Posts Tagged ‘UK’
FinFisher: UK spy tech used against Bahraini activists
Monday, May 13th, 2013
A UK-based company’s surveillance software has been used by the Al Khalifa regime to spy on Bahraini activists, London High Court documents show.
According to the witness statement of Ala’a Shehabi, a British-Bahraini activist and a founding member of Bahrain Watch organization, she received emails containing a product called FinFisher (or FinSpy), distributed by British company Gamma International, causing her computer system to be under secret surveillance.
British technology firm’s FinFisher suite of software products are believed to target individuals’ devices and relay information back to the sender, including the contents of emails, Skype conversations and address books. (more…)
Tags: Al Khalifa monarchy, Ala'a Shehabi, Bahrain, FinFisher/FinSpy, Formula One Grand Prix, Gamma International, Repression, Spyware, UK
Posted in Social Control
‘Prisons: Factories Of Hate’ by John Bowden (UK)
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
Right-wing Tory Justice Minister Chris Grayling’s declaration in late April that prisoners would now be made to “earn” basic privileges by “working harder” probably wasn’t just the usual “popularist” promise to stick the boot into one of the most powerless and demoralised social groups. During times of economic austerity and potential social unrest scapegoating marginalised and outcast groups like prisoners, is always useful as a means of deflecting and re-focusing public anger away from the true culprits of the country’s economic ruination, in this case Grayling’s pals in the city of London. Behind the rhetoric and the guise of “getting tough” on prisoners is the actual purpose of the prison industrial complex: to turn prisons into privatised forced-labour factories. (more…)
Tags: Chris Grayling, John Bowden, Letter, Prison Labour, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
#J11: Map of the capitalist West End – London (UK)
Saturday, May 11th, 2013
Presenting the action map for the June 11 Carnival Against Capitalism. Some 90 locations connected to blatant murder, oppression and exploitation. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg …
Click on the image to zoom in, download and print. Also on http://network23.org/stopg8/
There is also an online map which will feature more details and even more addresses. It is still being updated. To check in for latest progress go to: mappingthecorporations.org/ and select “Mapping Capitalist London” in the sector menu.
If you have more information on any company, or want to add a new address, please email stopg8@riseup.net
This is London.
London is at the heart of global capitalism. It is one of the main hubs of a worldwide system of money and power. Deals made here build factories in Asia, burn down forests in South America, and start wars in Africa. For billionaires, dictators, and other parasites London is a safe place to hide out, launder money, and go shopping. These people are not untouchable. They are right here on our doorstep, and they have names and addresses. (more…)
Tags: #J11, Anti-G8, Carnival Against Capitalism, G8, London, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Bristol: Security firm ‘Avon and Somerset Guarding’ is attacked (UK)
Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
No peace for the defenders of commodity-society. Their security = a joke once again.
Our latest target was Avon and Somerset Guarding, on Fishponds Rd, we broke half the storefront glass and attacked the CCTV camera, leaving an anarchy symbol tagged on the scene. Enough uniformed bastards in our lives, let’s trash the control apparatus. Shouts to anti-fascist of action Jock Palfreeman, held in Bulgaria – love for our comrades, hate for their jailers. That’s all for now
can’tstopthechaos
Tags: Avon and Somerset Guarding, Bristol, Jock Palfreeman, Sabotage, Solidarity Action, UK
Posted in Direct Action
#J11: Carnival in the West End of London (UK)
Friday, April 26th, 2013
“11 June 2013. #J11.
One Common Struggle.
Carnival Against Capitalism.”
Their London?
London is right at the heart of global capitalism. And the West End of London, including elite areas like Piccadilly, Mayfair and Knightsbridge, is where power and greed are most concentrated. The West End is home to:
* Corporations. Many of the world’s most brutal and polluting companies, including oil and mining giants, arms dealers, and the businesses profiting from cuts and privatisation.
* Vulture funds. Global base of the “hedge fund” and “private equity” industries, laundering the world’s blood money to invest in war, food speculation and debt slavery.
* Tyrants. Government offices, embassies, cultural and commercial fronts of colonial powers and murderous regimes.
* Playground of the mega-rich. Middle Eastern dictators, Russian mafia oligarchs, and home-grown parasites all see London as a “safe” place to hide and spend their loot. (more…)
Tags: #J11, Anti-G8, Demo, G8, London, UK
Posted in Autonomy
John Bowden Back At Shotts Prison After A Stay In Hospital (UK)
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
John is now back at Shotts prison recovering from an operation to have a disc removed from his back, after being laid up in bed for two weeks with severe back pain. He’s still feeling quite weak and unsteady on his feet but hopefully he’s now on the mend. His recent hospitalisation meant he had a pile of mail waiting for him when he returned on Saturday 20th April. He thanks people for their letters and says he will answer them in due course.
