This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Robin Epley, an opinion columnist for The Sacramento Bee, was briefly detained while documenting a protest that disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting on March 19, 2024.
In an account of the incident published by the Bee, Epley wrote that a pro-Palestinian protest in the City Council chambers began after Mayor Darrell Steinberg introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Steinberg recessed the meeting and ordered the chambers to be cleared, but many people initially refused to leave.
After about 90 minutes, by 10:37 p.m., Epley wrote, only a few dozen people remained and she noticed that she was the only journalist still observing the protest. “From experience, I know that’s a rare and potentially important position; I’d never relinquish it unless absolutely necessary,” Epley wrote.
Epley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that more than 50 police officers then entered the chambers, gave a final warning and began arresting the last 12 stragglers. Shortly after 10:50 p.m., Epley saw the officer who was overseeing the arrests point at her.
“Surely, I thought, he was motioning to someone behind me?” Epley wrote. “By the time I realized no one was there, a couple of officers had already descended on my back, ripping my cellphone from my hand and locking me in a pair of black metal cuffs.”
In footage Epley shared on social media, she can be heard asking the officers, “Are you really arresting me right now?”
Epley told the Tracker that she was wearing press credentials issued by the Bee and that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. After approximately 25 seconds, the officers uncuffed her and checked her press pass before allowing her to resume documenting the other arrests.
“There is no reason, no action I took, nothing I said nor did that provoked these officers of the Sacramento Police Department to handcuff me,” Epley wrote. “Their actions alone resulted in the illegal detainment of a working and visibly credentialed journalist, no matter how short the duration of my time in their custody.”
David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the Bee that police have no business arresting members of the press, even if only for a few seconds.
“There is a disturbing trend around the country of journalists being arrested and prosecuted simply for being journalists,” Loy said. “Whether the arrest just happened for just a few minutes or someone is prosecuted, these are clear threats to press freedom and the First Amendment.”
Epley told the Tracker that she is undaunted by the experience.
“I feel fired up,” Epley said. “I try to remind myself that when informed of their mistake they let me out of the cuffs pretty immediately. Ultimately I’m fine, but it’s the meaning of it that is making me upset, what it means to have handcuffed a journalist.”
She said that the Sacramento Police Department has reached out to the Bee to set up a meeting with editors.
The Sacramento Police Department said in an emailed statement that when the chambers were cleared they advised members of the press to stage in the lobby and that officers were instructed to look for city-issued press credentials, which it asserts Epley was not wearing.
Epley said that she wasn’t told the credentials were mandatory and that, when the lightweight pass broke, she stopped wearing it. She also refuted the police’s assertion that media were told to stage in the lobby, saying that no officers spoke with her after the meeting was recessed.
In a statement shared with the Tracker, Mayor Steinberg said that there was “some confusion” concerning Epley’s credentials and that she was immediately released once it was cleared up.
“I do not support the arrest of journalists in chambers,” Steinberg said. “It is essential that we uphold and protect the important role that the press plays in our society.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Manila on Monday summoned a Chinese envoy to strongly protest the “aggressive actions” of the China Coast Guard in the South China Sea, following an incident that left three crew members aboard a Philippine supply boat injured.
The Philippines was on Saturday attempting to resupply troops stationed on a ship at Second Thomas Shoal, known locally as Ayungin Shoal, when China’s coast guard and maritime militia “harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers against the routine RoRe [rotation and resupply] mission,” officials said.
Chinese water cannon blasts hurt three Filipino crew members and caused “significant damages to the vessel,” the Philippine Coast Guard said.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs summoned the Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy this morning to convey the Philippines’ strong protest against the aggressive actions undertaken by the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia against the rotation and resupply mission undertaken by the Philippines in Ayungin Shoal on 23 March 2024,” Ma. Teresita Daza, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.
China “has no right to be in Ayungin Shoal,” she said, a low-tide elevation that lies well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“China’s continued interference with the Philippines’ routine and lawful activities in its own exclusive economic zone is unacceptable,” said Daza.
Saturday’s incident was the second time this month that Philippine crew members were injured in a confrontation between Chinese and Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea.
Tense incidents at sea have become more frequent lately, as Chinese ships try to block Philippine ships and boats from delivering supplies to Manila’s military outpost there.
The Philippines in 1999 deliberately grounded an old navy ship on the shoal – BRP Sierra Madre – where it maintains a detachment of troops.
Four crew members aboard a military-contracted Philippine ship sustained minor injuries when a water cannon blast from China Coast Guard ships shattered the windshield on the bridge during the incident on March 5, according to Filipino officials.
“The Philippines urges China to take the correct track of abiding by international law and respecting the legitimate rights of other states like the Philippines, and to cease and desist from its continued violation of international law,” Daza said, adding the Philippine embassy in Beijing had also been instructed to lodge a protest with China’s foreign ministry.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including Second Thomas Shoal that is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also have territorial claims to the sea.
A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague dismissed China’s sweeping historical claims to the waterway, but Beijing has refused to acknowledge the ruling.
This frame grab from aerial video footage taken and released on March 23, 2024 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows a vessel described as a China Coast Guard ship (L) deploying water cannon against the Philippine military-chartered civilian boat Unaizah May 4 during its supply mission near the Second Thomas Shoal. (Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP)On Monday, China’s embassy in Manila said it had communicated its “strong opposition” to the Philippine government, which it accused of attempting to transport construction materials to the shoal – a claim that Manila has denied.
“The China Coast Guard in response has implemented lawful regulation, interception, and expulsion in a reasonable and professional manner,” the embassy said in a statement.
It added that the international arbitration award in 2016 was illegal and therefore “null and void.”
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro on Monday urged Beijing to take its claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea to international arbitration.
“If China is not afraid to state its claims to the world, then why don’t we arbitrate under international law?” Teodoro told reporters, adding Manila would not budge on its position.
“They are the ones who entered our territory. No country believes [their claims] and they see this as their way to use force, intimidate and bend the Philippines to their ambitions.”
Washington condemned China’s most recent actions as “dangerous” and said they “undermine regional stability but also display a blatant disregard for international law.”
“[The] People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships’ repeated employment of water cannons and reckless blocking maneuvers resulted in injuries to Filipino service members and significant damage to their resupply vessel, rendering it immobile,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales reported from Manila.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By BenarNews Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Nearly a year on from Perenco spilling 200 barrels of pollution into one of the world’s largest natural harbours in Poole, Dorset, the BBC reported that the oil and gas company has pledged there would be “no repeat.” Yet, just days ahead of the anniversary, Perenco has once again hit headlines. This time, it was for a fatal fire at one of its oil platforms off the coast of Gabon.
So, on Saturday 23 March local climate activists held a protest march to the site of Perenco’s onshore oil field operations near Poole. There, activists weren’t holding back in calling out Perenco’s well-oiled PR spin to the corporate media – namely the BBC. Crucially, they showed the public broadcaster why shouldn’t so readily buy into the fossil fuel corporation’s narrative, hook, line, and sinker.
Perenco oil spill
On March 26 2023, Perenco spilled 200 barrels of ‘reservoir fluid’ into Poole Harbour.
It leaked from a corroded pipeline situated under Poole Harbour. Perenco caused the spill at its Wytch Farm onshore oilfield site at Studland, Dorset.
Perenco shut down the pipeline in response to the incident. Following this, the company mobilised the local harbour commissioners and the oil spill response teams to contain the leak. It continued remediation works at the site until January 2024.
As the Canary noted at the time:
The harbour is adjacent to multiple biodiverse protected sites. For example, Poole Rocks Marine Conservation Zone lies just east of the harbour entrance, and is home to more than 360 marine species.
So, a year on from prospective environmental catastrophe, activists marched to the oil field to call for an end to the Anglo-French firm’s extractive operations near key conservation hotspots.
Protest march to Perenco Wytch Farm
Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (XR BCP) coordinated the action which saw campaigners from across the South West converge on Perenco’s oil field facilities.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Wimborne and Purbeck, alongside East Dorset Friends of the Earth (FoE), Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace, and other groups turned up to demand the company cease oil extraction in Dorset.
Around 70 protesters gathered with drums, placards, and flags two miles from Perenco’s onshore site. Before setting off, an activist led the group in protest song:
They began via road from Corfe Castle, raising banners that read: “Perenco out”:
For an hour, activists slow-marched across 3km of lowland heathland and birch-pine woods, where Perenco carries out its oil extraction, purposely out of sight from nearby communities in Poole and Dorset. As they went, they were singing, drumming, and shouting for the oil company to end its drilling at the site.
On arrival at Wytch Farm, they blocked the main entry gates for another hour:
Then, activists held speeches and picnics against the backdrop of Perenco’s entrance, where behind around 70 operating wells are extracting oil beyond:
The protest marked XR BCP’s sixth demonstration against the fossil fuel corporation since it caused the spill.
Ecological and human disaster averted in Poole Harbour… for now
Despite early concerns after the incident, two new reports have suggested that Perenco managed to avoid causing long-term ecological disaster.
On Tuesday 19 March, local authorities and environmental regulators published impact reports on the spill. Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council (BCP), and Dorset County Council (DCC) commissioned the first report.
This found that there were negligible to minimal impacts on the local community’s health, the economy, and the environment. However, it did acknowledge that the financial costs did disproportionately fall on small and medium enterprises in the area. Particularly, the spill hurt local aquaculture and fishing businesses.
In tandem with this, the Environment Agency and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), with other agencies, released its summary assessment of the environmental impacts. Notably, the report reviewed how the spill had affected shellfish, birds, seagrass, and seabed habitats.
Overall, it concluded that:
The investigation and monitoring activity undertaken to date indicates that there has been limited impact from the incident on the wider Poole Harbour area. The key impacts have been on the activity in and around Poole Harbour in the first two weeks after the incident when fishing and shellfish activities were restricted.
From an ecological perspective there does not appear to have been a material impact on the wider Poole Harbour area from data and observations to date.
In other words, it determined that the spill had caused limited, short-term damage to marine life in the harbour.
However, a protester pointed out that despite the purportedly minimised harm, Perenco had only just concluded the spill remediation works in January. Property Manager and XR BCP activist Greg Lambe said:
what damage would a larger spill cause and how long would it take to remove – if this were even possible, if this relatively small spill took 10 to 11 months?
Perenco’s “ailing, ageing infrastructure”
Predominantly, the activists at the demonstration weren’t convinced that this would be a one-time incident.
Long-time East Dorset Friends of the Earth campaigner Martin Price has been scrutinising Wytch Farm’s activities since the site opened in 1979. He told the Canary that while he acknowledged that the reports showed that Perenco “acted as quickly as it could to deal with the problem once it occurred”, he argued that:
On the other hand, it has caused a huge amount of damage in a very restricted area and I think one of the problems is that it could happen again.
In particular, Price emphasised that:
They say it won’t happen again – this particular problem won’t happen again, perhaps, but if a similar or different problem happens elsewhere, it could be much more devastating to the environment of Poole Harbour and the surrounding area.
Moreover, he said that this was due to “ailing, ageing infrastructure”. Specifically, Price referenced the site’s former owner, BP. The oil and gas giant sold its Wytch Farm assets to Perenco in 2011. It did so in response to leaking at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, in its infamous Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Price explained to the Canary that it sold Wytch Farm:
because it was becoming uneconomic for them. Now, if a big multinational feels it’s uneconomic, then they’re basically handing they’re problem onto somebody else. With the best will in the world, with the best investment in the world, Perenco really can’t afford to keep this going for longer.
In essence, it decided to sell off older, less profitable assets in the UK to finance the spiralling costs of its clean-up. As a result, Perenco now operates these end-of-life oil wells.
Of course, it is precisely this ageing infrastructure that campaigners contend is the issue.
Multiple “wake-up calls”
In fact, before it sold off Wytch Farm to Perenco, BP also caused a leak at the site. This forced the company to shut down its operations there for two months in early 2011. Fellow East Dorset Friends of the Earth campaigner Angela Pooley told the Daily Echo at the time that the leak towards the end of 2010:
should be a wake-up call to us all to remind us of the potential for disaster in Dorset.
Fast forward 13 years later, and of course, the major incident in the harbour unfortunately vindicated Pooley’s warning. Environmental campaigners have continued to echo this since the 2023 spill. As the Canary previously reported, local Green Party politician and environmental activist Chris Rigby said at the time of the incident that it had been an “accident waiting to happen”.
In particular, Rigby was citing Perenco’s pollution record since it took over the onshore oil field. Crucially, Perenco has presided over ten pollution incidents at the site between 2011 and 2020.
Now, the Canary can reveal that Perenco has reported another incident since the spill took place in March 2023.
