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Category: Protest

  • Cornwall Resists slams man-baby Nigel Farage as a ‘fascist’ after he throws a tantrum about ‘free speech’

    The following is a comment piece from Cornwall Resists over claims made by Nigel Farage about a protest on Monday 24 February. Farage has written to Labour Party home secretary Yvette Cooper claiming that free speech and democracy were under attack, and that him, his MPs, and his party were under threat:

    Ironically, he also went on his GB News show to claim the same – saying “democracy was under attack”. The media outlet posted his tirade on X before deleting it:

    You can still watch it here.

    So, Cornwall Resists have hit back with the following response to Farage and Reform.

    Cornwall Resists: a win against Farage

    Oh dear, we seem to have rattled Nigel Farage the fascist.

    We’re going to celebrate that as a win!

    According to Farage, we’re domestic terrorists who should be proscribed, describing us as “a very violent and dangerous organisation”.

    He also claims hundreds of people contacted the venue asking them to cancel his conference, and that we prevented 100 people from attending altogether. If this is the case, we’re very happy with that result. We hope that Carn Brea Leisure centre will think again next time Farage wants to use its premises as a breeding ground for hate. We do not tolerate hate, especially on our turf.

    Like most people, we aren’t pacifists – we will defend ourselves and our communities when under attack. As we saw in Plymouth last summer when fascists attacked us for hours with bricks and fireworks, the police do not protect us. We – the people – protect us.

    But let’s also be clear – the violence that occurred on Monday night was instigated by the police, Reform-hired security, and Reform supporters.

    No violence from us

    On Monday afternoon Cornwall Resists were able to block one of the entrances to the conference that Farage was attending. We didn’t try to storm it, we simply stood in the way. Reform supporters didn’t have to walk through us – they could have gone back to the main entrance, which many did. However instead of redirecting Reform supporters back to the main entrance, the police and Reform security tried to get them through our blockade by violently assaulting people, punching people and throwing them to the floor.

    Reform supporters were deliberately provoking protesters, getting in their faces and even punching one person in the face. The police did nothing to stop them, so it was down to us to protect our friends and allies. Across the road a Reform supporter spray-painted “Islamism is Nazism”.

    Farage is a disgrace

    Farage singling out former Camborne mayor Zoe Fox is disgraceful.  Zoe turned up to support a lawful protest against a far-right party threatening her community. At no point did she ever incite violence. Likewise, Farage blaming Zarah Sultana for our protest is a disgrace. While we have nothing but solidarity with Zarah, she had zero influence on our protest. Both these unwarranted attacks reek of misogyny and will fuel unwarranted online hatred.

    This online hatred is one of the reasons we wear masks. Labour’s new proposal to ban face coverings at protests will put us at physical risk. Antifascism is dangerous. There are violent individuals who spend their time trying to identify us so they can take revenge on us and our loved ones, for speaking out. The threat when they do this is very real. In 2021 we saw it locally when Penzance mayor Nicole Broadhurst received racist threats and had to have a panic alarm installed in her house. We live in our communities, some of us have children or live with vulnerable people. We should not be expected to put the safety of our loved ones at risk just for attending a protest.

    Police are the problem – not Cornwall Resists

    We also hide our identities to resist police harassment, as new legislation has criminalised many forms of protest. Under the public order act, protesters who haven’t even committed an offence can be handed Serious Disruption Prevention Orders. These will prevent people from attending protests, stop them seeing named people, prevent them from organising online and can be enforced by electronic tags. Antifascists are labeled “aggravated activists” by the police, and you don’t need to have a criminal record to be added to their databases, simply associating with a known person and going to several protests is enough. This information has been used countless times to harass and intimidate campaigners. No-one should face police intimidation for standing up to fascists.

    And it’s not just antifascism. Police have collaborated with illegal blacklisting that prevented people getting work because of left-wing political views, and trade union activity. No-one should face police harassment, intimidation or criminalisation for campaigning. So Cornwall Resists advocates wearing masks on all demos regardless of whether there is a risk of far-right violence. We will continue to do so regardless of the proposed legislation.

    Our protests were not antidemocratic. Democracy is about more than ticking a box every few years. It means “power to the people”.  ‘Reform’ divides communities. They act in the interests of the rich and powerful. 17 local groups coming together to oppose a far-right conference is more democratic than a supposed ‘political’ party that fuels hatred, spreads misinformation and incites mobs to race riots. True democracy is communities coming together to say no to hate.

    Kernow is broken – and Farage isn’t the answer

    Kernow is broken. We all know radical change is needed. Our land has become nothing but a playground for the rich. We are priced out of our communities. Our land is stolen by second home owners; services have been decimated by years of austerity. Our Cornish language, history, culture and desire for autonomy is mocked or dismissed. Mainstream political parties don’t represent us. But neither does “reform” and their far-right views.

    Farage is not a man of the people. On top of his £91k a year salary, he earns over £1 million in other work. He is part of the problem. He is part of the rich elite that is screwing over the rest of us while the planet burns. Nigel Farage talks about taking “his” country back, but we don’t want to be part of his country. Our problem is with second homes, not with refugees fleeing torture.

    We recognise that while not every Reform voter is a fascist, those at the top of the party undoubtedly are. Their rhetoric is a threat to every person of colour, trans person and disabled person. And when a fascist comes to speak in our community we have to stand up and say no.

    We know to stop the far-right will take more than one protest at a conference. We need to organise our communities to build an alternative to Farage and his hate. 17 local groups came together for this protest. We live and work in our local communities. We are the carers, the shop workers, the mothers, the grandmothers, the charity workers, the NHS workers, the hospitality workers, the teachers, the volunteers, the students. It’s up to us, all of us, to do our part.

    Cornwall Resists Farage and Reform – and will continue to do so

    Whenever and wherever fascists mobilise in Kernow, we will be there, we will mask up, and we will do what is necessary to stop them.

    We are proudly Cornish. We are proudly antifascist.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Problems for Labour as people are already protesting the energy price cap rise

    Fuel poverty and climate groups protested outside energy giant SSE’s offices in Glasgow as households face rising energy bills due to the 6.4% increase in the energy price cap – allegedly due to wholesale gas prices.

    Energy price cap: another rip off for us, but a win for SSE

    Fuel Poverty Action, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, Friends of the Earth Scotland, and Unite Community branches protested outside the company’s city centre building:

    energy price cap

    Energy regulator Ofgem today announced a rise of £111 in average household energy bills, which it made clear was due to “our reliance on international gas markets leads to volatile wholesale prices, and continues to drive up bills”:

    energy price cap

    In 2023 an estimated 34% (around 861,000 households) of all households in Scotland were in fuel poverty, with 491,000 households in extreme fuel poverty.

    SSE have made £8 billion in profits since the start of the energy price crisis. The company operates 14 fossil fuel power plants in the UK and Ireland and generates the majority of its energy from burning gas:

    Dylan McAllister, a member of Fuel Poverty Action Glasgow, said of the energy price cap rise:

    Millions of people have suffered this winter in cold damp homes – and coming into spring the future doesn’t look much brighter, with Ofgem set to wave through yet another bill increase. Ofgem have signed off on profits for shareholders and huge pay packets for energy bosses – but when it comes to protecting us from being ripped off they’re nowhere to be seen. They’ve failed to scrap cruel standing charges despite the clear verdict of their own consultation, and failed to tackle hugely inflated electricity prices, four times more expensive than gas.

    With Ofgem under government review, it’s time to make regulation work for ordinary people, not the interests of private energy firms. Nearly 70,000 people have signed a new petition calling for just that.

    Climate campaigners are also warning that SSE’s proposals to build a new power station at Peterhead that burns gas to generate electricity would lock people in Scotland for years into higher bills driven by the international price of gas.

    Despite these concerns, the Scottish Government is considering approving the controversial project which could operate until 2059, well past the 2045 ‘net zero’ target for Scotland. Adding carbon capture to power plants could further increase the cost of electricity with the additional levies added to bills to pay for the £22 billion handout to the technology by the UK government:

    These companies have exploited us for too long

    Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said of the energy price cap rise:

    Burning expensive gas to generate electricity will leave us all more vulnerable to international price shocks like we have suffered in recent years. The sure-fire way to bring down bills is a mass programme of home energy efficiency and powering our lives using affordable renewable energy that is run in the public interest.

    Families across Scotland will rightly be worried about another increase in energy bills due to the global price of gas, so it is mind blowing that Scottish Government Ministers are considering locking people further into this exploitative system. The only beneficiaries from a new gas burning power station at Peterhead will be greedy energy companies like SSE who have been lobbying hard for its approval.

    In fact, costly technology like the carbon capture proposed at Peterhead will be subsidised through additional levies on household energy bills, and its consistent failures around the world show it is wasting precious time and money.

    Even if new gas wasn’t such an awful deal for consumers, this project should not go ahead because of the enormous climate pollution it will inevitably bring. Building new fossil fuel infrastructure will take us in entirely the wrong direction, undermines a just transition and keeps power in the hands of companies who have been allowed to exploit us for too long.

    Featured image and additional images via Garry F McHarg/Focal Scotland.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine Action just shut down Elbit for the SIXTEENTH time – on this occasion, with horse sh*t

    On Tuesday 25 February, activists from Palestine Action once again parked up outside the Elbit Systems HQ at Aztec West 600, Bristol. We say ‘parked up’. They, of course, blockaded the factory to stop its complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Palestine Action: back to Bristol again

    Arriving with a truck full of manure, Palestine Action blocked the only entrance into the British Headquarters of Israel’s biggest weapons firm. The activists then secured the vehicle, before locking-on inside, effectively shutting down Elbit HQ:

    Whilst capturing the action, an independent press certified photographer was wrongfully arrested at the scene.

    According to Israeli media, Elbit provides up to 80% of the Israeli military’s land based military equipment and 85% of its killer drones. It supplies huge numbers of munitions and missiles – including the so-called ‘Iron Sting’, developed and deployed for the first time in the Gaza genocide, in which the deadly technology produced by Elbit has played a central role.

    The Bristol HQ acts as a logistics hub for the weapons firm, from where its British operations are directed and controlled.

    Palestine Action first shut down the Israeli weapons HQ on 13 April 2021, with a rooftop occupation. Its campaign against the site has been as relentless as our campaign to kick Elbit out of Britain, with blockades, rooftop occupations, property damage, and paint attacks. In addition, actions took place on 2 November 2021, 15 May 2022, 16 May 2022, 31 October 2023, 7 November 2023, 13 November 2023, 18 January 2024, 14 February 2024, 20 March 2024, 2 May 2024, 24 June 2024, 15 July 2024, 16 July 2024, and the 12 November 2024.

    Ridding British soil of Elbit 

    Today’s blockade takes place at a time when the British state is increasingly employing Draconian tactics against anti-Genocide protestors, which extends to the misuse of so-called ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation, and the imprisonment without trial of 20 Palestine Action members. These include 18 people arrested, and remanded in custody, accused of attacks upon Ebit’s second Bristol site at Filton. Some of the Filton 18 have been imprisoned since August 2024.

