UK Promoted Newswire Archive
Pics: Westminster Bridge Blockaded 1.30pm
09-10-2011 12:55
Westminster bridge has been blockaded by protestors. Banners stretch across the road "block the bill" and "Save the NHS" suspended between two tripods.
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chomsky keynote talk @ rebellious media conference
08-10-2011 22:55
noam chomsky gave the keynote speech today at the weekend-long rebellious media conferencein london
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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introductions came from conference organiser, milan rai, and znet founder, michael albert, who was noam's student and became a life-long friend. then noam chomsky stood at the lectern in front of a packed hall at the institute of education, while the speech was also beamed to a further overflow audience by video.
unsurprisingly he chose the wall street occupation as his main subject throughout the hour-long lecture, but while saying he didn't want to seem negative, he criticised the demands being made by the demonstrators, and characterised their fledgling movement as naive and ill-thought out.
i suppose having lived through, taken part in, and commented on the peace and revolutionary movements of the sixties, he may well have a realistic view of what is possible and what is not, but i couldn't help feeling that he might be ignoring or unaware of a new paradigm, an emerging global consciousness.
however, he was on good form with some ascerbic and witty comments, pointing out that demands for corporations to put people before profits would be asking them to behave illegally, since their whole purpose is to make profit, and any other interests would fall foul of company law.
he also answered a question about the role of the left-wing press and their failure to get behind protest movements with the quick-witted soundbite that "blaming the media for trying to keep people passive doesn't make any sense - it's like blaming banks for making money".
as well as questions from the hall, some written questions were chosen by michael albert that had been brought over from the overflow room.
chomsky was due to make an appearance later at the trafalgar square rally against ten years of war in afghanistan, and the conference continued with a multitude of smaller lectures and workshops during the afternoon. it is fully subscribed and there are no tickets available for tomorrow, where john pilger and noam chomsky will join others in a final plenary.
the conference is packed with great speakers, workshops and networking opportunities, and has been put together by a small group of organisations, instigated by 'peace news' magazine which is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
in a spirit of transparency and openness, they have published the accounts, and it shows they will be relying on such things as dvd sales to help fund the weekend. the dvd will contain highlights from many of the workshops as well as the key sessions, but they are looking for advance orders this weekend in order to make the editing and manufacture sustainable, so i'd urge people to take a look at the website and consider purchasing the dvd now.
there are also interactive opportunities on the conference website at http://rebelliousmediaconference.org and you can follow @RebelliousMC on twitter.
TUC March for the Alternative Manchester Oct 2011
08-10-2011 03:26
Unfortunately they were met by Dr TUC’s quack medicine wagon and patented Labour party elixir
Blockade on tenth anniversary of Afghan war
07-10-2011 16:55
Members of the London Catholic Worker movement blockaded Downing Street today on the tenth anniversary of the start of the Afghan war. Red paint was spilt on the ground symbolizing the blood that has been spilt during the conflict; banners were held; names of the dead were read out.
Today marks ten years of tragedy. We - the US, the UK, and our allies - have spent ten years bombing, shooting, killing people in Afghanistan. A war that started a mere 26 days after the horror of 9/11 carries on to this day.
A group from the London Catholic Workers gathered this morning at the seat of power - Downing Street - to call again for the war to stop. We split red paint on the ground to remind us of all the blood spilt during the conflict; and we read out the names of some of the dead. May they never be forgotten.
We also blockaded the entrance to Downing Street - to at least create an inconvenience for the machine of power that drives this war. And we called on those passing by to join us, to wake up from their stupor and see this war for what it is.
For there's a numbness which has descended on the British population with regards to Afghanistan. We don't talk about it, we don't curse it, very few of us organise against it. Unlike the war on Iraq which was routinely pilloried and condemned, Afghanistan just keeps going and going and going, while we look away.
And yet it's a tragedy on the scale of Iraq, and with as little point. As I write there have been 2676 Coalition deaths through the duration of the American-led war (first called Operation Infinite Justiceand now Operation Enduring Freedom), also including the NATO operation known as theInternational Security Assistance Force. What is more the trend is ever upwards - pretty much every year is worse than those that came before it, with 2010 the worst so far. Who knows how 2011 will end?
Calculating casualties on the Afghan side (civilian and military) is a whole lot harder of course. People who do counts on these things generally preface all their numbers with the caveat that they are probably underestimating. The main source of the figures that follow, Prof. Marc Herold, has described the figures he came up with as an absolute minimum and probably a vast underestimate.
