Events Calendar
November 24th - 28th: Week of Events on Palestine
28th & 30th Nov and 1st Dec: Birmingham Showings of Hungerstrike Film
Birmingham School rejects ARK as Academy sponsor
The Governing Body and the Head Teacher at Harborne Hill School, Birmingham, have rejected Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), the controversial sponsors of the proposed Harborne Academy, from taking over their school.
The Governing Body unanimously voted to stop ARK after it emerged that they were intent on destroying vital educational ties with local partnerships and organisations built up by the school over years. They were also shocked to find out that, despite Birmingham City Council saying that staff terms and conditions were ‘sacrosanct’, ARK refused to give any meaningful guarantees to their prospective employees. This means that ARK can refuse to acknowledge unions or any national agreements on pay and conditions. Their short track history so far has shown their contempt for their employees.
Newswire Reports: Harborne Hill School rejects ARK as Academy sponsor – so should St Alban’s! | Oppose Orimiston Academy!
Related News: Occupation of ARK by Wembley teachers in pictures | Furious parents occupy the lobby of venture capitalist firm | Video: Smash School Privatisation: The Wembley Tent City Eviction
Previous Feature: Teachers Occupation Defends Wembley Sports Ground From Privatisation
Solidarity For Political Prisoner Sean Kirtley
On Saturday 6th September two hundred activists made it to Ledbury, Herefordshire, for the Carnival Against Vivisection in solidarity with political prisoner Sean Kirtley. The day of action was called by various groups in resistance to the imprisoning of peaceful campaigners under SOCPA legislation, and as a stand for the animals suffering inside vivisection laboratories.
Protesters met on the grass verge, where the police held them allowing a maximum of 15 at a time to demonstrate outside Sequani labs. Shortly after campaigners made a spontaneous break for the labs, with police responding by blocking the bridge to push back the crowd, creating minor scuffles. Multiple attempts were also made to access the labs using various pre-planned routes, meeting police each time, some of which had dogs. Protesters then regrouped at the grass verge to march the original route around town.
Newswire: Sequani demo | Carnival Against Vivisection - Arrest Witnesses Appeal | Carnival Against Vivisection - some thoughts | Carnival Against Vivisection - Latest
Previous features: Carnival Against Vivisection | Sequani Besieged by Surprise Action
Related links: Free Sean Kirtley | Stop Sequani Animal Testing | Antispeciesist Action | Animal Liberation Front | Bite Back | NETCU Watch | FIT watch | Western Animal Rights Network | Indymedia UK Stop Sequani topic page
Full Story | 3 additions | 11 comments >>
Carnival Against Vivisection
In solidarity with Sean Kirtley, who was imprisoned by the state for supposedly organising legal demonstrations against Sequani's vivisection laboratories, activists will be making a stand for the animals with a march and rally against Sequani labs on September 6th in Ledbury, Herefordshire.
Since campaigning against vivisection labs has been criminalised under Section 145 of the SOCPA legislation, such as operating a website critical of a company like Sean did, the event has been organised without organisers and is not an authorised event.
Hereford Police have already shown concern for the day of action by contacting NETCU Watch and are appealing for organisers to identify themselves, in the hope of finding somebody responsible. Despite this, the call for mass action has been promoted by various groups including Antispe Britain, West Midlands ALF, Stop Sequani Animal Testing, SHAC, and the Western Animal Rights Network.
Details: About | March, Maps + Important Police Information | Routes | Programme/Newsletter | Antispeciesist Action Press Release | Poster Translations | Hereford Police | Police want the organisers | Transport | Other Targets in Herefordshire! | SEQUANI Site plan with building information | Promo video | Webpage for the Carnival
Sequani newswire: Sean Kirtley Moved Prison | The tormented and the witness: Inside Sequani Limited EXCLUSIVE REPORT! | ALF Support The Carnival | why come to the carnival | GSK and Mars vending machines sabotaged | Sean Kirtley's Appeal Launched | Independent: Judge who sentenced animal rights activist was fan of blood sports | AR Protesters Illegal Arrest at Arromight Hereford [Videos: 1 | 2] | Activist arrested for writing in the ground | ALF Chickin' Nickin' For Sean | Sequani Trial Talk | Law-lord ruling to free Sean Kirtley? NETCU on the run | Felix Says "Free Sean Kirtley" | Solidarity actions for Sean Kirtley | Serious Implications for Freedom of Speech as Activist Jailed for 4.5 years | NETCU and Judge Ross crucify civil liberties | Response to state crackdown on peaceful protest | Support Freedom of Speech - Support Sean!
Related links: Free Sean Kirtley | Stop Sequani Animal Testing | Antispeciesist Action | Animal Liberation Front | Bite Back | NETCU Watch | Western Animal Rights Network
Indymedia UK topic pages: Stop Sequani Animal Testing | SHAC
Full Story | 1 addition | 29 comments >>
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"