Through a Freedom of Information request to the Environment Agency, we found that Perenco had breached its permit conditions. More specifically, the company reported exceeding the limits of nitrogen oxide emissions it is licensed to emit to the air from the gas engines on site.
While comparatively minor, the fault and resulting pollution perhaps show that even on high alert after a major spill, the company can’t guarantee further failures – with all the potentially hazardous consequences for people and nature nearby.
Perenco disaster in Gabon
On top of calling for Perenco to leave the Wytch Farm site, the activists drew parallels with its operations in the Global South.
As the Canary previously outlined, the company is responsible for a litany of environmental and social harms across the planet. So unsurprisingly, less than a week before its Poole Harbour spill year anniversary the company hit headlines for a fatal accident in Gabon.
On Wednesday 20 March, a fire on a Perenco-operated offshore rig off the coast of the central African nation killed five workers. A further worker is still missing.
XR BCP member Helen Nicol told the Canary that the accident Perenco is responsible for in Gabon made their protest “especially important”. She said that the spill in Poole Harbour last year had been eye-opening:
because initially we were focused incredibly locally and then we started looking further afield. We realised what was happening in the DRC, what was happening in Peru, Ecuador, Gabon, and the Caribbean – and it just seems that Perenco have a policy of disregard for their workers, for the lands that they’re based in, and for the whole world.
If they can cut a corner, they will cut a corner – they’re not safe, they’re not safe in Poole Harbour, and they’re not safe anywhere else.
Again, she attributed this to Perenco’s business model. Specifically, she referenced how it buys up older oil and gas fields from other companies:
The strategy they have of taking end of life oil wells and then trying to drag the very last drop of profit out of it, regardless of the consequences to the surrounding landscape and the people who live around them and the people who work for them is disgusting – and they need to stop.
A representative of Gabon’s space agency has previously corroborated this concern. The representative told media outlet Investigate Europe that despite causing pollution in offshore Atlantic sites:
They kept on pumping anyway, even though their aging system requires huge maintenance work
Activists “shine a light” on Perenco’s risky business
Given the latest incident in Gabon, Nicol therefore said that the group would continue:
to shine a light on their practices, and keep highlighting the fact that they are not a safe pair of hands.
Ultimately, the groups want to put a stop to its risky business in Poole and beyond. Activists see Perenco’s Wytch Farm as a significant first target.
East Dorset Friends of the Earth Martin Price told the Canary that the Climate Change Committee had been clear:
the government’s main advisor is saying we must totally divest from fossil fuels within the next 16 years. Now, if we’re to do that, we have to start now.
As such, Price argued:
Where better to start than in one of the most environmentally sensitive, one of the most rewarding in terms of international status sites in England, and possibly even in parts of Western Europe.
In stark contrast however, Perenco has also shown no signs of slowing down at the site.
In 2023, it drilled a new bore from an existing well. Dorset County Council licensed this particular well bore to pump out oil until December 2031. What’s more, for 2024 alone, the company plans to submit applications to drill five new wells on-site.
Moreover, it has made early rumblings of its intention to use Wytch Farm for carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS is a notorious fossil fuel industry palatability ploy to make continued extraction appear socially and environmentally compatible.
At the end of the day then, it’s just another fossil fuel company gaslighting communities and nature into oblivion. Extending the life of its oil and gas business comes over protecting the lives of people and the planet every time. But the local climate community in Dorset will continue to mobilise against it.
At this latest protest, groups successfully held the profiteering company’s feet to the fire. Crucially, activists articulated that the only way to truly guarantee “no repeat” of a spill like the incident in Poole Harbour, is “Perenco out”, in the UK and everywhere, for good.
Featured image and additional images via Hannah Sharland and Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole.
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Law, which has in effect silenced opposition, comes into force with penalties of up to life in prison for treason and insurrection
Hong Kong’s new national security law came into force on Saturday, putting into immediate effect tough penalties of up to life imprisonment for crimes including treason and insurrection.
The law – commonly referred to as article 23 – targets five categories of national security crimes, and was swiftly passed by Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature on Tuesday.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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On Saturday 23 March, Palestine campaigners will gather outside the new Elbit Horizon H2 factory in Bristol to protest against the company’s complicity in the genocide currently ongoing in Gaza.
Elbit: complicit in genocide
Elbit Systems UK is owned by Israel’s largest weapons firm, which markets its weaponry as “battle-tested” after they’re developed through assaults on the Palestinian people.
The Israeli weapons maker manufactures 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as missiles, bombs and bullets. Elbit’s CEO Bazhalel Machlis, who sits on the board of Elbit Systems UK, boasted of how the Israeli military has thanked the company for their “crucial” services during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Since 7 October, Israel has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, injured over 73,000, and displaced the vast majority of Gaza.
In Bristol, as Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) wrote:
This ‘research, development and manufacturing hub for high technology solutions’ was opened in July 2023 by the Israeli ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely, and local Tory MP Jack Lopresti. It is the second Elbit Systems facility in Bristol, the other being at 600 Aztec West
As the Canary recently reported, Palestine Action is currently camping outside Elbit’s HQ at 600 Aztec West in Bristol.
Bristol taking action
Now, Bristol Palestine Alliance (BPA) has organised a day of action.
People can gather from 12:30pm at Elbit’s factory. The full address is Belvedere Close (off Bolingbroke Way) Little Stoke, Bristol BS34 6FE:
The protest will run as follows:
12.30pm: workshop – people will make bunting from children’s clothes, write names-of-the-dead onto labels, and assemble “baby bundles” resembling bodies of the dead in Gaza. Children will also be chalking slogans and pictures on the tarmac at the entrance of the factory.
1pm: rally – including speakers: Rowland Dye – Palestinian Rights Campaigner; Nora el Gohary – Local Bristolian originally from Egypt; Mike Jempson – Journalist & Co Founder of the Mediawise Trust; Diana Slim – Hospital doctor; Peter Oswald – Poet and dramatist from “Naming the Dead”; Aisha Deeney – School pupil, activist; Professor Ron Rendel – Jewish American activist for Palestinian Rights; Susie Luger – Campaigner for Palestinian rights; Zoe Goodman – Independent Councillor.
In addition to the above, there will be a message of support from Ronnie Barkan – who recently stood trial as part of the Elbit-7 for direct action at the Aztec West Elbit site, and a message of support from Andrew Feinstein, arms trade expert and Jewish member of the post-Apartheid ANC government in South Africa.
2pm: photos – the attending crowd will pose for a group photo holding a giant horizontal “STOP ARMING ISRAEL” banner across the entrance of the factory. People will also hold up baby-bundles, children’s clothes bunting, name-labels, etc.
2.15pm: an “act of defiance” – crowd will defy security guards and march forward towards the factory gates to lay down baby-bundles, plus to hang children’s clothes bunting & name-labels onto the gates and the fence.
2.30pm “We Shall Overcome” – The crowd will sing the 1960’s Civil Rights anthem.
Featured image via Bristol Palestine Alliance
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Friday 22 March, people gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice to hand deliver a letter to the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr. You can read it here. It was calling for the suspension of Judge Silas Reid for threatening a jury with criminal proceedings in a trial concerning a group of climate activists:
In an unprecedented move, more than 1,800 people first submitted a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, before delivering the letter calling for Judge Reid’s suspension pending the outcome of that investigation. The letter has also been copied to Alex Chalk MP, the Lord Chancellor, whose consent is required before a judge can be suspended.
Basis of the complaint
The complaint focusses on statements made by Judge Reid concerning a trial of five women who broke windows at JP Morgan Bank, the leading financier of fossil fuel projects around the world, at the end of February this year.
Following a pattern of jury acquittals of environmental defenders who had taken similar action, Judge Reid used his public position to cast doubt on the reality of the climate crisis. He said:
The circumstances of the damage do not include any climate crisis which may or may not exist in the world at the moment … Whether climate change is as dangerous as each of the defendants may clearly and honestly believe or is not, is irrelevant and does not form any part of the circumstances of the damage.
Contrary to the fundamental, democratic principle of jury independence (also known as ‘jury equity’ or ‘jury nullification’), he then threatened the jury with criminal charges if they applied their conscience to the facts of the case:
It is only on the evidence you are able to try the case and not on conscience … It is a criminal offence for a juror to do anything from which it can be concluded that a decision will be made on anything other than the evidence.
Judge Reid: a ‘dangerous embarrassment’
Lead signatories to the letters explain this unprecedented intervention below. Professional rules of conduct make it difficult for practising barristers to speak out, but a leading criminal law KC, talking anonymously to Private Eye, said:
I’ve never encountered a judge threatening jurors in the way that Judge Silas Reid did. That suggests a clear determination by him to deter them from returning a verdict independently and without fear of punishment.
Melinda Janki, a Guyana-based lawyer, winner of the Commonwealth Lawyers Rule of Law Award, 2023, and one of the signatories, said:
The rule of law means that no-one is above the law, and that includes judges. I have a message to Judge Reid from Georgetown, Guyana.
We here are going to be underwater with 1.5˚C warming. It’s an abuse of judicial office to suggest that the breakdown of the global climate system could be belief or opinion.
It’s madness to send environmental defenders to prison just for using the words ‘climate change’ in court.
It’s unlawful to threaten a jury with criminal charges for applying their conscience to a case. The rule of law depends on accountability for judges who abuse their powers, which is why I’m joining the call for an investigation into Judge Reid’s conduct.
Charles Secrett, former director of Friends of the Earth, said:
Judge Silas Reid is a shocking example of how ignorant even the most learned man can be with his quasi-blasphemous rejection of the fundamental rights of juries and defendants, the objective rule of compassionate law, and the unavoidable primacy of climate science.
He is an antiquated, confused and dangerous embarrassment to the legal profession. He should be ‘dis-robed’ and removed from office at once.
Professor James E. Hansen, the former NASA scientist and ‘godfather of climate science’, said:
The cruelty of such ‘know nothing’ judges is not so much to the defendant as it is to our children and grandchildren.
A history of Judge Reid’s controversy
This is not the first time Judge Reid has courted controversy with his judicial war against those who know the climate crisis to be real and dare to do something about it.
Last year he imprisoned three people just for mentioning the words ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in his courtroom, defying his ban on the use of those terms.
At about the same time, he threatened a Guardian journalist with contempt of court, on the basis that the journalist’s presence in court, at the same time that people broke his order on what words they could use, suggested he was ‘in on it’.
He also had Trudi Warner, a 68 year-old retired social worker, arrested for upholding a sign outside court setting out the principle of jury equity. He then referred 24 more people to the Attorney General for doing the same thing.
Curiously, Judge Reid takes a more lenient approach to men who violently assault women.
In 2018 he gave a community order to an insurance broker who fractured the jaw of a female friend in three places after punching her in the face. Previously he sentenced a man who had left a woman with permanent scarring, after striking her in the face with a bicycle D-lock, to a suspended sentence and a compensation order of £115.
Yet another UN intervention
In February, the UN published a major international report, State repression of environmental protest and civil disobedience: a major threat to human rights and democracy. Although it does not refer to Judge Reid by name, it alludes to his actions in the following key passages:
In the UK, courts have prohibited environmental protesters from putting forward defenses based on “necessity” or “proportionality”. They have also forbidden protesters from mentioning climate change, thereby preventing them from explaining the reasons for their protest. Courts have held convicted environmental defenders who disregarded this prohibition in “contempt of court” and imprisoned them for up to 8 weeks…
Courts should not impose limitations on environmental protesters’ right to a defense, including to explain their motivation for engaging in protest, and should take into account these motivations in their decisions.
Having been threatened by the Judge with criminal proceedings if they applied their conscience to the case, the jury, contrary to the trend in previous similar cases, found the women guilty. They will be sentenced in June. Judge Reid has indicated the sentence will be custodial but may be suspended.
More to this story than meets the eye?
In principle, Judge Reid’s threats to the jury could form a ground of appeal against conviction. But whether to appeal is a matter for the five women and their lawyers, and may depend on personal and tactical considerations. The possibility of appeal provides no general accountability to the public, for actions which threaten democracy and the rule of law.
Since it is only the Lady Chief Justice that has the power to suspend a judge, it is notable that she herself published a judgement on Monday 18 March, which implied the climate crisis was simply a matter of opinion.
Since Reid expressed a similar position just ahead of this ruling, two explanations present themselves. Either Judge Reid got wind of the Court of Appeal’s ruling before anyone else. Or climate crisis scepticism is endemic across the judiciary, whose lead members dine at the male only Garrick Club alongside Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Featured image and additional images via Plan B
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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A group of civil society organisations are seeking assurances from the Met Police that the force will take a more common sense and less heavy-handed approach to pro-Palestine demonstrations in the capital. It’s called out what it says is the influence of “the media, government and pro-Israel lobby” in cops making decisions.