    A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:

    Despite a supposed ceasefire, Israel continues to kill Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, to destroy civilian infrastructure, and to imprison and torture men, women, and children. Britain is entirely complicit, having aided, abetted, armed, and lied for the Zionist state since its inception, and throughout the Gaza Genocide.

    Palestine Action are committed to ridding British soil of the weapons makers making fat profits from the murder of Palestinians. Direct Action is our proven tactic, and we will not be intimidated. We will shut Elbit down.

    Featured image/video via Palestine Action

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Yosemite Workers Unfurl Upside-Down US Flag to Protest Trump Job Cuts

    Workers at Yosemite National Park in California unfurled a large, upside-down U.S. flag at a popular summit in the park on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s firing of around 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) employees last week. The inverted flag — generally recognized to be a symbol of “dire distress” — was hung on a 3,000-foot tall summit called El Capitan.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Just Stop Oil supporters GUILTY of planning a protest which never actually happened

    Four Just Stop Oil supporters have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance, with a fifth person being acquitted by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

    Daniel Knorr (23), Margaret Reid (54), Indigo Rumbelow (30) and Ella Ward (22) received a majority guilty verdict. They were arrested in the early hours of 5 August 2024 as they left a BnB in Gatley Close to head to Manchester Airport. Noah Crane (19), who was arrested later on 5 August at his home in Birmingham, was acquitted.

    All five were charged with conspiracy and held in prison on remand until 4 February when bail was granted on the second day of the trial.

    Sentencing has been adjourned until 23 May for pre-sentencing reports and bail has not been granted.

    Just Stop Oil: another four guilty

    In the 15-day trial before Judge MacAdam, four defendants freely admitted planning to access the airport via the perimeter fence and then if possible three would glue on to the taxiway. They made the case that they were seeking to prevent harm and inform the public of the huge risks now unfolding due to the collapsing climate. That this is no longer a problem for future generations, but our problem happening now.

    Noah Crane, the fifth defendant, chose not to enter the witness box, although each of his co-defendants gave evidence that he was not involved in the planning of the action and they had told him nothing. His only link to the action was, when requested, to purchase four phones, unaware of what they would be used for.

    All defendants had the legal defences of necessity and reasonable excuse withdrawn by Judge MacAdam. Ella Ward additionally had self defence withdrawn on the basis that there was ‘no immediate threat.’ They were left only with the defence of denying the indictment. This meant no expert scientific evidence was heard by the jury.

    A judge’s admission

    The prosecution presented evidence of an imaginary scenario in which flights were disrupted and the police Protest Removal team took two hours to arrive before removing any Just Stop Oil supporters ‘glued on’.

    Prosecution witness PC Ben Rigby, the officer in charge of Manchester’s protest response, testified that if the defendants had accessed the airport, the police would not use ‘blue lights’ when responding, and would go through the full security clearance to get ‘airside’. While the Head of Airport Security, Mr Tim Cook indicated that there could be ‘flexibility’ around security clearance for the responding police security team, but neither confirmed or denied vulnerabilities in the CCTV coverage of the airport perimeter.

    Judge MacAdam, during legal hearings at the start of the trial, informed the defendants that due to the workload of his position he did not read a great deal about climate science and was therefore neutral.

    If you knew a disaster was going to happen…

    The following statement was issued on behalf of the defendants after the verdict

    We thank the jury for their service and accept their decision. The acquittal of Noah Crane calls into question the six months he was forced to serve on remand at the age of 18. Physics doesn’t care if we were acquitted or not – all that matters now is how hot our world gets and how quickly. The unfolding horror of climate collapse is the future that awaits us, our children and our children’s children.

    During the trial Judge MacAdam said “if you knew a disaster was going to happen you would take steps to warn people” – we took those steps and have been found guilty, the bigger crime would have been not to act. The government is not taking the steps needed to protect us, to avoid total ruin. We call on them to act, to address the real security threat and do what is necessary to defend our future.

    Daniel Knorr issued a statement saying:

    In the second week of trial Judge MacAdam sought clarification from me, asking “If you knew a disaster was going to happen you would take steps to warn people wouldn’t you?

    Wasn’t that exactly what I was trying to do? The British legal system knows the stark reality we face and seemingly understands the commonsense response to such reality. Yet again and again it is those seeking to stop the harm who end up in the dock and those profiting from destruction who are protected.

    Just Stop Oil: courts are ‘out of step’

    A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:

    Yet again our courts have demonstrated that they are out of step with what is happening in the real world. A world of increased heating, panicking scientists and oblivious politicians. We risk ruin and judges and legal experts discuss the finer points of necessity and reasonableness. None of this is reasonable. All those who took part in the prosecution of Just Stop Oil supporters deserve our sympathy, the guilt that they experience due to the collapse of our living world will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

    Indigo Rumbelow and Margaret Reid represented themselves. Ella Ward sacked her barrister during the second week of the three week trial. Noah Crane and Daniel Knorr had legal representation.

    2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful.

    Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works. Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

    You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org

    Featured image via Just Stop Oil

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Thousands of Indonesian students have taken to the streets in protest ✊


    This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The uncertain future of the Green New Deal

    Since the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, three little words keep coming up.

    In one of his first executive orders, the president instructed agencies to terminate the so-called “Green New Deal,” which he has described as “ridiculous” and “incredibly wasteful.” The administration’s disdain for the concept is clear, with Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt referring to it as “the Green New Scam.”

    In reality, there is no Green New Deal law in effect in the United States today, despite previous attempts to pass one in Congress. What Trump actually paused funding for in his executive order was the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act: a spending bill passed under former president Joe Biden and the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history. 

    The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, was heralded as a major win for climate organizers — but most of them don’t think the law lives up to their original vision of a transition to renewable energy that creates good, well-paying jobs. In the face of rollbacks, these activists are questioning whether their calls for a Green New Deal have been effective or have divided voters. After Trump won the popular vote in November, some climate advocates are searching for new ways to talk about the changes they want to see, ones that might resonate more broadly across the political spectrum. 

    “This is a live question of debate,” said Dejah Powell, membership director of the Sunrise Movement. Some organizers worry the climate movement has failed to move the public, she said, partly because “[w]e actually are missing a total, compelling vision that touches on the undercurrent of where we are in society.”

    If you had to pinpoint the moment when the Green New Deal burst into the public consciousness, it would be shortly after the 2018 midterms, when more than 200 young people with the Sunrise Movement orchestrated a sit-in outside Senator Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill. The newly elected representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the protesters, who urged Pelosi, the House’s Democratic leader, to pass stringent action on climate change. They came prepared with a draft resolution of what they called the “Green New Deal.” It was a reference to the New Deal of the 1930s, a series of ambitious initiatives and reforms — including the Civilian Conservation Corps, Social Security Act, and Works Progress Administration — that President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched to provide economic relief during the Great Depression.

    Sunrise Movement youth organizers in black t-shirts take over Nancy Pelosi's office, holding signs that say "Green New Deal" and "Do your job"
    Police attempt crowd control as Sunrise Movement organizers demanding a climate deal occupy Nancy Pelosi’s office in 2018.
    Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call / Getty Images

    In February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez, joined by Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, introduced resolutions for a Green New Deal in both the House and the Senate. The plan called for a large-scale mobilization “not seen since World War II” to completely transform the economy, eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and create millions of jobs. At the time, people laughed at the idea, Markey said on a mass organizing call last month hosted by more than 50 climate organizations. The measure was largely symbolic: These were non-binding resolutions, meaning that even if they passed a vote in Congress, they would not become law. Either way, opponents made their disapproval known. The resolution failed in a Senate vote mere months later, and a second attempt in 2021 also went nowhere. 

    “But you know what we knew?” Markey said. “That we were building a movement that was going to build the momentum that was going to wind up with the IRA being passed.” Since the original resolution, Democrats have introduced a range of more targeted Green New Deal bills, focused on issues ranging from health to urban infrastructure to public housing to public schools. None of these bills made it out of committee.

    Many credit the enthusiasm the Green New Deal generated for pushing Biden to prioritize climate change during his presidency, even if it didn’t result in exactly what they were calling for. The IRA is sometimes talked about as a mini Green New Deal — but there are key differences between the two. While both support reducing emissions, the Green New Deal resolutions in Congress called for a massive mobilization effort to reach net-zero emissions and transition to 100 percent renewable energy in 10 years. The IRA was far less ambitious, seeking only to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030.  

    There is common ground between the two initiatives: Both framed the energy transition as an opportunity to create new jobs. And both placed a unique focus on these being good-paying, ideally union jobs. But here too, the Green New Deal aimed higher, calling for the creation of millions of these jobs, while the IRA was projected to support around 1 million jobs over a decade. (A recent estimate found that the IRA created just under 350,000 jobs in its first two years.) Rather than envision a full-scale transformation of the economy, the IRA focused more on incentivizing decarbonization through tax credits for clean and renewable energy projects. It also offered subsidies for households to install heat pumps and solar panels and buy electric vehicles. This targeted approach also missed some bigger-picture goals of the Green New Deal, like ensuring clean air, water, and access to healthy food for all. 

    Even after the IRA, some lawmakers haven’t given up on a Green New Deal — even if it’s bound to go nowhere under Trump. On the call with climate organizers last month, Representative Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, said she plans to reintroduce a version of the Green New Deal focused on public housing. “Now, I’m not naive,” she told attendees. “You and I both know that a bill like this will not pass this Congress.” Ramirez hopes that in four years, assuming Democrats regain control of Congress, those demands will become law. 

    Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers a speech behind a podium with the sign "Green New Deal for Public Housing", with Senator Bernie Sanders to her left and the White House in the background
    Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers a speech at a press conference to reintroduce the “Green New Deal for Public Housing Act.”
    Win McNamee / Getty Images

    Grace Adcox, the senior climate strategist at the progressive think tank Data for Progress, said the Green New Deal is still a powerful motivator for those who are part of the climate movement. In the organization’s most recent survey, from last January, 65 percent of voters expressed support for a Green New Deal that would create jobs, modernize infrastructure, and protect vulnerable communities. “I don’t think that there’s an argument to move away from it altogether,” Adcox said, even though the phrase is less effective for people who have heard it “being thrown around negatively.”

    According to Josh Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy at the center-left think tank Third Way, the Green New Deal catchphrase wasn’t designed to build a broad consensus beyond the left. 

    “The proposals in the Green New Deal have never matched the values of anywhere close to a majority of Americans,” he said. “Republicans continue to bring it up as a prop to scare voters, because it’s not popular with voters.” Freed argued that some policies organizations embrace as part of the platform, like banning new fossil fuel projects or declaring a climate emergency, repel the voters that Democrats are trying to win back after losing both houses of Congress and the White House last November.

    Freed acknowledged that the idea of well-paying jobs and addressing climate change sounds good in the abstract — “who doesn’t like puppies and candy?” he wrote in a recent blog post. But he said that a Green New Deal becomes less popular when voters learn about the cost. For years, Fox News has harped on the price tag of the Green New Deal, pointing to an analysis that it would cost upwards of $90 trillion. (There’s been plenty of debate over that number.) Of course, the price of inaction is also high. The federal government has calculated that failing to address climate change could cost it $2 trillion a year by 2100 and shrink U.S. gross domestic product by as much as 10 percent.

