Events Calendar
Tuesday, July 22nd: West Midlands IWW & Birmingham Indymedia present an evening of industrial action @ the Lamp Tavern
Saturday, August 16th: Shut down the BNP festival
Saturday, September 6th: Carnival Against Vivisection, Ledbury Train Station
IOM Unwelcome in Birmingham
The International Organisation against Migration, aka the International Organisation for Migration or IOM, held a 'conference' in Birmingham last month in preparation for opening a new regional office in the city. A handful of local activists did a banner drop at the four-star hotel where the event was held to unwelcome the dodgy organisation. They also gave out leaflets to the delegates to tell them the truth about IOM, whose real mission is to help Western governments 'manage migration' and meet their deportation quotas.
Reports: IOM Unwelcomed in Birmingham | IOM's new Birmingham office | Inside the IOM Birmingham conference | IOM Bribing Asylum Seekers to Return Home | The So-Called Voluntary Return
Related: Shadowy deportation organisation opens office in London | New Home Office Scheme Against Asylum Seekers in Glasgow | IOM Picket in Bristol | No Platform for the IOM (Bristol) | No Border's IOM page
Protesters Demand Hands Off Iraqi Oil!
As part of the international day of action called by Hands Off Iraqi Oil on Saturday 23rd February, a group of protesters and local people closed down a Shell forecourt for two hours in Birmingham whilst in Coventry there was a series of 5 banner drops. Both actions sent a defiant message of solidarity to Iraqi oil workers resisting attempts to steal billions of dollars in oil revenue from their devastated country.
Since 2003, the UK and US governments, the IMF, and various oil corporations including Shell and BP are trying to force through a proposed oil law which will allow oil corporations unhindered access to their oil wealth, bypassing the Iraqi economy entirely.
Elsewhere the callout for action resulted in actions in, London, Liverpool, Wrexham, Coventry, Bristol, Southend, Amsterdam and Washington [video]
Action report's from the West Midlands [1, 2] | Pics [1, 2, 3] | Audio from the London tour of the Corporate Oil Profiteers
Hands Off Iraqi Oil | Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions | Stop the Iraqi Oil Law | The Stirrer coverage | 2007 IMC article |
Indymedia UK and the Atzmon-Greenstein affair
Although moderation discussions and disagreements within the IMC UK collective are not that rare, never before has a post proved so controversial and divisive like an article by controversial Israeli writer and musician Gilad Atzmon titled "Saying NO to the Hunters of Goliath". The disputed post has triggered serious, heated discussions among Indymedia UK moderators, two active IMCers leaving the collective, as well as a malicious campaign of spamming and disinformation against Atzmon and Indymedia UK itself. However, the controversy was also an opportunity for IMC UK to reflect on the process of moderation and the need for a deeper political discussion. The purpose of this feature is to establish the facts and clarify IMC UK's position(s) on the Atzmon-Greenstein affair, anti-Semitism and moderation issues in general.
Up with the Posties!
Following failed talks with the Royal Mail management, postal workers across the country went on a second 24-hour strike in two weeks, starting at 7pm on Thursday, July 12th. Pickets were again held at sorting offices in the evening and many more at delivery offices and depots the following morning. In Birmingham, three picket lines were formed at each gate of the main mail centre in Newtown. Solidarity from fellow workers, as well as from members of the West Midlands branch of the Industrial Workers of the World union (IWW), was impressive.
Report and pics | Film: Solidarity with the Posties! | Cov Wobblies support local posties | First round of postal workers strike | Industrial Action at Crown Post Offices Today | Crown postal workers walk out | Victoria Square Crown Post Office Birmingham Solidarity Banner Drop | Solihull Post Office workers walk out again | IWW Solidarity with Coventry Post Office workers strike
InJustice
Last Tuesday (10 July), Indymedia Birmingham, in conjunction with the Mikey Powell Campaign, screened Injustice, a powerful film about deaths in police custody and the victims' families' struggles for justice. The screening, which was held at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham, was preceded and followed by talks by Tippa Naphtali, a cousin of Mikey Powell, who died at the hands of police in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 2003.
The film was preceded by a short interview with Ramona Africa, the sole adult survivor of the FBI's bombing of the MOVE organisation's home in Philadelphia in 1985. The only justice, she stressed, is to bring down the "vicious, rotten system" that caused and continues to cause such injustices. Last month Indymedia Birmingham had shown a new documentary about MOVE at the Drum to galvanise support for the MOVE 9 and Mumia Abu-Jamal [Mainstream media ignore the plight of MOVE 9 and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal | Radio interview with Ramona Africa and Fred Riley from MOVE].
Links: Mikey Powell Campaign | 4WardEver | MOVE
Postal workers walk out over planned pay and job cuts
Up to 130,000 postal workers took part in a 24-hour strike on Friday -the first in 11 years- to stop the Royal Mail's cost-cutting plans, which the Communication Workers Union (CWU) says would only mean cuts in members' pay and pensions, job cuts and more post office closures. Picket lines were mounted outside sorting offices and mail centres across the country from early morning, disrupting mail deliveries for the day.