And yet the numbers are still appalling: 6000-9000 civilians killed directly (violently) by the Coalition, roughly the same number killed directly by the other side. A further 3000 - 20000 (that's quite a range) dead as an indirect result of the conflict. By any measure this is a momentous tragedy. Now imagine scaling it up to account for all the dead that no one counted. And then add in the untold numbers of Afghans and others who died fighting the coalition invasion; we call them the bad guys but they still bleed red.
We should also note that the same upward trend applies to these figures too: every year is worse than the last. In 2010, for instance, Marc Herold's ``vast underestimate" is that some 2777 Afghan civilians were killed, a jump of 15% over the previous year. We hear in the news that progress is being made in Afghanistan but how can this be, when every year is worse than the last?
The numbers are appalling, but they're still only numbers. Do they measure how bad a war has to get before we think we should end it? What's the maximum number of casualties that we can collectively stomach? How many mothers and fathers need to wake up screaming each morning before it's no longer OK to keep killing their children?
What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan? What hell are we making there?
Policing public order - the manual
07-10-2011 16:14
Full article | 1 addition | 8 comments
Bury the Dead, Heal the Wounded, End the War
07-10-2011 12:58
6 peace activists arrested outside Downing St on 10th Anniversary of the Afghanistan War.Thomson protesters strip to reveal the Naked Truth about biofuels
06-10-2011 15:16
biofuel powered flight by stripping to reveal slogans opposed to the
controversial new departure.
Full article | 1 addition | 6 comments
Pics from Hinkley anti-nuclear mass blockade, camp and demo, Somerset
06-10-2011 13:19
Slutwalking Bristol 2011
06-10-2011 10:55
Opinions and ideas from the slutwalkersThe first Bristol Slutwalk on the kicked off at 3pm on 1st October 2011.
About 150 people, many dressed in and gloriously suggestive clothes, marched through Bristol, then attended talks on College Green. Demonstrators protested victim blaming in rape cases, and for the right to dress in a provocative manner with assumptions being made about sexual complicity.
The video was put together from interviews before and during the walk, revealing show Slutwalk as a strong and coherent movement.
Palestine Today 10 05 2011
05-10-2011 16:40
Occupy Manchester continues into day 4
05-10-2011 08:52
Activists have been occupying Manchester for five nights now as part of the global movement of the 99%.Occupy Chicago Efforts Mark One Week, Join 130+ Other U.S. Cities
05-10-2011 07:34
It began as a call in July 2011 by the magazine Adbusters to hold powerful business interests on Wall Street to account, and drawing on inspiration from the famed 2011 grassroots protests across the Middle East. But the mantle has been taken up by grassroots activists in New York City to forge an ongoing occupation outside of Wall Street and throughout New York City. The effort in its first two weeks has spurred a national movement with sibling efforts in at least 130 other cities, including Chicago.
Occupy Chicago, merely a week old, has already drawn hundreds of grassroots protesters, who "march…each day…After an hour long general assembly meeting, demonstrators headed through the financial district, Millennium Park, the Magnificent Mile and back to base camp to once more spread messages of solidarity, positivity and persistence in the face of a political system that’s left 99% of Americans without a real voice in governance…While it may be young and still trying to get organized, the movement to Occupy America is growing and cohering. And though many went home after Saturday’s march, more than a hundred stayed to continue organizing and evangelizing, with no plans to leave until they feel their job is done."
UPDATE: Occupy Chicago threatened by Chicago police to stop.
Additional Coverage: Lessons Learned from Occupy Wall Street | Five Things that Occupy Wall Street Did Right | Occupy Chicago Entering Day 6 | Protestors Occupy Chicago in Solidarity with Occupy Wall St NY | An American Spring is Possible | Open Letter to Occupy Chicago.
Outside Resources: Think Progress; NY Times' Andrew Ross Sorking Sneers at Occupy Wall Street | Protests Work Better with Specific Demands | Occupy Wall Street Makes Its Own Media.
