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Palestine Action Crash Europe’s Largest Business Event On Drones

September 27, 2023 Palestine Action. , , , , ,
Today, Palestine Action crashed the DroneX Trade Show & Conference at ExCel London, advertised as ‘Europe’s Largest Business Event Dedicated to the UAV industry’. During a keynote speech by Dave Drewitt (Head of Sales and Business Development at Thales’ ‘Flight Avionics’) on ‘Sharing Skies – Enabling Safe & Secure Drone Operations’, activists took to the stage to highlight the hypocrisy of the talk and raise the Palestinian flag. Exposing Thales’ role in facilitating crimes against the Palestinian people through their manufacture of Israeli drones, activists made clear that no apartheid-supplying business has the right to lecture on safe & secure drone operations.

Prosecution Of Trudi Warner For Holding Sign Sparks Public Resistance

September 25, 2023 Just Stop Oil. , , , , ,
If Michael Tomlinson KC, the Solicitor General, hoped that prosecuting Trudi Warner, a 68 year old retired social worker from Walthamstow, East London would deter others from doing the same thing, it’s not going to plan for him. On Monday, 25 September, a matter of days after the announcement of his decision to apply for the committal to prison of Ms Warner, for holding up a sign, more than 250 members of the public are replicating her action outside criminal courts around the country (including in London, Bristol and Manchester) as part of the growing public campaign, Defend Our Juries. Meanwhile many others, including the Climate Psychology Alliance and a Professor of Law have spoken out.

Students Occupy Brighton University Campus In Solidarity With Staff

September 24, 2023 Kathryn Zacharek, The Canary. , , ,
Throughout the summer, Canary has documented this ongoing crisis within universities and higher education. Now, as the new academic year gets underway, it appears that the recurring theme of chaos within British universities at the hands of incompetent senior management teams (SMT) will continue. The abhorrent treatment of staff and students at my home institution, Brighton University (UOB), is a prime example of this. In fact, students have started an occupation due to the situation. Across higher education, the University and College Union (UCU) has been fighting back against management imposing pay cuts, as well as the dire working conditions its members have to tolerate.

A Very British Arms Fair

September 14, 2023 Anna Stavrianakis, Consortium News. , , ,
This week, 35,000 arms company representatives, military officers and state officials from around the world are congregating at the Excel Centre in Newham, East London. Over four days, [Sept. 12-15] guests at Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) can watch demonstrations of new weapons systems, listen to keynote speakers euphemise the global appetite for war-making, visit warships moored on the Thames, and make connections with buyers and sellers via a dedicated networking app. For the more sportingly inclined, there is the tri-force tug of war to show off the brawn and teamwork of the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

Opposition To Arms Fair Intensifies, Israeli Arms Companies Make A Killing

September 11, 2023 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , , ,
The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair is taking place at the ExCeL centre in London. Meanwhile, activists and campaigners have already been robustly protesting it – causing some major disruption along the way. However, one group has revealed the extent of the Israeli state’s death and destruction that’s being represented at DSEI. It includes over 40 arms companies from the country selling their weapons there. There was also a Faith Day on Thursday 7 September. This was where people from all denominations (or those with none) held vigils, but also blocked deliveries to DSEI.

Cops Are Already Arresting Activists At The DSEI Arms Fair

September 9, 2023 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , , ,
As Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) sets up at the ExCeL centre in London, activists have begun resisting it. Not far behind them are the cops – with nine arrests already, even before this notorious arms fair begins properly. As DSEI began to set up on Tuesday 5 September, activists started resisting it. For example, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) held a “vigil”. It was over arms manufacturers and governments selling weapons to the apartheid state of Israel – which it then uses to kill Palestinians.

Activists Storm Office Of Sole Recruiters For Elbit Systems UK

September 5, 2023 Palestine Action. , , , ,
Activists stormed iO Associates’ new offices in Manchester City Centre, to demand the company stop recruiting for Elbit Systems UK. The group carried flags and a banner, which read ‘IO Associates recruiting for Elbit Murderers’. This action happened the day after iO Associates announced their expansion of ‘defence recruitment’ into Manchester [1]. During the action, the iO Associates director, Ross Markall [2], assaulted several members of the group, including a 14 year old daughter of a journalist and smashed her phone [3]. iO Associates have offices in Bristol, Reading, Newcastle, London and now Manchester.

Judge Acquits Two Palestine Action Activists After They Shut Elbit Down

August 31, 2023 Palestine Action. , , ,
On Wednesday 30th August, District Judge Grego found two activists not guilty of ‘obstruction of the highway’. The two activists, Jasmine and Iola, had locked themselves into vehicles, each blocking the two entrances of UAV Engines Ltd. Their action took place during an ongoing camp at the site, and led to the factory being forced to close down for the day on 9th September 2022. Whilst locked in, one activist threw paint at the gates which resembled the colours of the Palestinian flag. Three months after the action, the two were given notices of ‘no further action’, meaning no criminal charges would be brought against them.

