World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

A new dream, an ethical globalization, is required following the massive earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand (amazingly no loss of life but enormous property damage). An ethical globalization emphasizes the human rights of the worse off domestically and internationally (and helps them to help themselves), rather than the present 'failing' political neo liberal dream.

Took place Saturday 4th September outside the French Embassy in London

The Irish Traveller Movement in Britain (ITMB) and various UK refugee/migrant support groups demonstrated in solidarity with the Roma communities who are being forcefully evicted and deported in France. ITMB deplores President Sarkozy's policies which have resulted in families with children as young as 2 weeks old being evicted with less than 30 minutes notice.

Irish Travellers Group (who organized the demo) and English Gypsies are acutely aware of the racist anti Roma policies that are spreading across Europe. In recent days Roma communities in Italy have been made homeless when bulldozers razed the camps they lived on to the ground. In Hungry the far right Jobbick party have called for Roma communities to be detained in special guarded camps for indefinite periods of time.

ITMB would like to remind the British Government and public that the largest eviction of a Gypsy Roma Traveller community in Europe is presently taking place in Dale Farm, Essex. Like the Roma in Europe, Irish Travellers and English Gypsies in Britain face direct racism and discrimination on a daily basis.

GRT - Gypsy, Roma and Irish Travellers are the largest Minority group in Europe.

Gypsy's gained Ethnic Minority status in 1989 and Irish Travellers in 2000 and are since protected under the 'Race Relations Act 1976'. 9 out of 10 children from the GRT community have experienced racial abuse and nearly a third have been bullied or physically attacked.

For further information please call Irish Traveller Movement in Britain on 020 7607 2002 or email  info@irishtraveller.org.uk

Subversively move Tony Blair's memoirs to the crime section in book shops.

At 11 this morning, August 31st, outside the City Court of Copenhagen, climate activists Tash and Noah were acquitted of all charges!

What my first trip to Iran in 2007 taught me is this: From the school children to the police officers to the college students to laborers to the Revolutionary Guard, no one in Iran obviously has been taught to hate Americans and no one was preparing the Iranian people to go to war with Americans. If the government is teaching children to hate Americans, some of that would pick up; but it wasn't like that at all. I got mobbed in Shiraz by 80 elementary school children -- surrounding me so I couldn't move, yelling, "We love you; we love America, Welcome." Just because they found that we were American.

Saturday 4th September 2010
Congregate 1:00pm outside French Embassy
58 Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 7JT
(Nearest Tube Knightsbridge)

This demo is part of a European wide protest organized by European Network Against Racism
 http://www.enar-eu.org/Page_Generale.asp?DocID=25135&langue=EN

“Recognizing the high correlation between those who know about the collapse of WTC 7 and those who believe that a new – or rather real – 9/11 investigation is needed, I propose that the international 9/11 Truth Movement initiate, starting this September, a world-wide, year-long ‘BuildingWhat?’ campaign. Through this campaign, we would seek to make the fact of its collapse so widely known that the mention of Building 7 would never again evoke the question: ‘Building What?’ ” –David Ray Griffin

Overall there were only 4 incidents of serious self-harm, more than the previous quarter and only an increase of 1, on persons on formal self-harm at risk.

However there are very alarming increases at some of the individual Removal Centres.

Dover IRC showed a 125% increase on incidents of Self-Harm requiring medical treatment

Harmondsworth 54% , Oakington 46.5 %, Yarl's Wood  31% increase on previous quarter of persons on formal self-harm at risk.

There was one death, cause as yet unknown: Eliud Nguli Nyenze born 1970 - died Oakington IRC 15th April 2010
 http://tinyurl.com/23gmgrx

[Self-Harm in Immigration detention - January/February/March 2010
 http://www.freemovement.org.uk/Resources/self-harm2010.html

Data for 2009 can be accessed here:
 http://www.freemovement.org.uk/Resources/self-harm2009.html

[DR Congo is a failed state, the 5th most dangerous country in the world to live in. DR Congo cannot protect its' citizens from itself, it's police/army or other agents. Cannot provide for its' citizens, adequate food/shelter/healthcare, rape of women and children is epidemic.]