The Met: performing “politicised policing”?
In a joint letter to Met chief Sir Mark Rowley, the 14 organisations question the politicised way in which protests are being handled which they say risks eroding public confidence in the police. It says:
In view of the recent dismissal of a prosecution against a pro-Palestine protestor we the undersigned are seeking reassurances that the Metropolitan Police will relent on its heavy-handed and highly politicised policing of demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza.
The letter comes after the recent dismissal of a prosecution against a pro-Palestine protestor who was arrested and charged with failing to comply with a requirement to remove a face covering at a protest on 14 October 2023.
However, on 28 February, the City of London Magistrate’s Court dismissed the case against Ibrahim Hlaiyil, 38, saying there was no evidence to support a prosecution. The trial is summarised here. As the letter noted:
In dismissing the charge, the judge said: “There is no evidence to prove the essential element of the charge.” The judge stated that the arresting officer seemed to have taken the view that he was able to arrest anyone who refused to take off their face mask at the protest.
The law actually only allows for arrest if a person is wearing a face covering for the purpose of concealing their identity, something that the police did not argue in court.
Influenced by media, politicians, and the “pro-Israel lobby”
The Met Police publicised and portrayed this arrest as part of a crackdown on violent protesters. However, the dismissal of the charge against Hlaiyil highlights both the heavy-handed and politicised way in which pro-Palestine protests are being policed in the capital.
As the letter states:
It also highlights a lack of operational independence and a propensity to be influenced by the highly inflammatory and politicised representation of these demonstrations by their detractors in the media, government and pro-Israel lobby.
The full text of the letter can be read here.
The signatories are:
- Islamic Human Rights Commission.
- 5 Pillars.
- Black Activists Rising Against Cuts.
- Black Lives Matter Coalition UK.
- Convivencia Alliance.
- Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
- InMinds Human Rights Group.
- Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions – UK.
- Jewish Network for Palestine.
- Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK.
- Peacemaker Trust.
- Scotland Against Criminalising Communities.
- Spinwatch/Public Interest Investigations.
- The Campaign Against Misrepresentation in Public Affairs, Information and the News (CAMPAIN).
Featured image via Sir Mark Rowley – LinkedIn
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Thursday 21 March in Basildon Crown Court, Just Stop Oil tunnellers Samuel Johnson, Larch Maxey, Joe Howlett, and Autumn Wharrie were found guilty over their occupation. The four are expecting to be sentenced in June. The verdict came is as cops were also arresting other Just Stop Oil activists – thanks to a snitch hack at the Daily Mail. One of them even stood as an MP candidate in the Rochdale by-election – and is a vicar.
Just Stop Oil tunnellers guilty – of standing up to big oil
First, the Just Stop Oil Essex tunnellers took action in August 2022, demanding the UK government immediately halts all licensing and consents for new fossil fuel exploration and extraction:
The group took action by occupying tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex. This occurred simultaneously with three other tunneling actions in Essex and Warwickshire, as well as occupations of oil trucks and terminals overground. These combined efforts massively impacted the flow and operation of oil in the UK at the time.
A sixth person, Xavier Trimmer-Gonzalez, took action with this group, but died in 2023 after spending time in prison following his actions with Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil. A two minute silence was observed during the trial to show respect to his memory.
Sam Johnson said today:
I’m Sam, a construction worker from Essex and I took action simply because we have run out of time. We have known for longer than I’ve been alive what would happen if we kept burning fossil fuels – and now we are seeing this catastrophe unfold in real time. I have a nephew who is seven years old who I love to bits. As long as I have breath in my lungs I will fight to protect his future.
The group remained in the 52-foot tunnel for 13 days. At the time, Chief Constable of Essex Police, BJ Harrington, recognised in a statement that the climate crisis is a “serious concern”. However, Essex police put the lives of the action takers and motorists at risk by opening the roads over the tunnel.
At the time, action taker Joe Howlett said:
The climate crisis is caused by a very small minority of people and it’s those same people who are currently profiteering from the cost of living crisis. That’s why I’ve spent the last 10 days living in a tunnel under a road leading to the Navigator oil terminal in Essex.
Then, over the past 48 hours, two Just Stop Oil supporters have been unexpectedly held by the police for conspiracy to commit burglary:
Just Stop Oil Supporters Arrested in Surprise Operation
Over the past 48 hours, Rosa Hicks and Reverend Mark Coleman have been unexpectedly arrested for conspiracy to commit burglary.
Rosa was walking home from a community event in London last night when she was forced… pic.twitter.com/o9136G9Y5G— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) March 21, 2024
Cops now arresting parliamentary candidates
Rosa Hicks from London, was walking home from a community event in Camden at around 9pm on Wednesday 20 March when a Met Police vehicle pulled up and she was forced into the van by six officers. As of 4pm on 21 March she is still being held at Islington Police Station.
On Tuesday 19 March, Reverend Mark Coleman (who stood as a candidate in the Rochdale by-election) was arrested outside his home in Rochdale at around 5:15pm by plainclothes officers, and taken to Bury custody suite. At 9:26pm that day, PC Jonathan Fryer and Detective Constable Philip O’Connor from the Public Order Crime Unit at Lambeth interviewed Reverend Coleman.
They described intelligence that they had gained from reading a Daily Mail article which claimed that Just Stop Oil supporters planned to occupy the homes and offices of MPs. The article came about because a journalist infiltrated Just Stop Oil.
Cops questioned Reverend Coleman about his political activities.
WTF is this?
Reverend Coleman has made the following comment:
Their line of questioning went like this: ‘Who are the other members of Just Stop Oil involved – is one of them Phoebe? Why did you stand for election in Rochdale? What does “occupy” mean? Do you intend to occupy? Does anyone intend to occupy? Do you intend to cause damage? Do you intend to intimidate? What types of criminal damage are you intending?’
‘How did you do at the election? What agenda did you have for standing? What would you do had you won? Did you run on a no new oil ticket? What else were you going to do? Would you sit in a politician’s office? Would you occupy the Palace of Westminster legitimately and then illegitimately protest? Do you believe that this is democracy in action? Do you know that several members of Parliament have been killed? What do you think is a reasonable or likely outcome for MPs? Do you think that activities leading to the death of MPs is a reasonable strategy for JSO?’
They said my bail conditions would prevent me attending the homes and offices of MPs or parliamentary candidates. A clerical error means my bail conditions only restrict me from attending their homes – which is not something I have ever done. But being instructed not to go to MPs offices or the offices of those standing for parliament rather excludes me from the democratic processes. It was a privilege to stand for parliament in the recent by-election. I have committed no crime – why am I being excluded from playing a part in the normal political life of the place where I live?
On the morning of 6 March, Just Stop Oil supporter Phoebe Plummer was arrested by plainclothes officers in Vauxhall for ‘conspiracy to commit burglary.’ She was interviewed and held for a short time at Walworth Custody Suite before being released later that day.
On 14 March, she and Rosa Hicks delivered a letter to the home of Emily Thornberry. The pair asked the police officer stationed outside: “We’re here to post a letter, is that OK?”, to which the police officer replied: “You can post the letter, yeah, I can’t stop you from posting a letter”. Afterwards Phoebe was arrested again, for breach of bail conditions she was given on 6 March.
Featured image and additional images via Just Stop Oil
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Wednesday 20 March, activists from Palestine Action set up camp in front of Elbit’s Bristol headquarters at Aztec West 600. It comes after the group targeted Somerset Council over its complicity in Elbit and Israel‘s genocide – as it is the former’s landlord.
Palestine Action: a base of resistance
Establishing a base of resistance, activists have put up gazebos, banners, Palestine flags, and scaled up trees overlooking the Israeli weapons maker:
As night falls the Palestine flag is flying high in front of Elbit’s Bristol HQ.
We’ll be here day and night occupying this space, building the resistance until the Israeli weapons maker is gone for good.
Join us at Elbit, Aztec West 600, Patchway, Bristol pic.twitter.com/sS44PPzQ8d
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) March 20, 2024
The camp is the latest in a series of actions to kick Elbit out of Aztec West 600. It’s a premises which is owned by Somerset Council. Since Palestine Action’s launch in July 2020, activists have broken inside the arms manufacturer, occupied the roof, blockaded the gates, and dismantled the premises.
Simultaneously, residents of Somerset have taken several actions to demand Somerset Council terminate Elbit’s lease before they sell the property. It’s sale which is motivated by financial pressure on the council. Residents have repeatedly disrupted council meetings in a bid to make their voices heard and reject their county’s complicity in genocide.
After requests to evict Elbit were dismissed by councillors, activists covered Somerset County Hall in red paint and spray painted messages such as ‘Elbit out’, ‘Evict Elbit’ and ‘Blood on your hands’:
The newly established camp will apply further pressure on the council and reduce the prospect of any future sale without first evicting Elbit.
Elbit: staggering complicity.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, whose UK division is headquartered at Aztec West 600, with both Elbit Systems UK and Elbit Systems Ltd (based in Haifa, Israel) listed as named parties on the lease. Providing 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as bullets, bombs, munitions and other weaponry, the company is a key pillar of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
By using Gaza as a laboratory for new weaponry, Elbit can market their products as “battle-tested” or “combat proven” before selling them on to global militaries. Both the export and purchase of Elbit’s weaponry maintains the illegal occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people.
Palestine Action vow to continue to take action until Elbit is out of Aztec West 600, and ultimately out of Britain.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Thousands of people have vowed not to bank with Barclays until it ends its complicity with Israel‘s genocide and apartheid. On Thursday 21 March, over 1,000 people cancelled their accounts with the criminal bank – coming on top of thousands more than have already done so.
Barclays: end the complicity with Israel
UK banking giant Barclays is once again the target of mass boycott campaign, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). More than 1,000 people closed their accounts on 21 March in protest at its bankrolling of Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestinians.
Thousands more have signed a pledge never to bank with Barclays while it remains complicit with Israel’s apartheid system. The bank faced a similar boycott campaign over its financial support for South African apartheid before eventually being forced to divest in 1986. You can join the boycott here.
Barclays Bank holds over £1bn in shares and provides over £3bn in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components, and military technology are being used by Israel in its genocidal attacks on Palestinians.
This includes General Dynamics, which produces the gun systems that arm the fighter jets used by Israel to bombard Gaza, and Elbit Systems, which produces armoured drones, munitions, and artillery weapons used by the Israeli military.
By providing investment and financial services to these arms companies, Barclays is facilitating the provision of weapons and technology for Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.
Nothing changes
This mass account closure day falls on the UN Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It is commemorated on the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, during which South African police killed 69 black protesters demonstrating against apartheid laws.
During this time, Barclays faced a sustained boycott campaign over its financial support for South African apartheid before eventually being forced to withdraw in 1986.
Campaigners say that, once again, Barclays will be forced to end its complicity in apartheid:
Stop Banking on Genocide – 21 March@BarclaysUK bankrolls Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. We're calling on all those who bank with Barclays to close their accounts with them on 21 March until they stop. Pledge to close your account here: https://t.co/uCa2mtggCF pic.twitter.com/35nKDDjFT3
— PSC (@PSCupdates) March 20, 2024
This second mass account closure day is part of an on-going campaign aimed at highlighting Barclays toxic banking policies that make it complicit with Israel’s war crimes. Barclays will continue be the target of social media campaigns, pickets, and sit ins until it is forced to prioritise humanity over profit.
Boycott Barclays
Ben Jamal, PSC director, said :
More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, in what the International Court of Justice has accepted is a plausible case of genocide.
UN experts have warned that Gaza is facing imminent famine due to Israel’s blockade and attacks. To its eternal shame, Barclays is complicit, financing the companies that supply Israel with the weapons and military technology it uses to carry out its attacks.
Barclays was forced to stop supporting apartheid in South Africa before, and we’ll force it to stop supporting Israel’s genocide and apartheid now.
Featured image via PSC
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Over 50 Students at Manchester University are occupying the Simon Building in solidarity with Palestinians facing Israel‘s genocide in Gaza – with the university being complicit.
Manchester University: complicit in genocide
They are demanding that the university ends its partnership with BAE Systems and other arms companies, cuts its ties with Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and stops what they call all “unethical research”:
Students accuse the university’s senior management of complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. They say the university has failed to take any action over its extensive ties to Israel despite the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel is plausibly committing a genocide:
The occupation demands are that Manchester University must:
- End its partnership with BAE Systems.
- Cut ties with Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
- Adopt a policy ensuring that all research is ethical and doesn’t contribute towards the arms trade.
The evidence stacks up
Tel Aviv University, which Manchester University has a research partnership with, developed the Dahiya Doctrine. This calls for the targeting of civilian infrastructure to bring pressure on Palestinians, rather than targeting armed groups.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is built on illegally occupied land, with exchange students from Manchester University sent to live in these settlements.