Social Media Resources: Tumblr | Twitter | Live Video Stream
Activists keep the pressure up on Wickham labs
04-10-2011 19:15
Last months national demonstrations at Wickham labs new site at North Gosport has helped bring new vigour to the campaign to close this evil company. Wickham have been exposed time and time again abusing and murdering mice and rabbits simply for profit. Their crimes have been so horrific that they have even been condemned in the corporate media for their horrific abuse. Today 12 activists kept up the pressure visiting their Wickham site.
september critical mass - pics and short report
04-10-2011 12:55
the balmy indian summer weather ensured a good turn-out for the critical mass bike ride last friday evening, and hundreds of cyclists enjoyed a joyous ride round london despite the occasional psychopathic motorist and a couple of crazy cops.
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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the critical mass bicycle ride, now in in its 11th year, takes place on the last friday of each month throughout the year. cyclists meet from about 6pm on the south bank under waterloo bridge near the national film theatre, and normally set off on a ride by about 7.
the ride has no official organisers, and the route is never agreed in advance, relying instead on a 'critical mass' of front runners persuading the rest of the crowd to follow in any particular direction.
on friday, the convoy of four or five hundred cyclists (also including an increasing contingent of skateboarders) headed north over the bridge, and unusually took the underpass into kingsway before heading west and on to oxford street.
as the main purpose of the mass is to celebrate human propulsion over carbon, reclaim the streets, and show that cyclists have as many rights as drivers, it is sometimes a little contentious when the route includes oxford street so early in the evening, as it mostly disrupts public transport rather than general traffic (which isn't allowed onto oxford street until later in the evening). however, the mass kept up the pace and only stopped briefly at oxford circus before heading to marble arch and down park lane.
by this time, cyclists had spread out a little and so it was harder to take all four lanes of the road. so despite the neon sign at the start of park lane warning motorists 'delays possible', some of them were frustrated to find cyclists in their path (even though they were quite likely to get held up again at a traffic jam at the south end of the highway), and among these motorists there was a police car, whose driver recklessly kept changing lanes without signalling, and deliberately cut across cyclists forcing them to veer to the left, and seriously risking injury.
further down park lane, there had been some sort of altercation, and a woman claimed she had been assaulted and pushed over by a motorist. the police car had stopped and the officers got out, but instead of investigating the assault, one of them was making comments loudly that "you cyclists are pests". the young woman, along with witnesses to the assault, kept telling the police that she wanted to make a complaint and press charges, but the cops just ignored her, returning to their vehicle and winding their windows up. they also for a while refused to give any of their own details until several cyclists surrounding the car kept asking for their badge numbers, with which they eventually complied. they however refused to take any details of the alleged incident. the young woman is considering an official police complaint. if anyone witnessed the assault or took pics/video, please contact me and i'll put you in touch. i only have the clip of the police ignoring her requests.
sometimes after an incident like this, the mass gets stretched out or split, but this time, the front runners were cycling round and round the duke of wellington arch at hyde park corner, so everyone reconvened and hundreds of bicycles once again rode together east along piccadilly, completely trapping a red diplomatic police car at one point, and on into piccadilly circus, trafalgar square (where a couple of cyclists jumped into the fountains to cool off), and down whitehall to parliament square. there, one rider briefly hitched a lift on the back of a lorry before we all headed up to buckingham palace, back to hyde park corner and then down to sloane square.
two hours in, and although numbers were beginning to lessen, when i left the ride there were still at least a hundred riders heading west down the king's road.
the next ride will be 28th october.
website: http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/main.html
BigOil Bosses: Guilty of Ecocide, says (Mock)Trial
04-10-2011 12:55
Dateline: Court #1, Supreme Court, Parliament Square, London, UK, 09:00-18:00, Fri 30 Sep 11 – In a high profile exploration of an alternate history, in the UK's highest court in the land, two high-flying oil corporation CEOs face trial on three counts of Ecocide – the environmental equivalent of genocide – centred around a months-long deep water oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and the on-going Canadian tar sands climate crime atrocity. Although the jury’s verdicts could have gone either way (and on one count of the indictment, one of the defendants was found not guilty), nevertheless both ecocriminals were laid low by two unanimous “Guilty of Ecocide” verdicts – encouraging the organisers to redouble their efforts to win recognition for Ecocide as a 5th Crime Against Peace with the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and national legislatures.
Vidz at YouTube
• Ecocide vs. Living Planet – A (Mock)Trial
» LINKs to follow shortly once editing and uploading is complete
What If... ?
