March

In a front­page (and inside) arti­cle today the Indy have got it into their heads that the wom­en’s peace camp is cl

AldermastonIn a front­page (and inside) arti­cle today the Indy have got it into their heads that the wom­en’s peace camp is clos­ing. You can read the arti­cle here: http://tinyurl.com/2h7jrf

Camp is not clos­ing. In fact camp is very much there, today, out­side Alder­mas­ton.

Let­ters of sup­port for camp are already com­ing in and we hope that the “wrong end of the stick” arti­cle will only high­light both the repres­sive byelaws sit­u­a­tion (see http://www.aldermaston.net/news/212 for back­ground) and the fact that Alder­mas­ton is busy build­ing new facil­i­ties for new nuclear weapons.

Come and join us!

And if you can’t join us today, then come to the wom­en’s gate on East­er Monday(24 March) — part of a mass “sur­round the base” event against a new gen­er­a­tion of Tri­dent and a cel­e­bra­tion of 50 years of anti-nuclear protest.

See http://www.cnduk.org/aldermaston
info@aldermaston.net
http://www.aldermaston.net

Aldermaston — camp is NOT closing & surround the base, 24th March

In a front­page (and inside) arti­cle today the Indy have got it into their heads that the wom­en’s peace camp is clos­ing. You can read the arti­cle here: http://tinyurl.com/2h7jrf

Camp is not clos­ing. In fact camp is very much there, today, out­side Alder­mas­ton.

AldermastonIn a front­page (and inside) arti­cle today the Indy have got it into their heads that the wom­en’s peace camp is clos­ing. You can read the arti­cle here: http://tinyurl.com/2h7jrf

Camp is not clos­ing. In fact camp is very much there, today, out­side Alder­mas­ton.

Let­ters of sup­port for camp are already com­ing in and we hope that the “wrong end of the stick” arti­cle will only high­light both the repres­sive byelaws sit­u­a­tion (see http://www.aldermaston.net/news/212 for back­ground) and the fact that Alder­mas­ton is busy build­ing new facil­i­ties for new nuclear weapons.

Come and join us!

And if you can’t join us today, then come to the wom­en’s gate on East­er Monday(24 March) — part of a mass “sur­round the base” event against a new gen­er­a­tion of Tri­dent and a cel­e­bra­tion of 50 years of anti-nuclear protest.

See http://www.cnduk.org/aldermaston
info@aldermaston.net
http://www.aldermaston.net

Invitation to the Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth Power Station: August 3–11 2008

***Please for­ward and post wide­ly***

Invi­ta­tion to the Camp for Cli­mate Action at Kingsnorth Pow­er Sta­tion

Day of Mass Action at Kingsnorth: Sat­ur­day August 9th, 2008

www.climatecamp.org.uk

***Please for­ward and post wide­ly***

Invi­ta­tion to the Camp for Cli­mate Action at Kingsnorth Pow­er Sta­tion

Day of Mass Action at Kingsnorth: Sat­ur­day August 9th, 2008

www.climatecamp.org.uk
Low-impact liv­ing // edu­ca­tion // high-impact direct action

This sum­mer the Camp for Cli­mate Action will pitch its tents out­side
Kingsnorth coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in Kent for a week of edu­ca­tion,
sus­tain­able liv­ing and direct action. Every­one is invit­ed to the camp,
which is now part of an inter­na­tion­al move­ment, with eight cli­mate camps
on four con­ti­nents planned for this sum­mer. Togeth­er, we will show that
the blind pur­suit of eco­nom­ic growth at any cost is sim­ply insane, and
is to blame for the CO2 emis­sions and ecosys­tem destruc­tion that are
caus­ing cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change.

Get out the diary, here’s the plan:

In late July this year’s camp will begin with a one-day event at
Heathrow, which will con­tin­ue the fight against air­port expan­sion and
sup­port the peo­ple who wel­comed us into their com­mu­ni­ties last year.

Next, every­one is invit­ed to trav­el togeth­er over a num­ber of days
across Lon­don to Kingsnorth in Kent (around 50 miles in total).
March­ing through Lon­don high­lights the polit­i­cal links between avi­a­tion,
coal and agro­fu­els: Cen­tral Lon­don’s investors, indus­try lob­by­ists and
PR com­pa­nies all deter­mine what gets built and what gets passed off as
‘solu­tions’.