You can send your wishes for a quick recovery to:
John Bowden
6729
HMP Shotts
Shotts
Lanarkshire
ML7 4LE
Tags: John Bowden, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Squat trial in Brighton (UK)
Sunday, April 21st, 2013
On September 3 2012, some people were arrested for being in a derelict building under section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. They are up for pleading not guilty and fighting this stupid new law.
The three defendants are booked in for a two and a half day trial at Brighton Magistrates Court which starts at 10am Monday April 22 2013.
There will be a protest outside court.
The charges originally were squatting (under s144), obstruction (of the police in their lawful duty) and abstraction (ie stealing electricity). The abstraction charge has already been dropped.
Here’s the contact details:
You can contact the support group on housingwar@squat.net
Fone – 07599377058
Twitter – housingwar (will be updated during trial)
Web – rooftopresistance.squat.net
Tags: Brighton, Repression, Squatting, Trial, UK
Posted in Social Control
Attacks on Mitie in Bristol (UK)
Monday, April 15th, 2013
Arson and damage against Mitie vehicles in Bristol
Over the weekend we attacked 2 different Mitie vans. Behind the “Bush” pub 5 minutes from Templemeads, on a sunny evening during rush hour we took the opportunity to spike two wheels and pour paint stripper over the vehicle. We may have been seen, so what, good luck to em, we look just like everyone else.
We chose not to only push our struggle in the hours of darkness, recognising that our expressed anger, if witnessed, probably leaves a question in the mind of the onlooker. On this occasion we decided the risk was worth it. We also burnt a Mitie van in East Bristol, setting fire to it at night.
Mitie are one of several companies to have benefited hugely from the privatisation started by Thatcher in the 1980s. The outsourcing of immigration prisons such as Campsfield was one step in building an empire which now includes prisons, youth offender institutes, probation services, and extends to housing and “sustainable” energy sources. We are not asking for state controlled versions of the above. But calling for fire to all prisons – immigration, youth or otherwise.
As well as “detention centres”, Mitie now run 6 different prisons -including 2 youth offender institutes. They are partners with the UK Border agency and the Prisons Service. Last year workers for Mitie in London went on strike after a pregnant worker was badly mistreated, and ended up in hospital whilst working for Mitie.
Across the country, people of all ages are placed in the “care” of Mitie and are beaten and denied their freedom. These small actions are in solidarity with them, and anyone who was on the streets this weekend.
Mitie claims to support people but their move into housing and energy do nothing to change the fact that they are intent on profiting from any aspect of life.
Fire to the prisons!
Burn in hell Maggie!
Tags: Arson, Bristol, Car Burning, Margaret Thatcher, Mitie, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Tory Club Smashed and Cop 4×4 Torched – Bristol (UK)
Saturday, April 13th, 2013
ONE LESS ENEMY OF FREEDOM – LETS DANCE ON HER GRAVE!
To celebrate the news of Thatcher’s death we smashed the front windows of the Conservative Club on Fishponds Road in Bristol in the early hours of this morning.
No matter how many tributes to a “great woman” appear in the media, we will never remember her as anything other than a vicious tyrant who rolled out the aggressive free market capitalism that flourishes today. The only good politician is a dead one!
Even compared to politicians in general Thatcher was one of the most hated figures in recent UK history, which is why she was under armed guard 24 hours a day until her death in the five star Ritz hotel. She led an all out assault on living conditions of the “underclass” she so openly despised, entrenching and enriching the ruling classes. We are only a few of the thousands upon thousands who are lining up to piss on her grave.
The response in Bristol to her death was immediate. The night the news broke there was a large street party in Easton to celebrate. When cops arrived to break it up they were met with bricks, bottles and burning barricades, injuring several state thugs and damaging a police vehicle. Our thoughts are with the arrested and the many more who defied the riot squad and their “pacifist” allies.
We attacked the club where Thatcher’s arse lickers hang out, but don’t get us wrong – political parties are only one face of the global dominant order. The same system of exploitation they represent churns on regardless of who hold office. Thatcher’s day saw forceful revolt against her regime (the miners strike, the poll tax rebellion and more), and today’s rulers can be sure that they also face our fury.
Thatcher actively supported and defended Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile. Under the new economic dictatorship of democracy, rebellious students, Mapuche indigenous warriors and anarchist-subversives continue to be persecuted by the same fascist-era laws. We greet Marcelo, Juan and Freddy in Santiago high security dungeon, solid social fighters since the time of Pinochet’s rule, and those targeted by the Chilean state’s latest frame-up who are held in Temuco women’s prison (also the scene of a recent riot).