Borrowing from the literary and dramatic genre of alternative history, this campaigning event is predicated upon the fictional acceptance by the United Nations in 2010 of a 5th Crime Against Peace, namely Ecocide (alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Crimes of Agression, and War Crimes); and its ratification in law as an international criminal offence by the UK government. In this alternate timeline, the first prosecution of Big Oil bosses under the UK’s new Ecocide Act 2010 occurs on Friday 30 September 2011, when (fictional) CEOs Mr. Bannerman of Global Petroleum Company and Mr. Tench of Glamis Group (played by actors Nicholas Deal and Robert Hider respectively) face three indictments between them. But true to the genre’s recent UK TV incarnations, the trial judge, the prosecuting and defending barristers (three-per-side), the expert witnesses, and most importantly the jury are all the genuine article, volunteering their time, attention and expertise for free. And the lead silk prosecuting the ecocriminals is no less than radical lawyer Michael Mansfield QC, whose prior record includes representing The Angry Brigade, the Orgreave miners, the Bloody Sunday families, and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, among many others too numerous to mention.
“There is a growing legal norm against the destruction of the environment, but a lack of formal mechanisms to enforce this. The mock trial is a vital step in building political momentum and legal mechanisms to protect the environment now and into the future.”
~ Alyn Ware, Councillor of the World Future Council
» from ‘A Law to Stop the Destruction of Nature’
Polly Put The Kettle On – Now The Pressure Is Rising
The imaginative progenitors of this excellent example of 'fake it till you make it' campaigning are Polly Higgins and Simon Hamilton.
Polly is a barrister (who has dedicated her life to one client – the Earth), and an international environmental lawyer/campaigner, who may be familiar to some from her previous initiatives Trees Have Rights Too, The Lazy Environmentalist blog and ‘Eradicating Ecocide’ (winner of the non-fiction ‘The People’s Book Prize’ for Spring 2011). In April 2010, in our actual real world timeline, Polly proposed to the UN that a law on Ecocide be classed as an international law alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Crimes of Aggression and War Crimes, as a 5th Crime Against Peace. Ecocide is defined in a nutshell as:
“The mass damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished.”
See also:
• Ecocide Is A Crime — Proposal to the United Nations to make Ecocide a crime
» video playlist, 29:36 – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6634274AAB95C3DD
Simon is founder of The Hamilton Group, a not-for-profit meshwork encouraging businesses, organisations and communities to bring responsibility for the Earth to the forefront of their decision-making. The Hamilton Group provided the organisational infrastructure to mount such a high profile campaigning event in Court #1 of the UK’s Supreme Court building, opened in 2009 in a refurbishment of Scottish architect James Gibson’s art nouveau gothic Middlesex Guildhall on the west side of Parliament Square. The Hamilton Group lined up multiple event sponsors through crowdfunding on teh intertubz, and recruited the legal professionals – a judge and six barristers – plus twelve jurors and three expert witnesses, all contributing to the event pro bono publico.
“The ideal of limitless growth is leading to limitless violations of the rights of the Earth and of the rights of nature. This is Ecocide. We need to stop the destruction of the very basis of life on Earth and of human survival. The Trial on Ecocide is a very important step in waking us up to the violence which is the foundation of the current economy. We need another model that is non-violent, a model which makes peace with the Earth. Ecocide must stop.”
~ Vandana Shiva, philosopher, environmental activist, and ecofeminist
» from ‘A Law to Stop the Destruction of Nature’
Let Battle Commence
As far as we know, this may well be the first time that an alternate history legal trial of global significance has been staged as a political campaigning action, with the express purpose of galvanising people in our timeline to ensure it converges with the alternate history revealed in the trial. Of course, in reality the prosecution of ecocriminal CEOs of Big Oil corporations – such as BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe, or Syncrude/ConocoPhillips/BP/Shell/RBS for the Canadian tar sands atrocity – would take months, with complex indictments and detailed testimony from scores of expert witnesses. But for dramatic impact and political concision, a one-day trial-in-miniature was designed to test the feasibility of a British jury convicting Big Oil bosses of crimes against our home world’s ecosystems.
Structured in accordance with UK Crown Court jury trial protocols, staffed by legal professionals, with a jury chosen to represent a typical UK demographic, and set in motion as an unscripted alt.history experiment, this could have backfired big time: the jury could have found the pair of Big Oil CEOs not guilty on all charges. The three-barrister team defending the oil-stained filthy ecocriminals...