    Ahead of the 2024 election, the economy ranked highest among issues concerning voters, according to Gallup polling. Climate change, meanwhile, was near the bottom of the list of 22 issues. This difference in priorities is something the climate movement is still learning to incorporate into its talking points. 

    “Increasingly, we’ve been leaning into this framing of climate as a story about the economy,” Adcox said, pointing to how failing to act on climate change can lead to higher prices for home insurance and groceries. The story of global warming “is a story about costs, and it’s a story that people are facing every day.”

    A protest sign saying "Jobs. Justice. Climate Action. Green New Deal" is held up by an audience member at a press conference
    Posters at a press conference for the five-year anniversary of the Green New Deal.
    Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images

    Within the Sunrise Movement, which has over 100 local chapters and groups across the country, Powell said members are wondering how to evolve the organization’s messaging — and potentially expand their demands. The idea of a “Green Reconstruction” has been floated as a way to connect the climate crisis to other social and economic injustices, said Powell, like threats to U.S. democracy and the rising cost of living. The name alludes to two eras in U.S. history: the Reconstruction that took place after the American Civil War, and the Second Reconstruction, the name sometimes given to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Both were times of deep social and political upheaval, when calls for racial justice faced violence and backlash. Under this framework, said Powell, the climate group could push for “reconstructing our entire economy in every sector to address the climate crisis.” But not everyone is convinced: “Some people are like, you know, it’s hard to put on a banner.”

    Despite climate activists’ efforts to gin up enthusiasm for a greener, more equitable economy, Trump has consistently painted climate policy as restrictive, designed to take something away from voters. These kinds of talking points are an effective way to activate voters’ fears, according to John Marshall, the CEO of Potential Energy Coalition, a nonpartisan marketing firm focused on climate action. Trump has said that now that he’s killed the Green New Deal — read, the IRA — Americans can “buy the car they want to buy.” With this framing, he’s simultaneously attacking both the actual bill Biden signed into law and any future climate resolutions progressives may introduce. 

    Marshall said that approaches that emphasize slow, gradual change poll better than those that call for a complete transformation overnight. Whether or not that’s useful advice to organizers is another story. Daniel Aldana Cohen, who co-wrote the book A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal, argued that progressives need to be clear about the scale of the climate crisis and not concede too much to conservatives and others who want to downplay its impacts. And he believes tying climate equity to large-scale public investment is still the right move: “You can’t fundamentally transform the economy in secret,” he said, so the movement might as well talk about it.

    Cohen said he doesn’t know exactly what the best message will be. But he said progressives should continue advocating for climate policy “you can touch, like literally touch.” The climate movement has an opportunity, said Cohen, to now demand “not just green jobs and green careers or some, but quality of life for everyone.”

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The uncertain future of the Green New Deal on Feb 21, 2025.

    This post was originally published on Grist.

  • “Grand theft government”: Federal workers protest mass firings, service cuts


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hackney Council gets a bloody wake-up call over its investments in genocide

    Palestine Action has welcomed action by an anonymous group of people against Labour Party-run Hackney Council. It is over the council’s complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Hackney Council: BDS now – or else

    After years of local campaigning to get Hackney Council to drop their investments in genocide, anonymous activists have escalated the situation and covered Hackney Town Hall in blood-red paint:

    The local authority invests tens of millions in companies arming Israel, including Israel’s biggest weapons firm Elbit Systems. Elbit are up to their necks in Palestinian blood, producing weapons, in this country, which have been central to the genocide in Gaza, including the engines used in Israel’s killer drone fleet.

    A statement issued by the activists reads:

    For years, local campaigners have been opposing Hackney Council’s investments in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In the wake of the genocide, three neighbouring boroughs have moved to divest from complicit companies. Yet Hackney remains committed to its exposure, totaling tens of millions invested in arms manufacturers directly supplying the Israeli military in its genocidal crimes, companies illegally operating in the West Bank, and companies supplying services that perpetuate the crime of apartheid.

    Divestment is possible!

    Despite their refusal, so far, to budge on divestment from genocide, and a consistent pro-Israel bias, Hackney Council have shown a propensity for decorating, previously labelling ‘Free Palestine’ graffiti “anti-Semitic”, and hastily having it painted over. Now they have a whole Town Hall to re-decorate.

    On Thursday 20 February there is also set to be a protest over the council’s investment policies:

    Palestine Action says…

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said:

    Despite the dishonest reporting of the BBC, and much of the mainstream media, most people in this country are opposed to the murder of Palestinians by the Israeli regime, and to British participation in it. Hackney Council are profiting from the slaughter, by investing in Israeli arms companies like Elbit.

    The campaign against all those who facilitate and profit from the production of Israeli weapons is growing, and Hackney Council will be better off if they listen to the local community and divest.

    Featured image and video supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cops nick SEVEN Palestine Action supporters because they stopped Israel killing Palestinians

    Seven people have been arrested after Palestine Action shut down the Israeli-owned Rafael weapons factory in Newcastle on Tuesday 18 February. The group’s action was over the company’s direct supply of weapons to the genocidal state of Israel.

    Palestine Action: seven nicked after Rafael action

    Three people used a specially-adapted vehicle to block both entrance to the weapons plant, with an activist locked on inside the secured vehicle. Others climbed on top of the security box and covered the premise in blood-red paint to signify the blood of the Palestinians murdered by the weapons built by Rafael:

    Palestine Action

    The activists were later removed and arrested by Northumbria police force and a further three members of the public were arrested for being seen to be supporting the blockade:

    Palestine Action

    Another supporter was arrested outside the police station whilst awaiting the release of the others who were detained.

    Speaking from the roof of the site, one of the activists said:

    This factory is owned by  the Israeli state and is aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza – and we want it gone.

    Rafael is Israel’s third biggest weapons firm, and owned directly by the Israeli state. At the time they acquired Pearson Engineering and Armstrong Works, in September 2022, it was described as a vital part of the “strategic expansion” of Israel’s weapons manufacturing capabilities, as well as a way of trying to get round any future arms embargoes.

    This morning’s action marks the start of an escalation of the direct action campaign against the Israeli weapons maker. Palestine Action said Rafael can expect to be increasingly targeted to disrupt the manufacture of Israeli weapons.

    It takes place at a time when, despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to murder Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, to take hostages and imprison them without trial, and to destroy homes on the West Bank, and whole towns and villages in Lebanon.

    Cops targeting the wrong people

    A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:

    The police are arresting supporters and activists who oppose the Newcastle weapons factory which is owned by the Israeli government. All whilst they’ve done nothing about the fact that Pearson Engineering is owned by wanted war criminals. The actions by the police are a demonstration of how the state favors war criminals over its own citizens.

    No matter what it takes, members of the public will continue to take action to disrupt Israeli weapons factories and won’t stop until factories like this one are shut down for good.

    Featured image and additional images via Martin Pope

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just Stop Oil trio found GUILTY of walking too slowly 🙄

    Three Just Stop Oil supporters who participated in a slow march at Vauxhall in 2023 to demand an end to new fossil fuels have been found guilty of breaching police conditions imposed on their march.

    Just Stop Oil: walking too slowly in Vauxhall

    On 15 June 2023, William Ward, Christopher Grove, and David Kearns participated in a slow march at Vauxhall to demand an immediate end to new oil and gas licensing, a demand that has since been adopted as policy by the Labour Party government:

    Just Stop Oil slow march Vauxhall

    The Just Stop Oil action happened on the day after new regulations came into force giving police officers greater powers to shut down protests. The regulations were later found to have been introduced illegally by then-home secretary Suella Braverman.

    It was judged that she had acted outside her powers, had overreached in defining “serious disruption” as merely “more than minor” and that it had been wrong to consult only with law enforcement agencies about the repercussions of the change.

    The trio appeared before Judge Balmain accused of a breach of Section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 Regulations 2023 as they were said to have caused ‘more than minor disruption’. They were found guilty and each given a conditional discharge of 12 months and £333 costs.

    William Ward, 67, a retired engineer from Surrey said:

    One day, very soon people will look back and say that the law got it wrong; why did they waste time prosecuting peaceful people for taking action to prevent billions of deaths and enormous suffering? Time is short and the government needs to come clean and admit to the public how bad our situation is. They need to get on with the job of cutting oil and gas demand through common sense, cost effective measures like insulating our homes, building more renewables and investing in public transport.

    I hold my head up high that I did the right thing for my three grandchildren and the millions of vulnerable people already suffering from the consequences of unchecked fossil fuel burning throughout the world.

    Worrying about people walking while the planet burns

    In the 20 months since they took action, global heating has continued to accelerate and the world shows no signs of reducing fossil fuel burning.

    Just last month, 2024 was confirmed as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last week, January 2025 was confirmed as the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the pre-industrial level, according to European space agency Copernicus.

    In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful. Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works.

    Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel weapons factory shut for EIGHT HOURS thanks to Palestine Action

    On Tuesday 18 February, activists from Palestine Action began shutting down the Rafael weapons factory at Armstrong Works, Scotswood Road, Newcastle. It is, of course, yet another company complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza

    Palestine Action: shutting down Rafael

    A specially-adapted vehicle was used to block both entrance to the weapons plant, with an activist locked on inside the secured vehicle:

    Rafael Palestine ActionRafael Palestine Action

    Others climbed on top of the security box and covered the premise in blood-red paint to signify the blood of the Palestinians murdered by the weapons built by Rafael:

    Activists were still there eight hours later – stopping all production at the factory:

    Rafael is Israel’s third biggest weapons firm, and owned directly by the Israeli state:

    At the time they acquired Pearson Engineering and Armstrong Works, in September 2022, it was described as a vital part of the “strategic expansion” of Israel’s weapons manufacturing capabilities, as well as a way of trying to get round any future arms embargoes.

    The site specialises in producing  armoured military vehicles and tanks, including armoured bulldozers and ‘Robotic Combat Vehicles’. Rafael, the parent company, manufacture a range of weapons, advertised as “extensively battle proven by the Israeli Air Force”, including guided Spike missiles, which have slaughtered thousands of Palestinians. Labour ‘Lord’ John Hutton is amongst the directors of the Israeli state owned weapons factory.

    In September 2023, Rafael announced that Armstrong Works would be playing a significant role in delivering the Samson 30mm Remote Weapons Station. These remotely-controlled “High Lethality” death-factories include an arsenal of long-range weaponry, such as high-calibre machine-guns, 30mm cannon, 40mm grenade launchers, and Spike missiles.

    As well as being used on vehicles, they are used around the perimeters of besieged Gaza, and recently in Southern Lebanon, allowing the Israeli military to kill from afar.

    The group will be back

    In May 2023, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, Palestine Action occupied the roof of the Rafael factory, shutting it down for two days, and causing £69,000 in damage to the weapons site, plus £600,000 in losses, while no weapons were being produced.