The camp will con­verge on Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion where own­ers E.ON
plan to build the UK’s first coal-fired plant in 30 years. The sci­ence
shows that expand­ing the fos­sil fuel econ­o­my must stop. Yet, with­out a
force­ful cam­paign against this mad­ness, gov­ern­ment and busi­ness are set to
build a pow­er sta­tion that will burn the dirt­i­est of all fos­sil fuels.

The camp will bring togeth­er thou­sands of peo­ple for a week of
work­shops, dis­cus­sion and direct action. Run with­out lead­ers by every­one
who comes along, the camp will be a work­ing eco­log­i­cal vil­lage using
renew­able ener­gy, com­post­ing waste and sourc­ing food local­ly.

Cli­mate campers will not only high­light pos­i­tive solu­tions, but will
also take direct action against two dri­vers of cli­mate change:

Wednes­day August 6th: Day of Action against Agro­fu­els. Agro­fu­els are
fast replac­ing rain­forests and agri­cul­ture for food pro­duc­tion, mean­ing
more hunger, CO2 emis­sions, and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss. They must be stopped.
Join us on this day of action, details to fol­low.

Sat­ur­day August 9th: Day of Mass Action against Kingsnorth coal-fired
pow­er sta­tion. The pow­er sta­tion must not and will not be built! This
promis­es to be an epic moment in the bat­tle against cli­mate change. If
you can only make it for the day, not to wor­ry: trains run from Cen­tral
Lon­don to Kingsnorth, every few min­utes and take less than an hour.

Too much to man­age? They said that last year, and look what we pulled
off. We say — we must be auda­cious; the Camp for Cli­mate Action is just
warm­ing up! We are the last gen­er­a­tion that can avert cat­a­stroph­ic
cli­mate change, so come and play your part!

For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.climatecamp.org.uk and join our email
list at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/climatecamp

***Impor­tant dates***

Late July: Heathrow event and trav­el to Kingsnorth. Details soon…
Sun­day August 3th: Camp set up. We’ll all make the camp hap­pen togeth­er.
Mon­day August 4th-10th: Work­shops, net­work­ing and action train­ing.
Wednes­day August 6th: Day of Action against Agro­fu­els
Sat­ur­day August 9th: Day of Mass Action against Kingsnorth coal-fired
pow­er sta­tion
Mon­day August 11th: Help return the camp­ing field back to nature.

Notes from the UK Squatters’ Meeting 9/10 February 2008

This, the first attempt to coor­di­nate a nation­al meet­ing for some time, was held in a beau­ti­ful old nurs­ing home with exten­sive grounds at Head­in­g­ley in Leeds.

This, the first attempt to coor­di­nate a nation­al meet­ing for some time, was held in a beau­ti­ful old nurs­ing home with exten­sive grounds at Head­in­g­ley in Leeds. There was a good mixed turn out with squat­ters rep­re­sent­ed from many of the major towns in the uk, some protest sites and some trav­ellers attend­ing. All in all per­haps 30–40 peo­ple.

Over­all the meet­ing was con­struc­tive and pos­i­tive with a lot of things dis­cussed with a good par­ty on Sun­day night, of which the local res­i­dents were very acco­mo­dat­ing once we explained it was a one off. It was a dif­fer­ent mat­ter with the local con­stab­u­lary who were miffed to say the least, but unable to act because of a secure build­ing and the num­ber of peo­ple present. (apart, that is, from a bit of har­rass­ment, includ­ing an iso­lat­ed piece of brutality/assault). They final­ly got their vin­dic­tive revenge by con­fis­cat­ing the van tak­ing the rig away on mon­day by claim­ing that the dri­ver was not allowed to use a ger­man dri­ving license in this coun­try!! We man­aged to save the rig though: Ha!

What fol­lows is the basic agen­da, fol­lowed by rough notes from each meet­ing high­light­ing points raised, ideas and crit­i­cisms put for­ward and gen­er­al infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing the dif­fer­ent aspects of squat­ting around the uk.

