28 October, 2011
piece on the annual procession against deaths in police custody
For the Guardian.
28 October, 2011
update on protesters cases
Simon Behrman thankfully got his charges dropped from the David Willetts protest last June (see here for details).
Charlie Gilmour was not so fortunate, toady losing his appeal. The judgement is here - it’s worth reading. The part quote below has implications for anyone arrested in a public order context. The Gilmour appeal also has implications for those awaiting sentencing (many of whom - including Bryan Simpson and Omar Ibrahim, the latter of whom is currently in custody - will be sentenced on the 4th Nov), as these cases are explicitly linked to the Gilmour appeal. The fact that he lost has serious consequences for the rest of the students and protesters awaiting trial and sentencing:
‘It is an unavoidable feature of mass disorder that each individual act, whatever might be its character taken on its own, inflames and encourages others to behave similarly, and that the harm done to the public stems from the combined effect of what is done en masse. That is one of the principles which underlies the recent judgment of the Lord Chief Justice in R v Blackshaw & others [2011] EWCA Crim 2312, given in the context of what were much more serious riots all over the country in August of this year.’
The ontology of crowds that underpins public order sentencing in the UK is not backed up by research on crowd behaviour and seems to be stuck in centuries-old fantasies about what a ‘mob’ is and does. In an atomised world in which neo-liberal individualism is supposed to characterise every decision and relation, any form of collective response - the ‘support, comfort and encouragement’ identified by the Judge in the riots appeal ruling - is apparently the most traumatic thing the authorities can imagine. Even if you legally can’t punish a ‘mob’ qua ‘mob’ (although the CPS appeared to forget this when they unsuccessfully attempted to prosecute all 145 UKUncut arrestees from Fortnum & Mason’s as a block, forgetting that you can only prosecute persons and not groups), you can punish individuals on behalf of the vaguest notions of collectivity, for the emanations of the day, the ‘inflammatory context’ the ‘serious mob disorder’ as Gilmour’s appeal judge puts it. This is a battle over who gets to define the context and the interpretation of the day: the police, the CPS and the government cannot get to win this war.
Credit to Charlie though: ‘his own words to the street interviewer invoked the memory of the 1968 riots, and indeed of the French Revolution; his words spoke of his mood.’ Not just his, CPS fuckers!
28 October, 2011
tent city university call out for hm vistors and others
The Tent City University forms part of Occupy London and is ever on the look out for people to contribute their time and knowledge. If you’d like to get involved while you’re in town for the Historical Materialism conference or want to get involved, please contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
27 October, 2011
materialities of culture
This is an interesting site, set up by Sas Mays.
This is what they’re currently up to:
October 24th – November 4th 2011
Materialities of Text: Between the Codex and the Net
An Online Conference Co-organised by Sas Mays (University of Westminster) and Nick Thoburn (University of Manchester)
Remit:
The book, in its traditional codex form, appears in transition from print media to digital media; a condition nevertheless complicated by its forms of survival, as indicated by the term ‘webpage’. Despite the epochal significance of the scroll, the codex, and the digital text, such material figures of inscription are necessarily hybrid; a hybridity that especially characterises the current historico-technical relation between print and digital media. Hybridity, of course, has been championed, for example, in postcolonial studies, as a figure of subversion, but it is also clear that hybrid text, as much as it is an object of possible democratisation within the digital public sphere, is also an object of intense capitalisation. Thus, the apparent waning of the hegemony of print is drawing questions of the politics of textual materialism into critical perception, and the need to interrogate the specificity of these materials, in their complex relations to the sensual form of paper and the ‘dispersed’ textuality of the digital medium.
What, then, are the new materialities of hybrid text-media? What are the politics of digital/print hybrids, artists’ books, writing technologies, and digital publishing? How does media hybridity transform the political book, the artists’ book, or the work of literature? What effects do new materialities of text have on patterns of reading? Has media process replaced the media object? What are the sensory forms of new media materialities? How is the commodity-form of the book altered by new media platforms? What are the conditions and forms of specific media hybridities? What does new media do to the ‘perversions’ of the book – to bibliomania, to fetishism? Are we still ‘people of the book’ – what remains of the authority of the book? How has independent publishing responded to new materialities of text? What might figures of the book offer in the way of new or counter-knowledges, forms of community and communication?
