the vacuum cleaner's day to day dirt

The only dream worth having

2012-01-26T23:01:00.001Z

The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead. To love, to be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget. - Arundhati Roy

Occupy the Madness

2012-01-15T12:11:00.000Z

Yes, indeed.

tentcityuniversity.occupylsx.org/

Counter Olympics Network (CONference)

2012-01-11T17:56:00.000Z

The Counter Olympics Network invites you to a day of

Countering the Olympics

There are now fewer than seven months before the shenanigans hit town, with each day bringing more news about runaway finances, contaminated topsoil, privatised housing, militarised neighbourhoods, losses of basic liberty, corruption, undemocratic planning decisions…

While the bigwigs are gaining billions, just what do the rest of us lose?

This will be a day-long opportunity to investigate and interrogate all aspects of Olympic theft, debt, repression, pollution, corporatisation, sponsorship, displacement, and lack of community consultation.

28 January 2012, 10.30am – 5pm
Toynbee Hall, Commercial Road, London E1 6LS

From NOGOE and Save Wanstead Flats to Vancouver and Athens, a range of local, national and international activist groups will share their stories. Then it’s up to us all to create the mass mobilisation needed to expose these Olympic-sized lies!

Whether you’re an avid organiser or new to the game, now is the time to get involved.

Lunch will be available on the day at low cost .

Further information can be found at our CONference info blog.
Please email counteringto@yahoo.co.uk with any questions about the CONference and to let us know if you are coming.
See counterolympics.com and gamesmonitor.org.uk for more info about challenging the Olympics.

Cyclists Are A Better Ride stickers

2011-12-10T11:46:00.001Z

You can now get your hands on our new sticker from East London bike shops including:

Brick Lane Bikes
Lock 7
Look Mum No Hands
E1 Cycles
and many more.

Resistance is Beautiful

2011-12-07T01:19:00.001Z

Grow Heathrow (a squatted community garden) are offering the opportunity to be part of a week-long artistic residency that explores the creative link between resistance, permaculture, occupation and transition.

We hope to immerse ourselves in the realities of group living within a project and place that would be destroyed by the third runway. We will use the site as a home, workshop and gallery, in a project where outcomes are unknown.

WHO: Anyone is welcome, whatever age, skill level or experience.

WHEN: 16th January 2011 till 22nd January. (with people arriving evening of Sunday 15th

WHERE: Grow Heathrow, Sipson, UB7 0JG.

COST: Free, but a deposit of £20 will be asked to secure your place.

WHAT: You will be provided with sleeping space, materials.

CONTACT: growheathrow.residency@gmail.com for more information.

DEADLINE: 5th January 2011
http://www.transitionheathrow.com/grow-heathrow

OccuParty @ Amhurst Republic- Party this Friday

2011-11-08T10:14:00.000Z

maybe see you there

OUT OF THE SQUATS INTO THE STREETS!

2011-10-30T13:35:00.000Z

The Government want to sneak through the criminalisation of squatting, which will be voted on in Parliament this Tuesday 1st November 2011.

Over 95% of responses to the ‘consultation’ on squatting were against the criminalisation.
Despite this, the government is still going ahead with their proposals - effectively bypassing democracy.

SQUASH have tried engaging with the democratic processes but despite overwhelming support to not criminalise squatting but have been ignored.

Our only rational response now is to call for people to TAKE ACTION. We have been forced into this position.

BE CIVIL, DISOBEY! Come join us on Halloween, Monday 31 October, for some tricks, treats and all night fun...

SEE:
WWW.SQUASHCAMPAIGN.ORG
WWW.SQUATTASTIC.BLOGSPOT.COM
WWW.INDYMEDIA.ORG.UK/en/2011/10/487606.html?c=on#c274899
FOR MORE DETAILS

NO2EVICTIONS
NO2CONVICTIONS
Bring at least 3 mates, sleeping bags & food to share.
See you on the streets!

Kandhamal 2008 - World Premiere

2011-10-30T11:27:00.000Z

Over the last few months I've been helping filmmaker and activist Samarendra Das finish his documentary Kandhamal 2008. The Premiere is this Tuesday 7.15 at the LSE, London. details

Here is the trailer we cut and below the poster, see you there.

Squatting will be illegal.

2011-10-29T13:17:00.002+01:00

this is it.

they'll vote on criminalising squatting on Tues. despite 95% consultation responses against it including the Met! we can stil pressure them to vote against.

so,OUT THE SQUATS & ONTO THE STREETS
Monday 6.30pm High St Ken tube +sleeping bags. We're well pissed off now.

SquashCampaign.org

Occupational Hazard

2011-10-22T10:19:00.001+01:00

This is the explosion of free space which The State is so desparate to stop us having. They are afraid that with the freedom to assemble on our own terms, comes the freedom to learn and the freedom to organise.
Freedom to organise means we might give birth to an alternative to the dictatorship of capitalism

An alternative means that the immense wealth of our beautiful planet might get shared out, rather than plundered by the already rich. We know it. Whatever small reforms from within the system that we try to make, flounders on the walls of capital.
That is why we are for systemic change. Even though we dont know what it looks like yet.
Only systemic change can deal with the monsters that capitalism has unleashed.Climate Chaos, War, Poverty, Prejudice.
They tell us to keep on shopping, for only that can save us. Another lie on top of all their lies
They tell us we need another war to end all wars. Another lie on top of all their lies..
But under the cobbles of St Pauls we prise up the lid and see that the future is what we make it.

We have seen through many lies to get here today. But there are others still around us and we must learn the lessons of history or we are doomed to repeat them.

The police.

The individuals inside the uniform are human, yes. But the police force is not our friend.
Their uni-form tells us they can only allow one version of history, one version of society. And that version says we are dangerous because we see the world differently from their masters.They will turn their smiles and conversation into snarls and violence, the second they are commanded to.
Therefore: - Do not give ANY information to the police about yourself or your friends or your plans, their conversation is an intelligence gathering tactic. Do not do deals with them, they cannot be trusted. Their aim is to destroy us because we threaten the stability that their masters crave. The stability is the status quo that lets the masters make their profits.
Do not become friends with them, as this is designed to make it hard for you to see what needs to be done politically.
When they discard their uni-form, that is the time to befriend them. And not before.

The left.

Beware of the Trotskyist/Stalinist left. Their greatest fear is independent thinking. They believe in a vangaurd to lead us all along their path, a path that puts the vanguard in charge. They will try and police us into voting and apathy. Treat with caution!

The church.

Yes, we are grateful to the Canon of St Pauls for supporting our right to stay here. Yes we should respect the building out of respect for all those who consider it sacred.
But that does not mean we respect 'The Church' as an institution. The establishment church has a terrifying history of war, plunder, torture and colonialism. This has gone alongside individual acts of bravery and compassion and sincerity. Just as we distinguish the banker from the bank, just as the buyer of trainers is not the sole cause of the slavery of the trainer-maker, so we separate The Church from the christian.
It is the systems we create and use that are the problem. And we are here to find new systems, better ways to organise our tomorrow.
Therefore, - do not put your faith in God, or the Canon. He will do what he is told by his superiors. Anything could be the excuse. We are here because we had social force on the first night. We can stay while we keep it.

So, how long should we stay?

Not indefinately.
Lets make a clear break for the worst of the winter. To persist through the darkest months will drive us to exhaustion. Far better to end on a high, clear up behind us and start again in the spring full of energy and new life. Just like Nature. This crisis is not going away. Spring is the time for growth, summer is ahead. After a winter of plans and networking we take root again in the cracks of the pavement of the disintegrating City.

The task for now is to expand in number, in knowledge, in experience, in understanding, in love. In stubbornness. In anger. In cunning. And then back to simplicity.
The first struggle, to rest here, is won. But many many more await.
The struggle to concentrate on our common ground, when all we can see are petty differences.
The struggle to resist the attacks of the police, the lies of the media, the provocations of the bored, the delusions of the egotists.
The struggle to reach out to those who are sceptical, to those who arent hurting yet, to those who still have too much to lose, or those with little faith.
The struggle to be the change we want to see in the world, even though the world collapses around our ears.

So, therefore: lets peacefully blockade the corporate bankers, the politicians, the media who keep the people stupid. Lets march and picket and occupy. Then lets take the occupations to our schools, communities, libraries, hospitals and workplaces

Let us strike on Nov 9th with the students, and on Nov 30th with everybody.

The status quo is already disaster for the 2 billion people in poverty. And the poverty is spreading because the 1% do not know any other way. Those 2billion people do not have the power. The poverty is created in London.( and NewYork and Paris....) by the deals that happen all around us. We are in London. We have the power.

Lets create another status. A better status quo.

st.pauls.london.20 october 2011......the veil lifts.....

Occupy the London Stock Exchange

2011-10-12T13:57:00.004+01:00

Occupy the London Stock Exchange

15th October

12pm
St Paul’s Cathedral

The words ‘corporate greed’ ring through the speeches and banners of protests across the globe. After huge bail-outs and in the face of unemployment, privatisation and austerity we still see profits for the rich on the increase. But we are the 99%, and on October 15th our voice unites across gender and race, across borders and continents as we call for equality and justice for all.

In London we will occupy the stock exchange. Reclaiming space in the face of the financial system and using it to voice ideas for how we can work towards a better future. A future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.

Assemble in front of St Pauls Cathedral at Midday – please try to be on time and not early or late. When you are there be ready and attentive. Make sure to follow @OccupyLSX on twitter for updates on the day.

Try to come with a friend or group of friends. If you are thinking of staying for a while bring plenty of food and water, wrap up warm and you may want to bring tents and a sleeping bag.

Bring your energy and excitement, and be ready to create a better world!

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch.
Email: general@occupylsx.org
Twitter: @OccupyLSX
Website: http://occupylondon.org.uk/

Mental - Documentaries on the recent histories of English Asylums.

2011-09-20T23:25:00.003+01:00

We've wanted to get a better understanding of the development of mental health care in the England. And struggling to read, as always, we turned to seeking out documentaries and came across 4 gems. We say gems, it's more a damning history of how mental ill people have been treated.

Mental - History of the mad house

Firstly is a recent BBC 4 doc aptly titled 'Mental - History of the mad house', which is a bit over the top, but very informative, particularly about High Royds Hospital, in West Yorkshire. We also enjoyed the shocking information that racist dickhead Enoch Powell was one of the first MPs to call for the closing of Asylums and promoted care in the community.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

Second, is a more personal and even more shocking film, Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind which has wonderful stories from people imprisoned for decades, often without any sign of mental illness. Including one man John, locked up for 66 years. But it goes onto show the inspiring stories of how people detained for decades went onto live their lives and show solidarity with each other. Interestingly it ends explaining that the 80's would be the end of mental hospitals. But sadly that didn't last.

Part 2 3 4 5 6

Ray Gosling - Whittingham Hospital Asylum

Whittingham Hospital Asylum at its peak was the 2nd largest in Europe, close to Preston in our native Lancashire. The presenter Ray Goshing is a complete idiot, but also having been made by a young Nick Broomfield, some of the observational material is mental, beautiful and tragic. The scale of the Asylum is industrial, and in part three there is a very touching and shocking interview with a woman who explains 'They've tried it all, ECT, LSD, even a Lobotomy'. It's not the best quality but it's worth watching for the final interviews.

Part 2 3

Also worth watching is Wasted Lives, made in 1972, which is as depressing as it sounds. It features Lucy, who was admit to an Asylum for having a child out of marriage. She was held for 51 years.

Part 2 3

So...

Two things stick out.

Why has there been no justice given to so many people held for so long in such inhuman ways?

And.
We seem to be back on the road to detaining people for long periods of time, sure it's not Victorian Asylums. It's just modern day ones.

Unity demonstrations in South London tonight, North London on Saturday

2011-08-10T10:54:00.003+01:00

Tonight (Wednesday), 6.30pm
Emergency demonstration against the cuts which caused the riots
6.30pm from The Anchor, Deptford High Street, to Lewisham Town Hall, Catford.
Called by an assembly in Deptford last night.

Saturday, 1pm
Give Our Kids a Future! A North London Unity Demonstration
1pm from Gillett Square, Dalston to Tottenham Green

This march is called by The North London Assembly, a temporary
Assembly which saw 70 local community activists meet at the North
London Community House on Tuesday 9th August to discuss our reaction
to the riots of early August in Tottenham and Hackney. It includes
people from many Turkish and Kurdish community groups, like Day Mer
and Gik Der, and also the Haringay and Hackney Alliances for Public
Services who are all supporting this march. We state that this is not
us seeking to represent the community but it is our attempt to try to
bring unity to the community in which we live. It is neither
supporting nor condeming the events but seeking the most positive
outcome from them. This will be a positive and peaceful march with an
Assembly at the end for people to express what they are thinking about
recent events.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260822497262285

Pictures from Riots in Hackney Tonight

2011-08-08T19:43:00.000+01:00

Just Do It Premiere Delux

2011-07-29T15:59:00.000+01:00

Here's a our dj set from the Just Do It Premiere Delux by us the vacuum cleaner

Dale Farm eviction notice served.

2011-07-04T21:59:00.000+01:00

Dale Farm eviction notice served -- Camp Constant to be set up from Saturday August 27th

Activity Days at Dale Farm, starting on Saturday July 9th, at 1 pm

Today, some 90 families at Dale Farm, the UK's largest Traveller community, were hand-delivered a final notice of eviction giving families until midnight on August 31 to abandon their homes, or face their entire community being bulldozed. The central government and Basildon Council have set aside over £18m for the eviction battle that could last three weeks. It will be the biggest clearance of its kind involving the ploughing up of 54 separate plots created on a former scrap-yard purchased by the Travellers ten years ago.

Dale Farm is only a 30 minute train ride from London, and hundreds of people have pledged to join residents in nonviolent resistance to the destruction of Dale Farm. The residents of Dale Farm have encouraged their supporters to establish a base at Dale Farm, Camp Constant, to resist this eviction and house human rights monitors.

Join us on Saturday August 27th and beyond, starting with a weekend of Traveller history & celebration together with practical eviction resistance training. There will also be training for legal observers and human rights monitors, and a bit of a party on Saturday night. Sleeping space is available in caravans or you can bring a tent. The eviction could go ahead right after midnight on August 31st, so we will be staying at Dale Farm before then in preparation. Please check http://dalefarm.wordpress.com for further updates.

Dale Farm is within easy reach from London Liverpool St. Station. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact/ for directions.

You can sign up to our email bulletins here: http://lists.ucrony.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dalefarm-solidarity
Stay overnight at Dale Farm and Alerts - Urgent call for Support
After the August 31st, an eviction could happen at any time, and we might not know when. We'll need people to be on standbye to come up to Dale Farm in the event of an eviction. Seehttp://dalefarm.wordpress.com/hrm/ for details. We also need people to spend the night at Dale Farm to provide around the clock support to the community and resistance to the eviction. We are looking for groups and individuals to pledge to stay overnight.

If you can be on eviction alert, or spend a night at Dale Farm, please sign up here:https://smsalerts.tachanka.org/dalefarm

Also, please ask your friends to ask their friends to pledge to stay a
night: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170414852985935

Weekend Activity Days

On July 9th and beyon, we will be building defences to resist the eviction, as well as supporting the community and setting up Camp Constant. We will also hold a meeting there, every Saturday at 1 pm. For more information, and to check the dates of activity days see http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity
http://dalefarm.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_124229427082

I can’t live on vitriol alone!

2011-07-04T14:54:00.002+01:00

“I can’t live on vitriol alone!” 24 and 30 September, 1 October, London/Kent

Part of DIY 8, Professional development projects BY artists FOR artists.

Call for Participants:
A workshop exploring the conditions and possibilities for art that enacts social change, through 3 days of thinking and dialogue, inside and outside urban contexts.

Inspired by Escalate collective, UK Uncut, David Bohm’s theory of dialogue and Theodore Roszak’s writing on counter culture, this workshop aims to provide a critical yet supportive environment in which participants consider and experiment with positive and pro-active approaches to art’s participation in current social conditions.

Drawing from aspects of action research, the project invites individuals to become part of a learning group who wish to orient their practice towards further engagement with social, political, economic and environmental issues through critical affirmative activities.
This workshop encourages participants to bring hope, playfulness and open-mindedness to oppose the assumption that art-political critique is doomed to appropriation by a spectacular media discourse.

Open to artists working in the fields of performance, live art, digital media, transmedia, site specific work, sound, installation and text.

Free except for a contribution to train tickets, from London to Kent, c.£15.