BASIC AGENDA (of gen­er­al top­ics)

1. Buil­ing a stronger net­work between squats/autonomous spaces (aut. spaces) in the uk.

2. Ini­tial plan­ning for days of action.

3. How can we make bet­ter use of squats/aut. spaces in terms of con­nect­ing them to wider issues such as increased sur­veil­lance, hous­ing prob­lems, gen­tri­fi­ca­tion, ghet­toi­sa­tion and the fun­da­men­tal issues of who con­trols our land , spaces and ulti­mate­ly lives.

4. The impact of non-squat­ted autonomous spaces (ie rented/bought/legal social cen­tres) on the squat­ting move­ment.

5. Break­ing out of the ‘squat­ting scene’.

6. The impact of drugs on the move­ment.

7. Repres­sion fac­ing autonomous spaces in the uk and how we can resist effec­tive­ly.

Sat­ur­day: first meet­ing

Intro­duc­tions

What is hap­pen­ing in places in the uk?

BRISTOL: A new squat­ted social cen­tre is in the process of open­ing. There is Mag­pie, a long term squat/autonomous space. The local social cen­tre is Kebele, which has now been there near­ly eleven years. It was orig­i­nal­ly squat­ted, the evic­tion was resist­ed and then the build­ing was rent­ed with a hous­ing co-op in it to cov­er the rent. The build­ing is now owned, but the hous­ing co-op have moved out as they found it dif­fi­cult to co-exist with activ­i­ties tak­ing place. The build­ing now acco­mo­dates free space for work­shops, a cafe, a library, inter­net and oth­er ameni­ties. Kebele has also, slow­ly, become recog­nised as part of the local com­mu­ni­ty.

NORTH EAST LONDON: A squat­ters’ net­work has been start­ed in the area around hack­ney con­sist­ing of approx. 11 squats result­ing in bet­ter sol­i­dar­i­ty and response to evic­tion threats. There has been some more social cen­tre organ­is­ing, with one cur­rent­ly by Low­er Clap­ton Round­about (info: 07506095491). Ram­parts have pos­si­bly 2 more months, but have opened a new build­ing.

LEEDS: A few res­i­den­tial squats round Chapel­town, no organ­ised net­work, no squat­ted social cen­tres, there is also a par­tial­ly work­ing ‘Com­mon Place’ legal social cen­tre

NOTTINGHAM: Sumac social cen­tre (not squat­ted), a few squats, not many activists. City has lots of poten­tial but needs injec­tion of ener­gy.

EXETER: Not much hap­pen­ing, try­ing to set up a place for tem­po­rary autonomous arts (TAA) and skill share. Big regen­er­a­tion at moment, lots of emp­ty spaces but not much action.

SCOTLAND: There are squats but they tend to be evict­ed quick­ly and legal­ly. ESRA- Edin­burgh Squat­ters’ Rights Asso­ci­a­tion.

BRADFORD: There has been a squat on West­gate for 3 years and a block of flats has been squat­ted down Man­ches­ter Rd.

MANCHESTER: Not much squat­ting hap­pen­ing. There are legal social cen­tres, the ‘Base­ment’ recent­ly closed down due to a fire/water dam­age but there is a gay/lesbian/transgender one and a mainstream/straight one which is a bit of a prob­lem.

BRIGHTON: Very dif­fi­cult to squat. squats last on aver­age 6 weeks, some­times can be moved on 3–4 times a week. IPOs (Inter­im Pos­ses­sion Orders) used more and more (gives cops instant evic­tion pow­er). Ille­gal evic­tions with bail­liffs, police or both com­mon­place. Police have gone on record in local paper say­ing that ‘squat­ting will not be tol­er­at­ed in Brighton’. There is a legal social cen­tre, the Cow­ley Club, bought with a mort­gage through Rad­i­cal Routes, with a hous­ing co-op to pay off the mort­gage. Club has cafe, bar, gigs, free Eng­lish lessons, library, book­shop and inter­net access as well oth­er activ­i­ties. Luck­i­ly there are two long term squats at the moment.

PROTEST SITES

Tara- Nr Dublin, Ire­land: been there over a year, about 15 peo­ple on 2 sites. His­tor­i­cal sites threat­ened, strong local cam­paign, need more peo­ple to help build stock­ades and fences.