Platform / Participants:
In keeping with its theme, the project will centre on an online conference, held on this website, which will allow the uploading of short texts and images, and user-generated commentary and debate. The organisers invite responses to texts and related questions from thinkers in all disciplines: literary-cultural studies, art-practice, critical theory and philosophy, book and publishing history and practice, etc.
Included texts: Janneke Adema & Gary Hall (Coventry University): ‘(Im)materialities of Text: The Book as a Form of Political & Conceptual Resistance in Art and Academia’; Richard Burt (University of Florida): ‘Shelf-Life’; Johanna Drucker (UCLA): ‘Diagrammatic Writing’; Davin Heckman (Siena Heights University): ‘The Politics of Plasticity: Neoliberalism, Deliberation & the Digital Text’; Sas Mays (University of Westminster) ‘Mnemopolitics: Philosophy & the Archive in the Digital Public Sphere’; Daniel Selcer (Duquesne University): ‘Invisible Ink: Atomizing Textual Materialism’; Nick Thoburn (University of Manchester): ‘Materialities of Political Publishing: A Conversation with AAAAARG, Chto Delat, I Cite, Mute, & Neural’.
27 October, 2011
meeting tonight for nov 9th
Calling all students and etceteras
Meeting TONIGHT at 7pm to discuss possible aproaches to the student
demonstration called for the anniversary of Millbank.
Info sharing / Networking / Planning
Tactics? Convergence? Targets? Politics?
If we want this demo to be anything let’s get things in motion
At the salon 26 Toynbee St, E1 (near Brick Lane, closest tube Algate
East) http://www.thehaircutbeforetheparty.net
25 October, 2011
stir: forthcoming event, 16 nov
The Assault on Universities:
What We Can Do About It
Free Public Event and Discussion
Alberto Toscano
Clare Solomon
Peter Hallward
16 November 2011
8pm
Kingston University
Penrhyn Road Campus
(John Galsworthy Building Room 0003)
For more details see here.
25 October, 2011
visions of the trial podcast
A recording of the ‘Visions of the Trial: Courts and Visual Culture’ event on 21 October 2011 is now available to listen to as a podcast here.
Speakers:
Leif Dahlberg (BIH Visiting Fellow/Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Stockholm)
The uses and effects of video technology on social interaction and legal space in the Swedish Court of Appeal
Leslie J Moran (Birkbeck)
Watching the judiciary
Barbara Villez (Professor of Legal Languages and Cultures, University Vincennes-St Denis/Paris 8
Telephone camera technology and courtroom images
25 October, 2011
next crmep seminar, nov 3
Please join us for the next CRMEP research seminar on Thursday, 3 November from 6 - 8 pm:
“An Immemorial Remainder: The Legacy of Derrida”
Rodolphe Gasché (Comparative Literature, SUNY, Buffalo)
Venue: Art Workers Guild Lecture Hall, 6, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
This seminar will be followed by a reception.
Rodolphe Gasché is Distinguished Professor and Eugenio Donato Chair of Comparative Literature at SUNY Buffalo. His two most recent publications are: The Stelliferous Fold: Toward a Virtual Law of Literature’s Self-Formation (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011) and Europe, Or The Infinite Task (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008).
24 October, 2011
this saturday
24 October, 2011
the right to philosophy, screening 29th oct
A Documentary by Yuji Nishiyama
The Right to Philosophy
Traces of the International College of Philosophy
What are we allowed to believe about the Right to Philosophy, about the Future of the Humanities?
Saturday 29 October 11:00―14:00
Film Screening: “The Right to Philosophy”
The Cinema, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London
Followed by a panel discussion with the director Yuji Nishiyama (Tokyo Metropolitan University）
This is the first documentary film on the International College of Philosophy (Collège international de Philosophie: CIPH), founded by, among others, Jacques Derrida and François Châtelet in 1983 in Paris.