    Since then, there have been regular protests outside the factory gates by local pro-Palestine activists, some of which the police have attacked violently, with arrests being made.

    This morning’s action marks the start of an escalation of the direct action campaign against the Israeli weapons maker, and they can expect to be increasingly targeted to disrupt the manufacture of Israeli weapons.  It takes place at a time when, despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to murder Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, to take hostages and imprison them without trial, and to destroy homes on the West Bank, and whole towns and villages in Lebanon.

    A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:

    The Israeli government owning a weapons factory in Newcastle is a stain on the whole community. The Israeli death machine has to be stopped, and with the British government entirely complicit in the genocide, it is up to ordinary people to do their part to halt the manufacture of Israeli weapons here. We put Rafael on notice, that we will shut them down at every opportunity. Each hour of production lost means less lives taken.

    Featured image via Martin Pope and additional images via Palestine Action and Martin Pope

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Chaos in London as McKinsey & Co targeted by Extinction Rebellion

    On Monday 17 February, Extinction Rebellion climate activists occupied McKinsey & Co and its London headquarters to demand it cuts all ties to its fossil fuel industry clients and starts putting planet before profit.

    McKinsey & Co: chaos at its London HQ

    Dozens of police arrived on the scene and arrested four campaigners, including two who were stood outside the building holding a banner:

    The protest began at midday when activists sprayed fake crude oil over the building’s glass and steel exterior:

    McKinsey & Co Extinction Rebellion

    A group of climbers scaled the entrance portico, lighting up smoke flares and unfurling a massive banner reading, “McKinsey & Company: Cut the Ties to Fossil Fuels”:

    Extinction Rebellion target Mckinsey demanding they cut their ties to fossil fuels. Credit: Will Colebourne

    On the pavement outside, a long list of climate crimes committed by ‘The Firm’ was read out over a megaphone, as three people in hazmat suits kneeled before an activist dressed as a McKinsey & Co partner who ‘drowned’ them in oil, in a scene symbolising the effect on humanity of McKinsey’s ever-expanding fossil fuel business strategies:

    McKinsey & Co Extinction Rebellion

    Demonstrators handed out leaflets to staff and passers-by, informing them of what is going on, asking staff to boycott fossil fuel clients within the firm and to demand McKinsey stops working to increase fossil fuel production:

    Police even had to use a cherry picker to get the Extinction Rebellion activists down:

    McKinsey & Co

    A damning rap sheet

    McKinsey & Co. is the world’s biggest management consultancy with 45,000 employees operating globally. They work directly with Big Oil CEOs to maximise profit at the expense of people and planet.

    Recent investigations and analysis reveal that McKinsey & Co is central to driving the climate and ecological emergency and show McKinsey clients are responsible for around half of all the CO2 emitted worldwide since the Paris agreement was signed.

    The company’s client list includes most of the worlds’ biggest polluters, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Eni, Saudi Aramco, and Sinopec. McKinsey typically help their clients maximise production ignoring the increasingly desperate pleas of climate scientists and the United Nations.

    McKinsey clients Shell and BP have been scaling back their transition to renewables and Aramco’s CEO described the phase-out of oil as a “fantasy” that should be abandoned.

    McKinsey & Co. has also been working with the Saudi government to artificially stimulate demand for oil in order to offset declines due to efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

    Another client is Koch Industries, notorious for funding the thinktanks and other climate-denial groups that lobby against action on the climate crisis.

    McKinsey & Co. is also working in India to increase the country’s oil refining capacity by 200m tonnes a year and help meet its aim to become a gas-based economy despite the fact that 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the first calendar year in which annual average temperatures were higher than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. “Limiting global warming to 1.5C would require the CO2 rise to be slowing, but in reality the opposite is happening,” says Richard Betts of the Met Office.

    The company also worked for Big Oil at COP28, peddling a narrative aimed at undermining the goals of the Paris Agreement

    Extinction Rebellion calls time on McKinsey & Co

    Sandra Magee, 41, a farmer from North Devon present at the McKinsey & Co action, said:

    McKinsey and Company develop the strategies which are propelling our planet into a catastrophic ‘hothouse earth’ state. We’re here to tell McKinsey employees that a habitable planet is infinitely more important than the profits of a few fossil fuel execs. Demand action on climate from your CEOs, not collaboration towards our mutual destruction!

    Caroline Hartnell, 74 from Wandsworth, London, said

    Wake up! Fossil fuel emissions trap heat equivalent to a million Hiroshima bombs every day. Last month was the warmest January on record at 1.64ºC above pre industrial levels, the agreed safe limit was 1.5ºC. You are living through the sixth mass extinction event. So what we need from McKinsey and Co. is less greed. We demand McKinsey and Co. put Planet before Profit.

    Featured image and additional images via Will Colebourne

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cook Islanders march in Avarua against Mark Brown government

    By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist, in Avarua, Rarotonga

    More than 400 people have taken to the streets to protest against Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown’s recent decisions, which have led to a diplomatic spat with New Zealand.

    The protest, led by Opposition MP and Cook Islands United Party leader Teariki Heather, has taken place outside the Cook Islands Parliament in Avarua — a day after Brown returned from China.

    Protesters have come out with placards, stating: “Stay connected with New Zealand.”


    The protest in Avarua today.    Video: RNZ

    Some government ministers have been standing outside Parliament, including Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana.

    Heather said he was present at the rally to how how much Cook Islanders cared about the relationship with New Zealand and valued the New Zealand passport.

    He has apologised to the New Zealand government on behalf of the Cook Islands government.

    Leader of the opposition and Democratic Party leader Tina Browne said she wanted the local passport to be off the table “forever and ever”.

    “We have no problem with our government going and seeking assistance,” she said.

    “We do have a problem when it is risking our sovereignty, risking our relationship with New Zealand.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘SILENCE=DEATH’: Long COVID-suffering performers protest outside BAFTAs

    Long Covid-suffering performers sounded the alarm on this chronic illness emergency in the performing arts outside the BAFTAs. Members of Protect the Heart of the Arts, an action network of performers and allies, staged a protest, with one member rushing security, chanting “Silence=Death”, echoing the iconic AIDS crisis slogan:

    BAFTAs

    The protest called for Covid protections on-set and onstage, drawing attention to Long Covid as an occupational injury:

    BAFTAs Long Covid protest

    BAFTAs: raising awareness of Long Covid

    High-profile performers are increasingly speaking out about their long Covid struggles, including Matt McGorry, Alyssa Milano, Colin Farrell, and Dave Navarro.

    Performing is an inherently high-risk profession for airborne pathogens like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid. Actors, singers, and theatre workers spend hours in poorly ventilated indoor spaces, often without access to effective Covid protections such as HEPA air filtration, accurate molecular testing like PlusLife, and audience and crew mask wearing.

    This has had dire consequences, particularly in live performance. High-profile productions in the West End and on Broadway, such as David Tennant’s Macbeth and Audra McDonald’s Gypsy, experienced unprecedented runs of cancellations due to illness within the company.

    Long Covid is a multi-system condition with over 200 documented symptoms. It affects breath control, stamina, memory, and cognitive function – essential abilities for anyone working in the performing arts.

    Long Covid: affecting performers

    A 2022 study in the Journal of Voice found that 30% of Broadway performers suffered long-term vocal damage after Covid infection. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that two million people are living with Long Covid, but a population-wide study by Hastie et al. (2023) suggests the true number may be as high as one in ten in the UK.

    According to the Economist (2024), an estimated 27 million deaths worldwide are attributable to Covid – far beyond official figures. These deaths are not just from the initial infection but also from long-term health effects such as heart attacks, strokes, aggressive cancers, and suicides.

    Taking part in the BAFTAs protest were members of COVID Action, a grassroots campaign of individual activists and labour and trade union organisations. Hazards Campaign also supported the action, saying “We have been supporting a hierarchy of controls approach: proper ventilation, more space, masking if necessary”.

    Co-founder Charles Waltz said:

    In just four years, Covid has killed more people than AIDS did in forty—both have devastated the arts.

    Governments, institutions, and workplaces once built the infrastructure to protect us, but now they’ve torn it all down, leaving us exposed. We’re staging this die-in because without urgent action, we’re not just losing individual careers, we’re losing lives. And with them, the very ability to create art at all. At a time when the world needs art more than ever to remind us of our shared humanity, we are being abandoned.

    Glenda, a performer and founding member of the group that was at the BAFTAs, said:

    I’ve endured my form of Long Covid since 2023, as a result of just one infection.

    As a writer, I’m compromised by my symptoms; as an actor, I’m compromised, and thereby excluded, by the lack or absence of mitigations in industry settings. I strived to perhaps earn something approaching a living from my vocation. But earning a living and, indeed, ‘living my life’ since 2020 never meant compromising my instrument, be it body, voice or imagination…it never meant being sickened; avoidable or further disablement; dying with or from something that’s ultimately preventable.

    We have to follow the science, not superstition – THIS is not ‘The Scottish Play’, THIS continues to be a tragic farce. Viruses are indifferent to the past-tense: their show will go on stopping ours, be it temporarily or permanently.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Protect the Heart of the Arts

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • We Demand Change has already thrown disabled and homeless people under the bus

    Another year, and another conference organised by the same people who have been organising conferences for nearly as long as I’ve been alive has been announced. And in the time-honoured tradition of the ‘socialist’ left of British politics, it’s ignored the majority of minoritised communities – including chronically ill, disabled, and homeless people. But apparently, though, ‘we demand change’ – albeit it’s ‘we’ in the loosest possible sense of the word.

    We Demand Change

    We Demand Change is a Peace and Justice Project-hosted ‘summit’ that is supported by Stop the War Coalition, Stand Up to Racism, StrikeMap, and other groups and trade unions. The Peace and Justice Project is buried in the small print as the organisation that owns the website. Therefore, we can conclude that it has been one of the main instigators of this.

    It says on the site:

    We call on all trade unionists, campaigners and activists to join us on 29th March in Central London to begin to construct – through debate and discussion – a network of activists across campaigns and unions to turn the tide on despair.

    A network that can deliver solidarity to those who are taking action to protect their living standards and with those who are building the movements to free Palestine, end the drive to a war economy, stop the far right and prevent the further deterioration of our planet.

    This is something we can all get behind, I’m sure. So who is speaking on 29 March? The We Demand Change line up as of 16 February is:

    • Daniel Kebede – NEU General Secretary.
    • Grace Blakeley – Journalist
    • Yanis Varoufakis – Economist & politician
    • Weyman Bennett – Stand up to Racism
    • Lindsey German – Stop the War Coalition
    • James Meadway – Economist
    • Jeremy Corbyn – Islington North MP
    • Andrew Feinstein – Anti-apartheid Campaigner
    • Owen Jones – Columnist
    • Sarah Wooley – BFAWU General Secretary
    • Sean Vernell – UCU NEC
    • Steve North – UNISON President
    • Jess Edwards – NEU NEC
    • Leanne Mohammed – British-Palestinian Activist
    • Zack Polanski – Deputy Leader, Green Party
    • Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS Movement

    OK. Does anyone see the problem with this line up?