Faslane, Scot­land. Punx pic­nic on 2–4 May.

Ross­port, coun­ty Mayo, Ire­land. Need sup­port. Have good local sup­port. Action camp from where direct action is done.

9 Ladies, Der­byshire- have tech­ni­cal­ly won cam­paign, wait­ing on papers. Some of site tat­ted down.

Bil­ston Glen- against a road fund­ed by biotech cor­po­ra­tions, need more peo­ple, coun­cil haven’t got mon­ey to evict.

Camp Bling- near Southend, anti-road cam­paign, been there 2 years.

Tit­nore Woods, nr Wor­thing- against super­mar­ket and urban sprawl, strong local sup­port, 2 camps

GENDER AND SEXISM

Machis­mo- there is often a com­pe­ti­tion of male vs male over dom­i­nance, some­times between female. Is this Alpha male/female com­plex a pure­ly bio­log­i­cal effect or is it rein­forced by soci­etal con­di­tions?

Is homophobic/queer/transgender ‘abuse’ a prob­lem?

Does cre­at­ing ‘queer fiend­ly’ nights encour­age seg­re­ga­tion? Maybe we should focus on anti-homo­pho­bic issues instead? How­ev­er queer fiend­ly nights allow an expres­sion of their cul­ture not always tol­er­at­ed by main­stream soci­ety. Or, in oth­er words, there is a temp­ta­tion to ghet­toize your­self in order to feel com­fort­able and fit in with like mind­ed peo­ple around you.

Maybe there is not such a prob­lem with­in the alternative/squatting scene itself, but at free par­ties when peo­ple from out­side the scene come there can be prob­lems. How can we edu­cate them and break down these dis­crim­i­na­to­ry bar­ri­ers?

Ghet­toi­sa­tion occurs on many lev­els, not just with queers, eg anar­chists, trav­ellers. Plus in wider soci­ety ghet­toi­sa­tion is occur­ing more and more, asian, black, white work­ing class and mid­dle class gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties- we need to bear this in mind.

Is it less about gen­der and more about role play­ing? Do cer­tain peo­ple take on cer­tain roles in squats- some­one does elec­tric­i­ty, some­one does locks, plumb­ing, secu­ri­ty etc.

But do cer­tain peo­ple just take on roles or fall into them- ie does a cer­tain dynam­ic grow, where peo­ple are doing the same jobs because only they have the skills?

To counter this per­haps skill shar­ing work­shops could be an option, or an appren­tice approach where peo­ple watch and learn locks being changed, plumb­ing being fixed etc.

Do gen­der stereo­types take over? Males change locks, fix plumb­ing, electricity/ females cook­ing, clean­ing etc? How can we address this?

In order to chal­lenge gender/role stereo­types peo­ple should not fol­low the eas­i­est effi­cient path‑i.e. some­one does the locks, some­one does the plumb­ing as this per­pet­u­ates role entrenchment/division of labour.

THE IMPACT OF DRUGS ON THE MOVEMENT

Both Bris­tol and Brighton split between drugs squats/creative squats. How­ev­er, is this true or can a pos­i­tive squat hap­pen when the squat is filled with munters (drug tak­ing idiots smashed out of their face talk­ing shit)?

Some squats are just par­ty squats and attract bad press.

It can be dif­fi­cult for families/children to squat because of the pres­ence of drugs.Squatting could be made more attrac­tive to fam­i­lies.

Drugs have divid­ed the squat­ting scene, or is it that they have invad­ed all of it?

A lot of peo­ple get into squat­ting through the free par­ty scene and then con­tin­ue to squat just to par­ty, espe­cial­ly those who have just left home and wish to express them­selves and not take respon­si­bil­i­ty. Is it pos­si­ble to politi­cise this ele­ment with­out being patro­n­is­ing?

If squats have a short shelf life, like in Brighton, then there is not so much motive to main­tain it by some peo­ple and a hedo­nis­tic atti­tude can take over.

There is the prob­lem that some peo­ple will come to vis­it a squat and think, ‘oh, it’s just a squat’ and will get pissed or off their head. This can be a prob­lem inside the squat but more so out­side in the pub­lic eye.