• Christopher Parker QC, 3PB Chambers
• Adam Hiddleston, 3PB Chambers
• Noa Tu
...really did do their damnedest to get the scum off scot free, using the just the kind of despicable, weasel-worded, trickster-like, lawyer machinations that got me thoroughly despising the roles they were playing, while at the same time admiring their willingness to help advance the cause by advocating so astutely for the devils in the dock. And very persuasive they turned out to be: on Count #1 of the indictment (see picture C4 above), the jury found Bannerman to be not guilty, by a majority verdict of nine to three. Given that Bannerman an alt.history analogue of BP’s Tony “I'd Like My Life Back” Hayward, world-class pond scum of that ilk, I very much doubt that a real world jury in either the UK or the USA would be quite so lenient.
But when it came to the Canadian tar sands climate crime atrocity, it was the three-barrister prosecution team...
• Michael Mansfield QC, Tooks Chambers
• Steven Powles, Doughty Street Chambers
• Jane Russell, Tooks Chambers
...that secured a complete victory for people and planet: on Counts #2 and #3 of the indictment (see picture C4 above), Bannerman and Tench were found to be Guilty of Ecocide by the UNANIMOUS verdict of the jury. This came as great news to supporters of the UK Tar Sands Network (including myself), who are campaigning to expose the complicity of British banks like RBS and oil companies like BP and Shell in the biggest industrial climate crime on Earth – and one which is also having devastatingly catastrophic, local, detrimental environmental and health effects on the flora and fauna, and on our First Nations sisters and brothers, throughout the affected ecosystems of Alberta, Canada.
What is the Meaning of an Alt.History Victory?
No doubt this initiative will come in for criticism from both the left and the right. Pro-capitalist business-as-usual propagandists may well try to dismiss The Ecocide Trial as a fantasy cooked up by salaried environmentalists and champagne socialist lawyers for their own conscience-salving amusement, and point out that it has no effect whatsoever back in the real world. But it is precisely capitalist business-as-usual which is primarily responsible for the anthropogenic sixth great mass extinction event in the history of life on Earth – the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction, through which we are now living, and which our generation MUST take responsibility for ending as quickly as is humanly possible.
Anti-state direct action activists may well criticise The Ecocide Trial as petit-bourgeois nonsense, on the grounds that merely tinkering with the legalistic superstructure of capitalism is a pointless approach, since only by consigning the whole of capitalism to the dustbin of history can we hope to achieve a lasting, sustainable, and ecologically harmonious global human community. I posed this question in the press conference which followed the trial, and you can see and hear the answers given by Polly Higgins and Michael Mansfield in the accompanying video (once editing and uploading is complete), and read them below.
Law Reform or Revolution?
“I’m going to take a long geological view, and a devil’s advocate position. There have been five major mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth that were natural, the last one wiping out the dinosaurs, the flying reptiles and the marine reptiles. We are living through the sixth major mass extinction event in the history of life on Earth, and humanity’s impact on our biosphere is what’s causing it.
Will a simple change in law, merely tweaking the capitalist system, really stop that happening? Or is it going to take a much more major shift in humanity evolving into a better future?”
~ Tim Dalinian Jones
“This isn’t just about putting in a little bit of legislation, this is about changing the rules of the game. When we do that with legislation, what we do is we also shift consciousness and understanding, and that’s very important. We really do close the door to something, from being the norm, to becoming the exception, overnight. Now that’s not to say that damage and destruction will stop automatically, but it will actually vastly change the landscape, and the understanding, and what investment goes into the projects and the businesses that we need to see evolving in the opposite direction.
It is hugely, hugely important here that WE govern banks, investments, and finance. Finance and investment IS flowing into damaging structural activity – it IS actually acceptable to do that, because it ISN’T a crime. Make it a crime, and what you’ll find is that the insurance industry just won’t touch anything that’s criminal activity. But also what you do is you shift civilisation’s understanding of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. This is a law that really is a big game-changer right across the world, not just in a legal context, but also within people’s minds and attitudes as well.”
~ Polly Higgins
“I am a firm believer that you can make a difference, that you can change. There may be forces over which we have little or no control, but actually every incremental inch of our activity has an impact somewhere else. And therefore, as a trustee – we’re all trustees in a sense, of the planet, while we’re here – by the time we leave it, you want to be able to look back and say, “Well, I have played a part in maintaining the trust. If there are greater forces over which in the end I have little or no control, then at least I have played out my own responsibility.” Unless we all play out our responsibilities collectively, then the cataclysmic events that you’re talking about will undoubtedly be accelerated.