    Over a week since the group launched, I have some questions:

    • Where is the disabled person on the speaker’s line up?
    • Where is the Black woman?
    • Where is the Asian woman?
    • Where is the trans person?
    • Where is the homeless person?
    • Where is the non-working person?
    • Where is the social housing campaigner?

    Yes, you’re right. They’re not featured at the summit.

    Excluding minoritised people again

    As has been so often the case, We Demand Change appears to be focusing on the right-wing narrative of ‘working people’. The group’s statement makes a fleeting mention of people reliant on social security:

    His [Starmer’s] government has backed genocide in Gaza, underfunds our schools and hospitals, cut benefits, pensions and winter fuel allowances and has refused to implement manifesto commitments to save the planet.

    And that’s it. Otherwise, it’s the usual exclusionary tropes:

    Working people did not vote for more of the same. They expect real change so that our lives are not one continuous struggle to make ends meet.

    Sorry – was it only working people that voted on 4 July last year? Of course not.

    As always, chronically ill, disabled, homeless, and non-working people are ignored – despite the fact they have the right to vote.

    Now, we’re sure We Demand Change will roll out an excuse for this. The group will probably add a disabled speaker in the next few weeks. Or claim they hadn’t forgotten – but were waiting to announce more speakers.

    But that’s not the point.

    Propping up the right wing – and the system

    When you centre working people as the priority (and let’s be real, based on the weighting of the line up, white people) and leave chronically ill, disabled, homeless, and non-working people – as well as minoritised women – as an after thought, you expose yourselves for the political games you are actually playing.

    This idea of ‘working people’ as being central to politics and democracy is a right-wing narrative that firstly Labour, and now We Demand Change, are playing into as a way of appealing to right-wing voters. Anyone who doesn’t work is either old, a benefit-scrounger, or an ‘illegal’ – and therefore spending working people’s money.

    Moreover, as the Canary’s Nicola Jeffery previously wrote of how the Labour Party has treated disabled people:

    Were we literally just a trend to these people?

    That has felt the case for many years, and not just in Labour. The socialist left in the UK pulls disabled, homeless, and other minoritised people out of the hat when they’re useful to them, and then puts them back when they’re not.

    Regardless, whatever the reason for We Demand Change’s exclusion of the most minoritised people in society from its event, it’s the same bullshit we’ve had for decades.

    Certain people’s voices – either the middle class ones or those who have had a platform for years – are the ones we’re allowed to hear. Yet it these same voices that have failed to bring about change for the rest of us in the first place.

    And that’s not going to end well.

    Letting in Reform by the front door

    Paula Peters is a prominent disability rights activist. She told me of the We Demand Change summit:

    It’s of vital importance that We Demand Change organisers reach out to all grassroots roots activists and groups who have been and continue to be at the sharp end of ongoing austerity and the sharp end of resistance to austerity. That an inclusive accessible movement is built where all groups are heard, welcomed, and listened to, and ideas shared and built upon so that we can all bring the change we need. It needs to break down class divides and political division.

    We really to hear from grass-roots housing activists who are organising on their housing estates to stop them being demolished from property developers; from grass roots activists who are building mutual aid support in their communities to support neighbours who are struggling in poverty, with housing issues and a climate crisis.

    We need to hear from disabled people fighting against social care cuts, fighting for a national independent living service, highlighting the appalling impact of benefit cuts and sanctions, and the tragic human cost of benefit deaths and the tragic impact and human cost of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Everyone has a voice and so many amazing activists are doing amazing campaigning work in our communities that we need to hear and learn from and build solidarity links between groups.

    A movement must bring everyone together build campaigns together and resist the neoliberal government together. If we do not do this; we are in serious danger of having a Reform government in 2029.

    We demand you do better, We Demand Change

    It’s almost as if for some of the speakers on We Demand Change’s line up, it’s a career for them – whereas, for the rest of us, it’s a fight for survival.

    Correction.

    It’s not ‘almost as if’. For many of the speakers, politics and activism is a career; one that they’ve done very well out of – arguably at the expense of the rest of us.

    If it wasn’t a career for them, then the We Demand Change line up would be featuring the minoritised groups I previously mentioned. And when you don’t start from the bottom – centering those who the system has minoritised the most, and who’s lives are most at risk – then whatever you do will not only fail but also just continue to prop up the system, anyway.

    Overall, the whole thing looks like a re-run of the past 15 years – and I can’t help but think ‘here we go again’.

    I’m waiting for you to prove me wrong, We Demand Change. I sincerely am.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • L&B Plating might sound obscure – but it’s complicit with Israel, as Palestine Action just exposed

    Palestine Action was once again out in force, targeting Brighton company L&B Plating which is complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And this time, the group showed just how an intricate web of companies all have a hand in the killing of Palestinians.

    L&B Plating: complicit with Israel’s genocide

    On Thursday 13 February, activists targeted L&B Plating Company in Brighton over its complicity in genocide and links to suppliers of Israeli weapons:

    L&B Plating Brighton

    Actionists damaged vehicles and spray painted at the site, demanding they terminate their contract supplying the local L3 Harris weapons factory.

    After the action, messages reading “Free Palestine” and “Drop L3” were visible on buildings of the metal and coatings specialist:

    Palestine Action

    The company provides a specialist service to L3 Harris, whose Brighton factory produces bomb release mechanisms for F35 fighter jet planes. These planes are known to be responsible for the delivery of thousands of bombs on targets including tented refugee encampments in Gaza and healthcare workers in Lebanon.

    This action is part of continued disruption to the Israeli weapons supply by Palestine Action and coincides with an ongoing campaign from local residents and workers groups calling for the Harris facility to be permanently shut. The local campaign group have also contacted L&B Plating Company directly, calling for them to cut ties with the weapons supplier.

    Earlier this week, former UK Foreign Office second secretary Mark Smith reported that the UK government had systemically edited documents and suppressed evidence of war crimes in order to facilitate the ongoing sale of UK weapons to Israel.

    You have been warned

    A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:

    At this point any company that can be linked to UK weapons exports to Israel cannot be surprised by a visit from Palestine Action. With the UK government continuing to double down and furnish the Israeli military with weapons, we are doubling down our commitment to smash the supply chain. L&B Plating should immediately cut ties with the F3 facility. If they don’t, they can be assured that we’ll be back.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Thought crime’ and cancelled elections: how do JD Vance’s claims about Europe stand up?

    US vice-president told litany of tales of Europe’s rights infringements in speech to leaders at defence gathering

    In JD Vance’s confrontational and pugnacious speech at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president ran through a series of examples to highlight his claims that Europe has gone off the rails. Here, we look at what he said – and whether it stacks up.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • This Valentine’s Day, people called on the UK government to dump planet-wrecker Drax

    This Valentine’s day, climate crisis activists from around the country descended on doorsteps of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in London. They were there to call on Labour Party energy secretary Ed Miliband to end the government’s toxic love affair with infamous planet-wrecker Drax.

    Drax: time for the DESNZ to dump the destructive climate-wrecker

    Climate activists from across the UK gathered on 14 Feb 2025 outside the DESNZ office in London:

    They came together to express their anger about the government’s cosy relationship with the UK’s biggest carbon polluter. In particular, the groups took the DESNZ to task for greenlighting the continuation of enormous subsidies for Drax’s destructive biomass power station. Already, the company has leached £7bn of public money since 2012 through these subsidies.

    Dressed in pink and red for Valentine’s day, protestors gathered under the slogan: “Ed Miliband: Dump Drax”:

    Protesters stand together with banners. Left banner black with pink text reads: "Energy bills: up, Emissions: up, Drax profits: up. Banner in the centre reads: "Drax the destroyer". Next banner over reads: "Big biomass fuels deforestation, landgrabbing, climate disaster. Banner on the right reads: Drop Drax.

    Protesters march with banners and placards. Front banners read: "Drax the destroyer" and "Stop burning trees".

    Protesters brandished placards telling the DESNZ why forest-destroyer Drax shouldn’t be its Valentine:

    Protester holds up a placard reading: "We've got to end this toxic relationship - Axe Drax." A broken heart with illustrations of a hand holding out cash to Drax's power plant operations, adorns the centre of the placard.

    Anti-biomass and climate groups Biofuelwatch, Campaign Against Climate Change, and Axe Drax delivered powerful speeches about the impacts of Drax’s mega-polluting biomass power station.

    Activists also penned a poignant break-up poem and called out the government for getting into bed with the greenwashing energy giant online:

    The UK government and greenwashing Drax: a match made in hell

    On Monday 10 February, the government announced its decision to extend subsidies for Drax past 2027, to 2031. The continued bungs to the carbon mega-polluter will cost taxpayers at least £1.8bn in new subsidies. Therefore, protestors condemned this decision, highlighting the impact on taxpayers, forests, and frontline communities abroad. On top of this, they drew attention to the staggering scale of emissions from its wood-burning pellet operations.

    Bioenergy giant Drax operates the world’s largest wood pellet-burning biomass power station near Selby, Yorkshire. The UK’s single largest carbon dioxide emitter, in 2023, it belched out 11.5m tonnes of the greenhouse gas driving the climate crisis.

    Drax sources from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. In many of these places, the company is responsible for razing high-risk forests, including old growth, ancient trees.

    What’s more, the company has situated its wood pellet production sites predominantly in environmental justice communities. These include majority Black communities in places like Mississippi and Louisiana. There, Drax’s facilities emit large amounts of pollutants that cause respiratory and pulmonary health impacts.

    The UK government also greenlit these subsidies the day after another damning report on Drax’s environmental impacts. Specifically, the BBC revealed that Drax had once again failed to disclose that it had sourced from primary and old-growth forests in 2020-2021. After an investigation by Ofgem, the energy regulator fined the company £25m.

    No love lost on ditching the driver of climate disaster

    The demonstration was part of a wider emergency mobilisation coordinated by the Stop Burning Trees Coalition. Groups held demonstrations simultaneously in Leeds, Tyneside, and Nottingham. These built on the momentum of demonstrations earlier in the week in Bristol and Somerset on Monday after the decision was announced.

    Lead campaigner for the Stop Burning Trees Coalition Merry Dickinson said:

    The recent Government decision to extend subsidies for Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, spells disaster for bill payers, forests, communities suffering Drax’s pollution, biodiversity and our planet. This decision will drive us closer to climate chaos and result in vital forests being destroyed whilst putting an added burden on bill payers. Using our money to fund forest destruction, pollution and the profits of Drax’s shareholders is a disgrace. We need investment in real green energy, in climate action that genuinely reduces emissions and brings down people’s bills.

    Echoing this, bioenergy campaigner for Biofuelwatch Sally Clark said:

    The Government’s decision to grant billions more in renewable subsidies from our energy bills to the world’s biggest tree burner, Drax, is a catastrophe for forests, wildlife, communities and the climate. If the Government is serious about tackling the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis, it should be investing in genuine climate solutions like home insulation or wind and solar power, not sending our futures up in smoke by funding big polluters like Drax.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: Lord Walney SACKED from job at Home Office after political prisoners scandal

    On Friday 14 February, the Home Office finally announced the sacking of Lord Walney (John Woodcock) and the axing of his role as ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.