It is down to indi­vid­ual squat­ters what they want to do with their space and how they want to live.

Not all squats should be seen as places to go and be enter­tained.

How do drugs effect autonomous spaces pol­i­cy wise? How do you, or should you, draw a line on ‘accept­able’ behav­iour, to say ‘wait a minute, every­one is get­ting bat­tered’ and yet main­tain the abil­i­ty for peo­ple to be autonomous and express them­selves indi­vid­u­al­ly?

Should drugs be seen as a soci­etal symp­tom and not just con­cerned with the squat­ting move­ment?

Is there some­times a dif­fer­ence between the type and quan­ti­ty of drugs used by the peo­ple who break the squats and then those who move in lat­er, or is this a false dichoto­my?

NETWORKING AMONGST SQUATS

What is net­work­ing? An e‑mail list? More meet­ings?

It should be more than this, it should be active sol­i­dar­i­ty.

The net­work in Lon­don was cre­at­ed by hav­ing meet­ings once a month. They also have a phone with every­bodys’ num­bers on it, but no names, so that if there is an emer­gency a text can be sent to every­one.

Hav­ing Squat­ters’ din­ners, rotat­ing around each squat in an area.

N

ation­al net­work- how can we make it hap­pen?

Cre­ate a rise­up list in con­junc­tion with an e‑mail account which sends no mail but info is placed in a draft fold­er.

Have 2 nation­al meet­ings a year.

Make a new­sheet of ongo­ing news from the draft fold­er in the e‑mailm account and dis­trib­ute as print­ed or PDF.

News about squat­ting actions can also be sent to 325collective(at)hush.com and will be com­piled on the web site.

What do we want out of the net­work?

Peo­ple could work out local/specific skills and net­work them nation­al­ly.

Peo­ple should be respon­si­ble for con­tact­ing people/ find­ing out what’s going on, not wait­ing for news to be sent to them.

There can be prob­lems with com­mu­ni­ca­tion when liv­ing on site.

What is the point of the net­work?

To be a social move­ment which threat­ens the sta­tus quo, yet with­out dilut­ing our fun­da­men­tal polit­i­cal beliefs.

‘Recruit­ment’, get­ting peo­ple on board- facil­i­tat­ing our skills to demon­strate a more valid image of squat­ting than is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed.

Not all squat­ters rep­re­sent­ed at the meet­ing, we need to remem­ber that not all peo­ple squat for ide­o­log­i­cal pur­pos­es. How can we get over our polit­i­cal mean­ing with­out alien­at­ing peo­ple?

We should reach out to immigrants/refugees/vulnerable peo­ple, but hand­ing out info isn’t enough- there must be a sup­port net­work in place.

Per­haps a local meeting/info point for peo­ple to come and get help.

Pos­si­bly vis­it local hous­ing offices and hand out info?

SOCIAL CENTRES

Prac­ti­cal aspects of occupying/setting up a cen­tre were dis­cussed.

What is the effect of legal social cen­tres on the move­ment? Do they detract from the squat­ting aspect or are they a good half way house?

It can take a long time to set up rela­tion­ships with peo­ple in the local are, so long term legal cen­tres can be good for this. It means that the cen­tre can be for the local com­mu­ni­ty rather than being moved on all the time and cen­tred on the scene.

There is a dan­ger of cliques/closed groups occur­ring.

There can be prob­lems with secu­ri­ty with squat­ted social cen­tres, in case the own­er turns up.

It is pos­si­ble to file an injunc­tion against the own­er, but only with rea­son­able grounds- i.e. he has tried to breach sec­tion 6. If done file it using some­one on ben­e­fit so that it is cov­ered by legal aid.

There can be prob­lems if the fire brigade come and check safe­ty. Do a per­son­al pub­lic lia­bil­i­ty assess­ment cov­er­ing health and safe­ty aspects.

New social cen­tre lon­don- hackneysocialcentre.blogspot.com

If indus­tri­al build­ings are left emp­ty for 3 months or more then the own­ers can lose mon­ey on a tax break, so it is in their inter­rests for them to be occu­pied. For a com­mer­cial prop­er­ty to be lived in it must be part­ly res­i­den­tial-ie have a show­er, toi­let and kitchen.