It is the desire of communities to ensure that exploitation, in all its forms, actually comes to an end. I know the Arab Spring is employed all the time, but actually that’s what that’s about: it’s about ending exploitation, ending oppression. It would be easy for them to say, “Oh, well, there’ll be another massacre here...” – no, no, they have taken their own future, some of them successfully, some not so successfully yet, but the struggle goes on. And that’s how I see this, as a struggle that goes on.”
~ Michael Mansfield
Many Paths to Utopia
“A Map of the World that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.”
~ Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891
There are many possible paths we can plan out for our future trajectories on Oscar’s Map of the World, all bound toward our collective goal of a sustainable, biodiverse and ecologically harmonious post-capitalist future for human civilisation and our biosphere. While many of us will justifiably stick to profoundly anti-capitalist routes, in the transition from decadent, decomposing and destructive capitalism to the form of civilisation which will transcend it, many major shifts in our civilisation’s understanding of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable needs must occur. One of those major shifts is necessarily adopting Ecocide as as grave an International Crime Against Peace as Genocide. It’s Polly’s path to ensure that humankind makes this shift as soon as possible – and if you are inspired by her infectious, enlightening and visionary enthusiasm to make Ecocide a world-round crime ASAP, you’ll be a welcome participant in helping to make our belovéd home planet a way safer place for non-human life forms on which to thrive.
Whatever Next?
I’d suggest we might like to find out more about Ecocide, and how we can help to make it the 5th International Crime Against Peace.
• Eradicating Ecocide — An Evocative Video Introduction, by Joe Hall
» video, 3:18 – http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=sY9VDotmQT4
• Ecocide Is A Crime — Proposal to the United Nations to make Ecocide a crime
» video playlist, 29:36 – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6634274AAB95C3DD
• Eradicating Ecocide — Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet
» website – http://www.thisisecocide.com
» book – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eradicating-Ecocide-Polly-Higgins/dp/0856832758/
“Product Description
In Eradicating Ecocide, international environment lawyer and activist Polly Higgins sets out to demonstrate in no uncertain terms how our planet is fast being destroyed by the activities of corporations and governments, facilitated by 'compromise' laws that offer insufficient deterrence. She offers a solution that is radical but, as she explains with great competence and experience, absolutely necessary. The recent Mexican Gulf oil spill is a compelling reminder of the consequences of un-checked ecocide. Higgins advocates the introduction of a new international law against Ecocide. It would become the 5th Crime Against Peace and would hold to account heads of corporate bodies that are found guilty of perpetrating ecocide.
The opportunity to implement this law represents a crossroads in the fate of humanity; we can accept this one change and in doing so save our ecosystem for future generations, or we can continue to destroy it, risking future brutal war over disappearing natural resources. This is the first book to explain that we all have a commanding voice and the power to call upon all our governments to change the existing rules of the game. Higgins presents examples of laws in other countries which have succeeded in curtailing the power of governments, corporations and banks and made a sudden and effective change, demonstrating that her proposal is not impossible. Eradicating Ecocide is a crash course on what laws work, what doesn't and what else is needed to prevent the imminent disaster of global collapse. Eradicating Ecocide provides a comprehensive overview of what needs to be done in order to prevent ecocide. It is a book providing a template of a body of laws for all governments to implement, which applies equally to smaller communities and anyone who is involved in decision-making.
About the Author
Polly Higgins is a barrister, international environmental lawyer and activist whose exhaustive research lays bare why peace is unachievable whilst we have laws that protect the rights of corporations to destroy the planet. Advocating a new crime of Ecocide: 'to cause damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems' she launched a campaign in April 2010, thisisecocide.com. The Ecologist Magazine voted her one of the "Worlds Top 10 Visionary Thinkers," and she has been nominated "The Lawyer for Planet Earth" by the 2010 Performance Awards.”
~ from ‘Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and Governance to Stop the Destruction of the Planet: Amazon.co.uk’
History In The Making? Let’s Hope So!
“Was Yesterday the first chirping sounds of the future – springing forth again? (After Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ – published 49 years ago – 27 Sept 1962!) Huge immeasurable thanks to you Polly and the team you unite for Earth victory.”