Underground Activists Target Office Suppliers For Israeli Weapons Factory

August 28, 2023 Palestine Action. , , , ,
Activists from Palestine Action Underground targeted Digital Office Group in Leicester, suppliers of office equipment for the city’s Israeli weapons factory, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS). The anonymous contingent broke windows and air conditioning units, whilst spraying red paint to symbolise the blood shed of the Palestinian people by Israeli weapons. This action took place during the fourth month of the ongoing siege outside U-TacS. Over the past few months, Digital Office Group was spotted several times supplying equipment to U-TacS. As part of the campaign to shut down the Leicester weapons factory, activists are targeting all companies who facilitate U-TacS production of Israeli weaponry.

A Village Of Hope In The City – Latin Village

August 27, 2023 AX, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
An urban area, or a borough, can be perceived as an organism and the communities that constitute it can be considered its active living cells. Depending on their passive or dynamic stances, communities can act as catalysts to the quality and direction of urban development in the area. A very good example lies in Tottenham, which aside from its globally known football / soccer team the Tottenham Hotspur, is also known for the Latin Village. In the borough of Haringey in north London, about half of Tottenham’s 130,000 people are white, and half of those are immigrants from Eastern Europe. A big Latin American community mostly of Colombian ancestry thrives among the very diverse other half.

United Kingdom: New NHS Strikes May Be In The Cards

August 20, 2023 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , ,
Following on from junior doctors and consultants, a third group of NHS professionals is now floating the idea of strike action. The union involved is once again the British Medical Association (BMA), and the doctors are known as SAS ones, who work mostly in hospitals. While the profession may be slightly different, the reasons for the potential industrial action are the same: pay and working conditions. You might not have heard of them, and their role is quite opaque – but as HEE noted, there are a lot of SASs. The difference with the role is that the person has chosen not to take a career-led pathway. That is, they stop ongoing post-graduate training to become a consultant or GP.

Charge Us With Contempt Too, Say 40 People, If Climate Activist Prosecuted

August 17, 2023 Sandra Laville, The Guardian. , , ,
Forty people, including an Olympic gold medallist and a former police officer, are calling on the solicitor general to charge them with contempt of court if he prosecutes a social worker for holding up a placard outside a climate trial. The solicitor general is weighing up whether to charge Trudi Warner, 68, with contempt of court for a protest outside a crown court that was hearing a trial relating to direct action by climate protesters. She held up a placard stating: “Jurors: you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.” Warner made the protest in March after a judge restricted defendants in a string of trials from mentioning the climate crisis, insulation or any motivation for their direct action.

Time To Start A Conversation About How We Tax Wealth

August 11, 2023 Peter Lazenby, Morning Star Online. , , ,
United Kingdom - The TUC has condemned a “tale of two Britains” which sees working people suffering “the longest pay squeeze in modern history” while bankers’ bonuses are at eye-watering levels and chief executive pay is surging. The damning criticism came as the TUC launched a blueprint to squeeze Britain’s multimillionaires for a “modest” proportion of their wealth and end the country’s “increasing wealth inequality.” The blueprint would raise £10 billion for the public purse and should be the “start of a national conversation about taxing wealth,” said TUC general secretary Paul Nowak. It would affect only 140,000 individuals — 0.3 per cent of Britain’s population.

New Laws Won’t Deter Protest Of One Of The World’s Largest Arms Fairs

August 9, 2023 Emily Apple, The Canary. , , , ,
Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), one of the world’s largest arms fairs, returns to the ExCeL Centre in East London this September. Since it started in 1999 DSEI has always seen repressive policing, with the Met Police showing clearly that their duty is to protect arms dealers, not facilitate protest. DSEI is personal to me. I’ve protested against this horrific fair since 1999. Over the years I’ve been arrested, harassed, and assaulted. I’ve organised and taken part in actions with people who later turned out to be undercover cops and corporate spies.

Sink The Floating Migrant Prisons, Let Them All In

August 7, 2023 Nathan Erderof, Left Voice. , , ,
A large “barge” (read: prison) for asylum seekers has recently arrived in the port of Portland, on the south coast of England in Dorset. The floating facility is called “Bibby Stockholm” and, beginning this summer, will “accommodate” around 500 male migrants between the ages of 18 to 65 for approximately 18 months. The aim is to keep these migrants offshore (preventing them from setting foot on English soil) while they wait for their cases to be processed. To counter immigration, the European Union and its Western allies — from Calais to the Greek islands, all the way to the Mexican border — have already transformed arbitrary territorial boundaries into walls of barbed wire and watchtowers, fashioning entire islands into migrant prisons.
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