Through interviews with the key figures in the CIPH, the film explores the “question of the institution”, the relationship between philosophy and institutions—a topic that was central for deconstruction as elaborated and practiced by Derrida. The aim of this film is to consider the possibilities of the humanities in general and philosophy in particular under the current conditions of global capitalism.
Among its many provocations, the film contrasts the notion of “intersection” established by the Collège with that of the inter-disciplinarity of Cultural Studies or Comparative Studies departments in the Anglo-Saxon academic landscape. Enlightening and provocative, this film is essential viewing for those engaged in the humanities.
“A wonderful cinematic documentary open to many contexts, an exceptional film about the topic of philosophy that demands a viewing from multiple angles.”―Naoki Sakai
This screening is organized as part of the international symposium ‘Humanities After Fukushima’, which is inspired by the film and tries to address issues surrounding humanities education and research in the age of crisis.
For more details please visit our event registration site.
See the trailer here.
18 October, 2011
#occupylsx, oct 18
Visited the encampment at St Paul’s for a few hours today: the atmosphere was extremely pleasant, low-key and there seemed to be a lot of activity (not least ensuring that the tents didn’t blow away in strong winds - to this end, they were tethered together and people were fetching bricks to weigh them down). The cold and noise is an obvious problem of the location/season and I have nothing but respect for those who are staying outside: there are really quite a lot of tents there now, and more expected. Space around St Paul’s is in short supply: it would take serious organisation to make it to privately-owned Paternoster Square as originally planned, and it’s obvious the police are hardly going to let this happen, even if the takeover was headed-up by a gun-wielding The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser (a former lecturer in Philosophy, note), Chancellor of St Paul’s who has offered sanctuary to the protesters and told the police to bugger off, or at least exiled them to the edges of the camp. I am still hoping Rowan Williams can be persuaded to address everyone, although, unlike their NY counterpart, the London campers don’t yet seem overly bothered with inviting luminaries to address the crowds which is obviously a plus (Assange and his mixed reception on Saturday being the obvious exception).
As far as the politics go, it would be hard to generalise, and it would be foolish to try to totalise something that is in flux and still growing. Occupylsx issued a statement yesterday which is also a ‘work in progress’. Its demands are general and inoffensive, talking about ‘corporations’, ‘the system’ and ‘regulation’ rather than capitalism (unlike the main camp banner, see below), and speaking of the need for ‘structural change’ rather than direct action (although camping out is obviously in itself a form of direct action in itself). I wonder if their demands will become more militant or will stay at the level of ‘power to the peaceful’ as one placard had it. Media coverage has been on the whole surprisingly sympathetic, but this may be simply a kind of initial smokescreen before the usual smear stuff gets rolled out after a few more days.
It will be extremely interesting to see how the camp builds, how many more will join and how #occupylsx will link up with other movements and actions, and how the police will comport themselves. In the riot appeals ruling today it’s increasingly obvious that public order has become the site of a particularly acute moral panic for the government and judiciary, whether it be in ‘protest’ or ‘riot’ situations where ‘the offenders were deriving support and comfort and encouragement from being together with other offenders, and offering comfort support and encouragement to the offenders around them’ as the ludicrously-named Lord Chief Justice Judge described the context.
But, as the occupiers of St Paul’s might also feel, what on earth is wrong with support, comfort and encouragement?
Was very happy to see the Climate Camp banner in pride of place.
The politics of posture.
Global Women’s Strike poster: the wind was tearing up banners as fast as people could put them up.
Technology meets tent-dwelling.
ALARM! poster cheekily poking out from behind the meetings board.
The camp sent a delegation to Dale Farm which is facing eviction tomorrow after months of legal, council and media demonisation.
Today’s agenda.
I wonder if tomatoes would grow well in compost made of capitalism (or capitalists).
The book tent!
The free tent!