Dif­fer­ent ways of occu­py­ing social cen­tres are: squat­ting, squat and then get in touch with own­er and get per­mis­sion, get per­mis­sion first, rent, or mort­gage

It is per­haps bet­ter to engage with peo­ple on a prac­ti­cal lev­el in the local com­mu­ni­ty and not just on an ide­alog­i­cal lev­el.

Outreach/word of mouth with local com­mu­ni­ty. Ask local com­mu­ni­ty, ‘what do you want?’. Make it clear that they have just as much say in the run­ning of things as every­one else.

DAYS OF ACTION

Dijon, France- the days of action con­cept was thought of and it was decid­ed that peo­ple should do things rel­e­vant to their own coun­try.

Should groups con­cen­trate on their own area or do a cen­tralised action?

Per­haps lots of decen­tralised actions as well as a big squat to make a state­ment, as just one big action on its own would maybe detract from the idea that squat­ting hap­pens every­where.

Some kind of manifesto/press release explain­ing inter­na­tion­al char­ac­ter of actions, show­ing that our strength lies in our network/diversity.

Maybe don’t con­cen­trate on the press too much so our actions aren’t twist­ed into a pub­lic­i­ty stunt.

Is the fact that we have to rely on the press a sign of our weak­ness? Should we there­fore rely on our own alter­na­tive press, or is it pos­si­ble that we can manip­u­late the main­stream press?

Put any ideas into the e‑mail account draft fold­er.

There is a Lon­don wide co-ordi­na­tion meet­ing on the 23rd Feb.

Press release will focus on national/international nature and then local groups can add their own rel­e­vant details.

Peo­ple could decide to stay in their own town or a few towns close to each oth­er could co-ordi­nate.

Pos­si­bly a sol­i­dar­i­ty action around what is hap­pen­ing in Berlin?

Per­haps clan­des­tine direct actions with/without a press release.

SQUATTING AND RESISTANCE.

what suc­cess­ful ways work to resist evic­tions?

Does it depend on indi­vid­ual sit­u­a­tion?

Why should we resist? This depends on per­son­al rea­sons and this meet­ing is not about ide­ol­o­gy.

Are there times that we should­n’t resist? When it is too dif­fi­cult to secure the build­ing. If elec­tric­i­ty is abstract­ed and can’t be cov­ered up.

There should be less focus on resist­ing evic­tions that have been to court and more focus on auto­mat­ic all round defence in case of ille­gal evic­tions. We should defend our space with­out rely­ing on the legal process.

It is rel­a­tive­ly rare that evic­tions are resist­ed when due process has been car­ried through the courts.

As soon as we become ille­gal in a space, ie after a pos­ses­sion order is grant­ed we move on, when real­ly this is the point where we should be attack­ing. We should resist because for some of us the point of squat­ting is to attack the sys­tem.

Big­ger squats rather than lots of small­er ones may be bet­ter option. But what about inter­nal pol­i­tics? Divi­sion destroys our cohe­sion

If we gen­er­al­ly believe that we are doing the right thing and these are our homes then we should be pre­pared to defend them.

Local sup­port- If the com­mu­ni­ty saw some­thing pos­i­tive in a squat/social cen­tre and then we defend­ed it, it would look good in terms of encour­ag­ing pro-active action and not rely­ing on author­i­ty.

It should not be about images though, we should not become just anoth­er spec­ta­cle.

Is it the build­ing that mat­ters or is it the com­mu­ni­ty that mat­ters?

We should­n’t have an image of the local pop­u­la­tion being total­ly apa­thet­ic and pas­sive. They may be open to pro-active par­tic­i­pa­tion.

We should­n’t be so wary/scared of author­i­ty, we should refuse to let the police in. Or does this give them an excuse to use Sec­tion 17 of PACE (sus­pi­cion that an offence is tak­ing place) to kick down the door.

Sup­port­ive acts at the time of evic­tion in the sur­round­ing area?

Once bailiffs get in should you fight back or declare non-vio­lence?

Police tac­tics- Psy­cho­log­i­cal: react to the police/bailiffs on their own terms. If they shout, shout back, if they start to be vio­lent and attack the door then proac­tive­ly defend it.