Finally, our team takes responsibility for the recent arson on a police 4×4 in a garage off Pennywell Road in Easton. These servants of the state should never be safe on the streets from our attack, here as in Moscow, Cairo or Montreal.
FUCK THE LAW AND THE PEACE POLICE!
FOR A RIOTOUS SATURDAY 13TH EVERYWHERE!
WAR ON POLITICIANS, DEATH TO THE STATE!
-unruly anarchists (in the spirit of Millbank)
Tags: Arson, Bristol, Conservative Association, Conservative Party, Evil Dead, Fuck the Law, Margaret Thatcher, Sabotage, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Osaka: Message from Anarchist ‘Rebel Jill’ about the death of Margaret Thatcher (Japan, UK)
Thursday, April 11th, 2013
Message received from anarchist comrade ‘Rebel Jill’, in Osaka, Japan.
Saluton from fascist ruled o$aKKKa.
Tonight, i heard bloody maggie living in the UK passed away.
One of the most brutal bloody monster’s death might be celebrated by most of the people on this planet, however, still now, other brutal bloody monsters live on this planet. So, la batalo continuos… No pasaran. Thanx. In struggle against the poverty & bastards.
Tags: Evil Dead, Japan, Margaret Thatcher, Osaka, UK
Posted in Uncategorized
Good News: Maggie Still Dead – Not Coming Back Any Time Soon – Social War Now
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
1. Scallyway Magazine – How the Tory’s covered up the paedophile ring Saville procured for + Scallywag Magazine article on Lord McAlpine and Derek Laud
Above picture: Dead paedophile Sir Peter Morrison with Margaret Thatcher. A close aide to Thatcher, a Member of Parliament for Chester, named as an abuser by residents of children’s homes in nearby North Wales. Morrison was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher, leader of her campaign team in the Conservative leadership election of 1990 and a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Despite the massive internal security war being conducted against the domestic opposition and externally against the Irish Freedom Fighters, the security services allowed paedophiles this close to Thatcher and record-breaking paedophile and child procurer Jimmy Saville was her close friend: a regular visitor to her country home at Chequers and Christmas dinner guest. Thatcher would have known about the systematic abuse of hundreds of young boys and girls over decades. Rot in hell bitch.
2. TAPOL – promoting human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia
Above picture: Margaret Thatcher with her friend and ally, the genocidal dictator General Suharto of Indonesia. US and British governments helped Suharto to power and backed his authoritarian regime. The workers and peasants unions were eradicated with the knowledge and support of Thatcher. Estimates of the death toll caused by Suharto’s repression range from half a million to three million. No-one has ever been held to account for this appalling deed.
3. Anniversary of the Pinochet coup sees heavy clashes in Santaigo and elsewhere
In Chile, Thatcher backed a 17 year military dictatorship ruled by General Pinochet which deposed the leftist president Allende and a reported 1,200–3,200 people were killed, up to 80,000 were interned, and up to 30,000 were tortured by his regime including women and children. Pinochet was close to Thatcher and she intervened on his behalf when he was held in Britain for war crimes. Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the learning of his death. At least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile’s 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
Tags: Chile, Conservative Party, Evil Dead, General Suharto, Indonesia, Jimmy Saville, Margaret Thatcher, Pinochet, Riots, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Good News: Margaret Thatcher is dead – Riotous Parties on Saturday 13 April 2013
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
The news is confirmed – the murderous whore of capital is finally dead. We laugh and celebrate her death. Party on.
Easton, Bristol: Hundreds celebrate death of Thatcher + Party against thatcher broken up by riot cops & peace police
Brixton, London: Fotos and video from london-brixton night 9.4.13 – uk + Barnardo’s windows smashed in Brixton 9.4.13 – it was us – south london – uk (Informal Anarchist Federation)
Saturday night 6pm onwards everywhere. Expect the pigs to turn up!
England – - -
London – Trafalgar Square
Bristol -City Centre, opposite the Hippodrome Theatre.
Brighton – Clock Tower
Bradford – Centenery Square
Burry St Edmunds – Chequer Square
Birmingham – Victoria Square
Carlisle – Club Victoria
Coventry – Fountain on the Precinct.
Cambridge – Mid-Summer Common
Doncaster – Town Centre (from Hatfield Colliery)
Falmouth – The Moor
Hastings (East Sussex), The Town Centre.
Hull – Queens Gardens
Liverpool – St Georges Plateau
Leeds City Square.