18 October, 2011
tonight at roehampton
Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Lectures: Autumn 2011
The Philosophy Programme & the Classical Civilisation Programme
All welcome (refreshments served)
Tuesday Oct 18th 2011, 5 - 6.30 pm:
Dr Katie Fleming (Queen Mary, University of London)
‘Heidegger’s Antigone: Ethics and Politics’
Duchesne Building, Main Campus, Room 001, Ground Floor
18 October, 2011
riot appeals: majority lost
See here:
‘Lengthy prison sentences imposed on youths who used Facebook to incite riots and on offenders who took part in looting have been upheld by the court of appeal.
But three men who pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods during the disturbances in August had their prison terms halved by the panel of senior judges.
Addressing the overall context of the riots, the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said: “The level of lawlessness was shocking and wholly inexcusable.
“The imposition of severe sentences, intended to provide both punishment and deterrence, must follow.[...]’
....
‘The written judgment makes clear that “this is not a new found sentencing policy”. It refers to decisions given following a riot in Cambridge 41 years ago.
That 1970 judgment, quoted at length, says: “When there is wanton and vicious violence of gross degree the court is not concerned with whether it originates from gang rivalry or from political motives. It is the degree of mob violence that matters and the extent to which the public peace is broken.”’
When the riots happened, people were falling over backwards to deny that there was any context to what took place - that the riots had nothing to do with police harassment, the murder of Mark Duggan, unemployment, gentrification. When the law steps in, however, there’s nothing but context. Indeed they are the the very people determining who gets to say there is a context in the first place: look at the judge’s sentencing remarks: ’ the offence formed part of the mob criminality which produced the public disorder’. It’s increasingly obvious that public order is the mitigating factor in all the recent sentencing for riot and protesting cases. The fundamental assumption is that if you’re out on the streets - for whatever reasons - you’re causing or about to cause trouble. What you should be doing of course is hurriedly running to the shops and back home again as quickly as you can, and preferably in a small a number as possible.
Whose streets? Our streets: this is what we’re fighting for.
18 October, 2011
david harvey, 11 nov
David Harvey
History versus Theory: a Commentary on Marx’s Method in Capital
Friday, 11 November 2011
Location: Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
Time: 1830-2030
At the lecture the winner of the 2011 Deutscher Memorial Prize will be announced. The following books have been shortlisted:
Jairus Banaji, Theory as History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation, (Brill)
Gail Day, Dialectical Passions: Negation in Postwar Art Theory (Columbia)
Charles Post, The American Road to Capitalism: Studies in Class Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1620-1877 (Brill)
Online pre-booking: £3
On the door price: £5
Due to the high demand for this event, it is suggested that you book early to avoid disappointment. Please note that although this event takes place as part of the Historical Materialism conference, the price is not included in the conference fee.
Book online here.
14 October, 2011
andrew mcgettigan talk tonight
“Financialisation, Monetisation, Privatisation: Creating the New Market in HE”
All seminars start at 5.30pm, and are held in the Wolfson Room (unless otherwise stated) at the Institute of Historical Research in Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU.
Plus an article for the LSE’s British Politics & Policy Blog
and a similar one but pitched at activists for OurKingdom
14 October, 2011
laruelle in london
LARUELLE in LONDON: The LGS Seminars
December 2011/May 2012
Starting this winter, Professor François Laruelle will give two annual seminars and workshops on Non-Standard Philosophy at the London Graduate School. The first of these events will be on December 6th and 7th 2011, and the second will take place in May 2012.
Professor Laruelle has taught at both the University of Paris X, and the Collège international de philosophie, and is the author of over twenty books, including Les philosophies de la différence (1986), Principes de la non-philosophie (1996), Le Christ futur (2002), and, most recently, Le Concept de non-photographie and Anti-Badiou (both 2011) – all of which have either just appeared or will soon appear in English translation.
Over this forty year period, Laruelle has constructed one of the most demanding, methodical, and provocative intellectual practices in contemporary theory – an absolutely immanent materialism of thought. The purpose of these series of talks at the LGS will be both to cover the conceptual background to Non-Standard Philosophy and to explore its consequences for theory throughout the arts, sciences, and humanities. There will be one evening seminar open to members of the public, followed by one daytime workshop which will be open to all postgraduates working in areas related to this field.
