UK Indymedia - South CoastSouthCoast Indymedia

25-06-2009 20:47 | 3 additions | 4 comments

No Border Camp at the UK Border extention beyond the channel

A farcical curtain of steel descended on Calais, and the massive campaign of demonisation of the camp by the local authorities continued in the press. The camp gradually grew to around 1000 people from all over Europe. Many local people visited the site, a group of around 100 mostly Kurdish and Afghani migrants participated at a daily basis and a lot of local kids and young adults hanged out in the Camp [Report and Pics]

It run alongside the main motorway from the port out of town and it was just a few minutes from the "Jungle", the makeshift camps where migrants are living. Migrants report that currently the controls at the border are very tight and that no one has been getting through for few weeks, consequently the number of migrants in Calais are at their highest in several years.

On Sunday 21st of July, people from the camp went to the festival in the town centre of Calais, with a sound system, to give out leaflets that explain the aim and nature of the camp, in an attempt to communicate directly with the locals beyond the media lies. After the prohibition to distribute any kind of literature that was issued the following Monday, giving out leaflets became an action in itself where people got arrested. Issues of the daily produced newspaper "Nomad" were also confiscated.

Assisting the migrants seems to be a criminal offence, which granted an arrest on Wednesday 24th June, but people have been thinking about some paractical ideas you can do this summer to help the hundreds of migrants stranded in Calais.

On Friday 26th morning, a man demanded showers for migrants when he glued himself to the entrance of La Mairie de Calais - one died trying to have one in the dangerous place where they are forced to wash themselves. In the afternoon, the local motorway was blocked to highlight the hypocrisy of allowing freedom of movement for goods and animals but not of people. Reports: [1|2] Pictures: 1 [Summary of Friday actions]

On Saturday 27th, the campers left the Camp at 10am to go to the transnational demonstration. Here there are reports and Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Videos 1 | 2.

Back in the UK, a demonstration was called in solidariy with the detainees in hunger strike in Yarl's Wood detention centre [Photos 1 | 2].

People are using alternative and corporate tools for real time reporting.

23-06-2009 18:58 | 1 comment

Protest against Armed Forces Day

ANTI-WAR campaigners are calling for a protest on Saturday June 27 against an "Armed Forces Day" event in Worthing. Meet-up point is 11am at the east end of Warwick Street in the town centre, next to Steyne Gardens where the event is to be held. Some protesters will be in the guise of war victims and people are also being asked to bring banners and placards explaining why they are opposed to the state's glorification of war.

07-05-2009 12:28 | 18 comments

Mayday! Mayday!

Brighton's Mayday! Mayday! street party saw 2,000 people from all over the country gathered to protest against capitalism, war and the arms trade. It was called by Smash EDO, the movement that has been campaigning against the EDO MBM/ITT bomb component factory in Brighton for the last 5 years.

Dispatch: Indymedia - Timeline | Last Hours - Timeline

Previous Features: Shut ITT - October 2008 | Carnival Against the Arms Trade - June 2008 | Freedom to Protest - June 2008

30-04-2009 10:52 | 13 comments

Police told to "behave" at Mayday Street Party

Smash EDO's Mayday! Mayday! Street Party on 4th May looks set to be the next stop on the summer of rage. The mobilisation has been linked firmly to a new wave of resistance against global capital. A map has been published showing the location of EDO's key investors and business partners in Brighton. The list includes highstreet banks, BP, American Express and Mcdonalds. The message is clear, EDO cannot operate in a vacuum; it is propped up by the state and a network of global corporations.

Despite all this the police seem to be firmly on the back foot after the media backlash, triggered, by the killing of Ian Tomlinson, against police violence and repression at the G20. Sussex Police have been told to 'behave' by Chief Constable Richards who fears that “People’s confidence in policing has been shaken by things they have seen on their TVs and read in their newspapers". All this must be rather difficult for Sussex police as they have been gearing up for some serious repression of Smash EDO for quite sometime. Dick Barton, a Sussex Police officer seconded to the Home Office who was responsible for training Iraqi police recruits in Basra and Baghdad, has been given the dubious honour of coordinating investigations of 'crimes against EDO'. Past police tactics have included following 'organisers', supporting a dodgy injunction, engaging in ridiculous conspiracy cases, attempting to cultivate informers and attacking mass demonstrations

18-04-2009 12:25 | 2 comments

Brighton issues Mayday call!

MAYDAY! MAYDAY! A mass street party against war and greed is being staged in Brighton on Monday May 4, from 12 noon.

"Smash EDO/ITT - Smash Capitalism!" is the theme and the dress code is red for the latest in an inspiring series of protests in the seaside Sussex city.

For centuries Mayday has brought people together and out onto the streets. People danced for the coming summer and the fertility of the crops.

People marched in remembrance and solidarity with their fellow workers around the world. People gathered in their cities to fight against global capital and exploitation.

Smash EDO invites you to a celebration of all these aspects of Mayday.

08-03-2009 11:33

Protest against police state

'STAND up for freedom!' is the call going out to Worthing people this week by campaigners holding a town centre protest on Saturday March 14.

