IMC UK - Sheffield - Repression

Oaxaca Benefit Shut Down by the Police

04-10-2007 22:29 | Free Spaces | Repression | Zapatista | Sheffield

A benefit gig and party put on by the Sheffield Anarchist Federation to raise money for Oaxacan autonomous organisations was raided and closed down by the police on Saturday 29th September.

"From 3:00 til about 8:30 everything was going well. Plenty of people had turned up, we had raised quite a bit of money and people were generally having a good time... At around nine, the police turned up. At first, we were only met with a couple of bobbies on the beat. They told us to turn the music down and that they didn't want to have to come back to tell us again. We complied with this order. A short while later they returned, this time they cited breach of the peace and noise complaints from local residents. At this point we were given no legal warning and shown no noise abatement order... At this point TSG arrived. The officer arriving on the scene demanded two spokespeople from the organisers to negotiate a de-escualtion of the situation. Two spokespeople were mandated and let outside of the property. The negotiation was a complete farce. The officer had no interest in an open dialogue, he ordered that the soundsystem be removed from the premises within ten minutes and when the spokespeople refused to give out their personal details repeatedly threatened them with arrest." See the full report for more details and photos.

Save Pegah Emambakhsh from British Prison and Iranian Lashes

An international campaign to prevent the UK government deporting Pegah Emambakhsh to Iran, where she fears persecution, for being a lesbian, has so far succeeded in getting her deportation delayed.

Pegah sought asylum in the UK in 2005, her claim failed despite appeals, and she was arrested in Sheffield on Monday 13th August and is being detained in Yarlswood detention centre.

Her case has been taken up by the Iranian Queer Organization, who have said: "If she is going to be returned to Iran, there is much of possibility that she, due to her sexual orientation and her past life in Iran, will be sentenced to death, or, in a most optimistic view, be prosecuted and tortured in some of the ways that are all common among Iran's religious officials when having made the decision to chastise the so called 'corrupted' citizens.".

The global anti-deportation campaign, which has included approaches to the British ambassador in Rome and the Deputy Consul General in San Francisco has resulted in her case getting coverage in the local media, the Iranian media and the gay press [ 1 | 2 ] around the world. However there has been no coverage of her case in the mainstream media in the UK but it has made the TV news been in and la Repubblica in Italy.

Pegah now has excellent legal representation and support from Outrage!. Suggestions of ways to protest against her deportation include contacting the Home Office and signing a petition.

Articles: Urgent help needed to save the life of Pegah Emambakhsh | Appeal for the life of Pegah Emambakhsh | Pegah Emambakhsh Must Stay | British Ambassador promises: "We will not deport Pegah Emambakhsh" | Who wants Pegah’s Blood? | Urgent! - Save Pegah From Death. Don't Alow That Pegah Goes Up On The Airplane | Lesbian facing Deportation to Iran needs your Support | URGENT: Don't Deport Pegah Emambakhsh

Sheffield: Palestine Solidarity Protests

14-05-2007 20:57 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Repression | Sheffield

The northern branches of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a series of events in Sheffield on 12 May, 2007, in what was described as the biggest Palestinian solidarity event outside London for many years, calling for an end to 40 years of Israeli occupation and for justice in Palestine. The day's events included a march and rally, a mock-up of a checkpoint, food, dancing and a photo exhibition. Sheffield Live! have a report on their site and a audio compilation (MP3 | 36 MB | 41:57 min) from the day.

Reports and photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Links: Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign | Palestine Solidarity Campaign | Enough Coalition | Palestine topic page

Big Brother is Watching

17-06-2005 22:33 | Repression | Technology | Terror War | Sheffield

While people are busy being hooked on watching yet another Big Brother
series on TV the fiction rapidly moves towards reality. The UK already
has more CCTV cameras than any other country in the world. Your emails
can be read and the history of your websurfing analysed without a court
order by six government agencies and the Police. Your land line can be
tapped. Your mobile phone acts as a tracking device and vehicles can be
tracked across the country through number plate recognition software.
The Police now have the power to access your NHS records without having
to establish that a criminal act has taken place. The measures taken by
the UK government in the name of the "war on terror" have severly
damaged civil liberties and human rights.

The slide towards a Big Brother state accelerates further this week.
The G8 Justice and Interior Ministers meeting in Sheffield
discussed avenues for advancing the the so-called "war on terror",
national security and combating international crime and illegal
immigration, all of which are likely to have further negative impacts
on civil liberties. For the UK goverment part of this strategy is to
introduce a national identity scheme making it a legal requirement for
its citizens to carry ID cards.