For more information and how to apply, see: http://ceciliawee.com/projects/i-cant-live-on-vitriol-alone.html

Applications should be sent to Cecilia@ceciliawee.com by Friday 15 July, 2011.

DIY 8 is a Live Art Development Agency initiative developed in collaboration with Artsadmin (national), Fierce (West Midlands), LANWest (North West), Live at LICA/Nuffield Theatre (North West), PLATFORM (national), Text Festival (North West), Whitstable Biennale (South East), and Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Yorkshire).

Open discussion with Ben Morea (Black Mask,Up Against the Wall/Motherfuckers), THIS FRIDAY 17th June, London.

2011-06-14T15:05:00.000+01:00

We're Here to Talk About the Family: A discussion with Ben Morea
17th June, 18.00-19.30, LARC, 62 Fieldgate Street, London.

Please join us for an open discussion with Ben Morea, publisher of Black Mask (1966-1968), and member of Up Against the Wall/Motherfuckers (1968-1969).

Active in the art and anarchist communities of New York City's Lower East Side from 1959-1969, Morea dropped out of public sight for 35 years before resurfacing at New York's 16Beaver space in June 2004 at an event or...ganized by Eve Hinderer. Things in the world had apparently gotten too bad, too similar to the conditions of the late-60's--when Morea was both theorizing and practicing an insurgent form of street action to challenge all forms of authority--for Ben to not try to help. Since 2004 Morea has given a number interviews and participated in a series of public discussions to share his experiences in "The Family," as he refers to the Motherfuckers, with the hopes that today's militants might find their story useful.

Afterwards, LARC's red and black club will be running a bar and social, so hang around.

FB event link, feel free to share: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230603233632914#!/event.php?eid=230603233632914
Members of Lisbon's Edições Antipáticas, Madrid's La Felguera Editores, and New York's Red Channels have organized a series of discussion events for Ben in England, Portugal, and Spain from June 16-July 1. For more info please write to motherfuckers[at]redchannels.org

Some recent editions of the collected writings of Black Mask and the Motherfuckers include: London's Unpopular Books (1993), Melbourne's Homebrew Press (2007), Madrid's La Felguera Editores (2009), Oakland's PM Press (2010), and Lisbon's Edições Antipáticas (2011).

Suggested Reading:
--"Ben Morea, Black Mask, and Motherfucker" - Eve Hinderer, 2004: http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001031.php
--"Ben Morea, Garbage Guerrilla" - John McMillian, 2005: http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/4354
--An Interview with Ben Morea - Iain McIntyre, 2006: http://libcom.org/history/against-wall-motherfucker-interview-ben-morea
--Up Against the Wall Motherf**ker - Osha Neumann, 2008: http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100213550
www.antipaticas.blogspot.com
www.e-blast.squarespace.com
www.lafelguera.net
www.londonarc.org
www.redchannels.org

Ship of Fools - A project/residency with the vacuum cleaner.

2011-05-11T00:40:00.001+01:00

Ship of Fools - A project/residency with the vacuum cleaner.

Anti-Section 1 of the vacuum cleaner’s Mental Health Act; 2011

i: From now (10th May 2011) and for the next 28 days, artist/activist the vacuum cleaner has committed himself to the self-made mental health institution the Ship Of Fools (his flat in Hackney, London).

ii: The Ship Of Fools will function as an inter-section between mental sanctuary and creative liberty. As part of this time the vacuum cleaner seeks creative residencies at the Ship Of Fools: both artist and non-artists alike in an attempt to find creativity in madness.

Artists can use the residencies for making, researching, reflecting or anything else that they need time and space for. The only condition is that the residencies must involve the vacuum cleaner in some way – as material, as collaborator, as helper, as observer or as anything else that is creative and useful to both/all.

iv: During this time the vacuum cleaner will also attempt to create work and you are invited to join this process, should you wish.

iv: The Ship Of Fools will offer a small honorary fee, space to work, computers, fast internet access, stills camera, video camera, screen printing facilities, cake and cups of tea, maybe even some lunch. Residencies can last anywhere from one day to the full twenty-eight.

v: What happens at the residency is totally open but is dependent on a mutually beneficial relationship between the vacuum cleaner and the resident. Material from the residency may be collected and presented in some form in the future.

vi: Participants of the residency should be aware that this may be a challenging experience and willing to work with the artist to find mutually respected boundaries.

vii: Applications, however small or large, mental or not are welcome. Submissions are open from now until the 24th of May. Include a brief description of what you would like to do, some form of documentation of previous work and a timeframe for when you would wish to undertake the residency. Submissions can be in any format, digital, hard copy or in person.

fools@thevacuumcleaner.co.uk (email to arrange in person submission)

the vacuum cleaner

Toynbee Studios

28 Commercial St

London

E1 6AB

(Don’t post anything you want back)

www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/shipoffools

Get well soon cards, to be posted to the above address.

This project is supported by Arts Council, Artsadmin and Live Art Development Agency.

ART & ANARCHY - Montreal Anarchist Bookfair

2011-02-26T17:00:00.000Z

ART & ANARCHY brings together the creations of dozens of anarchist-inspired artists and organizers. In previous years, exhibitions have included sculptures, paintings, posters, banners, drawings, and other multi-media forms. Art & Anarchy is displayed over the two days of the Montreal Anarchst Bookfair.

For full information about making a art proposal, visit: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/callout-for-proposals/art-anarchy-2011

The deadline to make an Art & Anarchy submission is March 1, 2011.

MemeFest Festival of Radical Communication

2011-01-12T21:05:00.002Z

MemeFest Festival of Radical Communication

It's an interesting competition with considerable creative
possibilities for writers, visual artists, activists, web developers,
academics, videographers, graphic designers and anyone else who thinks
outside the box with creative ideas for subversive communication. The
Jan 20, 2011 deadline is rapidly approaching so people are encouraged
to adapt work they've already produced to fit this year's theme.

The theme of this year's competition is:

LOVE : CONFLICT : IMAGINATION Love is power. Power is conflict.
Love is conflict.

DEADLINE: January 20, 2011

PRIZES: 20 chosen participants will be invited to take part in a
special Memefest radical communication workshop in Nijmegen,
Netherlands in June 2011. All costs covered. Workshop will be mentored
by a special group of Memefest's mentors.

for further details visit: http://www.memefest.org/en/competition/intro/

People are also encouraged to join the Memefest Community to share
ideas and participate in the discussion.

Please spread the word. And submit your work.

Mark Flash Stone article from Sunday Times.

2010-12-19T13:48:00.002Z

A police officer spent seven years undercover living as a hippie and environmental activist to infiltrate peaceful protest groups

He drank with them, he climbed with them, he even seemed to love them and was loved in return. But Mark “Flash” Stone was living a double life as perhaps the most deeply embedded undercover police officer in Britain.

Questions are being asked this weekend as to what the police officer achieved in seven years, living at the taxpayers’ expense as a hippie and environmental activist. He infiltrated protest groups that were mainly peaceful in nature, moved in with them and travelled to Iceland and all over Europe.

His double existence ended when friends discovered documents showing his true identity, leaving a trail of emotional wreckage and a sense of bewilderment that the authorities should invest so much time for a seemingly modest reward.

Stone — real name Mark Kennedy — was among 114 people arrested last year on the eve of a planned invasion of a power station. The aim was to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire for a week, preventing the release of 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide from one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in Europe.

He drove the car on the initial reconnaissance and even hired a 7½-ton truck for the main event. But charges against him were dropped, leaving 20 others to be convicted last week of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass.

With his long hair, tattoos and body piercings, nobody suspected that their comrade in saving the planet was a detective. But Stone is thought to be a member of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit known as “the Hairies” because officers can wear their hair as they please.

According to one former member, only married officers are accepted into the unit, as they are less likely to “go native” if they have families to return to.

Called “Flash” because he had more money than other activists, Stone became a familiar face in Nottingham, hanging about at the Sumac centre, a vegan cafe and social club for people concerned with human and animal rights, the environment and pacifism. He lived with activists in the city.

His former friends say he was vehemently anti-police, a pose slightly at odds with a community more inclined to organise workshops on what they perceive as “bad policing” than to fight about it.

For the takeover of the power station, the protesters drew up health-and-safety plans and a rule that there would be no violence. They were to stop the conveyor carrying coal into the boilers, climb the 653ft chimney and unfurl protest banners.

The workers would be given leaflets reassuring them that jobs could be created by greener energy, while costlier but cleaner gas-fired stations would come on line to supply the National Grid, keeping the nation’s lights on.

Eon, the owner of the station, knew about the action five days beforehand and could have sought an injunction. Instead, the protesters were allowed to assemble and were then arrested.

Stone was unmasked as a suspected police officer 18 months later, just before the trial. Confronted by six friends with paperwork showing his real name, he admitted being in the Metropolitan police. The six published a short account of his confession in the green media, to general disbelief.

“Look at the bloke,” said one activist. “What did they do, send him from Hendon [police training centre] to spend five years smoking rollies and living in a tent? It boggles the mind that he’s spent so long doing basically f***-all, expending so much effort in terms of debate, slow, dull legwork and campaigning — and still be thinking, ‘Aha, fooling these oh-so-dangerous activists brilliantly’.”

Last week two police forces confirmed Stone’s status to The Sunday Times. “The individual is a Met officer,” said Nottinghamshire police. “He’s an undercover officer,” said the Metropolitan police. “We can’t say more.”

Scotland Yard refused requests for information about the SDS, a unit of the Met with a remit to prevent disorder. It was set up in 1968 after violence at anti-Vietnam war protests.

An insight into its methods came this year, when an SDS officer from the 1990s described his work. For four years the officer, Peter Daley, spent one day a week with his wife and family and six as a hate-filled Trotskyist on the wrong side of a riot shield. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and won an out-of-court settlement.

Stone has disappeared from Nottingham, leaving friends in shock. One said: “Whatever else Mark is, I do believe he had genuine feelings for those he had meaningful relationships with in the last seven years.”

The friend added: “I don’t believe he could be with such beautiful, wonderful people and not feel love.”

The protesters will be sentenced next month.

LEWISHAM ANTI CUTS ALLIANCE PRESS RELEASE

2010-11-30T22:09:00.000Z

NO TO CUTS IN JOBS, BENEFITS AND PUBLIC SERVICES

LOBBY of the FULL COUNCIL
MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER
6.30 pm, TOWN HALL, CATFORD

On Wednesday 17th November Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance alongside several trade unions: NUT, Unison, GMB, Unite and UCU lobbied the Mayor & Cabinet where Steve Bullock agreed to at least £16m cuts in public spending.

He will present his budget to full council on 29th November where Labour Party councillors have the chance to defend the people they were elected to represent and vote against the budget and every single cut contained in it.

Steve Bullock is clear that this is just the beginning and that cuts could exceed the predicted £60 over three years.

We believe that these cuts will have a devastating effect on people's lives. Services such as Opening Doors, 5 libraries and a children's centre are earmarked for the first phase of the cuts. In the 2nd phase there will be a reduction in Early Years provision adult social care, temporary housing accommodation, libraries as well as many other services which improve the lives of people who live, work and study in Lewisham.

We are told that these draconian cuts imposed by central government upon Lewisham local authority, are necessary because of high levels of UK debt. However we do not accept the inevitability of these cuts. The poor are being made to pay for a financial crisis, which was caused by the greed for profit. The money to offset the debt is available through avoided and uncollected tax, the banking assets that are now owned by the UK government after the banking bailout.

Steve Bullock says on his bog that: "I am clear that my highest priority is to try and protect those whose needs are greatest". We think that he and other Labour Party councillors should extend their duty to defending all their constituents who overwhelmingly voted for them in the last election and refuse to pass this cuts budget.

Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance is lobbying the council on Monday 29th November to send this message to Labour Party councillors in particular: " Don't vote for the budget. Don't tell the people of Lewisham that there is no alternative. Join us in helping to build the anti cuts movement by mobilising unions, tenants associations, and community activists with the central demand that the coalition government restores the money for local services."
http://lewishamanticutsalliance.wordpress.com/

Slade School of Art Activism Occupation

2010-11-30T13:28:00.000Z

The SLADE SCHOOL OF ART has just been occupied by students, which means two buildings in the stunning UCL campus are now under occupation. They are planning 3 days of alternative education, art, activism and disobedience this weekend, from Friday night 3rd to Sunday 5th December. The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination will be supporting this and we are calling on all art activists friends to take part in this act of creative rebellion against the cuts in the UK... Its going to be a great space for planning, discussing, plotting the next steps of what looks like a rising movement in this country, but one that needs our collective radical imaginations .... pass on and proliferate xx

you could either:

1) Propose a workshop/event/ talk/ performance/action/installation/ that you could contribute to the weekend ( a short description of it, what you need space and time wise etc )

2) Write a statement of support to the occupation - esp from international artists etc .. would be great

3) Just turn up with your body and rebel soul

The blog for this is -- http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/

pleas email your ideas to me at John@labofii.net and sladeoccupation@gmail.com

There is a meeting TONIGHT 30th at 7pm at the SLADE, round table at top of stairs ! for those interested...

Tis the season for Climate Trials

2010-11-16T14:36:00.001Z

RATCLIFFE ON TRIAL ‘SHOW OF SOLIDARITY’
9am, 22nd November
Outside Nottingham Crown Court

Next Monday 20 activists begin their long awaited trial. Accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe on Soar power station, they don’t deny this was their intention. However they are pleading Not Guilty on the grounds that they planned to act to prevent loss of life and serious
injury caused by climate change.

With the trial due to begin Monday morning, we are asking supporters from far and wide to congregate outside the Crown Court at 9am for a Show of Solidarity before the trial gets underway. You don’t need to bring anything but yourselves, and we will be inviting you to hold banners reading “I’d Stop Emissions Too”.

We ask for a calm presence that doesn’t disrupt the trial. But the more attendees the better. This is the culmination of an exhausting 18 month process for the defendants, who face a maximum sentence of three months in prison. A big show of support would make their day.

Get booking your travel, or organise a mini-bus with your local group. For
more information, email info@ratcliffeontrial.org

See you next Monday,
Ratcliffe on Trial campaign support group

***************

MANCHESTER AIRPORT ON TRIAL

In May 2010, seventeen people staged a protest/direct action at Manchester Airport, temporarily shutting it down. They did this to stop some of the 5 million tonnes of carbon emissions that the airport is responsible for annually and in opposition to plans to destroy local homes and biodiversity spots to expand the World Freight Centre.
Mission:

17 people are now facing two trials as a result of this action. 11 people will be tried for 'obstruction of the highway' in Dec 2010. The remaining 6 will face a trial in early 2011.

Please
-Email statements of support to manchesterairportontrial@gmail.com
-Like the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/92b4jo
www.manchesterairportontrial.org/

Beating police repression after the student occupation.

2010-11-15T19:52:00.004Z

The website fitwatch.org.uk has been suspended on request of Acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson from CO11 as part of Op Malone (hunting down the students from last weeks demo)

We have reprinted below the last post from fitwatch.org.uk in solidarity, you can post it on your blog to!

---

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.

There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .
This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.

DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.

DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.

DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.

DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.

DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.

DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal. Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.

Your chance to live in Paradise... (Heathrow)

2010-10-12T20:10:00.000+01:00

After a blistering six months ‘Grow Heathrow’ is calling on supporters to become involved in the facilitation and development of the Sipson community garden.

Grow Heathrow is a squatted community market garden in the centre of Sipson, one of the villages that was destined to be bulldozed for the now cancelled 3^rd runway.

The project provides a space for the community to come together and rebuild following the long and successful battle to stop the airport expanding. For the last six months activists and residents have worked to create a flourishing community hub for skill-sharing, education and local food growing.

As we work to negotiate long-term ownership of the land we are exploring ways to keep the project growing in a sustainable way. As a squatted space, ‘Grow Heathrow needs to be constantly occupied, so we are looking for people who are supportive to step forward and spend time in the garden contributing to the running of the space, and adding new ideas for projects and events.

This Autumn we have planned a fruit scrumping day, the Sipson Conker Championship, wood-shed building and lots of winter vegetable planting!

The ‘Grow Heathrow’ rolling rota is starting for people to put their name down for the odd day, a spare week or any spare time to invest into the project.
We have skills a-plenty to share and want to learn from you , and more tea than you could ever imagine. There’s a.warm sleeping space for those staying on site and shared meals cooked with fresh vegetables from the garden.

We organize the rota each week on Wednesday evening and it would be great to know days and times before then. You can ring 07890751568, e-mail info@transitionheathrow.com, or even drop by the project. We look forward to seeing you!

Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, UB7 0JG

political Party - Saturday 9th Oct, Liverpool

2010-10-05T23:42:00.007+01:00

cause the dead don't dance...

political Party

Saturday 9th Oct, 11am - 11pm
Part of the Bed-In at the Bluecoat Gallery - Liverpool

11-11 Dancing - Can’t get enough of your love, baby.

Join activist prancers Hayley Newman and the vacuum cleaner as they dance themselves ecstatic over 12 hours in an attempt to imagine peace. Come and make some shapes with us on our bed: horizontal or vertical, carefree or careless, happy or sad.

Join us for:

11am Breakfast (in bed)
11.30 – 1pm Get up, get down and get in the groove
1-2pm Lunch (in bed)
3pm Dance lesson
4pm Dance lesson
5pm More dancing
6 – 7pm Break (dance)
7pm Dance lesson
8pm – 10.30pm Party
10.30 – 11 Dance/tidy off
11pm – Hot Coco (in Bed)

Special interventions by The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent in the Home and others.

Follow the event live on twitter
twitter.com/postcapitalist
twitter.com/vacuumcleaner

Just Fucking Party - This Saturday, 25th September

2010-09-20T12:58:00.005+01:00

Just Do It fundraiser.

Get your dancing shoes on and get ready to party like it’s…1979. There’ll be disco, electro and happy house music and plenty of good old fashioned fun.

Come and help us celebrate all the work we’ve done so far and cheer us on for the work we’ve yet to do. All the proceeds go towards finishing the film – a damn good cause and one hell of a party!
What? Just Fucking Party!
When? 25th September 10pm – very, very late
Where? Red Space, just behind the Old Foundry, Old Street (nearest tube Old Street) Map
Cost? £10 waged/£5 unwaged/nobody turned away

Bring your friends and come party with us!

www.just-do-it.org.uk

Pleasure Hunt

2010-09-15T12:40:00.002+01:00

Pleasure Hunt

Igfest, Bristol - September 28th, 4.30pm

“Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.” Once said a dead french guy.

So if you’d like to get pleasure in a bristol shopping centre. Come along for the adventure and pleasure hunt. It’s mostly legal.

R.S.V.P - suck@thevacuumcleaner.co.uk

Game designed by - Susan Keen and the vacuum cleaner

http://igfest.org/programme/events/pleasure-hunt

Follow the game live via

http://twitter.com/vacuumcleaner
or
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23pleasurehunt

Oil Painting Protest over BP sponsorship in Tate Modern Turbine Hall

2010-09-14T19:47:00.000+01:00

Oil Painting Protest over BP sponsorship in Tate Modern Turbine Hall
Liberate Tate calls for footprint of art museum to be free from Big Oil

Tuesday (14 September) art activists from Liberate Tate staged a guerrilla art intervention in Tate Modern, covering the floor of the iconic Turbine Hall with dozens of litres of oil paint in protest at the museum taking sponsorship from BP.

The flash mob-style event was staged a day before a Tate Board of Trustees meeting. Liberate Tate are part of a growing public movement calling on Tate’s governing body to end its sponsorship agreement with the oil company. Tate’s Board of Trustees has decided to review the BP corporate sponsorship.

At 5pm, around 50 figures dressed in black entered the gallery each carrying a BP-branded oil paint tube. In a circle they placed the paint tubes on the floor and each stamped on one, spraying out dozens of litres of paint in a huge burst across the floor. The installation art work, 'Crude', was then signed ‘Liberate Tate’ and offered to Tate for its collection.

Blake Williams, a participant in the performance, said: “Ten years ago tobacco companies were seen as respectable partners for public institutions. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has brought home to an even wider public that the impact of big oil companies like BP on the environment and the global climate makes them equally unethical for an art museum, especially one that purports to demonstrate leadership in response to climate change.”

Tate’s latest annual report (2009/10), released this month, claims “sustainability is a prime consideration throughout Tate’s work”. Tate reduced its energy use and overall carbon emissions last year and makes much of its partnership with the Carbon Trust and that it was a founding signatory to the national 10:10 campaign, launched at Tate Modern, aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Liberate Tate said: “Tate has so far chosen to take a very narrow view of its footprint in relation to climate change and to not yet take into account its formal relationship with Big Oil. At a time when arts institutions wish to demonstrate how central the arts are in bringing social benefits to all and thus deserving of strong public funding, the museum must accept responsibility for its full impact in society.”

“Tate has a sponsor in BP that is engaged in socially and ecologically destructive activities. This is incompatible with Tate’s ethical guidelines, its stated vision in regard to sustainability and climate change, and for maintaining Tate’s reputation. In addition, its mission is undermined if visitors to Tate galleries cannot enjoy great art without the museum making them complicit in creating climate chaos. We call on the governing body to recognise this and end Tate’s relationship with BP.”

Earlier this year Liberate Tate issued an open invitation for artists, art lovers and other concerned members of the public to act to ensure that Tate ends its oil sponsorship by the end of 2011 ahead of Tate Modern’s expansion into its cleaned out underground oil tanks.

www.twitter.com/liberatetate

THE CRUDE AWAKENING - A call out.

2010-09-12T17:29:00.001+01:00

THE CRUDE AWAKENING

A mass action to switch off oil

Saturday, 16 October 2010, Central London

Floods in Pakistan, drought in Russia, huge glaciers breaking up in Greenland...
Our climate system is rapidly sliding into crisis, as oil companies destroy people's lives and the environment to keep sucking up their profits.

Oil saturates every aspect of our lives. Oil profits lubricate the financial markets and its sponsorship clings like a bad smell to our cultural institutions. It flows through pipelines to the pumps, airports and factories of our cities.

The failure of the UN COP15 process showed us – if there was ever any doubt – that government and industry can’t tackle climate change. It’s up to us and it’s time to up the ante.

As a movement, our actions against coal and aviation have made a real difference. Now oil’s time is up.

Together, on October 16, let's give the oil industry a Crude Awakening.

Meet in central London. Be ready to move. Be ready to stay and stand your ground.

Be creative. Be prepared. Be there.

Find out more, get involved and sign up for text alerts at www.crudeawakening.org.uk

Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6S0kg

Twitter: @ crudeawake

Part of the CJA global week of action for climate justice

Spanish collecting society is threatening EXGAE

2010-09-10T11:48:00.000+01:00

In August, right in the middle of the summer holidays, EXGAE received a certified fax from the lawyers of the Spanish royalties collection society, Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), demanding that EXGAE disappear from the face of the earth within the next seven days. If it fails to comply, it went on, SGAE will proceed, without any further notice, to sue EXGAE for damages, unfair competition and infringement of the “SGAE” brand.

The SGAE law firm, Lehmann and Caballeiro, allege unfair competition in regards to the name EXGAE and the nature of the activities it carries out, under the provisions of the Patents Law.

Civil society has already denounced the fact that culture industry multinationals like the SGAE use copyright, patents and economic coercion for censorship, to silence dissidence and to restrict freedom of expression.

Citizens have made it clear that lawsuits and threats will not stop the just development of the digital era.

We’re sorry, but it will no longer wash. The SGAE lawyers will have to find some other business.

And what´s more we doubt that SGAE´s associates would want their interests to be defended in this way.

EXGAE won’t disappear within seven days. EXGAE is here to stay. Together, we are bringing down a monopoly and building a future that is accessible, sustainable, and beneficial for everybody.

No! to the use of copyright for censorship purposes.

EXGAE is a non-profit platform. It emerged from the desire of a group of associations and individuals to share – among themselves and with anybody who many need them – the tools to defend themselves from the abuses of the part of the cultural industries that tries by any means possible to hinder the transition to the digital era, which is natural and unavoidable. Through practice, EXGAE promotes the normalisation of new modes of creating, understanding and producing. EXGAE dialogues and works with everybody, and firmly believes that the old cultural models must coexist with the new ones, without the first trying to hamper the progress of the second. And it does so for the benefit of artists, citizens and cultural entrepreneurs.

EXGAE works on six fronts:
• Offering legal advice through specialised lawyers; • Reporting irregularities in the management of royalties collection societies and cultural industries, when they go against the interests of artists, and when they are detrimental to users and entrepreneurs; • Analysing the social and political situation and designing proposals for legislative intervention; • Organising cultural events aimed at “normalizing” the new form of cultural production, such as the oXcars; • Amplifying the power of national and international networks, promoting and harmonizing the capacities of each node; • Creating viral campaigns.
In recent years, EXGAE has been one of the most active groups in the struggle for civil rights in the digital environment, at the Spanish, European and international level.

It has participated in the organization of important milestones for freedoms on the Internet:
• The fight against the Spanish Law of Sustainable Economy (LES) and the founding of RED SOSTENIBLE ; • The creation of tools for legislative reforms such as the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge ; • The organization of major mobilisations in 2010, such as the (D’) Evolution Summit, which reached more than 150,000 followers during the European Summit of Ministers of Culture • Internet will Not be another TV jointly with international consumer defence organisations.

It provides information free of charge to over 1400 people each year and its web site http://exgae.net/ is visited by around 10,000 people per month.

* If you want to help us, use and spread the information and reference material on our web. Follow us and participate on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s multiply, share, and not let them intimidate us.

We will keep you informed.
http://twitter.com/EXGAE
http://twitter.com/EXGAEca
http://www.facebook.com/EXGAE.net

“(…) Times have changed. The Internet allows the horizontal exchange
of information and culture among everybody. We all consume and produce
culture at the same time. This is why the means of cultural production
must adapt to this new democracy, and not the other way around (…).”
EXGAE Manifesto “Greed Breaks the Sack,” July 2008

If you don’t know what EXGAE is link here:http://exgae.net/que-es-exgae/what-is-exgae

Related Files (spanish):

The SGAE certified fax:http://omploader.org/vNWhvYw/sgae-vs-exgae.pdf

Our responses:http://exgae.net/respuestas-de-exgae-al-burofax-de-los-abogados-de-la-sgae

STICK 'EM UP

2010-09-08T17:18:00.001+01:00

Not just any bookfair stall heaving with insurgent literature - this stuff  you can GLUE TO THE WALLS. the stick 'em up stall will be resplendent with a host of rizographed posters to dazzle the crowds with their pleasurable designs and rousing slogans. we'll be giving them away for free/donation along with your very own starter bag of wallpaper paste and how-to instructions.

The design of the posters exhibited by stick 'em up is fully participatory - all doodlers, sloganeers and photoshoppers who would like their work emblazoned across the nation's bus stops, abandoned buildings and electricity boxes are welcome to send their poster designs to us, as jpegs, prior to the event, along with a donation for the small sum it'll take to rizograph the image - that is, £1 for the initial plate and then 4p per A3 copy and 70p for the paper - by 4^th October.( If you can't afford it send us your designs anyway we will try to fund as many as possible our selves). We hope to print in editions of 50 or 100.

Please note that the rizograph does not print grey or midtones so all designs should be high contrast, black on white. We ask for all designs to be one colour but the rizograph can print in black, red, blue or green so let us know which one colour you would like if you have a preference.

DISCLAIMER: please note that the stick 'em up stall is a theoretical exercise only, providing literature purely for personal instruction and private adornment. we condemn all and any defacement to council or private property, and advise that you stay indoors in the evenings and get a good night's sleep.  

Designs should be emailed to stickemupeverywhere@gmail.com. Donations for print costs can be posted to Stick ‘em up, 52 Wiverton Rd, Nottingham NG7 6NT with cheques made payable to ‘the last chance saloon’.

We beat the Third runway, so fucking what! - A Call Out

2010-08-28T10:23:00.001+01:00

I, like many other people, was disgusted by the idea of BAA building a third runway at Heathrow. And like many activists my primary motive was the environment. Yet when I spent time with the people who would lose their community should the runway be built, my outlook changed. That was about 3 years ago, and since then things have changed. The third runway is pretty much dead. Not completely, but as dead as it can be without BAA saying they won’t build it given the chance. Great news it was, as well. A real broad movement celebrated.

And then everyone found the next cause to fight, as often happens; after all, we’re surrounded by injustice. But some people didn’t, a group called Transition Heathrow realised that the damage had already been done. That three communities had been devastated by the long hard fight against BAA, houses had been bought by BAA and stand empty, small business’ had left and people had begun to move away to start new lives.

But here’s a thought. What’s the point in slowing climate change if our communities, and the lives of the people in them, are destroyed. What have we won? Sure, the people who don’t live around Heathrow are in a win win situation: the mega environmental disaster project had been halted, and then we could return home. But the villages around Heathrow can’t. They live next to the airport. Their are already living with the hell of this mega project and the after effects of resisting its expansion.

So, this is a call to all you amazing people that fought the third runway. A call to not neglect the communities we helped defend. Sure, their homes may be more secure, but community isn’t just bricks and mortar. It’s people.

For the last 6 months a legally squatted market garden called ‘Grow Heathrow’ has been helping the community rebuild itself. Bringing people together to grow food and friendship. I’ve spent a lot of time there and I can honestly tell you that it’s an amazing place. Where environmentalists, airport workers and local families have a shared vision of their future, and not in some tokenism way either. This is now under threat, the eviction papers have been delivered, and again these villages face another hard battle. It’s the wish of many within the community to keep this project alive and steps are being made to secure the land permanently, to keep this community growing. But they need your help to rebuild and renew, as much as they did when the runway was on the cards.

So please, take the time to find out how you can help.

www.transitionheathrow.com/eviction-2

twitter.com/transheathrow

info@transitionheathrow.com

Self pull - this is a video we edited of the project -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orp6-KlZVFE

‘Grow Heathrow’ Eviction Threat!

2010-08-24T20:00:00.003+01:00

The squatted community garden in Sipson, Heathrow has been served a court summons for eviction.

On the 1st of March this year we reclaimed a neglected plot of land called the Berkeley Nurseries in Sipson- on the planned site of the 3rd runway.

For the last six months we’ve worked with residents to rejuvanate the former-market garden; shifting 30 tonnes of rubbish, growing seasonal food, hosting permaculture workshops and a banquet attended by 80 people as well as supporting the successful No Third Runway campaign.

Grow Heathrow is part of a budding land movement in the UK connecting struggles to take back control of our food production.
In building resilient communities to environmental and economic crises we want to defend real alternatives to the systems of false democracy and corporate greed.

We are in negotiations with the landowners for long-term community ownership, and so for the while we ask you to support us in the upcoming struggle by;

1. Signing our petition http://www.petitiononline.com/heathrow/petition.html

2. Email us at info@transitionheathrow.com with a supportive testimony for the project 

3. Come to court and show your solidarity: 2nd of September in Uxbridge County Court at 11am.

Please email info@transitionheathrow.com if you have any skills, ideas or experience to contribute in resisting this threat.

Please forward to your networks and post on your blogs.
With love,
Transition Heathrow

http://www.transitionheathrow.com/eviction-2
www.twitter.com/transheathrow
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=119919719499&ref=ts
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47991844@N06/

If Climate Camp made Avatar...

2010-08-04T16:49:00.004+01:00

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/

Picket against DPP - Solidarity with Ian Tomlinson's Family

2010-07-26T10:20:00.000+01:00

Ian Tomlinson was killed by police action at the G20 and not even any charges
brought. The utter disgust at what has happened by the general public has been
encouraging and so to show support towards Ian's family and the complete hatred
and contempt we have for the legal system that works in the favour of them and
not us - we have decided to call for a mass demo outside the Department of
Public Prosecution.

If you work, try and get half a day off like many of us are doing. Most
importantly spread the word to all your friends and family.

Everyone to the streets! Never forget Never forgive!

When: 12noon Friday 30th July
Where: Office of Department of Public Prosecution, Rose Court, 2 Southwark
Bridge, SE1 9HS, London

Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139946402701890&ref=mf

Download and distribute poster:

http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/07/456163.html

Fuck Tha (Met) Police

2010-07-22T15:29:00.003+01:00

NWA - Fuck Tha Police

ART ACTIVISTS SPILL OIL AT ICONIC MUSEUM PIECE IN PROTEST AT BP SPONSORSHIP

2010-07-13T11:51:00.001+01:00

Five members of the art activist group Culture Beyond Oil [1] today poured
non-toxic black oil around the British Museum’s world famous Easter Island
sculpture, in protest at BP’s sponsorship of the museum.

The group, inspired by Liberate Tate’s intervention at Tate Britain earlier
this month [2], said it had deliberately chosen the giant statue of a human
head because it represents the way in which civilizations once considered
invincible can collapse in a short period of time. The activists were
careful not to pour oil on the sculpture itself, which is seated on a modern
stone plinth.