BAE Systems is Europe’s largest arms company and is involved in producing F-35 and F-16 jets which are used against Palestinians in Gaza. Manchester University has no policy regulating whether research could be used to harm lives or for other unethical purposes. Moreover, it has received at least £15m in research funding from arms companies in the last five years.
So, the Simon Building is being occupied by at least 50 students:
It marks the one year anniversary of when students were forcefully evicted from the Simon Building during protests related to the Rent Strikes.
Manchester University: joining others around England
This occupation coincides with actions at other universities. These include Goldsmiths, Leeds, UCL, Bristol, and Nottingham. Students will be holding workshops and other public events over the next few days to demand a change in direction from Manchester University.
Last week, vice chancellor Nancy Rothwell was recorded denying that arms companies are unethical. Students have been protesting for months, including a one night occupation in November, with no response to requests for negotiations from any of Manchester University’s senior management.
A spokesperson for Manchester Leftist Action said:
Manchester University has left us with no choice but to escalate this campaign. This is a wake-up call that students will continue taking action until our University’s complicity in genocide is ended.
Featured image and additional images via Manchester Leftist Action
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Over 150 non-profit organisations have called out the influence of big oil at this year’s upcoming climate crisis negotiations in Azerbaijan. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) will hold the COP29 international climate summit in Baku in November.
In an open letter, a global coalition led by 350.org and Oil Change International raised their grave concerns about clear conflict of interest in the COP29 organising committee. Specifically, the coalition of groups has singled out host Azerbaijan’s choice to include its state oil company president Rovshan Najaf as a member.
COP29 host ramps up fossil fuels
Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, plans to expand fossil fuel production. Moreover, a Global Witness analysis from January found that the country is set to ramp up gas production by a third over the next decade. This will see Azerbaijan take production from 37bn cubic metres in 2024, to 49bn cubic metres in 2033.
Overall, Global Witness estimated that fossil fuel companies would plough US $41.4bn to extract 411bn cubic metres of Azeri gas. Notably, it said that this could pay the cost of installing more than 1,170 offshore wind turbines, and emit 781m tonnes of carbon dioxide – or twice the annual emissions of the UK.
Given this, the signatories of the open letter called Azerbaijan out. It read:
Despite Azerbaijan being a party to the Paris Agreement, having endorsed the UAE consensus and accepted the findings of the IPCC, SOCAR plans to expand its fossil fuel production, which is incompatible with the objective of limiting warming to 1.5°C, and lacks a clear and credible strategy to transition away from fossil fuels.
In short, SOCAR’s plans contradict the Paris Climate Agreement – the arguable cornerstone of the COP climate negotiations.
COPs lead by compromised petrostates
Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time the summits host’s actions has run counter to climate goals. Azerbaijan follow intransigent fossil fuel devotees such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and the United Kingdom to the table.
As the Canary’s Tracy Keeling reported, the UK’s COP26 welcomed 503 fossil fuel lobbyists into the fold. Now of course, the UK’s Tory-led government has abandoned even the slimmest pretence of keeping to its climate goals, and plans to increase gas production.
Likewise, Egypt escalated fossil fuel lobbyist entry into the summit, granting 636 delegates access. Again, the country has boosted fossil fuel production in recent years.
However, the UAE’s COP28 took this to new heights when it allowed 2,456 corporate fossil fuel lobbyists into the conference. Worse still, UAE national oil company Adnoc’s head sultan Al Jaber acted as the country’s COP28 president-designate. Notoriously, Al Jaber championed the role of fossil fuels, arguing they would be needed for the “forseeable future”.
The signatories to the open letter acknowledged this, stating:
We are further aware that Azerbaijan is not the first fossil fuel producing country to host a COP. At COP28. At COP28, global civil society criticized the nomination of Sultan Al Jaber as COP president in order to protect the global climate talks from the influence of the fossil fuel industry.
Now, another oil exec threatens to derail the next annual summit.
More oil execs and employees
Specifically, Azerbaijan has included SOCAR president Rovshan Najaf in the COP29 organising committee. As Climate Home News reported, the group also includes the head of state energy company Azerenergy’s Balababa Rzayev.
Initially, civil society groups additionally heavily criticised the committee for consisting of men only. After this, Azerbaijan added 12 women to the previously all-male committee.
Moreover, COP29 marks a consecutive summit putting a fossil fuel veteran at the helm of negotiations. Following in predecessor Al Jaber footsteps, former long-term state oil company employee-turned minister of ecology and natural resources Mukhtar Babayev is heading the key summit.
As such, the open letter argued that:
The inclusion of the president of the state oil company in the COP29 organizing committee presents a significant conflict of interest. The credibility of the COP29 presidency, already weakened by your historic ties to the oil and gas industry, risks being further jeopardized by this decision.
Repressive states
On top of this, the open letter further expressed deep concerns over civil society’s freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and human rights in the COP29 host country Azerbaijan. The groups noted that:
in Azerbaijan, peaceful protests are repressed and independent organizations and media outlets face excessive restrictions in law and practice. Just last week, Azerbaijani authorities conducted raids on local media offices and detained a dozen journalists and other civil society members.
Such tactics are routinely used by the government of Azerbaijan to silence civil society, especially those who speak out about corruption and environmental harms in the oil industry – like Gubad Ibadoghlu , who has been imprisoned for over six months.
In particular, the organisations highlighted that the inclusion of two further members to the organising committee was “highly problematic” and could create a “chilling effect”. These include Ilgar Musayev, the head of the country’s Service of Special Communication and Information Security and chief of the state’s security service Ali Naghiyev.
Naturally, human rights organisations have raised similar concerns at previous COPs.
Egypt’s mass arbitrary detention of hundreds of activists in the weeks leading up to COP27 set the stage for its surveillance and suppression of civil society voices.
Then, climate justice groups highlighted the similarly autocratic UAE’s repressive protest laws and poor human rights record ahead of the negotiations in 2023.
So, for the upcoming negotiations, the open letter called for clarification of state security and the special communication and information security services’ role during COP29. Head of public engagement at 350.org Namrata Chowdhary said:
The climate movement has steadfastly held the line at climate negotiations, COP after COP after COP, pushing political leaders to drive the transformational change in climate policy we urgently need to see. But for three years in a row, these UN climate talks are hosted in countries where the interests of the fossil fuel industry are given precedence over those of people and the planet.
Worse still, they exercise their authority to deliberately exclude the voices of the people most directly impacted by climate change, and threaten our right to push for the solutions we need.
Chowdhary added that:
Inviting the heads of oil companies and the secret service onto the organising committee sends a clear signal to civil society – that we will be held at a distance, and our influence limited.
A “deep stake in seeing climate action fail”
The letter was originally signed and sent by the executive directors of 350.org, Oil Change International, Action Aid, and CIEL. Since then, organisations representing youth, environmental, human rights, and Indigenous groups from over 50 countries and six continents have signed on.
However, COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev still hasn’t responded.
Global policy manager with Oil Change International Romain Ioualalen said:
The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference must be the COP that starts implementing a full, fast, fair, and funded transition away from fossil fuels, after the promises made in Dubai.
Yet, this will be the second COP in a row that is run by someone with deep ties to the oil and gas industry, which has a deep stake in seeing climate action fail. The recent inclusion of the President of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) on the core COP29 team sends yet another profoundly negative signal on the potential capture of crucial climate talks by the oil and gas industry.
Additionally, Ioualalen added:
The COP29 presidency was heavily criticized for failing to ensure gender balance on its organizing committee and should therefore know that its choices will be scrutinized globally.
But, like with their correction of adding women to the committee, after introducing an all male panel earlier this year, it is not too late to separate oil company interest from the most important climate change conference of the year.
Needless to say however, the petrostate architects of climate dither and delay have shown again that they will likely bring more “blah, blah, blah” to COP29. Of course, it wouldn’t be a climate summit without it.
Feature image via EnerSol/Youtube
This post was originally published on Canary.
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An app-based workers union representing over 100,000 Uber drivers and other app-based drivers across 20 countries have united to boycott Chevron-branded gas stations, including Texaco and Caltex, in alignment with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) campaign and the call for solidarity by Palestine trade unions.
Chevron: feeling the force of BDS
The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) is a global federation representing over 100,000 drivers and couriers across 20 countries and six continents, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina, USA, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, France, Australia, and the U.K.
At its bi-annual international conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, IAATW delegates unanimously passed motions showing their unequivocal support for Palestine and commitment to actions in line with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement and the unprecedented call from more than 30 Palestinian trade unions.
The BNC said:
The BDS movement reiterates its call on supporters of Palestinian rights and climate justice, particularly workers and labor unions, to escalate divestment and boycott campaigns against Chevron (and all its gas stations…
This motion reiterated IAATW’s statement from October 2023 and committed to concrete action by adopting the BDS call against oil companies complicit in Israel’s occupation.
Apartheid and genocide
As part of these solidarity efforts, IAATW drivers pledged to boycott Chevron-branded gas stations, including Texaco and Caltex, operating in all IAATW member countries. The union believes that refusing to support entities complicit in perpetuating injustices against Palestinians is a critical step towards justice and accountability.
Chevron has generated billions of dollars in revenue for apartheid Israel as the leading “international actor extracting gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean” – helping to fund the ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Chevron is directly involved in Israel’s policy and practice of depriving the Palestinian people of their right to sovereignty over their natural resources.
Chevron: complicit
IAATW said:
Inspired by the 1987 oil embargo against Shell for its role in South African apartheid, we, the app-based passenger transport sector for companies such as Uber, Deliveroo, JustEat, Free Now, Glovo, Lyft, Grab, DoorDash, Grubhub, Amazon, Ola, Gojek, Didi, Bolt, Careems, reiterate Palestinians’ calls for action and pledge to boycott the thousands of Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex gas and petrol stations worldwide.
To build this campaign within IAATW and beyond, delegates also committed to reaching out and working with other app-based transport unions to encourage them to echo these demands and organise an international education day.
IAATW noted:
Finally, IAATW pledges to investigate and take action against app companies utilising Israeli technology complicit in the genocide perpetrated against Palestinians.
IAATW stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian labour movement and their struggle for national liberation; we reiterate calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israeli apartheid and military occupation and call on other labour unions to do the same.
You can find out more about the BDS Chevron campaign here.
Featured image via the BNC
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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A Lib Dem-led council in Somerset is facing the wrath of local residents and activists over its complicity in Israel‘s ongoing genocide in Gaza. This is because the council is the landlord of one of the biggest arms manufacturers supplying the colonialist state with weapons.
Lib Dem Somerset council: complicit in genocide
Lib Dem-led Somerset Council is the landlord of Aztec West 600, the headquarters of Elbit Systems UK. Elbit Systems UK is owned by Israel’s largest weapons firm, which markets its weaponry as “battle-tested” after they’re developed through assaults on the Palestinian people.
The Israeli weapons maker manufactures 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as missiles, bombs and bullets. Elbit’s CEO Bazhalel Machlis, who sits on the board of Elbit Systems UK, boasted of how the Israeli military has thanked the company for their “crucial” services during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Since 7 October, Israel has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, injured over 73,000, and displaced the vast majority of Gaza. By being Elbit’s landlords, the Lib Dems are complicit in this.
Direct action
So, supporters of Palestine Action have taken direct action against the Lib Dem-led council. On Monday 18 March, the doused the council offices in red paint:
Activists also wrote some home truths on the brickwork:
As the Canary has reported, on two previous occasions, Somerset residents have disrupted Lib Dem-led council meetings urging for immediate action to be taken and for Elbit’s lease to be terminated. Amidst financial issues, the council has made plans to sell all of their commercial properties including Aztec West 600.
The Lib Dem-led council issued a predictably snivelling response, saying:
While we respect the right of individuals and groups to protest, we strongly condemn this criminal damage on a Grade II-listed public building which will need to be removed at taxpayers’ expense.
Moreover, residents have repeatedly emphasised that selling the property doesn’t absolve the council of its responsibility, and before any sale takes place the council must evict Elbit from its property.
Lib Dem council still on Palestine Action’s hit list
As the Lib Dem-led council has not yet taken such action, they remain on Palestine Action’s database of institutions and companies who profit from and enable Israel’s weapons trade.
The local group said:
By taking Elbit’s money, our council have Palestinian blood on their hands. By default, they’ve made the whole county of Somerset complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We refuse to stand by whilst the council continue to ignore our requests to evict Elbit. For the Palestinian people at the other end of Elbit’s weapons, we will continue to take action until the council kick Elbit out of Aztec West 600.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
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GB News has felt the full-ish force of Ofcom this week; well – as forceful as the unfit-for-purpose broadcasting regulator gets. However, it wasn’t the only one targeting the hate-mongering, lie-peddling, far-right TV station. Activists made their feelings about GB News very clear, too – right outside its front door.