    Lord Walney: gone but not forgotten

    Lord Walney’s responsibilities will be transferred to a new expanded Commissioner for Counter-Extremism role, as part of a wider reorganisation of how protest and extremism are monitored within the Home Office.

    His departure raises further questions about the mass jailing of political opponents of the oil and arms industries he represents. Since his May 2024 report, which called for members of Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as organised criminals, more than 50 have been imprisoned, some for up to five years.

    Meanwhile the outcome of the Court of Appeal hearing into 16 members of Just Stop Oil, jailed for a combined 41 years in the months following Walney’s report last May, is expected within weeks.

    A spokesperson for the Free Political Prisoners campaign, which has been calling for Lord Walney’s sacking since September, said:

    It was a grave error of judgement on the part of this Government to allow an oil and arms industry lobbyist to drive the agenda on silencing those holding those same industries to account. Many peaceful people are filling our overcrowded prisons as a result.

    This doesn’t end with Walney’s sacking. The immense damage he has done to democratic freedoms must be repaired. Those silenced and jailed on his recommendations must be freed. The corrupting influence of other industry lobbyists on the courts must be stopped.

    A toxic tenure

    Lord Walney (real name, ‘John Woodcock’) resigned from the Labour Party in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which have still not been investigated.

    In 2020, Boris Johnson appointed him to the House of Lords, and gave him the role of ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.

    He used that role to obtain the following paid positions:

    • Chair of the Purpose Defence Coalition, members of which include Leonardo, one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, with “extensive links” to Israel’s military.
    • Adviser to lobbyist Rud Pederson, clients of which include the oil and gas giant, Glencore.
    • Adviser to the Purpose Business Coalition, members of which include fossil fuel giant BP.

    The terms of his engagement required him to disclose any conflicts of interest directly to the Home Office, but it is unclear whether he did so.

    In May 2024 Lord Walney published a report, falsely presented to the public and parliament as ‘independent’, which called for groups such as Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil to be treated as organised criminals. He also suggested that jury acquittals in the trials of such cases were a problem that needed to be addressed.

    The surprise was not that Lord Walney acted in his clients’ interests, but rather that the Labour government continued to present him to the public as ‘independent’ for so long, encouraging judges to act on his recommendations.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just Stop Oil supporter guilty of redecorating Kings College Cambridge 🙄

    A Just Stop Oil supporter who sprayed King’s College Cambridge with orange paint in 2023 to demand an end to new fossil fuels was found guilty at Peterborough Magistrates Court on Thursday 13 February.

    Just Stop Oil: a dab hand at redecoration

    On 12 October 2023, Chiara Sarti – a PhD student at King’s College, Cambridge – used a fire extinguisher to spray orange paint over the iconic neo-gothic gatehouse of the college to demand an immediate end to new oil and gas licensing, a demand that has since been adopted as policy by the Labour Party government:

    Just Stop Oil Kings College Cambridge

    Today they appeared before a magistrate accused of criminal damage under £5,000 for their action on 12 October 2023. The cost of the damage caused by the action was put at £2,430.

    In their defence Chiara said:

    I have never tried to avoid accountability for my actions. I accept all consequences that come with that. In particular, I have a high respect for the rule of law and I’ve taken action from a place of conscientious objection. I do absolutely hold true that none of us should be above the law, whether it’s students, government officials or fossil fuel executives. Fundamentally it is a deep respect for the law which has led me to take action.

    Pronouncing a guilty verdict the judge said:

    You’ve raised a number of things in your defence, in particular Articles 9 and 10. And I don’t think anyone will criticise the thoughts and beliefs you have. Article 10 doesn’t come without responsibilities.

    The case law suggests there can be a defence of necessity – you raised the issues of the great fire of London – but of course the reasons those persons pulled down the houses was to save people from immediate danger because the fire would otherwise have spread. The case law I’m concerned with is the immediacy of the threat that may well be faced isn’t so immediate that it gives you a defence of lawful excuse.

    Chiara was found guilty and given a 12-month conditional discharge and fined £3,080.

    Righteous actions – given the overwhelming evidence

    Speaking after the verdict Chiara said:

    I have a responsibility to my generation to make it clear that burning oil means mass starvation. I refuse to lie to my students and pretend that this is OK. I do not consent to plans that will result in 3C of warming and mass death within a few decades.

    Arrests, fines and prison don’t change this reality. When fossil fuel firms have bought our government, when politicians are prioritising corporate profits and the wealth of billionaires over the wellbeing of ordinary people, it’s time to put our bodies on the line and reclaim Parliament from the corporate interests that dominate it.

    In the 16 months since Chiara took action, global heating has continued to accelerate and the world shows no signs of reducing fossil fuel burning.

    Just last month, 2024 was confirmed as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last week, January 2025 was confirmed as the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the pre-industrial level, according to European space agency Copernicus.

    Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, said the January data was “both astonishing and frankly terrifying”, adding:

    On the basis of the Valencia floods and apocalyptic Los Angeles wildfires, I don’t think there can be any doubt that dangerous, all-pervasive, climate breakdown has arrived. Yet emissions continue to rise.

    Back in November, the Global Carbon Project published its projection for 2024 fossil fuel use showing a rise of 0.8% over 2023. This would be almost 8% higher in 2024 than in 2015, the year the Paris climate agreement was signed.

    Just Stop Oil will continue

    The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said:

    The 2C target is dead, because the global energy use is rising, and it will continue to rise.

    In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful. Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works.

    Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Dozens of Iraqi Kurdistan journalists teargassed, arrested, raided over protest

    Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, February 13, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Kurdistan security forces’ assault on 12 news crews covering a February 9 protest by teachers and other public employees over unpaid salaries, which resulted in at least 22 journalists teargassed, two arrested, and a television station raided.

    “The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”

    Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.

    Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.

    At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:

    • Pro-opposition New Generation Movement NRT TV camera operator Ali Abdulhadi and reporter Shiraz Abdullah were stopped from filming by about seven armed security officers, known in Kurdish as Asayish, according to a video posted by the outlet.

    “One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.

    Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali is seen lying on another woman's lap after being teargassed.
    Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali is seen lying on another woman’s lap after being teargassed. (Screenshot: Diplomatic)

    “There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.

    • An ambulance took pro-PUK digital outlet Zhyan Media’s reporter Mardin Mohammed and camera operator Mohammed Mariwan to a hospital in Koya after they were teargassed.

    “I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.

    • Pro-PUK satellite channel Kurdsat News reporters Gaylan Sabir and Amir Mohammed and camera operators Sirwan Sadiq and Hemn Mohammed were teargassed and their equipment was confiscated, the outlet said.
    • Privately owned Westga News said five staff — reporters Omer Ahmed, Shahin Fuad, and Amir Hassan, and camera operators Zanyar Mariwan and Ahmed Shakhawan — were attacked and teargassed. Ahmed told CPJ that a security officer grabbed a camera while they were broadcasting, while Fuad said another camera, microphone, and a livestreaming encoder were also taken and not returned.
    Camera operator Sivar Baban (third from left) is helped to walk after being teargassed.
    Camera operator Sivar Baban (third from left) is helped to walk after being teargassed. (Photo: Hamasur)
    • Pro-PUK Slemani News Network reporter Kochar Hamza was carried to safety by protesters after she collapsed due to tear gas, a video by the digital outlet showed. She told CPJ that she and her camera operator Sivar Baban were treated at hospitals twice.

    “My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.

    • A team from Payam TV, a pro-opposition Kurdistan Justice Group satellite channel, required treatment for teargas exposure.

    “We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.

    • Madah Jamal, a reporter with the pro-opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union Speda TV satellite channel, told CPJ that he was also teargassed.
    • Pro-PUK digital outlet Xendan’s reporter Shahen Wahab told CPJ that she and camera operator Garmian Omar suffered asthma attacks due to the teargas.
    • Pro-PUK satellite channel Gali Kurdistan’s reporter Karwan Nazim told CPJ that he had to stop reporting because he couldn’t breathe and asked his office to send additional staff.

    “I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

    Raided and arrested

    Teachers and other public employees protest unpaid salaries in Kurdistan in 2015.
    Teachers and other public employees protest unpaid salaries in Kurdistan in 2015. Police used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse them. (Screenshot: Voice of America/YouTube)

    Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.

    “They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.

    KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”

    In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.

    “They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.

    “They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.

    CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The controversy over ‘DARC’ in Wales has finally hit the Senedd

    Campaigners at PARC Against DARC, which launched in May 2024 to block the proposed US military DARC radars at Brawdy in Pembrokeshire say it’s only a matter of time until the proposed radars receive national scrutiny. This follows Cefin Campbell MS submitting a Statement of Opinion on DARC radar in the Senedd.

    The move comes after a vote at Plaid Cymru’s national conference last October where the Party unanimously backed a motion to oppose DARC and support the campaign to halt its development.

    Statement of Opinion tabled in the Senedd to oppose DARC Radar

    Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell who tabled the Statement of Opinion is one of four regional MSs representing Mid and West Wales. He said:

    Plaid Cymru has a long and honourable history of promoting peace around the globe and opposing militarism at every level. We cannot therefore support the construction of DARC and give space to American militarism on our land.

    Furthermore, no assessment at all has been completed on its impact on the community in terms of tourism, health, or the economy, and the assumption is that it will be harmful on each count.

    Statements of Opinion are a mechanism within the Senedd by which elected MSs can register their concerns on particular issues as a means to gauge feeling from other Senedd Members who can then support or oppose the statements. This is a similar mechanism to ‘Early Day Motions’ which are used in Westminster and are considered to be an effective way to raise awareness over certain issues with an aim of escalating to plenary debates within the Senedd chamber later on.

    PARC Against DARC say they worked closely with Cefin Campbell, and other MS’s to draft the Statement of Opinion which reads:

    This Senedd

    1. Notes:

    a) the opposition by Pembrokeshire residents to the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) proposal by the Ministry of Defence;

    b) concerns regarding the visual and tourism impact of 27 large radar dishes in view of a coastal national park of significant UK importance and national heritage in nearby St David’s;

    c) concerns regarding unaddressed health risks and regional security implications; and

    d) the petition of 16,000 signatures against the proposal.

    2. Calls on the Welsh Government to commission an authoritative impact assessment of the plan to better inform residents and decision-makers

    DARC Radar would give Trump the keys to Pembrokeshire to control space

    The campaign, which has asserted its view that the proposed 27 dish radar array would give Donald Trump and the US the ability to militarily dominate all of space from Pembrokeshire and two other proposed sites located in Australia and the US, won a campaign in the 1990s to fight off a very similar proposal.

    A spokesperson told the Canary:

    The successful campaign in the 90’s became an issue of national and international importance which was debated in UK parliament and subsequently cancelled very publicly by the then Conservative government. We fully expect the DARC radar proposal to receive the same level of national scrutiny this time round and we believe it’s only a matter of time before decision makers are forced to U-turn on this very unpopular proposal.