Like the Tate, whose trustees meet to discuss their sponsorship arrangements
tomorrow, the British Museum receives money from BP on an annual basis. In
return the company is able to use the building to hold corporate parties and
launch events, as well as having its logo used on official British Museum
publications [3].

Lisa Reardon, one of the artists who took part, said:

"Institutions such as the British Museum are amongst the most valuable
assets that this country has, but their worldwide reputation is being
tarnished by the sponsorship deal with BP.

“Unless the people who run this museum want to see its famous pillars
become
a crumbling relic of the oil age they need to stop giving BP cover for its
destructive business. This oil company is using our best loved museums and
galleries to distract us from a catastrophic headlong rush to extract the
last drops of the black stuff."

This intervention follows similar events at the Tate Modern, Tate Britain
and National Portrait Gallery in recent weeks. Tonight will also see the
BP-sponsored screening of the Royal Opera’s Simon Boccanegra in Trafalgar
Square targeted by Climate Rush and the Greenwash Guerrillas [4].

The statue around which the oil was poured is known as Hoa Hakananai'a, a
2000 year old relic taken from Easter Island by European explorers. The
story of the Easter Island statues is often cited as an example of the speed
with which once strong civilizations have suddenly collapsed.

BP receives tangible benefits from the sponsorship deal with the British
Museum. Two years ago, BP chief executive Tony Hayward announced BP's
sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in the museum’s impressive central
courtyard [5].

Another art activist, Ben Cooper, who is also part of Liberate Tate, said:

“Oil sponsorship of public institutions is a problem that stretches way
beyond BP and the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil industry has a
long history of environmental and human rights abuses, and is currently
pulling us closer and closer to a potential catastrophe on a global scale."

"Just like the forests on Easter Island, oil represents a resource being
over-exploited despite massively increasing risks. With our relentless
search for oil we are risking the collapse of the ecosystems on which we
depend - just as the inhabitants of Easter Island did 2000 years ago”.

Culture Beyond Oil want publicly funded institutions such as Tate and the
British Museum to end their relationships with oil companies. The group are
also calling for cultural institutions to fully disclose the nature and
extent of their funding arrangements with the oil industry, and to make this
information publicly available immediately.

July News for Just Do It - Environmental Activist Film

2010-07-08T16:18:00.004+01:00

Happy July one and all!

As Summer gets into full swing it's all go at JUST DO IT HQ and our ears are burning. Check out who's responsible here. We've been busy editing, picking up top tips on distribution, making the office into a Feng-Shui palace, welcoming new volunteers aboard, and spreading the word.

We're going full steam ahead but we need your help!

Since we launched our crowd-funding appeal three weeks ago, we’ve raised a fantastic £2000 thanks to your donations - those 10s and 25s really do add up! As wonderful as this is, we’ve still got a long way to go. So if you haven’t already sent a friendly email encouraging your friends and family to donate, why not do it now? All contributions - little and large - make a huge difference.This film really won't get made without your help so go on, JUST DO IT! And remember, if you're as skint as we are, there are loads of ways you can lend a hand so get in touch.

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DATE FOR YOUR DIARY ** SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER**

After an inopportune date clash our FUNdraiser party will now be on Saturday 25th September so make sure you put the date in your diary. It is the must attend event of the year - friends, colleagues, neighbours all welcome– the more the merrier – see you there!

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We're VERY excited to announce some new friends and mentors, who have kindly agreed to share their wisdom with us. Whilst seizing the future with Sheffield Doc/Fest Emily met Peter Broderick who has agreed to consult on the distribution strategy. This is AMAZING as Peter has been at the fore front of alternative distribution for over a decade. He has been decribed as ‘the best friend an independent filmmaker could have’. That was day one, and on day two Penny Woolcock (whose Tina Goes Shopping was one of the most original documentary projects of the 90's) agreed to be a director's mentor for Emily. Emily says she can't think of anyone she would rather have. A very productive few days indeed! Have a look at who else is helping us out here

AND…if you haven’t already heard Emily and James waxing lyrical about the project on Dissident Island radio, make sure you have a listen here.

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Where to get your JULY Just Do It dose:

Saturday 10th July - Just Do It @ Hayes Carnival

We'll be hosting the solar-powered cinema at Hayes Carnival, bringing you some gems of environmentally-aware cinema plus Director Emily on hand giving us a guided tour of some clips from Just Do It!

When? 2-5pm

Sunday 11th July - Emily James DOUBLE BILL @ Passing Clouds

Oh yes. Get yourselves down to East London haunt Passing Clouds for a bonanza Emily James evening. Screening: The Luckiest Nut in the World AND The Battle for Broadway Market.

PLUS:: The Just Do It trailer and Q&A with Emily James.

See you there!

Passing Clouds 1 Richmond Road, London E8 4AA :: 6:30pm start

Saturday 24th July – Just Do It @ Secret Garden Party

If you’ve only just readjusted after the maelstrom that was Glastonbury, put your sunglasses back on and head int’ countryside. Just Do It will be in attendance at the unique and wonderful Secret Garden Party, hosting a magical screening with our friends Plane Stupid PLUS a Q&A with Emily James.

The Just Do It special: 4-6pm (Saturday 24th July) Get your festival tickets here

Thursday 29th July - Just Do It @ Kino London

Emily James will be making a guest appearance at the capital’s open-mic film night, Kino London, where she will be sharing her short 'The Candy Factory' - a film made as part of the Just Do It project during the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 .

Plus the Just Do It trailer & Q&A!

Popcorn in abundance. Don't miss it!

Kino London. Vibe Bar, 91 Brick Lane. Doors at 7:30pm

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That's all for now folks. If you haven't already donated, head straight to our crowd-funding appeal HERE and give whatever you can to keep this show on the road. If you've already donated (thank you VERY much), please forward the message below to friends, family, lovers and colleagues and encourage them to follow in your footsteps. Just do it: copy and paste.

Thank you!

The Just Do It team

The Real Life Social Network

2010-07-07T20:18:00.001+01:00

Social Media explained, ignore the bullshit about making money and replace with pro crapitalism

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

Freedom of Movement - Art and Activist workshops by Trapese Popular Education Collective

2010-07-06T11:29:00.000+01:00

Freedom of Movement

Become an urban orienteer, pull out the threads of Bristol's past, present and possible futures. From calamity to climate justice?

Project summary:

Orienteer = to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, unleashing calamity and exploitation on the indigenous populations of the Americas.

On October 12, 2010, there is a call out for a global day of action for climate justice. But what does this mean here in our cities? Considering that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, we will begin by exploring some of the rich history and scratching the surface of the shiny present of the city of Bristol. By bike or by foot small groups will follow their maps and at each site will experience a creative intervention that pulls out some threads of the normally invisible legacies of empire, migration and resource extraction. Returning to base with something from each control point we will share food before mapping out what we have found. Day 2 will weave these experiences together and consider how our journey can help us to imagine possible ways forward.

Dates, times and location:
Bristol, venue tbc.
10.00-6.00 Saturday 25th and
10.00-4.00 Sunday 26th September 2010.

Application procedure:
There are up to 20 places available. Applications are invited from artists, performers, actors, musicians, theatre-makers, and those working in community, collaborative and creative practices, artists working in educational settings. The only prerequisite is a commitment to collective working for the duration of the project. The workshop will require a few hours of walking and or cycling. Lunch and drinks will be provided on both days.

To apply please email alice.trapese@gmail.com expressing why you are interested in the project, any relevant experiences and ideas for future projects/work. Please feel free to ask any questions.

The deadline for applications is Friday 16 July, all applicants will be notified of the outcome by 21 July 2010. Following this, participants will be provided with further details about meeting points and locations.

The artist:
I am committed to creating spaces that work on the edges between education, art and organising for social change. I am a freelance facilitator and writer and a founder member of Trapese Popular Education Collective, (www.trapese.org). I have more than five years experience running creative workshops exploring issues around social and environmental justice with teachers, performers and artists including working with Platform, (C Words) Banner Theatre, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, and Moving Sounds. I am currently working around the intersections of climate change, migration and understanding the calls for climate justice.

This DIY project is supported by PLATFORM:
PLATFORM works across disciplines for social and ecological justice. It combines the transformatory power of art with the tangible goals of campaigning, the rigour of in-depth research with the vision to promote alternative futures. www.platformlondon.org

License to Spill - Anti BP action at BP sponsored Tate

2010-06-29T09:00:00.003+01:00

On the evening of the 28th of June at approx 7:15pm, Liberate Tate In protest over BP’s sponsorship of the arts performed a “Solemn” oil like spill at the Tates Summer party.

To download Licence to Spill, a new release from Platform, visit http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=381&parent=39

Info : http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/

Coalition of the Willing

2010-06-27T17:27:00.000+01:00

'Coalition of the Willing' is an animated film about an online war against global warming in a post-Copenhagen world.

Coalition Of The Willing from coalitionfilm

UNPRECEDENTED COALITION FROM THE ARTS CONDEMNS BP SPONSORSHIP OF THE TATE

2010-06-27T17:16:00.004+01:00

* 171 FIGURES FROM THE ARTS SIGN LETTER ON THE DAY TATE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF BP FUNDING

A letter was published today signed by 171 figures from the art world condemning BP’s sponsorship of cultural institutions in the UK. The letter has been published on the day that Tate Britain is hosting a party to celebrate 20 years of BP’s sponsorship. [1] A group of artists under the banner of ‘The Good Crude Britannia’ are planning on protesting outside the event, and will be handing out the “Licence to Spill’ briefing to people attending the party. [2]

Arts/activist organisation Platform [3] has gathered 171 signatories from the international arts community, for a letter that says:

“As crude oil continues to devastate coastlines and communities in the Gulf of Mexico, BP executives will be enjoying a cocktail reception with curators and artists in the Tate Britain. These

relationships enable big oil companies to mask the environmentally destructive nature of their activities with the social legitimacy that is associated with such high profile cultural associations.” [4]

Some of the signatories include:

*Hans Haacke, German-American conceptual artist whose work has featured on numerous occasions in Tate exhibitions

*John Keane, who was the official British war artist during the first Gulf War and who was a judge on the 2004 BP-sponsored portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery

*Sonia Boyce, MBE, whose works are held in the collection of the Tate Modern

Hans Haacke, one of the signatories said: "Since taxpayers (through their elected representatives) do not adequately fund cultural institutions, it has become routine for corporate sponsors with PR needs to fill the gap. This arrangement often creates conflicts between the public good and a sponsor’s agenda. It is rare, however, that these conflicts are recognized and publicly debated, as it is now with BP and the Tate Gallery."

Electronic artist Matthew Herbert, also a signatory said: “The oily tentacles of both BP and Shell have wrapped themselves around our most prestigious cultural institutions and at a time when urgent action is required to slow consumption of fossil fuels. In trading our cultural legacies so nakedly for such tainted cash, some of Britain's most powerful stages for creative expression have knowingly undermined the very integrity of that expression.”

Kevin Smith from Platform said: “This letter is testament to the extent of the discomfort felt in the arts by the Tate’s ongoing relationship with BP. The ongoing ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico should be the game changer that finally ends the ability of the oil industry to legitimise itself through arts and cultural sponsorship.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

[1] News of the party was first leaked on Thursday. See the PR

‘Leaked invite reveals Tate’s ill-timed plans to celebrate BP

sponsorship’ at http://blog.platformlondon.org/content/leaked-invite-

reveals-tate%E2%80%99s-ill-timed-plans-celebrate-bp-sponsorship

[2] The Good Crude Britannia is a national artists' campaign against

BP sponsorship of Tate. We are calling all concerned artists to

either sign the petition and/or support the 'campaign' which is to be

launched on Monday 28th June 2010 at Tate Britain's Summer Party, 7-9pm.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=126083700763469

‘Licence to Spill’ is available at:

http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=381&parent=39

[3] Platform works across disciplines for social and ecological

justice. It combines the transformatory power of art with the

tangible goals of campaigning, the rigour of in-depth research with

the vision to promote alternative futures.

[4] The letter and full list of signatories:

Tonight, the Tate is holding a summer party in which it is also

celebrating 20 years of BP sponsorship. As crude oil continues to

devastate coastlines and communities in the Gulf of Mexico, BP

executives will be enjoying a cocktail reception with curators and

artists in the Tate Britain. These relationships enable big oil

companies to mask the environmentally destructive nature of their

activities with the social legitimacy that is associated with such

high profile cultural associations.

We represent a cross section of people from the arts community that

believe that the BP logo represents a stain on Tate’s international

reputation. Many artists are angry that Tate and other national

cultural institutions continue to side step the issue of oil

sponsorship. Little more than a decade ago, tobacco companies were

seen as respectable partners for public institutions to gain support

from – that is no longer the case. It is our hope that oil and gas

will soon be seen in the same light. The public is rapidly coming to

recognise that the sponsorship programmes of BP and Shell are means

by which attention can be distracted from their impacts on human

rights, the environment and the global climate.