GB News: a torrent of lies and disinformation
Days after the government released a new definition of extremism, Extinction Rebellion activists blockaded the offices of GB News and its multi-millionaire owner Paul Marshall – branding him and his pet broadcaster as ‘the real extremists’ – demanding an end to their torrent of climate crisis lies and disinformation.
In a dramatic escalation of Extinction Rebellion’s Rebel For Truth campaign, on Monday 18 March protesters blocked the main doors of the headquarters of GB News with a metal tripod structure and two people locked themselves to its legs:
Other protesters used fire extinguishers to spray windows with black liquid representing the oil and fossil fuel products setting the planet on fire while fellow activists with flares swathed the building in Paddington, London, in black smoke:
A masked Extinction Rebellion climber wearing a Marshall Wace Hoodie dangled a Pinocchio puppet in a Union Jack waistcoat from on top of the tripod to symbolise the way that the station lies for it’s fossil fuel paymasters:
Other activists unfurled banners reading: “GB News Cut The Ties to Fossil Fuel” and “Rebel for Truth”:
A string of protesters encircled the entrance holding placards depicting the faces of GB News presenters including Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees Mogg, Richard Tice, and Lee Anderson, and station owner Marshall. Beneath each of them is written the word ‘Extremist’:
An extremist organisation
Letters from Extinction Rebellion were emailed to GB News, MO6 (the Metropolitan Police unit specialising in public order planning), Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Lord Walney, the ‘independent’ adviser on political violence and disruption who has created the government’s new extremism definition.
They asked for an immediate investigation of GB News as an extremist organisation peddling an ideology of violence, hate, and intolerance with the intent of undermining our democracy, and for the broadcaster to be added to a new list of extremists.
All the letters demanded an inquiry into whether owner Marshall is a fit and proper person to hold a broadcasting licence. His company also holds £2.2bn in fossil fuel investments.
‘Looking in the wrong places’
Jon Fuller, one of the Extinction Rebellion team which targeted GB News, said:
Our government is currently obsessed with identifying extremists, but they’re looking in the wrong places. The TV Lie Factory inside this building perfectly fits their new definition of extremism by peddling an ideology of violence, hate, and intolerance aimed at wrecking our liberal democracy.
Fake claims by GB News presenters that the climate crisis is either not real or not serious reach millions of social media users, TV viewers and newspaper readers.
By sowing climate doubt and confusion amongst our fellow citizens, GB News helps ensure our politicians feel no pressure at the ballot box to act urgently to stop a future of deadly famine, flood, heatwaves, storms, and war becoming a reality.
They are putting billions of lives at ever-greater risk by delaying action to tackle the climate crisis. We are calling on the station to cease its extremist behaviour and for the police and government to take it off the air if it fails to do so.
GB News: the very definition of extremism
Todd Smith, another Extinction Rebellion activist, said:
Paul Marshall is the very definition of an extremist. He has “liked” and retweeted dozens of racist, Islamophobic, and homophobic tweets, his pet TV station GB New spouts climate lies and anti-immigrant poison, he’s trying to buy extremist newspaper the Telegraph, and he bankrolled Brexit.
One-in-three GB News presenters denied climate science on air, while more than half have attacked government and business actions to tackle the accelerating climate and ecological crisis.
It’s clear that he’s trying to use his money and his media influence to stop urgent action on climate change and to divide the British people against each other through hate and intolerance. He must be stopped. We’re calling upon the government and the police to act against him immediately.
The action at GB News is the latest escalation of Extinction Rebellion’s Rebel For Truth campaign that has seen activists under the banner Stop Selling Lies challenge the climate disinformation at the offices of the Daily Mail and the Telegraph every week for four months.
Featured image and additional images via William Templeton/Extinction Rebellion
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Following a pattern of jury acquittals of environmental defenders and anti-genocide activists, which exposes the media fiction that the British government’s ‘crackdown on protest’ is in any way democratic, the Court of Appeal has today backed the Attorney General’s call to remove what was for many their last remaining line of legal defence.
It has ruled that mass loss of life from climate breakdown and the government’s failure to act on the science are irrelevant to the circumstances of an action, for the purposes of the defence of consent to damage to property (Criminal Damage Act 1971, s.5(2)(a)). That is – protesters deeply-held and factual beliefs are no defence.
Court of Appeal: siding with the climate-wrecking Tories
The counter-intuitive decision bears an uncanny resemblance to the recent ruling of Judge Silas Reid that the climate crisis is ‘irrelevant’ to the defence of consent, which came after the Court of Appeal hearing but before the issue of its judgement, raising the question of whether he was tipped off by the Court of Appeal in relation to their intended ruling, which would be unlawful.
Less than a month after the court hearing on 21 February, which saw members of the public stage a ‘peaceful makeover’ of the Royal Courts of Justice, the Lady Chief Justice ruled:
Evidence from the defendant about the facts of effects of climate change would be inadmissible.
The ruling follows a number of similar rulings by the British courts, which taken together operate to silence activists in court, preventing them from defending themselves and explaining their motivations to a jury.
A history of removing legal defences
The programmatic removal of legal defences from activists began in earnest in January 2021, when the High Court quashed the acquittal of an environmental defender, who had been cleared of criminal damage on the basis that her intention was to prevent damage to property, in particular in countries such as Bangladesh where countless people are already losing their homes to floods caused by human-made climate change.
The High Court ruled she had no right to rely on the statutory defence in the Criminal Damage Act 1971 (s.5(2)(b)). It replaced the original not guilty verdict with a guilty verdict.
Then in February 2021, the Court of Appeal in quashing the convictions of the Stansted 15 for a terrorist offence (the Stansted 15 had peacefully blocked a deportation flight, which exposed numerous people serious harm, and which was subsequently found to be unlawful) ruled that activists could not rely on the defence of necessity, i.e. action necessary to prevent serious harm, even if there was compelling evidence that their actions were necessary to prevent serious harm.
Following the acquittal of the Colston 4 in January 2022, for toppling the statue of the slave-trader Edward Colston into Bristol Harbour, Suella Braverment referred the case to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal ruled that the human rights based defences, advanced by the Colston 4, could not be presented to a jury in the future.
In April 2023, Judge Shane Collery prevented Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland from arguing to the jury that their action in dropping a Just Stop Oil banner from the Queen Elizabeth Bridge was a reasonable excuse in light of the mass loss of life from the climate crisis – even though ‘reasonable excuse’ is a statutory defence to public nuisance, the crime they were charged with, and which was introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Court Act s. 78 specifically for the context of activism.
After leaving them with no defence, leading to their convictions, the Judge subsequently sent them to prison for two years seven months and three years respectively.
Court of Appeal: following on from “alarming” crackdown
In the absence of any defence, some judges, such as Judge Silas Reid at Inner London Crown Court, have taken to banning activists from explaining their motivations to the jury and banning them from using words such as ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in their courtroom. Judge Reid has sent 3 people to prison just for using those words in court.
Such measures prompted an extraordinary intervention by the UN Special Rapporteur, Michel Forst, earlier this year:
I was … alarmed to learn that, in some recent cases, presiding judges have forbidden environmental defenders from explaining to the jury their motivation for participating in a given protest or from mentioning climate change at all.
It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action, and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the government to take pressing action for the climate.
Judge Reid: a serial offender
After witnessing attempts to silence activists in court, Trudi Warner, a 69 year-old retired social worker and legal observer, demonstrated outside Inner London Crown Court with a sign communicating the constitutional principle of jury equity, which dates back to 1670, i.e. that a jury can acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience, irrespective of the directions of the judge.
Judge Reid had her arrested for this. On 18 April the Solicitor General will apply to the High Court to have her committed to prison.
In a recent trial Judge Reid threatened a jury with criminal charges if they applied their conscience to the case. Speaking anonymously to Private Eye, a leading criminal KC said:
I’ve never encountered a judge threatening jurors in the way that Judge Reid did. That suggests a clear determination by him to deter them from returning a verdict independently.
These events have prompted critical headlines around the world from the US to Japan, Spain to India.
Defend our juries – and our activists
A spokesperson for campaign group Defend Our Juries said:
It appears that Judge Reid was tipped off by the Court of Appeal that it would rule that the climate crisis was irrelevant to the circumstances of an action. It’s impossible to believe that two courts could simultaneously arrive at such a bizarre interpretation of the law independently.
When will the legal profession and the judiciary wake up to what’s happening? It must be obvious to every serious observer that British law is being instrumentalised, on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, to silence and repress those taking action to confront the extreme danger from climate breakdown. If the urgent interventions from the UN and civil society organisations are not setting warning lights flashing, what will it take?
With the established courts failing to discharge their basic function of protecting the British public from the abuse of power, it’s inevitable that others will step up.
Featured image via the Royal Courts of Justice
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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In an unprecedented act of coordinated international climate protest, Extinction Rebellion activists from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands protested in solidarity with each other against new North Sea fossil fuels extraction. Under the campaign North Sea Fossil Free acts of civil disobedience happened all around the North Sea.
Governments promoting new fossil fuel extraction
The governments of these six countries are permitting new fossil extraction infrastructure, harming not only the North Sea ecosystem, but also committing the whole world to dangerous levels of warming. None of the major North Sea fossil fuel-producing countries have plans to curtail drilling in alignment with the 1.5°C target. This was confirmed by a recent report.
Despite international climate pledges, new sites for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea are still being continuously permitted.
The IPCC, UNEP, and IEA are clear in their reports: expanding oil and gas production will take us far off course for our climate goals. If we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels at the current rate, our CO2 budget to stay below 1.5°C will run out in about five years.
As our planet warms, so do our seas. This increases pressure on marine ecosystems, increasing the risk of extinctions. UNEP 2021 warned of the inconsistency between net zero targets and continued investments in new fossil infrastructure. UN secretary-general António Guterres has described investment in new fossil infrastructure at this point as “moral and economic madness”.
Extinction Rebellion form a protest ring around the North Sea
So, on Saturday 16 March, activists came together in a series of actions to demand all North Sea Oil countries align their drilling plans with the Paris Agreement now.
Netherlands
Extinction Rebellion and Scientists Rebellion blocked all main access roads to Shell’s Pernis refinery – the largest refinery in Europe:
Shell plans to increase and expand production in the North Sea. It has been granted a permit for new gas drilling in the Victory Gas Field in and in April 2023 it resumed the Pierce Field production.
At the same time, Shell is allowing the old drilling platforms and pipelines in the North Sea to rust away. These disintegrating oil and gas pipelines in the North Sea can poison the sea with mercury, radioactive lead and polonium.
Germany
Climate activists from Ende Gelände blocked access to the floating LNG terminal in the industrial port of Brunsbüttel:
They demanded an immediate stop to imports of liquefied natural gas. According to the latest scientific studies, liquefied natural gas is more harmful to the climate than coal. A floating LNG terminal is currently in operation in Brunsbüttel, which is to be replaced by a fixed terminal in 2026/27.
Norway
Extinction Rebellion Norway shut down Rafnes Petroleum Refinery. Extinction Rebellion activists entered the security zone with a boat:
Dozens of activists blocked the main entrance on land:
Activists refused to move themselves.
Denmark
Activists from Fossil Free Future Denmark performed a protest concert with band Octopussy Riot. They entered TotalEnergies premises in Esbjerg harbour, occupying parts of it:
Artist Linh Le said:
We octopuses have formed the band Octopussy Riot and have arrived here to play our song, a demand for you two-legs to stop oil and gas extraction. The sea is dying, our climate collapsing. We will not accept that the most rich and powerful destroy our home. We do not want to go extinct.
Sweden
Extinction Rebellion Sweden blocked the road to the Oil Harbour in Gothenburg:
The group has been taking action against the harbour since May 2022. Then, activists slow walked in the streets of downtown with banners:
Scotland
Across Scotland, local groups supported the continental actions with banner drops in locations of strategic importance to the proposed development of new North Sea oil and gas.
At a striking coastal location on the Moray Firth which could be devastated if there was an oil spill, Extinction Rebellion Forres organised performances from the black-clad “oil slicks” performance troupe:
Shetland Stop Rosebank dropped banners at Lerwick Harbour – the main port supporting the first phase of the proposed Rosebank oil and gas field:
In Aberdeen, the offices of Equinor and Ithaca (who own 80% and 20% of Rosebank respectively) were targeted with banners which read: “NORTH SEA FOSSIL FREE”, “STOP ROSEBANK” and “SEA KNOWS NO BORDERS”:
Exploiting shared waters
These countries are interconnected through the exploitation of their shared waters, while the effects of these harmful initiatives are affecting the climate far beyond this northern corner of the world.