"The fact that the 9/11 attacks were not instigated by Muslims has rarely been acknowledged by the Muslim community. Al Qaeda's ongoing relationship to the CIA, its role as a US sponsored "intelligence asset" going back to to the Soviet-Afghan war is not mentioned. (Michel Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism" Global Research, Montreal, 2005)
Since the early 1980s, Washington has covertly supported the most conservative and fundamentalist factions of Islam, largely with a view to weakening secular, nationalist and progressive movements in the Middle East and Central Asia. Known and documented, the fundamentalist Wahhabi and Salafi missions from Saudi Arabia, dispatched not only to Afghanistan but also to the Balkans and to the Muslim republics of the former Soviet republics were covertly supported by US intelligence. (Ibid) What is often referred to as "Political Islam" is in large part a creation of the US intelligence apparatus (with the support of Britain's MI6 and Israel's Mossad)."

A new report released by a think tank called Demos warns of the hazardous effects of conspiracy theories on society and recommends strategies for governments to mitigate these effects, including the infiltration of websites.

The report, called The Power of Unreason: Conspiracy Theories, Extremism and Counterterrorism, says "most notoriously and influentially, the ‘9/11 truth movement’ has questioned the official accounts of 9/11 and has become a large and growing political force."

The report notes that the 9/11 truth movement is "peaceful", but makes no distinction between the legitimate questioning of the official account of 9/11 and any number of unrelated, and often racist, conspiracy theories.

A week of actions surrounding BEAT THE BOREHOLES campaign in Co. Mayo Ireland.

More citizen-led democracy (the original rule-by-the-people) could become an important tool-kit for positive social and environmental change.

The racists and Islamophobes of the interconnected groups the English Nationalist Alliance, March for England and English Defence League will be holding a hate rally in Brighton over the bank holiday. They have claimed that they are "marching against Palestinian militants of Brighton" and their supporters, "extreme socialist students and anarchists". They will be meeting at 12.30 noon 30th August.

"Iraq and Afghanistan are U.S. imperial wars. Imperialism means simply invading other people’s homelands and killing them in order to secure something that our rulers want. This is how they are “removed,” or otherwise encouraged to get the hell out of the way. This is the “mission” of the troops. Forget “Democracy,” liberation, “nation building,” bravery, heroes, anything you hear from the talking head “experts” you may have heard on some NPR talk show, or any other pretty words on the subject."

August 23, New York, NY – In a major victory for the international movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, the Norwegian government announced today that it has divested from Lev Leviev’s company Africa Israel Investments and its construction subsidiary Danya Cebus due to their construction of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The move followed a campaign of more than a year by affected Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Jayyous and by Norwegian, Palestinian, Israeli, and international activist groups, including Adalah-NY, calling on the Norwegian government to divest from Africa Israel.

The companies of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev have been the target of a boycott campaign that led UNICEF and Oxfam to renounce donations from Leviev, the British government to sever business ties with Leviev, celebrities to seek distance from him, and divestment by other major investment firms.

President Obama said; “Failure is not an option”. I agree, failure is not an option, failure is a given.

As most 'activists' in the squatting community will confirm, the legal wrangling of bailiffs turning up and people being evicted from a site usually run along the same lines...The bailiffs turn up, with some lock smith looking (usually) blokes with tools and then get in any available entrance to get people out...Anarchist Zones are not so easy to get rid of though, as the following article on the current resistance at JB SPRAY SQUAT will show...(apologies for the shoddy google translations, but hey, im trying to show solidarity, not perfect language skills)

Mother and Children required to deport themselves

Mildred Okpara and her two young children and baby are still in their Sheffield accommodation. They have received a letter from UKBA to report to Heathrow airport on Thursday the 2nd September.

Kirklees Refugee Forum are supporting a campaign to keep the family in Sheffield and would like your presence (if possible) in Sheffield this Friday.

Join the protest outside the Home Office UK Border Agency

Keep the Okpara family safe in Sheffield!

Come and join us on the demonstration and bring as many people as possible. Please bring placards and banners

UK Border Agency
Vulcan House
Riverside entrance
6 Millsands
Sheffield
S3 8NU

Friday 27th August     12:30 to 1:30

For more information or if you want to help with the campaign contact:
Stop the Deportation of the Okpara
Family c/o Sheena 07792605138
or email     memesheena@blueyonder.co.uk

Kirklees Refugee Forum
 http://www.kirkleesrefugeeforum.org.uk/

This past Saturday the 14th of August, in the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, a coordinated action of police special task forces violently raided 3 squatted social centers and many private homes in 5 communes. The police intimidated people with weapons of war, broke windows and doors, and took many personal items with them from all of the houses.
14 people were detained without being informed of the reason for their detention for 3 hours.