Further information, including all dates, times, and locations for each workshop and seminar, will soon be available through Professor John Mullarkey - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Website:
14 October, 2011
hm provisional programme now out! plus registration
See here.
I am particularly looking forward to the panel ‘Debt and Insurrection, Motherfuckers’ and Stella Magliani-Belkacem & Félix Boggio on ‘What the Fuck is Up with French Feminism?’
12 October, 2011
picket andrew lansley, tomorrow
The NHS bill has been passed. This is the effective end to the National Health Service and the state has abdicated its responsibility for health.
Andrew Lansley will be on the BBC’s flagship programme Question Time this Thursday 13th October. We have called a picket starting from 5:45 p.m. onwards. It is a relatively local venue just north of the river therefore Lewisham Keep Our NHS Public and Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance have called a snap picket of Lansley at the BBC TV event.
It is utterly critical that we get maximum turnout for this event, we have at least one or maybe two confirmed supporters INSIDE the event on Question Time which is watched by at least 3 million viewers. We are looking for national TV media coverage OUTSIDE of the event and a press release has gone out to all of the national and local networks which we have contacts for. Therefore, please:
1) Go to http://www.lewishamkonp.org/home and direct EVERYONE you know to this page which contains FULL DETAILS of the PICKET of Lansley.
2) Go to http://www.lewishamkonp.org/resources and download or circulate the LANSLEY PICKET .pdf flyer and circulate for immediate despatch.
3) CALL EVERYONE who is likely to attend & TURN UP YOURSELF.
4) a Facebook event - please share and invite.http://on.fb.me/picketlansley
12 October, 2011
new bookworks series: now open!
See here for more details:
Common Objectives
New open submission series
Guest Edited by Nina Power
Deadline for applications: 1 December 2011
Book Works is looking for proposals for a new series of quick-fire, rapid-response projects from artist/writer collectives or individual art practices engaged with emerging political struggles. We are interested in proposals that reject the idea of culture as a playground for the elite; that engage in the potent mix of free discourse, solidarity and the production of new desires; which are prepared to break open old worlds, either in the virtual space of communication and networks; or in the concrete world of action, discourse and distribution.
From strikes to sit-ins and protests to collective provocations, we are looking for proposals that engage in, transform or are otherwise informed by political issues and contemporary actions and activities, to produce publications using various formats: the tabloid, the broadsheet, the poster and the pamphlet, both as traditional print or online formats.
We are offering a up to six commissions selected from open submission. We are particularly interested in the possibilities of collective projects producing printed material in a spontaneous manner or rapid manner and we welcome proposals using various formats: from the tabloid, broadsheet, poster and the pamphlet, to web 2.0 platforms.
New commissions will be published from Spring/Summer 2012
11 October, 2011
howard caygill lecture
Howard Caygill’s inaugural lecture ‘Also Sprach Zapata: Philosophy and Resistance’ is now available as podcast here, care of Mr Wolf.
10 October, 2011
important witness call out from several recent protests
Witnesses needed witnesses needed witnesses needed - you get the message right?
Your help is needed if you attended any of the following: student protests. March 26th (UK UNCUT, Piccadilly, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square), June 30th. And even if you didn’t attend – you can help simply by spreading the word.
What YOU saw during these demos might stop someone going to prison.
We need your help.
Defendants need your help.
We need you to respond to this call out and we need you to spread the word - especially through the student networks. Many people do not seem to know how serious this is. Already we have many people in prison when they really should not be there!
We need all potential witnesses to come forward.
If you were on any of these protests this could well be YOU!
The job of LDMG and GBC is to stop people going to prison by helping people prepare their best defence - but of late we are spending way too much time preparing people for prison instead, and many of the cases could have been so different if we had more witnesses come forward. It is hard to know if you could be useful as a witness but we hope to find that out if you get in touch with some basic information.