1.Hans Haacke, artist

2. John Keane, artist

3. Caryl Churchill, playwright

4. Matthew Herbert, electronic artist and composer

5. Suzi Gablik, art critic and writer

6. Gordon Roddick, art philanthopist

7. Rebecca Solnit, writer and art critic

8. Lucy R. Lippard, writer and curator

9. Davey Anderson, playwright

10. Adam Chodzko, artist

11. Beverly Naidus, artist and professor

12. Suzanne Lacy, artist

13. Chris Jordan, artist

14. Cat Phillipps, artist

15. Martin Rowson, cartoonist

16. Robert Newman, comedian and writer

17. Sonia Boyce, artist, MBE

18. Barbara Steveni, artist & initiator of Artist Placement Group

19. Peter Fend, artist

20. SaiMuRai (Simon Murray), writer, poet, artist

21. Ackroyd & Harvey, artists

22. Aidan Jolly, musician, community artist

23. Jon Sack, artist

24. Matthew Lee Knowles, composer

25. Theodore Price, artist

26. Scott Massey, artist

27. Ben Mellor, writer, performer, educator

28. The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, artist collective

29. David Haley FRSA, ecological artist and Senior Research Fellow

30. Alana Jelinek, artist & curator

31. Rachel Anderson, creative producer

32. John Volynchook, photographer

33. Jackie Brookner, artist

34. Suzanne Lacy, artist

35. Neil Callaghan, artist

36. Jonathan Baxter, artist and arts organizer

37. Mark McGowan, artist

38. Catrin Evans, artistic director and theatre practitioner

39. James Stenhouse, artist

40. Charlie Fox, artist and producer

41. Roxanne Permar, artist

42. Jane Lawson, artist

43. John Jordan, artist and writer

44. Hemant Anant Jain, illustrator

45. The Space Hijackers, art interventionists

46. Clare Patey artist/curator

47. Matthias von Hartz, Director Hamburg International Festival

48. Lois Keidan, Live art Development Agency

49. Lucy Neal, artist and producer

50. Lise Autogena, artist

51. Marcelo Expósito, artist and critic

52. Steve Duncombe, cultural theorist/writer

53. Cameron Davis, artist and professor of art at Vermont University

54. Kim Stringfellow, artist/associate professor, SDSU

55. Ros Martin, poet and playwright

56. Amy Balkin, artist

57. John Hartley, artist

58. Amber Hickey, artist

59. Christian Nold, artist

60. Isabeau Doucet, painter

61. Jean Grant, creative director

62. Hayley Newman, artist

63. Christian de Sousa, artist and photographer

64. Immo Klink, artist

65. Susan Kelly, artist and art lecturer

66. Aviv Kruglanski, artist

67. Steve Stuffit, artist

68. Helen Spackman, artistic director and senior lecturer in

performing arts

69. Lorena Rivero de Beer, artist

70. Janey Hunt, artist

71. Gregory Sholette, artist and writer

72. Mem Morrison, artistic director

73. Lars Kwakkenbos, artist and writer

74. Tom Besley, producer

75. PLATFORM, arts/activist organization

76. Fran Crowe, artist

77. Sharon Salazar, filmmaker/director

78. Leah Gordon, photographer, filmmaker and curator

79. Alke Schmidt, artist

80. Monika Vykoukal, curator

81. CJ Mitchell, deputy director of Live Art Development Agency

82. Julian Maynard Smith, director of Station House Opera

83. Sue Palmer, artist

84. Brett Bloom, artist

85. Kerry Burton, artist

86. The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, art/activist

collective

87. Anna Francis, artist

88. Ana Betancour, artist and architect

89. Simone Paterson, new media artist and academic

90. Ian Teh, photographer

91. Alejandro Meitin, artist

92. Simone Kenyon, artist and producer

93. Milena Placentile, curator

94. Nick Turner, artist and designer

95. Fabio Sassi, artist

96. Ruth Ewan, artist

97. Raoul Martinez, artist

98. Robert McAdam, painter

99. Katy Fattuhi, arts marketer

100. John Holt, artist and writer

101. Katy Hallett, Director, Art Programme

102. Judy Price, artist

103. Stephanie Thieullent, photographer, artist

104. Felix Gonzales, filmmaker, artist

105. Rafael Santos, artist

106. Adrian Arbib, photographer

107. Ian Hunter, Director, Littoral

108. Ele Carpenter, curator

109. Helene Aylon, activist artist

110. Pamela Graham, artist

111. Louise Jones, director, Lemon Street Gallery

112. Ciel Bergman, artist/environmental activist

113. Glauco Bermudez, Cinematographer

114. Marianne Soisalo, artist

115. Mariana Bassani, photographer

116. Michele Petillo, artist

117. Siobhan Mckeown, artist

118. ZEV, tex/sound artist

119. Mira Schor, artist and writer

120. Judith Knight, Director, Artsadmin

121. Gill Lloyd, Director, Artsadmin

123. Danielle Frank, artist

124. Stuart Bracewell, artist.

125. Beverley Dale, Digital Artist

126. Vahida Ramujkic, Artist

127. Mark Vallen - painter, printmaker, writer

128. Toni Martinez-Solera, artist

129. Lucy Fairley, Artist

130. Noel Douglas artist, designer, activist

131. Gareth Evans, writer and curator

132. Stevphen Shukaitis, arts /media/cultural publisher

133. Kuljit Chuhan, Creative producer and digital media artist

134. Calum F. Kerr, artist

135. Lisa Wesley, artist

136. Jody Boehnert, designer, artist and writer

137. Heide Fasnacht, visual artist

138. Michelle Jaffé, artist

139. Jan Brooks, artist

140. Peter Harrison, propeller arts collective

141. Deanne Belinoff, artist

142. Michelle Waters, artist

143. Fern Shaffer, artist

144. Harmony Hammond, artist and art writer

145. Simon Whetham, sound artist

146. Mimi Poskitt, director

147. Michaela Crimmin, curator and critic

148. Wallace Heim, writer and academic

149. Ciel Bergman, painter

150. Ali Sparror – artist

151. Lucy Reeves - Film designer

152. The Vacuum Cleaner, art/activist,

153. Robby Herbst, artist

154. Anja Steidinger, visual artist

155. Claire Hildreth, photographer

156. Loraine Leeson, artist

157. Kayle Brandon, artist

158. Peter Offord, artist

159. Julie Green, painter

160. Murray Wason, artist

161. Christina Moore, production designer

162. Emma Byron, artist and performer

163. Miche Fabre Lewin, artist-cuisiuniere

164. Kate Rich, artist

165. Madeleine Hodge, artist and curator

166. Kirstin Forkert, artist

167. Martin Nakell, poet, fictionalist

168. Liam Hurley, writer, theatre director, story teller

169. Mike Perry, artist

170. Phil Maxwell & Hazuan Hashim, artists

171. Greg Pact, artist

Ambulance Worker Witness tells court that Plane Stupid protestors did not delay ambulance flight

2010-06-17T13:14:00.001+01:00

Ambulance Worker Witness tells court that Plane Stupid protestors did not delay ambulance flight

The trial of the Climate 9 protesters in Aberdeen heard this morning from an air ambulance witness that the protesters were not responsible for delaying an air ambulance, as had previously been suggested during yesterday's evidence for the prosecution.

The written statement from Stephen Wright of GAMA Aviation – the firm in charge of air ambulances out of Aberdeen Airport – given to police on Tuesday 3^rd March 2009 shortly after the protest ended stated the following:

"I became aware that there was some form of protest on Aberdeen Airport this morning, I picked up this through the media prior to attending our site. I have contacted my Operations manager, who works out of Farnborough Airport, regarding this matter and he informed me that he in turn had contacted the Aberdeen Airport Duty Manager and he in turn informed us (GAMA Aviation) that due to our flight type, was not going to be interfered with and our flight slot was guaranteed. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 8.00am this morning, but in fact took off about 8.35am, but this was due to our operational delay by the medics and not the protestors.This incident has had no financial or life threatening or operational impact on our operation.I have no complaint regarding this matter. I was seen later by the police and gave this statement."

During cross-examination Wright confirmed that this was the case, countering prior claims, both during and immediately after the action and yesterday in court, that the defendants were not at fault for endangering lives during the air side action.

Juliana Napier, from the Climate 9 defence committee (1) said the following: "This evidence is incredibly important in establishing what happened during the action. The Climate 9 freely assembled inside Aberdeen airport to stop the harmful emissions causing runaway climate change and raise awareness of the issue. They did this to ensure that our own and future generations can enjoy good health in a healthy environment not to endanger the lives or health of anyone."

The prosecution will present witnesses for the next few days and the trial is set to continue until the end of next week.

Messages of support have been flooding in, and key among them are those from John Pilger (human rights journalist), Caroline Lucas MP, The Muslim Council of Scotland, Chris Smout. Historiographer Royal in Scotland, and environmental historian and many more (2)

The trial is expected to last around two weeks.

http://www.climate9.com/

Squatting Europe 2010 Gathering June 24-28 London

2010-06-16T08:43:00.000+01:00

Squatting Europe 2010 Gathering June 24-28 London

June 24 – June 28, 2010

London Action Resource Centre

62 Fieldgate St. Whitechapel, London E1 1ES

http://www.londonarc.org

Squatting Europe is a research network focusing on the squatters' movement. Our aim is to produce reliable and fine-grained knowledge about this movement not only as an end in itself, but also as a public resource, especially for squatters and activists. Critical engagement, transdisciplinarity and comparative approaches are the bases of our project. The group is an open transnational collective (Squatting Europe Kollective, SQEK) whose members represent a diversity of disciplines and fields of interest seeking to understand the issues associated with squats and social centres across the European Union.

SCHEDULE

Thursday June 24th

4-7pm: SQUATTING, CITIES & MEDIA. Lynn Owens (Spatial politics) Galvao Santos (Mass Media) Alan W. Moore (Artivism)

Friday June 25th

1-7pm: SQUATTING AS A SOCIAL-URBAN MOVEMENT Baptiste Colin (Reformists/Libertarian) Hans Pruijt (Social Movements' Theories) César Guzmán (European Urban Movement) Miguel Martínez (Institutionalisation) Ely Lorenzi (Critical Mass and Squatting)

Saturday June 26th

9am-12pm: Pierpaolo Mudu (On Self-funded research principles) SQUATTING, CITIES & MEDIA Peter Birke (Gentrification and economic crisis) Discussion

1-4pm: SQUATTING AS A SOCIAL-URBAN MOVEMENT Discussion

4-7pm: Public talk

Sunday June 27th

1-4pm: SQUATTING AS A SOCIAL-URBAN MOVEMENT Discussion

Monday June 28th

9am-12pm: SQEK & ACTION-RESEARCH AGENDA Discussion

Contact: email to squattingeurope@listas.nodo50.org or email Miguel Angel Martinez Lopez (miguelam@cps.ucm.es)

Why squatting?

While homelessness is escalating worldwide, the production of empty spaces is becoming a regular feature of contemporary society. As states and markets failed to fulfil their allocated function, buildings sit empty while homelessness has been increasing across Europe and the world. In this time of crisis, people who have decided to take matters into their own hands are squatting a diversity of spaces: office blocks, factories, abandoned theatres, public houses (UK) and bars, as well as houses. In the process, the concept of urban development and renewal, i.e. urban and housing politics and spatial adjustment is re-interpreted and detourned. Indeed, squatting is not just a way to satisfy the need for housing and to express the rarity of spaces of sociability, but it is also an attempt to practice non-hierarchical and participatory organization models. Squats often offer an alternative mode of envisioning social relationships and political practices and developing collective activities such as critical and radical political meetings and countercultural events outside of, and in antagonism with, commercial circuits. Claiming their political dimension, social centre activists and squatters are thus often engaged in broader protest campaigns and social movements, fighting against precariousness, urban speculation, racism, neo-fascism, state repression, militarization, war, locally unwanted land use, private-oriented education/university reforms.

The existence of vacant buildings once designed to house the production of multinational capital in the metropolis not only belies the neutrality of market forces but also stands as an accusation to neo-liberal home ownership ideology. Yet, in spite of the evidence of its social contributions to the urban global crisis, many scholars and politicians still consider the squatters' movement marginal.

The rhetoric of economic recovery reflects the vacancy of current political debate. Politicians call for social cohesion and self-responsibility. However, when people actually take these values seriously, they are often treated as criminals who undermine social integration. Academic responses to the current crisis have been just as vacant. While many researchers are struggling with the neo-liberal attack on public universities and seem only interested in getting funding from private companies and in the production of market-oriented information, others seem more interested in theorizing the problem than addressing it. Yet, social movements and urban problems are demanding a much more socially committed production and distribution of knowledge. Accordingly, SQEK will seek to critically analyse the squatters' movement in its relevant contexts (historical, cultural, spatial, political, and economic), trying to involve the activists in the research practices, and sharing the knowledge thus produced with them and society.

Just Do It | The Trailer

2010-06-14T22:06:00.001+01:00

Like it? Good - Now help make the rest of the film happen - http://just-do-it.org.uk/fund-this-film

Documentary about climate activists needs your help

2010-06-14T15:09:00.002+01:00

Left Field Films is producing an exciting new documentary film on climate change and is asking for your help to get it completed. Just Do It looks into the mischievous and risky world of UK climate activists. The story follows Climate Camp, Plane Stupid and Climate Rush through 2009 as they take on the combined forces of global capitalism, run away climate change and those pesky metropolitan police.

The film is currently being produced by a crew of volunteers, film professionals, and award-winning Director Emily James. Emily is well known for her innovative style, prompting the Guardian to write, "Emily James is a genius,… and will in time be revered as a television innovator", and the Broadcast magazine called her "One of the 'Hottest Talents in Town'". Read more

What is really special about this film is that it is completely non-commercial. Rather than selling it to broadcasters and cinemas, the plan is to give the film away for free under a Creative Commons license. In this way the film's production and release will reflect the culture and spirit of the movement it portrays, and ensures that as many people as possible can see it and be inspired to take action on climate change. Read more

The obvious implication of this model is that the production costs need to be raised in advance, as there wont be an income from sales. So, if this is the kind of film you would like to see, put your money where your mouth is and help to make it a reality. Please click here to make a donation.

To find out more about the project, have a look at the film's website. You can also join them on Facebook and Twitter and please forward this message to anyone who might be interested.

Climate 9 Trial begins in Aberdeen

2010-06-14T15:02:00.001+01:00

Climate 9 Trial begins in Aberdeen

The first major climate trial since the failure of the Copenhagen talks has begun in Aberdeen Sheriff's court this morning.

Nine defendants from Plane Stupid Scotland will face charges charges of Breach of the Peace and Vandalism after closing down Aberdeen Airport in March 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7924952.stm ). The group were highlighting the climate impacts of expanding the airport which they argue is mainly to support wealthy golfers at a proposed near by course owned by business tycoon Donald Trump.

Interest has been building around the case since Climate 9 public campaigns were launched in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London, which have drawn global and local support for the group and helped forge alliances with social justice campaigners and racial justice movements.

The defendants are pleading not guilty on the grounds that their actions were to prevent the larger crime of runaway climate change and have assembled a witness list of world-renowned experts in climate related fields including public health consultant Jenny Griffiths and Geoff Meaden, who contributed to the successful Kingsnorth6 defence as a flooding and mapping expert.

The defendants were joined outside court by around 50 friends, families and supporters.

For more information, statements of support and how you can help the Climate 9 see:

http://www.climate9.com/

or contact info@climate9.com or ring 077655 01687

Party Stupid tomorrow night

2010-06-10T17:13:00.000+01:00

***Party Stupid tomorrow night*** Come party down with the plane
stupid crew on friday 11th. Many exciting acts and activities ranging
from spoken word to hip-hop to folk and of course vodka jelly and face
painting. The Empowering Church in dalston from 8.30pm. £6 waged/£4
low-waged or unwaged.

DISTANCE - the politics of free movement

2010-06-08T12:50:00.000+01:00

The politics of free movement. What is free movement today? How do visa restrictions, technologies of control and surveillance, acts of resistance and creative acts highlight distance/absence/non-presence? Is SKYPE and other communication technologies a force for good, or bad, in these times of Fortress UK?

A discussion chaired by Manick Govinda, from Manifesto Club, with contributing speakers, Dolan Cummings- Culture Wars, Sonya Dyer - Chelsea Programme Borderline Project, Valerie Hartwich - Manifesto Club, Mark McGowan - Artist.

Due to scheduling, the talk is now at 5pm on Saturday (in between 2 very interesting skype pieces - one between twins in Berlin and London by Leo Kay, and following your talk - a skype performance between Sinead and Poshya).

DISTANCE
A weekend of performance, talks, video and activity over distance.
19 June – 20 June 2010

www.fromadistance.co.uk <http://www.fromadistance.co.uk>
Stoke Newington International Airport
Unit E, 1-15 Leswin Place
London N16 7NJ

Distance has always been a part of our lives. Now, more than ever, we are expected to negotiate the complexities of near and far.

From the Manifesto Club to Mark McGowan, PLATFORM to Cecilia Wee and Ansuman Biswas; crossing Argentina to Tokyo, DISTANCE is two full days of art and performance featuring 40 artists, scientists and thinkers crossing borders and disciplines to interrogate the multiple perspectives of distance.

Bring your running shoes for a mini marathon launch at 1pm sharp on Saturday, have a coffee and croissant over a Breakfast Salon on Sunday, and end the weekend with your messages being transmitted into outer space...

Curated by
Third Party &
Stoke Newington International Airport.

Full programme information - www.fromadistance.co.uk <http://www.fromadistance.co.uk>

THE TWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS – Twitter Training for Activists

2010-06-08T12:48:00.000+01:00

Don't know your RSS from your elbow? Want to find out how activists can use Twitter for online community building; report live from actions as well as generate media coverage?

This short training session will give attendees a basic grounding in exactly what is Twitter and how it fits into the wider world of Internet-enabled DIY media tools.

Building on this context the session will look at practical applications of Twitter relevant to activists including community building; outreach and driving media interest.

Date: Tuesday 22 June, 2010.
Time: 7pm
Duration: 2 hours
Location: The Theatre, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6AB.
Cost: FREE (but please RSVP so that we can get an idea of numbers)

Brought to you by the Agents of Intervention, as part of the Arts Admin's Interference Festival. Contact:laurenjsimpson@googlemail.com

http://just-do-it.org.uk/twitter-training-for-activists

Call out Interference 2010

2010-05-30T16:10:00.001+01:00

Interference 2010

21-25 June 2010

Combine art, politics and protest in Interference 2010

We¹re looking for artists, non-conformists, pissed off individuals, alternative thinkers and people who want to make and shake things up to join us in addressing and acting upon climate change, the environment and other social and political issues of the day.

Artsadmin¹s Interference is an intensive weeklong series of collaborative workshops, actions and events in June, offering you the chance to work with new people who have a range of experiences, to test ideas in a supportive environment and to push both art and activism in an array of new directions.

Working alongside artist activists Beth Whelan and Julie Hill, participants will develop new ways of working together and making a difference. During the week we will look at different strategies for change, both ³reacting against² and ³acting towards² it. These approaches will include:

Story-telling and myth making

The history of creative resistance and some of its triumphs

Climbing and reclaiming public space

Urban foraging

Self-publishing

Skill-sharing

Night biking

Evening escapades

Intervening and interfering in everyday life, with encouraging support from

guest interventionists sharing their ways of working.

The week will be based at Artsadmin¹s Toynbee Studios home in East London and will be punctuated by activities and trips with a focus on participation, engaging with people who inspire and excite.

How to join us!

Interference is open to people from all backgrounds and experiences, so if you are new to art or activism and want to give it a try, if you¹re interested in working collaboratively or being part of an empowering movement, then please write a short paragraph explaining why you want to get

involved and send it to heather@artsadmin.co.uk

Please note participants should be prepared to not only think about change, but act on it!

The workshop is limited to 20 places, so get in touch as soon as possible.

The deadline for expression of interest is Friday 4 June. Open to anyone who¹s 16+.

Transition Heathrow is Recruiting

2010-05-30T16:06:00.001+01:00

The 3rd Runway is dead!

Long live the Heathrow Villages !