    With Trump now at the helm in the US, which is terrifying enough in itself, who in their right mind would support giving over a precious piece of Pembrokeshire’s landscape to the US military so that Trump, along with his incoherent foreign policies would be able to control space from here?! Especially when you consider that DARC directly breaches several international treaties which dictate that space must be kept for peace and never used for military purposes

    With other local infrastructure projects currently at pre-planning stages which campaigners assert DARC would be reliant on, they also believe that the planning application for DARC should include these as part of the wider application, inline with current planning legislation and regulations.

    These include the new pylons DARC would need, the proposed Newgale bypass and a data Cable which Vodafone hopes to lay from Ireland to Brawdy. “Given that the MOD admits there would be hundreds of lorries per day needed to construct DARC” say campaigners, “it is very apparent to everyone concerned that DARC would not be viable without the new road and the other elements of additional infrastructure, therefore the MOD should be forced to adhere to current planning law and apply for them all at once”.

    DARC set to become a ‘pivotal issue’ in 2026 Senedd Elections

    On Wednesday 12 Feburary, Roy Jones, a leading activist of PARC Against DARC travelled to Cardiff Bay to hand deliver letters to all 60 Members of the Senedd. The letters raise multiple concerns about DARC as well as imploring the MS’s to support Cefin Campbell’s Statement of Opinion and to meet with the Campaign at an event they will be hosting at the Senedd on 5 March.

    The campaign has urged anyone with concerns about DARC to write to their local and regional MS’s asking them to support the Statement of Opinion. The group said:

    With the 2026 Senedd elections also seeing an increase in the number of MS’s from 60 to 96 as well as a move to proportional representation across the board, we are sure that this will become a pivotal issue as the candidates and parties begin vying for votes in the build up to the 2026 elections. Our 16,000 strong petition demonstrates how unpopular DARC already is among locals and we believe that as awareness grows so will the pressure for candidates to join with public opinion and stand up against DARC.

    The campaign says it also has its sights set on similar processes in Westminster and are already receiving help from several MPs:

    A matter of such hugely significant national interest cannot be decided by a few planning officials at PCC [Pembrokeshire County Council] and must therefore be escalated to the appropriate levels of government for real scrutiny and thorough investigation.

    Campaigners set to lobby Senedd Members

    On Wednesday 5 March as part of the United Nations international day of disarmament and non-proliferation awareness, with Heddwch ar Waith a Welsh Peace network, PARC Against DARC, along with other campaigns such as CND Cymru, Stop the War, and the Peace Pledge Union will be hosting presentations in the Peirhead building at the Senedd including a lunchtime session where all MS’s will be invited to come along and learn more about the dangers of the DARC proposal and the growing levels of militarism in Wales. Heledd Fychan MS will sponsor the day’s proceedings.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Another university just ditched fossil fuel and arms companies – thanks to student campaigns

    Arts University Bournemouth has announced it will boycott fossil fuel industry recruitment, implementing a new Ethical Careers Policy. The university has now excluded oil, gas, and arms industries from attending careers fairs or advertising vacancies through the university’s Careers and Enterprise Service.

    Arts University Bournemouth: offloading fossil fuels and arms

    Arts University Bournemouth is now the 11th UK university to end fossil fuel recruitment on campus, following a wave of student pressure for universities across the UK to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry over environmental and social justice concerns.

    As the Canary previously reported, in December 2024 Aberystwyth University committed to ending its recruitment ties with fossil fuel and mining companies. In doing so, it became the third university in Wales to exclude the fossil fuel industry from its careers and recruitment activities.

    In an updated Ethical Careers Policy published on Aberystwyth’s website, the university states that it will “no longer collaborate or hold relationships” with fossil fuel, mining or tobacco companies. This followed similar commitments from the Universities of Swansea in November 2023 and Wrexham in December 2022.

    All this comes as part of the Fossil Free Careers campaign led by the UK’s largest student campaigning network, People & Planet.

    People & Planet

    The campaign calls on universities to adopt an Ethical Careers Policy excluding fossil fuel and mining industries from careers recruitment.

    To date, Fossil Free Careers has received backing from 19 students’ unions across the UK and has been endorsed by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) at its National Congress.

    This announcement from Arts University Bournemouth demonstrates a further commitment to sustainability from the university, as students across the UK continue to push for their universities to cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry.

    Alison Zorraquin, employability manager at Arts University Bournemouth, said in a statement:

    At AUB, our student cohort strongly values sustainability, equality, and social responsibility. These principles are championed by the university, and in alignment with its code of ethics, we have decided to advertise roles exclusively with companies whose missions align with these values.

    Josie Mizen, climate justice co-director at People & Planet said:

    We’re delighted to see Arts University Bournemouth become the latest university to cut recruitment ties with the fossil fuel industry. The arts have a pivotal role to play in the fight for a fairer world, so it’s only right that arts universities should be leading the way in putting climate justice front and centre in their work. We hope to see more arts and music colleges follow in their footsteps.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Saturday’s Palestine march in London set to coincide with a poignant anniversary

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to join the Palestine march to the US embassy on Saturday 15 February as the Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to resume the bombing and US president Donald Trump declaring “let all hell break loose”, after Hamas delayed the release of more hostages, citing Israeli ‘violations’ of the deal.

    Palestine march: pertinent timing

    The demo is, coincidentally, the 22nd anniversary of the biggest march in British history – over the West’s second invasion of Iraq – and the signs are it will be a very big protest, coming as it does as continued British and international government and media complicity over the genocide, and Trump’s declaration of intent to ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse its people, are emboldening Netanyahu to go ever further.

    This Palestine march also takes place a month after the Met Police banned the last national Palestine protest (18 January) from assembling at or marching to the BBC, and violently arrested Stop the War’s vice chair and chief steward Chris Nineham during the protest, charging him under the Public Order Act.

    In an unprecedented attack on the leadership of the Palestine coalition and the right to free assembly, the Met followed Chris’s arrest by also charging Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal.

    For fifteen months, pro-Palestine marchers have been calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and an end to the genocide. On the 24th national demonstration, they will be demanding that the US take its hands off Gaza, that Israel stops its deadly raids in the occupied West Bank, along with its continued bombing across the Middle East, and that Britain stops arming Israel.

    Numerous speakers

    Among the speakers on Saturday’s Palestine march will be renowned Palestinian activist Iyad Burnat, who has travelled to the UK from the West Bank. For over 20 years, Iyad has led the village of Bil’in’s non-violent struggle in the occupied Palestinian territory. He is the head of the Bil’in Popular Committee against Israel’s illegal apartheid wall. Iyad’s story is featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary Five Broken Cameras.

    Other speakers at the Palestine march include Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, Michael Rosen, the author, poet and presenter, journalist Owen Jones, Palestinian activist, organiser and storyteller Jeanine Hourani, Eddie Dempsey, RMT senior assistant general secretary, Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, Hamza Stitan, Palestinian activist, Lindsey German, convenor at Stop the War coalition, Ben Jamal, director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zumlot.

    Saturday’s demonstration assembles at noon in Whitehall, marching to the US embassy at Nine Elms.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine Action has been taking out the trash again – this time, Elbit’s waste management company

    Palestine Action has continued its direct action campaign against PHS, the company which deals with the toxic waste of Israel’s biggest weapons maker, Elbit Systems, with actions against sites in Ashford and Hayes.

    PHS: complicit with Elbit, complicit with genocide

    On Tuesday 11 February, the company’s site at Kingsnorth Industrial Estate in Ashford was hit:

    PHS Palestine Action

    Then, on Wednesday 12 February the PHS site at Pump Lane Industrial Estate in Hayes was the target:

    In the actions, buildings and vehicles were covered in blood-red paint, with windows broken, and vehicles put out of commission:

    PHS Palestine ACtion

    While Palestine Action’s primary targets for direct action are the arms manufacturers such as Elbit which build weapons to kill Palestinian civilians, the group is also taking action against the companies who assist them in doing so.

    This includes PHS, who take away Elbit’s toxic waste. Palestine Action have already targeted numerous PHS sites in a similar manner. The group did so last December:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Palestine Action (@pal_action)

    And it did similar in Scotland last June:

    It says these actions will not stop until the company drops Elbit.

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said:

    Drones made by Elbit Systems, in Britain, have been at the forefront of the Genocide in Gaza, and continue to be used to attack Palestinians in the West Bank. They are a toxic company, being aided and abetted by companies like PHS, who are complicit in the slaughter.

    PHS may think that, like Elbit, they can make a killing from the wholesale murder of the Palestinian people, but so long as they are involved, Palestine Action will target them.

    Featured image and additional image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Activists take over lobbyist for toxic Drax and Heathrow – as Starmer ramps up climate attacks

    Grassroots network Axe Drax has targeted a key lobbyist for the UK’s largest carbon polluter. This comes as Keir Starmer’s compromised corporatist Labour Party government ramps up its attacks on the climate.

    Drax: still not axed

    In a press release, the direct-action group said activists had “peacefully occupied the offices of controversial Drax lobbyist” 5654 & Company.

    Axe Drax

    It added:

    Yesterday the government announced four years more subsidies for Drax, the biggest tree burning power station in the world and UK’s single biggest carbon emitter. This morning, twenty activists occupied the office building of 5654 & Company, the lobbyists of Drax and Heathrow, resulting in all staff leaving for the day.

    No better than coal or gas, but it receives lots of public money

    The power station used to be Britain’s “largest coal-fired power plant”, according to Axe Drax. But from 2003, there was a shift towards running on biomass. As the group stresses:

    it now burns millions of tonnes of imported wood pellets every year.

    It also emphasises that the company “has already pocketed billions in government subsidies” on the basis that it’s “a green alternative to fossil fuels”. But that’s just not true, the group says. In fact:

    burning biomass for power in this way creates as much carbon pollution as coal or gas

    Governments have been funnelling British taxpayer money into this “polluting business”, which “is only viable with huge amounts of public subsidy”. Local communities, meanwhile, famous numerous problems:

    Surveys of community members living locally to pellet production sites find that the majority of people living close to pellet mills experience dust every day and that air pollution and dust concerns prevent them from regularly doing things outdoors. The majority (86%) of surveyed households reported at least one family member diagnosed with one or more diseases associated with wood pellet mill pollution. Forest degradation also destroys natural barriers that mitigate the most severe consequences of weather events; with the loss of forests leaving communities more vulnerable to severe floods.

    Nonetheless, Drax is raking it in. At our expense.

    All power to the activists!

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The ‘Houmous One’ is free after CPS drop preposterous charges

    Nurse Chris Dindar is demanding answers after facing down a criminal prosecution for alleged crimes against houmous which he says was politically motivated. The crimes against houmous? A protest over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the companies profiting from it.

    Crimes against houmous: a preposterous attack on peaceful protest

    The 55-year-old from Hastings in East Sussex was charged with criminal damage in April last year for holding a peaceful protest at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in February where he drew attention to their sale of Sabra houmous.

    Sabra has been the target of an international consumer boycott for years as it was then owned by Strauss group which funds the Israeli military, currently in the dock at the world court for carrying out genocide in Gaza.