The North Sea countries are branding themselves as leading countries within the green transition, all the while allowing global companies like Equinor, Shell, and Total Energies to open new oil and gas fields.
Projects like the Rosebank Oil field in the UK, deep seabed mining in Norway, and the re-opening of the Tyra II gas field in Denmark are accelerating the global climate and ecological crisis. A large part of all oil processed in the refineries in Gothenburg harbour in Sweden is extracted from the North Sea.
Extinction Rebellion said:
Northern Europe’s oil and gas addiction is not only creating an ecological crisis in our own backyards, it is also fueling and profiting from the global climate crisis with no regard for people in the most affected areas. We acknowledge this devastating irony.
Three Extinction Rebellion demands
It is demanding:
- NO NEW OIL AND GAS INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE NORTH SEA: Stop all plans to licence and financially support projects with new fossil infrastructure immediately. Align drilling plans with the Paris Agreement now.
- TELL THE TRUTH: Governments and companies must be honest about climate change. We demand honesty regarding energy security and affordability, because North Sea oil and gas will not make energy more affordable. Governments must stop their jobwashing of new offshore projects. There are no jobs on a dead planet.
- TAKE ACTION TOWARDS A JUST GREEN TRANSITION: Protect people and the environment by creating genuine and viable alternatives to fossil domination. This includes no LNG expansion, credible alternatives for workers, consideration for wildlife and letting people decide through citizens assemblies.
The North Sea: governments promoting a “dirty lie”
Jonas Kittelsen, spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Norway, said:
I’m ashamed to be a Norwegian. Norway profits massively from aggressively expanding our oil and gas sector, causing mass suffering and death globally. My government portrays us as better than the rest of the world, which we are not.
Bram Kroezen, spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, said:
The fossil industry and our governments want us to believe that gas from the North Sea is clean, but clean gas is a dirty lie.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is presented as an alternative to continued North Sea gas extraction. However, LNG is not a cleaner fuel that will help the energy transition, in most cases, LNG is more harmful for the environment than coal.
In Germany, Ende Gelände are protesting the establishment of an LNG terminal being built along the North Sea coast. Experts have shown that the establishment of LNG infrastructure will lock us into fossil fuel use for the coming decades.
Featured image and additional images via Extinction Rebellion
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Civil liberties network says in states where far-right parties influence power, rule-of-law deterioration risks becoming systemic
The rule of law is declining across the EU as governments continue to weaken legal and democratic checks and balances, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting in particular a sharp rise in restrictions on the right to protest.
Berlin-based Liberties said in its annual report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that in older democracies with mainstream parties in government, such as France, Germany and Belgium, challenges to the rule of law remained sporadic.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Civil liberties network says in states where far-right parties influence power, rule-of-law deterioration risks becoming systemic
The rule of law is declining across the EU as governments continue to weaken legal and democratic checks and balances, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting in particular a sharp rise in restrictions on the right to protest.
Berlin-based Liberties said in its annual report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that in older democracies with mainstream parties in government, such as France, Germany and Belgium, challenges to the rule of law remained sporadic.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Voters in some cities answer Yulia Navalnaya’s call to turn up at midday to signal dissent against president
Long queues formed at several polling stations in Moscow and other Russian cities as people took up a call from Alexei Navalny’s widow to head to the polls at noon on Sunday in a symbolic show of dissent against Vladimir Putin’s all but certain re-election as president.
In the run-up to the three-day presidential elections, Yulia Navalnaya urged her supporters to protest against Putin by appearing en masse at midday on Sunday in a legal show of strength against the longtime Russian leader.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Two Just Stop Oil activists have both faced the law being an ass – after one was nicked for posting a letter through a Labour MP’s door, while another was denied bail for peacefully blocking a court house.
Just Stop Oil: arrested for going to someone’s house
First, a Just Stop Oil supporter has been arrested after delivering a letter to Islington South MP, Emily Thornberry. The letter included a request that Thornberry commits to leaving the Labour Party if, within six months after forming a government, Labour fails to revoke all Tory oil licenses granted since 2021.
At around 2:15pm on Thursday 14 March, Phoebe Plummer and Rosa Hicks delivered a letter to the home of Thornberry. After peacefully dropping the letter off, Plummer was arrested by the Metropolitan police for breach of bail conditions preventing them from going to an MP’s residence. It comes after they protested outside Rishi Sunak’s home in 2023.
Just Stop Oil has committed to a strategy of nonviolent visits to the homes of MPs who have ignored their communications by other means.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson commented:
It is important to acknowledge that we all deserve safety in our homes, but right now all of our homes and our families are in danger. We are asking those with power to speak up and make a stand against the continued drilling of new oil and gas that is endangering all of us.
Hicks said:
I’m reaching out to Emily Thornberry because it is desperately important that our leaders understand the severity of the situation we find ourselves in, and that they act accordingly. In times of crisis, people of conscience must use whatever leverage they have to stand in the way of injustice.
Emily has power and we are asking her to step up and use her position to protect her constituents by ensuring that Labour does the right thing by canceling all Tory licenses granted after 2021.
Recently, Just Stop Oil supporters have delivered similar letters to MPs across the country, including to the home of Keir Starmer and to Annaliese Dodds during a fundraising dinner.
Banged up for blocking some doors
Meanwhile, another Just Stop Oil supporter remains remanded in prison after peacefully blocking the entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice. They took action to demand the UK government halt all licensing and consents for new oil, gas and coal projects, and to highlight the injustice of private injunctions.
On 14 March, Callum Goode was denied bail at Westminster Magistrates Court. Goode has been imprisoned since 6 March for taking peaceful action to resist climate breakdown. They will likely remain remanded in HMP Wandsworth until 16 April.
Goode took action with Tez Burns, blocking the entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice. The pair took action to resist the use of civil injunctions which are being used to silence climate defenders.
Speaking in court Goode said:
I’m being held in prison not because I present a harm to anyone or am a danger to society, but because I refuse to stop being in nonviolent civil resistance.
Why not hold me there for the rest of my life? I’m not going to stop taking action. We are in an urgent crisis and I cannot morally respect bail conditions which prevent necessary action.
I will essentially be serving, through remand, a custodial sentence for something that may not even result in a custodial sentence.
This court does not care about morality, this court is blind and complicit in the face of genocide.
I need to act on the side of life. So if you put me in prison, so be it. You will have stripped me of my power, but I know that there are other people who will fight on.
Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention recently said:
I am deeply troubled at the use of civil injunctions to ban protest in certain areas, including on public roadways… The repression that environmental activists who use peaceful civil disobedience are currently facing in Europe is a major threat to democracy and human rights.
The law is an ass
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
Injunctions are private laws bought by corporations and government agencies. Typically they are used to protect someone from harassment, and are intended as a remedy not a punishment, but since the Insulate Britain campaign began, they’ve been increasingly used by the state and private companies to silence dissent by climate resistors.
They are being used to circumnavigate the usual rule of law, where defendants appear before a high court judge with no jury.
They potentially expose defendants to ‘double jeopardy’ for the same action, where they may also be facing criminal charges.
Typically injunctions result in astronomical legal costs which are applied to people named on an injunction, even if they have never broken it. Where defendants are offered an undertaking – which commits them to a certain action – and they choose to sign it, all costs are then divided equally amongst any remaining defendants. This is a divide and rule tactic being used to silence those speaking out about the criminality of politicians and business leaders.
As the world passes tipping points that threaten the breakdown of ordered civilization, world leaders, captured by the interests of oil lobbyists and big business, are failing to protect our communities. British citizens are sick of being led by liars and crooks. Until we stop Tory oil, supporters of Just Stop Oil will continue taking proportionate action to demand necessary change.
Featured image via Just Stop Oil
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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The Canary is publishing in full a first-hand account of the current student occupation at Bristol University. We got in contact with one of those currently inside the management building. This is their account of what is happening, why it is happening, and what the students hope to achieve.
Bristol University: refusing to ‘engage meaningfully’
I am a student currently engaged in an occupation of the executive management building at Bristol University. We are taking this action to protest the university’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and its broader ties to the arms trade. You can find our open letter and detailed list of demands here.
Our occupation began on Friday 8 March as a response to the university’s silence and inaction regarding their complicity.
We have since escalated our protest, moving the occupation to the executive management building:
Despite this, university administration has refused to engage meaningfully with us. Instead, they have attempted to silence our voices and discredit our cause.
Our vice chancellor Evelyn Welch has offered to meet with us to discuss our demands, on the basis that we first end our occupation and vacate their offices. She has also postponed meetings with staff unions, UCU and Unison, both of which have publicly backed our campaign, in an attempt to avoid pressure from staff regarding their response (or rather lack thereof) to our occupation.
Not only did she postpone their meeting, but she has also blamed us, the student occupation, as the reason for the postponement. However, after repeated attempts from multiple members of staff to contact Welch today, the UCU and Unison have managed to get in contact with her secretary and may have been able to get their meeting rearranged for a sooner date than it was originally postponed to.
‘Perpetuating violence and oppression’
The significance of our occupation cannot be overstated.
Not only does it highlight the university’s role in perpetuating violence and oppression, but it also exposes the broader complicity of UK universities in supporting industries that profit from human suffering.
Our actions have garnered local media attention, and Sky News will soon be featuring a story on UK universities’ involvement in the arms trade and their response to student protests, including our occupation as well as those happening concurrently at Goldsmiths, Leeds, and now UCL.
Bristol University has a history of leading progressive change within the higher education sector. They were among the first to declare a climate emergency and divest from fossil fuel investments in response to student-led campaigns.
We believe that our demands for divestment from companies complicit in human rights abuses are in line with the university’s commitment to social responsibility.
Bristol University must end the ‘harassment of Palestinian students’
One of our key demands is simply to end the harassment of Palestinian students on campus.
It is unconscionable that a university claiming to be dedicated to decolonising education would tolerate such behaviour.
We have heard firsthand accounts of the trauma experienced by Palestinian students, and it is imperative that immediate action is taken to address this issue. The fact that they cannot even agree to meet this demand as a bare minimum is incomprehensible.
The action will continue.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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As Michael Gove launched his preposterous and dangerous new extremism definition, some of the groups he targeted have hit back – calling it a “deep dive into authoritarianism” and laying cover for the government “aiding and abetting” Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Extremism definition: you what?
As BBC News reported, Gove told parliament that:
groups like British National Socialist Movement and Patriotic Alternative will be assessed “against the new definition”. He also says the Muslim Association of Britain, Cage, and other groups will be “held to account to assess if they meet our definition of extremism”. “Islamism should not be confused with Islam,” Gove told MPs. “Islam is a great faith… Islamism is a totalitarian ideology”.
Earlier he told the BBC the new definition would help the government “choose its friends wisely”. The definition will be used by government officials to cut ties or funding to groups deemed to have crossed a line. But civil liberties groups, community groups and some MPs have criticised the move – saying it could risk free speech, or lead to unfair treatment
Of course, we all know what the Tories’ extremism definition is really about.
Far-right Tories propping up white supremacy
The two, token far-right fascist groups are there for window dressing, presumably – given that former Tory MP and deputy chairman Lee Anderson is mates with a ‘former’ BNP member; a fact known while he sat in both roles.
So, what this is really about is – much like the US state attempting to shut down TikTok – setting fire to people’s rights to free speech, assembly, and protest. Oh, and with a healthy dose of Islamophobia as well – unless we missed Just Stop Oil, perhaps the most prosecuted group of recent times, being mentioned?
Gove’s extremism definition comes off the back of previous government moves to silence dissent against the state and further erode our rights.
For example, the Public Order Act coupled with the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts (PCSC) Act have effectively allowed police to stop all sorts of protest actions:
The new Public Order Act powers include penalties of a year in custody for blocking roads, railways and airports. In addition, protesters who use the tactic of locking-on could face up to six months in prison.
At the same time, the racist Nationality and Borders Act and the 2023 Illegal Migration Bill entrenched the Tories’ hostile environment for Black, brown, and foreign-born people.
Laying cover for Israel’s genocide
Moreover, we’re currently seeing one of the largest public backlashes in recent years against much of the Global North and Western powers – specifically over Israel’s ongoing apartheid and genocide in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Much of the public can see what’s going on: that most of the Global North is propping up a racist, colonialist endeavour in the Middle East (Israel) to further Western imperialism’s own interests in the region.
Meanwhile, settler-colonialist Israel has killed over 31,000 people in Gaza, including over 13,000 children – and is currently starving the population.