In the eighth month of the Transition Heathrow campaign we saw BAA give up their plans for a third runway that would tarmac the Heathrow villages. In these 8 months the campaign has made many local links. It has facilitated local residents taking direct action against the expansionists. We have set up a number of transition initiatives such as our trademark Grow Heathrow permaculture garden. We've supported local workers efforts for transition justice by helping reestablish the local trades' council and taking solidarity actions for the striking BA workers. Now we are looking for people to join the collective so that we can turn the local energy from this success into long term grassroots radicalism.

Summer Occupants Callout

Transition Heathrow is looking for people to occupy Grow Heathrow (our squatted market garden) during the busy summer months. With lots of people coming and going it would be helpful to have some more caretakers based on site to keep the project ticking over until the autumn. Whether it's for a few days, a few weeks or a few months, we'd welcome your presence. We have restored three 40m long greenhouses where we grow vegetables, we are building a bicycle and metal workshop, and organizing with many local residents to transform the Heathrow Villages into a radical self-sufficient community.

Transition Heathrow Residency

In the longer term Transition Heathrow is offering internships and artist residencies for a limited number of people. The campaign has no paid positions but this may change with greater financial security. In the meantime we can offer free accommodation and the opportunity to become part of a collective that creatively shares the costs of living modestly, ie home grown, skipped and donated food.

These positions offer the chance to develop and share grassroots campaigning skills of every kind from direct action, squatting, website design, workplace or community organising to DIY skills with people from all walks of life.

The openings are ideal for people that have recently graduated from school or university and/or are looking for a meaningful project to put some time and ideas into. We are particularly looking for people with experience in the following areas but this is not a prerequisite for applications:

new and old media

website/ graphic design

accounting/ book keeping

running social enterprises/ co-operatives

12v electrics

metal/ wood work

bicycle mechanics

gardening

construction

working with trade unions

working with refugees/ migrants

anti-fascist campaigning

permaculture design

community renewables schemes

fund raising

Please put any other experience on an application letter describing what you could bring to the project and preferable dates for residency, and send it to info@transitionheathrow.com by Friday 25th of June.

Find us at Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, UB7 0JG, Ex Site of the 3rd Runway. Travel to West Drayton in TfL zone 6 in 20 minutes by train from Paddington, 30 minutes from Reading or Oxford.

For more info see www.transitionheathrow.com or call 07948 219 493.

the vacuum cleaner || http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk || http://twitter.com/vacuumcleaner

Open Invitation to Grassroots Organizations to Create the Peoples Climate Dialogue and Convention.

2010-05-25T21:16:00.002+01:00

~Global Struggle for Climate Justice~
~A Call to Action and Decentralized Organization~

Help Organize Urgent Actions confronting Global Warming and Climate Change

The Peoples Climate Dialogue and Convention is an effort from various organizations and activist that have come together to build a Climate Justice movement that uses direct action and popular education to mobilize fair and effective solutions to the climate crisis.
We invite communities, organizations, and activist to unite with us to create spaces, mobilizations, and actions to re-appropriate the Climate Change dialogue and the processes of mitigating and confronting the devastating effects of Global Warming, in a true search for Climate Justice.

In 2010 the United Nations Organizations has announced that the 16th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change will be held in Cancun, Mexico. 2010 is also the Bi- Centennial anniversary of the Mexican independence from the Old-World Empire, and the 100 year anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. For many 2010 is a significant marking-point for the social struggle in the Americas and the World. To commemorate this historical
process of emancipation, and in counter-position to the false solutions demonstrated at the forum in Copenhagen (COP15), we are inviting social movements, civil organizations, networks, activists, and communities of the world committed to the principles of Social and Climate Justice, to participate this year in the People's Climate Dialogue and Convention- a struggle from below against the New-World Order.

We consider that the People's Climate Dialogue and Convention should be a permanent and collective process of creation, that is why we have sought out a continuous dialogue that permits us to generate collective solutions, locally and globally, to our environmental problems. Consequently, we also propose to help organize and carry-out Regional Climate Convergences where we will be able to draw reflexions on the state of our environment, to share insights into particular themes, and learn practical tools to confront our common problems, including workshops and all other proposals for action that can be integrated under the principles of working together non-hierarchically, and striving for what unites us and makes us stronger. On the basis of this continuous work, and in collaboration with all who feel identified with the principles of Climate Justice, we propose the creation of the People's Climate Convention at the end of the year in Mexico, parallel to the official UN- Conference of the Parties, COP-16. More information on this call to action and how you can get involved can be found at: http://marea-creciente.org

The UN climate meetings in Cancun will be a major focus for international mass actions this November and December, and the People Climate Dialogue and Convention is part of these efforts as well.

We are an international, pluri-national, and pluri-cultural network of activist and organizations that have come together to sound the call to action and alert the communities of the world of the dangers and catastrophes that are to come, and the possibilities we have as communities and countries that will be most effected to adapt to these changes. We
demand Climate Justice and the participation of the civil society in the decision making processes being negotiated between world governments. And we are not waiting for governments or industry to negotiate our future for us.

A Radical Change in Direction is Necessary!

The People Climate Dialogue and Convention invites you to inspire and organize a radical change in direction to put climate justice, ecological integrity, and people's rights at the center of international climate negotiations.

With particular chapters of the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, a new treaty is being drafted not only to set the minimal goals by participating counties to reduce or halt human activities that cause Global Warming, but it also seeks to legitimize a "carbon market" generating the legal right to contaminate the air we breath, a right that would be controlled by those who hold political and economic power. With this, developed nations once again forget the enormous ecological and social debt that they have with the rest of the world, recognizing that their development has been based on the over-exploitation of natural resources and the total destruction of entire peoples and cultures. The information collected from around the world, based on the best science possible, leaves plain the false arguments from these countries that there is a lack of solid evidence that there really is a Global Warming that produces Climate Change; or more recently their renouncement to even admit their responsibility in the emission of gases that cause this effect.

The United Nations bodies that are charged with carry-out this difficult task of generating the new treaty have been corrupted by multinational corporations and international financial institutions. These agents of capitalism are developing and consolidating an international market to buy and sell credits to contaminate and pollute our air; this is equivalent to privatizing the atmosphere. The environmental degradation produced in capitalist systems are driving the world's climate to a point of no return. If we continue along this path in less than one hundred years over 80% of all species in the world could disappear, including even perhaps the human species. The environmental defense that we are experiencing as part of the greater social movement is crucial, and it offers us a new opportunity to organize and demand anOther way of confronting the root causes of climate change.

The climate crisis is directly linked to the financial crisis, the food crisis, and the extinction crisis, as well as to militarism and war. They are rooted in an economic system dedicated to economic growth at any cost. We are uniting to challenge this system that puts profits over people or the earth. Urgent action to solve the climate crisis must include a complete transformation away from the dominant economic model of incessant and unsustainable growth, oppression, and injustice.

We must highlight real, effective, and just solutions to climate change

Join us in promoting solutions to climate change that are locally controlled, decentralized, bio- regionally appropriate and socially just. Thousands of these solutions already exist and need to be promoted and supported with public funds.

Help ensure that large-scale, destructive corporate-controlled false solutions to climate change are eliminated. This includes so-called "clean coal," agrofuels (industrial scale bio-fuels), nuclear power, and large-scale hydropower. It also includes REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)—the UN and World Bank initiative that offers incentives for countries to sell off their forests, expel indigenous and small-farmer communities from their lands, and transform bio-diverse and carbon-rich forests into industrial timber plantations.
Some key solutions to climate change include:
• Drastically reducing emissions without resorting to carbon trading and offsetting or other false solutions such as nuclear energy, agrofuels, or "clean coal", while protecting the rights of those affected by the transition;
• Keeping fossil fuels in the ground;
• Re-localization of production and consumption, prioritizing local markets and cooperative economies;
• Decentralized utility systems and community controlled clean renewable energy;
• Rights based resource conservation that enforces indigenous land rights and ends corporate control over energy, forests, seeds, land and water;
• Ending deforestation and its underlying causes, imposing international sanctions and wood tariffs, coupled with a massive forest restoration effort, managed primarily by indigenous forest-dwelling peoples;
• Ending excessive consumption in the North and by elites in the South;
• Repayment of ecological debts owed by northern governments and resource extracting corporations to peoples in the Global South

The goals of the Mobilization for Climate Justice are:
• To build a global movement for climate justice that encourages urgent action to avoid catastrophic climate change, and which addresses the root social, ecological, political and economic causes of the climate crisis toward a total systemic transformation of our society.
• To promote and strengthen the rights and voices of Indigenous and other affected peoples, (including workers in energy-intensive industries) in climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
• To expose the consequences of false and market-based climate "solutions" as well as corporate domination of climate negotiations, while advancing alternatives that can provide real and just solutions and which protect biodiversity.

Join Us in Taking Action!

Please join us in our national effort to organize educational events and non-violent direct actions at key locations in Mexico throughout this year. We welcome the active involvement of organizations that are united with us in our goals above, in our opposition to market-based false solutions to climate change, and in support of real, effective, and just solutions to climate change.

We call on local groups to create action proposals for the mobilizations leading up to the COP16. We are encouraging direct actions related to climate change in every part of the country and the world over.

For more information on how you can actively participate in the People's Climate Dialogue and Convention, please contact:

COP16@listas.marea-creciente.org

visit the following web-pages:
http://marea-creciente.org http://cop-16.org.mx

We invite organizations to endorse this open invitation: Endorsmentes: Marea Creciente Mexico CACITA Red Jubileo Sur Mexico Otros Mundos Chiapas-Amigos de la Tierra Mexico Colectivo Luna Sexta Colectivo ADA Rising Tide North Ameirca Klimaforum09 Programa LaNeta S.C. Canadians for Action on Climate Change

Eviction Threat to Kew Bridge Eco Village - this friday

2010-05-18T10:23:00.001+01:00

Kew Bridge Eco Village faces an eviction threat, starting from this Friday, 21st of May, 2010. It is likely that they will evict on the friday, or the monday after or at some other date that suits their purposes. If you want to help protect the eco village, then come down and lend a hand.

The eco village is primarily a place for beings of different perspectives, experiences, ideals and aims to come together to create sustainable communities, wherever they might exist. The site is set to be turned into a monstrous development of expensive flats and more pubs and shops, in an area with two nearby shopping centers, and with 3 pubs in the immediate area, and copious amounts of disused properties standing empty as the numbers of homeless continue to rise. Kew Bridge Eco Village stands in the way of this rediculous development and against all unsustainable practices everywhere.

So if you want to protect the eco village, whether you consider yourself to be classwar, eco, feminist, hippy, hardcore, non-violent, survivalist, whatever: come on down and support the village! There are plenty of sleeping spaces, and you even have the option of setting up a tent.

See you at the barricades!!!!

source: https://london.indymedia.org/events/4831

The Flying Bike Picket (22nd May Heathrow)

2010-05-17T00:55:00.000+01:00

The Flying Bike Picket

WHAT

A critical mass bike ride in solidarity with the BA strikers and a celebration of our victory against the 3rd runway at Heathrow

WHEN

Meet 1pm Saturday 22nd of May.

WHERE

Meet at Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, UB7 0JG, crash space and banner making from 11am. Nearest station West Drayton from Paddington or Reading

WHY

We helped beat the 3rd runway and we can help beat Willie Walsh.

Willie wanted to shaft us with the 3rd runway and now he wants to shaft his workers.

Willie wants weak workers for his profit margins but we want strong workers fighting for a just green future.

BRING

Bikes, sound systems, banners, picnic, MP3 playlists, fancy dress, indignation and humour

TRAVEL

Meet at Paddington Station at 11am on Saturday to take the train to West Drayton early to make banners

CONTACT

07985 201 350 text/call for more info www.workersclimateaction.co.uk

In Solidarity,

Workers' Climate Action Heathrow

LIBERATE TATE COMMUNIQUE #1 MAY 2010

2010-05-16T12:26:00.001+01:00

Dear Tate

Happy Birthday. We wish we could celebrate with you. But we can't.

As we write, your corporate sponsor BP is creating the largest oil painting in the world, inspired by profit margins and a culture that puts money in front of life, its shadowy stain shimmers across the Gulf of Mexico. A toxic tide that turns thriving ecosystems into deserts and deprives cultures of their way of life, it is one of the world's greatest works of corporate art, a work that reeks of death and speaks of our society's failure of imagination.

Every day Tate scrubs clean BP's public image with the detergent of cool progressive culture. But there is nothing innovative or cutting edge about a company that knowingly feeds our addiction to fossil fuels despite a climate crisis, a company whose greed has killed twenty-one employees in just over a year, a company that continues to invest in the cancer-causing climate crimes of tar sands in Alberta, Canada.

By placing the words BP and Art together, the destructive and obsolete nature of the fossil fuel industry is masked, and crimes against the future are given a slick and stainless sheen.

Every time we step inside the museum Tate makes us complicit with these acts, acts that will one day seem as archaic as the slave trade, as anachronistic as public executions. Every time Nicholas Serota is asked how a museum that prides itself on dealing with climate change can be funded by an oil company he responds that there are no plans to abandon BP sponsorship (anything to do with having an ex-CEO of BP chair Tate's board of trustees?).

When art activist group The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Labofii) were invited to run a workshop on art and civil disobedience, they were told by curators that they could not take any action against Tate and its sponsors and the workshop was policed by the curators to make sure the artists produced work "commensurate with the Tate's mission". In March 2010, Tate Modern ran an eco symposium, "Rising to the Climate Change Challenge: Artists and Scientists Imagine Tomorrow's World", on the same day that Tate Britain was celebrating twenty years of BP sponsorship with one of its 'BP Saturdays'. Incensed by this censorship and hypocrisy, participants in the symposium called for a vote: 80% of the audience agreed that BP sponsorship should be dropped by 2012.

So today we offer you a birthday present, a gift to liberate Tate from its old-fashioned fossil fuel addiction – a gift for the future. Beginning during your 10th anniversary party and continuing until you drop the sponsorship deal, we will be commissioning a series of art interventions in Tate buildings across the country. Already commissioned are Art Actioncollective, with a birthday surprise at this weekend's No Soul For Sale event, and The Invisible Committee, who will infiltrate every corner of Tate across the country in the coming months.

We invite artists to join us and act to liberate Tate. Free art from oil.

www.twitter.com/liberatetate

It's hard to find a good romanian to english translation

2010-05-13T01:13:00.001+01:00

original text in Romanian

http://metropotam.ro/La-zi/2008/03/art1207214319-Artist-The-Vacuum-Cleaner-artist-activist/

has become....

At least us talking about art activist, socially engaged. One of the occasions that I saw this art project has been operating in Bucharest Bucharest Public Space, which took place last year, from April to October, and curated by Marius Babias Hentzsch Sabine. Can we talk about social involvement and some other contemporary Romanian artists, but none has made the ultimate goal of his art and activism. At least, not as is The Vacuum Cleaner.

Am I being unrealistic to socially ENGAGE Expecting you with me?

The Vacuum Cleaner is a group of British artists-activists who have put your head to change the world, the socially and environmentally. It sounds very ambitious, but James xxxxxx, who promotes the concept, knows what to do. Their actions so far have targeted companies this way: Selfridges, Starbucks, Virgin Megastores, Barclays Bank, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, Waterstones and Nokia.

I know that for many it's not easy to understand right 'art' anything that does not sit on the wall in a frame, such as a vacuum given action by supermarkets and on Wall Street, wearing a jacket that says "cleaning up after capitalism ". Concept art activist starts, in this case, from activism, but turn into art, with some creativity and humor, in order to more easily transmit the message. So to clarify terms, yes, it's art with a message (or 'the trend', as they called it the first theorists). Activism simple, pure and strong, not big enough impact on people that change something or a phrase dear James, to raise awareness. James explains his ideas and actions here.

Through artistic action, those of The Vacuum Cleaner aim to make you think how you like the world we live and what you can do to change it. They were occupied by the "cultural activism of the 'hand of change', which was also assisted various other artists, activists, independent journalists, etc.. One of the most recent action The vacuum cleaner is begging for Social Engagement: an artistic center in Glasgow took the initiative to organize a meeting on social engaged art, but entry was 100 pounds, The vacuum cleaner so they started to beg, under the motto 'recycle begging' to come, have raised £ 42.36, which he then invested in the acquisition (repeated) of a work of art, the profit that will hold a meeting about themselves socially engaged art, which will not pay entry.

Seems kind of play, it is clear that without humor, their actions would not mean much, The Church of the Immaculate Consumption - Because shopping is the new religion - organized prayer sessions in supermarkets and shopping centers to attract attention those who burn out there about the new religion of their lives. Even though most will shrug one's shoulders, can a few will understand.