In Birmingham, two picket lines at the front and back gates of the main mail centre in Newtown saw, on and off, tens of postal workers and their supporters, while 'Royal Mail police' were trying to break up the picket lines, intimidating and threatening picketers. There was also another picket line in the city centre. [report and pics]
Last week, a well-attended march took place in Gloucester, followed by a rally in the docks, as part of a campaign against the planned closure of the Gloucester Mail Centre. A similar march and rally were held in Coventry city centre last March to protest against the planned closure of Coventry's sorting office.
Links: CWU's Save Postal Services campaign
Birmingham's 2007 Refugee Week(end)
Besides the annual high-profile Celebrating Sanctuary 'festival', this year's Refugee Week in Birmingham saw a candlelit vigil, organised by the Birmingham Anti-Racist Campaign (ARC), in the grounds of St. Philip's Cathedral on Friday, 22 June, to remember asylum seekers who took their own lives and to protest against the government's racist policies [call]. This was followed by African, Kurdish and Iranian live music, then the annual Refugee Sleep-out to highlight the problem of destitution that many asylum seekers suffer from. The following day, the end of Refugee Week, saw a rally in Victoria Square, organised by ARC as well, to highlight the bitter realities suffered by refugees and asylum seekers in Britain and to protest against the Home Office's war on them [call].
Meanwhile, Birmingham NoBorders issued a statement on the much-talked-about asylum amnesty, pointing out that, even when not based on racist criteria, it is not a long-term solution and often causes great suffering for those who do not 'fit in' and leads to stricter immigration controls.
Related: Celebrating Sanctuary?! What Sanctuary?! | Birmingham NoBorders and The Angel Group at Celebrating Sanctuary | Refugee Week 2006: ARC vigil | Solihull picket | "party without borders"
Indymedia Oaxaca Tour Starting In The UK
Indymedia Oaxaca, the network in the UK of Zapatista solidarity groups along with anticapitalist collectives launch a tour of information and debate on the issues surrounding the people of Oaxaca's rebellion. The Tour will be visiting Birmingham on 16th May 16th, Liverpool on the 17th, Bradford on the 18th, Manchester on the 19th, Edinburgh on the 20th, Bristol on the 22nd, and finally in London's Rampart Social Centre on the 24th before jumping over to Europe. There will be films, talks and discussions with a guest from Indymedia Oaxaca.
The right to rebel is sacred, as exercising it is indispensable to break the obstacles that oppose the right to life. (Ricardo Flores Magon)
Our guest for the tour is a member of the Indymedia Oaxaca collective, and a free radio maker for the communities in the mountains north of the state. He is also a collaborator of Radio Jenpoj (Wind of Fire ). Playing the role that independent media does in the popular struggle in Oaxaca means living alongside a constant threat of targeted repression.
Click at the Full article link for background information on the current situation in Oaxaca, and see IMC-UK Oaxaca topic page for reports on the Oaxaca Uprising.
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Mayday 2007 in the West Mids
Well, it was almost pathetic compared to other places such as Turkey, Germany or Switzerland, for example. But at least some things happened on May 1st to celebrate the International Workers Day and the social and economic struggles of the working class and labour movement.
PCS Strike and Rally in Birmingham | Protest Against ESOL Cuts in Birmingham | Mayday Festival in Wolverhampton | See also Indymedia UK's Mayday 2007 topic page
Mayday was also Birmingham Indymedia's second birthday. That's two years of reporting, growing and evolving. Birmingham Indymedia has been a successful alternative to corporate and mainstream media due to volunteers who post, maintain, code, write, support, promote, video, photograph etc. If the Indymedia project is to survive another two years, we need to continue sharing and disseminating the message that another form of media, our media, is possible.
Don't Vote! It only encourages them
So it's that time of the year again: the election circus has come to town and you are expected to turn out to vote on May 3rd. By this seemingly straightforward act, however, you will tacitly endorse a sham democracy and are unlikely to change anything really important. Democracy is supposed to be "rule by the People", but there are huge areas in the UK system of government, such as foreign policy and defence, where the People have absolutely no say. Even health and education, which are typically hot topics in election times, are being sold off, always at the expense of the poor.
Further, Brummagem Star, a newly launched grassroots newsletter, has exposed that BNP candidates in Birmingham have been using bogus nominees to make up the ten required to be able to stand for a ward. Back in 2004, when 6 Labour councillors were found guilty of rigging the electoral system, a High Court judge said Birmingham's electoral fraud would "disgrace a Banana Republic".
Those who abstain from voting are often labelled as apathetic and may not bring about a proper democracy in the immediate future, but at least they will have the satisfaction of knowing they are not helping perpetuate a downright lie. On the other hand, there have been many successful examples in recent years of communities self-organising through solidarity and mutual aid. Direct democracy does not need the interference of parasitic intermediaries who only show up during election campaigns or for a 'photo opportunity'.
Election Circus Comes to Town! Brummagem Star issue 1 | Birmingham BNP Election Fraud | Anti Election in Balsall Heath