So, in response to Gove’s extremism definition and his naming of CAGE, the Muslim Association of Britain, and Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) in particular, several organisations have hit back.
The Canary stands in solidarity with all these groups – republishing their responses in full. We’re sure Gove and others will brand us ‘extremists’ too.
‘A deep dive into authoritarianism’
The below is an open letter from the following organisations:
- CAGE International.
- Palestine Action.
- Black Lives Matter UK.
- Sisters Uncut.
- Copwatch Network.
- London Student Action for Palestine.
- Netpol.
- Workers for a Free Palestine.
- No More Exclusions.
- Palestine Youth Movement:
“Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, announced a new and expanded definition of extremism and named some of our groups. His announcement is a continuation of the decades-long strategy aimed at inciting and exploiting fears against Muslims to build an authoritarian and repressive infrastructure that suppresses any dissent that is not licensed by Whitehall.
“We the undersigned:
- Reject the rationale of counter-extremism policy in Britain that serves only to strengthen the state’s coercive powers without any pretense of due process or judicial oversight.
- We will continue to engage in political activity, protest, and direct action for the public good, outside of the narrow constraints of ‘licensed dissenters’ which this new definition will seek to impose.
- We note that defining extremism has been a failed endeavor, despite multiple prime ministers and seven years of the CCE and nearly two decades since PREVENT was brought in.
“We demand the following:
- The Government be held to account for aiding and abetting the Genocide in Gaza and weaponising ‘extremism’ to shield itself.
- The abolition of the authoritarian and repressive infrastructure of laws built on the back of counter-terror and counter-extremism powers.
- For civil liberties’ NGOs and communities to express solidarity with each other in unified rejection of these proposals.
“Collectively we will explore all avenues, including legal, to challenge the Government’s deep dive into authoritarianism”.
Extremism definition: a ‘blatant attack on civil liberties and free speech’
MEND issued the following statement:
“The new definition is a blatant attack on civil liberties and free speech. It is a highly politicised and undemocratic polemic aimed at trying to exclude and ostracise peaceful and law-abiding Muslim organisations that have been critical of the government from having a voice. Labelling groups that are critical of Government policy as ‘extremist’ is a lazy and convenient way of avoiding dialogue. It is a tactic more suited to stifling dissent in authoritarian repressive regimes than used to silence those exposing UK Government complicity in the Gaza genocide. Extremism policies undermine basic freedoms and lend the state arbitrary power to sanction any dissenting citizen.
“Gove stated in the commons that:
Islamism is a totalitarian ideology which seeks to divide, calls for the establishment of an Islamic state governed by sharia law and seeks the overthrow of liberal democratic principles… Organisations such as the Muslim Association of Britain, which is the British affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups such as CAGE and MEND, give rise to concern for their Islamist orientation and views.
“MEND CEO Azhar Qayum said:
We challenge Michael Gove to repeat his claims outside of parliament and without the protection of parliamentary privilege if he believes he can provide the evidence to back up his view that MEND has called for the establishment of an ‘Islamic state governed by sharia law’.
“Gove himself has a long track record of Islamophobic views and associations. He is a founding member of the Henry Jackson Society which promoted an anti-Muslim agenda over many years and led the government’s role in ‘The Trojan Horse’ affair. This falsely accused a number of schools in Birmingham of an ‘Islamist takeover’ on the back of a fake letter. Subsequent inquiries found no evidence of radicalisation in these schools. Given his own ‘extremist’ credentials, for him to be lecturing others as to who is or is not an extremist is an example of rank hypocrisy, and there would appear to be a persuasive argument that he is also an extremist on his own definition!
“In a General Election year, it is clear that Gove and the Conservative party are pursuing culture wars, politicising extremism for electoral gain to pander to a far right electorate. Defining extremism requires a calm, measured and cross-party approach and should not be used as a political football to target marginalised groups”.
The ‘politicising of anti-extremism’
The Muslim Association of Britain issued a statement on social media:
STATEMENT: MAB condemns Govt's erosion of civil liberties & politicisation of anti-extremism. The redefinition is a cynical move to appease the hard-right, targeting mainstream British Muslim orgs. All political parties must oppose this Orwellian narrative. 
… pic.twitter.com/sDFafNZc8C— Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) (@MABOnline1) March 13, 2024
Featured image via UK Parliament/Maria Unger
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Up to 10 informants managed by the FBI were embedded in anti-pipeline resistance camps near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation at the height of mass protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016. The new details about federal law enforcement surveillance of an Indigenous environmental movement were released as part of a legal fight between North Dakota and the federal government over who should pay for policing the pipeline fight. Until now, the existence of only one other federal informant in the camps had been confirmed.
The FBI also regularly sent agents wearing civilian clothing into the camps, one former agent told Grist in an interview. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, operated undercover narcotics officers out of the reservation’s Prairie Knights Casino, where many pipeline opponents rented rooms, according to one of the depositions.
The operations were part of a wider surveillance strategy that included drones, social media monitoring, and radio eavesdropping by an array of state, local, and federal agencies, according to attorneys’ interviews with law enforcement. The FBI infiltration fits into a longer history in the region. In the 1970s, the FBI infiltrated the highest levels of the American Indian Movement, or AIM.
The Indigenous-led uprising against Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipeline drew thousands of people seeking to protect water, the climate, and Indigenous sovereignty. For seven months, participants protested to stop construction of the pipeline and were met by militarized law enforcement, at times facing tear gas, rubber bullets, and water hoses in below-freezing weather.
Read Next After the pipeline was completed and demonstrators left, North Dakota sued the federal government for more than $38 million — the cost the state claims to have spent on police and other emergency responders, and for property and environmental damage. Central to North Dakota’s complaints are the existence of anti-pipeline camps on federal land managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The state argues that by failing to enforce trespass laws on that land, the Army Corps allowed the camps to grow to up to 8,000 people and serve as a “safe haven” for those who participated in illegal activity during protests and caused property damage.
In an effort to prove that the federal government failed to provide sufficient support, attorneys deposed officials leading several law enforcement agencies during the protests. The depositions provide unusually detailed information about the way that federal security agencies intervene in climate and Indigenous movements.
Until the lawsuit, the existence of only one federal informant in the camps was known: Heath Harmon was working as an FBI informant when he entered into a romantic relationship with water protector Red Fawn Fallis. A judge eventually sentenced Fallis to nearly five years in prison after a gun went off when she was tackled by police during a protest. The gun belonged to Harmon.
Manape LaMere, a member of the Bdewakantowan Isanti and Ihanktowan bands, who is also Winnebago Ho-chunk and spent months in the camps, said he and others anticipated the presence of FBI agents, because of the agency’s history. Camp security kicked out several suspected infiltrators. “We were already cynical, because we’ve had our heart broke before by our own relatives,” he explained.
“The culture of paranoia and fear created around informants and infiltration is so deleterious to social movements, because these movements for Indigenous people are typically based on kinship networks and forms of relationality,” said Nick Estes, a historian and member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe who spent time at the Standing Rock resistance camps and has extensively researched the infiltration of the AIM movement by the FBI. Beyond his relationship with Fallis, Harmon had close familial ties with community leaders and had participated in important ceremonies. Infiltration, Estes said, “turns relatives against relatives.”
Less widely known than the FBI’s undercover operations are those of the BIA, which serves as the primary police force on Standing Rock and other reservations. During the NoDAPL movement, the BIA had “a couple” of narcotics officers operating undercover at the Prairie Knights Casino, according to the deposition of Darren Cruzan, a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma who was the director of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services at the time.
It’s not unusual for the BIA to use undercover officers in its drug busts. However, the intelligence collected by the Standing Rock undercovers went beyond narcotics. “It was part of our effort to gather intel on, you know, what was happening within the boundaries of the reservation and if there were any plans to move camps or add camps or those sorts of things,” Cruzan said.
A spokesperson for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who oversees the BIA, also declined to comment.
According to the deposition of Jacob O’Connell, the FBI’s supervisor for the western half of North Dakota during the Standing Rock protests, the FBI was infiltrating the NoDAPL movement weeks before the protests gained international media attention and attracted thousands. By August 16, 2016, the FBI had tasked at least one “confidential human source” with gathering information. The FBI eventually had five to 10 informants in the protest camps — “probably closer to 10,” said Bob Perry, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, which oversees operations in the Dakotas, in another deposition. The number of FBI informants at Standing Rock was first reported by the North Dakota Monitor.
According to Perry, FBI agents told recruits what to collect and what not to collect, saying, “We don’t want to know about constitutionally protected activity.” Perry added, “We would give them essentially a list: ‘Violence, potential violence, criminal activity.’ To some point it was health and safety as well, because, you know, we had an informant placed and in position where they could report on that.”
The deposition of U.S. Marshal Paul Ward said that the FBI also sent agents into the camps undercover. O’Connell denied the claim. “There were no undercover agents used at all, ever.” He confirmed, however, that he and other agents did visit the camps routinely. For the first couple months of the protests, O’Connell himself arrived at the camps soon after dawn most days, wearing outdoorsy clothing from REI or Dick’s Sporting Goods. “Being plainclothes, we could kind of slink around and, you know, do what we had to do,” he said. O’Connell would chat with whomever he ran into. Although he sometimes handed out his card, he didn’t always identify himself as FBI. “If people didn’t ask, I didn’t tell them,” he said.
He said two of the agents he worked with avoided confrontations with protesters, and Ward’s deposition indicates that the pair raised concerns with the U.S. marshal about the safety of entering the camps without local police knowing. Despite its efforts, the FBI uncovered no widespread criminal activity beyond personal drug use and “misdemeanor-type activity,” O’Connell said in his deposition.
The U.S. Marshals Service, as well as Ward, declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for the FBI said the press office does not comment on litigation.
Infiltration wasn’t the only activity carried out by federal law enforcement. Customs and Border Protection responded to the protests with its MQ-9 Reaper drone, a model best known for remote airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was flying above the encampments by August 22, supplying video footage known as the “Bigpipe Feed.” The drone flew nearly 281 hours over six months, costing the agency $1.5 million. Customs and Border Protection declined a request for comment, citing the litigation.
The biggest beneficiary of federal law enforcement’s spending was Energy Transfer Partners. In fact, the company donated $15 million to North Dakota to help foot the bill for the state’s parallel efforts to quell the disruptions. During the protests, the company’s private security contractor, TigerSwan, coordinated with local law enforcement and passed along information collected by its own undercover and eavesdropping operations.
Energy Transfer Partners also sought to influence the FBI. It was the FBI, however, that initiated its relationship with the company. In his deposition, O’Connell said he showed up at Energy Transfer Partners’ office within a day or two of beginning to investigate the movement and was soon meeting and communicating with executive vice president Joey Mahmoud.
At one point, Mahmoud pointed the FBI toward Indigenous activist and actor Dallas Goldtooth, saying that “he’s the ring leader making this violent,” according to an email an attorney described.
Throughout the protests, federal law enforcement officials pushed to obtain more resources to police the anti-pipeline movement. Perry wanted drones that could zoom in on faces and license plates, and O’Connell thought the FBI should investigate crowd-sourced funding, which could have ties to North Korea, he claimed in his deposition. Both requests were denied.
O’Connell clarified that he was more concerned about China or Russia than North Korea, and it was not just state actors that worried him. “If somebody like George Soros or some of these other well-heeled activists are trying to disrupt things in my turf, I want to know what’s going on,” he explained, referring to the billionaire philanthropist, who conspiracists theorize controls progressive causes.
To the federal law enforcement officials working on the ground at Standing Rock, there was no reason they shouldn’t be able to use all the resources at the federal government’s disposal to confront this latest Indigenous uprising.
“That shit should have been crushed like immediately,” O’Connell said.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline FBI sent several informants to Standing Rock protests, court documents show on Mar 15, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
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On Saturday 16 March the Bristol Palestine Alliance will stage Bristol’s 10th “Peace Procession for Palestine” – this time with a mass funeral march. The event will be attended by thousands of Bristolians of all faiths and none, united in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Bristol Palestine Alliance: a symbolic, mass funeral procession
Bristol Palestine Alliance was formed in response to the horrific events happening in Gaza.
Acting as an umbrella group, it brings members from organisations and groups and communities in Bristol together to respond collectively to organise marches and other events to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine. It is based on the network of solidarity that has been successfully built in this city over many years. Now, it’s taking another action.
The march on 16 March will include the carrying of coffins in a symbolic, mass funeral procession. This will be a visually stark reminder of Israel’s brutality in its ongoing bombing of Gaza.
People on the march will also carry handwritten scrolls of the names of the dead. The marchers will mourn and honour the over 30,000 innocent Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children – over 13,000 of them, children and babies – that Israel has killed during over 160 days of bombing in Gaza; what was the most densely populated area in the world.