Sheffield Prepares to Welcome the G8

30-05-2005 19:35 | G8 2005 | Globalisation | Repression | Sheffield

The Justice and Home Affairs ministers from the G8 countries are meeting in Sheffield from Wednesday 15th until Friday 17 June. The issues to be discussed at the Sheffield ministerial meeting include counter-terrorism, migration, law enforcement, the expanded use of DNA and legal affairs. People in Sheffield have co-ordinated a number of actions and events against the G8. Full details of these events and a timeline can be found on the Sheffield Against G8 website.

Sheffield Indymedia G8 coverage | Sheffield Against the G8 | Peace in the Park | Sheffield Stop The War Coalition

G8 Clampdown in Derby

20-03-2005 23:29 | G8 2005 | Globalisation | Repression | Sheffield

The biggest police operation [ 1 | 2 ] since the 1984-85 miners' strike was mounted in Derby to protect a G8 Environment Ministers Meeting between 15 and 19 March 2005. This involved orders under Section 13 of the Public Order Act to ban the holding of "public processions through the City of Derby" (funerals were exempted) for five days and then under Section 14 a protest was allowed on the 17 March which involved a "designated protest site of Derby Market Place", a time limit and a maximum number of 3,000 protestors.

Events on M17 started with a Critical Mass bicycle protest in the morning with around 40 people taking part, police arrested twelve cyclists, who were released on bail that night, however their bicycles have been kept "as evidence".

Around 100 protestors then gathered in the only place they were alowed to — the Market Place — and spent the afternoon hanging around, listening to some samba, eating snacks from Veggies and watching Bush and Blair get pied. The point of the protest was explained by a representative of Friends of the Earth, "We're trying to take this opportunity with the G8 Environment and Development Ministers meeting just outside Derby to send a direct message to those ministers, particularly about the rhetoric that's being used in terms of climate change, and actually trying to encourage them to take action rather than just talk about the issue — and also to stop pumping our tax-payers' money into new oil developments and actually look at real solutions to climate change."

The G8 Justice and Home Affairs ministers are due in Sheffield between 15 to 17 June 2005 and Sheffield Dissent has a g8-sheffield email list to discuss what protests might be organised — now we have an idea of what to expect...

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Eviction of the Silver Squat

02-02-2005 00:16 | Free Spaces | Repression | Sheffield

The Silver Squat, which was located in an old silversmiths building near Sheffield train station, was finally evicted on Monday 24th January. The court case for the eviction took place the previous week. To mark the ending of the squat, a farewell gig was hosted there the night before. By One O'clock on the Monday the gates were open and the baliffs were in. It is not clear what the land will be used for, but there is a high probability that it will be redeveloped in to more 'lifestyle' flats.

Silver Squat Eviction Imminent | Photos from the Silver Squat

Shed No Tears For Blunkett - 2

23-12-2004 00:00 | Repression | Technology | Sheffield

As home secretary, Blunkett's abuses of human rights and civil liberties have been staggering. He has introduced internment without trial for suspected foreign terrorists is introducing military camps for children, and barely a day would go by without him dreaming up another crackpot neo-fascist scheme to attack civil liberties, criminalize working-class communities, and put more and more people behind bars.

Update: The first Shed no tears for Blunkett article generated a long thread of comments and there is now also a follow up article, 4 Homes Blunkett.

Activist who visited Sheffield now in Israeli Prison

Kelly, one of two activists who visited Sheffield in April to talk about Palestine and show a film, has now been imprisoned in Israel for filming.

The IMC Server Mystery

14-10-2004 13:03 | FBI Server Seizure | Indymedia | Repression | Sheffield

Last Thursday the FBI seized the hard disks from the web server that runs Sheffield IMC. This is likely to have been given the go ahead from Sheffield Brightside MP and Home Secretary, David Blunkett. Seven days on and neither the FBI, the Government nor the police have offered any explanation to Indymedia as to why their servers were seized. The Sheffield MP Richard Allan is planning to ask a question about this in the House of Commons on Friday, more info on his blog.

The seizure of the server has affected around 20 IMC sites around the world, including Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nantes, Marseille, Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Italy, Brazil, UK, and the global Indymedia Radio site.

Sheffield Indymedia's presence on the web was quickly reinstated due to there being backup servers, but all the other IMC sites were not so fortunate. It has taken a huge amount of work to get things in the UK running again, and the knock on effects of the server being seized are likely to be felt for a while yet. We hope that users of the Sheffield site will bear with us through this time.

Please sign the Solidarity Petition and also support the Server Appeal.

Sheffield IMC press release

Main UK IMC Story | Glogal FBI / Legal page | EFF Indymedia Page | The Register: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5