    He pled not guilty to the charge at Hastings Magistrates Court in October last year and the case was due to be heard at Brighton Magistrates Court in March.

    But last month, nearly a year after the protest, Chris was informed the CPS did not intend to pursue the case as there was ‘not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction’.

    “I’m so angry” said Chris:

    The real crime was the way that Sainsbury’s and Sussex Police chose to weaponize the law to try and intimidate me for exposing complicity in genocide and standing up for Palestinian rights. The whole episode has been exhausting and deeply stressful.

    Dad-of-two Chris said the manner of the investigation was traumatic for his whole family:

    Having three plainclothes detectives barge into my house at eight in the morning, treating me like some sort of dangerous criminal, while my other half and my daughter stood there in their night clothes, shaking, then being taken to a police cell for hours was appalling.

    They violated my home and my family, going mob-handed through our property, apparently looking for pro-Palestinian paraphernalia, sifting through my recently late mother-in-law’s protest artwork, asking: ‘Oh, what have we got here then?’ Their attitude was disgusting. We were all traumatised by that invasion.

    Chris says that when he was released under investigation he was convinced the charge was not going to go anywhere:

    It was so ridiculous, and it was such an obvious, pathetic attempt to kind of silence pro-Palestinian protests so I was gobsmacked when they charged me.

    There’s a problem in Hastings – and across the UK

    The charge came during the height of Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza – which has killed over 62,000 Palestinians and left the tiny besieged strip of land uninhabitable –  when a number of pro-Palestinian journalists and activists were being charged with criminal proceedings, as well as three local activists who were charged with aggravated trespass for their part in a peaceful protest at General Dynamics arms factory.

    The ‘Hastings Three’ were all acquitted during a trial in Brighton last month, and a spokesperson for the Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which organised the protest said the charges had been politically-motivated in order to deter peaceful protest.

    Chair Katy Colley said:

    Our justice system is being abused to criminalise peaceful protest, wasting precious court time and taxpayer money to defend companies that profit from supporting illegal occupation, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    But Sussex Police have defended their actions in a statement, claiming they were ‘proportionate’ in the circumstances.

    The statement read:

    We responded to a report of criminal damage after a significant amount of humous was removed from shelves at Sainsbury’s in St Leonards on 23 February and 10 March 2024. The products were unfit for consumption as a result, causing a financial loss to the business.

    CCTV led officers to identify a suspect and plain-clothed officers attended his address at around 8.20am on 8 April, arresting him outside of the home at his request. Officers were then led into the address, which they searched and seized a mobile phone for further enquiries to be completed, as is standard practice in order to preserve and gather evidence.

    The actions of officers at the time, and the subsequent decision to present a case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), have been reviewed and were considered proportionate in the circumstances. We are aware that the CPS has since dropped the charges.

    Hardly proportionate

    But Chris says the police actions were far from proportionate, given the trivial nature of the alleged offence. “It’s clear the message has been coming from higher up, from the Home Office, which is actively trying to silence and repress Palestinian activism” he said:

    We’ve seen that over the last year there’s been a huge crackdown on peaceful protests, particularly when it comes to Palestine, particularly the last march in London, and the police and the courts have been used as political tools to intimidate people into silence, whether through heavy-handed arrests like mine, or demonstrations with punitive bail conditions or dragging activists like me through the courts on spurious charges.

    If you challenge corporation or state complicity in Israel’s crimes, whether you call out those companies individually or the ones that profit from the occupation and apartheid, or you’re protesting arms manufacturers or simply showing solidarity, you‘re treated as a threat.

    They want people to be too afraid to take action, but that strategy is backfiring, because every time they try to suppress our movement, it only exposes their desperation, and it certainly strengthens my resolve. I think it probably strengthens our collective resolve to carry on and double down on our efforts.

    Stepping up

    Chris says he has stepped up his campaigning in recent months, taking a lead within the local movement to draw attention to BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), particularly consumer boycott across a range of goods and outlets:

    BDS remains one of the most effective tools that we have to resist the corporation’s complicity with apartheid, occupation and war crimes, companies like Sainsbury’s that stock products from firms that profit from the theft of Palestinian land and the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

    By highlighting that and by refusing to buy those products, we send a really powerful message that we won’t be complicit in genocide, war crimes, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and displacement.

    I feel particularly strongly as a healthcare professional. Who knows how many nurses and doctors have been slaughtered, sniped, bombed, set on fire and tortured by Israel this past year? I’ve worked all over the world as a nurse, including in the Middle East, and human life is sacrosanct and to be protected at all costs. When the person doing that is the one that’s targeted, or the profession that’s doing that is the profession that’s targeted, that’s chilling.

    The Houmous One is free

    Chris says he would like to thank all the people who supported him.

    Being part of the local PSC group has really got me through the last year,’ he said. ‘Without that solidarity and support, it would have been a very different scenario. I’d also like to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who donated to my defence fund.

    It was so heartening to feel the solidarity and support from the scores of people who donated and I am sure they will be happy that what’s left of the fund will be going directly to support our friends in Al-Mawasi, Gaza. Our town has long-standing friendship links with the people there and any defence costs that are returned to me by the court will also be going to Al-Mawasi.

    In which case, if this prosecution achieves anything at all, it would be to help to raise funds for our friends in Al Mawasi. I haven’t seen a single supermarket do anything to help the people of Gaza to date. Shame on them all.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Third time’s a charm for Eagle Strategic Consulting as Palestine Action hit it again

    Palestine Action have for the third time hit a company complicit with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. It’s complicit because it – Eagle Strategic Consulting – is owned by a director of one of the apartheid state’s biggest weapons manufacturers.

    Eagle Strategic Consulting: third time’s a charm

    In the early hours of 10 February 2025, Palestine Action struck again at ‘Eagle Strategic Consulting Ltd.’, the weapons consultancy firm owned by Richard Applegate. Activists from Palestine Action smashed the door of Eagle Strategic Consulting’s London registered office and sprayed red paint into the building:

    Eagle Consulting Palestine Action

    Eagle Strategic Consulting

    Applegate, Elbit’s former Chairman, is the current Head of Strategy and New Business for Elbit Systems UK and serves as Director for Elbit’s drone-producing subsidiaries in Britain. This is the third direct action taken against this company, and Palestine Action will continue to escalate its campaign until the arms dealers behind the Israeli occupation are held to account.

    Complicit with Elbit

    Elbit Systems is a leading Israeli arms manufacturer that produces drones, surveillance systems, and a range of other weapons that are directly used by the Israeli military in its illegal occupation of Palestine. Elbit’s weapons are used to target Palestinian civilians, destroy homes, and maintain the apartheid system that has oppressed Palestinians for decades. From Britain, ‘Elbit Systems UK’ products exported to Israel, including military drones and weapons sights, are complicit in the mass murder and violent suppression of Palestinians.

    This latest action is not an isolated incident. In March 2024, Palestine Action took direct action against Eagle Strategic Consulting’s Dorset premises, smashing windows and spray-painting the building to send a clear message: we will not stand by while companies like this continue to profit from the deaths and suffering of Palestinians. Activists turned to their new London premises one month ago, targeting the site for the same purposes.

    The firm plays a clear role in embedding Israel’s arms trade in Britain. As a lobbyist for Elbit, Eagle Strategic Consulting facilitates defense contracts and securing government deals that fund Israel’s ongoing war crimes. Richard Applegate, previously boasted about securing for Elbit a £500 million defense contract from the UK Ministry of Defence, claiming that while his “fingerprints weren’t over any of it,” he nonetheless openly admitted to “infecting” the system at “every level,” to secure the contract.

    Palestine Action: expect a fourth visit?

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said of the action against Eagle Strategic Consulting:

    Israel’s brutal occupation is reliant on the arms industries facilitating it – which, in turn, relies on corporate firms like Eagle Strategic to embed them within the halls of government. Palestine Action will not allow these companies to operate without consequence. We will continue to disrupt the operations of all companies who are associated with Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.

    This action is just one example of the ongoing campaign to shut down Elbit and its enablers in the UK. Eagle Strategic Consulting is just one of many, and we will not stop until there isn’t a single company left who will work with Elbit Systems.

    Featured image and additional images via Guy Smallman

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Third time’s a charm for Eagle Strategic Consulting as Palestine Action hit it again

    Palestine Action have for the third time hit a company complicit with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. It’s complicit because it – Eagle Strategic Consulting – is owned by a director of one of the apartheid state’s biggest weapons manufacturers.

    Eagle Strategic Consulting: third time’s a charm

    In the early hours of 10 February 2025, Palestine Action struck again at ‘Eagle Strategic Consulting Ltd.’, the weapons consultancy firm owned by Richard Applegate. Activists from Palestine Action smashed the door of Eagle Strategic Consulting’s London registered office and sprayed red paint into the building:

    Eagle Consulting Palestine Action

    Eagle Strategic Consulting

    Applegate, Elbit’s former Chairman, is the current Head of Strategy and New Business for Elbit Systems UK and serves as Director for Elbit’s drone-producing subsidiaries in Britain. This is the third direct action taken against this company, and Palestine Action will continue to escalate its campaign until the arms dealers behind the Israeli occupation are held to account.

    Complicit with Elbit

    Elbit Systems is a leading Israeli arms manufacturer that produces drones, surveillance systems, and a range of other weapons that are directly used by the Israeli military in its illegal occupation of Palestine. Elbit’s weapons are used to target Palestinian civilians, destroy homes, and maintain the apartheid system that has oppressed Palestinians for decades. From Britain, ‘Elbit Systems UK’ products exported to Israel, including military drones and weapons sights, are complicit in the mass murder and violent suppression of Palestinians.

    This latest action is not an isolated incident. In March 2024, Palestine Action took direct action against Eagle Strategic Consulting’s Dorset premises, smashing windows and spray-painting the building to send a clear message: we will not stand by while companies like this continue to profit from the deaths and suffering of Palestinians. Activists turned to their new London premises one month ago, targeting the site for the same purposes.

    The firm plays a clear role in embedding Israel’s arms trade in Britain. As a lobbyist for Elbit, Eagle Strategic Consulting facilitates defense contracts and securing government deals that fund Israel’s ongoing war crimes. Richard Applegate, previously boasted about securing for Elbit a £500 million defense contract from the UK Ministry of Defence, claiming that while his “fingerprints weren’t over any of it,” he nonetheless openly admitted to “infecting” the system at “every level,” to secure the contract.

    Palestine Action: expect a fourth visit?

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said of the action against Eagle Strategic Consulting:

    Israel’s brutal occupation is reliant on the arms industries facilitating it – which, in turn, relies on corporate firms like Eagle Strategic to embed them within the halls of government. Palestine Action will not allow these companies to operate without consequence. We will continue to disrupt the operations of all companies who are associated with Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.

    This action is just one example of the ongoing campaign to shut down Elbit and its enablers in the UK. Eagle Strategic Consulting is just one of many, and we will not stop until there isn’t a single company left who will work with Elbit Systems.

    Featured image and additional images via Guy Smallman

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.