Have an action plan ready in case of sur­prise evic­tion attempt.

Knowl­edge of the law is not a defence on its own, ie- just because you know the law don’t expect the police to respect it. But it is very use­ful to know your basic rights, like not hav­ing to give your name.

How­ev­er a knowl­edge of the law is cru­cial in any form of resis­tance as it facil­i­tates an area of con­flict where tac­ti­cal advan­tage may be gained.

We should con­cen­trate on actu­al­ly defend­ing squats and not fall into the legal game, yet it is impor­tant to know some.

If you resist an evic­tion the first time and the bailiffs leave, then you can’t be sure when the bailiffs/police will come back and you will have to stay in the build­ing.

If peo­ple actu­al­ly resist and con­front author­i­ty they will be more aware of why they squat.

Mov­ing on all the time just per­pet­u­ates a tran­sient sit­u­a­tion where no con­nec­tion can be made with the local com­mu­ni­ty. This also caus­es ‘the scene’.

When you have a sit­u­a­tion where heav­ies want you out but have been unable to get in to evict you it can make it dan­ger­ous to go out.

In terms of ille­gal evic­tions you do have the right to defend the build­ing using ‘rea­son­able’ force, but not with a legal evic­tion where you only have the right to defend your­self.

Resist­ing squats in UK will give a boost to the Euro­pean net­work.

Tac­tics: Mat­tress­es behind the door frame to coun­ter­act kinetic/pneumatic bat­ter­ing rams; braces across doors/windows; trap­door on stairs with weights (eg- hardcore/rubble) on top; ring in false wit­ness sightings/crime reports to mis­di­rect police to false inci­dents; use paint bombs;create con­fus­ing con­di­tions on the ground for the police/bailiffs.

Use a video cam­era and get in the cops/bailiffs face with it.

If police confiscate/destroy video evi­dence go to court to retrieve it. Not sure if enti­tled to legal aid for this.

Have more than one film/memory card for cam­era and swap them over fre­quent­ly so that if the police get one you will still have some evi­dence.

Turn it from a pri­vate sit­u­a­tion into a pub­lic sit­u­a­tion by cre­at­ing noise/ a spec­ta­cle out­side. Fire­works?

Press cov­er­age can be ben­e­fi­cial (if rep­re­sent­ed prop­er­ly).

Use injunc­tions against own­ers if they have used threat­en­ing lan­guage out­side (get a record­ing).

Leeds street medic training, 28th-30th March

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds at the end of this month. This is a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police. The course will involve sce­nar­ios and hands-on prac­tice and, although we can­not offer you any offi­cial accred­i­ta­tion, the 2 1/2 day train­ing is the min­i­mum stan­dard for mem­ber­ship of the Action Medics, and will equip you for a wide range of sit­u­a­tions, from hypother­mia to baton wounds.

The UK Action Medics are run­ning a 2 1/2 day street medic train­ing in Leeds at the end of this month. This is a 20 hour course that will teach you the basics of gen­er­al First Aid, as well as skills to deal with med­ical sit­u­a­tions spe­cif­ic to direct action, such as deal­ing with chem­i­cal weapons and the police. The course will involve sce­nar­ios and hands-on prac­tice and, although we can­not offer you any offi­cial accred­i­ta­tion, the 2 1/2 day train­ing is the min­i­mum stan­dard for mem­ber­ship of the Action Medics, and will equip you for a wide range of sit­u­a­tions, from hypother­mia to baton wounds.

The train­ing will be on the 28th-30th of March, which is Fri­day to Sat­ur­day. There will be 3 or 4 hours on Fri­day evening and two full days on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. Food will be pro­vid­ed, as well as accom­mo­da­tion if need­ed — we ask for a dona­tion of £30 to cov­er costs, although this will be less if we can find a venue for free.

The venue is as yet uncon­firmed, but the train­ing will take place in cen­tral Leeds, and we can give you direc­tions from the train/bus sta­tion. It is essen­tial to book a place so we know how many peo­ple are com­ing — please email iloveavocado@hotmail.com to do this, or with any ques­tions.