The vacuum cleaner are co-founders of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, a group whose work situationisti, they say, is placed between resistance and creativity, culture and politics, art and life: 'We believe that playful forms of cultural intervention in Everyday Life and the development of user-friendly Spaces that enable participants to full grown Their confidence in own creative capacity is essential tools for social change. " Founded also The very cooperative - where you can find videos on topics announced and other documentation sites on the same themes.

May you find here a list of other groups with a similar profile, making art and / or activism on the hot topics of today. And this blog The Vacuum Cleaner.

I'm sorry I killed you

2010-05-05T18:42:00.001+01:00

Why reality is dead and fantasy is king

2010-04-30T13:19:00.000+01:00

Well if your E.ON, it's important to present yourself as green as possible. Doesn't matter if it's true, perception is more important than reality. Like it's more important to feel like you're doing your bit for the environment rather than actually doing anything about.

It's all meta meta innit. And fantasy is the new reality.

May Day Carnival, Gillett Sqaure, Hackney

2010-04-28T18:18:00.000+01:00

Anti-Politicians and Politicians; Artists and Anti-artist Unite! The Post-Capitalist Party Invites you to a May Day Carnival

Gillett Square, off Kingsland Road, Dalston, N16 8AZ, 2pm onwards.

As part of Election Season, a new political party The Post-Capitalist Party has been unleashed on the borough of Hackney, and as part of the project, The Post-Capitalist Party is holding a Carnival on May 1st in Gillett Sqaure, Dalston N16 8AZ, to celebrate its creation and test what a post-capitalist future could look like.

We'll be eating cakes, making guerilla gardens, teaching and learning bike maintenance (so bring your bikes and your tools), dressing up (you too!), swapping stuff (bring things to swap) and sharing views. Expect serious play with a little bit of mischief.

All time and resources have been donated, because a post-capitalist world will be driven by a gift economy and mutual aid.
www.post-capitalist.org
www.twitter.com/post_capitalist

Mayday - SPOIL YOUR BALLOT - Battle Bus!

2010-04-22T10:53:00.001+01:00

SPOIL FOR CHOICE

VOTING ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM

REJECT THE LOT OF EM!

SPOIL YOUR BALLOT

WHY SPOIL YOUR BALLOT?

In our 'democratic' system we're given the choice to vote once every four years, to place our bets on a team for the next 48 months. To chose between red and blue (perhaps even a little yellow). But let's not be fooled by the colour of their ties, we know they're all the same. Whoever you vote for, the government always gets in. Where's our 'none of the above' option?

If voting actually changed anything they would ban it. Did you get to vote on the Iraq war? Did you get to vote about regulations on banking? Did you get to vote on MP's expenses? Is this a democracy or a bad joke?

Why play by the rules in this farce of an election?

Every spoilt ballot gets counted and shown to the candidates in that constituency, so why not reject the lot of them and tell them what you think with your ballot paper?

GET INFORMED:

Does your vote really count? With our first past the post system, unless you vote for the winning horse in your area, your vote is simply discarded with the rubbish. In 'safe' seats your vote is practically worthless. In Hackney South, for example, your vote is worth 0.039 of a real one and that's certainly not the worst example in London.

Find out who's standing in your community. Do any of the candidates actually care about the issues you do? If not, why vote for any of them? Don't go for the best of a bad bunch.

TAKE CONTROL:

Don't just sit there whining! This is about active rejection, not passive reflection.

Get yourself to the voting booth and get spoiling. In a bogus system, it's the only authentic choice.

Spoiling your ballot is not illegal, spoiling you ballot is your only chance to have your real say in this election.

REJECT THIS FARCE OF CHOICE

Party Politics is a self protecting machine. Even by spoiling your ballot and rejecting them all, they will not just go away. Take your politics to your community, get organised, get talking, get active. Why should we only be given a voice once every four years? Get vocal and give 'em hell. The government get scared stiff when the population get self-organised.

SPOIL YOUR BALLOT BATTLE BUS!

Mayday 2010

Join us this Mayday on the Space Hijackers anti-election battle bus. We've all seen George Galloway and the other cronies charging around in open top buses trying to persuade people to vote for them, but we all know the whole thing is a scam. Join us in our own open top bus, flying around London giving out an alternate message - SPOIL YOUR BALLOT, REJECT THE LOT OF EM!

To pay for the bus we're asking for a £10 donation from each passenger, pick up will be in East London at about 1pm drop off at 4:30pm Central London

To reserve your space (there are only 68 seats) then use our paypal donate button below:

http://www.spacehijackers.org/html/welcome.html

an email confirmation and boarding pass will be sent onto you.

The Space Hijackers, Spoiling it for everyone!

Dow throws a party, mainly zombies show up

2010-04-19T17:43:00.000+01:00

April 19, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DOW THROWS A DISMAL PARTY, FEW ATTEND
Underattended "Run for Water" plagued by death, zombies, and dozens of "Dow spokesmen"; truth seems to run free

Video: Yes Men video coming soon here; other video here
Stills: Yes Men pictures coming soon here; numerous others here
Contact: Whitney Black (803)466-3786; press@theyesmen.org

Brooklyn, NY -- Bucolic Prospect park in Brooklyn, NY played host to a bizarre spectacle on Sunday, as a dramatically under-attended Dow-sponsored "Run for Water" was infiltrated and turned upside down by hundreds of furious activists, including a hundred dressed as Dow spokespeople.

New Yorkers who came to the park expecting a light run followed by a free concert found themselves unwitting extras in a macabre and chaotic scene as runners keeled over dead, Dow-branded grim reapers chased participants, and a hundred fake Dow representatives harangued other protesters and and handed out literature that explained Dow's greenwashing program in frank detail.

The actions called attention to Dow's toxic legacy in places like India (the Bhopal Catastrophe), Vietnam (Agent Orange) and Midland Michigan (Dioxin Contamination), and to the absurdity of a company with serious water issues all over the world sponsoring the Live Earth Run For Water.

After race cancellations in London, Milan, Berlin, and Sweden, on-site Dow brand managers were in damage-control mode. But their job was made harder by the hundred fake "Dow" spokespeople who loudly but clumsily proclaimed Dow's position ("Our race! Our earth!" and "Run for water! Run for your life!"), spoke with many runners, screamed at the other protesters, passed out beautifully-produced literature, and all in all looked a whole lot better than the real Dow reps, who seemed eager to make themselves scarce.

"I don't know what's going on here," said Tracey Von Sloop, a Queens woman who attended the race. "All I know is these people are both crazy, and Dow is f*ing sick. I'm outta here."

The event was the latest blow to Dow's greenwashing efforts, the most visible element of which is the "Human Element" multi-media advertising campaign, one of the most expensive, and successful, marketing efforts in recent history. It even won an "Effie Award" for the most effective corporate advertising campaign in North America.

"Effective," perhaps -- but also completely misleading. To name just a few examples of Dow's water-related issues: Dow refuses to clean up the groundwater in Bhopal, India, site of the largest industrial disaster in human history, committed by Dow's fully-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide. As a result, children continue to be born there with debilitating birth defects. Dow has also dumped hundreds of millions of pounds of toxic chemical byproducts into wetlands of Louisiana, and has even poisoned its own backyard, leaving record levels of dioxins downriver from its global headquarters in Midland, Michigan.

"We thought it must be a joke when we first heard that Dow Chemical Company was sponsoring a run for clean water," said Yes Woman Whitney Black. "Sadly, it was not. One of the world's worst polluters trying to greenwash its image instead of taking responsibility for drinking water and ecosystems it has poisoned around the world? What an awfully unfunny way to start off Earth Week. We decided the event needed a little comic relief."

Irony was piled on irony throughout the race, which Dow absurdly claimed was going to be "the largest solutions-based initiative aimed at solving the global water crisis in history. At one point, organizers were caught on tape dramatically throwing out excess water left over because of an embarrassingly low turnout.

Groups organizing the action included the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, New York Whale and Dolphin Action League, the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, the Wetlands Activism Collective, Global Justice for Animals and the Environment, Kids For A Better Future, The Yes Men, and hundreds of assorted volunteers, activists and mischief makers.

CALL OUT!: Statements in Support of the Plane Stupid Climate9

2010-04-15T18:28:00.000+01:00

Dear .....

We hope this email finds you well.
I am writing to ask for your support in a precedent court case in which Scottish climate change activists will argue that their protests were justified by the threat of future upheaval and suffering due to climate change.

The nine activists (the Climate9) shut down Aberdeen airport last March in a direct action which put pressure on the governments plans to double or triple all of Scotland's 17 airports, pumping thousands of tonnes more carbon into the atmosphere and rendering Scotland's celebrated climate change bill meaningless.

The activists now face a high profile trial in which they will work with expert witnesses (such as IPCC scientists and threatened peoples) to argue that their actions were taken to prevent a much greater danger to future generations, and the survival of much of life as we know it on this planet.

The Climate9 defence committee are a wide group of organisations and individuals who think it is the climate criminals who should be put on trial, not those who are trying to stop them. I am writing to ask whether you will lend your support to this call by writing a brief statement of support and/or by joining the Climate9 defence committee. This simply means you or your organisation being named as supportive in publicity for the trial, and potentially being called on for comment if you are willing.

Having this high profile support will build the profile of the trial and generate public pressure to challenge the values of a legal system which too often undermines, rather than supporting, the integrity and health of the Earth. Current members of the committee include top climate scientists, public health advocates and indigenous communities from all over the world.

If you feel able to write a statement of support, join the committee or offer any other support please get in touch asap. The trial is currently scheduled for 10th May!

For more information see www.climate9.com

Any support will be deeply appreciated and could make all the difference.
Thanks and all the best,

Miriam Rose
Climate9 defence committee.

McDonalds Tell Fat Porkies

2010-04-14T13:19:00.000+01:00

McDonalds have an advert at Kings Cross tube. 60 seconds away. Perfect I thought. I'm gagging for a wee. The ad lied. It took 145 secs to walk there. By which point I'd pissed myself. Embrassing, yes. But this isn't what concerns us. What I wonder is if I would have a case to complain to the advertising standards authority? After all, false advertising is illegal right. Let's see how far we get.

Further than the distance to your local McD's, we hope.

Also that thing about wetting ourselves wasn't true. It was just to prove a point that didn't really need making.

Printervention begins Friday April 16 5-7pm

2010-04-14T04:53:00.000+01:00

Please join us at the opening of the pre Version 10 Festival exhibition, Printervention.

It opens Friday April 16 from 5 to 7pm at the Chicago Tourism Center Gallery, 72 E Randolph.
http://www.printervention.org

We have asked artists from around the country to create works that raise awareness of social and political issues of our day. Printervention underscores the necessity for the support of artists and the idea of civic responsibility to the greater society. In addition to an exhibition of over 70 posters and prints, Printervention will feature a mobile silk screen cart for distributing work in parks and on the street, a window display at The Whistler in Logan Square, as well as workshops and demonstrations at the Chicago Tourism Center Gallery.

Printervention is Presented by Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Office of Tourism, part of Version 10, and Sponsored by the Society of Typographic Arts

The show will travel and expand over the year making stops in Detroit, New York and other American cities over the next year.

Printervention Features Woks by
Alex Valentine, Andrew Blackley, Andy Luce, Angee Lennard (Spudnik Press), Antonio Pazarán (Instituto Grafico de Chicago), Bryan Christopher Baker (Stukenborg) Chad Kouri, Christina Vantzou, Cirilo Esquivel, CJ Mace, Clay Hickson, Cody Haltom, Colin Matthes, Justseeds, Cynthia Marris, Damon Locks, Dan Grzeca, Dan S. Wang, Danimal, Delicious Design League, Billy Baumann and Jason Teegarden-Downs, Derek Dietrich-Muller, Dominic Fortunato, Eric J. Garcia, Gregory Calvert, Ina Weise, Jennifer Farrell, Jenny Beorkrem, Jeremiah Chiu, Jessica Owings, Jessica Taylor, Jon Resh, Jose L. Gutierrez, Renata Graw, Julia V. Hendrickson, Justin Cox, Katie McCauley, Keith G. Herzik, Alamo Igloo, Kenton Quatman, Laura Klein, Julie Morelli & Andy Schwegler, Lise Haller Baggesen, Luke Williams, Margot Harrington, Marvin Chan, Mary Tremonte, Mat Daly, Michelle Mashon, Nick Adam, Nick Bahr and Janet Webber, Nick Du Pey, Nicolas Lampert, Rand Renfrow, Rebecca Ann Rakstad, Ricardo Serment, Richard Repasky, Richie Bearden, Reuben Kincaid, Ryan Duggan, Salvador Jiménez, Sanya Glisic, Seripop, Shaun Lind, Sonnenzimmer, Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, Steve Walters, SuperKonductor, David R. Head, Jr. and Jen Hazen, The Little Friends of Printmaking, Thirst, John Pobojewski + Bud Rodecker, Tyler Galloway Vanessa Sanchez, Veronica Corzo-Duchardt, Will Bryant.

A Year Ago Today...

2010-04-13T13:18:00.000+01:00

A year ago today, in the early hours of the morning, the police made the
biggest preemptive arrest of environmental campaigners in UK history. 114
individuals were arrested at a school in Sneinton, Nottingham, on
suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass
at the 2nd largest coal-fired power station in the UK, Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
After almost 24 hours in custody, all 114 were released on bail without
any charges having been brought. Several of those arrested were given
restrictive bail conditions and many had their homes raided and personal
property seized.

At the time, the arrests brought about widespread criticism of police
tactics, especially given it took place less than two weeks after the
violent policing of the G20. Activists, politicians, and NGOs all
condemned the intelligence-led arrests, which many saw as cases of
thought-crime. One politician said that confidence in policing had hit
"rock bottom".

Months later, the Crown Prosecution Service decided the literally tonnes
of evidence collected by the police was enough to charge just 26 of the
114 with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass. Those 26 are currently
going through a long legal process, with a Crown Court Trial now not due
to start till the Autumn.

But what the last year has shown is the great resilience of the climate
movement. For the past 365 days the actions have not stopped rolling, but
instead continue to grow in size and intensity. October saw arguably the
largest scale climate action to date, when over 1000 people converged to
shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. December saw 1000s of activists
travel to Copenhagen, where the foundation was laid for us to become part
of genuinely international movement. Meanwhile, in the early months of
2010 there has been planning up and down the country, with regions taking
local action as we ask ourselves "What Next?" with ever growing enthusiasm
and energy.

A year ago today the police throw at us their worst... and we stand
undefeated.

THE SKINT FUND

A new fund is being launched today to fight back against police
aggression. Travel costs for climate activists traveling up and down the
country for ever-lengthening legal proceedings have been quite literally
crippling.

The Skint Fund has been set up to address this, and needs everyone's help
to make it a success.

To find out more about The Skint Fund, and how you can help, go to
www.climatecamp.org.uk/theskintfund or join the Facebook Group:
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Skint-Fund/117427318272824?v=info

Also, if you'd like to offer support to the 26 awaiting trial for
Conspiracy, please email 114defence@googlemail.com

The Post-Capitalist Party Wants You!

2010-04-12T23:40:00.000+01:00

The PCP would very much like it if you could distribute this amongst your peoples.

Anti-Politicians and Politicians; Artists and Anti-artist Unite! The Post-Capitalist Party Wants You!

As part of Election Season, a new political party The Post-Capitalist Party has been unleashed on the borough of Hackney, and Sophie Nathan, an artist from Dalston is standing as its first and only councillor.

As part of the project, The Post-Capitalist Party is holding a Carnival on May 1^st in Dalston to celebrate its creation and test what a post-capitalist future could look like. We'll be having serious fun, creating art-installations and theatrical game-play throughout the day. If you'd like to take part, or want to run a game, create an installation or an interactive piece around the idea of a post-capitalist future, send your proposals to info@post-capitalist.org

www.post-capitalist.org

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106267179414044

www.twitter.com/post_capitalist

<Communique ends>>>

Art & Labor Summit 22/4

2010-04-12T02:00:00.000+01:00

Art & Labor Summit

Cultural Workers, Artists, Students, and Interns Meet to Organise, Name Names, and Coordinate Demands

April 22nd, 6pm-9pm

Cell Projects Space

258 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9DA

Free entry and all welcome

We'd like you to join us for a special event and organizational party open to all who are interested in the better understanding and active transformation of the way art, free labour, and education work. Crises are moments of great opportunity, as we all know, and those defunding and devaluing our labour have been busy applying this knowledge. We invite your active participation in an evening of events:

1. 'Show and Tell' - bring evidence of your current research, campaigns or projects dealing with art and labour to share with the group.