“Unimaginable” horror in Gaza
Bristol Palestine Alliance said:
The scale of indiscriminate bombing is unimaginable and under-reported as Israel denies access to international journalists and observers.
There are relentless eye-witness reports of war crimes being committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces: the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli snipers; the wanton destruction of Palestinian homes and entire neighbourhoods – schools, hospitals, mosques, churches – and the entire Palestinian civilian infrastructure in Gaza being reduced to rubble.
High ranking Israeli politicians openly calling for the “wiping out” of Palestinians. Israel’s deliberate blocking of water, food and aid to the Palestinian people has led the International Court of Justice to open an investigation of genocide – the most unspeakable of crimes – against the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Meanwhile, the crimes of the Israeli Occupation Forces continue unabated. Famine now stalks Gaza. People are dying of hunger since Israel’s assault on Gaza and the West Bank began in October 2023
Israel must be held to account – and Bristol will
Bristol has responded with repeated mass marches to rallies on College Green in central Bristol attended by up to 10,000 people together with almost daily smaller rallies, pickets, sit-down protests, vigils, and direct-action. Many Bristol people have also travelled to the London marches including five coaches to the national march on 11 November 2023.
A spokesman for BPA said:
To deflect from its failings, the international community, including our own government, has resorted to pitiful air drops of aid, while Israel continues to drop bombs. The international community is either impotent against Israel or complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
On 16 March, people will meet in Bristol at Castle Park at 12pm. At 12.30pm they will begin the Mass Funeral Procession to City Hall, College Green. There, BPA will hold a public spiritual ceremony as the coffins are placed outside City Hall. The public will then hear from engaging and passionate speakers.
Featured image via Bristol Palestine Alliance
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Friday 15 March campaigners from Not Recovered UK – who all either live with long Covid, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, sometimes known as chronic fatigue syndrome, CFS), or are impacted by them – will be taking to the streets of Westminster to raise awareness on Long Covid Awareness Day.
Long Covid and ME: destroying lives
Previously across the UK, the group has taken out billboard adverts. Not Recovered UK has put them in Bournemouth, Southampton, Havant, Swindon, Portsmouth, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Cardiff, and Glasgow:
The billboards were highlighting that for millions of people, there are currently no effective treatments for long Covid and ME. They also stated that doctors often leave these patients without help. Overall, the billboards pointed to the fact there is still no cure for either of these conditions, too. All of this is partly due to the medical community’s poor understanding of long Covid and ME.
The impact of all this can be devastating – hence Long Covid Awareness Day.
‘A shell of myself’
Alex lives with long Covid. He said of the disease:
Before contracting Covid-19 in March 2020, I was a fit and healthy 29 year old. I went to the gym five days a week and competed in weight lifting competitions; rode my BMX for hours a day; had no health problems, and had a bright future as an engineer.
I am now a shell of that person.
Mostly I am confined to a wheelchair and have to spend my days housebound, as even short trips outside make me sick. This illness is very isolating, most of my time is spent alone and I barely see any of my friends. It has also cost me my relationship and all my hobbies.
There are no treatments and none of my doctors can help me. It feels as if I have been completely abandoned by the government. My life is on hold and I don’t know if I will ever get it back. Long Covid has stolen my identity.
Stories like Alex’s make the campaign all the more urgent. It was only possible thanks to a crowdfunding initiative – which has seen nearly £6,000 of donations. Sadly, yet tellingly, many of these donations have come from chronically ill and disabled people themselves.
Long Covid Awareness Day
Now, Not Recovered UK has decided to take action on Long Covid Awareness Day. Once again, thanks to crowdfunding the group has hired a Digivan which will display information about the disease and patients’ pictures and stories. On top of this, Not Recovered UK has printed 10,000 leaflets – using the billboard as inspiration – which will be distributed by patients, their allies, and campaigners.
The Digivan and campaigners will start Long Covid Awareness Day at 10am at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), before making multiple stops at parliament, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Downing Street:
At parliament, Not Recovered UK has invited MPs from all parties to come and discuss Long Covid with patients and campaigners. Plus, at Downing Street the group has hinted that it will be “making some noise” – aimed at the occupants inside.
The leaflets campaigners will be distributing on Long Covid Awareness Day contain the billboard imagery on the front, and a easy-read fact sheet on the back. If you want to get involved on the day in Westminster, contact Not Recovered UK on X.
The reasons for what campaigners refer to as the ‘destruction of their lives’ in the leaflets is, in part, a lack of funding from both government and research bodies for these debilitating conditions.
Getting everyone involved
For example, from 2007 to 2015 the UK government and UK research bodies spent £82.20 per patient, per year on multiple sclerosis. The equivalent figure for ME was £4.40. Between 2015 and 2021 MS funding increased to £164 per patient, per year. For long Covid, between October 2020 and May 2023 the equivalent of just £10.75 per patient, per year, was spent on research.
This lack of parity in funding for both conditions is one of the main points of the campaign. So, on Long Covid Awareness Day the group is calling for the government and research bodies to release £100m a year to fund long Covid and ME research.
Aaron Campbell founded the campaign. He has lived with long Covid since July 2022. Campbell said he launched the project out of:
Desperation. ME patients have been left to suffer for decades without any appropriate treatments and it is very likely that long Covid patients (50% of these patients are meeting the criteria for ME) will have a similar fate unless there is an urgent and drastic change in the level of research and funding they are both currently receiving.
Many of these patients are too sick to leave their beds and an online awareness campaign driven by donations ensures that everyone is given an opportunity to be involved – whether that be through their own donations, suggesting locations for the billboards and voting for them on Twitter or even just sharing the GoFundMe to others – and finally means society can see the true extent of the suffering these people go through and just how desperate they are to get their lives back.
The name on the billboards and leaflets is Not Recovered who are an international unity of patients working together to fight for research for chronic health conditions. This is a global issue. There are millions of us needing help.
Long Covid Awareness Day: time for change
Not Recovered UK hopes that by taking such prominent action on Long Covid Awareness Day, the campaign will start breaking down the stigma that surrounds long Covid and ME patients.
Campbell said:
Aside from raising awareness and calling for appropriate research and treatments, the billboards and their messaging are a push back on the minimising and harmful narratives surrounding them that these patients will be cured by exercise, diet or mindfulness techniques.
It is time that attitudes towards ‘invisible illnesses’ are changed and follow the actual scientific literature regarding abnormalities found in these patient groups and acknowledge that these people are truly, genuinely sick who desperately need medical treatments.
You can donate to the crowdfunding campaign here, and find out more about Not Recovered UK here.
If you wish to volunteer on Long Covid Awareness Day handing out Not Recovered UK leaflets, contact the team on X here for more information.
Featured image via Not Recovered UK
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
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The Home Office and an arms trade body received an unpleasant surprise on Tuesday 12 March, as activists targeted them both over an arms fair and their complicity in supporting Israel‘s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
ADS Group: complicit in genocide
Hours before the UK government’s ‘Security and Policing’ fair was scheduled to begin on 12 March, Palestine Action targeted the organisers of the arms fair – ADS Group. Activists covered the London offices of ADS group in red paint, symbolising their complicity in Palestinian bloodshed:
The Security and Policing arms fair is a Home Office event running from 12-14 March. It brings together arms companies, cops, spies, border guards and delegations from other countries – including Israel. Participants of the event include Israel’s Elbit Systems, BAE Systems, and L-3 Harris — all of whom are known suppliers for the Israeli military.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest arms firm, whose supply of weapons has been described as “crucial” to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They supply 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as tanks, bullets, bombs and missiles.
ADS Group, organisers of the event, act as representatives and advocates for the world’s largest arms companies. The group offer arms companies exclusive access to arms fairs to gain market and stakeholder access – for the purposes of weapons sales – along with business and network support and government lobbying and access to politicians.
Their events have been attended by scores of MPs, with ADS itself undertaking lobbying and influencing on behalf of its weapons trade members.
The Home Office: also propping up Israel’s war crimes
Since 7 October, Israel has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, injured over 72,000 and displaced the vast majority of the Gazan population.
Following Palestine Action’s work, campaign groups the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) staged a protest outside the Home Office over the arms fair:
The protest has begun against "Security and Policing" outside the Home Office with Andrew Murray, Vice President of @STWuk pic.twitter.com/tutGEEumfa
— Netpol (@netpol) March 12, 2024
Thank you so much to everyone who joined @Netpol
and us outside the Home Office this evening to say no to the Security and Policing Arms Fair and stand in solidarity with all those facing war and repression, especially Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/Hj4FfcdERU— CAAT (@CAATuk) March 12, 2024
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
Collaborating with Israel and their weapons trade demonstrates our government’s ongoing complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Palestine Action will take necessary measures to intervene, disrupt and expose those who are gathering in order to profit from Palestinian deaths.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Saturday 16 March, London and Glasgow will join a number of cities worldwide to raise flags and voices on two wheels for Palestine, joining the latest synchronised solidarity cycle in the Great Ride of Return series.
The past three cycles took place earlier this year in more than 60 locations across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia with thousands of cyclists demanding an end to Israel’s assault on Palestine. The series is led by the Gaza Sunbirds in partnership with their own sporting campaign Athletes for Palestine in coalition with Big Ride for Palestine, Native Women Ride and Amos Trust:
The Gaza Sunbirds: leading the charge
The Gaza Sunbirds are a para-cycling team based in Gaza and made up of 20 athletes who lost limbs in previous Israeli attacks. They formed in 2020 with a dream of representing Palestine on the sporting world stage at this year’s Paralympics. Now, the team have been forced to give up their training regime due to the current Israeli aggression.
Instead, the past four months have seen them distributing over $70,000 USD worth of food and supplies in Southern and central Gaza – risking their lives on one leg for their community’s right to survive.
As the bombardment persists and these aid missions become increasingly challenging to complete, the Sunbirds call on the world to join them on bikes and demand an end to Israel’s intensifying atrocities.
This urgent call echoes across the world, sparking a powerful grassroots cycling movement dubbed the Great Ride of Return. Local groups and individuals are rallying their communities to raise flags and voices on two wheels, synchronized with fellow cyclists internationally who demand a permanent ceasefire and dignified existence for Palestinians.
An international group of partners for the Great Ride of Return
The series has a number of partners including the Sunbirds’ own Athletes for Palestine campaign which aims to rally the entire sporting community and has seen 100+ athletes, sports teams and groups sign up. Organising some of the UK cycles is Big Ride for Palestine who have been organising solidarity cycles since 2015:
The cyclists of Leicester today went out to #RideTheWall. Here is a beautiful video of their day.#RideForPalestine #RideForGaza #EndTheGenocide #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/pLqLGgRE2a
— The Big Ride for Palestine (@bigride4pal) March 9, 2024
The North American side of the series is partnered with Washington-DC-based indigenous cycling collective, Native Women Ride who supports the smooth running of cycles across the continent.
Amos Trust is the Sunbirds’ British fundraising partner and regularly represents at the Great Rides.
Thanks to this coalition, ride organisers, participants and the Sunbirds themselves, thousands have taken to the streets for powerful global moments during the Great Ride of Return. They’ve been felt in Berlin, Tokyo, Washington DC, El Salvador, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manchester, Singapore, Cape Town, Los Angeles, and many more cities in between.
Inspired by the Great March of Return
The Great Ride of Return series takes inspiration from the founding story of the Gaza Sunbirds set against the backdrop of the Great March of Return – a peaceful Palestinian rally along the Gaza-Israel border.
Held weekly for over a year from 2018, thousands protested against Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip and demanded the right to return to their ancestral homes. On 30 March 2019, Palestine’s top professional cyclist, Alaa al-Dali, joined the march; what he experienced that day led to events he would later describe as the “amputation of his dream”.
He was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper with an explosive bullet and became one of 32,000 peaceful protesters injured by targeted attacks. After medical leave was refused for treatment that would save his leg – a shared reality for most cases like these – Alaa had it surgically removed.
The following year, he rewrote his personal dream of competing individually in overseas cycling races into a collective project using sport to empower others after trauma. He assembled 19 team mates, all of whom had sustained similar life-altering injuries from Israeli attacks, many from that very rally, and founded the Gaza Sunbirds. Alaa compels us to recognise injustices past and present and:
Join us on our journey to send a powerful message to the world to stop the siege of Gaza. We ride for freedom.
After 16 March, the next Great Ride of Return will take place on 30 March. It is the five year anniversary of the gunshot to Alaa’s leg that led to its amputation and marks the beginning of the inspirational Gaza Sunbirds journey.
Join or organise a solidarity cycle in your city. More information here.
Featured image via the Big Ride for Palestine and additional images via the Gaza Sunbirds/Big Ride for Palestine
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