Also, we are plan­ning to organ­ise a 4 hour cer­ti­fied ‘Emer­gency Life Sup­port’ course on the Fri­day (28th March) after­noon. This will cov­er CPR as well as a bit of oth­er stuff, like how to con­trol bleed­ing and deal with an uncon­scious per­son. We don’t teach CPR in the 2 1/2 day course, although we cov­er every­thing else, but hav­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is use­ful. We’d rec­om­mend that peo­ple com­ing on the 2 1/2 day course try to attend this too, but it isn’t manda­to­ry, and it is open to peo­ple who can’t com­mit to the week­end. As we will be bring­ing in an out­side train­er, please email if you want to come on this so we can work out if we have the num­bers.

www.actionmedics.org.uk

International Anti Nuclear Festival

Invi­ta­tion to join Inter­na­tion­al Anti Nuclear Fes­ti­val –
– FINLAND — Mid­sum­mer — June 2008 -

Due to the increas­ing nuclear threat devel­op­ing in Fin­land and indeed glob­al­ly, a coali­tion has formed to pro­mote dis­cus­sion, net­work­ing, edu­ca­tion, skill devel­op­ment, and action for inter­na­tion­al civ­il soci­ety to oppose and resist nuclear pow­er devel­op­ments.

Invi­ta­tion to join Inter­na­tion­al Anti Nuclear Fes­ti­val –
– FINLAND — Mid­sum­mer — June 2008 -

Due to the increas­ing nuclear threat devel­op­ing in Fin­land and indeed glob­al­ly, a coali­tion has formed to pro­mote dis­cus­sion, net­work­ing, edu­ca­tion, skill devel­op­ment, and action for inter­na­tion­al civ­il soci­ety to oppose and resist nuclear pow­er devel­op­ments.

We are in the ini­tial stages of plan­ning the first Finnish Inter­na­tion­al Anti Nuclear Fes­ti­val, to be held dur­ing Mid­sum­mer (mid to late June) 2008, in the vicin­i­ty of Olk­ilu­o­to, con­struc­tion site of the world’s largest nuclear reac­tor.

Fin­land is cur­rent­ly set­ting a pres­i­dent for Europe and the world. After years of denial and inac­tion on cli­mate change, gov­ern­ments and indus­try are now pro­mot­ing nuclear pow­er as the solu­tion to ‘clean’ ener­gy pro­duc­tion and the reduc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions. We believe civ­il soci­ety must also set a pres­i­dent by oppos­ing the con­struc­tion of this pro­to­type reac­tor, thus send a mes­sage to pol­i­cy mak­ers that we will not allow our world and our future to be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by a dan­ger­ous
radioac­tive lega­cy.

Our objec­tives are numer­ous. We wish to bring peo­ple togeth­er to speak, learn and act about prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with the nuclear pow­er process — from min­ing on indige­nous peo­ple’s lands, to ore pro­cess­ing and its use in reac­tors, to waste dis­pos­al and mil­i­tary appli­ca­tions. We seek to learn of oth­er peo­ple’s strug­gles, vic­to­ries and set­backs.

We also seek to devel­op a coor­di­nat­ed inter­na­tion­al strat­e­gy. Increase skills; in civ­il democ­ra­cy / con­sen­sus deci­sion mak­ing, research, media, fundrais­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing, non-vio­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion, action and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. We hope to involve our­selves in the deci­sions which affect our lives and those of future gen­er­a­tions, from con­sumer choice to cli­mate change, Cher­nobyl to Hiroshi­ma.

Most of all, we want to invite you to a fes­ti­val to cel­e­brate the beau­ti­ful pos­si­bil­i­ties of life, to dance, sing and share…and to make it very, very dif­fi­cult for them to keep build­ing nuclear death machines. We would hope that any­body pos­si­bly affect­ed by the grow­ing nuclear threat would feel inspired to par­tic­i­pate, indeed help organ­ise this fes­ti­val.

We are invit­ing speak­ers, train­ers, logis­ti­cal and mon­e­tary sup­port, musi­cians, medics, clowns and oth­ers.

More infor­ma­tion at www.olkiluoto.info and www.nuclearmadness.info

if you would like to get involved, have ideas or want to be updat­ed, e‑mail camp@olkiluoto.info or jsun@rbgi.net