Leicester – Clock Tower
Luton – St Georges Square
Manchester – Albert Square
Oxford – Bonn Square
Norwich – Forum
Nottingham – Market Square (something about Sneinton?)
Newcastle – Monument
Plymouth – Armada Way The Sun Dial
Portsmouth – Pompey – Guildhall Square
Rotherham – All Saints Green (or Orgeave)?
Sheffield – Devonshire Green
Sunderland – Stadium of Light (atop Munkwearmouth Pit!)
York – The Naivesmire
Worcester – Elgar Statue
Warrington – Market Gate.
Scotland – - -
Edinburgh – The Mound
Glasgow – George Square
Dundee – The counting house
Wales – - -
Wales – Cardif – City Hall
Wales – Aberystwyth – ????
Wales – Swansea – Castle Square
Northern Ireland – - -
Belfast?
Republic of Ireland – - -
Dublin City Centre – Temple Bar
International – - -
Finland – Tampere
Thailand – Nong Khai
Italy – Venice – St Marco
Spain – Barcelona – Plaza Real – midnight!
New Zealand – Aotea Square
Norway – Oslo – National Theatre Station (outside)
Sweden – Stockholm – Sergels Torg 6 pm saturday after.
USA – - -
Denver – Colorado – 16th Street Mall
Tags: Evil Dead, Fuck the Law, Margaret Thatcher, UK
Posted in Direct Action
Anti-G8 2013 counter-summits in UK & Ireland
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
The 2013 G8 conference will be held by the British regime in Lough Erne, County Fermanagh on 17-18th June in the occupied North of Ireland. So far there are two initiatives being organised by left/social activists. The details are below.
Dublin, Ireland : http://dubaltg8.org/
Dublin Alternative G8 Summit 17th and 18th June – Theme of Summit: Resistance to Imperialism
Monday June 17th: Day of Lectures, Seminars, and Anti-imperialist Discussion, with national and international guest speakers. Night of Revolutionary Dance and Song.
Tuesday June 18th: Mass Demonstration in Dublin Center in Commemoration of the 1913 Dublin Lockout and to protest the presence of the world’s most dangerous war criminals holding their G8 summit on Irish soil.
London, UK : http://network23.org/stopg8/
10-14th June 2013: Week of action against the G8 conference taking place in the UK.
10 – 14 June, Week of action, London.
11 June, #J11 Carnival against Capitalism, London, West End.
Tags: Anti-Authoritarian, Anti-G8, G8, Ireland, UK
Posted in Autonomy
Greek solidarity gig – Easton Bristol 13 April (UK)
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Greek solidarity gig at the Whitehart pub in Easton, Bristol, on the 13th April.
Tags: Bristol, Punx, Solidarity Action, UK
Posted in Autonomy
International Day of Action Against Police Brutality, Corruption & Murder
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
This is a demo call out from a social activist group in Birmingham, UK.
Friday, 15 March 2013, 13:00. Wear Black
Police Headquarters Lloyd House.
March 15 has been a day of international action against police brutality around the globe since 1997. The specific date is significant because in Switzerland, on March 15, two children, ages 11 and 12, were beaten by police. M15 originated from the Black Flag group in Switzerland and from the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality in Montreal. People in countries across the world come out to the streets in March to express their rage against the police. In Montreal specifically, there has been fierce annual riots erupting from the depths of the dispossessed. This March 15, We encourage everyone to join the rest of the world in the streets the timing couldn’t be more appropriate. On this date 2 years ago the Police killed a British Reggae Icon David Emanuel aka Smiley Culture proved in court to be an innocent man and weeks later Birmingham man Kingsley Burrell dialled 999 for help and ended up dead 30th March 2011. Not forgetting unarmed man 36, Anthony Grainger shot and killed in a pre planned operation in Manchester on 3rd March 2012. (more…)
Tags: Birmingham, Fuck the Law, International Day of Action Against Police Brutality, Police Bastards, Police Brutality, UK
Posted in Social Control
‘In The Belly Of The Beast’ by John Bowden
Monday, March 4th, 2013
Fyoder Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist and sometimes political dissident, once wisely observed that a good barometer of the level and quality of a society’s civilisation is the way it treats it’s prisoners, the most dis-empowered of all social groups.