2. 'Name and Shame' - collectively create a map of power structures on the wall where we name our exploiters, quantify their exploits, draw the hidden or overt links between them and chart the ideas that legitimize their subsistence.

3. 'Coordinate Demands' - engage in small group discussions to identify your demands.

4. 'Publish and Get Organised' - we will end the evening by having a look at what we have created to decide where and how we want to publish a map of our most urgent demands and discuss the experimental, pragmatic and sustainable organisational techniques we can use to co-ordinate the next steps.

This event has been developed as a response and dialogue with the newspaper and website "Art Work: A National Conversation about Art, Labor, and Economics" recently published by Temporary Services. Pedro from 16 Beaver has brought forty free copies of the paper from the US to distribute to participants at the event in London, but you can also download the newspaper as pdf or read the articles online here:

http://www.artandwork.us

This summit is co-organised by Carrot Workers Collective, Micropolitics Group, Lottie Child, NEF (Eilis Lawlor), Ecosophy Group, Temporary Services, ARTSCHOOL/UK, Sophie Hope and Pedro Lasch (16 Beaver)...more will be added, so just contact us if you'd like to participate or help.

If you cannot attend the event, but would like to participate in the making of the map long-distance, before, or after the event, just send us an email at the addresses below.

For any messages, comments, or questions related to this event, contact Sophie Hope - sophiehope[at]mac.com, or Pedro Lasch - plasch[at]duke.edu

David You Are A Cock

2010-04-12T00:18:00.001+01:00

My Dads Strip Club Presents

2010-04-08T12:46:00.001+01:00

My Dads Strip Club Presents........ in Dundee

with Ange Taggart

7.30 Thursday 15 April 2010

My Dads Strip Club celebrates dissent through video and performance. It makes unauthorised interventions in public and commercial spaces and brings people together for creative self-organising.

Putting embarrassment aside, Taggart will address her love of 'the art of reclaiming space' and the delicate subject of carnal knowledge of Coke machines. The comedy in her work is very close to anger, and excites all kinds of responses in the on-looker.

Preferring to operate in the public realm, with a critical focus on consumerism, Taggart has frequently collaborated with others to carry out unauthorised, issue-based interventions.

Join her for an evening mixing art with activism and entertainment.

This event is FREE (but bring some ID to get into the venue)

WHERE: Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University, Top floor, Student Centre, 1 – 3 Bell Street, Dundee.

Brought to you by D-AiR (Dundee Artists in Residence) – opening up spaces for community and collaboration.

<http://www.d-air.org/content/15th-april-my-dads-strip-club>

New Bonkers Taste

2010-04-03T11:53:00.001+01:00

Curiously Cinnamon, or Cinnamon Grahams when I was a kid, have a new bonkers taste. I hope the new taste will be a variation of depression, that's exciting.

Bullshit Advert of the Week

2010-04-02T17:02:00.001+01:00

Remember Exxon Mobil, or Esso to you and me, how everyone hated them for their denial of climate change. Well looks like we can put aside our concerns , they have a techno fix for the future. So sit back, carry on shopping, carry on taking those short haul flights. It's all going to be fine. Just remind me to slap the cock that made this advert, then email all his friends and remind them to slap him too. Wankers.

More Nuts

2010-03-30T22:32:00.000+01:00

Why do I buy certain products?

Shoplifters of the World Unite

2010-03-29T17:22:00.000+01:00

Here is a video from our workshop 'Work Is A 4 Letter Word' last week http://www.stanleypickergallery.org/louder_than_bombs2.html

Panic in the hotel

2010-03-23T22:19:00.001Z

Have a panic attack around other people can be very embarrassing. (last night)
Have one on your own can be scary (this afternoon)
But having a on a carpet (a few hours ago) like below, is both embarrassing and scary.

Help, We need a space to work

2010-03-23T21:56:00.000Z

JUST DO IT (juss-do-IT)

-noun

1) an exciting documentary feature film that follows the mischievous and risky world of UK climate activists throughout 2009, see www.just-do-it.org.uk

-verb

1) Get of your arse and change the world.

~OFFICE SPACE NEEDED FOR DOCUMENTARY FILM TO GET MADE IN~

alas alas, our bless-ed tenure atop holborn towers ("penthouse suite please bellhop here's a shiny silver gold coin for your troubles") has ended (personally I blame the conservative's) and, like "funnyman" dan ackroyd in the topical documentary 'trading places', we find ourselves sans des-res so to speak.

help JUST-DO-IT HQ rise again like phoenix from ash, Osiris from sarcophagus, city bonuses from banking crisis – GIVE US A HOME (please?).

We require a space [in London] to do the following; conspire, collude, connive, concoct, calculate, chart, conjure, cabal, contrive, complot, cogitate.

To do so we would need a space with power supply and internet access (ideally), suitable space for desks and the ability to lock the door.

So to recap; we are a team making a documentary film about environmental activism. We require a space in which to edit the film and organise its release. And we can pay a bit for it if need be.

**ADDITIONAL INFORMATION** Whilst we can pay, we'd rather not. We'd rather spend the money on, y'know, saving the world and stuff. Your call.

If you can help out then please get in touch with lauren at laurenjsimpson@googlemail.com

Many thanks,

Emily James, Lauren Simspon, James & the JUST-DO-IT gang.

--
Emily James
Project Director
Just Do It: Get Off Your Arse and Change the World

www.just-do-it.org.uk
www.twitter.com/justdoitfilm
www.facebook.com/getoffyourarse

“What Difference Does it Make?” - Throughout this week and closing with special events on Saturday the 27th March

2010-03-23T20:56:00.000Z

Sorry for cross posting - please pass on to your networks

-----

The Vacuum Cleaner "What Difference Does it Make?" - Throughout this week and closing with special events on the 27th March.

In the gallery all week -

Fighting consumer culture, climate change, authority and injustice ("wherever it hides its filthy face") are the vacuum cleaner's bread and butter causes; Creative Resistance, Civil Disobedience, Corporate Interventions, Pranks, Hacktivism and Subvertising, their tools of choice. But with crisis dictating the agenda there has been little time to ask "What Difference Does It Make?" So for the first time the semi-notorious artist-activist will present some of the projects, actions and battles never clearly presented or documented before.

Expect Resistance! Expect Anarchy! Expect Something!

Sat 27 March - 1-3pm "What Difference Does It Make?"

At the end of 2009, Copenhagen played host to what many people called the most important meeting in history, the UN Climate Negotiations.

Find out what happened from artists and activist that went.

Speakers include:

Transition Heathrow - http://www.transitionheathrow.com

Gavin and Hannah from The Bike Bloc - http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009/bike-bloc

The Glut's Hayley Newman - http://www.cafecarbon.net | http://www.hayleynewman.com/

The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent - http://twoaddthree.org

Filmmaker Emily James - http://emily-james.com | http://www.just-do-it.org.uk/

Hosted by the lovely Olivia, followed by Tea and Cakes

Sat 27 March - 3.30-4pm "This Civilisation"

Performance by the vacuum cleaner with Franko B

Please note this performance is for a 16+ audience and will contain some strong language, images and ideas that visitors may find challenging

You can follow the show via twitter - http://twitter.com/vacuumcleaner | www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk

All @

The Stanley Picker Gallery

Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture
Kingston University, Knights Park
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 2QJ

http://www.stanleypickergallery.org/

This show is supported by The Stanley Picker Gallery, Live Art Development Agency and Artsadmin.

This week - residency @ Stanley Picker

2010-03-22T15:04:00.001Z

This week we will be in residency at the Stanley Picker gallery.

The gallery even booked me a seat on the train.

Find out more on http://stanleypickergallery.org/louder_than_bombs2.html

We'll be twittering as we go along, so make sure u follow us to keep up. @vacuumcleaner

The heathrow kitchen

2010-03-19T19:31:00.001Z

The kitchen in The Vineries in Sipson village looks amazing. Another great weekend ahead, specially with bedroom eyes around.

2010-03-18T16:44:00.000Z

23-27 March
The Vacuum Cleaner “What Difference Does it Make?”
Fighting consumer culture, climate change, authority and injustice (“wherever it hides its filthy face”) are the vacuum cleaner’s bread and butter causes; Creative Resistance, Civil Disobedience, Corporate Interventions, Pranks, Hacktivism and Subvertising, their tools of choice. But with crisis dictating the agenda there has been little time to ask “What Difference Does It Make?” So for the first time the semi-notorious artist-activist will present some of the projects, actions and battles never clearly presented or documented before.
Expect Resistance! Expect Anarchy! Expect Something!

Thurs 25 March
2-8pm The Vacuum Cleaner: “Work is 4 Letter Word” Workshop
Places now full.

Sat 27 March
1-3pm “What Difference Does It Make?” Roundtable Discussion with invited artists and activists
3.30-4pm “This Civilization” performance by the vacuum cleaner with Franko B
Please note this event is for a 16+ audience and will contain some strong language, images and ideas that visitors may find challenging

www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk

You can also follow the show via twitter - http://twitter.com/vacuumcleaner

This show is support by the Stanley Picker Gallery, Live Art Development Agency and Artsadmin.

Last night an artist saved saved my arms

2010-03-09T08:39:00.000Z

Was feeling low last night.
Then I got an email from an artist I met about two and a half years ago, she said she was struggling from the black dog. It made me feel better. Wierd how another persons suffering helped.

When the power goes off.

2010-03-08T22:11:00.000Z

Today was a bitch. I had a cancelled therapy session, didn't want to get out of bed, couldn't think straight at the studio, had a panic attack in Sainbury's (it was the only place open to buy dog food). When I got home the electic meter had run out and the german pizza I had in reserve had defrosted.
Now so far i've managed to fight of the desire to self-harm. But, and I'm not writing this for attention, days like today are the kind of days you shouldn't be eating german pizza. If only I'd

A - won an oscar.
B - wasn't so frightened of love
C - Had not been born in the male suicide capital of the UK.

Which is a good point to stop.

Stop.

Heathrow Greenhouse Massive

2010-03-04T19:54:00.000Z

A days work done. Two greenhouses cleared.

Gordon Brown

2010-03-04T19:39:00.001Z

This blog has moved

2010-03-04T17:52:00.001Z

This blog is now located at http://dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/atom.xml.

Kittens and ponies

2010-02-28T23:38:00.001Z

By hannah.

Downloading workshop - This Saturday 6th March @ 12.30

2010-02-27T16:31:00.000Z

I'm going to be running a BitTorrent & Downloading workshop @ the london freeschool 195 Mare Street - more details http://londonfreeschool.wordpress.com/downloading-workshop/

Blurb:
Downloading files from the internet can be very rewarding but it can also be very dangerous. This workshop will show you the very best ways to get the things you want online – without the risk. We will explore the popular filesharing network bittorrent and also look into the old school method of newsgroups. We will also look into media players, cracking, virtual DVD drives and anything else you want. The demonstration will be on a PC but with guidance points for the Mac. Please bring your laptop along but if you aren't able to – everyone will receive a fact-email at the end.

Please come along & bring your laptop - if you can't I'll be emailing a worksheet to everyone at the end anyway - please forward this to anyone you think might be interested, ta

Falafel Road

2010-02-25T19:19:00.001Z

Great project about falafel and palestine. Read about it at falafelroad.blogspot.com.

Scrap Club

2010-02-21T16:38:00.002Z

Scrap Club was simply amazing. We can't get enough of your love baby. Last night was a pleasure beyond words.

See you next time - http://www.scrapclub.co.uk/

Tina, we salute you.

2010-02-20T17:43:00.001Z

Make a very good cup of coffee.

Work Is A Four Letter Word - A workshop by the vacuum cleaner

2010-02-18T18:05:00.001Z

Creating a better world can seem like a lot of work, but its often the small things that create the biggest change. Join artist activist the vacuum cleaner for a 6 hour session investigating how we can study our everyday environments, find where the cracks for intervention are, and how to best exploit them.

Throughout the session we will work hands on to produce a short, sharp, shocking intervention of our own. And to disprove that "there is no suchthing as a free meal" a slap up vegan feast is on us.

2pm - 8pm - Thursday 25th March
Stanley Picker Gallery
Open to All
Places limited to 16
FREE but booking essential (on a first come first served basis)

To book your place email - picker@kingston.ac.uk

The Slave

2010-02-18T13:32:00.001Z

From the wave to the Slave. Social change not climate change, or lifestyle change either. We're off to get our hair cut.

the vacuum cleaner's day to day dirt

The only dream worth having

Occupy the Madness

Counter Olympics Network (CONference)

Cyclists Are A Better Ride stickers

Resistance is Beautiful

OccuParty @ Amhurst Republic- Party this Friday

OUT OF THE SQUATS INTO THE STREETS!

Kandhamal 2008 - World Premiere

Squatting will be illegal.

Occupational Hazard

Occupy the London Stock Exchange

Mental - Documentaries on the recent histories of English Asylums.

Unity demonstrations in South London tonight, North London on Saturday

Pictures from Riots in Hackney Tonight

Just Do It Premiere Delux

Dale Farm eviction notice served.

I can’t live on vitriol alone!

Open discussion with Ben Morea (Black Mask,Up Against the Wall/Motherfuckers), THIS FRIDAY 17th June, London.

Ship of Fools - A project/residency with the vacuum cleaner.

ART & ANARCHY - Montreal Anarchist Bookfair

MemeFest Festival of Radical Communication

Mark Flash Stone article from Sunday Times.

LEWISHAM ANTI CUTS ALLIANCE PRESS RELEASE

Slade School of Art Activism Occupation

Tis the season for Climate Trials

Beating police repression after the student occupation.

Your chance to live in Paradise... (Heathrow)

political Party - Saturday 9th Oct, Liverpool

Just Fucking Party - This Saturday, 25th September

Pleasure Hunt

Oil Painting Protest over BP sponsorship in Tate Modern Turbine Hall

THE CRUDE AWAKENING - A call out.

Spanish collecting society is threatening EXGAE

STICK 'EM UP

We beat the Third runway, so fucking what! - A Call Out

‘Grow Heathrow’ Eviction Threat!

If Climate Camp made Avatar...

Picket against DPP - Solidarity with Ian Tomlinson's Family

Fuck Tha (Met) Police

ART ACTIVISTS SPILL OIL AT ICONIC MUSEUM PIECE IN PROTEST AT BP SPONSORSHIP

July News for Just Do It - Environmental Activist Film

The Real Life Social Network

Freedom of Movement - Art and Activist workshops by Trapese Popular Education Collective

License to Spill - Anti BP action at BP sponsored Tate

Coalition of the Willing

UNPRECEDENTED COALITION FROM THE ARTS CONDEMNS BP SPONSORSHIP OF THE TATE

Ambulance Worker Witness tells court that Plane Stupid protestors did not delay ambulance flight

Squatting Europe 2010 Gathering June 24-28 London

Just Do It | The Trailer

Documentary about climate activists needs your help

Climate 9 Trial begins in Aberdeen

***Party Stupid tomorrow night***

DISTANCE - the politics of free movement

THE TWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS – Twitter Training for Activists

Call out Interference 2010

Transition Heathrow is Recruiting

Open Invitation to Grassroots Organizations to Create the Peoples Climate Dialogue and Convention.

Eviction Threat to Kew Bridge Eco Village - this friday

The Flying Bike Picket (22nd May Heathrow)

LIBERATE TATE COMMUNIQUE #1 MAY 2010

It's hard to find a good romanian to english translation

I'm sorry I killed you

Why reality is dead and fantasy is king

May Day Carnival, Gillett Sqaure, Hackney

Anti-Politicians and Politicians; Artists and Anti-artist Unite! The Post-Capitalist Party Invites you to a May Day Carnival

Gillett Square, off Kingsland Road, Dalston, N16 8AZ, 2pm onwards.

All time and resources have been donated, because a post-capitalist world will be driven by a gift economy and mutual aid.www.post-capitalist.orgwww.twitter.com/post_capitalist

Mayday - SPOIL YOUR BALLOT - Battle Bus!

Dow throws a party, mainly zombies show up

CALL OUT!: Statements in Support of the Plane Stupid Climate9

McDonalds Tell Fat Porkies

Printervention begins Friday April 16 5-7pm

A Year Ago Today...

The Post-Capitalist Party Wants You!

Art & Labor Summit 22/4

David You Are A Cock

My Dads Strip Club Presents

New Bonkers Taste

Bullshit Advert of the Week

Party Stupid tomorrow night

All time and resources have been donated, because a post-capitalist world will be driven by a gift economy and mutual aid.
www.post-capitalist.org
www.twitter.com/post_capitalist