~ Dave Hampton, on ‘The Ecocide Trial’, Facebook, Sat 01 Oct 11
“Well said, Dave, and what an astute analogy – I bet when 'Silent Spring' was published back in 1962, Rachel had little to no conception of just how remarkable a positive contribution she was making to human history, in igniting the struggle for environmental justice. Here's hoping that 'The Ecocide Trial' will be held in equal or greater esteem by those alive in 2060, as the turning point where the environmental justice movement grew strong lupine teeth, all the better to chew up and devour filthy ecocriminals, while rewarding ecological restitution and ecosphere harmonising initiatives. So here's a toast to the night, three cheers and a grunt, Hey! Hey! Hey! Oink! – for Rachel and Polly! (borrowed from David Rovics, 'Song For The ELF' – http://bit.ly/Song4ELF)”
~ Tim Dalinian Jones, on ‘The Ecocide Trial’, Facebook, Sun 02 Oct 11
Up the Revolution,
Tim Dalinian Jones
Footnotes
All these photos and video clips are 'CopyLeft'
This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos and videos you find here, under the following license:
• Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
» Human-readable summary – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
» Attribution: tim.dalinian.jones@gmail.com
NB: The pix above are auto-downsized versions for onscreen webpage display. If you would like the free, edited, full-sized versions (up to 3072x2304px, 7.1Mpx, typically 1-2 MB) just click on an image: bingo! You can also right-click on an image and choose ‘Open Link in New Tab’ (or similar) to open a full-sized version alongside the report webpage. If you'd like to take a copy of the full-sized image version, right-click on it and choose ‘Save Image As...’ (or similar). Share and Enjoy!
antinuke banner drop - rotherham
04-10-2011 11:10
All nine antifascists acquitted after second trial
03-10-2011 22:55
Great news for antifascism in the UK - a long running attempt to fit up antifascist activists is over, with all defendants in a second trial being acquitted. In March 2009, antifascists protesting a neo-Nazi gig in Welling encountered some Blood & Honour fascists. Acting in self-defence they put one Nazi on his arse. The state used this as an excuse to crack down on antifascist activism and arrested 23 people in connection with the events, kicking in doors around the country. Without enough evidence to prosecute for common assault the trumped up charge of 'conspiracy to commit violent disorder' was brought against the defendants.
In the first trial, 7 antifascists were found guilty and 6 were sentenced to between 15 and 21 months prison. There have been many solidarity events in support of the prisoners around the country including several in Nottingham. The prisoners deserve our support so please send them a letter, donate to the campaign and do what you can to raise the profile of their struggle.
However, all of the other defendants have now either had their charges dropped or been acquitted. As Leeds ABC wrote "We hope that Indymedia readers will join us in raising a glass – to our comrades who triumphed over this judicial fit-up, to the antifascists down the ages who have been prepared to go out onto the streets to confront fascism, and to our six comrades who were fitted-up earlier this year and who deserve our fullest possible support."
Tory Conference Protest in Manchester
03-10-2011 20:55
Unions organised a rally of 35,000 protesters against government budget cuts on Sunday in Manchester.
Unions organised a rally of 35,000 protesters against government budget cuts on Sunday in Manchester where the Conservative Party opened its annual conference.
The TUC billed the protest as a rally for "the alternative -- jobs, growth, justice".
"The TUC is organised a protest to show opposition to the coalition government's disastrous policies of pay freezes, cuts and attacks on public services that are producing rising unemployment, cuts in living standards and stagnation," it said.
Police estimated the crowd at the rally at 35,000, including mainstream public sector workers and left-wing activists, carrying placards saying: "Unite and fight".
Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, told the crowd that the whole country would unite in a mass strike called by several trade unions for November 30.
"If you never fight you lose every time," he said. "Now's the time to fight, now's the time to defeat the government."
Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, added: "The reality is civil disobedience is the oldest form of democracy and we should applaud it."
Police said the march had been peaceful with no arrests, although around 150 Occupy Manchester demonstrators staged an Occupation in front of the town hall at Albert Square.
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All Nine Antifascists Acquitted In Second Welling Trial!
03-10-2011 16:10
Nine anti-fascists not guilty!
03-10-2011 15:28
At 4.15 p.m today all nine defendants in the Welling Blood&Honour case were found not guilty of conspiracy to violent disorder.