There has of course always existed a sort of socially organic and dynamic relationship between prison society and the wider ordinary society beyond it’s walls, and the treatment of prisoners is usually an accurate reflection of the relationship of power that prevails between the state and ordinary working class people in the broader society. It is how political power is shaped and negotiated between the state and the poorer social groups on the outside that essentially determines the treatment of prisoners on the inside. (more…)
Tags: HMP Shotts, John Bowden, Scotland, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Solidarity with John Massey (UK)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
The following is an article by ex-prisoner, prison campaigner and journalist Charles Hanson:
John Massey one of the longest serving life sentence prisoners in the UK (sentenced 1976) and now aged 64 has been charged with assaulting prison staff at HMP Belmarsh.
During the morning of the 5 February 2013, John was called in from the exercise yard at Belmarsh Prison to undergo a cell and body search. During the cell search procedure and following an exchange of words between John and prison staff, nine prison officers including a dog handler, set upon John and seriously assaulted him. He sustained cuts and bruises and has been seen by medical staff. (more…)
Tags: Charles Hanson, HMP Belmarsh, John Massey, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
‘Education Is Subversive In Prison’ by John Bowden, long-term social prisoner (UK)
Friday, February 15th, 2013
The role of teachers and educational tutors employed by local colleges and contracted to work within the prison system can be a conflicting and potentially very hazardous one. Empowering prisoners with knowledge in an environment intrinsically organised to disempower them can sometimes be a dangerous activity.
Unlike the function and role of most other types of staff working within prisons (guards, probation officers, social workers and psychologists etc.) that revolve around the containment, control and disempowerment of prisoners, teaching within jails usually involves a relationship with prisoners that is often inimical to that custody and control dimension of prisons. The uniformed guards who basically control and maintain ‘discipline’ in prisons instinctively understand the empowering influence of education on prisoners, which is essentially why they view civilian teachers working within prisons with suspicion and as an always potentially weak link in the chain of security and ‘discipline’ (control), whose loyalty is always in question. There is a very strong and all-pervading occupational culture amongst prison guards that views any attempt to empower and humanise those over whom they exact an absolute degree of power as just another step to a liberalism that undermines and weakens the basic function of the prison – punishment and absolute control. It’s an attitude and culture that teachers working within prisons are confronted by every day, as well as a balance of institutional power firmly tipped in favour of the guards, who charged with maintaining the physical security of the prison will always inevitably label teachers who question their authority and power as a ‘security risk’, which is a sure way of getting them removed from the prison and recalled to a local college usually desperate to protect and continue it’s contract with the prison system. (more…)
Tags: HMP Shotts, John Bowden, Kate Hendry, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Letter to ABC Brighton by Jock Palfreeman – Antifascist on Hungerstrike (UK, Bulgaria)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
21st January 2013
G-day guys! All at ABC-Brighton,
Well, first of all, the Director stopped me from my Uni degree! See I’ve been helping other prisoners, obviously part of the union and solidarity with fellow convicts. So to punish me, for my solidarity ie legal advice! the Director of the prison cut me off from the computers where I write my essays. It happened several days ago after 10 guards badly beat a prisoner with batons. I helped the prisoner get legal advice and explained to him the procedure for how to instigate a criminal investigation into their attack. For that I’m being punished in that they are stopping me from my studies. (more…)
Tags: ABC Brighton, Bulgaria, Hungerstrike, Jock Palfreeman, UK
Posted in Prison Struggle
Solidarity with friends of Saleh family arrestees (UK)
Friday, February 8th, 2013
Solidarity with friends of Saleh family arrestees.
SUPPORT THE TWO FRIENDS OF THE SALEH FAMILY WRONGLY ARRESTED DURING THE DAWN RAID ON THE FAMILY HOME.
18/02/2013 @ Cardiff Magistrates Court
Friends arrested during dawn raid of family home:
Last October at around 6.30am Mrs Saleh and her two children were woken up by half a dozen UKBA officials and told to prepare themselves for deportation. Mrs Saleh’s daughter and other friends of the family quickly came to the house and video footage of some of these events can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1NXwTOnzp8
Two friends of the family were arrested outside the families home, without being told what they were being arrested for. Later at the station, charges were made up citing obstruction of UKBA officers during their official duty.
The two friends have known the family personally for some time and were well aware of the fear the family faced at the threat of being sent back to Egypt. More on the background of Mrs Saleh’s claim can be found here: http://ncadc.org.uk/blog/2012/10/instead-of-protection-the-saleh-familys-ordeal-continued-in-the-uk
Their court case is on Monday 18th February 9:30am in Cardiff Magistrates court. This is a call out for solidarity with this case and the wider struggle for freedom of movement.
Friends of Saleh Family Campaign
- Homepage: http://www.facebook.com/SaveSalehFamily
Tags: Cardiff, Deportation, Egypt, Racism, UK, UKBA, Wales
Posted in No Borders