It is often the case during a trial that it is simply the police version of events against the defendant and it is often blatantly obvious that the police are lying (yes, shock horror). The judge and the jury often believes the police version of events in most case (yes, shock horror). And it often doesn’t mater if defendants are telling the truth, if they don’t have their own witnesses, they have far less chance of being believed and therefore being found not guilty. And in our experience it is people who have witnesses who are more likely to be found ‘not guilty’
Witnesses do not have to have seen the arrest or indeed the incident itself and often it is helpful if you were simply there, saw the mood of the crowd, witnessed unprovoked police attacks etc..
Judges dealing with these cases are being incredibly harsh in their sentencing, harsher than many of us have ever known before, and things show no sign of easing up as the public’s memories of the protests fades.
It seems like the courts are sending out a massive message to anyone who dares to challenge the cuts and the system that is behind them that people dare not protest and we need to support all those going through this court process. It could easily have been any one of us who were arrested and preparing for the possibility of prison right now.
There is no sense or justice in many of these arrests. Some people were trying to protect themselves and those around them when attacked by police in an unprovoked manner, many weren’t even doing that, they were simply ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.
So far it has mainly been people pleading guilty that have been sentenced but trials are now starting to take place and the gaps in the defence for some are huge as many defendants believe that if they get up on the stand and tell the truth, they will be found not guilty. Sadly it just doesn’t work like that.
As we approach the one year mark for some of these protests, many of those facing charges are incredibly stressed and others completely terrified of what lies ahead if they are found guilty and it is heartbreaking to see, especially when you know that it doesn’t have to be like that.
What little justice there is seems to have gone out the window. Their best hope is other people! I’ll say it again - they desperately need more witnesses to come forward in order to stop people going to prison.
Ok rant over.
There are various call outs that have gone out about specific arrests and we will try to collate these further over the next few days and add them to the following links. Please read through them.
In the meantime, please get in touch and tell us which protests you were on and where you were. You can leave it that vague for now. We will get in touch with you about specifics if you were in a place where people are calling for witnesses.
In the meantime these are a few of the requests we have:
People who witnesses the policeman falling off his horse on student protest in dec and / or witnessed the police charge into the crowd.
December 9th 2010. Parliament Square/Broad Sanctury between about 2pm and 3.30pm If you were in parliament square or broad sanctuary (in front of westminster abbey) during this time
9th December 2010. He was on Northumberland Avenue (Embankment end) outside
The Playhouse Theatre appx 8.20pm. But was arrested in the Haymarket W1.
Witnesses to events near the Treasury from about 5.30pm to 8.30pm on 9 December 2010.
Witnesses from March 26th at Trafalgar Square mid - late evening
There are more details of others here:
http://greenandblackcross.org/legal/appeals
and a couple more here…
http://ldmg.org.uk/witness%2520support.html
If you think that you can help please get in touch with LDMG and GBC asap
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
and please cc your messages to
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
In solidarity
7 October, 2011
annual remembrance procession against deaths in custody, oct 29
Facebook event here. Watch the film Injustice here if you haven’t already. Facebook group for No More Death in Custody here.
Saturday, October 29 · 12:30pm - 3:30pm
South side of Nelsons Column. Trafalgar Square. London. WC2N 5DN
Who We Are
The United Families and Friends Campaign is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who are killed in secure psychiatric hospitals. It includes the families of Roger Sylvester, Leon Patterson, Rocky Bennett, Alton Manning, Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Aseta Simms, Ricky Bishop, Paul Jemmott, Harry Stanley, Glenn Howard, Mikey Powell, Jason Mcpherson and Sean Rigg to name but a few. Together we are building a network for collective action to end deaths in custody.
What we believe
• That failure of State officials to ensure the basic right to life is made worse by the failure of the State to ever prosecute those responsible for custody deaths.
• That the failure to prosecute those responsible for deaths in custody sends the message that the State can act with impunity.
What We Demand
• Deaths in police custody must be investigated by a body that is genuinely independent of the police.
• Prison deaths must be subject to a system of properly funded investigation that is completely independent of the Prison Service.
• Officers involved in custody deaths be suspended until investigations are completed.
• Prosecutions should automatically follow ‘unlawful killing’ verdicts at inquests.
• Police forces are made accountable to the communities that they serve.