They are urging residents and others to join them in a demonstration opposing a broad range of laws and measures which they say are taking away people's freedom and moving Britain closer to a police state. The protest is being staged by the Worthing Freedom Coalition as its contribution to a month of diverse events under the banner of Freedom March and will assemble outside the town hall in Chapel Road, Worthing, at 2pm.

05-03-2009 11:32

Update on the Brighton Group on their way to Gaza

On Friday 14 February a group from Brighton joined an aid Convoy consisting of 100 vehicles bringing much-needed aid and solidarity to the people of Gaza. The vehicles include a fire engine, 12 ambulances & a boat; they will all be left as donations on arrival in Gaza.

The aim of the Convoy is to provide essential daily-life commodities to the people of Gaza, as well as raising awareness of the plight of the Palestinians throughout the countries the Convoy will be travelling through.

Nine men who were heading to London to join the convoy were illegally arrested by police in an "anti-terror" operation" . Some of their group are now heading toward Gaza after being released. The convoy has travelled through Tunisia , Morocco , Algeria and Libya .

Links: Viva Palestina , Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campiagn , Videos of the demonstration to send off the Brighton Convoy

02-03-2009 12:46 | 1 addition | 2 comments

New Coal Digs In

Climate Rush tackled more climate criminals last week when the UK coal industry got together for their annual 'coal awards'. In a protest timed to coincide with the UK Coal hosted awards, around 15 climate activists paid a visit to their Doncaster headquarters, dressed in Edwardian style complete with red sashes with the words 'No New Coal' written across them. A banner reading 'Leave it in the Ground' was suspended across the entrance.

In London, the dirty coal pushers shied away from confrontation with the modern day climate suffregette movement, abandoning their booking at the plush Landmark Hotel and scuttling off to Lords cricket grounds instead. At the hotel, around a hundred activists rushed inside through a fire exit and began an alternative awards ceremony to highlight the ecological damage that the coal industry is inflicting on the environment. After being ejected from the hotel, a couple more attempts were made to gain entry and one arrest was made before the alternate awards continued outside. The Landmark hotel management were less than happy about the righteous fury brought down on them by the climate criminals promised not to accept bookings from such damaging industries again.

Coal represent 50% of the electricity production in the UK and its greatest contribution to CO2 emissions so the coal industry has seen increasing attention from activists in the UK (and beyond). Last month activists and local resident disrupted work at the Rosewell open-cast coal mine in Midlothian, operated by Scottish Coal , and another protest stopped work at UK Coal owned Shipley open cast coal mine in Derbyshire. In the US capitol on Monday, 2,500 protesters blockaded the gates of a coal fired power plant for almost five hours.

25-02-2009 22:11 | 7 comments

Top HLS Investors Dump Shares

Just days before the SHAC global week of action kicked off and two weeks after Huntingdon Life Sciences' vivisection laboratories were exposed for the seventh time in ten years, revealing shocking undercover footage, HLS shareholders have sold 15% of the company (ticker symbol LSR). As a result the percentage of LSR stock held by institutions fell further from 20.1% to 17.7%, leaving them below the minimum listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange, a major target in the campaign to close down HLS.

Wells Fargo, who were one of LSR's top five institutional investors has sold all their 147,511 shares and the Bank of New York Mellon, previously third largest investor, sold most of their LSR stock dumping 149,157 shares. BNY Mellon now only have 26,634 remaining of the original 175,791 shares, with Turner Investment Partners Inc also selling their 56,880 stock.

The announcement was made the day before Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists reported they had slashed car tryes at the home of BNY's Business Analyst in Hampshire, whilst other covert cells targeted HLS associates in solidarity with political prisoners, including the UK SHAC 7. Protests also took place at BNY and Wells Fargo's offices and executive's homes, as part of a three-month campaign based primarily in London [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] (England) and New York City (USA) [ 1 | 2 ].

HLS have been suffering from a serious lack of investment since December 2007, with over a dozen corporations selling all their shares in LSR. Their share price as of February 25th is $5.78, the lowest since their high of nearly $40 in September 2008. With an unstable share price, activists continue to increase the pressure against HLS shareholders, particularly largest investor Barclays.

Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | More: 1 | 2 | 3

SHAC 7 Letters from Prison: 1 | 2 | 3 | More

22-02-2009 11:32

Worthing Freedom March Kicks Off

A REBELLIOUS 'Freedom Picnic' in Worthing town centre on Sunday March 1 will kick off a month-long festival of liberty-related events.

Publicity for the 2pm event in Liverpool Gardens calls on people to "defy the drink ban" and "irritate the town wardens", while bringing "food, drink and smoking substances to share".

It forms part of Freedom March, an eclectic mix of activities, including folk singing and photography as well as more traditional meetings, which is aimed at mobilising local opinion on the topical issue of freedom coming attack from the authorities.

Four days after the picnic, Freedom for Palestine will be on the agenda when a member of the International Solidarity Movement will be speaking at a Freedom March event staged at The Grand Victorian Hotel opposite Worthing station at 8pm.

The month will also include a talk by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Desghayes at the Labour Hall in Lyndhurst Road at 2pm on Sunday March 29 and a protest against surveillance and 'police state' powers meeting outside the town hall in Chapel Road on Saturday March 14 at 2pm.

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