• Immediate Legal Aid and full disclosure of information be made to the relatives of the victims for investigations, inquests and subsequent prosecutions.
• Officers responsible for deaths should face criminal charges, even if retired.
• CCTV to be placed in the back of all police vehicles
7 October, 2011
dtrtp: what you can do this autumn
Key dates for the diary include:
1. LONDON LAUNCH OF AUTUMN CAMPAIGN, TUES 11th OCT, 7PM
“STAND UP FOR PROTESTERS” PUBLIC FORUM SUPPORTED BY NUS, UCU, ULU
Web event page here.
Facebook event here.
With updates and introductions from key campaigns, open discussion and organising. Nina Power – DTRTP & Justice for Alfie Meadows; Joe Sellers –Free Frank Fernie Campaign; Liam Burns –NUS President; Jody McIntyre – victim of police brutality; Fortnum & Masons occupier; Mark Campbell UCU NEC; Louise Christian & Mike Schwartz – campaigning lawyers; Jonnie Marbles – imprisoned for throwing a pie at Murdoch; Zita Holbourne PCS/ BARAC; Sara Tomlinson Brixton Defence Campaign/Stop Kettling Our Kids.
NOTE SPECIAL MEETING FOR LECTURERS & OTHER STAFF WORKING IN EDUCATION:
This meeting will be followed by a special meeting of UCU members and lecturers and university staff to discuss how we can organise support for arrested students. For more info email Nina Power .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
And see here.
2. SUPPORT FORTNUM & MASONS OCCUPIERS:
PROTEST: MONDAY 10th OCT, CITY OF WESTMINSTER COURT, 1pm
*NOTE NEW ADDRESS: 181 Marylebone Road, NW1 5HB, London,
Support UK UNCUT activists who took part in the peaceful occupation of Fortnum and Masons during the TUC March for the Alternative now up on charges of aggravated trespass. On the 10th of October, there will be a case hearing for this trial and for the 21 Spartaci (see below), come and show your support by joining us outside the court from 1pm.
I am Spartacus!
21 of those who had their cases ‘discontinued’ in July have recently announced “I AM SPARTACUS” by reviving their cases, demanding that either all the cases are dropped or everyone gets a fair trial! These 21 Spartaci are also being heard in court on the 10th October. We expect they will be officially found ‘Not Guilty’ whilst 30 others still face trial for the same charge at the same protest! And we thought this couldn’t get any more absurd!
Facebook Event here.
More info here.
3. SUPPORT BRYAN SIMPSON and OTHER PROTESTERS THURS 13 OCT, 10AM, KINGSTON CROWN COURT
We are urging supporters to come and sit in public galleries to show support for protesters being sentenced on this day. For more about Bryan’s story go here
3. SUPPORT EDD BAUER: For more info go to the campaign website: plus read “about the case”
What you can do:
1. Sign the petition in defence of Edd here.
2. Email a message of protest to the President of the Guild and demand Edd’s reinstatement. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
3. Join the demonstration on 12th Oct.
For more information call us on 07775 763 7505.
4. WRITE TO IMPRISONED PROTESTERS:
Frank Fernie: convicted of violent disorder after the march 26 anti cuts demo in 2011. Sentenced to 1 year in prison. http://freefrankfernie.info
Frances Fernie A7663CE,
HMP/YOI Littlehey, Perry, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE2 80SR.
Ed Woollard: Sentenced to 18 months for dropping a fire extinguisher off the roof of Millbank.
Write to Edward
Email – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Or c/o
Chris Rawlinson,
Student Union
Brockenhurst College
Lyndhurst Road
Brockenhurst
Hampshire
SO42 7ZE
5. BUILD SUPPORT FOR THE DTRTP CAMPAIGN:
You can organise a Defend the Right to Protest event or invite someone from the campaign to come and address your union/campaign/event. Please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Are you able to make a donation to help with our campaigning? Please click the Paypal button on the side of the site here.
5. ARE YOU A WITNESS? Were you on the student protests? Witnesses needed to events near the Treasury from about 5.30pm to 8.30pm on 9 December 2010. If you can help please get in touch with LDMG , Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
